＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
<Added on 5/11/2023> The former Unification Church was a cult group that hid its true identity and recruited young people under the guise of club activities.
As I wrote in the article “What was the clever tactic that allowed the former Unification Church and the United Nations for Victory over Communism to get close to LDP politicians and right-wing groups?” the former Unification Church hid its true identity and repeatedly solicited students under the guise of club activities, asking “Are you interested in the Bible?”, and dragged them into the “Principle Study Group.”
Members are taught that if they do not continue their activities in the Unification Church, they will go to hell, their parents will go to hell when they die, and all of their ancestors will go to hell and suffer, never to be able to climb out again.
They are led to believe that they must become a sacrificial pawn with the heart of Jesus on the cross, and that as the “tribal messiah” they must save the whole clan, including their parents. So, rather than not wanting to see their parents or denying them, they continue their work in hiding from them in order to save them. The parents suffer not being able to see their children, but the children also suffer and hide from them – it’s a truly inhumane and absurd story.
The former Unification Church has the outrageous teaching that Japan, which once tormented Korea with its colonial rule, is the “Eve nation” representing evil, while Korea is the “Adam nation” representing justice, and that Japan’s mission is to pay tribute to Korea.
This exploits the thought processes of many Japanese people who have been indoctrinated with a “masochistic view of history” by the GHQ’s Japanese brainwashing program “WGIP.”
As a result, “Japanese believers have become complete cash cows for the former Unification Church.”
The Bible is a must-read book for understanding the Western way of thinking, but I believe we must be careful not to be fooled by these fake religions.
<Added on 2021/9/15> The film “Miss Marx,” which depicts the turbulent life of Marx’s youngest daughter, is a hot topic
The film “Miss Marx,” which depicts the life of Elinor Marx, the youngest daughter of Karl Marx, a leading 19th century philosopher and economist, was released in early September and is currently generating a lot of buzz.
She was a women’s activist who dedicated her life to improving the rights of women, children, and workers, and passed away at the young age of 43.
Also, as the gap between rich and poor is widening due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, attention is being paid once again to “Das Kapital.”
1. The teaching that “The Bible and Das Kapital are must-read books”
When I was a freshman in college, my logic professor told me, “The Bible and Das Kapital are must-read books. They will come up often when you read Western books from now on, so you should definitely read them during summer vacation.”
This is what the professor was told by his supervisor when he was a university student. At that time, it was just after the end of the war, and the Communist Party, which was illegal before and during the war, was legalized and Marxist ideology was actively promoted.
There were several people who joined the Communist Party while they were in college, such as Tsuneo Watanabe, president of the Yomiuri Shimbun, and Seiji Tsutsumi, head of the Saison Group, who later became business leaders, and Marxist economics was also popular.
2. I read Das Kapital.
The idea that “Das Kapital is a must-read book” seemed outdated when I was a freshman in college (around 1968), but as for the Bible, I felt that it was still at the root of Western civilization today.
However, as instructed by my professor, I bought three volumes of Das Kapital, the Old Testament, and the New Testament, and read them over the summer vacation. I’m ashamed to say that I could hardly understand Das Kapital.
I was impressed by Marx’s description of the miserable conditions of factory workers in England at the time he wrote it, but this may have been a description intended to make it easier to understand the conflict between the capitalist class, who only pursue profits, and the working class, who are exploited under poor working conditions.
Incidentally, the first part of Das Kapital was published in 1867, one year before the Meiji Restoration. In his book “Shinsei-taii” (The True Politics of Japan), published in 1870, the Meiji-era political scientist Hiroyuki Kato was one of the first to introduce the terms “communism” and “socialism” as “comunisme” and “socialisme,” and argued that “these are the most harmful systems in terms of public order.”
3. I also read the Bible (Old and New Testaments)
The Old Testament is the canonical book of Christianity, written based on the Tanakh, the holy book of Judaism. Genesis (the story of the creation of the world and the tribal leaders) contains many familiar stories such as “Adam and Eve in Paradise,” “The story of the brothers Cain and Abel,” “Noah’s Ark,” and “The Tower of Babel.” In the Book of Exodus, there are famous and interesting stories such as the Israelites leading the escape from Egypt and wandering the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years in search of Canaan, a land “flowing with milk and honey” that God promised to the patriarch Jacob, and Moses using many miracles to intimidate the Egyptian king and split the sea in two and pass through the gap to escape the pursuing Egyptian army.
The New Testament is the story in which Jesus Christ appears. The most famous books are the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, and the Gospel of John.
4. Reading through is important, understanding is secondary
Both books are large, and Das Kapital in particular has many difficult parts, so I can’t say I fully understood it. I’ve almost forgotten the contents now. It’s not like the Olympics, where “the point is to participate, and the victory is secondary,” but I decided on my own that “the point is to read through, and understanding is secondary,” and somehow I managed to finish it.
I don’t think “Capitalism” is that important for understanding Western people in this day and age. However, I think the “Bible” is still important for understanding people in the West at large, whether or not they believe in it wholeheartedly.
5. Many Japanese people are non-religious, but religion still plays a large role in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East.
Recently, in the US midterm elections, it was reported that 80% of “Evangelicals” supported President Trump, and that Evangelical leaders were actively campaigning in support of the Republican Party.
Evangelicals are a Protestant group known for their conservative values such as being against abortion and being pro-Israel, and they aim to “faithfully adhere to the writings of the Bible, place importance on evangelism, and take proactive action.” They make up a quarter of the religious population in the United States. I was reminded once again of the great influence the Bible has on Westerners.
Although many Japanese people have been “Buddhists” of the Jodo Shinshu, Nichiren, or Soto sects for generations, I think that if you look at each individual person, there are few who truly believe in Buddhism. Regardless of the time of our parents and grandparents, I, a member of the baby boomer generation, cannot believe in “going to paradise through chanting the Nembutsu” at all, and I am an unbeliever who has come to accept modern Buddhism as “funeral Buddhism.” The percentage of young people who believe this way is probably even higher.
Conflicts between “religions” and ‘sects’ are troublesome. In Japan, there are examples such as “Nobunaga Oda vs. Enryakuji Temple on Hieizan”, “Hideyoshi Toyotomi vs. Honganji Ishiyama”, and “East vs. West Honganji”. Israel and Palestine are still in a state of hostility. The Middle East seems to be in a constant state of civil strife, with conflicts between “ethnic groups” as well as between “sects”.
This may have ended up being a bit of a rambling talk, but I believe that reading Das Kapital, the Bible, or a long novel from start to finish will bring a sense of accomplishment or some kind of reward to each person’s life, just like climbing a mountain and conquering high mountains one by one.