The Context of Enlightenment

I recently found a website that rates blogs as to the safety of their content.  I was rated as being safe for children, and not offensive.  I do want to post a warning to anyone coming on this entry though.  I was reading up on the darkest days of Japan's and Aikido's history, and this gets disturbing and ugly in parts.  It is still a part of the history of the Art of Peace, and maybe a pivotal moment in the development of our modern Aikido.

Time line:

1925 the first enlightenment of Morihei Ueshiba O Sensei:  One with the universe. Ueshiba O Sensei gains an understanding of the world and people that makes him invincible in combat.  This year is also the first of multiple attempts to establish a dojo in Tokyo before permanently moving in 1927.  Prominent members of the military endorse him as a teacher.  Ueshiba is eventually teaching at several military instillations and demonstrates in front of the Emperor.
 

1931 Manchurian Incident - Japan invades and occupies a large section of the Chinese coast.
 

1935 the Second Omoto Incident, where Ueshiba's religious leader was imprisoned.  Ueshiba was not allowed to associate with the church openly until the end of the war.  Deguchi taught that other Kami spirits had once been the rulers of Japan until the Imperial line had forced them out.  Deguchi honored the original line, which detracted/distracted from the godhood of Hirohito's line.
 

1936 Tomiki Sensei moved to Manchuria and began teaching Aikibudo (the name Aikido was still not in use yet) to the Kanton Army and the Imperial Household Agency. Tomiki Sensei is credited with being awarded the first 8th Dan in Aikido in 1940 (though, again the name Aikido was not in use yet at the time the rank was awarded).  The Noma Dojo photos were taken. 

Morihei Ueshiba and Sokaku Takeda break ties in 1937.  In July, Japanese forces announce they were fired upon by Chinese forces.  They invade mainland China.  By November, Shanghai had fallen.  Emperor Hirohito ratifies that International Law will not apply to prisoners taken by the Japanese.  By December 1937, the attack on Nanking began.  Prince Asaka, Emperor Hirohito's uncle by marriage, was made the commander.  The order to kill all the prisoners was given.  The city fell, and The Rape of Nanking began, but the atrocities by Japanese forces had been well under way elsewhere in China.  The one general,  Iwane Matsui, expressed regret, and retired from active service shortly afterward. He was later executed as a war criminal and hung.

In a quick bit of research, I found stories of Chinese women forced into sexual slavery for and by the occupying Japanese forces.  There are accounts and pictures of mounds of bodies, and of women who had been raped, tortured, mutilated (ie breasts cut off and bamboo stakes inserted vaginally) and killed.  There is a story of a pregnant woman being bayoneted, and then her fetus being impaled and carried around town on display still on the bayonet.  A 1937 Competition between two soliders between two soldiers to see who could kill the most Chinese with their swords made the newspapers back in Tokyo (both soldiers were later executed for war crimes).  The images are horrible, but the scope of the brutality is beyond my imagining.

Among the charges:

-  Japanese soldiers forced Chinese women to be "Comfort Women" as sex slaves to the Japanese soliders.

-  Thousands raped and murdered, including elderly and children.

-  Soldiers who surrendered were executed by the thousands.

-  Cannabalism

-  Prisoners buried alive, or doused with gasoline and set on fire, or tied to a post and used for bayonet practice.

-  Widespread looting
-  Medical experiments conducted by Unit 731 on prisoners throughout the duration of the occupation of China.

There are several documentaries, websites, and excellent books on the subject.  The author of The Rape of Nanking:  The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, Iris Chang, would commit suicide a few years after it's publication.  She was related to survivors of the massacre.

This documentary by Rhawn Joseph is on Youtube.  I only just found out the guy also thinks life on Earth came from another planet and filed a lawsuit against NASA as he claimed they failed to investigate whether a rock seen on Mars was in fact an alien lifeform.  But, most of what he writes follows what I find elsewhere...

The Rape of Nanking, Part 1

The Rape of Nanking, Part 2
  

1940 O Sensei's second enlightenment:  Aikido practice is a spiritual practice; a vehicle for the cultivation of virtue.  O Sensei travelled to Manchuria several times where he was the principle instructor at a University there.  My understanding is that this dojo was Tomiki Sensei's.

This Shodokan Aikido student, Erik the Strange has an excellent article on this period of time.  As he says, while it is not clear what Tomiki or Ueshiba did directly to the Chinese people, there is little doubt that they had to be aware of something.  It is not clear at what point they would have been fully cognizant of events.

 

Ueshiba had, I chose to believe, little to do with the events in China around this time.  However, he had been training many individuals and had his top student directly training the forces there.  He would have met the uncle of his Shinto god, a man accused of a staggering number of grotesque war crimes.  Ueshiba would have met Matsui, and apparently Matsui was moved to tears when facing his forces and confessed his regrets to the Japanese ambassador.  So, I believe Matsui would not have hidden his feelings from Ueshiba and Tomiki if he had met them.

December 1941 the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Even Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku who conducted the attack knew he would be charged with war crimes if Japan lost.  There was no declaration of war prior to the attack.
 

1942 Ueshiba visits Manchuria for the last time.  From Stanley Pranin's essay on the Kodukan era, Ueshiba also may have made a side trip to Beijing during this visit that Kisshomaru Doshu thought may have had some political ramifications.  He leaves all of his various military trainer posts in the middle of the war.  He leaves Tokyo, and leaves his dojo, and moves to a farm in Iwama.  Morihei Ueshiba is now 59 years old.  Ueshiba's leaving is often said to have been due to poor health.

While Ueshiba does not reunite with Deguchi, Deguchi was released from prison in 1942 on bail as well.  It is interesting for me that O Sensei's greatest support of the war effort was during the period of time that Deguchi was held by Imperial forces, and that this support stopped when the incarceration stopped.  I do not know if there is any relationship between these events though, or which happened first.
 

O Sensei's third enlightenment is also from 1942:

"The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter – it is the Art of Peace, the power of love."
 

The Dokka published in the 1938 Noma Dojo book, Budo, do make mention of the Emperor, for example:  "let our forging bear fruit as the body of Aiki.  Whom are we to thank?  Our Imperial Leader."  The Rules for Practice ask that no Non-Japanese students be taught the techniques of Aiki.
 

I can only assume this one is post war:  "The Art of Peace does not rely on weapons or brute force to succeed; instead, we put ourselves in tune with the universe, maintain peace in our own realms, nurture life, and prevent death and destruction.  The True meaning of the term Samurai is one who serves and adheres to the power of Love."
 

Reading up on the Nanking Massacre, this Dokka goes from being a bit to fluffy for my taste to being an angry condemnation of the Emperor and the Japanese military.  This is a potentially treasonous declaration of allegiance to a higher authority than his head of state - a Samurai not merely being a servant/tool that kills and dies at his Lord's pleasure, but a warrior dedicated to the cause of peace and the protection of the world.  His statements on the Power of Love could be renouncing his ties to the military and the Emperor.
 

Biographies of Morihei Ueshiba note that he had been too short to join the military, and he had been a sickly child.  His father was the target of political violence, and as a child Ueshiba Sensei witnessed his father being beaten.  I think he never forgot what it was like to be weak and small.  I think these early experiences may have led to his being able to identify with the weaker elements in his society, as well as victims of violence.  He was at times a strong, terrifying and harsh teacher, but he has never been described as a bully or a sadist.  He was also not a misogynist.  His dojo had prominent female students; an egalitarian view not often seen elsewhere in Japanese Budo, and not in the military of the day.  The military sanctioned violence against women, children, and non-cambatants might have been a particular point of contention for O Sensei.

I have seen the third enlightenment put in a variety of contexts.  One was that "O Sensei saw the war was going to end badly for Japan," which sounds like he decided to get peaceful because Japan was losing.  Another was that he left Tokyo because of the bombings (but left his son in Tokyo?), which sounds like he was hiding and scared of getting hurt.  He could have been held accountable for the losses in the war as he was a trainer, and was effectively fired from his post - but I don't believe that either.  Still another was that he told the occupying American forces what they wanted to hear to have legal sanctions lifted against him and his art faster.  These versions of events create an image of a lazy and opportunistic approach to peace.  I don't agree with these because the war was still going on for three more years after he left his post.  Leaving his post risked execution, and it undermined his greatest successes as a martial artist and trainer.  Such versions also discount his abilities.

This moment in his life is seldom portrayed as an act of rebellion or harsh judgement against Japan and the Emperor.  Most histories of the Founder do not really delve into his motivations - his motivations are usually described as too mystical for us, too far beyond our ability to understand.  Much of his military service was "sanitized" post war along with most aspects of his life.  What I never read is that his choice for peace may have been a costly and brave stance, or that when he spoke out against evil, he might have had a very concrete vision of evil and hell on Earth.  He may have witnessed the atrocities in China and been moved to irrevocable action.  From the timeline and his location, I like to think so.  But, 1937 until 1942 is a long time. 

Even if Morihei Ueshiba O Sensei could be exonerated of wrong doing, Kenji Tomiki Sensei was even closer to events.  Is this a possible facet of the rift that developed between these men?  There is apparently ten years between Tomiki Sensei's repatriation and the final official rift in 1958, so I don't think so.  Both men were prominent guest instructors overseas and worked hard in the new era of peace.

I am not the first student of Aikido to ask these questions, and I have no answers.  This final chapter in Aikibudo is a dark spot in the history of every Aikido association - all major associations have ties to this moment in history.  I suspect the actual history is buried, and I will never know the full role played by those who shaped the Art I love.

Even today, Japanese politicians are trying to claim the Nanking Massacre never happened.  While I am disgusted by this, they are not alone in trying to rewrite history.  The American South is still not at peace with the history of the Confederacy, and there are far too many people trying to claim the Nazi Holocaust never happened either.  To paraphrase one of my favorite Pierre Trudeau quotes:  "I am not here to rewrite history.  I am here to find justice in the present."

The choice to become the Art of Peace was not a lazy or trite one, nor was it easy, simple, or without cost.  In being called to support Peace, we are not being called to take the easy way out.  At least, in absence of any proof that is what I chose to believe.

"Sometimes the entire universe is against you.  Stand Firm!"

I have often wondered when this Dokka was written or what it had to do with Peace, Love, Harmony, and all the warm fuzzies in our philosophy.  I can imagine these were Ueshiba's thoughts as he left his city, army, Emperor, son, and his dojo for an isolated farm.