Mishima: The Last Debate (2020) Movie Script
1
This documentary is based on
archival footage from 1969.
Opinions expressed have
not been altered in any way.
A time of activism
Radical student movement
The World Revolution
Confrontation at
Yasuda Auditorium, the University of Tokyo
May 13, 1969
At the University of Tokyo in Komaba
over 1,000 students waited in
Lecture Hall 900 for a man.
They belonged to a radical leftist
league called Zenkyoto.
Here to face his archenemies
was Yukio Mishima.
The iconic right-wing novelist
idolized the Emperor.
I saw resolve in his eyes.
He wanted to persuade
those 1,000 students.
He was a genius.
Very sharp.
A superstar.
He was at his most brilliant.
Communism is my enemy.
For Mishima, the Emperor is...
We struggle with the same difficulty.
You can't transcend being Japanese.
That's OK.
It was a debate of polar opposite
political ideologies.
This is where the legendary
debate between intellectuals begins.
This 50-year-old footage is in
TBS Television archives.
With accounts from
13 witnesses and experts
we attempt to reconstruct
the legend.
Mishima: The Last Debate
In the 1960s, war was an imminent
threat to the Japanese.
As the Vietnam War raged on
students protested against it
and university bureaucracy.
Activism spread rapidly.
Students who rejected
the existing New Left groups
formed Zenkyoto groups at universities,
with more autonomy.
It became a nationwide
political movement.
Demanding affordable tuition
and autonomy
they became radical
and confronted the school authorities.
The students
protested against the war
on and off campus.
The combatting students and
riot police made Tokyo a war zone.
January 1968 Protest against
the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise
October 21, 1968
Riot on Anti-War Day
1968 was dubbed the "Political Season."
While some feared a revolution in Japan
others wanted one.
One man who observed the riots
became concerned about society.
He was Yukio Mishima, the novelist.
Mishima was born in 1925.
While at Gakushuin High School
the prodigy wrote a novel,
The Forest in Full Bloom.
He studied law at the University of
Tokyo during WWII.
He continued to write and
survived the devastation of war.
When Japan lost the war,
the Emperor renounced his divinity.
Mishima quit his Finance Ministry job
to focus on writing.
He explored inner turmoil in
Confessions of a Mask
and youth in The Temple of
the Golden Pavilion
among other masterpieces.
He wrote prolifically for 25 years.
There are 42 volumes in the
complete Mishima collection.
World-famous, his books were
translated into various languages.
For the sake of my art.
Mishima, the "writer in action"
did not only write.
He took up bodybuilding to get
a body of steel.
He was proud of his physique and
modeled for magazines.
He wrote and directed plays
and kabuki.
Be more cunning like
you have a hidden motive.
He starred in a yakuza movie.
He did boxing and karate.
Also skilled in kendo,
he had 4th dan ranking.
He wielded both pen and sword.
He trained with
the Self-Defense Forces
and flew in a jet fighter
at supersonic speeds.
During the 1960s
Mishima became openly political.
His writings reflected
his political beliefs.
In October 1968, Mishima founded
a private organization named
"Tatenokai" or the Shield Society.
He recruited students who believed
in right-wing nationalism.
Whereas the leftist students
wanted a communist revolution
their motto was "anti-revolution".
Mishima and his militia trained
with the Self-Defense Forces as
they anticipated conflict.
We need young men who are trained in
firearms for an emergency.
He was also writing his magnum
opus The Sea of Fertility tetralogy
and was up against Kawabata for
Japan's first Nobel Prize in Literature.
In the spring of 1969,
Mishima got a phone call.
It was the Zenkyoto branch
from the University of Tokyo.
The Zenkyoto branch at
the University of Tokyo
was formed in 1968 to reform
the school with activism.
On January 18, 1969
riot police dispersed students
occupying Yasuda Auditorium.
Students fought back with
gasoline bombs but
were contained by
tear gas and water cannons.
Zenkyoto was defeated.
Zenkyoto embraced violence to
fight the Establishment.
They invited Mishima, a reactionary,
to a debate.
Their motives were unclear.
Right vs. left.
Conservatism vs. Radicalism.
A public debate
discussing two extreme political views
was a dangerous
yet thrilling proposition.
It was to be held in Lecture Hall 900
in Komaba campus
not in Hongo campus where
students occupied Yasuda Auditorium.
A poster at the door called
Mishima an "Anachronistic Gorilla"
asking for a 100 yen "to feed the beast".
"We'll shut him up with logic
and make him"
"commit harakiri on stage."
That's what students said, apparently.
Mishima, the Zenkyoto members
and the audience members
waited tensely for
the debate to start.
And it started at 2:05 PM.
Chapter 1
Mishima's resolve: Seven enemies
Mishima's opening speech
went for over 10 minutes.
1,000 hostile students
were occupying the hall.
His conviction was
surprising and provocative.
You saw the act of having me
on the podium as reactionary...
I guess that I am qualified to be here
as I am reactionary.
As the saying goes, "When a man
leaves his house he has 7 enemies."
There are more than 7 of you
so I needed resolve to come.
On the morning of April 28, I met a
man who's part of the "establishment."
He's brilliant but not a top guy.
There was
a nationwide anti-war demonstration
on April 28, 1969.
Activists protested in Tokyo
and cities across Japan.
As a result, nearly
1,000 students were arrested.
The "establishment" guy said that
the protesters were deranged
and that they were idiotic
to protest like that.
I'm not saying this to grovel
but his remark bothered me.
He can send you to a nuthouse
if that's what he wants.
But it's undignified for a government
to panic over a bunch of nuts!
I think nutcases should be
looked after.
Medicate them. Psychiatric medication
has improved.
Lock them up and look after them.
Don't go hurting and killing them.
That's inhumane and unacceptable.
I don't think
any of you are nutcases.
I came here with the intention
of seeing if words
are still an effective method
of communication.
That's what I came here
to verify.
Keiichiro Hirano (44)
Novelist
Mishima said that he wanted to
see how effective words could be
between people with
opposite beliefs.
Which was
an essential issue for Mishima.
The impact of his words
was a pressing concern for him.
Would they affect reality?
Would his words affect people
with opposing beliefs?
That idea intrigued him.
Looking at that man from
the establishment
on that morning of April 28,
I saw no fear in his eyes.
Fearful eyes
That impressed me.
It made me wonder what
it's like on your side.
If I imagine that, I think of the
novel, Therese Desqueyroux.
In the novel, Therese attempts to
poison her husband.
What was her reason?
It's not clear.
Maybe she didn't love him.
Maybe she hated him.
It's unclear but she felt compelled
to poison him.
The author, Francois Mauriac,
explores her psyche.
In the end Therese says,
"I wanted to see fear in his eyes."
I guess you want to see fear in the
eyes of Japan's establishment.
I do too, from a different angle.
I don't like assured people.
In fact, I don't like this
false sense of comfort I have now.
I heard that you all chipped in
100 yen or more for this event.
I don't like how I'm unwittingly
helping your fundraising.
It's too political for me.
I'd rather take my share for
my Shield Society.
A Liberal Democratic Party politician
asked me the other day
to sign a petition
against the violence.
I've never protested violence
so I told him I couldn't comply.
Left-wing or right,
I'm not against violence.
Because of the ironic way
violence affects our society nowadays.
I think that unconditional
denial of violence would
only play into the hands
of the Communist Party.
I don't like that.
Observing the LDP and the
Communist Party join hands
I knew something dreadful
was happening.
Observing the University of Tokyo
student riots
I never said that I feared violence
or that we should deny it.
You won't read that in
any of my writings.
The worst part for me was that
after the assembly at
Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium,
your university tried to resume
entrance exams.
On January 10, 1969
Acting Chancellor Ichiro Kato
negotiated with communist and
non-political students
in an effort to
stop the students' strikes
at the University of Tokyo
7-faculty assembly.
The Communist Party and the LDP
fell into line.
Not every student is combative and
politicians saw it
as an opportunity to end it.
They know that most Japanese
don't care about ideology.
They value order over
logic and integrity.
Order is more important and
the police maintain it.
As long as the police maintain
superficial order
left and right-wingers can unify.
A poster on the door calls me
an "Anachronistic
Gorilla".
I admit
I am primitive.
The politicians' lack of integrity
upsets me.
I want the LDP to be reactive and
the Communist Party to be violent.
But they hesitate.
That's what frustrates me the most.
I don't know which one of your
sects I'll have to fight.
I don't know who my enemy is.
I write about my ideology everywhere
and when the time comes,
one must rise.
I don't really agree with
the concept of
lawful killings.
Illegal violence
I'm not opposed to the
death penalty outright but
I don't want to be
the one who kills lawfully.
You see me
as part of the establishment
but only the Self-Defense Forces can
open fire to disperse a riot.
I'm not one of them
but they've been good to me.
I am a civilian.
If I were to act, it would have to be
illegal as it is for you.
If I took someone's life in a duel,
it'd be murder.
In that case I'd kill myself
before I was arrested.
But I don't know
when that chance will come
so I work out in preparation to become
the best Anachronistic Gorilla
I can be.
That's my resolve.
Mishima at the time said
illegal violence was acceptable.
At a debate with Hitotsubashi
University students a year earlier
he said, "Political assassination
is acceptable"
"in accordance with duel ethics."
This became controversial.
Before I came here today
one of you said that
we had something in common.
The Mishima and Zenkyoto connection
Let me explain what it is.
It's about perceptions of violence.
You League members
theorize physicality through ideology
then find a logical connection
with violence.
That's what you said
and I agree with you.
We might be able to have a
constructive discussion on that point.
That's why I'm here.
In terms of political orientation
you and I are supposed to be
polar opposites.
We are but let me tell you this.
Japanese intellectuals
believe in ideologies.
Anti-intellectualism
They believe in the superiority
of the intellect.
I don't like their belief that
they're above humanity, like rulers.
There are many accomplished
professors and
I always hated seeing their faces.
It might be because I lack
intellect and ideology.
I could always smell
that snobbery
all over the University of Tokyo.
I don't approve of all of
your activism
but you undermine those snobs
who act intellectually superior.
I absolutely recognize that.
I'd like to understand what
anti-intellectualism means.
Are you so intelligent you're
against intellect?
Are you anti-intellect
because you're unintelligent?
I don't know which it is.
If Professor Masao Maruyama advocated
anti-intellectualism
everyone would be convinced.
But he wouldn't so
you guys punched him in the face!
Maruyama was a leading
political theorist
whose views on democracy were
influential in the post-war years.
The University of Tokyo professor was
seen as authoritarian by Zenkyoto.
Where in our mind does
anti-intellectualism derive?
Who is entitled to
practice anti-intellectualism?
I've always wondered about that.
Tatsuru Uchida (68)
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
joined the University of Tokyo in 1970
Mishima talked about
anti-intellectualism
which reflects his beliefs.
He praises the students
for deconstructing early 20th century
intellectualism.
Then the mic was handed over
to a Zenkyoto member.
Unfortunately "violence"
is not only defined
on its primitive and visceral origins.
The problem of post-war
intellectuals
as Mr. Mishima pointed out
We're not supposed to be
deferential...
But hear my excuse.
Mr. Mishima deserves our respect
more than our professors.
I hope you can accept my excuse.
I think his critique
is spot on.
But he hasn't proven yet
Osamu Kimura was an
organizer and the master of ceremony.
He was a 2nd-year student
at the University of Tokyo.
I couldn't help being deferential.
He was so mild-mannered.
Osamu Kimura (72)
Former Zenkyoto member
Mr. Mishima was not at all
brash when he talked to us.
He was different from
how I expected.
After the monumental
defeat at Yasuda Auditorium
Zenkyoto's existence was at stake.
Kimura and the organizers were
based at Komaba campus.
As a part of the "bonfire festival"
they planned a public debate.
And they chose Mishima
as their guest of honor.
After the occupation of
Yasuda Auditorium
Osamu Kimura
Zenkyoto was weakening.
But we wanted to continue
as an organization
and we didn't want our
activism to be nullified.
So we discussed our strategies and
came up with
the idea of the bonfire festival,
which Kosaka named.
Shuhei Kosaka
A University of Tokyo student
Daisaburo Hashizume (70)
Sociologist/Former Zenkyoto member
It was their attempt to have a cultural
win after their political defeat.
Our bonfire festival had
religious symbolism too.
We were in the mood to
burn stale intellectualism.
Mr. Mishima was invited to join us
with that intention.
I called at midday but his wife said
that he slept during the day.
He'd wake up to write at night
so I was told to call back
in the evening.
I called again at around 1 AM...
I thought it'd be late enough.
And he answered.
I read his
Culture Defense Theory
so I proposed that
we had a public
discussion about Japan.
Culture Defense Theory (1968)
Mishima outlines the Emperor's role
in restoring Japan's traditions.
Initially I'm sure he thought
of us as a bunch of hooligans so
like he said in his speech
he felt like a man who'd
accepted a duel.
I'd like to know what the Other means
to Mishima.
He called himself an
Anachronistic Gorilla.
I think we're all scared of
big, hairy gorillas.
No offence intended.
Violent acts cause anxiety.
By merely directing oneself
to be violent
would it be effective
politically and socially?
What are "Others" in relation
to our effectiveness, Mr. Mishima?
On others
Killing someone is easy but
you may be killed by someone else.
If you say your identity is
ultimately maintained by violence
what are "others" to you?
I hate Jean-Paul Sartre but in
Being and Nothingness he asked
what is obscene?
He wrote that a woman tied-up
defines obscenity.
In Being and Nothingness Sartre analyses
the relation between
oneself and the Other.
We only find eroticism in the Other.
And violence is deeply
connected to eroticism.
Attraction to the Other is core
to eroticism
but the Other is subjective
and has a mind.
That gets in the way of eroticism.
So, loving a being with a will
makes equality between genders
contradictory.
Because the relationship of achieved
love isn't erotic.
When one of them is not free
to act or think
it's the most obscene
and erotic situation.
I think this is essential to
interpersonal relationships.
Let's say the Prime Minister
was bound up and sitting here.
It's not erotic.
Former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato
In office 1964-1972
But to treat him violently
isn't something you'd do willingly.
You acknowledge hostility
from the Sato administration.
You acknowledge that they have
their own mind.
By acknowledging it,
you put yourself in a relationship
with others on a nonerotic basis.
Which in my opinion
is not an essential conflict
between the self and others
that defines human relationships.
Because technically
we want others to be
like a kind of
malleable object.
That's how we believe others should be.
We all want others to fit
in with us.
So if others don't
the relationship between
you and others sours.
It's nonerotic.
But a nonerotic relationship shouldn't
result in violence.
It's not violence but the beautiful
word you use, "conflict."
A confrontation that involves
the self and others.
It's based on the mentality
of a duel.
That's why violence committed by
students is not really violence.
Let's try to imagine
how the police view you.
As I said if you were a bunch of nuts
who have no sense of self
the police shouldn't be violent.
But they are, because they
acknowledge that you're a subject.
To create such a situation
in which the self and others
are forced to relate
and form a relationship without
objectifying each other.
This is the only way
for the self and others
to enter a relationship.
What I mean is that
eroticism is not a relationship.
What it is, is obscenity or
lust as Sartre puts it.
You lust for "an object."
But when the self and others
form a relationship
there's inevitably conflict.
You asked about my view of the Other.
It's something I've come to crave.
As a novelist I aspired to
relate to the world erotically.
I did that with my earlier novels.
That's why they're
like Kenzaburo Oe's novels.
Then I became tired of it
so I needed a relationship.
A relationship yields conflict
so I had to have a hypothetical Other.
So I decided that
communism is my enemy.
And it must remain that way.
Communism is my enemy.
Communism is my subjective Other.
The audience was unaware that
the core members of the Shield Society
sneaked in the hall
to protect him from assault.
Akihiro Hara (71)
Former Shield Society member
He was in the front row.
Mr. Mishima would be amongst
hostile activists
on their turf.
We thought that
something terrible
could happen to him.
We thought it'd be extraterritorial
in a way.
The Shield Society opposed
communists and their revolution.
They felt hostile towards
leftist movements.
The communists wanted
a communal society...
That's what
the left-wing activists
Yutaka Shinohara (71)
Former Shield Society member
Waseda University graduate
The student leagues
wanted to achieve that.
So for us they were
mortal enemies.
The left-wingers had
a big presence
and there were those
who didn't like that.
Yukitomo Miyazawa (72)
Former Shield Society member
Waseda University graduate
Like us.
Akihiro Hara
Former Shield Society member
The University of Tokyo campus was
barricaded off that day.
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies graduate
Zenkyoto had a security check at the gate,
checking
everyone's identification.
Once inside it was their turf.
Their signs were everywhere.
Did a communism revolution
seem imminent?
Yes.
All university students
thought
it might happen any time.
It felt that way
when you entered the school gate.
There was danger of a civil war.
I know it sounds like a joke
but there really was.
They were called "toy soldiers" but
Mishima planned to deploy them
when the police failed to contain
the New Left radicals.
Their Self-Defense Force training
was genuine.
It was real military training.
What we did...
We did things that
Self-Defense recruits wouldn't do.
I'm telling you because
enough time has passed.
We used live ammunition.
I don't think
we were allowed to use live ammo.
If the left-wing activists
came at us with batons
we thought we could overcome them
with our samurai swords.
Zenkyoto also thought
that they'd be attacked.
Osamu Kimura
Former Zenkyoto member
We had to be prepared for
possible violence so
we had around the stage
guys we could trust.
We were afraid of the communists
and the Democratic Youths.
It was quite possible that
they'd storm in with batons.
The Democratic Youth League was
organized by the Communist Party.
They opposed Zenkyoto in ideology
and sided with the university.
The Democratic Youth League
ran Komaba campus.
It was like we were under
martial law.
But there weren't enough of
them to cover the campus
so we had a little freedom
around Lecture Hall 900.
Lecture Hall 900 was miraculously
a neutral territory.
Chapter 2
A duel
One of the Zenkyoto members
made a proposition.
...let me present this question.
Man's relationship with nature
Let's discuss the idea of man vs. nature.
Based on
what he's said so far,
Mr. Mishima's
idea of nature
is restricted to the human body
and the will to put
one's body to use.
To me, nature isn't tied to humans.
It exists before our eyes.
Maybe we can't see it in the city
but I believe that it's there.
The kind of nature
that rejects humans.
What matters for us is how humans
make the most of nature
which can't be controlled.
Excuse me.
In your rhetoric,
nature has many definitions.
One is nature, found in rural Nagano.
Another is found in
Tokyo's high-rise buildings.
Or do the riot police batons
embody nature?
Or an environment
where production occurs...?
So if we are to access production
via an object
we may also access production
through a riot police baton.
If the riot police officer beating you
is a farmer's son,
you might find nature
in his spirit
through the object
he beats you with.
Don't understand nature at all.
Who doesn't?
What do you mean?
You dropped the subjective noun.
That's correct Japanese,
but who do you mean?
You don't?
- Or me?
- I know what you mean but
you can't clarify anything
with that rhetoric.
It's elusive.
I see your point.
The man on stage
with his daughter is
Masahiko Akuta, the University of
Tokyo-Zenkyoto's best debater.
Take this desk for example.
An ordinary, dirty desk.
It's here at the University of Tokyo
to be used in lectures.
But it can be repurposed
to build a barricade.
Which the desk never dreamed
it would be.
Its new purpose is detached
from what it was originally.
It has become combative.
When an object is detached from
the purpose it was produced for
you awaken to its
true modern meaning.
Because you are detached
from the chain of production.
And that's how you return to nature,
the basis of labor and production.
Is that the impetus
for your violence?
Violence...
can't be clearly defined unless it's
Relationality and objects
detached from other meanings.
Relationality and objects
Sorry?
A desk is a desk in the
space defined as university so
no university, no desk.
- An object.
- Indeed.
In relational theory,
an object
could be a weapon
or what we determine it to be.
When relations are inverted
it's revolutionary.
A space emerges in those relations.
When you write about a desk,
your words weigh the same as the desk
- or it becomes recit or roman.
- You're right.
recit = story
roman = novel
That's where
you were defeated.
Not yet!
That's how it seems to me.
For Mishima
he saw perception as
the antithesis of action.
He reached adulthood
when Japan lost WWII
and his impression of the survivors
was that they put their perceptions
before action.
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist
He believed that action should come first.
He thought that
by prioritizing perceptions
you'd never touch "actuality."
And as a survivor,
he compensated for that tendency.
So Akuta told him he was defeated.
And that highlighted Mishima's dilemma.
Akuta told Mishima that
his perceptions weren't real to him.
He was provoking Mishima.
A writer writes. His writings are
the objects he produces.
That's the reality of a writer.
Like you say, it has nothing to do
with production.
Right.
Writing is detached from the act
of production, so existentially
it doesn't relate to us.
Right.
You spoke of "space"...
It's mere Form.
- So I
- OK, go on.
That's where I think
you lost the game.
The Form you use to express yourself
has as little impact on us
as violence.
Our action is Form and content
at the same time.
It's just an expression,
not a revolution
but history's potential is
in the space our action embodied.
That's what we do. Anything you say
as a writer is embarrassing.
You want to turn
your game into demagogy.
You don't exist without Japan.
- That's me.
- Yes.
But my ancestors can not be found in
Japan or anywhere else.
Right.
But I'm not a "Stranger."
Everyone else became "Strangers."
Right.
So we are ready to advance
to the 21st century.
Why kill in order to protect culture?
Masahiko Akuta (73)
Former Zenkyoto member
Does the Emperor symbolize culture?
Without addressing those questions
Mishima is just a demagogue.
Akuta led an experimental
theater group.
He wrote, directed and acted
in productions.
He co-published Underground Theatre
with Shuji Terayama
and was a pioneer in
experimental theater.
I'm an actor.
Changing theater means changing
what it means to be human.
It's also about changing the arts.
That's avant-garde.
If the arts can't change,
nothing can.
Revolution is the purest form of poetry.
How can you turn
the transcendental into a theory?
With theater.
Osamu Kimura Former Zenkyoto member
What Akuta does...
How can I put it?
He deconstructs
all established concepts.
He was cutting-edge avant-garde.
Daisaburo Hashizume
was with Akuta's theater company
He was also a talented painter.
A true artist.
Akuta Hashizume
Everyone knew that.
Thoughts are a liberated zone.
Intellectuals cultivate
beautiful liberated zones
so we felt a responsibility to cultivate it.
We invited Mishima to foster that environment.
To make a liberated zone
we need both new and old ideas.
Let's talk about simpler things.
Something easier to grasp,
like a "liberated zone."
Liberated zones
Let's discuss that.
In the moment that an object
collides with another object
does a liberated zone emerge
in that space?
- Yes.
- OK.
A "liberated zone" is a place
under the revolutionists' control
such as the Yasuda Auditorium during
the University of Tokyo riots.
The space, whether it's created
or distorted
will temporarily persist
There's no time or relation
in space.
- No relation?
- Or distortion.
It's the original state. "Returning
to nature" as Rousseau put it.
Nature.
So whether the space persists or not
is not important?
There's no time so it can't persist.
Then whether it lasted for 3 minutes
or if it lasted as long as 10 days
there is essentially no difference?
It's wrong to even compare them.
Dimensionally?
Is your work comparable to
thousands of years of time?
I think not.
But it's a part of
that continuum of time.
I intend to express time,
if not space.
If liberated zones express space
I'd like to know how that
intersects with time.
So in terms of the tactics
of revolution
it'd be good if the liberated zone
lasted a week.
So if it lasted for 3 or 4 hours,
does that mean
it didn't last
or didn't it have to?
Shouldn't revolution be persistent?
I'm not a leader but if I may...
Those who created the zone were
failed by it.
Not by the riot police?
No.
Did the zone fail because of
objects
or time?
It's the reification
of objects and/or space.
Don't reified objects or space
negate the existing condition?
It never fails to negate
I disagree because it's relational.
Like civilization...
History is an existential way for us
to deal with reification.
- History is persistent.
- No
It's a space of potential,
it's freedom.
However when freedom is given
we often fail, it's a habit
reinforced by civilization.
But what we do with barricades
is a form of perceiving history.
But we don't perceive like a sniper.
We do it with a shotgun.
That's post-Sartre.
So your action is a new perception.
And there is no room for
persistence in that perception?
No intention to make it last?
Let's say a cigarette pack is made
and if it disappeared the same moment,
you couldn't smoke one!
Time has passed since
it was manufactured and sold to me.
Now I can smoke one
and pretend to look relaxed.
Due to the time passed
since production
You smoke to force time to persist.
I don't have to force it to persist.
But it doesn't persist.
And you feel lost because
you're other-directed.
Daisaburo Hashizume Former Zenkyoto member
Let me elaborate on what Akuta means.
For him art is above everything.
He has a primal drive
to create liberated zones.
Because Akuta believes humanity
has become corrupt and tainted.
It's warped and damaged
and can't be left like that.
That's not the human truth.
To restore what makes
humanity distinct.
And restore our primal condition.
We need a zone where we're
liberated and that's what art is.
We may fail but that doesn't
make our attempt meaningless.
Akuta wanted to say to Mishima
that he lacked faith in his art
so how could he call himself
an artist?
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist
That was a very remarkable scene.
Mishima gave a lot of thought
to the issue of "persistence."
His novels are characterized
with moments of ecstasy.
His characters might dream
of a momentary achievement.
They rarely spent decades
achieving their goal.
Your action falls short.
Everything concludes within
relationality, without actuality.
Indeed. Inherently words can not
affect actual material.
So I take actions in the attempt to
But as long as you can write
you don't have to try
demagogy with other activities.
Your writing is autonomous so
But I'm saying that I'm not content
with an autonomous space.
I think you're just bluffing!
Ogawa, a TBS reporter, was covering
the debate from the front row.
Kunio Ogawa (75)
Former TBS Reporter
There's this man who came in
with a baby.
Everyone in the hall
responded strongly to it.
I still remember how it lightened
the tense atmosphere.
Mishima spoke with a lot of humor.
My overall impression
of the debate was that it
progressed in an unexpected direction.
I was so engaged in the whole thing.
Armed with unique arguments, Akuta
didn't hesitate to criticize Mishima.
Why do all writers write
like critics today?
The answer relates to where you are
and what you see.
And you, Mishima.
We're at a university
but if we deny relationality
of all objects
we can't answer the question.
We won't even be able to
call this a desk.
There'd be no Lecture Hall 900...
So we pretend that
everything is unavoidably related
so that
we can invert that relationality.
That's why we make barricades,
to deny relationality.
Then we'd have to define everything
in relation to a new viewpoint.
Next time we stage a blockade,
there'll be many Blanquists.
It'll be the era of agitators
and demagogues.
A revolution on a national scale
might fail but
those who are both Blanquists and
Trotskyists will succeed.
Then we'd deal with time's actual
persistence, as you mentioned.
Then it'll be a form of fiction
that would dominate in the end.
That's why I do theater.
It's one or the other.
Your book, Sun and Steel is
what I call "The testicle's spirit."
Sun and Steel (1968)
A semi-autobiographical essay
It's about distribution
of values.
Excess produce allows a hippy
like me to make a baby,
with no job.
Distribution is unequal
to objects and people.
Sun and Steel points to that
in an infantile way.
Proper distribution of values
can't be realized with
our consciousness.
We exist. Objects exist.
Sartre's understanding of
image is obsolete.
What we have to do is
transcend image with objects.
We tend to see things as
images because it's easier.
We try to deal with things with
our eyes closed.
Light helps us
see beyond an object.
The first step is to realize
anything around you is a weapon.
A glass, at a glance, can be a weapon.
It's easier.
Some people prefer that.
Is your body a weapon?
You have to pursue that potential.
What lies between objects and us?
I can't see anything.
There's supposed to be a nation and
people in power but I can't see them.
So that's where I want to start.
That was very interesting.
I have 2 questions.
One is when nothing has a name.
Names are a form of continuation so
without them
could we be relationally defined?
And also
we exist, objects exist
and we use them.
But can we disregard
the teleological point of view?
When we see a spoon
we see its purpose
which is to eat food with.
"Can we use things without purpose?"
is the question.
Answering the 1st question.
Should things be relational?
Not necessarily. It depends.
I mean, why do unnamed objects
end up relational
only to be transcended again?
Because we rely on
the walker called civilization.
That's exactly how Trotsky failed.
Keiichiro Hirano
Novelist
Let's say Akuta managed
to create a liberated zone...
if he really wanted to
change society,
he'd have to rely on words to
systematically change it.
Without words we have no assessment
and ability to procure food.
If each object or phenomenon
had no name
the system couldn't persist
with no logical organization.
That's why Mishima asked
about persistency.
If you want your creation to persist
you need words.
In that sense, what Mishima did with
words has actuality.
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
In a liberated zone, you'd also
be liberated from time.
It's dangerous to think
that time is absolute.
You mean, history?
History and also power.
A man in power sees things his way.
Right?
Only Mishima would be happy to be
trapped in an unliberated time.
An audience member yelled,
"It's all philosophical nonsense!"
"I'm here to see Mishima get beaten up!"
Go on then.
Don't just say that
from back there...
Come up here if you want to beat him!
Come on!
- Come on!
- Right here.
Go ahead!
Beat him.
Don't back off.
Who do you want?
Me?
- Not you.
- I'm game.
- Generally
- Use the mic!
By abstracting relationality
with no boundaries
you're just toying with ideas.
When there is Man
We inevitably have the Other.
How you formulate an argument is
Relationality is obscenity, moron!
Turning relations
upside down is revolutionary!
No.
Existential relations in
actual society come first.
You have to build your argument on them,
expanding your consciousness.
- But you do it by rejecting
- Boring!
the spatial coexistence of the Other.
You give Zenkyoto a bad name!
Don't call yourself a member.
Let me rephrase the point
of the argument.
We acknowledge actual relations.
On that condition,
when we focus on objects...
When we focus on relationality
and we behave...
as active subjects
we can't ignore actual relations.
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
I had 2 Short Peace cigarettes.
Mishima had 4.
I finished mine so I took one of his.
We smoked 3 each.
I meant to return it but...
Media and World Revolution
In 1968 many political movements
were underway
May '68 in Paris
all across the world.
The Prague Spring
The televised accounts spread
The American civil rights movement
across the world
which roused the activists.
Protesting against
the US Army Oji Field Hospital
Eiji Oguma (56)
Sociologist Author of 1968
In my opinion, if television
didn't exist in 1968
the University of
Tokyo student riots
wouldn't have gained
national attention.
Because the riots were at
the University of Tokyo
it attracted the attention
of the news media.
If it had been elsewhere, it wouldn't
have been newsworthy.
The news media was present
in Lecture Hall 900.
Osamu Kimura Former Zenkyoto member
I had been interviewed by TBS.
That's why
I asked them to come.
The University of Tokyo graduates
have their futures mapped out.
But I reject that because
it's unfair to taxpayers.
They brought in a powerful light
for their camera.
It was blinding.
Kunio Ogawa
Former TBS Reporter
Student activism attracted
national attention so
we created a team to cover it.
The crew would ask the students
about their intentions.
Mishima called
Shinchosha Publishing.
They sent
a photographer named Hiroshi Shimizu.
Hiroshi Shimizu (84)
Photographer
I entered from the right
and crossed the stage behind Mishima.
Then I closed in on him from the left.
I got him to look at my camera.
He was very conscious of the camera,
as if to say "Go on, shoot more."
So I instinctively snapped
more photos.
So the monumental occasion
was recorded.
Mishima had a lot of media exposure
so he knew the power of media.
He knew how to dazzle people
with his looks.
Mishima's strength was his use
of photos and the printed word.
Eiji Oguma Sociologist
They enhanced his image
as a great literary figure.
He was a world renowned author
who also worked out.
He was also anti-intellectual so
young people thought he was cool.
"Mishima: Japan's dandiest man.
Toshiro Mifune: 2nd place"
Shiine was Mishima's editor
so they knew each other very well.
Yamato Shiine (77)
Mishima's editor at Heibon Punch magazine
He recounts his first meeting with Mishima.
I'd arrived at the Imperial Hotel
first so I waited for him.
When he entered the ballroom,
100 guests turned to look at him.
All eyes were on Mishima.
There was total silence.
The clink of cutlery on plates
suddenly stopped and
everyone focused on Mishima.
That's how he was. He was a star.
Jakucho Setouchi (97)
Novelist/Buddhist monk Mishima's friend
Before she became a novelist
she wrote Mishima fan letters
through which they became friends.
He wrote me back and
explained why.
He said it was because he found
my letters interesting.
So I tried to make each letter
more interesting.
He had a great sense of humor.
I could tell he was a genius.
I have never seen such lively
eyes as his!
He was very lean and slight
but he had this power.
I'd never seen eyes like his.
When I looked at him
I saw the eyes of a genius.
Chapter 3
Mishima and the Emperor
Kosaka, a Zenkyoto member
made a bold move
by directing the debate towards
Mishima's views on the Emperor.
What is the Emperor to Mishima
and the nation to us?
I think we'll get somewhere
on that topic.
For example, quite seriously
On Emperor
For example, quite seriously
when you guys barricaded off
Yasuda Auditorium
if you'd mentioned "Emperor" just once
I'd have joined your cause.
Gladly.
I'm not kidding.
I always say this.
The direct democracy of the 1920s
and the 30s...that's not right.
The principles of imperial sovereignty
and direct democracy
are almost identical.
It's a fantastical concept but
there is one thing both
systems have in common.
I'll tell you what it is.
The people
without going through
any system of authority,
dreamed of being one with
the nation.
There were coups before WWII
to achieve this but they failed.
Before WWII, the word, "Emperor"
prefaced intentions.
You don't have it today.
You think it'd serve no purpose.
Have you thought about how
the word "Emperor"
affects Japan's lower class?
If you think about it, the word,
"Emperor" is unambiguous.
It might make the impossible possible.
I guess it's clear that when
I mention the "Emperor"
it isn't His Majesty who
I have in mind as that entity.
- I want to change that.
- He's the establishment!
Good point!
- To do it
- Bandits should die in prison!
That's true. However
I, the Emperor, have plenty to eat.
Only communists would say
such a vulgar thing.
Yes, the people you don't like.
The Emperor is not
as bourgeois as you'd assume.
If he was bourgeois,
your revolution would've been easier.
That's why it's difficult.
Both you and I struggle
with the same difficulty.
It involves all social classes.
Is the solution's name, Emperor?
I don't know, but I call it that.
None of us will succeed
unless we understand this.
To him, the Emperor represented power.
He saw it as a way of
bringing salvation to Japan.
As an embodiment of Japanese culture.
Culminating with the Emperor.
A source of energy that
compels us unconsciously.
A symbol that would be
the focus of energy.
A political symbol, I suppose.
Mishima called it "the Emperor."
You think what I do is embarrassing.
Wearing military gear and
training with SDF soldiers.
But to me, you're just as embarrassing,
dressed like cleaners.
I believe that your action
is just as invalid as mine.
Killing one another
might bring validity.
If this is the time, we'll do that.
That'd be the only way for us
to reach a conclusion.
Survivor's guilt
Those born in the 1930s
all shared similar issues.
They were teenagers when
Japan lost the war.
Boys were resigned to dying
in the war.
They grew up accepting that's
how their life would be.
In their childhood, the fate of
the nation was tied to their own.
But that ended on August 15, 1945.
Suddenly you and
the nation were separate entities.
Japan lost its sovereignty
and was subordinate to America.
Tatsuru Uchida
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
They want it how it was before. Their own
fate was synchronized with that of the nation.
It gave them a sense of elation.
They missed that euphoria
and wanted to experience it again.
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist
Mishima spent his teenage years
towards the end of WWII.
Many of Mishima's contemporaries
sacrificed their lives for the Emperor.
He wondered about his role as
a survivor, which became his theme.
In his 30s Mishima made
a tremendous effort to adapt
to the transforming post-war society.
Then in his 40s he started
to think about the Emperor again.
He reconsidered the Emperor's role
and had a paradigm shift.
He used to think that the Emperor
presented an obstruction to reality.
But then he saw that inherent
conflict with reality
could be used as a basis to
criticize reality.
Japanese culture
as symbolized by the Emperor
could be used to criticize
post-war corruption in Japan.
That was Mishima's new viewpoint
in his 40s.
That's why he told the students to
consider what the Emperor stands for,
before criticizing reality.
Eiji Oguma
Sociologist
The student activists could
only laugh in reaction.
Why was that?
It was so abrupt that
they didn't even feel disturbed.
Laughing released their tension
as they didn't know how to respond.
I think that's how it was.
The mortal Emperor
is just a political symbol
in his role now.
Your point is...?
So I want Emperors to
restore the divine roots
of the past.
I want to restore how it was
back then.
And you want to be at one
with that ethos?
Yes.
That's onanistic,
of image and the self.
You'd be defenseless against objects.
Let me tell you about
Japanese culture
You can't transcend being Japanese.
- That's OK.
- Is it?
I am Japanese. I was born that way
and I'll die that way.
I don't want to go beyond that.
I don't.
- You might pity me for that
- I do.
- As a Japanese
- It's fantasy.
I don't want to be anything
besides Japanese.
So where is this object
known as Japanese?
Go abroad and you'll find it.
If you're fluent in English,
you forget that you're Japanese.
You see a reflection of a man
in a shop window
with a long torso and a flat nose.
There's a Japanese...it's me!
Every time I go abroad
But that's impossible
unless you're an object.
To escape your nationality?
You don't have nationality.
In that case, you are free
which I admire.
But I can't escape my nationality
as Japanese.
I think it's my fate.
You can't escape
what you're related to.
Nor history.
- No, I'd rather
- Stay in history?
I find it delightful.
- In a fantasy?
- Yes.
You take action only after
you kill someone.
- But maybe you won't.
- I agree.
I've come to have that mentality.
I'm leaving. I'm bored.
Sorry. See you.
Let's discuss perception further.
Mr. Mishima said beauty
goes beyond time and space
Tatsuru Uchida
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
He was very earnest about
persuading those 1,000 students.
Mishima remained
very fair to the students.
He never tried to corner
them or trick them with rhetoric
or point out their contradictions.
That can't be underrated.
Mishima and young people
Mishima sought out young people's
company around this time.
He attended debates at universities.
And he trained, interacted and ate
with the Shield Society.
Yutaka Shinohara
Former Shield Society member
He threw himself into whatever he did.
We were around 20 whereas
he was in his 40s.
We had more stamina than him but
he trained as hard as us
no matter how intense it was.
Often he did better than
any of us young members.
Hara Mishima Shinohara Miyazawa
He never went easy on himself.
We were drawn to his integrity.
Yukitomo Miyazawa
Former Shield Society member
Let me explain
my impression of Mr. Mishima.
I'd heard that
he disliked young people.
But then I learned that
wasn't true at all.
It was impressionable young
people that he didn't like.
Those who were susceptible
to trends.
Followers.
He didn't like young people
without personal awareness.
Shiine, Mishima's editor for
Heibon Punch
mocked Mishima's swordsmanship
in an article.
Mishima's response surprised him.
Yamato Shiine
I wrote that he was
only as good as the 1st dan.
That his 4th dan ranking was
just honorary.
The moment the magazine was out
he phoned me.
With no mention of my article,
he invited me to kendo practice.
I said OK and he offered to
be my kendo mentor.
So we practiced at Himonya dojo
for 150 minutes
every Sunday for 2 years.
Akihiro Hara
Former Shield Society member
We'd go to the dojo at
Itabashi Police Department.
To practice.
After every practice
we went to a sushi restaurant
in front of the police station.
I was a university student so
it was a luxury
that I couldn't normally afford.
Big fatty tuna...
on rice.
A lot of it!
I'd never had anything so delicious.
He treated us
after every practice.
Yukitomo Miyazawa
Former Shield Society member
He said that
we were inexperienced with women
so we met him at
a designated place.
We wondered what it was...
Then we arrived to find
that he'd invited many
stewardesses to join us!
We had no uniforms then...
He stayed with us all night.
Sometimes he showed
a strict side.
Yutaka Shinohara
Former Shield Society member
There was a guy who wrapped
his torso with a cloth
and died after stabbing himself
in the heart.
He was my schoolmate's friend.
So I told the story
to Mr. Mishima.
He asked me
why he killed himself.
I told him maybe because
he had a nervous breakdown.
That enraged him.
"That's what everyone says when
they commit suicide!"
"It's never that easy!" he shouted.
He was red with anger.
Jakucho Setouchi was Mishima's friend
I think he was very fond of
young people.
He was gentle.
The way he looked at them...
He listened to them carefully
and responded earnestly.
He was a gentle soul.
Mishima talked about
something unexpected.
At the risk of being mocked by you
please hear me out.
When I was young the war started.
His memory of the Emperor
I saw the Emperor sit
perfectly still for 3 hours on a stage.
It was at my graduation.
He was like a statue.
And he gave me a silver watch.
When Mishima graduated from
Gakushuin as a valedictorian
he received a silver watch
from the Emperor.
So I feel a connection.
I didn't want to tell you this
but that's my personal history.
I can't deny its impact.
The Emperor was so regal.
Mishima was emotionally ambivalent
about the Showa Emperor.
In the debate and
in The Voices of the Heroic Dead
he had critical things to
say about the Emperor.
The Voices of the Heroic Dead (1966)
Soldier spirits put a curse on the Emperor
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist
On the other hand
he repeatedly talked about
how the Emperor was absolutely still
at Mishima's school
and how impressive it was.
His ambivalence makes it hard
to relate to his story.
But when Mishima was a boy,
the Emperor did have an impact on him.
That impression stayed with him
all those years.
Then Kosaka struck back.
He said that if everyone
shared the concept of "Emperor"
then the concept wouldn't
need a name.
Emperor as a concept
My logic is consistent so
I demand an answer.
I recognize that you're being logical
but I follow persistence,
not logic.
I've come this far so...
I won't budge.
You didn't defeat me with logic.
I kept saying "Emperor" and
if you'd said "Emperor"
I'd have joined you.
But you didn't, so I have to keep
saying "fight to death."
Tatsuru Uchida
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
Mishima knew that their political
differences weren't the issue.
The Zenkyoto movement
was less left-wing than the
Communist and Socialist Parties.
So it wasn't really about
"right" or "left."
Their activism in 1968 and 1969
was an extension
of protests against
Japan's Security Treaty with US.
It was anti-US patriotism.
Mishima was an insightful man
so he knew that the student activists
were nationalists.
They had that in common.
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
I guess it was never about
who was left or right-wing.
Mishima was upset because the
right-wingers turned to America.
He considered joining
Zenkyoto because
we both wanted independence.
But on the ridiculous condition that
we accept his Emperor.
If it wasn't about being right or left
who was your mutual enemy?
It was...
the ambiguous and obscene Japan.
They thought they were
mortal enemies
but they were
fighting a mutual enemy.
Final Chapter
Passion
After discussing various topics
the debate was coming to an end.
Let's conclude the debate.
We'll ask Mr. Mishima his thoughts
and wrap up today's debate.
And then
I'd like to ask
a personal favor, Mr. Mishima.
I want you to join our cause.
Remember what you told us.
If we'd responded to you
and said "Emperor" you'd join us.
He continued.
He said that he'd mentioned
"Emperor" in the debate
so if Mishima was to keep his word
he should join Zenkyoto
and fight together.
What you've said has
impressed me deeply.
In terms of deconstructing
established concepts
I've been a part of it for a long time
with my literature.
And now you treat me as an
embodiment of established concepts.
That makes me feel...
Happy? No, but whatever it is
I feel it.
In regard to you mentioning
the word "Emperor"
it shows the spiritual effect of words.
For you, saying the word "Emperor"
aloud was despicable
but during the 2-hour long debate
many of you repeated "Emperor,"
whatever the intention.
My word flew in the hall with wings
and invited your words.
I don't know how the spirit
of my word resonated with you
but I leave now with
the resonance of the word.
It's a question unanswered.
I believe in your passion,
if nothing else.
I believe in it and
I want you to understand that.
Will you join our cause?
Will you?
That question is mere sophistry.
I'm very tempted but I refuse to join you.
That concludes it.
Mishima leaving Lecture Hall 900
"Meeting
Zenkyoto members"
"was pleasurable," Mishima wrote
in an article.
He directly took on
the 1,000 student activists.
Daisaburo Hashizume
Former Zenkyoto member
This big name in the literary world
called Yukio Mishima came to visit us.
He came to our turf to
have a debate with us.
To see who'd win the argument
or be persuaded.
And he did it very seriously.
We had different opinions
but he was very respectful.
I'm sure everyone felt that
it was a big present.
Yukitomo Miyazawa
Former Shield Society member
He said that
it was exciting.
He kept saying that.
He sounded very satisfied.
Tatsuru Uchida
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
He said he believed in their passion.
He had a big expectation
of the students.
He wanted them to come closer
to his point of view.
He invited them in,
in his provocative way.
Like he confessed his love to them.
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist
Ultimately we need words
to change society.
Only words can modify
the system of a society.
The debaters explored
the meaning of words...
That was the most significant
aspect of the debate.
It's remarkable that they didn't
stick to one side of the argument
or antagonize their opponent.
They acknowledged
when their opponent had a point.
They admitted when
they didn't quite get it.
With objectivity
we can help each other
present our thoughts and ideas.
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
I was an artist more than a student.
And I was proud to be an artist.
And him...
He earned his place in this world,
no matter how vulgar it is.
With a pencil.
And yet...
He empathized with our ideals
despite our differences.
A conversation requires respect.
You can't engage with
someone you hate.
Words were more powerful in
connecting people in those days.
- Like media?
- Yes.
Kimura, the MC, called Mishima
a while after the debate.
And he received
an unexpected proposition.
He asked me to join
the Shield Society.
And I didn't answer
in a straightforward manner.
I was making excuses about
our different political views.
But I didn't just say "No."
I remember I couldn't be honest.
I was evasive.
And Mr. Mishima was sharp!
He asked me, "Where are you?"
He guessed that I was
with someone.
I was with the woman
I would marry.
So I told him that I was
calling from my girlfriend's place.
He told me to hand her the phone
and they spoke for 5 minutes.
My wife didn't tell me
what they talked about.
Only recently, after nearly
50 years of marriage
she remembered what Mishima told her.
He asked her if she loved me.
And she answered that she did.
She never told me that!
I had to wait 50 years.
November 25, 1970
One and a half years after the debate
Listen to me!
Mishima took the commanding general
hostage at Ichigaya Camp
to persuade the 1,000 SDF soldiers
to join his cause in a coup
and revise the Constitution.
The soldiers ignored his appeal.
Mishima hailed the Emperor
and committed ritual suicide.
A Shield member who'd guarded him
at the debate also killed himself.
Morita was his name.
Masakatsu Morita
Shield Society member
The two of them committed suicide.
- Where?
- In the Commandant's office.
They both killed themselves.
How?
Did they slash their stomachs?
Yutaka Shinohara
Former Shield Society member
No one...
No one thought that would happen
at that time.
Akihiro Hara
Former Shield Society member
I was listening to the radio when they
went to Ichigaya Camp to carry it out.
I was like, "What?"
I was so shocked I returned
to Tokyo immediately.
Osamu Kimura
Former Zenkyoto member
He often said that he'd die
when the time came.
So...
I was told by someone that
I was pale...
like I'd seen a ghost.
Jakucho Setouchi
Novelist/Buddhist monk
I was shocked and I thought
what a waste of talent...
I cried.
Yamato Shiine
Mishima's editor
What can I say...
I wasn't disappointed or sad.
All I felt was...
Emptiness.
That everything had gone...
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
Mishima had a headband on.
I thought he was up to his silly stuff.
Then he died. I thought, "Good."
Good?
His wish had come true!
That was his finale
and he'd done it right.
At Lecture Hall 900 on that day
Mishima actually
prophesied his future.
If I were to act, it would have to be
illegal as it is for you.
If I took someone's life in a duel,
it'd be murder.
In that case I'd kill myself
before I was arrested.
He killed himself
in the apolitical mood of 1970
in the wake of Osaka Expo's success.
The New Left groups feuded
among themselves
resulting in
the Asama mountain lodge siege.
After that, radical activism
lost its momentum
and the Zenkyoto movement
was defeated.
How did the members reflect on
their activism?
Kunio Ogawa Former TBS Reporter
I wonder that, too. I'd love to ask
your interview subjects.
Kunio Ogawa
Former TBS Reporter
What did those revolutionaries
think about the whole thing?
I'm fascinated to know.
I'd like to ask them.
Tatsuru Uchida
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
In taverns in the mid 70s,
young drunk office workers
would grumble that
they used to be revolutionaries.
Probably 90% of those eager activists
grew out of it and got ahead
with a slight sense of guilt.
I don't know what they were thinking.
What moral code they followed
and what they made of their youth
is a mystery to me.
Some describe it as a "defeat."
Osamu Kimura
Former Zenkyoto member
I don't think so, in general
it was just that it dispersed.
It took me years.
For a while...
I kept asking myself,
"What am I doing with my life?"
Osamu Kimura
Former Zenkyoto member
Any movement eventually ends
in success or failure.
It ends but those who participated
in it will go on.
Society goes on.
The results of a social movement
might disappoint its participants.
It might make them feel defeated
or ruin their lives.
They might look back and
play down its significance.
Some might find other things
to pursue in their lives.
There's not one way
to deal with its results but
they should remember what happened.
How can you remember it
if you're dead?
It didn't end with Zenkyoto members
killing themselves.
If a battle ends in
inevitable loss
we have to ponder what we'll do
after that.
I'm dealing with it in my own way.
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
It was generally regarded as a defeat
Who cares how you regard it
in your country!
Not in my country.
I'm living proof.
I exist in my country.
I don't exist in your country.
You're proof because
I'm here, breathing.
I'm speaking here,
I'm not imitating anyone.
You see?
Lecture Hall 900 is still standing.
On that day the hall was filled with
Mishima's, the Zenkyoto debaters'
and the 1,000 audience members'
passion, respect and words.
How will you confront the world
and choose to live?
They explored meaning by
exchanging words.
50 years have passed.
What would Mishima say to us
if he was here today?
I believe in your passion,
if nothing else.
I believe in it and
I want you to understand that.
Times change but what remains
is a passion to improve.
All we need is
passion, respect and words.
That's the truth we found in
Lecture Hall 900, 50 years later.
Osamu Kimura became a civil
servant for a Tokyo ward.
Now retired, he mulls over
the mystery of Mishima's death.
Shuhei Kosaka became a cram school
lecturer and wrote philosophy books.
He died at 60 in 2007
from acute heart failure.
Masahiko Akuta is a director for
Homofictus theatre troupe.
Multi-talented Akuta still writes,
directs, performs and dances.
Yukio Mishima died in 1970 at 45.
The members of the Shield Society
hold a memorial
for Mishima and Masakatsu Morita
every year on November 25.
Yukio Mishima
Development & Produced by Takashi Hirano
Produced by Mei Takeuchi, Tetsuhiro Tone
Directed by Keisuke Toyoshima
c2020 "Mishima: The Last Debate"
Film Partners
This documentary is based on
archival footage from 1969.
Opinions expressed have
not been altered in any way.
A time of activism
Radical student movement
The World Revolution
Confrontation at
Yasuda Auditorium, the University of Tokyo
May 13, 1969
At the University of Tokyo in Komaba
over 1,000 students waited in
Lecture Hall 900 for a man.
They belonged to a radical leftist
league called Zenkyoto.
Here to face his archenemies
was Yukio Mishima.
The iconic right-wing novelist
idolized the Emperor.
I saw resolve in his eyes.
He wanted to persuade
those 1,000 students.
He was a genius.
Very sharp.
A superstar.
He was at his most brilliant.
Communism is my enemy.
For Mishima, the Emperor is...
We struggle with the same difficulty.
You can't transcend being Japanese.
That's OK.
It was a debate of polar opposite
political ideologies.
This is where the legendary
debate between intellectuals begins.
This 50-year-old footage is in
TBS Television archives.
With accounts from
13 witnesses and experts
we attempt to reconstruct
the legend.
Mishima: The Last Debate
In the 1960s, war was an imminent
threat to the Japanese.
As the Vietnam War raged on
students protested against it
and university bureaucracy.
Activism spread rapidly.
Students who rejected
the existing New Left groups
formed Zenkyoto groups at universities,
with more autonomy.
It became a nationwide
political movement.
Demanding affordable tuition
and autonomy
they became radical
and confronted the school authorities.
The students
protested against the war
on and off campus.
The combatting students and
riot police made Tokyo a war zone.
January 1968 Protest against
the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise
October 21, 1968
Riot on Anti-War Day
1968 was dubbed the "Political Season."
While some feared a revolution in Japan
others wanted one.
One man who observed the riots
became concerned about society.
He was Yukio Mishima, the novelist.
Mishima was born in 1925.
While at Gakushuin High School
the prodigy wrote a novel,
The Forest in Full Bloom.
He studied law at the University of
Tokyo during WWII.
He continued to write and
survived the devastation of war.
When Japan lost the war,
the Emperor renounced his divinity.
Mishima quit his Finance Ministry job
to focus on writing.
He explored inner turmoil in
Confessions of a Mask
and youth in The Temple of
the Golden Pavilion
among other masterpieces.
He wrote prolifically for 25 years.
There are 42 volumes in the
complete Mishima collection.
World-famous, his books were
translated into various languages.
For the sake of my art.
Mishima, the "writer in action"
did not only write.
He took up bodybuilding to get
a body of steel.
He was proud of his physique and
modeled for magazines.
He wrote and directed plays
and kabuki.
Be more cunning like
you have a hidden motive.
He starred in a yakuza movie.
He did boxing and karate.
Also skilled in kendo,
he had 4th dan ranking.
He wielded both pen and sword.
He trained with
the Self-Defense Forces
and flew in a jet fighter
at supersonic speeds.
During the 1960s
Mishima became openly political.
His writings reflected
his political beliefs.
In October 1968, Mishima founded
a private organization named
"Tatenokai" or the Shield Society.
He recruited students who believed
in right-wing nationalism.
Whereas the leftist students
wanted a communist revolution
their motto was "anti-revolution".
Mishima and his militia trained
with the Self-Defense Forces as
they anticipated conflict.
We need young men who are trained in
firearms for an emergency.
He was also writing his magnum
opus The Sea of Fertility tetralogy
and was up against Kawabata for
Japan's first Nobel Prize in Literature.
In the spring of 1969,
Mishima got a phone call.
It was the Zenkyoto branch
from the University of Tokyo.
The Zenkyoto branch at
the University of Tokyo
was formed in 1968 to reform
the school with activism.
On January 18, 1969
riot police dispersed students
occupying Yasuda Auditorium.
Students fought back with
gasoline bombs but
were contained by
tear gas and water cannons.
Zenkyoto was defeated.
Zenkyoto embraced violence to
fight the Establishment.
They invited Mishima, a reactionary,
to a debate.
Their motives were unclear.
Right vs. left.
Conservatism vs. Radicalism.
A public debate
discussing two extreme political views
was a dangerous
yet thrilling proposition.
It was to be held in Lecture Hall 900
in Komaba campus
not in Hongo campus where
students occupied Yasuda Auditorium.
A poster at the door called
Mishima an "Anachronistic Gorilla"
asking for a 100 yen "to feed the beast".
"We'll shut him up with logic
and make him"
"commit harakiri on stage."
That's what students said, apparently.
Mishima, the Zenkyoto members
and the audience members
waited tensely for
the debate to start.
And it started at 2:05 PM.
Chapter 1
Mishima's resolve: Seven enemies
Mishima's opening speech
went for over 10 minutes.
1,000 hostile students
were occupying the hall.
His conviction was
surprising and provocative.
You saw the act of having me
on the podium as reactionary...
I guess that I am qualified to be here
as I am reactionary.
As the saying goes, "When a man
leaves his house he has 7 enemies."
There are more than 7 of you
so I needed resolve to come.
On the morning of April 28, I met a
man who's part of the "establishment."
He's brilliant but not a top guy.
There was
a nationwide anti-war demonstration
on April 28, 1969.
Activists protested in Tokyo
and cities across Japan.
As a result, nearly
1,000 students were arrested.
The "establishment" guy said that
the protesters were deranged
and that they were idiotic
to protest like that.
I'm not saying this to grovel
but his remark bothered me.
He can send you to a nuthouse
if that's what he wants.
But it's undignified for a government
to panic over a bunch of nuts!
I think nutcases should be
looked after.
Medicate them. Psychiatric medication
has improved.
Lock them up and look after them.
Don't go hurting and killing them.
That's inhumane and unacceptable.
I don't think
any of you are nutcases.
I came here with the intention
of seeing if words
are still an effective method
of communication.
That's what I came here
to verify.
Keiichiro Hirano (44)
Novelist
Mishima said that he wanted to
see how effective words could be
between people with
opposite beliefs.
Which was
an essential issue for Mishima.
The impact of his words
was a pressing concern for him.
Would they affect reality?
Would his words affect people
with opposing beliefs?
That idea intrigued him.
Looking at that man from
the establishment
on that morning of April 28,
I saw no fear in his eyes.
Fearful eyes
That impressed me.
It made me wonder what
it's like on your side.
If I imagine that, I think of the
novel, Therese Desqueyroux.
In the novel, Therese attempts to
poison her husband.
What was her reason?
It's not clear.
Maybe she didn't love him.
Maybe she hated him.
It's unclear but she felt compelled
to poison him.
The author, Francois Mauriac,
explores her psyche.
In the end Therese says,
"I wanted to see fear in his eyes."
I guess you want to see fear in the
eyes of Japan's establishment.
I do too, from a different angle.
I don't like assured people.
In fact, I don't like this
false sense of comfort I have now.
I heard that you all chipped in
100 yen or more for this event.
I don't like how I'm unwittingly
helping your fundraising.
It's too political for me.
I'd rather take my share for
my Shield Society.
A Liberal Democratic Party politician
asked me the other day
to sign a petition
against the violence.
I've never protested violence
so I told him I couldn't comply.
Left-wing or right,
I'm not against violence.
Because of the ironic way
violence affects our society nowadays.
I think that unconditional
denial of violence would
only play into the hands
of the Communist Party.
I don't like that.
Observing the LDP and the
Communist Party join hands
I knew something dreadful
was happening.
Observing the University of Tokyo
student riots
I never said that I feared violence
or that we should deny it.
You won't read that in
any of my writings.
The worst part for me was that
after the assembly at
Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium,
your university tried to resume
entrance exams.
On January 10, 1969
Acting Chancellor Ichiro Kato
negotiated with communist and
non-political students
in an effort to
stop the students' strikes
at the University of Tokyo
7-faculty assembly.
The Communist Party and the LDP
fell into line.
Not every student is combative and
politicians saw it
as an opportunity to end it.
They know that most Japanese
don't care about ideology.
They value order over
logic and integrity.
Order is more important and
the police maintain it.
As long as the police maintain
superficial order
left and right-wingers can unify.
A poster on the door calls me
an "Anachronistic
Gorilla".
I admit
I am primitive.
The politicians' lack of integrity
upsets me.
I want the LDP to be reactive and
the Communist Party to be violent.
But they hesitate.
That's what frustrates me the most.
I don't know which one of your
sects I'll have to fight.
I don't know who my enemy is.
I write about my ideology everywhere
and when the time comes,
one must rise.
I don't really agree with
the concept of
lawful killings.
Illegal violence
I'm not opposed to the
death penalty outright but
I don't want to be
the one who kills lawfully.
You see me
as part of the establishment
but only the Self-Defense Forces can
open fire to disperse a riot.
I'm not one of them
but they've been good to me.
I am a civilian.
If I were to act, it would have to be
illegal as it is for you.
If I took someone's life in a duel,
it'd be murder.
In that case I'd kill myself
before I was arrested.
But I don't know
when that chance will come
so I work out in preparation to become
the best Anachronistic Gorilla
I can be.
That's my resolve.
Mishima at the time said
illegal violence was acceptable.
At a debate with Hitotsubashi
University students a year earlier
he said, "Political assassination
is acceptable"
"in accordance with duel ethics."
This became controversial.
Before I came here today
one of you said that
we had something in common.
The Mishima and Zenkyoto connection
Let me explain what it is.
It's about perceptions of violence.
You League members
theorize physicality through ideology
then find a logical connection
with violence.
That's what you said
and I agree with you.
We might be able to have a
constructive discussion on that point.
That's why I'm here.
In terms of political orientation
you and I are supposed to be
polar opposites.
We are but let me tell you this.
Japanese intellectuals
believe in ideologies.
Anti-intellectualism
They believe in the superiority
of the intellect.
I don't like their belief that
they're above humanity, like rulers.
There are many accomplished
professors and
I always hated seeing their faces.
It might be because I lack
intellect and ideology.
I could always smell
that snobbery
all over the University of Tokyo.
I don't approve of all of
your activism
but you undermine those snobs
who act intellectually superior.
I absolutely recognize that.
I'd like to understand what
anti-intellectualism means.
Are you so intelligent you're
against intellect?
Are you anti-intellect
because you're unintelligent?
I don't know which it is.
If Professor Masao Maruyama advocated
anti-intellectualism
everyone would be convinced.
But he wouldn't so
you guys punched him in the face!
Maruyama was a leading
political theorist
whose views on democracy were
influential in the post-war years.
The University of Tokyo professor was
seen as authoritarian by Zenkyoto.
Where in our mind does
anti-intellectualism derive?
Who is entitled to
practice anti-intellectualism?
I've always wondered about that.
Tatsuru Uchida (68)
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
joined the University of Tokyo in 1970
Mishima talked about
anti-intellectualism
which reflects his beliefs.
He praises the students
for deconstructing early 20th century
intellectualism.
Then the mic was handed over
to a Zenkyoto member.
Unfortunately "violence"
is not only defined
on its primitive and visceral origins.
The problem of post-war
intellectuals
as Mr. Mishima pointed out
We're not supposed to be
deferential...
But hear my excuse.
Mr. Mishima deserves our respect
more than our professors.
I hope you can accept my excuse.
I think his critique
is spot on.
But he hasn't proven yet
Osamu Kimura was an
organizer and the master of ceremony.
He was a 2nd-year student
at the University of Tokyo.
I couldn't help being deferential.
He was so mild-mannered.
Osamu Kimura (72)
Former Zenkyoto member
Mr. Mishima was not at all
brash when he talked to us.
He was different from
how I expected.
After the monumental
defeat at Yasuda Auditorium
Zenkyoto's existence was at stake.
Kimura and the organizers were
based at Komaba campus.
As a part of the "bonfire festival"
they planned a public debate.
And they chose Mishima
as their guest of honor.
After the occupation of
Yasuda Auditorium
Osamu Kimura
Zenkyoto was weakening.
But we wanted to continue
as an organization
and we didn't want our
activism to be nullified.
So we discussed our strategies and
came up with
the idea of the bonfire festival,
which Kosaka named.
Shuhei Kosaka
A University of Tokyo student
Daisaburo Hashizume (70)
Sociologist/Former Zenkyoto member
It was their attempt to have a cultural
win after their political defeat.
Our bonfire festival had
religious symbolism too.
We were in the mood to
burn stale intellectualism.
Mr. Mishima was invited to join us
with that intention.
I called at midday but his wife said
that he slept during the day.
He'd wake up to write at night
so I was told to call back
in the evening.
I called again at around 1 AM...
I thought it'd be late enough.
And he answered.
I read his
Culture Defense Theory
so I proposed that
we had a public
discussion about Japan.
Culture Defense Theory (1968)
Mishima outlines the Emperor's role
in restoring Japan's traditions.
Initially I'm sure he thought
of us as a bunch of hooligans so
like he said in his speech
he felt like a man who'd
accepted a duel.
I'd like to know what the Other means
to Mishima.
He called himself an
Anachronistic Gorilla.
I think we're all scared of
big, hairy gorillas.
No offence intended.
Violent acts cause anxiety.
By merely directing oneself
to be violent
would it be effective
politically and socially?
What are "Others" in relation
to our effectiveness, Mr. Mishima?
On others
Killing someone is easy but
you may be killed by someone else.
If you say your identity is
ultimately maintained by violence
what are "others" to you?
I hate Jean-Paul Sartre but in
Being and Nothingness he asked
what is obscene?
He wrote that a woman tied-up
defines obscenity.
In Being and Nothingness Sartre analyses
the relation between
oneself and the Other.
We only find eroticism in the Other.
And violence is deeply
connected to eroticism.
Attraction to the Other is core
to eroticism
but the Other is subjective
and has a mind.
That gets in the way of eroticism.
So, loving a being with a will
makes equality between genders
contradictory.
Because the relationship of achieved
love isn't erotic.
When one of them is not free
to act or think
it's the most obscene
and erotic situation.
I think this is essential to
interpersonal relationships.
Let's say the Prime Minister
was bound up and sitting here.
It's not erotic.
Former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato
In office 1964-1972
But to treat him violently
isn't something you'd do willingly.
You acknowledge hostility
from the Sato administration.
You acknowledge that they have
their own mind.
By acknowledging it,
you put yourself in a relationship
with others on a nonerotic basis.
Which in my opinion
is not an essential conflict
between the self and others
that defines human relationships.
Because technically
we want others to be
like a kind of
malleable object.
That's how we believe others should be.
We all want others to fit
in with us.
So if others don't
the relationship between
you and others sours.
It's nonerotic.
But a nonerotic relationship shouldn't
result in violence.
It's not violence but the beautiful
word you use, "conflict."
A confrontation that involves
the self and others.
It's based on the mentality
of a duel.
That's why violence committed by
students is not really violence.
Let's try to imagine
how the police view you.
As I said if you were a bunch of nuts
who have no sense of self
the police shouldn't be violent.
But they are, because they
acknowledge that you're a subject.
To create such a situation
in which the self and others
are forced to relate
and form a relationship without
objectifying each other.
This is the only way
for the self and others
to enter a relationship.
What I mean is that
eroticism is not a relationship.
What it is, is obscenity or
lust as Sartre puts it.
You lust for "an object."
But when the self and others
form a relationship
there's inevitably conflict.
You asked about my view of the Other.
It's something I've come to crave.
As a novelist I aspired to
relate to the world erotically.
I did that with my earlier novels.
That's why they're
like Kenzaburo Oe's novels.
Then I became tired of it
so I needed a relationship.
A relationship yields conflict
so I had to have a hypothetical Other.
So I decided that
communism is my enemy.
And it must remain that way.
Communism is my enemy.
Communism is my subjective Other.
The audience was unaware that
the core members of the Shield Society
sneaked in the hall
to protect him from assault.
Akihiro Hara (71)
Former Shield Society member
He was in the front row.
Mr. Mishima would be amongst
hostile activists
on their turf.
We thought that
something terrible
could happen to him.
We thought it'd be extraterritorial
in a way.
The Shield Society opposed
communists and their revolution.
They felt hostile towards
leftist movements.
The communists wanted
a communal society...
That's what
the left-wing activists
Yutaka Shinohara (71)
Former Shield Society member
Waseda University graduate
The student leagues
wanted to achieve that.
So for us they were
mortal enemies.
The left-wingers had
a big presence
and there were those
who didn't like that.
Yukitomo Miyazawa (72)
Former Shield Society member
Waseda University graduate
Like us.
Akihiro Hara
Former Shield Society member
The University of Tokyo campus was
barricaded off that day.
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies graduate
Zenkyoto had a security check at the gate,
checking
everyone's identification.
Once inside it was their turf.
Their signs were everywhere.
Did a communism revolution
seem imminent?
Yes.
All university students
thought
it might happen any time.
It felt that way
when you entered the school gate.
There was danger of a civil war.
I know it sounds like a joke
but there really was.
They were called "toy soldiers" but
Mishima planned to deploy them
when the police failed to contain
the New Left radicals.
Their Self-Defense Force training
was genuine.
It was real military training.
What we did...
We did things that
Self-Defense recruits wouldn't do.
I'm telling you because
enough time has passed.
We used live ammunition.
I don't think
we were allowed to use live ammo.
If the left-wing activists
came at us with batons
we thought we could overcome them
with our samurai swords.
Zenkyoto also thought
that they'd be attacked.
Osamu Kimura
Former Zenkyoto member
We had to be prepared for
possible violence so
we had around the stage
guys we could trust.
We were afraid of the communists
and the Democratic Youths.
It was quite possible that
they'd storm in with batons.
The Democratic Youth League was
organized by the Communist Party.
They opposed Zenkyoto in ideology
and sided with the university.
The Democratic Youth League
ran Komaba campus.
It was like we were under
martial law.
But there weren't enough of
them to cover the campus
so we had a little freedom
around Lecture Hall 900.
Lecture Hall 900 was miraculously
a neutral territory.
Chapter 2
A duel
One of the Zenkyoto members
made a proposition.
...let me present this question.
Man's relationship with nature
Let's discuss the idea of man vs. nature.
Based on
what he's said so far,
Mr. Mishima's
idea of nature
is restricted to the human body
and the will to put
one's body to use.
To me, nature isn't tied to humans.
It exists before our eyes.
Maybe we can't see it in the city
but I believe that it's there.
The kind of nature
that rejects humans.
What matters for us is how humans
make the most of nature
which can't be controlled.
Excuse me.
In your rhetoric,
nature has many definitions.
One is nature, found in rural Nagano.
Another is found in
Tokyo's high-rise buildings.
Or do the riot police batons
embody nature?
Or an environment
where production occurs...?
So if we are to access production
via an object
we may also access production
through a riot police baton.
If the riot police officer beating you
is a farmer's son,
you might find nature
in his spirit
through the object
he beats you with.
Don't understand nature at all.
Who doesn't?
What do you mean?
You dropped the subjective noun.
That's correct Japanese,
but who do you mean?
You don't?
- Or me?
- I know what you mean but
you can't clarify anything
with that rhetoric.
It's elusive.
I see your point.
The man on stage
with his daughter is
Masahiko Akuta, the University of
Tokyo-Zenkyoto's best debater.
Take this desk for example.
An ordinary, dirty desk.
It's here at the University of Tokyo
to be used in lectures.
But it can be repurposed
to build a barricade.
Which the desk never dreamed
it would be.
Its new purpose is detached
from what it was originally.
It has become combative.
When an object is detached from
the purpose it was produced for
you awaken to its
true modern meaning.
Because you are detached
from the chain of production.
And that's how you return to nature,
the basis of labor and production.
Is that the impetus
for your violence?
Violence...
can't be clearly defined unless it's
Relationality and objects
detached from other meanings.
Relationality and objects
Sorry?
A desk is a desk in the
space defined as university so
no university, no desk.
- An object.
- Indeed.
In relational theory,
an object
could be a weapon
or what we determine it to be.
When relations are inverted
it's revolutionary.
A space emerges in those relations.
When you write about a desk,
your words weigh the same as the desk
- or it becomes recit or roman.
- You're right.
recit = story
roman = novel
That's where
you were defeated.
Not yet!
That's how it seems to me.
For Mishima
he saw perception as
the antithesis of action.
He reached adulthood
when Japan lost WWII
and his impression of the survivors
was that they put their perceptions
before action.
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist
He believed that action should come first.
He thought that
by prioritizing perceptions
you'd never touch "actuality."
And as a survivor,
he compensated for that tendency.
So Akuta told him he was defeated.
And that highlighted Mishima's dilemma.
Akuta told Mishima that
his perceptions weren't real to him.
He was provoking Mishima.
A writer writes. His writings are
the objects he produces.
That's the reality of a writer.
Like you say, it has nothing to do
with production.
Right.
Writing is detached from the act
of production, so existentially
it doesn't relate to us.
Right.
You spoke of "space"...
It's mere Form.
- So I
- OK, go on.
That's where I think
you lost the game.
The Form you use to express yourself
has as little impact on us
as violence.
Our action is Form and content
at the same time.
It's just an expression,
not a revolution
but history's potential is
in the space our action embodied.
That's what we do. Anything you say
as a writer is embarrassing.
You want to turn
your game into demagogy.
You don't exist without Japan.
- That's me.
- Yes.
But my ancestors can not be found in
Japan or anywhere else.
Right.
But I'm not a "Stranger."
Everyone else became "Strangers."
Right.
So we are ready to advance
to the 21st century.
Why kill in order to protect culture?
Masahiko Akuta (73)
Former Zenkyoto member
Does the Emperor symbolize culture?
Without addressing those questions
Mishima is just a demagogue.
Akuta led an experimental
theater group.
He wrote, directed and acted
in productions.
He co-published Underground Theatre
with Shuji Terayama
and was a pioneer in
experimental theater.
I'm an actor.
Changing theater means changing
what it means to be human.
It's also about changing the arts.
That's avant-garde.
If the arts can't change,
nothing can.
Revolution is the purest form of poetry.
How can you turn
the transcendental into a theory?
With theater.
Osamu Kimura Former Zenkyoto member
What Akuta does...
How can I put it?
He deconstructs
all established concepts.
He was cutting-edge avant-garde.
Daisaburo Hashizume
was with Akuta's theater company
He was also a talented painter.
A true artist.
Akuta Hashizume
Everyone knew that.
Thoughts are a liberated zone.
Intellectuals cultivate
beautiful liberated zones
so we felt a responsibility to cultivate it.
We invited Mishima to foster that environment.
To make a liberated zone
we need both new and old ideas.
Let's talk about simpler things.
Something easier to grasp,
like a "liberated zone."
Liberated zones
Let's discuss that.
In the moment that an object
collides with another object
does a liberated zone emerge
in that space?
- Yes.
- OK.
A "liberated zone" is a place
under the revolutionists' control
such as the Yasuda Auditorium during
the University of Tokyo riots.
The space, whether it's created
or distorted
will temporarily persist
There's no time or relation
in space.
- No relation?
- Or distortion.
It's the original state. "Returning
to nature" as Rousseau put it.
Nature.
So whether the space persists or not
is not important?
There's no time so it can't persist.
Then whether it lasted for 3 minutes
or if it lasted as long as 10 days
there is essentially no difference?
It's wrong to even compare them.
Dimensionally?
Is your work comparable to
thousands of years of time?
I think not.
But it's a part of
that continuum of time.
I intend to express time,
if not space.
If liberated zones express space
I'd like to know how that
intersects with time.
So in terms of the tactics
of revolution
it'd be good if the liberated zone
lasted a week.
So if it lasted for 3 or 4 hours,
does that mean
it didn't last
or didn't it have to?
Shouldn't revolution be persistent?
I'm not a leader but if I may...
Those who created the zone were
failed by it.
Not by the riot police?
No.
Did the zone fail because of
objects
or time?
It's the reification
of objects and/or space.
Don't reified objects or space
negate the existing condition?
It never fails to negate
I disagree because it's relational.
Like civilization...
History is an existential way for us
to deal with reification.
- History is persistent.
- No
It's a space of potential,
it's freedom.
However when freedom is given
we often fail, it's a habit
reinforced by civilization.
But what we do with barricades
is a form of perceiving history.
But we don't perceive like a sniper.
We do it with a shotgun.
That's post-Sartre.
So your action is a new perception.
And there is no room for
persistence in that perception?
No intention to make it last?
Let's say a cigarette pack is made
and if it disappeared the same moment,
you couldn't smoke one!
Time has passed since
it was manufactured and sold to me.
Now I can smoke one
and pretend to look relaxed.
Due to the time passed
since production
You smoke to force time to persist.
I don't have to force it to persist.
But it doesn't persist.
And you feel lost because
you're other-directed.
Daisaburo Hashizume Former Zenkyoto member
Let me elaborate on what Akuta means.
For him art is above everything.
He has a primal drive
to create liberated zones.
Because Akuta believes humanity
has become corrupt and tainted.
It's warped and damaged
and can't be left like that.
That's not the human truth.
To restore what makes
humanity distinct.
And restore our primal condition.
We need a zone where we're
liberated and that's what art is.
We may fail but that doesn't
make our attempt meaningless.
Akuta wanted to say to Mishima
that he lacked faith in his art
so how could he call himself
an artist?
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist
That was a very remarkable scene.
Mishima gave a lot of thought
to the issue of "persistence."
His novels are characterized
with moments of ecstasy.
His characters might dream
of a momentary achievement.
They rarely spent decades
achieving their goal.
Your action falls short.
Everything concludes within
relationality, without actuality.
Indeed. Inherently words can not
affect actual material.
So I take actions in the attempt to
But as long as you can write
you don't have to try
demagogy with other activities.
Your writing is autonomous so
But I'm saying that I'm not content
with an autonomous space.
I think you're just bluffing!
Ogawa, a TBS reporter, was covering
the debate from the front row.
Kunio Ogawa (75)
Former TBS Reporter
There's this man who came in
with a baby.
Everyone in the hall
responded strongly to it.
I still remember how it lightened
the tense atmosphere.
Mishima spoke with a lot of humor.
My overall impression
of the debate was that it
progressed in an unexpected direction.
I was so engaged in the whole thing.
Armed with unique arguments, Akuta
didn't hesitate to criticize Mishima.
Why do all writers write
like critics today?
The answer relates to where you are
and what you see.
And you, Mishima.
We're at a university
but if we deny relationality
of all objects
we can't answer the question.
We won't even be able to
call this a desk.
There'd be no Lecture Hall 900...
So we pretend that
everything is unavoidably related
so that
we can invert that relationality.
That's why we make barricades,
to deny relationality.
Then we'd have to define everything
in relation to a new viewpoint.
Next time we stage a blockade,
there'll be many Blanquists.
It'll be the era of agitators
and demagogues.
A revolution on a national scale
might fail but
those who are both Blanquists and
Trotskyists will succeed.
Then we'd deal with time's actual
persistence, as you mentioned.
Then it'll be a form of fiction
that would dominate in the end.
That's why I do theater.
It's one or the other.
Your book, Sun and Steel is
what I call "The testicle's spirit."
Sun and Steel (1968)
A semi-autobiographical essay
It's about distribution
of values.
Excess produce allows a hippy
like me to make a baby,
with no job.
Distribution is unequal
to objects and people.
Sun and Steel points to that
in an infantile way.
Proper distribution of values
can't be realized with
our consciousness.
We exist. Objects exist.
Sartre's understanding of
image is obsolete.
What we have to do is
transcend image with objects.
We tend to see things as
images because it's easier.
We try to deal with things with
our eyes closed.
Light helps us
see beyond an object.
The first step is to realize
anything around you is a weapon.
A glass, at a glance, can be a weapon.
It's easier.
Some people prefer that.
Is your body a weapon?
You have to pursue that potential.
What lies between objects and us?
I can't see anything.
There's supposed to be a nation and
people in power but I can't see them.
So that's where I want to start.
That was very interesting.
I have 2 questions.
One is when nothing has a name.
Names are a form of continuation so
without them
could we be relationally defined?
And also
we exist, objects exist
and we use them.
But can we disregard
the teleological point of view?
When we see a spoon
we see its purpose
which is to eat food with.
"Can we use things without purpose?"
is the question.
Answering the 1st question.
Should things be relational?
Not necessarily. It depends.
I mean, why do unnamed objects
end up relational
only to be transcended again?
Because we rely on
the walker called civilization.
That's exactly how Trotsky failed.
Keiichiro Hirano
Novelist
Let's say Akuta managed
to create a liberated zone...
if he really wanted to
change society,
he'd have to rely on words to
systematically change it.
Without words we have no assessment
and ability to procure food.
If each object or phenomenon
had no name
the system couldn't persist
with no logical organization.
That's why Mishima asked
about persistency.
If you want your creation to persist
you need words.
In that sense, what Mishima did with
words has actuality.
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
In a liberated zone, you'd also
be liberated from time.
It's dangerous to think
that time is absolute.
You mean, history?
History and also power.
A man in power sees things his way.
Right?
Only Mishima would be happy to be
trapped in an unliberated time.
An audience member yelled,
"It's all philosophical nonsense!"
"I'm here to see Mishima get beaten up!"
Go on then.
Don't just say that
from back there...
Come up here if you want to beat him!
Come on!
- Come on!
- Right here.
Go ahead!
Beat him.
Don't back off.
Who do you want?
Me?
- Not you.
- I'm game.
- Generally
- Use the mic!
By abstracting relationality
with no boundaries
you're just toying with ideas.
When there is Man
We inevitably have the Other.
How you formulate an argument is
Relationality is obscenity, moron!
Turning relations
upside down is revolutionary!
No.
Existential relations in
actual society come first.
You have to build your argument on them,
expanding your consciousness.
- But you do it by rejecting
- Boring!
the spatial coexistence of the Other.
You give Zenkyoto a bad name!
Don't call yourself a member.
Let me rephrase the point
of the argument.
We acknowledge actual relations.
On that condition,
when we focus on objects...
When we focus on relationality
and we behave...
as active subjects
we can't ignore actual relations.
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
I had 2 Short Peace cigarettes.
Mishima had 4.
I finished mine so I took one of his.
We smoked 3 each.
I meant to return it but...
Media and World Revolution
In 1968 many political movements
were underway
May '68 in Paris
all across the world.
The Prague Spring
The televised accounts spread
The American civil rights movement
across the world
which roused the activists.
Protesting against
the US Army Oji Field Hospital
Eiji Oguma (56)
Sociologist Author of 1968
In my opinion, if television
didn't exist in 1968
the University of
Tokyo student riots
wouldn't have gained
national attention.
Because the riots were at
the University of Tokyo
it attracted the attention
of the news media.
If it had been elsewhere, it wouldn't
have been newsworthy.
The news media was present
in Lecture Hall 900.
Osamu Kimura Former Zenkyoto member
I had been interviewed by TBS.
That's why
I asked them to come.
The University of Tokyo graduates
have their futures mapped out.
But I reject that because
it's unfair to taxpayers.
They brought in a powerful light
for their camera.
It was blinding.
Kunio Ogawa
Former TBS Reporter
Student activism attracted
national attention so
we created a team to cover it.
The crew would ask the students
about their intentions.
Mishima called
Shinchosha Publishing.
They sent
a photographer named Hiroshi Shimizu.
Hiroshi Shimizu (84)
Photographer
I entered from the right
and crossed the stage behind Mishima.
Then I closed in on him from the left.
I got him to look at my camera.
He was very conscious of the camera,
as if to say "Go on, shoot more."
So I instinctively snapped
more photos.
So the monumental occasion
was recorded.
Mishima had a lot of media exposure
so he knew the power of media.
He knew how to dazzle people
with his looks.
Mishima's strength was his use
of photos and the printed word.
Eiji Oguma Sociologist
They enhanced his image
as a great literary figure.
He was a world renowned author
who also worked out.
He was also anti-intellectual so
young people thought he was cool.
"Mishima: Japan's dandiest man.
Toshiro Mifune: 2nd place"
Shiine was Mishima's editor
so they knew each other very well.
Yamato Shiine (77)
Mishima's editor at Heibon Punch magazine
He recounts his first meeting with Mishima.
I'd arrived at the Imperial Hotel
first so I waited for him.
When he entered the ballroom,
100 guests turned to look at him.
All eyes were on Mishima.
There was total silence.
The clink of cutlery on plates
suddenly stopped and
everyone focused on Mishima.
That's how he was. He was a star.
Jakucho Setouchi (97)
Novelist/Buddhist monk Mishima's friend
Before she became a novelist
she wrote Mishima fan letters
through which they became friends.
He wrote me back and
explained why.
He said it was because he found
my letters interesting.
So I tried to make each letter
more interesting.
He had a great sense of humor.
I could tell he was a genius.
I have never seen such lively
eyes as his!
He was very lean and slight
but he had this power.
I'd never seen eyes like his.
When I looked at him
I saw the eyes of a genius.
Chapter 3
Mishima and the Emperor
Kosaka, a Zenkyoto member
made a bold move
by directing the debate towards
Mishima's views on the Emperor.
What is the Emperor to Mishima
and the nation to us?
I think we'll get somewhere
on that topic.
For example, quite seriously
On Emperor
For example, quite seriously
when you guys barricaded off
Yasuda Auditorium
if you'd mentioned "Emperor" just once
I'd have joined your cause.
Gladly.
I'm not kidding.
I always say this.
The direct democracy of the 1920s
and the 30s...that's not right.
The principles of imperial sovereignty
and direct democracy
are almost identical.
It's a fantastical concept but
there is one thing both
systems have in common.
I'll tell you what it is.
The people
without going through
any system of authority,
dreamed of being one with
the nation.
There were coups before WWII
to achieve this but they failed.
Before WWII, the word, "Emperor"
prefaced intentions.
You don't have it today.
You think it'd serve no purpose.
Have you thought about how
the word "Emperor"
affects Japan's lower class?
If you think about it, the word,
"Emperor" is unambiguous.
It might make the impossible possible.
I guess it's clear that when
I mention the "Emperor"
it isn't His Majesty who
I have in mind as that entity.
- I want to change that.
- He's the establishment!
Good point!
- To do it
- Bandits should die in prison!
That's true. However
I, the Emperor, have plenty to eat.
Only communists would say
such a vulgar thing.
Yes, the people you don't like.
The Emperor is not
as bourgeois as you'd assume.
If he was bourgeois,
your revolution would've been easier.
That's why it's difficult.
Both you and I struggle
with the same difficulty.
It involves all social classes.
Is the solution's name, Emperor?
I don't know, but I call it that.
None of us will succeed
unless we understand this.
To him, the Emperor represented power.
He saw it as a way of
bringing salvation to Japan.
As an embodiment of Japanese culture.
Culminating with the Emperor.
A source of energy that
compels us unconsciously.
A symbol that would be
the focus of energy.
A political symbol, I suppose.
Mishima called it "the Emperor."
You think what I do is embarrassing.
Wearing military gear and
training with SDF soldiers.
But to me, you're just as embarrassing,
dressed like cleaners.
I believe that your action
is just as invalid as mine.
Killing one another
might bring validity.
If this is the time, we'll do that.
That'd be the only way for us
to reach a conclusion.
Survivor's guilt
Those born in the 1930s
all shared similar issues.
They were teenagers when
Japan lost the war.
Boys were resigned to dying
in the war.
They grew up accepting that's
how their life would be.
In their childhood, the fate of
the nation was tied to their own.
But that ended on August 15, 1945.
Suddenly you and
the nation were separate entities.
Japan lost its sovereignty
and was subordinate to America.
Tatsuru Uchida
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
They want it how it was before. Their own
fate was synchronized with that of the nation.
It gave them a sense of elation.
They missed that euphoria
and wanted to experience it again.
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist
Mishima spent his teenage years
towards the end of WWII.
Many of Mishima's contemporaries
sacrificed their lives for the Emperor.
He wondered about his role as
a survivor, which became his theme.
In his 30s Mishima made
a tremendous effort to adapt
to the transforming post-war society.
Then in his 40s he started
to think about the Emperor again.
He reconsidered the Emperor's role
and had a paradigm shift.
He used to think that the Emperor
presented an obstruction to reality.
But then he saw that inherent
conflict with reality
could be used as a basis to
criticize reality.
Japanese culture
as symbolized by the Emperor
could be used to criticize
post-war corruption in Japan.
That was Mishima's new viewpoint
in his 40s.
That's why he told the students to
consider what the Emperor stands for,
before criticizing reality.
Eiji Oguma
Sociologist
The student activists could
only laugh in reaction.
Why was that?
It was so abrupt that
they didn't even feel disturbed.
Laughing released their tension
as they didn't know how to respond.
I think that's how it was.
The mortal Emperor
is just a political symbol
in his role now.
Your point is...?
So I want Emperors to
restore the divine roots
of the past.
I want to restore how it was
back then.
And you want to be at one
with that ethos?
Yes.
That's onanistic,
of image and the self.
You'd be defenseless against objects.
Let me tell you about
Japanese culture
You can't transcend being Japanese.
- That's OK.
- Is it?
I am Japanese. I was born that way
and I'll die that way.
I don't want to go beyond that.
I don't.
- You might pity me for that
- I do.
- As a Japanese
- It's fantasy.
I don't want to be anything
besides Japanese.
So where is this object
known as Japanese?
Go abroad and you'll find it.
If you're fluent in English,
you forget that you're Japanese.
You see a reflection of a man
in a shop window
with a long torso and a flat nose.
There's a Japanese...it's me!
Every time I go abroad
But that's impossible
unless you're an object.
To escape your nationality?
You don't have nationality.
In that case, you are free
which I admire.
But I can't escape my nationality
as Japanese.
I think it's my fate.
You can't escape
what you're related to.
Nor history.
- No, I'd rather
- Stay in history?
I find it delightful.
- In a fantasy?
- Yes.
You take action only after
you kill someone.
- But maybe you won't.
- I agree.
I've come to have that mentality.
I'm leaving. I'm bored.
Sorry. See you.
Let's discuss perception further.
Mr. Mishima said beauty
goes beyond time and space
Tatsuru Uchida
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
He was very earnest about
persuading those 1,000 students.
Mishima remained
very fair to the students.
He never tried to corner
them or trick them with rhetoric
or point out their contradictions.
That can't be underrated.
Mishima and young people
Mishima sought out young people's
company around this time.
He attended debates at universities.
And he trained, interacted and ate
with the Shield Society.
Yutaka Shinohara
Former Shield Society member
He threw himself into whatever he did.
We were around 20 whereas
he was in his 40s.
We had more stamina than him but
he trained as hard as us
no matter how intense it was.
Often he did better than
any of us young members.
Hara Mishima Shinohara Miyazawa
He never went easy on himself.
We were drawn to his integrity.
Yukitomo Miyazawa
Former Shield Society member
Let me explain
my impression of Mr. Mishima.
I'd heard that
he disliked young people.
But then I learned that
wasn't true at all.
It was impressionable young
people that he didn't like.
Those who were susceptible
to trends.
Followers.
He didn't like young people
without personal awareness.
Shiine, Mishima's editor for
Heibon Punch
mocked Mishima's swordsmanship
in an article.
Mishima's response surprised him.
Yamato Shiine
I wrote that he was
only as good as the 1st dan.
That his 4th dan ranking was
just honorary.
The moment the magazine was out
he phoned me.
With no mention of my article,
he invited me to kendo practice.
I said OK and he offered to
be my kendo mentor.
So we practiced at Himonya dojo
for 150 minutes
every Sunday for 2 years.
Akihiro Hara
Former Shield Society member
We'd go to the dojo at
Itabashi Police Department.
To practice.
After every practice
we went to a sushi restaurant
in front of the police station.
I was a university student so
it was a luxury
that I couldn't normally afford.
Big fatty tuna...
on rice.
A lot of it!
I'd never had anything so delicious.
He treated us
after every practice.
Yukitomo Miyazawa
Former Shield Society member
He said that
we were inexperienced with women
so we met him at
a designated place.
We wondered what it was...
Then we arrived to find
that he'd invited many
stewardesses to join us!
We had no uniforms then...
He stayed with us all night.
Sometimes he showed
a strict side.
Yutaka Shinohara
Former Shield Society member
There was a guy who wrapped
his torso with a cloth
and died after stabbing himself
in the heart.
He was my schoolmate's friend.
So I told the story
to Mr. Mishima.
He asked me
why he killed himself.
I told him maybe because
he had a nervous breakdown.
That enraged him.
"That's what everyone says when
they commit suicide!"
"It's never that easy!" he shouted.
He was red with anger.
Jakucho Setouchi was Mishima's friend
I think he was very fond of
young people.
He was gentle.
The way he looked at them...
He listened to them carefully
and responded earnestly.
He was a gentle soul.
Mishima talked about
something unexpected.
At the risk of being mocked by you
please hear me out.
When I was young the war started.
His memory of the Emperor
I saw the Emperor sit
perfectly still for 3 hours on a stage.
It was at my graduation.
He was like a statue.
And he gave me a silver watch.
When Mishima graduated from
Gakushuin as a valedictorian
he received a silver watch
from the Emperor.
So I feel a connection.
I didn't want to tell you this
but that's my personal history.
I can't deny its impact.
The Emperor was so regal.
Mishima was emotionally ambivalent
about the Showa Emperor.
In the debate and
in The Voices of the Heroic Dead
he had critical things to
say about the Emperor.
The Voices of the Heroic Dead (1966)
Soldier spirits put a curse on the Emperor
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist
On the other hand
he repeatedly talked about
how the Emperor was absolutely still
at Mishima's school
and how impressive it was.
His ambivalence makes it hard
to relate to his story.
But when Mishima was a boy,
the Emperor did have an impact on him.
That impression stayed with him
all those years.
Then Kosaka struck back.
He said that if everyone
shared the concept of "Emperor"
then the concept wouldn't
need a name.
Emperor as a concept
My logic is consistent so
I demand an answer.
I recognize that you're being logical
but I follow persistence,
not logic.
I've come this far so...
I won't budge.
You didn't defeat me with logic.
I kept saying "Emperor" and
if you'd said "Emperor"
I'd have joined you.
But you didn't, so I have to keep
saying "fight to death."
Tatsuru Uchida
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
Mishima knew that their political
differences weren't the issue.
The Zenkyoto movement
was less left-wing than the
Communist and Socialist Parties.
So it wasn't really about
"right" or "left."
Their activism in 1968 and 1969
was an extension
of protests against
Japan's Security Treaty with US.
It was anti-US patriotism.
Mishima was an insightful man
so he knew that the student activists
were nationalists.
They had that in common.
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
I guess it was never about
who was left or right-wing.
Mishima was upset because the
right-wingers turned to America.
He considered joining
Zenkyoto because
we both wanted independence.
But on the ridiculous condition that
we accept his Emperor.
If it wasn't about being right or left
who was your mutual enemy?
It was...
the ambiguous and obscene Japan.
They thought they were
mortal enemies
but they were
fighting a mutual enemy.
Final Chapter
Passion
After discussing various topics
the debate was coming to an end.
Let's conclude the debate.
We'll ask Mr. Mishima his thoughts
and wrap up today's debate.
And then
I'd like to ask
a personal favor, Mr. Mishima.
I want you to join our cause.
Remember what you told us.
If we'd responded to you
and said "Emperor" you'd join us.
He continued.
He said that he'd mentioned
"Emperor" in the debate
so if Mishima was to keep his word
he should join Zenkyoto
and fight together.
What you've said has
impressed me deeply.
In terms of deconstructing
established concepts
I've been a part of it for a long time
with my literature.
And now you treat me as an
embodiment of established concepts.
That makes me feel...
Happy? No, but whatever it is
I feel it.
In regard to you mentioning
the word "Emperor"
it shows the spiritual effect of words.
For you, saying the word "Emperor"
aloud was despicable
but during the 2-hour long debate
many of you repeated "Emperor,"
whatever the intention.
My word flew in the hall with wings
and invited your words.
I don't know how the spirit
of my word resonated with you
but I leave now with
the resonance of the word.
It's a question unanswered.
I believe in your passion,
if nothing else.
I believe in it and
I want you to understand that.
Will you join our cause?
Will you?
That question is mere sophistry.
I'm very tempted but I refuse to join you.
That concludes it.
Mishima leaving Lecture Hall 900
"Meeting
Zenkyoto members"
"was pleasurable," Mishima wrote
in an article.
He directly took on
the 1,000 student activists.
Daisaburo Hashizume
Former Zenkyoto member
This big name in the literary world
called Yukio Mishima came to visit us.
He came to our turf to
have a debate with us.
To see who'd win the argument
or be persuaded.
And he did it very seriously.
We had different opinions
but he was very respectful.
I'm sure everyone felt that
it was a big present.
Yukitomo Miyazawa
Former Shield Society member
He said that
it was exciting.
He kept saying that.
He sounded very satisfied.
Tatsuru Uchida
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
He said he believed in their passion.
He had a big expectation
of the students.
He wanted them to come closer
to his point of view.
He invited them in,
in his provocative way.
Like he confessed his love to them.
Keiichiro Hirano Novelist
Ultimately we need words
to change society.
Only words can modify
the system of a society.
The debaters explored
the meaning of words...
That was the most significant
aspect of the debate.
It's remarkable that they didn't
stick to one side of the argument
or antagonize their opponent.
They acknowledged
when their opponent had a point.
They admitted when
they didn't quite get it.
With objectivity
we can help each other
present our thoughts and ideas.
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
I was an artist more than a student.
And I was proud to be an artist.
And him...
He earned his place in this world,
no matter how vulgar it is.
With a pencil.
And yet...
He empathized with our ideals
despite our differences.
A conversation requires respect.
You can't engage with
someone you hate.
Words were more powerful in
connecting people in those days.
- Like media?
- Yes.
Kimura, the MC, called Mishima
a while after the debate.
And he received
an unexpected proposition.
He asked me to join
the Shield Society.
And I didn't answer
in a straightforward manner.
I was making excuses about
our different political views.
But I didn't just say "No."
I remember I couldn't be honest.
I was evasive.
And Mr. Mishima was sharp!
He asked me, "Where are you?"
He guessed that I was
with someone.
I was with the woman
I would marry.
So I told him that I was
calling from my girlfriend's place.
He told me to hand her the phone
and they spoke for 5 minutes.
My wife didn't tell me
what they talked about.
Only recently, after nearly
50 years of marriage
she remembered what Mishima told her.
He asked her if she loved me.
And she answered that she did.
She never told me that!
I had to wait 50 years.
November 25, 1970
One and a half years after the debate
Listen to me!
Mishima took the commanding general
hostage at Ichigaya Camp
to persuade the 1,000 SDF soldiers
to join his cause in a coup
and revise the Constitution.
The soldiers ignored his appeal.
Mishima hailed the Emperor
and committed ritual suicide.
A Shield member who'd guarded him
at the debate also killed himself.
Morita was his name.
Masakatsu Morita
Shield Society member
The two of them committed suicide.
- Where?
- In the Commandant's office.
They both killed themselves.
How?
Did they slash their stomachs?
Yutaka Shinohara
Former Shield Society member
No one...
No one thought that would happen
at that time.
Akihiro Hara
Former Shield Society member
I was listening to the radio when they
went to Ichigaya Camp to carry it out.
I was like, "What?"
I was so shocked I returned
to Tokyo immediately.
Osamu Kimura
Former Zenkyoto member
He often said that he'd die
when the time came.
So...
I was told by someone that
I was pale...
like I'd seen a ghost.
Jakucho Setouchi
Novelist/Buddhist monk
I was shocked and I thought
what a waste of talent...
I cried.
Yamato Shiine
Mishima's editor
What can I say...
I wasn't disappointed or sad.
All I felt was...
Emptiness.
That everything had gone...
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
Mishima had a headband on.
I thought he was up to his silly stuff.
Then he died. I thought, "Good."
Good?
His wish had come true!
That was his finale
and he'd done it right.
At Lecture Hall 900 on that day
Mishima actually
prophesied his future.
If I were to act, it would have to be
illegal as it is for you.
If I took someone's life in a duel,
it'd be murder.
In that case I'd kill myself
before I was arrested.
He killed himself
in the apolitical mood of 1970
in the wake of Osaka Expo's success.
The New Left groups feuded
among themselves
resulting in
the Asama mountain lodge siege.
After that, radical activism
lost its momentum
and the Zenkyoto movement
was defeated.
How did the members reflect on
their activism?
Kunio Ogawa Former TBS Reporter
I wonder that, too. I'd love to ask
your interview subjects.
Kunio Ogawa
Former TBS Reporter
What did those revolutionaries
think about the whole thing?
I'm fascinated to know.
I'd like to ask them.
Tatsuru Uchida
Professor emeritus at Kobe College
In taverns in the mid 70s,
young drunk office workers
would grumble that
they used to be revolutionaries.
Probably 90% of those eager activists
grew out of it and got ahead
with a slight sense of guilt.
I don't know what they were thinking.
What moral code they followed
and what they made of their youth
is a mystery to me.
Some describe it as a "defeat."
Osamu Kimura
Former Zenkyoto member
I don't think so, in general
it was just that it dispersed.
It took me years.
For a while...
I kept asking myself,
"What am I doing with my life?"
Osamu Kimura
Former Zenkyoto member
Any movement eventually ends
in success or failure.
It ends but those who participated
in it will go on.
Society goes on.
The results of a social movement
might disappoint its participants.
It might make them feel defeated
or ruin their lives.
They might look back and
play down its significance.
Some might find other things
to pursue in their lives.
There's not one way
to deal with its results but
they should remember what happened.
How can you remember it
if you're dead?
It didn't end with Zenkyoto members
killing themselves.
If a battle ends in
inevitable loss
we have to ponder what we'll do
after that.
I'm dealing with it in my own way.
Masahiko Akuta
Former Zenkyoto member
It was generally regarded as a defeat
Who cares how you regard it
in your country!
Not in my country.
I'm living proof.
I exist in my country.
I don't exist in your country.
You're proof because
I'm here, breathing.
I'm speaking here,
I'm not imitating anyone.
You see?
Lecture Hall 900 is still standing.
On that day the hall was filled with
Mishima's, the Zenkyoto debaters'
and the 1,000 audience members'
passion, respect and words.
How will you confront the world
and choose to live?
They explored meaning by
exchanging words.
50 years have passed.
What would Mishima say to us
if he was here today?
I believe in your passion,
if nothing else.
I believe in it and
I want you to understand that.
Times change but what remains
is a passion to improve.
All we need is
passion, respect and words.
That's the truth we found in
Lecture Hall 900, 50 years later.
Osamu Kimura became a civil
servant for a Tokyo ward.
Now retired, he mulls over
the mystery of Mishima's death.
Shuhei Kosaka became a cram school
lecturer and wrote philosophy books.
He died at 60 in 2007
from acute heart failure.
Masahiko Akuta is a director for
Homofictus theatre troupe.
Multi-talented Akuta still writes,
directs, performs and dances.
Yukio Mishima died in 1970 at 45.
The members of the Shield Society
hold a memorial
for Mishima and Masakatsu Morita
every year on November 25.
Yukio Mishima
Development & Produced by Takashi Hirano
Produced by Mei Takeuchi, Tetsuhiro Tone
Directed by Keisuke Toyoshima
c2020 "Mishima: The Last Debate"
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