By Shun Daichi

　海外で一〇年近く暮らした。アメリカ西海岸でほぼ二年。クエート半年。インドネシア二年。オーストラリア五年だ。外国に暮らして、その土地になじんでから、日本に再上陸を何度もしたが、その度に、日本の文化にとけ込むのに苦労した。特に欧米に住んで、欧米社会にとけ込み、それから日本に帰ってくると、日本人に戻るのに時間がかかるように思う。いや、今でも日本人に戻りきれていないところがある。
　外国と日本との間を行ったり来たりして、その度に日本と外国の文化的価値観の違いに違和感を覚えると、多くのことが見えてくる。
　特に、日本という国の持つ文化の特殊性に気づかざるを得なくなる。この小冊子は、そんな体験から生まれている。
　この原稿はオーストラリアに住んでいた五年間に、ロータリークラブに所属し、日本に関する講演を頼まれたのがきっかけだった。そのために用意した日本人論をまとめたのがこの小冊子。
　易しい英語で書かれているので、高校生でも読めると思うので、ぜひ読んで貰いたいと思う。

INTRODUCTION

　Are the Japanese fundamentally different from any other people?
　While I was in Australia for five years, I sensed that most Australians thought that the Japanese are a difficult people to understand.
　I had the opportunity to speak at several Rotary Clubs in the suburbs of Sydney and each time I started my talk by saying that "we are the same flesh and bones as you are . . . "
　I had to say it and remind them; otherwise, I felt that they might think otherwise.
　Of course, Australians do not think of the Japanese as being an "elite race of the world," but rather finds them "strange, hard-to-understand human being-like creatures."
　I also sent letters to the editors of the Sydney Morning Herald and other local papers, and there again I felt compelled to emphasize the same thing, that we are all the same human beings.
　It is ironic that both the Japanese and non-Japanese appear to agree on the same points, that the Japanese are a difficult people to understand and are somehow different from the other people in behavior.
　My opinion is that the Japanese are the same human beings but we have different principles guiding our actions, and this is what has been making other people wonder about the Japanese people.
　To understand the way in which Japanese think, you have to first understand two fundamental "-isms" in Japan. One is what I call "Civil Warism" (in Japanese "Sengoku-Shugi"), and the other "Harmonism" ("Chouwa-Shugi").

　In this booklet I will explain about the "Harmonism" and "Civil Warism" of Japan.
　For most Japanese, to keep harmony with the other members of the society has become second nature. However, "Harmonism" came about originally to control the "Civil Warism" which had been the foundation of our society.
　Civil Warism is based on fundamental human nature that it rooted more deeply in our society than Harmonism.
　"Harmony," or "wa" in Japanese, became our religion and law.
　Japanese society is controlled fundamentally not by law and order nor by contracts or rules but by "wa" and "Harmony" and I call this "Harmonism."
　Before Westerners arrived in Japan 110 years ago, we didn't have much of "laws" "rules" and "contracts". The Meiji government hurriedly installed laws similar to those in Western countries to make our country look like a Western country. It was superficial and it is still superficial today.
　So, fundamentally we still believe in and behave in traditional ways.
　Today, wherever the Japanese go, they bring with them Harmonism and try to convince and convert locals to the idea.
　Honda Motor Company in U.S.A., and Nissan Motors in Britain, and all the other companies and people who travel to foreign lands are unconsciously exporting the idea of Harmonism.
　At the same time, the Japanese practices "Civil Warism" outside Japan where no restriction of Harmonism, and tend to do things extreme, such as destroying ship building industries and motorcycle industries abroad.
　When we talk about harmony in Japan, there is the traditional centralist’s view of harmony that tries to convince us that harmony has existed in Japan and that it was mostly positive.
　My view is very different from theirs. I think we have never had harmony in our society and that Harmonism is both good and bad.
　As we never had harmony that is the reason why we strive to have relative hannony in our society.
　Harmonism and Civil Warism have never been fully analyzed by anybody yet. This booklet may be the first of which tries to analyze it in detail.
　However, most Japanese know that our society operates on the principle of harmony (“wa”), and it has become like second nature, therefore most of us do not worry about it, and do not recognize Harmonism among ourselves.
　It is our way of life and is part of our mind and soul.
　I shall explain Harmonism first, for it is harder to understand.