Lessons from Japan

Vivekananda traveled to Japan on his way to Chicago where he went to attend the World Parliament of Religions. From Hong Kong he landed at the port city of Nagasaki in mid-1893, and boarded a steamer to Kobe. From here to took the land route to Yokohama, visiting along the way, the three big cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo. He called the Japanese "one of the cleanest people on earth", and was impressed not only by neatness of their streets and dwellings but also by their movements, attitudes and gestures, all of which he found to be "picturesque".

“Their little houses are cage-like, and their pine-covered evergreen little hills form the background of almost every town and village. The short-statured, fair-skinned, quaintly-dressed Japanese, their movements, attitudes, gestures, everything is picturesque. Japan is the land of the picturesque! Almost every house has a garden at the back, very nicely laid out according to Japanese fashion with small shrubs, grass-plots, small artificial waters, and small stone bridges. From Nagasaki to Kobe. Here I gave up the steamer and took the land route to Yokohama, with a view to see the interior of Japan.”

The visit happened at a time when the Japanese were undergoing change. The Meiji reformers - had just completed the first phase of a major transformation of everything in Japan. Anything that was traditional - religion, social structure, education, government - was being considered decadent, and was being replaced with Western models.

This was also a period of rapid military build-up in Japan - a prelude to the Sino-Japanese War (1894) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904). These preparations did not escape the attention of Vivekananda, who wrote - "The Japanese seem now to have fully awakened themselves to the necessity of the present times. They have now a thoroughly organized army equipped with guns which one of their own officers has invented and which is said to be second to none. Then, they are continually increasing their navy".

About the industrial progress he observed, "The match factories are simply a sight to see, and they are bent upon making everything they want in their own country.". Osaka was a great manufacturing town.

Vivekananda observed, the Japanese had “taken everything from the Europeans, but they remain Japanese all the same” while in India, “the terrible mania of becoming Westernized has seized upon us like a plague.”

After his return from India he was asked whether India should ape Japan. Vivekananda said no.

He said, “The faith of the Japanese in themselves, and their love for their country. When you have men who are ready to sacrifice their everything for their country, sincere to the backbone — when such men arise, India will become great in every respect. It is the men that make the country! What is there in the country? If you catch the social morality and the political morality of the Japanese, you will be as great as they are. The Japanese are ready to sacrifice everything for their country, and they have become a great people. But you are not; you cannot be, you sacrifice everything only for your own families and possessions.”

Prime Minister Of Japan Mr Abe remembered Vivekananda in his speech titled "Confluence of the Two Seas"at the parliament in India in 2007.

 “Vivekananda came to be acquainted with Tenshin Okakura, a man ahead of his time in early modern Japan and a type of Renaissance man. Okakura was then guided by Vivekananda and enjoyed also a friendship with Sister Nivedita, Vivekananda's loyal disciple and a distinguished female social reformer. Many people are aware of all that.” He remembered Swamijis speech at Chicago and said “"help and not fight," "assimilation and not destruction," "harmony and peace and not dissension." This is what the world needs today. We are still in a state of slumber. We need to arise and love our country.

“Comfort is no test of truth. Truth is often far from being comfortable.” 
― Swami Vivekananda