Special Edition of “Japan Will Be Reborn as a Small Nation”**
**“Japan’s Greatest Fake News:
The Fabricated Harris of Bakumatsu History
— On The Shogun’s Currency and the Invention of a Villain”**
The Bunshun Bunko edition of The Shogun’s Currency (original title: 幕末「円ドル」戦争 大君の通貨) received the 4th Nitta Jirō Literary Prize in 1985 and was widely praised in major newspapers such as the Asahi Shimbun and the Nikkei.
I read it about fifteen years ago. While I acknowledge its literary appeal, I could never shake off a deep sense of discomfort.
That discomfort came from the highly arbitrary distortion of Townsend Harris’s character.
📘 1. The Fictional “Villain Harris” Constructed for Narrative Convenience
In The Shogun’s Currency, Harris is portrayed as:
- selfish
- driven by greed
- a diplomat who exploited Japan
But this is a character crafted for the sake of the story, and it diverges sharply from historical reality.
Having read Harris’s own autobiography, I encountered a completely different man.
📘 **2. The Harris of His Autobiography:
A Remarkably Honest and Courageous Diplomat**
Harris’s autobiography depicts him in the following ways:
● Deep Respect for Japanese Culture
Harris repeatedly expresses admiration for Japanese manners, sincerity, and cultural refinement.
Regarding negotiations with shogunate officials, he notes several times that:
“They are sincere, they keep their promises, and they value propriety.”
● He Risked His Life to Conclude the Treaty
Amid violent sonnō-jōi extremists, assassination attempts, and attacks on foreigners, Harris maintained:
“Building a relationship of trust with Japan must come first.”
● He Sought a Cooperative, Equal Relationship with the Shogunate
He engaged in repeated dialogue, respected cultural differences, and aimed for fair negotiations.
This is utterly incompatible with the fictional image of a “greedy American.”
Reading his autobiography moved me deeply.
The gap between this Harris and the one depicted in the novel left me not only disappointed but genuinely angry.
📘 3. Why Does Japan Keep Reproducing the “Harris = Villain” Narrative?
This is not merely the fault of a novelist.
It stems from the fact that Bakumatsu–Meiji Restoration history itself has been constructed as a “victor’s narrative.”
The Satsuma–Chōshū (Satchō) view of history emphasized:
- foreign pressure
- shogunal incompetence
- foreign aggression
to legitimize its own rise to power.
Within that narrative,
casting Harris as a villain was convenient.
But the historical reality is entirely different.
📘 4. The Five Structural Patterns of Bakumatsu Fake History
In recent years, I have come to categorize the “fake structure” of Bakumatsu history into five patterns:
- Binary moralism: foreign pressure = evil, sonnō-jōi = justice
- The fixed idea that the shogunate was incompetent
- Heroization of Satsuma and Chōshū
- Demonization of foreigners
- A spiritualized history that ignores economic and monetary structures
These are not history—they are stories.
And these stories continue to shape Japanese views of history, diplomacy, and national identity today.
📘 5. Bakumatsu History Is Japan’s Greatest Fake News
People often criticize Donald Trump’s fake news, but I have come to believe:
Japan’s fake news runs deeper than America’s.
For more than 150 years, the Bakumatsu–Restoration narrative has circulated as a national-level fake.
Its influence extends into contemporary Japanese society.
📘 6. Re-evaluating Harris Is Central to Japan’s Civilizational Debate
I am currently writing a civilizational study titled Japan Must Live as a Small Nation.
The distortion of Harris’s image is deeply connected to this project.
- Japan’s “great-power fantasy” began with the Bakumatsu narrative
- Fake history produces fake national strategies
- Overcoming the demonization of foreigners is the first step toward civilizational maturity
Re-evaluating Harris is therefore
the first step for Japan to live not in “stories” but in reality.
■ Conclusion: Correcting the Fabricated Harris Is Essential for Japan’s Future
The Shogun’s Currency is enjoyable as literature.
But historically, it is heavily biased, and its treatment of Harris is undeniably unfair.
And this issue is not merely a historical dispute.
It concerns the fundamental question:
How should Japan redesign its civilization?
Which histories should we trust, and which stories must we question?
Re-evaluating Harris is an essential step
for Japan to restart itself as a mature civilization.
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