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Authors: George Mikes
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and
fiery fighter among the most militant students, nicknamed Gewalt Rosa — Rosa being a reference to Rosa Luxemburg — a most incongruous cognomen for a Japanese lady
of twenty-five. Several professors complained that Miss Gewalt had hit them and
kicked them. She declared publicly: ‘Instructors are the greatest criminals.’
Presumably Gewalt Rosa fights to rid universities of instructors.
The confusion is great and a great
many people do their best to add to it. It is very seldom that one can see the
students’ own case properly and fairly stated in any newspaper. Student leaders
can rarely — if ever — speak for themselves or put their own case fairly and
squarely in the columns of the commercial press. The riots are good
paper-selling news but they are followed by little sympathy and understanding,
consequently newspapers, on the whole, make fun of the students and try to show
them up as immature fools. Immature they may be; but they are no fools, indeed,
some of the leaders are brilliantly intelligent.
The Socialist Party utters the usual
pious trash, declaring that while it sympathizes with many of the students’
demands it condemns violence. Anarchist groups declare that while they do not
sympathize with any of the students’ demands they approve of violence.
Professors look at all the phenomena with more sorrow than anger. They do their
best to bring about peace; they talk to these young men and endeavour to make
them see the light in the same way they see it themselves; they listen to
protests, they argue and they have the students’ true interests at heart. They
thought they were respected and liked — and so they were, in many cases. So now
they are deeply hurt when their goodwill and efforts are met with derision and
rebuffs. The phrase one hears most often is: ‘They don’t even know what they
want!’ Professors point to the unholy confusion with a feeling of sad triumph
as if this very confusion was the final, conclusive argument; they never try to
penetrate it, to understand, to disentangle. Confusion is abundant all right;
but it covers under its vast and ragged blanket something coherent, synthetic
and intelligible.
It was repeatedly pointed out to me
that the militant students are few in number and that a small minority makes
studying difficult or impossible for the overwhelming majority, who resent
them. This is true: the role of vociferous and militant minorities is the
subject of many studies in social science. Some of the big firms — to single
out one group — pick up promising young men and girls of peasant and
working-class origin, employ them on a part-time basis and send them to universities,
at the firm’s expense. They would never have reached a university without this
help and their main concern is to get on with their studies. They, among many
others, are furious with the instigators of the riots. It has been stated that
of the 40,000 students at Tokyo University there are only three hundred and
fifty activists, and some of these are not students at all. On occasions,
so-called students of thirty-eight or forty have been apprehended by the
police. I was also told many times that right-wing groups fight left-wing
groups. Maoists fight pro-Soviet groups, various socialist factions fight other
socialist factions and that, indeed, there are so many shades and cliques,
internecine tussles and scuffles, that it is impossible to speak of a ‘student
movement’. Only love of violence unites them.
It is quite true that there are many
shades of political opinion among them: pro-Soviet, pro-Mao Communists (Chinese
influence is, of course, very strong and the Chinese example of
anti-Americanism has made a great impression); there are many shades of
nationalists and most of them, as well as the Communists, Maoists and
anti-Maoists, regard the return of Okinawa as their primary aim. There are some
Freudist-Marxist-Leninist groups and other even odder combinations. Some want
to end the
fiery fighter among the most militant students, nicknamed Gewalt Rosa — Rosa being a reference to Rosa Luxemburg — a most incongruous cognomen for a Japanese lady
of twenty-five. Several professors complained that Miss Gewalt had hit them and
kicked them. She declared publicly: ‘Instructors are the greatest criminals.’
Presumably Gewalt Rosa fights to rid universities of instructors.
The confusion is great and a great
many people do their best to add to it. It is very seldom that one can see the
students’ own case properly and fairly stated in any newspaper. Student leaders
can rarely — if ever — speak for themselves or put their own case fairly and
squarely in the columns of the commercial press. The riots are good
paper-selling news but they are followed by little sympathy and understanding,
consequently newspapers, on the whole, make fun of the students and try to show
them up as immature fools. Immature they may be; but they are no fools, indeed,
some of the leaders are brilliantly intelligent.
The Socialist Party utters the usual
pious trash, declaring that while it sympathizes with many of the students’
demands it condemns violence. Anarchist groups declare that while they do not
sympathize with any of the students’ demands they approve of violence.
Professors look at all the phenomena with more sorrow than anger. They do their
best to bring about peace; they talk to these young men and endeavour to make
them see the light in the same way they see it themselves; they listen to
protests, they argue and they have the students’ true interests at heart. They
thought they were respected and liked — and so they were, in many cases. So now
they are deeply hurt when their goodwill and efforts are met with derision and
rebuffs. The phrase one hears most often is: ‘They don’t even know what they
want!’ Professors point to the unholy confusion with a feeling of sad triumph
as if this very confusion was the final, conclusive argument; they never try to
penetrate it, to understand, to disentangle. Confusion is abundant all right;
but it covers under its vast and ragged blanket something coherent, synthetic
and intelligible.
It was repeatedly pointed out to me
that the militant students are few in number and that a small minority makes
studying difficult or impossible for the overwhelming majority, who resent
them. This is true: the role of vociferous and militant minorities is the
subject of many studies in social science. Some of the big firms — to single
out one group — pick up promising young men and girls of peasant and
working-class origin, employ them on a part-time basis and send them to universities,
at the firm’s expense. They would never have reached a university without this
help and their main concern is to get on with their studies. They, among many
others, are furious with the instigators of the riots. It has been stated that
of the 40,000 students at Tokyo University there are only three hundred and
fifty activists, and some of these are not students at all. On occasions,
so-called students of thirty-eight or forty have been apprehended by the
police. I was also told many times that right-wing groups fight left-wing
groups. Maoists fight pro-Soviet groups, various socialist factions fight other
socialist factions and that, indeed, there are so many shades and cliques,
internecine tussles and scuffles, that it is impossible to speak of a ‘student
movement’. Only love of violence unites them.
It is quite true that there are many
shades of political opinion among them: pro-Soviet, pro-Mao Communists (Chinese
influence is, of course, very strong and the Chinese example of
anti-Americanism has made a great impression); there are many shades of
nationalists and most of them, as well as the Communists, Maoists and
anti-Maoists, regard the return of Okinawa as their primary aim. There are some
Freudist-Marxist-Leninist groups and other even odder combinations. Some want
to end the
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