Hosaka Kurita had followed his father’s footsteps at MITI and had eventually himself been elevated to Minister of International Trade and Industry, perhaps because of his father’s reputation there. But Hosaka Kurita proved able, becoming a member of the Diet’s House of Councillors at the age of forty-six. When he was fifty-five, he became prime minister. In Kurita’s mind his ascent to PM was not so much a result of his personal qualities as of his outspoken, passionate speeches against the West and the United States in particular. Even so, his character and leadership were already legendary at MITI, his eloquence able to move the entire Diet when he was a member of that legislative body. His platform, his mandate and, he believed, his destiny was to bring Japan back to world prominence, as his father had done in the 1950s. Except that now Japan’s kokutai, her national destiny, depended not on forsaking the sword for the factory but rather upon using the might of the factory to once more hoist the sword.
But as passionate and warlike as Kurita was, he was also conditioned in the ways of on, the special obligation of one holding power to those whom his power touches.
He had listened countless hours to his father’s words on giri, the network of obligational relationships, the endless mutual and reciprocal obligations borne by a leader. Kurita was at once assertive and certain yet humble and nonconfrontational. Kurita could give a speech urging confrontation with the West, and afterward seem to back down to the conflicting opinion of a colleague. Kurita was Japan. There was no Caesar in Japan, no pope, no king. Power was shared. Groups, not leaders, did the business of governing Japan. But ultimately those groups would listen to someone with the voice of destiny, and destiny seemed to sing through Kurita’s throat. They were only a dozen steps into the building when it opened into a vast rotunda, the dome peak over seven stories overhead. There Koutarou lizuka, the Director General of the Japanese Defense Agency, waited with his entourage and the other council members. Prime Minister Kurita first greeted lizuka as a father greeted a son. He beamed up at the younger man, his bow deep. lizuka turned to MacHiie, a warm bow of greeting passing between the men. lizuka had also been to the university with MacHiie years before. In fact, so had every other member of Kurita’s Defense Security Council.
