向日本靠攏：吉田茂的工作哲學應該聞名世界

每日新聞
2025年9月7日（日本時間）
向日本靠攏：吉田茂的工作哲學應該聞名世界

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前首相 吉田茂（公有領域）

最近，我年幼的女兒正在自學日語入門，她從練習簿抬起頭來問我「働く（hataraku，工作）」是什麼意思。我脫口而出回答了，但隨即思索，是否能舉個更生動的例子，讓她理解這個詞的深意。

我的記憶忽然跳回到曾經看過的一段影像：日本戰後首相吉田茂高呼「働きましょう！（讓我們一起工作吧！）」──彷彿這就是日本在二戰毀滅性戰敗後重建的處方箴言。

在戰敗後立即接任日本首相，無異於飲下毒酒。試想：東京、名古屋、大阪等主要城市都在猛烈的燃燒彈轟炸下成為廢墟；兩座城市遭受原子彈摧毀；戰爭死亡人數高達310萬；數百萬人無家可歸；糧食短缺與配給制；全國長久以來對天皇崇拜、帝國擴張與軍國主義的信仰全然崩潰；一整個政治階層正面臨戰犯審判；整個國家則處於美國佔領下，由道格拉斯・麥克阿瑟將軍實質統治。

這對日本來說簡直是地獄般的處境，恐怕沒有任何比這更不具吸引力的情勢來取得政治權力。然而，很難想像有人能在如此劣勢的牌局下，以驚人的遠見與能量掌舵國家──吉田茂（1878-1967），無疑是世界歷史上最具影響力的首相之一。

我們今日往往過度關注那些殘暴獨裁者，如希特勒、史達林、墨索里尼，或是像邱吉爾、羅斯福那樣在戰爭中挺身對抗他們的領袖。而對於吉田茂這樣的人物，歐美卻鮮少給予足夠肯定──他能在短短幾年間，把日本的毀滅性失敗轉化為戰後奇蹟的種子。他被稱為「現代日本的設計師」，這個稱號實至名歸。

1945年，東京神田地區在B-29轟炸後僅剩下建築基礎。

吉田曾兩度出任首相，第一次是1946-47年，第二次是1948-54年。他直到67歲才正式踏入政壇，之前在日本外務省有一段顛簸的仕途。他出生於武士世家，幼年被收養，先後就讀於學習院與東京帝國大學（今東京大學），之後擔任過駐中國領事、駐北歐公使、駐義大利與英國大使，後來還當上外相。他深受時代思潮影響，1920年代曾強烈支持日本在中國擴張影響力。但作為一名親英派，他極力反對1941年日本對美英開戰，因此在二戰期間被邊緣化。

我並非吉田茂專家，也不敢妄下定論，但讓我驚訝的是，他在1946年出任首相，猶如英國邱吉爾1940年掌權一樣──這是一種政治上的「神格化時刻」，是以其深厚的人生閱歷與國際智慧為基礎的。

如同邱吉爾，吉田在日本危難之際挺身而出，給予國家不屈的自尊與決心。他同樣擅長修辭。「日本會再度崛起，日本必定再度崛起！」他喊出這樣的口號，並告誡國人「說自己累了是沒有榮耀的」，呼籲全民傾盡全力重建。我腦海裡總浮現出一幕畫面：吉田凝視著滿目瘡痍的東京，焦急低語「什麼時候能重建？什麼時候能重建？」最終在他心中響起的答案便是「働きましょう！（讓我們工作吧！）」。

而日本真的做到了重建……把東京從焦土變成世界一流大都市，用不到半個世紀──這正是吉田留給日本與世界的偉大遺產。吉田或許比任何人更深刻理解「働く」（工作）的至高意義：透過專注而堅毅的工作，即便身處極端困境，你仍能找回目標與尊嚴，從無到有，創造出偉大成就。到了1970年，日本GDP超越英、法、西德；1988年時更超越這三國總和。西方世界百思不得其解：這個國家如何能戰敗，卻在和平中取得如此驚人的勝利？

但這一切既非偶然，也非必然。若沒有吉田，日本完全可能在戰後陷入數十年的經濟蕭條、政治極化與極端主義。憑藉「吉田路線」，他引領日本走向自由、富裕、高度精緻的文明──同時深深為自身傳統而驕傲──屢屢令世界驚嘆。

2025年7月25日，《每日新聞》直升機拍攝東京千代田區神田站附近。戰時曾化為焦土，如今已布滿建築。

在西方，如今許多人回顧20世紀的日本時，腦中恐怕只記得「裕仁」這個具爭議性的名字，卻全然不知日本如何完成了人類史上最偉大的復興之一。全世界應該更熟悉吉田茂及其成就。

在這個時代，許多──往往是相當優渥的人──激烈抱怨社會中的壓迫或不公，我們或許該提醒自己：透過全心投入的努力，我們確實能徹底改變命運。

當你覺得一切都不公平地與自己作對時，吉田茂的「極致自助」處方仍值得借鑑。我仍不確定「働きましょう！」是不是吉田的正式口號，但若要用一個詞來概括他的一切精神，恐怕沒有比這更貼切的了。

── Damian Flanagan

（本系列第71篇）

作者簡介
Damian Flanagan，1969年出生於英國的作家與評論家。1989-1990年就讀劍橋大學期間，曾赴東京、京都留學；1993-1999年於神戶大學從事研究工作。2000年取得日本文學博士學位。現定居於兵庫縣西宮市與英國曼徹斯特。著有《夏目漱石：世界文學的超級明星》（《世界文学のスーパースター 夏目漱石》）。

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Sunday, September 7, 2025Japan's National Daily

Edging Toward Japan: Yoshida Shigeru's philosophy of work should be world famous

September 7, 2025 (Mainichi Japan)

Former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida (Public domain)

Former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida (Public domain)

My younger daughter, who is teaching herself elementary Japanese, looked up from her workbook recently and asked me what the word "hataraku" ("to work") means. I blurted out the answer and then pondered whether I couldn't think of any example to vividly bring home the meaning of this word to her.

My memory somehow alighted on once watching a clip of Japanese postwar Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida enthusing "hatarakimasho!" ("let's get to work!") as a kind of prescription of how Japan would get back on its feet after the devastating defeat in World War II.

Being prime minister of Japan in the immediate aftermath of the war was a poisoned chalice. Just picture it: all the major urban centers like Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka leveled by intense firebombing; two cities devastated by atomic bombs; some 3.1 million killed in the war; several million homeless; food shortages and rationing; the entire nation's belief system in emperor worship, imperial expansion and military government shattered; an entire political class about to be tried for war crimes; and the whole country under American occupation and the de facto rule of General Douglas MacArthur.

It sounded like hell for Japan and it is hard to think of a less enticing set of circumstances in which to gain political power. It's also hard to think of anyone playing a terrible hand of cards with such astonishing vision and energy as Shigeru Yoshida (1878-1967), who must surely rank as one of the most significant prime ministers any country has ever had.

Too often we seem to obsess today about leaders who were either brutal dictators like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini or else wartime leaders like Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt who stood up and fought against them. We perhaps don't give enough recognition in Europe and America to men like Shigeru Yoshida, who managed in a few short years to transform Japan's calamitous defeat into the seeds of spectacular postwar success. Yoshida has rightly been called the "architect of modern Japan".

Only the foundations of many buildings remain after a B-29 air raid, in Tokyo's Kanda district in 1945. 

Only the foundations of many buildings remain after a B-29 air raid, in Tokyo's Kanda district in 1945.

Yoshida was prime minister twice, first in 1946-47 and then again in 1948-54. He only became an elected politician at the age of 67 and before that had a complicated life story working in the Japanese foreign office. He was born into a Japanese samurai family and adopted as a child, went to the Peers School and Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo), and served variously as a consul in China and a minister in Scandinavia, as ambassador to Italy and then Britain, and later as foreign minister. He was influenced by the political currents of each age and strongly supported expanded Japanese influence in China in the 1920s. But as an Anglophile, he bitterly opposed Japan going to war with the United States and the U.K. in 1941 and so was sidelined during World War II.

I'm no Shigeru Yoshida expert and I would hesitate to offer a detailed assessment of the vicissitudes of his life. But what does strike me is that, like Winston Churchill coming to power in Britain in 1940, for Yoshida too his assumption of the prime ministership in 1946 was a sudden political apotheosis built on a vast hinterland of worldly wisdom and experience.

Like Churchill, Yoshida stepped up at Japan's time of need and brought a sense of indomitable national pride and determination to the task at hand. As with his British contemporary, he also had a considerable gift for rhetoric. "Japan will rise again, Japan will definitely rise again" he proclaimed along with "There is no honour in saying you're exhausted", exhorting the nation to focus all its energy on rebuilding. I have in my head a memorable vision of Yoshida looking out over the shattered ruins of Tokyo and anxiously mumbling "When will it be rebuilt? When will it be rebuilt?" To this great question, the ultimate answer that seems to have floated into Yoshida's head was "hatarikimasho" ("let's get to work!").

And my, how they did rebuild... Turning Tokyo from a burned-out wasteland into one of the greatest cities anywhere in less than half a century was in no small part Yoshida's great legacy to Japan and the world. Yoshida, perhaps more than anyone else before or since, understood the supreme significance of "hataraku" ("to work"). Through the intensity of work -- no matter how distraught your immediate circumstances -- you could recover your sense of purpose and pride and build, almost from nothing, something magnificent. By 1970, Japan's GDP had overtaken that of Britain, France and West Germany; by 1988 it was greater than all three European countries combined. The West seemed mystified how this nation had somehow managed to lose the war, but spectacularly win the peace.

Yet it wasn't accidental and it wasn't inevitable. Far from it, Japan could have descended after World War II into many decades of economic depression, rancorousness and extremist politics. Shigeru Yoshida with his "Yoshida Doctrine" was a major player in directing Japan towards the pathway of the liberal, wealthy and highly sophisticated civilization -- intensely proud of its own heritage -- that has frequently amazed the world.

The area near Kanda Station in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward is seen on July 25, 2025, in this photo taken from a Mainichi helicopter. Reduced to ashes during the war, the area is now filled with buildings. (Mainichi/Daiki Takikawa)

The area near Kanda Station in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward is seen on July 25, 2025, in this photo taken from a Mainichi helicopter. Reduced to ashes during the war, the area is now filled with buildings. (Mainichi/Daiki Takikawa)

Too many people in the West today when they look back on the history of Japan in the twentieth century will probably only know the contentious name of "Hirohito", while knowing nothing at all about the process by which Japan pulled off one of the greatest recoveries in human history. People throughout the world should be much more familiar with Shigeru Yoshida and what he achieved.

In our current age, in which people -- often quite privileged people -- bitterly complain about some form of perceived oppression or imbalance in society, it's worthwhile to remind ourselves of the ability to dramatically transform our fortunes by a certain intensity of dedicated effort.

If you find yourself in a position where everything seems to be unfairly going against you, there is surely something to be said for Yoshida's prescription of extreme self-help. I'm still not sure whether "Hatarakimasho!" ("let's get to work!") was actually Yoshida's official slogan, but as a single word to express all that he stood for, I hardly think that it can be bettered.

@DamianFlanagan

(This is Part 71 of a series)

In this column, Damian Flanagan, a researcher in Japanese literature, ponders about Japanese culture as he travels back and forth between Japan and Britain.

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Damian Flanagan is an author and critic born in Britain in 1969. He studied in Tokyo and Kyoto between 1989 and 1990 while a student at Cambridge University. He was engaged in research activities at Kobe University from 1993 through 1999. After taking the master's and doctoral courses in Japanese literature, he earned a Ph.D. in 2000. He is now based in both Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and Manchester. He is the author of "Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature" (Sekai Bungaku no superstar Natsume Soseki).