Price of Affluence

by Rokuro Hidaka

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087011655X
• ISBN13: 9780870116551
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Kodansha
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

thoughs about Japan, thoughts about the world

Rokuro Hidaka's book is basically an essay on modern Japan and the modern world. A professor at Tokyo University ( though I bet he is retired now since the book was written in 1983) Hidaka talks about the state and foundations of post war politics, society, the economic philosophies of the time, national issues, and the government. He discusses forty plus years of history beginning with the Japanese occupation of Qingdao, China, where he was born, the political ripples created during the American occupation of Japan, the April revolution in Korea, April 19th , and ends with the ecological incident and aftermath in Minamata. The book, its self, is filled with heavy penetrating thoughts that made me think about my time, my place in society, and my country ( an American fresh out of college in 2006). Needless to say, though written in Japan for a Japanese audience in the 1980's, a lot of what Hidaka talks about and how he talks about is filled with timeless and universal principles. He strikes me as a modern day Thoreau commenting on society from his cabin on the pond using historic and universal principles. In one instance Hidaka discusses the aspects if governmental control over it's citizens by linking George Orwell's 1984 with the Seventh Physical Training School in Romania that was known for training many gold winning gymnasts. The most interesting thing to me was what he said about college students. To paraphrase, college is a time when young people can truly experience freedom. The matter is all in how the student holds, reacts, and utilizes the newly earned freedom. Some live it up. Some study hard to return back to the constraints of everyday "normal" life. The others that are left are the ones that take the time and the heart to look at the world around them. Rokuro Hidaka has done that in his book. The question is, will you join him?