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"If you inquire into the history of the school, you will understand
the reason that Mr. Sano does not have a good reputation in spite of his
long results to have been devoted to the alma mater. It is because of Hakuhyo
Incident, his worst weak point."
Both of the lady juniors are listening to the young senior, not pretending
to know everything.
"The year Showa 10 (1935) was when militarism and worldly worry were
spreading more and more, and it was nearly four years after Rojo Incident.
That October the examination of the doctoral dissertation in economics
was held in Tokyo Commercial College. Three assistant professors applied
to it and the two passed smoothly, but the problem was the thesis of Mr.
Kozo Sugimura, which is said to have had a little bit of innovative tone."
Kawaji talks this way.
The professors administering the judge were 21, which meant it was necessary
to get more than 16 ballots (more than 3/4) of "Yes" for the
pass. But, for the assistant professor Sugimura, 13 ballots were for "Yes",
one for "No" and 7 ballots were blank. Therefore he was rejected
because under 3/4 of "Yes".
The seven professors cast blank ballots were all experienced experts including
the ones under the president Sano, so it is said because they accepted
his persuasion.
When the result was informed, young professors, assistant professors and
students rose up with harsh criticism as a matter of fact.
The Government wouldn't wait and see this internal conflict of TCC. Like
"Just been waiting for", it began to show such heavy-handed attitude
as stabilization by power, displinary action, dispatch of the president
from outside, etc.
The main newspapers paid attention to the incident, so the public began
to make a fuss. The first internal conflict since the foundation was disgraced
in the public.
The president Sano resigned in severe criticism, and his right-hand professors
left the school.
It was the last of the school president who had reigned for 21 years and
2 months since the days of Tokyo High Commercial.
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"21 years, ...!?"
All the ladies cry and Suga nods, murmuring in a small voice.
"What happened then?", Mari is in a hurry.
Kawaji goes ahead to the next.
"The leading elders both in and out the college moved right away for
protecting it against the Government intervention. They asked Mr. Shinshichi
Miura, the then president of Yamagata Bank, to clean up the trouble. He
must have been confused in mind. I can imagine how he was."
Nodding to Kawaji's bitter look, Mutsumi Iwaida raises her hand with a
flushing face.
"I don't understand why they begged the retired Mr. Miura living far
away in Yamagata, Northern Japan. Wasn't there anybody else then? It is
like they had done during the Rojo Incident. They went for help to Old
Shibusawa at that time."
Tsubune follows her, deciding that now is the time.
"They allowed Mr. Sano to stay at the top for 21years and this time
they are trying to ask the past professor now working for another job in
a distant place, ... They don't act independently, which may mean a cozy-ties
structure."
He does not seem to talk under the influence of alcohol.
Kawaji accepts their opinions.
"Mr. Miura naturally rejected their request because the work would
have been to go to pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire all the way.
But why did he finally accept it in the result? The reason around then
is now a mystery, isn't it, senior?"
Though Kawaji wants some comment from Suga, the elderly does not seem to
say anything with his eyes closed.
The young senior speaks ambiguously, noticing no help from Suga.
"He must have made up his mind preparing for the crisis of the school
where he was born and bred and also for the difficulty of many students
he had brought up toward the colluption."
Though the blazing fire of the disturbance was not simply extinguished,
the storm was over by and large in Showa 11 (1936) by the devoted efforts
of the professors including Mr. Miura and Mr. Teijiro Ueda, his junior,
as a core.
In December that year Mr. Miura resigned the president inspite of the strong
persuasion to stay, insisting that he came here as a troubleshooter.
So, they unwillingly opened the professor meeting and elected Mr. Ueda
as the president unanimously. |
"Maybe simplistic, the Hakuhyo (Blank-Ballot) Incident was all about
as far as I know."
The elderly senior opens his eyes now, and thanks the speaker. And then
putting his hand on the document of Sugimura, he opens his mouth.
"Mr. Miura made effort to publish this as 'The Basic Problem of Economic
Philosophy' from Iwanami Publishing. You are able to read it at the library."
Suga is now going to add one anecdote just during the incident.
Mr. Masayoshi Ohira, later Prime Minister (1978-80 by his sudden death),
was then in the 3rd grade of the regular course and an executive of the
student convention.
They got together in the eight-year-old Kanematsu Auditorium, still remaining
new, and invited assistant professor Sugimura concerned.
Mr. Sugimura, on the stage, made a passionate speech before the students
of the full hall.
The outline of his speech is as follows.
In the world of learning, tidal currents are not only a thread or two.
They twist variously and create a large swell.
When we go up to the crest of such a wave, we are able to obtain the horizons
of 360 degrees all around. ...
The idea of multiple perspectives is a prerequisite of the modern learning.
...
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Suga says, "This part is in the novel of Mr. Ryohei Komiyama who was
in the first grade at that time and attended the meeting there."
He quotes a little more of this novel "Chikuma River".
Ohira and the leaders named the student convention as the lecture meeting
of Mr. Kozo Sugimura and designated the subject as "On the Highest
Crest of Waves", giving Mr. Sugimura no choice in the matter.
Concerning the contents of his speech, too, they requested him to talk
about the learning theory knowing his place of a true scholar on the day
there.
Ohira, born in Kagawa Prefecture, Shikoku, and graduated from Takamatsu
High Commercial, expressed the purpose of this convention as a moderator
before all those students in a slow-witted Sanuki local accent.
On the stage, Mr. Sugimura, with gold-rimmed glasses and small mustache
like Charles Chaplin, began his talk like this.
"I was eager to pour my heart out as a person of the moment and the
person concerned, but Mr. Ohira, a moderator, told me that both the subject
and the contents had to be just as he requested, ... I feel like the student
taking an examination, so I am going to talk about a part of my opinion."
Three years before this convention, Takigawa Incident occurred in Kyoto
Imperial University, and three years after it, Kawai Incident occurred
in Tokyo Imperial University. Both of them have been handed down as famous
student movements and their oppression.
Hakuhyo Incident occurred just between those two incidents. And the students
erased it from the front stage with their earnest applause sounded loudly
across Musashino Forest, and defended the freedom of learning desperately.
Assistant professor Sugimura left the school just after that with the professors
cast a blank ballot and his colleagues against them, taking the responsibility
to disturb the school.
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"It is difficult to retire at the right time."
The elderly senior is talking to himself.
"Casual onlookers understand it well that it's better to resign, but
the person himself is filled with a sense of purpose forever. Under self-righteous
attitude, dictatorship and suspicion, he drives away everybody defying
him. The followers and hangers-on are only yes-men. He is always fussed
over, so does not realize he is wearing the emperor's new clothes. ..."
Eriko brings up the previous excitement again instead of Mari, saying "21
years and 2months on the top, it means his hangers-on were irresponsible
and why didn't Education Ministry do anything?"
Tsubune still retains his pent-up indignation, too.
"We admit his achievements until the completion of Kunitachi campus anyway, so why didn't he leave once for all at the time of his resignation disturbance. Even so, it was too late."
Midori Yamabe joins him disregarding her memo writing.
"He could not fulfill his responsibility when Rojo Incident happened
because of illness. I don't know how they were able to protect the Government's
intervention, admitting partly because the campus was luckily far away
from the Metropolitan Tokyo."
Elderly Suga says a little looking down in a low voice.
"Hakuhyo Incident eventually became the curtain over the affair of
an unpleasant aftertaste for the Sano administration. Mr. Sano left the
school alone at the age of 63, and after that he did not appear in public
at all. He died in Showa 27 (1952) at the age of 80."
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