Newsletter No. 268
May 16, 2006

 

Afghanistan’s Ambassador Haron Amin contributed on op-ed piece to the Asahi Shinbun laying out his view of the history of Japan-Afghan relations. Of course, as a product of the diplomatic world it is excessively upbeat and not openly critical, but it does contain useful information. From the work that I’ve done on prewar Japan, I have noticed a lot of interaction with Afghanistan in that period.

THE SUN RISES IN BOTH AFGHANISTAN AND JAPAN
By Ambassador Haron Amin

Afghanistan and Japan's lasting influences on each other go widely unrecognized. Surprisingly, they share similar historical parallels. The people of both nations possess a sense of romantic patriotism and love for freedom.

Around the sixth century, the inhabitants of present-day Afghanistan gave their land a new name -- "Khorasan," meaning "The Abode of the Rising Sun." Japan, meanwhile, became known as Nippon or Nihon, or "Land of the Rising Sun."

Both Zoroastrianism and Buddhism spread eastward from Afghanistan to China and the latter eventually made it to Japan. The annual March 12 Shunie Otaimatsu Festival involves burning trees for religious purposes, a Zoroastrian practice still carried out in Afghanistan today.

With Brahmanism's decline around 232 B.C., Mahayana Buddhism's gestation in Gandhara spread along the commercial Silk Road to China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Under the Kushan dynasty (100-500), monasteries proliferated throughout Gandhara, where statue-making evolved into the first human portrayal of the Buddha. The Bamiyan Buddha statues were carved after this and the Buddha statues in Nara and Kyoto are a direct influence.

Afghanistan and Japan also share a common culture of shame. In this regard, there are hundreds of common traits and customs. Further, Japanese and Afghan funeral rites are quite similar. Additionally, as in Buddhist and Shinto temples where people toss coins into a wooden box, we deposit money into a big bowl outside mosques. And in Afghanistan, many custom of bowing ever so slightly dates back to ancient times.

During the seventh century Sui and T'ang dynasties a large number of Afghan Buddhist monks such as the famous Hushien went to China and on to North America to preach Buddhism. In 632, when the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited Afghanistan, he recorded 1,230 Buddhist temples and counted more than 8,000 monks.

The first object to come to Japan from Afghanistan was lapis lazuli -- known here as ruri, and treated in Buddhism as one of the "seven treasures" which shine in heaven. Belts and mirrors decorated with lapis can be found in Shosoin and at the Todaiji temple in Nara. In Osaka, gold lace that was excavated was an exact match of one dug from an ancient Shiberghan site in Afghanistan.

Around the eighth century a movement known as the Ayyaran, or "secret gallant knights," emerged in Afghanistan under the moral codes of helping the destitute, persisting patiently through hardship, acting with a generous heart, and telling the truth. It eventually posited a sort of non-institutional national authority against foreign occupation and domestic repression. Their emphasis on bravery and fair play was put to the test as they mastered wrestling, marksmanship, swordsmanship, stick fighting and horse riding.

Similarly, Bushido or "the way of the warrior," included a highly developed sense of justice or rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, veracity and sincerity, honor, honesty, loyalty to the state and one's lord, self control and seppuku (disembowelment.) From an early age, samurai were taught spear and sword fighting, jujutsu (self-defense martial art), archery, horsemanship, military tactics, ethics, literature, history and calligraphy.

With the launch of modern reforms in Afghanistan and Japan, respectively in 1863 and 1868, both the Ayyaran and the samurai vanished.

Prince Ayub, victor of the Second Anglo-Afghan War was the first Afghan to visit Japan. He visited for one month February 1907. As Adm. Heihachiro Togo's guest of honor, Ayub was well received in celebrations marking Asian victories over European powers. Togo was the hero of the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905). The victories sent rays of hope to many colonized countries worldwide. The prince visited regiments of the Imperial Japanese Guard in their barracks and a military college for officers as well as the principal naval dockyard, where he met Naval Commander-in-Chief Adm. Hikonojo Kamimura. He was received by the minister of war, Count Shigenobu Okuma, and generals Yasukata Oku and Maresuke Nogi.

In Afghanistan, both modernists and nationalists had been greatly impressed with Japan's success in the Russo-Japanese War and viewed the country as one that could modernize while retaining its traditions. Also, in 1914, Afghanistan's King Habibullah Khan donated 1000 pounds for victims of three earthquakes in Japan.

In order to make preparations for a commercial treaty between Afghanistan and Japan and seek Japanese support, Mahendra Pratap, who established the first provisional government of India in Kabul in December 1915, visited Japan from 1922 to 1937 under an Afghan passport. As a friend of King Amanullah (1919-1928), he appealed to Japanese revolutionaries, especially Mitsuru Toyama.

On Nov. 19, 1930, the Afghan-Japanese Treaty of Friendship was signed in London. This resulted in an exchange of diplomatic missions.

In 1932, Japan invited six Afghan students for higher learning, one of whom became chief justice and another, a deputy prime minister.

During World War II, despite Afghan neutrality, the British and Russian governments asked Afghan authorities to hand over all Axis diplomatic and non-diplomatic personnel. In the end, only the repatriation of non-diplomatic members was accepted on the condition that they be escorted by an Afghan delegation through India to a neutral country.

In April 1969, King Zahir Shah and Queen Homaira paid an official one-week state visit to Japan. On June 5, 1971, then Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko arrived in Kabul for a six-day state visit.

However, the new era of cooperation and exchange on political, economic and cultural matters was short-lived. This was because of the military intervention of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union in 1979. Japan condemned Moscow and subsequently suspended all its projects in Afghanistan. Tokyo, meantime, actively supported the resistance movement by the Afghan Mujahedeen and provided generous assistance to Afghan refugees.

In November 2001, for the first time since World War II, Japan partook in a mission known as "The Pacific Fleet" in the Indian Ocean to help coalition aircraft refuel in support of international troops in Afghanistan. Since 2001, Japan has delivered more than $1.1 billion (130 billion yen) for the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan.

The underpinnings which have caused the Japan-Afghan similarities are rooted in a common heritage, which was the product of the Silk Road, a passage which connected Europe with Asia. There is, therefore, a strong basis for future cultural and diplomatic ties between Japan and Afghanistan that continue to thrive and expand for the benefit of both nations.