Behind the Rising Sun (1943)

Tom Neal: Taro Seki

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Quotes 

• Reo Seki : Do you know what this is?

  Taro Seki : Of course. It's an air map. Say, it's a swell one too.

  Reo Seki : You did some flying while you were in college, did you not?

  Taro Seki : Yes, I had a pilot's licence.

  Reo Seki : Good. Then you will understand quite easily.

  Reo Seki : Observe, my son, when the Earth is spread out flat like the very air itself how there is no place in the world more than 60 hours from any other place, then Japan is no longer a little island at the end of beyond. Japan is the very centre of the universe. For the best airlanes lie to the north: Russia, Europe and North America. And we shall be masters of the north and of the east as well. That is quite inevitable.

  Taro Seki : That's taking a lot for granted, isn't it?

  Reo Seki : Not when you know your geography. Observe again: this is the heartland. Who holds the heartland, holds the world. For here is one fourth of the Earth's surface and one half of its population. Now take a good look, my son, and ask yourself: who is best fitted to hold the heartland? India, China or Japan? Who, in fact, is best fitted to hold the very world itself?

  Taro Seki : But surely, Dad, you don't go for that stuff? Who would want to hold the world, even if he could?

  Reo Seki : There was a time, my son, when we used to say: "Asia for the Asiatics". That was before we knew our strength. The white man is not only in the minority here; he is in the minority throughout the entire world. And the time will come when we shall see who is the master and who is the slave. That will be a great hour my son. It will belong to Japan. And Japan alone.

  Taro Seki : But this isn't the Japan I've come home to work for.

  Reo Seki : It is the only Japan there is. We must all rise with it or all perish with it.

• Taro Seki : But, Dad, can't you understand? Tama isn't just any girl. She's the girl I love.

  Reo Seki : Please, Taro, try to face the facts as they really are.

  Taro Seki : I am. This is the girl I love and this is the girl I'm going to marry.

  Reo Seki : I am sorry, Taro. Tama may be a good girl but she's not good enough for you.

  Taro Seki : Nonsense!

  Reo Seki : When you marry, you must marry well. And when your children marry, they must also marry well. Or better, if possible. For the family is everything and one must build it as one would build up any business.

  Taro Seki : But I don't want that kind of life.

  Reo Seki : It is either that or nothing.

  Taro Seki : Well, if it's just a matter of gang for gang and clan for clan, we're back in the Middle Ages. It's a catch as catch can between a few powerful families.

  Reo Seki : Well, my son, what else did you think Japan was today?

  Taro Seki : But Dad...

  Reo Seki : We are still a feudal society. So many robber barons if you will; we may use the tools of the twentieth century but believe me our minds are of another day.

  Reo Seki : On the bottom of the heap are the people. The patient millions who toil in the fields and the factories and are content to live on nothing. At the top of the heap are the great families who own the fields and the factories, the army and the navy, yes, who own even the Emperor himself. In between there is practically nothing. A few tradesmen, a few professional men. And, occasionally a puppet parliament which we always dissolve at the first sign of trouble.

  Reo Seki : There you are Taro. You can either live at the top or die at the bottom. Which will it be?