Koizumi Cabinet Email Magazine
...I think it was Chaplin who says, "All it needs is courage, imagination, and a little dough" in the movie Limelight. I think these are good words to live by. If people have dreams and hopes, they do not necessarily need a whole lot of dough; a little dough is fine as long as people have enough to make a living and have a bit of fun once in a while...I introduced the words of Yoshida Shoin, a high-minded patriot from the last years of the Tokugawa Shogunate: "High-minded patriots never forget that they could end up in a ditch." I was moved by these words when I read them as a student but they are indeed difficult to grasp. In particular, I believe many people are unfamiliar with the Japanese word "kogaku," which refers to ditches and valleys. Yoshida Shoin imparted to the high-minded patriots who exerted themselves for the nation, the Meiji Restoration, and for reform in the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate that they need to be prepared to do the following: "In order to realize one's ideals one must pursue state affairs with the sense that one does not mind even if one's own corpse is lying in a ditch or valley"...more...
