With Shinzo Abe’s demise, India has lost a trusted friend who transformed the Indo-Japanese strategic relationship. In his seminal 2007 speech, he mentioned Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Netaji Bose to highlight the bond between the two nations.
Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving Prime Minister of Japan, passed away on 8 July after being shot while giving a campaign speech in Nara. A champion of the idea of a ‘broader Asia’, he was the chief architect of Japan’s ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific policy’ that closely aligned with India’s own ‘Act East’ policy.
He was also a transformative leader in the Indo-Japanese relationship.
In a landmark speech at the Indian Parliament in 2007 — “Confluence of Two Seas” — Abe quoted from Vivekananda’s 1893 speech in Chicago to highlight that among India’s many contributions to world history, there is “first of all its spirit of tolerance”. Hailing Swami Vivekananda as a great spiritual leader gifted by India to the world, Abe said, “Vivekananda came to be acquainted with Tenshin Okakura, a man ahead of his time in early modern Japan and a type of Renaissance man. Okakura was then guided by Vivekananda and also enjoyed a friendship with Sister Nivedita, Vivekananda’s loyal disciple and a distinguished female social reformer.”
Interestingly, Swami Vivekananda had also been greatly impressed by Japan when he visited the country while on his way to the World Congress of Religions in 1893.
In an interview with The Hindu in 1897, he shared, “The world has never seen such a patriotic and artistic race as the Japanese…..The key to Japan’s sudden greatness is the faith of the Japanese in themselves, and their love for their country.”
Read More at https://www.thebetterindia.com/290420/shinzo-abe-japan-impressed-swami-vivekananda-tagore-subhash-chandra-bose-friend-of-india/