Kozue Hidaka
Kozue Hidaka | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 19 April 1904 |
| Died | 26 December 2004 (aged 100) |
| Nationality | Akashian |
| Known for | Senior advisor to Yurika Ehara |
Kozue Hidaka (Miranian: 梢 日高; Gothic: ᚴ𐍉𐌶𐌿𐌴 𐌷𐌹𐌳𐌰ᚴ𐌰; 19 April 1904 – 26 December 2004) was an Akashian political figure. She is best known as a senior advisor to Yurika Ehara, being seen as an éminence grise of Yurikara's governments and credited as the "co-founder" of Yurikarism.
Early life
Kozue Hidaka was born on 19 April 1904 in Rinen. Her father was involved in the shipping business, and her mother was a seamstress. She had an older brother, Kazuo (1900–1985).
She was born with albinism, and underwent surgery as a child to decrease strabismus and nystagmus. She also grew to be nearly 1,80 m tall in adolescence, which contributed to her striking appearance.
Kozue was athletic and tomboyish in her youth, playing football, swimming, and taking martial arts lessons. She attended university in Akashi and Kirisaki, studying politics and economics. She completed a PhD in 1935, which espoused the statist ideas that would guide her political thought for the rest of her life.
She followed her father into shipping, and they set up a family business. She traveled frequently as a result of her work, and demonstrated a talent for business, building up a modest fortune in her thirties.
Interested in politics, she joined Yurika Ehara's faction during the Akashian Civil War. The two developed a close relationship during the war, Yurikara coming to see Kozue as her most trusted advisor.
Advisor to Yurikara
After Yurikara's victory in the civil war, she became President and Prime Minister simultaneously. She brought Kozue into her office as a senior advisor, and appointed her chief of staff. This would form the basis of her influence.
Party politics
Kozue was central to the establishment and organisation of the National Union, which she helped turn into a powerful political machine during the first party system. She adopted the koenkai system after seeing its success among leftist parties.
She played an influential behind-the-scenes role in the Constituent Assembly; her contribution was mainly in the creation of a presidential system, which historians regard as being tailored especially to Yurikara's figure as the embodiment of a "strong state".
Ideals
Kozue forthrightly advocated the construction of a strong state and pursuit of "grandeur". Her politics were influenced to an extent by integral nationalism, as she believed in the importance of a unifying figure — the President in a republic, playing a role akin to a constitutional monarch — and the mobilisation of national myth to establish a common identity.
Having seen ethnic tensions play a part in the eruption of civil war, she was a civic nationalist, championing "the union of Miranians and Goths" as the basis of the Akashian state. While she believed in decentralisation and the protection of minorities, she formulated this in a Miranocentric manner, as Miranians paternalistically protecting Goth and minority cultures.
Her statist beliefs extended into economics, where she shared Yurikara's enthusiasm for state-driven development, seeing it as a quintessentially Miranian model. She supported economic interventionism, social corporatism, cooperatives, and strengthening trade unions, in line with her dictum, "Power is nothing if it isn't among equals."
Public image
Kozue cut a striking figure in Akashian politics. She was nicknamed "the ghost" (幽霊 yūrei) due to her tall height and albino appearance, and "princess" (姫 hime) due to her elegant personality. She habitually wore white business suits with blue neckties, and a hime cut. She projected an image of relaxed self-confidence in public, and was known for her cheerful and playful demeanour, often displaying physical intimacy as a sign of friendship and trust.
Fluent in several languages and cosmopolitan by background, Kozue was described often as Yurikara's "greatest asset". She was open about her statist beliefs and preference for NU dominance in politics, but her charisma helped her maintain good relations with other parties, particularly the National Cooperative Party, Agrarian Party, and Socialist Party.
Kasumi Kuroki recalled from her time as an MNA that Kozue "radiated the satisfaction of power, and a kind of arrogance…not the sort that says 'I'm better than you', but the one that says, 'Because I'm in a superior position, I am selflessly coming down to your level to listen'. She had a way of putting people at ease, and showing how seductive it could be to be in power."
Summer of Freedom
Kozue's political sympathies tended more towards the left over time. During the Summer of Freedom, she vociferously supported Yurikara's restrained course and refusal to use force to suppress protests and strikes. In one cabinet meeting, she shouted down advocates of force, exclaiming "No! No! A hundred years no!" (百年-いいえ！Hyaku-nen - īe!) and "Better to see Akashi destroyed than an oni!". Her brother commented this was one of the few times she ever lost her composure, either in private or in public.
Later life
Yurikara retired as Prime Minister in 1970, but remained President for another decade. Although the NU had lost its dominance, and lost major party status at the 1972 general election, it remained part of coalition governments during the 1970s, allowing Kozue to maintain influence.
Kozue was retained as chief of staff by the first socialist Prime Minister, Tarō Yukimura. Tarō decided that her expertise was valuable in the "siege economy", and that keeping her as senior advisor would guarantee good relations with Yurikara and placate the NU, now reduced to a junior partner. Kozue for her part made clear she would serve the government as faithfully as she had Yurikara's, and would not obstruct their agenda. Tarō's precedent would be followed by subsequent Prime Ministers.
Kozue served as a stabilising figure among the high government turnover of the 1970s. Her long background of cooperation and goodwill towards the SP was crucial in convincing the party to maintain trust in her. If her instincts remained more centrist than the sustained leftist push of the decade, she was able to support policies such as dismantling the large companies built up under Yurikara and greater planning and cooperativisation from a statist viewpoint.
She retired as prime ministerial chief of staff in 1980, before that year's snap election. She remained active as a commentator and retained her reputation as an elder stateswoman, writing her memoirs in 1984. She was still occasionally called to The Prime Minister's Residence to confer with Ran Tsukuda and Shinobu Furukawa, but otherwise lived in retirement.
Her 100th birthday was celebrated on 19 April 2004, and was an occasion for tributes from across the political spectrum.
Death
Kozue died on 26 December 2004 in hospital in Hirakawa.
Private life
Kozue was not married, and commented in her memoirs that she consciously chose to prioritise her career over starting a family of her own. She was close to her brother Kazuo and his family, and enjoyed being an aunt to his children. Kazuo's death in 1985 affected her, and she refused to discuss the subject in any interviews afterwards.
She was passionate about sports, swimming and practicing martial arts daily, which contributed to her robust health throughout her life. She played football and tennis regularly, becoming known for her willingness to start playing even in her business suits and high-heels. She used sports as a means to build trust with other politicians, inviting them to matches as reward or consolation for setbacks.