3. The 20th Century and Hitotsubashi University

I have prepared a timeline for you. (Sorry, only in Japanese.)
This is a slightly revised version of one I made earlier for today. It covers the 100-plus years from 1900 to 2003. The year 1900 was Meiji 33, and the Meiji era ended in Meiji 44. Taisho 15 was the first year of the Showa era. The Showa era ended on January 7, 1989, and is now followed by the Heisei era.
I have divided the events of this 100-year period into four categories: Hitotsubashi University/Josui-kai, Hitotsubashi Boat Club, Wars/Incidents/Terrorism, and Society in General, and have selected events that were particularly memorable to me.
While this timeline may not have much value as such, I created it with the hope that it might be of some use. I will use this as a basis for reflecting on the 20th century. 　

By the way, there was a debate at one point about whether the 21st century began in 2000 or 2001. What do you think? (The discussion with the attendees has been omitted.)

The dictionary states that it began in 2001. However, Kodansha's “Records of the 20th Century” begins in 1900.
1900 was the year of the Paris Exposition (April 15 to November 12), and there is an article stating that “it snowed in New York on New Year's Day” that year. At that time, Europe and the US had already decided that the beginning of the century would be “00” and celebrated accordingly.
In Japan, the media took the position that “2000 was the end of the 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st century was 2001.” While this was the case in Japan, in Europe and the US, 2000 was considered the beginning of the 21st century, and celebrations for the new century had already taken place, so 2001 was not celebrated.
Will the 22nd century be unified as starting in 2100? Since computers start at 0, it may become established in the next four or five years that “00” marks the beginning of the century. For this reason, this timeline lists 1900 as the beginning of the 20th century.

History of Hitotsubashi University

The history of Hitotsubashi University began before 1900.
In 1875, Mori Arinori established a private commercial law school. There is a monument in front of Matsuzakaya Department Store in Ginza. In 1884, it was renamed Tokyo Commercial School.

In 1875, it merged with a foreign language school, which is now Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. To this day, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies still complains that “we were absorbed back then.” They say, “We lent our eaves and lost our main house.”
Hitotsubashi University uses this year as its founding date.

There were three major incidents at Hitotsubashi University in the 20th century.
The Shinyu Incident (1909), the Siege Incident (1931), and the White Ballot Incident (1934) are collectively referred to as the Three Great Incidents of Hitotsubashi University.

The Shinyu Incident was when the Ministry of Education attempted to merge Hitotsubashi University with the University of Tokyo, but the school opposed it.

The Siege Incident was an incident in which the school opposed the Ministry of Education's move to abolish the preparatory course.

The White Ballot Incident was an incident in which senior professors abstained from voting “yes” or “no” on the doctoral thesis of a left-leaning young assistant professor, which became an issue within the school.

In 1920 (Taisho 9), the school was elevated to Tokyo University of Commerce. The first president was Mr. Zensaku Sano, who was a graduate of Hitotsubashi University.
In 1929 (Showa 4), the school moved its campus to Kunitachi.
In 1935 (Showa 19), Mr. Sano resigned as president in response to the White Vote Incident, and Mr. Shinshichi Miura was urgently appointed from Yamagata Prefecture. The following year, the position was handed over to Mr. Teijiro Ueda.
President Ueda, affectionately known as “Uetei-san,” passed away suddenly in 1940, and was succeeded by Mr. Sotaro Takase.
During Takase's presidency (1944), the university was renamed Tokyo Industrial University, but under President Senroku Uehara (1946), it was renamed Tokyo Commercial University the following year. Some people boast about the rarity of being a graduate of Tokyo Industrial University.

In 1948, Ichiro Nakayama became president. He was also a graduate of Hitotsubashi University.
The following year, the university was renamed Hitotsubashi University. Subsequent presidents were... (omitted, see timeline).

During his second term, President Shiro Masuda collapsed due to the stress of student unrest, and in 1969, Yuji Muramatsu, the rowing club president, took over as acting president.
Most subsequent presidents were graduates of the University of Tokyo, but Yasuzo Takahashi, Yuichi Shionoya, and the current president, Hiromitsu Ishi, were all graduates of Hitotsubashi University. 　

In 2000, the “Monument to Fallen Classmates” was erected.
We had been strongly advocating for this to the university for about 20 years, but it had not been realized due to opposition from left-wing professors. It began to be reconsidered during the tenure of President Ken Kawai (1986), and President Abe (1992) also handled it favorably, leading to its realization under President Ishi (1998). I hope you will understand that “there were various challenges” in this matter.

Hitotsubashi Boat

In 1875, when the Foreign Language School (now Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) merged with Tokyo Commercial School, the Foreign Language School had a cutter, which became part of the new Tokyo Commercial School's assets. This was the beginning of Hitotsubashi Boat. Originally, Tokyo Commercial School did not have any boats.

(Cutter: A large boat rowed by multiple people with oars. It can also be sailed. It has a square stern and is used for rescue, training, and landing. ... Kōjien)

In 1921, Hitotsubashi achieved its first All-Japan championship, followed by a second in 1925 and a third in 1927. This period is referred to as the first golden age of Hitotsubashi Boating. 　

In 1930 (Showa 5), the Mukojima Boathouse was completed. It was built on the site of the boathouse that had been destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake. With the ambition to build something more impressive than the University of Tokyo's boathouse, it actually became a more splendid structure than the University of Tokyo's. A miniature model is on display on the second floor of this museum (Sumida Local Culture Museum). This story is quite lengthy, so I will omit it here.

After winning the national championship in 1927, the team went through a nine-year period of dormancy until winning its fourth championship in 1936. During this time, the team continued to lose to the University of Tokyo and other universities.
In 1936, the University of Tokyo sent a team to the Berlin Olympics, and it is often said that “while they were away,” the team achieved its fourth championship.
The following year, they lost, but in 1938 and 1939, they achieved consecutive national championships.

In 1940, the Tokyo Olympics were supposed to take place. The Toda Rowing Course was built for this purpose, but due to World War II, the Olympics were canceled.
However, in that year, the first national championship was held at the new Toda course, and Hitotsubashi University won. 　

From 1936 to 1941, when I was a student at Tokyo University of Commerce (Hitotsubashi University), it won the All-Japan Championship four times. This period marked the second golden age of Hitotsubashi University rowing.

After that, Hitotsubashi University won the All-Japan Championship for the seventh time in 1948, the eighth time in 1959, and the ninth time in 1968, bringing the total number of victories to nine.
　
Of course, other teams also performed well. Please refer to the timeline for more details. In any case, Hitotsubashi University's rowing team was quite successful in the Japanese rowing world.

In recent years, however, the team has been unable to compete at the national level. This is a challenge in itself, but for the time being, the team is focusing its efforts on defeating the University of Tokyo.

This year, they achieved the historic feat of five consecutive victories against the University of Tokyo.
However, even this five-year winning streak pales in comparison to the 55-year history of the Shōtō Intercollegiate Regatta, where the University of Tokyo has 38 wins and Hitotsubashi University has 16 wins. There is also the bitter record of nine consecutive losses to the University of Tokyo, so there is still a lot to be done. There is no room for arrogance. We are urging them to keep striving to make up for this.

War, Conflict, Terrorism, and Society

The 20th century was a time of great turmoil.
According to records, 20 million people died in World War I, and 30 million died in World War II. These are staggering numbers. The 20th century was truly a century of war.

What about the 21st century? There are various peace organizations such as the United Nations, but it is difficult to say whether they will be successful.
Ethnic conflicts will continue, and the 21st century has already begun with major terrorist attacks and the Iraq War, making it difficult to achieve peace.

Terrorist attacks are currently receiving a lot of media attention, but when we were in China, they were a daily occurrence. We experienced such attacks almost every day, so we are not particularly surprised, but world peace is indeed difficult to achieve. The 21st century will not be easy either.

This is not really related to the main topic, but what else happened in the 20th century?
First, it began with the Paris Exposition (1900). The Showa Emperor was born the following year, and that was the year of the first Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize is relatively new.
Here are some other events I noticed:

Einstein published his theory of relativity (1905)
The Titanic sank (1912)
The Great Kanto Earthquake (1923)
Penicillin was invented (1928)
Invention of the transistor (1948)
Wedding of the Crown Prince (1959)
Tokyo Olympics (1964)
Apollo moon landing (1969)
Osaka Expo (1970)
Sapporo Winter Olympics (1972)
Tokyo Summit (1979)
Portopia Kobe '81 (1981)
Tsukuba Expo (1986)
Nagano Winter Olympics (1998)

This is a rough overview of major social events. I hope it will be useful for you to organize your thoughts.

　…………
I have briefly outlined the main points, focusing on Hitotsubashi University and rowing.
President Ishi has said that when rowing flourishes, the university also thrives. Presidents Masuda, Uehara, and Takahashi agree.
I actually think it may be the other way around, but in any case, rowing takes pride in having contributed in some way to enhancing the university's prestige.