The Building Blocks of the Army

Recently, I was enjoying yet another episode of NHK’s TV show nihongo de asobo which teaches Japanese children (including my little girl) traditional aspects of Japanese culture, words of wisdom, etc. Brilliant show. On this recent episode, they featured an excerpt from the writings of a famous Japanese warlord, Takeda Shingen (武田信玄) from his Kōyōgunkan (甲陽軍鑑):

人は城、人は石垣、人は堀。
Hito wa shiro, hito wa ishigaki, hito wa hori

The translation reads something like “People are the castle, people are the stone wall, people are the moat”. Takeda Shingen was one of the most talented and powerful warlords of his time, and a rival to Oda Nobunaga and Uesugi Kanshin, also known as the “Tiger of Kai [Province]“. Takeda as a warlord was smart enough to realize how important human talent was to war, more so than physical structures and weapons.

Even in today’s modern world, one can still see how critical human talent is in business, government, technology and so on. I know from experience in the industry that when the right person is placed in the right role, one can make tremendous progress. You can even see in the tech industry how important it is to avoid losing talent to the competition

Indeed, in Sun-Zi’s The Art of War, he makes much of the need for talent, and also for the ruler not to interfere with the general when on the field. The ruler, in classical Chinese thought, does little hands-on work himself but instead must be a paragon of virtue and delegate to talented ministers who then manage the day to day issues. So, having the right ministers installed, having the right generals in place was crucial to victory.

But Takeda’s saying I think speaks to soldiers as well. Well-trained soldiers with high-morale, and fighting with adequate cause will accomplish much. Look at the famous Battle of Điện Biên Phủ in Vietnam, where the French colonial forces built a massive garrison, but underestimated the Vietnamese ability to move heavy artillery over very difficult terrain (right up cliffsides even) taking the French forces entirely by surprise. I remember watching videos in college of the troops hauling up artillery up steep pathways using nothing more than rope and manpower, but it was clearly enough in this case.

A lesson for the future I believe. Takeda was right: don’t underestimate human potential.