Viceregal Profile: Sir Howard Cooke

Jamaica recently saw the passing of one of its most prominent national leaders in the person of former Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke. He was born Howard Felix Hanlan Cooke on November 13, 1915 to David Brown Cooke and Mary Jane Minto in Goodwill, St. James. After a normal private school education he attended Mico College and London University. He distinguished himself as a student and decided to focus on a career in education. Concern for the proper formation of young people was an interest of his throughout his life. For twenty-three years he worked as a teacher, starting in his alma mater of Mico College and Practising School, later being given the position of headmaster at Belle Castle All-Age School, Port Antonio Upper School and finally Montego Bay Boys’ School. He was a member and served a term as president of the Jamaica Union of Teachers. To supplement this, Cooke also worked in the insurance business, gaining the positions of Senior Inspector and Branch Manager at Standard Life Insurance Company; Unit Manager at Jamaica Mutual Life and Branch Manager of the American Life Insurance Company. Finally, however, he felt the call to enter the public sphere and become active in politics.

The political career of Howard Cooke would no doubt seem strange to some as it did not fit with his later reputation as a staunch royalist but in Jamaica it was not seen as so unusual. He got into politics in 1938 and co-founded the People’s National Party, the oldest party in the English-speaking Caribbean. A social democrat party, part of the Socialist International, it has remained one of the two most prominent parties in Jamaican politics which is dominated by the left. The main rival of the PNP has long been the Jamaica Labour Party and it is generally viewed as being the more leftist of the two. However, after a particularly an electoral defeat at the hands of Labour, and a subsequent downturn in the economy, the PNP came back to power with a noticeable shift toward the center and away from the extreme left to the point that some have come to describe it as a “third position” party, neither right nor left though any mention of “third position” or “third way” will doubtless unnerve some people. Cooke served as chairman of the party and consistently held high leadership positions.

One year after entering the political arena, Cooke married Ivy Sylvia Lucille Tai on July 22, 1939, starting a long and successful marriage that produced two sons and one daughter. A measure of political success finally arrived for Cooke in 1958 when he was elected to the West Indies Federal Parliament, representing his native St. James. In 1962 he entered the Jamaican Parliament as a Senator, serving until 1967 when he moved to the House of Representatives until 1980. During that time, he served in the government of Michael Manley as Minister of Pension and Social Security, Minister of Education and Minister of Labour and Public Service. From 1989 to 1991 Cooke served as President of the Senate and he was the Executive of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. In 1991 he was appointed Governor-General of Jamaica by HM Queen Elizabeth II, serving until 2006, receiving numerous awards and more than one order of knighthood. Outside of the realm of politics and policy, he displayed a greater inclination toward the traditional, emphasizing the monarchy and the place of the Crown in Jamaican life as well as working to preserve and promote Jamaican culture.

Sir Howard Cooke was a longtime member of the Freemasons and a lay pastor of the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. One of his special concerns, as mentioned earlier, was the youth and he was always most proud of the title of “teacher”. He was a longtime supporter of the St. Andrew Boys’ Scout Association, enjoyed cricket and football and build numerous community centers in his hometown to improve the welfare of children, to keep them from taking self-destructive paths in life. He was a key figure in the political development of Jamaica, extremely influential in the educational sphere and proved to be such a respected and adept Governor-General that he was actually entrusted with additional duties and responsibilities that most others in viceregal positions would never have because he was held in such high regard by all parties.

Of course, coming from a political background, it cannot escape mention that the sort of politics he favored has had some negative effects, probably unintended by someone like Sir Howard Cooke. Most significantly for our purposes is that the People’s National Party, which he co-founded, was the party which produced the Prime Ministers Percival Patterson and Portia Simpson-Miller who are the only Jamaican heads of government to officially endorse republicanism and call for abolishing the monarchy, replacing the Queen with an elected head-of-state. So far, that campaign has not been successful and hopefully it never will. Sir Howard Cooke did no such thing of course, but policies and ideologies have an effect on the public mentality and the ideology of democratic socialism contains an inherent seed of republicanism. The effect has been that, even while the party has moved away from its more stridently socialist position, which it had in the days of Cooke, it has brought forward political leaders who espouse republicanism, who have rolled back the former staunch opposition to the homosexual agenda and who still have no problem serving in the Socialist International of which Simpson-Miller was elected Vice President in 2013.

Sir Howard Cooke could be thankful these changes came after he had left the political scene and, it should be pointed out, once he did so, firmly embraced the idea of political impartiality in his role as Governor-General. His ability to stand apart from politics, to be totally impartial and bi-partisan no doubt contributed to his status as such a widely respected figure across the Jamaican political spectrum. Sir Howard Cooke died on July 11, 2014 at the age of 98 in Kingston.

Regent Profile: Toyotomi Hideyoshi of Japan

Toyotomi Hideyoshi remains one of the giant figures of Japanese history and an embodiment of the great warrior leaders or daimyo who oversaw the unification of Japan and set the country on course to become a major power. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was also known as a particularly great general and military leader who launched a massive invasion of Korea and harbored grand ambitions for the future of Japan. His victories were so brilliant and his vision so grandiose that later western historians would nickname him the “Japanese Napoleon”. In Japan itself he was a key figure in uniting the country, establishing law and order, ending slavery and leaving behind a magnificent cultural legacy in everything from buildings and monuments to the tea ceremony. He reunified Japan, replacing the Sengoku period with his own Momoyama period. Much of his origins remain a mystery but he was probably born in either 1536 or 1537 in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya to a simple peasant soldier. Sent to a temple for his education as a boy, Hideyoshi soon ran away and changed his name, looking for adventure and opportunity.

He traveled quite a bit, working for this or that daimyo or lesser local rulers before returning to his home province (Owari) in 1557 and joining the military forces of his lord the famous Oda Nobunaga. This man would have a great influence on his life as it was Nobunaga who first started the campaign to unify Japan under a single government and set the pattern for shogun rule which would last until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. However, he would have to rise from the bottom up as he began in just about the lowest form of service. However, he was observant, learned quickly and showed a great deal of natural talent. He witnessed the battle of Okehazama which was one of the most significant victories of Nobunaga in 1560 and married the following year. He gained greater prominence by supervising the repair and strengthening of Sunomata Castle deep in enemy territory. Hideyoshi went on to show his diplomatic as well as strategic skills in forcing the surrender of some enemy positions and gaining the allegiance of numerous local lords and samurai for the flag of Nobunaga. Because of all of this, and his increasingly valuable military service, such as in the fall of Inabayama Castle in 1567, Hideyoshi rose to become one of Nobunaga’s most trusted generals.

He played a key role in the victorious battle of Anegawa in which the Oda forces allied with the Tokugawa in 1570 and three years later Nobunaga made him daimyo of three districts from which base he further established himself and became very important in organizing logistical support such as in the increased production of muskets and in 1576 he again took the field to conquer Chugoku. After 1582, when Nobunaga was assassinated, Hideyoshi gained the support of many clan leaders and in the aftermath defeated his rivals to be recognized as the successor of Nobunaga. In 1583 he began building Osaka Castle which would be the primary base of the Toyotomi clan and which remains one of the most recognizable landmarks in Japan today and a symbol of the cultural heritage of the country. When through warfare and diplomacy he overcame Tokugawa Ieyasu which effectively made him the most powerful man in Japan. In 1585 he was named regent, along with other titles and in 1588 had the honor of hosting His Majesty Emperor Go-Yozei. He subdued further regions and by 1590 had eliminated all domestic resistance to his rule.

With Japan united under his rule the aging Hideyoshi turned his eyes west and took up the long-held dream of his former lord Nobunaga to conquer the Ming Empire of China and dominating the trade routes to Europe. This was certainly an ambitious plan but certainly not impossible as few would have expected that the Mongols could have conquered China either. The key for this campaign, however, was Korea as the peninsula was the only viable route for Japanese forces to reach China. Hideyoshi opened talks with the Koreans, whose king was a vassal of the Ming Emperor (as most surrounding monarchs were) hoping that they would allow Japanese forces to pass through Korea unmolested. To do so, however, the Koreans knew they would be counted as enemies by the Chinese and if, on the other hand, they refused, China would be obliged to help defend them. However, China had problems of its own and the Korean government was critically divided against itself. With no cooperation forthcoming and Korean and Chinese forces both distracted, it was the perfect time for Hideyoshi to strike.

In 1592 the first Japanese troops landed in Korea and by the following month they had swept aside all opposition and occupied the royal capital of Seoul, the court fleeing to Pyongyang until that city too fell to the Japanese. By the following year though resistance was mounting as Ming Emperor Wanli dispatched a large Chinese army to Korea to block the Japanese advance and re-conquer the peninsula. The combined Sino-Korean forces began pushing the Japanese back, re-taking Pyongyang and advancing into the south before stalling in front of Seoul. Hideyoshi sent another expeditionary force to Korea but they were barely able to hold their own against the masses of Chinese troops to their front and debilitating Korean guerilla warfare in their rear. The Japanese still managed to fight off several massive offensives before Hideyoshi accepted that victory was impossible and ordered them to withdraw. He died on September 18, 1598 before the retreat was completed and the sad news was kept secret until all the warriors were back on Japanese soil.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi died on September 18, 1598 but his legacy lived on and remnants are still around today. He did some things that were good and some things were probably not so good but his impact was immense. He unified Japan like never before and proved that a united Japan could be a major power. He left behind many magnificent buildings and new traditions, he is often criticized for disarming the population and making the samurai a permanent, established warrior class, yet, while this did almost end any sort of social mobility, there were benefits that came with it too. Farmers could concentrate on farming and the samurai could concentrate on perfecting their martial skills. His restrictions on movement wiped out banditry and made the country more peaceful and secure and the better organization improved the fairness of taxation. He abolished slavery and established a ruling council of five daimyo to ensure the stable continuation of the unified Japan. His only son having predeceased him, after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi power was eventually taken by Tokugawa Ieyasu who maintained the foundations Hideyoshi had put in place to become the first shogun and open the era of shogun rule which lasted until the Meiji Restoration.