The Economist - UK (2022-04-16)

34 Asia  The Economist April 16th 2022

refugees  as  unwanted  guests.Itdoesnot

allow them to resettle in Thailand.It hoped

that they would eventuallygohome.That

did begin to happen in 2011whenMyanmar

began its decade­long experimentwithhy­

brid  democracy.  By  2015newarrivals,at

any rate, had dried up. 

The coup changed everything.Sincethe

army  seized  power  last  year,violencehas

engulfed  much  of  Myanmarasthejunta

tries to stamp out persistentopposition.In

December  the  Tatmadaw conducted air

strikes and ramped up itsattacksinKaren

and Kayah states, along theborder.Nearly

10,000  Burmese  fled  to  Thailand,accord­

ing to the un’s refugee agency.Thatnum­

ber  shrank  to  about  2,000whenfighting

abated, and grew again tomorethantwice

as many when it resumed inmid­March.

It  is  the  unofficial  policyoftheThai

government to return Burmeserefugeesto

Myanmar once the war subsides,according

to an aid worker based inBangkok.Some­

times they send them backevenasthevio­

lence  continues.  On  March 25th, when

1,500 Burmese sought refugealongtheriv­

er,  the  army  sent  them  back,saysPhoe

Thingyan,  the  secretary of a volunteer

group  that  works  with  refugees.This,he

says, is “very common”. Iftrue,itwouldbe

a  violation  of  internationallawsprevent­

ing the repatriation of refugeestoa coun­

try where they would face harm.

Tanee  Sangrat,  a  spokesmanforThai­

land’s  Ministry  of  ForeignAffairs,denies

the  charge.  “It  is  our  long­standingpolicy

not to push them back,” hesays.According

to  Somchai  Kijcharoenrungroj,thegover­

nor  of  the  border  provinceofTak,“when

they  cross  to  our  side,  wetake careof

them”,  providing  them  with temporary

shelter,  food,  clothing  andmedicaltreat­

ment.  Some  refugees,  he says, actually

want  to  return,  because  theyworryabout

the  security  of  their  homesandfarms.In

those  cases,  the  Thai  governmenttrans­

ports  them  across  the  river. “We never

chase them away.” 

Thailand is in a tough spot.Thefriend­

ship  between  local  ThaisandKarens is

deep,  says  a  Karen  communityleaderin

Mae Sot, a Thai border city.Butthecentral

government is reluctant toimprovecondi­

tions for refugees for fear itwillencourage

more  to  come.  And  the  Thaigovernment,

itself  dominated  by  its  army,“does not

want to compromise its relationshipwith

the Burmese military”, saysMinZinofthe

Institute for Strategy and Policy,a Burmese

think­tank. Thousands of refugeescamped

on  the  river  would  look  likea humanitar­

ian  crisis,  not  only  embarrassingtheTat­

madaw  but  also  stiffeningtheresolveof

Myanmar’s  rebel  groups.  Thatwouldbea

recipe  for  more  violence,andmorerefu­

gees.  Easier,  then,  to  pushthelikesofMs

Htun May across the river,wheretheycan

remain Myanmar’s problem.n

ArchitectureinJapan

Metabolism, digested

T

he nakagin capsule tower stands

out from its unremarkable neighbours

in  Tokyo’s  Shimbashi  district.  Made  up  of

144  identical  cuboids,  stacked  upon  and

jutting  out  from  each  other,  the  modular

tower  is  both  unabashedly  futurist  and

subtly respectful of tradition. Each cuboid

has a round window that evokes both space

travel and the ancient architecture of Kyo­

to.  They  contain  built­in  living  spaces

composed  of  bath  units,  beds,  desks  and

household  electronics.  Kurokawa  Kisho,

the  building’s  architect,  envisioned  his

cramped  “capsules”  as  dwellings  for  what

he  called  Homo movens,  or  highly  mobile

modern humans, such as the businessmen

who  lived  in  distant  suburbs  and  worked

late in Tokyo offices.

When the tower first went up in 1972, it

became  a  prime  example  of  Metabolism,

an  influential  architectural  movement  in

post­war  Japan.  Metabolism’s  chief  expo­

nents  had  studied  under  Tange  Kenzo,  an

architect  whose  works  included  the  park

and memorial built in Hiroshima to com­

memorate  the  nuclear  attack  of  1945.  The

Metabolists  designed  buildings  to  be

adaptable and replaceable, and resilient to

threats such as wars and earthquakes. But

not,  alas,  to  neglect.  On  April  12th  work

started on demolishing the tower, follow­

ing  a  long  but  ultimately  futile  battle  to

preserve it. 

Given that, it is ironic that Metabolists

sought to shift thinking about architecture

from the mechanical to the biological, con­

ceiving  of  cities  as  organisms  that  grew

and changed rather than as static construc­

tions  to  be  planned  and  maintained.  “We

regard  human  society  as  a  vital  process,  a

continuous  development  from  atom  to

nebula,”  they  declared  in  their  first  mani­

festo,  written  ahead  of  the  World  Design

Conference in Tokyo in 1960. 

Their  ideas  were  informed  both  by

Western modernism and Eastern philoso­

phy,  drawing  particular  inspiration  from

Japan’s Ise shrine, which has been entirely

reconstructed almost every 20 years since

the  7th  century.  Metabolism  also  embod­

ied the energy of Japan’s rapid­growth era.

The Metabolists did more than just design

buildings: in their hands, architecture be­

came  a  field  for  reimagining  Japanese

identity after the ravages of the war. 

In  their  texts,  the  architects  pondered

the  relationship  between  technology  and

humanity.  They  considered  the  demands

of  designing  cities  for  a  growing  urban

population  and  a  humming  economy.

TOKYO

An ode to a landmark tower, and to a more optimistic time

Chipping off the old block