Can PNG emulate Japan’s success?

ON Aug 6 and Aug 9, 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb in Hi­roshima and Nagasaki res­pectively to force Japan into surrendering and end World War II.
Millions of people were killed and everything was wiped out.
US President Harry Truman felt sorry for what had been done and told Japanese Prime Minister Shidehara Kijuro that any demand for compensation or whatever requested would be given.
Kijuro paused for a mo­ment and came up with a brilliant answer: “I don’t want any compensation nor rebuilding of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but I want you to give scholarship award to my children to study in the United States.”
Truman thought that this was a simple request and awarded scholarship to let Japanese children to study in the US.
After the five-year scholarship scheme was over, Kijuro asked the students to return to Japan.
When they went back to Japan, the prime minister told them to teach the local people about what they had learned in the US in their own language so that everyone knew exactly what to do.
After the period of internal teaching was over, the prime minister then told them to use their skills to develop and manufacture goods.
That time, Japan went into a period called “isolation period” in which it had no communication with the outside world.
Many development pro­jects took place in Ja­pan but no one knew exactly what was going on.
They had progressed from the assembly line to the robotic world.
When they felt that they had done enough, they opened up and flooded the rest of the world with their products.
The US was amazed Japan had advanced technology.
Kijuro had the foresight to develop the human resource first and when they came back with skills and knowledge from the US, they developed their own country on their own.
I think it is not too late for PNG to do what Japan did.
We should follow this same tack by developing our own students first and when they are equipped with skills and knowledge, they should be able to pass on what they have learned to their fellow Papua New Guineans.

Peter McStalin
Via email