Militarism-Socialism in Showa Japan

Japanese Militarism-Socialism, sometimes also referred to as "Japanese right socialism", "Shōwa Nationalism" or Japanese fascism, refers to a political syncretism of Japanese right-wing political ideologies, developed over a period of time from the Meiji Restoration,Fact|date=December 2007 and dominating Japanese politics during the first part of the Shōwa period (reign of the Emperor Hirohito). These ideas mixed Japanese nationalism and Japanese militarism ideas with "state socialism",Fact|date=December 2007 and were proposed by a number of contemporary political philosophers and thinkers in Japan.Fact|date=December 2007

Origins and initial failure

Meiji ultranationalist movements

The right wing movement in Japan can trace its origins to the disaffected "samurai" class, who lost their social status and privileges in the Meiji Restoration. Disgruntled "samurai" rose in a number of unsuccessful rebellions (including the Saga Rebellion, Satsuma Rebellion, etc) against the new order. When violent protest proved ineffective, many turned to political movements, both in terms of political parties and in militant secret societies. Politically, under the aegis of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, the rightists campaigned for a Constitution, which would allow them to get elected into positions of power. Within the secret societies, such as the "Genyosha" and the Black Dragon Society, they formed paramilitary organizations which assisted the Imperial Japanese Army in the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, while politically striving towards greater Japanese expansionism under the aegis of Pan-Asianism, which would give the military more of a role in Japanese politics and society.

After World War I, the focus of many of these groups shifted to combating the perceived threat of communism, and groups such as the　"Kokusuikai" arose to take direct and violent action against socialism and the labor movement.

Japanese militarism

: main|Japanese militarismThe military had a strong influence on Japanese society from the Meiji Restoration. Almost all leaders in Japanese society during the Meiji period (whether in the military, politics or business) were ex-"samurai" or descendants of "samurai", and shared a common set of values and outlooks. The early Meiji government viewed Japan as threatened by western imperialism, and one of the prime motivations for the "Fukoku Kyohei" policy was to strengthen Japan's economic and industrial foundations, so that a strong military could be built to defend Japan against outside powers.

The rise of universal military conscription, introduced by Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo in 1873, along with the proclamation of the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors in 1882 enabled the military to indoctrinate thousands of men from various social backgrounds with military-patriotic values and the concept the unquestioning loyalty to the Emperor was the basis of the Japanese state "(kokutai)."

With a more aggressive foreign policy, and victory over China in the First Sino-Japanese War and over Imperial Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan joined the imperialist powers. The need for a strong military to secure Japan's new overseas empire was strengthened by a sense that only through a strong military would Japan earn the respect of western nations, and thus revision of the unequal treaties.

The Japanese military viewed itself as “political clean” in terms of corruption and criticized political parties under liberal democracy as self-serving and a threat to national security by their failure to provide adequate military spending or to address pressing social and economic issues. The complicity of the politicians with the "zaibatsu" corporate monopolies also came under criticism. The military tended to favor state control over industry over capitalism, and military also favored state-sponsored social welfare to reduce the attraction of socialism and Bolshevism in Japan.

tate religion

State Shinto was an important part of the militarist ideology. Based on emperor worship, it gave religious justification to totalitarism and promoted nationalism.

According to this cult, the emperor of Japan was an "arahitogami", an incarnate divinity and the offspring of goddess "Amaterasu". As the emperor was, according to the constitution, "head of the empire" and "supreme commander of the Army and the Navy", every Japanese citizen had to obey his will and show absolute loyalty.

State Shintō placed emphasis on the idea that the "center of the Phenomenal World is the Tenno". In Shōwa era, religious and political doctrines joined to dictate that subjects should spread the "hakko ichiu" (the eight corners under one roof) and thus extend the great divine spirit around the world. All proclamations of the emperor took on religious significance. Prince Kanin, Heisuke Yanagawa, Kuniaki Koiso and Kiichiro Hiranuma developed in depth the state-religion link, in relation to nationalism.

Works of Kita Ikki

: main|Kita Ikki
Kita Ikki was an early 20th century political theorist, who advocated a hybrid of state socialism with “Asian nationalism”, which thus blended the early ultranationalist movement with Japanese militarism. His political philosophy was outlined in his thesis nihongo|National Polity and Pure Socialism|国体論及び純正社会主義,|Kokutai ron oyobi junsei shakai shugi of 1908 and nihongo|An Outline Plan for the Reorganization of Japan|日本改造法案大綱|Nihon Kaizo Hoan Taiko of 1928. Kita proposed a military coup d'état to replace the existing political structure of Japan with a military dictatorship. The new military leadership would rescind the Meiji Constitution, ban political parties, replace the Diet of Japan with an assembly free of corruption, and would nationalize major industries. Kita also envisioned strict limits to private ownership of property, and land reform to improve the lot of tenant farmers. Thus strengthened internally, Japan could then embark on a crusade to free all of Asia from Western imperialism.

Although his works were banned by the government almost immediately after publication, circulation was widespread, and his thesis proved popular not only with the younger officer class excited at the prospects of military rule and Japanese expansionism, but with the populist movement for its appeal to the agrarian classes and to the left wing of the socialist movement.

Works of Okawa Shumei

Okawa Shumei was a right-wing political philosopher, active in numerous Japanese nationalist societies in the 1920s. In 1926, he published nihongo|Japan and the Way of the Japanese|日本及び日本人の道|Nihon oyobi Nihonjin no michi, among other works, which helped popularize the concept of the inevitability of a clash of civilizations between Japan and the west. Politically, his theories built on the works of Ikki Kita, but further emphasized that Japan needed to return to its traditional "kokutai" traditions in order to survive the increasing social tensions created by industrialization and foreign cultural influences.

Development in the 1920s and 1930s

The Shōwa Restoration Movement

Kita Ikki and Okawa Shumei joined forces in 1919 to organize the short-lived nihongo|Survivor's Society|猶存社|Yuzonsha, a political study group intended to become an umbrella organization for the various right-socialist movements. Although the group soon collapsed due to irreconcilable ideological differences between Kita and Okawa, it served its purpose in that it managed to join the right-wing anti-socialist, Pan-Asian militarist societies with centrist and left-wing supporters of state socialism.

In the 1920s and 1930s, these supporters of Japanese statism used the slogan nihongo|Showa Restoration|昭和維新|Shōwa isshin, which implied that a new resolution was needed to replace the existing political order dominated by corrupt politicians and capitalists, with one which (in their eyes), would fulfill the original goals of the Meiji Restoration of direct Imperial rule via military proxies.

However, the Shōwa Restoration had different meanings for different groups. For the radicals of the "Sakurakai", it meant violent overthrow of the government to create a syndicalist state with more equitable distribution of wealth and the removal of corrupt politicians and "zaibatsu" leaders. For the young officers it meant a return to some form of “military-shogunate in which the emperor would re-assume direct political power with dictatorial attributes, as well as divine symbolism, without the intervention of the Diet or liberal democracy, but who would effectively be a figurehead with day-to-day decisions left to the military leadership.

Another point of view was supported by Prince Chichibu, a brother of Emperor Shōwa, who repeatedly counseled him to implement a "direct imperial rule", even if that meant suspending the constitution. [Herbert Bix, "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan", 2001, p.284]

The failure of various attempted coups, including the League of Blood Incident, Imperial Colors Incident and the February 26 Incident discredited supporters of the Showa Restoration movement, but the concepts of Japanese statism migrated to mainstream Japanese politics, where it joined with some elements of European fascism.

Works of Sadao Araki

Sadao Araki was a noted political philosopher in the Imperial Japanese Army during the 1920s, who had a wide following within the junior officer corps. Although implicated the in February 26 Incident, he went on to serve in numerous influential government posts, and was a cabinet minister under Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. The Japanese Army, already trained along Prussian lines since the early Meiji period, often mentioned the affinity between "yamato-damashii" and the "Prussian Military Spirit" in pushing for a military alliance with Italy and Germany along with the need to combat Soviet communism. Araki's writing are imbued with nostalgia towards the traditions of the "samurai Bushido" code, and the military administrative system of former Shogunate, in a similar manner to which the Fascist Party of Italy looked back to the ancient ideals of the Roman Empire or the Nazi Party in Germany recalled an idealized version of First Reich and the Teutonic Order.

Araki modified the interpretation of the "bushido" warrior code to "seishin kyoiku" (spiritual training), which he introduced to the military as Army Minister, and to the general public as Education Minister, and in general brought the concepts of the Showa Restoration movement into mainstream Japanese politics.

Influences of European Fascism

During the 1920s and 1930s, Japan received the visits by members of European fascist parties, and there were small German and Italian communities in Tokyo, Karafuto and other parts in Japanese empire. Karl Haushofer stayed certain times in Japan and was a key developer of the "Lebensraum" concept of Geopolitik. His proposals for a future Germany that was a Eurasian superpower called for an alliance with Japan, which would further augment German strategic control of Eurasia, with the naval power of Japan protecting Germany's insular position. The Japanese theorists concerned with mainland Asia also knew of the geopolitical theory of Halford Mackinder, as expressed in the book "Democratic Ideas and Reality". He discussed why the "World Island" (the Eurasian-African landmass) was dominant, and why the key to this was the "Central Land" in Asia.

The influence of German ideology in terms of "Lebensraum" can be seen in the works of Shumei Okawa, Kingoro Hashimoto and Ishiwara Kanji. Some ideologists, such as Kingoro Hashimoto, borrowed concepts of social justice mixed in with militarism, in proposing a single party dictatorship, based on egalitarian populism, patterned after the European fascist movements.

These geopolitical ideals developed into the Amau Doctrine (an Asian Monroe Doctrine), stating that Japan assumed total responsibility for peace in Asia, and can be seen later when Prime Minister Koki Hirota proclaimed justified Japanese expansion into northern China as the creation of "a special zone, anti-communist, pro-Japanese and pro-Manchukuo" that was a "fundamental part" of Japanese national existence.

Kokuhonsha

The "Kokuhonsha" was founded in 1924 by conservative Minister of Justice and President of the House of Peers, Kiichirō Hiranuma. [Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, page 164] . It called on Japanese patriots to reject the various foreign political “-isms” (such as socialism, communism, Marxism, anarchism, etc.) in favor of a rather vaguely defined “Japanese national spirit” ("kokutai"). The name “"kokuhon"” was selected as an antithesis to the word “"minpon"”, from "minpon shugi", the commonly-used translation for the word “democracy”, and the society was openly supportive of totalitarian ideology. [Reynolds, Japan in the Fascist Era, page 76]

The New Order Movement

[
Imperial Rule Assistance Association.] During 1940, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe proclaimed the "Shintaisen" (New National Structure), making Japan into a "National Defense State". Under the National Mobilization Law, the government was given absolute power over the nation's assets. All political parties were ordered to dissolve into the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, forming a single party state based on totalitarian values. Such measures as measures as the National Service Draft Ordinance and the National Spiritual Mobilization Movement were intended to mobilize Japanese society for a total war against the west.

Associated with government efforts to create a statist society included creation of the "Tonarigumi" (residents' committees), and emphasis on the "Kokutai no Hongi" ("Japan's Fundamentals of National Policy"), presenting a view of Japan's history, and its mission to unite the East and West by under the "Hakko ichiu" theory in schools as official texts. The official academic text was Another book, "Shinmin no Michi" (The Subject's Way), the "moral national Bible", presented an effective catechism on nation, religion, cultural, social and ideological topics.

The end of Japanese statism

Japanese statism was completely discredited and destroyed by the utter failure of Japan's military in World War II. After the surrender of Japan, Japan was put under allied occupation. Some of its former military leaders tried for war crimes before the Tokyo tribunal and government, educational system revised and the tenets of liberal democracy written into the post-war Constitution of Japan as one of its key themes.

In August 1945, State Shintō was abolished. On 1 January 1946, Emperor Shōwa issued an imperial rescript, sometimes referred as the "Ningen-sengen", in which he quoted the Five Charter Oath of his grandfather, Emperor Meiji and announced he was not an "akitsumikami".

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* [http://www.londonsocialisthistorians.org/newsletter/articles.pl/noframes/read/95 "Was Kita Ikki a Socialist?"] , Nik Howard, 2004.

Notes

ee also

*Socialist thought in Imperial Japan
*Japanese nationalism
*List of major Japanese institutions (1930-1945)
*List of Japanese nationalist movements and parties
*Empire of Japan (internal politics 1914-1944)