Aida Yūji

nihongo|Aida Yūji|会田雄次 born in Kyōto on 5 March 1916 and died on 17 September 1997, was a Japanese historian, and specialist on the Renaissance. He was very active throughout his career as a conservative thinker, commentator and major exponent of the Nihonjinron. he graduated from the history department of Kyoto University in 1940, and had his master degree interrupted when he was drafted into the armed forces in 1943. he fought on the Burmese front as an infantryman. He was captured at war's end by British forces and was detained at Ahlone Camp. His experiences, especially of suffering extreme mental torture in the hands of his captors by their cruel nonchalance towards him and other Japanese, are vividly described in his best-selling memoir, "Aaron Shūyōjo" (1962) [ "Prisoner of the British. A Japanese Soldier’s Experience in Burma", trs.Hide Ishiguro, Louis Allen, Cresset Press, London 1966.] On his repatriation in 1947, he taught at Kobe University, was appointed full professor at Kyoto University in 1952 where he taught in the Humanities Department until his retirement in 1979. Until his death, of pneumonia, he was emeritus professor at the same university.

Theory of European Rationalism

Aida is best remembered for this theory, according to which the 'rationality' of Western civilization was consequential upon the practice of raising and killing livestock in Europe. This hypothesis, called the nihongo|"livestock rearing theory"|家畜飼育説|kachiku shiikusetsu [Alternatively the "kachiku shiyōsetsu" nihongo2|家畜飼養説)] , was set forth in his 1966 book 'Rationalism'("Gōrishugi") associated the killing of domestic animals, which had been otherwise reared with great care by their slaughterers, with the nonchalant belligerence of Western soldiering. In this view, Westerners were immune to the kind of hysterical rush of blood to the head which the sight of maimed and bleeding men caused Japanese soldiers, a panic at shed blood which he held responsible for the excesses of cruelty which, in the heat of battle, Japanese were accused of being responsible for in World War Two. Westerners, long habituated to coolly killing animals, developed a rational approach to slaughter, which they then extended into all spheres of human conduct, thought and culture. Contrariwise, the Japanese, who rarely, in his view, had contact with livestock, since they grew up on riziculture, were too emotive to master this nonchalance before the dead which lay in the background of Western rationality.

　Works　

*"Kyōdai Seiyōshi: 4", Sōgensha, Tokyo 1951.
*"Runesansu", Kawade Shobō, Tokyo 1974.
*"Aaron Shūyōjo" Chūō Kōronsha. Tokyo 1962.
*"Gōrishugi" Kōdansha Gendai Shinsho, Tokyo 1966.
*"Mikeranjiero:Ai to Bi to Shi to" Seibundō Shinkōsha, 1963.
*"Haisha no jōken: Sengoku jidai o kangaeru", Chūō Kōronsha. Tokyo 1965
*"Nihonjin no ishiki kôzô", Kôdansha Gendai Shinsho Tokyo 1972
*"Ketsudan no jōken", Shichōsha, 1975
*"Chōetsusha no shisō: kami to hito no deai", Kōdansha,Tokyo 1975.
*"Runesansu no bijutsu to shakai",　Sōgensha, Tokyo 1981.
*"Mikeranjiero: Sono kodoku to Eikō",　PHP, Kyoto 1996.
*"Rekishika no tachiba"　PHP, Kyoto 1997.

References