Japanese fascism

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The general term Japanese fascism has been used to refer to Japanese nationalist thinking, its ideological foundation and the outlines of its political implementation. Another possible use of the term is to refer to Japanese right-wing (far right) thinking in general. It can also be associated with the assertion of continuity between the older Japanese polity, from the 3rd century Yamato kingdom times up to the Meiji period, with the Showa nationalism (from the 1920s until August 1945)--despite the internal peace of the Edo period that separates the feudal times from the era of modernisation.

The use of the term fascism in relation to Japan is contentious and disputed. Japanese fascism was not an insurgent political movement, but an admixture of conservative and quasi-fascist ideas used by the Japanese political elite.

Contents

[edit] Bases of Japanese nationalism

Japanese nationalism is in fact quite different from European fascism, yet in parts its development can be seen as comparable. Elements of it have been discussed under the label of Asiatic Fascism or Japanese Fascism.

The Yamato Empire had the concept of the state as led by a powerful singular leader (Emperor). In feudal times, the military caste, which included the bushi and the samurai, were organized as a single headquarters-like structure, the Shogunate, which represented the required civil and political power. In this period, the Shogunate constituted the basic social composition, power structures and the foundation of law. It can be divided into three stages:

After the Meiji Restoration and the birth of the Empire of Japan, the result seems similar to what has been described above, yet it developed under different circumstances.

This time, there was a leader, who had sufficient power to expand the state, to provide for a homogeneous national education, religion and leverage the pride of the population in local and national history. This developed into Emperor worship centered around Amaterasu-Omikami. The contribution of ideologues such as Kita Ikki, Nakano Seigo and others, when combined with the right wing organizations and Nationalist societies, led to the development of the Japanese version of a centralized state.

The Japanese people were motivated by a revival of ancient ideals and customs. These nostalgic elements of Samurai feudalism, culture, costumes and myths were put in the service of the national belief of Japan's divine mission to control the rest of the Asian continent.

[edit] Militarism

Main article : Militarism-Socialism in Showa Japan

The desire of the military leaders to maintain political power, as well as the national goal of territorial expansion, resulted in both a significant expansion of Japan's military capacity and the repression of those who opposed that policy. This constellation allowed for the concept of the emperor to be translated into modern times.

The special relation of militarists and the central civil government with the Imperial Family supported the important position of the Emperor as Head of State with political powers, and the relationship with the nationalist right-wing movements. However, Japanese political thought had relatively little contact with European political thinking until the 20th century. European fascist ideas did not attract attention in Japan until very late, after the creation of the Axis Alliance in the 1930s.

Under this ascendancy of the military, the country developed a very hierarchical, aristocratic economic system with significant state involvement. During the Meiji Restoration, there had been a surge in the creation of monopolies. This was in part due to state intervention, as the monopolies served to allow Japan to become a world economic power. The state itself owned some of the monopolies, and others were owned by the zaibatsu. The monopolies managed the central core of the economy, with other aspects being controlled by the government ministry appropriate to the activity, including the National Central Bank and the Imperial family. This economic arrangement was in many ways similar to the corporatist models of European fascists.

During the same period, certain thinkers with ideals similar to those from Shogunate times developed the early basis of Japanese expansionism and Pan-Asianist theories. Such thought later was developed by experts, such as Saneshige Komaki[1]: the Hakko Ichiu, Yen Block, and Amau doctrines.

Sadao Araki and other local thinkers established this connection of the ancient and contemporary nationalists with local and European fascist ideas, to conform to the local bases for (Japanese fascism), leading to the later surge in Japanese nationalism (Showa nationalism) Ideology.

Some of the distinctive features of this policy were exported. The puppet states (Manchukuo, Mengjiang, or the Wang Jingwei Government) were later organized on comparable militarist-socialist doctrinal lines. (In the case of Wang Chingwei's state, he himself had some German influences--prior to the Japanese invasion of China, meeting with German leaders and picking up some fascist ideas already during his Kuomingtang administration rule. These, he combined with Japanese militarist thinking. ) Japanese agents also supported local and nationalist elements, in Southeast asia, and White Russian residents in Manchukuo, before war broke out.

[edit] Political purposes of Japanese fascists

One particular concept exploited by the ultranationalists and local fascists was a decree ascribed to the mythical first emperor of Japan, Emperor Jimmu, in 660 BCE: the policy of hakko ichiu (八紘一宇, all eight corners of the world under one roof). While Emperor Jimmu's policy would really only have applied to Japan, China and Korea, it was used by the imperialists who supported official state Shinto to guide Japan in its dealings with the entire world--it was the belief that all of the world should be brought under the imperial rule of the divine Emperors, a sort of religious manifest destiny.

While various leaders tried it over the centuries, it was a goal that was to color Japanese thinking through World War II.

The bases of the modern form of hakko ichiu were to develop after 1868 and would take the following form:

  1. Japan is the center of the world, with its ruler, the Tenno (Emperor), a divine being, who derives his divinity from ancestral descent from the great Amaterasu-Omikami, the Goddess of the Sun herself.
  2. The Kami (Japan's gods and goddesses) have Japan under their special protection. Thus, the people and soil of Dai Nippon and all its institutions are superior to all others.
  3. All of these attributes are fundamental to the Kodoshugisha (Imperial Way) and give Japan a divine mission to bring all nations under one roof, so that all humanity can share the advantage of being ruled by the Tenno.

The concept of the divine Emperors was another belief that was twisted to fit the later goals of the ultranationalists and local fascists. It was an integral part of the Japanese religious structure that the Tenno was divine, descended directly from the line of Ama-Terasu (or Amaterasu, the Sun Kami or Goddess).

The final idea that was modified in modern times was the concept of Bushido. Bushido was the warrior code and laws of feudal Japan, that while having cultural surface differences, was at its heart not that different from the code of chivalry or any other similar system in other cultures. In later years, the code of Bushido found a resurgence in belief following the Meiji Restoration. At first, this allowed Japan to field what was considered one of the most professional and humane militaries in the world, one respected by friend and foe alike. Eventually, however, this belief would become a combination of propaganda and fanaticism that would lead to the brutality carried out in the Second Sino-Japanese War of the 1930s and World War II.

It was the third concept, especially, that would chart Japan's course towards several wars that would culminate with World War II.

By 1882, Japan was a formidable regional force, with a revamped infrastructure and reorganized military. By 1890, this had grown even more and Japan began looking at playing the game of colonial power under a growing belief in a modern form of hakko ichiu, one supported by the secret societies and many in the military and government (often these forces were all one in the same). The western powers were all around the Pacific and Asia, a point that was taken to heart by the Japanese.

Inspired by Great Britain, with whom it had developed a close relationship, Japan decided to begin building its own empire. The first step was settling the Korean question. The other questions were Liaotung land, North Lands, Formosa, and South Seas areas.

In the background, this was also the time of the rise of the secret societies, many of which had symbiotic ties to the oligarchs and the Zaibatsus. The Chōshū and Satsuma also came to dominate the military establishment of Japan, with the Chosu controlling the Japanese Army and the Satsuma the Japanese Navy.

Later, such concepts blended with fascist thought and developed the concept of the Military Shogunate.

In principle, some theorists proposed Shōwa Restoration, the plan of giving direct dictatorial powers to the Emperor (due to his divine attributes) for leading the future overseas actions in mainland Asia. This was the purpose behind the February 26 Incident and other similar uprisings in Japan. Later, however, these previously mentioned thinkers decided to organize their own political clique based on previous radical, militaristic movements in the 1930s; this was the origin of the Kodoha party and their political desire to take direct control of all the political power in the country from the moderate and democratic political voices.

Following the formation of this "political clique", there was a new current of thought among militarists, industrialists and landowners that emphasized a desire to return to the ancient Shogunate system, but in the form of a modern military dictatorship with new structures. It was organized with the Japanese Navy and Japanese Army acting as Clans under command of a supreme military native dictator (the Shogun) controlling the country. In this government, the Emperor was covertly reduced in his functions and used as a figurehead for political or religious use under the control of the militarists.

All these political theorists also added European fascist elements to conform their movement to one similar to European style dictatorships, where there exists one leader very similar to the Führer or Il Duce. This centralizes all political and military power to as single leader conducting the nation against enemy countries and conducting the "inner ideological revolution" against reactionaries and decadents. It also attacks the old structures of the upper classes to allow the lower classes, which represent the majority of the militarists and their followers (farmers, fishers, industrial workers, etc), to ascend the social ladder and receive social justice, satisfy the public's needs, and raise a military to maintain control of the nation.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Bix, Herbert. (1982) "Rethinking Emperor-System Fascism" Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars. v. 14, pp. 20-32.
  • Dore, Ronald, and Tsutomu Ōuchi. (1971) "Rural Origins of Japanese Fascism. " in Dilemmas of Growth in Prewar Japan, ed. James Morley. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 181-210. ISBN 0-691-03074-X
  • Duus, Peter and Daniel I. Okimoto. (1979) "Fascism and the History of Prewar Japan: the Failure of a Concept, " Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 39, no. 1 , pp. 65-76.
  • Fletcher, William Miles. (1982) The Search for a New Order: Intellectuals and Fascism in Prewar Japan. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1514-4
  • Maruyama, Masao. (1963) "The Ideology and Dynamics of Japanese Fascism" in Thought and Behavior in Modern Japanese Politics, ed. Ivan Morris. Oxford. pp. 25-83.
  • McGormack, Gavan. (1982) "Nineteen-Thirties Japan: Fascism?" Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars v. 14 pp. 2-19.
  • Morris, Ivan. ed. (1963) Japan 1931-1945: Militarism, Fascism, Japanism? Boston: Heath.
  • Tanin, O. and E. Yohan. (1973) Militarism and Fascism in Japan. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-8371-5478-2

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ ... Nippon Chiseigaku Sengen (A manifesto of Japanese Geopolitics) written in 1940 by Saneshige Komaki, a professor of Kyoto Imperial University and one of the representatives of the Kyoto school, [as] an example of the merging of geopolitics into Japanese traditional ultranationalism. (This PDF, by Akihiko Takagi.)

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