Kanzo Uchiyama

Kanzo Kanzo (内山 完造, Uchiyama Kanzō) was a Japanese Christian pacifist, and proprietor of the Uchiyama Bookstore, whose frequent visitors were both Chinese, and Japanese revolutionaries before World War II.

Early life

Kanzo Uchiyama was born in 1885, in the village of Yoshii in Shitsuki District, Okayama. At the age of 12, he was sent out for his apprenticeship to Osaka, and later worked for 10 years for a merchant family in Kyoto.^[1]

Life in the Christian Church

At the age of 27, Uchiyama became a Christian. He remarked that this was "the first day of a revolution in my life."^[2]

Early life in Shanghai, and the Uchiyama Bookstore

Kanzo moved to Shanghai, along with his wife Miki, at the age of 28 as the overseas representative of Daigaku Megusuri Santendo (a pharmaceutical company),^[1] shortly after they were married in March 1916. He first established the bookstore in 1917 on North Sichuan Road at a different address from the one where the store would later prosper from 1929 to 1945, on the north side of the International Settlement in Hongkou (known informally as the Japanese Concession) at the end of North Sichuan Road, a bustling commercial street. Kanzo and Lu Xun first met in the original bookstore in October 1927, and their friendship continued until Lu Xun’s death nearly ten years later.^[3]

When it became popular, Uchiyama quit his job to work at the bookstore full time.^[4] Uchiyama's bookstore served as the hub of a lively exchange between Chinese escaping the Kuomintang, Japanese escaping their homeland, and left wing writers.^[5] By 1932, Uchiyama had become the sole publisher of Lu Xun's works, including Pseudo Free Books (伪自由书) and Destruction (毁灭). After the Kuomintang executed five leftist writers in 1931 – including one of Lu Xun’s protégés – Uchiyama also became Lu Xun’s protector, shuttling him and his family to safe houses several times until Lu Xun’s death in 1936.^[6] Uchiyama was accused of being a spy for the Japanese by Chinese writers such as Bai Yuxiz and Xin Wan, but Lu Xun defended Uchiyama, saying his interest rested solely on the spread of literature, and that they never discussed politics.^[7] The bookstore was also a hideout for Chinese escaping the January 28 Incident.^[8]

Tian Han, a major playwright who wrote the China national anthem in 1934 as one of the songs promoted secretly among the Chinese as part of the anti-Japanese resistance, was a also a frequent visitor of "Uchiyama's" and who became friends with the Japanese bookstore owner.^[9]

Chen Duxiu, founder of the Chinese Communist Party and former exchange student to Japan, initially read a number of communist tracts n translations purchased at Uchiyama's shop.^[10]

The bookstore was also visited by Japanese revolutionaries. Soviet Spy Hotsumi Ozaki, would visit the bookstore.^[11] Wataru Kaji, who founded the Japanese People's Anti-war Alliance during World War II, made contacts with bookstore figures Lu Xun, and Hu Feng.^[12]

Last years of the bookstore, and post-war life

When confronted with anti-Japanese reactions to Japanese imperialism in China in the 1920s and 1930s, Uchiyama all too often tended to regard the events as a nuisance that upset the balance of life in Shanghai rather than to condemn the Japanese aggression which gave rise to those circumstances.^[10] In 1941, the Japanese military authorities in Shanghai requested Uchiyama to take management of two foreign bookstores, Kelly and Walsh and the American Publishing Company, on Nanjing Road. He initially balked at this offer and only after much dragging of feet did he finally accept.^[10]

Uchiyama's status in Shanghai in the interwar period and the reputation that he had cultivated and proudly flaunted as a friend to Chinese of all classes, deterred the Japanese authorities from charging him with further duties or from enlisting him as a spy during the war. Uchiyama felt that his vocation as cultural ambassador transcended political ideology. Wishing to bring both Chinese, and Japanese together, but it became harder through the 1930s, and 1940s and soon impossible.^[13]

His wife, Miki, died in 1945.^[14] The bookstore was closed down the same year.^[15] Uchiyama returned to Japan permanently in 1945.^[16] After the war, he became the first head of the Japan-China Friendship Association, and continued to work to restore friendship and diplomatic relations between Japan and China.^[1]

Legacy

Kanzo and Miki Uchiyama are buried in the Wanguo Cemetary where 600 foreigners from 25 foreign countries, and the Mausoleum of Soong Ching Ling, Sun Yat-sen's wife, resides.^[17] The plaque on Uchiyama's statue in Shanghai reads: "Uchiyama Kanzō, native of Okayama, Japan; owner of Nèishān Bookstore, a foreign friend to the Chinese people; and a close friend of Mr. Lǔ Xùn's residing in Hongkou from 1916 to 1947".

See also

• Japanese resistance to the Empire of Japan in World War II

References