Red Scare in Japan

The Red Scare in Japan refers to the opposition to communism and leftism in Japan.

Imperial Japan

The government of Imperial Japan first began suppressing labor unions, anarchists and socialists during the Meiji Period. The Peace Preservation Law's main target was communism, and anarchism. Mass arrests were launched against the communist movement, notably in the March 15 incident.[1] Suspected communists were tortured. The death of Japanese Communist Party member Takiji Kobayashi was suspected to have been caused by police torture.[2] On Nov. 6, 1937, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany and Italy. The Pact was directed against the Communist International (Comintern).[3]

The Yokohama Incident resulted in the death of three suspects.[4] The only important difference between the Yokohama incident and earlier ones was that animosity towards "Reds" increased with military reverses from late 1942. Members of the directive elite were caught up in the same anticommunist obsession as the Kanagawa prefecture Tokko, which was a result of the state's all too successful anticommunist campaign.[5]

Prince Konoe Fumimaro and others, from early 1943, saw "Reds" in the background of Prime Minister Tojo's plan for a centrally coordinated war effort. The following year in July at a conference of senior statesmen, Konoe acknowledge that defeat would be terrible but declared that a leftist revolution would be much worse. According to Konoe

"Defeat is temporary and can be redressed, but if we have a leftist revolution, kokutai and everything will be gone to the winds. Thus, the most profound attention concerning leftist revolution is necessary. It is not only those who operate openly on the surface who are left-wing"[6]

Konoe Fumimaro attended the court on February 14 1945 and presented a memorial to the Throne. In this memorial, Konoe admitted that defeat was inevitable but reasoned that defeat itself did not necessarily mean the end of the national polity, as the real threat was a communist revolution which could occur as a result of defeat. Konoe concluded that Japan must terminate the war immediately by negotiating with America in order to avoid a communist revolution and to preserve the national polity.[7]

Post-war Japan

Shortly after the surrender, the Japanese were ordered to release all political prisoners. The Japanese weren't eager to release their communist political prisoners but were told they had to.[8] Even after the dismissal of the previous interior minister, the Shidehara government continued to ignore the SCAP order to liberate the Communists.[9] John K. Emmerson and Herbert Norman went out to a prison in the suburbs of Tokyo, Fuchu Prison, and interviewed a group of communist political prisoners. They brought several of them back to GHQ to interview and talk about things before they were officially released from jail. That became a cause celebre in Japan, especially among the rightists in Japan and the right wingers. They claimed Norman and Emmerson were communist sympathizers who were urging the Japanese to go communist and abandon their good relations with the United States.[10]

On October 3, the interior minister had a press conference with foreign correspondents at which he vowed to "arrest in accordance with the Peace Preservation Law all those who advocate a change in the form of government, in particular, the abolition of the emperor system. They will be regarded as Communists.[11]

As the Cold War intensified, GHQ gradually become more anti-communist. General MacArthur sent a letter to Yoshida Shigeru ordering to purge all top Communist Party officials from public office on 6 June 1950. Amongst those who were purged were Tokuda Kyuichi, Sanzo Nosaka, Yoshio Shiga.[12] Tokuda died in Peiping. Sanzo Nosaka, and [13] Shiga would not reemerge until 1955.[14]

During the 1950s and 60s, the CIA funded the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party in an effort to turn Japan into a bulwark against communism. The CIA's operations were in response to Cold War tensions in Asia.[15] The LDP denies that they were funded by the CIA.[16] Since the end of the Cold War, the Liberal Democrats' role as a bulwark against communism has become unnecessary. [17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Elise K. Tipton (1990). The Japanese Police State: The Tokkô in Interwar Japan. University of Hawaii Press. p. 17-35.
  2. ↑ Richard H. Mitchell (1992). Janus-Faced Justice: Political Criminals in Imperial Japan. University of Hawaii Press.
  3. ↑ "Anti-Comintern Pact". Encyclopedia Brittanica.
  4. ↑ Huffman, James L., ed. (1 October 1997). Modern Japan: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism. Routledge. p. 295. ISBN 978-0815325253.
  5. ↑ Richard H. Mitchell (1992). Janus-Faced Justice: Political Criminals in Imperial Japan. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 153–154.
  6. ↑ Richard H. Mitchell (1992). Janus-Faced Justice: Political Criminals in Imperial Japan. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 153–154.
  7. ↑ Jun'ichiro SHOJI (1 September 2010). Konoe Fumimaro and Konoe's Memorial to the Throne in February 1945 Japan's Wartime Diplomacy and the Postwar Visions. National Institute for Defense Studies.
  8. ↑ Interview with Richard B. Finn. The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. April 8, 1991. pp. 24–25.
  9. ↑ Tetsuya Kataoka (1991). The Price of a Constitution: The Origin of Japan's Postwar Politics. Taylor & Francis. p. 28.
  10. ↑ Interview with Richard B. Finn. The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. April 8, 1991. pp. 24–25.
  11. ↑ Tetsuya Kataoka (1991). The Price of a Constitution: The Origin of Japan's Postwar Politics. Taylor & Francis. p. 26.
  12. ↑ "5-12 The Red Purge". National Diet Library.
  13. ↑ "Japan's Top Red Surredners After Hiding Five Years". The Milwaukee Journal. Aug 11, 1955.
  14. ↑ "VOTE DRIVE IN JAPAN SLATED BY COMMIES Legislative Posts To be Sought Under Shiga Leadership". The Times-News. Jan 21, 1955.
  15. ↑ "C.I.A. Spent Millions to Support Japanese Right in 50's and 60's". New York Times. October 9, 1994.
  16. ↑ "JAPANESE PARTY DENIES REPORT OF CIA PAYMENTS". Washington Post. October 12, 1994.
  17. ↑ "Election Preview : Japan at a Crossroads : The Governing Party's 38-year monopoly on power is at stake in Sunday's parliamentary elections.". Los Angeles Times. July 17, 1993.
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