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Intellectuals and Fascism in Early Shōwa Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

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Abstract

Using the concept of fascism for analyzing political developments in early Shōwa Japan has become a controversial topic, and a lively debate about a general definition of fascism has raged among scholars of modern European history. This article presents a new interpretation of Japanese fascism and a modification of Ernst Nolte's definition of fascism as anti-modernism. The author argues that while Japan was not fascist during the 1930s, the original New Order Movement, which was planned by the Shōwa Research Association and promoted by Premier Konoe Fumimaro in 1940, did constitute a fascist movement. It was modeled on policies of European fascism and, fitting Nolte's definition, aimed at creating an anti-modern society. In addition, the New Order Movement revealed a polarity in its basic goals—the advocacy of anti-modernism and the simultaneous quest for a strong military and industrial state—that is central to fascist movements. The author also rejects the previously held image of Japanese intellectuals as passive resisters against the rise of authoritarianism in Japan by emphasizing the leading roles of three prominent writers—Miki Kiyoshi, Ryū Shintarō, and Rōyama Masamichi—in planning the New Order Movement.

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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1979

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References

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18 Biographical data on Rōyama Masamichi are contained in Matsuzawa Hiroaki, “Minshū shakaishugi no hitobito: Rōyama Masamichi hoka,” Shisō no kagaku kenkyūkai, ed., Tenkō 3: 249–307; and Jinji kōshinroku (Tokyo: Jinji koshinjo, 1966)Google Scholar. A chronology of Ryū's life is in Shintarō, Ryū, Zenshū, 8 vols. (Tokyo: Asahi shimbunsha, 1969), 6: 605–48Google Scholar (cited hereafter as Zenshū). Tōru, Miyagawa, Miki Kiyoshi (Tokyo: Tōkyō daigaku shuppankai, 1970), pp. 157–82Google Scholar presents a compact chronology of the life of Miki Kiyoshi.

19 See, for example, Hiroo, Sassa, Nihon fuashizumu no hatten katei (Tokyo: Asano shoten, 1932), pp. 117, 97–113, and 194–95Google Scholar; and idem, Seiji no hinkon (Tokyo: Chikura shobō, 1931), pp. 5455 and 69–70Google Scholar.

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23 Ibid., p. 21.

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25 See Bikle, George B. Jr., The New Jerusalem: Aspects of Utopianism in the Thought of Kagawa Toyohiko (Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press, 1976)Google Scholar; and Wm, Miles Fletcher, III, “Ideologies of Political and Economic Reform and Fascism in Prewar Japan: Shintarō, Ryū, Masamichi, Rōyama, and the Shōwa Research Association” (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1975)Google Scholar, ch. 1.

26 Rōyama, Gendai no shakai shisō, p. 71.

27 Masamichi, Rōyama, “Kaku kuni ni okeru keizai kaigi no hikaku seido kenkyū,” Gyōseigaku kenkyū ronbunshū (Tokyo: Keikusa shobō, 1965), pp. 8389Google Scholar. The article was written in 1934.

28 Rōyama, Gendai no shakai shisō, p. 74.

29 Ibid., pp. 149–54.

30 Masamichi, Rōyama, Seiji dōkō ron (Tokyo: Kōyō shoin, 1933), pp. 357–58Google Scholar.

31 Rōyama, Gendai no shakai shisō, pp. 165 and 183.

32 Ibid., p. 184.

33 Some of Ryū's important early essays were Ginkō kyōkō no haigo,” Warera 9 (July 1927), pp. 2334Google Scholar; Kyōkō ni arawaretagendandai,” Taiyō 34 (January 1928): 3952Google Scholar; and Kin yūshutsu saikinshi ‘ron’ to kin yūshutsu saikinshi,” Chūō kōron 46 (November 1931): 8394Google Scholar. For some of Ryū's critiques of budgetary policies, see ‘Tsūka shinyō tōsei hihan,’ in his Zemhū, 2: 254–56.

34 See “Shogen—shōwa rokunendo taikan,” Nihon rōdō nenkan, 1932 (Tokyo: Dōjinsha shoten, 1932), pp. 78Google Scholar; “Shogen—shōwa shichinendo taikan,” Nihon rōdō nenkan, 1933, pp. 6–9 and 10–11; “Shogen—shōwa hachinendo taikan,” Nihon rōdō nenkan, 1934 (Tokyo: Kurita shoten, 1934), pp. 6 and 9–10Google Scholar.

Ryū edited the Nihon rōdō nenkan, and his colleagues at the Ohara Institute have confirmed that Ryū composed the foreword to each volume during this period. See Hyōe, Ōuchi, “Ohara shaken nyūjo no koro,” Kiyoshi, Ebata, ed., Kaisō—Ryū Shintarō (Tokyo: Asahi shimbunsha, 1969), p. 308Google Scholar; and Sadamu, Kimura, “Wasurenokori no ki,” Ryū Shintarō zenshū geppō 8 (June 1969): 4Google Scholar.

35 Shintarō, Ryū, “‘Kokusai’ no taijo to ‘kokusai’ no jojō,” Ekonomisuto 5 (February 1935): 1112Google Scholar.

36 Ibid., p. 11.

37 “Kokubō no hongi to sono kyōka teishō,” quoted in Taiheiyō sensō shi (Tokyo: Aoki shoten, 1972), vol. 2Google Scholar, Nilchū sensō I, ed. Rekishigaku kenkyūkai, pp. 154–55.

38 Ryū, “‘Kokusai’no taijō,” p. 12.

39 Ibid., p. 13.

40 See Kiyoshi, Miki, “Fuan no shisō to sono chōkoku” (1933)Google Scholar, in Kiyoshi, Miki, Chosakushū (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1948), 13: 133–57Google Scholar, especially p. 143 (cited hereafter as Chosakushū).

41 Kiyoshi, Miki, “Nihonteki seikaku to fuashizumu” (1936), in Chosakushū, 12: 129 and 135Google Scholar.

42 For Miki's reaction to Martin Heidegger's joining the Nazi Party, see Miyagawa Tōru, Miki Kiyoshi, pp. 97–98. For Miki's evaluation of the Minobe Affair, see Kiyoshi, Miki, “Jiyūshugi igo” (1935), in Chosakushū, 12: 6875Google Scholar.

43 Miki, “Fuashizumu,” pp. 122–23.

44 Kiyoshi, Miki, “Chishiki kaikyū to dentō no mondai” (1937), Chosakushū, 12: 203–9Google Scholar.

45 Miki, “Fuashizumu,” pp. 132 and 136.

46 Miki, “Chishiki kaikyū,” pp. 214–15.

47 A general account of the Shōwa Research Association appears in dōjinkai, Shōwa, ed., Shōwa kenkyūkai (Tokyo: Keizai ōraisha, 1968)Google Scholar. For a description of the founding of the Association by Gotō, see pp. 6–8.

48 Cited in Crowley, James B., “A New Deal for Japan and Asia,” Crowley, , ed., Modern East Asia: Essays in Interpretation (N. Y.: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1970); p. 252Google Scholar.

49 A description of the activity of the Culture Research Group is presented in “Shōwa 14 nendo Shōwa kenkyūkai taikō fu Shōwa 13 nendo jigyō hōkoku,” Shōwa kenkyūkai kankei shiryō (hereafter cited as SKKS), item 229, pp. 65–66. See also Ikutarō, Shimizu, “Miki Kiyoshi to Shōwa kenkyūkai,” Rekishi to jimbutsu, no. 32 (April 1974), pp. 5765Google Scholar for a more personal account.

50 kenkyūkai, Shōwa, ed., Shin Nihon no shisō genri (Tokyo: n. p., 1939), p. 11Google Scholar. This pamphlet also appears in vol. 17 of Miki Kiyoshi zenshū (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1968)Google Scholar, but it did not appear in the Chosakushū published in 1948.

51 Shin Nihon no shisō genri, p. 13.

52 Ibid., p. 19.

53 Ibid., p. 17.

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55 Shōwa kenkyūkai, Shin Nihon no shisō genri, pp. 12–13.

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57 See Shimizu, “Miki Kiyoshi,” pp. 60–64.

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59 See Havens, Thomas R. H., Farm and Nation in Modern Japan: Agrarian Nationalism, 1870–1940 (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1974), pp. 6970 and 236–37Google Scholar.

60 Shōwa kenkyūkai, Shin Nihon no shisō genri, pp. 7–10.

61 See Toennies, Ferdinand, Community and Society, trans, and ed. Loomis, Charles P. (East Lansing: Michigan State Univ. Press, 1957), pp. 225–27Google Scholar; and Loomis's introduction, pp. 3–4.

62 Shōwa kenkyōkai, Shin Nihon no shisō genri zokuhen, p. 557.

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64 Ermath, Fritz, The New Germany: National Socialist Government in Theory and Practice (Washington, D.C.: Digest Press, American University Graduate School, 1936), p. 84Google Scholar. See also Carroll, Design for Total War, p. 82.

65 For a description of these new industrial organizations see Ermath, The New Germany, pp. 124–26.

66 These Nazi economic policies are described in Nathan, Otto, The Nazi Economic System: Germany's Mobilization for War (Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 1944), pp. 7173, 119–23, 129–30, and 222–27Google Scholar.

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70 Ibid., pp. 323–25 and 498–99.

71 Shōwa kenkyūkai jimukyoku, “Keizai saihensei no kihon hōkō—saimoku kenkyū no puran sakusei no tame no sankō iken,” 27 September 1939, SKKS, item 181.

72 Shōwa dōjinkai, Shōwa kenkyūkai, pp. 125— 26.

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74 Ibid., pp. 126–29 and 146–47.

75 Ibid., p. 153.

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77 Ibid., p. 153.

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79 Ibid., p. 252.

80 Ibid., pp. 60–61.

81 Ibid., pp. 281–86.

82 Ibid., pp. 159–62.

83 Ibid., pp. 198 and 202–5.

84 See Shina jihen taisaku iinkai, “Shina jihen taisaku sōan, kankō senshūryo zengo ni okeru,” SKKS, item 56.

85 Masamichi, Rōyama, “Kokumin kyōdōtai no keisei,” Kaizō 21 (May 1939): 24Google Scholar.

86 Ibid., p. 25.

87 Ibid., pp. 25–27.

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92 jimukyoku, Shōwa kenkyūkai, “Seiji kikō kaishin taikō” (1940), in Itō Takashi and Imai Seiichi, Kokka sōdōin, 2Google Scholar, Gendai shi shiryō, vol. 44 (Tokyo: Misuzu shobō, 1974), p. 162Google Scholar. Yabe claims to have written this report in kankōkai, Yabe Teiji nikki, Yabe Teiji nikki (Tokyo: Yomiuri shimbunsha, 1974), p. 339Google Scholar.

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100 For a sample of the criticism of the new political order as originally proposed in the Preparation Committee, ibid., pp. 109–10.

101 Cited in Tōyama, et al. , Shōwa shi (1959), p. 183Google Scholar.

102 Berger, Gordon M., Parties out of Power in Japan, 1931–1941 (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1976), pp. 321–24Google Scholar.

103 Tōyama et al., Shōwa shi, p. 185; and Berger, Parties out of Power, pp. 341–42.

104 Berger, Gordon M., “Changing Historical Perspectives on Early Shōwa Politics: ‘The Second Approach,’JAS 34 (February 1975): 480–81Google Scholar.

105 A copy of the Cabinet Planning Board draft of 28 September 1940, “Keizai shintaisei setsuritsu yōkō,” is reprinted in Nakamura and Hara, “Keizai shintaisei,” pp. 121–26. For a brief analysis of the influence of members of Ryū's committee on these plans, see Fletcher, “Ideologies of Political and Economic Reform,” pp. 297–301.

106 The petition of the Japan Economic League is printed in Yōji, Minobe, “Keizai shintaisei kanken,” Nihon hyōron 16 (March 1941): 1215Google Scholar.

107 Nakamura and Hara, “Keizai shintaisei,” p. 102. A copy of this agreement is in Nakamura Takafusa and Hara Akira, eds., Kokka sōdōin, 1, Gendai shi shiryō, vol. 43 (Tokyo: Misuzu shobō, 1970), pp. 169–71Google Scholar.

108 Maruyama Masao, Thought and Behavior, pp. 72–73. See also Tōyama et al., Shōwa shi, p. 182.

109 See Takeyama, Shōwa seishin shi, pp. 128–34.

110 Turner, Henry A. Jr., “Fascism and Modernization,” World Politics 24 (July 1972): 547–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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112 Alan Cassels, “Janus: the Two Faces of Fascism,” in Turner, Reappraisals of Fascism, pp. 69–92.

113 For an analysis of nōhonshugi ideology during the pre-war period, see Havens, Farm and Nation in Japan, chs. 7–11.