Japanese Nationalist
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Japanese nationalism is a form of
nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
that asserts the belief that the
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
are a monolithic
nation A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...
with a single immutable culture. Over the last two centuries, it has encompassed a broad range of ideas and sentiments. It is useful to distinguish Japanese
cultural nationalism Cultural nationalism is a term used by scholars of nationalism to describe efforts among intellectuals to promote the formation of national communities through emphasis on a common culture. It is contrasted with "political" nationalism, which r ...
from political or state nationalism, since many forms of cultural nationalism, such as those which are associated with folkloric studies, have been hostile to state-fostered nationalism. In Meiji Japan, nationalist ideology consisted of a blend of native and imported political philosophies, initially developed by the
Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...
to promote national unity and patriotism, first in defense against colonization by Western powers, and later in a struggle to attain equality with the
Great Powers A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power ...
. It evolved throughout the Taishō and
Shōwa period Shōwa most commonly refers to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa ** Shōwa era (昭和), the era of Hirohito from 1926 to 1989 * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufactu ...
s, and was used to justify increasingly extreme ideology, such as
fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
,
totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...
, and overseas expansionism. It has also provided a political and ideological foundation for the actions and atrocities of the Japanese military in the years leading up to and throughout
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Japanese nationalism has been used as justification for revising history textbooks from revisionist perspectives, which denies Japanese imperialist atrocities, including '
comfort women Comfort women were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term ''comfort women'' is a translation of the Japanese , a euphemism ...
' and the
Nanjing Massacre The Nanjing Massacre, or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly Chinese postal romanization, romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians, noncombatants, and surrendered prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanji ...
.


Meiji era beginnings (1868–1912)

During the final days of the
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
, the perceived threat of foreign encroachment, especially after the arrival of Commodore
Matthew C. Perry Matthew Calbraith Perry (April 10, 1794 – March 4, 1858) was a United States Navy officer who commanded ships in several wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War. He led the Perry Expedition that Bakumatsu, ended Japan' ...
and the signing of the Kanagawa Accord, led to increased prominence to the development of nationalist ideologies. Some prominent ''
daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...
'' promoted the concept of ''fukko'' (a return to the past), while others promoted ''ōsei'' (the Emperor's supreme authority). The terms were not mutually exclusive, merging into the ''
sonnō jōi was a '' yojijukugo'' (four-character compound) phrase used as the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s, during the Bakumatsu period. Based on Neo-Confucianism and Japanese nativism, the movement sou ...
'' (revere the emperor, expel the barbarians) concept, which in turn was a major driving force in starting the
Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
. The
Meiji Constitution The Constitution of the Empire of Japan ( Kyūjitai: ; Shinjitai: , ), known informally as the Meiji Constitution (, ''Meiji Kenpō''), was the constitution of the Empire of Japan which was proclaimed on February 11, 1889, and remained in ...
of 1889 defined allegiance to the State as the citizen's highest duty. The constitution itself contained a mix of political Western practices and traditional Japanese political ideas.


Basis of economic growth

The extreme disparity in economic and military power between Japan and the Western colonial powers was a great cause for concern for the early Meiji leadership. The motto ''
Fukoku kyōhei was Japan's national slogan during the Meiji period, replacing the slogan ''sonnō jōi'' ("Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians"). It is a ''yojijukugo'' phrase, originally from the ancient Chinese historical work on the Warring States per ...
'' (enrich the country and strengthen the military) symbolized Meiji period nationalistic policies to provide government support to strengthen strategic industries. Only with a strong economic base could Japan afford to build a strong, modern military along Western lines, and only with a strong economy and military could Japan force a revision of the unequal treaties, such as the Kanagawa Accords. Government policies also laid the basis of later industrialist empires known as the ''
zaibatsu is a Japanese language, Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertical integration, vertically integrated business conglomerate (company), conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over signifi ...
''.


Bushidō

As a residue of its widespread use in propaganda during the 19th century, military nationalism in Japan was often known as ''
bushidō is a Samurai moral code concerning samurai attitudes, behavior and lifestyle. Its origins date back to the Kamakura period, but it was formalized in the Edo period (1603–1868). There are multiple types of bushido which evolved significant ...
'' (武士道 "the way of the warrior"). The word, denoting a coherent code of beliefs and doctrines about the proper path of the
samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
, or what is called generically 'warrior thought' (武家思想, ''buke shisō''), is rarely encountered in Japanese texts before the Meiji era, when the 11 volumes of the ''
Hagakure ''Hagakure'' (Kyūjitai: ; Shinjitai: ; meaning ''Hidden by the Leaves'' or ''Hidden Leaves''), or , is a practical and spiritual guide for a warrior, drawn from a collection of commentaries by the clerk Yamamoto Tsunetomo, former retainer to ...
'' of Yamamoto Tsunetomo, compiled in the years from 1710 to 1716 where the character combination is employed, was finally published. Constituted over a long time by house manuals on war and warriors, it gained some official backing with the establishment of the
Bakufu , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...
, which sought an ideological orthodoxy in the
Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, which originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) i ...
of
Zhu Xi Zhu Xi ( zh, c=朱熹; ; October 18, 1130April 23, 1200), formerly romanized Chu Hsi, was a Chinese philosopher, historian, politician, poet, and calligrapher of the Southern Song dynasty. As a leading figure in the development of Neo-Confuci ...
tailored for military echelons that formed the basis of the new shogunal government. An important early role was played by
Yamaga Sokō was a Japanese military writer and philosopher under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period in Japan. As a scholar he applied the Confucian idea of the "superior man" to the samurai class of Japan. This became an important part of the samurai way ...
in theorizing a Japanese military ethos. After the abolition of the feudal system, the new military institutions of Japan were shaped along European lines, with Western instructors, and the codes themselves modeled on standard models adapted from abroad. The impeccable behavior, in terms of international criteria, displayed by the Japanese military in the
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
was proof that Japan finally had a modern army whose techniques, drilling, and etiquette of the war differed little from that of what prevailed among the Western imperial powers. The '' Imperial Rescript for Seamen and Soldiers'' (1890), presented Japan as a "sacred nation protected by the gods". An undercurrent of traditional warrior values never wholly disappeared, and as Japan slid towards a cycle of repeated crises from the mid-Taishō to early Shōwa eras, the old samurai ideals began to assume importance among more politicized officers in the
Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...
.
Sadao Araki Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II. As one of the principal nationalist right-wing political theorists in the Empire of Japan, he was regarded as the leader of the radical faction within the polit ...
played an important role in adopting a doctrine of '' seishin kyōiku'' (spiritual training) as an ideological backbone for army personnel. As
Minister of Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...
, he supported the integration of the samurai code into the national education system.


Role of ''Shinto''

In developing the modern concepts of and emperor worship, various Japanese philosophers tried to revive or purify national beliefs (''
kokugaku was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Edo period. scholars worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts in favor of ...
'') by removing imported foreign ideas, borrowed primarily from
Chinese philosophy Chinese philosophy (Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 中国哲学; Traditional Chinese characters, traditional Chinese: 中國哲學) refers to the philosophical traditions that originated and developed within the historical ...
. This "Restoration Shintōist Movement" began with
Motoori Norinaga was a Japanese people, Japanese scholar of active during the Edo period. He is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies. Life Norinaga was born in what is now Matsusaka, Mie, Matsusaka in Ise Province ...
in the 18th century. Motoori Norinaga, and later
Hirata Atsutane was a Japanese scholar, conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies, and one of the most significant 19th century theologians of the Shintō religion. His literary name was , and his primary assumed name ...
, based their research on the ''
Kojiki The , also sometimes read as or , is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions, and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the , and the Japanese imperia ...
'' and other classic Shintō texts which teach the superiority of the Sun Goddess ''
Amaterasu , often called Amaterasu () for short, also known as and , is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. Often considered the chief deity (''kami'') of the Shinto pantheon, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the () ...
''. This formed the basis for State Shinto, as the
Japanese emperor The emperor of Japan is the hereditary monarch and head of state of Japan. The emperor is defined by the Constitution of Japan as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, his position deriving from "the will of ...
claimed direct descent from ''Amaterasu''. The emperor himself was therefore sacred, and all proclamations of the emperor had thus a religious significance. After the Meiji Restoration, the new imperial government needed to rapidly modernize the polity and
economy of Japan The economy of Japan is a Developed country, highly developed mixed economy, often referred to as an East Asian model. According to the International Monetary Fund, IMF forecast for 2025, it will be the fifth-largest economy in the world List o ...
, and the Meiji oligarchy felt that those goals could only be accomplished through a strong sense of national unity and cultural identity, with State Shinto as an essential counterweight to the imported
Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
of the past, the
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
and other Western philosophies of the present. In 1890, the
Imperial Rescript on Education The , or IRE for short, was signed by Emperor Meiji of Japan on 30 October 1890 to articulate government policy on the guiding principles of education on the Empire of Japan. The 315 kanji, character document was read aloud at all important school ...
was issued, and students were required to ritually recite its oath to "offer yourselves courageously to the State" as well as protect the Imperial family. The practice of emperor worship was further spread by distributing imperial portraits for esoteric veneration. All of these practices used to fortify national solidarity through patriotic centralized observance at shrines are said to have given pre-war Japanese nationalism a tint of
mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...
and cultural introversion. The philosophy became popular during the Second Sino-Japanese War. This came to be regarded by militarists as a doctrine that the emperor was the center of the phenomenal world, lending religious impetus to ideas of Japanese territorial expansion.


Education

The principal educational emphasis from the Meiji period was on the great importance of traditional national political values, religion, and morality. The Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890 promoted a return to traditional
Confucian values Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...
in the hierarchal nature of human relations, with the State superior to the Individual, and the Emperor superior to the State. The Japanese state modernized organizationally but preserved its national idiosyncrasies. The attitude reinforced from 1905 was that Japan was to be a powerful nation, equal at least to the Western powers. During the Shōwa period, the educational system was used for supporting the militarized state and preparing future soldiers. The government published official textbooks for all levels of students and reinforced that with cultural activities, seminars, etc. Emphasis on the texts such as the ''Kokutai-no-hongi'' in schools was intended to emphasize the "uniqueness of Japan" from ancient centuries. These cultural courses were supplemented with military and survival courses against foreign invasion. Apart from indoctrination in nationalism and religion, children and school students received military drills (survival,
first aid First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with a medical emergency, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery until medical services arrive. First aid is gener ...
). These were taken further by the Imperial Youth Federation; college students were trained, and some recruited, for home defense and regular military units. Young women received first aid training. All of these actions were said to be taken to ensure Japan's safety and protect against larger and more dangerous countries.


Nationalist politics


Origin of nationalist structures and parties

In 1882, the Japanese Government organized the Teiseito (Imperial Gubernative Party), one of the first nationalist parties in the country. Starting from the
Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...
, Japan adopted the moniker "
Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...
" ("Dai Nippon Teikoku"), acquiring a colonial empire, with the acquisition of
Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...
(1869),
Ryukyu The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands (Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara and A ...
(1879),
Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The island of Taiwan, formerly known to Westerners as Formosa, has an area of and makes up 99% of the land under ROC control. It lies about across the Taiwan Strait f ...
(1895), the
Liaodong Peninsula The Liaodong or Liaotung Peninsula ( zh, s=辽东半岛, t=遼東半島, p=Liáodōng Bàndǎo) is a peninsula in southern Liaoning province in Northeast China, and makes up the southwestern coastal half of the Liaodong region. It is located ...
and
Karafuto , was established by the Empire of Japan in 1907 to govern the southern part of Sakhalin. This territory became part of the Empire of Japan in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese War, when the portion of Sakhalin south of 50°N was ceded by the R ...
(1905),
Joseon Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...
(Korea) (1905–10) and the
South Seas Mandate The South Seas Mandate, officially the Mandate for the German Possessions in the Pacific Ocean Lying North of the Equator, was a League of Nations mandate in the " South Seas" given to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations following W ...
islands (1918–19). The wars against China and Russia were modern and demanded a nationalist expression of patriotic sentiment. From this period, the
Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...
(founded in 1869) was converted into a focus for nationalist sentiment and received state patronage until the end of World War II. Yasukuni was dedicated to those Japanese and non-Japanese who had lost their lives serving Japan, and includes all war deaths from domestic and overseas conflicts from 1869 to 1945 (and none from any conflicts since 1945), but also civilians (women and students) and civil administration in colonies and occupied territories. Between 1926 and 1928, the central government organized the "Peace Preservation Department" (an anti-subversive police section) and prosecuted all local Soviet-sponsored communists who proposed a socialist form of government. The Japanese Army organized the ''
Kempeitai The , , was the military police of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The organization also shared civilian secret police that specialized in clandestine and covert operation, counterinsurgency, counterintelligence, HUMINT, interrogated suspects ...
'' (military police service). Dissent was controlled by the usage of political and press repression, with the
Peace Preservation Law The was a Japanese law enacted on April 22, 1925, with the aim of allowing the Special Higher Police to more effectively suppress alleged socialists and communists. In addition to criminalizing forming an association with the aim of altering the ...
permitting police to restrict freedom of expression and freedom to assemble. From 1925 to 1935, the (日本新聞) promoted nationalist ideology and sought to influence the Japanese political landscape. In spite of a relatively small overall circulation, it had wide readership among right-wing politicians and advocated the concept of the divine right of the emperor by vigorously attacking
Tatsukichi Minobe was a Japanese statesman and scholar of constitutional law. His interpretation of the role of the monarchy in the pre-war Empire of Japan was a source of considerable controversy in the increasingly radicalized political environment of Japan i ...
's “emperor organ theory”.


Realities of political power

Since the Meiji restoration, the central figure of the state was the
Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
. According to the constitution, the emperor was
Head of State A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "
he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...
(article 4) and Supreme Commander of the Army and the Navy (article 11).
Emperor Hirohito , Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigni ...
was also, from 1937, the commander of the
Imperial General Headquarters The was part of the Supreme War Council (Japan), Supreme War Council and was established in 1893 to coordinate efforts between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during wartime. In terms of function, it was approximately equi ...
. Japanese citizens were rallied to the "Defensive State" or "Consensus State", in which all efforts of the nation supported collective objectives, by guidance from national myths, history, and dogma — thus obtaining a "national consensus". Democratic institutions were installed in 1890 with the promulgation of a constitution and continued to acquire legitimacy until the 1920s when they fell into disrepute. Concerns that irresponsible political parties could have too great an influence over vital military affairs introduced a rule that the Army alone should nominate the Army Minister in civilian government. This permitted the army to have a '' de facto''
veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...
over civilian governments by having the power to refuse to nominate a candidate. This policy was introduced in law in 1900 but abolished in 1913. It was reintroduced in 1936, cementing military influence over the government after that time. The political system of Japan became subverted by the military throughout the 1930s from repeated attempted coups, and independent militarist interventions. The invasion of Manchuria after elements in the army manufactured an incident to justify a takeover was accomplished without instruction from the Tokyo government. This showed the impotence of the civilian government to have any influence over the impulses of the army. Governments become increasingly passive, allowing agency and direction of the state to fall to disparate competing elements of the army. The role of the emperor remained highly prestigious, with various factions competing to advocate their interpretation of what the emperor "truly" wanted. After the war, scrutiny of the emperor's role in the war and militarism intensified. For many historians such as Akira Fujiwara, Akira Yamada, Peter Wetzler,
Herbert Bix Herbert P. Bix (born 1938) is an American historian. He wrote ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', an account of the Japanese Emperor and the events which shaped modern Japanese imperialism, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfict ...
and John Dower, the work done by
Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He served with dis ...
and
SCAP SCAP may refer to: * S.C.A.P., an early French manufacturer of cars and engines * Security Content Automation Protocol * '' The Shackled City Adventure Path'', a role-playing game * SREBP cleavage activating protein * Supervisory Capital Assessm ...
during the first months of the
occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II from the surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, at the war's end until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect on April 28, 1952. The occupation, led by the ...
to exonerate Hirohito and all the imperial family from criminal prosecutions in the
Tokyo tribunal The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on 29 April 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their crimes against peace ...
was the predominant factor in the campaign to diminish in retrospect the role played by the emperor during the war. They argue that the post-war view focused on the imperial conferences and missed the numerous "behind the chrysanthemum curtain" meetings where the real decisions were made between Hirohito, his chiefs of staff, and the cabinet. For Fujiwara, "the thesis that the Emperor, as an organ of responsibility, could not reverse cabinet decision, is a myth fabricated after the war."


Political ideas

During the 1920s, right-wing nationalist beliefs became an increasingly dominant force. State support for Shinto encouraged a belief in the mythological history of Japan and thus led to mysticism and cultural chauvinism. Some secret societies took up
ultranationalism Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific i ...
and Japan-centered radical ideas. They included: '' Genyōsha'' (Black Ocean Society, 1881), ''
Kokuryu-kai The , or the Amur River Society, was a prominent paramilitary, ultranationalist group in Japan. History The ''Kokuryūkai'' was founded in 1901 by martial artist Uchida Ryohei as a successor to his mentor Mitsuru Tōyama's ''Gen'yōsha''. It ...
'' (Amur River Society, or Black Dragon Society, 1901), movements dedicated to overseas Japanese expansion to the north; '' Nihon Kokusai Kai'' (Japanese Patriotic Society, 1919), founded by Tokoname Takejiro; '' Sekka Boshidan'' (Anti-Red League) founded at the same time as the
Japanese Communist Party The is a communist party in Japan. Founded in 1922, it is the oldest political party in the country. It has 250,000 members as of January 2024, making it one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party is chaired ...
; and the ''
Kokuhonsha The was a nationalist political society in late 1920s and early 1930s Japan. History The ''Kokuhonsha'' was founded in 1924 by conservative Minister of Justice and President of the House of Peers, Kiichirō Hiranuma. It called on Japanese pat ...
'' (State Basis Society) founded in 1924 by Baron
Hiranuma Kiichirō Baron was a Japanese lawyer and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan in 1939. Hiranuma rose to prominence as a prosecutor and official in the Ministry of Justice. He served as minister of Justice under Prime Minister Yamamoto Gonnoh ...
, for the preservation of the unique national character of Japan and its special mission in Asia. Some of the nationalist ideas can be attributed to the ideologue
Ikki Kita was a Japanese author, intellectual and political philosopher who was active in early Shōwa period Japan. Drawing from an eclectic range of influences, Kita was a self-described socialist who has also been described by detractors as the "i ...
(1885–1937), an Amur River Society member. In his 1919 book ''An Outline Plan for the Reorganization of Japan'', Kita proposed a military ''coup d'état'' to promote the supposed true aims of the
Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...
. This book was banned, but certain military circles read in it in the early 1930s. Kita's plan was phrased in terms of freeing the Emperor from weak or treasonous counselors. After suspending the constitution, and dissolving the
Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
, the Emperor and his military defenders should work for a "collectivist direct voluntarism" to unify people and leaders. Harmony with the
working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
es would be sought by the abolition of the aristocracy and austerity for the Imperial House. Overseas, Japan would free Asia of Western influence. The Amur River Society was later instrumental in the Manchurian incident.


Political nationalist movements

The Japanese Navy was in general terms more traditionalist, in defending ancient values and the sacred nature of the Emperor; the Japanese Army was more forward-looking, in the sense of valuing primarily strong leadership, as is evidenced by the use of the ''coup'' and direct action. The Navy typically preferred political methods. The Army, ultimately, was the vehicle for the hyper-nationalists, anti-communists, anticapitalists, antiparliamentarians, and Nationalist-Militarist ideals. The military was considered politically "clean" in terms of
political corruption Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influen ...
, additionally assuming responsibility for 'restoring' the security of the nation. The armed forces took up criticism of the traditional democratic parties and regular government for many reasons (low funds for the armed forces, compromised national security, weakness of the leaders). They were also, by their composition, closely aware of the effects of economic depression on the middle and lower classes, and the
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
threat. Both branches gained power as they administered the exterior provinces and military preparations.


Nationalist right in the 1920s

Other nationalist rightist groups in the 1920s were the ''Jinmu Kai'' (
Emperor Jimmu was the legendary first emperor of Japan according to the and . His ascension is traditionally dated as 660 BC.Kelly, Charles F"Kofun Culture"Sakura Kai , was an ultranationalist secret society established by young officers within the Imperial Japanese Army in September 1930, with the goal of reorganizing the state along totalitarian militarist lines via a military coup d'état, if necessary. Its ...
'' (Cherry Blossom Society). This last was founded by Dr.
Shūmei Ōkawa was a Japanese nationalist and Pan-Asianist writer, known for his publications on Japanese history, philosophy of religion, Indian philosophy, and colonialism. Ōkawa advocated a form of Pan-Asianism which promoted Asian solidarity as a cov ...
, professor of the Colonization Academy, and radical defender of expansionism and military armed revolution at home. Amongst members were Army officers implicated in the Manchuria Affair, such as
Kingoro Hashimoto was a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army and politician. He was famous for having twice tried to stage a coup against the civilian government in the 1930s. Early career Hashimoto was born in Okayama City, and a graduate of the 23rd class of ...
, and Ishikawa Kanishi. Okawa served as a conduit by which
Kita Ikki was a Japanese author, intellectual and political philosopher who was active in early Shōwa period Japan. Drawing from an eclectic range of influences, Kita was a self-described Socialist thought in Imperial Japan, socialist who has also been ...
's ideas reached young nationalist officers on the right. Violent ''coups'' took place, and the
Kwantung Army The Kwantung Army (Japanese language, Japanese: 関東軍, ''Kantō-gun'') was a Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army, general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945. The Kwantung Army was formed in 1906 as a security force for th ...
made, in effect unilaterally, the decision to invade Manchuria. This was then treated as a ''fait accompli'' by Government and Emperor.


Doctrines

The Amau Doctrine (the "Asian
Monroe Doctrine The Monroe Doctrine is a foreign policy of the United States, United States foreign policy position that opposes European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. It holds that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign ...
") stated that Japan assumed the total responsibility for peace in Asia. Minister
Kōki Hirota was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1936 to 1937. Originally his name was . He was executed for war crimes committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War at the Tokyo Trials. Early life Hirota was ...
proclaimed "a special zone, anti-communist, pro-Japanese and pro-Manchukuo" and that Northern China was a "fundamental part" of Japanese national existence, in announcing a "holy war" against the Soviet Union and China as the "national mission". During 1940 Prince Konoe proclaimed the ''Shintaisei'' (New National Structure), making Japan into an "advanced state of National Defense", and the creation of the ''
Taisei Yokusankai The , or Imperial Aid Association, was the Empire of Japan's ruling political organization during much of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It was created by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on 12 October 1940, to promote the goals ...
'' (Imperial Authority Assistance Association), for organizing a centralized "consensus state". Associated are the government creation of the ''
Tonarigumi The was the smallest unit of the national mobilization program established by the Japanese government in World War II. It consisted of units consisting of 10-15 households organized for fire fighting, civil defense and internal security. Histor ...
'' (residents' committees). Other ideological creations of the time were the book " Shinmin no Michi" (臣民の道), the "Imperial Way" or "War Party" (''
Kodoha The ''Kōdōha'' or was a political faction in the Imperial Japanese Army active in the 1920s and 1930s. The ''Kōdōha'' sought to establish a military government that promoted totalitarian, militaristic and aggressive imperialist ideals, and ...
'') Army party, the "Yamato spirit" (''
Yamato-damashii or is a Japanese language term for the cultural values and characteristics of the Japanese people. The phrase was coined in the Heian period to describe the indigenous Japanese 'spirit' or cultural values as opposed to cultural values of foreig ...
''), and the idea of '' hakko ichiu'' (which directly translates to "8 corners under one roof", that means, "one house in which every people can live" or "everyone is family"), "Religion and Government Unity" (''Saisei itchi''), and ''Kokka Sodoin Ho'' (General Mobilization Right). The official academic texts included ''
Kokutai no Hongi is a concept in the Japanese language translatable as "system of government", "sovereignty", "national identity, essence and character", "national polity; body politic; national entity; basis for the Emperor's sovereignty; Japanese constituti ...
'' and '' Shinmin no Michi''. Both presented a view of Japan's history and the Japanese ideal to unite East and West.


Geostrategy

The economic doctrines of the " Yen block" were in 1941 transformed to the "Great Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" Plan, as a basis for the Japanese national finances, and conquest plans. There was a history of perhaps two decades behind these moves. The Japanese theorists, such as Saneshige Komaki, concerned with Mainland Asia, knew the geostrategic theory of
Halford Mackinder Sir Halford John Mackinder (15 February 1861 – 6 March 1947) was a British geographer, academic and politician, who is regarded as one of the founding fathers of both geopolitics and geostrategy. He was the first Principal of University Ext ...
, expressed in the book ''Democratic Ideas and Reality''. He discussed why the 'World Island' of Eurasia and Africa was dominant, and why the key to this was the 'Central Land' in
Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
. This is protected from sea attack, by deserts and mountains, and is vulnerable only on its west side, and to advanced technology from Europe. Mackinder declared that: "Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; Who rules the heartland commands the World-Island; Who rules the World-Island commands the World". These central Asiatic lands included: all of the Soviet Union, except the Pacific coast, west of the
Volga River The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...
; all
Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
, Sinkiang,
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
and
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
. This zone is vast and possesses natural resources and raw materials, does not possess major farming possibilities, and has a very little population. Mackinder thought in terms of land and sea power: the latter can outflank the former, and carry out distant
logistical Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption according to the needs of customers. Logi ...
operations, but needs adequate bases. These geopolitical ideas coincided with the theories of Lieutenant Colonel
Kanji Ishiwara was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He and Seishirō Itagaki were the men primarily responsible for the Mukden Incident that took place in Manchuria in 1931. Early life Ishiwara was born in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata P ...
, sent in 1928 to Manchuria to spy. The Army was on the Strike North Group side. The Navy, on the other hand, was interested in the southerly direction of expansion. An extended debate ensued, resolved in the end by the stern experience of Japan's armed conflicts with the Soviet Union in 1938–39. This tipped the balance towards the 'South' plan and the
Pearl Harbor attack The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. At the ti ...
that precipitated the
Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...
in 1941.


Other ideological lines

The Showa Studies Society was another "think tank" for future leaders of a radical totalitarian Japan, led by Count Yoriyasu Arima. He was a supporter of radical political experiments. With
Fumimaro Konoe was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1937 to 1939 and from 1940 to 1941. He presided over the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and breakdown in relations with the United States, which shortly after his t ...
and
Fusanosuke Kuhara was an entrepreneur, politician and cabinet minister in the pre-war Empire of Japan. Biography Kuhara was born in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture into a family of '' sake'' brewers. His brother was the founder of Nippon Suisan Kaisha and his uncle ...
, they created a revolutionary radical-right policy. These revolutionary groups later had the help of several important personages, making reality to some certain ideas of the nationalist-militarist policy with practical work in
Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...
. They included General
Hideki Tōjō was a Japanese general and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1941 to 1944 during the Second World War. His leadership was marked by widespread state violence and mass killings perpetrated in the name of Japanese nationalis ...
, chief of
Kempeitai The , , was the military police of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The organization also shared civilian secret police that specialized in clandestine and covert operation, counterinsurgency, counterintelligence, HUMINT, interrogated suspects ...
and leader of
Kwantung Army The Kwantung Army (Japanese language, Japanese: 関東軍, ''Kantō-gun'') was a Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army, general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945. The Kwantung Army was formed in 1906 as a security force for th ...
; Yosuke Matsuoka, who served as president of the (
South Manchuria Railway The South Manchuria Railway (; ), officially , Mantetsu () or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian– Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from ...
Company) and Foreign Affairs Minister; and Naoki Hoshino, an army ideologist who organized the government and political structure of Manchukuo. Tojo later became War Minister and Prime Minister in the Konoe cabinet, Matsuoka Foreign Minister, and Hoshino chief of Project departments charged with establishing a new economic structure for Japan. Some industrialists representative of this ideological strand were
Ichizō Kobayashi , occasionally referred to by his pseudonym , was a Japanese industrialist and politician. He is best known as the founder of Hankyu Railway, the Takarazuka Revue, and Toho. He served as Minister of Commerce and Industry between 1940 and 1941. ...
, President of Tokio Gasu Denki, setting the structure for the Industry and Commerce ministry, and
Shōzō Murata was a Japanese entrepreneur, cabinet minister and diplomat before, during and after World War II. Biography Murata was a native of Tokyo and a graduated the Tokyo Higher Commerce School (now Hitotsubashi University) in 1900.Sumitomo The is a Japanese corporate group and '' keiretsu'' that traces its roots to the ''zaibatsu'' groups that were dissolved after World War II. Unlike the ''zaibatsu'' of the pre-war period, there is no controlling company with regulatory power. I ...
Group becoming Communication Minister. Other groups created were the Government Imperial Aid Association. Involved in both was Colonel
Kingoro Hashimoto was a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army and politician. He was famous for having twice tried to stage a coup against the civilian government in the 1930s. Early career Hashimoto was born in Okayama City, and a graduate of the 23rd class of ...
, who proposed a Nationalist
single party A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...
dictatorship, combined with a state-run economy. The militarists had strong support from the wealthy owners of major industries. The "New Asia Day" celebration was to remember the sacred mission of extending influence to nearby Asian nations. The Japanese government, possibly following the German example of a "Worker's Front" State Syndicate, ultimately organized the Nation Service Society to group all the
trades union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
s in the country. All syndicates of the "Japanese Workers Federation" were integrated into this controlling body.


Control of communications media

The press and other communication media were managed under the Information Department of the Home Ministry.
Radio Tokyo , also known by its romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestrial television channels (NHK General TV and NHK ...
was charged with disseminating all official information around the world. The radio was transmitted in English, Dutch, three Chinese dialects, Malay, Thai, as well Japanese to Southeast Asia; and the Islamic world had programs broadcast in Hindi, Burmese, Arabic, English, and French. In
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
, there were radio programs in English and Japanese. Other daily transmissions were to Europe, South and Central America, eastern areas of South America, and the US, with Australia and New Zealand receiving broadcasts too. The official press agency
Domei Tsushin Domei is the name of: * Dōmei Tsushin was the official news agency of the Empire of Japan. History and development Dōmei was the result of years of efforts by Japanese journalists and business leaders to create a national news agency in Japan ...
was connected with the
Axis powers The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...
' press agencies such as DNB, Transoceanic, the Italian agency Stefani and others. Local and Manchukoan newspapers such as ''Manchurian Daily News'' (Japanese-owned) were under the control of these institutions and only published officially approved notices and information.


Nationalist symbology


Shiragiku (the chrysanthemum)

File:Imperial Seal of Japan.svg, National and Imperial Seal File:Imperial Seal of Japan.jpg, Bow of the battleship ''Mikasa''
The ''shiragiku'' (lit. "white chrysanthemum") or more common
chrysanthemum Chrysanthemums ( ), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants in the Asteraceae family. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia, and the center of diversity is in China. Co ...
flower was much used as an imperial symbol. It alludes to the
Chrysanthemum Throne The is the throne of the Emperor of Japan. The term also can refer to very specific seating, such as the throne in the Shishin-den at Kyoto Imperial Palace. Various other thrones or seats that are used by the Emperor during official functions ...
, the traditional
seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...
of Japanese emperors.


Banzai

The traditional cheer was given to the Emperor and other dignitaries, or on special commemorations, was ''Tenno Heika Banzai'' (天皇陛下万歳 or 萬歲, 'long live the Emperor') or the shortened form, '' Banzai''. The latter term, which means "ten thousand years," is an expression of Chinese origin (万歳) adopted by the Japanese in the
Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
. In its original sense, it is meant to represent an indeterminably lengthy time and is used to wish long life to a person, state, or project. As co-opted by the Japanese, it originally was simply used in this sense to wish long life to the Emperor (and by extension the Japanese state). As the
war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
progressed, it became the typical Japanese war cry or victory shout and was used to encourage Imperial troops in combat.


Other nationalist symbols

*
Flag of Japan The national flag of Japan is a rectangular white banner with a red circle at its center. The flag is officially called the but is more commonly known in Japan as the . It embodies the country's sobriquet: the Land of the Rising Sun. The ...
*
Rising Sun Flag The is a Japanese flag that consists of a red disc and sixteen red rays emanating from the disc. Like the Flag of Japan, Japanese national flag, the Rising Sun Flag symbolizes the Sun. The flag was originally used by daimyō, feudal warlords ...
* Good Luck Flag (signed war banner) *Five-point star badge (
Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...
symbol) *Cherry blossom badge (with or without anchor) (
Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...
symbol) *
Hachimaki A (headband, "helmet-scarf") is a type of Japanese headband, usually made of red or white cloth, typically featuring a design of kanji at the front. History The origin of the ''hachimaki'' is uncertain, but the most common theory states th ...
headband *
Senninbari A or one thousand stitch is a Haramaki (clothing), belt or strip of cloth stitched 1,000 times and given as a Shinto amulet by Japanese women and imperial subjects to soldiers going away to war. were decorated with 1000 knots or stitches, and ...
("One-thousand stitch belt") *
Kimigayo is the national anthem of Japan. The lyrics are from a ' poem written by an unnamed author in the Heian period (794–1185), and the current melody was chosen in 1880, replacing an unpopular melody composed by John William Fenton in 1869. W ...
(His Imperial Majesty's Reign) *
Umi Yukaba is a Japanese song whose lyrics are based on a chōka poem by Ōtomo no Yakamochi in the ''Man'yōshū'' (poem 4094), an eighth century anthology of Japanese poetry, set to music by Kiyoshi Nobutoki. History The poem is part of Ōtomo no Ya ...
*
Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...


Post-war developments

In February 1946, General
Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He served with dis ...
was set the task of drafting a model constitution to serve as a guide for the Japanese people. The U.S. intention was to ensure that the sources of
Japanese militarism was the ideology in the Empire of Japan which advocated the belief that militarism should dominate the political and social life of the nation, and the belief that the strength of the military is equal to the strength of a nation. It was most ...
were rooted out through fundamental reforms of the Japanese government, society, and economic structure. Perhaps the most lasting effect that came out of this constitution is
Article 9 Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article(s) may also refer to: ...
that reads: : "Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes. To accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as another war potential, will never be maintained. The right to belligerency of the state will not be recognized." With the renunciation of war and military power, Japan looked to the United States for security. As the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
began, the United States fostered a closer relationship with Japan due to the latter's strategic location in respect to the USSR. Japan became, as stated by the Japanese Prime Minister
Yasuhiro Nakasone was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1982 to 1987. His political term was best known for pushing through the privatization of state-owned companies and pursuing a hawkish and pro-U.S. fo ...
, an "
unsinkable aircraft carrier An unsinkable aircraft carrier is a geographically or politically important island that is used to extend the power projection of a military force. Because such an entity is capable of acting as an airbase and is a physical landmass not easily ...
" for the United States. Ensuing from this close relationship with the United States, Japan hoped that in time their country would become the "third leg in a triangle involving two superpowers." While the mainstream Japanese politics maintained a pro-American attitude, scholars noted that the nationalist ' ''Other'''' during post-war Japan was the United States. Left-wing nationalists criticized the United States's military presence whilst the conservative nationalists criticized the imposed military limitation by the United States. China later substituted the United States as the nationalist ''Other'' in contemporary Japanese politics . In academia, some scholars argue that postwar Japanese intellects and politicians constructed the mono-ethnic identity through public discourses and education. Japanese elites' tendency towards homogeneity and ethnic nationalism is from their desire to differentiate postwar Japanese identity from pre-war imperialist identity and multi-ethnic identity that include formerly colonized ethnic groups. Since the 1960s, economic growth in the Japanese miracle periods started to mitigate public distrust towards the central government. Japanese economic progress after World War II undermined the appeal of pre-war militarist nationalism, showing a path to prosperity was possible without colonies. The 1970s witnessed Japan's adoption of three fundamental tenets that would seek to define and direct Japanese internationalism, all concerning the need for Japanese initiatives in fostering a
liberal internationalism Liberal internationalism is a foreign policy doctrine that supports international institutions, open markets, cooperative security, and liberal democracy. At its core, it holds that states should participate in international institutions that up ...
. Some criticism points out that politicians in the 1970s selectively remembered the past, preferring narratives of Japan as atomic weapon victim to consciously and unconsciously alienate Japan from its undesired aggressive past. Some scholars note the apolitical nature of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and the 1970 Osaka World Exposition, which allow politicians to forge Japan as peaceful and internationalist for a unified national identity. The rather implicit elite advocacy of conservative nationalism has become more salient since the 1990s, where regional competitions from Asian tigers, and later China, created economic anxieties which reflected in political divisions. Many scholars have pointed out that the liberal internationalism has started to turn into conservative revisionist nationalism since the 1990s. The clashes of nationalism and the contemporary rise of ultra-nationalism, accompanied by military expansions and historical revisionism, are the hot topics of current academic discussions on post-war Japanese nationalism. The illiberal turn of nationalism started with new right-wing movements that created history textbooks from revisionist perspectives, which denies Japanese imperialist atrocities, including '
comfort women Comfort women were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term ''comfort women'' is a translation of the Japanese , a euphemism ...
' issues and
Nanjing Massacre The Nanjing Massacre, or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly Chinese postal romanization, romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians, noncombatants, and surrendered prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanji ...
. Their emergences can be seen as a direct discontent towards pacifists' low posture to former colonized countries but also motivated by economic anxiety in globalization. Although right-wing movements surfaced in the 1990s, the Japanese public still remain largely pacific. Since the 2000s, xenophobic online posts and nationalist claims against foreigners, mostly Chinese and Koreans, have risen due to anxieties over economic growth, regional competition, and globalization. Prime ministers
Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi ( ; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a Japanese retired politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ...
and
Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. ...
's visits to the controversial
Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...
has created huge controversies and received international backlashes. Japanese top political leaders have started to adopt more explicit conservatism nationalist stances and expansionist military ambitions. Abe tended to use ambiguous terms to describe his national agenda on controversial issues such as history education and intentionally avoided backlash from the public to equate him as an imperial leader. In order to justify military expansions, Abe framed his security agenda as proactive pacifism, enabling Japan to exercise collective self-defense. Japan's remilitarization is mostly due to security concerns of North Korea's nuclear weapon program and
China's rise The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...
in the East, as well as aligning with the US's aim to create alliances to contain China's global rise and deter North Korea's nuclear threat. Both the
Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. Ob ...
administration and the
Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
administration encouraged Japan's rearmament. Trump openly called for rapid Japanese rearmament, more due to discontent that the US support Japan while Japan does not have to do anything in return, less on prudence. Some scholars argue that the resurgence of ultra-nationalist tendency as solely an elite-driven process as the public remains pacifist, and overall public support is not required for politicians to achieve a nationalist agenda because of the low voter turnout.


Ethnic nationalism


Ultranationalism

Ultranationalism values the
emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
's authority around the 'state' and advocates the militaristic agenda. There are differences of opinion among Japanese liberal scholars on whether or not Japan's ultranationalist movements can be viewed as "fascism".


Uyoku dantai

In 1996, the
National Police Agency National Police may refer to the national police forces of several countries: *Afghanistan: Afghan National Police *Haiti: Haitian National Police *Canada: Royal Canadian Mounted Police *Colombia: National Police of Colombia *Cuba: National Revolut ...
estimated that there were over 1,000 extremist right-wing groups in Japan, with about 100,000 members in total. These groups are known in Japanese as ''
Uyoku dantai are Japanese ultranationalist far-right activists, provocateurs, and internet trolls (as '' netto-uyoku'') often organized in groups. In 1996 and 2013, the National Police Agency estimated that there were over 1,000 right-wing groups in Japa ...
''. While there are political differences among the groups, they generally carry a philosophy of anti-leftism, hostility towards
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
,
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
and occasionally the
United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...
, and justification of Japan's role in World War II. ''Uyoku dantai'' groups are well known for their highly visible propaganda vehicles fitted with loudspeakers and prominently marked with the name of the group and propaganda slogans. The vehicles play patriotic or wartime-era songs. Activists affiliated with such groups have used
Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see '') is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a Fuse (explosives), fuse (typically a glass bottle filled wit ...
s and time bombs to intimidate moderate politicians and public figures, including former Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka and
Fuji Xerox Fujifilm Business Innovation Corporation (), formerly known as Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., is a Japanese company specializing in the development, production, and sale of Xerography, xerographic and document-related products and services across the A ...
Chairman Yotaro Kobayashi. An ex-member of a right-wing group set fire to LDP politician Koichi Kato's house. Koichi Kato and Yotaro Kobayashi had spoken out against Koizumi's visits to
Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...
. Openly revisionist,
Nippon Kaigi is Japan's largest ultraconservative and ultranationalist far-right non-governmental organisation and lobbying group. It was established in 1997 and has approximately 38,000 to 40,000 members as of 2020. The group has significant influence i ...
is considered "the biggest right-wing organization in Japan".Muneo Narusawa
"Abe Shinzo: Japan’s New Prime Minister a Far-Right Denier of History"
, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 11, Issue 1, No. 1, January 14, 2013,
The Economist of Britain on January 5, 2013. Cited in: William L. Brooks (2013), Will history again trip up Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? The Asahi Shimbun, May 7, 2013


Nationalist right-wing and far-right political parties

*
Greater Japan Patriotic Party The , frequently abbreviated to Aikokutō (愛国党, ''Aikokutō''), is a Japanese political party and far-right political group. It was created in 1951 by right-wing ultranationalist Bin Akao, who became the first head of the party. __NOTOC__ O ...
(1951–present) *
Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...
(1955–present) *
National Socialist Japanese Workers' Party The is a neo-Nazi political party in Japan. It is headed by , who maintains a website and blog which includes praise for Adolf Hitler and the September 11 attacks. Pictures of Yamada, a Holocaust-denier, posing with Cabinet minister Sanae Taka ...
(1982–present) *
Japan Nation Party The is a minor nationalist party in Japan that was founded in 1988. , it is not represented in the chamber of the Diet of Japan. Political ideology The Japan Nation Party is on the political right. It promotes nationalism Nationalism i ...
(1988–present) * ''
Ishin Seitō Shimpū The is a minor Right-wing politics, right-wing Japanese political party. They support using the Japanese Self Defence Force, armed forces to defend Japan and increasing the authority of the Emperor of Japan, Japanese emperor. However it also in ...
'' (1995–present) *
Sunrise Party The , formerly known as the , was a conservative and nationalist political party in Japan. The SPJ was formed on 10 April 2010 by five Japanese lawmakers and parliamentarians, four former members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and an ind ...
(2010–2012) *
Japan Restoration Party The , also referred to in English as the Japan Restoration Association, was a Japanese political party. It was launched on 12 September 2012 and gained official recognition on 28 September 2012. The party grew from the regional Osaka Restoration A ...
(2012–2014) *
Party for Japanese Kokoro The , officially the , was a Japanese political party. It was formed as the on 1 August 2014 by a group of National Diet, Diet members led by Shintarō Ishihara. The party adopted its final name in December 2015, and ended up dissolving in Novemb ...
(2014–2018) *
Japan First Party The is a far-right political party in Japan founded by Makoto Sakurai. History On August 15, 2016, Sakurai announced in front of a crowd at the annual gathering to protest the Hantenren in front of Yasukuni Shrine that he would not stop at the To ...
(2016–present) *
Kibō no Tō was a Conservatism, conservative List of political parties in Japan, political party in Japan founded by Governor of Tokyo, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. The party was founded just before the call of the 2017 Japanese general election, 2017 gen ...
(2017–2018, 2018–2021) *
Sanseitō Sanseitō (, ; self-rendered as Party of Do it Yourself!! in English) is a Right-wing populism, right-wing populist List of political parties in Japan, political party in Japan. The party was founded in 2020 and won a seat in the 2022 Japanese Ho ...
(2020–present) *
Conservative Party of Japan The Conservative Party of Japan (, ''Nippon'' ''Hoshutō''; CPJ) is a Conservatism, conservative, Ultranationalism (Japan), Japanese ultranationalist and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in Japan. It was founded by novelis ...
(2023–present)


Bibliography

* Behr, Edward. ''The Last Emperor'' , Bantam, 1987 * Newman, Joseph. ''Goodbye Japan'', published in New York, 1942 * Moore, Frederick. ''With Japan's Leaders'', published in New York, 1942 * Whitney Hall, John. ''Japanese Empire'', Vol.20, 1967. * Emmott, Bill. "Japan's English Lessons" ''Foreign Policy'', 140 (2004) * Kase, Yuri. "Japan's Nonnuclear Weapons Policy on the Changing Security Environment" ''World Affairs'', 165.3 (2003) * Lincoln, Edward. "Japan: Using Power Narrowly" ''Washington Quarterly'', 27.1 (Winter 2003/2004) * Ozawa, Terutomo. "The New Economic Nationalism and the Japanese Disease": The Conundrum of Managed Economic Growth" ''Journal of Economic Issues'', v30 (1996) * Pyle, Kenneth B. ''The Japanese Question: Power and Purpose in a New Era'', (Washington, D.C.)


Other historical references


Asian and Pacific geopolitics

* Shaw, B. Earl, article "United States Pacific Defense" in Van Valkenburg, Samuel Book ''America at War'' Prentice-Hall, (1942). * Weigerth, W. Hans." Haushofer and the Pacific", ''Foreign Affairs'', XX (1942), P.732-742. * Mackinder, J. Halford, ''Democratic Ideals and Reality'', New York, Holt, (1942). * Bowman, Isaiah. ''The New World'', Yonker-on-Hudson, World Book, (1928), 4th Ed.


Official publications of the Japanese and Manchukuo governments

* Imperial Japanese Government Railways, Official guides to Eastern Asia, I, Manchuria and Chosen, Tokio, 1913 and later years. *
South Manchurian Railway The South Manchuria Railway (; ), officially , Mantetsu () or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operation of railways on the Dalian– Fengtian (Mukden)–Changchun (called Xinjing from ...
Company Ed, 1929. - Progress in Manchuria (Report), 1907–28 * Manchurian Year Books (various editions) * Far East Yearbooks (from 1941) * Review of Contemporary Manchuria (since 1937) * Review of Contemporary Manchuria, 1939. Official Publications of Manchukuo Government. * Manchuria Annals, Vol.,1933-39. Official Publications of Manchukuo Government. * Hayashide, Kenjiro, Epochal journey to Nippon. Official Publications of Manchukuo Government. * Japan Yearbook, Tokio, (since 1941) * Tokio Nichi-Nichi, Osaka Mainichi (newspapers), English language supplements (from the 1930s) * The newspapers Nippon Dempo and Tenshin Nichi-Nichi Shimbun, Review Bungei Shunju * Voice of the People of Manchukuo. Manchoukuoan Government edition. * Japan-Manchukuo Yearbook (the 1940s) * Governments-General of Taiwan, Chosen and Karafuto, Official Annual Reports on the administration of these Provinces (1924–1926 and other years). * Mitsubishi Economics Research Bureau. "Japanese Trade and Industry, Present and Future", Mcmillan, London (1936) * Reviews and other publications of Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai (International Cultural Relations Society), Tokyo (the 1930s/40s). * Publications of Kan-Ichi Uchida, Tokyo, Kobunsha Co. (same period)


Notes


References


External links


Japan's New NationalistsThe Rise of Japan's Neo-Nationalists: What It Means to the United States
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20051104221824/http://worldhistoryconnected.press.uiuc.edu/1.1/nozaki.html "I'm Here Alive": History, Testimony, and the Japanese Controversy over "Comfort Women"br>Japanese nationalism Link IndexUniversity research study about Japanese nationalism''Japan's Nationalism Risks its Power Position in East Asia''Yasukuni Shrine, Japanese Nationalism, and the Constitution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Japanese Nationalism Empire of Japan Foreign relations of Japan Nationalist movements in Asia Political history of Japan Racism in Japan