Kenkoku University

, mottoeng = "Five races under one union"
, established =
, type = Public research university
, chancellor = Ishiwara Kanji
, vice_chancellor = Sakata Shoichi (1938—1942)
Kamezo Odaka (1942—1945)
, city = Hsinking
, state =
, country = Manchukuo
, faculty =
, students =
, undergrad =
, postgrad =
, doctoral =
, other =
, campus = Urban
, former_names = The Manchurian University
, colours =
, academic_affiliations =
, athletics_nickname =
, mascot = Kanto Star (関東の星)
, website =

Kenkoku Daigaku or simply Kendai wasis an educational institution which was short-lived in Hsinking (modern Changchun, Jilin province), the capital of Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state in occupied Manchuria during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It operated from May 1938 to August 7, 1945.

Etymology

The name of this academy means "Nation Building University" or "National Foundation University" (建國的原則, 建国の理念). It originated from the period of Northern Zhou.

History

Kenkoku Tai

The Kenkoku Society was a Japanese secret society founded in April 1926. It was formed by the Nazi sympathizer Takabatake Motoyuki along with Nagoya Anarchists Uesugi Shinkichi and Akao Bin. It proclaimed its object to be "''the creation of a genuine people's state based on unanimity between the people and the emperor''".The Living Age
Vol 350. Eliakim Littell and Robert S. Littell. 1936 At its height, the organization reached a nationwide membership of around 120,000.

Its state socialist program included the demand for "''the state control of the life of the people in order that among Japanese people there should not be a single unfortunate nor unfully-franchised individual''". The organisation embraced Panasianism declaring "''The Japanese people standing at the head of the colored people, will bring the world a new civilization''". It was at one time in favor of universal suffrage.

The Kenkoku Society worked in close concert with the police to break the miners strike in Tochigi, and other strikes by factory workers in Kanegafuchi, tramway workers in Tokyo, and tenant farmers in Gifu Prefecture. Uesugi soon withdrew in 1927, and Takabatake supporters left following his death in 1928. This left the organization with only around 10,000 members. Mitsuru Toyama of the Black Dragon Society was appointed honorary chairperson, and Nagata, a former Police Chief, vice-chair. Others of this new influx included Ikihara, Kida, and Sugimoto. Akao was director of the league, which organized gangs of strike breakers and in 1928 bombed the Soviet embassy. Their paper ''Nipponshugi'' was virulently anti-communist with slogans such as "''Death to Communism, to Russian Bolshevism, and to the Left parties and workers' unions''".

Kenkoku Daigaku

Kanto-kun invaded Manchuria on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden Incident. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Because sheared off from China by the Kanto-kun in March 1932 and declared an independent country, Manchukuo existed as a client state of Japan on the margins of the international order, recognized by a handful of nations. A pro-Japanese government was installed one year later with Puyi, the last Qing emperor, serving first as nominal regent, and later as the first emperor. Restoration of Puyi to the throne of his Manchu ancestors provided one such symbol, and emphasized Japan's stance in favor of tradition over communism and republicanism, and had tremendous propaganda value.

Although the Kanto-kun was nominally subordinate to the Imperial General Headquarters and the senior staff at the Army General Staff located in Tokyo, its leadership often acted in direct violation of the orders from mainland Japan without suffering any consequence. Conspirators within the junior officer corps of the Kanto-kun plotted and carried out the assassination of Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin in the Huanggutun Incident of 1928. Afterward, the Kanto-kun leadership engineered the Mukden Incident and the subsequent invasion of Manchuria in 1931, in a massive act of insubordination ( ''gekokujo'') against the express orders of the political and military leadership based in Tokyo. Presented with the ''fait accompli'', Imperial General Headquarters had little choice but to follow up on the actions of the Kanto-kun with reinforcements in the subsequent Pacification of Manchukuo. The success of the campaign meant that the insubordination of the Kanto-kun was rewarded rather than punished. In 1932, the Kwantung Army was the main force responsible for the foundation of Manchukuo, the puppet state of Japan located in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. The Kanto-kun played a controlling role in the political administration of the new state as well as in its defense. With the Kwantung Army, administering all aspects of the politics and economic development of the new state, this made the Kwantung Army's commanding officer equivalent to a Governor-General with the authority to approve or countermand any command from Puyi, the nominal Emperor of Manchukuo. As testament to the Kwantung Army's control over the government of Manchukuo, the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army also served as the Japanese Ambassador of Manchukuo.

From early 1934, the total population of Manchukuo was estimated as 30,880,000, with 6.1 persons the average family, and 122 men for each 100 women. These numbers included 29,510,000 Chinese (96%, which should have included the Manchu people), 590,760 Japanese (2%), 680,000 Koreans (2%), and 98,431 (<1%) of other nationality: White Russians, Mongols, some Europeans. Around 80% of the population was rural. During the existence of Manchukuo, the ethnic balance did not change significantly, except that Japan increased the Korean population in China. From Japanese sources come these numbers: in 1940 the total population in Manchukuo of Longjiang, Rehe, Jilin, Fengtian, and Xing'an provinces at 43,233,954; or an Interior Ministry figure of 31,008,600. Another figure of the period estimated the total population as 36,933,000 residents. The majority of Han Chinese in Manchukuo believed that Manchuria was rightfully part of China, who both passively and violently resisted Japan's propaganda that Manchukuo was a "multinational state". Besides, the South Manchuria Railway Zone and the Korean Peninsula had been under the control of the Japanese Empire since the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Japan's ongoing industrialization and militarization ensured their growing dependence on oil and metal imports from the US. The US sanctions which prevented trade with the United States (which had occupied the Philippines around the same time) resulted in Japan furthering its expansion in the territory of China and Southeast Asia. The invasion of Manchuria, or the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937, are sometimes cited as alternative starting dates for World War II, in contrast with the more commonly accepted date of September 1, 1939.

In May 1938, Kenkoku University was founded by an edict of General Kanji Ishiwara in capital Hsinking as the Supreme School of Manchuria (大滿洲帝國最高學府), and was run by Professor Sakata Shoichi from Kyoto University. Its purpose was to promote "ethnic harmony" in the region, legitimising and promoting the Japanese occupation. To this end, students were recruited from Japan, China proper, Mongolia, Taiwan, Manchuria, Korea and Soviet Union. As well as offering free tuition, the University also provided its students with board and lodgings, and a stipend. They were gathered at Kenkoku University under the idea of "Five Races Under One Union" to nurture future leaders in Manchuria. Emphasis was placed on "five races equality" () and "academic freedom" (), and the students slept and ate together in the dormitory, creating bonds that transcend ethnic groups. However, contrary to the original intention of the Japanese authorities, it turned out that Kenkoku was the incubator for a generation of capable Asian leaders who contributed significantly to shaping East Asian identity after World War II. Multiple students of Kenkoku University later became prominent political figures in South Korea—including later South Korean prime minister Kang Young-hoon—, North Korea and China. A number of influential aikido practitioners trained and taught at the University, including aikido's founder Morihei Ueshiba, Kenji Tomiki, Shigenobu Okumura and Noriaki Inoue. In general, students from Japan, China, Korea, the Soviet Union and Mongolia learned at Kenkoku University under the banner of "the harmony of five ethnicities", and sometimes-surprising friendships were forged at the Japan-run institution, even as imperial Japanese troops brutalised much of the region.

Over 1,000 applicants for 25 selections: Unprecedented competition rate in recruiting Korean students to Manchurian University. In the fall of 1937, fierce competition for entrance exams took place. Even the Sino-Japanese War that began in the summer could not quell the heat. The goal was the newly established Kenkoku University in Manchuria. This university, which was to be established in May 1938 in Hsinking (now Changchun), the capital of Manchukuo at the time, was scheduled to select a total of 150 students from six ethnic groups, including Korea, Japan, Manchuria, Taiwan, Mongolia and Russia. Applications for new students (including Japanese) recruited in Korea closed on October 20th. In Gyeongseong alone, 155 Koreans and 140 Japanese gathered.

The first test for applicants within Korea was held at Gyeongseong Women's Normal School in Susong-dong for three days starting on December 27th. It was unusual that the physical examination was the first. He said : "''If you want to work in Manchuria, you must first be physically healthy, so consider your health first''" (''Entrance Exam Suffering No. 1'', Chosun Ilbo, December 28, 1937). Of the 670 applicants, 90 (60 Koreans and 30 Japanese) were selected. The competition rate was 7.4 to 1.

Early the following year, I took the second exam in Gyeongju. Korean test takers were paid full transportation and lodging expenses to and from the test site. He received unprecedented treatment. The second test was an interview. The interview time was divided into three fields: Humanities and social sciences, natural sciences, and general knowledge and personality, and 15 to 20 minutes of interview time was allocated to each field. The final successful candidates were announced in March 1938. Among the applicants from Korea, only 11 (including 2 Japanese) were successful.

The competition to enter Kenkoku University was fierce the following year. The Government General's Academic Affairs Bureau recommended 83 students for the second entrance exam in 1939. There were 57 Koreans and 26 Japanese. The final number of successful applicants was 13, similar to the previous year. There were 9 Koreans and 4 Japanese (''Announcement of successful applicants to Kenkoku University'', Chosun Ilbo, January 17, 1939). The characteristic of the second entrance exam was that there were 5 persons from Gyeonggi province. One Japanese person each came from Gwangju, Daegu, Wonsan, and Busan middle schools.
*Free tuition and dormitory fees : Up to 5 wons monthly allowance.
*There are 91 Korean students admitted : 7% of all students.
*The Hwang Min-hwa movement is so severe that it goes to Manchuria.
*Emphasis on military and martial arts training : Participated in the establishment and development of the Korean military after liberation.
*Plan to recruit professors such as Lev Trotsky, Mahatma Gandhi and Pearl Buck.
The university closed on August 7, 1945, when the Kanto-kun were defeated by Soviet Red Army. Chinese graduates of Kenkoku University were taken to Sibir or met a miserable end during the Cultural Revolution, but Koreans returned to Korea and adapted well. Some of them contributed to the establishment of universities named after North Korean leaders. Some of them joined the Joseon Political Science Building, the predecessor of what is now Konkuk University. The campus is said to have become the basis for the establishment of Changchun University.

Education

Elites

;Board
*Principal : Ishiwara Kanji
*Assistant principals : Sakata Shoichi (1938—1942), Kamezo Odaka (1942—1945)
;Lecturers

* Masanobu Tsuji
* Kiyoshi Hiraizumi
* Katsuhiko Kakehi
* Kawakami Hajime
*Hu Shih
* Zhou Zuoren
*Choe Nam-seon
*Subhas Chandra Bose
*Mahatma Gandhi
* Pearl S. Buck
* Lev Trotsky
*Saito Takeshi
* Okuda Yasuo
* Sato kiyoji
* Miyagawa Zenzo
* Aiyappan Pillai Madhavan Nair
* Onoue Masao
* Uemura Toshio
* Egashira Tsuneji
* Ishikawa Junjuro
* Shigematsu Nobuhiro
* Hwang Do-yeon
* Masajiro Takigawa
* Masao Fukushima
* Tobari Chikufu
* Inaba Kunzan
* ..
;Students

* Ichikawa Emon
* Yoshioka Takayuki
* Endo Fumio
* Hayashi Shintaro
* Gao Di
*Chen Kang
* Li Meng Jing
* Xu Zong Mao
* Arima Kan
* Ziao Zheng Wen
* Gu Xue Qian
* Taki Nima
* Nakagawa Keiichiro
* Nojiri Taketoshi
* Todo Kazu
* Ueno Eishin
* Kang Young-hoon
* Min Ki-sik
* Hong Chun-sik
* Ho Hiroshi
* Ahn Kwang-soo
* Valentin Tubylov
* Nikolay Tolkachev
* Jirgal
* Kim Tu-sam
* Kobayashi Kinzo
* Maekawa Mitsuo
* Yamanaka Fukujiro
* Shigematsu Toku
* Yamashita Koichi
* Mikio Adachi
* Sakikawa Yuji
* Fujimori Koichi
* Yang Zeng Zhi
* Godai Natsuo
* Iwabuchi Katsuro
* Eguchi Matsujin
* Fumina Oka
* Shigeru Imaizumi
* Kim Jong-cheol
* Cho Gwang-seop
* ..

Curriculum

According to the important research article by PhD. Ernest Ming-tak Leung from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the key elements that make up the legacy of Kenkoku University are the Japanese Marxists who were expelled from their homeland after 1930. It was they who, through their teachings in Kenkoku, promoted an ideology that was not welcome in their homeland. This work accidentally created a notable contemporary socio-political phenomenon, that is the Manchukuo Marxism. Yuka Hiruma-Kishida reported more clearly that, for the first time in the world history, in a place that few people pay attention to (and even despise) like Manchuria, the combination of ancient East Asian political thought was planted with completely new social liberalization trends.

The conservative Kenkoku persons favored Mencius' ōdō ideology (王道樂土思想, "kingly way" or "way of right"), while the younger group belonged to the marxist movement, eventually "making peace" with a new ideology, called as Panasianism or simply "Mingoku Kyōwa Shisō" (民國協和思想, "republican ideology" or "people and country become one"). In fact what happened during the Cold War and in the years that followed proved that Asian society essentially followed this form of ideology. It is both very seriously traditional and not out of step with ideologies originating from the Western world.

Influences

During the Cold War era, former professors and students of Kenkoku University made great contributions to the evolution of the whole East Asia region. However, at this time, because of the complicated political situation, they hardly had any official contact.

After the Cultural Revolution in China proper ended, a delegation of many Chinese alumni under the "support" (擁護) of Jiang Zemin went to Tokyo to connect with Japanese alumni. This event not only helped People's Republic of China receive huge aid from Japan to promote economic reform, but also opened a whole new chapter for Kenkoku University alumni.

In 1989, the Manchurian Studies Association or Kenkoku-Daigaku Alumni Association (建國大學同志會, Jianguo Daxue Tongzhi Hui, Kenkoku Daigaku Doshi Gai) with a core of Chinese and Japanese alumni was established. This is both a friendship organization and also a force to expand the influence of Asia's largest economies. However, from then until 2023, this organization only operates in the field of economic and sometimes cultural cooperation, not allowed to attend any political or military events.

The most important event for the Alumni Association was supporting the establishment of Changchun University. Initially, the name chosen was "construction" (建設, Jianshe, Kensetsu), but because the Chinese government considered it "politically sensitive", that idea failed.
File:Stamp of Manchukuo - 1942 - Colnect 365398 - Kenkoku Shrine.jpeg, Stamp of Kenkoku Shrine, 1942
File:1964年毛泽东与坂田昌一握手.jpg, On August 23, 1964, Zhou Pei Yuan (middle) accompanied Mao Ze Dong (left) to meet with Sakata Shoichi (right), as the head of the Japanese delegation
File:1984年长春市延安大街 yan an da jie 1984 - panoramio.jpg, 1984 Yan'an Street, Changchun City
File:长春自由大路长庆街东南东北师范大学附属小学满洲国文教部旧址市级文物牌.jpg, Site of Ministry of Culture and Education Development of Manchukuo. Original building demolished. Now Primary School Attached to Northeast Normal University
File:满铁新京图书馆旧址 Library of Hsinking Branch of South Manchurian Railway Co. - panoramio.jpg, Library of Hsinking Branch of South Manchurian Railway Co

In the decades after World War II, in general and basically, the legacies of Kenkoku University were completely forgotten due to overlapping conflicts in a turbulent Asia. There is a paradox that, although the students of this academy participated in all the important political forces of the region and even accidentally became enemies of each other, no one mentioned their "master" (祖師). This connection only began to be revived by scholars in the late 2010s, when the last generation of students was old and all political conflicts were no longer there.

November 15, 2020, TV Asahi aired a documentary titled ''Telementary 2020 - Vanished University - Manchuria's Phantom Dream'' (テレメンタリー2020「消えた大学 幻の満州の夢」).満州にあった「建国大学」とは…“幻の大学”に出身学生の孫が迫る
/ref> From the reporter, whose deceased grandfather was a graduate of Kenkoku University, was trying to uncover more information about it. The film immediately won the public's sympathy, with some netizens even saying that it not only restores a heroic period of history that the Japanese have tried to bury for many years, but also restores people's confidence many individuals to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic. Even in Vietnam, a country with very little connection to what happened in Manchuria decades earlier, Kenkoku University and its legacy have become a hot topic of debate on youth forums.

See also

* Manchukuo Marxism
*Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
*Keijō Imperial University
*Ritsumeikan University
* Changchun University
*Konkuk University
*Whampoa Military Academy
*Long March
*Cultural Revolution
*Reform and Opening-up
*Nordpolitik

Notes and references

Further reading

Bibliography

;English
*Smith, Lloyd (January 1940). Everybody's Complete Encyclopedia. Whitman Publishing Company. Racine, Wisconsin. p. 462
*Clauss, Errol MacGregor. "The Roosevelt Administration and Manchukuo, 1933–1941", ''Historian'' (1970), 32#4 pp 595–611.
*Fleming, Peter, Travel's in Tartary: One's Company and News from Tartary: 1941 (Part one: Manchukuo)
*
*Wong, P., Manvi, M., & Wong, T. H. (1995). Asiacentrism and Asian American Studies? ''Amerasia Journal'', ''21''(1/2), 137–147.
* Starrs, Roy (2001) ''Asian Nationalism in an Age of Globalization.'' London: RoutledgeCurzon .
**Review in ''The Journal of Japanese Studies'' 34.1 (2007) 109–11
online
*Mitter, Rana. ''The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Modern China'' (2000)
* Kamal, Niraj (2002) ''Arise Asia: Respond to White Peril.'' New Delhi: Wordsmith .
*Starrs, Roy (2002) ''Nations under Siege: Globalization and Nationalism in Asia.'' New York: Palgrave Macmillan .
*Duara, Prasenjit. ''Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern'' (2004)
*
*Yamamuro, Shin'ichi. ''Manchuria under Japanese Dominion'' (U. of Pennsylvania Press, 2006)
*Saaler, Sven and J. Victor Koschmann, eds., ''Pan-Asianism in Modern Japanese History: Colonialism, Regionalism and Borders.'' London and New York: Routledge, 2007.
*Reginald Fleming Johnston. " Twilight in the Forbidden City". Soul Care Publishing, 18 March 2008. .
*Mahbubani, K. (2008). ''The new Asian hemisphere: The irresistible shift of global power to the East''. PublicAffairs.
* Toshihiko Kishi. "Manchuria's Visual Media Empire (Manshukoku no Visual Media): Posters, Pictorial Post Cards, Postal Stamps", Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 10 June 2010.
*Saaler, Sven and C.W.A. Szpilman, eds., ''Pan-Asianism: A Documentary History,'' Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. two volumes (1850–1920, 1920–present). (vol. 1), (vol. 2)
*Toshihiko Kishi, Mitsuhiro MATSUSHIGE and MATSUMURA Fuminori MATSUMURA, eds, 20 Seiki Manshu Rekishi Jiten ncyclopedia of 20th Century Manchuria History Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 2012,
* Aaron Stephen Moore,
The Yalu River Era of Developing Asia: Japanese Expertise, Colonial Power, and the Construction of Sup'ung Dam
', The Journal of Asian Studies, Duke University Press, February 2013.
*Miike, Y. (2014). The Asiacentric turn in Asian communication studies: Shifting paradigms and changing perspectives. In M. K. Asante, Y. Miike, & J. Yin (Eds.), ''The global intercultural communication reader'' (2nd ed., pp. 111–133). Routledge.
*
* Yuka Hiruma-Kishida (author) & Christopher Gerteis (series editor), ''Kenkoku University and the Experience of Pan-Asianism: Education in the Japanese Empire (SOAS Studies in Modern and Contemporary Japan)'', SOAS Studies in Modern and Contemporary Japan, Bloomsbury Academic, London, England, United Kingdom, October 3, 2019. , .
*Khanna, P. (2019). ''The future is Asian: Commerce, conflict, and culture in the 21st century''. Simon & Schuster.
*Yin, J. (2022). Rethinking Eurocentric visions in feminist communication research: Asiacentric womanism as a theoretical framework. In Y. Miike & J. Yin (Eds.), ''The handbook of global interventions in communication theory'' (pp. 188–214). Routledge.
*Miike, Y. (2022). An anatomy of Eurocentrism in communication scholarship: The role of Asiacentricity in de-Westernizing theory and research. In W. Dissanayake (Ed.), ''Communication theory: The Asian perspective'' (2nd ed., pp. 255–278). Asian Media Information and Communication Center.
;Japanese
*
* 昭和11年の建大創設構想に基く初動から昭和20年の閉学に至るまでの経過が日付を追って詳細に記録されている。非売品。
*建国大学同窓会編『歓喜嶺 遥か』（文集）1991年6月刊、B5判、（上）401頁、（下）427頁。教員、学生の執筆260編。非売品。
*
*宮沢恵理子『建国大学と民族協和』風間書房、1997年。ISBN 4759910158
*三浦英之『五色の虹　満州建国大学卒業生たちの戦後』、2015年。ISBN 978-4087815979。
*山根幸夫『建国大学の研究―日本帝国主義の一断面』 汲古書院、2003年。ISBN 4762925489
*志々田文明『武道の教育力―満洲国・建国大学における武道教育―』日本図書センター、2005年。 ISBN 4820593161
*志々田文明 早稲田大学人間科学研究による論�
建国大学の教育と石原莞爾
(PDF)
*小野寺永幸『歓喜嶺遥か、北帰行－満州建国大学と旅順高校の異材』（北の杜編集工房、2004年）
*鈴木登志正『歓喜嶺遥か！満州建国大学植樹班物語－東西文化研究、第1号～第4号』（東西文化研究会、1999年）
;Korean
‘만주 건국대학’이라는 실험과 육당 최남선
(Choe Nam-seon and Kenkoku University as a Testing Ground for ‘Concord of Nationalities’ in Manchukuo), 사회와역사(구 한국사회사학회논문집), 2016, vol., no.110, pp. 309–352 (44 pages), UCI : G704-000024.2016..110.011, 발행기관 : 한국사회사학회, 연구분야 : 사회과학 > 사회학
;Russian
*Лестев А.Е.
Использование социально-утопических идей в японской континентальной политике в Маньчжоу-го и Монголии
' // Россия - Китай: история и культура: сборник статей и докладов участников XI Международной научно-практической конференции. – Казань: Изд-во Академии наук РТ, 2018. С. 200-206.
;Vietnamese
*Lý Đông A, ''Ký trình: Ngày giờ đã khẩn cấp!'', Liuzhou, Guangxi, China, 1943.
*Lý Đông A, ''Tuyên ngôn ngày thành lập Việt Duy Dân Đảng'', Hoa-Binh, Tonkin, Indochina, 1943.
* Masaya Shiraishi (author) & Ngô Bắc (translator),
Việt Nam Kiến Quốc Quân và cuộc khởi nghĩa năm 1940
' (Nation-Building Army of Viet-Nam and the 1940 Revolt), December 21, 2009.
*Ernest Ming-tak Leung (author) & Ngọc Giao (translator), ''Trường đại-học kiến-thiết tương-lai Á-châu'' (The school that built Asia), Hanoi, Vietnam, 2022.

External links

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
at Britannica
Foreign Office Files for Japan and the Far EastWW2DB: Greater East Asia ConferenceAll about the AsiacentricityAn Anatomy of Eurocentrism in Communication Scholarship: The Role of Asiacentricity in De-Westernizing Theory and ResearchThe Asiacentric Idea in Communication: Understanding the Significance of a ParadigmAsian Communication Studies at the Crossroads: A View to the Future from an Asiacentric FrameworkToward an Alternative Metatheory of Human Communication: An Asiacentric Vision

Theorizing Culture and Communication in the Asian Context: An Assumptive Foundation

{{DEFAULTSORT:University, Kenkoku
1938 establishments in China
1945 disestablishments in China
Universities and colleges established in 1938
Educational institutions disestablished in 1945
Japanese colonial empire