Anarchism in Japan dates to the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.
The anarchist movement was influenced by World
War I and World War II, in which Japan played
a major role.
The anarchist movement in Japan can be divided
into three phases: from 1906–1911, from
1912–1936 and from 1945–present day.
== History ==
=== 1898–1910 ===
Anarchist ideas were first popularised in
Japan by radical journalist Shūsui Kōtoku.
After moving to Tokyo in his teens, Kōtoku
became a journalist and by 1898 he was writing
for the radical daily Yorozu Chōhō (Every
Morning News).
His liberalism led him to social democracy
and Kōtoku attempted to form the first Japanese
Social Democratic Party in May 1901.His fledgling
Social Democratic Party was immediately outlawed
and Yorozu Chōhō shifted away from the left
so Kōtoku started his own radical weekly,
Heimin Shinbun (Common People’s Newspaper).
The first issue appeared in November 1903
and the last was published in January 1905.
Its brief tenure earned Kōtoku a brief prison
sentence from February to July 1905.In prison
he read Peter Kropotkin's Fields, Factories
and Workshops, and following his release he
emigrated to the United States, where he joined
the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Kōtoku claimed "had gone [to jail] as a Marxian
Socialist and returned as a radical Anarchist."
In the US, more than 50 Japanese immigrants
met in Oakland California and formed the Social
Revolutionary Party.
The party began publishing a journal entitled
Kakumei (Revolution) and a leaflet called
Ansatsushugi (Terrorism) news of which reached
Japan and angered officials there.Kōtoku
returned to Japan in 1906, where he spoke
on the ideas he had developed while staying
in the USA (mainly California) which were
largely a mixture of anarchist communism,
syndicalism and terrorism developed from reading
such books as Kropotkin’s Memoirs of a Revolutionist
and The Conquest of Bread amongst others.
At the meeting, Kōtoku spoke on "The Tide
of the World Revolutionary Movement".While
Kōtoku was in the US, a second social democratic
party was formed called Socialist Party of
Japan.
A meeting of this party was held in February
1907 to discuss Kōtoku's views which ultimately
led the party to striking the party rule which
dictated working "within the limits of the
law of the land".
Five days later, the Socialist Party of Japan
was banned.In 1910, Akaba Hajime penned a
pamphlet entitled Nômin no Fukuin (The Farmers’
Gospel) which spoke of creating an anarchist
paradise through anarchist communism.
His criticisms of the Emperor in the pamphlet
cause him to go underground but eventually
he was caught and imprisoned.
He died in Chiba Prison on March 1, 1912.The
same year as the publication of The Farmer's
Gospel, four Japanese anarchists were arrested
following the discovery of bomb-making equipment.
This caused a government crackdown on anarchists
which culminated in 26 anarchists being charged
with plotting to kill the emperor.
The trial was closed to the public and all
were found guilty.
=== 1912–1936 ===
In 1912, Noe Itō joined the Bluestocking
Society and soon took over production of the
feminist journal Seitō (Bluestocking).
Soon Itō was translating works by anarchists
Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman.
Itō met and fell in love with Sakae Ōsugi,
another Japanese anarchist who had served
a series of prison sentences for his activism.
Ōsugi began translating and publishing Japanese
editions of Kropotkin's Mutual Aid: A Factor
of Evolution and Memoirs of a Revolutionist
while being personally more influenced by
the work of Mikhail Bakunin.
Inspired by the Rice Riots of 1918, Ōsugi
began publishing and republishing more of
his own writing such as Studies on Bakunin
and Studies on Kropotkin.
The Girochinsha (Guillotine Society), a Japanese
anarchist group hailing from Osaka, were involved
with revenge killings aimed at Japanese leaders
during the mid-1920s.
Nakahama Tetsu, an anarchist poet, and member
of the Girochinsha, was executed for his activities.The
state used the turmoil surrounding the 1923
Great Kantō earthquake as pretense to round
up Itō and Ōsugi.
According to writer and activist Harumi Setouchi,
Itō, Ōsugi, and his 6 year old nephew were
arrested, beaten to death and thrown into
an abandoned well by a squad of military police
led by Lieutenant Masahiko Amakasu.
According to literary scholar Patricia Morley,
Itō and Ōsugi were strangled in their cells.
This was called the Amakasu Incident and it
sparked much anger.
In 1924, two attempts were made on the life
of Fukuda Masatarô, the general in command
of the military district where Itō and Ōsugi
were murdered.
Wada Kyutaro, and old friend of the deceased,
made the first attempt shooting at General
Fukuda but merely wounding him.
The second attempt involved bombing Fukuda’s
house, but the general was not home at the
time.In 1926 two nationwide federations of
anarchists were formed, the Black Youth League
and the All-Japan Libertarian Federation of
Labour Unions.
In 1927, both groups campaigned against the
death penalty sentence for Italian-born anarchists
Sacco and Vanzetti.
The anarchist movement in the following years
were characterised by intense debate between
anarcho-communists and anarcho-syndicalists.
Hatta Shūzō, considered "the greatest theoretician
of anarchist communism in Japan," began speaking
for anarchist communism claiming that since
anarchist syndicalism was an outgrowth of
the capitalist workplace it would mirror the
same divisions of labor as capitalism.
Arguments like Shūzō's, and those of another
anarchist named Iwasa Sakutaro, convinced
the Black Youth League and the All-Japan Libertarian
Federation of Labour Unions to move towards
anarcho-communism with anarchist syndicalists
leaving both organizations.These divisions
weakened the anarchist movement in Japan and
soon after the Manchurian Incident led the
state to solidify itself and silence internal
opposition.
By the beginning of the World War II, all
anarchist organisations in Japan were forced
to shut down.
=== Post-WWII ===
Shortly after the end of World War II, Sanshiro
Ishikawa, who had been anarchist since before
the war, wrote Gojunen-go-no-Nihon (Japan
50 Years Later).
This work described an anarchist reconstruction
of Japanese society following a peaceful revolution.
In May 1946, a short-lived Japanese Anarchist
Federation was founded.
It published an organ named Heimin after Kotoku's
journal.
During this time, Japan was shaken by a wave
of workers' demonstrations demanding food
and a democratic popular front government.
The Federation, however, failed to gain a
foothold in the left.
Socialists and communists were able to crowd
the anarchists out in social struggles and
Heimin became increasingly academic and idealistic.
While the anarchists were initially divided
on their relationship with the Communist Party,
Heimin became openly hostile to the party
by the end of 1946.
The anarchists opposed a strike being prepared
by communists, socialists, and the trade unions
for higher pay for government workers, denouncing
bureaucrats as "agents of authoritarianism",
and even reveled in the occupying Allied forces
putting an end to this initiative.
Eventually, the Federation was split between
supporters and opponents of anarcho-syndicalism.
As a result, it dissolved in October 1950.
This was a time of crisis for the Japanese
left in general.
The Communist Party had been banned by the
Allies just months before, while many war-time
right-wing leaders returned to their powerful
positions.
== Japanese Anarchists and Korean Anarchism
==
Japanese anarchists cooperated with and supported
Korean anarchists.
Sakae Ōsugi had a profound influence on Korean
radicals.
The Korean anarchist group Black Wave Society
(Heukdo hoe) was established in 1921 with
sponsorship from Japanese anarchists.
Its organ was the Black Wave where Korean
anarchist Bak Yeol was its editor-in-chief.
== See also ==
Japanese dissidence during the Shōwa period
Japanese Anarchist Federation
Tomioka Makoto
Kikuoka Kuri
Fumiko Kaneko
Jun Tsuji
Nagoya Anarchists
Hajime Matsumoto
High Treason Incident
Shūsui Kōtoku
Kanno Sugako
== References ==
== Bibliography ==
Tsuzuki, Chushichi (1970).
"Anarchism in Japan".
Government and Opposition.
5 (4): 501–522.
== Further reading ==
Graham, Robert (2005).
"Anarchism in Japan and Korea".
Anarchism: a Documentary History of Libertarian
Ideas, Volume One.
Montréal: Black Rose Books.
ISBN 1-55164-250-6.
Stephen S. Large (1977).
The Romance of Revolution in Japanese Anarchism
and Communism during the Taishō Period.
Cambridge University Press.
John Crump (1992).
Anarchist opposition to Japanese militarism,
1926–1937.
John Crump (Jan 1, 1993).
Hatta Shūzō and Pure Anarchism in Interwar
Japan.
Macmillan.
== External links ==
"Anarchist Opposition to Japanese Militarism,
1926-37", a paper by John Crump presented
at the British Association for Japanese Studies
Japanese Anarchism Bibliography entry at the
Anarchy Archives
Amateur Revolt, an artistic and social activist
collective in Mabashi, Koenji
Mosakusha, an anarchist bookstore in Tokyo
