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Buddhism and Socialism in Japan and Burma*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 June 2009
Extract
At the First Asian Socialist Conference, held in Rangoon in January 1953, members of the two wings of the then split Japanese Socialist Party viewed the Burmese Socialists and their successful movement in Burma with interest and amazement1 The Japanese right-wing Socialists were pleased with the Burmese emphasis on “democratic socialism” and denunciation of “Soviet imperialism,” though a somewhat patronizing air could be detected in their attitudes toward the younger Burmese who were relative new-comers to the ranks of the international socialist movement. The Japanese left-wing Socialist delegation wanted very much to identify themselves with the rising socialist elements in Asia but were surprised to find out how watered-down Burmese socialism was, from their point of view.2 Class analysis had not been given much attention and the stipulated goal of Pyidawtha (the “Happy Land”) appeared to be little more than the kind of mixed economy usually associated with Scandinavian welfare states.
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- Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1960
References
1 For a report of the First Asian Socialist Conference, see Rose, Saul, Socialism in Southern Asia, New York, 1959, pp. 4–13.Google Scholar
2 An outline of the Burmese socialist program and a brief description of its philosophy may be found in Braunthal, Julius, ed., Yearbook of the International Socialist Labour Movement: 1956–1957, London, 1956, pp. 165–170Google Scholar. The Japanese Socialist Program is translated in entirety in ibid., pp. 338–348. For the Japanese text see, Shakaitō, Nihon, ed., Yobō ni Kotaete: Nihon Shakaitō Taikai Kettei Sh0ū, Tokyo, 1955Google Scholar. The latter two citations refer to the reunified program of 1955 which is a compromise of the Right and Left Japanese Socialist points of view. For a comparison of the previous Right and Left Socialist positions, see Comparative Platforms of Japan's Major Parties, translated and arranged by Uyehara, Cecil H., Michio, and Royama, Shimako, and Ogata, Shijuro, with an introduction by Cole, Allan B., Medford, Massachusetts: The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 1955 (mimeographed)Google Scholar.
3 This is the thesis in the chapter “Marxism in Burma”, by Thomson, John Seabury, in Trager, Frank N., ed., Marxism in Southeast Asia (Stanford, 1959), pp. 14–57.Google Scholar
4 For a fuller exposition of this position, see Trager, Frank N., Burma and the United States (New York, 1959).Google Scholar
5 For the best short resumé in English of the early socialist movement, see Yanaga, Chitoshi, Japan Since Perry, New York, 1949, pp. 228–242Google Scholar
5a A right-wing faction led by Suehiro Nishio split off from the party in September 1959, in order to found a new “Democratic Socialist Party” in early 1960.
6 This opinion is convincingly argued in Trager, Frank N., “The Political Split in Burma,” Far Eastern Survey, Vol. xxvii, No. 10 (10 1959), pp. 145 ff.Google Scholar
7 This strike was recounted recently in a new light in a series of articles appearing in the first ten issues of the New Burma Weekly, a journal which was founded in mid 1958 but unfortunately folded early in 1959.
8 For mention of the important student organizations at these universities, see the author's “Problems of Japanese Socialist Leadership,”Pacific Affairs, Vol. xxviii, No. 2 (06 1955), pp. 163 and 165Google Scholar; the process of student radicalization of the labor and peasant movements is described in the author's forthcoming book. The Socialist Movement in Prewar Japan.
9 This information on Burmese Marxists is from Thomson's chapter in Trager, , ed., Marxism in Southeast Asia, op. cit., pp. 20–1.Google Scholar
10 See Tatsuo, Morito, Nihon ni okeru Kirisutokyō to Shakaishugi Undō, Tokyo, 1950Google Scholar
11 This was the “Sōdōmei” or Nihon Rōdō Sōdōmei (Japan General Federation of Labor).
12 Morito, op. cit., p. 63.
13 Sangendō, Miura, Sayoku Sensen to Bukkyō, Tokyo, 1933, p.22Google Scholar. This book, written by a Buddhist priest influenced by Marxism and Christianity, urges the Buddhists to take an interest in social questions.
14 The Akamatsus refer to Katsumaro and Iomaro, two brothers, and their sister, Tsuneko, who were active participants in the socialist movement, particularly in prewar days. Tsuneko is a prominent member of the Japanese Socialist Party at present. Their father and uncle were Buddhist priests and their older brother taught Buddhism at Ryūkoku University in Kyoto. Takasu Seidō (Masamichi), also a prominent Socialist leader, came from a Buddhist backround but in the late 1920's and early 1930's wrote a good deal of criticism of Buddhism from a leftist point of view. See his Musan Kaikyū to Shūkyō, Tokyo, 1929.Google Scholar
15 This contention forms much of the theme of Holtoms, Daniel C.’ books, National Faith of Japan: A study in Modern Shinto (London, 1938)Google Scholar, and Modern Japan and Shinto Nationalism: A Study of Present-Day Trends in Japanese Religions (Chicago, 1943)Google Scholar.
16 See Hobbs, Cecil, “The Political Importance of the Buddhist Priesthood in Burma,” Far Eastern Economic Review, Vol. 21 (11 8, 1956), pp. 586–590Google Scholar; also Cady, John F., A History of Modern Burma (Ithaca, N. Y., 1958), p. 455 ff.Google Scholar
17 For an English translation by the present author of a document in which Abe takes this position, see “The Second Restoration,” in Tsunoda, Ryusaku, de Bary, Wm. Theodore, and Keene, Donald, Sources of the Japanese Tradition (New York, 1958), pp. 816–820.Google Scholar
18 Speech of January 29, 1958, given before the Third All-Burma Congress of the AFPFL, after which it was widely published in full in the English language press in Burma.
19 This is the position he takes in Kyōsanshugi to Bukkyō, Koya Kyokku, Wakayama Ken, 1953.
20 Manabu, Sano (Gaku), “Tokushu Buraku Kaihō Ron,” Kaihō (07 1921), pp. 31–41.Google Scholar
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