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Intellectuals and Fascism in Early Shōwa Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Miles Fletcher
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Abstract

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

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , November 1979 , pp. 39 - 63
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1979

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References

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19 See, for example, Hiroo, Sassa, Nihon fuashizumu no hatten katei (Tokyo: Asano shoten, 1932), pp. 1–17, 97–113, and 194–95Google Scholar; and idem, Seiji no hinkon (Tokyo: Chikura shobō, 1931), pp. 54–55 and 69–70Google Scholar.

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

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

29 Ibid., pp. 149–54.

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32 Ibid., p. 184.

33 Some of Ryū's important early essays were “Ginkō kyōkō no haigo,” Warera 9 (July 1927), pp. 23–34Google Scholar; “Kyōkō ni arawaretagendandai,” Taiyō 34 (January 1928): 39–52Google Scholar; and “Kin yūshutsu saikinshi ‘ron’ to kin yūshutsu saikinshi,” Chūō kōron 46 (November 1931): 83–94Google Scholar. For some of Ryū's critiques of budgetary policies, see ‘Tsūka shinyō tōsei hihan,’ in his Zemhū, 2: 254–56.

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38 Ryū, “‘Kokusai’no taijō,” p. 12.

39 Ibid., p. 13.

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

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43 Miki, “Fuashizumu,” pp. 122–23.

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

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

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

49 A description of the activity of the Culture Research Group is presented in “Shōwa 14 nendo Shōwa kenkyūkai taikō fu Shōwa 13 nendo jigyō hōkoku,” Shōwa kenkyūkai kankei shiryō (hereafter cited as SKKS), item 229, pp. 65–66. See also Ikutarō, Shimizu, “Miki Kiyoshi to Shōwa kenkyūkai,” Rekishi to jimbutsu, no. 32 (April 1974), pp. 57–65Google Scholar for a more personal account.

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

51 Shin Nihon no shisō genri, p. 13.

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53 Ibid., p. 17.

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

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

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

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

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

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

106 The petition of the Japan Economic League is printed in Yōji, Minobe, “Keizai shintaisei kanken,” Nihon hyōron 16 (March 1941): 12–15Google Scholar.

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

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

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

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

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

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