Anarchism in Japan

Anarchist ideas were first popularised in Japan by radical journalist Shūsui Kōtoku.[1] 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).[1] His liberalism led him to social democracy and Kōtoku attempted to form the first Japanese Social Democratic Party in May 1901.[1]

His fledgling Social Democratic Party was immediately outlawed[1] and Yorozu Chōhō shifted away from the left[1] so Kōtoku started his own radical weekly, Heimin Shinbun (Common People’s Newspaper).[1] The first issue appeared in November 1903 and the last was published in January 1905.[1] Its fairly brief run earned Kōtoku a short prison sentence from February to July 1905.[2]

In prison he read Peter Kropotkin's Fields, Factories and Workshops,[1] and following his release he emigrated to the United States, where he joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Kōtoku declared that he "had gone [to jail] as a Marxian Socialist and returned as a radical Anarchist."[3] In the US, more than 50 Japanese immigrants met in Oakland California and formed the Social Revolutionary Party.[1] The party began publishing a journal entitled Kakumei (Revolution)[1] and a leaflet called Ansatsushugi (Terrorism)[1] news of which reached Japan and angered officials there.[1]

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[1] developed from reading such books as Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist and The Conquest of Bread[1] amongst others. At the meeting, Kōtoku spoke on "The Tide of the World Revolutionary Movement".[1]

While Kōtoku was in the US, a second social democratic party was formed called Socialist Party of Japan.[1] A meeting of this party was held in February 1907 to discuss Kōtoku's views[1] which ultimately led the party to revoking the party rule which prescribed working "within the limits of the law of the land".[1] Five days later, the Socialist Party of Japan was banned.[1]

In 1910, Akaba Hajime penned a pamphlet entitled Nômin no Fukuin (The Farmers’ Gospel) which spoke of creating an anarchist paradise through anarchist communism.[1] His well founded apprehension of reprisals for his criticism of the mighty Sun God-Emperor in the pamphlet led him to go underground but eventually he was caught and imprisoned.[1] He died in Chiba Prison on March 1, 1912.[1]

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.[4] The trial was closed to the public and all were found guilty.[1] It is an interesting question whether there was such a plot, if so how serious the conspirators were about acting on it and how likely their efforts were to succeed.

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[5] hailing from Osaka, were involved with revenge killings aimed at Japanese leaders during the mid-1920s.[6] Nakahama Tetsu, an anarchist poet, and member of the Girochinsha, was executed for his activities.[7]

The state used the turmoil surrounding the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake as a pretext 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.[8] According to literary scholar Patricia Morley, Itō and Ōsugi were strangled in their cells.[9] What both accounts agree on, however, is that both or all of the prisoners were brutally executed without even the formality of a trial where conviction and death sentence would in the case of the two adults have probably have been a foregone conclusion. 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, an old friend of the deceased, made the first attempt, shooting at General Fukuda but merely wounding him.[1] The second attempt involved bombing Fukuda's house, but the general was not home at the time.[1]

In 1926 two nationwide federations of anarchists were formed, the Black Youth League and the All-Japan Libertarian Federation of Labour Unions.[1] In 1927, both groups campaigned against the death penalty sentence for Italian-born anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti.[4] The international anarchist movement in the following years was characterised by intense debate between anarcho-communists and anarcho-syndicalists.[1] in Japan, Hatta Shūzō, considered "the greatest theoretician of anarchist communism in Japan,"[1] 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.[1] 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.[1]

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.

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.[10]