EAS314 Project

Japanese Patriotism

For my blossay, I wanted to try to focus on something that I thought was rather complicated to talked about. The topic that I want to try to engage you readers in, is on the topic of patriotism in Japan before, during, and after World War 2. As you guys have all seen and read (or hope to have read!) from class film screenings and texts, patriotism in Japan was very strong during that turbulent period. However, in the texts and films made after that period, patriotism was usually seen in a negative light, though not without merit. However, I was interested in learning more about the Japanese people's idea of patriotism during World War 2 and see if I could dig a little bit deeper into the subject. These are the results of my work. Please keep in mind that the words below are my words and the conclusions I have come to after reading different texts both from class and outside of class, which are cited. If you want to add to or disagree with some of my conclusions, please leave comments! I am more than happy to see different perspectives and ideas from other people.

It is difficult trying to tackle the subject of patriotism in Japan with all its nuances and meanings. For the people of Japan, patriotism went hand-in-hand with military might and imperialism, while for others it was learning from the disasters caused by military endeavors and remembering the dead. I'm sure, as it is in all societies, gray areas where people had ideas of patriotism from both sides. What most people including myself can agree with is that the idea of patriotism was very strong before, during, and after the events of World War 2, no matter what part of the spectrum of thought it came from.

Before and during World War 2, the main type of patriotism in place among the Japanese people, at least the one the militaristic government at the time was trying to implement, was monolithically chauvinistic (Shogimen 141). This meant that the government and most of the people during this time strove for uniformity among themselves in mind and motivation and accepted blind loyalty to their government, country, and their Emperor. If some people did not follow or have this same type of patriotism within themselves, then they were usually shunned, outcast, or abused by either their neighbors, the government, or both (Barefoot Gen volume 1). How the people of Japan came to follow these ideals and how their government implemented them is a large part of modern Japanese history in its own right.

As early Meiji political leaders worked to turn Japan into a modern nation state, they realized a very important part of that process. The political leaders realized that they needed some sort of “spiritual axis” for the people and the country of Japan to follow as a new nation state. While the countries of the West had Christianity as a spiritual axis, Japan did not have a religion on which to use. Therefore, the Meiji political leaders created their own religion called State Shintō, not related to the ancient Japanese religion of Shintō. The political leaders created this new religion to be Japan's counterpart to the West's Christianity. State Shintō went along with the idea of unconditional loyalty to Tennō, or the Japanese Emperor. From this newly recognized religion came the ideas of militaristic and chauvinistic patriotism (Shogimen 143).

When we delve a little further into this militaristic and chauvinistic patriotism, these ideas can be seen being firmly implanted into the Japanese people way before World War 2 in 1910. In 1910, the Imperial Military Reserve Association began, and in the opening ceremony of the association, Field Marshal Yamagata Aritomo said in a speech that spoke of soldiers mastering the warrior code, become model citizens to influence the younger generation, and not to hesitate to take on the task of serving the Emperor. He then stated that the association's aims and ideal was to make sure that all Japanese citizens are also soldiers (Smethurst 2). With organizations such as the Imperial Military Reserve Association headed by leaders such as Tanaka Giichi, and leaders such as Yamagata Aritomo giving the association his blessing, it is easy to see how things were set into motion for a Japan led by militaristic patriotism and unconditional love for their Emperor.

Alongside the main form of patriotism in Japan, which was backed up by State Shintō, there was another form of patriotism that affected a more specific crowd. This can be called prophetic patriotism. This type of patriotism involved acts of judgment in light of Christian ideals of justice and peace (Shogimen 142). Two Christian thinkers specifically mentioned were Yanaihara Tadao and Tsukamoto Toraji. These two Christian thinkers had to deal a very important political climate in Japan during this time which was the rise of the mainstream patriotism, fanatical nationalism and militarism in the 1930s and 1940s (Shogimen 143). During World War 2, patriotism meant dying for the kokutai or the national polity which was the Japanese Emperor. This caused conflicts for Japanese Christians about their loyalty. They tried to determine the relation between loyalty for their country and their faith in God. Yanaihara and Tsukamoto both gave their versions of what it meant to be a patriot from a Christian perspective, however their views contrasted with each other's sharply. Tsukamoto's views accommodated with the Japanese government but Yanaihara's views criticized the Japanese government very strongly (Shogimen 143).

Tsukamoto's ideas and views of patriotism were much more lenient towards the Japanese imperial government's actions and ideals. Tsukamoto struggled with the issue of what role a Japanese Christian should play during this time of national crisis. At first, he seemed to have disagreed with the direction that the government of Japan was taking the country because he was quoted as saying, “in Japan today, no living truth is allowed to be mentioned publicly. If you mention it, you are in trouble. I had considered myself until yesterday as a patriotic preacher. I had hoped to save my beloved country....I now realized, however, that I am not able to say what God commands me to say in the way in which Jeremiah did. ...I have neither brave heart nor patriotism nor capability as a preacher.” (Shogimen 148). He also wrote about his desire to devote himself completely to religion without getting involved in politics and the happenings of the world around him and chose to keep himself only around religion. Despite criticism for denying reality, Tsukamoto believed that exercising worldly leadership was not a mission for a Christian.

Even though Tsukamoto chose to devote himself completely to religion, his works actually gave much support to the actions of the imperial government of Japan. He had discovered the idea of hakkō-ichiu or “all the world under one roof” ideology in ancient imperial tradition, and so he was proud of what the government's traditional imperial ideals. He tried to think of how he could relate a Christian's mission for peace to the actions of the Japanese government and he came up with the ideal that Japan's invasions were about rescuing East Asian nations from the West's ideas and to restore liberty, equality, and peace. Tsukamoto decided that the Christians' mission should be to turn Japan into the true model of the moral state. He then endorsed the ideals of the Japanese government and tried to discover how Japanese Christians could help in contributing to the government's ideals.

To sum up Tsukamoto's views of patriotism, he believed that the better Japanese a person was, the better Christian he or she was, and vice versa. Therefore, he believed that all the problems of a person and the state to be caused by the issue of individuals (Shogimen 151). I believe what he meant by this was that you had to deal with your own sins and try to be a good Christian (in the contexts of Tsukamoto's views) in order to be a good patriot of Japan.

Yanaihara's idea of patriotism was very different from Tsukamoto in that he criticized the Japanese government for their actions and ideals. Also, Yanaihara never chose to pursue Christianity professionally and instead chose to remain an international economics teacher and researcher. His works revolved around critical analysis of the Japanese imperial government's militaristic policies which caused him to be unpopular among his nationalistic peers and crowd. As for the issue of what role a Japanese Christian should play during this turbulent time, Yanaihara said that religion had become increasingly individualistic and private. Although he recognized positive contributions to this change, such as defending freedom of belief from state intervention, he also stated that the downsides to this change meant that religion was becoming separate from public, political issues, causing political apathy among the religious Japanese people. Yanaihara believed that this political apathy made religion powerless when it came to being “the driving force for social progress.” (Shogimen 153). He believed that religion was a private matter because it was spiritual and for that reason worldly power could not influence religion. From this he stated that because of this religion could judge but cannot be judged by this world. He believed that one could not separate religion from politics and so any ideas in politics that seemed contradictory to religious beliefs can be viewed and judged from a religious perspective. Yanaihara was not happy with religion's role during this time as simply consoling and aiding men and women from falling into despair and sorrow.

Yanaihara's position with the imperial Japanese government was clear in the first paragraph of his argument in “Ideals of a State”. He said, “When the behavior of a state is actually confused, one reflects on the ideals of the state and, when the state is actually mad, one thinks of an ideal state. This is not an escape from reality but a leap that is required to attempt to critique the reality powerfully.” (Shogimen 154). Yanaihara then stated that the ideals of the state are justice and peace. The duties of a citizen, he stated, was that they were not only to abide by the law of the state but also contribute to the realization of the ideals of the state. In arguing this idea, Yanaihara was criticizing the policies of the Japanese government.

Yanaihara's idea of patriotism was that a patriot is “not someone who ingratiates himself with the policies of the powers that be but the one who loves, and is loyal to, the ideals of the state.” (Shogimen 155). He stated further that true patriotism does not include blind obedience to contemporary policies, but it involves resisting blind obedience and criticizing reality in regards to the ideals of the state. He went on to say that true patriots did not pray for the national interest, but they prayed for national morality (Shogimen 155). In a way, Yanaihara's idea of patriotism could be said to have embodied the judgment of political issues based on both “political realism and Christian faith.” (Shogimen 158).

After the end of World War 2, with Japan defeated and its people and economy completely devastated, it seemed like the Japanese people were still trying to figure out how they could be patriotic for their country. For example, the Japanese author Kenzaburo Oe wrote in his story Seventeen about an argument between a brother and sister over two different political viewpoints of having a liberal Japanese government and a conservative Japanese government (Seventeen 9-16). This gives a fictional account, albeit in a true political climate, about the complicated feelings that still affected the Japanese people. Another work of fiction that was produced by a Japanese author was a story called Yūkoku, or Patriotism. This work represented the feelings some Japanese people still had towards the militaristic government that ran Japan before and during World War 2 (Patriotism). This work showed that some Japanese people still desired such a government and country. To touch on yet another side of Japanese patriotism, there were Japanese women who were sent abroad by the imperial government before and during World War 2 to brothels around South East Asia and many of them, despite perhaps being forced into their profession, felt it was their patriotic duty to Japan to give money to Japan's war efforts. To learn more about these women, please do some reading on Karayuki san and watch movies such as Sandakan 8 (Sandakan 8). This conflict and confusion of what was considered patriotic in Japan after World War 2 have existed up to current times. Even up to modern times the Japanese Prime Ministers in the past have been hesitant to visit the Yasakuni shrine for fear of disrespecting other political leaders in other countries (Tamamoto 33-34).

I hope that I brought some more insight into this complicated subject of patriotism in Japan. I feel that being a patriot is a complicated thing in every country, but due to recent events in history, it is even more so in Japan. Thanks for taking the time to read my blossay and I hope that you can take something out of this or due further reading for yourself if you are interested in this topic.

Works Cited

Image credits:

http://www.politicsabroad.com/wp-content/themes/PoliticsAbroad/images/flags/japan.gif

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsXd57PUXlD4zNeBFT97dJYQQBBPpf96li4PH9-d_ZHZrjhXXkRsQ3nHN6wtsA4mxDlvAMBZCjtm7ExFfJeUzGcTh60y687MWHwg64aOHzoXGjO5xccHdkJoW5JOXqDxLaMylZXNt0wl0X/s1600/70.jpg

Kenzaburo, Oe. Seventeen. 1961. Print.

Mishima, Yukio, and Geoffrey W. Sargent. Patriotism. New York: New Directions, 1995. Print.

Nakazawa, Keiji. "Barefoot Gen." Comic strip. Vol. 1. Print.

Sandakan 8. 1977. DVD.

Shogimen, Takashi. ""Another" Patriotism in Early Shōwa Japan (1930–1945)." Journal of the History of Ideas 71.1 (2010). Project MUSE. Web. 28 Mar. 2011.

Smethurst, Richard J. A Social Basis for Prewar Japanese Militarism: the Army and the Rural Community. Berkeley: University of California, 1974. Print.