Japanese Nationalists

is a form of nationalism that asserts the belief that the Japanese are a monolithic nation with a single immutable culture, and promotes the cultural unity of the Japanese. Over the last two centuries, it has encompassed a broad range of ideas and sentiments which have been harbored by the Japanese people in relation to their native country, its cultural nature, its political system, and its historical destiny. It is useful to distinguish Japanese cultural nationalism (see also nihonjinron) from political or state-directed nationalism (i.e., Shōwa statism), since many forms of cultural nationalism, such as those which are associated with folkloric studies (i.e., Yanagita Kunio), have been hostile to state-fostered nationalism.

In Meiji Japan, nationalist ideology consisted of a blend of native and imported political philosophies, initially developed by the Meiji government to promote national unity and patriotism, first in defense against colonization by Western powers, and later in a struggle to attain equality with the Great Powers. It evolved throughout the Taishō and Shōwa periods, when it was used to justify the formation of an increasingly totalitarian government and overseas expansionism, and it also provided a political and ideological foundation for the actions of the Japanese military in the years leading up to World War II.

Meiji period beginnings 1868–1912

During the final days of the Tokugawa shogunate, the perceived threat of foreign encroachment, especially after the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and the signing of the Kanagawa Accord, led to increased prominence to the development of nationalist ideologies. Some prominent ''daimyō'' promoted the concept of ''fukko'' (a return to the past), while others promoted ''ōsei'' (the Emperor's supreme authority). The terms were not mutually exclusive, merging into the ''sonnō jōi'' (revere the emperor, expel the barbarians) concept, which in turn was a major driving force in starting the Meiji Restoration.

The Meiji Constitution of 1889 defined allegiance to the State as the citizen's highest duty. While the constitution itself contained a mix of political Western practices and traditional Japanese political ideas, government philosophy increasingly centered on promoting social harmony and a sense of the uniqueness of the Japanese people ''(kokutai)''.

Basis of economic growth

The extreme disparity in economic and military power between Japan and the Western colonial powers was a great cause for concern for the early Meiji leadership. The motto ''Fukoku kyōhei'' (enrich the country and strengthen the military) symbolized Meiji period nationalistic policies to provide government support to strengthen strategic industries. Only with a strong economic base could Japan afford to build a strong, modern military along Western lines, and only with a strong economy and military could Japan force a revision of the unequal treaties, such as the Kanagawa Accords. Government policies also laid the basis of later industrialist empires known as the ''zaibatsu''.

Bushidō

As a residue of its widespread use in propaganda during the 19th century, military nationalism in Japan was often known as ''bushidō'' (武士道 "the way of the warrior"). The word, denoting a coherent code of beliefs and doctrines about the proper path of the samurai, or what is called generically 'warrior thought' (武家思想, ''buke shisō''), is rarely encountered in Japanese texts before the Meiji era, when the 11 volumes of the ''Hagakure'' of Yamamoto Tsunetomo, compiled in the years from 1710 to 1716 where the character combination is employed, was finally published.

Constituted over a long time by house manuals on war and warriors, it gained some official backing with the establishment of the Bakufu, which sought an ideological orthodoxy in the Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi tailored for military echelons that formed the basis of the new shogunal government. An important early role was played by Yamaga Sokō in theorizing a Japanese military ethos. After the abolition of the feudal system, the new military institutions of Japan were shaped along European lines, with Western instructors, and the codes themselves modeled on standard models adapted from abroad. The impeccable behavior, in terms of international criteria, displayed by the Japanese military in the Russo-Japanese War was proof that Japan finally had a modern army whose techniques, drilling, and etiquette of the war differed little from that of what prevailed among the Western imperial powers.

The '' Imperial Rescript for Seamen and Soldiers'' (1890), presented Japan as a "sacred nation protected by the gods". An undercurrent of traditional warrior values never wholly disappeared, and as Japan slid towards a cycle of repeated crises from the mid-Taishō to early Shōwa eras, the old samurai ideals began to assume importance among more politicized officers in the Imperial Japanese Army. Sadao Araki played an important role in adopting a doctrine of '' seishin kyōiku'' (spiritual training) as an ideological backbone for army personnel. As Minister of Education, he supported the integration of the samurai code into the national education system.

Role of ''Shinto''

In developing the modern concepts of and emperor worship, various Japanese philosophers tried to revive or purify national beliefs (''kokugaku'') by removing imported foreign ideas, borrowed primarily from Chinese philosophy. This "Restoration Shintōist Movement" began with Motoori Norinaga in the 18th century. Motoori Norinaga, and later Hirata Atsutane, based their research on the '' Kojiki'' and other classic Shintō texts which teach the superiority of the Sun Goddess '' Amaterasu''. This formed the basis for State Shinto, as the Japanese emperor claimed direct descent from ''Amaterasu''. The emperor himself was therefore sacred, and all proclamations of the emperor had thus a religious significance.

After the Meiji Restoration, the new imperial government needed to rapidly modernize the polity and economy of Japan, and the Meiji oligarchy felt that those goals could only be accomplished through a strong sense of national unity and cultural identity, with State Shinto as an essential counterweight to the imported Buddhism of the past, the Christianity and other Western philosophies of the present.

In 1890, the Imperial Rescript on Education was issued, and students were required to ritually recite its oath to "offer yourselves courageously to the State" as well as protect the Imperial family. The practice of emperor worship was further spread by distributing imperial portraits for esoteric veneration. All of these practices used to fortify national solidarity through patriotic centralized observance at shrines are said to have given pre-war Japanese nationalism a tint of mysticism and cultural introversion.

The philosophy became popular during the Second Sino-Japanese War. This came to be regarded by militarists as a doctrine that the emperor was the center of the phenomenal world, lending religious impetus to ideas of Japanese territorial expansion.

Education

The principal educational emphasis from the Meiji period was on the great importance of traditional national political values, religion, and morality. The Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890 promoted a return to traditional Confucian values in the hierarchal nature of human relations, with the State superior to the Individual, and the Emperor superior to the State. The Japanese state modernized organizationally but preserved its national idiosyncrasies. The attitude reinforced from 1905 was that Japan was to be a powerful nation, equal at least to the Western powers. During the Shōwa period, the educational system was used for supporting the militarized state and preparing future soldiers.

The government published official textbooks for all levels of students and reinforced that with cultural activities, seminars, etc. Emphasis on the texts such as the ''Kokutai-no-shugi'' in schools was intended to emphasize the "uniqueness of Japan" from ancient centuries. These cultural courses were supplemented with military and survival courses against foreign invasion.

Apart from indoctrination in nationalism and religion, children and school students received military drills (survival, first aid). These were taken further by the Imperial Youth Federation; college students were trained, and some recruited, for home defense and regular military units. Young women received first aid training. All of these actions were said to be taken to ensure Japan's safety and protect against larger and more dangerous countries.

Nationalist politics

Origin of nationalist structures and parties

In 1882, the Japanese Government organized the Teiseito (Imperial Gubernative Party), one of the first nationalist parties in the country. Starting from the Russo-Japanese War, Japan adopted the moniker "Empire of Japan" ("Dai Nippon Teikoku"), acquiring a colonial empire, with the acquisition of the Ryukyus (1879), Formosa (1895), the Liaodong Peninsula and Karafuto (1905), the South Seas Mandate islands (1918–19) and Joseon (Korea) (1905–10).

The wars against China and Russia were modern and demanded a nationalist expression of patriotic sentiment. From this period, the Yasukuni Shrine (founded in 1869) was converted into a focus for nationalist sentiment and received state patronage until the end of World War II. Yasukuni was dedicated to those Japanese and non-Japanese who had lost their lives serving Japan, and includes all war deaths from domestic and overseas conflicts from 1869–1945 (and none from any conflicts since 1945), but also civilians (women and students) and civil administration in colonies and occupied territories.

Between 1926 and 1928, the central government organized the "Peace Preservation Department" (an anti-subversive police section) and prosecuted all local Soviet-sponsored communists who proposed a socialist form of government. The Japanese Army organized the ''Kempeitai'' (military police service). Dissent was controlled by the usage of political and press repression, with the Peace Preservation Law permitting police to restrict freedom of expression and freedom to assemble.

From 1925 to 1935, the (日本新聞) promoted nationalist ideology and sought to influence the Japanese political landscape. In spite of a relatively small overall circulation, it had wide readership among right-wing politicians and advocated the concept of the divine right of the emperor by vigorously attacking Tatsukichi Minobe's “emperor organ theory”.

Realities of political power

Since the Meiji restoration, the central figure of the state was the Emperor. According to the constitution, the emperor was Head of State (article 4) and Supreme Commander of the Army and the Navy (article 11). Emperor Shōwa was also, from 1937, the commander of the Imperial General Headquarters. Japanese citizens were rallied to the "Defensive State" or "Consensus State", in which all efforts of the nation supported collective objectives, by guidance from national myths, history, and dogma — thus obtaining a "national consensus". Democratic institutions were installed in 1890 with the promulgation of a constitution and continued to acquire legitimacy until the 1920s when they fell into disrepute.

Concerns that irresponsible political parties could have too great an influence over vital military affairs introduced a rule that the Army alone should nominate the Army Minister in civilian government. This permitted the army to have a ''de facto'' veto over civilian governments by having the power to refuse to nominate a candidate. This policy was introduced in law in 1900 but abolished in 1913. It was reintroduced in 1936, cementing military influence over the government after that time.

The political system of Japan became subverted by the military throughout the 1930s from repeated attempted coups, and independent militarist interventions. The invasion of Manchuria after elements in the army manufactured an incident to justify a takeover was accomplished without instruction from the Tokyo government. This showed the impotence of the civilian government to have any influence over the impulses of the army. Governments become increasingly passive, allowing agency and direction of the state to fall to disparate competing elements of the army. The role of the emperor remained highly prestigious, with various factions competing to advocate their interpretation of what the emperor "truly" wanted.

After the war, scrutiny of the emperor's role in the war and militarism intensified. For many historians such as Akira Fujiwara, Akira Yamada, Peter Wetzler, Herbert Bix and John Dower, the work done by Douglas MacArthur and SCAP during the first months of the occupation of Japan to exonerate Hirohito and all the imperial family from criminal prosecutions in the Tokyo tribunal was the predominant factor in the campaign to diminish in retrospect the role played by the emperor during the war. They argue that the post-war view focused on the imperial conferences and missed the numerous "behind the chrysanthemum curtain" meetings where the real decisions were made between Emperor Shōwa, his chiefs of staff, and the cabinet. For Fujiwara, "the thesis that the Emperor, as an organ of responsibility, could not reverse cabinet decision, is a myth fabricated after the war."

Political ideas

During the 1920s, right-wing nationalist beliefs became an increasingly dominant force. State support for Shinto encouraged a belief in the mythological history of Japan and thus led to mysticism and cultural chauvinism. Some secret societies took up ultranationalism and Japan-centered radical ideas. They included: '' Genyōsha'' (Black Ocean Society, 1881), '' Kokuryu-kai'' (Amur River Society, or Black Dragon Society, 1901), movements dedicated to overseas Japanese expansion to the north; '' Nihon Kokusai Kai'' (Japanese Patriotic Society, 1919), founded by Tokoname Takejiro; ''Sekka Boshidan'' (Anti-Red League) founded at the same time as the Japanese Communist Party; and the '' Kokuhonsha'' (State Basis Society) founded in 1924 by Baron Hiranuma Kiichirō, for the preservation of the unique national character of Japan and its special mission in Asia.

Some of the nationalist ideas can be attributed to the ideologue Ikki Kita (1885–1937), an Amur River Society member. In his 1919 book ''An Outline Plan for the Reorganization of Japan'', Kita proposed a military ''coup d'état'' to promote the supposed true aims of the Meiji Restoration. This book was banned, but certain military circles read in it in the early 1930s. Kita's plan was phrased in terms of freeing the Emperor from weak or treasonous counselors. After suspending the constitution, and dissolving the Diet, the Emperor and his military defenders should work for a "collectivist direct voluntarism" to unify people and leaders. Harmony with the working classes would be sought by the abolition of the aristocracy and austerity for the Imperial House. Overseas, Japan would free Asia of Western influence. The Amur River Society was later instrumental in the Manchurian incident.

Political nationalist movements

The Japanese Navy was in general terms more traditionalist, in defending ancient values and the sacred nature of the Emperor; the Japanese Army was more forward-looking, in the sense of valuing primarily strong leadership, as is evidenced by the use of the ''coup'' and direct action. The Navy typically preferred political methods. The Army, ultimately, was the vehicle for the hyper-nationalists, anti-communists, anticapitalists, antiparliamentarians, and Nationalist-Militarist ideals.

The military was considered politically "clean" in terms of political corruption, additionally assuming responsibility for 'restoring' the security of the nation. The armed forces took up criticism of the traditional democratic parties and regular government for many reasons (low funds for the armed forces, compromised national security, weakness of the leaders). They were also, by their composition, closely aware of the effects of economic depression on the middle and lower classes, and the communist threat.

Both branches gained power as they administered the exterior provinces and military preparations.

Nationalist right in the 1920s

Other nationalist rightist groups in the 1920s were the ''Jinmu Kai'' (Emperor Jimmu