was an English scholar and one of Japan’s cultural critics. He is known for ultranationalist historical negationism.
He was born in
Tsuruoka
is a city in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 125,389 in 49,024 households, and a population density of 95.74 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Tsuruoka is the biggest city in Tōhoku region ...
,
Yamagata Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Yamagata Prefecture has a population of 1,079,950 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 9,325 km² (3,600 sq mi). Yamagata Prefecture borders Akita Prefecture to the nor ...
. A graduate of
Sophia University
Sophia University (Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private research university in Japan. Sophia is one of the three ''Sōkeijōchi'' (早慶上智) private universities, a group of the to ...
, where he obtained his
Master’s degree, he completed his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
at
University of Münster
The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.
With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...
in 1958. Two volumes of autobiography on his years in Germany narrate his varied experiences during this period. Returning to his
alma mater, he became successively lecturer, assistant professor and full professor, until his retirement. He served as
emeritus professor
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
at the same university until his death. A passionate book-collector, he was chairman of the Japan
Bibliophile
Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books.
Profile
The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...
Society. His personal collection of books on English
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
(see Bibliography) was perhaps his most important contribution to the field of English philology in Japan, containing many rare items.
History
Shoichi Watanabe was born and raised in
Tsuruoka
is a city in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 125,389 in 49,024 households, and a population density of 95.74 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Tsuruoka is the biggest city in Tōhoku region ...
,
Yamagata.
After receiving his Bachelor's degree and Master's degree from
Sophia University
Sophia University (Japanese: 上智大学, ''Jōchi Daigaku''; Latin: ''Universitas Sedis Sapientiae'') is a private research university in Japan. Sophia is one of the three ''Sōkeijōchi'' (早慶上智) private universities, a group of the to ...
, he studied at the University of Münster, where he was awarded a
Dr.Phil. in 1958 and became a research student at
Jesus College,
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
. His doctoral thesis written in German was on the
history of English grammar, and was translated into Japanese and English.
In 1960 he took up a post at Sophia University, where he received an honorary degree of Dr. Phil. h.c. from the
University of Münster
The University of Münster (german: Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.
With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of stud ...
in 1994. In 2001 he became an
Professor Emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
at Sophia University.
He died of
heart failure on 17 April 2017 at a hospital in
Suginami,
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
, aged 86.
Historical negationism
A
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
opinion-leader affiliated to the openly
negationist
Historical negationism, also called denialism, is falsification or distortion of the historical record. It should not be conflated with '' historical revisionism'', a broader term that extends to newly evidenced, fairly reasoned academic reinter ...
organization
, Watanabe was known for his dismissal of the
Nanking Massacre
The Nanjing Massacre (, ja, 南京大虐殺, Nankin Daigyakusatsu) or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the ...
as a historical delusion, attributing the known killings to the standard revenge of regular soldiers in war against
guerrilla combatants whom they have captured. As he later clarified, in his view, the concept of
massacre
A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
in war should properly be reserved for atrocities against a civilian population, where the numbers roughly exceed the range of 40–50 victims, as opposed to the wholesale killing of irregular insurgents. Generally Watanabe's perspective closely echoes the line taken by Japanese generals before the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East in the Tokyo
War Crimes Trial of 1948.
Again, with regard to the
Japanese history textbook controversies
Japanese history textbook controversies involve controversial content in government-approved history textbooks used in the secondary education (junior high schools and high schools) of Japan. The controversies primarily concern the nationalist r ...
, which followed on
Saburo Ienaga's suit against the Japanese Education Ministry, Watanabe was almost alone in controverting the general
consensus of editorialists writing for the Japanese mainstream press (''
Mainichi Shimbun
The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by
In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previ ...
'', ''
Asahi Shimbun
is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition a ...
''), and upholding the Ministry's prerogative to intervene directly in the content of textbooks used in Japanese primary and secondary schools.
In Watanabe's view, the decisive incident leading to Japan's full-scale war on the Chinese mainland, namely the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, is to be read as an underhand
Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
plot
Plot or Plotting may refer to:
Art, media and entertainment
* Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction
Music
* ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava
* The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003
Other
* ''Plot' ...
against Japan, and the versions of history taught in pre-war Japanese school textbooks are more reliable than those available today to students.
Watanabe remained a controversial figure, but predominantly on the Japanese scene. He was little known abroad, even in his own academic area of specialization. He disconcerted foreigners by telling them that Japan's "racial purity" was to be cherished. His prolific writings include a number of books on the "Japanese spirit".
Hata Ikuhiko has claimed that Watanabe's book on the German General Staff is characterized by wholesale
plagiarism from a German source.
[Hata Ikuhiko, ''Shōwa-shi no nazo o ou'', vol.2, Bungei Shunjū, Tokyo 1999]
Critics
Books criticizing Watanabe include:
*
Ikuhiko Hata
is a Japanese historian. He earned his PhD at the University of Tokyo and has taught history at several universities. He is the author of a number of influential and well-received scholarly works, particularly on topics related to Japan's role ...
(秦郁彦), ''Nanking jiken――「gyakusatsu」no kōzō (南京事件 —「虐殺」の構造)'', Chūō Kōronsha (中央公論社), Tokyo 1986
* ''Shōwa-shi no nazo o ou'', 2 vols. by Bungei Shunjū, Tokyo 1993/1999
*
Roy Andrew Miller
Roy Andrew Miller (September 5, 1924 – August 22, 2014) was an American linguist best known as the author of several books on Japanese language and linguistics, and for his advocacy of Korean and Japanese as members of the proposed Altai ...
, ''The Japanese Language in Contemporary Japan:Some sociolinguistic observations''AEI-Hoover Policy Studies, 22, 1977 pp. 9ff.
*
Peter Nicholas Dale, ''The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness'', Croom Helm, Oxford and London 1986 pp. 63–64,82-88
Bibliography
*''Nihonshi kara mita nihonjin (日本史から見た日本人)'', Sangyō Nōritsu Tanki Daigaku Shuppan (産業能率短期大学出版), 1973
*''Nihongo no kokoro (日本語の心)'', Kōdansha Gendai Shinsho (講談社現代新書), Tokyo 1974
*''Chiteki seikatsu no hōhō (知的生活の方法)'', Kōdansha Gendai Shinsho (講談社現代新書), Tokyo 1976
*''Kokugo no ideorogī (国語のイデオロギー)'', Chūō Kōronsha (中央公論社), Tokyo 1977
*''Seigi no jidai (正義の時代)'', Bungei Shunjū (文藝春秋), Tokyo 1977
*''「Nihonrashisa」no kōzō (「日本らしさ」の構造)'', Kōdansha Gakujutsu Bunko (講談社学術文庫), 1977
*''Zoku-Nihonshi kara mita nihonjin (続・日本史から見た日本人)'', Sangyō Nōritsu Tanki Daigaku Shuppan (産業能率短期大学出版),1977
*''Bunka no jidai (文化の時代)'', Bungei Shunjū (文藝春秋), Tokyo 1978
*''Zoku-Chiteki seikatsu no hōhō (続・知的生活の方法)'', Kōdansha Gendai Shinsho (講談社現代新書), Tokyo 1979
*''Nihon, soshite nihonjin (日本 そして日本人)'', Shōdensha NON book (祥伝社ノン・ブック), Tokyo, 1980
**''The Peasant Soul of Japan'', Palgrave Macmillan, London 1989
*''Doitsu ryūgakki (ドイツ留学記)'', Kōdansha Gendai Shinsho, Tokyo 1980, 2 vols.
*''Bibliotheca Philologica Watanabeiensis: The Catalogue of Philological Books in the Library of Professor Shoichi Watanabe''. Yushodo, Tokyo 2001,
References
See also
*
Nihonjinron
is a genre of texts that focus on issues of Japanese national and cultural identity.
The concept became popular after World War II, with books and articles aiming to analyze, explain, or explore peculiarities of Japanese culture and mentality, u ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Shoichi
1930 births
2017 deaths
People from Yamagata Prefecture
University of Münster alumni
Sophia University alumni
Sophia University faculty
Linguists from Japan
Japanese anti-communists
Members of Nippon Kaigi
Bibliophiles
Book and manuscript collectors
Nanjing Massacre deniers
Historical negationism