In this article we will focus on the history of the nationalism Japanese. Is from the nationalisms Asians, of recent creation, the most influential around his idea of a pan-Asian empire. His opposition to Chinese backwardness and Western arrogance, the intriguing Kita Ikki, his exacerbated militarism, and his own cruelty, marked the epic in the Pacific and caused his downfall.
The times change
Japan is an archipelago in East Asia with a unique history. Scourge of China, Russia, Korea and almost any nation that opposes him, he has a unique culture. And it has often been considered, both by insiders and outsiders, as a bridge between the West and the East. Not to mention your culture, beautiful geishacourageous samuraicomplex haiku, and the ornate pagodas make these islands a place of Western fascination. And in a short space of time he obtained an empire that today fascinates the Japanese, and still arouses hatred in other parts of Asia. We have an analysis of remote times in the Japanese islands in the articles of Tokugawa Japan. But we rarely talk about nationalism Japanese, the ideological curtain that sustained the bloodiest period in the country’s history.
Between 1853 and 1854, US Commodore Mathew Perry forced the Rising Sun economy to open up. The samurais, playing the part of a reactionary class against capitalism, were razed to the ground by the Gatling guns of the United States. The truth is that something similar had happened to the Chinese army during the Boxer War, and several Japanese intellectuals decided to find out what had made the West so powerful compared to the rest of the world. So they decided to imitate absolutely everything, the most visible change being in the clothes.
In 1870, the blackening of teeth and the shaving of eyebrows at court were prohibited. Kimonos are beginning to be worn in private by women, who prefer the new western dresses. In 1888 the emperor appears dressed half ambassador, half sailor, in a public ceremony. The samurai abandon their job as warriors to dedicate themselves to being policemen of the new cities that would arise. And although it seems vain to talk about clothes, for the Japanese to be treated as equals was a great achievement. Not in vain were they the first non-Western society to observe the effects of the industrial revolution and the consumer society. And they embraced it before countries with theoretically greater contact, such as China, Korea, the Philippines…
Of course they were not limited to aesthetics, since there were many things to imitate from Westerners. They adopted the Gold Standard in 1897, although it is true that they adopted a Prussian-style constitution earlier. From the United States they admired its literacy, with which they imposed their public system of elementary and secondary schools, and from France its aesthetics, adopting its sense of fashion. What it was sui generis It was his company model, more similar to a family than to a workers’ association. This caused its productivity to increase by 80%, and the British bought patents from the Toyoda company, but we cannot idealize this, as an idealistic meeting of civilizations.
The truth is that from the Japanese there was admiration for the West, but there was also envy, and above all resentment for its arrogance. The English King Edward VIII in a letter to his mistress referred to the Japanese Emperor as “a monkey of the first class”. He would dress up as Japanese at his private parties to ridicule them. And also in the diplomatic sphere, since after Japan’s victory over the Chinese in 1895, they were only compensated in money instead of in territories. No, Japan was not an equal, as the League of Nations would show years later, denying racial equality between Japanese and whites (it is not that the Japanese had greater appreciation for the Chinese, and for so many other peoples).
That and the consciousness of superiority over the Chinese made them decide to form the latest fashionable Western invention, an Empire. Frankly expressed by Inoue Karou “We have to establish a European-style empire in the Eastern Sea…confront our citizens with the Europeans, who become aware of their inferiority, feel upset…Only then can we achieve an equal position with the Europeans in as for treaties.
Inventing the Japanese Nation
We have mentioned the Meiji Constitution before, and we must stop at this, because its importance will be radical. We must think that despite the cumbersome legal texts, in the constitution of a state resides the project of the nation state. Not in vain the German philosopher Carl Schmitt explained that the Constitution would replace the Bible as a sacred book, being that of each nation referring to its particular Volkgeist hegelian And of course, the Meiji Constitution was not to be outdone, being written on the motto “bunmei kaika”, that is, civilization and progress.
And they could have chosen different constitutional models, even the particular English one. The French, liberal and promoter of fraternity, defended by Itagaki Taisuke (Liberal Party) or the British, with a limited democracy, the one maintained by Okuma Shinegobu and his Progressive Party. And instead of that they chose the Prussian, the thriving nation in Europe, which had just unified Germany. This was defended by the Imperialist Party. It should be clarified that the parties had certain Confucian features that implied that politics should be carried out by aristocrats rather than through uncomfortable laws. Why does the Prussian Constitution triumph? It was ideal because they did not have to become a Republic, they could choose to be monarchists, they had great mistrust of liberalism and socialism. In addition, it would provide them with knowledge of the racial nation, that is, someone is Japanese because his race is Japanese. And this race would be threatened by the neighbors. And in turn, a cult of a deified figure, the Kaiser, who in this case would be the Emperor, was fostered. And the aforementioned volkgeist, the spirit of the people, would be translated as Kokutai. The Kokutai is the national essence, as Hall explains very well. And the sentai is the temporary/contingent form of the current government. So both the Meiji Constitution and the current one are sentai. This leads to a nationalism more racial and idealistic than cultural (French), or materialistic (Soviet).
One of the great deficiencies of the constitution was that it did not clarify the role of the Emperor. Because in theory he had the highest powers, but he was not expected to behave like the heads of state at the time, meddling in politics. One explanation for this phenomenon may be that he was a Prussian, officer Jacob Meckel. Hero of the Franco-Prussian War, he was hired to organize the army and the state of the time, as he was intended to have great influence on society. He explained that the secret wasn’t just in better tactics, or longer-range artillery. The important thing was that the German soldiers fought for their Kaiser with patriotic ardor, and that made them more effective than any European soldier. So from the beginning the army colored politics and society, taking steps on the road to authoritarianism, with a nationalism militaristic.
Of course, this vision is taken up by Anglo-Saxon authors such as Niall Ferguson or Hall. And the first is limited to giving the explanation that the Japanese Empire was a sort of mimic phenomenon, a pure imitation of the Western. Copying the clothes, copying the industry, copying the dominance of Asia. Hall further specifies how the military influenced the culture of the Conservatives, causing them to adopt a Prussian constitution, which inevitably led to authoritarian imperialism. But nevertheless, when one hears about Japanese imperialism and its Amau Doctrine, expressed by James Crowley, he cannot help but think of the Monroe Doctrine. That is to say, both Japan and the United States had to free their respective continents from European influences (to put their own), but leading (for their benefit exclusively) their development. And as if Great Britain hadn’t done similarly horrible things in Asia and an explanation had to be found that was related to another enemy, Germany. No, they never needed to Germanize to carry out a Black Cordon in Tasmania, annihilating everyone. Not even to gas civilian population.
So in the end, I think that the Anglo-Saxons have a certain tendency to blame Prussia for having “misinfluenced” Japan. When seeking world naval supremacy, wanting to protect your continent, or forcibly civilize populations is nothing that has not been done in the United States or England. Thus, we expose that Japan had already had foreign wars during the unification, and until the closing of its borders (sakoku) had violent war relations with their neighbors. So giving more importance to the Germanic culture, which illuminated the islands from afar, than to the Anglo-Saxon, or the Japanese itself, is too convenient. Always the fault of Germany.
Clarified this, it is also interesting to influence the education of the Japanese. The Imperial Edict of 1890 achieved a mixture of all the ancient norms of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shintoism. They would thus have two cardinal virtues, loyalty to the Emperor and filial devotion. In the process, they would nip in the bud all the ideologies that could question the prevailing nationalist system, such as liberalism or socialism. However, if one browses magazines of the time one sees that one can easily obtain quite a few books by Marx, Rousseau, Jefferson or Bakunin. And there were great revolutionaries like Katayama Sen, so you can’t talk about monolithic Japanese islands with a single thought. But we also cannot help but see that Japan was being traumatized by too virulent and rapid advances.
So we are not surprised when the Social Democratic Party was persecuted and suppressed within three hours of its creation. The left intellectual idealists had very little contact with the peasantry or the proletariat that they were supposed to represent. Some subversive strike, but little else. But other societies were also generated, these already with more imperialist ideas. The first was the Genyosha Society, which proclaimed the unity of Asia under Japanese command, which had learned from the West to defend itself. At first it would be an opinion like any other, but they took action, supporting Aguinaldo in his fight in the Philippines, and China. A Japan that led the expulsion of whites from Asia. And furthermore, they were clear that society should have “one mind” so they persecuted socialists, liberals, and anyone who questioned them.
Probably the most famous of these was the famous Black Dragon Society. The exotic name comes because they wanted to reach the Black Dragon River (the Amur) which was in North China. For this they had to defeat, and in fact they did, the Russian Empire. This particular society never offered any serious project, unlike the previous one….