Pacifism in Japan: The Christian and Socialist Tradition 0774800720, 9780774800723

Table of contents :
Contents
Foreword
War and Peace in Modern Japan
Preface
Japanese Personal Names
Contributors
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: The Setting for Japan's Pacifism
2. Kitamura Tokoku: His Pursuit of Freedom and World Peace
3. Kinoshita Naoe: Pacifism and Religious Withdrawal
4. Uchimura Kanzo: The Bible and War
5. Kotoku Shusui: His Socialism and Pacifism
6. Abe Isoo: The Utility Man
7. Kagawa Toyohiko: A Pacifist?
8. Yanaihara Tadao: Disciple of Uchimura Kanzo and Nitobe Inazo
9. Tabata Shinobu: Defender of the Peace Constitution
10. Conclusion: Japanese Society and the Pacifist
Notes
Index
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
W
Y

Citation preview

PACIFISM IN JAPAN

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PACIFISM IN JAPAN The Christian and Socialist Tradition

Edited by

Nobuya Bamba and John F. Howes Foreword by

Robert N. Bellah

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA PRESS VANCOUVER

PACIFISM IN JAPAN The Christian and Socialist Tradition

© The University of British Columbia 1978 All rights reserved

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Main entry under title: Pacifism in Japan Includes index. 1. Pacifism-Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Pacifists-Japan. 3. Peace-Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Bamba, Nobuya, 1937- H. Howes, John F., 1924JX1961. J3P32 327'. 172'0952 C77-002111-5 ISBN 0-7748-0072-0 (cloth) 0-7748-0088-7 (paper)

Printed in Japan

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education; a grant from the University of Toronto-York University Joint Centre on Modern East Asia; and a grant from the President's Committee on Japanese Studies, the University of British Columbia, using funds provided by the Japan Foundation.

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Contents

Foreword

ROBERT N. BELLAH

War and Peace in Modern Japan Preface Japanese Personal Names Contributors Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: The Setting for Japan's Pacifism 2. Kitamura Tōkoku: His Pursuit of Freedom and World Peace NOBUYA BAMBA 3. Kinoshita Naoe: Pacifism and Religious Withdrawal TAKESHI NISHIDA 4. Uchimura Kanzō: The Bible and War JOHN F. HOWES 5. Kōtoku Shusui: His Socialism and Pacifism MASAMICHI ASUKAI 6. Abe Isoo: The Utility Man CYRIL H.POWLES 7. Kagawa Toyohiko: A Pacifist? YUZO OTA 8. Yanaihara Tadao: Disciple of Uchimura ????? ??? ?????? ????? ????? ?????? 9. Tabata Shinobu: Defender of the Peace Constitution KATSUMI UEDA 10. Conclusion: Japanese Society and the Pacifist Notes Index

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xii xiii xv ???? ???

1 35 67

91 123 143 169 ??? 221 251 ??? ???

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Foreword

One of the most frequent questions that I am asked by someone who has learned that I am a student of Japan is whether the Japanese will again become a military threat, whether the "Japanese militarists" will again become strong. Over thirty years after the end of World War II the connection of Japan and aggressive warfare is still strong in the Western mind. To be sure, movies, both samurai and World War II vintage, foster such an image in the public imagination. But the history of modern Japan is to a large extent a military history and the question is far from foolish. Yet my answer, while cautious, since I do not believe any of us can see very far ahead, is generally reassuring. Few specialists today would predict a military resurgence in Japan. There are many reasons for such optimism. One is the devastating experience of World War II that turned a whole generation of Japanese deeply against war. But even as memories of the last war fade, current reasons against Japanese involvement in war are compelling. No nation is more vulnerable to nuclear attack than Japan. Two or three well placed hydrogen bombs could effectively cripple the country. Vast continental states can calculate the losses after a nuclear strike. Japan cannot afford to. Further, Japan's postwar prosperity depends on a vast network of peaceful trade relationships. No nation has a greater stake in a peaceful international order than Japan. Even though objective factors favoring a peaceful stance are compelling, it would be a mistake to ignore the importance of pacifist thought in postwar Japan. Whatever the true history of the 1947 Constitution, the fact remains that it did renounce war as an instrument of national policy and that Japan is the only great power to have done so. For many Japanese that is a great achievement which must be defended. We see an example of such defense in the

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Foreword

final chapter of this book which deals with Tabata Shinobu. But pacifist thought in Japan does not begin in 1947, and the postwar mood cannot be understood without its precursers in earlier times. A close study of some of the most important of those precursers is the great contribution of this book. Most of the figures described in this book were voices crying in the wilderness. They did not represent the prewar orthodoxy of Japanese thought. Rather they came from the two great heterodox strands of modern Japanese thought, Christianity and Socialism. Most of them were persecuted. Kitamura Tokoku who initiated the peace campaign committed suicide and Kōtoku Shusui was executed. Nevertheless, through the ironies of history their message prevailed when in other countries where there was initially much wider support a similar message did not prevail. Much can be learned about a society from a study of its rebels and dissenters. Most of the men considered in this book would be exceptional in any culture, and they are certainly exceptional Japanese. Yet, even as many of them pushed the limit of what it is to be Japanese, they reveal something important to us about Japanese culture and society. Uchimura and Kōtoku each felt the heavy sense of responsibility for society typical of the best Meiji intellectuals, yet they found profoundly different ways of expressing that sense. Kagawa and Yanaihara both had to cope with the enormous pressures toward conformity during World War II. By the ways they responded to that pressure they defined what it could and could not do. There is much in this book to interest any student of Japan. Because Western scholarship has concentrated mostly on Meiji and Taisho intellectual history, the chapters on Yanaihara and Tabata are particularly welcome. But even the more familiar figures show a new profile when considered from the point of view of the problem of this book. This is perhaps particularly true of the familiar figure of Kagawa Toyohiko, one of the best known to foreigners but least understood of modern Japanese. With compassion yet firmness the chapter on Kagawa sets the record straight. Finally, the introductory and concluding chapters by the editors provide the necessary context within which to understand the particular figures singled out for close scrutiny. I have suggested that this book has much to teach us about Japan. Indeed it does. But I cannot conclude without pointing out that it also sets before us a record of extraordinary nobility that transcends

Foreword

xi

the boundaries of any culture and shows us something about what it is to be human.

Robert N. Bellah

War and Peace in Modern Japan Important Dates 1600

Tokugawa leyasu unifies Japan and begins long rule of his family

1868

Meiji Restoration; beginning of the Meiji Period

1889

Promulgation of the Meiji Constitution

1890

Promulgation of the Rescript on Education

1894-95

First Sino-Japanese War

1902

Anglo-Japanese Alliance

1904-5

Russo-Japanese War

1912

Death of the Meiji Emperor;

beginning of the Taisho

Period 1914-18

World War I

1925

Death of the Taishō Emperor;

beginning of the Shōwa

Period 1931

Manchurian Incident

1937

Second Sino-Japanese War begins

1941-45

Japan in World War II.

1947

Adoption of the postwar Constitution

1960

Demonstrations against the United States mark high point of pacifist activity after World War II

Preface

This project was first planned between late 1969 and early 1970. During this period Japan's defense agency announced its Fourth Defense Buildup Plan which was to start in 1972; the United States and the Japanese government agreed upon the reversion of Okinawa; President Nixon and Prime Minister Sato in a joint communique confirmed that the security of the Republic of Korea was essential, and that of Taiwan most important, to Japan's own security: and the governing party of Japan decided to continue the U. S. -Japan Security Treaty indefinitely. All of these issues were closely related to the security of Japan and East Asia. Many Japanese felt that in exchange for Okinawa Japan would be forced into more direct responsibility for the security of East Asia under the leadership of the United States. Others feared that Japan under the American nuclear umbrella would become the front line for American military strategy against China and the Soviet Union. No sooner had these arrangements been made than the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China began sharp criticism of Japan's militarism. The Chinese government alleged that the joint communique was to change the U. S. -Japan Security Treaty "into a military alliance of wider scope in order to plan aggressive policies against China and Asia." 1 The "rise of militarism" in Japan, so publicized by these communist nations, was not entirely of their fabrication. In Japan, numerous groups attempted to abolish the peace clause of the Japanese Constitution which renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation. They reflected the general mood of traditionalism which had begun to replace the immediate postwar craze for modernization. In Southeast Asia during the early seventies, there was no sign that the Vietnam War would end; instead, it expanded into Cambodia. Simultaneously, war clouds hovered over the Middle East. Under such circumstances, Nobuya Bamba felt an acute need to reconsider the problem of war and peace in the Japanese tradition and to search for the roots of postwar pacifist trends in Japan. By

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Preface

doing so, he hoped to discover the link which connects prewar and postwar Japanese pacifism. He believed that such a project would strengthen the peace campaign in Japan by reminding its members of the philosophical foundations for pacifism in their own past. When he had chosen most of the subjects and authors and approached John Howes for his article, Bamba discovered that Howes had also for some time planned a study of pacifism in Japan before World War II. His readings in modern Japanese thought had also convinced him that there was a strong link between the earlier ideas and the postwar pacifist movement. Both men realized that collaboration would strengthen their individual approaches and decided to continue the project together. The pacifists covered here represent only a fraction of the total but do include most of the outstanding advocates of world peace.2 All are Christians and/or socialists. We use the term "socialist" in a broad sense. The subject of one of our essays, Kōtoku Shusui, and his associates called themselves "socialists, " though the unformed nature of their ideas in the early twentieth century makes it difficult to catalogue them. We did not use the term "Christian-socialist" with a hyphen because Kōtoku was not Christian and some of the pacifists were not socialists. We put Christians and socialists together, for some were Christians and simultaneously socialists. But more important, the Christians and socialists stood out in their opposition to war in prewar Japan. With the passage of time, distinct groups of Christians and socialists developed, but there still was a great deal of interchange between their members. All were marginal and minoritynonconformists. Because they were marginal, they could understand the significance of peace as an alternative to Japan's pervading nationalism and militarism. Because they were minorities and nonconformists, they could oppose the dominant political culture of Japan out of genuine conviction ; and they could become progressive and revolutionary in a basic sense. There were many others who expressed anti-war sentiments, but only the Christians and socialists had the firm ideological foundations and convictions to deny Japan's chauvinism. It was only the Christians and socialists who intended to change the basis of Japanese society through the adoption of a new view of the world and of man. Nobuya Bamba John F. Howes

Japanese Personal Names in this Volume How to write the names of Japanese individuals in English presents continuing difficulties. In Japan, the custom is for the family name to precede the given name. Western scholarly studies on Japan follow that order. When Japanese go abroad or publish in Western languages, however, they in general prefer to have their names appear Western style, with the family name last. For that reason, the names of the various authors of the essays presented in this volume are all given in Western style. Thus, we use "Katsumi Ueda" when referring to Professor Ueda as one of the authors in this volume, but "Yanaihara Tadao" in discussing the work of Professor Yanaihara who looms so large in the history of Japanese pacifism. Names of authors of works cited are listed in the order used in the publication itself.

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Contributors

Among the authors, Nobuya Bamba specializes in Japanese diplomatic and intellectual history; though he was formerly at McGill University, he is now a professor at Tsuda College, Tokyo. Takeshi Nishida's field is Japanese intellectual history, and his affiliation is Dōshisha University in Kyoto. His article abridges a larger one which appeared in Japanese: "Kinoshita Naoe ron" [On Kinoshita Naoe] Doshisha Hōgaku (September 1971), pp. 1-40. It was revised by Bamba and translated by Craig Risser of the University of British Columbia. John Howes teaches Japanese history at the same institution. Masamichi Asukai is a research professor who specializes in Japanese intellectual history at Kyoto University. Yuzo Ota translated his article. Cyril Powles lectures on church history of the Third World at Trinity College, the University of Toronto. Ota specializes in the history of modern Japanese thought at McGill University. Wakao Fujita was dean of the graduate school at International Christian University in Tokyo until his death in 1977. He had been a close personal friend of Yanaihara Tadao and succeeded Yanaihara as head of the Institute of Social Sciences (Shakai kagaku kenkyusho) in the University of Tokyo. Bamba and Ota revised and translated his article. Katsumi Ueda specializes in studies of the Japanese Constitution at Chukyo University in Nagoya and has written many interpretations of Tabata Shinobu's legal theories. Nobuya Bamba revised and translated his article into English. Howes wrote the introduction and Bamba the conclusion, but the drafts of each author were substantially modified after consultation with his colleague. The editors have attempted to unify the divergent styles of the various authors without violating the spirit of their thoughts, and the responsibility for the final English style rests with Howes.

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Acknowledgments

This book has been made possible throught generous support from a number of sources. Both editors were able to meet a number of times with the Japanese and Canadian authors. The Canada Council made a grant to Nobuya Bamba in 1971-72 to work on Kitamura and this project. The Canada Council and the Research Council of the University of British Columbia made matching grants for 1972-73 which enabled John Howes to bring Yuzo Ota to Vancouver for a year where his duties included work on this volume. An invitation to the International PEN Conference of Japanologists in 1972 took John Howes to Kyoto where, after the Conference, the Minerva Press funded meetings which included the two editors, other Japanese contributors and representatives of Minerva. The editors, Cyril Powles and Yuzo Ota met in New Orleans in 1972 after a panel discussion they had presented at the American Historical Association meetings. In the summer of 1974, Nobuya Bamba, John Howes and Cyril Powles met in Vancouver where Powles was temporarily teaching, and in 1975 Bamba and Howes worked together while Bamba taught summer school there. In the spring of 1975 the Research Council of the University of British Columbia provided a supplementary grant to translate the article by Takeshi Nishida, and in the fall of the same year Howes received a grant from the Japan Foundation which enabled him to finish the introduction and editing with Bamba. The volume thus reflects uncommon support over a number of years, for which the editors here express deep gratitude.

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1

Introduction The Setting for Japan's Pacifism

Since the end of World War II in 1945, vigorous pacifism has marked the intellectual and political life of Japan. The articles which follow demonstrate that this sentiment against war grew in the previous half century and flourished for the first time in the months preceding the outbreak of war with Russia in 1904. During the following thirty years, the belief that all wars were wrong became recognized as an acceptable philosophical position, though government thought control after Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931 made it increasingly difficult to espouse such a view in public. The Allied Occupation forces which ruled Japan beginning in late 1945 actively fostered opposition to war as a part of their reform programme. The explicit pledge that Japan would not again engage in aggressive warfare became national policy in the Constitution of 1947. Pacifist activity since that time has aimed to preserve this clause in the Constitution against the opposition of those who want to delete it. Without it, aggression against other nations once again would become possible within the framework of constitutional government. Though little known, this tradition of pacifist thought constitutes one of the largest literatures on the subject outside of Western Europe and North America, where pacifism first developed. This book introduces some of the writers who best represent this tradition. Their works deserve attention because they developed in a period when Japan prided itself on its military exploits and actively pursued expansionist policies abroad.

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Introduction: The Setting for Japan's

Pacifism

Each of the articles in this volume introduces one writer who helped develop the tradition. All were well known in their own time, and all save one were Christians for at least part of their lives. Kitamura Tōkoku (1868-94) came to advocate pacifism through a search for individualism in his strongly group-oriented society. Kinoshita Naoe (1869-1937) spent his life deriding the follies of war and social inequity. At the same time, he sought a creed which would answer his needs for faith and provide a basis for assistance to others. His search ended with a return to the roots of early Japan. Uchimura Kanzō (1861-1930) initially defended the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 because he felt Japan's victory would enable it to introduce the benefits of modern Western life to China, but he became disillusioned with his government's callous cruelty towards the Chinese and went on to detailed analysis of the ethical issues connected with war. Kotoku Shusui (1871-1911), biting and satiric, never committed himself to any religious faith but actively encouraged opposition to the Russo-Japanese War and communication with fellow socialists in the enemy tsarist state. Abe Isoo (18761949) taught economics and served his nation as an elected member of the Diet in a career that spanned the first half of the twentieth century, never deviating from a rational and consistent opposition to war. Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960) gained fame as a social worker and novelist, then championed the urban proletariat and preached pacifism, but he seemed to contradict his convictions during World War II. Yanaihara Tadao (1893-1961) used his professional expertise as professor of colonial policy in the University of Tokyo to evaluate the Japanese army's drive into China after 1931. His protest against its uncontrolled violence, in the pages of an influential journal, cost him his university post. He then lived out the war as a symbol of opposition, to become after surrender one of the architects of the postwar education system and a champion on the peace clause in the new constitution. And Tabata Shinobu (1902-), professor of constitutional law in Doshisha University and university administrator, remained active well into the seventies in defence of the same clause. A number of characteristics are shared by the theories of pacifism discussed in these articles. In the first place, they deal with the problems of international war, that is, warfare between modern nation states. These authors expressed their pacifist convictions

Introduction: The Setting for Japan's Pacifism

3

through criticism of their own government's warlike policies. Their critique did not develop into active opposition, and none of them urged individuals to refuse induction into the army or otherwise challenge government policies. Demonstrations against government decisions related to war became a part of the Japanese scene for the first time after World War II, It follows that the pacifism dealt with here refers to a literary debate rather than a mass movement. The subject of each article earned his living either as a teacher or as a writer. They all expressed their opinions through newspapers and journals. Only Abe had extensive experience as a politician, and in addition to him only Kagawa had helped to lead mass movements. Their arguments neither resulted in mass action nor encouraged it. Nevertheless, each of these authors hoped to change government policy through the cogency of his arguments. That they could not argue with stronger tones or actions says more about the nature of the opposition they faced than it does about the degree of their convictions. The great mass of the Japanese people agreed with their government's careful surveillance of opinion and quick suppression of dissent. Mass protests could become part of the political scene only after defeat in war had completely changed the system. Once it had been changed, the expressions of pacifist sentiment became much more like those in Western Europe and North America. The Japanese people's willing acceptance of their government's warlike policies before 1945 reflects two attitudes towards foreign relations which had existed since about 1600. The first is a resolute determination to remain independent in the face of threatened domination by Europeans or Americans. Though the potential enemy changed with the passage of time, many Japanese remained convinced that one of the Western nations either wanted to possess its soil or control its trade. The second attitude towards foreign relations depends upon the first. In their determination to remain free, the Japanese governments adopted one of two extreme positions. They either retired within themselves in the attempt to deal with a hostile world by excluding it, or they wholeheartedly accepted the comity of nations and tried to integrate themselves fully within it in the hope that co-operation would ensure their independence. The first point of view governed Japan's foreign relations from 1600 to the middle of the nineteenth century. Since then, the government has generally

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Introduction'. The Setting for Japan's

Pacifism

tried to make Japan a responsible member of international society except for the years 1931 to 1945. During the whole period, its leaders have maintained independence as their primary goal but have vacillated on how best to ensure it. This introduction prepares the way for the articles which follow by linking the Japanese traditions regarding war and those of the West as they existed in the mid-nineteenth century to the Japanese historical developments of the succeeding century. The attitudes towards war which developed in Japan in the late nineteenth century had arisen from very different experiences with war and violence. DIFFERING TRADITIONS ABOUT WAR

Japan's experience as a state in the modern sense begins in the late sixteenth century. It is best symbolized by Tokugawa leyasu's decisive victory in the Battle of Sekigahara, 1600. From then on, a stable central government controlled the areas within Japan's boundaries and represented Japan to foreign powers. For a while before leyasu and his immediate successors finished the edifice of institutions that would mark their reign, it looked as if Japan would become an active and aggressive power in East Asia. Visitors from Western Europe were welcomed, their goods and beliefs eagerly sought. Japanese traders ranged as far as the Philippines and Thailand. They had a long tradition of hand-to-hand combat, which put them among the best sword fighters in the world. leyasu's immediate predecessor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, twice dispatched invading armies across the two-hundred kilometer strait that separates Japan from Korea. It was his intention to conquer all of China, but he died with his troops stalled on the Korean Peninsula. One of leyasu's first acts as his successor was to recall the expeditionary forces. Within a few years, his government ordered all Japanese living abroad to return at once or remain away. Before the middle of the seventeenth century, an elaborate framework of laws limited Western contacts to two ships only from Holland each year. Even these could come no closer than Nagasaki, thirteen hundred kilometers southwest of the capital at Edo, the forerunner of modern Tokyo. For the succeeding two centuries and more, Japan remained sealed off from the Western world. The Tokugawa rulers shut off contact with Western powers because

Introduction: The Setting for Japan's Pacifism

5

they feared the Europeans. The Spanish and Portuguese, fired with the religious imperatives of the Counter-Reformation, were roving the world to gain commercial advantage and converts to Catholicism. Dutch and English traders had also reached Japan and transmitted to officials their suspicions of their Catholic rivals. Thus the same forces of religious intolerance which did so much to induce in Europe codes of war and, in reaction, sentiments of pacifism, helped persuade Japan to a policy which would induce different results. Its people hid behind their natural maritime defences and kept the Europeans at arm's length. Isolation constituted the Tokugawa answer to the twin problems posed by the incursion of the Westerner. In order to ensure its nation's independence, it chose to withdraw from all contacts with other states and concentrate on the development of a stable government at home. The result was an isolationist policy. Control symbolized Tokugawa rule. For a century before leyasu came to power, contending forces had fought with each other for land. Some of the most greedy had been the huge Buddhist institutions. The Tokugawa rulers felt they had to thwart all possible sources of opposition. Sumptuary regulations and threats of drastic punishment established a respect for Tokugawa control. The Japanese became one of the most law-abiding peoples on earth. The leaders of this government belonged to an aristocratic caste called samurai. The samurai had fought as individual swordsmen in Japan's earlier wars. Under the Tokugawa, they retained their role as warriors but had no chance to practise their art. Instead, they became scholars and bureaucrats. Their training emphasized the teachings of Neo-Confucianism, the all-embracing philosophy developed in China four centuries earlier. Neo-Confucianism as taught in Japan emphasized loyalty to one's overlords, frugality, and diligence. The use of Neo-Confucian teachings as the basis of education gradually transformed the bellicose samurai into conscientious civil servants dedicated to a rational and efficient society. Buddhism played little part in this achievement. Since forces dispatched from its monasteries had proved such capable adversaries to the unifiers of the late sixteenth century, they were viewed by the Tokugawa rulers with suspicion. Its leaders reduced the holdings of the monasteries and made them dependent on the state. In return, it made the Buddhist temples, which dotted the countryside, the supervisors of population mobility. Families had to belong to a

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Introduction". The Setting for Japan s Pacifism

temple and had to receive permission from their temple if they wanted to change their address. Though the Buddhist monks oversaw impressive buildings filled with art which reflected the most sublime religious sensibilities, they did not regain the position of moral authority their predecessors had enjoyed. The final religious tradition which, along with Confucianism and Buddhism, had helped shape Japan's attitudes towards the divine was Shinto. It perpetuated the world-view held by the Japanese before the introduction of Chinese ideas. The native Japanese beliefs stressed respect for the forces of nature. Though in no sense warlike, Shinto theology simply did not deal with the ethical problems involved in war. Rather, its traditions viewed the misery which resulted from war as fated rather than attributable to any evil or folly on the part of man. One final Japanese tradition which dealt with war must be mentioned—the code of Bushido. The word literally means "the way of the samurai. " It refers to the ethics governing the actions of the swordsmen who participated in the many battles and vendettas which characterized the centuries before the beginning of the Tokugawa Period. The word became popular just before World War II in reference to the invincible spirit of the Japanese soldier. Immediately after World War II some Westerners felt that the attitudes expressed in Bushido formed part of the national character of the Japanese. One of those who dealt with this problem was the Canadian historian, E. Herbert Norman, who sought, he tells us, "impressive evidence during the centuries of Japanese feudalism of a philosophy vindicating resistance to unbridled authority and oppression." 1 His research was rewarded by the discovery of the solitary eighteenthcentury thinker Ando Shoeki. "Shoeki enunciated in emphatic terms his love of peace.... 'Those who fight are killed. What advantage is there in being killed? My way of life leads to no conflict' (p. 38).... He condemned military science as having no value for society; rather it was a menace (p. 108).... Above all else, he was a lover of peace and the pursuits of peace" (p. 321). Norman noted in addition that Shoeki's ideas had never been published, largely because of their unorthodox nature, so they spread no further than his own manuscripts and his immediate disciples. Norman contrasted to Shoeki's work the roughly contemporary Hagakure of Yamamoto Tsunetomo. Hagakure was a manual of ethical instruction for members of the samurai class;

Introduction'. The Setting for Japan's Pacifism

7

selections from it had been widely publicized by the Japanese military in World War II. Norman noted with obvious displeasure that Yamamoto advised against reason in military situations. "It creates cowards" (p. 167). To ponder whether an act is right or wrong serves no purpose. "The point is that one should never ponder" (p. 168). The conclusion was clear; though an iconoclast pacifist like Shoeki had existed, he remained unknown, while proponents of irrational force dominated Japanese tradition. In his research Norman thus had to admit defeat. Though Japan possessed a precedent in Shoeki for liberal anti-war thought, the cult of Bushido far outshadowed it. Few in Norman's 1948 audience, whether Westerners or Japanese, would have disagreed. Wartime propaganda had convinced Westerners of Bushido's wicked effect on Japan's policies, and even the most peacefully inclined Japanese had to admit that it reflected uniquely Japanese traits and included highly warlike sentiments. Bushido caused further difficulty because it formed a part of the tradition of anyone whose family had belonged to the samurai caste, and with most of the tradition there was little for men of good will interested in a stable society to oppose. The modern formulation of Bushido came from the pen of Nitobe Inazo (1862-1933), 2 an ex-samurai converted to Christianity and married to an American Quaker, through whom he became heir to the Quaker tradition on war. Nitobe wrote his book in English in response to questions of Westerners about how Japanese, lacking Christian maxims, taught their children ethics. He compared the Japanese system to chivalry, which also included military arts but always in the service of the highest humanitarianism. For Nitobe, Bushido supplied the moral fibre with which the samurai controlled his sword. The Japanese later translated his work into their own language and the government used it as part of the programme to instil samurai ethics into the population as a whole. It is probable that Nitobe, when he died in 1933, regretted the misuse to which the Japanese military and educational establishment increasingly were putting his words, formulated for a far different audience over three decades earlier. One of Nitobe's closest friends and a fellow descendant of samurai stock was Uchimura Kanzo. He also respected his heritage and reflected in 1899 after reading a biography of the leader of a famed samurai vendetta, Oishi Yoshio, that Japanese samurai had "compassion

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Introduction: The Setting for Japan's Pacifism

\_nasake~], tears, love [at], righteousness \_gt], songs, sincerity and courage. " 3 "We were also born into Japanese samurai homes.... " We must "become military men who do not gird on the sword....We abhor military men without letters and poetry who do not respect ladies.... The Japanese samurai is a man who takes the sword of a patriot. He is like the poet Dante who became a cavalry officer...and fought on behalf of his country. He is like the poet Byron who threw himself into the Greek liberation army and lost his life. A military man without poetry is a savage, not a samurai. A samurai is a gentleman, mankinds most noble being" (pp. 912-13). The names of Nitobe and Uchimura appear frequently in this volume as leaders among those Japanese who opposed militarism. Their encomiums for Bushido demonstrate the extent to which it seemed the best vehicle around the turn of the century for the patriotic Japanese to express identification with his own culture. The elements of Bushido which were picked up by the army in World War II emphasized the acceptance of death and the determination to achieve victory by the sheer strength of willpower. They pitted human will and flesh against steel machines and reflected Japan's lack of the latter. Though by 1850, thanks to its policy of isolation, Japan had enjoyed two centuries of freedom from war and thus was one of the most peaceful lands in the world, the lack of hostilities resulted from political manipulation rather than religious conviction. The traditions of the West in numerous ways differed from those of Japan. While Japan had enjoyed peace, wars had dominated European history. They had exacted the lives of relatives or friends from the members of every generation. European ideas about how to limit war arose from the concerns of Christians over its morality. Primitive Christianity seems to have been intensely pacifist. The first believers took the injunctions against killing so literally that Christians refused to serve in armies and even to take part in civil government. As the faith became accepted and finally gained the loyalty of secular authorities, the anomaly of this position became apparent, because the Christian officials, like their heathen predecessors, also had to uphold the law and defend territories entrusted to them. The Church arrived at its solution to the problem in the fifth century with the distinction between the just and the unjust war. According to this doctrine, the Christian could in good conscience fight to bring about God's justice on earth. The pope,

Introduction'. The Setting for Japan's Pacifism

9

because of apostolic succession seen as the representative of God on earth, could determine which wars fit each category and thus allow the faithful to participate in those considered righteous. Students of Western history know all too well the wrongs that resulted from numerous particular applications of this principle, but it remained an important check on the ambitions of political rulers who had to justify proposed hostilities and if possible gain papal sanction. The doctrine of just wars as defined by the pope remained the accepted view in the Christian world until theories of unconditional pacifism began to appear again at the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. With the concept of the priesthood of each believer, the Christian could now speak directly to God in prayer and could receive through his conscience direct replies from God. This change in attitude about man's relation to God opened up invigorating new vistas of human potential to the Protestants. Only experience in living without a human source of infallible authority could teach the Protestants that decision by an individual on whether a given war was just imposed a much greater responsibility upon the conscience of the individual. If a male, the individual had to make up his own mind on a further problem. Improved communications enabled the newly emerging states of Europe to enforce their draft calls, and so the individual who considered war wrong might be forced to kill other humans towards whom he felt no animosity. How could one with the conviction that war contravened God's will find a means to follow the dictates of his conscience? He could not flee to a monastery, the approved means of escape in Catholic society, for gone with faith in the apostolic succession was the apparatus of the cloistered life. Thus, during the years succeeding the Reformation, the individual Protestant was forced to take a personal stand on war and robbed of the means to escape universal military service. Modern pacifism developed within these circumstances. The pacifist faced a dilemma almost as cruel as that which had perplexed the earliest Christians. Because the Protestant churches as they gained power faced the same dilemmas as anyone in authority, they usually adopted, at least in practice, some form of the just war theory. As a result, strict adherence to pacifism remained a minor but slowly increasing subtradition within Protestantism. The widespread carnage attendant upon the Napoleonic Wars and their extension into North America,

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Introduction'. The Setting for Japan s Pacifism

the War of 1812, led to the development of secular peace societies, strongly protestant in their attitude towards individual responsibility but open to anyone. They were most influential in Great Britain and America where they became accepted as a part of the concern for social reform and received respectful attention. By the latter part of the nineteenth century their general meetings regularly called for international arbitration and buttressed their positions with careful rational arguments. In Europe, political conditions favoured dissenters less. In 1795 Immanuel Kant predicted in his Zum ewigen Frieden [Eternal Peace] that as the common man gained the franchise he would vote out war, and as Cyril Powles points out in his artide on Abe Isoo, the Polish economist and engineer Ivan Bloch attracted the attention of nineteenth-century British pacifists with his encyclopaedic views on the economic consequences of war. But groups of pacifists formed around the ideas expressed by these men had to suffer in silence or emigrate. This second option was selected by large numbers of people who went to North America and thereby enriched the cultures and economies of both Canada and the United States. The differing experience with war in Japan and in the West for the preceding two and one-half centuries meant that the Europeans coming to Japan brought with them insights new to the Japanese. Japan's recent past provided no guidelines on the morality of war, and the Westerners could speak on the question with much more informed judgment. This difference in background set the tone for the development of modern pacifism in Japan. The eight articles which follow demonstrate that these pacifist ideas grew in Japan in response to its actions regarding other nations. New policies reasserted the early Japanese determination to preserve Japan's independence but elected wholehearted integration into the international community as the means to assure this end. Four periods define distinctive emphases during this development, though the dates which differentir fo them can only be approximate. From 1868 to 1889 new government leaders rejected the Tokugawa hegemony and its isolationist philosophy and dedicated themselves to developing Japan as a modern state. From 1889 to 1912, satisfaction about initial successes with the modernization formula was marred by sharp disagreement within Japan over the policies which had brought on the quick development. During the period from 1912 to 1945

Introduction'. The Setting for Japan's Pacifism

11

the government gradually lost the friendship and respect of the Western nations and became embroiled in a disastrous war. Since 1945, it has resumed active co-operation in the world of nations. Each of these developments influenced the thinking of the small minority who sought ways to prevent their nation from engaging in war. More detailed reference to the four periods provides basic information for those not acquainted with Japanese history and an interpretation of the relationship between historical developments and pacifism for those familiar with Japan. PACIFIST OPPOSITION AND MODERN JAPAN

A group of young revolutionaries persuaded the last of the Tokugawa rulers to resign in late 1867. In the new year, they established a government under the fifteen-year-old Meiji Emperor. This act of restoring the emperor to rule is called the Meiji Restoration. The succeeding forty-four-year reign of the Meiji Emperor is known as the Meiji Period. The new government rapidly drew up policy guidelines to achieve their primary aim of self-defence. Their programme became known by the slogan fukoku kyohei (Rich country, strong military), which reflected their desire to raise the national standard of living and protect themselves against invasion. A series of reforms strengthened national administration. Succeeding programmes set in motion the remarkable economic modernization which undergirded all the developments of the next century. Much more important for the development of pacifism than these economic policies were other changes with regard to the individual and his society. Four deserve mention. First, the government expressed its intention to do away with inappropriate old customs and seek knowledge throughout the world. Second, it abolished the Tokugawa caste distinctions and encouraged individuals to seek a place in society commensurate with their abilities. Third, it established a system of compulsory primary education and voluntary higher education. Finally, but by no means least, it announced that political decisions would be made on the basis of public discussions. The first three policies were all implemented within a few years. Individuals rushed to avail themselves of the opportunities afforded them. It was within a world dedicated to these changes that those who

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Introduction: The Setting for Japan's Pacifism

would later first espouse pacifism received their training. They hoped to participate in the new political process the government had promised. With the attempts of these young men to gain a voice in their government, pacifist thought first appeared. In spite of their announced intent, the new government leaders were not anxious to share power. A small group of ex-samurai controlled the government during virtually the whole Meiji Period. They were known alternatively as the Meiji Oligarchs, because they exercized power as a group, or as the Sat-cho clique, because most of them came from the Tokugawa domains of Satsuma and Choshu. They continued the tradition of the Tokugawa rulers of decision at the top with the assumption that the people would obey. Many other members of samurai families, similarly trained and ambitious, sought positions of influence. They found outlets for their talents outside the government, particularly in two areas where the early policy statements of the Oligarchs had indicated the need for change: the search for new ways to replace old and discredited customs; and a political framework which would allow for more input from the people. Ex-samurai outside the establishment expressed their interest in these topics through the development of political parties, the wholesale importation of Western culture, and the new education. One of the most appealing ideas from the West was democracy, which, though only vaguely understood, was correctly assessed to mean a type of government which gave the common people some voice in the way they were governed. The nations whom the Japanese emulated all prided themselves on some form of this government and urged it upon them. The concept found ready acceptance among those who had held positions of local authority under the Tokugawa regime but lacked positions in the Meiji government. They began to ally themselves into political parties, and the Oligarchs in response to the movement promised to implement their earlier promise of public discussions by the establishment of a constitutional government. The movement to form political parties and through them press for change became known as the Popular Rights Movement \_Jiyu minken undo*]. A second characteristic of wholesale change in early Meiji was the importation of Western culture. Popular Western-language histories of Europe, travel diaries of Japanese who had gone abroad, and

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13

novels based upon scraps of information about the West all enjoyed a great vogue. Men who learned Western languages almost immediately employed their new skills to bring the mainstream of Western thought to their people. Among these, two of the best known were Nakae Chomin (1847-1901), who first introduced French political theory, and Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901), whose university, newspaper, and numerous other writings informed a whole generation of Japanese about British institutions. The men who so enthusiastically fostered Western culture during these years became known as "enlighteners" because of the great insights their works brought to their countrymen. They started the tradition which would make significant new thought within the West almost immediately available to Japanese. Finally, as government intentions became translated into reality, the early years of Meiji included great changes in education. During the Tokugawa hegemony, the Japanese people had developed a liking for education and competence in the skills it taught. They accepted with few reservations the government's new compulsory primary school system and welcomed the various new institutions of higher learning. There were many types of these, but they shared one characteristic. All aimed to acquaint young men with a curriculum like those current in the Western nations and with at least one Western language. Three of the institutions which taught such courses and would later grow into major universities figure prominently in the history of pacifist ideas. They are the Sapporo Agricultural College in Hokkaido, which would become Hokkaido University, the Doshisha in Kyoto, and the Tokyo Semmon Gakko, which became Waseda University. The Meiji government established the Sapporo Agricultural College to train a corps of men in the agricultural and military sciences. Such training, it was felt, would enable the government to develop the resources of Hokkaido, which at that time were virtually untapped, and defend them against possible Russian incursion. Japanese officials were very happy that William S. Clark (1826-86), a scientist who had helped found what would become the University of Massachusetts, agreed to spend a year getting the school started. They so lacked confidence in their own ability to teach ethics that they agreed to Clark's condition that he would accept the responsi-

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Introduction'. The Setting for Japan s Pacifism

bility only if he could use the Bible as a text. Clark's enthusiastic instructruction earned him universal respect. His closing words to his students, "Boys, be ambitious," remain a legend in modern Japan. Many of his students became Christian and gained fame for their international outlook. A vigorous Christian convert named Niijima Jo (1843-90, sometimes known in English as Joseph Hardy Neesima) established the Doshisha after several years' study in various New England churchrelated educational institutions. He returned to Japan determined to form a school which would train men for public service outside the government. He located it in the traditional capital of Kyoto and accepted the help of the American Board of Foreign Missions, who sent him a succession of dedicated teachers. The main entrance to the Doshisha retains carved in stone Niijima's statement of intent to produce an institution from which "men of high spirits brimming over with good consciences would issue forth. " In order to retain his independence, Niijima continued to refuse requests to join the government. His ideal remains with many graduates of Doshisha as the desire to identify with the main problems of society but to avoid the constraints of official position. Niijima called this attitude the "spirit of those outside positions of authority \_Zaiya no seishin], " and identified it with "the salt of the earth" in the Christian gospel. The Oligarch Okuma Shigenobu (1838-1922) founded the Tokyo Semmon Gakko after he had left the government in 1881. Under his continuing tutelage, the school gradually developed into Waseda University, like the Doshisha a major independent educational institution. Waseda lacked both the government backing of the national universities such as Hokkaido and the support of the mission boards which contributed so much to the Doshisha. Its vigorous development reflects the strength of the indigenous interest in educational institutions independent of the government. One of Waseda's greatest contributions to modern Japan has been the succession of capable journalists it has trained. In the late nineteenth century Japanese did not feel that women required education beyond primary school. Missionaries who came to Japan shared the liberal concern for women's education then common in North America. Their many schools for girls and young women introduced to Japan the contemporary Western attitudes on

Introduction: The Setting for Japan's Pacifism

15

training women. Kitamura Tokoku's wife, Mina, demonstrated the kind of training women students in these schools received. Those who attended the mission schools had access to instructors from abroad with strong opinions about war. Most of them came from the United States. Those best remembered today came from north of the Mason-Dixon Line and east of the Mississippi. All had experienced the agonies of conscience which attended the Civil War. William S. Clark and others had served as officers in the Union forces and can be assumed to have seen their nation's cause as just. A minority represented the Quakers who in the Civil War had valiantly represented their sect's pacifist views by refusal to bear arms. To young men training for careers in a nation bent on the development of a strong army, these foreign instructors imparted a passionate concern for the miseries modern war entailed. Several played influential roles in the young lives of those who would become pacifists. Those pacifists represented in this collection reflect the interest in the new education, politics, and attitudes toward war which characterized early Meiji. Kitamura Tokoku, Kinoshita Naoe, and Kotoku Shusui all matured in the world of early party politics and themselves hoped at one time to become statesmen. Kotoku worked as a young man in the home of one of the famous enlighteners, Nakae Chomin, who also had political ambitions. Uchimura received his first college training at the Sapporo Agricultural College. Abe Isoo and Tabata Shinobu studied at the Doshisha. Tabata later became its president, while Abe became a respected professor at Waseda, the institution where Kitamura Tokoku and Kinoshita Naoe had received their training. And Kitamura introduced the idea of modern pacifism into Japan after contact with British and American Quakers. Young men educated in the new world which the early Meiji policies represented had every reason to believe that similar conditions would continue for the rest of their lives. They could not imagine the disquiet which rapid change had caused their elders, who had been reared under the Tokugawa regime. The Oligarchs did understand it, and even as they put the finishing touches on their new Western institutions, they gave them a conservative bias which would determine the nature of Japanese society for more than half a century. Their work culminated in the announcement of a new

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Introduction: The Setting for Japan's

Pacifism

constitution in 1889 and a basic statement about education issued the following year. These documents and those which accompanied them provided a legislature with an elected lower house and a clear statement of the rights and duties of citizens, including military service for males. The Constitution and the Imperial Rescript on Education also provided an interpretation of the emperor as a father-god of the nation. His will was seen as inviolable, and one with the basic kokutai, or essence of Japan, which set the Japanese apart from the citizens of other nations. With these policies the people of Japan and their rulers had reason to believe they had solved the major problems which had faced them when they assumed power over two decades earlier. The Constitution and institutions which accompanied it provided a framework which knit Japan into the comity of Western nations. At the same time, they defined the identity of the Japanese individual as distinctive from those in other nations and provided a mechanism to inculcate succeeding generations with this self-image. The Oligarchs hoped that their policies would protect their people from the precipitate Westernization of the preceding decades and enable them to retain both their identity as Japanese and their independence. The promulgation of the Constitution thus marks the end of the first period in modern Japan's history. The Oligarchs had fulfilled all their early promises for dramatic change and had at the same time reassured those concerned about the loss of continuity with the past. During the latter years of the Meiji Emperor's reign, they would reap the results of these policies, which in part contradicted each other. In the second period, from 1889 to 1912, the results of these contradictions became apparent. Victory in two international wars demonstrated the success of the modernization programme and earned the respect of the Western nations. Yet the wars themselves and policies adopted to ensure victory evoked within Japan opposition to aspects of the modernization programme. The resultant discussion brought the claims of pacifism before the population of the whole nation for the first time and produced the most vigorous debate on the subject before World War II. The discussion included opposition to Japan's two wars, which had otherwise been so well received. Both the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and the RussoJapanese War of 1904-5 resulted from Japan's concern that European

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powers might seize control of parts of Asia near Japan and from them threaten Japan's independence. Korea at the time was a vassal state of China. Its royal family at the end of the nineteenth century could act with considerable independence because of China's preoccupation with domestic problems. The First Sino-Japanese War resulted when both China and Japan tried to intervene in Korea's affairs. The superior training of the Japanese forces gained them a quick victory. The Chinese in defeat ceded Taiwan to Japan and paid a cash indemnity which more than reimbursed Japan for out-ofpocket costs. Japan's troops had suffered few casualties. Her victory won her the admiration of the Western powers. At the turn of the century, Great Britain sought her out as a partner in East Asia. The First Sino-Japanese War indicated that aggression paid. By the time the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed in 1902, tsarist Russia had already ensconced herself in Manchuria and showed little inclination to leave. Japan attacked Russia in February 1904 after months of unsuccessful diplomatic pressure. The Japanese found the Russians well prepared, and by the time the fighting ceased the war had cost more lives than any other to date. Yet most people forgot the costs in their victory celebrations. To have defeated one of the most powerful among the Western nations raised Japan's stock among the other nations of the West and additionally vindicated the policies of the Oligarchs. These spectacular victories in foreign relations obscured developments within Japan which reflected widespread discontent with government policies, and in particular the conservatism of the Constitution, the sacrifices economic development for military preparation exacted, and the folly of the war with Russia. In their preparation of the Constitution the Oligarchs had aimed to give their people representative government which would both reflect the general will of the people and result in amicable agreement over policy. They assumed that they would originate the plans for such policy. To this end they distrusted parties which appeared to pit one group of people against another. Such waste of energy, they felt, would hinder the people from devoting all their energies to the national aims of independence and acceptance by the Western powers. The Rescript on Education would contribute to the essential unity by defining the basic duties of a Japanese as co-operation with others according to the Confucian codes and respect for the

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Introduction'. The Setting for Japan s Pacifism

Imperial Will. For the Oligarchs, Japan's democracy was to rest on a body of shared values so firm that acrimonious disputes would not arise. Two events in January 1891, less than a year after the promulgation of the Rescript on Education, demonstrated disagreements with this point of view. When the new Diet opened for the first time, the elected representatives vigorously debated government draft legislation and refused to follow the paternal admonitions of the Oligarchs. On the same day the Diet opened, the Christian Uchimura Kanzo attended a special ceremony held in the school where he taught to receive a copy of the Rescript on Education signed by the emperor. At the ceremony Uchimura did not bow before the Rescript as deeply as etiquette required. His act resulted from his desire to avoid the idolatry of bowing before religious symbols, but it was interpreted as an arrogant refusal to pay due respect to the emperor. To conservatives, his attitude seemed to symbolize the divisive results of over-Westernization and explain the atmosphere out of which disagreement in the Diet could arise. Uchimura's act became the focus of vigorous literary debate. Many authors attacked him, but an impressive number of others came to his defence. Before the controversy died down, it had spawned hundreds of books and pamphlets. During the succeeding final years of the nineteenth century, the debate broadened to question the worth of native values. The headstrong modernization of the preceding two decades continued, but attitudes towards it changed. Most people found themselves proud of their Constitution and agreed with the spirit of the Rescript on Education. The major problem was how on the basis of the conservative consensus one should deal with specific problems as they developed. Concern over some of these policies gradually bred a lack of confidence in the new institutions. The uncertainty was reflected in vigorous demands for change. The major Tokyo daily newspaper, Yorozu Choho, started an organization called the Riso Dan (Society of Idealists), which encouraged broad reform. It included numerous members in the provinces who had been active in movements against liquor and prostitution. Though these aroused no official ire, reactions against two specific policies did. These policies were the forced economic development without sufficient concern for ecology and human rights and the war against Russia.

Introduction: The Setting for Japan's Pacifism

19

Concern over economic policies resulted from experience with the Ashio Copper Mine. A confidant of the Oligarchs had taken over an exhausted copper mine high in the mountains to the north of Tokyo. His vigorous measures had led to impressive new production and finally to the discovery of a huge deposit. Output from the mine significantly increasd the total national production of copper just as the rapidly expanding military and naval forces required large amounts of it. Though the officials in Tokyo rejoiced, people who lived near the mine suffered when its tailings polluted the river which irrigated their crops. The resulting devastation and misery attracted the attention of influential critics in Tokyo. The newspapers, already strong and seeking more readers, sent reporters to observe the damage. The Diet member who represented the area, Tanaka Shozo (1841-1913), led two protest marches on the capital and risked his own life to petition the emperor on behalf of his constituents. The spotlight of popular indignation finally forced the government to aid the farmers, but only after the issue had generated adverse publicity for a number of years. By that time it had become clear that there were limits on the extent to which the Japanese would accept policies geared solely to the increase of national strength. In the summer of 1903, while concern over the Ashio Copper Mine remained high, a statement was released by seven professors at the University of Tokyo. It urged the government to attack Russia before it could consolidate its strength in Manchuria. This statement set off a lively debate in the press, and particularly the Yorozu Choho, over the advisability and morality of such a war. The major critics knew each other and spurred each other on. They eagerly read and introduced the works of Tolstoy, who opposed his own government's militarism. The coming of the war split the Japanese pacifists into two groups. One felt that the demands of national unity required those opposed to war to keep silent until it ended. The other group, influenced by radical socialism, felt that opposition should continue at all costs, though a lack of public support and police harassment soon silenced them. The debate, as intense as it was short, provided the most thoroughgoing discussion of the issues involved in pacifism before 1945. In their concern over both the Ashio Copper Mine and the war, young men trained in the stimulating internationalism which typified

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Introduction'. The Setting for Japan s Pacifism

the new education of early Meiji took leading roles. Most of the writers who opposed government policy were Christians, and many of those who took issue with them knew enough of Christianity to take informed exception to its claims. The debate showed that the humanism and transcendentalism inherent in Christianity had found vigorous proponents. A number of authors mentioned in this volume played leading roles among them. Uchimura, active in journalism after his hesitation to bow had cost him his teaching position, reported along with Kinoshita Naoe on the farmlands ruined by the wastes from the Ashio Copper Mine. Uchimura and Kotoku Shusui together provided some of the most trenchant criticism of the approaching war with Russia. Kotoku and Abe Isoo had already collaborated in writing the first statement of principles for a Socialist party which the government had immediately disbanded. The dissolution of the first Socialist party proved to be a harbinger of later government policy. Those who opposed the Oligarchs' view of the Japanese polity would encounter intransigent opposition. Kotoku paid for his disagreement with his life. After his unsuccessful attempt to publicize pacifist ideas during the Russo-Japanese War, which earned him a term in prison, he toured North America, where he came under the influence of anarchists. He returned to Japan alienated from his society and joined a number of individuals who planned to assassinate the aged and venerated Meiji Emperor. Although six decades after the fact it appears he disassociated himself from the venture early on, the authorities at the time considered him the ringleader. He was executed in 1911, eighteen months before the Meiji Emperor died of natural causes. The degree of public support for Kotoku cannot be known, since details were not published. The mass of the Japanese people probably agreed with their leaders that any disagreement gravely threatened national strength. Whether or not they enjoyed the support of the people, the actions of the government leaders curbed debate and put anyone who questioned the kokutai under suspicion. By the end of the Meiji Period, the policies of the Oligarchs had won Japan a place among the Western nations and had prevented colonial takeover. To this extent they had succeeded in their original aims, but in the process they had sacrificed the beginning of true internationalism, which had characterized the first twenty years of their rule. Until 1945 no one would be able to question with impunity the imperial

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21

system or any other aspects of Japanese life which seemed to constitute its innermost core. The second period in modern Japan's development thus closed with an emphatic refutation, in part, of the innovation which had marked early Meiji. People could now strike out in new directions only to the extent that their ideas did not challenge the institutions brought into being in 1889-90. In particular, they could not challenge the emperor or the interpretation of the kokutai he was said to represent. The writing of Kitamura Tokoku had drawn attention to the dangers inherent in such mindless patriotism even before the First SinoJapanese War, but few Japanese remembered what he had said. They were much more concerned with the need for national unity than with the desire for greater individual freedom. As the death of the Meiji Emperor marks the end of the nation building that characterized his reign, so the reigns of his son and grandson symbolize Japan's development within the world of modern nations. The accession of Meiji's frail son, the Taisho Emperor, marks the beginning of the third period in modern Japanese history. The Taisho Emperor could not perform his duties in the final years of his life. This meant that his successor, the Showa Emperor, known as Hirohito in the West, had been acting as emperor for some years before he succeeded his father in 1926. The Showa Emperor continued to reign in good health for more than half a century. The Showa Period is sharply divided by the years which began with the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and ended with the close of World War II in 1945. It continued through the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937, four years before the attack on Pearl Harbor involved the Japanese in full-scale hostilities with the Allied powers. The twenty years of the Showa emperor's reign before 1945 were as filled with wars as the succeeding years would be free of them. Defeat in World War II marked a break with the past that ranks in importance with the events of 1868. During the period from the death of the Meiji Emperor until 1945, two opposing tendencies shaped the course of Japanese history. The first, which appeared stronger until 1931, extended the developments of Meiji toward a government increasingly responsible to the people and a society tied into the international community. The second, which existed parallel to the first and triumphed after 1931, sacrificed democratic government within Japan in the pursuit of

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Introduction: The Setting for Japan s Pacifism

control over China. The aggression in China alienated Japan from the international community and drove her towards further expansion in China. Both tendencies affected Japanese attitudes about international conflicts. Though exactly what forces influenced the course of history towards war is still the subject of hot debate among historians, the general outlines are clear. Three developments fostered the conviction that Japan would develop as a democratic and peaceful state. The Japanese people's greater political sophistication gradually earned them an increasing say in the operation of their government, organized labour became a considerable political force, and Japan actively participated in the new League of Nations and its affiliated organizations. Most important among these developments was the increasing sensitivity of government to the popular will. By the early twenties, the Oligarchs had almost entirely left the scene. After 1924, prime ministers were selected to reflect the competing forces within the majority party in the Diet. In this way, the prime minister came to represent to an extent the will of the electorate. The number of voters also increased; in the election of 1928 all adult males over twenty-five for the first time had the franchise. Yoshino Sakuzo (1873-1933), a professor of political science at the University of Tokyo, actively encouraged these developments and explained their importance in numerous essays which typify the optimistic assumptions of the period. The labour unions and socialist political parties which grew up to represent the interests of workers both date their origins back to the turn of the century, but they began to come into their own after the end of World War I. Many new workers had found jobs in the factories during the prosperity induced by the war. They were abandoned to ponder their fate when the wartime prosperity ended. The members of the new proletariat found persuasive advocates of socialism bidding for their votes. These socialists remained true to the original platform written in 1901 for the first Social Democratic Party, but they muted their arguments to avoid any suspicion that they opposed the kokutai. They developed into a potential rather than an active force in politics. An attitude of co-operation with the leading nations of the world accompanied these developments toward representative democracy at home. Japan attended the Peace Conference Conference at Versailles

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23

as a member of the victorious Allies. Its repre-sentative won for their nation the role of spokesman for Asia. The first under-secretary to the League of Nations was Nitobe Inazo, a graduate along with Uchimura Kanzo of the Sapporo Agricultural College, who had become an expert on colonial administration after he had written Bushido. Other Japanese served in such organizations ancillary to the League as the International Labour Organization and took an active part in the Institute of Pacific Relations, the foremost organization before World War II for the study of contemporary Asia. Its Kyoto Conference held in 1929 introduced leading Western businessmen and scholars to Japanese colleagues who favoured peaceful cooperation. Japan even had its own chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the foremost pacifist group of the time. The Japanese chapter's members included for the most part missionaries and Japanese Christians. The individual whose name is often associated with the point of view Japan's activities in these organizations represented was Shidehara Kijuro (1872-1951). His policies as foreign minister consistently aimed to strengthen Japan as a responsible member of international society. The strides toward increased parliamentary democracy and the active participation by Japanese in organizations like these characterized what come to be known in retrospect as Taisho Democracy. Most leaders in Japan and foreign observers of Japan's developments would have prophesied until 1931 that the tendencies set in motion during the twenties would continue. Hindsight teaches that this process of gradual liberalization and internationalization in fact ceased for two reasons. Some army leaders and others hoped to make China dependent upon Japan, and the fear of a charge that any disagreement threatened the kokutai prevented those who would have liked to oppose army takeover from an open advocacy of their views. These two factors together upset the very delicate political balance within Japan. Power shifted to the hands of those who favoured expansion abroad at the expense of world esteem and parliamentary government. In fact, the Japanese had good reason to feel that only by asserting their will in China could they assure their own safety. The United States' Immigration Act of 1924 had closed the doors for emigration just when population pressures at home seemed to require more land. The rich lands of China promised such space, but

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Introduction: The Setting for Japan's

Pacifism

Chiang Kai-shek's advance to the north in 1926 and the activities of Russian agents made it appear that they would not be available to Japan. Hurt by Western pressure against them and fearful that they would be cut off from natural resources, the people acquiesced in the army's leadership. This alienation from the international community started early in World War I, shortly after Japan took over the German colonies in China as part of its obligations under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Despite its assistance in China and repeated requests for more help from its Allies, it contributed practically nothing to the operations in Western Europe. Instead it tried to enlarge its influence in China by further expansion. It pressed the Twenty-One Demands upon China which, if the Chinese had agreed, would have made China in practice a colony of Japan. Its army also entrenched itself along the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Irkutsk. At the Peace Conference, the Chinese, who had like the Japanese joined the Allies but had aided the Allied cause by sending many labourers to help in construction projects for the Allies in Europe, tried to use the Conference to thwart Japanese ambitions in China. The Japanese interference in Asia and the concern of the Chinese aroused the suspicions of the Western powers. In the Washington Conference of 1921-22, Britain ended the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in favour of multinational treaties intended to preserve the integrity of China. Other decisions of the Conference, reluctantly accepted by the Japanese, limited the size of their naval establishment in the Pacific. The Taisho Democrats, who favoured greater integration into international councils, found that their overtures faced increasing scepticism. The contradictory attitudes towards foreign policy reflected disagreement within Japan about China. The question, put in its most rational terms, was whether the Chinese would co-operate to provide Japan with natural resources or the Japanese would arbitrarily seize them. If the Chinese co-operated, integration within the international communty would best serve Japan's economic interests. It the Chinese would not co-operate, active intervention would keep other foreigners out and secure China's raw materials and markets for Japan. The deepening world depression of the late twenties lent additional urgency to Japanese concerns. By 1930, the price of the two staple farm crops, rice and silk, had fallen to disastrous levels. Numerous persons in the countryside faced

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25

starvation, and the idea of a decisive move appealed to army leaders, many of whom had relatives in the countryside. Beginning in September 1931 Japanese forces took over Manchuria. The army claimed its men had reacted to Chinese provocation. An international commission sent by the League of Nations to look into the facts disagreed with this interpretation. The Japanese delegation in the League, led by the nationalist Matsuoka Yosuke (1880-1946), stalked out of the session which accepted the commission's report. Japan withdrew from the League. Japan's concern over the activities of Russian agents in China reflected her pervasive fear of communism. When the U. S. S. R. sent relief supplies after the catastrophic Tokyo earthquake of 1923, the Japanese government refused them. Later government suppression of individual liberties was justified in the name of preventing the spread of communism. The increasing insistence on the correct meaning of the kokutai by government officials reflected their desire to strengthen the Japanese identity as a bulwark against communism. Army action promised both relief from economic pressure and protection against infiltration. Japan's departure from the League removed the chief restraining force from those within Japan who favoured aggression in China. Assassination of government leaders engineered by young officers intimidated any who otherwise might have objected. In 1937 its leaders initiated what developed into the Second Sino-Japanese War, and by 1940 the Japanese controlled most of coastal and lowland China. It was the army's refusal to withdraw from this position in China which led to the impasse with the United States and eventually to Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima. The army succeeded in forcing the nation to accept its answer to what it called the China problem because the individuals within Japan who agreed with the internationalism of Taisho Democracy lacked the strength to control the army. Numerous reasons may be adduced to explain their failure, and none by itself seems adequate. Perhaps the most important single one, however, was the position accorded the emperor in the Constitution of 1889. In it, the emperor, as sovereign, stood as final arbiter. All political disputes had in theory to find their ultimate solution in his decision. The Meiji Emperor seems to have been strong enough to enter into active consultation with his ministers when necessary. Poor health prevented the Taisho

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Emperor from similar participation, and youth coupled with a devotion to the British concept of a constitutional monarch kept the Showa Emperor from active participation until his decision to end the war in 1945. In contrast to this lessening of actual participation by the emperor, conservative and ultranationalistic legal scholars interpreted his duties ever more broadly. He became the personification of the whole Japanese race. Thus, increasing responsibility devolved upon individuals unable to exercise it, and factions within the government struggled to exercise imperial power without explicit constitutional definitions of responsibility. The cult of imperial infallibility meant that a political faction could pillory its opponents by charging them with lese-majesty. Civilians were cowed by the threat of such accusations, but the army, more self-assured and with no responsibility to the electorate, simply acted in the name of the emperor. A second reason for army success follows from the first: the Japanese people acquiesced in the misuse of imperial power because they had come to accept ultranationalist assertions about the relation between the emperor and the kokutai. Since in this view the emperor personified the distinctive essence of Japan, there could be no refusal of a request in his name. Individuals found themselves routinely agreeing to activities which could not command their rational support but with which they complied because they were attributed to the "divine" emperor. Numerous early victories on the Asiatic continent and in the Pacific seemed to justify their enthusiasm. Late in the war, the same irrationality dragged them out of bed to jog with their neighbours on wintry predawn visits to nearby shrines; or drove them to accept with resignation the prospective defence of the kokutai with bamboo spears against sophisticated modern armaments. "Divine" commands in the service of ultranationalist ends induced support for the war effort far beyond what any person in his normal state of mind would accept. No one, before the Showa Emperor spoke out for himself in 1945, could resist the army's decisions or ultranationalism's claims upon individual loyalty. With the exception of Kitamura Tokoku and Kotoku Shusui, all the authors represented in this volume lived through the events mentioned above, though the disparity between their views and those of the government severely limited their ability to speak their minds. Uchimura and Kinoshita retired from commentary on

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27

international affairs in 1904 to pursue their individual searches for religious truth. Kinoshita sought the solace of traditional Japanese faiths, while Uchimura worked to develop individuals independent enough, as sons of God, to provide leadership in Japan and abroad. Abe Isoo and Kagawa Toyohiko both became immersed in the relation between ethical and economic problems. Abe taught his convictions in university, while Kagawa worked directly to improve the lives of individuals. Tabata Shinobu, maturing as a scholar in the thirties, developed convictions which would lead to active pacifist leadership after World War II. Only Yanaihara Tadao spoke out unequivocally against the gathering catastrophe in China after 1937. As professor of colonial policy, his words against the misuse of power in lands governed by the Japanese carried weight. He was given the strength to affirm his professional convictions by his faith in a Japanese form of Christianity called Mukyokai and the inspiration of his brother-inlaw, Fujii Takeshi. The word Mukyokai is variously translated as "Non-church," "Churchless Christianity," and "We-need-no-Church Principle." It developed out of the thought and experience of Uchimura Kanzo over a period of four decades, but it took form during the twenties as Uchimura's remarkable powers waned and his disciples sought to define the essence of his teaching Two characteristics within Uchimura's thought emerged to set it apart. The first was belief in the direct transmission of faith and salvation through reading the Bible, prayer, and good acts. A corollary was that membership in the various churches which had developed in Europe and America was not a prerequisite to salvation. Hence the name Mukyokai, which indicated that though church membership might provide some practical advantages to the believer, it did not constitute an indispensable part of his faith. In this way, Mukyokai challenged the whole ecclesiastical structure built upon the belief in apostolic succession. This insight alone has characterized many religious groups throughout Christian history. Uchimura realized in his final years that it was the task of true faith in all ages to minimize the role of ecclesiastical organizations. What set Mukyokai apart was its Japanese quality. Mukyokai specifically rejected connection with the Japanese churches, which retained characteristics imparted to them by their missionary founders. Because it lacked this connection with Western culture which infused the rest of Japanese Christianity, Mukyokai

28

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could better accommodate the special affection for his country which a Japanese felt. Uchimura came to define his faith as having, like an ellipse, two centres, each of which began in English with a "J": Jesus and Japan. His affection for each, he felt, did not diminish his commitment to the other. The inclusion of the second "J" as a focus of Uchimura's faith reflects the intense concern over his country and its fate which typified many men of his generation. Probably men like him and his students who were aware of Japan's place in the world felt this concern even more than their less cosmopolitan compatriots. As the internationalists saw it, their nation's relative weakness put it in constant peril before larger and more affluent nations. The slowly deteriorating international position of Japan in the twenties made Uchimura's followers most apprehensive. They tended to identify with the Old Testament prophets who took upon themselves their nation's plight, convinced that it could be saved only through subservience to God's will. It was the combination of a deep Christian piety, identification with Japan, and the conviction that they must cry out against the evils of the time that characterized the pacifist witness of Mukyokai members. The first man in this tradition was the translator-poet Fujii Takeshi.4 Fujii, born into the family of an army officer in 1888, came under the influence of Uchimura Kanzo as a student and then became a Mukyokai evangelist. He translated, among other things, Milton's Paradise Lost. The best-known work among Fujii's own writings later seemed to his colleagues to have been remarkably prescient. It is a collection of essays written during the twenties and brought together under the title Seisho yori mitaru Nikon [Japan seen in biblical perspective]. Following in part the work of Uchimura, Fujii describes the various traditions which have formed Japan and the history of civilization's advance westward from the Middle East to the United States. Fujii considered that the United States was the most advanced development of civilization in his time, but that it was about to lose its preeminence. "The Holy Spirit is now leaving the U. S. A. And at the same time the most remarkable thing is the turning of the main current of world culture to Oriental countries, especially Japan" (p. 34). If the Japanese were to relax and let God's will be done, he thought, they would have a great future, but it appeared to him

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that they would try to seize what would otherwise come naturally. If they did so, he thought, God would use their adversaries to smite them down in certain defeat. ...God will summon his avenger from afar — planes and battleships will come from the ends of the earth to attack like clouds and waves, filling air and sea. They will spoil, for the first time, that "glorious history of heavenly protection" of which the Japanese have long been boastful. This is not because of the strong power of the enemy, but because of God's hand moving upon her. In the same way, in ancient days, both Assyria and Babylonia were used as God's rod. It is not the Pacific fleet nor the powerful air force of the U. S. A. but God Himself of whom we should be fearful. Whenever we betray God's trust and love, we may expect to receive His severe punishment (pp. 35-36). Only after this devastation will "God awaken his nation ...to create a new Japan from the Remnant, the awakened few who will survive" (p. 35). In July 1930, shortly before his death, Fujii added to this prophecy an apocalyptic poem entitled "Horobiyo" [Be ruined!]: I know not whether Japan is growing or declining, Whether my beloved country is blessed or cursed. I believed she was growing; I dreamed her blessed. But it is impossible for me to find a true statesman Who loves righteousness and acts with justice in this country. I left no stone unturned, but still I find not one soul Who seeks after truth for its own sake. Young men stick to the world like chickens, forgetting eternity; Young women behave in filthy ways like pigs, treading pearls. When I heard from camp next door one night last summer What everyome said so rudely and crudely,

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I trembled and shivered sitting in my tent alone. And next morning I left the place as hurriedly as Lot, Running away from Sodom, holding the hands of my children. Since then the image of the ruin of Japan hangs on me Day and night. Japan is falling like flesh peeling from lepers. The name of Japan will soon be taken away from the earth; The Crocodile from the East will swallow her entirely. Be ruined, you country of disgraceful young women — You beast-like country of spineless young men with no love of truth. I heartily agree with my teacher when on his deathbed He said, "You tell friends I am now leaving This disgraceful country with no regrets. " Woe to the people and the country betraying the truth! Oh, our Heavenly Father, Thy will be done! (p. 28) The devouring "Crocodile from the East" represents the United States, and the leader was Uchimura, who had died a few months earlier. Fujii himself died the month "Horobiyo" was published. Three elements attract attention in Fujii's prophecy. The first is that the moral state of the nation determines its success in domestic and foreign policy. The second is Fujii's sense that the critical moment has already passed and that sure destruction awaits Japan even though God has ordained a just role for her in history. Finally, the destruction will lead in time to Japa.n's assumption of that lofty position in history for which God originally destined her. The promise remains, but Japan has already committed irredeemable transgression and must meekly accept its punishment. During the long and dreary months before capitulation, Fujii's prophecy of doom seemed to come true in vivid detail. Those who knew his words looked forward to the cessation of hostilities as a time to start the reconciliation with God which formed a further part of Fujii's prophecy. By the end of the third period in Japan's modern development, the seeds planted by the attitudes of those who interpreted the role of the emperor with overcaution had borne their fruit. The inability to criticize the government at home had in part led to disastrous

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defeat. Only a handful of individuals had prepared themselves with an interpretion of history that enabled them to speak out against war and find a basis for new action after it. The fourth period begins with the occupation of Japan in 1945 by Allied troops. Their presence demonstrated the extent to which the Japanese army's desperate moves had cost the Japanese the independence and respect of foreign nations which had motivated their government's policies for the preceeding three-quarters of a century. The postwar governments adopted the same aims as they repaired the devastation wrought by the war. A happy coincidence of men and attitudes gave them a good start. The Occupation officials, mostly American, entered Japan with a strong sense of mission to establish a form of government that would not permit a repetition of Japan's road to war. They felt that the government's officials had led their people into a war they would not have sanctioned if they had been given the chance. They were pleasantly surprised by the Japanese officials who came forward to meet them. These men were by and large Taisho democrats who had lived out the war far from positions of power because their internationalism had been suspect. Free from any complicity in war guilt and in agreement with the Occupation's basic aims, they could work in easy co-operation with their captors. The two groups together hammered out new governmental institutions which greatly changed the face of Japan. The capstone of the modified institutions was the new Constitution, which became law in May 1947. It reflected its architect's conviction that the surest means to prevent war was to entrust power wisely to the people. To that end, women received the vote for the first time so that all adults had the suffrage. The emperor was given a role as a constitutional monarch, with all real power vested in the prime minister and his cabinet. The changes gave Japan a governmental structure which mixed elements of the British and American systems with its own. In one important respect, however, the Japanese Constitution differed markedly from any other. Its Article Nine renounced "war...and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes." With this phrase the Japanese people committed themselves to a policy of pacifism. Japan's only socialist government presided over the implementation of the new Constitution. In this clause, the attitude toward war

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they had urged in their first platform almost half a century earlier suddenly changed from impossible ideal to basic policy. It became a source of pride to the Japanese people that their nation had been the first to make such a commitment. Succeeding years would reveal large numbers of them prepared for sacrifices in order to retain the clause and encourage policies consistent with it. The history of the pacifist movement since 1947 consists of determined efforts to keep Article Nine in the Constitution. The first threat to it came not from Japanese but from the same Occupation officials who had helped to word the anti-war clause in the first place. Their new attitude reflected changed policies in Washington. By 1948, it had become apparent that the Chinese Communists would take over all of China, and Stalin's forceful moves reflected Soviet expansionism. In these circumstances, the Japanese appeared to be important potential allies for the United States in the Pacific. American policy changed to urge upon the Japanese measures that would integrate her land and personnel into American defence of the Western Pacific. The Korean War which broke out in 1950 seemed to underline the need. When the Occupation ended two years later, the Japanese allowed the United States to retain bases in Japan but did not agree to rearmament. The guidelines for future disagreement were thus drawn. Japanese conservatives agreed with policy-makers in the United States that Japan should rearm in the interests both of herself and of her most important customer. Those who opposed them felt that Japan should remain true to the spirit of her Constitution by refusing to rearm herself or to allow the United States continued use of military army and naval bases on her soil. Both points were part of the platforms for the demonstrations which marked the 1950's and 1960's. The showdown came in 1960 when the government tried to use a visit by the American President Eisenhower to extend the Security Treaty which permitted American forces to remain in Japan. The socialists objected on the grounds that the treaty violated the spirit of the Constitution. Government leaders invited Eisenhower to stop in Japan on his return from the Soviet Union, their strategy being that the warm welcome Eisenhower would receive there would make it difficult for Japanese leftists to oppose his visit. The leaders also planned to work the treaty extension through the Diet to present it as a token of Japanese-American friendship when Eisenhower arrived.

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The discovery that American spy planes were photographing the Soviet Union led to an angry cancellation of that nation's invitation to Eisenhower and left the Japanese with the Eisenhower visit scheduled and the ultra-leftists with a new reason to demonstrate against it. The government did force through the treaty extension, but only after the socialists had demonstrated their ability to disrupt normal activities and had forced Eisenhower to cancel his visit. After 1960 the pacifists existed in a state of constant wariness. They have managed up to this writing in early 1978 to retain control of slightly more then one-third of the seats in the Diet and so prevent any constitutional amendment. Two of the authors discussed in this volume played important roles in these postwar developments. Yanaihara Tadao helped reform the University of Tokyo in the spirit of the Constitution and wrote widely on the responsibilitities associated with democracy, while Tabata Shinobu led in the development of a logical defence of the peace clause. They worked in a nation where the position of the early socialists in Meiji was thus reversed. Under the old Constitution, the individual enjoyed few freedoms, and the advocacy of pacifism brought quick reprisal. The new Japanese Constitution guaranteed the Japanese as many freedoms as any people in the world and enshrined pacifism as national policy. The idealists of today wonder if they will be able to retain their hard-won accomplishments, while their opponents worry that the removal of the American nuclear umbrella would leave Japanese vulnerable to an attack. Both groups work in a world where the claims of pacifism must be taken very seriously and attest to the influence of the authors represented in the following pages.

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2

Kitamura Tokoku His Pursuit of Freedom and World Peace NOBUYA BAMBA A FORERUNNER

Kitamura Tokoku had advocated world peace more than a decade before the Russo-Japanese War, when for the first time a significant segment of the Japanese intellectual community began to be genuinely concerned with the problem of war and peace. In co-operation with Kato Kazuharu (1861-1932) Tokoku established the first peace society in Japan, the Nihon heiwa-kai, in November 1889 and became editor-in-chief of the society's journal Heiwa [Peace], In the first issue of Heiwa (15 March 1892) Tokoku proclaimed: "Peace is our ultimate ideal.... We believe it our responsibility to become animators of [world-wide peace movements] and to stir up conscientious people throughout the world. "l Tokoku's pacifism was based upon Christianity, especially Quakerism, but it was broad enough to include other religions as well. His idea of peace was fundamentally interconnected with his belief in the free individual unbound by the particulars of race, state, or religion. Tokoku is well known as a leader among Japan's modern writers. 2 With extreme sensitivity and burning passion, he struggled to explore the world of the inner life, self, ego, and love. Throughout these literary themes what he sought was the individual's complete inner freedom. He continually fought against every form of feudalistic bondage, autocratic government, and other external restrictions. "Destroy! DestroyV9 exclaimed Tokoku, "then something new may emerge.... My agonizing fight has been nothing but a struggle

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emanating from this spirit [belief]. "3 Like Fukuzawa Yukichi, Tokoku was an iconoclast. Unlike Fukuzawa, however, who was inclined towards materialism and utilitarianism, Tokoku espoused spiritual freedom above all. For him the goal of Japanese modernization was neither technological development nor economic progress. Fukuzawa's rationalism was girded with a nationalistic sentiment, that of fukoku kyohei (Rich country, strong military), while Tokoku was convinced that it was this ubiquitous nationalistic sentiment in Meiji Japan which would deprive the individual of his inner freedom. Because of this belief, he strongly opposed the Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890 with its emphasis on loyalty to the state as a means to achieve national strength. 4 Modernization to Tokoku meant a full exploration of self and individuality, which, he thought, would be the real foundation for liberalism, democracy, and the general welfare of humanity. His aspirations for modernity reflected a universalistic outlook which transcended both particular national interests and nationality. While trying to establish his inner identity and spiritual freedom in literature by rejecting the traditional particularism of Japanese culture, he discovered a truth: the universality of conscience among free individuals. In addition to the Quaker influence, Tokoku's advocacy of world peace "through a union of conscience among all the people in the world"5 was based upon this conviction. Although he lived for only twenty-five years, as a leader of neoteric writers, as a modernizer, and as a precursor of the pacifist movement, Tokoku's influence was enormous. The important literary figure Shimazaki Toson (1872-1943) remarked: "I have thought about Tokoku these many years, and still I find him inexhaustible. I have been greatly influenced by him ; I think he was a true genius. "6 Kinoshita Naoe recollected in his later years that Kitamura Tokoku together with Fukuzawa Yukichi was one of the two "great benefactors"7 of his thought. What, then, was the social matrix which created a man like Tokoku? How did he reach, and why could he advocate, the idea of world peace in such an early stage of modern Japanese history before anyone else even raised the problem in his country? How are his ideas of world peace and his trust in the universality of the free individual's conscience related? These are the major questions which I probe in this article.

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SEARCH FOR INNER FREEDOM AND IDENTITY

Torn between the East and the West, between the external and the internal worlds, between love and marriage, the motif of Tokoku's short but colourful life was sharply etched by his struggle to find his own inner identity, an invincible individual with totally free volition and passion. In his efforts he symbolized the dilemma of modern man. In Meiji Japan, amid feudalistic remnants, autocratic power, and overwhelming patriotism, his search for an "inner life" (naibu seimei, to use Tokoku's term) and spiritual freedom was a lonely and painful path which finally ended in suicide. His tragic life journey began with a childhood experience which had created an extremely sensitive and introspective youth burdened by an acute sense of alienation and an inclination towards profound thought. 8 Tokoku was born as Montaro on 29 December 1868, almost a year after the Meiji Restoration. He was the first son in a family which had practised medicine in the Odawara fief for many generations, and so had enjoyed relative wealth and respect until the Restoration disrupted the traditional social fabric. As a result, the family's fortunes declined and Tokoku's father Kaizo became a bureaucrat, never to succeed, partly because of the domination of the Satsuma-Choshu clique in the new government, but partly also because of his own mediocrity. Vexed by her husband's inability, Tokoku's mother, Yuki, projected her great hopes onto her eldest son. One finds the best account of Tokoku's early days in his own letter dated 18 August 1887 (Tokoku was eighteen years old) to Ishizaka Mina, the girl he later married. He recalls: My father, though brought up under the feudal system, was somehow not raised according to its strict codes and rituals. In some respects open-hearted and proud, at the same time also small-minded at times. In 1878, for example, when my grandfather suffered a paralytic stroke, my father immediately resigned from his office in the government and returned home. He then spent seven years of filial devotion looking after his ailing father, and this resulted in the complete exhaustion of our small fortune.... My mother was a most nervous and terrible person, a difficult Shogun who controlled our family affairs absolutely

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according to her own liking, and who tried to force her subordinates to conform to her own life-style. From my mother I inherited my bad disposition of extreme sensitivity and from my father I received his proud and independent nature.... 9 Tokoku proceeds with his letter of self-analysis: In 1873, my parents left for Tokyo, entrusting me to the care of my grandparents. Until 1878, that is, for five years, I was brought up entirely by my grandparents.... Although I was by nature highly independent and of open disposition, since I was raised by a strict grandfather and a grandmother who paid little attention to my interests and well-being [she was Tokoku's step-grandmother], my ingenuous childhood thoughts became distorted and entangled with complicated fantasies. Thus I developed my inclination towards deep thought and pensiveness.... [Restricted from reading novels and from childlike wild games], I spent many melancholy, discontented days and months. Because of such experience, I became quite passionate and tearful. Often, deep in thought, I became hard-to-please and a nuisance.... In the spring of 1878...my parents returned home to look after my grandfather. After that, nothing was more harmful to my lively spirits than my mother's nervousness. Moreover, as is usual with most mothers, she cherished a great ambition for me to make a name for myself. So every night she kept me at my desk until almost midnight, watching me like a jailer.... I liked reading novels, especially historical ones, and adored their heroes. Awake or asleep, I only thought of those heroes and dreamed of becoming like one of them. Furthermore, as I was already accustomed to deep thinking—though still just a child—I could no longer enjoy everyday life by just simply laughing and playing as other children did.... In addition, I even felt that life had no value; for I had thoroughly convinced myself that both my parents and grandparents had little affection for me. Perhaps this was the most important reason why I later suffered the strains of melancholia. One fortunate thing for me, however, was that because my mother prohibited me from

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indulging in reading novels, I was in fact saved; for otherwise, that habit of mine surely would have stirred up my ambition to its extreme, and I would have attempted suicide, as many of those heroes had done in their childhood (3 : 162-64). The letter apprises us of many important factors necessary to understand Tokoku, the man and the formation of his character. First of all, he was amazingly precocious. All the complex feelings described above were here attributed by him to the period when most boys play childhood games. Even in young adulthood he was far more advanced in his self-awareness, rationality, and modern spirit than his contemporaries, most of whom were still submerged in pre-modern existence and consciousness. Small wonder that only a man like Tokoku could advocate world peace before anybody else in Japan, which, at that time, had just barely emerged from the cocoon of isolation and consequently had not experienced international war. The letter also depicts a sense of loneliness and alienation in Tokoku's childhood. It subsequently deepened and lingered throughout his life. This sense of alienation and loneliness, together with his introspection, caused him to turn inward and search for his inner self, value, and identity. The search took various forms, moving from external to progressively more internal goals as Tokoku grew up: from burning political ambition to Platonic love, to Christian salvation, and finally to his complete spiritual emancipation through the destruction of his own body. One can likewise trace in this letter the early origins of his yearning for freedom. Young Tokoku resented his parents' and grandparents' restrictions. He passionately rebelled against them, and by so doing relieved his pent-up feelings and discontent. In 1881, Tokoku, this time with his parents, moved to Tokyo where he finished the last year of his elementary education. No sooner had he entered school than he won a reputation for his talent in discussion and writing. A newspaper reporter, who had listened to his graduation speech, called him a "prodigy." About this time he also developed his habit of solitary wandering. He enjoyed walking alone without a penny in his pocket, sometimes to Kamakura and at other times even as far as Chiba, both of which seemed far from Tokyo and certainly were long hikes. "To Japanese poets," says Tokoku, "Kamakura was like Italy to many Europeans.

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It was the place my inner desire had long urged me to visit" (3: 165-66). He travelled to breathe free air, as nature beckoned his poetic spirit. According to Miyazaki Koshoshi, Tokoku's friend and a poet, Tokoku was a constant traveller, and once he wandered away from home, he never returned for at least fifty or sixty days (3: 590). Since 1874, and especially after 1877, when Kataoka Kenkichi (1843-1903) and Itagaki Taisuke (1837-1919) of the Risshisha presented a demand to the government calling for the establishment of a popular assembly, the Popular Rights Movement had swept the country. Wishing to fulfill his childhood dream to become a hero, Tokoku became deeply involved in the movement even though he was still a student in elementary school. He relates further in the letter to Mina: This year [1881], as the political movement came to its height in our country, I was also excited like many others and set my goal to become a statesman. I was ready to sacrifice myself for the cause of freedom. All of my former ambitions were concentrated towards this goal and started to control me as a fearful force (3: 165). Tokoku's impulse for freedom from parental control thus took a new turn: resistance to the government. Later, in order to maintain his spiritual freedom and inner identity, Tokoku opposed any kind of external oppression and formalities. For example, he vehemently attacked Confucian rituals and feudalistic conventions. He also advocated free love, a novel idea in his time, and openly accepted love suicide as an expression of a completely emancipated emotion.10 At this time his cardinal enemy was the autocratic government. Direct confrontation with politics was his key to unlock the chains which bound the individual. By the autumn of 1883 when Tokoku at the age of fourteen entered the Department of Political Economy at Tokyo Semmon Gakko, he had already been an active member of the Popular Rights group in the Santama region of Kanagawa Prefecture (later part of Tokyo). Mina's father, Ishizaka Masakata, was the leader of the group. Among the colleagues he met in this group, Tokoku became a good friend of a man named Oya Masao (Sokai), who was five years his

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senior. He respected Oya almost to the point of adoration. As an adolescent, Tokoku felt that he had discovered his identity in Oya and that only Oya could understand his complicated nature. Nevertheless, their_association did not last long. Oya became involved in the plot of Oi Kentaro (1843-1922), who attempted to instigate a revolution in Korea. Oi was convinced that the liberation of Japan was inextricably connected with that of all Asia. Oya Masao with other young members of the Santama group planned a series of robberies to procure funds for this plot. He pressed Tokoku to join the scheme, but Tokoku could not become a burglar no matter how noble the final goal may have appeared. He begged Oya's pardon and soon afterwards left the Popular Rights Movement. n According to Mina's observation, from the beginning Tokoku could never get along well with those political "gangsters" who gathered around her father. It was during his association with the Santama group that Tokoku, accompanied by Oya, frequented the licenced quarters. Later, Tokoku himself told Mina: "I could hardly bear to listen to their drunken arguments. I was too ashamed to watch their outrages at inns and restaurants....They were licentious, and I realized that it was foolish for me to risk my life with them. "12 These accounts indicate that Tokoku had become isolated from his comrades. He was not by nature a political man. In his recollections of the Santama days, he wrote that while Oya was "lamenting over political affairs and playing with a sword, I gazed up into heaven and counted shooting stars" (1 : 390). Even with his best friend, Tokoku's poetic mind floated off into the universe far from the immediate surroundings of the political world. Irok^wa Daikichi, who made a careful study of Tokoku's life in the Santama group, notes that his sense of isolation was much deeper than simply the alienation from his friends. As the government became increasingly powerful and oppressive, Tokoku sensed that an armed insurrection could no longer bring about a newT society. To him the whole political situation of Japan looked hopeless.13 Moreover, Tokoku was increasingly disgusted by the corruption and internal schisms in the Popular Rights Movement. A rumour, buttressed by considerable evidence, spread that Itagaki Taisuke and Goto Shojiro (1838-97) had secretly received funds for their trip to Europe from the government. Itagaki's party, the Jiyuto, and Okuma Shigenobu's party, the Rikken Kaishinto, formed the very

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foundations of the Popular Rights Movement, yet they engaged in mutual recrimination instead of co-operating in their common cause. Oppressed by the government and entangled in its own inner power struggles and corruption, the Jiyuto dissolved in October 1884. The Kaishinto followed more or less the same route, while radical elements directly appealed for insurrections in various localities. Having seen these events, Tokoku wrote. "By this time, I really hated the ugliness of the political world...and I decided to seek my future outside of politics, though I was overwhelmed by the sadness of losing my friend [Oya]."14 Tokoku's disappointment with politics was all the greater because of the hope he had earlier invested in the Popular Rights Movement. He also suffered from guilt, believing that he had betrayed his best friend. Thus Tokoku simultaneously lost his goal in life, his ambition, and his most intimate friend. All these happenings could not but torture this sensitive youth and drive him to neurosis. It was through his resulting breakdown that Tokoku achieved a new realization: that the goal he had been seeking was not political but something else, though he was still unsure of exactly what it was. At least he could perceive that his political ambition had been a "foolish delusion. " After he recovered from his illness, hope sprang afresh in his breast. He wished to become a writer, but not an ordinary writer for art's sake. "I aspired to become like Victor Hugo, " he wrote, "who propounded his political ideals through the power of the pen. "15 With regard to the radicals in the Popular Rights Movement, he stated: "Their intention to conquer the violence [of the government] is good. But, if they too use violence, how can they, themselves, be justified? To attack violence, we must rise up with weapons. However, our weapon should not be the sword of violence. It should be the spear of truth. We must fight with truth!"16 Tokoku did not give up his fight for freedom. He only changed the means: from politics to literature. Thus, in September 1885, he transferred from the Department of Political Economy to the Department of English Literature in the Tokyo Semmon Gakko. When Tokoku lost his best friend, Oya, Ishizaka Mina became the most influential figure in his life. He had known her for some time through her father and her brother, Masatsugu, who was another colleague in Santama. To Tokoku, as he himself recognized, Mina

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became "the second Oya. "17 She was three years older than Tokoku, and he adored her. She was a student at a famous Christian women's college, a highly sophisticated woman attuned to contemporary developments, yet possessed of an aristocratic demeanour. At her graduation ceremony, for instance, she delivered a speech entitled "Women, Too, Are Responsible for the Promotion of Freedom. "18 Although never considered beautiful, she was attractive to Tokoku becase of her advanced knowledge and grace. In a letter to Mina written in the summer of 1887 but never sent, Tokoku wrote: "Your intellect, your experience, and your knowledge—these three make me feel that I am always with a very good friend, even when I am not with you. They make me feel joyful and delighted. "19 They were soon deeply in love, though as was often the case in Meiji Japan, Mina had already been engaged to another man by her parents. Eventually she was to break with this feudalistic convention and was to marry Tokoku in November 1888. Full of passion, yes ; full of emotion, yes ; but above all they loved each other's thought and spirit. Subsequently, in his "Ensei shika to josei" [A misanthropic poet and a woman, 1892], Tokoku depicted his experience of love for Mina: Love is the secret key to open the window of life. Love creates a new life. Without love, how can one taste the fragrance of life? He continues : Love is also the fond mother who blesses one's thought with nobility. Love is a miracle that leaves an inscription deep in one's bosom, never to be erased throughout one's life. Man without love is like a tree awaiting the advent of spring standing somewhat lonely and sad. Each one enters the profundity of life through his experience of love. Love is pure, piercing through the quintessence of beauty. Before one experiences love, society looks as though it were a house of strangers. Love leads one to mono no aware (sensitive melancholy), awakens one to the beauty of nature, and makes illusory life real. One feels as if he has returned home from a neighbour's house (1:254-55). Tokoku then narrates his path to love after the miserable defeat in his fight against the external world. What can a defeated general, depressed and weary, cling to in order to console his spirit? Troubles and duties are soldiers of the external world, always watching for a chance to attack the inner world, and all other problems of this world close in upon one like hundreds of swords and spears. At

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such times, who on earth will help him? What on earth will deliver him to the place of safety? Love! Love is the fortress that protects the defeated general of the inner world from the war waged by the external world. Neither sincerity nor experience can win against the misanthropic disillusionment of this world. Is there anything in this world that looks real, that looks true to a youth with a pure heart imbued with idealism? Yes, it is love. Love stands above sincerity, loyalty, faith, and even death (1 : 256-59). As indicated above, the "defeated general," disenchanted with politics, alienated from his best friend and his immediate group, shut in from the world, was once saved from collapse by his awakening to love. Yet, ironically, this love soon proved to be a destructive force as well, for it not only gave him a new life but also led him to an understanding of the "profundity of life" by presenting him a mirror which reflected his own self. Until his meeting with Mina, he had thought that he could determine his identity by emancipating himself from his oppressive parents, grandparents, the autocratic government, and feudalistic bondage. By negating the environment which had deprived him of freedom, by asserting his self, ego, and ambition, he thought he could establish his own individuality. However, his love for Mina and Mina's Christian faith completely changed his previous Weltanschauung and his method of searching for identity. He soon discovered that those qualities in Mina which had most attracted him, namely, "her noble idealism, her loving and graceful heart, and her will to devote herself to social welfare, " were based upon puritanism, especially Calvinism. Mina was a Christian convert, a member of the Presbyterian Church. In comparison with Mina, whom he considered "a beautiful fruit of the vineyard growing in the orchard of the divine," he was nothing but the "dregs of society." His self-reproach thus started. He wrote to Mina that he used to revile society, violate women, and despise morality, but now he realized that it was he who was really despicable. He began to think that he was unworthy of Mina. Besides, Mina's mother had been strongly opposed to her association with Tokoku, for Mina had been expected to marry a medical student. Furthermore, about this time, in the summer of 1887 when Tokoku was eighteen years of age, another incident took place which aggravated his sense of "defeat. " Thwarted in his political ambitions and lacking confidence in his ability to succeed in writing, he started

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a small business at Yokohama, but this venture quickly went bankrupt. 20 Now thinking himself a "foot-soldier in defeat" and no longer a "general, " Tokoku felt obliged to leave Mina in spite of his burning love for her. He was convinced that he had to free her so that she could dedicate her life to Christian missionary work. This was Tokoku's first concerted act of self-sacrifice. He could reach this decision only when he had completely denied his past self. Later, he wrote to his father about this self-denial in the following terms. He had been the incarnation of pride and ambition; and yet these had been his defining characteristics. If they had to be extracted from him, nothing would have been left in his soul. He would have become either a madman or an idiot. Nevertheless, he now dared this self-sacrifice because of his sincere love for Mina, so that her devotion to missionary work would not be hampered by troublesome love for the "dregs of society." His parting from Mina led to another breakdown, but this time, because of his self-alienation and lost identity, it was inflicted by his own act of self-negation. Having given up his love for Mina and having lost himself, Tokoku literally "writhed in agony. " It was at this moment, in his spiritual vacuum, that he suddenly experienced a divine revelation. He had been exposed to Christianity while a member of the Santama group. Through reading Western philosophy and literature he had become interested in Christianity. Tokoku had also attended church and listened to missionaries preach, but the greatest influence upon his decision to accept Christanity was Mina. "God invited me," states Tokoku, "by the hands and the mouth of my most beloved one, and seated me by the side of the powerful, yet gentle, Holy Spirit. "21 To his father Tokoku confessed: Ah, what a perilous state of mind I was in! My lack of faith in God had almost destroyed this precious life of mine.... But Mina, seeing through my nature, my will, and my plans, led me to realize the greatness of God....Thinking back on my past, there were two causes which brought about my self-destruction: one, "I knew not God to believe, " and two, "I knew not how to love people. "22

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He continued his repentance. He had been insolent, egoistic, self-complacent, and ambitious only for his own good. But now he was resolved to offer his most precious one, his lover, to God. Proceeding with his confession, he wrote: Ah! My lady is a noble one. She is determined to save people by propagating the gospel of God....This [to give Mina up] is my offering to God. Oh God! Let me be Thy real subject. Make me truly loyal to Thee....Upon our parting I made a very important promise to Mina: namely, I shall surely take the right course of life....Thus, I courageously overcame my amorous passion....At the same time, my feeling of gratitude towards God poured out like a flood with astonishing strength, and I was convinced that I had to be converted (3:174-75). Tokoku was baptized on 4 March 1888, at the age of nineteen. Thus, from the bottom of the abyss, Tokoku started to climb up, clinging to the ladder of Mina's love and God's power, to reconstruct himself and to return to the world of humanity. His salvation became possible when he totally negated himself and made the resolution of self-sacrifice to God. His self-doubt, which had originated from his failure to fulfill his political ambitions, and his subsequent selfreproach arising from his awakening to love for Mina were now transformed into religious repentance. Tokoku perceived the basic causes of his breakdown as his lack of faith in God and his egoism, which had shut his heart to love for others. To Mina he wrote, "I suddenly recognized something which taught me that my insolent view [of the world] was wrong. I have come to realize that 'something' was the teachings of God, to which I am now dedicated. It was the force of Christianity. "23 Between the age of sixteen when lie experienced his first breakdown and his baptism at age nineteen, Tokoku had gone through a remarkable personal transformation. He was reborn with a new self and a new identity. He became aware of the fact that he could never attain his real identity simply by self-assertion and negation of the external world. The negation of one's surroundings is indeed a sine qua non for the understanding of "Who am I?" and "What am I?" At the same time, however, negation of the external world destroys one's umbilical link to society. Society and the whole world become

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meaningless to one's own existence. Life itself becomes empty, and one's goal is lost. 24 Hence, limitless self-assertion by negating the world, in the final event, leads one to social alienation and even to self-alienation. To find one's real identity and a meaningful existence, negation alone is not sufficient; on the contrary, it is detrimental to one's own existence. As the term "identity" implies, having once negated his surroundings, one ought then to find what he should now identify with. One has to rediscover the link once denied in order to rejoin the world. In other words, to establish one's own authentic identity, one has to deal with two diametrically opposing processes simultaneously: first, to perceive oneself from a detached position; and second, to try to reintegrate oneself with society by ending that detachment. 25 In Tokoku's case, this difficult operation became feasible through his love and his Christian faith. Though he wrote prior to Erich Fromm, Tokoku's self-analysis in the "Ensei shika to josei" is somewhat similar to Fromm's thesis set out in Escape from Freedom. His love for Mina, at least, seemed to kindle a new passion in the life of "the misanthropic poet. " Love appeared to have given him a new link to society. As Tokoku himself put it, he felt as if he had returned home from a house of strangers. His previous attempt at "freedom from, " to use Fromm's term, was transformed into his effort at "freedom to." Tokoku's negativistic concept of freedom became positive and creative. His understanding of freedom seemed to have come full circle, but not in the way that readers of Fromm would have been led to expect. In spite of his passionate love, he broke down even more helplessly than in his previous collapse. This was partly because love taught him self-reflection and self-denial, but more importantly because love in the ordinary sense of Eros is but the extension of self-assertion and the satisfaction of one's own ego. Continuous self-assertion, in the final analysis, cannot but drive one to self-destruction by crashing against the hard wall of society.26 Profound identity, or identity in the "inner world" in Tokoku's words, can be obtained only when one's self-assertion becomes selfreflection and self-negation. Furthermore, what Tokoku termed "amorous love" did not offer him the real goal of his life, nor did it constitute the true foundation of his spiritual existence. Tokoku's confessions to Mina and to his father quoted above prove this point. In fact, the "Ensei shika to josei, " which has often been mis-

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understood as Tokoku's praise for love, is actually a tragic narrative of his disillusionment with love, which was soon to follow his marriage to Mina in 1888. True, love did open the gate of his "inner world," love did bring him to appreciate "the profundity of life, " but it was his conversion to Christianity that led Tokoku to his recondite "inner world. " Without this religious experience, Tokoku's transformation would never have been complete. Had he not been converted, he might even not have ever recovered from his second collapse, which was actually induced by his awakening to love. Tokoku experienced a Copernican revolution in the paradigms of his thought: the world no longer existed for him but he existed for the world and God. To Mina he wrote: "The reason why I felt that I could not change the world was because I realized the powerlessness of man. However, I have gained a new hope, that man can attain his goal with the aid of God's power. "27 Continuing his letter to Mina, Tokoku declared that now he was thoroughly liberated from bigotry and haughtiness; and that he was determined to place himself in the service of the people and the world, not because he wished to fulfill his own ambitions any longer, but because he hoped to spread the gospel of God to the world. His previous self-love as the sole ground for his existence had faded, and instead altruism had entered as a new basis for meaning in his life. Thus, Tokoku achieved his self-affirmation dialectically through his self-negation and religious repentance. After this experience of self-transcendence, Tokoku's aim was no longer to fight for the attainment of freedom in the external world, but to enhance all aspects of freedom in the inner world. He no longer hoped merely to emancipate himself, but to restore the totality of humanism. "Farewell, farewell, " states Tokoku, "from now on I shall leave the world of desires and aspire to enter the real garden of God. "28 Thus, his original confrontation with his parents, once turned to political confrontation, now turned into confrontation between the inner and external worlds. Through his literary activities Tokoku was now able to penetrate further in his exploration of identity, a process which led him to discover the universalistic individuality in the inner world. Having reached this state of mind, Tokoku decided it would be possible to marry Mina without losing his own identity.

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TREATISE ON THE INNER LIFE

In April 1889, shortly after his marriage to Mina, Tokoku published his first work, Soshu no shi [A prisoner's poetry]. It was two months after the Meiji Constitution had been promulgated and before the Imperial Rescript on Education was issued. The Popular Rights Movement along with the national craze for things Western had gradually subsided, and in its place the spirit of "Japanism" was growing. Having been seriously disturbed by the Satsuma Rebellion of samurai die-hards in 1877, by the Popular Rights Movement on the model of Western democracy, and by the leftistoriented agrarian radicalism, the Meiji government was determined to strengthen national unity for defence, and by so doing simultaneously to consolidate its own power. The promulgation of the Constitution, which rendered absolute power and authority to an inviolable emperor, and the issuance of the Imperial Rescript on Education, which emphasized patriotism and loyalty, were the government's instruments to prevent disaster. Further accelerating the growth of patriotic zeal was the national aspiration to abolish unequal treaties. While the government was attempting to establish its absolutist regime from the top, the traditionalistic nationalists, such as Miyake Setsurei (1860-1945), Kuga Katsunan (1857-1907), and Shiga Shigetaka (1851-1927), encouraged the masses to a new common integration by increasing consciousness of nationality from below. They argued that only when the awakened national consciousness was united into burning nationalistic spirit could Japan become strong and resist Western pressures.29 It was under such circumstances that Tokoku, in order to enhance his inner freedom, kept writing in the fight against these forces of the external world until his death in May 1894, a few months before Japan attacked China. His pacifist activity must also be understood in this context. One cannot but detect an acute pugnacious spirit throughout Tokoku's literary activities. His life was like a flash which sparkled brightly and died out. "Man is born to fight, " declares Tokoku. "Man's life is a history of war....It is war itself." 30 The meaning of man's life exists in his fight against the government which deprives him of freedom, against the inconsistencies and contradictions

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of society, and against the innate evils in his own mind. The passion and ardour which give life to man's existence emanate from a pure and sincere heart battling to maintain its inner integrity. Tokoku also states that freedom is a spiritual treasure bestowed upon man by Heaven and that man's happiness lies in the enjoyment of freedom. History is a record of men's struggle to obtain spirtual freedom. Nevertheless, in an aristocratic society like that of Japan, nothing but misery has characterized the history of commoners. The rigid Tokugawa feudalism especially choked freedom and destroyed the people's spirtual existence. Utter nihilism, therefore, prevailed. Hence, Tokoku stresses, "nothingness, nothingness, and nothingness" was the dominant tone that represented Tokugawa literature (1:35356; 2:113-25, 159-78). The Meiji Restoration was achieved not by the swords and the spears of samurai, but by the growth of thought among the populace, which had developed to such an extent that the people felt the despotic social system no longer tolerable. "This spirit among the people, " asserted Tokoku, "once awakened, can never be satisfied simply by ousting the Tokugawa family from its power position, but demands that all the old systems and institutions be broken asunder. "31 And yet, the bright hopes aroused by the Meiji Restoration soon faded into darkness. "The society is decomposing day by day, " laments Tokoku, "...Its surface is covered by frivolity, its bottom by flippancy. Violence is controlled only by counterviolence, and cruelty begets cruelty. "32 He protested: It is crystal clear that [in our country] a small number of people in power compete to torture a large number of poor people who are innocent and powerless without any help or friend....They do not wear the two swords any longer, but they still bully the poor and the humble. They no longer wear the feudal costume, but they still persecute the good citizens with their poisonous fangs of oligarchy.33 He also boldly alleged that under Japan's current political system there was no notion of public freedom, and that the system was so constructed as to allow freedom for only one person (Tokoku implied the emperor), but not for the populace. His criticism of government bureaucrats was equally bitter. "There are many disagreeable things

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in this world, " said Tokoku, "but there is nothing which is more abominable than bureaucrats. "34 He sneered at the spirit of loyalty and patriotism which the Imperial Rescript on Education fostered as nothing but an old legacy of feudalistic moral precepts. "The real nature of the patriarchal system, " stated Tokoku, "is like a spider's nest. All the [vital] spirits are sucked into the centre of the system. "35 And finally, he declared, "I am a genuine believer in individualism and an admirer of democracy. "36 As surveyed above, in the third decade of Meiji (1887-96), when Tokoku devoted himself to literary activities, Japan was in the process of establishing an absolutist regime by making the emperor the central source of state authority and the personification of Rousseau's "General Will" in society. Tokoku sometimes vehemently protested against this trend. He also criticized the general inconsistencies in society and advocated the promotion of social welfare in Japan. However, neither political freedom nor civil liberty was his real aim. He said: "By activity I mean mental activity. Political activity is not my [real] concern" (2:272). When one finds him writing that he could not withhold tears as he looked at society in confusion and strife, one can recognize Tokoku's sympathy towards a people in dismay and distress. Nevertheless, sympathy always connotes a sense of some distance from the actual situation. In fact, Tokoku never laid down his life for social or political reforms. He bade "farewell" to this world, but this departure was not an escape from reality. On the contrary, he thought that reality exists in the inner world (naikaf) as opposed to the external world (gaikai). He also contrasted the World of Idea (sosekai)— Tokoku's understanding of Idea is closer to the Platonic concept of Idea than the ordinary meaning of the word in English—to the actual world (jissekai)\ and spirit to flesh. The former is the essence, whereas the latter is temporal, unreal, and unsubstantial. Existence means the existence of soul rather than body. It transcends the limits of time and space. Real activity is mental instead of political or social. The vital force which generates progress in history is not institutional change, but a spiritual and ideological evolution operating beneath the social and political system. Consequently, for Tokoku as for Hegel, ideological change precedes social change. For history to develop, man must vitalize and promote this creative spirit first. "Rousseau had emerged, Voltaire had

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appeared, " emphasizes Tokoku, "then came the French Revolution" (2 : 272). Without Moses, he also says, the Israelites would have been forced to wander in the wilderness for a long time. 37 Tokoku expanded : Although I do not mean to neglect material change, it always comes after the spirit. The true purpose of history, therefore, is to study the spirit of humanity.... Man's life, in the final analysis, can be compared to a traveler in a desert searching for the spring of spiritual freedom. It is here that hope grows; it is here that progress springs up. Without spiritual freedom, everything in this world is empty (2:162-63). There are three elements which are essential for moving history forward: the force of the past; the force of communication, by which Tokoku means the global exchange of ideas; and above all the creative force. He was convinced that there was enough "narrow statism" and "frivolous Westernism" in Japan. He stated: "Restoration; We cannot entrust ourselves to this force. Assimilation : We cannot entrust ourselves to this force, either....Today, we seem to have too much foreign force and force of the past. What we lack is the creative force. "38 Tokoku, influenced by Carlyle, declared that what Japan needed most were "geniuses" with creative minds. Do you not know, asks Tokoku of his reader in "Jisei ni kan ari" [A comment on present society, 1890], that man is like a fish? He lives in darkness. He is lost in darkness, cold and hungry...and barely finishes the fifty years of his short life. Most people are lost in darkness because they live among the pomp and vanities of the external world, unaware of the existence of the inner world, of the inner life, of the real truth, and of God (2:238-41). Under such conditions, man is no different from beasts. In such a being, there is no true life, no meaning to existence, genuine freedom, history, nor civilization. The function of the poet is to penetrate to the real essence of the world, to see through the inconsistencies of society, and to hew his own path, not swayed by external disturbances, as he holds the truth aloft. By doing so, the poet can rescue people from darkness and bring them to light. He can bring genuine life and spirit to mankind. 39 In "Abura jigoku o yomu" [On reading The Oil Hell, 1892], Tokoku stated that there are two types of

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criticism. The effect of one type is temporal, but that of the other is eternal. The object of the former is passing phenomena, while that of the latter, though allusive, is the eternal essence of man's life. Criticizing politics and reforming society are of the first type. Curing the wounds of the inner life is of the second (1:311-15). While reading Tokoku's works, one can trace his route to this conviction. In his first work, Soshu no shi, his major concern was political freedom and civil liberty. The hero was chastised because he fought for the sake of his country and people. Once he had been as free as an eagle flying over the fields and mountain tops. But now, his arms tied fast, he is imprisoned, surrounded by hard walls. He desperately yearns for freedom. "Is there no God of Freedom in this world?" he asks. In Horaikyoku [Music on Mt. Horai, 1891], Tokoku's struggle is no longer only against this world, but also against his own self and tenacious ego. He discovers that he has been imprisoned not only in this vulgar world but also in his own physical self. Having escaped from this imprisonment, and after a long journey of searching for eternal peace and truth, he reaches Mt. Horai, a world of fantasy which exists between heaven and earth. From the mountain, looking over the world of humanity below, he sees that everything is in conflict and contradiction: between the flesh and the soul, life and death, past and future, beauty and ugliness, and the human and the divine natures which co-exist in human beings. He realizes that complete freedom can be attained only when one transcends all these contradictions and becomes one with his real Self; then one can explore one's Identity without restrictions (1:42-174; 2:351-58). Where can one find one's true Self? Where does one's real Identity exist? It is in the World of Idea {sosekai), in the inner world. "Ensei shika to josei," which was written nine months after Horaikyoku, reveals that Tokoku was led to the inner world by his awakening to love for Mina. He was further initiated into its profundity by his conversion to Christianity. And in "Kakujin shinkyunai no higu" [The secret world in every individual's heart, September 1892] and in "Naibu seimei ron" [Treatise on the inner life, May 1893), Tokoku finally reached a deep understanding. Man throughout his life, by words and deeds, tries to express himself. Philosophy, science, poetry, and all human activities, says Tokoku, are expressions of this effort, but very few have succeeded

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in this task. This is because most people have never discovered their secret worlds. In every man, there is an inner world, in which there is another "secret world." It is Mind: the foundation of one's existence and the genuine Self. It is also the source of the Inner Life (naibu seimei), the eternal and the real Life. It contains the quintessence of truth, good, and beauty, as well as man's conscience. It not only exists within each individual, but also enwraps him. It exists in this world, and yet it swallows up the world. It transcends time and space. Thanks to this treasure in man, the limited being in space can traverse the world, and the finite being is able to participate in eternal history. Herein lies Freedom, one's own Identity and nobody else's. Though the task is extremely difficult, each individual must open the gates of his "secret world" and penetrate to its core, in order to understand himself, to grasp the profound meaning of his own life, and above all, to know God. Only by so doing does communication between man and God become possible. The union of the divine and human worlds occurs only through a flash of inspiration, but after that instant of experience the two worlds are again separated. Therefore, man's life is a constant struggle to seek this unity, "crawling between earth and heaven." From this effort man's energy springs forth, and through this process he can attest to his existence. Tokoku asserted that he was a democrat and a believer in individualism. By "democracy" he meant a system which granted individuals as much equality as possible and promoted the greatest happiness and humanity of the individual. By "individualism" he meant a way of life in which one's freedom and his independence existed totally unrestricted. And, for Tokoku, man's enjoyment of happiness, his full-fledged development of humanity as opposed to his beastly nature, and his promotion of freedom culminate in this mental activity of pursuing his own Self and Identity. Whether or not one can experience this significant life depends entirely on one's volition. Nobody can teach him how to ascertain it, and no system should hamper the individual's endeavour in this task. Democracy and individualism help in this purpose, but the essential is the revolution in each individual's inner world, the World of Idea (2:3-14, 238-49, 267-79).

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UNIVERSALISTIC INDIVIDUALITY AND WORLD PEACE

One can easily detect not only that Tokoku's concept of communication with God through inspiration arose from Quaker influence, but also that his pacifist thought was directly connected with the Quaker peace movement. On 28 August 1889, William Jones, an active member of the British Peace Society, gave a lecture on the goals of his organization in Tokyo. Having already visited China, Jones was continuing his world peace campaign through Japan and on to the United States. Giving a vivid account of his experience in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Jones portrayed the cruelty and misery of war. He warned that enmity begets enmity and that victory leads only to revenge and further war. Future wars would be more cruel and might even invite the total destruction of mankind. Jones's sermon shocked all the Japanese at the meeting, including Tokoku and Kato Kazuharu, for they had never experienced a modern international war. Jones concluded his sermon by emphasizing that the only way to avoid this fate was for everyone to practise Christian love. 40 Jones's sermon was based upon the Quaker pacifist tradition, dating back to the time when George Fox and five other friends told Charles II in 1660 : We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or pretence whatever... Christ, which leads us unto all truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the Kingdom of Christ, nor for the Kingdom of this world. 41 After Tokoku had heard this impressive presentation, his association with the Society of Friends deepened, for George Braithwaite, a young Quaker missionary from England, hired him as a translator and Japanese-language tutor in the early autumn of the same year. Braithwaite was another ardent advocate of pacifism. In fact, it was he who had sponsored Jones's peace campaign in Japan. Tokoku respected Braithwaite greatly and frequently brought friends with him to discuss the Christian life, world affairs, and peace. Through Braithwaite, Tokoku also became acquainted with

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an American Quaker, Joseph Cosand, who had been sent to Japan from the Women's Foreign Missionary Association of Friends of Philadelphia. As their interpreter, Tokoku often accompanied Braithwaite and Cosand when they went on evangelistic tours. Tokoku's close association with the Friends continued for a few years until Braithwaite moved to Yokohama in 1891 and Cosand returned home in 1892. The year of 1889, when Jones visited Japan, was a memorable year for world peace movements: in this year the Second International opposing war was organized, and the Universal Peace Congress in Paris attracted various peace organizations from many countries. Amid such world currents, and stimulated by Jones's preachings, Tokoku together with Kato Kazuharu organized a peace society in Japan. The announcement of the organization was published in the Kirisutokyo Shimbun [Christian News], dated 29 November 1889, as follows: William Jones, a member of the British Peace Society came to Japan and made speeches on the goals of his organization.... Since then, there have emerged in Tokyo volunteers who are endeavouring to reach the same goals. Thus, we have decided to establish a society and appeal to those of like mind to join us.42

Thus, the first peace society, called the "Nihon heiwa-kai, " was established around the Friends and other Christians. Two years later, after Braithwaite and Cosand had left Tokyo, Tokoku and Kato themselves began to publish the Society's journal: Heiwa [Peace]. Tokoku edited it and wrote most of the articles. In the first issue (15 March 1892), he wrote: The word "Peace" is still novel [in Japan], and it is even more so to [our] non-Christian population. Moreover, this is an ethical problem, unlikely to arrest public attention. Nevertheless, so long as religions continue to exist in this world and people's conscience does not depart from this world, we believe that to establish "Peace" must be our most fundamental and lofty aspiration. Following Christian teachings, which support the

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truth that all the peoples of the four seas are brothers, I believe that to break this great law and to fight among countries is the greatest shame of mankind. 43 While few Japanese could imagine the results of future wars and many were immersed in militant nationalism, Tokoku asserted that a military build-up could never exalt national prestige. On the contrary, it would eventually destroy the nation. Those who kill others are doomed to be killed. "Caesar's victory, Napoleon's victory, they both lasted only a few decades. "44 "Who won the eternal victory?" asks Tokoku. He foresaw a horrible destiny for mankind if modern wars continued with ever more sophisticated weapons. He wrote: Now Napoleon is gone. But new weapons will develop daily, and someone else like Napoleon will soon emerge. Thus it is easy to foresee that the whole of Europe will be enveloped in the flames of war once again. Future wars will be wars among species. One war begets another, as one statesman has said, and cities will be turned into wildernesses. This is why we must introduce you to the Prince of Peace.45 Tokoku stressed that Jesus Christ prohibited all men from fighting with one another and that he taught men not to curse or hate others. The essence of the Christian doctrine was thus for those who love their enemies to establish the Kingdom of Heaven. As Tokoku put it in the journal, "Isn't this the great secret which will make the world peaceful?" (1:283-84). Although St. Augustine allowed holy wars and Uchimura Kanzo justified the first SinoJapanese War as righteous, Tokoku categorically opposed any war as the worst possible crime. He was convinced that the final and eternal victory rests with Christ. As seen above, Tokoku's pacifist thought had strong Christian overtones, but it was not entirely based upon Christianity. For instance, he stated that "I said 'following Christian teachings,' but we do not have to be so narrow or exclusive. Why don't we joyfully ally with Buddha or Confucius or anybody who preached morality and esteemed conscience?" (1:280). He also said, "Buddha could not

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help showing profound compassion even for an injured ant. How great is the crime when one kills a man! Not to mention killing millions of people!" (1:284). "Jesus Christ, Buddha, or Confucius: which one didn't prohibit men from fighting and destroying one another?" (1:281). Tokoku asserted that peace is the ultimate ideal for mankind, and that it could be achieved only through the union of conscience by all people in the world. One cannot but notice Tokoku's openness in this assertion. He had a keen consciousness of the brotherhood of mankind. However, his brotherhood was not exclusively Christian. It was broad enough to include Buddhists, Confucians, and all other moralists. In addition to his belief in Christian love, Tokoku's pacifism was based upon two other important concepts: his trust in each individual's conscience and his universalistic Weltanschauung. And both were essential parts of his treatise on the Inner Life. In his first editorial for Heiwa, Tokoku stressed: We do not intend to present this problem as politicians or statesmen. We hope to exert ourselves for this mission as priests who appeal to the moral power and conscience of the world.... We hope to achieve this ideal to establish world peace in the unity of all religions and moral hearts. We must remember that war occurs not because of politicians' faults but essentially because of the clouds that hang over the conscience of mankind (1:280-81). To Tokoku, institutional devices or political changes seemed to no purpose, because according to his ontology, as Descartes said, "Cogito, ergo sum"; reality exists only in the individual's inner world, the World of Idea, while the external world is nothing but an unsubstantial phenomenon. Moreover, Tokoku placed the inner world in counter-position against the external world, which is filled with "inconsistencies" (fuchojitsu}, such as hypocrisy, vanity, jealousy, contempt, pride, ignorance, desire for power and money; all of which result in poverty, exploitation, theft, murder, and war. Consequently, to attain peace, man must, first and above all, secure the independence of the inner world by emancipating himself from the imprisonment of the external world. In the inner world, there

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is a "secret world, " the core of which is Mind. Tokoku called it seishin (lE'dO* literally meaning "just mind" according to the Chinese characters which he used, but he translated it into English as "conscience." Hence, in Tokoku's thinking, only when every individual in the world succeeds in attaining his Inner Freedom, and thereby in securing his "conscience, " can peace be established (1:238-44, 289-93, 316-20; 2:3-24, 238-49). Each individual is endowed with the secret world and has a just mind or conscience. Yet, without awakening to it, most people live in darkness like fish or beasts. Without opening the gates of the secret world, they live superficial lives. This is the origin of all inconsistencies in this world. But man is not a beast. Still, to be distinguished from beasts, he must open the gates into his inner world. There, he will discover the inexhaustible fountain of love, compassion, sympathy, and tears. "I believe, " states Tokoku, "that each individual is endowed by nature with great compassion.... Only by accident does he darken his real Mind and go astray into a narrow cul-de-sac; there he becomes too frantic to feel towards others. "46 By acknowledging conscience (seishin), man becomes a true Man (shinjin HA)- He transforms himself into a real Man ( s h i j i nI?A)-He is the man who has obtained the Inner Life, life itself. Because the just mind is a special quality given to each individual by nature, it is inalienable. Nobody, no power, and no system should deprive the individual of this treasure. Man at the same time has to value it above all else. He must constantly cleanse it and purify it. Then, says Tokoku, the greatest crimes and the greatest evils will disappear, and instead, the greatest love and the greatest good will emanate from the secret world. And this real Man, the true Man, can communicate with Heaven by transcending time and space. He is blessed with eternal Life, eternal Freedom, and eternal Peace (1:238-44, 289-93, 316-20; 2:3-24, 238-49). Like his concept of freedom and identity, Tokoku's pacifism, therefore, at its most crucial point, hinges upon his treatise on the Inner Life. This is the reason why "Kakujin shinkyu nai no higu" was printed in Heiwa (the sixth issue), because to grip the "secret world" was a sine qua non for achieving world peace. In Tokoku's treatise, one can detect not only Christian but also "Oriental" influences. The idea that to cultivate the mind is the alpha and omega of man's attempt to attain peace and harmony in the universe

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is a Confucian idea. Tokoku's shijin or shinjin was equivalent to the jinjin ( ) or jen-jen in Confucian concepts. In fact, he frequently used the term, jin ( ) or jen. His usage of the word, jihi ( ), came from the Buddhist term for "compassion." When he suggested that only by abnegating self and ego, by emancipating oneself from imprisonment, could one acquire real Freedom and real Self, his concept corresponded to the Buddhist "enlightenment" and nirvana. Tokoku advocated absolute non-violence and absolute non-resistance even if one is threatened with death, even if one's country is about to be destroyed. This assertion was based upon Buddhist altruism and Christian love (hakuai). In the light of Tokoku's treatise, to fight and to engage in war is to lose one's inner consistency : namely, to lose one's Inner Life and Inner Self. By destroying the external self, one gains real Life and real Self. Tokoku stood equally stoutly against the then prevalent Spencerian idea of survival of the fittest. He stated: "Peace is our ultimate ideal....If the present suspicions and deceit between man and man, between country and country, continue to exist, where can we find the purpose of religion? If the principle that the strong devour the weak and that the weak cannot avoid being destroyed regulates the world, how can we say that man is the lord of all creation?"47 Instead of the social Darwinism which fuelled the militarism and imperialism of the late nineteenth century, Tokoku presented another law: that all man are brothers. In this regard his belief resembled that of Cicero. The Ciceronian community of mankind relied upon the assumption that man's natural endowment is supreme reason, which is common to everybody and which dictates to man what he must and must not do. Man is the only animate being which shares the faculty of reason with God. Man's divinity results from this similarity. Through this common element inherent in man, all men belong to the same state, and the whole world should be regarded as a single state common to everybody. 48 If one replaces the word "reason" in Cicero's theory with Tokoku's "conscience, " the theory is equivalent to Tokoku's treatise on the Inner Life. Tokoku stressed that the geographic distinctions of East and West, North and South are made only on political maps, and that there are no such boundaries on the map of "inner civilization" (naibu bummef). He attacked Spencer's doctrine by asserting that civilization never advances according to the principle of survival of

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the fittest; on the contrary, the degree of progress in civilization should be judged by how little man wages war. 49 Tokoku's Inner Life and Inner Self transcend all these worldly systems and political boundaries, and spread over the universe. By attaining genuine inner freedom, one's small self is transformed into a universal Self, upon which man can establish a community of mankind. It is from this universalistic viewpoint that Tokoku could contend. "A poet criticizes mankind indiscriminately....To criticize life by limiting himself to a particular 'time' and 'space,' being caught up by one form of religion or swamped by one system of ethics, is not an acceptable thing for a poet." "A poet is not the monopoly of one particular nation, " he says, "but a treasure of all mankind. Don't force him to sing for one nationality. I do not know of a more serious wound which can be inflicted upon the mission of a poet who feels himself sent to address the whole world" (1:284-85, 316-20, 339-42). From the same viewpoint, Tokoku severely criticized the narrow nationalism and xenophobic militarism of the Meiji Period. He stated that war often occurs when one nation tries to satisfy its national vanity, and that "I cannot but lament over our people's superficiality and vanity when I see how they waste millions of their fortunes in order to maintain what they call the national polity (kokutaiy (2:277, 298). "How foolish those scholars are," he also said, "who lost themselves in blindly supporting such dead relics of the past system as chukun aikoku (loyalty and patriotism). I pray that they shall see into the future hundreds of years from now" (2:135, 167). In Japan, there were various kinds of pacifists: some, like Uchimura Kanzo and Yanaihara Tadao, were nationalists; some, like the diplomat and later prime minister Shidehara Kijuro (1872-1951)50 and the political scientist Yoshino Sakuzo, were internationalists; but Tokoku was far from a nationalist, and not even an internationalist, for "inter-nationalism" presupposes the notion of nation. He was a universalist. His concept of Inner Freedom broke through all external encumbrances: state, race, religion, and whatever limits the totality of a human being's free, independent existence. His pacifism was not a simple echo of Quaker slogans. It was based fundamentally upon his trust in universalistic individuality with an Inner Life and Inner Identity which were invincible and inviolable. From the vantage point of the late twentieth century, Tokoku's

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pacifist thought may appear to be naive. Nor did he succeed in activating a large number of people; but he never intended to become a political campaigner for peace in politics. The significance of his activity in the history of the Japanese peace movement is that he was the first to introduce the concept of world peace to a people who had inherited a long military tradition, and furthermore, he did this in a period of zealous nationalism. This was at a time when the fourth national Diet (from November 1892 to February 1893) was passing the Imperial Edict to build a great naval force expending 20 million yen consecutively for six years; and also at a time when even the Toyo Shakaito, one of the most progressive political parties, was advocating military expansion on the continent, asserting that "the nation must pursue a strong foreign policy in order to exalt national prestige. "51 Many people still lived in a parochially defined world, pitting one locality against another, calling themselves "Choshu-men, " "Satsuma-men, " "Tosa-men, " and so on. In such circumstances, Tokoku's advocacy of world peace and a community of mankind came to Japanese readers as a novel idea. Only Tokoku could maintain such an advanced position owing to his universalistic Weltanschauung, which in turn rested on his philosophy of the Inner Life. SUICIDE: THE FINAL DEFEAT OR FREEDOM?

The twelfth issue of Heiwa, published in May 1893, was the last to appear, for the journal soon went bankrupt. A year later, on the eve of the- first Sino-Japanese War, Tokoku committed suicide, thus ending his continuous struggle against the external world from the fortress of the inner world. He was only twenty-five years old. A number of factors drove him to death. The two pillars which had supported his life, love and faith, were crumbling. As "Ensei shika to josei" reveals, his burning love dissolved in a completely disenchanted married life. "Man enters through love into the world of the ideal, " he says, "he is dragged down from the World of Idea and is imprisoned in the external world by marriage; and only by death can he depart from this world, the world of physical matter" (1:263-64). He also lamented that because of marriage he was bound by all kinds of social encumbrances. Several months before he

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hanged himself, he had attempted suicide by cutting his throat. According to Shimazaki Toson, Tokoku on his sickbed at that time confessed that he could no longer believe in God (3:623). The very act of suicide, a great sin in Christian doctrine, eloquently speaks for itself of Tokoku's lost faith. After his disenchantment with marriage, he became even more misanthropic and lost his vital link with society; with his faith gone, he lost his entire spiritual support. His attempt, like Nietzsche's, to establish an invincible individuality could not but collide with the absolute God. The more he tried to secure the independent Self which he thought to be the "truth, " the more he had to struggle against God rather than the external world, in order not to be swallowed up by Him. Tokoku's universalism also made him aloof from the actual society around him. His mind spread over the universe, but internally, contrary to his belief that the attainment of the Inner Life would give him the assurance of real existence, the meaning of existence became increasingly empty and hollow because he was no longer connected with any concrete thing in this world, such as a particular person, group, or society. His alienation was aggravated as he became more and more self-conscious by sinking down into his own self. Breaking all the ties which bound him to a particular existence was necessary in order to allow him to penetrate into his self; it also enabled him to attain a universalistic point of view; but it simultaneously confined him within the cell of his own being. The path toward universalism developed in juxtaposition to an ever-increasing movement towards isolation and loneliness. At such a moment, he fell in love with a student at the Women's School of Friends where he was teaching English. He felt new hope and life rise like a phoenix within him, but soon he was again hurled into suicidal despair by the girl's death (14 August 1893). Moreover, poverty was constantly attacking him and his family. Tokoku barely managed to finish his last essay, Emerson, and when the publisher sent him the finished product in late April 1894, he was too exhausted, mentally as well as physically, to open a page of it. Poverty, loneliness, isolation, alienation, despair, and lost faith all surged over him, and Tokoku seemed too tired to struggle any longer. He described himself by quoting a passage from Hamlet:** "What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven?" From childhood he had loved nature, in which he could

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escape from all the troubles of this world. He adored the work of Basho, the Haiku master. As his energy waned, his yearning for nature quickened: he longed for its innocence, its simplicity, its peace. He dreamed of becoming a butterfly, and sang in "Cho no yukue" (Butterfly, whither go you?): You, butterfly, my soul, Where are you going? Flying over the field of autumn. Searching my soul, I have gone astray, Butterfly, where have you gone? Butterfly, whither go you? Fluttering freely, trusting to "fortune, " She knows not her "self." Fluttering, fluttering, the butterfly, Flitting between dream and reality. 53 Tokoku realized that he was losing his mind. In the past he had mentally collapsed many times and recovered. But this time, in melancholic languor, he had no more energy left to sustain him. People thought that he had become insane when they saw him worshipping his own baby. In fact, he may well have been schizophrenic.54 But he might only have seen uncorrupted nature in his one-year-old daughter. For Tokoku from the beginning, flesh had not been important. It only tied him to the troublesome external world. In destroying it, he may have thought that his soul, like a butterfly, would finally be set free to fly into nature, and into the starry cope of Heaven. Was it, I wonder, the final defeat of his long fight, or was it the final success of his struggle to free himself? On 1 August 1894, just a little after this lone pacifist's death, Japan declared war against China, and the nation as a whole was swept into a whirlpool of exuberant nationalism. Following the Meiji Constitution and the Rescript on Education which had already been established, Japan was to follow along the road toward absolutism. A decade after Tokoku's death, Kinoshita Naoe, Uchimura Kanzo, Kotoku Shusui and Abe Isoo followed Tokoku's steps with declarations of pacifism. Kinoshita Naoe especially resembled Tokoku in his idea

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of love and peace through spiritual revolution; this is not surprising since Naoe considered Tokoku a "great benefactor" to his thought.

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3

Kinoshita Naoe Pacifism and Religious Withdrawal TAKESHI NISHIDA "TWO-HEADED SNAKE"

Kinoshita Naoe (1869-1937) is highly regarded in contemporary Japan as a pioneer democrat. In addition, his approach to the problem of international peace and his grasp of the basic issues of pacifism are still considered relevant today. The major issues which he discussed were war and peace, the state and civil rights, kokutai, and especially the problem of the emperor system, militarism, and Japanese ethics. Naoe's seventy years are very colourful and eventful. His interests ranged from religion and politics to literature. A bewildering intellectual pilgrimage led him from the Popular Rights Movement, socialism, and Christianity to Okada-style meditation (Okada-shiki seizaho}, Tenrikyo, and then Buddhism. Nevertheless, the intellectual foundations of Kinoshita Naoe's many-faceted political and social activities are to be found in Christianity and socialism, like a "twoheaded snake" (Naoe's characterization of his periodical Shin kigen [New Era]). Though Christianity and socialism appear to have conflicting "inward" and "outward" tendencies, they were both important to the early socialists and liberals insofar as they prescribed therapy for modern Japan's social problems. Naoe's "two faces, " namely, the political and religious aspects of his life, are partly related to his personality as some critics have suggested, but more fundamentally they must be understood in the light of the Christian and socialist thought which to a large extent shaped his personality.

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The subject of this article, the development of Naoe's pacifist ideas, is a phenomenon of the years which followed the First SinoJapanese and the Russo-Japanese wars. One can detect a subtle change in his position away from politics about 1906. He seems, at least on the surface, to have retired from the political world, a process often described as Naoe's "political withdrawal. 'n There is no consensus of opinion, however, that Naoe did in fact abandon politics in his later years. The greater part of his Kami, ningen, jiyu [God, man, freedom, 1934] is concerned with politics and people he met in his political and revolutionary activities. Included in this book are articles like "Kami no kaiho" [God's emancipation], "Kotoku Shusui to boku" [Kotoku Shusui and I], "Seiji no hasansha, Tanaka Shozo" [The political bankrupt, Tanaka Shozo], "Jiyu no shito, Shimada Saburo" [An apostle of freedom, Shimada Saburo], "Katayama Sen-kun to boku" [Katayama Sen and I], "Kokkashugizen" [Before nationalism], "Haisho undo no hitokoma" [A note on the history of the anti-prostitution movement]. These articles seethe with too much emotion to be considered the mere memoirs of a recluse. Although in style they look like random recollections of people and events out of Naoe's distant past, their unmistakably fresh concern for the subject matter marks them as the products of continuing thought. The reader does not sense that thirty years have passed in Naoe's vivid descriptions of Tanaka Shozo and the Ashio Copper Mine affair, Kotoku Shusui, Katayama Sen (1859-1933), and other socialists. Naoe's article on Tanaka, for instance, contains the most elevated humanism in Meiji literature, a humanism which motivated much of Naoe's activity. The term "humanism" involves many meaningless scholastic definitions out of specific historical contexts, but Naoe's humanism in essence meant complete emancipation of the Meiji individual from all forms of external restriction, including those of the state, laws, and ethics, in order to enable him to return to his intrinsic nature. Naoe, who styled himself an "undomesticated [yasei] believer, " was basically a Christian humanist, as he firmly stated: "I believe in the existence of God. I believe in the love of God. I believe that man's chief end is to establish Heaven on earth. "2 Because Naoe is best understood as a Christian humanist, in this article I will analyse how this world-view pervaded all his writings

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and activities by focusing on the relation of the two "inward" and "outward" motifs. It is not clear what sort of inner logic connects his pacifism to his Christian socialism. My approach may shed new light on the unique aspects of Naoe's thought which have not been fully explored and yet are vital to understand his complicated development. FROM ACTIVE REFORM TO RELIGIOUS RETIREMENT

Kinoshita Naoe was born in Matsumoto, Shinano, about a year after the Meiji Restoration. He graduated from Matsumoto Middle School in 1886 and soon found his way to Tokyo. There he initiall matriculated at the Igirusu Horitsu Gakko (School of British Laws, the present Chuo University), but before long transferred to the Tokyo Semmon Gakko (now Waseda University), from which he graduated in 1888. His life of social activism began at this time as a reporter for his home-town newspaper, the Shirfyo Nippo. Naoe's newspaper activities involved him in local politics and in particular the disputes over the transfer of the provincial capital and the partition of the prefecture. Matsumoto City had originally been a prefectural capital, but when Matsumoto Prefecture was merged with Nagano Prefecture, Matsumoto City lost the government headquarters to the city of Nagano. Naoe together with his compatriots plunged himself into a vigorous campaign to restore the government to Matsumoto City, arguing that the new prefectural capital stood too far north. When Matsumoto City lost in this campaign, the local people plotted to divide the prefecture into two parts so that Matsumoto City would become once again a political centre. Naoe this time stood with the opposition on the grounds that partition of the prefecture would retard the development of industry. Unable to abide the obviously self-serving machinations of those who desired prefectural partition for the "prosperity of Matsumoto," he exposed their activities in the newspaper. As a result he immediately became unpopular in his own home town. Furthermore, the Shin*yd Nippo went bankrupt. Thus Naoe completely lost his original hope of using local support as a basis for entry into national politics.3 Naoe's interest in Christianity started through his learning about

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Oliver Cromwell during the critical years between childhood and adolescence. He became aware of Cromwell through a course on world history while in his fourth year at Matsumoto Middle School. Naoe so passionately idolized his hero that his classmates dubbed him "Cromwell's Kinoshita. " Under Cromwell the British monarch lost his authority, which in theory had been absolute. Naoe's interest in law was stimulated by his knowledge about Cromwell, who thus precipitated Naoe's intellectual revolution. Furthermore Cromwell's puritanism became a source of Naoe's interest in Christianity. Another significant factor in his intellectual development was the death of his father, Hidekatsu, in 1887, when Naoe was eighteen. The death of a close relative thoroughly shocked the introspective youth. His inclination to concern himself with the meaning of human existence became more pronounced. In addition, he was disappointed with the result of the debate on prefectural partition which thwarted his political ambition. As a result of these factors, his faith in Christianity deepened after 1890, and he began to participate in Christian lay activities. An example of his interest was the founding of the Yasuhara Virtue Society (Tokugi kai) in 1890, an organization of moral reform. Another was his founding of the Matsumoto Prohibition Society (Kinshu kai) together with Okada Toyotsugi and Momose Okimasa, his cousin, who was later to become the mayor of Matsumoto. Together with Soma Aizo, Naoe spoke frequently at the meetings of the Higashi Hotaka Prohibition Society. Through these Christian lay activities his contact with the local church increased, and at the age of twenty-four Momose and he were baptized by the Reverend Nakada Hisayoshi in Matsumoto. From then on, Christianity played a great part in his life. Socialism was the other "head" of Naoe's snake. In 1896, while still in Matsumoto, with Nakamura Daihachiro he founded the Equality Society (Byodo kai) for the study of social problems. The following year Nakamura and others founded the Society for the Study of Social Problems (Shakai mondai kenkyukai) in Tokyo, and Naoe became a member. He had already provided leadership for the universal suffrage movement in Matsumoto beginning the previous year. Naoe's move to Tokyo was, through a curious chain of circumstances, as a prisoner. While working as a newsman in Matsumoto, his vigorous fact-finding research on the elections for

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the prefectural assembly implicated him in a charge of intimidation. He was indicted, fined ten yen [equal to about half a month's salary for a working man, ed. ], and sentenced to eight months' imprisonment and six months' parole. While in Tokyo prison awaiting the result of an appeal, he read Frangois Guizot's History of the Civilization of Europe, Benjamin Kidd's Social Evolution, and several other works. Following acquittal and release from prison in December 1898, he was introduced to Shimada Saburo (18521923), a politician, who arranged Naoe's employment in Tokyo at the Mainichi Shimbum, a major newspaper. While working there he met various writers concerned with social problems, including Kotoku Shusui. In 1900, the Mainichi sent him as a special correspondent to investigate copper pollution at the Ashio Mine. Reports of this endeavour entitled "Ashio kodoku mondai" [The Ashio Mine pollution problem] continued in seventeen consecutive instalments. These reports, attacks upon the politician Hoshi Toru (1850-1901), and a series of articles on the abolition of prostitution established Naoe's reputation. He joined the Socialist Alliance (Shakai-shugi kyokai) in March of that same year and in 1901 delivered a speech entitled, "Shakai-shugi no jikko" [The realization of socialism] at the First Socialist Study Conference sponsored by the alliance. Along with Katayama Sen, Abe Isoo, and Kotoku Shusui, he helped form the Socialist party (Shakai minshuto) which the government immediately suppressed. In July, Naoe joined the Band of Idealists (Risodan) organized by Uchimura Kanzo, Kotoku Shusui, and others. 4 Although it is apparent that Naoe began to move towards socialism around the turn of the century, it is equally evident that his earlier Christian humanism had prepared him for the change. It is difficult to say whether he was more influenced by socialism or humanitarianism. Shimada Saburo, Abe Isoo, Kotoku Shusui, and other socialists greatly inspired Naoe; at the same time his lifelong friendships with people like Tanaka Shozo amply demonstrated his broad humanitarianism. Naoe also proved to be a talented writer. Works of fiction like Hi no hashira [The pillar of fire] in 1904 and Otto no jihaku [The husband's confession 1904-5], are significant achievements in the history of socialist literature. His novel Hi no hashira,5 appeared in serial form in the Mainichi Shimbun from January to March 1904.

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It is a story of Christian socialists, and central to it is the Platonic relationship of Shinoda Choji and Umeko. Shinoda, the hero, is an activist in the anti-war movement and Umeko is the daughter of Yamagi Gozo, a merchant whose war profiteering has made him wealthy. Hi no hashira tells of the conflicts between Shinoda and Umeko and also within Umeko herself, an intelligent Christian woman reacting against her father. The father's vulgar values of prestige, wealth, and status conflict with his daughter's efforts to create a heaven on earth through a pious faith in God. Shinoda, who seems to be a fair representation of Naoe, is skilfully depicted as a Christian socialist calling for the realization of peace through the cultivation of moral qualities and moral uplift. Naoe's other major work, Otto no jihaku, was written in uneasy circumstances as "the government keeps a strict surveillance over all our group; lectures on socialism are always broken up, and occasions when socialists do lecture are constantly observed by the police. "6 The illicit love between the hero, Shirai Shunzo, and the wife of a wealthy merchant named Otaka forms one theme of the work. Naoe, inspired by Kitamura Tokoku's "Ensei shika to josei," attempted to discover the nature of true love between men and women within the fabric of what is normally considered illicit love. He was convinced that love between a man and a woman (rer? ai) is sacred. In an essay entitled "Ren'ai to kyoiku" [Love between a man and a woman and education], which he wrote about the same time as Otto no jihaku, he said: We consider love between men and women [ren'ai~] to be sacred because through it for the first time we cast off the constraints of "semi-humanity" and experience the perfection of a "whole man." For that reason we should respect the freedom of rerfai. Just look at how terrible evils generated by an unnatural social system violate the essence of ren'ai. It is restricted to preserve the family line, the inheritance of property, class distinctions, and the unequal distribution of wealth; people are so accustomed to tales of violations that they are no longer moved by them. 7 The characters in Otto no jihaku demonstrate Naoe's conviction.

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Through the characters in this novel and in particular the hero, Shunzo, Naoe sets forth the details of his own social philosophy. For instance, Shunzo is talking to a childhood friend, a poor tenant farmer named Yosaburo who works for the Shirai family. "Landlords and tenants, what unpleasant words! Private ownership of land! It's a robbery committed against God!...If the son in a family which had held land for generations should return his land to heaven and man and then with the use of the knowledge and machines of civilization should bear the same burden of labour with those who yesterday were his tenants, what beautiful and great results would ensue?... Thereby both the landlord and the tenant would be saved from yesterday's envy, jealousy, and greed....The ideal of brotherly love would be realized.... Men would be able for the first time to achieve freedom and independence. "8 As a result, Shunzo gives his land to the tenant Yosaburo ("I return my small holding of land to God") and thus attempts to "wash away the defilement of 'private ownership of land' before the Imperial Heavens and the Imperial land" (p. 254). By contributing to others the basis of his material existence, he attempts spiritual atonement. Thus, Shunzo arrives at an answer to problems that have bothered him since his college days and to which his university lectures had given him no answer: "What am I?" and "What is the basis of property rights?" In this case, the motive which sets Shunzo on the road to give up his land was the statement by the tenant Yosaburo, "I cultivate land given by Heaven!" (p. 254). Naoe's words remind us of the experience of another Christian socialist writer of rural origins, Arishima Takeo (1878-1923), who gave his inherited land away and continued his concern over the artificial barriers which class distinctions erect between men until his suicide. Although Arishima's activities on behalf of society followed those of Naoe by a generation and there was no close personal contact between them, both were Christian socialists or at least sympathizers with that point of view. They reflect a common pattern of Christian humanism with regard to the "social problems" of Japan. Naoe in Hi no hashira hoped to convey his anti-war sentiment, while in Otto no jihaku he wished to free man from all forms of feudal restrictions in order to restructure a "whole man." His major articles on pacifism appeared around the turn of the century. Some

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of them are: "Sekai heiwa ni taisuru Nihon kokumin no sekinin" [The Japanese people's responsibility for world peace, 1899], Naoe's first article with a byline; "Kakumei no jomaku" [The beginning of the revolution, 1902]; "Gumbishu no meishin" [The superstition of military preparedness, 1902]; "Senso jinshu" [The militant race, 1903]; "Eisei no shin rinri" [The new ethic of eternity, 1903]; "Gunkoku jidai no genron" [Statements of opinion during a period of militarism, 1904]; "Nihon Kokumin no shimei" [The mission of the Japanese people, 1905]; and "Guntai shugi kyoiku to wa nanzoya" [What is militaristic education? 1908]. Naoe's "outward" concerns continued until shortly after the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War and his mother's death in 1906. Thereafter, his quest for the inner self of a human being deepened. His major interest gradually shifted from social revolution to "human revolution, "9 to borrow Kosaka Masaaki's term. The leitmotiv of his writings was egoism and self-interest in the political world, as titles like "Zange" [Penitence, 1906] "Kikatsu" [Starvation, 1907]; "Kojiki" [Beggar, 1908]; and "Sozo" [Creation, 1912] suggest. In "Zange, " written in 1906 in the secluded mountain resort of Ikaho, he related that "Mother's passing was my own destruction. "10 His decision to discontinue his magazine, Shin kigen [New Era], in 1906, and his "Zansha no ji" [A word of apology] clearly demonstrated his decision to retire from politics, or what is known as his "political withdrawal." While 1906 thus seems to be a major transition in his life, the degree and nature of the change are not clear. The problem of what it was that motivated Naoe to reveal the drift of his intellectual transformation in the form of "Zange" remains both interesting and important. More specifically, it should be evaluated as part of a long tradition of "retirement" from the world and politics, as demonstrated by the Buddhist monks Saigyo (1118-90), Basho (1644-94), Ryokan (1757-1831) and many others. The intellectuals' withdrawal into abhorrence of the political world were common occurrences in Japanese history. Despite the momentous changes in the Taisho and Showa periods, Naoe was absorbed during this time in Seiza ho (a type of Zen meditation) and showed little interest in "outward, " practical social action. Some of the important events of these times within Japan were the death of the Meiji Emperor, the development of the movement to

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constitutional government and Taisho Democracy, the rice riots, the passage of universal manhood suffrage and peace preservation laws, and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. On the international scene there was World War I, the Russian Revolution, the flourishing of revolutionary and liberal ideas in America and Europe, and then the collapse of the Weimar system. Naoe ignored all these developments, writing relatively little and dealing with personal ethics. His works include tracts on the Buddhist priests of the Kamakura period, Nichiren (1222-82), Honen (11331212), and Shinran (1173-1262), as well as "Makoto no shukyo, makoto no shinko" [The true religion, the true faith, 1912], His incidental interest in popular religious movements like the Ittoen of Nishida Tenko and Tenrikyo further reflect the wide-ranging nature of his religious pilgrimage. Naoe talked about his feelings at the time in the following words: "I don't know where I am. I don't know where I'm going. Giving no thought to the fact that I'm already an old man, I'm returning to a state of innocence and am very busy learning. "n To Naoe, who now became a religious pilgrim, his former comrades and like-minded intellectuals were not very cordial. Osugi Sakae (1885-1923), for example, in "Sho shinshiteki kanjo" [Sentiments of a little gentleman, 1918] said: "Originally a reporter for the — [ainichi] who later aided the efforts of S [akai] and was one of the most powerful leaders of the socialist movement, he is now aloof from society and has cooly reverted to such things as Seiza ho." Osugi went on to criticize Naoe's morality: "Considering society's problems all of his own, he first makes a great fuss over them and then pays no attention to them. Yet, when T[anaka Shozo] dies he again acts as if T[anaka] is his very own."12 Osugi's criticism of Naoe on moral grounds had a touch of irony in it for Naoe, who was much more aware than others of the egoism and selfinterest that operated in politics. Did Naoe's enthusiasm for politics and revolution really subside in his old age like a dead volcano? It is commonly understood that his "two postures" appeared only in his later years. To be more specific, there is on the one hand the "outward" posture in which he displayed a strong concern for society amid the growing militarism between the Manchurian Incident and the outset of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Here, given a chance, he again hoped to engage in practical

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action and renew his concept of patriotism. On the other hand, there is the Naoe who advocated that a spiritual revolution in the individual must occur prior to national and international reform, who wanted to transcend politics because he sensed that a "drop of poison, " the greed for power, lay at the bottom of his own political motives. He considered his previous political activity to have been a manifestation of mere personal ambition.13 In 1908, for example, N^oe contributed an article to the last issue of the Tokyo Shakai Shimbun [Socialist Newspaper] with the ironical title, "Haikan o shuku su" [Congratulations on the final issue]: Fellow socialists, you are dedicating your lives to the socialist revolution, but revolution is important to you personally as well. Without it you will quickly wither away.... It is said that socialism is desired by labourers, but the socialists in Japan up to now have not been labourers but almost entirely profligate idlers. Those who are called its leaders lecture and write to pass the time; they are merely men of letters. Consequently the movement consists of newspapers, tract-writing, lectures, and nothing more. 14 Naoe went on to state that the substance of these writings was empty and vapid. "Shouldn't we use the good opportunity provided by this suppression of open dialogue to reflect upon ourselves and strive for self-development and fulfilment?" (p. 268). Naoe clearly intended this bitter criticism as a warning that resulted from considerable reflection upon his own activities as a socialist. Although most critics state that the different "postures" are only particular to Naoe's later years, in my observation, the problem of the two postures is not limited to this period alone. It is manifested consistently throughout his life, beginning in childhood with a "terror of death," followed by the "anguish of love" and the "agony of fame" in adulthood, and by religious pilgrimages in his last years. For instance, at the turn of the century when his concern for society seemed to be greatest, he did not limit himself to the treatment of political and national problems. There were also essays on religion, education, and love. It is well known that Christian thought formed the foundation of the pacifism which slowly developed

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in him at this time. There is also a theme of "return to nature" evident in many of his works during this period. "Why do you not go back to the source?" This was the fundamental question Naoe returned to; it reflected a poignant insight into the isolation and suffocation of man's intrinsic nature brought on by modern civilization. Thus, one should make some subtle distinctions in evaluating Naoe's later interest in politics. The contents and titles of the discussions which he continued after 1933, in an organization called the Society for Discussion of Meiji Literature (Meiji bungaku danwa kai), will help to clarify this matter. After attending a seminar on Kitamura Tokoku in December 1933, Naoe attended regularly and willingly contributed to the periodical Meiji Bungaku Kenkyu (Meiji literary studies) such articles as "Fukuzawa Yukichi to Kitamura Tokoku" [Fukuzawa Yukichi and Kitamura Tokoku] and "Kodoku mondai to Tanaka Shozo" [Tanaka Shozo and the Ashio Copper Mine pollution problem]. His eloquence as a speaker seemed to charm his audience. A member of the seminar later recalled his impressions; "As one would expect, his eloquence swept the audience off its feet; once launched on a topic he seemed carried away, the manner and rhetoric of the great man together overwhelming and inspiring the listeners. "15 True, Naoe no longer joined special organizations and made periodic statements with the enthusiasm of a professional revolutionary. Nor did he participate any longer in practical action. In this sense, then, between these two diametrically opposed forces of the inner and outer world, Naoe at this time was more motivated by inner will, or "beatitude." Nevertheless, he continued to respect the liberals like Shimada Saburo and Tanaka Shozo, and occasionally their names would appear in the title of some seminar, speech, or essay. He was indignant over the gradually deepening quagmire of the Japan-China conflict, and he once again took to the streets. We cannot conclude therefore that he took a non-political attitude by neither defending nor aggressively resisting the controlling class. Rather, he seemed to be plagued with a feeling of helplessness and indignation for which he had no solution. The title of his retrospective Kami, ningen, jiyu [God, man, freedom, 1934] seems to symbolize his life. It is not simply the memoirs of an old man. As mentioned in the introduction, the book

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pulses with the emotions of the early twentieth century. If, after thirty years, Naoe had been in an entirely different state of mind, he should have been able to discuss years around the turn of the century from a detached position and reconstruct the past objectively. But he himself recalled that in the first years of the twentieth century; "I harboured within myself the two diametrically opposed forces of...the ambition for political revolution and...the joy of God... which drove the dreamer, the visionary, the madman prancing out onto the street corners. "16 Writing as the light of his life flared up fiercely in its final moments, Naoe's "enthusiasm" (jonetstf) began to pulse into a violent spiritual "fury" (ranbiL) which took control of him. PACIFISM THROUGH SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION

A few years after the first Sino-Japanese War, Naoe's first signed article, entitled "Sekai heiwa ni taisuru Nihon kokumin no sekinin" [The Japanese people's responsibility for world peace], appeared in the Mainichi Shimbun (1899). In this article, responding to the 1897 proposal for a world peace conference by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Naoe discussed the Japanese people's "Great Mission": the predominant current of modern times encompasses both the "democratic pacifism" which developed in the United States and the "despotic expansionism" (Senseiteki shinryakushugi) rooted in the Russian wilderness. The coming of the black ships at the end of the Tokugawa period, along with the confrontation with the West and subsequent opening of the country, made inevitable the advance of these ideologies into Japan. These two essentially distinct currents "met and merged" in Japan because "Heaven appears to desire to make our people His executors of the Last Judgement. "17 Japan had successfully met, Naoe continues, the challenge of Western civilization with the reformation and subsequent promulgation of constitutional government—an event not even dreamed of for 2500 years and now achieved for the first time. This great achievement resulted from Japan's correct selection of elements from each of these two great currents. The significance of this event is that the Japanese people have discarded the "high-sounding words in a snail shell" of a narrow nationalism, and with the vision of Japan as part

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of a broad international community, burn to realize their "Great Mission" as "leaders in the progress toward world peace. " Although Japan lags far behind the nations of Europe and America in culture, we have been given the mission to act as the "prime movers" for peace. "The logic of both heaven and earth ordains that our very own Japan enjoy this mission. " The realization of world peace lies, of course, in the distant future. Some say that the aspiration for world peace is empty theory, the "dream of a mentally retarded man." But "if one pursues something with an indomitable spirit, sooner or later he will approach the ideal." Most of all, the statesmen and people of Japan should embrace the ideal and have the courage to realize it. This statement reflects a pure idealism and a broad internationalism along with a calm rationalism and desire to become an apostle of peace. Christian humanism is clearly the keynote. According to Naoe, the Japanese have received God's revelation and must recognize their "call." " 'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from yon shall come a ruler who will govern my people, Israel.' We wish to speak to Japan like this. " "It is no accident that we forty million brethren all exist together in this small island country. When we think of the task Providence has set out for us, we are stricken with awe and must stand in fear befor the gravity of our calling. " In these statements as well as in the statement, "Heaven appears to desire to make our people his executors of the Last Judgement, " one can observe Naoe's motive for writing this article. He must have felt a transcendent power beyond man — God, Heaven, "Providence" (koten), Naoe, again from a Christian humanist viewpoint, states : "A militarily aggressive statism, the legalization of private property and the economic system of "wage-slavery"; all are natural results of the deification of self-interest. Jesus declared and longed for the paradise that should be realized on earth through agape. Therefore, once one purifies his heart and quietly savours the gospel of Jesus, who will not take to heart the profundity of this great universal idea"18 What specific efforts did Naoe then make, considering, as he did, that the Japanese people should be the apostles of peace? Following the First Sino-Japanese War, the momentum of victorious sentiment

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continued and developed into statism. As relations with Russia worsened, patriotism and the call for increased armaments dominated discussion. In these circumstances, Naoe first directed his arguments for peace to the question of patriotism. He was not opposed to patriotism itself; he was committed to a "modern, popular, constitutional" loyalty and patriotism. In other words, the ideal form of nationalism to him was that of the modern, democratic nation. Conversely, the patriotism which the Meiji government compelled people to adopt, by which the government violated freedom of study, and by which it labelled Uchimura Kanzo a "traitor" for his refusal to bow before the Education Rescript, Naoe thought, was nothing but "a remnant from a barbarian age, a museum piece." The patriotism called for by the government arose out of the concept of a family state. Naoe considered the family state, a paternalistic sovereign, and ancestor worship "to be relics of a dark and barbaric age. "19 One finds here the epitome of Naoe's antikokutai position and a critique of absolutist goverment rare in this period when comments about kokutai were almost taboo. Naoe also criticized the assertions of the conservative legal scholar Hozumi Yatsuka (1868-1912) that the Japanese race is a"family state with the same blood and ancestors, " that the emperor is its patriarch, and that the divine nature of the imperial line originated in ancestor worship, as the "machinations of a mad man" (p. 344). Accompanying the rapid development of capitalism around the turn of the century, many of the enlightened thinkers of the early Meiji Period who had tried to reform Japanese society now condoned Japan's aggression and approved its ruthless economic competition with the Western powers as a necessity of capitalism. Good examples of this are Fukuzawa Yukichi, who wrote "Datsu A ron" [Forsake Asia] to urge that the Japanese disassociate themselves from Asia in order to win in international commercial competition; Tokutomi Soho (1863-1957) of the Min'yusha, who gave up criticism of government by accepting an official position in the Matsukata cabinet; Takayama Chogyu (1871-1902), who emerged to champion Japanese nativism, along with Buddhist and Christian opportunists. Naoe as a pacifist and democrat stood aloof from these people. A critique of nationality developed along with Naoe's attack on imperial absolutism. He valued above all else the "independent person, " a self-aware human being capable of autonomous action.

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The Japanese were, he felt, however, immersed in a "spirit of despotism." Because of the entrenched "hereditary despotism" which inhibits the growth of autonomous and independent human beings, "the government emphatically rejects democracy, and the people in general scorn it even though Japan already has its outer form." No matter how neatly worked out the system is, unless its spirit is implemented within it, it is no better than a lifeless Buddha image. The greatest "weakness of the Japanese is their lack of ideals. Without ideals, they are unable to judge, without ideals they cling to the remnants of the past; without critical powers they are easily manipulated by their conniving neighbours. " The epidemic of phrases like "the glory of the victors" after the Russo-Japanese war, Naoe pointed out, was a typical examble of this sort of flippancy.20 He thought that the establishment of democracy and the individual's independent will by the rejection of imperial absolutism and an enforced sense of nationality would enable Japan to respond to its "great mission" for world peace. His critique of militarism constituted the third pillar supporting his pacifism. Attacking the then prevalent mood for expanded armaments, Naoe asserted that the vulgar patriotism and the faulty education offered by the government were the factors behind this superstitious faith in increased armaments. Vulgar patriotism will quickly respond to slogans such as "The sky of Manchuria is overcast in an ominous way" (suggesting the Russian ambition towards the south), 21 and will drive forty-five million people to bloodshed. The people do not seriously consider what armament expansion will bring. Their easy acquiescence in the government's policy of national unity proves their low intellectual level. To begin with, war in essence is "immoral" and a "crime against humanity." Although vulgar opinion stresses that large-scale armaments are necessary for Japan's security, why do we increase armaments and build more battleships? After all, this seems to be no more than a reversion to armament competitions with the inevitable result that many men will die in bitter hatred. "One who destroys another man's country will himself be destroyed by [other] people. This is inevitable cause and effect. One will perish anyway whether he fights or not, so what is the need for this painful, immoral, and beastly activity?" (p. 350). Normally the preservation of national sovereignty is given as the justification for war. How, then, did Naoe understand "nation"?

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While he did not deal systematically with this concept, various works clearly reveal his Christian approach to the problem, especially with regard to the relationship between the individual and the nation. He asserted that "a nation has historical origins as well as a mission ordained by God. A nation should act flexibly but never depart from the principles of humanity. "22 Underlying the organization of a nation is the "supreme principle" of a human being's duty to "fear Providence and love his fellow man." Homes and nations must be established on this "great principle." In basing domestic rule and diplomatic relations on it, "we must endeavour to demonstrate our firm convictions at home, securing constitutional government, and extending warmth to our brethren abroad. "23 Naoe's politics did not derive from a class interpretation of history. Rather they resembled a popular sovereignty which incorporated the ideas of the Meiji Enlightenment and the Popular Rights Movement. Because of his Christian piety, he considered the nation an instrument to realize the ideals of mankind ("a peace founded on the mutual love of human beings") and also considered the "ultimate love of the heavenly father to be the highest authority for man" (p. 353). What should the individual, particularly the Japanese individual, do for peace? Naoe unceasingly addressed himself to this problem. Specifically, he recommended the reduction and abolition of armaments. When, he said, one transcends the idea of national sovereignty and thinks in terms of all mankind, how narrow and shortsighted indeed seems a peace based on the balance of terror which resulted from armament rivalry. Consequently, the individual Japanese should do two things: reject at home the "military government," which is permeated with "paternalistic despotism" in domestic politics and, in external relations, seek to realize international peaceful coexistence. 24 This practical manifesto is surprisingly similar to the pacifist principles found in the present Japanese Constitution. Naoe goes on to link these general ideas to ethical action by the individual. The keynote of his thought, as mentioned before, is that the spiritual make-up of the Japanese has obstructed the development of democracy in Japan and has helped cause external aggression as well. What is normally considered a national problem, when seen in terms of the individual, permits one to understand Naoe's emphasis upon "human revolution" in fine detail. He sought a revolution based on "love." For him, peace meant the fulfilment of love. He also

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criticized himself, lamenting, "What is peace? When one looks within himself, he finds only envy, and when he surveys the outside world, sees nothing but strife. Where, then, is peace?"25 Naoe realized that when one criticizes society, he has to reflect upon himself first. He who had despaired of the state of man and the world thus sought peace in God transcending human wisdom. A similar concept of avoiding conflict by reflecting upon jealousy and greed harboured in human hearts was adopted in the UNESCO Charter about half a century later. Naoe's plan for peace was a unique formulation among his contemporary "activist" social revolutionaries, since he saw the irrational and "particular" values (desire and envy) opposed to the "universal value" (love) within the individual paralleled at the level of society by the counterparts of narrow nationalism against internationalism. This attempt to find a basis for social reform in an inner spiritual revolution appears to have grown out of his introspective and personal view of religion. RELIGIOUS WITHDRAWAL:WHAT IT MEANT

The subtitle of this article, "religious withdrawal," refers to Naoe's parting company with Kotoku, Sakai, and the other socialists in September 1906. Why did Naoe, who had enthusiastically participated in the political activities of the pacifist, socialist, and other movements, "change course" and enter what appears to have been a life of "religious seclusion" after the Russo-Japanese War? The major factor, according to him, was his mother's death. Another cause was his delicate nature. He was unusually naive. This is manifested in his intellectual "pilgrimage" and introspection. His pacifism seems in no way inferior to that of Uchimura, but there was quite a difference between them in mode and temperament. Naoe's youthful naivete and his tenderheartedness led him in his later years down a path different from that of the socialists. Above all, he acutely felt a "state of alienation and spiritual stagnation" [jidai heisoku no genjo] like that of Ishikawa Takuboku (1885-1912). While the same sentiment gradually drove Kotoku Shusui and Osugi Sakae towards radicalism after the Russo-Japanese war, Naoe believed that fundamental change would result only from "a revolution of

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the spirit, " "a human revolution" rather than a social revolution. The influence of the powerful Meiji state, its institutions, education, and ideology, had permeated the entire society, so that "the air around the young people has ceased to circulate, " writes Takuboku in the late Meiji Period. At the same time, the self-assertions became much more forceful among young people than it had been since the wars with China and Russia. Under these circumstances the aspirations and ideals of disoriented youth found no expression and stagnated. Takuboku cried out, "Look! where can we find the route that we should take?"26 What was the route that Takuboku found after his search? He focused on the most progressive group of the time, represented by some of the socialists and Christians, "and their inability to resist the pressure of their own individuality, which try as they might they could not overcome, blindly lunging toward the point at which the walls of the box containing them were the thinnest, or perhaps there were cracks (the faults of contemporary society)." He went on: "The youth have arrived at a point when they must recognize the existence of this 'enemy' so that they can extricate themselves from this self-destructive situation." "Let us all awaken and declare war on the alienation and spiritual stagnation [_heisoku] of this period in history" (p. 263). Progressive youth were no longer satisfied by the individualism of Takayama Chogu. They saw clearly that the creation of a "New Paradise" [shin tenchf] through the efforts of individuals within the existing framework of values and institutions was impossible. Takuboku then emphasized the need to seek a way by which people could overcome the period in history itself and devote all their energies to the discovery of a new "future" (pp. 263-64). How did Takuboku's keen perception affect the mass of his countrymen? The members of the ruling classes attempted to win their hearts through oppression and appeasement, but would the people be responsive to the "revolutionary spirit" from within Japan and abroad? Naoe felt they would not be. In an article entitled "Kakumei no muenkoku" [Japan, the revolutionless nation, 1906] he offered sarcastic consolation to the members of the government who feared that the Russian revolution [of 1905] would spread and subvert their authoritarian role, saying: "Rest assured on your soft cushions." He felt that the national character and traditional cultures of Russia and

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Japan differed fundamentally. "Russia has the basis for a philosophy which negates monarchic government. It has religious fervour and strength of will. The revolution of blood and steel was without doubt an explosion of these great ideas and sentiments. "27 But, on reflection, Japan differed in every respect. "Japan's philosophy (if it has one) and its religion are both rooted in its monarchical government" (p. 333). Japanese scholars, while freely criticizing other monarchies, cannot criticize their own imperial institution. Were scholars to evaluate monarchy objectively, they would be ostracized and, in extreme circumstances, their lives would de endangered. The truth is that the general public would not hesitate to consider such attitudes blasphemy regardless of what the emperor himself felt. Because of this traditional atmosphere, says Naoe, there is something unique about Japan's encounter with ideas (and religions) from abroad. For instance, Buddhism and Christianity are "sowers of human revolution." Buddha and Christ "bring forth and enjoin us to bring about God's will among men." Theirs are "fierce, revolutionary faiths." But, once these ideas are transplanted to the Japanese soil, they become strangely obsequious before patriotism instead of shaking the foundations of the national polity. The Christians have discarded the unique mission of their faith, "dressed up a narrow nationalism as brotherhood and piously proclaimed it to be Christianity. " A similar situation exists with the socialists. "When confronted by government authorities who consider them perpetrators of the worst villainies, the socialists plead, 'No, we seek only economic equality'" (p. 334). This perversion is applauded as the Japanese "genius for assimilation, " but it is not assimilation. In the adoption of foreign ideas which are essentially different, the essence is discarded and replaced by an empty form. This is because, in the end, "Japan's great faith in divine monarchy based upon the hereditary system has created the firm ground of a Japanese national religion. Look, where in Japan exist either ideas or passions which deny monarchic government? All is peace! Even if monarchic governments are swept away from all the continents of the earth, monarchy will remain in the one solitary island country of the Pacific capped by the inverted fan of snow atop Mt. Fuji. Revolution has no connection with Japan" (pp. 333-34).

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The phrase "kakumei no muenkoku" was coined by Naoe shortly before he began his life of seclusion in the mountain resort of Ikaho in September 1906. Between the lines of his article one senses the frustration and pessimism of an "old" warrior who is attempting to dissociate himself from the revolutionary line. The national polity and its ideological foundation, first enunciated in the Meiji Constitution and the Imperial Rescript on Education, had become firmly established by the end of the Russo-Japanese War. Naoe felt that unless these "old ideas" were uprooted, Japan could not expect real cultural development and its people could hardly fulfill its "mission." He believed that Christians were the most "appropriate individuals to attack these old ideas and enlighten the people" and so observed the Christians with great expectations. But the Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War merely intensified the war fervour, and even Christians, with only a few exceptions, opportunistically promoted Japan's overseas "expansion" through lecture and prayer meetings. Naoe could not bear this "false Christianity. " He resented the "men of distinction" who participated in the Conference of Religionists (Shukyoka kyowakai), an organization formed by the government the year after the war. 28 According to Naoe, religionists should not separate themselves completely from the secular world and concern themselves only with the spiritual world. The meaning of the maxim "the events of the secular world are the direct concern of the spiritual world, " however, is not to justify yielding to the authority of the secular world. To do so is a disgrace for a religious man. After defining this ideal role for the religious man in politics, Naoe forcefully explained his position as follows. The religionist should, in the interests of humanity, "reveal the evils" of his society and nation, and "rebuke" its people, without becoming mired in the particular interests of either individuals or the nation. If the statesmen, militarists, and, in addition, the people become carried away with state-egoism, a narrow nationalism which makes people jealous and suspicious of each other, the religionist should "reproach them for their selfishness and point the way to world peace" (p. 332). In reality, however, many religionists "have not the faith even to wiggle a little finger in the face of the evils perpetrated by the holders of secular power; if war breaks out, they praise war and if hatred of the enemy grows, they join the chorus in hatred of the

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enemy; not realizing that they are being used by base bureaucrats, they go so far as to rejoice that the national government has now trusted their religion. I know no words to describe such folly, such indecency. Off with you, you worthless religionists, you buffoons serving the military, errand boys for the diplomats" (p. 333). This was his state of mind when Naoe turned to "religious withdrawal. " Like Takuboku, he, too, felt "alienation and spiritual stagnation" in the late Meiji Period. Another reason why Naoe took this path was the praise for nature which he had always had. Deeply ashamed of himself, "whose body longed after fame in this world even while in his heart he prayed for the peace of the Divine Kingdom," he cried out, "shed this deceit and return to your origins. "29 He cursed the contemporary civilization which the Industrial Revolution had brought about. It had spawned extreme differences in wealth and had turned international society into a bloody battleground where only the strong survive. The disparities of wealth and difficulties in living drive people into the depths of deceit and distrust. It is impossible to save man from this hypocrisy and deceit by political means. Man can become his ideal self only by relying humbly on the "strength of the almighty God" (pp. 307-9). Naoe continues "Boundless infinity is concealed behind His fingertips; other than endless shouting and dancing about His skirts, we know no song to praise Him; we have no music with which to acclaim Him. We transmit from flesh to flesh His life which has been passed down to us and, decaying, enter into endless glory. Flesh, spirit? Man, God? Flex not your tongue! All words demolish thoughts!" (p. 309). All words demolish thoughts! What does he mean? This phrase attests to Naoe's innermost concerns as, led by a "hatred of the world" (ensei yokt?) he sought refuge in religion. Where within this passage can one find Naoe, once an active socialist? In another passage he compares man living in history with a debate on the top of a "dust heap. " That is, however deeply one puts a spade into a dust heap, he cannot turn up "bedrock" (the ideal society) (p. 309). Such work is, in the end, only the fruitless labour of shallow human intelligence. Compared to the greatness of primeval life, the God of nature, how ingeniously constrained is man's intelligence! Beginning with this view of civilization, an awesome reverence for primeval life, and a conviction (not a clear understanding) of

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the spiritual efficacy within nature began to well up in Naoe's soul. He became increasingly interested in the early culture of Japan before the introduction of Confucianism or Buddhism. Kosaka Masaaki, referring to Naoe's yearning for the ancient Japanese as the ideal men of nature, states that Naoe tried "to find an innocent life among the ancient Japanese as opposed to the vulgar greed of modern men. "30 This may be a just criticism of modern culture. However as Kosaka wonders, "Is the ancient Japanese way of life worth admiring as the epitome of unified spirit and flesh?" One is particularly struck by this desire in passages such as the following, which seems to deal with the ancient Japanese concept of kami, the term used to refer to the spirits thought to inhabit individuals and things; alternatively it can refer to the Christian God. Naoe does not specify in these passages which he means. "I am a man who cannot live without the word 'kami.' The ideas and emotions wrapped up in this term constantly change. When one looks back twenty, thirty, or forty years, they seem to take on almost entirely different forms. I call those things hidden within these shadowy depths 'kami.'"*1 One can see a similar attitude in the Buddhist "research" which he began after the age of forty. He says that research did not suit his temperament, that as a single "loafer" (rumpen, i. e., lumpen) he simply "wandered as the spirit moved him, without companion or guide, over the limitless plateaus of the Tripitaka" (p. 8). That is to say, without reference to doctrinal disputes concerning the kami or the interpretation of sutras, Naoe's heart rambled over limitless fertile plains in search of kami. In short, one discerns in Naoe's "change of course" lack of the spiritual fortitude to discover social means to break out of the "state of alienation and spiritual stagnation" [jidai heisoku~] which Takuboku had identified. He could not find any social therapy. Naoe moved from a concern for political evils through recognition of the ills of man's spirit and hatred of contemporary civilization to an affirmation of "nature." What relation does this progression have to Naoe's great sensitivity, his tender-heartedness? The relation between Naoe's "change of course" and his personality is crucial to an understanding of him. The dislike of the world (ensei yoku) and the faith in kami which deeply colour the works of his old age had appeared even in the

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socialist pronouncements of his most productive years. They were the undercurrent running throughout his life. How does one square these attitudes with his criticism of modern civilization and his encomium of "nature, " through which he expressed his admiration for primitive Japanese culture? These are subjects for future research.

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4 Uchimura Kanzo The Bible and War JOHN F. HOWES

In an article which demonstrates the profound effects of the First Sino-Japanese war on the culture of the later Meiji Period, Donald Keene mentions Uchimura Kanzo as one of the numerous writers who strongly supported the Japanese government's decision to open hostilities. 1 To illustrate Uchimura's position, Keene quotes an article which Uchimura wrote early in the war to suggest that Japan was assisting providence so that "who except her deadly foe —China the incorrigible hater of Progress—wishes not victory to Japan!"2 Keene's introduction to this outspoken passage notes that "Uchimura was later known for [his]...pacifism. "3 Keene understates the fact, for detailed reference to Uchimura's works confirms his reputation in Japan as its most distinguished pacifist. Uchimura's place in history as one of modern Japan's most seminal thinkers rests upon the way he interpreted his own experience, seeing in it the core of problems shared by many of his compatriots, identifying their essence, and then developing a solution which made sense in terms of the world as he, and other Japanese trained in the new Western-style education, viewed it. He interpreted the great problems of his day as ethical and sought to find answers to them in terms both of his native tradition and the Christian tradition which appeared to him as the natural complement to what had developed over the centuries in Japan. With Christianity engrafted—it is his word—onto the native Bushido, Japan would emerge from the narrow confines of East Asia and enter the mainstream of world culture. The means to this development would be an understanding

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of the Bible, which Uchimura approached as his immediate forebears had the Confucian classics—as a source for answers on how to live. The lectures and articles which resulted from this quest made Uchimura Japan's foremost scholar of the Bible. Earlier works had already earned him a place in literary history as one of Japan's best essayists both in English and his own language. This article deals with Uchimura's attitudes towards war, which in his mature years he came to consider the "lodestone" by which one judges the faith of those who consider themselves Christian. Although after the Russo-Japanese War he insisted that the true Christian was always a pacifist, in the beginning of his career he shared the attitudes of his countrymen about the possible beneficent effects of war, particularly, for Uchimura, when they were linked to the Christian concept of righteous war. The realities of Japanese geopolitics in the First Sino-Japanese war forced him to rethink his assumption about the righteous war and brought him to the absolute pacifism which characterized his thought after the Russo-Japanese War. The study of his attitudes towards war as a result naturally divides itself into two. The first section deals with his development over the period of a decade from support for the First Sino-Japanese War to opposition against the Russo-Japanese and subsequent wars. The latter section analyses the mature opposition to all wars which marked his thought after 1904. An introduction to his personality, training, and career provides the backdrop against which his attitudes towards war can be seen developing. THE PERSONALITY OF A PACIFIST

Uchimura's son Yushi became the foremost psychiatrist in Japan, and individuals interested in Uchimura's career have often asked the son to appraise his father in terms of professional psychiatric insight. Shortly after the elder Uchimura's death and again fortyfive years later, Yushi has defined the keystone of his father's personality as an extreme sensitivity to people and events around him. Readers acquainted with Erik Erikson's work on Luther4 will recognize further in Uchimura's sensitivity the elements of a great religious leader who remakes his generation's understanding of religious reality to accord with the facts of the contemporary world.

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The two interpretations, which complement each other, fit well with the facts as we know them. Uchimura with his sensitive skill at integration developed a new world-view for the Japanese. This intellectual contribution resulted from a particular combination of intellectual tools developed through his early training. Like many other children of samurai homes, Kanzo grew up with a father whose career had been ruined by the Restoration and who was particularly concerned that his son should be equipped for life in the new world of Meiji. The young Kanzo eagerly trained himself in English and entered the Sapporo Agricultural College in 1877, graduating in 1881. After work with the government in Hokkaido, he moved to Tokyo in 1882. Here, against the wishes of his parents, he married a young woman like himself trained in Western studies. The marriage ended in divorce a few months later and within another few months, in 1884, Uchimura went to the United States, where he studied at Amherst College and received a second bachelor's degree in 1887. The following spring he returned to Tokyo but experienced difficulty in finding a job that would use his training and satisfy his ambition. He felt fortunate to find employment at the very prestigious Number One Higher School in Tokyo. His most famous act, the refusal to bow before the Education Rescript, took place a few months later, in 1891, when he was thirty. This cost him the possibility of further employment in government-related organizations and set him on the course which led to professional writing. During this long period of training, he had perfected the tools which gave the distinctive tone to his writing. These were a knowledge of the English-speaking West and the Bible along with an insistence upon independent judgment on all questions.5 The knowledge of the West made him an effective spokesman for Japan in its relations with Europeans and Americans; through a lifetime of study and exposition he made the Bible a modern Japanese classic; and his dogged independence led him to a relentless quest for truth. Each of these tools deserves consideration. Kanzo received his most intensive training while attending the Sapporo Agricultural College and Amherst College. In Sapporo, under the influence of William S. Clark, Kanzo and the other members of his class absorbed everything their teachers offered. Most of them, including Kanzo and his close friend Nitobe Inazo, became

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Christians. Clothed in military-style school uniforms, fed with Western-style food rich in protein, and housed in dormitory rooms modeled after those in Massachusetts' Amherst College, they converted themselves into what they considered to be Westerners. When Kanzo and Nitobe graduated, they corresponded in English, the language of men like themselves trained for a new world. Men educated in science and English like Nitobe and Uchimura were scarce in the Japan of 1881. It is not surprising therefore that when both of them quickly tired of Hokkaido they moved on to Tokyo and from there to additional training in the United States. In America they both perfected the language skills which made them later two of the leading English stylists among modern Japanese writers. Both felt for the rest of their lives that their particular training put upon their shoulders a heavy responsibility to interpret the West to Japan and Japan to the Western world. Though both directions of the interpretive process were important, it was the one in which Japan was explained to the West which required the greater skill and for which there were fewer trained personnel. The need seemed all the more pressing because the Westerners appeared to understand so little of Japan. In the nineteenth century, very few foreigners learned Japanese, and, of those who did, most were missionaries too preoccupied with their daily work to afford time for writing. On the other hand, from the early seventies, inquisitive traveler-authors came to Japan from Western lands and formed quick conclusions which they published back home. The books sold well. Their facile generalizations struck sensitive Japanese to the quick, yet there was no way for the Japanese themselves to state their case. When they tried, they often sounded heavy-handed because they did not know their audience well, but most Japanese acquainted with the problem felt that there was little alternative. Men like Nitobe and Uchimura, who observed the development of their nation with pride, considered it very important that Westerners be better informed. Both continued to write in English until their deaths in the early Showa Period. For both, knowledge of English had served as a tool to introduce their nation abroad and to bring in elements of the Western tradition to Japan. Uchimura used his knowledge of English to perfect the second tool for his world-view while in Amherst College. There Seelye and other professors introduced him to the biblical view of man in

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history. Relatively few of the Amherst students in the 1880's showed much interest in the Calvinistic interpretations of Bible the professors could so eloquently plead. To the quick and probing Uchimura they poured out the results of a lifetime's experience and scholarship. From them he learned two great lessons: that in the Bible God had given man the textbook to his salvation, and that history showed the unfolding of God's purpose on earth. Both would add much to Uchimura's ideas about war, and more particularly about how the individual should react to modern war. Amherst put the finishing touches on his formal education. When he graduated, he agreed with the concepts of individual dignity and responsibility that so permeated British and American thought. Although Uchimura tells us that he first conceived of himself as a professional student of the Bible while in Amherst, he did not fulfil his ambition until twelve years after his return to Japan in 1888. In 1900 he started a popular magazine devoted to Bible study called Seisho no kenkyu, which also bore the English title The Biblical Study on its masthead. Seisho no kenkyu continued for 356 monthly issues until Uchimura's death in 1930. It included as many as eighty pages, for which he wrote much of the copy. Along with his own works, he included translations of Western articles and essays by other Japanese along with correspondence from readers. As he and his readers matured, the articles became more scholarly, and the series of lectures whose texts formed the bulk of Seisho no kenkyu during the 1920's include major commentaries on Job, the biography of Jesus, and Romans. At its peak, Uchimura issued five thousand copies of Seisho no kenkyu; it became the organ which linked the members of Mukyokai together until, at Uchimura's request, it ceased publication on his death. It remains his greatest single intellectual endeavour. If there is any one element which pervades the whole of Seisho no kenkyu, it is the conviction that Christianity is the sum total of man's attempt to live the faith. In this way Uchimura's Christianity may be called "existential, " though with a small "e, " since he did not try to develop a philosophy but instead concentrated on the problems of the faith faced by those who took on its obligations. Uchimura saw his country without specific precedents in Christianity. He felt the Japanese had a high moral code as a result, particularly, of Confucian influence, and to this they needed to add only the

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basic faith of Christianity, which was introduced in the Bible and elaborated in each man's life of prayer and Christian witness. The whole of institutional Christianity, with its pomp, interference in politics, and mutual sectarian recrimination he came to view as important to Western history but irrelevant to Japan. What was important were not the injunctions of an ecclesiastical organization but the faith and deeds of the individual believer. As Uchimura developed, he became highly critical, both of his native tradition and the new tradition he sought to introduce. This third tool in the development of his world-view made him highly selective of the elements he would take from each. In an intellectual climate which viewed the two cultures as mutually opposed, such selectivity was bound to create misunderstandings and cause recriminations from both Japanese and Westerners. Uchimura's criticism of his own heritage started shortly after his education in Sapporo as he moved into the practical world of nineteenth-century Japan. He disliked the drunkenness and inconsistencies he saw around him. Later, after his study in America, while writing political commentary on the Yorozu Choho, he objected to the insincerity of the Japanese in public life. His most outspoken challenge of Japanese tradition had come earlier and gave him cause for much subsequent soul-searching. This was his decision to marry a fellow Christian against the wishes of his parents and the considered advice of his closest friends. The ceremony took place in 1884, a year after he had moved to Tokyo. Japanese tradition, at least among samurai, would have had him marry a candidate selected by his parents. Japanese tradition also required that as the eldest son he bring his bride to live under his parents' roof and his mother's tutelage. In these circumstances the selection of a bride to suit family convenience made great sense because of the possible conflict between the bride and mother-inlaw. Uchimura married the girl of his choice but could not, it seems, keep the two women happy in the same house. The shame of the divorce was the immediate stimulus for his trip to the United States. There, in his first English-language article, which introduced Japanese ethics to American readers, he indicated that one of the most difficult demands of the Christian faith for a Japanese was the section in the marriage vows where the two principals pledge to forsake all others in favour of each other.

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If Uchimura's violation of his own culture's most treasured maxims drove him to the United States, disillusion with much of what he saw there made him want to return home. In his How I Became a Christian, which interprets his life until he returned from the United States, he describes the naive optimism with which he anticipated the Promised Land and then quickly found himself disillusioned by the experiences he encountered. It noted the foibles of pious North Americans and the way that their condescending paternalism often appeared like racism. In the end, he returned to Japan full of praise for the ideal Christian figures he saw in such men as Julius Seelye of Amherst but aware that they did not represent the whole of their countrymen. His later theories about the church could so ignore the history of Christendom because of the divergence between the actions of the common people in Christian America and the ideals their faith preached. Back in Japan, Uchimura united the two streams of Western and Japanese culture in his attempt to exemplify the highest ideals of both. He felt that the Japanese who lived up to the best in his own culture was very close to Christian faith. He required only a switch from the loyalty to persons in his own tradition to a loyalty towards God in the Western tradition. With this shift in the object of his devotion, the Japanese would equal the members of the highest civilizations. It is in the light of this development that Uchimura's most famous act, his refusal to bow before the Education Rescript, must be viewed. The refusal lives in Japanese history as an expression of individualism before the conformist demands of the state. This interpretation overemphasizes the intent of the act. The best account of what actually happened is the testimony of some who observed Uchimura. They indicate that he did not bow from the waist as one would when meeting the emperor, but did bob his head slightly. His own letter from the night before the ceremony indicates that he feared something might happen which would embarrass his colleagues in Sapporo. His arguments in his own defence later hinged on the signficance of the bow as appropriate to persons but not to things. They reflected a hesitation over what to do coupled with a determination to act in accordance with the highest ideals. It was others who read defiance into his hesitation and made of it a landmark in history. The criticism of his own culture which it

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implied reflected an attempt to implement ideals which he had seen exemplified by the prophets of the Old Testament, certain other great figures in history, and his own teachers in Amherst. The sense of tentativeness involved in a necessary choice where the right course is unclear was reflected in many of Uchimura's writings until World War I. At that time the United States's entry on the side of the Allies broke his feelings of dependence on American Christianity. Seelye and his other teachers at Amherst had all died, and American entry into the war in spite of all Christian experience that war was immoral demonstrated to Uchimura that American puritanism had died with them. For a short time he joined with other Japanese millenarians in a movement to advertise Christ's impending return to earth, but he quickly recognized that such a belief could do severe psychic and spiritual damage. He then settled down to the long series of lectures on various books of the Bible which marked his last years. During this period he became much more relaxed about the shortcomings of his own society. The extreme sensitivity which his son Yushi noted had earlier served to keep others at arm's length. Now more accepting and recognized both by his own followers and society in general, his opinions were frequently sought and he became a kind of modern sage. Death in 1930 took him from the position of trust and accomplishment earned through forty years of trenchant thought and writing. Uchimura's ability as a spokesman for Japan to the West, his interpretation of Christianity, and his vision of the ideal man highly critical both of Western and native Japanese culture—all these bear upon his attitudes towards war, which began to take shape shortly after his refusal to bow early in 1891. FROM PIOUS JINGOISM TO UNIVERSAL PACIFISM

The storm of protest which immediately followed Uchimura's hesitant bow weakened him so that he caught pneumonia. His second wife, fatigued by her attempts to keep detractors from his sickroom, contracted the disease from him and succumbed to it. Grief-stricken, he made his way to Sapporo and then finally retreated to the relative obscurity of Kyoto, a virtual outcast less than ten years after he had graduated from the Sapporo Agricultural College

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with such high hopes. Although Uchimura could not prevent feelings of self-pity after this succession of personal shocks, his refusal to bow paved the way for his later career by making his name a household word. In Kyoto, where he desired to support himself by writing, he made friends. A bookseller agreed to subsidize him, and he found a third wife with whom he lived happily the rest of his life. While in Kyoto between 1892 and 1896, he did the writing for which he is still best known. In it he described the split within himself precipitated by family decline, over-successful scholarship, impetuous marriage, and study abroad for the benefit of other Japanese who like him felt a similar split in their personalities as a result of the new education. Using both his mother tongue and English, he wrote, within two years, eight books, two pamphlets, and a number of articles. Among these writings, several deal with history and Japan's role in the world. They bear directly on Uchimura's attitudes towards the First Sino-Japanese War. Korombusu koseki [Christopher Columbus] attributed to the great discoverer sincere Christian dedication as he remade the map of the world. Japan and the Japanese introduced a number of illustrious Japanese, including Saigo Takamori and Nichiren, to the West. Another English language work, "Japan: Its Mission, " had earlier announced that Japan was fated to "reconcile the East with the West', to be the advocate of the East [to the Western nations] and the harbinger of the West" to the backward nations of the world. 6 Chijinron [The earth and man] found a role for Japan in world history by dealing with God's will as expressed in the earth's physical geography and the development of civilization. Man's history, it said, began in the eastern end of the Mediterranean with two major streams, one going east and the other west. They have conjoined in Japan, which now has the mission to spread a new universal culture throughout the world. Yet Japan will be unable to fulfil its destiny unless each of its citizens assumes his ordained role. "Our duty is now, here" (p. 1:653; /, 4:103). The Chijinron thus expressed a vision of Japan's new role in world history which ended with a clear imperative for each Japanese individual. Along with the three other works mentioned above, it showed how great individuals in the past had affected history and set forth a role for the individual in Japanese history similar to what Uchimura in Amherst had come to understand as

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the ideal. At this point in his development the Japanese government opened hostilities against China. No other evidence exists, but the tone of his "Justification of the Corean War" (as was the custom of his time for writers in English, he used a "c" rather than "k" in "Corean") makes it appear that some Japanese spokesman had defended the attack upon Korea in terms similar to those Uchimura had used in his announcement of Japan's mission. Sceptical foreigners resident in Japan appear to have questioned this motivation and provoked Uchimura's hasty "Justification, " which was published only twenty-two days after the declaration of war. The facts support these assumptions, for the Japanese had reason to believe that they had a mission to defend Korea. With the increasing threat from the West, China and Japan both moved in the eighties to increase their influence lest Korea's weakness threaten the security of its neighbours. Both China and Japan could support their own interference in Korea with the claim that a fellow Asian in control would better serve the interests of Korea than a Western power. Even before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, many Japanese felt that the successive Chinese defeats already had rendered its government unable to defend Korea. Uchimura's concern for a national Japanese mission and the conviction that his knowledge of English gave him a responsibility to explain Japan to the West drove him to defend his nation before foreign detractors. He starts the "Justification" with an assertion that Japan can fight a righteous war as Christian nations have fought them in the past since "a sort of chivalric spirit is yet with us. "7 The rest of his article elaborates this theme. Chinese duplicity in dealings with other nations has worked against the interests of the Koreans, and "our sacred right of neighbourhood compels us to vigorous interference on her behalf" (p. 31; 125). The Chinese have also greatly vexed the Japanese and could not have continued so long had they dealt with a Western power rather than their "good-natured Eastern neighbor" (p. 33; 126). Since history teaches that small and active nations usually introduce progress, one could consider Japan's victory an historical necessity. The great Hungarian nationalist leader Louis Kossuth had already named Bismarck and the Meiji Emperor the "two greatest men of the nineteenth century" (p. 34; 127-28), and now the emperor will bring the fruits of modernity to all Asia. Japan requires nothing for her selfless sacrifice.

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Let her "have this opportunity of serving the world, as she has been served by it too long in too many things. ...That nothing of material profit shall accrue to us...is more than evident" (p. 35; 128). From China "we shall exact no more than the just price of the blood we shed, as her prostitution is not our aim, but her coming into consciousness of her own worth and duty...in the reformation of the East. Thus we fight with eternal peace in view, and Heaven bless our bleeding ones as they fall in his holy war. Never before in our history has the nation been fired with a nobler aim" (pp. 35-36; 128). In this article, Uchimura's fluency in English had been employed in what seemed to him a just cause. The following month Uchimura elaborated on his theme. "I say as an historian: conflict between Japan and China is unavoidable. And Japan's victory in the conflict is for the benefit of all mankind and necessary for the progress of the world, "8 whereas a Japanese defeat would ensure the continuation of China's backward policies. In October he outlined for his fellow Japanese the theme of a war to prevent worse wrongs, where Japan would act "like a surgeon who is about to cure a diseased body with a scalpel, not like a robber who has drawn a sword to attack a rich man. "9 According to this interpretation, the Japanese risked their lives in the service of others. Critics might brand this attitude too visionary, but it is a fact, he continued, that "the people of a gentlemenly country [kunshi koku] must be gentlemen all the way, that a righteous war must be righteous in all its aspects" (pp. 234; 146). He ended with a programme which he urged as a supplement to the Japanese army's actions: inform the Chinese people that their government is not acting in their best interests and that Japan will bring them better conditions. Enlist the support of the Western powers to mediate with Japan a peaceful solution that will ensure domestic reform in China. Help the Chinese people, whose government so ignores their needs. It is clear that these excursions into commentary on international relations in the first two months of the war led Uchimura to use phrases similar to those of other authors whose assumptions he did not share. Most important to Uchimura was that the Japanese government would in fact act in the spirit of "chivalry" and value the interests of the Chinese and Korean peoples above its own. If it did not, Uchimura would look like a fool before his audiences, both Japanese and Western.

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Japanese victories quickly outran any possibility that the Japanese might have followed Uchimura's plan to communicate with the Chinese people while hostilities with their government continued. Japan could easily defeat China even without powerful Western friends, and victory let no scruples restrain her greed. Less than a month after the treaty which ended the First SinoJapanese War was signed, Uchimura confided to an American friend that he recognized that events had made him look a fool. "A 'righteous war' has changed into a piratic war somewhat, and a prophet who wrote its 'justification' is now in shame. "10 He otherwise kept his feelings to himself until a friend, Tokutomi Soho (1863-1957), requested an article in the summer of 1896 for his Kokumin no tomo [The nation's friend]. Kokumin no tomo had published Uchimura's "Justification" both in its original and in Japanese translation. Tokutomi's request gave Uchimura the chance to vent his spleen against the pettiness of Japan's rulers. In this article, "Jisei no kansatsu" [Observations on the times], he fumed that the Japanese were fighting a war in China in which they "think of killing Chinese soldiers in terms of a wild boar hunt.... If the Japanese are men of benevolence and righteousness, why do they not respect the honor of the Chinese? Why do they not devote themselves to the leadership of Korea?"11 The following year he expanded on this theme in an English-language article addressed to foreigners. Many disastrous events would follow the war, he told them, because "Japan acted hypocritically...because the righteous war was concluded unrighteously.... The money we exacted as the price of the blood we shed for 'the salvation of our weakly neighbor' was not spent, — no, not a single cent of it, —for the elevation and consolidation of the said helpless neighbor, but wholly for the increase of our own armament. "12 Uchimura also pictured in vivid terms the costs of the war to the Japanese. The following poem describes the loneliness of a woman whose husband has been killed in the attack on the Shantung city of Weihai during the winter of 1894-95. The Widow's New Year's Eve (Written at the end of 1896 in indignation over the boasting of the military) The moon is clear, the stars are white,

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The frost is deep, the night is cold, The house is poor, friends are few, The year is ending, but he does not return. The Western sea whence run her thoughts, Weihai Harbor where tears freeze, What has happened to the loved one who set out in a small boat for South Island? she wonders. For others there are bright New Year's clothes, Sake celebrating military prowess; For me there is a temporary miserable dwelling, Water which, alone, I place on the family altar. My heart is empty; others' hearts are brimming; I languish; the nation prospers. I will remain true to my mate who is in Hades I will complete my life chaste in this victorious land. The The The The

moon is clear, the stars are white, frost is deep, the night is cold, house is poor, friends are few, year is ending, but he does not return. 13

The irony expressed in his words reflects Uchimura's conviction that developments had not warranted the faith in Japanese motives he had expressed in the "Justification. " Japan had not treated China with the consideration of a Christian gentleman to bring it the benefits of contemporary civilization. Disillusioned that his government leaders had not lived up to his expectation for them, Uchimura had next turned to proclaim Japan's smallness. His conversion to pacifism starts from concern over the effects of the Sino-Japanese War and his people's inability to do God's will as Uchimura understood it. What has been said earlier about Uchimura's own development takes on further significance here. As a Westernized Japanese, he had a duty to defend Japan's actions before her foreign detractors. As an evangelistic Christian, he wanted Japan's leaders to act out of Christian motives so much that he assumed a motivation quite different from their real one. Their reaction of instinctive human greed angered him and threatened his sense of himself as spokesman

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for his nation. Enthusiasm for his nation's cause thus turned into virulent criticism of its leaders. It was this stinging criticism which, along with the popularity of his first books, led to the position on the Yorozu Choho which he assumed early in 1897. Once in Tokyo there was little reason to consider war since he had been hired to comment on domestic developments. The comparative peace during the closing years of the nineteenth century along with the strong pacifist movement in the West also made it easy to give more attention to other things. Developments abroad made it appear that the problem of war would shortly be solved. The Spanish-American War, the Boer War, and even the Boxer Rebellion excited little comment. Uchimura's few references to the morality of these wars demonstrate a basic ambivalence. Wars could be good if fought in the name of justice ;14 a new battleship could be "an implement of Freedom or Despotism according to the kind of hand that wields it";15 and the best soldier is one who carries "his Bible in one hand, his sword in the other. "16 Wars fought by such soldiers could help world progress. At the same time as he gave partial support to some wars, he urged that nations reduce their armaments17 and prayed "day and night" for the success of the Boers,18 since the British could not be trusted. And he could no longer believe Japan's leaders. "With whom are we going to fight?"19 he asked, as they bought more armaments. They had not even been able to make proper use of the indemnity th^y had received from the SinoJapanese War. 20 One could not expect such leaders to act in the interests of justice. As his scepticism deepened, Uchimura wrote another book, the subject of which, he tells us, had been suggested to him while he was in the United States. He called it Kokoku shi dan [The rise of nations], but it dealt equally with their decline. History, he says, is the record of man's progress, and various nations contribute to this progress in their own ways. They flourish as they have something to give and wither as their contribution ends. Both the rise and fall result from the role assigned to each state, so people should not gloat over their nation's success. Only truth does not die, and the success of a nation depends on whether its people ally themselves with it. The Ainu were pushed north because they could not fulfill the role assigned to the geographic entity of Japan. The Japanese must concern themselves over the possibility of decline

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because so many other Asian lands are perishing. "We must calm our spirits...and study the reasons for...the rise of nations" (p. 1:668; /, 4:114-15). The factors which influence the process are geography; the character of a nation's religion; the period in history: "Countries rise up in accordance with the necessities of human progress; to attempt to bring a country into being through reckless use of arms alone9' (p. 1:672; /, 4:117-19) can only fail—witness Japan's experience in Korea. The personality of a nation's leaders is also important; good leaders realize how much they need God's help, and their faith imparts this knowledge to others. Finally, nations rise only as a result of God's benevolence. The rest of the book consists of case studies taken from the history of the eastern Mediterranean beginning with the rise of Egypt and continuing through the rise of Persia. These case studies teach, says Uchimura, that nations rise from humility and fall from pride (p. 2:802; /, 4:229); that when a nation resorts to force of arms to expand, its spirit is already flagging (p. 2:686; /, 4:130); that most important to success is the development of free and independent men, a resource in which the yellow races are deficient (p. 2:787; /, 4:217); and that the Japanese "religion" of patriotism is weak because Japanese fail to recognize that their nation must act in accord with justice and truth (p. 2:726; /, 4:164). Uchimura had planned to continue the case studies through to the fall of Rome, but the sudden demise of the magazine which had been serializing the chapters led him to stop. Kokoku shi dan completes Uchimura's theory of world history and Japan's place in it. Korombusu koseki dealt with a great man in world history; Japan and the Japanese described great men in Japanese history; and Chijinron discussed God's intended role in history for the various nations. Kokoku shi dan introduced a cyclical theory which demonstrated how nations rise and fall depending on their leaders' obedience to God's will. The works taken together could lead only to one conclusion—that men trained like Uchimura and possessed of his faith should move to develop individuals who would lead their nation in accordance with God's will. Shortly after he had completed Kokoku shi dan in 1900, Uchimura started his Seisho no kenkyu. Whereas his Yorozu articles provided him with the opportunity to address specific policy alternatives, in

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the Seisho no kenkyu he had an organ in which to discuss basic ethical issues. It was from this vantage point that Uchimura viewed Japan's increasing jingoism as Russia delayed its withdrawal of troops from Manchuria in 1903. The widely publicized article by seven professors which counseled war on the grounds of pure opportunism forced him to make up his mind. Six days after their article appeared, he announced his complete pacifism: "I not only oppose war with Russia; I absolutely oppose [_zettaiteki haishi] all wars.... Some people preach the profit of war....The profit of war is the profit of robbery....It is in the long run to the disadvantage of both robber and robbed. "21 Kotoku came out with similar statements. In the following month, September, Uchimura dealt at length with the question of war both in Sets he no kenkyu and the Yorozu Choho. In Seisho no kenkyu he wrote that the Bible did not justify war, although numerous references to war in the Old Testament appeared like justification. "No matter how complicated the problem, no matter how many the extenuating circumstances, the Bible and particularly the New Testament has only one command on this subject for us: absolute pacifism....Enmity, jealousy, anger, murder, drunkenness, debauchery: war combines all of them..../£ is impossible to achieve good aims by bad means. It is inconceivable that anyone should attempt to achieve lasting peace in the Far East using the techniques of a murderer. "22 In a series of articles published a few weeks later in the secular Yorozu, Uchimura dealt with various problems associated with the proposed hostilities. He pointed out that true bravery requires selfcontrol, that the true source of danger lies within. To force children to memorize ethics of loyalty and to ratify enlargement of the armed forces threaten the nation more than enemy states. "The Japanese had their military strike at China and have during the past ten years been greatly put upon by them. " If they now unleash the army on the Russians, "just how much more will our military leaders demand from us? At that time our few remaining freedoms and constitution will disappear in smoke. Japan will become like a huge military camp. Its people will come to eat gunpowder instead of rice and reap sabres rather than peace. "23 After pointing out the essential wisdom of countries like Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Norway, and the United States which do not impose their will upon others, he recommends peace societies for Japan and then finishes with his

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suggestion of what he would do if he were foreign minister. He says that he would, in the unlikely event he received such an appointment, order the cessation of military preparations, point out the unrighteousness of Russian actions, and suggest that the Russians withdraw their troops in the expectation that they would ignore his advice. When they did not follow it, he would advise them that Japan had thrown away its weapons. The Russians, at first incredulous, would soon discover through their intelligence network the truth of his words and return with a simple request that they be permitted to use Port Arthur for the development of Siberia. They would end, " 'Japan and Russia share many objectives and advantages. We should not fight, for we have the heavenly duty to lead together in the enlightenment of Asia's millions. Please pardon our recent discourtesies.' As a result, " Uchimura concludes, "the waters of the Sungari and the Yalu would flow quietly into the seas with out impediment. The Manchurian plains would raise up golden waves of grain; Mt. Fuji and the Urals would shake hands near Lake Baikal, and the heights of the Himalayas could view the banner of peace waving near at hand" (30 September, 1904; 14:308-9; /, 21:40). Eight days after this proposal appeared, the deadline for Russian troop removal passed with no sign of compliance. When the publisher of Yorozu then changed his paper's policy and supported war, Uchimura and Kotoku resigned. The Japanese forces started hostilities four months later. By that time, Uchimura had begun in Seisho no kenkyu the probing of the basic issues involved in war which characterizes his mature works. Uchimura's resignation from the Yorozu Choho marks the end of his work through secular channels to achieve what he increasingly recognized to be religious goals. As he left mass journalism, he tacitly admitted the impossibility of effective popular pressure against a government intent on war, at least in his own generation and in Japan. A person with the ideals and purposes of a Christian, it had become clear, could not allow himself to be used by officials bent on war. This recognition caused particular pain to Uchimura, whose education in the Confucian tradition had put the government above criticism, but as a Christian he had a loyalty above his nation and every nation, and he felt it the patriot's highest duty to urge his nation's rulers to follow the words of God as set forth in the Bible.

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THE CHRISTIAN AND WAR

After Uchimura resigned from the Yorozu just before the war with Russia started, few of his references dealt specifically with Japan. Almost all instead treated the problems war poses for all mankind. They concluded that the Christian faith required its adherents to be pacifists. Since Uchimura viewed himself as a teacher of practical ethics and not a philosopher, he never worked out a systematic theory of pacifism. His writing responded to the twin tyrannies of Sunday lecture preparations and monthly magazine deadlines, and so prevented the development of any extended and systematic statement about philosophical questions. Yet it is necessary to attempt such a statement since numerous individuals attest to the importance of Uchimura's ideas about pacifism in their own lives. To them, it seems clear, he appears to have had a systematic view about war. One must attempt to discover it in order to understand his influence. In the following pages I have constructed a theory about his pacifism based upon hundreds of references scattered throughout his works over a third of a century. These articles show that through his mature career Uchimura dealt with three areas of concern: the causes and results of war, the Bible's relevance to the problem of war and prophecy of how it will finally end, and the actions with regard to war appropriate for the committed pacifist. The analysis begins with a strong condemnation of war which, like the overture of an opera, introduces the major motifs that will follow. War is "diabolical, "24 "an insatiable beast which increasingly craves human blood as it drinks it. The nations maintain this beast and are constantly leeched by it. "25 Modern war has replaced the love of money as the mother of all evils.26 It is murder, and all those "who join in war, who encourage others to join, who bless battle flags, or who pray for victory" share in this murder. 27 "All men are brothers, and all men are of one flesh. As a result, killing another ends in killing oneself. "28 War thus becomes a form of suicide as well as murder. It is the "destruction of humanity, the negation of Christianity. "29 Though it seems a shortcut to right action, it is actually a rough and roundabout road.30

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The Causes and Results of War This worst of evils arises from the basic nature of man and his society. He wants glory and excitement, and war promises it. Kant thonght that if the average man could influence national decisions, he would not opt for war, but Kant did not understand man's nature. The common man who must do the fighting applauds war as willingly as the noble who frequently initiates it but does not participate. Each man wants to be first among his colleagues, and he forms himself into groups with those closest to him to protect their common advantages against the less privileged. Men in groups also discriminate against individuals, like Jesus, who refuse to ally themselves with factions in society. As societies grow, they indoctrinate their young into the group's prejudices. Schools perpetuate these attitudes. Individuals trained in such societies gladly fight wars while they beget children to continue the tradition. This cycle of wars becomes more important in bringing on any given war than its immediate causes. Man finds himself trapped in this cycle, which arises from his own basic nature. Enmeshed in a society which makes war inevitable, man cannot recognize its costs, although the evidence of its ill effects lies everywhere about him, as this aphorism suggests: National Prestige and Poverty I went to a naval base to preach and there observed the final stages of construction on a large ship. Looking up at it, I said, "Japan is prosperous, isn't it?" I went out into the country to preach and there beheld the miserable dwellings of the Japanese people. As I looked at them, I said, "Japan is poor, isn't it?" These people who live in these homes built this ship. As one realizes this contradiction, he can learn that heightened national prestige does not necessarily reflect the happiness of a nation's people.31 But the cost of war in physical amenities is nothing compared to the harm it inflicts on individual integrity. Military training dehumanizes men, and a strong military thus threatens civil govern-

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ments and individual freedoms. Its leaders lose respect for human life as they dispatch the prime of their youth to kill each other. Look at what the war with Russia did to the Japanese: Those who had previously championed the value of human life came through the war to consider people worth but little more than cattle and horses. They gloated at the news that the enemy had 200, 000 dead and wounded. They did not even shed a single tear at the intelligence that we ourselves had fifty thousand losses. Fifty thousand of our men! Fifty thousand families lost their husbands or fathers or sons. Cries of lamentation went up from fifty thousand homes at once. No one grieves over this [state of affairs]. Glasses are raised in toasts of congratulation all over the country, and prayers of thanks go up from every church. There is no respect for human life, no love for our countrymen. Mountains of corpses, rivers of blood —and yet none among us questioned it....The people forget all the suffering of their fellows...and hate their enemies. Nothing shakes society at its foundations to the same extent. It brutalizes men.32

Yes, critics may respond, but is not this cost in material and spiritual values a necessary part of evolution? Does not human society need an occasional bloodbath to sort out who among men should remain and flourish? Is society not bound by the same rules which govern the development of biological species? To these questions the pacifist responds that it is hard to see how any war, no matter how idealistic, has achieved any good. The United States's war of independence did not result in sympathy for the aspirations of others or any real freedom at home. Far from improving man's lot, war rather calls into question whether the edifice of Western civilization is worth the price it exacts.33 Numerous Western military men have ended their careers wondering whether war served any useful purpose. Their numbers include some of the world's greatest generals like Alexander the Great, Caesar, Cromwell, and Napoleon.34 Both national and human history attest that it is the weak and meek rather than the strong who finally win. War wastes the productive energies of its strongest citizens. "All persons of any

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ability or stature are drawn into military activities which devour existing resources rather than produce new ones. ...The flower among a nation's citizens becomes military men, and its cast-offs are left to become teachers, writers, artists, and businessmen." Under such conditions it is not strange that "social ethics daily decay...for society's educators and men of religion are almost entirely the dregs among its people. The work which should be done by its most intelligent and virtuous members is entrusted to the smallest and least competent. "35 In Uchimura's analysis, therefore, war arises from man's basic desire to excel and to protect his own society from attack. It serves no useful purpose and delays human progress. Man can find the key to war only through the teachings of Christianity. He will discover that the Bible clearly opposes war, but that the members of the Christian churches frequently condone it. Since the Christians themselves so flaunt God's word, wars will finally end only when God wills them to end. This truth and man's reaction to it is set forth in the Bible. The Bible and War Both the Old and New Testament oppose war. Above all, they teach of a God whose oneness makes him peaceful. Though He on occasion utilizes man's evil for His own ends, man should never fight with the conviction that he will thereby further God's aim. "Evil is always evil"; man cannot hope to further God's will by any wars that he initiates. 36 All strife between individuals or nations arises out of man's disobedience to God. As a result, in whatever war, man fights for his own interests. God can make of man's wilful struggle something which produces good, but man can never work God's will by setting about to fight others in God's name. The biblical biography of Jesus presents man with the model for his own life. Jesus brought both new peace to the individual and a new responsibility to work for peace in this world. Through Jesus, the individual comes to know non-resistance, the Bible's answer to violence. Man's non-resistance provokes persecution from others who want him to side with them, but the new strength afforded man by this philosophy more than compensates him for withstanding his detractors. The example of Jesus' life makes each of us a strong individual.

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Though Jesus' teachings provide the strength to stand up against those who favour war, the society made up of those who belong to organized Christianity suffers from the same problems as secular society. Nations called "Christian" participate in war as do the heathens. Their military heroes are Christian. Organized Christianity in Japan suffers from ills common to its counterparts in Western Christian nations. Its leaders become false prophets. They approve war while they advocate lesser reforms such as the abolition of liquor and tobacco, the protection of animals, and orphanages for those who have lost their families in war. "Those who advocate the need for increased arms at the same time they proclaim themselves servants of Christ; those who brag of their many friends and plan to spread the Gospel through smooth social graces; those who argue that in this world we must use its ways to build God's kingdom on earth": all of these men are false prophets. The false prophet does not always intend to deceive. His own lack of humility leads him to delude others. He considers himself better than he is, and so he cannot but err in the transmission of God's message. "37 Yet though there are many false prophets, there are no true prophets who like those in the Old Testament cry out for peaceful action as God's imperative for man. The socialists who reject both war and Christianity come closer to the Christian ideal than those who call themselves Christian. 38 In this circumstance, man can only await Christ's return to bring the end of war. Both the words of the Bible and contemporary man's experience lead him to believe that peace will come with Christ's return to earth. Man himself cannot achieve peace, though he has tried since the dawn of recorded history. "Twenty-five hundred years ago in the Far East Lao-tsu was already preaching pacifism, and in the West Pythagoras was ridiculing war five hundred years before Christ. "39 The first peace conference led to the construction of the Tower of Babel and ended, like twentieth-century peace conferences, in confusion compounded. The Versailles Conference produced nothing better than the first conference in Babylon, and the Palace of Peace at The Hague has become the twentieth-century Tower of Babel. 40 Woodrow Wilson represents the irony of this situation more than any other individual. He learned from the Bible stories his mother told him that man cannot control his own destiny, but as the leader

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of the victorious powers he proposed that World War I had as its purpose "to bring about eternal peace. "41 The League of Nations, which grew out of his efforts, plans to preserve peace by the diffusion of democracy throughout the world. It is doomed to fail, for "no illusion exceeds that of the attempt to remake the earth and to bring peace to man by the spread of democracy. "42 "Just as man's contrivance cannot cause the flowers to bloom on the hillocks unless spring comes, he cannot expect peace on earth...unless Christ appears again. "43 The world about us thus confirms biblical prophecy and •vindicates the faith of great historical figures. In Uchimura's interpretation, therefore, the Bible shows how man fights for his own interests and presents Jesus as the model pacifist. It warns us against false prophets whom men of any generation see all about them, and it proclaims that war will end only with Christ's return. The sight of his fellow man's failure to achieve peace and the assurance of God's final solution may make the pacifist wonder whether any good can come from the attempt of an individual to prevent war. Yet there are actions that the committed pacifist can take which will improve the chances of peace in his lifetime. A construct of Uchimura's analysis of war ends with a discussion of the individual: how he prepares himself to become a pacifist along with what he subsequently can, and cannot, achieve. The Individual and War The Christian will have the inner peace to give him the strength he requires. The man who has himself experienced this peace finds that his attitudes towards himself and others have changed. He becomes an activist for peace. One of the most clearly pacifist biblical passages is Matthew 5:9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. " The individual who tries to follow this injunction soon finds that it demands great courage of him. He must remain impartial and refuse to align himself with any earthly clique. He must not fear others, though his courage calls down upon him the hatred of his fellows. And he must not seek slothful ease in the name of peace. Courage for these tasks comes to him from his inner composure.44 He also finds that his attitudes towards others have changed. Man's life has a special meaning. Class distinctions melt away "because of the single fact that the son of God did not come down to earth as a monarch but as a poor labourer. " And labour

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becomes more satisfying since the gospel of peace "praises agriculture, celebrates craftsmanship, and purifies commerce. "45 The man who knows this satisfaction can maintain his ideals in wartime and work for the cause of peace later. The outbreak of war faces the pacifist with his most difficult problems. Almost any activity in society will lead him to compromise his principles, and at this time especially he must remain true to them. Peace is the specialty of Christian thought. "This is the reason that it evokes the respect of the world. But if its teachers are led into the ways of worldly patriotism to the point where they compromise basic dogma, they become salt which has lost its savour and is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot" (Matthew 5:13). It is because the followers of Christ stick by their pacifism in times of war that Christianity is in times of peace "an influence to spread light over the world. "46 Not the pacifist, but the faithless man becomes a burden on the state. Once hostilities have started, the pacifist should act toward his fellow men with at least as much love as in peacetime. Poor families whose men are at the front are no more responsible for their condition than those who have been hit by a tidal wave. Common humanity should direct us to alleviate suffering in whatever form. In donating a thousand sets of his works for the relief of war sufferers Tolstoy showed other Christians the way in this regard. 47 If the Christian is justified in this attempt to alleviate the sufferings caused by war, why criticize the members of the Christian church who establish homes for war orphans? The answer is that no Christian with a clear conscience can salve the sufferings caused by war unless he himself disapproves of it. Members of churches which support war act inconsistently when they succor its victims. They thereby lose the moral ascendancy which results from Christian faith, just as those pacifists who volunteer for armed service out of misguided patriotism compromise their Christian witness. Only the pacifist can act with Christian warmth towards his suffering neighbours without fear of such contradiction. When the pacifist in wartime tries to assuage the sufferings of war, he should realize that by witness to his own convictions he can also work in the best interests of those who support the war. His refusal to fight at first seems a threat to their security, for they wonder what would happen if each of their fellows took the

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same stand. They turn in their fear against the pacifists. "Through this anger they first come to know their own sin, and through knowledge of it they are finally led to repent. Wrath is the first step to salvation for an evil man. He cannot be saved unless he is angered. This anger is a good sign that his conscience has been pricked and that he is flying up in surprise. "48 The witness of the pacifist to his principles becomes in this way the means to the salvation of his mistaken fellows. The pacifist in wartime also tries to extend to his nation's enemies the same sort of love that he shows his countrymen. He should include them in his daily prayers. 49 He should also respect them as individual human beings. If during hostilities he considers his adversaries as less than human, what will happen when the war ends, and citizens of both nations sit down together at a peace table? Can humans negotiate with less than humans?50 We should feel good will towards our enemies51 and do everything in our power to avoid future wars. One should tender no less love towards other individuals because one's nation and their nation are fighting each other, for the relation of man to man transcends national boundaries. Yet even such relatively innocuous acts may provoke the wrath of one's countrymen during wartime. The pacifist should then meet those who persecute him or try to use him for their own designs with simple non-resistance. Christian pacifists will of course encounter opposition from their fellow men, but the most they should do in response is to change the locale of their operations, acting in the faith that God will make His will known. They will as a consequence "avoid the foolishness of opposition to our enemy and consequent death with him. "52 But will not non-resistance allow unopposed evil to overrun the earth? Not at all. Evil likes opposition the way that fire likes oil. Means to confront evil are highly perfected, but they only result in its increase. Better weapons and improved law enforcement are no guarantee against it. 5 3 "If one opposes evil men, they unite against him; if one does not oppose them, they eat into each other. Nonresistance is the best way to overcome them. "54 Yet the truth of non-resistance is not recognized, and most men fear the power of evil. This concern arises from one of three states of mind. It may come in the first places because we do not recognize

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the existence of God. Those who believe in God realize that He can control evil; the faithful man relaxes and lets God handle it. God "can at His pleasure lower death upon it since all things follow His command. He can torment it with disease, send down famine, or what is far better, raise up a contrite heart within it. "55 God, alone permitted vengeance, works justice on behalf of man when necessary. All man needs to do is express his thanksgiving and joy to God and entrust God with the control of evil. The fear of evil may arise from another source: man's ignorance of its self-destructive nature. Evil destroys itself in numerous ways, but the most common is the mutual destruction of evil men. They conspire against their righteous neighbours. When they see that the righteous ones do not resist them, the evil ones finally fall to quarreling among themselves, "drinking each other's poisons and dying by each other's swords. "56 Finally, man may fear evil because he does not realize that good is self-restoring, like a toy doll that is weighted to right itself automatically when pushed over. A knowledge of the natures of God and evil can thus dispel man's concern that evil may overrun the earth. This principle of non-resistance also holds for the young man faced with military service. Much as he hates the military, he accepts the draft call in the conviction that acquiescence is the quickest way to achieve his goals. If he does not accept, he will be called a coward, and the cause of pacifism will thus be discredited. Someone else will be drafted in his place, so he will through his adherence to mistaken principle cause the sacrifice of another young man. In long passages marked with the Japanese version of italics, Uchimura then states his conclusion. "// there is any such thing as 'the beauty of war,' it is not the death of a ruffian who likes war and knows not the value of life but the death of a pacifist who appreciates the nobility of life and the joy of peace. "57 "It sounds like a contradiction to say that pacifists make the best soldiers, but it is...a fact....As pacifism finally becomes the accepted philosophy, those who deserve the glory will not be those who like us proclaim our pacifism with our pens but those pacifists who shed their life's blood on the battlefield and become the sacrifices to war. "58 Thus, the pacifist's duty is to accept military service in the assumption that he will die and that his life will become a sacrifice to the cause

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of peace. The longest war finally ends, and with the end of the war the pacifist can once again work to prevent further wars. A treaty is really only an armistice, and both parties prepare at once for a new war. To preserve the peace, the pacifist should himself join peace societies and work with others to sponsor representatives to international peace conferences. He should support international law and concern himself with economic development in the recognition that those who have been most successful are the Chinese, Jews, and Danes. They work intensively with what they have and do not steal from others. More important for the pacifist than any of these activies is education. The training that pacifist teachers acquire should include the following concepts: that no work for peace, however good otherwise, can succeed unless it is just;59 and that strong ethical convictions must underlie work for economic betterment. 60 They should also know how to increase production and protect the environment.61 Other studies include foreign languages and world history. 62 These will equip people to work in any land. Individuals so trained will view problems from a world perspective and consider the whole world their home. Equipped to serve in any country, they will as a result serve their own country well. 63 Training of this sort will lead men to pacifism and to respect for pacifists. They will realize that "those who try to annihilate ignorance and sin9 contribute as much to society as any other group64 and that the greatest contributions to man's life have been made by those engaged in peaceful rather than warlike pursuits. They will also realize that they can best express their love for their fellows through pacifism. 65 The young Japanese trained in this manner will be able to serve the interests of peace anywhere in the world. They will not hesitate to look outside Japan for employment, for they will realize that "no place in the world turns away good men." If they leave Japan, they will not be homesick, for they will know that the people who inhabit other nations "are not of a different world. They are all brothers of the same family and blood, made in the image of the same heavenly father. " Japanese who have prepared themselves to be men of the world can make the world their own. 66

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It sounds like a paradox, but if Japan aims to develop Japanese citizens it will decay, whereas if it aims to develop men of the world it will grow without limit. It is more to Japan's advantage to develop gentlemen of the world than to train their people to be narrowly Japanese. "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. " These words of Christ also can be applied to national states. Japan will wither away if it tries to Japanize the world, but if it tries to make itself more cosmopolitan, it will in the end become a great world power. Countries rise and fall because of what their people think. We should study the laws of such development and decline. 67 In this way Uchimura ends his prescription for the individual who wants to serve as a peaceful member of society by linking together the fortunes of the individual and the state. Japan can fulfill its destiny and prevent its decline only if it develops persons of broad faith and capability. The final section of his analysis of peace deals with the development of men who will implement the ideals of Christianity and help their nation fulfill the role assigned to it in the Chijinron. Thus, in Uchimura's analysis, the end of the discussion of war finds the reader back where he started. The source of the problem is the individual, and the only answer is individual training and reform based upon the Bible. God helps man reform himself, but man's proclivity to seek security in defensive social groups cuts him off from God. Man should not avoid all groups. To act as an effective pacifist he must band together with others of the same conviction who have like him achieved inner peace. Their organizations within society will encourage peace rather than war, but other groups have the opposite effect. Lest the foregoing construct of Uchimura's mature attitudes toward war make it appear that the pressures of society had no effect on him, it would be good to end with reference to two occurrences that took place during the Russo-Japanese War. When, without warning, Japan opened the war with a decisive naval victory, Uchimura reacted like everyone else. He later sheepishly described his reaction in English. "My old patriotism took mastery over me today...and I gave three loud 'Teikoku Manzai' [banzai, ed. ]

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to be heard through out [>V] all my neighborhood. An inconsistent man, I am!"68 No amount of opposition to his government's action could overcome this expression of joy that his nation was trouncing one of the world's greatest powers. During the war, he also heard that one of his disciples, a young school teacher from the provinces north of Tokyo, planned to refuse payment of taxes and induction into the army as his personal protest against the war. As soon as he heard of the plan, Uchimura travelled all night on a crowded train to confer with the young man, urging him not to take such drastic action because of the problems it would pose for his family. He might not begrudge the consequent loss of his own life, but his family would have to live with the antagonism their neighbours felt for his intransigence. This incident seems to be the beginning of Uchimura's attitude that the pacifist should not shirk his duty to serve in the military. It appears that he did not consider the possibility that the draftee might by his acceptance of military service be put in the position where he caused the death of someone else. Rather, he seems to have accepted the samurai assumption that to enter combat is to accept one's own death. The Japanese in their response to the draft in World War II still held this assumption, as shown by the young men who entered the service convinced that they would not return. The Western tradition, perhaps because of more basic optimism, acknowledges the possibility of death but at least also assumes the possibility of life through to the end of the war. In this eventuality, the chance that the draftee may cause the death of another becomes a much more important problem than it is for one who enters the army resigned to his own death. None of Uchimura's writings takes into account this latter possibility. He accepted his own culture's insistence that the soldier be prepared for his own death and did not ask whether he might threaten the lives of others. The responsibility for the taking of human life rested with the men who allowed their governments to start wars, not with the hapless draftees. JAPAN IN THE WORLD

As the preceding construct of Uchimura's mature pacifism indicates,

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the question of war and man's relation to it runs through his later work. Though in his "Justification of the Corean War" he enthusiastically approved government policy, for the succeeding thirty years he remained highly critical of the government. He softened the tone of his remarks during the last years of his life in the optimistic glow generated by his own advanced years and the increasing maturity of Japan's democratic institutions during Taisho. His continuing mistrust of politicians and political institutions no longer led him to rail against Japanese politicians. The advanced and "Christian" nations also had their scandals, and the imperfections of man's political instituions in every country merely accentuated the need for Christ's return. In this line of thought Uchimura had healed the division he had introduced into his soul by adopting Christianity half a century earlier. The Christian world and Japan no longer stood in opposition to one another, for the foreigner's own follies had revealed his essential smallness and Japan's increased maturity made her appear by comparison better. Uchimura's disciples shared his conviction that Japan had become a modern nation, including its understanding of the Christian tradition. Uchimura's long search for an individual unity that tied together what had earlier appeared irreconcilable elements reflects his conviction that the life of the committed Christian is the exegesis of Christian dogma. In this assumption we see one of the areas of disagreement between Uchimura and the Christianity of the churches. In the Church, the adolescent is asked to learn the major elements of his faith through a catechism. Once he has mastered them, he is admitted to the adult membership of the Church. Uchimura provided no equivalent for his disciples, except increasing participation, as they matured, in adult activities. Man became a Christian when he felt convinced that he was one. He then lived through and verified for himself the articles of his faith. He attracted others to his faith, if at all, by a simple recital of his experience, and he did not engage in arguments over details of dogma. The scars of his own search for faith marked the mature believer and gave to his statements the tones of prophecy. In keeping with this conviction, Uchimura acquainted his readers with the steps that led to major changes in his thought. During the Russo-Japanese War and immediately thereafter, for instance, he describes the development of his new position.69 Readers could if they desired follow his experience

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in the search for their own answers. Since Christianity involved in essence the attempt by the committed believer to live a Christian life, the acts of the Christian became important, not only as a reflection but also as a statement of that belief. The believer had to make it clear to everyone that his ultimate loyalty went to God and not to the secular state. This imperative made it impossible for an individual to co-operate with an earthly institution, including the national state, if he felt such co-operation threatened his basic loyalty to God. If it did, his desire to retain the purity of his faith and witness required that he dissociate himself from society and see himself, like a member of the loyal remnant in Israel, destined to maintain his ideals as a beacon to members of future generations. People with such an understanding of Christianity would not lead a movement to confront the state over the question of war, but at the same time they would not co-operate with it in time of war. Mukyokai pacifists like Fujii Takeshi and Yanaihara Tadao could co-operate whole-heartedly with their officials only during the twenties when the sensation of progress towards a better future made the contemporary government's flaws appear comparatively benign. Although detailed reference to Uchimura's attitude towards war presents the passage Keene quoted in a different light, it also demonstrates how important Uchimura considered the attitude of foreigners towards his nation. He kept this attitude throughout his life. In the second issue of The Japan Christian Intelligencer, a magazine he edited in English with Westerners in mind, he returned in 1926 to a prediction of great things for Japan reminiscent of the "Justification of the Corean War." "Now is the time for Japan to awake from sleep. This Western civilization with its big budget for fighting machinery is to be completely disowned. She is to start a new civilization, a civilization which is civilization indeed, —a warless civilization, Denmark on a bigger scale, an army and navy on police-standing, an empire founded on the good will \_sic~] of the world, a secure, industrious, peaceful nation, the leader of 'Christian' Europe and America, in the divine policy announced by God's prophet, twenty-six centuries ago. "70 Whereas more than thirty years earlier he had predicted that Japan would fight a righteous war, now he prophesied that Japan will take its place in world history as the leading pacifist state, even to the extent that with his

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phrase "army and navy on police-standing" he seems to anticipate the postwar military establishment. In the following issue of The Intelligencer, he returned in muted tones to the relation of Japan to the world in an English-language poem! The world's Japan; not Japan's world. Japan for the world; not the world for Japan. Japan's greatness lies in its full recognition of the duty of subordination of its interest to that of the world. The world made good; Japan will become good. The world made bad; Japan will become bad. Japan's welfare is most intimately connected with the welfare of the world. In this age of the growing solidarity of the world, the idea of making one country great at the expense of all other countries is the height of absurdity. A nation dedicated to the service of the world, —was there ever such a nation? Only such a nation can rightfully call itself a Christian nation; all other nations are heathens, and worse than heathens....71 Less than four years later, death spared Uchimura the crisis of conscience the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 would have induced in him. His words lived on and inspired his followers who did have to endure the war. They also provided a vision for those who, under the Constitution of 1947, have shaped a Japan so much more like that which Uchimura envisaged.

5 Kotoku Shusui His Socialism and Pacifism MASAMICHI ASUKAI A POLITICALLY ORIENTED YOUTH

Kotoku Shusui is known as an extreme anarchist. He was arrested as the chief among those who conspired to assassinate the Meiji Emperor in 1910, sentenced in a secret trial, and executed in 1911. Until the end of World War II, not only was the study of Kotoku forbidden, but even the mention of his name was almost a taboo. Even in the 1920's when a new socialist movement in Japan grew up, interested young left-wingers could hardly get any information about him. One of them, Nakano Shigeharu (1902- ), who later became a well-known poet, referred in 1927 to the 1910 conspiracy as "an event about which we cannot know anything at present but will learn more of some day. 'n Since 1945, some materials about the 1910 conspiracy have become accessible to scholars, but not until 1963 were all the records of the trial published. They show that this "assassination plot" resulted for the most part from an official conspiracy, as the young left-wingers had suspected. It has been proved that Kotoku was not the chief conspirator and that he himself doubted the value of an assassination. It has also been proved that four others among the twelve executed actually prepared dynamite and developed a plan for assassination inspired by Kotoku's ideas. Kotoku himself also once vaguely supported this plot. The plotters had the acts of the Russian Populists as their precedent. Since they had succeeded in assassinating Alexander II in 1881, the Russian Populists regarded terrorism as

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an effective method to eradicate despotism,2 and at the time of the first Russian revolution in 1905, they frequently resorted to violence. In his last years, Kotoku wanted to use tactics similar to those of the Social Revolutionary party of Russia in his attack against the despotic government of Japan. In the light of the evidence that he advocated violence, can we conclude that Kotoku spoke without conviction when, on the contrary, he advocated thorough-going pacifism in 1903? At that time, just before the Russo-Japanese War, his pacifist convictions led him to resign from the editorial board of the largest newspaper in Japan. He then started the Heiminsha, the first organization to advocate the propagation of peace throughout Japan. In 1903 Kotoku preached peace; in 1911 he died as an anarchist. Only eight years separate the two. Was his pacifism so superficial? No. The sudden change of his attitude reflected only the specific difficulties and complexities which pacifism involved for a nonChristian. When Kotoku Shusui advocated pacifism, he was not yet a conscious revolutionary. However, by his opposition to the RussoJapanese War, he questioned the whole course of modern Japanese development. Through his opposition to the war, he had committed himself to radical revolution before he realized it. The contents of Kotoku's "pacifist" manifesto of 1903 may appear anachronistic to Western readers. He wrote it in his own English; "In order to favour men with fraternity, we adhere to peace policy and we endeavour to actualize disarmament to stop bellicose attempts without race distinction, and political divisons. It is our ideal that perfect liberty, equality, and fraternity for the greater mass of man should be secured; we shall attempt, in realizing this ideal, to rouse the public opinion. "3 One quickly notices that the keynote of this passage is taken from the slogan of the French Revolution, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." Kotoku uses the French Revolution as a model. It may seem strange that a twentieth-century Japanese should take the French Revolution as a model of "peace," but Kotoku was acting true to form. During the process of modernization, almost every Japanese intellectual had one of the Western countries as his model. The government leaders chose Prussia; popular modernizers chose Britain; many of the reformers chose the United States; and radical liberals chose France. From his childhood, Kotoku favoured France above other countries.

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Believers in the Popular Rights Movement, which radically challenged the government in the 1870's and 1880's, surrounded Kotoku as a child, though he was too young to help lead it. He was born in 1871 in Tosa, which then harboured many opponents of the new government. His father ran a pharmacy and had some land which he rented out to tenants. One source says that Kotoku began to participate in the Popular Rights Movement when he was fourteen years old. 4 At first he only helped to organize meetings and took part in demonstrations. In 1887, he went to Tokyo and became a student assistant in the home of an influential member of the Jiyuto, a name usually translated as "the Liberal party." By this move, he almost started on a career as a professional politican. Young wouldbe politicians like him were called soshi. The Liberal party was originally created to cater to smaller landlords who had gone bankrupt since the opening of the country and who had been forced to sell their lands. To give them new lands to cultivate and to bestow political rights on them were the original aims of the party. It is not surprising that the party then gave birth to a great many of these semi-professional soshi. They wanted to regain land for their families and also to find places for themselves as members of the Liberal party. Their ultimate ambition was to become members of the local assemblies or of the national legislative assembly which would open in due course. People did not believe that the Meiji government could remain in power. As a consequence, when in 1881 a split occurred in the government and Okuma Shigenobu and others were ousted from it, young people erroneously concluded that the government had been seriously weakened. The fact was that, by successfully ousting people oriented towards the British model, the government was now in a position to adopt the more authoritarian constitution of Prussia as a model. They could now adjust the government structure to consolidate their power. In spite of this reassertion of authority, young people continued to harbour the illusion that the position of the government was shaky. It was this illusion that caused a massive participation of young people in politics during the decade, 188190. Kotoku was one such youth. He read Rousseau's Le Contrat social in a Japanese translation and approached the radical wing of the Liberal party, which was formed by people who admired French liberal and revolutionary thought. Towards the end of 1887, when

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Kotoku was seventeen years old, a Peace Preservation Ordinance was suddenly promulgated. This legislation enabled the government to banish from Tokyo anyone whom it deemed undesirable for an indefinite period of time without trial. Kotoku was among the 570 people who were first banished. Kotoku moved to Osaka, which had become the centre of the protest movement against this unscrupulous legislation. There he studied under Nakae Chomin, the translator of Le Contrat social. Chomin had studied radical criticism during his years in France and was known as the "Rousseau of the Orient." He was an idealist incarnate. Since there were still only a few people who had studied abroad, there were many opportunities for him in government. He was at one time principal of the first Japanese school for the study of foreign languages. At another time he was head translator of foreign law books in the Ministry of Justice. In each case he resigned as soon as his views conflicted with governmental policy. His translation of Le Contrat social was called the "Bible" of the radicals within the Liberal party. He also wrote a statement to support the movement against unequal treaties in 1887, although he hid his identity under a pen-name. It was to this man's house that Kotoku came as a boarder. The details of Kotoku's life there are available from his diary. The following episode reveals Kotoku's state of mind: one day in 1889, he visited the house of a right-wing member of the Liberal party who was beginning to compromise with the government. Another guest came. He was a man of influence trying to secure the cooperation of the Osaka business world in the coming election of Diet members. When he heard that Kotoku was living in Nakae's house, he jeered: "Oh, you are living in Nakae's house? Then you must be another one of the Osaka unemployed political hopefuls who are only too eager to rush to the scene when somebody says that he needs, say, sixty soshi. Ha, ha, ha....In my opinion, you had better be a merchant. This age of Meiji is dominated by money. Books won't help you now....Do you know arithmetic?...If you only know accounting, you can do anything. "5 In his diary Kotoku, disgusted, addressed this assailant as "You despicable worm!" He was too faithful to Nakae's teaching that one should value liberty and the rights of people more than money to heed such words. After the promulgation of the Japanese Imperial

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Constitution in 1889 had made it clear that the government would accept no limitation on its authority, Nakae started a movement to demand reconsideration of the Constitution. Kotoku's diary was filled with praise for Nakae. Kotoku was neither aware that since his banishment under the Peace Preservation Ordinance the scope of Nakae's activites was limited to opposition as a journalist, nor that he himself had no backing. Kotoku did not yet face isolation like that of Kitamura Tokoku. He did face an uncompromising Meiji government, but he realized this fact too late. 6 Kotoku's stay in Nakae's home made it inevitable that he was to become an intellectual "outlaw" in Meiji Japan. Kotoku did not receive formal schooling in his childhood. He did not possess any fortune. Besides, his involvement in Tokyo and Osaka politics deprived him of the flimsy chance he might otherwise have had to receive formal schooling in the Western tradition. He had received a solid traditional training in Confucian classics, first in Tosa, his native province, and then in Osaka under Nakae Chomin, who was also an excellent Confucian scholar and whose translations of Rousseau into Chinese circulated in China. In modern Japan, if a young man without a fortune wanted to become a part of the ruling class and succeed it was essential to receive an education, especially on the higher level, at a government school. The Meiji government paid, it appears, almost excessive attention to public education in order to produce future leaders for Japan's modernization. The financial and business world also generously helped private institutions for higher education, and encouraged creation of private universities like Keio, Doshisha, and Waseda. Almost all of these private universities were successes. This success demonstrates how much the Japanese expected modernization to benefit from well-trained intellectuals. If Kotoku had accepted the Constitution, he would have been able to lead a quiet life as a local leader in the Liberal party despite his lack of formal education. He would not accept this role, for he was a faithful disciple of "the lunatic" Nakae Chomin. His love of justice was too strong and his talent too exceptional for him to choose mediocrity. The Liberal party had earlier championed farmers' rights in its opposition to government, but when, from 1885 into the 1890's, rural villages which had remained as they were in the Edo Period split into opposing groups of landlords and peasants, the Liberal party in fact became the voice of the landlords. Kotoku,

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son of a ruined landlord, had no reason to claim a position in this new Liberal party. People who were roughly ten years older than he had already established themselves as leaders of opinion through their activities in the People's Rights Movement. Kotoku had probably aspired to become one of them, but he had spent his youth in an excessively idealistic atmosphere, and so could not find a place in the reorganized Liberal party. The only way for such a young man to make a living was through journalism. Until 1895 Kotoku studied English in a special school which did not satisfy the requirements of the Ministry of Education and which accordingly could not give him any official qualification. In the meantime he had chosen the job of newspaper reporter as the only way to earn his living and use his literary talent. He published many satirical essays and interviews in Japanese. When his English became good enough, he translated foreign cables for a major newspaper. That Kotoku in his early twenties supported the First Sino-Japanese War cannot be attributed solely to his immaturity. Although Nakae Chomin had no political future, young Kotoku retained his ambition to become a Diet member and still planned to run for election on the Liberal party slate. The Liberal party, like other opposition parties, espoused diplomatic policies even more belligerent than those of the government, although, in domestic policies, it opposed the government's forced development of a capitalist economy and its neglect of rural villages. Kotoku's support of the war, therefore, came naturally to the aspiring young politician. Since the Sino-Japanese War marked a turning point in Kotoku's thought, a few words of explanation at this point are necessary. Ever since 1873 when it maintained that Japan should occupy Korea, the Liberal party had consistently attacked the government for its ineffective diplomacy, while, at the same time, it attacked the government's hasty introduction of capitalism into Japan. These two attitudes contradicted each other. In Meiji Japan, the most urgent objective for the government was to modernize the Japanese economy and to build up military strength (fukoku kyohei). In order to make up for its lack of the natural resources necessary for rapid modernization, the government wanted to take over parts of backward Asia. But why did the Liberal party, which opposed the introduction of capitalistic economy as well as modernization of the army advocate advance into Asia more vehemently than the government? Members

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of the Liberal party thought that, in order to secure revision of the unequal treaties signed in 1858, Japan should assume the leadership of Asia and confront Western powers with the combined strength of all Asia behind her. They did not understand where the funds for this military strength could come from, and they remained conservative and chauvinistic. Kotoku's attitude toward the First Sino-Japanese War did not differ at all from that of the Liberal party. He imagined, however, that Japan's victory would necessarily raise the people's standard of living, and wrote his articles based upon this assumption. Japan actually won the war. But did the life of the people become easier? BETWEEN THE TWO WARS

In the context of world history, Japan's victory in the First SinoJapanese War demonstrated China's failure and Japan's success in modernization. At the same time, it taught the Japanese people the horror of modern warfare. As soon as the First Sino-Japanese War ended with Japan's victory, the Japanese army started preparation for the next war with Russia as the probable enemy. 7 While the army prepared for war, numerous people began to protest its miseries. These protests came from individuals in differing social strata from earlier ones, from urban dwellers instead of rural villagers. Thirty years of industrialization since the Meiji Restoration had increased the urban population and at the same time made the life of the city dweller very unstable. Inflation attendant upon war and the haphazard reorganization of industry made possible by the indemnity extracted from China after the war threatened the everyday life of city dwellers. Unemployment increased greatly. Intellectuals could not remain indifferent to these conditions and described the miseries of the common man through novels of protest. Those who opposed the government consisted first of craftsmen and then guild masters, a unified lower middle class group who saw their standard of living threatened. The newspaper which employed Kotoku gradually came to cater more to urban petit bourgeois readers than to those in rural villages. The government had forced compulsory education on its citizens since the beginning of the Meiji Period. Because of this, the literacy rate among urban petit bourgeois in

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particular had risen dramatically. It is ironic that by this policy the government itself produced readers of anti-government papers. Newspapers guided by indigent intellectuals found a new audience. Writers like Hirotsu Ryuro (1861-1928), who was well along in his career, started to produce novels which catered to this audience. Though not strictly anti-militaristic," his works reflected a dislike of war, returning repeatedly to the question "What has the war done to us?" In 1900, Hirotsu published a medium-length novel entitled Hikokumin [An unpatriotic man], in which a character realizes how meaningless it is to fight for the emperor. Hirotsu's novels were not written as mere propaganda. He was very popular, and when a magazine carried a work by him its circulation increased. His fame reflected the general mood after the First Sino-Japanese War. About the same time, Takano Fusataro (1868-1904) and Katayama Sen (1849-1933), both Christians who had returned from the United States, organized the first Japanese trade union. Also, a Society for the Study of Socialism (Shakaishugi kenkyukai) was established at a Unitarian Church in Tokyo. Both developments reflected the spread of urban attitudes. It was in these circumstances that Kotoku Shusui won recognition as an able journalist. Because the Liberal party which he had supported for a long time disregarded the problems of city dwellers, Kotoku, now a confirmed urbanite, became gradually disillusioned with the party as well as its leaders. In 1898 he became affiliated with a new newspaper — the Yorozu Choho. The owner of this paper, Kuroiwa Ruiko (1862-1920), had taken part in the Popular Rights Movement, but he became disillusioned with the Liberal party after the first Diet and started the newspaper to criticize the government. Its exposes often resulted in the ousting of important political figures from their posts. Kuroiwa, who discerned that anti-government feeling was spreading among city dwellers after the First Sino-Japanese War, decided to shift the emphasis from exposes by the addition of social commentary. To this end, he hired people like Uchimura Kanzo and Kotoku Shusui as editorial writers. 8 Kuroiwa himself did not have any strong convictions, so he left not only the editorial columns but everything else in the production of the paper to the discretion of Kotoku and Uchimura, who along with others formed the editorial board. From 1897 the circulation of the paper increased rapidly.

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Within two years after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, it rose from 48, 000 to 82, 000. At the beginning of 1903 it reached 150, 000. 9 Kotoku at last had found a mass audience. In order to write an editorial for the paper every other day, he studied the life of Tokyo inhabitants. He discovered they were not intoxicated by "victory" in the war with China. On the contrary, they harboured dissatisfaction because of growing inflation and increased unemployment. In November 1898 Kotoku started a series of articles entitled Shakai fuhai no gen9 in to sono kyuji [The causes of social corruption and their remedies] in the paper. These articles demanded government reform and did not mention socialism of any sort, but the following quotation demonstrates Kotoku's belief that mere reform cannot remedy social ills; "Our society which, in spite of increased productivity and wealth, allows poverty and destitution to increase as well, is very unjust and unreasonable. "10 Kotoku proposed as remedies universal education, impartial elections, and greater equality among social classes, along with poor laws and factory laws. When he said that "a radical 'reconstruction' of the present social system is necessary to remedy social corruption and depravity, " he had in mind gishi (igifc men of righteousness), shishi (/fedt men of vision), and jinjin (£A men of virtue) as people who play a central role in such reconstruction. Gishi, shishi, and and jinjin, are keys to understanding Kotoku. They all appear frequently in traditional Japanese Confucian education, although Kotoku added new meanings to them. A gishi is a person who has a will to do anything for a cause. A shishi will willingly sacrifice himself for his country. A jinjin is a person who has jin\ in other words, he possesses not only political ability but also moral superiority and consideration for others. Confucius regarded gishi, shishi, and jinjin as ideal types of social reformers, as we see in The Confucian Analects.u Leaders of the Meiji Restoration, who had received traditional Confucian training, all regarded themselves as shishi and jinjin. Kotoku admitted that the leaders of the Restoration as well as the majority of the leaders of the Popular Rights Movement had functioned as shishi, but he felt that they had not come up to the ideal of jinjin, that is, they lacked virtue. While Kotoku at that time studied Rousseau and Nakae Chomin's Kakumei zen Furansu ni seiki shi [A history of France in the two centuries before the Revolution], he tried to rediscover the meaning of social responsi-

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bility in the original teachings of Confucius. As Donald H. Shively has pointed out, in the Meiji Period the Confucian tradition by no means was inherited only by the conservative elements in society.12 Kotoku was trying to internalize modern French thought by using the Confucian concept of jin, virtue. Katayama Sen, a Christian who was helping at a Unitarian church, sent a letter to Kotoku as soon as he had read this series of articles and invited him to become a member of the Society for the Study of Socialism, whose office was in the church. Kotoku joined the Society at once. In the Japan of 1889, socialism was not considered dangerous. Demands for social justice and socialism in the strict sense of the word were hardly differentiated in people's minds. Although Katayama's and Kotoku's ideas differed, the concept of "socialism" was so vaguely understood that it was psychologically possible for them to regard each other as socialists if they agreed on specific measures of social reform. They knew that the Popular Rights Movement, which had arisen to alleviate rural problems, had no relevance to the new urban problems. Kotoku, as an editorial writer for a newspaper that catered to city dwellers, came to feel that postwar inflation made them its particular victims. In 1900, when the former Liberal party disbanded and its members openly joined a new political party established by Ito Hirobumi, the champion of bureaucratic modernization, Kotoku announced that he had severed every connection with the party. He no longer had any chance to succeed in politics. At the request of his teacher, Nakae, now completely isolated and without a publisher, Kotoku issued a strong protest in the Yorozu Choho. It was called "Jiyuto o matsuru bun" [A requiem for the Liberal party]. In it we read: "Oh, the hot tears and glistening blood wrung from the vitals of numerous men of vision and of virtue; they were the sustenance, the pavilion and the history of you, the Liberal party! Oh, the men of vision and of virtue who shed hot tears and glistening blood for you died secure and smiling, because they foresaw a glorious and expansive future for you, the Liberal party! Who would have thought at the time that the Liberal party would die with them? Who would have thought that in time their hot tears and glistening blood would come to serve as the single embellishment of their enemies, supporters of tyranny?"13 Kotoku no longer appealed to former soshi. Instead, he tried to

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enlist ordinary citizens in his movement. With Sakai Toshihiko (1870-1933), a colleague on the Yorozu Choho, Kotoku started campaigns to revise the election law, to improve working conditions, to legislate a factory law, and to abolish repressive laws directed against political opposition. At the same time, they devoted even greater space to such causes as the abolition of tips, the improvement of social gatherings, the greater consumption of pork, and punctuality, which at first glance look like items advocated in an educational movement for the general improvement of living. There is, however, a difference; while such movements in the early part of Meiji had been in a sense imported, the movement of Kotoku and Sakai rested on their own life experience. The people's way of life, in fact, went through a more radical change in mid-Meiji, especially after the First Sino-Japanese War, than in early Meiji. The changes of early Meiji affected mainly students and government officials, as the novels of Kanagaki Robun and others show, whereas the changes of mid-Meiji affected a wider segment of society, petit bourgeois city dwellers and other working people, as Kawakami Bizan (18601908) and Hirotsu Ryuro depicted vividly in their novels. In these circumstances, Kotoku strongly criticized a new ethics textbook for schools which had been written by the popular educator, Fukuzawa Yukichi. Kotoku's main criticism was that ethics relevant at the beginning of the Meiji Period no longer suited common people in 1900, thirty years after the onset of Japan's modernization. He thought that Fukuzawa did not realize how the ethics of mere individualism conflicted with the good of society at large. Kotoku said that a new kind of ethics should be constructed, based on the honest admission that the happy agreement between individual good and public good which had existed in early Meiji no longer existed.14 Kotoku, with the co-operation of Uchimura Kanzo, who was also an editorial writer on the Yorozu Choho, organized an association in the summer of 1901 called the Risodan (Band of Idealists) to improve society. According to Uchimura, the Risodan united his own movement to establish a new morality and the movement to improve living conditions originated by Kotoku and Sakai. The Yorozu Choho repeatedly advertised the Risodan at the top of its front page. Uchimura wrote; "Let us first reform ourselves and then the society. "15 It was the new social conditions that enabled a Christian

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like Uchimura Kanzo to co-operate with a person like Kotoku, whose way of thinking was Confucian and whose political aspiration was radical social reform after the French model. This was something new. For both Kotoku and Uchimura the personal aspiration ("To cultivate oneself and order one's family") and social aspiration ("To rule one's province and bring peace to the whole country") contained in an old Confucian teaching ( ) became one and gained new meaning. For Kotoku as well as for the ordinary citizen, the Risodan movement had for greater significance than the Social Democratic party (Shakai minshu to), which was organized the same year (1901) and banned almost immediately. The Social Democratic party had only six members, including Kotoku Shusui, and, besides them, there were only two or three others who seriously wanted to join it. Kinoshita Naoe's reminiscences16 and Sakai Toshihiko's diary, 17 give the impression that it was not much more than a casual idea bandied about by a handful of intellectuals. Although the party proclaimed itself socialist, in its platform there is only a Utopian reference to the public ownership of means of production; what it demanded in reality was simply the impartial redistribution of social wealth. The members did not even discuss to which social stratum the party should make a primary appeal. The reason why the government hurriedly banned it only two days after its creation was that it feared that the party might become a branch of the European social democratic parties. It did not in fact have any contact with foreign organizations. As soon as the party was banned, the movement died. In contrast to the Social Democratic party, the Risodan had, three months after its creation, 2,000 members in more than eighty branches, even though it boasted no catchy slogans. Members started lively branch activities. Some branches even included "a movement to demand universal suffrage" among their policies. When social reform became the centre of the Risodan movement, Uchimura became somewhat less enthusiastic about it than before, but Kotoku, Sakai, and their associates continued to foster its growth.18 It was to give direction to the Risodan that Kotoku published Nijusseiki no kaibutsu*. teikokushugi [Imperialism! the spectre of the twentieth century] in 1901. As can be imagined from the title, it is written in impassioned tones. However, if one examines the contents carefully, he realizes with surprise that Kotoku is presenting

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a realistic analysis of his age. What directly induced Kotoku to write this book was that Japan had sent troops to China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. He had already written in protest at the time! "Why shouldn't we pacifists who are opposed to wars talk about the painful predicament of the soldiers? They are exposed to the terrible heat of summer without water to assuage their thirst. Panting, they run through showers of bullets. Tormented by a veritable hell of thirst and heat...they soon become obsessed with an intolerable yearning for home. "19 Kotoku further criticized the government for refusing security to the families of soldiers at the front and demanded pensions for disabled and sick soldiers. In addition to criticizing the government's treatment of its soldiers, Kotoku thought that military expansion would only do harm when it was not accompanied by democratic development within Japan. What he maintained was not at all radical. It was a voice of healthy common sense which placed greater importance on domestic development than expansion and so agreed perfectly with the spirit of the Risodan for the improvement of living. Kotoku also took an active part in the campaign against the pollution caused by the Ashio Copper Mine, which reached its climax in 1900. The campaign articles in the Yorozu Choho were written almost entirely by him. Farmers of the polluted area came to Tokyo three times to make collective petitions to the government. They also demonstrated, but they met increasing resistance from the police and finally even the army. In protest, Tanaka Shozo, the member of the Diet who represented the farmers in the polluted area and had assisted their protest, resigned from his seat and devoted the rest of his life to fight on their behalf. As a last resort, he decided to present a petition directly to the Meiji Emperor. Tanaka could not write in a formal style, so he asked Kotoku, who had received training in Confucian classics, to write the petition for him. Kotoku agreed. The petition can be summarized in one sentence: that the government "protect the farmers' rights by applying the Imperial Constitution and law to prevent an immeasurable loss of people and wealth that could otherwise constitute a basis for future national strength. "20 This was again a straightforward expression of a moderate democratic demand. The Ashio Copper Mine problem attracted the attention of many students and intellectuals who sympathized with

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the farmers afflicted by pollution. Newspapers record eighty-six meetings in Tokyo alone during one year. Attending these meetings aroused an active interest in social action among many people. The Risodan even established a branch near Ashio. The surge of democratic public opinion as shown in the Risodan and the outcry against the pollution in the Ashio Mine just before the Russo-Japanese War forced the government to promise one concession after another. Although suffrage for the House of Representatives was still restricted to one per cent of the population, beginning with the election of 1903 the voter no longer had to affix his signature to his ballot, so the voter's name could not be linked with his choice. In the cities and suburbs, particularly Tokyo, the governmental party lost many seats. In contrast to their failure, nonpartisan candidates who promised to work for the renovation of Japanese politics succeeded. Kotoku Shusui consistently supported non-partisan candidates. Since, in his opinion, nothing could be expected from the existing parties, it was best to support non-partisan candidates, whose integrity could be trusted even though their number would in any case be small. He also wrote that an increase of new members in the House of Representatives could be the first step toward abolition of restrictions on suffrage. 21 He thought that the "power of anonymous voting" promised that. After the First Sino-Japanese War, therefore, Kotoku had become a leader among the increasingly powerful urban voters and rural poor in their battle for increased influence. He had reason to believe that he could help the Japanese achieve increased democratic rights. The events of the Russo-Japanese War which followed ten years later forced him to change his mind. THE APPROACH OF WAR AND KOTOKU'S "SOCIALISM"

The revision of the election law was in one sense a result of the democratic movements since 1900, but at the same time, it was part of a policy by the government to make concessions in domestic matters in order to gain the people's support for its foreign policy. Voters with democratic ideas did not realize this until it was too late for them to do anything effective to frustrate the government's intention. After the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the Japanese govern-

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ment approached Britain for assistance in its differences with Russia over Manchuria. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 in fact gave Japan a free hand in the area. Japan felt it could not cope with Russia single-handedly. Besides, statistics up to 1902 showed that, after the First Sino-Japanese War, deserters and soldiers who deliberately injured themselves had increased. 22 The government in the same year introduced a radical reform into army training methods and improved the lot of soldiers in anticipation of a war. Kotoku's anti-militarism and pacifism were not without a social base, but he and his groups did not recognize the government's intentions in time to mobilize effective opposition. They had no access to the appropriate information because the government monopolized all news about foreign affairs. This enabled it to give out one-sided information to the press after it had made its decisions. In the spring of 1903, the government's schedule allotted another year for further war preparations. Although its statements sounded as if it had not yet decided upon either war or peace, articles about the imminence of war started to appear in the foreign affairs section of newspapers. The owner of the Yorozu Choho, Kuroiwa Ruiko, first proposed to consider foreign affairs and domestic matters separately! "We realize that Japan is now facing a serious diplomatic problem. At the same time, we must not forget that political factions are pursuing their own selfish interests. We must not forget that the present government is still as cruel as a tiger. We must not overlook the fact that people are starving. We must remember that the present government should be quickly overthrown. "23 Kuroiwa's attitude reflects the illusion to which the anti-government movement of modern Japan always fell prey—by treating domestic problems and foreign issues separately and by attacking the government for indecision in foreign affairs, enemies of the government felt they could influence solutions to domestic problems in their favour. Behind such an attitude was the conviction that the extension of Japan's influence on backward countries would increase the wealth of the Japanese people. It was further unfortunate for Kotoku that the new city dwellers upon whom he based his hopes did not believe that their complaints and dissatisfactions could be solved by reforms in the election law. They were impatient for quick solutions. War seemed to promise relief. The First Sino-Japanese War, in

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exchange for the toll of only 1, 600 lives, had won the respect of the world for Japan. During the ten years since the end of the war, memories of its glories had almost obliterated the recollection of the pains caused by the inflation which had followed it. People could not imagine that the next war was going to cost the lives of 100, 000 Japanese. The masses in the cities co-operated in the campaign against the government's ineffective foreign policy in the hope that war would improve their lot. Kotoku's ideals were undermined by the very people to whom he mainly addressed himself. Articles about foreign affairs in the Yorozu Choho were far from consistent. When someone in favour of war wrote an editorial, it advocated war, and when Kotoku and Uchimura wrote, they preached pacifism. In the autumn of 1903, almost all the newspapers stared to shift from acquiescence to positive advocacy of an early war. Kuroiwa could no longer afford to leave his newspaper's position ambiguous. In October 1903, he declared his open support for hostilities. Among his editorial writers, Uchimura announced his resignation in the name of conscience, and Kotoku Shusui and Sakai Toshihiko announced their resignations in the name of "socialism. " This brings us to the question of whether Kotoku was a socialist as the term is understood in Europe. It is generally believed that he was already a Marxist at this time because he was to translate The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels two years later, but this interpretation is incorrect. When he tried to start the Social Democratic party in 1901, he had read only one book on socialism.24 What he repeatedly advocated during 1902 and 1903 was, as explained above, nothing but a series of policies which would embody democratic ideals. He could not adopt "democracy" as a slogan, for people would be bound to regard both "liberty" and "popular rights" as worn-out phrases because the Liberal party had overused them earlier. Both "democracy" and the new term "socialism" lacked substance in Japanese experience. City dwellers understood democracy by the word "socialism. " This is why many of them joined branches of the Risodan as a means to express their support for Kotoku and others. Many who called themselves "socialists" supported the Russo-Japanese War. The writer Tokutomi Roka (1868-1927) fostered many socialist ideals but also named as one of the objectives of "socialism" the repulsion of "the bear from the north. "25

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What distinguished Kotoku from these other "socialists" was only his opposition to the Russo-Japanese War. He insisted on peace for different reasons than Uchimura Kanzo. Uchimura had a greater understanding of the essence of modern thought than Kotoku and was convinced that the value of an individual lay in his inner self. He felt that the individual could solve his problems only through inner personal reform. Thus his pacifism did not lead directly to action. Kotoku, on the other hand, fostered peace because he thought that without it "socialism" could not be realized. Kotoku, it seems, connected "peace" and the "realization of socialism" too readily. After Kotoku and Sakai Toshihiko left the Yorozu Choho, they started a new magazine of their own, the Heimin Shimbun [The commoner's news] in November 1903. The first issue sold 8,000 copies. That was a good start, and prospects looked bright. If the founders could acquire 10 per cent of the readers of the Yorozu Choho, it would be possible for them to live on the income. The motto of their weekly was "Liberty, equality and fraternity are the three greatest principles of life as long as mankind shall exist." Their choice of translations from Tolstoy's folk tales for the initial issue reflected another source of their inspiration. Can one conclude that these 8, 000 readers had rallied under the flag of peace? No, they were merely attracted by Kotoku's fame as a leader of the Risodan. The initial circulation of 8, 000 had dropped to 4, 500 by the end of January 1904, just before the war started. 26 With the outbreak of war, it dropped further to 1, 700. How unduly optimistic Kotoku and Sakai were when they started this weekly is seen clearly in the introductory statement they wrote for the first issue. "We have another honest confession to make. That is that we hope to live by the income from the Heimin Shimbun. At present we have to divert half of our energies to other work in order to eat. If in the future we can sustain ourselves by the devotion of our whole energy to this one enterprise, nothing could please us more. "27 Kotoku did not yet understand the essential difference between the Heimin Shimbun and the Yorozu Choho. Although the latter opposed the government, what it demanded was merely partial revision of governmental policies, so it was possible for it to maintain a circulation of 100, 000. As long as Kotoku's "socialism" remained within the moderate reformism of the Yorozu Choho, no

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restriction was imposed on him. In his view, to oppose the government concerning the issue of peace and war did not differ particularly from demanding a revision of the election law or waging a campaign against the pollution caused by the Ashio Copper Mine. Kotoku did not understand that war had become the essential propelling force of every aspect of Japanese modernization and that on this issue the government could make no concessions. Before he could give a solid logical structure to his argument for peace, he had unwittingly and to his surprise embarked on a collision course with state power. Kotoku referred to many examples of pacifism abroad in the Heimin Shimbun. To quote an example! "In 1845, when the United States was about to open hostilities against Mexico, Mr. Charles Sumner opposed the war.../'28 At the back of Kotoku's mind throughout was the idea that such pacifist arguments were more or less acceptable in Europe and America. He said in the Heimin Shimbun that he hoped to see many similar pacifist sentiments in Japan. When he sent an appeal to the Russian Social Democratic party, he gave too straightforward expression to what he believed without any misgivings about the consequences: We cannot help saying this: neither you nor we are nihilists; neither you nor we are terrorists; neither you nor we are social democrats. Socialists believe in the importance of world peace. Socialists should by all means reject violent tactics. Socialists must fight with peaceful tactics. They must fight with reason. We understand how difficult it is for you in Russia to achieve a peaceful revolution through speeches and writings, where there is no constitution and no parliament. Some members of your party, which is based on the principle of peace, may become impatient and want to overthrow the government at once by violence. We can understand that their intent is good, but ask, Do not such people destroy peace, even though they want it?'29 There were attempts to obstruct the distribution of the issue which contained this editorial. The next issue was suppressed by the police, in retaliation, it is said, for their failure to suppress the first. The government could not tolerate open communication with

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citizens of its enemy state, even if the appeal itself preached peaceful means for revolution. From then on, the government repeatedly suppressed the Heimin Shimbun. What really threatened it, however, more than its financial difficulties because of reduced circulation and donations in addition to police threats, was Kotoku's sloppy, unduly optimistic thinking at the beginning. Kotoku could not yet grapple with the problem of peace except instinctively. The Heiminsha became increasingly isolated during the RussoJapanese War. Kotoku Shusui radically changed after that. He became an anarchist and loudly affirmed the use of violence, because after he had experienced the strength and tyranny of state power, he could not think of anything, not even minor problems of everyday life, except in terms of "struggle with power." To analyse this change closely, however, lies outside the scope of this article. Kotoku's pacifism in this period was not a product of thoroughgoing "socialism" and radicalism, as Fred G. Notehelfer asserts.30 Kotoku reached his pacifism through the social reform movement and close touch with everyday life. He became a socialist in the strict sense only after his pacifism had brought him into headlong collision with the authorities. This move, however, was more impulsive than calculated. Considering his original ideal of social reform, the move to socialism was unnatural. Kotoku could not approach the subject logically. His beginning as a political hopeful inspired by the slogans of the French Revolution and given substance by the Confucian classics slowly led him to speak on behalf of the new urban proletariat. He saw how they suffered from war and included pacifism among his other plans for their improvement. This suggestion, strongly rebuffed by the government, led him into increasingly inflammatory rhetoric and association with anarchists. And this, in turn, brought him to the scaffold.

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6 Abe Isoo The Utility Man CYRIL H. POWLES INTRODUCTION

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Abe Isoo, together with a handful of socialists and Christians, helped mould the antimilitarist sentiments that have become a notable aspect of Japanese thought since World War II. Throughout a long life as educator and political leader, he inculcated these ideas in his followers. The Utopian, and essentially urban, nature of his political thought proved powerless to accomplish much change in a Japan where patterns of behaviour still reflected the mores of the traditional community; yet he correctly identified many of the social causes of militarism as they have come to be recognized today. Historians have experienced difficulty in assessing Abe's place in the development of Japan's political social ideas. On the one hand he is universally acclaimed as the father of Japanese socialism. His personal integrity has won the admiration of critics as well as of his disciples, and few studies of the late Meiji or Taisho periods omit his name. On the other hand, his political opponents of the left have written him off as an opportunist and bourgeois idealist. His colourless style and somewhat prudish personality have attracted less interest in current study than have the more spectacular lives of colleagues such as Uchimura Kanzo, Katayama Sen, or Kotoku Shusui. Abe appears atypical in an age of heroes, a deliberate non-hero. Late in his career, Abe made a comment on his life which will

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help to show how he understood his place in the political scene of his time! "In American professional baseball they have what are called utility men....That is, someone who can play either the outfield or the infield; if necessary even pitch or catch. At Waseda my role was exactly like that, but wherever I was put I never felt out of sorts. That was because I learned in baseball to obey the captain without question. "* Western readers may smile at Abe's somewhat Confucian view of baseball, but they will also note his strong sense of identity. Not for him the role of superstar. Colleagues like Kotoku or Uchimura might exhibit a prophetic charisma, but Abe would prefer the quieter vocation of an educator! ready to offer his talents wherever the people (his captain) might demand. Along with this down-to-earth pragmatism, Abe possessed a kind of dogged idealism. The term riso (ideal) appears constantly in his writings. One of his seals shows that he often used the word as a punning nom de plume, Abe Risoo.2 The rigid self-discipline, which appeared so puritanical to his political associates, showed how seriously he took his training for excellence. Abe's pacifism reflected the same unusual combination of characteristics. With Kitamura Tokoku and Uchimura Kanzo he made Japanese aware of a new idea, conscientious objection to war based on religious conviction. Their burning existential fervour possessed little in common with his dry studies of national debts and social reform. Far from seeking martyrdom when political conditions made it difficult to campaign directly, he quietly turned his attention to sports and questions of personal morality. But his friends witness to the fact that he never relinquished the conviction. A modern scholar has contrasted the consistency of his stand with many of his more doctrinaire disparagers who made dramatic reversions to militaristic nationalism around the same time. 3 He left a heritage to his disciples that has become an important element in the thinking of the crucial third of Japan's population who oppose the revision of her peace Constitution. Understanding the pacifism of Abe Isoo will help us to understand later anti-war sentiment in Japan. BIOGRAPHY Abe Isoo was born in Fukuoka on 4 February 1865, the second

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son of Okamoto Gonnojo, a minor samurai of the Fukuoka (Kuroda) domain. 4 The family, traditionally noted for skill at arms, planned a naval career for their son. Ironically, the requirement that a naval cadet speak English sent the young Abe in 1879 to the Doshisha Yogakko (later Doshisha University), where he was launched on his life work as a Christian minister, a socialist, and a pacifist. Samurai hostility to the new conscription laws led the elder Okamoto to undertake a complicated series of adoptions and fictive marriages which gave his son a new family name. 5 Abe's basic life style was shaped by his four years at Doshisha, and especially by the example of the college's founder and one of the great figures in Meiji education, Niijima Jo. At the time of his resignation from the Socialist Masses Party, someone is said to have asked him, "Do you hope to be known as the [Ramsay] MacDonald of Japan?" To which Abe replied, "No, my one hope is to meet Dr. Niijima in the afterlife and have him say to me, * Well done, Abe.'" Though the story may be apocryphal, Abe certainly spent his last days working on a biography of his hero, and had already included a shorter version in Seinen to riso [Youth and ideals].6 Niijima's emphasis on moral training and self-reliance gave to Doshisha a type of education that went far beyond the institution's public reputation as the best school of English in Japan. In contrast to the Confucian-style juku of the period, which stressed rote learning in dependence on a master, Doshisha encouraged free, individual study. In its earlier period when Abe attended, most of the masters had been chosen from among recent graduates and tutored rather than taught. The student had a good deal of free time to pursue his own interests in reading and discussion. Active participation in decisions about school policy was expected, Niijima sometimes going to extreme lengths to see that this was done. 7 Just how Niijima influenced his students to become pacifists remains unclear. Undoubtedly his emphasis on the active virtue of hakuai (altruism or benevolence), which formed so important an aspect of the early Japanese Christian ethic, provided part of the motivation. The concept originated in the old Confucian tradition of aristocratic social responsibility.8 For Japanese converts to Christianity the specifically new aspect of hakuai consisted in the refusal to recognize the social bounds of family and class (and, by extension, the nation) assumed in the Confucian ethic.9 Perhaps it was this sense of tran-

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scending the old warrior mentality which led several of the early Doshisha graduates at one stage or another in their careers to reject war. 10 Even those who did not, such as the popular preacher Ebina Danjo (1856-1938), apparently provided a spiritual environment where pacifism could flourish. A number of the young men who opposed the Russo-Japanese War—the philosopher Ishikawa Sanshiro, later socialists like Arahata Kanson and Yamaguchi Gizo, and the anarchist martyr Osugi Sakae—began their active lives as members of Ebina's Kongo Church, as did the social thinker Yoshino Sakuzo. n Such men were helped to stand out against the ethos of their age by the rigid training in self-directed non-conformity which they were given at Doshisha. The socialist theoretician Yamakawa Hitoshi (18801958) has recorded in his memoirs that this training far outweighed the comparatively pedestrian academic side of the curriculum. 12 Here Niijima was assisted by the stern puritan individualism of the New England missionaries who formed part of his faculty. Their emphasis on abstention from tobacco and alcoholic drink and their strict sexual morality meant for the young converts not merely negative virtues. Rather they were interpreted positively as a lifestyle which set the young Christian intellectual over against the accepted habits of the old life. The refusal to kill, in similar fashion, did not imply mere negative passivity but formed part of the new creed of individual human worth which involved active unwillingness to conform to the tradition in which the young samurai had been reared. Among the foreign professors, Dwight Learned stood out in the eyes of his students for his strict personal habits and sound scholarship. 13 His lectures aroused in the young Abe a concern for economics which remained with him throughout his life. Abe's view that the salvation of the individual depended on religion while society must be saved by economics, first came to him while listening to Learned's lectures. H He developed the theory first at Doshisha in his graduation speech, "Religion and Economics, " and again at Hartford in "The Christian View of Economics." Abe's grasp of the discipline never progressed far beyond a kind of urban structuralism which he derived from Henry George and the Christian Socialists.15 But it gave to his pacifism a tone of disciplined and practical rationality which contrasted sharply with the subjectivity of literary anti-militarists like Kinoshita Naoe and Tokutomi Roka (1868-1927). In 1887 Abe left Doshisha to become pastor of the Congregational

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Church in Okayama. Following four active years there he sailed for the United States to study at the Hartford Theological Seminary. There he came into contact with the early Christian Socialist works of F. D. Maurice, Richard Ely and G. D. Herron, and took part in university settlement work in the Boston slums. His realization that social welfare in itself could not provide the solution to the problems of poverty, climaxed by a reading of Edward Bellamy's Utopian novel Looking Backward, led him to a conscious commitment to socialism. Around the same time Abe also read Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is within You, which confirmed his leaning toward pacifism. The influence of the Russian mystic, seemingly incongruous in a practical activist like Abe, continued with him throughout his life, as an autobiographical passage written in 1926 shows. I must not omit to mention the tremendous influence the writing of Tolstoy has had on me. Since my main purpose in going to the United States was to study religion, I naturally concentrated on reading books on that subject. So it was in that way that Tolstoy's works came to my attention. I have scarcely read one of his novels, but have gone through most of his essays on politics and pacifism. Although some may criticize his interpretation of Christianity as overly narrow, I could not suppress my sympathy for its thorough-going and radical nature. Perhaps I have not observed his teaching about non-resistance or absolute love quite literally. Nevertheless that was not because I disagreed with them, but rather because I lacked the courage necessary to carry them into action.16 Among Abe's writings, the exposition of Tolstoy an pacifism is related to the "spiritual" or personal side of his anti-war stand, as his introduction of the work of Ivan Bloch represents the economic and social. One of the first essays he contributed to the journal of the Tokyo Unitarian Society, Rikugo zasshi, in 1895 just after his return from abroad, is entitled "Torusutoi haku no shukyo" [The religion of Count Tolstoy].17 In it he begins by reviewing Tolstoy's exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount in My Religion, so as to show

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"its thorough-going and radical nature." Abe first points to Tolstoy's use of the higher criticism of the Bible, which he contrasts with the fundamentalism prevalent among both missionaries and Japanese in his day. By this scientific method, he writes, the Russian master is able to sort out the actual teaching of Jesus from the editorial accretions of a later day. Certain conditional phrases which tone down commands like "whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, " or "whosoever shall put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication, " belong to the compromising Christianity of a later age and hide the absolute nature of Christ's original teaching. But, Abe continues, Tolstoy not only provides a new method for understanding the Gospels, he also teaches us how to distinguish the spirit of Jesus' religion from the historical and cultural medium through which it was communicated. The essence of Tolstoy's religion can be summed up in a negative command, "Resist not evil," and a positive one, "Love your enemies" (pp. 8-9). "It is the great principle of the brotherhood of man" (p. 12). The second part of Abe's essay deals with the way in which the great man put his teachings into practice. He quotes from The Kingdom of God Is within You and What Then Is to Be Done? to show how practice followed logically from theory. In doing so he makes use of some illustrations about the nature of exploitation and war which were to crop up repeatedly in his later writings. Methods of biblical criticism have changed, and we are less certain today that we can distinguish between original and editorial elements of the gospel tradition. Abe's espousal of liberal Christianity at the end of the nineteenth century formed part of his rebellion against a church which was beginning to make its peace with traditional Japanese society.18 It also provided him with a methodological tool that allowed him to take the teachings of Christ and apply them to a situation which was, both historically and culturally, quite different to either the biblical or the American sources from which he had received his faith. 19 Above all, it was the uncompromising idealism of Tolstoy's faith that appealed to the young reformer. It corresponded to the radical rejection of traditional society which formed part of the identity conflict he experienced in common with all converts. It also gave him a long-term goal (the total abolition of violence and war), which conditioned his approach to all the problems he would later encounter. 20

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Tolstoy's influence on Abe's contemporaries has been widely documented. Tatsuo Arima hints that he represented a "conscience of the rich" to aristocratic intellectuals who were struggling internally with the meaning of their own position in an industrializing society.21 The novelist Tokutomi Roka's pilgrimage to Russia, following his break with his brother over the latter's rejection of pacifism, hints at a different appeal. Tolstoy seems to have been able to tap deeplying wells of naturalistic and "buddhistic" subjectivity which belonged to the indigenous tradition in which writers like Roka or Kinoshita had grown up. If this insight is correct, it gives us a glimpse into a submerged and complex part of Abe Isoo's personality which is usually hidden by the image of the modern man of action. The young Abe's consent to his father's eminently traditional efforts to keep him out of the hated "democratic" army reveals some strong ties with Japanese culture which he never completely severed. Later association with the nationalistic socialism of Yamaji Aisan and his even later inclination to support the right wing of the socialist movement point to an equally conservative bent. But in Abe, conservatism was concerned with cultural roots and national identity rather than with wealth and power. Tolstoy's attraction likewise seems to have lain in his ability to speak a religious language of abnegation, benevolence, and love of nature, all characteristic of the tradition in which Abe had been born. 22 Others might revolt violently against that tradition. Abe's determination to safeguard it by maintaining a dichotomy in his ideas between spiritual-personal and economic-social saved him from the radical alienation experienced by colleagues such as Kotoku, Osugi Sakae, or even Katayama Sen.23 While at Hartford, the physical prowess inherited from generations of warrior forebears began to show itself in newfound skills at tennis and baseball. For Abe, such games, played in teams and according to rational rules, seemed to reflect a type of socialization lacking in the upbringing of youth in his native land and he was not slow to introduce them to his countrymen upon his return. Shortly after arriving back in Japan in 1895, Abe married Murakami Komao, a distant relative to whom he had been engaged for ten years. After a brief period at Doshisha, he accepted an appointment in 1899 to teach at the Tokyo Semmon Gakko, later to become Waseda University. This post he held, with minor variations, throughout his long and chequered career. Abe's connection with

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Waseda is important because it provided him with a secure base of operations for the rest of his life. Founded in 1882 by the Meiji oligarch, Okuma Shigenobu, to counterbalance the political influence of the Tokyo Imperial University, Waseda somewhat resembled Doshisha as a centre for progressive ideas. Indeed, other outstanding Doshisha men such as Murai Tomoyoshi and Onishi Hajime, had preceded Abe on its faculty. Something of its character may be understood by the fact that of the six charter members of the first socialist party of 1901, four were either students or teachers at Waseda.24 Abe became known as one of Okuma's "Brains Trust, " with special responsibility for relations with foreign visitors.25 Together with his contributions as a teacher, administrator, and director of athletics, this made him indispensable to the institution and partly helps to explain the security he enjoyed throughout his career. Abe's socialist activities commenced soon after his return. Beginning with the first wave of the labour movement and a series of study groups, he helped in 1901 to found Japan's original and short-lived social democratic party, the Shakai Minshuto. He joined a coalition of Christians, socialists, and writers who opposed the Russo-Japanese War and expressed their views through the publication of a weekly paper. When the war ended and the movement fell apart in 1905, Abe supported the Christian group, though he characteristically continued to maintain contact with the "materialists. " After 1911, fierce government pressure made all socialist activity impossible. For a while Abe concentrated on teaching, but in 1918 he emerged once more as an advisor to the revived labour movement and as co-founder of the Fabian Society of Japan. In 1925 Abe joined the newly formed Workers and Farmers Party (Nippon rodo nominto), but soon withdrew in protest against its leftist leanings. He then helped to form a new party, the Socialist People's Party (Shakai minshuto), whose first chairman he became. In 1928, on the occasion of the first general election under universal manhood suffrage, he was elected to the Diet, a post he held, with one short lapse, for the next twelve years. In 1932, as chairman of a rightward amalgamation of social-democratic groups, the Socialist Masses Party (Shakai taishuto), he opposed the growing militarization of Japanese society. For this he narrowly escaped assassination by right-wing extremists in 1938. Abe's pacifism finally forced him to split with his party in 1940. Already in his seventies, he retired

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from the political world, to emerge briefly after the Pacific War as an advisor to the renewed Japanese Socialist party. Abe Isoo's death on 10 February 1949 ended a long life of multifaceted activity. Education, writing, sports, politics, the labour movement, urban and agricultural reform, temperance, and women's rights represented his main interests. Through them all ran a consistent theme, the search for a humane society. His pacifism can best be understood as one aspect of this quest. PACIFIST ACTIVITY

Abe's anti-war activity took place on three main fronts. First, it was reflected in the strongly anti-militaristic stand taken by the first socialist party, whose manifesto was largely written by him. 26 Following the speedy suppression of the party, the socialists through their association, the Heiminsha (Commoners' Association), formed the nucleus of a small but vocal movement of opposition to the war with Russia. Abe supported them with articles and public lectures. Finally, he expounded his own brand of socialist pacifism through the journal of the Tokyo Unitarian Association, the Rikugo zasshi, which he edited between 1899 and 1911. Abe's socialism from the beginning involved opposition to war. The second goal (riso, ideal) of the First Socialist Manifesto of 1901 proclaims "total abolition of armaments as a first step toward the establishment of peace among nations. "27 This clause, together with statements calling for universal suffrage and abolition of the House of Peers, seemed to the government to strike at the roots of the emperor system, and thus helped to bring about the speedy suppression of the infant party. 28 Abe's exposition of the peace clause shows how fundamental he considered the relation to be between the anti-war goal and the achievement of democratic socialism: "Democracy is stubbornly opposed to militarism, " he wrote. "It is opposed on three counts: because arms actually protect capitalist class interests at the expense of the common people; because war aids in the exploitation of weak countries by strong powers, as arms are used to open up markets by force; and because militarism always grows into despotism, a retrogression from civilization to barbarism." Consequently, he con-

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eludes, "Our party intends to reduce armaments gradually with a view to total abolition. " Abe had been preparing this argument for some years by his reading of Tolstoy, Bloch, and the Christian socialists; through the discussions of the Socialist Study Group; and by his own analysis of Japanese militarism. A look at the editorials and articles which he contributed to Rikugo zasshi prior to 1901 will show the ideas forming. His early essay on Tolstoy summarized the master's argument as follows! If we recognize the murder of one individual by another to be a crime, is it not also criminal for one country to invade another, or for one class of people to slaughter the members of another class? These are the reasons why Tolstoy opposes war. It is said that war is necessary to uphold social order. Yet many calamities and evils follow from war. It is said that war is necessary to uphold the independence of a nation. Yet he would say that the real purpose in maintaining thousands of soldiers has shifted away from the necessity of guarding against foreign foes to the necessity for protection against an internal enemy... for the oppression of the lower classes by the upper. 29 These are the very arguments which reappear in the Manifesto. Militarism is evil because it leads to exploitation of weak nations by the strong, and of the lower classes by the upper. It encourages relations between nations and classes that would never be tolerated in a civilized society between individuals. Abe further argues in the Manifesto that armaments create a financial burden on the common people which might better be used for social welfare. This economic argument, as we have seen, he had already discovered in Tolstoy. But, in line with his own conviction about economics and the salvation of man's body, he made it a special study. In two early editorials, "Senso ka heiwa ka" [War or peace?] and "Shusenron no byumo" [The fallacy of the pro-war argument], he used political and economic analysis to point up the contradictions inherent in the militarist stand. For him the war party represented reckless adventurism, which was neglecting the more pressing needs to modernize the country. The huge national debts of Western nations showed how unproductive their policy was, both in economic and human terms. 30

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No wonder, then, that Abe supported the writers on the daily paper, Yorozu Choho, who resigned in protest against the pro-war policy of their editor.31 Many of the little group of journalists, teachers, and labour leaders who banded together to form the Heiminsha and publish a weekly paper already knew each other through their socialist activities. But others, such as Uchimura, had opposed the war from religious conviction. His stand reflected the sentiments of many local Christian congregations which provided grass-roots support for the movement at a time when the voice of students and labour was still weak. 32 The variety of motivation among both writers and readers forced the Heimin Shimbun, as the weekly was called, to concentrate on anti-war propaganda, though the editors, Kotoku Shusui and Sakai Toshihiko, managed to see that it carried articles on labour and socialism as well. 33 Actually, even the socialists at this time were a mixed bag.34 Common opposition to the war held them together rather than loyalty to any single ideology. What theoretical agreement they possessed consisted of assent to certain rather vague "principles, " which each tended to interpret according to his own understanding. The manifesto of the Heiminsha, written jointly by the two editors, commenced, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (hakuai): these are the three great principles that make human life worth living in this world. " It continued: "We advocate pacifism as the expression in practice for all mankind of the way of brotherhood" (hakuai no michi).35 Obviously Kotoku and Sakai here echo the ideology of the French Revolution, which had carried them beyond the limited parliamentarism of the Popular Rights Movement into the ranks of the socialists. For others of their readers, including Abe, the term hakuai also reflected Christian humanitarianism. 36 Whichever imported usage the term was understood to represent, a further element even more intrinsic to its meaning cannot be neglected: the Confucian tradition. Ueda's standard dictionary of Chinese characters, under the entry for hakuai, quotes a passage from the forerunner of Neo-Confucianism. Han Yu (768-824): "Universal love is called humanity" {Hakuai no iware wa jin nari).37 Both the bitterly anti-Christian Kotoku and the Christian Abe could accept the term because they shared a common understanding that had come to them from the ethical training of the samurai which both had received. Granted, the two had developed it in different

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ways. Abe had progressed, through his conversion, from a humanitarianism of social service to socialist pacifism, while Kotoku had walked the path of French human rights and was heading towards materialism. For the moment the two could co-operate in the face of a common enemy. But their different understanding of the relationship between hakuai and pacifism was inherent in the process of value transformation that had given them a new understanding of the old term. For Kotoku it remained a tactic, "a means to specific political ends. "38 A further element uniting the anti-war party was what may be called, for want of a better term, their "Japanese" understanding of benevolence. This aspect has not been investigated as thoroughly as the Confucian, but the two are intertwined in the Japanese mind so that the one cannot be understood apart from the other. A rather vague combination of popular myths about primitive Japanese society with Buddhist teachings about compassion, abnegation, and reverence for life characterizes the indigenous tradition. This nationalist thought, associated in our day with the rise of militarism, still possessed a powerful appeal for the socialists of the early twentieth century. It represented a pool of memory which provided them with precedents from Japanese culture for their understanding of imported ideas. One of the foremost exponents of this type of homespun socialism was Yamaji Yakichi (Aisan, 1864-1917), a journalist and historical essayist of the Min'yusha school, which stressed native values. Although generally regarded as a national socialist, Aisan counted Abe and Sakai among his friends. Kotoku's allusion to the Emperor Nintoku, who considered "the well-being of the people the treasure of the court" and therefore "in complete agreement and accord with the principles of socialism, " accurately echoes Aisan's views.39 Harmony (wa)—the absence of class conflict and social exploitation— represents the chief characteristic of Aisan's somewhat romantic image of ancient Japanese society. He believed that emperor and people together had formed a "democratic" family which only came to an end with the rise of the great private estates at the beginning of the feudal period. Socialism, therefore, posed no threat to the Japanese people, as it sought only to restore an ancient way of life that had been lost.40 The ideas of harmony and of abnegation historically have been

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understood in Japan as limited to relations within a particular social unit such as the nation. Consequently Yamaji never agreed with the cosmopolitanism inherent in the anti-war stand taken by Abe, Kotoku, and the Heiminsha.41 But the socialists made free use of Aisan's views, extending the concept of wa to include harmony among nations.42 At the same time, many of them never outgrew the influence of tradition sufficiently to accept the possibility of a class struggle or of revolutionary social change. The famous debate over direct action between Kotoku and Tazoe Tetsuji in 1907 marked a definite split between revolutionary and parliamentary socialists.43 That the split was based as much on indigenous tradition as on conflicting imported ideologies has not always been recognized in the West. Pacifism meant for Japanese social democrats the avoidance of direct action and social conflict because their fundamental ideal was an organic harmony of classes rather than the classless society. Abe's own innate traditionalism, combined with his sympathy for Tolstoy's teaching on non-violence, caused him to hold to a social order line throughout his career. In "Kokka shugi to wa nan zo ya?" [What is nationalism?], he discerned two types of attitude to the state, the one reactionary and the other progressive. The reactionary type stressed the interests of the country over those of the family or nation, whereas the progressive type was more concerned to curb "rampant individualism" in the interests of equal opportunity and the enjoyment of the benefits of society by all. Here, by a characteristic shift, Abe had made the extension noted above, where the concept of social harmony within a nation has been widened to encompass the relations of state to state. In a later article, "Shakai shugisha wa nani yue ni hisenronsha naru ka" [Why are socialists pacifists?], written at the height of hostilities with Russia, he continues on the same theme, comparing war with banditry. In his conclusion he writes: "We cannot envision a double morality.... We socialists are absolutely opposed to both brigandage and war. As there cannot be 'good bandits' so there can never be a just war. We can sympathize with those who have been forced into banditry by the imperfections of the social order. By the same token those who argue that protective tariffs force nations into a struggle for survival demand a hearing. If free trade were allowed throughout the world, wars would be fewer. But none of these reasons can justify either banditry or war." Banditry, then, points

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to injustices in the social order which require reform, but it remains none the less a criminal act and cannot be rationalized by any doctrine of class warfare. Similarly, war is a crime against humanity. It ought not to be justified by arguments from social Darwinism. We ought to seek a structure of international law which will fulfill among nations the same function that labour arbitration provides within them. 44 Both of these essays show that Abe believed the roots of war to lie in the "individualism" of nations, expressed concretely through protective trade policies, combined with the aggressive use of armies in the search for markets. He saw free trade as a sign of mutual confidence between nations and the speediest way to peace. 45 In this way he pointed toward the free trade policies of Taisho democrats like Shidehara and Yoshino, whom he supported in the twenties. 46 Abe's willingness to work within the framework of the existing order seemed like opportunism to many of his socialist comrades in the peace movement, and it furnished an additional reason for the split between them. Abe's dependence on Tolstoy's spiritual justification of pacifism is parallelled in his thought by an economic argument against war which he derived from the Polish financier and anti-war crusader, Ivan Bloch. Bloch had come to the conclusion, over a long and successful career as an engineer and banker, that war was moving out of the limits formerly placed on it by morality and international law into a period of unlimited conflict. He had published a sixvolume work designed to prove to the rulers of Europe that war meant suicide.47 Bloch's argument, replete with facts and figures, appealed to Abe's practical mind, and he devoted five consecutive issues of Rikugo zasshi, from May to October 1902, to reviewing it. Bloch's work is a veritable Das Kapital of pacifism, which only a specialist could criticize properly. To a layman, though, Abe appears to use Bloch's economic arguments mainly to buttress already formed convictions about the value of human life. He quotes statistic after statistic to show the economic problems caused by the need to maintain and expand armed forces among the European powers. He shows how Bloch foretold trench warfare and the toll that it would take on the officers of future armies. And finally he points to the South African War, which fulfilled Bloch's prophecies

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after they had been rejected at the Hague Conference. His moral is clear: Japan faces economic and social disaster if it embarks on war with Russia. This is the burden of all his economic tracts against the war. It actually took forty years longer for militarism to ruin Japan as Abe had projected, but the final result came close to what he had foretold. This rapid survey of the economics of Abe's pacifism bears out something that has already been implied about his socialism.48 Abe's approach to both war and capitalism stemmed, first and foremost, from his personal conviction that the two were morally wrong because they hindered the growth of freedom and human personality. What he understood about economics appeared to confirm his convictions. But his analysis possessed little of the sophisticated understanding of trends, forces, and structures that appears, for instance, in Lenin's writings on imperialism. Economics remained for Abe an auxiliary to morality, as it did in the thought of the British and American Utopians who had converted him to socialism. These men, too, were essentially moralists who held up their own society to criticism by creating an ideal picture of the state. They drew the scorn of the scientific socialists for their "phantastic covering" of economic fact. 49 But they helped to raise the social consciousness of the late nineteenth-century middle classes in the West. Abe tried his own hand at writing Utopias, though he characteristically chose an actual country for his ideal model. In December 1897, he contributed an essay to Rikugo zasshi entitled "Suisu to Nihon" [Switzerland and Japan], which marked the first attempt. 50 The picture he drew shows how his pacifism always formed part of his idealistic humanism. After giving some geographic details—"the total area is about the same as our Kyushu"—he goes on to describe the various aspects of Swiss society that would bear imitation. He recounts with approval the high priority placed on basic education; the freedom with which social problems and ideas are discussed; nationalization of railroads ; social security for labour ; local autonomy and universal suffrage. But he is most impressed by how all this is capped with a foreign policy of peaceful neutrality. He would prefer that Japan become the Switzerland of the East, rather than emulate England as it was actually doing. The quiet humanity of the Swiss is more desirable than the drive for empire of the British. After war with Russia had broken out and Abe was racking his

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brains for a suitable medium to express his opposition, he returned to his Swiss Utopia. In the introduction to the booklet, Chijo no risokoku Suisu [Switzerland: Utopia on earth], he confessed that he had meant to take several years to produce a more finished work. However, "the hope arose in me that I might publish it during the Russo-Japanese War, so I took up my pen in haste. "51 Although over four times as long as the original article, the pamphlet's structure is essentially the same. Its greater detail, though, allows Abe to spend a fair amount of space on the question of armaments and foreign policy. Here he makes the point that Switzerland has no standing army and relies on a people's militia for self-defence. He re-emphasizes its firm policy of neutrality in international affairs, and closes with this panegyric: "Ah, little heaven and earth of freedom! Ah, nation which sees the only glory of the state, the only expansion of the fatherland, to lie in granting happiness, freedom, and equality to its people! The great powers of the world may well fall on their knees in shame before this one small ideal nation" (p. 147). Prophetic utopianism, then, is the keynote of Abe's thought during this period, not realistic political economy. One of the most original of his pacifist editorials in Rikugo zasshi, entitled "Gojin wa rokoku to tatakaubeki ka" [Ought we to fight Russia?], strikes this note most clearly. Written in the autumn of 1903, it reads almost like an outline of the campaigns which began with the Siberian Expedition of 1918 and led up to World War II. Commencing with his thesis that war is banditry, it goes on to outline the probable course that Japan will have to take once she has embarked on the conquest of Russia. In order to guard what she has taken in Korea and Manchuria, she will have to expand continuously, through Siberia to St. Petersburg itself. Even to carry out a long occupation of Korea and Manchuria will require resources that Japan does not possess. Because those peoples dislike Russian rule, will they necessarily prefer domination by Japan? Moreover, no one people has a moral right to dominate another. 52 In closing, Abe reminds his own people of the domestic consequences of war!

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Historically, war has been designed to profit a minority at the expense of the majority. Those who sought political power did so by arousing the common people and turning their attention abroad, thereby keeping their thoughts off injustices at home. Both Napoleon and Toyotomi Hideyoshi used this tactic to befog the people's minds when they set out, the one to conquer Europe, and the other Korea. If the people agree to the opening of hostilities with Russia, they will only succeed in extending by so many decades the life of oligarchic rule [hambatsu seijf] in our land. Our military government now stands in a position of unique advantage to themselves. Do we wish to prolong this situation by giving in to their wiles? (p. 83) Abe went on to conclude that war with Russia would lead not only to economic ruin and moral degradation for those who engage in it; it also would mean oppression and slavery for the common people, whether abroad or at home (pp. 78-80). Abe Isoo's pacifist thought and activity, though it extended over a further forty-five years of his life, does not appear to have taken any startling turns following the short period surveyed. After the break-up of the Heiminsha in 1905, he made efforts to heal the schism, but his real sympathies lay with the Christian Socialists and advocates of parliamentarism. 53 With two of them, the pacifist writer Kinoshita Naoe and Ishikawa Sanshiro (1876-1956), later famous as a nihilist philosopher, he published a monthly journal, Shin kigen [New Age]. During its brief life this paper showed that the Christians were prepared to carry on the attack against militarism even after the immediate threat of war had passed and their socialist colleagues had turned to other issues. In so doing they went beyond simple opposition to armaments and began to investigate the social and cultural origins of militarism. This widening of the horizons became characteristic of Abe's pacifism in its later and longest phase. The change in emphasis did not immediately become apparent. Abe's contribution to the special peace edition of New Year's 1906 consisted of an appeal in the old vein for a policy of free trade that would replace the old protectionist line (pp. 34-35). But a survey

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of each issue will show that the partners were collaborating to develop a new form of critique. They saw in traditional Japanese social structures, with their dominant symbols of emperor and family head, factors that produced the fundamental attitudes which made militarism possible. The idea of the family system [_kazoku shugi] is equivalent to belief in a despotic family head \_kacho sensei shugi'] : it involves a principle of absolute slavery which cannot recognize the personality of dependent women or children. This patriarchalism, this despotism of the family head, when expanded, becomes the despotic policy of the monarchy. The Japanese race has indeed grown up within the confines of these two institutions, the family and the nation [kokka]. So inevitably they can possess no consciousness of personality or confidence in freedom. Such despotism, such a doctrine of submission, forms the very lifesource of the army. 54 Consequently the quest for peace requires a change of traditional mores, including abolition of ancestor worship, the liberation of women, changed attitudes to racial minoritities, and educational reform. Sumiya Mikio has commented that Shin kigen stood almost alone among the socialist press of the time in criticizing the Imperial Rescript on Education. 55 Abe's collaboration with Kinoshita and Ishikawa lasted only thirteen numbers, after which Kinoshita withdrew into Buddhist quietism and Ishikawa rejoined the revivified Heiminsha. Nevertheless, the experiment is interesting for the kind of questions it raised. With the demise of Shin kigen, Christian socialism as an active movement disappeared from public view. Thereafter, though Christians continued to participate as individuals —some, like Abe, Suzuki Bunji (1885-1946), and Kagawa Toyohiko as nationally known leaders—the movements they joined made no claim to a Christian ideology. Yet the pacifism which formed part of their personal faith influenced the movements they supported. The end of the Christian socialist era marked a turning point in the lives of individuals as well as of movements. The three figures who had become public symbols of the anti-war movement, Kotoku Shusui, Uchimura Kanzo, and Abe Isoo, all changed between 1903 and 1906 in their relation to a society which refused to hear their

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message. For Kotoku the period marked his transition from socialism to anarcho-syndicalism, while for Uchimura it represented the emergence of his millenarian and non-institutional Christianity.56 A comparison of these two individuals, both motivated by a profound despair with existing social structures, would be instructive. 57 In contrast to the uncompromising stand taken by Kotoku and Uchimura, Abe's shift to indirect action has often been interpreted as an espousal of an opportunistic art of the possible (hiyorimi shugi).58 Yet a study of the writings so far surveyed shows a consistency in his pacifism that is more consonant with the steadfastness of his personality than with the judgment of his opponents. Two factors seem to have governed the nature of his change. The first is Abe's "utility man" approach to life! an attitude that represents the opposite pole to Kotoku's and Uchimura's refusal to compromise with Japanese society. The second is the discovery by the Shin kigen group that, beneath the change in economic and political structures, there still remained the submerged world of cultural conditioning. Attitudes to authority, women and children, and racial minorities provided a spawning ground for militarism which would always make possible reversion (tenko) on the part of both individual and society as long as they existed. Abe's activity after 1911 reflects a combination of these two factors. Following the High Treason Affair and Kotoku's death, the government's stringent prohibition of socialism forced him to limit his interests to the Waseda campus. Only indirect methods now appeared practical, yet his choice of methods clearly reflected his views on the necessity to change traditional attitudes. For instance, Abe used sports to teach self-discipline and "fair play. " The latter term meant for him a new behaviour pattern which would reveal a change from a life governed by tradition and personal loyalty ("ascribed values") to one lived on a basis of universal rules and individual achievement. 59 His many writings on personal and public morality played variations on the same theme. 60 Finally, he threw himself into a variety of movements for social uplift—universal suffrage, abolition of prostitution, temperance, family planning, and woman's rights—all of which he believed would contribute to the building of a free, civilized society in his country. 61 Abe was not afraid to speak out if conditions seemed propitious. One of the his students recollects!

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It was just after the High Treason Affair [Kotoku's trial], a period of the most unrelenting repression of socialism, when lectures [on the subject] at school were of course forbidden. Only Professor Abe, who was responsible for a course on Social Policy in the Political Science Department, was able to allude, even minimally, to the subject. Whereupon the students, stimulated by the idea of forbidden fruit, would urge him to explain the meaning of socialism more fully. To this professor Abe would reply, "We must observe the Ministry of Education's ruling. But if any of you would like to form a voluntary group, I shall be glad to give you lectures outside school. " Whereupon he would invite them to his house, and in this way succeeded in preserving a flickering flame of the knowledge of socialism at Waseda.62 That these informal sessions also dealt with pacifism and antimilitarism can be inferred from the number of men around Abe who became pacifists. Even more direct evidence is provided by the publication in 1912 of his translation of Norman Angell's The Great Illusion.63 The following year, at the tenth meeting of the (Waseda) Association for Political Science, he read a paper on Angell's work in which he deplored the fact that the author had not taken an absolute stand against war. 64 Although he might express his conviction in indirect ways, there seems little doubt that Abe's position had by this time evolved into one of absolute pacifism and even of non-resistance. Over and over, in public addresses, he repeated the theme, "If peace is a law of humanity \_jindo~] then it ought to be proclaimed to the world, even if this may mean the destruction of a nation. "65 During World War I, while the socialist movement continued to experience its "wintertime, " Abe strove to keep the goal of peace before the public eye. That his articles dealt almost entirely with pacifism as it was being practised abroad, or might be in the future, reflected the indirect nature of his own nation's involvement in what was essentially a European conflict. Nevertheless, it required some courage to talk about peace at all at a time when the police prohibition of anything that could be interpreted as social criticism continued strict. 66 After 1918, when official surveillance became somewhat less oppressive, Abe was able to resume a more public political career,

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as chairman of the Fabian Society of Japan and advisor to the Yuaikai, a pioneer labour organization. Significantly, his closest associates in these movements followed him in taking an absolute stand against war. 67 With the passing of Taisho Democracy, Abe's position scarcely changed. The platform issued for his second election campaign in 1930, on the very eve of the Manchurian Incident, called for "disarmament within the limits required for national defence. "68 The arguments used to explain this goal repeat, almost word for word, his exposition in the original Socialist Manifesto of 1901, showing that the modification of wording in the platform itself was only a tactical retreat. That popular support for him and his party increased with each election thereafter showed how strong, at least in the cities, was the feeling against militarism.69 Abe's ability to command such support was related partly to his sympathy with the indigenous tradition. Throughout the twenties and thirties, revolutionary Marxism remained a middle class—or at most a skilled workers'—movement. Its exotic terminology and militant spirit appealed more to the ronin tradition (an upper class phenomenon), still latent among intellectuals, than to the workers, whose mentality was nearer to that of the peasantry. Abe's prim, old-fashioned speeches and writings, abounding in homespun allusions to Japan's legendary past, found ready ears among seamen and dock workers, most traditional of union men. There pacifism could appear as an authentic element of that very Imperial Way the militarists presumed to monopolize. And Abe could speak, at the height of Japan's aggressive war in China, of a "Second [or Showa] Restoration, " in which "we will not have the slightest need for the sword, in contrast to the situation in the past. "70 In this stance he echoed the sentiments of a sizeable minority of his countrymen. 71 As the militarist tide waxed strong, however, Abe found it increasingly difficult to adjust his tactics and remain true to his convictions. The limit came on 7 March 1940 when Saito Takao, a member of the conservative-government Masses party (Minseito), was expelled from the Diet for having criticized the military policy in China. 72 When a majority of the Masses party revealed its readiness to vote with the government on expulsion, Abe resigned his chairmanship. After several futile attempts to organize an opposition splinter, he retired from the political world.

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EVALUATION AND CONCLUSIONS

The pacifism of Abe Isoo, like his socialism, needs to be evaluated in the light of its long-term influence as well as of its effect on the society of the day. Viewed in its immediate context, it suffered from some serious weaknesses. Maruyama Masao has remarked that Japanese thought, throughout its history, has revealed an almost limitless capacity to absorb apparently contradictory influences from abroad. Only two related systems—Christianity and Marxism— have so far proved indigestible.73 Japanese thought, concrete, local and personal in nature, finds it difficult to deal with the universal and dogmatic demands of the Western tradition. For Abe, whose pacifism was based both on his Christian faith and his cosmopolitan socialism, the effort to remain loyal to a belief that had come to him from the West and simultaneously to live as a Japanese entailed strains that continually endangered the consistency of his thought. His division of life into religion (personal salvation) and economics (social salvation) allowed him to preserve a kind of balance because he could appear in public as an economic humanist and practical tactician, while remaining a puritan non-conformist in private life. Yet if the "Japanese" side of his life were to dominate, the private belief was in danger of being swallowed up by public duty. 74 Fortunately for Abe, the dichotomy was more formal than real, because his commitment to certain values continually dictated the choice of practical tactics. Still, much of Abe's later public life reflected the dominance of the Japanese approach, which exposed him to the accusation of opportunism (hiyorimi shugf). He himself would doubtless have maintained that he remained personally true to his pacifist conviction, but the necessity to communicate with the masses forced him to adjust to various practical situations. Many other intellectuals besides Abe were forced at this time to withdraw into an interior castle, there to practise a kind of mute, "inner resistance" to seemingly insuperable forces. Ironically, as the possibility of adjustment grew less, Abe found himself progressively isolated from the very masses he sought to help. Even from a Japanese standpoint, the "purity of motive" of martyr types like Kotoku or Kita Ikki (1883-1937)

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seemed more admirable. Faced with the irrationality of militaristic nationalism, Abe's dogged rationality could make little progress. The inability to communicate was inevitable, given the state of society at the time. The moralistic utopianism, in which Abe clothed the social side of his pacifism, came originally from his Confucian background. But it expressed itself in the language of Christian Socialism, whose vocabulary had developed in response to a Western industrial revolution. 75 In the first half of the twentieth century Japan remained a predominantly agrarian society whose mores shaped the consciousness even of the urban labouring classes. The solid bourgeois virtues, extolled by Abe in his Swiss Utopia, still sounded exotic to them. Only the alienated ex-samurai, searching for an alternative to Meiji militarist industrialism, or the Taisho businessman, seeking free markets in China, half understood his message. Of course Abe's pacifism, in its limited appeal, differed little from other intellectual movements in late Meiji. Sumiya Mikio has pointed out that all the pacifists before 1911 relied more on speaking and writing than on action or organization. Only Katayama Sen, the peasant socialist, differed in his approach, and he was finally forced out of Japan to seek support in the United States and Soviet Union. In an editorial written on the eve of his departure, he commented sadly! "The socialist movement, apart from its power base in society, the working class, is a rootless growth; in the end nothing more than intellectuals playing games. "76 Abe and his colleagues relied on words rather than organized action because they never completely succeeded in freeing themselves from their Confucian-samurai class background, where the ruler's moral example was considered more important than political legislation. This same background, as we have seen, produced a conflict in their consciousness between the individualist values of the West (including class conflict) and an organic view of society which presupposed harmony between classes. Abe attempted to escape the conflict by resorting to social education as a gradual means of changing individual relations and attitudes. He never fully came to grips with a total view of society in which political and economic structures are seen as a system that generates or maintains certain values and relations. A change in the latter necessitates a prior basic alteration of the infrastructures that support them. 77

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Nevertheless, in their struggle with the indigenous tradition, Abe and his fellow Christians performed one notable task. As we have seen, Japanese culture, both in its Shinto and Buddhist strains, contained certain elements capable of a "pacifist" interpretation. But historically these had always remained latent, or were relegated to areas well fenced off from active fulfilment such as pathetic legend or personal quietism. It remained for Japanese Christians like Abe and Uchimura to transform them by interaction with the prophetic tradition of the West. In so doing they removed pacifism from the realm of personal preference to the area of transcendent demand. 78 Thereafter even non-Christians, though they might not base their stand on religious conviction, could still point to anti-war sentiment as an option within the Japanese tradition of social thought. Consequently, Abe's personal significance for the society of his day consisted chiefly in his importance as a symbol. Like Uchimura Kanzo, he stood for a kind of token integrity with which lesser figures could identify subjectively, though they themselves remained impotent as the waves of militarism swept over them. 79 In this capacity such men were preparing a certain type of consciousness for the future. When Hiroshima and defeat had crumbled the last facades of militarism, the postwar Japanese emerged—intellectuals, bureaucrats, workers, and housewives—ordinary people in whose minds had been implanted the vision of an unarmed state. True, the vision represented a vague "mood" rather than a reasoned programme, yet it found its embodiment in Article Nine of the Constitution, which "forever renounce [s] war as a sovereign right of the nation. " Since 1947, the campaign to revise this "Imposed Constitution" (oshitsuke kempD) has revealed another aspect of Abe Isoo's prophetic character. One recalls how in 1906, with his colleagues on the shortlived Shin kigen [New Age], he began to extend his analysis of the roots of militarism beyond the sphere of political economy, linking them to the authoritarian attitudes developed within the twin Japanese social systems of family and emperor. Forty years later, after imperial Japan's defeat in 1945, the widespread examination of the sources of the military spirit carried on by Japanese social scientists and reformers has raised similar questions.80 For them as for Abe, the "peculiar nature" of Japan's capitalism (i. e, zaibatsu concentration of industrial potential; close co-operation between leaders in industry,

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bureaucracy, and government; authoritarian education in family, school, and army) has been responsible for the way that her modern course became perverted. As long as the basic structures conditioning the society exist, the nation will always bear within it the potential of,a return to militarism. One final illustration will confirm the fear felt both by Abe and by contemporary scholars. Ever since 1954 the drive to abolish Article Nine of the Constitution has been linked with a desire to make the entire document "more Japanese in spirit. " By this is implied rejection of the "individualism" inherent in the present text and the revision of articles such as those which define the emperor's powers, or guarantee civil and individual rights in a way that appears to contradict "traditional" attitudes to throne and family. 81 Thus the restoration, or possible resurgence, of militarism in contemporary Japan can be seen to go hand in hand with a return to those very authoritarian values of family and nation to which Abe and his colleagues had pointed as "the very life-source of the army. "

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7 Kagawa Toyohiko A Pacifist? YUZO OTA INTRODUCTION

When Bungei Shunju, a well-known Japanese magazine, chose "One Hundred Giants of Modern Japan" for its August 1964 issue, Kagawa Toyohiko was among the ten chosen in the field of social action. The people who made this selection deemed him of more importance than, for example, Abe Isoo, who was also considered but not included. It is likely that Kagawa will continue to be mentioned as a figure of some importance in the history of modern Japan, as he himself predicted to his young followers when he was still a completely unknown slum worker in his early twenties.l Though there is little doubt that history will remember him, the place it will accord him is still an unsettled question. No consensus has yet emerged, although, on the whole, time seems to be diminishing his importance. A person who worked closely with Kagawa wrote in 1970, ten years after his death: "Kagawa was tremendously famous. While I travelled all over Japan as Kagawa's companion for five years, among the numerous people we met, there was only a single person who did not know who he was. However, nowadays virtually no one of the younger generation knows Kagawa's name. "2 When one attempts to evaluate him, he immediately faces immense difficulty. As the opening phrases of the short evaluation in Bungei Shunju point out, Kagawa is a very controversial figure "whose reputation is divided between high praise and severe censure, "3 and one is at a loss to know what to believe.

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One encounters the same diversity when he studies Kagawa as a pacifist. One Japanese author uses these words in her short overview of prewar Japanese Christian pacifism: "It is true that Kagawa was interrogated by the Military Police for suspected anti-war speeches, but he did not really maintain any clear pacifist stand. "4 Yet the most recent study of Kagawa by another Japanese writer reads: "Kagawa should be understood, first and foremost, as a person who fought and suffered for peace. "5 The same Kagawa about whose "lifetime of absolute pacifism"6 his American supporters enthusiastically talked was accused after the war by other Americans of supporting Japanese militarism. "Under Christian guise this Jap fostered war," was the phrase used by Barnard Rubin, whose article on Kagawa in the Pacific Stars and Stripes originated a controversy towards the end of 1945.7 The task of evaluating Kagawa as a pacifist, requires a good deal of background analysis. BIOGRAPHY

Kagawa Toyohiko was born in Kobe on 10 July 1888. He was the second son of Kagawa Jun'ichi. Jun'ichi, son of a rural sake brewer in Awa (the present Tokushima Prefecture), had been adopted into the Kagawa family, which was also well-to-do. He had tried his hand in politics and the bureaucracy during early Meiji, but by the time his son Toyohiko was born, he had his own successful domestic marine transport company in Kobe. Toyohiko's mother was not Jun'ichi's legitimate wife, Michi, the eldest daughter of the Kagawa family. Michi, who had been living in her family home, neglected by Jun'ichi and childless, entered Toyohiko's life when both his parents died and the relatives decided that she and her mother would bring up the orphaned lad. He was only five. As might be expected, he suffered from the hostility of Michi who, according to Yokoyama Haruichi, the author of a standard biography of Kagawa, was given to hysteria. 8 Kagawa later said about his childhood with Michi that "living in a big house without any sort of love meant hell to me. "9 When Toyohiko was really feeling lonely and starved for love as a student in the Tokushima Middle School, he met two missionaries who were both kind to him. One of them, Dr. H. W. Meyers, was

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to prove Kagawa's life-long benefactor. Mrs. Meyers also loved him dearly, and the photograph of Kagawa, her "prodigal son, " taken around this time, was to adorn her desk for years to come.10 It was fortunate for Kagawa that he could find affectionate parent figures in the Meyers. Otherwise misfortunes like the bankruptcy of his family in 1903 and the death of his elder brother in 1904 might have proved too much for him. Kagawa was baptized by Dr. Meyers in February 1904. He was fifteen years old and had attended church only twice before. n Not Christian doctrines but the Meyerses' human warmth toward the love-starved boy ("I was the loneliest person in the world just at that time and I was searching for someone who would treat me kindly")12 led to his baptism. With financial help from Dr. Meyers, Kagawa, after graduating from middle school, studied first at Meiji Gakuin in Tokyo and then at Kobe Shingakko (Kobe Theological College). His extraordinary thirst for knowledge kept him absorbed in reading. He caught tuberculosis, which not only threatened his life but also, along with his aloofness and eccentricity, alienated him from most of his fellow students. When he was twenty-one, he moved to the Shinkawa slums in Kobe and started in settlement work. In 1913 Kagawa married a girl who was working in a factory near the slums. In 1914, entrusting the slum work to his friends, he left for the United States to study at Princeton. In 1917 he returned to Japan and his work in Shinkawa, now aware of the limitations of mere philanthropy. He turned his attention to the labour movement, in which he quickly became a leader. For a few years after 1919, especially in the Kansai area, his influence was strong. After the great Kobe shipyard strike in 1921, the dominance of elements more to the left reduced his power, and he gradually withdrew from the labour movement. In 1921, with a group of friends including Sugiyama Motojiro (18851964), regarded by many as the father of the farmers' movement in Japan, Kagawa started the Japan Farmers' Union, but again he could not maintain his position of leadership for long. The modest influence he retained in both the labour and farmers' movements resulted from his personal connections with their leaders and the leaders of the socialist parties. At the time of his death, he was still an advisor to the Japan Socialist party, and although he himself did not run for elections, he helped many of his friends win seats in the Diet. He also contributed generous sums from the royalties

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provided by his immensely popular novels to the labour movement, the farmers' movement, and other works of social action. It is difficult to find another person as active in so many fields as Kagawa. He himself said in 1936: "In the morning I am a writer. In the afternoon I am an organizer. In the evening I am a preacher. "13 His social welfare work, which began very humbly and modestly in the Shinkawa slums, slowly expanded. In 1940 Kagawa had "4 settlements, 6 cooperatives, 6 slum kitchens, 3 hospitals, 17 kindergartens, 3 tuberculosis sanitaria, 3 gospel schools, 1 domestic science school, 2 magazines, 1 farm and 19 churches under his supervision. "14 As for his preaching, Kagawa was the first real mass evangelizer Japan had. During the four and a half years of the Kingdom of God movement from the late 1920's to the early 1930's, he spoke 1, 859 times on 734 days addressing himself to 787, 223 people, of whom 62,410 submitted a decision card by which they expressed their intention to become Christians.1S Kagawa's death on 23 April 1960 ended a busy and colourful life. PACIFIST ACTIVITIES

If we examine Kagawa's life and writings, we cannot deny that he did and said things which would fit the image of a pacifist, but he also at times said things which challenge his reputation as one. For the time being, I will focus on the positive, "pacifist" Kagawa. One of the first book-length works on him was intended, according to a brief review in the Kagawa Fellowship Bulletin, "to show how Kagawa has persistently labored for the cause of peace. "16 This book tells us how Kagawa was beaten because he refused to take part in military drill at his middle school during the Russo-Japanese War. Other evidence indicates that Kagawa knew Tolstoy's writings and was already attracted by the teaching of non-resistance as a middle school student. In August 1906 he published an article entitled "Sekai heiwa ron" [On world peace]17 in his hometown newspaper in Tokushima. This short but remarkably precocious work from the pen of an eighteen-year-old contained numerous references to Western philosophers like Kant, Hegel, and Marx, though other contemporary articles indicate that he shared to a certain extent the feelings of his countrymen on the Russo-Japanese War. We can conclude that

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he had leanings toward pacifism but had not committed himself when he left high school. "Sekai heiwa ron" was little more than the experiment of a lively mind with exciting ideas. There is no question that his experiences in the Shinkawa slums from 1909 to 1914 decisively influenced him. "It is doubtful if Kagawa would have become such a great soul without the 'training' he received by living in the slum, which worked as a kind of purgatory for him, "18 says a personal friend. A widespread superficial interpretation of Kagawa's entry into this life in 1909 when he was still a theological student interprets it as an act of great sacrifice on the part of a saintly person, a St. Francis of Japan. If Kagawa was ever a saintly person, all the evidence indicates that he lacked many of the attributes usually associated with sainthood when he entered the slum. When we recall his loveless childhood, the bankruptcy of his once prosperous family caused by the dissolute life of his elder brother, and his tuberculosis, which many regarded as incurable at that time, it is not difficult to imagine the state of the boy's mind. Wallowing in self-pity and constantly tempted by the idea of suicide, he spent days in endless introspection and isolation. This picture of the young Kagawa, though slightly exaggerated, inevitably emerges from a careful reading of Shisen o koete [Across the deathline] (first written in 1907; later expanded and published in 1920) and other early writings such as "Koya nikki" [Diary in the hut], which dates from 1908 while he nursed himself, alone and very lonely. As late as July 1909, that is, only five months before he started to live in the Shinkawa slums, he wrote: "Ah, the only solution is this... Death...death, death, death. "19 In the same essay one finds the following strangely nihilistic statement: "Only God creates such a meaningless world. In that is manifested His greatness. God dwells in this world which is so meaningless. I really admire God that He can bear to live in such a meaningless world despite his omniscience and omnipotence. God chooses to live despite the meaninglessness. I wonder if God ever commits suicide?"20 Behind his decision to move to the Shinkawa slum were not only an admirable religious rationale and motivation, the desire to preach the gospel and to help the people there, but in addition the recklessness of a youth who believed that he would not live for more than a few years because of tuberculosis and who was also strongly nihilistic. If he really crossed the deathline when he entered the Shinkawa slums,

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he certainly did not cross it as an angel from the domain of life to the domain of death, as most of his admirers later thought. On the contrary, five years in the slums with their daily challenges saved Kagawa from his morbid self, his excessive introspection, and helped him mature. 21 Life in the slums made him an adult. "After he had started leading a challenging life in the slums, all the pessimistic ideas which had held him a few years before left him completely, "22 says Kagawa in Shisen o koete about the hero, Niimi Eiichi, whom in this case we can confidently identify with Kagawa himself. Only after Kagawa had lived through his adolescent despair and could affirm life by residence in the slums did he become a pacifist whom one can discuss seriously. A book as early as Hinmin shinri no kenkyu [The psychology of the poor, 1915], an intellectual result of his experiences in the slums and in my opinion the most enduring book he wrote, contains scattered pacifist sentiments. For example, when Kagawa discusses the causes which produce paupers, he attacks military expenditure and says: "What is especially foolish are the military expenses of the nation.... [Then, after quoting statistics about military expenses] No wonder that there are so many poor people. "23 The nature of the few references like this one shows that pacifism did not at this time occupy a central position in Kagawa's mind. What led him to pay greater attention to it was World War I and his study of the biological sciences at Princeton. These gave him the knowledge to refute superficial interpretations of evolution, survival of the fittest, and so on, and their application to the question of war and peace. For a few years after his return from the United States in 1917, he wrote articles which had direct bearing on the question of pacifism, and in them are found his most clear-cut and significant pacifist statements. For example, there is a short article entitled "Heiwa no michi" [The way of peace], published in 1919. It was an attack on Japan's imperialistic and militaristic ambitions as demonstrated by her Twenty-One Demands on China in 1915 and her dispatch of troops to Siberia in 1918. It is the most direct and sharpest pacifist statement Kagawa ever wrote.

The world all cheers for the return of peace. All over the world they cheer. England, the United States, France, Belgium ...all cheer. Japan, however, cannot cheer. There is a falsehood

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in her, for Japan does not really love peace. ...Now Japan does not love peace. Now there is no peace in Japan. China...Siberia.... [This is] its diplomacy, and its politics is that of the military police. I am ashamed of a nation which commits robbery to grow big.... Japanese history is full of lies. No genuine truth is accessible to them; the Japanese demand that history alone should not contain truth. And to this nation peace has now come. The country is filled with voices shouting "banzai. " But is this a genuine occasion for rejoicing? The way of peace is not the way of falsehood. The way of peace lies in truth and in the lofty passionate love of truth. Let us be genuine, otherwise we will be unable to abide in peace. Peace guarded by an army of one million strong is no peace at all. Peace won by the sword is no peace. Let us be delivered from the army! Only then there will be a real peace. Japanese people! be liberated from the sword, from secret diplomacy, from warships, from greed for new territories, from false history! How long are you going to continue your worship of the sabre?24 Kagawa's autobiographical novel, Shi sen o koete, which he published in 1920, became a bestseller and had 280 printings. It, along with the famous Kobe shipyard strike in 1921, which Kagawa led, made him a great celebrity, a fame that greatly affected his later life. People who wanted to take advantage of his fame made many demands on him thereafter. In a semi-official diary which he published in the magazine Kumo no hashira [Pillar of clouds], Kagawa complains in 1922 about the endless visitors who were depriving him of "time for meditation, time for prayer, time for reading and for self-reflection. "25 He became too famous and started to lead the hectic life of a Christian celebrity, a life which made him, not infrequently, "speak as much as eleven hours and forty-five minutes a day, "26 as a concerned observer noted, and give twenty-three talks within four days. 27 As a result, really creative work as a thinker, as an intellectual, for which he had a great aptitude, became virtually

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impossible. It is not surprising that the quality of his subsequent intellectual work gradually deteriorated. Thus, "Gunbi no teppai serareru made" [Until armaments are abolished], published in January 1922, proved to be his last impressive early pacifist writing. From about 1922, his pacifist work was primarily that of an organizer and a featured public speaker whose fame attracted big crowds and whose words carried weight because of his fame alone. He later became famous as a pacifist abroad when he was neither creative as a pacifist thinker nor absolute in his pacifist conviction. On 2 March 1934, Kagawa gave a talk in Hong Kong entitled "The Economic Foundation of World Peace. "28 In this talk, Kagawa said that "there are four or five kinds of pacifists" and named three of them explicitly: (1) sentimental or emotional pacifists, (2) moral pacifists, and (3) rational pacifists. In a way, Kagawa approves of all of them, but he says that he himself had come to stress increasingly the importance of the economic foundation for world peace. He criticizes the emotional arguments against war which "belong to the Don Quixote period of pacifism. " He also criticizes the moral pacifism of the Quakers and the political pacifism of the League of Nations, which he seems to regard as a variety of rational pacifism, for their lack of economic understanding. This shift of emphasis from the highly moral pacifism of the early Kagawa to the more realistic, rational, and "economic" pacifism of the later Kagawa is of great significance. Let us cite Kagawa's main pacifist activities in rough chronological order from the early 1920's onward. When Kagawa and his friends organized the Society of Friends of Jesus in October 1921, that is, the month before the start of the Washington Conference, they listed as one of their five principles that a member "should work for world peace, "29 although how much this decision determined the nature of the Society is not clear. In November 1924, Kagawa left for his second visit to the United states, four months after the new Immigration Act there, called in Japan the "Japanese Exclusion Act," had strained relations between Japan and the United States. During his voyage to the United States he read Lanthrop Stoddard's Rising Tide of Color, a vicious attack on the Japanese, and wrote the following comment: "I have realized for the first time why I am crossing the Pacific. I am being sent to stop this kind of petty quarrelling among peoples. I will fight

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against this spirit of racial enmity in the United States and in England. "30 In the United States he tried to prevent the further aggravation of tension between the United States and Japan. Kagawa, together with Tagore, Gandhi, Einstein, and Romain Rolland,31 signed an oath for the abolition of conscription and presented it to the League of Nations in 1925. In 1928 the National Anti-War League of Japan was organized, with Kagawa as its official representive.32 In April of the previous year, a new cabinet had come into existence, and General Tanaka Giichi, the premier, who was also his own foreign minister, pursued an aggressive "positive" diplomacy towards China, in marked contrast to the policy of Shidehara Kijuro, his predecessor as foreign minister. 33 Tanaka sent troops to Shantung in May 1927 and in April and May 1928. His policy was clearly militaristic. The formation of the National AntiWar League of Japan was, according to a talk Kagawa gave abroad, a response to the Japanese Army's moves in Shantung during 1928.34 In this talk Kagawa also says that he fully anticipated some danger to his person when he created the League, but he adds that at the mass meeting sponsored by the League, four hundred policemen protected him from indignant "anti-pacifists" and arrested "whoever even shouted during the meeting. "35 This part of his story sounds hard to believe, but no further information about the League is available. While Kagawa was on his third visit to America, the Manchurian Incident occurred on 18 September 1931, and on the way back to Japan he wrote two poems in his notebook which express pacifist sentiments. One of them, entitled "Nayami no ko" [Child of worries], but available only in English translation, contains these lines: "Once more I became the Child of Worries, charged with the crime of Japan...apologizing to China, apologizing to the world. "36 During his fourth visit to the United States in 1936 he preached world peace based on international economic co-operation: "The causes of war are largely economic, since they include over-population, need of raw materials, national debts, commercial policies and transportation policies. If nations would apply the co-operative ideal in their relations to one another, war would be eliminated. "37 That year he also contributed an article entitled "Peace by World Cooperatives" to the 29 April number of the Christian Century, a prestigious non-denominational Christian weekly in the United States. His poem "Namida

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to kataru"38 [A conversation with tears] was written and published in English translation39 after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and he showed it to some Chinese in 1938 when he stopped at Hong Kong on the way to India to discuss means to end the war. 40 This poem further impressed on foreigners the image of Kagawa as a pacifist, containing, as it did, lines such as "Like Christ who bore our sins upon the Cross, /I, too, must bear my country's sins and dross. " Then came Kagawa's arrest on 25 August 1940 for anti-war activities. This was at once reported abroad, and the Christian Century carried an editorial which ended with the warning: "But let those who have imprisoned this Christian servant beware. Kagawa in prison may be stronger than Kagawa free could ever be. "41 Two weeks later its correspondent in Japan explained the reasons for his arrest in the following way! "It is understood that Kagawa was charged with sending anti-war writings to American religious organizations, the sentiments expressed being allegedly injurious to the prosecution of the present China Affair. He also delivered many anti-war peace talks at many places in Japan. "42 There is no doubt that such a report confirmed Americans in their belief that Kagawa was the leading Japanese pacifist. Kagawa was released on 13 September 1940. In April 1941, Kagawa visited the United States for the fifth time as a member of the Christian Peace Mission from Japan to discuss means to avert the approaching war between Japan and the United States. After the main body of the Mission returned to Japan, Kagawa remained and spoke frequently. As in his previous visits, he attracted ample attention from Americans. In the Christian Century there are headings like "Kagawa Interprets the Japanese Church" (21 May), "Kagawa Calls for Redemptive Love" (28 May), and "Kagawa Speaks in New York Capital" (23 July). He arrived back in Japan in August. On 1 December 1941, only a week before the outbreak of the Pacific War, Kagawa commenced a week-long day-and-night anti-war prayer meeting in response to a cabled proposal from E. Stanley Jones of the United States.43 In May and November 1943 Kagawa was called in by the police for suspected anti-war thought and activities, although he was never detained long. Shortly after the war, in September 1945, Kagawa and a few friends founded the International Peace Society in Tokyo. Later he became active in

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the World Federation Movement and worked energetically for world peace. In February 1955, hopeful friends put forward his name as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. THE ORIGIN OF KAGAWA'S REPUTATION AS THE LEADING JAPANESE PACIFIST

The above biographical information indicates that Kagawa's reputation as a pacifist has a solid foundation. On the whole, he was more courageous than other Japanese Christians in resisting rising chauvinism and in voicing pacifist opinions even if they consisted of little more than pious yearnings for peace. He also championed internationalism in Japan for many years. He said: "These days we hear Japanese Spirit, Japanese Spirit, over and over, but if this is to be a spirit for Japan only, peace will absolutely not come. "44 He is also quoted as saying in English at about the same time! "Since I cannot be anything but a Japanese I am very fond of the Japan spirit, but the Japan spirit must be of the kind that wants to give to the world the best that Japan has. "45 Before the outbreak of the Pacific War, Kagawa criticized Japan's "peculiar ambitions to have supremacy over other races"46 and said: "It is a mistake for Japan to set her heart on leading the Orient. "47 Against this one must add that Kagawa also succumbed during the Pacific War to nationalism. He also wrote things such as this preface to Tenku to kurotsuchi o nui awasete [Mixing the sky and black soil], a collection of his poems published in May 1943: The strange logic that only Roosevelt's people should be free and that the people of Asia should be slaves makes even the sun laugh. ...Churchill and Roosevelt, who regarded Asia as their protectorate, at last dyed the Pacific Ocean eternally red with blood. A tornado of blood rose. A tornado of blood of righteous indignation, of blood of the heroes of Pearl Harbor and of the loyal brave soldiers of the Solomon Archipelago, rose boiling to heaven. "We would like to die near our sovereign lord. We would not regret such a death. " The sincere spirit of the soldiers,

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who, oblivious of self and transcending life and death, strove only to serve Imperial Japan, enabled the Morning Star to see that the dawn was not far away.... Ah, Asia has wakened. India has cried for liberation. The Republic of China has cursed America and Britain.... 48 In addition to several passages of this sort, Kagawa allowed himself to be used for wartime propaganda and towards the end of the war gave anti-American radio talks beamed overseas. Because of this and because of his visit to China in 1944 ("On the signed testimony of Japanese fellow-Christians, he visited China to seek the end of Chinese resistance"),49 he was suspected by some of having co-operated with the Japanese militarists and, after the war, only narrowly escaped purge by the Occupation forces. In order to arrive at a balanced evaluation of Kagawa as a pacifist, we must also examine this contrary evidence. For the sake of convenience, I would like to relegate the detailed discussion of Kagawa's limitations as a pacifist to the next section, and in this section to analyse the circumstances which created the widespread image of him as the leading Japanese pacifist in the prewar world. Kagawa, from the 1930's on, enjoyed a greater reputation abroad, especially in the United States, than inside Japan. Kagawa himself said in November 1936, when an English translation of one of his novels was about to appear! "Nowadays the number of Western readers of my writings seem to have surpassed that of Japanese readers. "50 This shift is an interesting phenomenon. The discrepancy between Kagawa's reputation abroad and that inside Japan has been noticed by Japanese observers. Kagawa is so much neglected within Japan that almost every new book and essay on him pleads for further evaluation. One of the main arguments the authors use to support their stand is that Kagawa enjoys a much higher reputation abroad than at home. They stress that the international esteem Kagawa enjoys is almost as high as that of Gandhi. A recent example is found in the Asahi Newspaper review (morning edition, 26 March 1973) of Miyake Shoichi, Gekidoki no Nikon shakai undo shi [A Japanese social history of the tumultous period] (Tokyo! Gendai Hyoron Sha, 1973), a book which devotes half its space to a sympathetic discussion of Kagawa. In my opinion, to appeal to

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Kagawa's high reputation abroad is not a good guide to his intrinsic nature, because his reputation abroad rested upon a flimsy understanding of both Kagawa and Japan. Kagawa was introduced to the American and other overseas public by Christian missionaries through publications such as the Kagawa Fellowship Bulletin, which existed "to enlist interest and financial 'cooperation' from our readers, in Kagawa's many projects, "51 and Friends of Jesus, which appeared "in response to the need for an interpretation in the English language of Dr. Kagawa's Christian message and the implications of his message as applied to world-wide problems. "52 The Christian Century also backed him strongly. Unfortunately, the missionaries who introduced him abroad were on the whole more interested in advertising Kagawa than in portraying him accurately. One example is a 1925 article in the Christian Century extravagantly praising Kagawa's best-known novel, Shi sen o koete, which had appeared in English translation under the title Before the Dawn. The writer of the review introduces Kagawa in this way! Ten years ago a young Japanese returned from America to find his place in a land which was undergoing the writhings of the rebirth enforced by modern industry. In the ardour of his youth this crusader threw himself into the slums of Kobe. There he endured all things. He went hungry; cold; friendless. He was imprisoned by his enemies and deserted by his followers. He contracted the diseases of the slums. He was robbed; beaten; he walked the valley of the shadow. Love came to him, and he was forced to see one dearer than himself become diseased, disfigured, because of that love....Today, the young man, preternaturally grave, still lives in his slum. But he has become a figure of almost mythical proportions in his homeland. He is Japan's foremost Christian preacher. He is her foremost social reformer. He is her foremost labor leader. He is her foremost novelist.53 Here the writer employs highly emotional language in order to create a myth. In clear contrast to the sugary picture of Kagawa which missionaries

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propagated, his real attitude towards people was by no means simply sweet. In Hinmin shinri no kenkyu there are many candid remarks which, if quoted out of context, would create the impression that Kagawa had great contempt for the poor people around him. For example, when he discusses the habit common among the poor of buying such food as sweets in order to supplement their regular meals (kaigui), he first tries to determine whether their behaviour is best intelligible as that of monkeys or human beings. He opts for the former. "However, not all of the poor people are monkeys. Many of them just ape monkeys around them. "54 Sentences like "The poor are a kind of inferior race" (8:145); "Beggars are not human beings" (8:213); "There are no animals so repulsive as prostitutes in the slums" (8:221); and "The poor are also the foolish" (8:123) are scattered throughout this book. Young Kagawa refused to idealize people sentimentally no matter how much he sympathized with them and was concerned about their happiness. The missionaries' picture of Kagawa was generally unreliable because those who drew it made him appear greater than he was, as in William Axling's Kagawa (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1932). Even the author of a doctoral dissertation has acknowledged this book to contain "the most complete" material on Kagawa's life. 55 However, a careful reading soon reveals that even it contains factual errors and exaggerations which contribute to the "Kagawa myth." For example, in discussing the early stage of Kagawa's work in the Shinkawa slums, Axling says; "At one time over ten down-and-outs were under his hospitable six by six roof. "56 This is simply false. Apart from the question of the number of people who stayed at his house, a knowledge of the facts would have led Axling to say, "under his hospitable twelve by twelve roof. "57 He also says about the slums; "Here ten thousand people were sardined into houses six feet square, more like prison cells than homes. Often such a house had to accommodate a family of five or two families of nine to ten persons. "58 Those who have read Kagawa's Hinmin shinri no kenkyu know, however, that the so-called six-foot square house is by no means representative even of the Shinkawa slums. Kagawa, who studied "laws" governing these houses, discovered among other things that "those who intend to live in the slum for long never rent a six-foot square house"59 and that "those who inhabit a six-foot square house are quite often single; the total population of the eighty six-

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foot-square houses in [a section of the Shinkawa slums]...was one hundred and three in January 1912" (8:180). It is remarkable that Axling, who knew enough Japanese to translate Kagawa's writings, overlooked these easily accessible facts. He talks about his great financial difficulties in his early slum days, but remains silent about the fairly big donation from a minister's wife in New York which provided most of his funds during the first year, as Kagawa explicitly states in a book he published in 1920. 60 Kagawa's attitude towards missionaries was on the whole friendly, quite different from that of other Christian leaders such as Uchimura Kanzo. Although Kagawa was not completely uncritical, his general attitude towards missionaries could be summarized best by the following quotation: "Since the missionaries who personally guided me were great, I have a very good feeling towards missionaries in general. "61 This attitude made it easy for missionaries to work with him. To be successful, missionaries needed the close co-operation of native Christian leaders. Kagawa's friendly attitude was an asset to them. Besides, Kagawa openly acknowledged that he was a product of mission work. 62 Since their enterprise cost a huge amount of money, missionaries often felt obliged to demonstrate how well they were doing their job. Their concern is reflected in sentences like! "The significant fact that the authors of these two books are products of mission work speaks with a power and persuasiveness that convinces the most skeptical that Christian missions pay. "63 As evidence of the eifectiveness of missionary enterprise, a person like Kagawa was very valuable. When he visited Australia in 1935, the Dean of Newcastle said in a newspaper article: "First and foremost, I would say that he puts to shame the opponents of missionary enterprise. He has a story to tell which completely dispels any lingering disappointments or doubts about the effectiveness of the work of Christian missionaries in Japan. "64 Since Kagawa helped gain financial support for mission enterprises, it is understandable that they advertised him widely and that consciously or not they exaggerated his greatness. "As 'Exhibit A' of the fruits of missionary efforts, Kagawa's name has acquired a luster which works magic for budgets. Men...use his prestige as a charm with which to untie knotted purse strings, "65 said a missionary with some misgivings as Kagawa was "subjected to premature ripening in the glare of promotional publicity. "66 It is in this light that Kagawa's high reputation as the

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leading Japanese pacifist becomes more intelligible. KAGAWA'S LIMITATIONS AS A PACIFIST The image of Kagawa as Japan's leading pacifist survived even after the outbreak of the Pacific War, as is shown by "A Letter to Kagawa, " published in the Christian Century during the war, in which the pacifist author, after extolling Kagawa's valiant opposition to militarism and war, breaks into an emotional apostrophe! "You, the friend of man, and the servant of Almighty God!...We will not lose you, nor forget you. "67 My hesitation to accept him on these terms arises first from disappointment over his acts; there may be nothing in his conduct which positively contradicts his reputation as a pacifist, but what he actually says is not impressive. For example, consider some of his statements during his fourth American trip from December 1935 to June 1936. In 1936 Kagawa's prestige in the United States was at its height, and huge crowds attended his meetings and donated great sums of money. "In Boston where $500 had to be paid for the arena, all expenses were covered [by free-will offerings] and nearly $2,000 turned over to Dr. Kagawa, "68 reports the Christian Century. What did he actually say? To quote a few examples: "We look upon the militarists in pretty much the same way as you look upon one or two mosquitoes in a room at night";69 "Ninety-nine percent of the intellectuals of my country are outspoken for peace";70 and [in answer to the question, "How do your people feel toward our exclusion of your people from admission into the United States?"], "I think our feeling is one of sympathetic toleration. "71 These words do not reflect the reality of Japan at that time. Kagawa may have said these things in all honesty, or he may have said them to impart a more favourable picture of Japan than she actually deserved. Probably the latter was the case. He also said, in answer to the question, "What is the attitude of the Japanese people toward the United States?": "It is a feeling of real friendship. We recently enacted a law making it a crime for any of our citizens to utter a word of bitterness toward the United States" (p. 225). This is also misleading. Whatever the motive behind these glib utterances, they do not increase one's respect for their author.

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People like Helen F. Topping emphasized Kagawa's uncompromising attitude as a pacifist. 72 In "Kagawa and the War, " written after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, she includes a long quotation from Kagawa's preface to the Chinese edition of Love the Law of Life, in which the following words appear! "It causes me intolerable shame to reflect upon the violence that Japanese militarism had done and is doing in China, in spite of all my prayers.... Though a million times I should ask pardon it would not be enough to cover the sins of Japan. I am ashamed, because I am too impotent to influence the militarism of Japan. Chinese leaders may well accuse me of impotence. I deserve the charge" (p. 559). These are strong words. Unfortunately, Kagawa's actions after the 1931 Manchurian Incident did not reflect similar conviction. For example, when Kagawa admitted that Japan was wrong, he often coupled the admittance with the charge that the Western powers were equally wrong, so his words lose impact as criticism of his own country. The actual function of Kagawa's words is quite ambiguous. For example, "The people of other countries keep repeating, Japan is bad, Japan is bad 'Japan—bad,' but to say that Japan only is bad is a mistake. Do not the white races hold two-thirds of the land of the world?"73 And (in answer to the question, "Do you take the position that Japan should not expand?"), "I suppose the Dutch expanded when they took Formosa; I suppose the French expanded when they took Indo-China. In a sense the British expanded when they obtained such large control of Chinese ports and Chinese trade. You see, we have excellent precedents for expansion, and we, also, have a serious problem caused by overpopulation and unemployment. "74 Statements like these might have pleased Japanese militarists. Kagawa's attitude towards the Manchurian Incident itself shows that he was not so uncompromising as a pacifist. It is true that at first he seems to have been quite critical of Japan's policy in Manchuria. In the Kagawa Fellowship Bulletin we read: "during the election campaign both he [Sugiyama Motojiro, a co-worker of Kagawa] and Kagawa were speaking in opposition to Japan's imperialism and militarism in China, which, they said, would benefit only the rich, and leave the farmers poorer. [The] Japanese farmer has a standard of living which is so much higher than that of the thirty million Chinese already resident in Manchuria that Japanese cannot compete as farmers with the Chinese. "75 The critical attitude

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displayed here by Kagawa was either inconsistent or short-lived. In a book entitled Senso wa boshi shiuru ka [Can we prevent war?], published the same year, he refers to the attitude of working class people in New Zealand and Australia towards Japan and says: "Since they know that Japan has to have considerable economic resources in Asia to solve her population problem, they show a very sympathetic understanding toward Japan as far as the Manchurian Problem is concerned. "76 This statement suggests that Kagawa's attitude toward the Manchurian problem was also becoming that of "sympathetic understanding. " Kagawa visited Manchuria for roughly four weeks from the end of May 1938. During this trip, he met Matsuoka Yosuke (18801946), leader of the Japanese delegation which left the League of Nations and foreign minister in the second Konoye cabinet (194041), who was indicted as a war criminal after World War II. Matsuoka was then the head of the South Manchurian Railway. He is said to have repeated proudly that he had invented the slogan of Japanese imperialism, "Manchuria and Inner Mongolia are Japan's lifeline. "77 If he in fact did say such things frequently, one would expect Kagawa to be repelled. Yet he was not and wrote about this meeting: "I was also invited to dinner by Mr. Matsuoka Yosuke, the head of the South Manchurian Railway. We had a very intimate talk. He explained his continental policy, which has its religious overtones. His sincerity almost brought me to tears....Mr. Matsuoka is determined to love the Chinese people to the end. In him I had a glimpse of the most purified Japanese spirit. "7B After the war, Kagawa said to a former high-ranking Japanese official in Manchukuo: "Among the continental policies of Japan, Manchukuo was the best. It was run by people with idealism and a sense of justice. Your mission is to write a history of Manchukuo, this great epic of the twentieth century, and leave it to posterity. "7B The record shows little criticism of the Manchurian adventure. As war with the United States approached, Kagawa's statements became increasingly more ambiguous. When the American government announced on 27 July 1939 that it would terminate in six months the 1911 treaty of amity and commerce with Japan, Kagawa cabled the following message to the Christian Century: "REGRET PRESENT AMERICAN JAPANESE CRISIS PLEASE EXERT YOUR CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE FOR RESTORATION OF OUR COMMERCIAL TREATY FOR

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THE PEACE OF THE PACIFIC AND TO AVERT WORLD CATASTROPHE. "80 He was trying to use his personal influence in the United States to avert a war between Japan and the United States, and at first sight he seems to justify his reputation as a pacifist. Further thought about the implication of Kagawa's message, however, displays his "pacifist" effort in another light. The Christian Century answered Kagawa's words with an editorial entitled "Message from Kagawa." That the Christian Century immediately took up Kagawa's statement and published an editorial about it shows the extent of his reputation among Christians in the United States. In fact the editorial begins by paying tribute to Kagawa! "Every well-informed Christian in America thinks of Kagawa as a brother in Christ....The memory of his radiant face and burning words and the impress of his nobly sacrificial spirit...have made it easier for our sympathies and our sense of fellowship to span an ocean and to transcend differences of race. There are doubtless unnumbered Japanese Christians whose mind is as his mind, but his has been the peculiar gift and function of serving as the link between them and us" (p. 990), and it ends with another compliment to Kagawa as "a lover of peace whose sincerity none can question" (p. 991). But to Kagawa's message itself the editorial presents a clear rebuttal. It first points out that the abrogation of the treaty will not necessarily precipitate a crisis. Then it proceeds to explain why American Christians cannot, in response to Kagawa's appeal, exert their influence for the restoration of the treaty. The treaty of 1911 is a "most favored nation" treaty. So long as it exists, it is not possible for the United States to place a special embargo upon the shipment of anything to Japan nor to impose any discriminatory tariff on imports from Japan, which is promoting Japan's military aggression in China. So, to exert their influence for its continuance would mean to help drop "bombs made of American metal, from planes powered by American motors and fueled with American oil, upon the congested areas of Chinese cities" (p. 991). Kagawa's message and the editorial response bewildered and disappointed many of his American friends, although the disappointment could not destroy his already well-established prestige as a pacifist. In a letter to the editor, one reader even suggested that Kagawa perhaps was forced to write this message ("Is it possible he sent his cablegram at the point of a gun?").81 Two weeks before

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the "Message from Kagawa, " the Christian Century had published an article by an anonymous author ("a Japanese Witness")- This article, which emphasized that Christianity in Japan was succumbing to pressures from extreme nationalism, had said: "It seems that he [Kagawa] too is afraid of the Caesar of Japan. 82 " Another reader who read the "Message from Kagawa" wrote to the editor and said: "The message from Japan's outstanding Christian leader seems to me to vindicate the claim of the unnamed writer that 'Christianity in Japan is losing its soul!'" and added, "I cannot help wondering if Kagawa had not been used by the Japanese government to further aggressive aims in China. "83 The militarists and the army of Japan were quite willing to use Christians for their policy in China "to gain the friendship of missionaries in the occupied territory" and for the work of "pacification" in general, as the Japan correspondent of the Christian Century reported under the heading "Army Asks Christians for Help" in 1939.84 And Kagawa apparently did not hesitate to co-operate with the army in such tasks. Kagawa seems to have seen an opportunity for the expansion of Christianity in such army demands. In the Christian Century its Japan correspondent summarizes Kagawa's remark at the 1939 meeting of the Kagawa Fellowship in this way: "it is Kagawa's judgment that never were the Japanese more receptive to the gospel....In China it is widely recognized in army circles that only Christianity can pacify China and solve the many problems between China and Japan. "85 When we remember that Kagawa had asked for forgiveness from the Chinese people in very strong language, this sort of statement also strengthens the impression that Kagawa was not so uncompromising as a pacifist. He did not direct strong criticism towards Japan. Of course, the circumstances made any criticism increasingly difficult. Events such as the Takikawa Incident in 1933, which was started when the minister of education of the time demanded the expulsion of a liberal professor from Kyoto University, and the attack on Minobe Tatsukichi (1873-1948), the chief exponent of the "organ" theory of the emperor, in 1935 signaled the virtual end of freedom of speech within Japan. All the same, Kagawa's reputation as a pacifist abroad was based mainly on materials available at that time only outside Japan. His poem "To Tears, " his preface to the Chinese edition of Love the Law of Life and his more or less pacifist talks during his

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trips abroad which were introduced by his American friends in English-language publications such as the Christian Century, the Kagawa Calendar, Kagawa Fellowship Bulletin, and Friends of Jesus were not available to the Japanese public in Japanese. Whether we regard it as a sensible caution or cowardice, there is no denying that Kagawa was much more outspoken as a pacifist abroad than at home. The charge against him at the time of his arrest in 1940 was based mainly on "a quotation from one of his addresses delivered outside Japan and printed without his consent in the Kagawa calendar for 1939. "86 The differences between Kagawa in Japan and Kagawa abroad did not escape the notice of careful observers. When he visited the United States for the fifth time, an American missionary met him in St. Louis and described his impression in this way: "I last talked with Dr. Kagawa at his little home on the outskirts of Tokyo something over two months before his arrest last August [i. e., 1940]. At that time I gained the impression...that the fires which had made him the outstanding Christian leader in Asia were burning low. In St. Louis he seemed to be markedly changed. In Japan he had been evasive. Here he appeared forthright. "87 Although the writer attributed the change to Kagawa's spiritual recovery ("Today he is a greater man than ever before"), 88 I think Kagawa had two faces, one turned towards the United States and the other towards Japan; the former sounded much more pacifist. That Kagawa had to maintain a dual personality was not entirely his fault. It was to a considerable extent the result of the repressive climate of prewar Japan. In 1936, only one month after his return from a one-year trip to America and Europe, he said: "Since I travel around in Japan so busily, I have already forgotten about the West, so when people ask me to tell them about it, I feel at a loss. "89 Since Kagawa was famous for his extraordinary memory, he cannot be taken literally. This apparent lapse seems to show that the two worlds he was living in, the world outside Japan and Japan itself, were becoming increasingly incompatible. In Japan, he tended to accommodate himself to circumstances, rather than work as an uncompromising idealist. Even the Christian Century's Japan correspondent said in 1940: "In recent years he [Kagawa] has become increasingly conservative and has carefully avoided policies which would give offence to the authorities. "90 He saw the evils of

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Japanese militarism, but in Japan he did not criticize it and excused himself with statements such as! "A prophet would thunder forth his censure without any sense of love. The Cross of Christ, however, makes imperative not only reproof but love. "91 So although Kagawa's arrest in 1940 apparently had the effect of preserving his reputation abroad as a pacifist more or less intact until the end of the war, if the average American Christian had been able to read what he wrote immediately after his release and published in the last number of his magazine Kumo no hashira (October 1940), they would have seen his "Japanese" face: I feel very sorry to have bothered the authorities in this way when the State has more than enough to deal with. It is quite natural that the authorities interrogated me. While Japan was still a member of the League of Nations, I consistently placed the primary emphasis on the importance of co-operating with the League. It is natural that the authorities should have suspected me of similar ideas after the outbreak of the China War. But I cannot help loving my country when it is facing a national emergency. Ideals are ideals, but even the Bible forbids that we break the law of the country for our ideals. That is why, ever since the outbreak of the China War, I have been emphasizing that we should defend our country even to the last person. 92 According to a person who worked closely with Kagawa, "the first thing he [Kagawa] said when Japan entered the Pacific War was, 'Since the war has started, we cannot afford to allow Japan to lose.5"93 At that time many Christian Japanese leaders were justifying their surrender of Christian ideals under nationalistic pressure with such statements as! "purely from our religious viewpoint, we Christians should hold on to the highest ideals and eternal hopes of our faith. But in reality, when the life or death of our country is at stake as it is today, our duty to the fatherland must be considered first. "94 Kagawa's attitude was not so different. As indicated above, it is clear that Kagawa was not active as a pacifist during the Pacific War. 95 His nationalistic statement in the

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preface to Tenku to Kurotsuchi o nui awasete quoted earlier had been written a few months before his interrogation in May 1943. After his second interrogation by the military police in November 1943, Kagawa stated openly that he was no longer a pacifist. Until then he had been a nominal member of two international pacifist organizations, the Kokusai Senso-hantaisha Domei (War Resisters' International), as well as the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Kagawa withdrew from the former and the Japan branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation was disbanded until after World War II. In his letter of withdrawal dated 30 November 1943 to George Lansbury, President of the War Resisters' International, he said: I have come to be ashamed of my membership in the War Resisters' International whose headquarters is in an enemy state, so please delete my name from the membership list. The United States first strengthened discrimination against Japanese ; it forbade Japanese immigration completely, deprived Japanese children of primary schools. Further, the United States repealed the treaty of amity and commerce with Japan, and finally it threatened Japan by the ABCD encirclement and dared to attempt the murder of the Japanese economy by freezing Japanese assets in the United States. At that moment I had to throw into the Pacific Ocean the pacifism which I had been embracing for many years. ...Beginning with the invasion of India by the Portuguese in the 1490's, European powers—Spain, Holland, England, and so on—have been competing with each other to invade the Orient. This tendency was intensified in the nineteenth century, until even the United States occupied the Philippines in 1898, and Japan became isolated in the Orient. Even today Japan is the only independent country in the Orient in the true sense of the word. The most ardent pacifist cannot retain his conviction when he sees that Churchill and Roosevelt are planning to destroy even this last independent country of the Orient. I have made a firm resolution that even if other Japanese are all annihilated and I alone survive, I will continue to defend Japan so that independence and freedom shall not vanish from the Orient. 96

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EVALUATION AND CONCLUSIONS

When Barnard Rubin's attack in the Pacific Stars and Stripes started a lively debate about Kagawa's wartime record, Richard Terril Baker came to his defence in Darkness of the Sun \ The Story of Christianity in the Japanese Empire (Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1947). Ogawa Kiyozumi, an extremely loyal follower of Kagawa, simply paraphrased Baker's argument without comment in 1948.97 Ogawa's action seems to show that even people in the inner circle around Kagawa could not think up a better defence of Kagawa's wartime conduct than Baker's. What Baker tried to do was to show that Kagawa acted with good will despite his mistakes, "driven by the sincere if somewhat naive belief that his nation was doing the right thing to free Asia from Western domination. "98 Baker implies Kagawa's mistakes were relatively minor. Although one might agree with Baker's second point, that to say Kagawa "fostered" war is to exaggerate, and feel that his mistakes were not so grave that we should forget his previous pacifist record, Baker's attempt to exonerate Kagawa from moral responsibility by reference to his good will fails. A moral defence of Kagawa based on such arbitrary propositions as that Kagawa is a poet "almost completely lacking in logical process of thought"99 does not survive critical scrutiny. Kagawa first tried to say a few things in his own defence, but soon decided to take refuge in silence: " 'Let them judge me by what I am doing today, not what I said yesterday,' was his attitude," says Baker. 10° Yokoyama records what may have been Kagawa's last attempt to explain his wartime conduct. He tells us he had avoided the delicate topic of Kagawa's wartime behaviour in his Kagawa Toyohiko den [Life of Kagawa Toyohiko], which was first published in 1950 when Japan was still occupied by the Allied Forces. When Yokoyama was about to publish a new book on Kagawa, Rinjin'ai no toshi Kagawa Toyohiko Sensei [Kagawa Toyohiko: fighter for neighbourly love],101 he felt obliged to say something about the war. For a long time he hesitated to ask directly, but finally in a 1952 interview he said: "I visited several people and asked them what they would have felt or have done if they had been in your position during the war, simply to get some insight into your feelings. However, what they said was not very

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helpful." When Kagawa heard this, he pushed the Bible before Yokoyama's eyes, and said, "This is it. " What Kagawa pointed to was! "I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Romans 9:3). Kagawa did not say another word until Yokoyama thanked him and left. Yokoyama says! "Never have I felt, before or since, so grateful as at that time. "102 What Kagawa pointed to here as an explanation of his wartime conduct was his complete identification with the Japanese nation. However, is this so convincing? Was he really a person with "a deep and irrational response to his own people and nation, "103 to use Baker's words? To find the answer requires that we look further. Like many members of the intellectual elite of the post-Meiji Period, Kagawa had received a predominantly Western-style education. He was nurtured mainly by Western culture. ("What he read were almost exclusively Western books. "104) There were quite a few Japanese intellectuals who had first received an intensive Westerntype training but who later "rebelled" against Western culture and came to champion Japanese cultural nationalism. Kagawa was not one of them. He seems to have accepted Western values without much inner conflict, in this respect differing from people such as Uchimura Kanzo. Many things, ranging from his habit of entering his [Japanese style] room with his shoes on when Japanese etiquette requires they be removed, 105 to his racial views, indicate the Western nature of his values. (As for his racial views, the implied hierarchy of colour in Kagawa5 s thinking is revealed when he said, for example, "I feel sorry for them [the Indian people] that they are darkskinned,"106 and when he urged Japanese, "the most beautiful race among Asian races, " to improve themselves until "the Japanese will be as beautiful as the white race" and "even white people will seek to marry us. "107) Even when Japanese Christians were becoming nationalistic and formulating the idea of a unique "Japanized Christianity," Kagawa professed that "the best seed [of Christianity] is in your country [the United States]."108 There was very little nationalistic self-assertion in Kagawa's original make-up. When we know that he said, "In my heart nobody lives but me, "109 an explanation of Kagawa's wartime behaviour in terms of his "deep and irrational response to his own people and nation" becomes unconvincing, not only because of the lack of nationalistic self-assertion in his original make-up but also because his essential alienation from people around

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him prevented identification with "his own people and nation. "no To understand Kagawa's wartime nationalistic behaviour, one must honestly face some personality traits of Kagawa which the idealized picture ignores. This picture shows him as a man devoid of worldly ambition. "His own writings, and the writings of those who have known him best, have revealed a very humble man, whose one ambition was to be a worthy servant of the Christ. There was none of the politician or the diplomat in him, "1H and "Celebrity is nothing to Kagawa. Neither praise not criticism ruffles him. "112 These expressions typify this idealized view of Kagawa. The fact is, however, that the real Kagawa was very different from what these descriptions made him. In the first place, he was very ambitious. It is true that he did not have certain types of ambition, the desire, for instance, for wealth. However, he certainly had the worldly desire for fame and recognition and not only the holy ambition to serve Christ. Even as a youth he was ambitious. In Shisen o koete, which mirrors Kagawa's life in the slums, the hero debates what he should do with his life. Should he be a philosopher? But suppose people did not pay attention to his books? Should he be a philanthropist? "Even if I do what is called social reform work, all the recognition I will get will be a tiny newspaper article in a corner entitled 'Model Work' and after a day or two of recognition in the paper, people will forget about me. It will not be fun. "113 Kagawa himself said: "the reader who has read that book [_Shisen o koete^...l\as come to know every bit of my inner life, and therefore has an ability to criticize me like a prophet. "1141 do not doubt that, like the hero of Shisen o koete, the thought of fame and recognition attracted Kagawa. The following episode recorded in Yokoyama's biography is also revealing. In the Shinkawa slums when Kagawa was still a young man in his early twenties, a "disciple" of his asked for a comparison with one of Japan's greatest statesmen! "Who is greater, you or Ito Hirobumi?" Kagawa calmly replied: "I am greater." As an explanation Kagawa said: "Already in Sweden my work at the Shinkawa slums has been introduced to the public. If I live to be Ito Hirobumi's age, I will certainly be a greater man than he. "115 Even in a slum, he thought of recognition by society. As mentioned earlier, he experienced a rather loveless childhood and lonely adolescence. In retrospect, he said, "I have had a great

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many lonely days. I lost my parents when I was a small child. Because of this, since my early childhood I very seldom felt that I was loved at home. I spent one year in a hospital for T. B. patients and subsequently in a fishing village by myself. I spent six months alone in the highlands of Utah in the U. S. A. "116 "At five/Lost my parents, /At sixteen/Lost my brother, /How lonely I am!"117 is a stanza of a poem entitled "Hakumei" ["Ill-fated"], written before he entered the slums. The deprivation of love in his childhood, and the feeling of rejection after his parents' death when his father's legitimate wife treated him with hostility, seem to have brought on a strong need for love and approval in later years. This in turn produced ambition and the pursuit of fame and recognition. It would be an exaggeration to say that Kagawa worked simply to win such fame, yet there seems to be some truth in this statement. The most frequent accusation directed against him was that he sought publicity or played to the gallery. The following "defence" of Kagawa against this charge of self-advertisement confirms, rather than dispels, the suspicion that there was at least some truth in it. "Mr. Kagawa played to the gallery with an inimitable skill on the stage of the most newsworthy natural calamities [such as the Great Kanto earthquake]. I used the words 'played to the gallery.' They are, however, words of an irresponsible by-stander. Mr. Kagawa himself was motivated by irresistible love within him. "118 "Some people say that Mr. Kagawa hankered after publicity. To be honest, he may have had such a tendency, but we must remember that he always preached to the masses and fought for them. In order to influence the masses, the first requisite is that you are famous; otherwise you cannot achieve anything among them....Mr. Kagawa used his fame to gather the masses, to reach the masses, and teach the masses."119 Baker, too, says! "Even his close friends admit... that he is not adverse to inviting public approbation. "12° To be in the spotlight all the time thus seems to have been a desire deeply rooted in Kagawa's personality. Missionaries lionized him, and through their help he enjoyed tremendous prestige abroad; as long as he could move between Japan and the West, he could satisfy his need for love and recognition, even in the increasingly nationalistic atmosphere of prewar Japan which made free Christian activities difficult. Besides, Kagawa was an immensely resourceful man and almost always managed to find some means to satisfy his

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desire for importance. For example, after his arrest in 1940, when the Japanese papers and magazines hesitated to publish his writings, he refered to the invention of the "chemical chess" game, which could be used to teach chemistry in school. "Now they all want me to write about my 'chemical chess, '"121 Kagawa was quoted in the United States as saying When the Pacific War finally started and he was cut off from the West, where he had been very much "spoiled" by such phrases as "the greatest Christian I have ever met, "122 his sense of deprivation must have been great. At his funeral, a friend said: "Kagawa in the postwar period could not escape fatigue and ennui. Besides, his country men... no longer received Kagawa as warmly as when Shisen o koete was published. Thus, what creeped into him was loneliness of soul and incurable illness of body. "123 When Kagawa could no longer attract attention and admiration, he could not avoid cheerlessness and isolation. "I am travelling alone....! was born by myself. When I die, I will die by myself, "124 he wrote in his notebook in 1950. Muto Tomio in his introduction to Volume XXII of Kagawa's Complete Works writes! "Among Kagawa's essays, there are a great many T essays or essays whose subject is Kagawa himself. One criticism of Kagawa is that he is too self-centred. Some essays do make us feel the validity of this criticism. "12S Thus, despite his very impressive work for the welfare of others, Kagawa was at the same time egotistic. His strong self-preoccupation also seems to indicate the presence of a deep-rooted need for love and approval. And because of this need, Kagawa seems to have been induced to accommodate himself to the circumstances when, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, he could not gain approval as the favourite of missionaries and the champion of internationalism in Japan. Even before the outbreak of the Pacific War, Kagawa was gradually becoming nationalistic. A short piece in 1940, "Koki 2600 nen" [2600th year since the foundation of the nation], 126 praises Japan and its imperial family as unique. During the war he issued more clearly nationalistic statements such as: "Today I see America as a white grave. I cannot believe that the Almighty God of all the earth will permit the success of their inordinate ambitions for world domination. "127 It is difficult to believe that behind statements such as this one lie deep convictions. These and other nationalistic wartime

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utterances (such as "Beikoku metsubo no yogen" [A prophecy of the fall of the United States] published in 1944, in which we read, "the United States has revived cannibalism in the twentieth century"), 128 should be considered as the words of a man starved for approval. That his nationalistic pose was a subconscious device to satisfy his personal need and not based on deep conviction becomes clear when we consider the quick adjustment Kagawa made in the postwar period. Compare, for example, two articles on Kagawa published in the 26 September 1945 and 10 October 1945 issues of the Christian Century. "When asked whether he is not grateful to us for conquering Japan and thus opening to him a position of influence with the new government, Kagawa answered: 'I would rather be dead,' "129 the first reports. And "Kagawa sees no ground for hope that our victory will end militarism in Japan" (p. 1089). But as soon as he saw the extent of the change Japan was to undergo, he quickly adjusted. In the article published two weeks later he is already quite different. There we read; "Remarking that it was a 'great blessing' that Japan had been defeated, Kagawa believes that the United States has set Japan free from its 'military bondage. '"13° Kagawa's entire postwar conduct corroborates the impression of opportunism one gets from these statements. He reverted to his prewar position and again championed internationalism in World Federalism. It was in his wartime surrender of his international outlook that opportunism drove him on. The most balanced view of Kagawa with respect to pacifism is to see him as inclined towards it but neither consistent nor resolute in it.

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Yanaihara Tadao Disciple of Uchimura Kanzo and Nitobe Inazo WAKAO FUJITA

Yanaihara Tadao was a student of Uchimura Kanzo in his Christian faith and simultaneously a successor to Nitobe Inazo as a scholar of Japan's colonial policy. Uchimura and Nitobe studied at Sapporo Agricultural College, which William Smith Clark, an American educator and evangelist, helped establish. Clark, during his ninemonth stay at Sapporo, succeeded in converting to Christianity most of the students at the college. As part of their conversion at the Agricultural College, both Uchimura and Nitobe signed the Covenant of Believers in Jesus which Clark had written. They and other students constituted what has become known as the Sapporo Band, one of the three Protestant traditions (the other two were the Kumamoto Band and the Yokohama Band) in early Meiji Japan. Uchimura later founded the Mukyokai movement in Japan. He believed that one could maintain a Christian faith and be saved without belonging to a church. Because he, like most of his contemporary fellow Christians, believed that Christianity was the saving power not only of individuals but also of the state and society, he was very much concerned with the political and social issues of the day, such as the First Sino-Japanese War, the pollution problem caused by the Ashio Copper Mine, the Russo-Japanese War, and World War I. After Uchimura's death, his disciples continued their evangelistic work in an age marked first by a strong Marxist influence and then a series of wars which began with the Manchurian Incident of 1931 and ended with Japan's defeat in World War II. Not all of the followers demonstrated the same degree of responsiveness to the issues con-

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fronting the state and the society, but Yanaihara Tadao did show a very active concern about the question of war. In this respect, he is one of the best heirs of Uchimura's pacifist thought and attitudes. At the Number One High School (Daiichi Kotogakko) in Tokyo, Yanaihara was also greatly inspired by its principal, Nitobe Inazo. Young Yanaihara adored Nitobe, whose passionate personality, humanitarianism, and idealism had a deep and lasting influence on Yanaihara's mind. Later, at Tokyo Imperial University, Yanaihara again studied under Nitobe, who approached his speciality of colonial policy with a humanitarian concern for the colonial peoples. As a result of this training, Yanaihara's subsequent career led him to disagree with Japan's expansion into China. During World War II, he stood out for his clear-cut opposition to, and active resistance against, the Japanese government. Although he was never arrested because of his prominent status and fame as a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, the authorities regarded him as one of the most dangerous figures among the Mukyokai pacifists. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

About a year before the start of the First Sino-Japanese War, Yanaihara Tadao was born in Imabari City in Ehime Prefecture. He was considered an infant prodigy, and his father had great hopes for his future. Wishing to become a doctor like his father, in 1905 Tadao entered the most prestigious middle school in Kobe. The principal of this school, who had studied in the Sapporo Agricultural College together with Uchimura Kanzo and Nitobe Inazo, made "simplicity and manliness" and "prudence and self-control" the mottoes of the school. Yanaihara, an honour student, wholeheartedly supported this conservative traditional atmosphere of the school. For example, when a minister's son criticized the school's old tradition in a speech entitled, "New Wine Should Not Be Put into Old Wineskins, " Yanaihara countered with a speech which defended the school tradition. The "philosophical suicide" of Fujimura Misao, who drowned himself in 1903 at the Kegon waterfall near Nikko, had created a sensation all over Japan and given rise to considerable "searching for identity" among young people. Fujimura was an extremely intel-

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lectual student at the Number One High School. Its students thought themselves to be superior to all others and dreamed of rising in the world to become patriotic leaders destined to advance the nation. However, Fujimura on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, a very nationalistic period, seriously questioned this school tradition. Having written on a big tree near the waterfall about his agony in finding the real meaning of the individual's life and the truth in eternal nature and history, Fujimura threw himself into the water. His death shocked other young people, and some even copied him by committing suicide. Afterwards, "iconoclasm" and "individual freedom" became slogans among the students of the Number One High School. Principal Nitobe encouraged this liberal atmosphere. Kawanishi Jitsuzo, who had transferred as a senior to the Number One High School from Kobe, told his juniors at Kobe about these new trends. Yanaihara was greatly moved by Kawanishi and changed his conservative attitude. He began to seek the true meaning of life and to be aware of his weakness and sin. In 1910, following in Kawanishi's footsteps, Yanaihara entered the Number One High School and at the same time changed his discipline from medicine to law. Kawanishi was a law student. Yanaihara's search for the truth and awareness of weak and sinful self led him to Christianity. As a second-year student of the Number One High School, he was accepted into the exclusive class on the study of the Bible conducted by Uchimura Kanzo. He also joined the Oak Society (Kashiwa kai), which was an association of Uchimura's disciples at Nitobe's school and the College of Law of Tokyo's Imperial University.1 Yanaihara gradually formed his own ideas through readings in these groups and his association with Uchimura and Uchimura's disciples. Whether or not the old school tradition should be maintained was a critical issue at the Number One High School as it had been earlier in Kobe. Just after the RussoJapanese War, traditionalism and modernism were in serious conflict in the society at large. Fujimura's death symbolized this general social trend. Traditionalists attempted to oust the principal, Nitobe Inazo, who inspired students to create a new liberal tradition. Yanaihara this time stood on the progressive side and defended Nitobe. Years later he called attention to this change of attitude between his middle school and high school days, and compared his conversion to that of St. Paul. 2

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Because Uchimura's Mukyokai did not maintain the ceremony of baptism, it is not clear exactly when Yanaihara became a Christian. While attending Uchimura's Bible classes and reading the Bible intensively, however, Yanaihara had confessed his weakness, ugliness, and sinfulness before God. Then, between 1912 and 1913, a series of events brought him to a firm Christian faith. In January 1912, Uchimura declared at the funeral of his beloved daughter Ruth, "This is not a funeral for Rutsuko. It is her wedding. " At her burial he grasped a handful of soil, raised his hands, and shouted, "Rutsuko, Banzai\" in a voice full of suppressed emotion. Yanaihara was greatly moved by his teacher's faith. Shortly after this, Yanaihara lost his own mother, and in October 1913, immediately after his entrance into the College of Law at Tokyo Imperial University, his father, who had cherished great expectations for Yanaihara, died. Yanaihara prayed for the bliss of the dead, but was unsure of "the fate of those who died without knowing Christ. " Unable to solve this question for himself, he asked Uchimura. "I do not know, either, " said his teacher, "but, you should not give up your own faith because of such a question. That kind of problem will be solved of itself, as you continue the Christian life for a long time. "3 That there were things which even Uchimura could not understand and that faith was something which one had to learn patiently over a long period of time deeply impressed Yanaihara and strengthened his path toward God. Yanaihara lost not only his parents but also his wife, Aiko, shortly after their marriage in 1918. In retrospect Yanaihara accepted these several trials with Christian faith, and remarked: "Sadness is the balm of life. Embalmed by sadness we are reminded of eternity. Sadness is, indeed, the window to eternity. "4 Originally, Yanaihara's love and sympathy toward the poor and the weak had been awakened by his grandmother, who had always been kind to the beggars and lepers who gathered around his father's clinic.5 This inclination was further deepened by his Christian faith under the guidance of Uchimura Kanzo and by Nitobe Inazo's idealism and humanitarianism. Added to these was the influence of Yoshino Sakuzo, who taught Yanaihara the concept of democracy while he was a student at Tokyo Imperial University. In April 1917, after his graduation from the university, Yanaihara entered the Besshi Mining Company, a part of the Sumitomo Combine, not far from his home in Shikoku. He had intended to work

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in Korea but was obliged to change his mind because he had to support his entire family after his father's death. That such a talented graduate of Tokyo Imperial University chose a career at a private firm over government service reflects contemporary liberal trends as well as the phenomenal growth of the Japanese economy during World War I. After three years at the Besshi Mining Company, Yanaihara was appointed an assistant professor in the College of Economics at Tokyo Imperial University. He succeeded Nitobe Inazo, who had resigned to become under-secretary general at the League of Nations. Yanaihara was immediately sent abroad to study in Britain, Germany, France, and the United States. While in London, he received the news that Kurosaki Kokichi (1886-1970), a close friend among the members in the Mukyokai community who had lost his wife, had decided to quit his job and devote himself wholly to evangelization. Yanaihara, who had become an ardent Christian by this time, noted in his diary dated 8 and 16 March 1921: "How much I envy him and wish to be an evangelist myself!" He also prayed: "My Lord, please call me also!"6 About that time, many talented former Oak Society members gave up promising secular positions to become independent evangelists. Yanaihara, however, felt he should await a call from God before he followed these examples. So, for a few years after his return to Japan he absorbed himself in the study of colonial policy. His intensive research produced five books in six years. In 1930 both Uchimura and Fujii Takeshi died. The sense of increased responsibility after the death of these two giants in Mukyokai led Yanaihara to respond as a Christian to two dominant intellectual currents: Marxism and the idealistic philosophy of Kawai Eijiro, once Yanaihara's intimate friend at the Number One High School but now his great rival at Tokyo Imperial University. Japan felt the effects of what would become the great depression before the Western nations did, and as Japan's economy worsened, the influence of Marxists became very strong among people who sought solutions. Marxist scholars asserted that those who had religious faith could not carry out proper scientific research because of their unscientific dogma. They attacked Yanaihara's academic integrity because of his Christian faith. In reply, Yanaihara wrote Marukusushugi to kirisutokyo [Marxism and Christianity, 1932], in which he maintained that, although Marxism had value as a hypothesis for the study of social

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science, it was shallow in comparison with Christianity as a general philosophy. As for Kawai's idealism, which emphasized the importance of self-cultivation and the harmonious unsuppressed development of various human desires, Yanaihara criticized its lack of principles to guarantee a harmony of the various human needs.7 In the late summer of 1932, Yanaihara made a trip to Manchuria. This experience made him firmly oppose the government policy there. "What I saw and heard in Manchuria convinced me, " he said some years later, "that the Manchurian Incident had been trumped up by the Japanese side, as I had suspected from the beginning. Since that time my academic study became combined with my faith, and I determined to oppose the Manchurian policy. "8 It was during this trip that the "divine call" finally came for Yanaihara. His train was attacked by bandits, but he was not hurt. Yanaihara interpreted this event as God's injunction to begin evangelization. His determination to add evangelism to his studies of the social sciences thus started. Undoubtedly, the loss of great leaders of the Mukyokai movement, Uchimura and Fujii, and the defence of his academic position as a Christian against Marxism and Kawai had also propelled him toward this determination. In November 1936, he began to publish his Tsushin [Open letter], an evangelistic leaflet normally issued each month. As Japan became further involved in what is called the "fifteen years of war, " and as extreme nationalism increased in Japan, the relationship between Christianity and the state become an acute issue for all Japanese Christians. Under such circumstances, some Mukyokai Christians, by citing the example of Uchimura, who devoted himself to the study of the Bible after the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, maintained that to discuss political and social issues was not evangelical, though it might be prophetic. They argued that Uchimura's Mukyokai was primarily concerned with the relationship between an individual and God. Yanaihara, on the contrary, stated that only by confronting and protesting against the dominant spirit of the age could Christianity avoid degeneration into a mere private concern.9 When Yanaihara advocated this approach the teachings of Jeremiah in the Old Testament were in his mind: Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem and see for yourselves;

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search her wide squares! can you find any man who acts justly, who seeks the truth,

that I may forgive that city?10 As we shall see, Yanaihara's pacifism emanated from his strong spirit of resistance against the rising tide of Japan's chauvinism and ultranationalism. He was convinced that for this purpose each Japanese Christian had to bear his cross. n When the second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, Yanaihara criticized government action in his talk "Kami no Kuni" [The Kingdom of God, 1 October 1937] and in his article "Kokka no Riso" [Ideals of the state], which he published in Chuo Koron in September 1937. According to him, the Kingdom of God was the ideal for which the state should strive. Because of his criticism of the war, he was obliged to resign from his chair in the College of Economics at Tokyo Imperial University in December 1937. The following month, he replaced his Tsushin with a small evangelistic monthly called Kashin [Good news], through which he became a voice crying in the wilderness. He likened himself to Nichiren(122282), the patriotic Buddhist priest who established the Nichiren Sect in the thirteenth century, and following Nichiren called Kashin "the pillar of Japan. "12 Yanaihara had become a confirmed critic of government policy, as he demonstrated in his lecture on the Book of Romans delivered in Seoul, Korea, during September 1940. In this lecture, he likened the Japanese to Jews and the Asian peoples to the Gentiles of the Old Testament. He said that since Japan, God's chosen nation in the Far East, had resorted to war, ignoring God's will, she would be destroyed and that salvation would be extended instead to the Gentiles, that is, the Asian peoples who would be liberated from the Japanese yoke and would gain their independence. 13 After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, many influential Mukyokai leaders came to regard Japan as "God's rod" to chastise the United States and Britain. Unlike these colleagues, Yanaihara continued to criticize Japan's engagement in a war which he thought to be against the ideal of the Kingdom of God. Yanaihara's vehicle to this end was Kashin, but it was subjected to repeated repression by the authorities, who on occasion cut out portions of the text and at other times prohibited sale entirely. 14 Kashin1's existence was seriously

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threatened twice. The first crisis occurred in 1942, when the authorities decided not to assign any printing paper to Kashin. The second crisis took place in the summer of 1944, when after the passage of the Act to Rationalize and Unify Publishing Firms, Kashin was ordered to "discontinue voluntarily" under the law. Yanaihara, however, managed to continue Kashin until the end of 1944. Even after that, although he gave up publication ostensibly because of pressure from the police, he "obeyed God's command and continued its publication under the different name of Kashin kaiho [Newsletter for the Kashin Association]" (p. 115). After World War II, Yanaihara returned to the University of Tokyo and occupied several important administrative posts: as Head of the Institute of Social Science (Shakai kagaku kenkyu shocho), Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and finally in 1951 president of the university, a post in which he succeeded Nambara Shigeru, another student of Uchimura Kanzo. By that time public reaction had set in against the democratic reforms instituted immediately after the war, and people connected with the university wanted a strong president like Yanaihara who could withstand outside pressures. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he was visiting the United States. Fearful that reactionary tendencies accompanying the changing international situation might lead Japan to rearm, he remarked, "I will return to Japan. I will return to Japan to die. If I insist on following the path of peace in trust of God, the day may come when the people will arrest me, flog me, and kill me. Still, I will die there to save Japan. "1S Yanaihara until the end of his life in December 1961 devoted himself to the achievement of a peaceful Japan, as he had during the war. PROPHETIC PACIFISM: KOKUTAI AND JAPANESE-STYLE CHRISTIANITY

It was after the Manchurian Incident that Yanaihara committed himself to pacifist activities and addressed the question in many books and articles. His slogan was that "the nation's ultimate ideal should be justice and peace. "16 He employed prophetic tones like Isaiah's to preach against Japan's aggression in China and its growing militarism. He foretold that if Japan continued its course of military expansion, it would eventually be destroyed. He believed that to

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prevent this fate, the state had to be fundamentally reoriented. In this regard, the crucial issues for Yanaihara were how to reinterpret kokutai, especially its relationship with Christianity and Christians' responsibility in this task, and how Japan's old tradition could be transformed into a new one without destroying the past heritage. His unique interpretation of kokutai constituted the foundation of his evangelistic campaign for peace. The flag of the Number One High School symbolized patriotism. This spirit had penetrated Yanaihara deeply during his adolescence, and was reinforced by his education at Tokyo Imperial University. Hence he became an ardent patriot with great respect for the imperial family. For example, immediately after the 26 February Insurrection of 1936 and "motivated by an irresistible desire to console the worried Emperor, "17 he rushed to the palace. As we read further in his diary dated 4 January 1946, less than five months after the war had ended, Yanaihara shed tears on hearing that meals served at the palace were poor.18 This concern for the symbol of the Japanese state indicates that Yanaihara shared Uchimura's conviction that "the Mukyokai is a tattle not only against clericalism but also against faith without patriotism. "19 He even accepted the Peace Preservation Act of 1925, a major aim of which was to uphold the national polity (kokutai no goji). Nevertheless, Yanaihara was above all a Christian. His patriotism and love of the imperial family were inspired by Christianity, In this regard, he was very different from ordinary patriots, who hoped to promote the national polity based upon Shinto. It was on precisely this point that he clashed headlong with the dominant tides in prewar Japan. In April 1933, at a lecture meeting which commemorated the third anniversary of Uchimura Kanzo's death, other speakers directed their criticism toward the established churches, but Yanaihara urged selfreflection upon the Mukyokai Christians. By doing so he criticized his own attitude towards the state. The gist of this discussion was that all Japanese Christians had to bear special hardships in this "abnormal time" (hijoji). Protestants should not attack Catholics and Mukyokai Christians should not criticize institutionalized churches. In order to establish a genuine Japanese Christianity, all Christians in Japan had to anticipate persecution. Yanaihara told his listeners that the quintessence of Japanese thought was its unique concept of the state, which manifested the best of its people's thought. Where there was a good, however, there was always an evil hidden beneath.

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The Japanese Christian's task, therefore, was to preserve and perfect this unique concept of state, while combatting the ultranationalism which could accompany it. Each Christian had to bear this cross in his fight against Japan's egoism and vanity as a state. 20 Yanaihara's argument may sound contradictory. How can one preserve the unique concept of the state, which is generally understood as kokutai, and simultaneously protest against ultranationalism? Yanaihara did not understand kokutai in the same way that the traditionalists and militarists did. He thought that the preservation and promotion of kokutai need not necessarily result in ultranationalism or a chauvinism which supported Japan's militarism and aggression in China. In reference to Uchimura's ideas, Yanaihara reiterated that Japan's tradition, drawn from Buddhism, Confucianism, Shinto, and Bushido—he considered this unique national character to be the kokutai—was good, but it was old Japan, or in his words "Japan under the Old Covenant" (Kyuyoku no Nikon). The "Japan of the New Covenant" (Shin} yoku no Nihon) would emerge only as Japan became Christian. He concluded his speech by emphasizing that for this purpose every Christian had to sacrifice himself and that Japan could be saved "only by the Christian gospel....Christians must become the pillars of the state" (18:541) In December 1933, Yanaihara expanded his ideas of a Japanese Christianity in a talk entitled "Nihonteki Kirisutokyo" [Japanese-style Christianity], In this talk, he bitterly criticized Kato Hiroyuki's view of Japanese Christians expressed in Waga Kokutai to Kirisutokyo [Our national polity and Christianity, 1907]. Kato, stimulated by the strong militaristic atmosphere following the Russo-Japanese War, attacked Uchimura and other Christians who took a pacifist stand during the war. He argued that Christianity would fundamentally violate the Japanese kokutai because Christians believed in only one omnipotent God, while kokutai maintained that the emperor was the supreme power for the Japanese. Yanaihara rebutted Kato's arguments by asserting that the good Christian is the real patriot; if one loves Japan, therefore, he must become a Christian. Yanaihara implied that the Christians who had opposed war were genuine patriots, whereas the militarists took advantage of imperial prestige for their own aggressive policies. Yanaihara warned his audience that both militarism and Marxist materialism had greatly increased since the Russo-Japanese War and that therefore Christians had to

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resist both forces, the one from the right and the other from the left. For Yanaihara, Japanese Christianity meant in essence that Japan would become a genuine peace-loving Christian country while maintaining the basic political structure of the imperial system and its unique cultural tradition. 21 To make the audience understand his point, Yanaihara cited Nichiren. First of all, Nichiren had endeavoured to "Japanize" Buddhism. Secondly, this patriotic priest had worked for the salvation of Japan and criticized the other Buddhist sects, which were only concerned with the salvation of individual believers. Thirdly, Nichiren had believed that the Japanese people had been given a special mission to reveal Buddhist truths. In similar terms, Yanaihara stated that Japanese Christianity, to live up to its name, had to be patriotic, and that Japanese Christians had to concern themselves with rational salvation. Finally, Japanese Christianity had to grasp those aspects of Christian truth which had not yet been clarified in any age or by any nation in the history of Christianity. Japanese Christians had this mission. Yanaihara emphasized that once one understood these points, he could automatically distinguish true from false patriotism (18:211-13). Japanese Christians in the Meiji Period accepted Christianity as the foundation for modern Japan. Yanaihara agreed with them. The difference between his patriotism and that which government ideologues preached was in Yanaihara's insistence that only Christian faith furnished valid criteria for genuine patriotism. With regard to the ultranationalists' idea that the emperor was the supreme living god, Yanaihara held that the divinity of the emperor was supreme only within Japan, but not elsewhere, and that the divinity of the emperor was attached only to his office and not to the man who held it. It seems that Yanaihara considered the Japanese imperial system to be like European divine monarchy. He stressed that the emperor as a person did not incarnate perfect holiness and love. Before God, the emperor was no more than an ordinary man. Consequently, according to Yanaihara, the emperor, too, had to be subjected to the supreme law of the universe. 22 Yanaihara boldly stated this position in an article, "Nihon seishin no kaikokuteki to zenshinteki" [Progressivism and retrogressivism in the Japanese spirit, 1933], in response to, and as a criticism of, various militaristic and chauvinistic opinions expressed within the Ministry of Education. Subsequently, the article was incorporated in a book with the title Minzoku to

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Heiwa [The nation and peace], but the book was banned by the authorities in December 1937, soon after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. To contemporary readers, some of Yanaihara's works written during the 1930's may appear extremely cautious, but this was the best he could do within the limits of censorship. At times the military police even attended his classes and public lectures, lest Yanaihara should express what they considered "dangerous thoughts. " Yanaihara's prophetic pacifism challenged not only government authorities but also prominent Mukyokai leaders such as Tsukamoto Toraji (1885-1973), another student of Uchimura. As government pressures upon Christian pacifists increased, most of them gave up their resistance. Some even justified Japan's military expansion, while many others retreated into prayers for their private salvation. In October 1934, for example, Tsukamoto Toraji stated at the Hibiya Hall in downtown Tokyo! Until recently I was animated by the patriotic desire to seek new guiding principles for Japan and to save our beloved country. But now such a desire has completely left me.... I thought, even if I proposed new principles for Japan based on Mukyokai faith and managed to get the approval of everyone in the audience, it would be highly unlikely that the mayor of Tokyo or the Cabinet would accept my ideas and put them into practice....While praying quietly, all patriotic ideas and all worries about Japan disappeared from my mind....I suddenly woke up from the intoxication in which I had thought that I had to save Japan. Japan may perish, but there is something which should not perish.... I continued to pray in silence, and I realized that I was the worst sinner among the two billion people on earth. It is not a suitable role for me to preach new guiding principles from this platform at Hibiya. I leave that responsibility to persons of qualified rank and ability. As for me, I must right the relationship between God and me. From earliest times, there has been no instance in which such big words as "salvation of the nation" and "salvation of mankind" really saved the nation. [Tsukamoto thus challenged Yanaihara's interpretation of Jeremiah 5: 1.] If a country is to be saved, one person must be saved first. Only then does the salvation of the country become possible. For the

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salvation of Japan, one person must first be saved.23 Behind these words is the idea that this was not the time to denounce national sins like a prophet, but an evangelical age in which to proclaim forgiveness of individual sins. Tsukamoto also thought he was following Uchimura Kanzo, who had given up social and political criticism during the Russo-Japanese War and had concentrated on evangelism through his magazine Seisho no kenkyu [The Biblical study]. Yanaihara, differing with Tsukamoto, gave a talk entitled "Shukyo wa kojinteki ka shakaiteki ka" [Should religion be individualistic or public-spirited?] in 1935, in which he maintained the importance to religious believers of an active concern for social and political issues. In this talk he stated: From the latter half of the nineteenth century, the assertion that religion is the private concern of an individual began to find general acceptance....It was a great blessing in the religious history of modern times that the principle of liberal individualism was thus established....However, with the passage of time, the bad side of liberal individualism in religion also became apparent. ...People came to believe that a religion concerns only the private life of an individual. They became solely concerned with religious solace to their individual problems and neglected political and other public issues. "[Whatever happens in society] is not my affair. My sins have been forgiven. I have been saved. If the world perishes, that is just too bad, but at least, I can go to heaven. "—This way of thinking has become widespread because of liberal individualism in religion. Religion has become powerless as a propelling force for social progress. It is true that a religion rights the relationship between an individual and God, and that it saves the individual. The salvation of an individual is the essential task of a religion. However, the seeds of degeneration of a religion are also found in this very fact. When believers receive individual solace and benefit from their religion, they think that it was thanks to their religious master So and So, and write letters of gratitude, donate money, and give presents to him....Thus, there arises a

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personal emotional tie between believers and their religious masters, or the religious institutions they represent. Religious masters, on their part, do their best to encourage such personal emotional ties, because they help increase the number of adherents as well as sectarian influence and power. The result is that religion ceases to live, and becomes a mere reservoir of fixed benefits. It ceases to be justice, and changes into a social power. This is a degeneration of religion....Nothing will save religion from such degeneration unless a public spirit permeates society in accordance with Isaiah's prophecies. In other words, religion must play its own social and political role. 24 Yanaihara had a different interpretation of Uchimura's apparent withdrawal from the active social and political arena after the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. He did not think that Uchimura had become indifferent to social and political issues. In his opinion, Uchimura's apparent withdrawal resulted from his recognition that a man of religion could make his best contribution to the solution of social and political problems, not by acting like a politician and a leader of social action, but by giving spiritual guidance to the nation. By 1937, Yanaihara had arrived at a clear anti-war stand based upon this conviction. This stand made him react quickly to the news the fighting had broken out between the Japanese and Chinese armies near the Marco Polo Bridge in July 1937. In response to these hostilities, he published an essay entitled "Kokka no riso" [The ideals of the state] in the September issue of an influential journal of opinion, Chiio Koron. As he later stated, severe censorship restricted his expression to "symbols, similes and ciphers"25 and so his discussion lacks specifics. Still, his major argument is clear. It says that national power can never be fostered by conquest or by the exploitation of other people and that the ideals of the state are justice and peace. Justice is the fundamental principle for men within a society as well as among nations. It is the principle by which mutual co-existence is guaranteed. When this principle is maintained by a society, it is called social justice. When the same principle is observed among nations, it is called international justice. 26 Opposing Hegel's notion and the prevalent popular attitude that the state is the supreme entity of morality and therefore entitled to obedience, Yanaihara argued that there is a supreme justice beyond that of each

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individual state. He concluded his essay by emphasizing that whether a state would prosper or fall depended upon whether that state worked to realize its own true ideals. His article was soon banned by the authorities. After finishing this article, Yanaihara left on a lecture tour to the San'in, San'yo, and Shikoku areas of western Japan in order to publicize it. Another purpose of the trip was to help in the evangelistic work of Fujisawa Takeyoshi in Yonago City. Fujisawa published a magazine called Kyudo [Seeking the gospel]. He, too, sought peace and justice with his pen. Yanaihara subsequently wrote about this tour: In Yonago, soaking with sweat on an extremely hot summer day, I talked about "Ideals of the State. " Then, at Daisen, I opened a Bible class. Roughly a dozen people—Fujisawa, several local youths, and a few students who had accompanied me from Tokyo—attended this quiet meeting. I lectured on the Psalms from 120 to 134....At the end of this journey, at Asama near Matsumoto City in Nagano Prefecture, I gave a series of lectures entitled, "Minzoku to kokka" [The nation and the state] to a local teachers' association. Then I returned to Tokyo.... Immediately after this, Fujisawa was arrested and detained by the police. Almost all the young people who had attended my Bible class at Daisen were summoned by the police and interrogated. As the opening remark of this Bible class, I had said, "I have embarked upon this lecture tour, because I could no longer just sit and watch the danger of war without doing anything about it. " One of my audience recorded this remark in his notebook and the police confiscated it. This is why they decided to summon these people and to interrogate them about the nature of this Bible class, about the content of my talks, and about many other things in great detail. However, because they all responded with courageous Christian faith to the police, they were allowed to go home without further trouble. Fujisawa was also released after a few months in prison. 27 On 1 October 1937, at the meeting which commemorated the seventh anniversary of Fujii Takeshi's death, Yanaihara gave a

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lecture entitled "Kami no Kuni" [The Kingdom of God]. In this talk, he proclaimed: "My advice at this juncture is simple. To the Chinese people, I say, 'Throw up your arms and surrender quickly!' ...To the Japanese people, I say, 'Stop fighting immediately!'"28 These words reflected Yanaihara's Jeremiah-like faith. He concluded his talk by saying! "In this world of falsehood, this is the funeral day of Japan's ideals, or rather, the Japan itself which we have loved so much but which has lost its ideals. I am much too concerned with this problem to find an emotional vent in anger or in crying. If you have understood what I have said, bury this country first, so that its ideals may live" (18:645). The last sentence is an echo of the angry words of Fujii Takeshi uttered in his poem, "Horobiyo" [Perish!] (July 1930), which was directed against the Japanese society of that day. On 14 November 1937, Yanaihara together with Tsukamoto Toraji held a "Wartime Christian Lecture Meeting." Many public prosecutors and military policemen attended the meeting to investigate tht activities of Mukyokai. In his talk, because Yanaihara carefully veiled his message through a detailed exposition of circumstances surrounding the age in which Jesus Christ lived, the prosecutors and military policemen, who had no knowledge of the Bible, could hardly understand what he was saying, while Christians in the audience grasped his meaning very well. At the end of his talk, Yanaihara said: "Finally, I would like to address myself to those in the audience who do not believe in Jesus Christ: We are convinced that to believe in Jesus Christ is the fundamental way to save individuals and the nation. Those in the audience who believe in Jesus Christ should be faithful to the end....You should maintain your belief firmly, to love Japan and to make this country a kingdom of God. This is the time to prove your faith and patience as befits real servants of God. r29 These various lectures taken together disturbed enough people that Yanaihara had in the end to resign from Tokyo Imperial University. He described the circumstances in which this took place as follows: Toward the end of October 1937 at the regular meeting of the Faculty of Economics, the Dean pointed to my article "Kokka no riso" in the September number of Chud Koron, and proposed that faculty should discuss at this meeting whether the author

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of such an article was qualified to occupy a chair at the University. At that time supporters of militarism in the army, the police, the judiciary, the Ministry of Education and both the Houses of the Diet were in close communication with each other....These militarists plotted with reactionary professors to oust me from my chair as their first victim.... [Dean Hijikata's manoeuvre did not attain its objective, thanks to the efforts of President Nagayo in the University. ] However, when the reactionaries realized they had failed, they greatly intensified their activities. Abe Genki, the head of the Police Bureau, forbade the sale and distribution of my book Minzoku to Heiwa [The nation and peace], and on the same day informed the Ministry of Education. On top of that, the Bureau for Moral Discipline within the Ministry of Education smelled out and acquired copies of the forty-seventh issue of my Tsushin from somewhere. They discovered that I had said, "Bury this country first so that its ideals may live!" in a short talk titled "Kami no Kuni. "'When they confronted President Nagayo with this sentence, the President was also scandalized by it, and thought that it was no longer possible for him to defend me, so that he acquiesced in the pressure to remove me. 30 Nambara Shigeru, who remained in the university throughout the war years, remarked: "Yanaihara had often said that he would resign from the university any time if his faith was questioned. He put his words into practice. "31 Yanaihara's diary of 13 November 1937 reads! At 8 a. m. special service men from the Meguro Police Station came and asked about the distribution of Tsushin. I spent the morning in my office at the University. [From here he writes in English and German. ] While my colleagues enjoy themselves with sports, theatre, dogs, literature, or families, why must I alone toil always, making my health fast decline? I feel myself very feeble. Have I still to continue my work both in the missionary field and in social science? Is it my duty? I wish for a rest. I wish for comfort. And I get only toil and trouble. I am weak—but I

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was caught by Him. Ach ich kann nicht anders sein. Adieu this week! I was again baptized with tears. 32 After his resignation from the university, Yanaihara became an evangelist, believing himself a person chosen by God.33 His prayer for a divine call to become an evangelist thus was at last answered. His activities as an independent evangelist continued from 1938 to the end of the war in 1945. His battle for peace and the Christian gospel during these years was an extension of his battle in 1937. There was no difference in quality between them. Yanaihara's pacifism was essentially derived from his negation of violence, as he stated! "The ideals of the state lie in peace and justice, and not in tormenting the weak by war. At home as well as abroad the strong use violence to exploit the weak, and this, as a policy, leads to war. "34 He often gave lectures on the Book of Isaiah. His way of dealing with war was based upon the ideas and examples of Isaiah and Jeremiah. To borrow Max Weber's words, it was thoroughly of a "utopian character from a political point of view, " as in the case of Old Testament prophets. 35 A COMMITTED GROUP

Before concluding this article, a few comments are required to explain the character of Yanaihara's group, which was often criticized as "narrow" and "authoritarian" both by other Mukyokai members and people outside the Mukyokai groups. Some critics even went so for as to say that Yanaihara's group was a "bunch of Yanaihara worshippers rather than worshippers of God. " It is undeniable that Yanaihara's group was narrow. Its members, for example, hesitated to join local Mukyokai Christian groups when they were transferred outside Tokyo. Yanaihara himself made his followers who had been transferred handle preparations for his lecture tours in their new homes instead of entrusting them to local Mukyokai leaders. One person, though admiring Yanaihara's courageous stand as a Christian against the war, said, after beginning by stating that he admired Yanaihara: "On the other hand, to be honest, I was from time to time repelled by the tacit but intense pressure radiating

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from him that everyone should believe as he did and should judge matters as he did. This attitude of my teacher Yanaihara, however, can best be understood in terms of the severe circumstances in which he was placed. "36 To a certain extent this criticism is valid, and the narrowness of Yanaihara's group partly reflected the leader's own personality. It is also true that Yanaihara, like other Mukyokai Christian leaders such as Tsukamoto Toraji, valued the close personal contact between a leader and his followers. Furthermore, the predominant human relationships in the Mukyokai Christian groups conformed to what is called the "vertical" pattern of human relationships in secular Japanese society, where great emphasis is placed upon the respective ranks of individuals. In fact, Yanaihara regarded the relationship between himself and his followers as that of a parent and his children. The rigid and militant character of his group, however, was largely a result of two important factors! Yanaihara's strong conviction of his evangelical mission and his firm pacifist stand. The first number of Tsushin clearly reveals his missionary conviction! A small Even to Small is Great is

beginning is not small, be a ruler of the world is not in itself great. to pursue one's selfish ends, to perform what God wills. 37

Because of its leader's pacifism, Yanaihara's group came to act like early Christians in the catacombs of Rome. Strong government censorship after the Manchurian Incident, especially after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937, forced pacifists to meet in complete secrecy. Yanaihara's narrowness was necessary so that he and his group could play a positive role in "the severe age"38 in which "he battled for truth. "39 Yanaihara explains the "catacomb" and "familial" character of his group as follows! It was throughout a "family" gathering, by nature exclusive, and no casual visitors could get in. Members were, on admittance, to become my adopted sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters to each other. I did not admit to this group

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anyone who was not at least ten years younger than I. This was because I wanted to be able to scold them freely without feeling embarrassed, if this was necessary. Because of the many dangers, this group had to be like a Christian secret society. The members were expected to be closed to outsiders and open towards each other. They were warned not to act carelessly and allow the police to know what I said in meetings. They also had to be prepared for persecution on account of their faith. Thus I took very strict care when I admitted a new member. First, I made sure that he was prepared to risk his life with me. Second, I asked him to be prepared for the social discrimination he might experience with regard to his job, marriage, and other matters because of his association with me. Third, I asked him to get his parents' permission to join my group. 40

In short, in order to maintain the ideas which, if fully understood by the authorities would have led to great difficulties for both him and his followers, and to sustain his group's pure pacifist stand against other Mukyokai Christian groups, Yanaihara was obliged to take very rigid attitudes towards his followers. Other influential leaders of Mukyokai came to accept the Pacific War as just, as the following quotation from Tsukamoto Toraji indicates! "Just as God in former times struck Israel in anger when Israel despised the glory of its mission as the chosen nation of God by using Assyria, the heathen country, as His rod, God is now striking the United States and Britain with Japan as his rod. "41 Yanaihara in contrast said in his talk, "Kami no Kuni": "We obey orders of the state as citizens. We believe that we should obey the orders of the state. However, if we Christians were to defend everything the state says by ethical and religious arguments based on the Bible, there would be no raison d'etre for Christianity. The sins of Assyria which struck Judaea were greater than the sins of Judaea, which were judged by God. Do you understand what I say? The sins of Assyria are greater than the sins of Judaea. We ourselves must reflect on this with trembling. "42 It is understandable that members of the Yanaihara group who shared his faith hesitated to join a Mukyokai group presided over by a leader who had accepted the Pacific War as just.

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In 1944, a member of Yanaihara's group was arrested and interrogated by the police in connection with a frame-up to repress liberal journalists considered undesirable by the authorities. During the police examination, he mentioned the Sunday meeting and the Saturday school which were held in Yanaihara's house. Yanaihara felt this to be a breach of trust, so he expelled the man from his group. 43 Yanaihara's intense sense of mission, which from time to time appeared almost abnormal, provided the strength necessary for the maintenance of Christian pacifism during the particularly trying conditions of the Pacific War.

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9

Tabata Shinobu

Defender of the Peace Constitution KATSUMI UEDA

DOSHISHA'S GANDHI

Tabata Shinobu (1902- ) is the only survivor among the pacifists with whom we deal in this volume. There are some significant reasons for the choice. Only a few intellectuals of the prewar generation have so persistently opposed war and militarism throughout the postwar period as has Tabata. Indeed, there are numerous intellectuals in Japan who have sporadically been against one or another specific wars. It is also true that many younger people actively participated in the antiVietnam War campaign. But, before the Vietnam War, only a few people matched Tabata's constant and systematic protest against Japan's military build-up and the security system. Tabata is also unique in that he, as a prominent constitutionalist, has led the defence of the peace clause, Article 9, in the Japanese Constitution. Furthermore, as a Christian socialist, Tabata best carries on the earlier pacifist tradition among Japanese Christians and socialists. His anti-war and anti-militarist campaign emanates from his spirit of resistance, and this spirit originates in his conviction that progress in history lies on the side of those who resist power, authority, and dictatorship of the majority. This was also the spirit of Niijima Jo who, in spite of the Meiji government's strong and repeated requests, refused any official post and instead in 1875 established the Doshisha, the first Christian school in Japan and now a major university.

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Niijima believed that to love his nation was to create young leaders, filled with Christian conscience and the spirit of self-abnegation, who would serve both God and nation by placing themselves outside of, and against, public power and authority. Niijima's Doshisha, like Uchimura's Mukyokai, has produced many leaders, such as Kashiwagi Gien (1860-1938), Tokutomi Roka (1868-1927), Abe Isoo, Yamakawa Hitoshi, and Yamamoto Senji (1889-1929), who in various ways opposed war and militarism. l Tabata succeeds these other "Doshisha men. " Tabata Shinobu was born on 22 January 1902 in Kusatsu, Shiga Prefecture. His father, Shigeshichi, was an ardent Christian and a strict abstainer from liquor. His grandfather, Han'yo, was a wellknown scholar of Chinese classics in Amami Oshima, Kagoshima Prefecture. Shinobu was baptized while still an infant, an unusual practice in Japan. In addition to his father, two other persons, Professor Takagi Shotaro of Doshisha and Yabe Kiyoshi, minister of the Kusatsu Church, which young Shinobu's family attended, led him to the Christian life. Takagi was a professor of political history and a good Christian who conducted a Bible class at the Kusatsu Church. Impressed by Takagi's passionate lectures and personality, Shinobu made up his mind to enter Doshisha Middle School. The Reverend Yabe was a conscientious objector during the Russo-Japanese War. On the streetcorners he preached the lessons of the sermon on the mount, especially the injunction "not to kill." Once, the crowd he was addressing stoned him, shouting, "You traitor!" but the minister did not give up. Yabe and Takagi were also intimate friends of Kagawa Toyohiko. Influenced by these people, Tabata entered Doshisha's Preparatory School for Divinity in 1920. Just before he did so, he independently requested rebaptism by Yabe, whom he wished to follow into the ministry. Accompanied by him, Tabata participated in summer evangelistic tours. Evangelism was at the heart of Doshisha education. At the convocation of its first theological class, Niijima had told the students: "Do everything by your spirit. I send you to the world as if I am John the Baptist and you are believers going into society. Go! Go! By the hand of the divine God you will be guided. "2 Irwin Scheiner says that in the earliest period: "Every summer Doshisha students went out on the evangelical circuit, into virgin areas to spread the gospel. "3 Tabata followed this Doshisha tradition.

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However, during his second summer evangelistic tour as a theological student, he contracted heart trouble and had to spend two years in bed. During this time Tabata became concerned about whether he was suited for the ministry. Because of his naive and retiring character, he did not enjoy preaching and praying in public. At the same time, inspired by Tomeoka Kosuke, a Doshisha graduate and the first social worker in Japan, Tabata became interested in the problem of social welfare. He was convinced that the poor social welfare service in Japan was essentially the result of politics. Conscientious statesmen should emerge in Japan, but Tabata knew that he could not become one of them because of his personality. He thus determined to change his career so that he could educate conscientious, politicallyminded youths. The fact that Takagi Shotaro (1889-1925), whom Tabata respected highly taught political science at Doshisha strengthened his resolve to leave divinity school. Tabata graduated in political science in 1927, at the age of twenty-five. His Christian humanism and spirit of resistance were thus fostered in Niijima's Doshisha, and by Yabe Kiyoshi, Takagi Shotaro, and Tomeoka Kosuke, who were all Doshisha graduates. From 1927, when Tabata was hired as an assistant in the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Doshisha, to the end of the Pacific War, he studied intensively. He pored over the works of Western philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Bentham, Mill, Marx, and Engels. From Bentham and Mill he learned the concepts of freedom and civil liberty. "Freedom has the strength of God, " he writes "while power has the weakness of Satan. "4 From Hegel and Marx, he learned about historical dialectics. History progresses dialectically, and historical progress is always on the side of those who are deprived and oppressed. Resistance against power and authority is the key to the improvement of human history. Tabata stressed in lectures to his students! "Be one with the minority. Make the sufferings of the minority your own. Then you are on the track of historical progress. " This principle is intrinsically connected to his unique approach towards the Constitution. Tabata also loved to read biographies of statesmen, Eastern and Western. He especially liked Abraham Lincoln's words, "with malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right. " Tabata hoped to make these words his own motto.

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Simultaneously during this period, he eagerly attended lecture meetings and discussion held by Ebina Dan jo and Yamamuro Gumpei (1872-1940), two of Japan's outstanding Christian leaders and Tabata's seniors at Doshisha, as well as Kagawa Toyohiko. His meetings with Professor Sasaki Soichi of Kyoto Imperial University, the leading constitutionalist at the time, and his constant instruction from this beloved teacher, also fall into this period. In Japan, there were two major schools in the study of the Constitution. One was represented by Minobe Tatsukichi in Tokyo and the other by Sasaki Soichi in Kyoto. The Tokyo School (Tokyo gakuhd) was pragmatic in its interpretation of the Constitution. It emphasized that practical interpretations of the Constitution were necessary in order to fit the written Constitution to changing political circumstances. The Kyoto School (Kyoto gakuhd), on the other hand, insisted that the spirit of the Constitution must remain the same. "Objective logicality," to use Sasaki's term, was the only right method. A is always A, and never does A=A'. The true spirit of the Constitution should not be changed by subjective interpretations so as to suit practical and pragmatic political convenience. If such change was needed, the Constitution itself should be changed. This dispute between the Tokyo and Kyoto schools has continued to this day. Tabata now leads the Kyoto School, whose approach has become an excellent tool for his defence of the postwar Peace Constitution. Tabata Shinobu is a typical "Doshisha man. " From middle school to university he attended Doshisha and served the university for more than three decades as a faculty member and after 1942 as Dean of the Department of Law and Political Science. Between 1946 and 1952, for about four years altogether, as president of the university, he endeavoured to revitalize the "Niijima spirit" in Doshisha, attracting capable youths from all over Japan. Tabata, as President of Doshisha University, as Head of the Kyoto Public Safety Commission [Kyto Koan lin-cho], elected in 1949; as Chairman for the Kyoto chapter of the National League to Defend the Constitution [Goken Rengo Kyoto Chiho Gicho], elected in 1954, and as an executive of the People's League to Prevent Constitutional Revision [Kempo Kaiaku Soshi Kakkai Renraku Kaigi], elected in 1966, 5 led a number of resistance movements. He always counselled nonviolence. With students, he instituted "teach-ins, " and "sit-ins, " a

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novelty more than twenty years ago, and even hunger strikes, in order to promote democratic education in Doshisha, to protect civil rights, and above all to defend the Peace Constitution. During his term as Doshisha's President shortly after the war, Japan was in great political turmoil, and radical students ran rampant on many campuses. In dealing with them, Tabata adhered to his own rule that student radicals should not be punished, following in the footsteps of Niijima Jo, who had whipped his own hand to quell student unrest instead of punishing the offenders. Thanks to Tabata's policies, Doshisha suffered far fewer disturbances than any other university during this period. When one realizes that one of the major causes for the recent student demonstrations that totally paralyzed Tokyo University and many other important universities was the university administration's punishment of radical student leaders, one cannot but recognize the Tightness of Tabata's policies. When angry students threw pots and dishes all over a university dining hall to show their dislike of the caterer's policies, President Tabata himself gathered those pots and dishes one by one, packed them in boxes, and returned them to the caterer with apologies for the students' violence. As Chairman of the Kyoto Public Safety Commission, Tabata faced a difficult problem. The mayor of Kyoto asked him to establish a public safety ordinance to restrict civil liberties, especially those of leftists; Tabata solved his dilemma by writing a preamble, an unusual act since ordinances in general lack preambles. In the preamble he stressed that the essential function of any law should be to protect civil rights and never to restrict them. Furthermore, despite the mayor's insistence, he placed no restriction upon assemblies and meetings, although he made certain regulations about street demonstrations. In his opinion meetings would never harm public safety, but violent street demonstrations might. The ordinance differed so greatly from those in other cities that it was called the "Tabata Ordinance. " Another dilemma Tabata encountered was the tuition increase at Doshisha in 1957 which occurred while he served on the Board of Trustees. Tabata alone opposed the board's decision to increase tuition. When his appeal was not accepted by the administration, together with students he went on a hunger strike, which caused the rest of the board great embarrassment. He told his students: "the

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hunger-strike is the best weapon for protest, for it never causes harm to others. " It was also about this time that Tabata began to advocate student participation in the election of the university president on equal terms with staff and faculty members as a means to democratize the university administration. He was the first in Japan to stress the need of such student participation in university administration. One more anecdote demonstrates Tabata's personality and way of life. Several years ago, in 1965 or 1966, the Kyoto League to Defend the Constitution (Tabata was on the executive board) sponsored an exhibition of calligraphy by various celebrities to raise funds. Upon entering the exhibition, Tabata was enraged, for each specimen of calligraphy had a price tag according to the social rank of the writer. The works of people like Tabata, a former president of a famous university, or former mayors and governors, were priced highest. Tabata instantly took down all his contributions and without any explanation to the astonished attendants or clients left the hall. Tabata thought that to place price tags on the works was in itself extremely poor taste, but to do so according to the writers' social rank was even worse, for it was against his spirit of equality. Above all, it was a disgrace to the good will of Kyoto citizens who came out to support the League's fund-raising. Tabata was of the opinion that donations should be voluntary, and that even one yen should be appreciated for the donor's spirit of sharing with the League in the promotion of world peace. Tabata is a man of principle. He does not yield to anyone whom he considers in the wrong and he does not know how to compromise. He has protested against everything that he considered wrong or unjust. Furthermore, his austere Puritan outlook leads him to abstain from liquor. Because of this personality, he has become isolated from larger academic circles even within Doshisha, which he served for about forty years. However, lack of contact with colleagues has not led him away from care for students. I still have a letter written by him during a university vacation. The letter was sent to each student who took his seminar: Dear Friend: Having finished examinations, you must be relaxing. Wishing to

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meet each of you once more before the vacation started, I put up a notice on campus. But it was too late; all of you had gone home. I sincerely hope that you make the best use of this spring vacation. Study the Constitution, read English, or French, or German, or Russian, or Chinese, or any other foreign-language books, and come back to school in excellent condition. I especially pray that you take good care of your health. Please fill in the enclosed form and attach a photograph, as I hope to keep all of you in my mind by looking at your pictures. Yours sincerely, Tabata Shinobu Professor of the Seminar on the Constitution Acts like this come naturally to Tabata; I recall no other professors who have done such a thing. In 1972, at age seventy, Tabata retired from Doshisha University. Many of his students at Doshisha, Kyoto University, Osaka City University, and other universities where he had taught worried about the size of his pension and donated one million yen to him and his wife. Later, one of the donors discovered that Tabata had given the whole amount to the Institute of the Japanese Constitution at Doshisha which had been fighting to defend the Peace Constitution. Every New Year even after his retirement, former students from all over Japan come to greet him and his wife. Some, such as Doi Takako, Higashinaka Mitsuo, and Kuroda Ryoichi are now politicians (Doi is a socialist representative to the Lower House; Higashinaka, a communist representative to the same House; and Kuroda, not a direct student of Tabata, but a member of the Institute of the Japanese Constitution which Tabata established, governor of Osaka). Some are professors and others businessmen. To them, Tabata still speaks about his persistent spirit of resistance and advocacy of nonviolence; some people call him Doshisha's Gandhi. PEACE IS BEST

Tabata's intensive readings of both Western and Eastern pacifist thinkers reinforced the youthful inclination toward peace which had

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been fostered by his Christian humanism and spirit of resistance. Among Western philosophers, he was most impressed by Immanuel Kant, especially Kant's treatise, Zum ewigen Frieden [Towards eternal peace]. Comparing Hegel and Kant, Tabata states that the latter represents the politics of peace, while the former analysed the politics of power and war. He thinks that despite some limitations in Kant's approach to state authority, monarchy and civil rights, Kant's real strength is his belief in men's fundamental freedom and equality and in world peace. Tabata grasped the essence of Kant's political philososphy as "Es soil kein Krieg sein" (There should be no war). Kant thought that this principle is the highest virtue of all mankind and that man has a moral obligation to work towards this goal. Both Kant and Hegel believed in historical necessity. Kant was convinced it led towards eventual world peace, whereas Hegel thought it led towards inevitable international war. Tabata abhorred Hegel's philosophy, which evaluates power as the fundamental idea of politics and justifies wars as necessary for historical progress.G Tabata regrets that Japan has had a strong military tradition of warriors, in which Buddhist teachings of compassion and peace have been submerged and changed into melancholic nihilism, and by which the Taoist emphasis upon harmony with nature and among men has been rejected as heresy. Tabata admits that this resulted from the historical circumstances of rigorous feudalism in which all protests were subdued by the ruling authority, and people were made subservient. As a result, subservience to authority became almost a national characteristic which prohibited people from carrying out vigorous resistance movements against Japan's inclination towards militarism and war, even in modern times (pp. 49-50). Tabata, agreeing .with E. H. Norman, 7 admits that the lack of resistance resulted partly from Japan's incomplete modernization and democratization after the Meiji Restoration. At the same time, he emphasizes the destruction of Tokugawa feudalism and Japan's entrance into the international community as crucial in Japanese history. These two actions opened the gates for the insular people to look out onto the world and absorb pacifist ideals from all nationalities. In his endeavour to establish the pacifist tradition in Japanese history, Tabata insists that there were some peace lovers even in traditional Japan. They include Prince Shotoku (574-622), Ando Shoeki in the middle of the Tokugawa Period (1600-1867), and

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Yokoi Shonan (1809-69). Prince Shotoku in his Seventeen Article Constitution stressed that the harmony taught in Buddhism and Confucianism formed the basic principle of society. Ando Shoeki bitterly criticized the Tokugawa ruling class consisting of the shogun, samurai, scholars, and religious leaders, all of whom lived off the masses. Shoeki believed that conflicts occur when some people oppress others and that peace can be established only when man stops devouring his fellows and starts to live according to nature. Yokoi Shonan is important in the Japanese history of pacifist thought, says Tabata, because he courageously advocated Japan's need to open the country and to contribute to eventual world peace, though he echoed the contemporary nationalistic slogan of "fukoku kyohei. "B Tabata further studied Japanese pacifist thinkers of the Meiji Period, such as Kitamura Tokoku, Uchimura Kanzo, and Abe Isoo. He also admired Yoshino Sakuzo, Ozaki Yukio (1859-1954), and Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960), who appealed for disarmament in the Taisho and Showa periods. Above all, he valued Uchimura Kanzo's pacifism. Tabata states that Uchimura, having observed the horror and misery of the First Sino-Japanese War, changed his view and became an unconditional pacifist. Uchimura was convinced that under any circumstances war is the greatest crime of mankind. Tabata notes that this conviction was reinforced by World War I, and strengthened by Uchimara's devotion to the study of the Bible thereafter. "Uchimura's pacifism," states Tabata, "is related to Isaiah's prophecy. It is connected with Christianity. Fundamentally, it originates from his belief in God. "9 Tabata agrees with Uchimura that true patriots must work courageously for peace. He boasts that Uchimura's pacifism matches, or perhaps exceeds, that of Western pacifist thinkers in its boldness and straightforwardness. In spite of this general agreement, Tabata disagrees with the nationalism inherent in Uchimura's "two-J-ism" (Jesus and Japan) and stresses that all men, regardless of their nationalities, must defend "universal" human rights and dedicate themselves to the establishment of eternal world peace. From his readings of the above thinkers' works, Tabata came to believe that "peace is best, " and this belief is reflected in many of his own works on the Japanese Constitution and political history.10 Like Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Uchimura, Tabata believes in historical necessity. History of necessity progresses. For Tabata, there is no

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other meaning to historical progress than peace. Although he disagrees with Hegel, thinking that he stands at the opposite pole to Kant in the history of Western political thought, Tabata accepts Hegelian dialectics in the understanding of history. "Historical objectivity" and "dialectical scientism" are the keynotes of Tabata's treatise on Japan's peace Constitution. By "historical objectivity" he means that history has its own objective teleology. Its course has been outlined by men's constant struggle to enlarge human rights and to attain world peace. Furthermore, history progresses by the actions of the oppressed against the oppressor, by the ruled against the ruler, and by the powerless against the powerful. By "scientism" Tabata indicates that history has its own law. Man must observe this law objectively the way a scientist tries to interpret the laws of natural phenomena. Capable scientists and historians alike have the ability to predict. n According to this conviction, Tabata instructs his students to "observe the principle of historical necessity. Then you will start to understand the true intention of the Japanese Constitution. " Tabata's understanding of the Japanese Constitution, therefore, is unique in that it combines Kantian, Hegelian, Marxist, and Christian thought. In agreement with Kant, Tabata asserts: "War which breaks peace negates war itself. Commercial contests [among nations] which induce wars negate wars. The most important teaching of Kant is his notion of cosmopolitanism, world citizenship, and one world in total disarmament. "12 The final goal of human history is the establishment of world peace, which God ordains. Tabata states that there are roughly three stages in this historical course towards the attainment of world peace. The first is the prophetic period of denying war; the second is the period in which moralistic precepts of denying war emerge; and the third and final stage is the period of legal injunctions against war. Furthermore, according to Tabata, "each stage in the dialectical process of negating war corresponds to a stage of historical development in human society" (p. 30). In the Western world, this road towards peace started with Isaiah and other Christian prophets, and developed into William Penn's and Kant's moralistic precepts against war. In Japan, Uchimura's prophetic pacifism was carried over by Christian moralists such as Kinoshita Naoe and Abe Isoo. The two courses, one in the world and the other in Japan, met together through World War II, which caused the total denial of war. It

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ushered in the final period in which the basic law of the land makes war illegal. Curiously enough, Tabata says, the legal proscription of war was first achieved in the Constitution of Japan, which had a long and rigid military tradition behind it. Shidehara Kijuro, prime minister from October 1945 to May 1946, proposed the writing of total disarmament and renunciation of war into the draft of Japan's new constitution, and General Douglas MacArthur welcomed the idea.13 This historically significant event took place where one would least expect it. Why was it initiated by Shidehara, who was not a Christian? Why was it accomplished in Japan of all places? Tabata reasons, first of all, according to the historical dialectic of pacifist thought, that Japan naturally took on this responsibility. Japan's incessant military aggrandizement and aggressive wars ever since the Meiji Restoration finally destroyed the nation itself. After this national devastation, the people were determined never to repeat the same mistake. By citing Shidehara's memoirs and writing, Tabata points out that renunciation of war and the cry of "no more Hiroshimas" represented the sentiment of the whole nation and that the prime minister simply reflected it. Second, although Shidehara was not a Christian, his wife was. Tabata presumes that God's will may have worked upon Shidehara through his wife's Christian influence. Finally, Uchimura in his later years had advocated the legal renunciation of war and total disarmament as the command of divine providence. Uchimura had been convinced that to strive for this task was the true mission of a patriot. 14 Other than the above reasons, Tabata could not discover a link which connected Shidehara to Japan's past pacifist thinkers. He could not even detect the names of Uchimura, Kitamura, Abe, or Kinoshita in Shidehara's writings. Nor did Shidehara refer to William Penn, or Kant, or other outstanding Western pacifist thinkers. Tabata's endeavour to establish continuity in the Japanese pacifist tradition, either from Japan or the West, broke down at this crucial point. Tabata finally decided that Uchimura's prophecy was given practical form by Shidehara miraculously, beyond human comprehension. Tabata believes that it must have been the "divine providence" which Uchimura had predicted (ibid.). Other evidence indicates a more direct link; Nobuya Bamba's study of Shidehara shows that Shidehara must have known those thinkers,

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for he had specialized in the study of Anglo-American law, international law, and Western political thought at Tokyo Imperial University. His knowledge of the general Western tradition was such that he could recite a long passage from Shakespeare's works without a single mistake. Furthermore, as Japan's foreign minister in the 1920's, Shidehara wholeheartedly supported the League of Nations, the Washington Treaty System, the Permanent Court of International Justice, and other organizations which tried to regulate relations among powers by peaceful means.15 These establishments resulted from men's long-term efforts and aspirations to establish peace. They emanated from the pacifist traditions of various nationalities. In any event, Tabata overlooks the most imporant fact! Shidehara and all the other pacifist thinkers mentioned in his Kempo to heiwa shugi (Pacifism and the Japanese constitution) are connected in Tabata's mind. Tabata is the missing link. Whatever the historical process may have been, Tabata stresses, it is undeniable that Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution stipulates I Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disuptes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerence of the state will not be recognized. This is an unprecedented event in man's history. No other country's constitution has ever achieved this degree of total negation of war and armament. It is the culminating effect of men's constant efforts and aspirations to attain peace and became possible because of sincere anti-war sentiments not only in Japan but throughout the world. The period of legal injunction to deny war has just started in Japan, and it should grow to include all nations in the world. Therefore the Japanese are obligated to protect the Constitution and to promote its peaceful spirit both for their own country and for all mankind. Tabata states that the miracle of the twentieth century that traditionally militant Japan has renounced war, is the first step towards

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eternal world peace, and that this dream will become a reality only when the spirit of the Japanese Constitution is supported by the Japanese along with all peace lovers in the world. 16 Tabata's firm conviction has brought him to the forefront of those who defend the Constitution in postwar Japan. It is also here that one finds the unique character of the Tabata school in the study of the Constitution. Though Tabata is known as a jurist, he started his academic career as a specialist in the history of political thought. The strength and essence of his constitutionalism lie in his painstaking study of the history of pacifist thought. PROTECTION OF THE CONSTITUTION : THEORY AND PRACTICE

As has been indicated, in order to understand Tabata's constitutionalism, it is essential to recognize that he tied his study of the Constitution to the history of pacifist thought. His zeal to protect the Constitution is based upon his Christian humanism and spirit of resistance. His approach is historical and dialectical objectivity. Tabata challenges Odaka Tomoo (1899-1956), Japan's leading legal philosopher, in the latter's assertion that the fundamental principle of law is natural law, reason, or nomos. Tabata emphasizes that the fundamental principle of law is more ontological, that it rests upon the condition of human existence. Instead of an abstract concept like reason or natural law, he insists that the fundamental principle of law is to promote the condition of human happiness. By happiness he means the promotion of freedom, equality, love toward others, and peace. These are not only the fundamental principles of law, but also the goals of historical development. Historical progress means progress in this direction. Any interpretation or amendment of the Constitution must move in accordance with this historical progress.17 Tabata has judged all the cases related to the Constitution and constitutional debates by the extent to which they promote world peace and human rights. This discussion leads to his famous treatise on the distinction between "kaisei" (BfcjE the amendment of law for the better) and "kaiaku" (t&^ amendment of law for the worse). Until Tabata clarified the meaning of kaisei, the term had meant simply to "change" or to "alter" laws for both better &nd worse. Tabata first

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asserted that a reactionary change of law against the course of historical progress should be termed "kaiaku." Furthermore, he argues that the fundamental principle inherent in law prohibits kaiaku. Law permits only kaisei. He first introduced this idea in his strong protest against the establishment of the National Police Reserve in 1950. He then propounded the theory in numerous articles and books on the constitutional debate. Finally, in 1953, he presented a systematic treatise on the topic in his article, "Kempo kaisei, kaiaku shumbetsu ron" [On the distinction between kaisei and kaiaku in the Constitution]. Tabata states that there are basically two limitations upon constitutional amendment. One is the legal procedure, stipulated in Article 96, and the other is the fundamental principle of the Constitution or the true intention of the Constitution. He argues that even if the procedural requirements for amendment are satisfied, the Constitution inherently precludes reactionary change. Amendment is allowed only in accordance with historical progress, and only in that case is it rightly called "kaisei. " To amend contrary to the natural course of historical development is against divine providence. No Japanese are permitted to do that, and no other nationalities (implying especially the American authorities) can force the Japanese to do so. The Tokyo School of Law, founded by Minobe Tatsukichi (1873-1948) and after him headed by Miyazawa Toshiyoshi (Shungi) of Tokyo University, admits that there are certain limitations upon constitutional amendment. Yet, they contend that the Constitution should be flexibly interpreted so as to fit the changing political environment. The government has taken advantage of this contention, and in fact has made Article 9 a dead article. Japan now does have sizable armaments called a "Self-Defence Force. " The Kyoto School established by Sasaki Soichi (1878-1965) and continued by Tabata, argues, on the other hand, that the Constitution cannot be altered by pragmatic interpretations. As mentioned previously, A is always A, and not A=A'. Tabata, however, differs from Sasaki on one important point. Sasaki states that if the Constitution ceases to fit the actual political situation, the Constitution itself should be amended, but not by interpretation. According to Sasaki, there is no limitation upon constitutional amendment. Tabata disagrees sharply with this view, even though he admires Sasaki as one of his own teachers, and etiquette requires that he accept his predecessor's main ideas. Tabata believes that there are certain

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fundamental limitations upon amendment which the spirit of the Constitution itself dictates. The Tokyo School interpretation is called the "Theory of Limited Amendments, " whereas the Kyoto School's interpretation is known as the "Theory of Unlimited Amendments. " Sasaki's school is an antithesis of the Tokyo School. In his dialectics Tabata has synthesized the two. According to him, the present Constitution cannot and should not be changed for the worse (kaiakii) either by amendment or interpretation. Japan must adhere to the original spirit of the Constitution. The Supreme Court, which is the organ to judge the constitutionality of all political cases, should have declared the National Police Reserve, the National Defence Agency, and the Self-Defence Forces all unconstitutional. Tabata boldly and systematically continues his stand and has become a giant of the postwar pro-constitutional movement.18 This movement differs from those in the Meiji and Taisho periods. The first pro-constitutional movement under the Meiji Constitution mainly criticized the dominance of the regions of Choshu and Satsuma in the government. The purpose of the second pro-constitutional movement at the end of the Taisho Period was to enforce universal manhood suffrage and to establish genuine party politics. The postwar pro-constitutional movement, on the other hand, is to protect the Constitution itself, which guarantees broad civil rights and renounces war. As is well known, the initial aims of the American occupation of Japan were to demilitarize Japan so that the nation would never become a threat again to any nation and to democratize it, especially in the fields of education and labour. These aims fit into the constitutional framework. However, cold war tension between the United States and the Soviet Union increased when the Communists took over China in 1949 and the Korean War broke out, and the international situation changed drastically. American policy towards Japan changed accordingly and collided with the original intention of both the Potsdam proclamation and the Constitution Since then, according to Tabata, Japan's unconstitutional military posture has grown steadily in four major stages, each symbolized by an international agreement: first, the U. S. -Japan Security Treaty of 1951; second, the Mutual Defence Assistance Agreement with the United States in 1954 which created Japan's Self-Defence Force; third, the Mutual Co-operation and Security Treaty with the United States of 1960 which made Japan more deeply involved in the American

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security system in the Far East and which justified the maintenance of American forces in and about Japan; and fourth, the Nixon-Sato Communique of 1969, which stipulated that Japan take a more positive role in the defence of Taiwan, South Korea, and the Far East generally as regions of special security interest to Japan. As a result of the process thus analysed by Tabata, Japan's military forces increased from the 75, 000-man National Police Reserve of 1950 to the Self-Defence Force of approximately 250, 000 men in 1970. In the same period, the total number of American troops in Japan dropped to 38, 000. 19 Furthermore, according to the Fourth Defence Plan of 1972-76, Japan spent approximately, $14 billion on military build-up. Under such circumstances, Tabata, believing that theory must always be put into practice, emerged into the limelight of the movement to defend the Constitution. For example, as we have seen, he first stood against the establishment of the National Police Reserve as unconstitutional. Then, with Nambara Shigeru, Yanaihara Tadao, Ouchi Hyoe, Suekawa Hiroshi, and Tsuneto Kyo, all leading scholars, he publicly petitioned the Japanese government and the American authorities against the new security system arranged under the 1951 U. S. -Japanese Security Treaty. Tabata has also lectured innumerable times on this subject and published many articles and books about it. Since the end of World War II he has written more than thirty volumes, including Kempogaku no kihon mondai [Fundamental problems in the study of the Constitution, 1949], Senso to heiwa no seijigaku [Politics of war and peace, 1952], Kempo kaisei ron[_On constitutional amendment, 1954],Kempogakugenron[Theoretical analysis of the Constitution, three volumes between 1951 and 1956], Nikon no heiwa shiso [Japanese pacifist thoughts, 1972]. His major purposes in writing these books have been, of course, to defend the Constitution and to promote civil liberties and world peace. His weapon to attain these goals is the distinction between kaisei and kaiaku. The initial polemics on this theme appeared in a series of articles in Sekai [World, one of the most prestigious and influential Japanese monthly journals] and in the book, Senso to heiwa no seijigaku. The treatise was gradually formulated in these works and then published first in a systematic form in 1953 under the title "Kempo kaisei no horiteki genkai to hoteki genkai" [The limitations dictated

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by principle and procedure upon the amendment of the Constitution]. In addition to his distinction between kaisei and kaiaku, he draws upon his understanding of the relationship between international treaties and the Constitution in order to defend the Constitution. Although he admits that because international treaties and the Constitution belong to different categories so that neither is superior to the other and therefore cannot control the other, he contends that the actual implementation of treaties by the nations which sign them must meet constitutional regulations. Consequently, a responsible government should not and cannot conclude a treaty the enforcement of whose conditions will violate the stipulations of the Constitution at home. 20 As the size of Japan's military forces had increased to the extent that they obviously violated the Constitution, the governing party manoeuvred to change the Constitution itself. In 1955, the Democratic party joined the Liberal party, and a new governing party called the Liberal-Democratic party was established. One aim of this merger was to meet the constitutional requirement for amendment by getting a large enough majority in the Diet. Article 96 of the Constitution stipulates: "Amendments to this Constitution shall be initiated by the Diet, through a concurring vote of two-thirds or more of all the members of each House." The Liberal-Democratic party also has attempted many times to introduce the small electoral system which is much more favourable to the conservatives. Tabata as an individual, and as the executive of the People's League to Prevent Constitutional Revision since the League was established, has continued national campaigns against the revision of the electoral system every time the governing party tried to introduce the small electoral system. Tabata has been so adamant in his protest against the government programme of rearmament and the U. S. -Japan security system that many foreigners think he is a Communist. But Tabata is a member neither of the Communist party nor of the Socialist party. He is simply an ardent peace lover backed by his Christian and humanist convictions. In Japan, there is a tendency among Marxist intellectuals to criticize every American policy, but to remain as silent as oysters about Chinese and Russian behaviour in international relations. Tabata, however, has criticized anybody and any country, left or right, whose policies he thought ran counter to historical progress

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towards world peace and human happiness. He publicly opposed the Chinese and the Indian nuclear tests. He also challenged the Chinese premier, Chou En-lai, in October 1954 when Chou acknowledged Japan's rearmament by saying that any country had a right and a need to defend itself. Tabata immediately addressed a protest note to the Chinese premier. 21 Five years later, together with other national Japanese celebrities headed by Katayama Tetsu, the former socialist prime—minister of Japan, Tabata was invited to attend the ceremony commemorating the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Tabata frequently recalls how at that time, Chou, remembering Tabata's note of protest, approached him and proposed a toast for world peace. "Though I am an abstainer, " said Tabata, "I can drink if I wish. But, the Japanese political situation still does not really warrant a toast in an alcoholic beverage. I will happily join your toast when Japan succeeds in total disarmament. " Instead of joining Chou's toast with an alcoholic beverage, Tabata drank a glass of orange juice. When he returned home from his China tour, Tabata wrote a short poem which he has not yet published: Premier Chou En-lai was handsome, He still remembered my protest note. The poem demonstrates that deep in his heart Tabata appreciated Chou's expression of sympathy. The anecdote also exemplifies Tabata's deep dedication to principle. Prior to this event, in June 1953, when Tabata was the president of Doshisha University, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the university to lecture. Until the last moment, Tabata had not known that Mrs. Roosevelt might advocate the rearmament of Japan in her speech at Doshisha. When he was informed that she had been advocating it elsewhere, he gave a curious welcoming speech to Mrs. Roosevelt Undiplomatically, Tabata said: Pacifism is a traditional thought and belief of Christians. In the United States, the Friends have practised this gospel of peace, and in Japan as early as the Meiji Period, Christians

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such as Uchimura Kanzo and Abe Isoo advocated pacifism. World history has come to a stage where war is no longer of any use. As a proof, the Japanese who have been considered warlike have adopted a Constitution in which they renounced war. This may result from Divine Providence. Japan's peace Constitution is a real model as well as the symbol for all the nations which love peace. We are determined to maintain this peace Constitution forever. We pray for the day to come when the United States, the Soviet Union, and all other countries will follow Japan's path. We would like to welcome Mrs. Roosevelt and hope that she will convey this determination of Japanese Christians to the American people who, I trust, also love peace. 22 Forestalled by Tabata, Eleanor Roosevelt softened the tone of her speech and said that she believed that in general all countries should have at least minimal self-defence forces, but whether Japan should do so or not was entirely up to the Japanese people, and that a third person had no right to command Japan to rearm. Although she had toned down her main speech, at the welcome party for Mrs. Roosevelt after the lecture she returned to her original purpose and stressed Japan's need to rearm. She further justified the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for the reason that the bombs quickly ended the war. At the end of the party, the toastmaster asked President Tabata to make a few final remarks. Tabata, instead of thanking Mrs. Roosevelt for her visit to Doshisha, gave a long counter-speech against her position on rearmament. The embarrassed toastmaster avoided a translation of Tabata's speech by saying that the American guest had to catch a train right away. Takeda Kiyoko, a specialist on Japanese Christian history and now a professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo, had accompanied Mrs. Roosevelt and felt that Tabata's speech had to be conveyed to Mrs. Roosevelt, as she held the same view as Tabata. Takeda, therefore, suggested to Tabata that if he wrote a letter to Mrs. Roosevelt in Japanese, she would translate it into English.23 The gist of Tabata's letter to Mrs. Roosevelt is as follows: Dear Mrs. F. D. Roosevelt:

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As my opinion expressed at your luncheon party at Doshisha on June the third was not interpreted to you owing to the lack of time, I have decided to write this letter. I have a high respect for you, as I understand that you have a great regard for humanity and peace. And yet, I cannot understand why you so stress the fear of the Russian threat and Japan's need to rearm in order to defend herself. Although I agree with you that the United States should take the most important role in world affairs, and although I think I can understand the American psychology, still I feel that your fear of the Soviet Union may be oversensitive. The United States and the Soviet Union must regain the close friendship which once existed in the past, and I believe that you can in fact regain your earlier mutal respect in the future.... Tabata then referred to the American use of atomic bombs as a crime under any circumstances, since they killed non-belligerent and innocent civilians. He continued: We, therefore, earnestly appeal to the United States and the Soviet Union not to make atomic bombs, but neither of them listen and keep on producing the horrible weapons. As a natural result, I believe that, though it may sound paradoxical, the day will soon come when the United States and the Soviet Union cannot fight because of their huge armaments, as Kant's philosophy of peace predicted. While big powers compete with one another in the expansion of armament, it is best for smaller nations, especially Japan and Germany, not to rearm, in order to maintain world peace. Therefore, a true peace lover should not force Japan to rearm, or even suggest such a policy. It is an inexcusable crime to do so. Japan has decided not to fight again, denied rearmament, and even abandoned the "right" of belligerency of the state in her Constitution. The Constitution does not allow anybody to change its inherent norm of peace. The Constitution does not admit backward changes.... To advocate Japan's rearmament will also destroy the foundation of democracy which Japan has just started to build, because rearmament will surely give rise to militarism and ultra-nationalism once again in this country. Peace-loving people in Japan do not

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anticipate that the Soviet Union or China will attack armless Japan....The Korean tragedy took place because she had made war preparations. If she had had no armaments, I believe, the Korean War would not have taken place. My argument is not dream-like idealism, but based on reality. So long as the United States and the Soviet Union have atomic bombs, they cannot fight each other. War becomes unlikely, and the defence of the state by diplomacy becomes possible. Then, what is the use for small nations to have weapons? Japan has owed much to the United States of America ever since she opened the country according to American advice and joined the international community. We owe many thanks to your country. Therefore, it is all the more regrettable for both the United States and Japan to see that the United States is now losing the hearts of the people in the world, because the United States takes advantage of her powerful position in international affairs. I know that long patience is required for Japan to protect the peaceful Constitution. But, to do so is extremely important, not only for Japan, but also for the United States and other countries, because protection of Japan's Constitution encourages world peace. After all, it is for the glory of God. I fervently hope that the day will come soon when both the United States and the Soviet Union abandon their armament and kneel down before God for guidance and rely upon His mercy. I pray for God's blessing upon your boundless efforts for the love of peace and the respect of humanity. Yours sincerely, Shinobu Tabata President Doshisha University24

From about 1954 on, Tabata became convinced that his efforts to protect the Constitution might have a negative effect unless his movement was connected to the actual conduct of Japan's diplomacy. His idea that Japan had to become a permanent neutral country began to grow from this conviction. It seemed the only right course for Japan to take in the light of the natural direction of historical progress. Two events gave Tabata the initial opportunity to participate

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more directly in the debates over policy. One was Japan's establishment of a Self-Defence Force as a result of the Mutual Defence Assistance Agreement with the United States in 1954; the other was the World Peace Conference of 1955 held in Helsinki, which he attended as Japan's representative. At the conference he experienced directly the strength of common concern which motivated all the participants. He believed that the sense of unity attained at the conference had to become the dominant current in world public opinion. To that purpose Japan, too, ought to contribute. The Constitution protection movement at home is not enough. Japan must take an absolutely neutral stand in international relations, and to this end give up military alliances or security arrangements with any country. Tabata also felt that Japan's neutrality is the only natural condition if Japan wishes to adhere to the provisions of the Peace Constitution. JAPAN'S PERMANENT NEUTRALITY: CONCLUSION

In the political crisis of 1960 which revolved about the renewal of the U. S. -Japan Security Treaty, Tabata held a unique position. He was, of course, one of the powerful leaders who opposed renewal. In comparison with most people, however, who simply opposed the treaty without great conviction, Tabata proposed the permanent neutrality of Japan as the alternative plan to the Security Treaty. He believed that Article 9 of the Constitution includes the intent that Japan adopt absolute pacifism. As a consequence, Japan must make total demilitarization and permanent neutrality the basis of its diplomacy. This is the only possible policy by which Japan can realize its constitutional stipulation for absolute pacifism. Tabata asserts that in comparison with the neutrality of Switzerland, Sweden, and Austria, Japanese neutrality is new, for Japan has not only renounced belligerency but also decided not to maintain any military force. Tabata strongly urged the Japanese government and the Diet to declare immediately and internationally that Japan would become a demilitarized and permanently neutral country. At the same time, he further stressed, they should abolish the Security Treaty. 25 In order to put these thoughts into practice, Tabata in 1962 established the Institute of the Japanese Constitution, and beginning

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in October 1966 he started to publish a monthly newsletter at the institute called Eisei Churitsu [Permanent neutrality]. The first issue of the newsletter declared in a special English-language statement: Our Insistence on the Necessity of a Perpetual Neutrality Declaration It was not by mere chance that we, the Japanese people, surrendering after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have established a Constitution with peace and freedom clauses. Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution prescribes the renouncement of war, which idea originated with the late Prime Minister Kijuro Shidehara. The resolution of Premier Shidehara, which succeeded in convincing General MacArthur, was based upon the political consciousness of the Japanese people, who believe that armament is futile in the atomic age and that the renouncement of war is the best policy. It is a natural consequence that the Japanese people, who earnestly desired the thorough realization of pacifism, expected the establishment of a country with perpetual neutrality. However, the Security Treaty, which was concluded in 1951 between Japan and the U. S. A., is contradictory to the people's desire and to the Constitution; it has turned Japan into a warlike power state based upon the military alliance with America. The conclusion of the Mutual Security Agreement in 1954 and the Security Treaty in 1960 added a marked degree of unconstitutionally. It is clearly revealed in the present function of the state called "Security Treaty System. " The contradiction between the Constitution and "System" became the cause of many troubles and of anxiety about war, including the problems of the military bases, entry of nuclear-powered submarines and the Vietnam War. This contradiction and many consequent difficulties should be corrected and solved to accord with the Japanese Constitution. Regarding this solution there is no alternative left but for the Japanese people or the Diet to declare perpetual neutrality and to establish a neutral state. Nay, indeed, it is the most

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appropriate as well as the most effective means. There are other propositions such as so-called positive neutrality and multilateral inviolable treaty. However, they are quite meaningless and powerless for Japan, which should first renounce the Security Treaty, The policies of a country, of course, should be carried out in accord with its Constitution. Unconstitutional politics, at least, would bring little happiness to the people. However, the present foreign policy, forcibly executed by the Government, is partisan diplomacy and based on the Security Treaty, which implies subordination to the U. S. A. This policy is fundamentally wrong because of its contempt and neglect of the Constitution. This unconstitutional phase is not fully realized by the Opposition parties who are against the Security Treaty! some of them are even taking part in the Defence Campaign. At this time, we feel the absolute necessity of supporting the spirit of Article 9 and determining our attitude toward foreign policy. The sooner we establish a perpetually neutral Japan, the sooner we can be free of the Security Treaty System; and only then will our peace and independence be secured. If we lose this opportunity, it will be almost hopeless for Japan to recover its security and independence. 1970 is nearing. It is the year when the Security Treaty will be automatically renewed or its contents will be revised for the worse. At this time, Japanese perpetual neutrality should be declared through the polls or through the Diet. We should choose the path of glory without hesitation. For this reason the Institute of the Japanese Constitution hereby insists on the necessity of the declaration of perpetual neutrality and hopes the nation-wide movement for this declaration will receive unanimous support. As indicated above, the major characteristic of Tabata's approach to the Constitution is its direct connection to his zeal for protecting the peace clause. In his passionate and constant efforts to achieve this goal, Tabata exceeds all the scholars of the Constitution in Japan. Aomi Jun'ichi, a professor at Tokyo University who has studied trends of jurisprudence in postwar Japan, considers Tabata the leader

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of an influential school and admits the strength of his emphasis upon historical objectivity and the scientific interpretations of laws. Aomi notes that Tabata's position in the study of the Constitution matches lenaga Saburo's attitude towards history. Both Tabata and lenaga perceive the promotion of human rights and peace as the natural course of historical progress.26 Ikeda Masaaki, a professor of Rikkyo University and disciple of Miyazawa Toshiyoshi, the leader of the Tokyo School, states: The successors of the Sasaki School [Kyoto School] intend to practise constitutionalism by the logic of history and objectivity based upon strict interpretations of the text. Tabata Shinobu especially clearly distinguishes kaisei from kaiaku, and rejects diverse concepts of the Constitution. His passionate fight against every unconstitutional political activity has its own logical and unique consistency. Hence, Tabata, supported by many sympathizers, has established a firm and leading stand for the protection of the Constitution.27 Along with this sympathetic appraisal, both Aomi and Ikeda, as members of the Tokyo School, criticize Tabata. Aomi doubts whether historical objectivity and scientism in the interpretation of laws are possible. Ikeda says that because Tabata rejects the possibility of diverse interpretations of the Constitution, no dialogue can be developed between him and those who make pragmatic interpretations of the Constitution. In response to these criticisms one may mention Tabata's fundamental assumption that all laws exist to promote human happiness and that there can be no real happiness among mankind without peace among all nations and nationalities. Tabata believes that one should not make any political compromise with the government or anybody else in this assertion. Historical progress has its own self-determined teleology, and the objective observation of this historical course is not only possible but necessary to establish scientific interpretations of laws untinged by political expediency and ever-changing environments. This attitude is firmly supported by his conviction that "peace is best" and that to attain eternal world peace is God's will. Tabata's Christian love and conscience constrain him not to give up this fight,

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no matter how strongly he may be opposed by domestic and international pressures, and no matter how deeply he may be isolated because of his uncompromising attitude. He is convinced that to do so is his duty and responsibility not only for Japan's welfare but also for world peace. On 22 June 1971 the Mainichi Shimbun, one of the greatest newspapers in Japan, published a special article to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Institute of the Japanese Constitution. In an interview, Tabata repeated Japan's need to became a demilitarized, permanently neutral country. If Japan fails, the final stage toward the establishment of world peace, that is, the period when the supreme law of the land prohibits war, which Japan has initiated, will not become universal. "Small as the Institute may be," Tabata emphasized, "my ambition is big. "2B His Eisei Churitsu has now published well over one hundred issues.

Appendix Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt's previously unpublished answer to Tabata Shinoba is as follows: Imperial Hotel Tokyo JunelS, 1953 Dear Professor Tabata: Your letter has just been translated and given to me. I think it is quite natural that the people in the US who have watched the Soviet Union take over a number of countries along her borders in Europe, should feel fear of her methods. She has established in almost every country groups of well disciplined Communists who do excellent and very untruthful propagnda. Simply having the Atom bomb is not going to defend us against Communist ideas and we see enough of the result of these ideas in the Soviet Satellite countries not to wish to have them dominate us in the US. Your theory that because the Soviets and the US produce Atom bombs they will never go to war and therefore production will just be an assurance against their ever going to war, I hope is true but one can never be sure of what may happen and a small incident has started nearly all the great wars. I don't agree with your opinion that the use of the Atom bomb itself is not justified once war is started. You might just as well say that bombing of any kind is not justified because precision bombing over a long period of time will do exactly what the Atom bomb does in a few seconds. War itself is a crime. Once war is started you may be quite sure that any weapon which will help win the war will be used. So I think the only real way of doing away with the use of such weapons is to try to eliminate the causes of war and try to induce people to sit around a table and discuss their problems rather than resort to using force. I agree with you that Russia's suggestions for disarmament are a pure gesture because they carry no willingness to accept inspection on an international scale, which would ensure that any promises

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made would be carried out. Russia simply asks that we accept on paper a reduction of all armament by one-third but she does not agree there should be inspection to verify the agreement in any nation. The US is making no gesture. We are willing to accept international inspection, so I think there is a difference in the stand which the two governments have taken. I agree with you also that the small nations, Japan and Germany too, must depend on the UN for security. It is only as we constantly increase the power of the UN to put down aggression that any small nation can really feel secure in the world and with the increase of the UN power there can be a decrease in the rearmament of all nations, but, again, it must be under international inspection. The rearmament of Japan or Germany so that they can defend themselves under sudden attack may seem to you unnecessary. Certainly it is not for any other nation to decide what Japan should do. We in the US, however, feel that we must rearm, not only to defend ourselves but to help defend our allies. True, the economic situation of Japan might make it impossible for her to carry the kind of rearmament program which the US is carrying but it would seem to me that every nation would want to feel it was gradually building sufficient strength to prevent invasion, at least until UN help could be asked for. I am certainly not advising Japan as to what she should do but I hope whatever she decides will be decided after a careful study of the world as it is today. At the moment it seems to me that there is a good deal of wishful thinking among Japanese citizens, particularly among the women, the students, labor and some of the intellectuals. I realize that Japan abandoned war in her Constitution, but I hope that in so doing she did not abandon the right to defense only the right to aggressive warfare. One can read the Constitution and construe it either way, I concede, but I am told by some of these who helped draft it that they hold it was aggressive war and not defense that was being abandoned. No foreigner can say what the effects of rearmament will be. That is for Japan herself to decide. I can assure you, however, that the people of the US do not need Japan as a market for their munitions industry. Everyone would regret to see the growth of democracy in Japan injured by any program or the return to the old

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militaristic and ultranationalistic programs. Believing that neither the Soviet Union nor the People's Republic of China will ever try to invade Japan is, from my point of view, wishful thinking, though I certainly hope you are right. I don't think Korea was sufficiently armed for that particular reason to have led to the attack by the North Koreans. If South Korea had not resisted, she might have been enslaved by the North Koreans. I hope that Japan will rise out of the difficulties which face her since the war and will grow in democracy and be able to preserve peace and I fervently hope with you that the day will come when the UN will have sufficient force so that the U. S. and Soviet Russia will both no longer need to maintain protection for themselves in the world. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union will, I fear, not kneel down before God for guidance. They are not advocating religion as a supreme power in their country, but I hope the US will always rely upon the guidance of God. With many thanks for your kind words about me personally, Very sincerely yours, (Mrs) F. D. Roosevelt

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10

Conclusion Japanese Society and the Pacifist

At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, the poetess Yosano Akiko (1878-1942) expressed her hatred of war in the following poem entitled "Kimi shinitamon kotonakare" [Do not offer your life]: Dearest brother, I weep for you. Do not offer your life. Did our mother and father, Whose love for you, last born, Surpassed all others, Teach you to wield the sword? To kill? Did they rear you these twenty-four years, Saying: 'Kill and die?

You, Who shall inherit the name of our father— A master proud of his ancient name In the commerce of this town of Sakai— Do not offer your life. Whether Port Arthur falls or not Is no matter. Do you not know That this is nothing To the house of a merchant? Nothing?

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Do not offer your life. The Emperor himself does not go To battle. The Imperial Heart is deep; How could He ever wish That men shed their blood, That men die like beasts, That men's glory be in death? Dearest brother, Do not offer your life In battle. Mother, whom father left behind This past autumn, Suffered when In the midst of her grief Her son was called away. Even under this Imperial reign, When it is heard That the home is safe and secure, Mother's hair has grown whiter. Do you forget Your forlorn young wife Weeping, Hidden in the shadows of the shop curtains? Or do you think of her? Consider a young woman's heart when After less than ten months Her husband is taken away! Alas, who else Than you alone Is she to rely on In this world? Do not offer your life!1 Many other writers expressed a similar abhorrence of war. The Gin no saji [The silver spoon, 1913] of Naka Kansuke (1885-1965) reflects conditions in the First Sino-Japanese War, while Ippeisotsu

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[One soldier, 1908], by Tayama Katai (1871-1930), deals with the campaigns of the Russo-Japanese War. Some statesmen like Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909) and Tani Kanjo (1837-1911) tried to avoid military confrontations prior to the Russo-Japanese War. These writers and statesmen might in a sense be called pacifists. They are not included in this volume because they did not object to all wars in principle but only to specific manifestations of wars for their personal reasons or practical calculations of state interests. In fact, most people dislike war, and many wish to evade conscription simply to increase their chances for a longer life. The German sociologist Karl Mannheim (d. 1947) makes a distinction between "wishful thinking" and a "utopian mentality. " In his Ideology and Utopia, he discusses the conflict between the "ruling groups" who try to maintain the existing order of society and the "utopians" who hope to destroy and to transform a given society. The utopia of liberal humanitarianism "transcends evil reality. " Mannheim states that a Utopian mentality "is incongruous with and transcends the immediate situation," and that Utopian orientations "tend to shatter, either partially or wholly, the order of things prevailing at the time. "2 As we shall see, only Christian and socialist pacifism was based upon this kind of utopia mentality. Transcendence also has a religious meaning. By rejecting this world and physical existence, one seeks the ultimate truth and reality in the spiritual realm. One's Weltanschauung thus reflects a strict separation between this world and the other. In the Christian tradition, the transcendental value exists in God; whereas in the original Shinto tradition, there is only a monism. In the world of Shinto tradition, there is no clear separation between church and state. The state itself tends to assume a religious character and thereby creates a politico-religious society. In his Beyond Belief, the American sociologist Robert N. Bellah deals with various problems which arise when this notion of transcendence does not exist. In short, he thinks that even when an institutionalized religion loses its initial vitality, there still exists "beyond belief" a faith in what appears to be true and real. He calls the popular faith in this kind of situation a "civil religion." Man still cherishes the truth as he understands it and hopes to bring about a society based on it. 3 Here the two concepts of transcendence merge. Those who propose radical change of the existing order utilize it as the "measuring rod"

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against which to propose change. The Utopians have always tried to transform contemporary society and alter the course of history in accordance with their standards of transcendence. lenaga Saburo's Nihon shisoshi ni okeru hitei no ronri no halt at su [The development of the logic of negation in Japanese intellectual history] best illustrates how this notion of transcendence functioned in the ancient and mediaeval history of Japan. lenaga's concept of the "logic of negation" along with the ideas of Mannheim provides a context within which one can better understand the nature of Christian and socialist pacifism in Japan. lenaga contends that history always develops through dialectical negation. Western society developed through the negation of the ancient society by the mediaeval one and the later negation of the mediaeval society by the Renaissance. Similarly, Japanese history developed from the ancient to the Nara-Heian periods (710-1185) and the Kamakura-Muromachi periods (1185-1582) by the "logic of negation. " In the West the driving spiritual force which propelled this logic of negation was Christianity, whereas in Japan it was Buddhism. Christianity and Buddhism entered their respective civilizations by negating the orders which had already existed. Hebraism triumphed over Hellenism, and Indian-Chinese elements opposed primitive Shinto. The newly imported faiths rejected this world and man's physical existence in favour of a higher reality, either in the Christian God or the Buddhist nirvana. They sought complete affirmation by means of complete negation: limitlessness and infinity after the complete destruction of the limited and the finite. They found in the Christian God and Buddha the source of ultimate truth and value and used this ultimate truth as the means to judge the present. Both societies therefore shared systems of transcendental values to which they could turn in time of need. Nevertheless, from about the end of the Muromachi Period up to World War II, Japan lost its "logic of negation," with the result that there was no fundamental transformation in Japanese history after the Muromachi Period. The wholesale importation of Western philosophies during the Meiji period and the neo-Kantian school of the Taisho Period made no difference. After the late sixteenth century, Japan advanced towards increasing absolutism. Political values and authority were exalted above all. Oda Nobunaga (153482) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi destroyed temples and slaughtered undesirable Buddhist priests in order to establish their despotic rules.

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Tokugawa leyasu built the immense castle which later became the Imperial Palace in Tokyo as a symbol of his invincible political power and himself later became enshrined as a god. The Meiji Restoration reinforced this trend, replacing the shogun by the emperor. The Imperial Rescript on Education stressed chukun aikoku (loyalty and patriotism or devotion to state interests) as well as the Confucian concept of ko (filial piety) as the subjects' most important duties. The Meiji Constitution declared that the emperor inherited his sovereignty from his divine ancestor^. Both decrees institutionalized absolutism and the supremacy of political values. After the short-lived Taisho liberalism, the Law for the Maintenance of Public Peace (Chian ijiho) specified death penalties for those who disturbed the kokutai. This-worldly, affirmative Shinto and Confucianism helped to legitimatize this order, and the Buddhist notion of transcendence was diluted and incorporated into this dominant social system. Thus, there was no transformation either of fundamental values or of social structure. The Meiji Restoration appeared to destroy Tokugawa feudalism, and the Taisho democracy seemed to replace Meiji absolutism, but appearances in both cases were deceptive, lenaga concludes his study with a suggestion—though he could not state it clearly because of wartime censorship and authoritarian control—that Japan needed a new "logic of negation" to bring about fundamental change. 4 In our understanding of lenaga's concept, those who brought this new logic of negation to Japanese society were mainly Christians and socialists. Christians exalted the kingdom of God as the only true reality and means of salvation, whereas socialists sought the kingdom of men in a classless society which, they thought, was destined to develop on this earth. This difference between Christians and socialists in the location of Utopia meant that there was also a crucial difference in their attitudes towards peace in Japan, but they both rejected the existing order of society and challenged the very core of the dominant traditional system which had developed since the end of the mediaeval period. In both cases, their ideal worlds transcended the immediate conditions of reality. Hence the unique character of their pacifism rested upon their visions of utopia as Mannheim used the term and upon their individual logics of negation. Christians and socialists protested against the fundamental order of society and suffered terribly as a result.

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PACIFISTS CHALLENGE THE ORDER

At the outset, individuals accepted Christian belief because of their patriotism and humanitarian concerns. Converts' lives were in danger until 1873, when the ban on Christian belief was lifted. After 1873, Christians still had to face attacks as "traitors" and alienation from their families and society. Those who braved such ostracism to become Christians thought that only by adopting the spirit of Western civilization could Japan modernize and fend off the colonial powers. Once converted, they gradually came to understand the Christian concept of transcendence and to deny the divine-human continuum of the traditional Japanese Weltanschauung. The emperor no longer seemed divine nor the source of all good and all justice. Temporal values and virtues like loyalty, filial piety, and devotion to state interests did not serve as the basis of their conduct or the meaning of their lives. Instead, they recognized the Christian God as the ultimate source of value and human existence. Kitamura Tokoku's denial of the egoistic, insolent, limited self and his consequent discovery of salvation in the Christian God's infinite love vividly demonstrate this experience, which was shared by most Japanese converts. Their discovery of Christian universalism and negation of particularistic collective values also enabled them to acquire an appreciation of the independent individual and equality among all human beings before God. It was from this point of view that Tokoku could attack loyalty and filial piety—the cardinal concepts of the Imperial Rescript on Education—as nothing but feudal remnants; that Uchimura Kanzo refused to bow before the same edict; that Kinoshita Naoe declared his scepticism about etatisme. No wonder, then, that the traditionalist philosopher Inoue Tetsujiro (1855-1944) and many others regarded Christianity as a most dangerous philosophy which would shatter the traditional system. Christian pacifism rested upon three major principles: first, Christians believed in the teaching, "Thou shalt not kill"; second, they believed in Christian universalism and brotherly love—Tokoku emphasized that "all the peoples of the four seas are brothers, " and Kinoshita Naoe announced, "I believe in the existence of God. I

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believe in God's love. And I believe that the obligation for all mankind is to establish Heaven on earth"; and third, Christians believed that all state actions, to say nothing of military expansion, even in the name of the emperor, fall short of justice measured according to absolute standards of transcendence. The last point requires elaboration. As the political scientist Maruyame Masao has noted, 5 the Japanese always invoked moral justification for their aggression against Korea, China, and the whole of Asia. For example, General Matsui Iwane, commander of the Japanese troops dispatched to China in mid-August 1937, stated: "The struggle between Japan and China was always a fight between brothers within the 'Asian family'....It has been my belief during all these years that we must regard this struggle as a method of making the Chinese undergo self-reflection. We do not do this because we hate them, but on the contrary because we love them too much" (ibid.). This way of thinking which so characterized Japanese wartime leaders contrasts strongly with the attitudes of the Nazi leaders. Heinrich Himmler declared: "What happens to a Russian, to a Czech, does not interest me in the slightest. " He continued: "Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death like cattle interests me only in so far as we need them as slaves to our Kultur; otherwise it is of no interest to me. Whether ten thousand Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch interests me only in so far as the anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished. " (p. 94). Maruyama is right in pointing out that "whereas the Germans surmounted any incipient guilt feelings by defying them head-on, the Japanese evaded them by constantly moralizing their actions" (p. 96). We do not agree with Maruyama, however, that the Japanese attitude resulted from "moral dwarfishness."Nor do we believe that the "freaky" nature of the Nazi leaders accounts for their attitude. The difference lies rather in the results of the cosmological monism which underlay the Japanese attitude and the dualism which the German leaders had inherited. The Germans, heirs to the Christian tradition, lived in a society in which acts were legitimatized and political auhorities judged by a standard which transcended the leaders' control. The transcendental reference does not attribute ultimate righteousness to anyone, any group, or any system. The Nazi leaders knew they were wrong and boldly defied the Christian

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God. In the Japanese Shinto tradition, on the other hand, a single politico-religious hierarchy was understood not only as normal but ordained by Heaven. The Japanese emperor was both the political and spiritual sovereign; he derived his authority from his divine ancestors. The Meiji Constitution institutionalized this order and the growing nationalism of the thirties rendered it sacrosanct. Lacking an understanding of transcendence and ecclesiastical authorities to assert the supremacy of the other world, Japanese looked to the emperor as the symbolic head of justice and good; the nation over which he reigned for that reason alone became virtuous. This attitude enabled General Araki Sadao in 1933 to assert: "Needless to say, the Imperial Army's spirit lies in exalting the Imperial Way and spreading the National Virtue. Every single bullet must be charged with the Imperial Way and the end of every bayonet must have the National Virtue burnt into it. If there are any who oppose the Imperial Way or the National Virtue, we shall give them an injection with this bullet and this bayonet" (Maruyama, p. 94). The basis for Japanese aggression differed fundamentally from that of the Germans. There was no absolute, transcendental judge to chastise evil acts; rather, the deeds of the self-righteous nation in the name of the divine emperor were considered just without question. We shall return later to another important implication of what this attitude implies. Japanese Christians and socialists as well disputed this point of view by demythologizing the emperor. The following statement in Akahata (The red flag), the socialist-communist organ, illustrates the socialists' attitude toward the emperor and war. On 5 October 1931, it declared: "Through the people's struggle against imperialistic wars, through their struggle for the protection of the Soviet League and of the Chinese Revolution, let us destroy the emperor and the Buddhist priests who instigate imperialism!" Here the emperor was regarded as far from virtuous. He was, on the contrary, considered the symbol of evil and the source of imperialism. Christians also transcended the prevailing order of Japanese society. Judging by an entirely different standard, they too asserted that Japan's military expansion was sinful. In addition to the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill, " and the universalistic concept of brotherly love, Christian pacifism recognized a transcendence which was lacking among most Japanese, and which, therefore, became the chief

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strength of the Christians' peace campaign in Japan. Unlike the socialists, no Christians in this volume advocated the overthrow of the emperor. This was partly because for them he was unimportant to their central and internal values. More significantly, though, they believed that the real source of world peace existed elsewhere. To establish an enduring peace on earth, they were convinced, all men had to recognize God as absolute and man's sin before God. Kitamura Tokoku's and Kinoshita Naoe's spiritual purification by repentance and consequent aim to achieve within themselves a "human revolution" thus is closely associated with their peace campaigns. Uchimura Kanzo's devotion to biblical instruction after the Russo-Japanese War was not a retreat from his previous stand for world peace; it was the very means by which he hoped to achieve his purpose. Like Uchimura, Yanaihara Tadao believed that the only way to stop Japan's military aggression in China was to Christianize the nation. He thought that the best solution for this would be to convert the emperor to Christianity. After World War II, he and Nambara Shigeru, another disciple of Uchimura and a close friend of Yanaihara, did urge the emperor's conversion in order to make Japan a genuinely pacifist nation. For the Mukyokai leaders, real pacifism could rest only upon a conviction of transcendence. It was their recognition of transcendence that made them prophesy Japan's destruction. Fujii Takeshi even went so far as to hope that Japan would be ruined in order that it could start afresh undefiled by its past. The Mukyokai leaders' apparent contradiction in urging their members to accept induction to the army can also be explained only by their total reliance upon transcendental judgment. When disciples faced with conscription came to consult with Uchimura during the Russo-Japanese War and with Yanaihara during World War II, these teachers did not instist that their disciples disobey the state order. Both Uchimura and Yanaihara instead urged the young men to enter the army and die if God so commanded, though of course they emphasized that they "should not kill" and ought "to love their enemies. " For those in the Mukyokai, this meant to bear the cross for the sin of all men who continue to kill each other, and to await the Final Judgment. Though the overwhelming majority of Japanese accepted the military draft, there were a few conscientious objectors among Chris-

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tians. Yabe Kiyoshi, a Doshisha student and member of the Seventh Day Adventists, was the first conscientious objector in Japan. Upon receipt of his induction notice in January 1905, he went to the local army headquarters in Sendai and told the regimental commander that he could not accept the order because of his religious conviction. As a result, he was imprisoned for two months. Later, as a Christian pastor, Yabe baptized Tabata Shinobu. Ishiga Osamu during World War II refused induction into the army and was prepared to die for his conviction. After periods of imprisonment and consultations with Yanaihara, he finally joined the army as a medical corpsman in July 1945. After the war, he returned in repentance together with his wife to the leprosarium in Kagoshima, where he had worked earlier, there to remain for more than ten years. Though by no means all Christians became pacifists, a significant few prophesied Japan's destruction in the war or demonstrated their opposition in other ways. As the previous articles indicate, socialists formed an equally outstanding pacifist group in Japan. Those who called themselves "socialists" emerged in force after the First Sino-Japanese War. After the war, capitalism developed rapidly. Enterprises became bigger. The number of factories capitalized at over one thousand yen, for instance, increased from 2933 in 1893, the year before the start of the war, to 7326 at the turn of the century. This rapid industrialization produced many social problems. The new urban labourers endured wretched working conditions and received wages insufficient to maintain even a minimal human dignity. Female workers in spinning factories frequently contracted tuberculosis. Even police officials had to admit that some workers were treated worse than prisoners. As commercial goods and the money economy penetrated into the villages, peasants lost the independence their traditional self-sufficient economy had provided them. Many sank deep into debt. Such circumstances inspired people to become socialists and to call for reform. Most of the leaders were Christians. The six who established Japan's first socialist party in 1901 included Abe Isoo, Kinoshita Naoe, and Kotoku Shusui. All six, except for Kotoku, were Christians. Since both Christians and socialists belonged to marginal and socially persecuted groups in Japan, the sociological hypothesis of the interchangeability of alienation may have been at

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work. This hypothesis states that an alienated person feels relatively at ease in shifting to another alienated position, and he also tends to identify himself with various other alienated groups. More importantly, people became Christians out of their great humanitarian concern and with their conversion became inspired to save, as well as themselves, their fellow Japanese both as individuals and as a nation. Their strong revulsion at social injustice led them to work for the social as well as the spiritual salvation of others. Hence, they became socialists. Some, like Abe Isoo, Yamakawa Hitoshi (1880-1958)—another Doshisha graduate and a leader in the anti-militarist campaign—, and Kagawa Toyohiko still maintained their Christian faith even after they became socialists, while others like Katayama Sen (1859-1933) gave up the faith in their conviction that capitalism spawned all social evils and that simple prayers would never solve those problems. At the outset, Kotoku and Uchimura together set forth their pacifist arguments in the Yorozu choho, but soon they had to part company as their different understandings of what causes war and social injustice widened. In August 1903, two months prior to Kotoku's and Uchimura's resignations from the Yorozu choho, socialists staged a lecture meeting to oppose war. About the same time, the Unitarians in the journal Rikugo zashhi, and Kinoshita Naoe in the Mainichi shimbun were also opposing war. After his resignaion, Kotoku together with Sakai Toshihiko (1870-1933) organized the Commoners Association (Heiminsha) and issued its newspaper, the Heimin shimbun [The commoners' newspaper]. On 15 November 1903, the first issue of the Heimin shimbun declared: "We advocate pacifism, in order to make mankind devoted to Fraternity. For this purpose, we expect the whole world regardless of differences in race and government to carry out complete disarmament and to renounce war absolutely. " In the same month, Sakai wrote in the journal Shakaishugi [Socialism] that "war is the greatest crime of mankind" and advocated absolute non-resistance. Even if a nation without arms was taken over by the enemy because of its non-resistance, he continued, heaven in the Confucian sense would surely recognize its virtuous conduct. Japan had to learn from Confucius, who had always been calm and peaceful no matter what kind of hazards threatened him. As Sakai's statement above and Asukai's article on Kotoku Shusui

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indicate, both men were profoundly influenced by Confucianism. But among contemporary socialists, Kotoku came closest to the Leninist understanding of "imperialistic war." In opposition to Tolstoy's Christian pacifism, Kotoku wrote: "Mr. Tolstoy is wrong to assume that today's international war results simply because people have forgotten Christian doctrine. The fundamental reason why the powers are involved in ruthless economic competition is their present capitalist social structure. Therefore, in order to abolish wars and cruelty among nations, the present system of capitalism must be overthrown, and a socialist system must be established in its place. "6 After the turn of the century the socialists began to regard the emperor as the symbol of "feudal relations," the destruction of which was the first prerequisite of their revolution. Kotoku's execution in 1911 symbolized the fate of those who attempted to challenge the kokutai. By 1931 when Japan started the Manchurian Incident, all active socialists—many of them now communists—were either dead, languishing in prison according to the Law for the Maintenance of Public Peace, or living in exile. Thus, no trace of the socialists' pacifist campaign remained during the succeeding "Fifteen-year War. " No one remained to challenge the government.

THE PROTESTERS' PREDICAMENTS

After the war, many people defended their co-operation with the militarists in the prewar period by the claim that there was no room for dissent because the Law for the Maintenance of Public Peace was so rigid and the government so autocratic. Marxists, on the other hand, explain that Japan, without natural resources and coming late to the ruthless international competition for colonies and markets, had no alternative to aggression. These claims reflect a certain amount of truth, but neither police oppression nor Japan's weakness before its Western competition explain the underlying psychology intrinsic to Japanese aggression. According to the Marxist interpretation of imperialistic war, the "people" should have been innocent, but they were not. The Japanese populace did not passively support the nation's military expansion, nor did they back the government simply because they feared the

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police. On the contrary, most people competed to get front seats on the fascist bandwagon, as the then common saying, "Basu ni noriokureruna" (Don't miss the bus) vividly suggests. It was rather the people that agitatated for tough diplomacy (kyoko gaiko). As pointed out by Kiyosawa Kiyoshi, a specialist in Japanese diplomatic history, popular enthusiasm for tough diplomacy runs throughout modern Japanese diplomatic history. In his Japanese Diplomacy in a Dilemma, Nobuya Bamba tries to explain this phenomenon in terms of the samurai mentality in which compromise was thought to be cowardice and concession defeat, though he simultaneously stresses that this attitude did not reflect the true spirit of Bushido but rather "valour misbegot. "7 Further explanation is required. Perhaps the most important factor was that the war and jubilant nationalism gave the people a sense of "positive" meaning and identity. The kokutai, belief in the imperial way, and society as a whole had assumed profound religious implications for most prewar Japanese. Why and how did this come about? The answer to this question will also describe the environment in which the pacifists had to work. First of all, the term "religion" as used here means man's concern with ultimate values that give him a real sense of existence and identity and that constitute his ultimate source of motivation and moral judgment. Man always seeks a meaning in life and a wholeness which relates all aspects of his existence, activity, and purpose to other members of society. Man is mortal, as he realizes regardless of his religion, though sometimes he is acutely aware of it and sometimes the knowledge remains hidden deep in his consciousness. As a result, he searches for something endurable which transcends his human limitations and hopes to relate himself to that symbol. As Bellah points out, belief always exists, and man can be defined as a "religious animal. " At the same time, man is a political being. As Aristotle knew, man cannot live without polis, a sense of community. Without it man cannot exist physically or spiritually. To the ancient Greeks, polis was the base of koinonia, which can be roughly translated as "fellowship," "participation," or "communion." Koinonia meant "living together, " not merely "being together. "8 Furthermore, it was not merely participation in a common life, but in something higher, a kind of spiritual communion. In ancient Greece, as in Japan,

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there was no separation of church and state. "Political" life was organically connected with "religious" life. Thus, in the Greek and Japanese view the religious and political definitions of man are not so different as they appear; in fact they come into one unity. In order to find something infinite in time and space, man sometimes clings to society and sometimes to religion. When Edmund Burke stated that "the state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico or tobacco, or some other such low concern, to be taken up for a little temporary interest, " and that "it is a partnership in all science, a partnership in all art, a partnership in every virtue and in all perfection...a partnership...between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born, "9 he meant by the state or society this kind of a spiritual entity which transcends the individual. In Christian dualism there is always the threat, at least in principle, that man may be torn between state and religion. Quaker and Mennonite conscientious objectors adhered to their religious faith rather than to the dictates of the state. The fact that there were so many more American than Japanese conscientious objectors indicates in addition to the strength of American individualism the strength of the transcendental universalism which constituted the basis of solid individualism in the American tradition. In reality, however, most Christians in the United States and its Allies unified the political and religious realms by believing that the war was righteous and that God was behind them. Generally speaking, this kind of unification is possible because the dominant religion integrates individuals into society and vice versa; this is a point sociologists of religion stress. The French sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) in his The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life emphasized that religion exists always in a group or in a society, and for that matter religion always assumes a social character; and again vice versa, i. e., society tends to bear a religious imprint. Crisis occurs in the individual when his social dictates diametrically conflict with those of his religion. Usually, being physically as well as spiritually attached to society, men tend to choose conformance to social norms in preference to ostracism or martyrdom. A good example of this is the Japanese experience of "tenko" during World War II, when many Christians and socialists became outspoken ultranationalists. Christian martyrdom during the early Tokugawa Period

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illustrates the opposite case. The richer the human bond and the stronger man's identity with society and its symbols, the stronger his conformity to society. Durkheim aptly describes the condition of man uprooted from the society which acts as a religion for him: If it [society] is to live there is not merely need of a satisfactory moral conformity but there is also a minimum of logical conformity beyond which it cannot safely go. For this reason it uses all its authority upon its members to forestall such dissidences. Does a mind ostensibly free itself from these forms of thought? It is no longer considered a human mind in the full sense of the word, and is treated accordingly. That is why we feel that we are no longer completely free and that something resists, both within and outside ourselves, when we attempt to rid ourselves of these fundamental notions, even in our own conscience. Outside of us there is public opinion which judges us; but more than that, since society is also represented inside of us, it sets itself against these revolutionary fancies, even inside of ourselves; we have the feeling that we cannot abandon them if our whole thought is not to cease being really human. 10

Robert J. Lifton's case study of the Chinese communist thought reform11 and the more recent example of the Cultural Revolution in China best testify to the truth of Durkheim's statement. Durkheim and Lifton would agree that when individuals are completely uprooted or ostracized from the society which forms the very basis of their existence and relatedness, the psychology of totalism drives them into neurosis, anomie and, in extreme cases, suicide. In order to escape from predicaments of this sort, most of Japan's protesting Christians and socialists eventually yielded to society's increasing demand for conformity. Generally speaking, modernization tends to cause fragmentation and destory an individual's sense of wholeness. As Durkheim in Suicide and Sebastian de Grazia in The Political Community indicate, the psychological effect of anomie and alienation produced by modernization was tremendous in Western societies, but the effect was

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even greater in Japan. Japan had been one of the world's most homogeneous societies due to its insularity, topography, mode of rice cultivation, and its unity of race, language and culture And yet, modernization brought incredible problems to the Japanese who had enjoyed the sense of communality for centuries. The extreme rapidity of Japanese modernization intensified the people's perturbation and bewilderment. Furthermore, since it came to Japan from outside, its psychological effects upon the Japanese were different in nature from those in the West where modernization was indigenous. It produced a spiritual breakdown which reflected the common experience of many Japanese and which Natsume Soseki beautifully described in his novels. Under these circumstances, tradition reasserted itself frequently in sequences of fifteen or twenty years which Nobuya Bamba has called the "generation cycle. "12 One swing of the traditionalistic cycle came to its peak after the Manchurian Incident and once ended in the total national destruction of 1945.13 The traditionalists did not merely attempt to restore old indigenous values. They hoped thereby to recreate a rich gemeinschaft like the earlier "symbolic universe" which modernization had destroyed. These aspirations appeared again and again in increasing crescendo and culminated in the period of ultranationalism. The prevailing slogan of the 1930's was "kindai no chokoku, " [overcome the modern]. Under the umbrella of this slogan, the ultranationalists meant to establish an all pervading and cohesive politico-religious community like the ancient Greek polls, rich with koinonia. Furthermore, Japan at times experienced what Durkheim has called "collective effervescence." Durkheim describes his concept thus: There are periods in history when, under the influence of some great collective shock, social interactions have become much more frequent and active. Men look for each other and assemble together more than ever. That general effervescence results which is characteristic of revolutionary or creative epochs. Now this greater activity results in a general stimulation of individual forces. Men see more and differently now than in normal times. Changes are not merely of shades and degrees; men become different. The passions moving them are of such an intensity that they cannot be satisfied except by violent and unrestrained actions of superhuman heroism or of bloody barbarism. 14

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Japan experienced this kind of collective effervescence during the period of the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War as well as the period of ultranationalism which started with the Manchurian Incident and ended with the Pacific War. Wars effectively operated to unite the populace and to vivify their national cult of kokutai. Japan's homogeneity and traditional unity reinforced the national trauma and resulted in collective effervescence. As we have said, from the beginning of the modern age Japan was a politico-religious nation without a popular understanding of transcendental dualism. The Imperial Rescript on Education and the Meiji Constitution solidified this unique cultural and social system. After 1890, the chanting of the Imperial Rescript on Education was required at all schools, and the people were taught to "revere the emperor" and to "perform self-sacrifice in the interests of the state" from kindergarten on to university. As time passed, the people began to feel a sense of divine mission: the Japanese were a "chosen race" which alone could save exploited Asians, restore the Oriental culture despoiled by the West, and bring "the eight corners of the world under one roof. " To many Japanese, these slogans were not simply empty cant but the real source of meaningful life and existence. In the midst of this collective effervescence, akin to a Japanese drunken festivity, the people became totally dependent upon one another. They were uplifted to a religious realm in which the Japanese state itself became divine, and the state's acts ultimately virtuous. The emperor and the flag of the rising sun were exalted as totemic symbols of the greatest sanctity and national identity. Even under normal circumstances man must relate himself to society to "live"; even more is this true of a situation of collective effervescence. For social forces work upon us not merely from outside. The collective spiritual force penetrates us and acts upon us from within. As Durkheim puts it, "it becomes an integral part of our being. "15 Had Buddhism with its logic of negation maintained its original spiritual vitality, Japan might have been a somewhat different society. It might have had something to oppose political power and authority. But Buddhism had long been subjugated by political rulers and incorporated into the dominant order of society, as the editors of Akahata realized. Buddhism had lost not only its original quality of transcendence, but also that of spiritual salvation. Buddha had been dead in Japan long before God appeared

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to die in many Christian societies. In the place of Buddhism, the emperor and flag had been elevated as symbols of "civil religion, " and society thus assumed a religious character as the only source of "meaningful life" and the "reality of existence. " This was the condition against which the pacifists protested, not only alone but totally ostracized and characterized as traitors. Their terrible predicament can be appreciated only in this light. Kitamura Tokoku criticized the Imperial Rescript on Education for its exaltation of particularistic political values and advocated the importance of the "inner life." His pacifism rested upon his understanding of transcendental universalism supported by Christian faith. But, when he lost faith, lost in love, and became irrevocably introverted and alienated nothing remained for him to cling to, to sustain his life. Kinoshita Naoe asserted that the "human revolution" through spiritual purification was the only way toward world peace, but in the end he became an Oriental hermit. In complete isolation from society, he tried to find his own private peace in the union of nature, universe, and the kami, something supernatural and superhuman which were in him a mixture of native gods, the Confucian Heaven and the Christian God. Kotoku Shusui was put to death by hanging. Abe Isoo was the only person who survived without being alienated from society. This was partly because he had a secure position in Waseda University and enjoyed the confidence of his students, but it resulted more importantly because he did not directly challenge the national cult after the Russo-Japanese War. Instead, he hoped to change society by a series of gradual and modest reforms. And yet, even he had to struggle through, torn between the traditional and the modern worlds. He died a natural death, hoping that his teacher, Niijima Jo, would say to him in Heaven, "Well done, Abe. " Kagawa Toyohiko did attempt to challenge Japan's civil religon, but he could not endure ostracism and persecution. The prevailing mood of fascism left no room for dissent. Though external coercion like the Law for the Maintenance of Public Peace and the military police, along with his narcissism, as Yuzo Ota emphasizes, may have been important factors, much more important was his sense of social uprooted ness that forced him to give up his resistance, when society meant everything for life-existence. In contrast to the many pacifist thinkers who were graduated from Doshisha or Waseda, both of which emphasized the "Zaiya no set-

Conclusion'. Japanese Society and the Pacifist

269

shin [nonconformism or anti-establishmentarianism], the institutional bases of Uchimura, Yanaihara and Fujii Takeshi were the Number One High School of Tokyo and Tokyo Imperial University. These schools prided themselves on their patriotism, and students felt that they bore the weight of Japan upon their shoulders. This different environment naturally reflected itself in their approach to peace. Uchimura, Yanaihara and Fujii profoundly loved Japan and felt themselves greatly responsible for the betterment of the nation. They never forgot or forsook Japan even for a moment. When it erred, they could not but stand at the forefront of protest. Comparing Japan with Israel, they prophesied that their country would be ruined, not because they had abandoned the nation but because in their love for it they hoped to remonstrate with it in its folly. The unique style of prophesy among the Mukyokai leaders can be understood only in this context. As they knew that no one would heed them, they could only protest and prophesy. Thus all the pacifists introduced in this volume were Utopians in the sense that Mannheim used the term. Mannheim recognized that when Utopians realize they cannot attain their goal, they tend to prophesy or to seek spiritual transformation. Comparing the German experience with the French Revolution, he wrote, "Where, as in France....the situation matured into a political attack the intellectualistic Utopia took on a rational form with decisively sharp contours. Where it was not possible to follow in this path, as in Germany, the Utopia was introverted and assumed a subjective tone. Here the road to progress was not sought in external deeds or in revolutions, but exclusively in the inner constitution of man and its transformation. "16 Circumstances in Japan before 1945 strikingly resembled the situation of the Germans as Mannheim described them. After the end of World War II conditions have become more like those Mannheim attributes to France after the Revolution. In the ashes of defeat, the Japanese people lost their collective effervescence and were awakened from their trauma. The devastation and misery all about them, the horrible experience of deception following patriotic fervour had transformed the once militant nation into a country of convinced pacifists. The Japanese were determined never again to be drugged by the appeals of ultranationalism. "No more Hiroshimas!" "No more war!" and "No more self-sacrifice for the emperor and the nation" became the new rallying cries.

270

Conclusion. Japanese Society and the Pacifist

Pacifism became the basic tenet of Japanese society. The situation had "matured" so that what had once seemed a Utopia was institutionalized in the Constitution. After its adoption in 1947, Japanese pacifism entered a new phase; it became a real movement. Now hundreds and thousands of people fight to defend the Peace Constitution. Tabata Shinobu provided the movement with a solid theoretical base. He was one of the first legalists to defend the Constitution very systematically when Japan started to rearm. As a graduate of Niijima's Doshisha, a follower of Uchimura's Mukyokai, and a Christian socialist, Tabata beautifully links past and present attitudes towards pacifism in Japan. To single out Tabata is not necessarily to recognize him as the only person who links the two traditions. Thinkers like Yanaihara Tadao and Nambara Shigeru from the Mukyokai group, along with Nosaka Sanzo, Asanuma Inejiro, Katayama Tetsu, and Suzuki Mosaburo from the socialist-communist group, emerged right after World War II as energetic proponents of pacifism. lenaga Saburo demonstrated his principle of negation by challenging the attempt to revive nationalism focused on the emperor in history textbooks. In the "textbook trial, " lenaga as of early 1977 was still fighting an obstinate court battle against the government. All of these people and many more set the tone of pacifism before the Beheiren, an abbreviation of "Betonamu ni heiwa o" Shimin Rengo (The Japan "Peace for Vietnam" Committee), swept the nation. On 15 June 1969, newspapers reported that approximately 70, 000 people gathered at Hibiya Park in Tokyo with the slogans "Anti-Vietnam War; Anti-U. S. -Japan Security Treaty; and return Okinawa. " The crowds were called "the Beheiren group. " After the rally they marched through the streets, their ranks undulating like a long dragon. The marchers carried banners and placards and sang "We Shall Overcome," "The Internationale," and Japanese folksongs. After two and a half hours when the head of the dragon had finally reached Tokyo station, the tail had just left the park in a line some kilometers long. About a year later, almost 800, 000 people rallied to protest the renewal of the U. S. -Japan Security Treaty in order to defend Japan's Peace Constitution. Christians, socialists, communists, "ordinary" citizens, housewives, students, hippies, and yippies all joined the rally. 17 Unthinkable before World War II, such scenes are common in contemporary Japan. Pacifism has been popularized.

Conclusion'. Japanese Society and the Pacifis

271

It has become a "mass movement, " but Christians and socialistcommunists still remain its backbone. In this age of the mass movement, a Mennonite pastor, a graduate of Doshisha Theological School, has modestly started a campaign not to pay that portion of his taxes that will be spent for the Self-Defense Forces—a fact only a few people know. Expressions of pacifism take many forms and encourage the large number of people who want to keep Japan out of war. Japan's past experience has much to teach other nations, and especially the United States, the Soviet Union and China. Nationalism becomes a religion when man lacks faith in any power beyond the state. In many ways, as Bellah observed, the myths surrounding Washington and Lincoln, the national anthem and the flag have on occasion been turned into a national cult in violation of the normative American civil religion which has always asserted the sovereignty of God over the nation. The ideas associated with Mao in China and the oligarchy in the Soviet Union achieved the same kind of status in the totalitarian societies. But no human being is infallible and no system of government is absolutely just. Man exists finite before the Judaeo-Christian God or the endless flow of history as understood by the Buddhists and others, all of whom recognized a power which transcends any given society and man. It is the recognition of this universalistic transcendence which allows men to compromise in international conflicts and achieve real brotherhood with other men as the basis of true peace. When an exclusive nationalism becomes the self-righteous civil religion of a society, as in Japan through 1945, that society endangers not only others but itself. During World War II the rulers of both Germany and Japan went to great lengths to define the raison d'etre of their regimes in history, yet their machinations resulted only in the frustation of the contribution to historical progress which they had promised. Blind patriotism easily becomes "the last refuge of a scoundrel. "18

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Notes NOTES TO PREFACE 1. F. C. Langdon, Japan's Foreign Policy (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1973), p. 132. 2. Tabata Shinobu's Nihon no heiwa shiso [Pacifist thought in Japan]

(Kyoto: Minerva Press, 1972) is a handy guide to more than thirty pacifists; most of them are Christians and/or socialists.

NOTES TO CHAPTER ONE 1. E. Herbert Norman, Ando Shoeki and the Anatomy of Japanese Feudalism in Transactions, The Asiatic Society of Japan (Tokyo: Asiatic Society of Japan, 1949), third series, 2:1. 2. InazO Nitobe, Bushido (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1905; rpt. Tokyo and Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle, 1969). 3. " 'Ruikin shu' o yomu" [On reading the "Ruikinshu, " 1899], in Uchirnura

KanzQ Zenshu, ed. Suzuki ToshirO (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1932-33), 2:910. For complete entry on the Zenshu, see note 2, p. 272. 4. The material on Fujii is taken from Isao Sato and Philip Williams, "Takeshi Fujii: Pacifism Jeremiah Style,** Japan Christian Quarterly (Winter 1975), pp. 27-37.

NOTES TO CHAPTER TWO 1. Katsumoto Seiiehiro", ed., Tokoku Zenshu [The complete works of Kitamura Tokoku] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1970), 1:280. 2. Tokoku was a poet, but he also wrote novels, dramas, and essays. He provided theoretical foundations for the Bungakkai, renowned as the spearhead of modern literary groups. Its members included Shimazaki TOson Hirata Tokuboku, Tayama Katai and Higuchi Ichiyo. Kinoshita Naoe stated that without Tokoku there would be no Bungakkai. 3. Shimazaki Toson's Haru [Spring], Shimazaki Tosonshu [A collection of

Shimazaki Toson's works], (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1957), 2:38. 4. For more discussion on Tokoku as a modernizer, see lenaga Saburo's "Kitamura Tokoku ni okeru kindai shimin seishin" [The spirit of a modern citizen in Kitamura Tokoku's works], Nihon Bungaku Kenkyu ShiryO Kankokai, ed., Kitamura Tokoku (Tokyo: Yuseido, 1952), pp. 23-39. Hereafter cited as Nihon Bungaku...Kanko-kai, Kitamura, 5. Zenshu, 1:280. S. J., "Kitamura 6. Francis Mathy, Tokoku: The Early Years," Monumenta Nipponica (1963), pp. 1-2.

274

Notes to pages 36-49

7. Kinoshita Naoe, "Fukuzawa Yukichi to Kitamura Tokoku: shisOjo no nidai onjin" [Fukuzawa Yukichi and Kitamura Tokoku:the two great benefactors of my thought], Nihon Bungaku ...Kanko-kai, Kitamura, pp. 28385. 8. For my analysis of the formation of Tokoku's character, I used Tokoku's own works, letters, and diary as well as many reference books on him. They include Katsumoto SeiichirO's study in Zenshu, 3:538-623; Irokawa Daikichi, Meiji seishinshi [An intellectual history of the Meiji Period] (Tokyo:Chuo Koron-sha, 1975), part 1 and pp. 440-52; Nihon Bungaku ...Kanko-kai, Kitamura; Odagiri Hideo, Kitamura Tokokuron [On Kitamura Tokoku] (Tokyo : Yagi Shoten, 1970); Mathy, "Kitamura"; Hiraoka Toshio, Kitamura Tokoku kenkyu [A study of Kitamura Tokoku](Tokyo:Yuseido, 1970); Sasabuchi Tomoichi, Bungakkai to sono jidai [The Bungakkai and its age](Tokyo: Meiji Shoin, 1970), pp. 1-449; Sakamoto Hiroshi, Kitamura Tokoku (Tokyo: Shibundo 1948); Oketani Hideaki, Kindai no naraku [An abyss of modernity](Tokyo: Kokubun-sha, 1970), pp. 9-123. 9. Zenshu, 3:161-62. 10. Tokoku, "Katsuragawa o hyoshite jOshi ni oyobu" [Comments on "Katsuragawa" and the love suicide]; Zenshu, 2:292-97. 11. Tokoku, "Mikka genkyO" [Three [days in a phantom world]; Zenshu, 1:389-90. 12. Letter to Mina, 21 January 1888, Zenshu, 3:199—201. 13. Irokawa, Meiji Seishinshi, pp. 6376. Irokawa's study gives the best account of Tokoku's life in the Santama region. 14. "Mikka genkyo"; Zenshu, 1:390. 15. Letter to Mina, 18 August 1887,

Zenshu, 3:168. 16. Letter to Mina, 21 January 1888, Zenshu, 3:200-201. 17. Letter to father, late August 1887, Zenshu, 3:180. 18. Katsumoto SeiichirO, "Kitamura Tokoku no shogai" [Kitamura Tokoku's life]. Nihon Bungaku...Kanko-kai, Kitamura, p. 7. 19. Zenshu, 3:157. 20. It is not clear exactly what business Tokoku started. Katsumoto presumes that Tokoku opened a fancy goods shop for foreign customers. Zenshu, 3:170-84. 21. Letter to Mina, 21 January 1888, Zenshu, 3:201 22. Letter to father, late August 1887, Zenshu, 3:174-75. 23. Letter to Mina, 21 January 1888, Zenshu, 3:200. 24. See Emile Durkheim, Suicide (New York: Free Press, 1951), especially his concept of anomie. 25. See Erik H. Erikson's concept of identity in his works, Identity and the Life Cycle (New York: International Universities Press, 1959); Young Man Luther (New York: Norton, 1962); and Childhood and Society (New York: Norton, 1963). 26. One finds this process of failure in modern Japanese literature, especially in works by Shimazaki Toson, Tayama Katai, Natsume Soseki, Arishima Takeo, Sato Haruo, and Akutagawa Ryunosuke which deal with iconoclasm, social and personal alienation, ennui, and anomie. 27. Letter to Mina, 21 January 1888, Zenshu, 3:200. 28. Letter to father, late August- 1887, Zenshu, 3:180. 29. See Motoyama Sachihiko's "Meiji nijunen-dai no seiron ni arawareta nashonarizumu" [Nationalism in political treatises of the Meiji 20's], Sakata Yoshio, ed., Meiji Zempanki

Notes to pages 49-68

30. 31. 32. 33.

34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39.

40. 41.

42. 43. 44.

no nashonarizumu [Nationalism in the first half of the Meiji Period] (Tokyo rMiraisha, 1968), pp. 37-84. "Saigo no shorisha wa tarezo" [Who gains the final victory?]; Zenshu, 1:316. "Meiji bungaku kanken" [My views on Meiji literature]; Zenshu, 1:176. Letter to Mina, 21 January 1888, Zenshu, 3:198. "JizenjigyS no shimpo o nozomu"[Our need to promote social welfare]; Zenshu, 2:344. "Den'ei soro tanwa" [Miscellanies]; Zenshu, 1:382. "Meiji bungaku kanken"; Zenshu, 2:174. "Kokumin to shiso" [People and thought]; Zenshu, 2:273. "Meiji bungaku kanken"; Zenshu, 2:171. "Kokumin to shiso"; Zenshu, 2:279. "Naibu seimei ron" [Treatise on the inner life]; Zenshu, 2:238-49; letter to Mina, late August 1893, Zenshu, 3:228; "Nakan kana, warawan kana" [Laugh and cry]; Zenshu, 1:242-44. Notes on William Jones's speech, Zenshu, 3:331-44. William Wistar Comfort, Quakers in the Modern World (New York: Macmillan, 1949), p. 191. Kirisutokyo Shimbun (29 November 1889). Zenshu, 1:280. "Saigo no shOrisha wa tarezo"; Zenshu, 1:319-20.

275

45. "Heiwa hakko no ji" [On the publication of Heiwa']-, Zenshu, 1:281. 46. "Den'ei sOro tanwa; Zenshu, 1:38384. 47. "Heiwa hakkQ no ji"; Zenshu, 1:281. 48. Charles Howard Mcllwain, The Growth of Political Thought in the West (New York: Macmillan, 1959) pp. 111-15. 49. "Isshu no joi shisO" [A kind of xenophobic thought]; Zenshu, 1:33940. 50. See Nobuya Bamba, Japanese Diplomacy in ,a Dilemma: New Light on Japan s China Policy, 1924-29 (Kyoto: Minerva Press; Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1973), especially chaps. 4-6. 51. Azumi Seietsu, "Tokoku shiron" [On Tokoku's structure of the inner life], Nihon Bungaku...Kanko-kai, Kitamura, p. 68. 52. Zenshu, 2:89. The quotation is from act 3, scene 1, line 131. 53. Zenshu, 1:217-18. I translated only the meaning of the poem, since a direct translation of such extremely difficult phrases would never make sense. 54. Katsumoto SeiichirS gives a good psychopathological account of Tokoku's death in Yanagida Izumi, Katsumoto Seiichiro, and lino Kenji, eds., Zadankai Meiji bungaku shi [Free discussions on Meiji literary history] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1961), pp. 155-66.

NOTES TO CHAPTER THREE 1. Ishikawa Sanshiro, "Kinoshita Naoe o omou" [Recollections of Kinoshita Naoe], (January 1938); in Meiji Bungaku Zenshu, 45: Kinoshita Naoe-shu [The complete literary works of Meiji, .45: selected works

of Kinoshita Naoe](Tokyo: Chikuma Snobs, 1965), pp. 366-67. Hereafter cited as Kinoshita Naoe-shu. 2. "Yasei no shinto" [Undomesticated believer], RikugD Zasshi (March 1902), p. 31.

276

Notes to pages 69-82

3. For more detailed information see Yamagiwa Keishi, Kinoshita Naoe (Tokyo: RisSsha, 1955), chap. 2; and Kirihara Yoshiji, "KokyO no Naoe o megutte" [Kinoshita Naoe in our hometown], Shinano KyDkiku, 887 (1960), pp. 122-31. 4. For Naoe's biographical information, see Yamagiwa, Kinoshita Naoe; Gokan Toshibumi, "Kinoshita Naoe enzetsu nempyO-kO" [A chronological list of Kinoshita Naoe's speeches], in Kinoshita Naoe kenkyu shiryD [Research materials on Kinoshita Naoe] 1 (June 1961); and Kinoshita Naoeshu, pp. 409-18. 5. For an English-language translation, see Kenneth Strong, translator, Pillar of Fire: A Novel by Naoe Kinoshita (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1972). 6. Publication diary for the first volume of Otto no jihaku [The husband's confession, 1904]; Kinoshita Naoeshu, p. 3. 7. "Ren'ai to kyOiku" [Love between a man and a woman and education], Heimin Shimbun (April 1904); Kinoshita Naoe-shu, pp. 356-57. 8. Otto no jihaku; Kinoshita Naoe-shu, pp. 253-54. 9. Kosaka Masaaki, "Naoe ni okeru shakai kakumei to ningen kakumei" [Social revolution and human revolution in Kinoshita Naoe]; Shinano KyDiku, 887 (1960), p. 7. 10. Zange [Penitence, 1906]; Kinoshita Naoe-shU, p. 259. 11. Letter to Ishikawa SanshirO in 1928; Kinoshita Naoe-shu, p. 417. 12. Osugi Sakae,"ShQ shinshiteki kanjo" Sentiments of a petit bourgeois, 1918]; Gendai nihon shisD taikei, 16: Anakizumu [The intellectual tradition of contemporary Japan, 16: Anarchism] (Tokyo:Chikuma Shobo, 1963), p. 190. 13. Uejima Tadashi, "Naoe ni okeru

futatsu no shisei" [The two postures of Naoe]; Shinano KyDiku, 887 (1960), p. 32. 14. Tokyo Shakai Shimbun(15 September 1908), in Heimin shimbun ronsetsushu [Collected articles from the Heimin Shimbun], Hayashi Shigeru and Nishida Nagatoshi, eds. (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1961), pp. 267-69. 15. Yamamura Shizuka, "Kinoshita Naoe to Meiji bungaku danwakai no omoide" [Recollections of Kinoshita Naoe and the Society for the Discussion of Meiji Literature], Shinano KyDiku, 887 (1960), p. 114. 16. Kami, ningen, jiyu [God, man, freedom] (Tokyo: Chuo Koron-sha, 1934), p. 7. 17. "Sekai heiwa ni taisuru Nihon kokumin no sekinin" [The Japanese people's responsibility for world peace], Mainichi Shimbun (17-19 March 1899). 18. "Eisei no shin rinri" [The new ethics of eternity], Heimin Shimbun (15 November 1903); Kinoshita Naoeshu, pp. 355-56. 19. "Chukun aikoku no gimon" [Doubts about loyalty and patriotism], Mainichi Shimbun (22 May 1900); Kinoshita Naoe-shu, pp. 342-44. 20. "Nihon kokumin no dai yuwaku"[The great seduction of the Japanese people], Shin Kigen(lQ October 1906); Kinoshita Naoe-shu, p. 350. 21. "Senso jinshu" [The militant race], Mainichi Shimbun (11 May 1903); Kinoshita Naoe-shu, p. 350. 22. "Ito ko ni teisu" [A proposal for Marquis Ito], Mainichi Shimbun (30 September 1900); Kinoshita Naoe-shu, p. 344. 23. "Kokka saijoken o haisu" [Away with state supremacy], Mainichi Shimbun (22 September 1903); Kinoshita Naoe-shu, p. 352. 24. "Nihon kokumin no daiyuwaku" and "SensS jinshuibid, " ibid.

Notes to pages 83-102 25. "Kikatsu" [Starvation] (Tokyo: Shobundo, 1907), p. 197; Kosaka, "Naoe ni okeru, n p. 14. 26. Ishikawa Takuboku, "Jidai heisoku no genjo" [The state of alienation and spiritual stagnation] (August 1910); in Meiji Bungaku Zenshu, 52: Ishikawa Takuboku-shu [The complete literary works of Meiji, 52: selected works of Ishikawa Takuboku] (Tokyo: Chikuma Shob(5, 1970), pp. 259-64.

277

27. "Kakumei no muenkoku" [Japan, the revolutionless nation], Shin Kigen (10 September 1906); Kinoshita Naoe-shii, pp. 333-35. 28. "ShukyOka o issQ seyo" [Clear out the religionists], Shin Kigen (10 August 1906); Kinoshita Naoe-shu, pp. 332-33. 29. Zange; Kinoshita Naoe-shu, p. 309. 30. Kosaka, "Naoe ni okeru, * p. 18. 31. Kami, ningen, jiyu, p. 7.

NOTES TO CHAPTER FOUR

1. Donald Keene, "The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and Its Cultural Effects in Japan," in Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture, Donald H. Shively, ed., (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), pp. 127-28. 2. "Justification of the Corean War," Kokumin no tomo (23 August 1894); in Uchimura KanzO Zenshu, Suzuki Toshiro ed. (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1933), 16:35. Studies of Uchimura are complicated by the existence of two ZenshU, each of which has its own advantages. The Suzuki Zenshu has all Uchimura's English-language works in the original, but it is difficult to obtain and has no index. Another Zenshu, Yamamoto TaijirO, ed. (Tokyo: KyObunkan, 1960-65), has omitted some works included in the Suzuki version but contains the remainder, including those originally written in English, in Japanese. An excellent index and ready availability offset these defects. This article gives page references for both Zenshu. The Suzuki Zenshu references are indicated first with the Yamamoto Zenshu reference in italics following a semicolon. The Yamamoto Zenshu

is organized into three subdivisions: biblical commentary,diary-letters,and faith. References to these subdivisions are made with a "b,» "d, " and "f" respectively, followed by the volume and page number. The source for this quotation in the Yamamoto Zenshu is f, 22:126-28. 3. Keene, "The Sino-Japanese War," p. 127. 4. Erik H. Erikson, Young Man Luther (New York: Norton, 1958). 5. The biographical material given here condenses conclusions from my forthcoming critical study of Uchimura. 6. "Japan: Its Mission," The Japan Daily Mail(5 February 1892); Zenshu 16:24; /, 24'.27. 7. "Justification," Zenshu, 16:28; /, 21:122. 8. "Sekai rekishi ni choshite Nisshi no kankei o ronzu" [Sino-Japanese relations in the perspective of world history], Kokumin no Tomo (July 1894); Zenshu, 2:227; /, 21:134. 9. "Nisshin sensO no mokuteki ikaga?" [What is the objective of the (First) Sino-Japanese War?], Kokumin no Tomo (October 1894); Zenshu, 2:232; /, 2:138. 10. Letter to David C. Bell, 22 May

278

Notes to pages 102-111

1895; Zenshu, 20:289; d, 8:286. 11. "Jisei no kansatsu" [Observations on the times], Kokumin no Tomo (15 August 1896); Zenshu, 2:293; /, 24:65-66. 12. aA Retrospect, " Yorozu Choho (1416 December 1897); Zenshu, 16:33738. 13. "Yamome no joyaw[The widow's New Year's Eve], Fukuin Shimpo (25 December 1896); Zenshu, 2:372-74; f, 21:26. 14. "Heiwa suki no tami" [A nation which likes peace], Sekai no Nihon (1 August 1897); Zenshu, 2:420; /, 24:91. 15. "Editorial Note, * Yorozu Choho (2 November 1897); Zenshu, 16:297. 16. "'Kenkyu' Zasshi to Gunjin" [The 'study' magazine and military men], Seisho no Kenkyu (October 1902), p. 74. "Seisho no Kenkyu" hereafter cited as "SK. " 17. "Yohai no hossuru kaikaku" [The reforms we seek], Tokyo Dokuritsu Zasshi (November 1898); Zenshu, 2:541; /, 24:111. 18. " 'Sho dokuritsu koku' no shin nen" [New Year's in the 'little independent country'], Tokyo Dokuritsu Zasshi (January 1900); Zenshu, 2:1012. 19. "Japanese Notes, " Yorozu Choho (9 October 1898); Zenshu, 16:444. 20. "Kuni no tame ni inoru" [A prayer for our nation], SK (June 1901), p. 254; Zenshu, 13:24; /, 24:245. 21. "SensO haishi ron" [On the abolition of war], Yorozu Choho (30 June 1903); Zenshu, 14:274; /, 21:27. 22. "Heiwa no fukuin" [The gospel of peace], SK (September 1903), p. 559; Zenshu, 14:228; /, 21:28. 23. "Kinji zakkan" [Miscellaneous thoughts about recent events], Yorozu Choho (26 September 1903); Zenshu, 14:304; /, 21:36. 24. Letter to David C. Bell, 1 November

1905; Zenshu, 20:448; d, 6:115. 25. "Nichiro sensO yori yo ga ukeshi rieki" [Benefits I received from the Russo-Japanese War], SK (November 1905), p. 75; Zenshu, 14:389; d, 21: 71. 26. "Aki no torai: san daijigyO no sekkei" [The arrival of fall: plans for three big projects], SK (September 1905), p. 626; Zenshu, 13:113; /, 21:162. 27. "Tsumi no mokuroku, jo" [A catalogue of sins: I], SK (May 1909), p. 161; Zenshu, 8:321; b, 10:38. 28. "KirisutokyO no susei" [Trends in Christianity], SK (February 1905), p. 250. 29. "SensO haishi ni kansuru seisho no meishi" [Biblical injunctions on the abolition of yar], SK (July 1917), p. 319; Zenshu, 14:500; /, 21:117. 30. Heiwa no fukuin" [The gospel of peace], SK (September 1903), p. 564; Zenshu, 14:292; /, 21:32. 31. "Kokui to hinkon* [National prestige and poverty], SK (September 1907), p. 421; Zenshu, 20:373. 32. "Nichiro sensO yori," Zenshu, 14: 388-89; s, 21:70-71. 33. Letter to Uchimura Yoshiyuki, 18 April 1885; Zenshu, d, 5:133; Kyuanroku [Search after peace]; Zenshu, 1:145; /, 1:120; as these early references show, Uchimura had held this view for many years. See also "Kirisuto no sairai" [The return of Christ], SK (November 1911), p. 455. 34. "Tsunohazu chokDroku" [Notes from Tsunohazu lectures], SK (May 1906), p. 376; "Ijin no sensokan" [A wise man's attitude towards war], SK (September 1914), pp. 402—3; Zenshu, 14:446-47; /, 21:149; "Kinji ni okeru hisenron" [Recent pacifist arguments], SK (August 1904), pp. 638-42; Zenshu, 14:350-51; /, 21:113. 35. "Hisenron no genri" [Basic principles of pacifism], SK (August 1908), pp.

Notes to pages 111-117 358-59; Zenshu, 14:404-5; /, 21: 97. 36. "KirisutokyO no susei, * p. 250. 37. "Nise yogensha to wa nan zo ya?" [What are false prophets?], SK (June 1907), pp. 274-75; Zenshu, 9:588; /, 14:153-54. 38. "Sekai no heiwa wa ikani shite kitaruya?" [How will world peace come?], SK (April 1918), p. 187; Zenshu, 14:516; /, 13:121. 39. "Sekai no heiwa wa ikani shite kitaruya?" [How will world peace come?], SK (September 1911), pp. 341—42; Zenshu, 14:422; /, 21:169. 40. "Heiwa kaigi to sono koka" [Peace conferences and their results], SK (January 1922), p. 39; Zenshu, 14: 737; /, 21:182. 41. "Tengoku no shimin to sono eiko" [The citizens of heaven and their glory], SK (August 1919), p. 357; Zenshu, 9:749. 42. "Remmei to ankoku" [The League of Nations and darkness], SK (May 1919), p. 194; Zenshu, 14:523; /, 21:310. 43. "Kurisuchiyan wa naze ni zen o nasubekiya?" [Why should the Christians do good?], SK (October 1906), p. 634; Zenshu, 9:532—33; /, 22: 25. 44. "Matai den, dai gosho" [The Gospel of Matthew, chapter five], SK (November 1906), p. 667; Zenshu, 5:60; b,8:76. 45. "Heiwa naru" [Peace comes], SK (October 1905), pp. 692-93; Zenshu, 14:380; /, 21:177-78. 46. "Senji ni okeru hisenshugisha no taido" [The attitude of a pacifist in time of war], SK (April 1904), p. 383; Zenshu, 14:334-35; /, 21:54. 47. Ibid., Zenshu, 14:331; /, 21:51. 48. "Funnu to kyujo" [Indignation and salvation], SK (July 1909), p. 256; Zenshu, 12:482. 49. "Kokunan ni saishite dokusha shokun

279

ni tsugu* [To our readers in time of national difficulties], SK (February 1904), p. 262; Zenshu, 14:316; /, 21: 47. "Kits no daimoku* [The subjects of our prayers], SK (October 1918), p. 453; Zenshu, 13:628; /, 16:226. 50. "Nihonjin no kenkyu" [Studies of the Japanese people], SK (June 1905), p. 440; Zenshu, 10:302; /, 24:169. 51. "KyOiku to heiwa" [Education and peace], SK (September 1905), p. 580; Zenshu, 12:260. 52. "Muteikoshugi no konkyo" [The basis for passive resistance], SK (August 1907), p. 404; Zenshu, 10:382; b, 8:20]. 53. "Muteikoshugi no kyokun" [The lessons of non-resistance], SK (May 1904), p. 403; Zenshu, 14:339; /, 21:15-16. 54. "Shinko no shori" [The victory of faith], SK (November 1914), p. 508; Zenshu, 3:482; b,3:173. 55. "MuteikQshugi no kyokun, " p. 4034; Zenshu, 14:339-40; /, 21:16. 56. Ibid., p. 405; Zenshu, 14:340; /, 21:17. 57. "Hisenshugisha no senshi" [A pacifist's death in war], SK (October 1904), p. 775; Zenshu, 14:364; /, 21:60. 58. Ibid., p. 776; Zenshu, 14:365; /, 21: 61. 59. "Heiwa no michi" [The way of peace], SK (December 1922), p. 532; Zenshu, 13:760. 60. "Yo ga mitaru Ninomiya Sontoku" [My view of Ninomiya Sontoku], SK (July 1904), p. 583; Zenshu, 10:271; /, 23:90. 61. "Senji ni okeru hisenshugisha," p. 387; Zenshu, 9:333; /, 21:53. 62. "Heiwa naru," p. 692; Zenshu, 14: 379; /, 21:176. 63. Ibid., p. 688; Zenshu, 14:375; /, 21:174. 64. Ibid., p. 687; Zenshu, 14:374-75: /. 21:172-73.

280

Notes to pages 117-133

65. "Aki no tOrai," p. 626, Zenshu, 13:113; /, 21:162. 66. "Heiwa naru, * p. 690; Zenshu, 14: 377; /, 21:175. 67. Ibid., p. 692; Zenshu, 14:379; /, 21:176-77. 68. Letter to Yamagata Isoo, 11 February 1904; Zenshu, 20:414; d, 6:79. 69. "Yo ga hisenronsha to narishi yurai" [How I became a pacifist], SK (Sep-

tember 1904), pp. 703-7; Zenshu, 14:356-59; /, 21:89-92. "NichirosensO yori," pp. 751-60; Zenshu, 14:384-91 /, 21:66-74. 70. "A New Civilization," The Japan Christian Intelligencer (April 1926), p. 49; Zenshu, 15:573. 71. "The World and Japan, " ibid. (May 1926), p. 104; Zenshu, 15:583-84.

NOTES TO CHAPTER FIVE

1. Nakano Shigeharu, "Takuboku ni kansuru ichi dampen" [One aspect of Takuboku], Roba (November 1927), p. 46. 2. Franco Venturi, Roots of Revolution (translated from the Italian) (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1960), p. 3. 3. Heimin Shimbun (15 November 1903). 4. Morooka Chiyoko, "Fu fu u u: Kotoku Shusui to shui no hitobito" [Winds and rain: Kotoku Shusui and those around him] (Tokyo :RyubundO, 1947), pp. 48-49. 5. Shioda Shohei, ed., Kotoku Shusui no nikki to shokan [The diary and and letters of Kotoku Shusui] (Tokyo: Mirai-sha, 1965), p. 248. 6. See Asukai Masamichi, Nikon kindai no shuppatsu [The beginning of modern Japan] (Tokyo: Hanawa ShobO, 1973). 7. Osugi Sakae, Jijoden: Nihon dasshutsu ki [Autobiography: an account of escape from Japan], Iwanami Bunko edition (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1971), pp. 97-99. 8. See Tsurumi Shunshuke, Kuroiwa Ruiko, a volume of Nijisseiki o ugokashita hitobito [People who influenced the twentieth century] (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1962).

9. With respect to these figures, see Nishida Taketoshi, Meiji jidai no shimbun to zasshi [Newspapers and magazines of the Meiji Period] (Tokyo: Hanawa ShobO, 1965) and Asukai Masamichi Kindai bunka to shakaishugi [Modern culture and socialism](Tokyo: Shobunsha, 1970), chap. 4. 10. "Shakai fuhai no gen'in to sono Kyuji" [Causes of social corruption and their remedies], Ycrozu Choho (19 November 1899). 11. The Confucian Analects, chap. 15. According to Legge: "The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their virtue. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their virtue complete" (James Legge, tr., The Chinese Classics, 1, The Confucian Analects [Oxford: University Press, 1893] p. 297). 12. See Donald H. Shively, "Nishimura Shigeki: A Confucian View of Modernization, " Changing Japanese Attitudes toward Modernization, Marius B. Jansen, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965). 13. "JiyutO o matsuru bun" [A requiem for the Liberal party], Yorozu Choho (30 August 1900). 14. "Shushin yOryO o yomu" [On reading

Notes to pages 133-145 the essentials of ethics], Yorozu Choho (30 August 1900). 15. Uchimura Kanzo", "Risodan to wan nan dearuka" [What is the RisOdan?], Yorozu Choho (26 October 1901). 16. Kinoshita Naoe, Kami, ningen, jiyu [God, man, freedom] (Tokyo: ChuO K