Articolo sul nazionalismo e patriottismo giapponese pubblicato dal blog Discutiamo del Giappone [discutiamodelgiappone.blogspot.com].
Aikokushin, l'amor patrio
Lineamenti di storia della politica nazionalista giapponese
di Cristiano Martorella
7 maggio 2008. Lo spirito patriottico giapponese (aikokushin) è ben noto per i risvolti tragici provocati dallo sfruttamento nazionalista e propagandistico del regime autoritario instaurato dai militari nel XX secolo. Chiarire e capire come ciò sia avvenuto è il compito degli storici. L'apporto di ulteriori studi e ricerche è quindi benvenuto e utile per fornire nuove prospettive. Questo contributo si inserisce nel lungo dibattito sulle origini del totalitarismo, e intende distinguere gli aspetti culturali dalla matrice ideologica. Il Giappone, a differenza di Italia e Germania, non ha mai avuto una precisa base ideologica politica, e nonostante ciò ha realizzato un regime totalitario sfruttando le caratteristiche culturali del popolo giapponese. But the exploitation of nationalistic Japanese culture can not be interpreted as an equivalence. The Japanese culture is not fully comparable to an authoritarian regime. They are not to have generated the cultural totalitarianism, but the story states, their institutional and political, then international relations.
status as transcendental abstract entities is a Western creation of the nineteenth century (although its theoretical formulation in the seventeenth century by Thomas Hobbes). The theory of this magnitude is carried on by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Unfortunately, history has seen the birth to coincide with the nation-state disproportionate growth of military power and the brutal exploitation of colonialism. Hegel, by contrast, had developed a wonderfully admirable synthesis between individual rights and the organization of society in the political area of \u200b\u200bthe state, which actually implement the powers and human aspirations. Unfortunately, the nineteenth century, following the twentieth century, the doctrine of Hegel stravolsero making the state an abstract entity in the service of economic and political forces brutal, cruel and unscrupulous. Japan followed the Western democracies by imitating the institutions and laws with the reform of Meiji (Meiji ishin), 1867.
The introduction of democracy is not so rapid, however, coincided with a strengthening of the liberal forces (parties, unions, political movements, etc..) that were subjected to a gradual weakening. In particular, they were very serious attacks of liberal politicians who cruelly murdered could not conduct its business. The fanatics of the extreme right had the ability to easily create a climate of instability by encouraging subversion and coup attempts. Every time the state showed its weakness, they fomented the popular dissatisfaction by invoking the patriotic spirit (aikokushin). The destabilization process was very slow and gradual, as there were fervent supporters of the strengths of democracy (politicians, businessmen, teachers, students, journalists, workers, etc.).. Unfortunately gli estremisti inflissero dei colpi durissimi alle istituzioni. Nel 1921 uccisero il Primo Ministro Hara Takashi presso la stazione di Tokyo. Fu un attentato brutale e spietato. Il 14 novembre 1930 fu aggredito il Primo Ministro Hamaguchi Osachi, morto l’anno successivo in conseguenza delle ferite riportate. Il 15 maggio 1932 fu assassinato nella propria residenza il Primo Ministro Inukai Tsuyoshi. Nello stesso anno furono uccisi il Ministro delle Finanze e capo del Rikken Minseito (Partito Costituzionale Democratico), Inoue Junnosuke, e il direttore della Mitsui, Dan Takuma. Nel 1936, durante un tentativo di colpo di stato, furono ammazzati il Ministro delle Finanze Takahashi Korekiyo e l'ammiraglio Saito Makoto.
Un aspetto particolare e fondamentale to understand the complex situation of Japanese militarism in the twentieth century is the bloody infighting in the Army. In fact, the military in the '30s were divided into two opposing factions: Kodoha and Toseiha. After the failure of the attempted coup of February 26, 1936, the faction Kodoha fell into disrepair and knew the political decline. The Kodoha sharply criticized the excessive power of economic cliques who held a monopoly, then disliked the zaibatsu, and capitalism. The decline of Kodoha allowed an easier way of strengthening ties between the military and the zaibatsu, eliminating the friction elements. The Toseiha (side control) did not intend to change the structure of the state, but to seize lead a war of conquest. Therefore favored a reorganization of the army units based on mechanization and technical specialization. In contrast, Kodoha (via Imperial faction) aimed at restoring traditional spiritual values, and hence the change of the company through a reorganization of the state. The Kodoha considered a priority the reorganization of the state before any military intervention, the Soviet Union and considered the natural enemy of Japan and its expansionist aims. The soldiers who were leading the Kodoha Araki Sadao and Masaki Jinzaburo. The supremacy of Toseiha also meant an approach to the politics of Nazi Germany, as in the case of Yamashita Tomobumi. Addetto militare all'ambasciata giapponese in Austria, Yamashita fu chiamato nel 1938 per una visita di cortesia a Berlino, dove simpatizzò con Adolf Hitler, mantenendo in seguito stretti legami col nazismo. Le forze armate giapponesi non avevano un'unica visione politica, inoltre non esisteva un partito politico di riferimento, e gli obiettivi erano diversi e contrastanti. Purtroppo la supremazia della Toseiha segnò la svolta rovinosa della politica giapponese che prima appoggiò la Germania nazista, eppoi fu trascinata in guerra contro gli Stati Uniti nel 1941. Tuttavia non erano tutti d'accordo con queste scelte che furono descritte come patriottiche da quei militari al potere interessati unicamente ai vantaggi per la propria fazione.
Gli estremisti always claimed to be patriots (aikokusha), but it is evident that their love for the country was disingenuous, having wanted to destabilize the state. They were not patriots because they had come to desire the destruction of the Japanese state, when videre threatened their interests. Even the fanatics and tried to dismiss his Majesty the Emperor Hirohito, when he decided to declare the yield of the country. Lieutenant Colonel Masahiko Takeshita was the creator and organizer of the attempted coup against Emperor Hirohito. On August 14, 1945 there was an eruption of the General Staff officers in the Royal Palace in Tokyo. Major Kenji Hatanaka killed General Takeshi Mori, commander of the imperial guards, loyal to the emperor and in favor of surrender.
These criminal actions were facilitated by the consensus that the extreme right was able to create. The turning point was in fact made from the exploitation of nationalist sentiment and sincere patriotism. The intellectuals were skilled in drawing far-right political doctrines and plans of action involving the population. Often, their ideas were not lacking in originality and were sophisticated and accurate. The propaganda was then able to obscure the common sense and the reasons for the Liberals. The best-known political activist of the extreme right was Kita Ikki, a tireless agitator and dangerous subversive, wrote a book that would clearly indicate what action to take. The work was titled Plan for the reconstruction of Japan (Nihon kaiza Hoan Taiko, 1919) and supported the need to eliminate Parliament, suspended the Constitution, implement land reform against the landowners to expropriate the wealth of the upper class and eradicate capitalism. To achieve this we must pursue a policy of military power, invading areas with mineral and oil resources, conquering Manchuria, northern China and Siberia. Kita Ikki stated that the revolt of the poor against the rich was a restoration of justice. The cultural matrix in which they drew on, however, was quite another, and it was common to many Japanese intellectuals. It was the rural (nohonshugi), an ideological movement which placed the company at the center of the farming community, with its spirit of self-government. The military regimes did the foundation of the rural to the social model of the imperial system. The farming community, aimed at maintaining social harmony, should represent the ideal model to which all of Japanese society was inspired by and conformed, so a society without contradictions and conflicts and antagonisms, therefore (and also absent of dialectic between the social partners) . Another concept that had approached the rural familism (kazokushugi), also borrowed from the tradition. Among the disciples of Kita Ikki, Okawa Shumei deserves a philosopher and scholar of religions that advocated the need for a return to the ancient traditions of Japan. So in 1925 he founded the Society of Heaven and Earth (Gyochisha), and participated in the constitutions of other patriotic organizations. Other thinkers like Gondo Seikyo Kosaburo Tachibana and expressed the orientation of the "fraternal communitarianism." These intellectuals, Okawa Shumei, Tachibana Kosaburo, Gondo Seikyo, which must be added also Nissho Inoue, became promoters of a real revolt against the Western model in the name of culture and the Japanese spirit. Unfortunately
subversives and terrorists forcefully inserted themselves into this debate, taking advantage of the situation and directing the discontent and protest. In fact, the criticism of the Western model did not involve the scelta di azioni violente, e la politica imperialista e colonialista era perseguita già da quelle nazioni straniere tanto detestate. Le soluzioni proposte dagli estremisti di destra assomigliavano troppo al problema che si voleva risolvere: lo stato giapponese sarebbe divenuto un regime autoritario imperialista e colonialista che avrebbe combattuto con le armi il colonialismo occidentale.
La trasformazione dello stato giapponese avvenne in modo graduale e si avvalse di molte condizioni e caratteristiche favorevoli all'autoritarismo. Una di queste condizioni fu la concezione dell'individuo come strumento dello stato e lo sfruttamento del patriottismo. Questa strumentalizzazione degli esseri umani fu possibile grazie alla militarizzazione e mobilitazione del paese. Tramite the justification of the war against countries that afflicted Japan, made it the undisputed transformation process in the totalitarian regime. Dell'accerchiamento syndrome and the threat of Western colonialism was an argument so strong that even today reappeared in many historical books by Japanese authors as an explanation of the military of the Empire of the Rising Sun. But we must re-establish the correct causal relationship between events. The existence of Western colonialism in Asia is only one factor, an element, which is contrasted with Japanese nationalists. The authoritarian regime was created through the gradual weakening of democratic institutions by right-wing extremists. The credit and the blame of what happened is due to the dynamics of relations between political forces. Dell'accerchiamento syndrome of Western colonialism functioned as a propaganda tool, as well as the exploitation of patriotism, nationalism and cultural identity. The system features extensive use of Japanese civilization, especially the spirit of the group (shudan ishiki), an issue deeply rooted in Japanese mentality. Unfortunately, all the faculties appreciable and commendable team spirit (shudan ishiki) become degenerate when the despicable conformism. He was the educator Tsunesaburo Makiguchi to indicate conformity as evil and dangerous trap for freedom in Japanese society. The rampant conformism threatened the ability to critique the proposals of alternative perspectives, reflection, reasoning and not emotional. Finally favored blind obedience and inhuman cruelty that crushed the individual, the ignorant and superstitious credulity. The group conformity (dantaishugi) is a social evil that affects all forms of democracy, and therefore the clue and the beginning of the establishment of a totalitarian regime.
The most important and striking historical fact, however, was the militarization of society. Unlike Germany and Italy, Japan did not develop an ideology based on a party, but suffered violent penetration of the army in the institutions parliamentarians and government, in every aspect of social life, from family to school, to work in the industry. The ideology that said it was militarism (gunkokushugi) in a totalitarian form never seen before. In fact, the Japanese militarism of the twentieth century should not be at all confused with the warrior aristocracy of earlier times. The samurai were a small aristocratic class separate from the others, with specific obligations and duties, and subject and subject to political power. The Japanese army since 1873, was instead an army conscripts and conscription was mandatory. There was a total mobilization of society to serve the army. The army had become a political entity and engaging assimilante which requires any institution (family, school, industry). All citizens were soldiers, and everyone had to make a contribution to the cause that was the military build-up of the country. In this system, however, was not clearly demarcated the boundary between the different powers, indeed it was all very confusing and unstable. In theory it was the absolute power of the emperor, but in reality, the Constitution prevented him from taking the initiative. The power of government was often in the hands of soldiers taking major decisions without consulting the emperor and the Parliament. Specifically, power was managed so despotic, as in a barracks, with large and small transgressions. The rivalry between the military were strong, often at the expense collaboration. The dialogue was absent, poor communication, and prevailed commands, exhortations, blame and slogans.
propaganda was thriving and takes advantage of known artistic sensibility of the Japanese people. Many writers praised the heroism and dedication of the Japanese soldiers at war, though the feat and the value in this case were true even if the field of rhetoric. The captain told in the autobiographical novel Sakurai Tadeyoshi Nikudan (human bullets) the siege of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War. The reputation of the companies of Japanese soldiers came to Europe, so that even an Italian writer and foreign correspondent, Luigi Barzini, brought back and told the heroic deeds. Many are the poems of remembrance, as the song in honor of Shirakami Genjiro, a bugler sounded the charge that even if mortally wounded. The sacrifices of the Japanese people at war were not only excited by the patriots and the propaganda of the extreme right, some left-wing writers, and so-called puroretaria Bungaku (proletarian literature) dedicated themselves to self-denial of citizens who simply loved his country. In this sense, the patriotism was not an issue of the exclusive prerogative of the right.
The militarization of the country was a disaster, so to be shown with a very loud kurai Tanima (the dark abyss, about the period 1931 to 1941, that the invasion Manchuria to the Pacific War). The element of discrimination remained, however, the conception of the state since the idea more widely regarded as the public servants of the nation. Even if one accepts this view, is easily recognized as the military have betrayed their country by promoting personal interests, occupying every seat of power, plundering the resources of the nation. So the history books should explain more clearly and in detail the manner in which the General Hideki Tojo, Yamashita Tomobumi, Hisao Tani and many others, used the powers given to make money, exploit and plunder. The justification for the war served in the military too much to hide their thefts, rapes and abuse. This was the greatest betrayal of the country.
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