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Fascist movements gained popularity in many countries in Asia during the 1920s.[1]
TheKuomintang, aChinese nationalist political party, had a history of fascist influence underChiang Kai-shek's leadership.[2][3] The Kuomintang sought to build a one-party ideological state (calledDang Guo) to solidify its rule and ideological supremacy, which had some influence fromfascist ideology.[4]
The Blue Shirts Society has been described as one of the most relevant fascist groups in China at the time. It began as a secret society in the KMT military before being reformed within the party.[5] By the 1930s, it had influence uponChina's economy andsociety.[6][7] Historian Jeffrey Crean notes, however, that the Blue Shirts impacted only elite politics, not the vast majority of China's population.[8]: 64–65 The Blue Shirts held contempt forliberal democracy and stressed the political usefulness of violence.[8]: 64 They were influenced by KMT contact with Nazi advisors and inspired by the GermanBrownshirts and the ItalianBlackshirts. Unlike those organizations, however, the Blue Shirts were composed of political elites, not the popular masses.[8]: 64
CloseSino-German ties also promoted cooperation between theNationalist Government andNazi Germany in the early-to-mid 1930s. However, despite early diplomatic honeymoon between Nationalist China and Nazi Germany, the Sino-German relationship rapidly deteriorated as Germany failed to pursue a detente between China and Japan, which led to the outbreak of theSecond Sino-Japanese War. China later declared war onfascist countries, including Germany, Italy, and Japan, as part of theDeclarations of war during World War II and became the most powerful "anti-fascist" nation in Asia.[9]
TheNew Life Movement was a government-led civic movement in 1930s China initiated byChiang Kai-shek to promote cultural reform and Neo-Confucian social morality, and to ultimately unite China under a centralised ideology following the emergence of ideological challenges to the status quo. The Movement attempted to counter threats of Western and Japanese imperialism through a resurrection of traditional Chinese morality, which it held to be superior to modern Western values. As such the Movement was based uponConfucianism, mixed withChristianity,nationalism andauthoritarianism that had some similarities tofascism.[10] It rejectedindividualism andliberalism, while also opposingsocialism andcommunism. Some historians regard this movement as imitatingNazism and being a neo-nationalistic movement used to elevate Chiang's control of everyday lives.Frederic Wakeman suggested that the New Life Movement was "Confucian fascism".[11] The New Life Movement drew inspirations from the Blue Shirts Society, although some historians are reluctant to define them as fascist.[5]
Wang Jingwei, a Chinese revolutionary and influential figure of the Kuomintang, and in particular the left-wing nationalistReorganization Group, was originally hostile towards fascism in Europe. However, he gradually drifted into supporting fascism, especially the economic policies ofNazism in the late 1930s.[12][13] Wang's visit to Germany in 1936 changed his views on fascism, and afterward he spoke positively about European fascist states, saying, "Several advanced countries have already expanded their national vitality and augmented their people's strength, and are no longer afraid of foreign aggression."[14] Publicist T'iang Leang-Li of the People's Tribune newspaper associated with the Reorganization Group promoted fascism in Europe while attempting to distance the Reorganization Group from its overtly negative aspects, and wrote in 1937: "Whatever we may think about fascist and Nazi methods and policies, we must recognize the fact that their leaders have secured the enthusiastic support of their respective nations."[14] T'iang claimed that the "foolish, unwise, and even cruel things" done in fascist states had been done positively to bring about "tremendous change in the political outlook of the German and Italian people".[14] T'iang wrote articles that positively assessed the "socialist" character of Nazism. Similarly, Shih Shao-pei of the Reorganization Group rebuked Chinese critics of Nazism by saying, "We in China [...] have heard too much about the 'national' and other flagwaving activities of the Nazis, and not enough about the 'socialist' work they are doing."[14] Shih Shao-pei wrote about reports of improved working conditions in German factories, the vacations given to employees byKraft durch Freude, improved employer-employee relations, and the public service work camps for the unemployed.[14] Other works in the People's Tribune spoke positively about Nazism, saying that it was bringing the "integration of the working classes ... into the National Socialist state and the abolition of ... the evil elements of modern capitalism".[14] Under Japanese supervision, Wang Jingwei ledhis own faction of the Kuomintang with close support and endorsement from the Japanese occupation authorities.
Some contemporary accounts of thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) have described it as fascist and drawn on analogies withNazi Germany.[15]Hu Deping, the son ofHu Yaobang, used the term in a discussion about PRC society in 2005.[16] Others have called such descriptions of the PRC "superficial".[15] HistorianJohn Delury criticized the use of the term to describe contemporary China,[16] andEdward Luce called such analogies as "ahistorical".[17]
Emperor-system fascism (天皇制ファシズム,Tennōsei fashizumu)[22][23] is the view that ultranationalistic politics, society, and ideas based on theEmpire of Japan's "Emperor system" were a kind offascism until the end ofWorld War II.
Shōwa Statism (國家主義,Kokkashugi) is the nationalist ideology associated with theEmpire of Japan, particularly during theShōwa era. Developed over time since theMeiji Restoration, it advocated forJapanese nationalism,traditionalist conservatism,militaristimperialism and adirigisme-based economy.
TheTaisei Yokusankai (大政翼賛会,Imperial Rule Assistance Association) was created byPrime MinisterFumimaro Konoe on 12 October 1940. It evolved into a "militaristic"political party, which aimed to remove sectionalism from the politics and economics of theEmpire of Japan to create atotalitarianone-party state, to maximize the efficiency of Japan'stotal war effort inWorld War II.[citation needed]
Tohokai was a Japanese Nazi party formed bySeigo Nakano.[citation needed]
TheNational Socialist Japanese Workers' Party was a smallneo-nazi party which is now classified as anuyoku dantai, a small Japaneseultranationalistfar-right group.[citation needed]
Lee Bum-seok, aKorean independence activist andSouth Koreannational-conservative politician, was negative aboutNazi Germany and theEmpire of Japan, but positively evaluated their strongpatriotism and fascism based on ethnic nationalism. Along with South Korea's right-wing nationalistAhn Ho-sang [ko], he embodied theOne-People Principle, a major ideology of theSyngman Rhee regime.[24]
Some South Korean liberal-left media have definedPark Chung-hee administration as ananti-American,Pan-Asian fascist andChinilpa regime influenced byIkki Kita's "Pure Socialism" (純正社会主義,Korean: 순정 사회주의).[25][26][27]
Hindutva is afar-rightHindu nationalist ideology. Inspired by the rise offascist movements in Interwar Europe, Hindutva was formulated byVinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922.[28][29] It is championed by the Hindu nationalistparamilitary volunteer organisationRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), theVishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the rulingBharatiya Janata Party (BJP),[30][31] and other organisations, collectively called theSangh Parivar. Hindutva has been described as "almostfascist in the classical sense", adhering to a concept of homogenised majority andcultural hegemony.[32][33] Some analysts dispute the "fascist" label, and suggest Hindutva is an extreme form ofconservatism orethno-nationalism.[34] Some Hindutva organisations advocate for theirredentist concept ofAkhand Bharat (Undivided India).[35] Under thepremiership of Narendra Modi, that began with his victory in the2014 Indian general election, the country has witnessed a state-backed mainstreaming of Hindutva.[36][37]
Indian independence activist and militant nationalistSubhas Chandra Bose insisted on the union ofNazism andcommunism, in what he termed 'Sāmyavāda.'[38]
Pakistan'sTehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan is considered fascist by some analysts because of its engagement in Islamic extremism and militant terrorism.[39][40]
In 1933, in theDutch East Indies, the Javanese politicianNotonindito created the short-livedIndonesian Fascist Party. He had previously participated in the political party ofSukarno, theIndonesian National Party.
There also existed a branch of the DutchNational Socialist Movement (NSB) in Indonesia, namely theIndo NSB. It mainly consisted ofIndos, who were of mixedDutch andIndonesian descent.
Notonindito, the party's founder, was already well acquainted with Europeans and European society in the Indies in his youth through his membership in the Theosophical Society. In the early 1920s he had traveled to Europe to complete his education, first in The Hague and then in Berlin, where he finished a doctorate in Economics and Commerce. After his return to the Indies, he became involved in the Indonesian nationalist movement, at first in the Sarekat Islam Party in 1927 and then Sukarno's Indonesian National Party in 1929, eventually becoming its chairman in Pekalongan.
In the early 1930s in the Indies, the influence of fascism was being increasingly felt, with organizations such as the Netherlands Indies Fascist Organization (Dutch: Nederlandsch Indische Fascisten Organisatie, NIFO) and Fascisten Unie. These organizations appealed to expatriate Germans living in the Indies, as well as some Dutch and Indo (mixed race) people.
In the summer of 1933, newspapers in Java reported that Notonindito has broken his ties with the Indonesian National Party and founded his own party which he called the Partai Fasis Indonesia (Indonesian Fascist Party). The party was said to have as its goal an independent Java with a descendant of Sutawijaya (founder of the Mataram Sultanate) as its constitutional monarch. The party also wished the Indies to become a federation of such independent kingdoms with a non-aggression pact with the Netherlands. Reaction to the new party was generally quite negative in the Indies press. For example, a newspaper associated with the Indonesian National Party, Menjala, stated that solutions to the Indies' problems should be found in the present, not in the Feudal past. Sikap, likewise, thought that such a project was against the interests of the common Indonesian and that a twisting of Javanese historical figures into Fascist mythology was poorly considered, whereas the editors of Djawa Barat thought the party was counterproductive and harmful. Notonindito quickly denied to newspapers that he had "accepted the offer" of this party to become its leader. Nonetheless, investigation by De Locomotief seemed to indicate that the party did indeed existed and that it had a few dozen members at that time. It is unclear what happened to the party soon after.
It is well known that the Thai Prime Minister during the Second World War,Plaek Phibunsongkhram, was inspired byBenito Mussolini.
He has established theSeri Manangkhasila Party on 29 September 1955 as the first political party registered after the announcement of the Political Parties Act, B.E. 1955, with Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkram, Prime Minister, as the party leader. The party secretary was Pol. Gen Phao Sriyanond, the Director of the Police Department. The deputy leaders of the party were Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army, and Air Marshal Fuen Ronnaphagrad Ritthakhanee, Commander of the Royal Thai Air Force, with the party head office located at Manangkhasila House.
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A constitutional framework that elevatedMalay Supremacism had as its basis a series of Malay congresses culminating in the formation of a right-wing nationalist party called theUnited Malays National Organization (UMNO). It was founded on 10 May 1946 at the Third Malay Congress in Johor Bahru, with Datuk Onn Jaafar as its founder with the slogan "Long Live Malays" and "Malaya For Malays". After that, the (United Malays National Organization) party joined together with two other right-wing parties from theMalayan Chinese Association (MCA), which represented the Chinese ethnic group and theMalayan Indian Congress (MIC) which represented the Indian ethnic group who agreed in fighting for the ideology of nationalism to form a new alliance of three parties from UMNO, MCA and MIC jointly on 30 October 1957 which was named (Parti Perikatan) or Alliance Party and replaced and reformed the party on 1, January 1974 which was named as the BN Party (Barisan Nasional) or Front National to continue the ideology of Racial Supremacism according to their respective ethnic parties to bring a combination of right-wing ideology.[citation needed]
Fascism inIran was adhered to by theSUMKA (Hezb-e Sosialist-e Melli-ye Kargaran-e Iran or the Iran National-Socialist Workers Group), aneo-Nazi party founded byDavud Monshizadeh in 1952. SUMKA copied not only the ideology of theNazi Party but also that group's style, adopting theswastika, the black shirt and theHitler salute. At the same time, Monshizadeh even sought to cultivate an appearance similar to that ofAdolf Hitler.[41] The group became associated with opposition toMohammad Mosaddegh and theTudeh Party while supportingthe Shah over Mossadegh.[41] TheAzure Party andAria Party were other fascist groups. The Pan-Iranist Party is a right-wing group that has also been accused of being fascist due to its adherence to chauvinism.[42] and irredentism.
TheAl-Muthanna Club (Arabic: نادي المثنى) was an influentialPan-Arab fascist society established inBaghdad ca. 1935 to 1937 which remained active until May 1941, when the coup d'état of Pro-NaziRashid Ali al-Gaylani failed. It was named afterAl-Muthanna ibn Haritha, an Iraqi Muslim Arab general who led forces that helped to defeat the Persian Sassanids at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah. Later known as theNational Democratic Party, Nadi al-Muthanna was influenced byEuropean fascism and controlled by radical Arab nationalists who, according to 2005's Memories of State, "formed the core of new radicals" for a combinedPan-Arab civilian and military coalition.
In 1938, as fascism in Iraq grew,Saib Shawkat, a known fascist and pan-Arab nationalist, was appointed director-general of education.
With co-founder:Taha al-Hashimi, Shawkat founded the al-Muthanna club in 1939, and the club remained under his guidance.
Under German ambassadorFritz Grobba's influence, The al-Muthanna club developed a youth organization, theAl-Futuwwa, modeled on European fascist lines and on theHitler Youth.
Yunis al-Sabawi (يونس السبعاوي) (who translated Hitler's bookMein Kampf into Arabic in the early 1930s) was active in the al-Muthanna club and in the leadership of the al-Futuwwa. He was a deputy in the Iraqi government, minister of economics.Al-Sabawi had become anti-Semitic; on 1 and 2 June 1941, members of al-Muthanna and its youth organization led a mob that attacked Baghdad's Jewish community in a pogrom later named the Farhud. Two days beforeFarhud, Al-Sabawi, a government minister who proclaimed himself the governor of Baghdad, had summoned RabbiSasson Khaduri, the community leader, and recommended to him that Jews stay in their homes for the next three days as a protective measure. He had planned for a larger massacre, planning to broadcast a call for the Baghdad public to massacre Jews. However, the broadcast was never made since al-Sabawi was forced to flee the country.
After theBritish overthrew the coup government, Sabawi was court-martialed for the mutiny, sentenced to death, and hanged on 5 May 1942.
TheRevisionist Maximalist short-term movement formed byAbba Achimeir in 1930 was the ideology of the right-wing fascist factionBrit HaBirionim within theZionist Revisionist Movement (ZRM). Achimeir was a self-described fascist who wrote a series of articles in 1928 titled "From the Diary of a Fascist".[43] Achimeir rejectedhumanism,liberalism, andsocialism; condemned liberalZionists for only working for middle-class Jews; and stated the need for anintegralist, "pure nationalism" similar to that in Fascist Italy underBenito Mussolini.[43][44] Achimeir refused to be part of reformist Zionist coalitions and insisted that he would only support revolutionary Zionists willing to utilize violence.[45] Anti-Jewish violence in 1929 in theBritish Mandate of Palestine resulted in a rise in support for Revisionist Maximalists and lead Achimeir to decry British rule, claiming that the English people were declining while the Jewish people were ready to flourish, saying:
We fought the Egyptian Pharaoh, the Roman emperors, theSpanish Inquisition, the Russian tsars. They 'defeated' us. But where are they today? Can we not cope with a few despicable muftis or sheiks?... For us, the forefathers, the prophets, the zealots were not mythological concepts...." Abba Achimeir.[46]
In 1930, Achimeir and the Revisionist-Maximalists became the largest faction within the ZRM and they called for closer relations with Fascist Italy and the Italian people, based on Achimeir's claim that Italians were deemed the least anti-Semitic people in the world.[47]
In 1932, the Revisionist Maximalists pressed the ZRM to adopt their policies, titled the "Ten Commandments of Maximalism", made "in the spirit of complete fascism".[45] Moderate ZRM members refused to accept this and moderate ZRM memberYaacov Kahan pressured the Revisionist Maximalists to take the democratic nature of the ZRM and not push for the party to adopt fascist dictatorial policies.[45]
Despite the Revisionist Maximalists' opposition to theanti-Semitism of theNazi Party, Achimeir was initially controversially supportive of the Nazi Party in early 1933, believing that the Nazis' rise to power was positive because it recognized that previous attempts by Germany to assimilate Jews had finally been proven to be failures.[48] In March 1933, Achimeir wrote about the Nazi party, stating, "The anti-Semitic wrapping should be discarded but not its anti-Marxist core...."[45] Achimeir personally believed that the Nazis' anti-Semitism was just a nationalist ploy that did not have substance.[49]
After Achimeir supported the Nazis, other Zionists within the ZRM quickly condemned Achimeir and the Revisionist Maximalists for their support of Hitler.[50] Achimeir, in response to the outrage, in May 1933 reversed their position and opposed Nazi Germany and began to burn down German consulates and tear down Germany's flag.[50] However, in 1933, Revisionist Maximalist' support quickly deteriorated and fell apart; they would not be reorganized until 1938, after a new leader replaced Achimeir.[50]
WithinLebanon before World War II, two groups emerged that took their inspiration from the fascist movements active inEurope at the time:[51][52]
Both groups are still active, although neither of them demonstrates the characteristics of fascism now.
TheSyrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP;French:Parti populaire syrien (PPS)), founded in Beirut in 1932 as aGreater Syrian enterprise, has been influential in Lebanon and beyond; it has faced accusations of fascist-like ideology.[58]
TheSyrian Social Nationalist Party was founded in 1932 byAntun Saadeh to restore independence toSyria from France and take its lead from Nazism and fascism.[59] This group also used the Roman salute and a symbol similar to the swastika[60][61][62] while Saadeh borrowed elements of Nazi ideology, notably the cult of personality and the yearning for a mythical, racially pure golden age.[63] A youth group, based on theHitler Youth template, was also organised.[64]
In 1952, the Syrian dictator and military officerAdib Shishakli founded theArab Liberation Movement, based on the ideas' of "Greater Syria" (similar to the SSNP, Shishakli's former party) andArab nationalism, but also withfascist-type elements.[citation needed] After the1963 Syrian coup d'état the party was banned.
In Turkey, the group known as theGrey Wolves is widely regarded as neofascist; they are understood to operate as a paramilitary group and are famous for their salute known as theWolf salute. They are regarded as a terrorist group variously inAustria,Kazakhstan, andFrance.[65]
In November, 1936, the Phalanges (Al-Kata'ib) of the Christian Maronites were established by two athletes who returned much impressed from the Berlin Olympic Games. The Muslims in Lebanon soon responded in 1937 by establishingAl-Najada.
The dissolved PPS was one of three political parties with paramilitary formations. The others are the Najada with its para-military youth movement, which, led by Adnan Hakim, is Moslem and works for Arab Unity; and the Phalange, which is Christian and led by Pierre Gemayel and advocates Lebanese nationalism as distinct from pan-Arabism. [...] All three were founded in the thirties and their youth movements were based on European Fascist models.
[...] Pierre [Gemayel] - grandfather of the MP murdered last November -[...] founded the Phalange in 1936 after being inspired by the Nazi Berlin Olympics. "I thought Lebanon needed some of this order," he admitted to me shortly before his death; the original Phalange dressed in brown shirts and gave the Hitler salute. But they had turned themselves into a neo-respectable right-wing party by 1982 [...].
In 1943, the Kataeb [...] was one of the main factions that, along with its Muslim equivalent, the al-Najada Party, took to the streets for what is popularly referred to as the 'battle of Lebanese independence'.
[...] the character of the PPS has been the focus of scholarly debate ever since its founding at the beginning of the 1930s, and certainly since the 1940s, when it became a significant political power in Syria and Lebanon. The PPS is discussed more than any other political party active in the Syrian lands in those days, with the main question being whether the PPS was a Fascist party that drew its inspiration from Nazi Germany or if it perhaps had other roots [...].
The Syrian Social Nationalist party (SSNP) was the brainchild of Antun Sa'ada, a Greek Orthodox Lebanese who was inspired by Nazi and fascist ideologies.
[The SSNP] greet their leaders with a Hitlerian salute; sing their Arabic anthem, "Greetings to You, Syria", to the strains of "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles"; and throng to the symbol of the red hurricane, a swastika in circular motion.
The SSNP flag, which features a curved swastika called the red hurricane (zawba'a), points to the party's fascistic origins.
[The SSNP's] red hurricane symbol was modeled after the Nazi swastika.
Saadeh, the party's 'leader for life', was an admirer of Adolf Hitler and influenced by Nazi and fascist ideology. This went beyond adopting a reversed swastika as the party's symbol and singing the party's anthem toDeutschland über alles, and included developing the cult of a leader, advocating totalitarian government, and glorifying an ancient pre-Christian past and the organic whole of the Syrian Volk or nation.
[The SSNP] had been founded in 1932 as a youth movement, deliberately modeled on Hitler's Nazi Party. For its symbol it invented a curved swastika, called the Zawbah.
