Shūmei Ōkawa | |
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大川 周明 | |
 Shūmei Ōkawa,c. 1936 | |
| Born | (1886-12-06)6 December 1886 Sakata, Yamagata, Japan |
| Died | 24 December 1957(1957-12-24) (aged 71) Tokyo, Japan |
| Education | Tokyo Imperial University, 1911,Ph.D. 1926 |
| Occupation(s) | Educator, political philosopher,Islamic scholar, historian |
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| Parent | Shūkei Ōkawa (d. 1914) |
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Shūmei Ōkawa (大川 周明,Ōkawa Shūmei; 6 December 1886 – 24 December 1957) was aJapanese nationalist andPan-Asianist writer, known for his publications onJapanese history,philosophy of religion,Indian philosophy, andcolonialism.
Ōkawa advocated a form ofPan-Asianism which promoted Asian solidarity as a cover forJapanese imperialism and beliefs inJapanese racial supremacy.[3][4] He co-founded the Japanese radical nationalist groupYūzonsha, and in 1926 he published his most influential work:Japan and the Way of the Japanese (Nihon oyobi Nihonjin no michi), which was so popular that it would be reprinted 46 times by the end of World War II. Ōkawa was also involved in a number of attemptedcoups d'état by theJapanese military, including theMarch Incident. After his arrest following the March incident, Ōkawa was protected by the intervention of GeneralKazushige Ugaki, and received a sentence of five years in prison, of which he served two years.[5] He continued to publish numerous books and articles, helping popularize the idea that a "clash of civilizations" between the East and West was inevitable, and that Japan was destined to be the liberator and protector of Asia against the United States and other Western nations.[6]
In theTokyo tribunal after the end of World War II, Ōkawa was prosecuted as aclass-A war criminal based on his role as an ideologue.[7][4] The Allies described him as the "JapaneseGoebbels",[3] and of the twenty-eight people indicted with this charge, he was the only one not a military officer or government official. The case against him was dropped when he was found mentally unfit to stand trial.[8] Ōkawa's writings were used in the final verdict as part of the evidence for the crime of conspiracy to commitaggression.[4]
Ōkawa was born inSakata, Yamagata, Japan in 1886. He graduated fromTokyo Imperial University in 1911, where he had studiedVedic literature and classical Indian philosophy. After graduation, Ōkawa worked for theImperial Japanese Army General Staff doing translation work. He had a sound knowledge of Arabic, German, French, English,Sanskrit andPali.[9]
He briefly flirted withsocialism in his college years, but in the summer of 1913 he read a copy ofSirHenry Cotton'sNew India, or India in Transition (1886, revised 1905) which dealt with the contemporary political situation. After reading this book, Ōkawa abandoned "complete cosmopolitanism" (sekaijin) for Pan-Asianism. Later that year articles byAnagarika Dharmapala andMaulavi Barkatullah appeared in the magazineMichi, published byDōkai, a religious organization in which Ōkawa was later to play a prominent part. While he studied, he briefly housed the Indian independence leaderRash Behari Bose.
After years of study of foreign philosophies, he became increasingly convinced that the solution to Japan's social and political problems lay in an alliance with Asian independence movements, a revival of pre-modernJapanese philosophy, and a renewed emphasis on thekokutai principles.[10]
In 1918, Ōkawa went to work for theSouth Manchurian Railway Company, under its East Asian Research Bureau. Together withIkki Kita he founded the nationalist discussion group and political clubYūzonsha. In the 1920s, he became an instructor of history and colonial policy atTakushoku University, where he was also active in the creation ofanti-capitalist and nationalist student groups.[11] Meanwhile, he introducedRudolf Steiner's theory ofsocial threefolding to Japan. He developed a friendship withAikido founderMorihei Ueshiba during this time period.
In 1922, he publishedFukkô Ajia no Shomondai in 1922. Ōkawa hailed the movements started byMahatma Gandhi in India andMustafa Kemal in Turkey as new types of Asian revival.[12]
Ōkawa believed in a narrative of history based on a dichotomy betweenEastern andWestern civilizations, writing that "world history, in its true sense of the word, is nothing but a chronicle of antagonism, struggle and unification between the Orient and the Occident."[4] Ōkawa advocated a form ofPan-Asianism which promoted Asian solidarity as a cover forJapanese imperialism and beliefs in Japanese racial supremacy.[3][4] He wrote that there would be a war "for the establishment of a new world" between Japan and the United States.[4] In 1926, Ōkawa published his most influential work:Japan and the Way of the Japanese (Nihon oyobi Nihonjin no michi), which was so popular that it was reprinted 46 times by the end of World War II. He continued to publish numerous books and articles, helping popularize the idea that a "clash of civilizations" between the East and West was inevitable, and that Japan was destined to be the liberator and protector of Asia against the United States and other Western nations.[6]
In the early 1930s, Ōkawa was involved in a number of attemptedcoups d'état by theJapanese military.
During theMarch Incident, Ōkawa was a leader in attempting to foment a riot outside theDiet Building in Tokyo, which was intended to initiate the coup. When the riot failed to occur, Ōkawa wrote a letter to GeneralKazushige Ugaki explaining the plot and asking for his cooperation. Ugaki declined, but when the plotters were arrested after making another attempt at the riot, he intervened to hush up the whole collapsed affair and ensured that the plotters received very mild punishments.[13][14] For his role in the March incident, Ōkawa was sentenced to five years in prison in 1935.[5] Released after only two years, he briefly re-joined the South Manchurian Railway Company before accepting a post as a professor atHosei University in 1939.
In theTokyo tribunal after the end of World War II, Ōkawa was prosecuted as aclass-A war criminal based on his role as an ideologue.[7][4] Of the twenty-eight people indicted with this charge, he was the only one not a military officer or government official. The Allies described him as the "JapaneseGoebbels"[3] and said he had long agitated for a war between Japan and the West. For example, in his 1924 bookAsia, Europe, and Japan, he had predicted an inevitable war to be fought between Eastern and Western civilizations, with Japan and the United States as the respective leaders, and discussed what he later described as "the sublime mission of Japan in the coming world war".[4] In pre-trial hearings, Ōkawa said that his 1924 writings were merely a translation and commentary onVladimir Solovyov's geopolitical philosophy, and "did not necessarily constitute a plan for a Japanese attack."[4]
During the trial, Ōkawa behaved erratically, including dressing in pajamas, sitting barefoot, and slapping the head of former prime ministerHideki Tōjō while shouting in German "Inder! Kommen Sie!" (Come, Indian!). He also at one point shouted "This is act one of the comedy!"U.S. Army psychiatrist Daniel Jaffe examined him and reported that he was unfit to stand trial. The presiding judge SirWilliam Webb concluded that he was mentally ill and dropped the case against him. Some thought he wasfeigning madness.[8] Because of the diagnosis, he was able to avoid potentially sharing the fate of the other defendants, of whom seven were hanged and the rest imprisoned.[15][8] Ōkawa's writings were used by the prosecution and the final verdict as evidence for the crime of conspiracy to commitaggression.[4]
Ōkawa was transferred from jail to a US Army hospital in Japan, which confirmed his mental illness caused bysyphilis. Later, he was transferred toTokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital, a mental hospital, where he completed the third Japanese translation of theQuran.[16] He was released from hospital in 1948, shortly after the end of the trial. He spent the final years of his life writing a memoir,Anraku no Mon.
In October 1957,Prime Minister of IndiaJawaharlal Nehru requested to meet with him during a brief visit to Japan. The invitation was delivered to Ōkawa's house by an Indian Embassy official, who found that Ōkawa was already on his deathbed and was unable to leave the house. He died on 24 December 1957.[17]
eric jaffe.
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