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Kita Ikki | |
|---|---|
 Kita c. 1920s | |
| Born | Kita Terujirō (北 輝次郎) (1883-04-03)3 April 1883 |
| Died | 19 August 1937(1937-08-19) (aged 54) |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Occupation | Author |
| Children | 1 (adopted child, son ofT'an Jen-feng, who was a Chinese Revolutionary) |
| Education | |
| Education | Waseda University (no degree) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Eastern philosophy |
| School | Japanese nationalism Socialism |
| Language | Japanese |
| Main interests | Political philosophy |
| Notable works | An Outline Plan for the Reorganization of Japan (日本改造法案大綱,Nihon Kaizō Hōan Taikō) 1919 |
Ikki Kita (北 一輝,Kita Ikki; 3 April 1883 – 19 August 1937; real name: Kita Terujirō (北 輝次郎)) was aJapanese author,intellectual andpolitical philosopher who was active in earlyShōwa period Japan. Drawing from an eclectic range of influences, Kita was a self-describedsocialist who has also been described by detractors as the "ideological father ofJapanese fascism",[1] though this has been highly contested, as his writings touched equally uponpan-Asianism,Nichiren Buddhism, fundamental human rights andegalitarianism and he was involved with Chinese revolutionary circles. While his publications were invariably censored and he ceased writing after 1923, Kita was an inspiration for elements on thefar-right of Japanese politics into the 1930s, particularly his advocacy forterritorial expansion and a military coup. The government saw Kita's ideas as disruptive and dangerous; in 1936 he was arrested for allegedly joining thefailed coup attempt of 26 February 1936 and executed on 19 August 1937.
Kita was born onSado Island,Niigata Prefecture, where his father was asake merchant and the firstmayor of the localtown. Sado island, which used to be used forpenal transportation, had a reputation for being rebellious, and Kita took some pride in this. He studiedChinese classics in his youth and became interested insocialism at the age of 14. In 1900 he began publishing articles in a local newspaper criticizing theKokutai ("Structure of State") theory. This led to a police investigation which was later dropped. In 1904 he moved to Tokyo, where he audited lectures atWaseda University, but never earned a university degree. He met multiple influential figures in the early socialist movement in Japan but quickly became disillusioned; the movement was, according to him, full of "opportunists".[2]
At age 23, Kita published his firstbook in 1906 after one year of research – a massive 1,000-page political treatise titledThe Theory of Japan's National Polity and Pure Socialism (国体論及び純正社会主義).[3] In it, he criticized the government ideology ofKokutai and warned that socialism in Japan was in danger of degenerating into a watered down, simplified form of itself because socialists were too keen on compromising.[nb 1]
Kita first outlined his philosophy of nationalistic socialism in his bookThe Theory of Japan's National Polity and Pure Socialism, also known asKokutairon and Pure Socialism (国体論及び純正社会主義,Kokutairon Oyobi Junsei Shakaishugi), published in 1906, where he criticized Marxism andclass conflict-oriented socialism as outdated. He instead emphasized an exposition of theevolutionary theory in understanding the basic guidelines of societies and nations. In this book Kita explicitly promotes the platonic state of authoritarianism, emphasizing the close relationship between Confucianism and the "from above" concept of national socialism stating thatMencius is thePlato of the East and that Plato's concept of organizing a society is far preferable to Marx's.
Kita's second book is titledAn Informal History of the Chinese Revolution (支那革命外史Shina Kakumei Gaishi) and is a critical analysis of the1911 Revolution.
Attracted to the cause of the 1911 Revolution, Kita became a member of theTongmenghui (United League) led bySong Jiaoren. He traveled to China to assist in the overthrow of theQing dynasty.
However, Kita was also interested in thefar-right. The right-wing,ultranationalistKokuryūkai (Amur River Association/Black Dragon Society), was founded in 1901. Kita—who held views on Russia and Korea remarkably similar to those espoused by the Kokuryukai—was sent by that organization as a special member, who would write for them from China and send reports on the ongoing situation at the time of the 1911Xinhai revolution.[7]
By the time Kita returned to Japan in January 1920, he had become disillusioned with the 1911 Revolution, and the strategies offered by it for the changes he envisioned. He joinedŌkawa Shūmei and others to form theYuzonsha (Society of Those Who Yet Remain), anultranationalist and Pan-Asianist organization, and devoted his time to writing and political activism. He gradually became a leading theorist and philosopher of theright-wing movement in pre-World War II Japan.[citation needed]
His last major book on politics wasAn Outline Plan for the Reorganization of Japan (日本改造法案大綱,Nihon Kaizō Hōan Taikō). First written inShanghai but banned in 1919, the book was published by Kaizōsha, which was the publisher of the magazineKaizō, in 1923, which was censored by the Government. The common theme to his first and last political works is the notion of a national policy (Kokutai),[nb 2] through which Japan would overcome a coming national crisis of economics or international relations, lead a united and free Asia and unify culture of the world through Japanized and universalized Asian thoughts in order to be prepared for the appearance of the solesuperpower which would be inevitable for thefutureworld peace. It thus contained aspects associated with the doctrine ofpan-Asianism.
According to his political program, acoup d'état would be necessary as to impose a more-or-lessstate of emergency regime based on a direct rule by a powerful leader. Due to the respect that the Emperor enjoyed in the Japanese society,[nb 3] Kita identified the sovereign as the ideal person to suspend theConstitution, organize a council created by the Emperor and radically reorganize theCabinet and theDiet, whose members would be elected by the people, to be free of any "malign influence", which would make the true meaning of theMeiji Restoration clear. The new "National Reorganization Diet" would amend the Constitution according to the draft proposed by the Emperor, impose limits on individual wealth, private property, and assets of companies, andestablish national entities directly and unitedly operated by the Government like theJapanese Government Railways.Land reform would be enacted; allurban land would be changed to municipal property. The new state would abolish thekazokupeerage system, theHouse of Peers and all but fundamentaltaxes, guaranteeing male suffrage,freedom, theright to property, theright to education,labor rights andhuman rights. While maintaining the Emperor as the representative of the people, privileged elites would be displaced[nb 4] and the military further empowered so as to strengthen Japan and enable it to liberate Asia from Westernimperialism.[8]
Kita asserted Japan's right as an "internationalProletariat" to conquerSiberia of Far East andAustralia,[nb 5] whose peoples would be granted the same rights as Japanese would,[nb 6] becausesocial issues in Japan would never be solved if problems ofinternational distribution were not decided. This was termed theShōwa Restoration.[8]
In its historical prospect Kita's political program was for creating astate socialism in a fascistic oriented "socialism from above",[nb 7] as a tool to unite and strengthen Japanese society. Japan's overseas actions were meant to focus on achieving the independence ofIndia and the maintenance of theRepublic of China to stop the partition of Chinalike Africa, in the name of Asian unity.[nb 8] Another goal of his program was to build the great Empire which included Korea,Taiwan,Sakhalin,Manchuria, the Russian Far East and Australia.
He wrote a “petition” on foreign policy after theMukden Incident. He strongly opposed a war against America, which was a popular opinion at that time, because theBritish Empire would join the war and the Japanese navy would not defeat them. He also thought China and theSoviet Union would join the war on the side of America. His proposal was that Japan should form an alliance with France and combat theSoviet Union. He thought that an alliance with France would contain the British Empire, and that Japan and France sharedAnti-Russian sentiment because theRussian Empire had not paid massive debt to France.[citation needed]
Walter Skya notes that inOn the Kokutai and Pure Socialism, Kita rejected the Shintoist view of far-right nationalists such asHozumi Yatsuka that Japan was an ethnically homogeneous "family state" descended through the Imperial line from the goddessAmaterasu Omikami, emphasizing the presence of non-Japanese in Japan since ancient times. He argued that along with the incorporation of Chinese, Koreans, and Russians as Japanese citizens during the Meiji period, any person should be able to naturalize as a citizen of the empire irrespective of race, with the same rights and obligations as ethnic Japanese. According to Kita, the Japanese empire couldn't otherwise expand into areas populated by non-Japanese people without having to "exempt them from their obligations or ... expel them from the empire."[9] One of his religious inspirations was theJapanized Lotus Sutra.
His younger brotherReikichi Kita,political philosopher who studied for five years in the US and Europe and was a member of theHouse of Representatives, later wrote that Kita had been familiar withKiichiro Hiranuma, then Chief of the Supreme Court of Justice, and in his paper in 1922 he had fiercely condemnedAdolph Joffe, then Soviet Russian diplomat to Japan.[10]
This eclectic blend of imperialism, socialism and spiritual principles[nb 9] is one of the reasons why Kita's ideas have been difficult to understand in the specific historical circumstances of Japan between the two world wars. Some[who?] have argued that this is also one of the reasons why it is hard for the historians to agree on Kita’s political stance, though Nik Howard takes the view that Kita's ideas were actually consistent ideologically throughout his career, with relatively small shifts in response to the changing reality he faced at any given time.[11]
In 1919 Kita advocated that the Empire of Japan should adoptEsperanto. He foresaw that 100 years after its adoption the language would be the only tongue spoken in Japan proper and the vast territory conquered by it according to thenatural selection theory, making Japanese theSanskrit orLatin equivalent of the Empire. He thought that thewriting system of Japanese is too complicated to impose on other peoples, thatromanization would not work and that English, which was taught in theJapanese education system at that time, was not mastered by Japanese at all. He also asserted that English is poison to Japanese minds asopium destroyed Chinese people, that the only reason it did not destroy Japanese yet was that German had more influence than English and that English should be excluded from the country. Kita was inspired by severalChinese anarchists he befriended who had called for the substitution of Chinese for Esperanto at the beginning of the twentieth century.[12][13]
Kita'sOutline Plan, his last book, exerted a major influence on a part of the Japanese military—especially in theImperial Japanese Army factions who participated inthe failed coup of 1936. After the coup attempt, Kita was arrested by theKempeitai for complicity, tried by a closed military court, and executed.[8]
