Kōzō Sasaki | |
|---|---|
 Sasaki in 1965 | |
| Chair of theJapan Socialist Party | |
| In office 6 May 1965 – 19 August 1967 | |
| Preceded by | Jōtarō Kawakami |
| Succeeded by | Seiichi Katsumata |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 May 1900 Motoyoshi District, Miyagi,Japan |
| Died | 24 December 1985(1985-12-24) (aged 85) |
| Political party | Japan Socialist Party |
| Alma mater | Nihon University |
Kōzō Sasaki (佐々木 更三,Sasaki Kōzō, 25 May 1900 – 24 December 1985) was a Japanesesocialist agitator and politician. The longtime leader of the left wing of theJapan Socialist Party in thepostwar period, he served as chairman of party from 1965 to 1967.
Small in stature and possessed of a fiery temper and a thick ruralTōhoku accent, he was a loud-mouthed and charismatic figure nicknamed "Kōzō the Ogre."[1]
Kōzō Sasaki was born the third son of an impoverished farming family inMiyagi prefecture on 25 May 1900.[1] Sasaki was born while his parents were on the run for having eloped without permission, so he was not entered into a proper family registry until he was 11 years old and therefore could not enroll in regular school until that time. Instead of going to school, he performed hard manual labor, such as manufacturing charcoal. As a teenager, he went toSendai city to work in a silk mill, saving up money to go to Tokyo for study. He graduated fromNihon University's 2-year junior college with a degree in politics in 1928.[2] It was at Nihon University that Sasaki first became exposed tosocialist ideas and became involved in theJapanese labor movement.[2] Returning to Sendai, he got a job in a bicycle factory, but was fired almost immediately for attempting to organize a strike. Thereafter, he became an activist in the Labor-Farmer Movement and became a leader in instigating contentious tenant-landlord disputes, leading to physical brawls with police and multiple arrests.[2][1]
In 1937, Sasaki was elected a Sendai city council member, but lost his post just one year later when he was arrested as part of thePopular Front Incident.[2] Thereafter, he supported himself by running aused bookstore and selling fuel oil.
After Japan's defeat inWorld War II, socialism was legalized, and Sasaki became involved in the founding of theJapan Socialist Party (JSP) in 1945. He ran unsuccessfully for the Lower House of theNational Diet in 1946, but was elected the following year, and thereafter served 11 consecutive terms until he was defeated in 1976.[3] In the Diet, Sasaki was noted for his pro-China and anti-American outlook.[3] Sasaki soon became known as the "sidekick" of JSP heavyweight and future party chairmanMosaburō Suzuki, facilitating his rapid rise within the party. When the party splintered in 1948, Sasaki followed Suzuki into theLeft Socialist Party, but he supported the reunification of the party in 1955. Securing Sasaki's support for reunification was seen as crucial to solidifying the new party, and thus his stature within the party was further enhanced. With Suzuki becoming chairman of the newly reunified JSP, Sasaki became the new factional leader of the left wing of the party, a position he would hold for more than two decades.
Beginning in 1960, Sasaki engaged in a fierce rivalry with the moderate socialist leaderSaburō Eda for control of the party as well as its policy platform.[4] Sasaki strenuously opposed Eda's program of "structural reform," which sought to broaden the party's base by pursuing policies that might appeal to white-collar workers and farmers who were outside the JSP's traditional base of the urban working class. As a doctrinaire Marxist-Leninist, Sasaki insisted that a true socialist revolution could only be built on a firm base of the urban proletariat. He accused Eda of "status-quo-ism" and "sucking up to monopoly capital."[4] Sasaki succeeded in having Eda ousted from his post as party Secretary General in 1962, further increasing his stature with the party's base.[5]
Finally in 1965, Sasaki succeeded in winning the election as Chairman of the Japan Socialist Party.[5] However, Sasaki had the misfortune of serving as party head at a time when theClean Government Party and theJapan Communist Party were surging at the polls and eating away at the JSP's urban working-class base.[5] Many in the party viewed theGeneral Election of 1967 as a disastrous defeat. Although the party only lost 4 seats in the Lower House, expectations had been high, and Sasaki's hard-left radicalism was blamed for the poor showing. He was ousted as party chairman in favor of the more moderateTomomi Narita, although Narita actually fared far worse in future elections.
Well-known as a vocal supporter of People's Republic of China, Sasaki was called upon by the conservative government ofEisaku Satō to assist in negotiations to restore diplomatic relations between Japan and China in 1972, a request which he was pleased to oblige.
In the1976 election, Sasaki lost his own seat in the Diet. Thereafter he retired from politics and became involved in the Japan-Cambodia Friendship Association.[3] In 1978, he attracted criticism by visiting Cambodia and claiming that there had been no massacres whatsoever under theKhmer Rouge and that claims of massacres were merely slanderous American propaganda. He also joined a group advocating for the return of theKuril Islands to Japan by theSoviet Union.[3]
Sasaki died of heart failure on 24 December 1985.[3]
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chair of theJapan Socialist Party 1965–1967 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
