Japanese dissidence during the Shōwa period

Japanese dissidence during the Shōwa period was dissidence by Japanese citizens of the Empire of Japan (1868–1947) during the Shōwa period, the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito (1926–1989). The Shōwa period witnessed the rise of Japanese militarism, and the Empire of Japan's full-scale invasion of China in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), which escalated into a full-scale invasion of the Asia-Pacific during the Pacific theatre of World War II (1941–1945). Throughout the period, there was political repression in Imperial Japan.

History

The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) was suppressed by the Imperial Japanese government. Mass round ups took place on March 15, 1928, and were followed by mass round ups on April 16, 1929. In February 1930, the central committee of the Japanese Communist Party approved the formation of "red self-defense bodies".

The JCP protested against the Manchurian Incident. Following the Manchurian Incident, the JCP continued anti-war activities.

The Party was finished by 1935. A communist party rebuilding committee was established, and was active until May 1941.

Several anarchist groups operated in Japan. The Black Youth League, or Kokuren, Farming Villages Youth Association, or Noseisha, and the Zenkoku Jiren. The Koto branch of the Tokyo general workers Union and the Tokyo Food Workers Union merged into the anarchist syndicalist union federation Libertarian Federal Council of Labour Unions of Japan, or Jikyo.

The Zenkoku jiren protested against the Manchurian Incident.

The split in Zenkoku Jiren led to a split of pure anarchists and anarchist syndicalists. Zenkoku Jiren came to an end following the mass arrests of anarchists in 1935-1936. Anarchism was active in Japan until 1935.

In 1933, the government suppressed a faculty and student protest in Kyoto Imperial University. The protest was in reaction to the government's suspension of Professor Yukitoki Takigawa from the university. This incident became known as the Takigawa incident.

In 1940, labor unions in Japan were dissolved, and replaced by the ultranationalistic Industrial Association for Serving the Nation (Sangyō Hōkokukai, or Sampō).

Japanese who went abroad went to countries such as the USSR China, the United States, Mexico and France.

In wartime Japan, only passive resistance, and insignificant protests occurred. In 1943, the Sōka Gakkai were imprisoned for advising their followers not to buy amulets from the Grand Shrine of Ise.

Political prisoners in Imperial Japan were not released until the end of WWII.

Organizations

• Japanese People's Anti-war Alliance
• Japanese People's Emancipation League
• League to Raise the Political Consciousness of Japanese Troops
• Japanese Communist Party

Movements

• Free Japan

Media

• Doyōbi, an anti-fascist newspaper
• Shimbun Akahata, the organ of the Japanese Communist Party

Japanese dissidence in popular culture

• An Artist of the Floating World, 1986 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Kabei: Our Mother, 2008 film directed by Yoji Yamada
• Millennium Actress, 2001 animated film directed by Satoshi Kon
• No Regrets for Our Youth, 1946 film directed by Akira Kurosawa
• Runaway Horses, 1969 novel by Yukio Mishima

See also

• Japanese in the Chinese resistance to the Empire of Japan
• Japanese Resistance to the Imperial House of Japan
• Dissent in the Armed Forces of the Empire of Japan
• Relations between Japanese Revolutionaries and the Comintern and the Soviet Union
• List of Japanese dissidents in Imperial Japan
• Assassination attempts on Hirohito
• Popular Front Incident

Further reading

• 山岸一章 (1981). 聳ゆるマスト―日本海軍の反戦兵士. 新日本出版社.
• Louise Young (1999). Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism. University of California Press.
• Katherine Marshall (2013). Global Institutions of Religion: Ancient Movers, Modern Shakers. Routledge.

External links

• 戦前の反戦運動 「戦争に反対して、命がけで活動した人たちの記録」 (Pre-war anti-war movement "Record of the people who were active in the opposition to war.") at kure-sensai.net
• 「戦前の反戦兵士とその後」 Ⅱ、「聳ゆるマスト」発行の阪口喜一郎の足跡を追って at kure-sensai.net. Information on anti-war activist in the Imperial Japanese Navy Sakaguchi Kiichiro.