View source for Political dissidence in the Empire of Japan

{{Short description|Overview from 1868 to 1947}}
[[File:KotokuShusui.jpg|thumb|[[Kotoku Shusui]], an early [[Japanese anarchist]]]]
'''Political dissidence in the [[Empire of Japan]]''' covers individual Japanese [[dissident]]s against the policies of the [[Empire of Japan]].
== Dissidence in the Meiji and Taishō eras ==
=== High Treason Incident ===
[[Shūsui Kōtoku]], a Japanese anarchist, was critical of imperialism. He would write ''Imperialism: The Specter of the Twentieth Century'' in 1901.<ref>{{Cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TtGevM22-j0C&q=Kotoku%27s+dissatisfaction+with+Japan%27s+new+imperialistic+course%2C+his+distrust+of&pg=PA82 | title = Kotoku Shusui: Portrait of a Japanese Radical | isbn = 9780521131483 | last1 = Notehelfer | first1 = F. G | date = 2011-04-14| publisher = Cambridge University Press }}</ref> In 1911, twelve people, including Kōtoku, were executed for their involvement in the [[High Treason Incident]], a failed plot to assassinate [[Emperor Meiji]].<ref>{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2014|title=High Treason Incident 1910|publisher=Acadamia|url=https://www.academia.edu/800721 |last1=Suzumura |first1=Yusuke }}</ref> Also executed for involvement with the plot was [[Kanno Suga]], an anarcho-feminist and former common-law wife of Kōtoku.
=== Fumiko Kaneko and Park Yeol ===
[[Fumiko Kaneko]] was a Japanese anarchist who lived in [[Korea under Japanese rule|Japanese-occupied Korea]]. She, along with a Korean anarchist, [[Park Yeol]], were accused of attempting to procure bombs from a Korean independence group in [[Shanghai]].<ref>Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan: Patriarchal Fictions, Patricidal Fantasies By Helene Bowen Raddeker Page 7</ref> Both of them were charged with plotting to assassinate members of the Japanese imperial family.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/Article.aspx?aid=2978199 |title=Japanese lawyer made Koreans' cause his own |newspaper=[[JoongAng Ilbo]] |date=2013-10-01 |access-date=2014-01-16}}</ref>
[[File:Commoners Society.JPG|thumb|180px|A photograph of the Heimin-sha (Commoners' Society), who published the {{transliteration|ja|[[Heimin Shimbun]]}}]]
=== The Commoners' Newspaper ===
The {{transliteration|ja|[[Heimin Shimbun]]}} (Commoners' Newspaper) was a socialist newspaper which served as the leading anti-war vehicle during the [[Russo-Japanese War]]. It was a weekly mouthpiece of the socialist {{transliteration|ja|Heimin-sha}} (Society of Commoners). The chief writers were Kotoku Shusui and [[Toshihiko Sakai|Sakai Toshihiko]]. When the {{transliteration|ja|Heimin}} decried the high taxes caused by the war, Sakai was sentenced to two months in jail. When the paper published ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'', Kotoku was given five months in prison, and the paper was shut down.<ref>Shimbun. (1903-05). Pacifist, socialist newspaper. A weekly mouthpiece of the socialist Heiminsha (Society of Commoners), this paper served as the leading antiwar vehicle during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05). The Commoners' Newspaper (Heimin Shimbun) (1903-1905).</ref>
=== Buddhist resistance ===
Although the state of Japanese Buddhism during this time was generally one of servility to the Japanese authoritarian system,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tamura|first=Yoshirō|title=Japanese Buddhism: a cultural history|date=2000|publisher=Kosei Pub. Co|isbn=4-333-01684-3|edition=1st English|location=Tokyo|translator=Jeffrey Hunter|oclc=45384117}}</ref> there were some exceptional individuals who resisted. [[Uchiyama Gudō]] was a [[Sōtō Zen]] [[Buddhist]] priest and [[anarcho-socialist]]. He was one of a few Buddhist leaders who spoke out against Japanese imperialism. Uchiyama was an outspoken advocate for redistributive land reform, overturning the Meiji emperor system, encouraging conscripts to desert en masse, and advancing democratic rights for all. He criticized Zen leaders who claimed that low social position was justified by karma and who sold abbotships to the highest bidder.<ref>Victoria, Brian (1998). Zen at War. Weatherhill page 40, 44,46,43</ref>
After government persecution pushed the socialist and anti-war movements in Japan underground, Uchiyama visited Kōtoku Shūsui in Tokyo in 1908. He purchased equipment that would be used to set up a secret press in his temple. Uchiyama used the printing equipment to turn out popular socialist tracts and pamphlets, some of which were his own works.<ref>Victoria, Brian (1998). Zen at War. Weatherhill. page 43</ref> Uchiyama was executed, along with Kotoku, for their involvement with the attempted assassination of Emperor Meiji.<ref>Victoria, Brian (1998). Zen at War. Weatherhill. Page 45</ref> Uchiyama's priesthood was revoked when he was convicted, but it was restored in 1993 by the Soto Zen sect.<ref>Victoria, Brian (1998). Zen at War. Weatherhill. page 47</ref>
Another Soto Zen critic of Japanese imperialism and militarism was [[Inoue Shūten]]. He is known for advocating Buddhist pacifism and for criticizing [[D. T. Suzuki|D.T. Suzuki]]'s stance of Buddhism and war.<ref>Shields, James Mark, "Zen Internationalism, Zen Revolution: Inoue Shūten, Uchiyama Gudō and the Crisis of (Zen) Buddhist Modernity in Late Meiji Japan" (2022). Faculty Contributions to Books. 262. https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/fac_books/262</ref>
Among other notable individuals were the [[Japanese Zen|Zen]] masters [[Kōdō Sawaki]], who expressed sentiments critical of war and its futility,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Cohen|first=Jundo|date=2014|title="Zen at War" by Brian Victoria: Throwing Bombs at Kodo|url=https://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/CriticalZen/ThrowingBombs_at_Kodo_JundoCohen.pdf}}</ref> and Sawaki's student [[Taisen Deshimaru]], who was jailed for aiding the resistance efforts of [[Bangka Island]]ers against Japanese colonialists.<ref name="buddhanet">[http://www.buddhanet.net/masters/deshimaru.htm buddhanet: Deshimaru]</ref>
=== Attempted assassination of Hirohito ===
[[Daisuke Nanba]], a Japanese student and communist, attempted to assassinate the Prince Regent [[Hirohito]] in 1924. Daisuke was outraged by the [[Kantō Massacre]], a slaughter of Koreans and anarchists in the aftermath of the [[1923 Great Kantō earthquake]].<ref>Richard H. Mitchell. Monumenta Nipponica : Japan's Peace Preservation Law of 1925: Its Origins and Significance. p. 334.</ref> The dead included his partner, anarchist [[Ōsugi Sakae]], feminist [[Noe Itō]], and Ōsugi's six-year-old nephew, who were murdered by [[Masahiko Amakasu]], the future head of the [[Manchukuo Film Association]], a film production company based in the Japanese puppet state of [[Manchukuo]]. This event was known as the [[Amakasu incident]].<ref>Gordon, Andrew. ''Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan''. p. 178</ref> Nanba was found guilty by the Supreme Court of Japan and hanged in November 1924.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,729304,00.html |title=JAPAN: Noble Expiation |magazine=Time |date=1926-07-12 |access-date=2014-01-15}}</ref>
=== Osaka Incident ===
[[Hideko Fukuda]] was considered the "Joan of Arc" of the [[Freedom and People's Rights Movement]] in Japan during the 1880s.<ref>e-Study Guide for: East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History</ref> She was also an editor of {{transliteration|ja|Sekai fujin}} (Women of the World), a socialist women's paper that [[Shūsui Kōtoku]] contributed articles to. In 1885, Fukuda was arrested for her involvement in the Osaka incident, a failed plan to supply explosives to Korean independence movements.
The Osaka Incident sought to overthrow the Meiji government via simultaneous open revolt in various parts of Japan.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=|pages=232-233}} Part of the plan also included assisting Korean independence activists in a coup against conservatives in the Korean monarchy.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=232}} Before the plan was able to be implemented, the police arrested the conspirators and confiscated the weapons before they could leave Japan for Korea.<ref>Japan and the High Treason Incident edited by Masako Gavin, Ben Middleton Page 110</ref> Other participants in the plan included Oi Kentaro, another major figure of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/e/datas/243.html|title=Oi, Kentaro|website=www.ndl.go.jp}}</ref> The outlaw brotherhood ''[[Gen'yōsha]]'' was also a major participant.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Driscoll |first=Mark W. |title=The Whites are Enemies of Heaven: Climate Caucasianism and Asian Ecological Protection |date=2020 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4780-1121-7 |location=Durham}}</ref>{{Rp|page=44}}
=== Liberal and moderate resistance ===
There were some critics of militarism among more mainstream socio-political circles, such as classical liberals and moderate conservatives. [[Saionji Kinmochi]], who was the last of the {{transliteration|ja|[[genrō]]}}, an imperial advisor with progressive views, and a three-time prime minister, was known to be among the aristocrats who were most supportive of parliamentary government and often clashed with the military throughout his lengthy career, leading him to be considered as a potential assassination target leading up to the failed [[February 26 Incident|1936 coup d'état]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Connors|first=Lesley|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1058596530|title=The emperor's adviser : Saionji Kinmochi and pre-war Japanese politics|date=1987|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-84165-5|location=London|oclc=1058596530}}</ref> Future Prime Minister and then-Foreign Minister [[Kijūrō Shidehara]] became known for his "Shidehara diplomacy" in the 1920s, favoring non-interventionism in China and warmer relations with the Anglo-American world.<ref>{{Citation|last=Sugawara|first=Takeshi|title=Shidehara Kijuro (1872-1951)|date=2018-05-03|url=http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/9781118885154.dipl0539|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Diplomacy|pages=1–2|editor-last=Martel|editor-first=Gordon|place=Oxford, UK|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd|language=en|doi=10.1002/9781118885154.dipl0539|isbn=978-1-118-88791-2|access-date=2021-05-15}}</ref>
=== Japanese political refugees in early 20th century America ===
The American West Coast, which had a large Japanese population, was a haven for Japanese political dissidents in the early 20th century. Many were refugees from the "[[Freedom and People's Rights Movement]]." [[San Francisco]], and [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] in particular, were teeming with such people. In 1907, an open letter addressed to "Mutsuhito, Emperor of Japan from Anarchists-Terrorists" was posted at the [[Consul (representative)|Consulate General]] of Japan in San Francisco. As Mutsuhito was the personal name of [[Emperor Meiji]], and it was considered rude to call the emperor by his personal name, this was quite an insult. The letter began with, "We demand the implementation of the principle of assassination." The letter also claimed that the emperor was not a god. The letter concluded with, "Hey you, miserable Mutsuhito. Bombs are all around you, about to explode. Farewell to you." This incident changed the Japanese government's attitude of leftist movements.
== Early Shōwa era and the rise of militarism ==
[[File:Ikuo Oyama.jpg|thumb|Ikuo Oyama, member of the banned Labour-Farmer Party]]
=== Ikuo Oyama ===
[[Ikuo Oyama]] was a member of the left-leaning [[Labour-Farmer Party]], which advocated universal suffrage, minimum wages, and [[women's rights]]. Yamamoto Senji, a colleague of his, was assassinated on February 29, on the same day as he had presented testimony in the Diet regarding torture of prisoners. The Labour-Farmer Party was banned in 1928 due to accusations of having links to communism. Oyama fled Japan in 1933 to the United States as a result. He got a job at [[Northwestern University]] at its library and political science department. During his exile, he worked closely with the U.S. Government against the [[Empire of Japan]]. Oyama happily shook hands with [[Zhou Enlai]], who fought the Japanese in the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]. Oyama was given a [[USSR State Prize|Stalin Award]] prize on December 20, 1951. However, his colleagues begged him not to accept the award for fear that he would become a Soviet puppet. Some of his oldest friends abandoned him when he accepted it.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}
=== Modern girls ===
{{Nihongo|[[Modern girl#End of modern girl era|Modern girls]]|モダンガール|modan gāru}} were Japanese women who adhered to Westernized fashions and lifestyles in the 1920s. They were the equivalent of America's [[flappers]].<ref>The Modern Girl Around the World: Consumption, Modernity, and Globalization, Edited by Alys Eve Weinbaum, Lynn M. Thomas, Priti Ramamurthy, Uta G. Poiger, Modeleine Yue Dong, and Tani E. Barlow, p. 1.</ref>
This period was characterized by the emergence of young working-class women with access to consumer goods and the money to buy those consumer goods. Modern girls were depicted as living in cities, being financially and emotionally independent, choosing their own suitors, and being apathetic towards politics.<ref>The 'Modern' Japanese Woman, The Chronicle 5/21/2004:</ref> Thus, the modern girl was a symbol of Westernization. However, after a military coup in 1931, extreme Japanese nationalism and the Great Depression prompted a return to the 19th-century ideal of [[good wife, wise mother]].
=== The Salon de thé François ===
[[File:Doyohbi Kyoto 1936.gif|thumb|180px|Cover page of first issue of the anti-fascist {{transliteration|ja|[[Doyōbi]]}} ("Saturday") newspaper, July 7, 1936]]
The [[Salon de thé François]] was a western-style café established in Kyoto on 1934 by Shoichi Tateno, who participated in labour movements, and anti-war movements.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2014|title=Salon de the|publisher=Worldpress|url=http://hitorikyoto.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BD%E3%82%A2%E5%96%AB%E8%8C%B6%E5%AE%A4salon-de-the-francois/}}</ref> The cafe was a secret source of funds for the then-banned [[Japanese Communist Party]].<ref>{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2014|title=Salon de the|publisher=Timeout|url=http://www.timeout.jp/en/kyoto/venue/1076/Salon-de-th%C3%A9-Fran%C3%A7ois}}</ref> The anti-fascist newspaper {{transliteration|ja|[[Doyōbi]]}} was edited and distributed from the café.<ref>http://homepage2.nifty.com/strng9/francois/HQ8BGS3ACB03MAJ5.pdf{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
=== Takigawa Incident ===
In March 1933, the Japanese parliament attempted to control various education groups and circles. The Interior Ministry banned two textbooks on criminal laws written by Takigawa Yukitoki of Kyoto Imperial University. The following month, Konishi Shigenao, president of Kyoto University, was requested to dismiss Professor Takigawa. Konishi rejected the request, but due to pressure from the military and nationalist groups, Takigawa was fired from the university. This led to all 39 faculty members of Kyoto Imperial University's law faculty resigning. Furthermore, students boycotted classes and communist sympathizers organized protests. The Ministry of Education was able to suppress the movement by firing Konishi. In addition to this attempt by the Japanese government to control educational institutions, during the term of the education minister, [[Ichirō Hatoyama]], a number of elementary school teachers were also dismissed for having what were considered "dangerous thoughts".<ref>Itoh, Mayumi. ''The Hatoyama Dynasty: Japanese Political Leadership Through the Generations''. p. 62</ref>
=== Soaring Mast ===
Following the outbreak of the 1931 [[Japanese invasion of Manchuria]], the [[Japanese Communist Party]] had infiltrated the military, including in Tokyo, and Osaka. They would distribute leaflets, and newspapers opposing the war.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://kure-sensai.net/Undou/Senzen/HansenUndou.htm|title=「戦争に反対して、命がけで活動した人たちの記録」
|publisher= kure-sensai.net|date=|accessdate=}}</ref> [[Sakaguchi Kiichiro]], a Japanese Communist sailor, founded the anti-war "The Soaring Mast" along with other anti-sailors. Six issues were produced and distributed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.yamashita-yoshiki.jp/archive/column/1323677971.html|title= 「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ーー広島・呉で顕彰記念碑建立めざして|publisher= kure-sensai.net|date=|accessdate=}}</ref> Sakaguchi Kiichiro had enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy following his graduation from High School. During his service, he joined the Japanese Communist Party.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.yamashita-yoshiki.jp/archive/column/1323677971.html|title= 「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ーー広島・呉で顕彰記念碑建立めざして|publisher= kure-sensai.net|date=|accessdate=}}</ref> Saakaguchi Kiichiro would be arrested in a Police raid in Tokyo. He was tortured in Hiroshima Prison by the Special Higher police. He would die in prison on 1933.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.yamashita-yoshiki.jp/archive/column/1323677971.html|title= 「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ーー広島・呉で顕彰記念碑建立めざして|publisher= kure-sensai.net|date=|accessdate=}}</ref>
== Dissidence during World War II ==
=== Japanese working with the Chinese resistance ===
[[File:Wataru Kaji 521211 Scan10010.JPG|thumb|Kaji Wataru]]
[[Wataru Kaji|Kaji Wataru]] was a Japanese proletarian writer who lived in Shanghai. His wife, [[Yuki Ikeda]], suffered through torture at the hands of the Imperial Japanese. She fled Japan when she was very young, working as a ballroom dancer in Shanghai to earn a living. They were friends with Chinese cultural leader [[Guo Moruo]]. Kaji and Yuki would escape Shanghai when the Japanese invaded the city. Kaji, along with his wife, were involved with the re-education of captured Japanese soldiers for the [[Kuomintang]] in [[Chongqing]] during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]].<ref>From Kona to Yenan: The Political Memoirs of Koji Ariyoshi By Koji Ariyoshi page 104–106</ref>
His relationship with [[Chiang Kai-shek]] was troubled due to Chiang Kai-shek's [[anti-communism]].<ref>Imperial Eclipse: Japan's Strategic Thinking about Continental Asia before ...By Yukiko Koshiro page 100 chapter 3</ref> Kaji would work with the [[Office of Strategic Services]] in the later stages of the war.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2014|title=Japan|publisher=Asian Studies|url=http://www.asian-studies.org/absts/2009abst/Japan/j-88.htm}}</ref>
[[Sanzō Nosaka]], a founder of the Japanese Communist Party, worked with the Chinese Communists in
[[Yan'an]] during the Second Sino-Japanese war. He was in charge of the re-education of captured Japanese troops. Japanese Intelligence in China were desperate to eliminate him, but they always failed in their attempts. Sanzo went by the name "Susumu Okano" during the war.<ref>From Kona to Yenan: The Political Memoirs of Koji Ariyoshi By Koji Ariyoshi Chapter 12 Re-Education And Sanzo Nosaka Page 123-124</ref> Today, Sanzō Nosaka is considered a disgraced figure to the [[Japanese Communist Party]], when it was discovered that he falsely accused Kenzō Yamamoto, a Japanese communist, of spying for Japan.<ref>{{cite news|access-date=14 January 2014|title=Sanzo Nosaka|newspaper=New York Times|date=15 November 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/15/obituaries/sanzo-nosaka-101-communist-in-japan-ejected-by-the-party.html |last1=Pace |first1=Eric }}</ref> [[Joseph Stalin]] executed Yamamoto in 1939.<ref>Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan By William D. Hoover page 224</ref>
Sato Takeo was a Japanese doctor who was a member of [[Norman Bethune]]'s medical team in the Second-Sino Japanese War. Norman's team was responsible for giving medical care to soldiers of the Chinese [[Eighth Route Army]].<ref>Ienaga, Saburo. ''Pacific War, 1931–1945''. p. 218</ref>
=== Japanese working with the United States ===
[[Taro Yashima]] (real name Jun Atsushi Iwamatsu), an artist, joined a group of progressive artists, sympathetic to the struggles of ordinary workers and opposed to the rise of [[Japanese militarism]] in the early 1930s.  The antimilitarist movement in Japan was highly active at the time, with posters protesting the Japanese aggression in China being widespread.<ref name=shibusawa>{{Cite journal | last = Shibusawa | first = Naoko| author-link=Naoko Shibusawa |date=October 2005  | title ="The Artist Belongs to the People": The Odyssey of Taro Yashima | journal = [[Journal of Asian American Studies]] | volume = 8 | issue = 3 | pages = 257–275 | doi = 10.1353/jaas.2005.0053| s2cid = 145164597| url = https://www.academia.edu/347041 | access-date = 27 July 2019}}</ref>  Following the [[Japanese invasion of Manchuria]], however, the Japanese government began heavy handed suppression of domestic dissent including the use of arrests and torture by the [[Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu|Tokkō]] (special higher police).<ref name=shibusawa/> Iwamatsu who was thrown into a Japanese prison without trial along with his pregnant wife, [[Mitsu Yashima|Tomoe Sasako]], for protesting militarism in Japan. Conditions in the prison were deplorable and the two were subjected to inhumane treatment including beatings. The authorities demanded false confessions, and those who gave them were set free.<ref name=shibusawa/>
Iwamatsu and Sasako came to America using student visas to study art in 1939, leaving behind their son, [[Makoto Iwamatsu]], who would grow up to be a prolific actor in America, with relatives. When WWII broke out, Iwamatsu joined the Office of Strategic Services as a painter. He would adopt the pseudonym Taro Yashima, to protect his son who was still in Japan. Iwamatsu would continue to use his pseudonym when he wrote children's books, such as Crow Boy, after the war.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.librarypoint.org/taro_yashima |title=Taro Yashima: Artist for Peace |publisher=LibraryPoint |access-date=2014-01-15}}</ref>
[[Eitaro Ishigaki]] was an issei painter who immigrated to America from [[Taiji, Wakayama]], in Japan. At the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Pacific War, he painted anti-war, and anti-fascist artwork.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2014|title=Retrospective|publisher=Momaw|url=http://www.momaw.jp/files/EITARO%20ISHIGAKI_Retrospective_PR.pdf}}</ref> His painting ''Man on the Horse'' (1932) depicted a plain-clothed Chinese guerrilla confronting the Japanese army, heavily equipped with airplanes and warships. It became the cover of New Masses, an American communist journal. ''Flight'' (1937) was a painting that depicted two Chinese women escaping Japanese bombing, running with three children past one man lying dead on the ground.<ref>Race, Ethnicity and Migration in Modern Japan: Imagined and imaginary minorities Page 333</ref> During the war, he worked for the [[United States Office of War Information]] along with his wife, Ayako.<ref>The Cultural Front: The Labouring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century by Michael Denning page 145</ref>
[[Yasuo Kuniyoshi]] was an {{transliteration|ja|[[issei]]}} (first-generation Japanese immigrant) anti-fascist painter based in New York. In 1942, he raised funds for the United China Relief to provide humanitarian aid to China when it was still at war with Japan.<ref>Becoming American?: Asian Identity Negotiated Through the Art of Yasuo KuniyoshiBy Shi-Pu Wang page 18</ref> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine ran an article featuring Yasuo Kuniyoshi, [[George Grosz]], a German anti-Nazi painter, and Jon Corbino, an Italian painter, standing behind large unflattering caricatures of Hirohito, Hitler, and Mussolini.<ref name="Wang 2011">{{cite book|last=Wang |first=ShiPu |title=Becoming American? : the art and identity crisis of Yasuo Kuniyoshi |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780824860271 |id={{OCLC|794925329|986700073}} |chapter=Introduction |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504131609/http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/books/wangBecomingIntro.pdf |chapter-url=http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/books/wangBecomingIntro.pdf |access-date=2019-01-15|archive-date=2018-05-04 }}</ref> Yasuo Kuniyoshi showed opposition to [[Tsuguharu Foujita]]'s art show at the Kennedy Galleries. During WWII, Tsuguharu Foujita painted propaganda artwork for the Empire of Japan. Yasuo called Foujita a fascist, an imperialist, and an expansionist.<ref>Glory in a Line: A Life of Foujita--the Artist Caught Between EastBy Phyllis Birnbaum page 276</ref> Yasuo Kuniyoshi would work for the Office of War Information during WWII, creating artwork that depicted atrocities committed by the Empire of Japan, even though he was himself labeled an "enemy alien" in the aftermath of [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Pearl Harbor]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2015/kuniyoshi/ |title=Exhibitions: The Artistic Journey of Yasuo Kuniyoshi |publisher=Americanart.si.edu |access-date=2014-01-16}}</ref>
=== Japanese working with the British ===
[[Shigeki Oka]] was an [[issei]] socialist and [[journalist]] for the ''[[Yorozu Chōhō]]'', and a friend of [[Kōtoku Shūsui]] or [[Toshihiko Sakai]]. Oka would welcome Kotoku when he arrived in [[Oakland]].<ref>Kōtoku Shūsui, Portrait of a Japanese Radical By F. G. Notehelfer Page 121</ref> He was a member of the {{transliteration|ja|Sekai Rodo Domeikai}} (World Labour League).<ref>
The Origins of Socialist Thought in Japan By John Crump Page 195</ref> In 1943, the [[British Army]] hired [[Shigeki Oka]] to print [[propaganda]] materials in [[Kolkata]] in India, such as the {{transliteration|ja|Gunjin Shimbun}} (Soldier Newspaper).<ref>Nisei linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service, by James C. McNaughton, page 289</ref>
The [[SOAS, University of London]] was used by the [[British Army]] to train soldiers in Japanese. The teachers were usually Japanese citizens who had stayed in Britain during the war, as well as [[Canadian]] [[Nisei]]. When [[Bletchley Park]], Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), was concerned about the slow pace of the [[SOAS]], started their own [[Japanese language]] courses in [[Bedford]] in February 1942. The courses were directed by Royal Army [[cryptographer]], Col. [[John Tiltman]], and retired [[Royal Navy]] officer, [[Captain]]. [[Oswald Tuck]].<ref>''Nisei Linguists: Japanese Americans in the Military Intelligence Service''. Page 160–161.</ref>
=== Sorge spy ring ===
[[File:Hotsumi Ozaki.JPG|thumb|156x156px|left|Hotsumi Ozaki]]
[[Richard Sorge]] was a Soviet military intelligence officer who conducted surveillance in both Germany and Japan, working under the identity of a Japanese correspondent for the German newspaper {{lang|de|Frankfurter Zeitung}}. He arrived in Yokohama in 1933 and recruited two journalists: Asahi Shimbun journalist [[Hotsumi Ozaki]], who wanted successful communist revolutions in both China and Japan;<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-aeAAAAIAAJ|title=An Instance of Treason: Ozaki Hotsumi and the Sorge Spy Ring|last=Johnson|first=Chalmers A|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1964|isbn=9780804717663|pages=5}}</ref> and [[Yotoku Miyagi]] in 1932 who translated Japanese newspaper articles and reports into English and created a diverse network of informants.
In 1941, he relayed to the Soviet Union that Prime minister [[Konoe Fumimaro]] had decided against an immediate attack on the Soviets, choosing instead to keep forces in French Indochina (Vietnam). This information allowed the Soviet Union to reallocate tanks and troops to the western front without fear of Japanese attacks. Later that year, both Sorge and Ozaki were found guilty of treason (espionage) and were executed three years later in 1944.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2010/01/31/life/sorges-spy-is-brought-in-from-the-cold/|title=Sorge's spy is brought in from the cold|first=Edan|last=Corkill|date=31 January 2010|via=Japan Times Online}}</ref>
=== Pacifist resistance ===
[[File:KAGAWA Toyohiko young.JPG|thumb|170px|Kagawa Toyohiko, Christian pacifist]]
Pacifism was one of the many ideologies targeted by the Tokko. [[George Ohsawa]], a pacifist and the founder of the [[macrobiotic diet]], was thrown in jail for his anti-war activities in January 1945. While in prison, he suffered through harsh treatment. When he was finally released, one month after the bombing of Hiroshima, he was gaunt, crippled, and 80% blind.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/george_ohsawa_macrobiotics_soyfoods1.php |title=George Ohsawa, Macrobiotics, and Soyfoods Part 1 |publisher=Soyinfocenter.com |access-date=2014-01-16}}</ref> [[Toyohiko Kagawa]], a Christian pacifist, was arrested in 1940 for apologizing to the Republic of China for Japan's occupation of China.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2014|title=Sermon|publisher=Ashland Methodist|url=http://www.ashlandmethodist.org/Files/10.28.12%20Sermon.pdf}}</ref> [[Yanaihara Tadao]], another Christian, circulated an anti-war magazine beginning in 1936 and through the end of the war.
=== Anti-fascist bulletins ===
The journalist Kiryū Yūyū published an anti-fascist bulletin, {{transliteration|ja|Tazan no ishi}}, but it was heavily censored and ceased publication with Kiryū's death at the end of 1941.
A lawyer named Masaki Hiroshi had more success with his independent bulletin called {{transliteration|ja|Chikaki yori}}. Masaki's main technique against the censors was simply masking his critiques of the government in thinly veiled sarcasm. This was apparently unnoticed by the censors, and he was able to continue publishing fierce attacks on the government through the end of the war. His magazine had many intellectual readers such as [[Hasegawa Nyozekan]], [[Hyakken Uchida]], [[Rash Behari Bose]] and [[Saneatsu Mushanokōji]]. After the war, Masaki became an idiosyncratic defense lawyer, successfully forcing many recognitions of police malpractice at great risk to his life.
A lesser known bulletin was {{transliteration|ja|Kojin konjin}}, a monthly critique of the army published by the humorist [[Ubukata Toshirō]]. Again, the use of satire without explicit call to political action allowed Ubukata to avoid prosecution through the end of the war, although two issues were banned. He ceased publication in 1968.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160630031545/http://www.time2.jp/kagumi/0009/0009.htm 上之町生まれの作家 生方敏郎の『古人今人』と『明治大正見聞史』]</ref>
=== ''A Diary of Darkness'' ===
Kiyosawa Kiyoshi was an American-educated commentator on politics and foreign affairs who lived in a time when Japanese militarists rose to power. He wrote a diary as notes for a history of the war, but it soon became a refuge for him to criticize the Japanese government, and to express opinions he had to repress publicly. It chronicles growing bureaucratic control over everything from the press to people's clothing. Kiyosawa showed scorn towards [[Hideki Tojo|Tojo]] and [[Kuniaki Koiso|Koiso]], lamenting the rise of hysterical propaganda, and related his own and his friends' struggles to avoid arrest. He also recorded the increasing poverty, crime, and disorder, tracing the gradual disintegration of Japan's war effort and the looming certainty of defeat. His diary was published under the name ''A Diary of Darkness: The Wartime Diary of Kiyosawa Kiyoshi'', in 1948. It is today regarded as a classic.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6399.html|title=A Diary of Darkness|publisher=Princeton University Press|date=7 September 2008 |isbn=9780691140308 }}</ref>
=== Antiwar film ===
[[Fumio Kamei]] was arrested under the Peace Preservation Law after releasing two state-funded documentaries that, while purporting to be celebrations of Japan and its army, portrayed civilian victims of [[Japanese war crimes]] and mocked the "sacred war" message and "beautiful Japan" propaganda. He was released after the war and continued to make anti-establishment films.
=== {{transliteration|ja|Nisei}} involvement in Japanese resistance ===
[[Karl Yoneda]] was a {{transliteration|ja|[[nisei]]}} (second-generation Japanese immigrant) born in [[Glendale, California]]. Before [[World War II]], he went to Japan to protest the Japanese invasion of China with Japanese militants. Toward the end of 1938 he was involved with protests of war cargo heading to Japan along with Chinese and Japanese militants.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=14 January 2014|title=Karl Yoneda|publisher=Founds|url=http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Karl_Yoneda}}</ref> He would join the [[United States Military Intelligence Service]] in the war.<ref>Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 5By Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, Paul S. Boyer, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study page 705</ref>
[[Koji Ariyoshi]] was a {{transliteration|ja|nisei}} sergeant in the U.S. Army during WWII, and an opponent of Japanese militarism. He was a member of the United States [[Dixie Mission]], where he met Sanzo Nosaka and [[Mao Zedong]].<ref>From Kona to Yenan: The Political Memoirs of Koji Ariyoshi by Koji Ariyoshi. Chapter 12 Re-Education and Sanzo Nosaka. Page 123-124</ref> During the war, he also met with Kaji Wataru in [[Chongqing]], hearing about him when he was in [[Burma]].<ref>From Kona to Yenan: The Political Memoirs of Koji AriyoshiBy Koji Ariyoshi page 104</ref> Koji Ariyoshi would form the Hawaii-China People's Friendship Association in 1972.<ref name="USCPFA – Hawai'i Subregion 2008">{{cite web |title=U.S.–China Peoples Friendship Association |website=ScholarSpace at [[University of Hawaii]] at [[Manoa]] |url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/8343/us-china%20peop%20friendship%20a.pdf?sequence=1 |location=Honolulu, HI, US |publisher=USCPFA – Hawai‘i Subregion |date=2008-09-26 |access-date=2019-01-15}}</ref>
=== Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai resistance ===
{{main|Soka Gakkai}}
The renowned educator [[Tsunesaburō Makiguchi|Tsunesaburo Makiguchi]], based on the teachings of the 13th century religious revolutionary Nichiren Daishonin, attributed the various troubles Japan was experiencing to the acceptance of Nembutsu and other false religious doctrines which slander human life. His religious beliefs compelled him to take a stand against the government, earning him a reputation as a political dissident.<ref name=sgi-america>{{cite book|last=Hammond|first=Phillip E.|title=Soka Gakkai in America: accommodation and conversion|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford [u.a.]|isbn=978-0198293897|edition=Reprinted.|author2=Machacek, David W. }}</ref>{{rp|14–15}} His faith in Nichiren Buddhism motivated him toward "active engagement to promote social good, even if it led to defiance of state authority".<ref>Watanabe, Takesato. "The Movement and the Japanese Media". In Machacek and Wilson, eds. Global Citizens, p. 221. OUP. {{ISBN|0199240396}}.</ref> Consequently, Makiguchi (as its leader) and the lay organization following the Daishonin's teachings (the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai) soon attracted the attention of the Special Higher Police (similar to the Nazi Gestapo).
In 1943, Makiguchi and the lay organization were instrumental in persuading their priesthood - Nichiren Shōshū - to refuse a government-sponsored mandate to merge with [[Nichiren Shū]] based on the 'Religious Organizations Law' which had been established in 1939.<ref name="kisala">{{cite book|last=Kisala|first=Robert|title=Controversial New Religions|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|chapter=Soka Gakkai: Searching for the Mainstream|editor-last=Lewis|editor-first=James R.|editor2-last=Aagaard Petersen|editor2-first=Jesper|pages=139–152}}</ref> As the war progressed, the Japanese government ordered that a [[Ofuda|talisman]] (object of devotion) from the Shinto religion should be placed in every home and temple. Bowing to the militaristic regime, the Nichiren Shōshū priesthood agreed to accept the placing of a talisman inside its head temple. Defending the purity of the Daishonin's teachings, Makiguchi and the Soka Gakkai leadership openly refused.<ref name=kisala /> During his prison interrogation by the thought police, Makiguchi shared that his group had destroyed at least 500 of the talismans, a seditious act in those days.<ref>Strand, p. 33</ref>
In 1942, a monthly magazine published by Makiguchi called {{nihongo3|"Creating Value"|価値創造|Kachi Sōzō}} was shut down by the militaristic government, after only nine issues. Makiguchi, his disciple [[Jōsei Toda|Josei Toda]], and 19 other leaders of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (Value Creating Education Society) were arrested on July 6, 1943, on charges of breaking the Peace Preservation Law and [[lèse-majesté]]: for "denying the Emperor's divinity" and "slandering" the [[Ise Grand Shrine]].
With its leadership decimated, the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai was forced to disband.<ref name=ramseyer /><ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Laderman|editor-first=Gary|editor2-last=León|editor2-first=Luis|title=Religion and American cultures|year=2003|publisher=ABC- CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.]|isbn=978-1-57607-238-7|page=61}}</ref> During interrogation, Makiguchi insisted that "The emperor is an ordinary man ... the emperor makes mistakes like anyone else".<ref name=encounteringDharma>{{cite book|last=Seager|first=Richard Hughes|title=Encountering the Dharma: Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai, and the Globalization of Buddhist Humanism|year=2006|publisher=Univ. of California Press|location=Berkeley [u.a.]|isbn=978-0-520-24577-8}}</ref>{{rp|40–41}} The treatment in prison was harsh, and within a year, all but Makiguchi, Josei Toda, and one more director had recanted and been released.<ref name=ramseyer />
On November 18, 1944, Makiguchi died of malnutrition in prison, at the age of 73. Toda was released after the war and rebuilt the lay organization together with his disciple Daisaku Ikeda. The movement for peace, culture and education spread worldwide and is known today as the Soka Gakkai International (SGI).
The details of Makiguchi's indictment and subsequent interrogation were covered in July, August, and October (1943) in classified monthly bulletins of the Special Higher Police.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tmakiguchi.org/religiousreformer/asreligiousreformer/detainmentinterrogation.html|title=Detainment and... {{!}}Tsunesaburo Makiguchi Website|website=www.tmakiguchi.org|access-date=2019-01-15}}</ref> However, some historians have differing interpretations about Makiguchi's resistance to the government. Ramseyer postulated in 1965 that Makiguchi attracted the attention of the government's Special Police due to the aggressive propagation efforts of some of his followers.<ref name=ramseyer>Robert L. Ramseyer. "The Soka Gakkai". "The neighbor complained to the police, who arrested Jinno and a director of the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai named Arimura." In Beardsley, Richard K., editor, Studies in Japanese culture I. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1965. p. 156</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |type=Ph.D. |first=Jolyon Baraka |last=Thomas |title=Japan's Preoccupation with Religious Freedom |publisher=Princeton University |year=2014|page=281|url=http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01xp68kg357}}</ref> Other scholars, examining both Makiguchi's indictment and his interrogation records, point to his consistent opposition to the existing government.<ref>{{cite book|last1=English|first1=Fenwick W.|editor1-last=Gross|editor1-first=Steven Jay|editor2-last=Poliner Shapiro|editor2-first=Joan|title=The Transformational Leader as a Thought Criminal|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135037802|pages=37–41}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Miyata|first1=Koichi|title=Critical Comments on Brian Victoria's "Engaged Buddhism: A Skeleton in the Closet?"|journal=Journal of Global Buddhism|date=2002|volume=3|pages=79–85|quote="Victoria quotes a reference by Makiguchi to 'praying' to the emperor. He could hardly, however, have been more distorting in selecting the passage he quoted, deliberately excluding the following extract, in bold: ''''The august virtue of His Majesty the Emperor is manifested in the security and happiness of the people, through the organs of his civil and military officials. Should these be deficient in some way, the people can petition him through the Diet or other bodies.''' In light of this, who is there, apart, from His Majesty, the Emperor himself, to whom we should reverently pray?' ('Pray' is Victoria's translation; 'beseech' is probably more accurate in this context.)"}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bethel|first1=Dayle M.|title=Two Views of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi's Attitude toward Japanese Militarism and Education|journal=The Journal of Oriental Studies|date=2003|volume=12|page=208}}</ref>
=== Conservative, centrist, and classical liberal resistance ===
[[Saitō Takao (politician)|Saitō Takao]] caused a stir in his time for delivering a fiery speech against the [[Second Sino-Japanese War|Sino-Japanese War]], leading to his expulsion from the Diet.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kinmonth|first=Earl H.|date=1999|title=The Mouse That Roared: Saito Takao, Conservative Critic of Japan's "Holy War" in China|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/133315|journal=Journal of Japanese Studies|volume=25|issue=2|pages=331–360|doi=10.2307/133315|jstor=133315}}</ref> [[Kan Abe]], the paternal grandfather of later Prime Minister [[Shinzo Abe]], was elected to the Diet in 1942 on an anti-[[Hideki Tojo]] platform along with future Prime Minister [[Takeo Miki]], who also secured election to the Diet in 1942 on an anti-[[Hideki Tojo|Tojo]] platform through mutual assistance with Abe.<ref>{{cite news|date=28 October 2013|title=Japanese prime minister's another DNA|newspaper=Dong-A Ilbo|url=http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2013102834278|access-date=15 January 2014}}</ref> Another future prime minister who opposed militarism was [[Tanzan Ishibashi]], who spearheaded numerous articles and organisations before and during the war that opposed Japanese colonialism and illiberal authoritarian policies, being aided in his efforts by thinkers such as [[Kiyoshi Kiyosawa]] and [[Kisaburo Yokota]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Keshi|first=Jiang|date=c. 2006|title=Ishibashi Tanzan's World Economic Theory: The War Resistance of an Economist in the 1930's|url=http://www.princeton.edu/~collcutt/doc/Keshi_English.pdf|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=[[Princeton University]]}}</ref>
== 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]]
*[[Japanese American service in World War II]]
*[[German resistance to Nazism]]
*[[Italian resistance]]
== References ==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
[[Category:Japan in World War II]]
[[Category:Japanese Resistance]]
[[Category:World War II resistance movements]]
[[Category:Japanese anti-fascists]]