Concordia Association
Encyclopedia
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
. Established to promote the ideals of Pan-Asianism
Pan-Asianism
Pan-Asianism is an ideology or a movement that Asian nations unite and solidify and create a continental identity to defeat the designs of the Western nations to perpetuate hegemony.-Japanese Asianism:...
and the creation of a multi-ethnic nation-state
Nation-state
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
and to create a structure which would gradually replace military rule over Manchukuo with a civilian control, the party was unable to fulfill its early promise, and was eventually subverted into an instrument of totalitarian
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
state-control by the Kwangtung Army.
Background
The name “Concordia Association” came from the concept of the "concord of nationalities" (minzoku kyowa) promoted by the Pan-Asian movementPan-Asianism
Pan-Asianism is an ideology or a movement that Asian nations unite and solidify and create a continental identity to defeat the designs of the Western nations to perpetuate hegemony.-Japanese Asianism:...
. By granting different peoples or nationalities their communal rights and limited self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
under a centralized state structure, Manchukuo attempted to present itself as a nation-state
Nation-state
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
in the mode of the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
“union of nationalities”. Political theorist Tominaga Tadashi, author of Manshu no minzoku ("Nationalities of Manchuria"), wrote extensively about Soviet policies towards national self-determination. The Minzoku Kyowa policy was promoted as a policy that fulfilled the goals of federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
and protected minority rights
Minority rights
The term Minority Rights embodies two separate concepts: first, normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or sexual minorities, and second, collective rights accorded to minority groups...
, while at the same time it strengthened central state control to avoid the separatism that had weakened the old Tsarist Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
Development
After its establishment, Manchukuo was effectively run by the Japanese Kwantung Army along totalitarian lines. A Legislative CouncilLegislative Council
A Legislative Council is the name given to the legislatures, or one of the chambers of the legislature of many nations and colonies.A Member of the Legislative Council is commonly referred to as an MLC.- Unicameral legislatures :...
existed primarily as a formality to rubber-stamp decrees issued by the General Affairs State Council
General Affairs State Council
The General Affairs State Council was the de facto executive administrative branch of the government of the Japanese-controlled Empire of Manchukuo from 1934-1945.-Background:...
via the figurehead emperor
Puppet ruler
A puppet ruler is a person who has a title indicating possession of political power, but who, in reality, is controlled by outside individuals or forces. Such outside power can be exercised by a foreign government, in which case the puppet ruler's domain is called a puppet state...
, Puyi
Puyi
Puyi , of the Manchu Aisin Gioro clan, was the last Emperor of China, and the twelfth and final ruler of the Qing Dynasty. He ruled as the Xuantong Emperor from 1908 until his abdication on 12 February 1912. From 1 to 12 July 1917 he was briefly restored to the throne as a nominal emperor by the...
.
Political dissent
Political dissent refers to any expression designed to convey dissatisfaction with or opposition to the policies of a governing body. Such expression may take forms from vocal disagreement to civil disobedience to the use of violence. Historically, repressive governments have sought to punish...
was severely punished, and the only officially sanctioned political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
was the Concordia Association (xiehehui, Kyōwakai). However, émigré nationalities were permitted to form political associations, primarily to promote their various agendas towards their home countries. These included a variety of White Russian
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
parties supporting either a fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
or a restoration of the Romanov dynasty and a number of Zionist movements for Jewish refugees.
The structure of the Concordia Association was reorganized to mimic the Japanese Taisei Yokusankai
Taisei Yokusankai
The was Japan's para-fascist organization created by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on October 12, 1940 to promote the goals of his Shintaisei movement...
which was founded in 1940. All government officials and bureaucrats, including teachers, as well as important figures in society were members. All youth between the ages of sixteen and nineteen were automatically enrolled beginning in 1937; and by 1943, Association membership included about 10% of the population of Manchukuo.
In theory, the Concordia Association would ultimately replace the Kwantung Army as the political power in Manchukuo: however, by the mid-1930s, the Kwantung Army ordered the Association “purge
Purge
In history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...
d” of its original leadership for alleged leftist tendencies. The Association was thus subverted into means of extending mobilization and surveillance rather than providing national ethnic, cultural, and occupational representation in government.
After the purge, Concordia Association came to closely resemble contemporary “totalitarian parties” in Europe. Like its fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
counterparts, it was corporatist, anticommunist, anticapitalist, and sought to overcome class divisions by organizing people through both occupational and ethnic communities, while promoting a dirigiste economy. The Association was distinctive in representing Asian communities—Mongols, Manchu
Manchu
The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...
s, Hui Muslims
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
, Korean
Korean people
The Korean people are an ethnic group originating in the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. Koreans are one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous groups in the world.-Names:...
s, Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
and white Russians, as well as the majority Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
—and their traditions. This commitment often meant supporting the religious leadership among these peoples: Mongol lama
Lama
Lama is a title for a Tibetan teacher of the Dharma. The name is similar to the Sanskrit term guru .Historically, the term was used for venerated spiritual masters or heads of monasteries...
s, Manchu shamans, Muslim
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ahongs, Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
monks, and Confucian moralists. The regime's control of local society was enhanced by the work of association units established within Manchu villages, Hui mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s, and the Chinese community self-surveillance system (baojia).
Japanese ideologists like Tachibana saw no contradiction between the goals of republicanism
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
, equality, and modernization, on the one hand, and the “Eastern” values of community, solidarity, and the moral state, on the other. In practice, however, the very different programs and interests pursued by military and the pan-Asianists led to many tensions and resulted in a polarized rather than harmonious society. Mongol youth demanded modern education and the elimination of the power of the lamas; Chinese supporters were divided between monarchists who favored the restoration of the emperor and republicans who opposed it. Before these tensions could be overcome and a truly independent state created, the Japanese military derailed the process by plunging Manchukuo into the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
.