Kokutai
Encyclopedia
Kokutai is a politically loaded word in the Japanese language
, translatable as "sovereign", "national identity; national essence; national character" or "national polity; body politic; national entity; basis for the Emperor
's sovereignty; Japanese constitution". "Sovereign" is perhaps the most simple translation. For example, in pre–World War II Japan
, the Emperor
alone was sovereign, while in other countries sovereignty is held or shared by the people collectively, legislature
and/or monarch.
In a related but distinct sense, a kokutai is a naval aviation
unit, comparable to a group or wing in other air services (see also sentai
).
joins koku < Chinese guo (國/国 "country; nation; province; land") and tai < ti (體/体 "body; substance; object; structure; form; style"). According to the Hanyu Da Cidian
, the oldest guoti usages are in two Chinese classic texts
. The 2nd century BCE Guliang zhuan (榖梁傳 "Guliang's Commentary") to the Spring and Autumn Annals
glosses dafu (大夫 "high minister; senior official") as guoti metaphorically meaning "embodiment of the country". The 1st century CE Book of Han
history of Emperor Cheng of Han
uses guoti to mean "laws and governance" of Confucianist officials.
(1603–1868).
Aizawa Seishisai
(会沢正志斎, 1782–1863) was an authority on Neo-Confucianism
and leader of the Mitogaku
(水戸学 "Mito School") that supported direct restoration of the Imperial House of Japan
. He popularized the word kokutai in his 1825 Shinron (新論 "New Theses"), which also introduced the term Sonnō jōi
("revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians").
Aizawa developed his ideas of kokutai using the scholarly arguments of Motoori Norinaga
(1730–1801) that the Japanese national myths in the Kojiki
and Nihon Shoki
were historical facts, believing that the Emperor was directly descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami
. Aizawa idealized this divinely-ruled ancient Japan as a form of saisei itchi (祭政一致 "unity of religion and government") or theocracy. For early Japanese Neo-Confucian scholars, linguist Roy Andrew Miller
(1982:93) says, "kokutai meant something still rather vague and ill defined. It was more or less the Japanese "nation's body" or "national structure"."
took power by the Meiji Restoration
in 1868. During the Tenno period from 1868 to 1945 (pre-WW2 period
), Kokutai meant the "Rule by Tenno".
(1836–1916) and Fukuzawa Yukichi
(1835–1901) were Meiji period
scholars who analyzed the dominance of Western civilization and urged progress for the Japanese nation.
In 1874, Katō wrote the Kokutai Shinron (國體新論 "New Theory of the National Body/Structure"), which criticized traditional Chinese and Japanese theories of government and, adopting Western theories of natural rights
, proposed a constitutional monarchy
for Japan. He contrasted between kokutai and seitai (政体 "government body/structure"). Brownlee explains.
Fukuzawa Yukichi was an influential author translator for the Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860)
. His 1875 "Bunmeiron no Gairyaku" (文明論の概略 "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization") contradicted traditional ideas about kokutai. He reasoned that it was not unique to Japan and that every nation could be said to have a kokutai "national sovereignty". While Fukuzawa respected the Emperor of Japan
, he believed kokutai did not depend upon myths of unbroken descent from Amaterasu.
of 1890 created a form of constitutional monarchy with the kokutai sovereign emperor and seitai organs of government. Article 4 declares that "the Emperor is the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty", uniting the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, although subject to the "consent of the Imperial Diet". This system utilized a democratic form, but in practice was closer to an absolute monarchy. The legal scholar Josefa López notes that under the Meiji Constitution, kokutai acquired an additional meaning.
This stemmed from Itō Hirobumi
's rejection of some European notions as unfit for Japan, as they stemmed from European constitutional practice and Christianity. The references to the kokutai were the justification of the emperor's authority through his divine descent and the unbroken line of emperors, and the unique relationship between subject and sovereign. The "family-state" element in it was given a great deal of prominence by political philosophy. Many conservatives supported these principles as central to Nihon shugi, "Japanism", as an alternative to rapid Westernization.
to the enactment of the Peace Preservation Law
(1911–1925), the most important pre-WW2 democracy movement
"Taishō Democracy" occurred. During the Taishō Democracy, The political theorist Sakuzō Yoshino (1878–1933) rejected Western democracy minshu shugi (民主主義 lit. "people rule principle/-ism") and proposed a compromise on imperial democracy minpon shugi (民本主義 "people based principle/-ism"). However as Japanese nationalism
grew, questions arose whether the kokutai emperor could be limited by the seitai government.
The Peace Preservation Law
of 1925 forbade both forming and belonging to any organization that proposed altering the kokutai or the abolishment of private property, effectively criminalizing socialism, communism, republicanism
, democracy and other anti-Tenno ideologies. The Tokko
("Special Higher Police") was established as a type of Thought Police
to investigate political groups that might threaten Tenno-centered social order of Japan.
(1873–1948), a professor emeritus of law at Tokyo University, theorized that under the Meiji Constitution, the emperor was an organ of the state and not a sacrosanct power beyond the state. This was regarded as lèse majesté
. Minobe was appointed to the House of Peers
in 1932 but forced to resign after an assassination attempt and vehement criticisms that he was disloyal to the emperor.
Great efforts were made to foment a "Japanese spirit" even in popular culture, as in the promotion of the "Song of Young Japan."
The national debates over kokutai led the Prime Minister Prince Fumimaro Konoe
to appoint a committee of Japan's leading professors to deliberate the matter. In 1937, they issued the Kokutai no Hongi (國體の本義, "Cardinal Principles of the National Body/Structure; see Gauntlett and Hall 1949). Miller gives this description.
It clearly stated its purpose: to overcome social unrest and to develop a new Japan. From this pamphlet, pupils were taught to put the nation before the self, and that they were part of the state and not separate from it. It also instructed them in the principle of hakkō ichiu
, which would be used to justify imperialism.
Brownlee concludes that after the Kokutai no Hongi proclamation,
The Ministry of Education promulgated it throughout the school system.
By 1937, "election purification", originally aimed at corruption, required that no candidate set the people in opposition to either the military or the bureaucracy. This was required because voters were required to support imperial rule.
Some objections to the founding of the Taisei Yokusankai
or Imperial Rule Aid Association, came on the grounds that kokutai, already required all imperial subjects to support imperial rule.
For the leaders of Japan's "fascist-nationalist clique", writes Miller (1982:93), "kokutai had become a convenient term for indicating all the ways in which they believed that the Japanese nation, as a political as well as a racial entity, was simultaneously different from and superior to all other nations on earth."
This term, and what it meant, were widely inculcated in propaganda. From this pamphlet, pupils were taught to put the nation before the self, and that they were part of the state and not separate from it. The final letters of kamikaze
pilots expressed, above all, that their motivations were gratitude to Japan and to its Emperor as the embodiment of kokutai. A sailor might give his life to save the picture of the Emperor on a submarine.
During World War II, intellectuals at an "overcoming modernity" conference proclaimed that prior to the Meiji Restoration
, Japan has been a classless society under a benevolent emperor, but the restoration had plunged the nation into Western materialism (an argument that ignored commercialism and ribald culture in the Tokugawa era), which had caused people to forget their nature, which the war would enable them to reclaim.
"Japanist" unions endeavoured to win support by disavowing violence and pledging support for nation and emperor. Nevertheless, because of the mistrust of unions in such unity, the Japanese went to replace them with "councils" in every factory, containing both management and worker representatives to contain conflict. Like the Nazi councils they were copying, this was part of a program to create a classless national unity.
Because many religions had figures that distracted from the central emperor, they were attacked, such as the Oomoto
sect condemned for worshipping figures other than Amaterasu
, and in 1939, the Religious Organization authorized the shutting down of any religion that did not conform to the Imperial Way, which the authorities promptly used.
in 1945, the significance of kokutai diminished. In autumn 1945, GHQ
forbade circulation of the Kokutai no Hongi and repealed the Peace Preservation Law
(15 October 1945). By enact of the Constitution of the State of Japan
(3 May 1947), Tenno
's sovereignty and the lese majesty were repealed.
Nevertheless, some authors, including Miller (1982:95), believe that traces of Japanese kokutai "are quite as vivid today as they ever were."
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, translatable as "sovereign", "national identity; national essence; national character" or "national polity; body politic; national entity; basis for the Emperor
Emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is, according to the 1947 Constitution of Japan, "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." He is a ceremonial figurehead under a form of constitutional monarchy and is head of the Japanese Imperial Family with functions as head of state. He is also the highest...
's sovereignty; Japanese constitution". "Sovereign" is perhaps the most simple translation. For example, in pre–World War II Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
, the Emperor
Emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is, according to the 1947 Constitution of Japan, "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." He is a ceremonial figurehead under a form of constitutional monarchy and is head of the Japanese Imperial Family with functions as head of state. He is also the highest...
alone was sovereign, while in other countries sovereignty is held or shared by the people collectively, legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
and/or monarch.
In a related but distinct sense, a kokutai is a naval aviation
Naval aviation
Naval aviation is the application of manned military air power by navies, including ships that embark fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters. In contrast, maritime aviation is the operation of aircraft in a maritime role under the command of non-naval forces such as the former RAF Coastal Command or a...
unit, comparable to a group or wing in other air services (see also sentai
Sentai
in Japanese language is a word for a military unit and may be literally translated as "squadron", "task force", "group" or "wing". The terms "regiment" and "flotilla", while sometimes used as translations of Sentai, are also used to refer to larger formations....
).
Etymology
Kokutai originated as a Sino-Japanese loanword from Chinese guoti . This Japanese compound wordCompound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...
joins koku < Chinese guo (國/国 "country; nation; province; land") and tai < ti (體/体 "body; substance; object; structure; form; style"). According to the Hanyu Da Cidian
Hanyu Da Cidian
The Hanyu Da Cidian is the most inclusive available Chinese dictionary. Lexicographically comparable to the OED, it has diachronic coverage of the Chinese language, and traces usage over three millennia from Chinese classic texts to modern slang...
, the oldest guoti usages are in two Chinese classic texts
Chinese classic texts
Chinese classic texts, or Chinese canonical texts, today often refer to the pre-Qin Chinese texts, especially the Neo-Confucian titles of Four Books and Five Classics , a selection of short books and chapters from the voluminous collection called the Thirteen Classics. All of these pre-Qin texts...
. The 2nd century BCE Guliang zhuan (榖梁傳 "Guliang's Commentary") to the Spring and Autumn Annals
Spring and Autumn Annals
The Spring and Autumn Annals is the official chronicle of the State of Lu covering the period from 722 BCE to 481 BCE. It is the earliest surviving Chinese historical text to be arranged on annalistic principles. The text is extremely concise and, if all the commentaries are excluded, about 16,000...
glosses dafu (大夫 "high minister; senior official") as guoti metaphorically meaning "embodiment of the country". The 1st century CE Book of Han
Book of Han
The Book of Han, Hanshu or History of the Former Han Dynasty |Fan Ye]] . Various scholars have estimated that the earliest material covered in the book dates back to between 206 and 202 BCE...
history of Emperor Cheng of Han
Emperor Cheng of Han
Emperor Cheng of Han was an emperor of the Chinese Han Dynasty ruling from 33 BC until 7 BC.Under Emperor Cheng, the Han dynasty continued its slide into disintegration while the Wang clan continued its slow grip on power and on governmental affairs as promoted by the previous emperor...
uses guoti to mean "laws and governance" of Confucianist officials.
Pre-1868
The historical origins of kokutai go back to pre-1868 periods, especially the Tokugawa periodTokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
(1603–1868).
Aizawa Seishisai
Aizawa Seishisai
, born ', was a Japanese nationalist thinker of the Mito school during the late shogunate period.In 1799 he became involved in the compilation of the Dai Nihon-shi being undertaken by the Mito school....
(会沢正志斎, 1782–1863) was an authority on Neo-Confucianism
Neo-Confucianism
Neo-Confucianism is an ethical and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, that was primarily developed during the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, but which can be traced back to Han Yu and Li Ao in the Tang Dynasty....
and leader of the Mitogaku
Mitogaku
Mitogaku refers to a school of Japanese historical and Shinto studies that arose in the Mito domain, in modern-day Ibaraki prefecture.The school had its genesis in 1657 when Tokugawa Mitsukuni , second head of the Mito domain, commissioned the compilation of the Dai Nihon-shi...
(水戸学 "Mito School") that supported direct restoration of the Imperial House of Japan
Imperial House of Japan
The , also referred to as the Imperial Family or the Yamato Dynasty, comprises those members of the extended family of the reigning Emperor of Japan who undertake official and public duties. Under the present Constitution of Japan, the emperor is the symbol of the state and unity of the people...
. He popularized the word kokutai in his 1825 Shinron (新論 "New Theses"), which also introduced the term Sonnō jōi
Sonno joi
is a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, during the Bakumatsu period.-Origin:...
("revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians").
Aizawa developed his ideas of kokutai using the scholarly arguments of Motoori Norinaga
Motoori Norinaga
was a Japanese scholar of Kokugaku active during the Edo period. He is probably the best known and most prominent of all scholars in this tradition.-Life:...
(1730–1801) that the Japanese national myths in the Kojiki
Kojiki
is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, dating from the early 8th century and composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Gemmei. The Kojiki is a collection of myths concerning the origin of the four home islands of Japan, and the Kami...
and Nihon Shoki
Nihon Shoki
The , sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, is the second oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the Kojiki, the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeologists as it includes the most complete extant historical...
were historical facts, believing that the Emperor was directly descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami
Amaterasu Omikami
, or is apart of the Japanese myth cycle and also a major deity of the Shinto religion. She is the goddess of the sun, but also of the universe. the name Amaterasu derived from Amateru meaning "shining in heaven." The meaning of her whole name, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is "the great August kami who...
. Aizawa idealized this divinely-ruled ancient Japan as a form of saisei itchi (祭政一致 "unity of religion and government") or theocracy. For early Japanese Neo-Confucian scholars, linguist Roy Andrew Miller
Roy Andrew Miller
Roy Andrew Miller is a linguist notable for his advocacy of Korean and Japanese as members of the Altaic group of languages....
(1982:93) says, "kokutai meant something still rather vague and ill defined. It was more or less the Japanese "nation's body" or "national structure"."
From 1868 to 1945
Kokutai took on new significance when Tenno dynastyEmperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is, according to the 1947 Constitution of Japan, "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." He is a ceremonial figurehead under a form of constitutional monarchy and is head of the Japanese Imperial Family with functions as head of state. He is also the highest...
took power by the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
in 1868. During the Tenno period from 1868 to 1945 (pre-WW2 period
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
), Kokutai meant the "Rule by Tenno".
From 1868 to 1890
Katō HiroyukiKato Hiroyuki
Baron was an academic and politician of the Meiji period Japan.-Biography:Katō was born to a samurai family in Izushi domain, Tajima Province , and studied military science under Sakuma Shōzan and rangaku under Oki Nakamasu in Edo...
(1836–1916) and Fukuzawa Yukichi
Fukuzawa Yukichi
was a Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and political theorist who founded Keio University. His ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji Era...
(1835–1901) were Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
scholars who analyzed the dominance of Western civilization and urged progress for the Japanese nation.
In 1874, Katō wrote the Kokutai Shinron (國體新論 "New Theory of the National Body/Structure"), which criticized traditional Chinese and Japanese theories of government and, adopting Western theories of natural rights
Natural rights
Natural and legal rights are two types of rights theoretically distinct according to philosophers and political scientists. Natural rights are rights not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable...
, proposed a constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
for Japan. He contrasted between kokutai and seitai (政体 "government body/structure"). Brownlee explains.
The Kokutai-seitai distinction enabled conservatives to identify clearly as Kokutai, National Essence, the "native Japanese", eternal, and immutable aspects of their polity, derived from history, tradition, and custom, and focused on the Emperor. The form of government, Seitai, a secondary concept, then consisted of the historical arrangements for the exercise of political authority. Seitai, the form of government, was historically contingent and changed through time. Japan had experienced in succession direct rule by the Emperors in ancient times, then the rule of the FujiwaraFujiwara, literally "wisteria field", is a Japanese surname.The name can refer to:-People:* The Fujiwara clan and its members** Fujiwara no Kamatari* Northern Fujiwara clan** Fujiwara no Kiyohira...
Regents, then seven hundred years of rule by ShogunShogunA was one of the hereditary military dictators of Japan from 1192 to 1867. In this period, the shoguns, or their shikken regents , were the de facto rulers of Japan though they were nominally appointed by the emperor...
s, followed by the allegedly direct rule of the Emperors again after the Meiji Restoration. Each was a seitai, a form of government. In this understanding, the modern system of government under the Meiji Constitution, derived this time from foreign sources, was nothing more than another form of Japanese government, a new seitai. The Constitution was nothing fundamental. (2000:5)
Fukuzawa Yukichi was an influential author translator for the Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860)
Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860)
The was dispatched in 1860 by the Tokugawa shogunate . Its objective was to ratify the new Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation between the United States and Japan, in addition to being Japan’s first diplomatic mission to the United States since the 1854 opening of Japan by Commodore...
. His 1875 "Bunmeiron no Gairyaku" (文明論の概略 "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization") contradicted traditional ideas about kokutai. He reasoned that it was not unique to Japan and that every nation could be said to have a kokutai "national sovereignty". While Fukuzawa respected the Emperor of Japan
Emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is, according to the 1947 Constitution of Japan, "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." He is a ceremonial figurehead under a form of constitutional monarchy and is head of the Japanese Imperial Family with functions as head of state. He is also the highest...
, he believed kokutai did not depend upon myths of unbroken descent from Amaterasu.
Meiji Constitution
The Constitution of the Empire of JapanMeiji Constitution
The ', known informally as the ', was the organic law of the Japanese empire, in force from November 29, 1890 until May 2, 1947.-Outline:...
of 1890 created a form of constitutional monarchy with the kokutai sovereign emperor and seitai organs of government. Article 4 declares that "the Emperor is the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty", uniting the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, although subject to the "consent of the Imperial Diet". This system utilized a democratic form, but in practice was closer to an absolute monarchy. The legal scholar Josefa López notes that under the Meiji Constitution, kokutai acquired an additional meaning.
The Government created a whole perfect new cultural system around the Tennou [Emperor], and the kokutai was the expression of it. Moreover, the kokutai was the basis of the sovereignty. According to Tatsukichi Minobe, kokutai is understood as the "shape of the Estate" in the sense of "Tenno as the organ of the Estate", while the authoritarians gave the kokutai a mystical power. The Tennou was a "god" among "humans", the incarnation of the national morals. This notion of kokutai was extra-juridical, more something cultural than positive. (2006:n.p.)
This stemmed from Itō Hirobumi
Ito Hirobumi
Prince was a samurai of Chōshū domain, Japanese statesman, four time Prime Minister of Japan , genrō and Resident-General of Korea. Itō was assassinated by An Jung-geun, a Korean nationalist who was against the annexation of Korea by the Japanese Empire...
's rejection of some European notions as unfit for Japan, as they stemmed from European constitutional practice and Christianity. The references to the kokutai were the justification of the emperor's authority through his divine descent and the unbroken line of emperors, and the unique relationship between subject and sovereign. The "family-state" element in it was given a great deal of prominence by political philosophy. Many conservatives supported these principles as central to Nihon shugi, "Japanism", as an alternative to rapid Westernization.
Taishō Democracy
From the Xinhai RevolutionXinhai Revolution
The Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, also known as Revolution of 1911 or the Chinese Revolution, was a revolution that overthrew China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing , and established the Republic of China...
to the enactment of the Peace Preservation Law
Peace Preservation Law
The Public Security Preservation Laws were a series of laws enacted during the Empire of Japan. Collectively, the laws were designed to suppress political dissent.-the Safety Preservation Law of 1894:...
(1911–1925), the most important pre-WW2 democracy movement
Democracy Movement
The Democracy Movement is a crossparty Eurosceptic pressure group in the UK with around 150 local branches.-History:The Democracy Movement was founded by Lady Annabel Goldsmith in January 1999. She became its President and her son, businessman Robin Birley, served as the organisation's chairman...
"Taishō Democracy" occurred. During the Taishō Democracy, The political theorist Sakuzō Yoshino (1878–1933) rejected Western democracy minshu shugi (民主主義 lit. "people rule principle/-ism") and proposed a compromise on imperial democracy minpon shugi (民本主義 "people based principle/-ism"). However as Japanese nationalism
Japanese nationalism
encompasses a broad range of ideas and sentiments harbored by the Japanese people over the last two centuries regarding their native country, its cultural nature, political form and historical destiny...
grew, questions arose whether the kokutai emperor could be limited by the seitai government.
The Peace Preservation Law
Peace Preservation Law
The Public Security Preservation Laws were a series of laws enacted during the Empire of Japan. Collectively, the laws were designed to suppress political dissent.-the Safety Preservation Law of 1894:...
of 1925 forbade both forming and belonging to any organization that proposed altering the kokutai or the abolishment of private property, effectively criminalizing socialism, communism, 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...
, democracy and other anti-Tenno ideologies. The Tokko
Tokko
', often shortened to ' was a police force established in 1911 in Japan, specifically to investigate and control political groups and ideologies deemed to be a threat to public order....
("Special Higher Police") was established as a type of Thought Police
Thought Police
The Thought Police is the secret police of Oceania in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.It is the job of the Thought Police to uncover and punish thoughtcrime and thought-criminals, using psychology and omnipresent surveillance from telescreens to monitor, search, find and kill...
to investigate political groups that might threaten Tenno-centered social order of Japan.
Under the Peace Preservation Law
Minobe TatsukichiMinobe Tatsukichi
was a Japanese statesman and scholar of constitutional law. His interpretation of the role of the monarchy in the pre-war Empire of Japan was a source of considerable controversy in the increasingly radicalized political environment of Japan in the 1930....
(1873–1948), a professor emeritus of law at Tokyo University, theorized that under the Meiji Constitution, the emperor was an organ of the state and not a sacrosanct power beyond the state. This was regarded as lèse majesté
Lèse majesté
Lese-majesty is the crime of violating majesty, an offence against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state.This behavior was first classified as a criminal offence against the dignity of the Roman republic in Ancient Rome...
. Minobe was appointed to the House of Peers
House of Peers (Japan)
The ' was the upper house of the Imperial Diet as mandated under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan ....
in 1932 but forced to resign after an assassination attempt and vehement criticisms that he was disloyal to the emperor.
Great efforts were made to foment a "Japanese spirit" even in popular culture, as in the promotion of the "Song of Young Japan."
- Brave warriors united in justice
- In spirit a match for a million --
- Ready like the myriad cherry blossoms to scatter
- In the spring sky of the Showa RestorationShowa RestorationThe Shōwa Restoration was promoted by Japanese author Kita Ikki, with the goal of restoring power to the newly enthroned Japanese Emperor Hirohito and abolishing the liberal Taishō democracy. The aims of the "Showa Restoration" were similar to the Meiji Restoration as the groups who envisioned it...
.
The national debates over kokutai led the Prime Minister Prince Fumimaro Konoe
Fumimaro Konoe
Prince was a politician in the Empire of Japan who served as the 34th, 38th and 39th Prime Minister of Japan and founder/leader of the Taisei Yokusankai.- Early life :...
to appoint a committee of Japan's leading professors to deliberate the matter. In 1937, they issued the Kokutai no Hongi (國體の本義, "Cardinal Principles of the National Body/Structure; see Gauntlett and Hall 1949). Miller gives this description.
The document known as the Kokutai no Hongi was actually a pamphlet of 156 pages, an official publication of the Japanese Ministry of Education, first issued in March 1937 and eventually circulated in millions of copies throughout the home islands and the empire. It contained the official teaching of the Japanese state on every aspect of domestic policy, international affairs, culture, and civilization. (1982:92)
It clearly stated its purpose: to overcome social unrest and to develop a new Japan. From this pamphlet, pupils were taught to put the nation before the self, and that they were part of the state and not separate from it. It also instructed them in the principle of hakkō ichiu
Hakko ichiu
was a Japanese political slogan that became popular from the Second Sino-Japanese War to World War II, and was popularized in a speech by Prime Minister of Japan Fumimaro Konoe on January 8, 1940.-Outline:...
, which would be used to justify imperialism.
Brownlee concludes that after the Kokutai no Hongi proclamation,
It is clear that at this stage in history, they were no longer dealing with a concept to generate spiritual unity like Aizawa Seishisai in 1825, or with a political theory of Japan designed to accommodate modern institutions of government, like the Meiji Constitution. The committee of professors from prestigious universities sought to define the essential truths of Japan, which might be termed religious, or even metaphysical, because they required faith at the expense of logic and reason. (2006:13)
The Ministry of Education promulgated it throughout the school system.
By 1937, "election purification", originally aimed at corruption, required that no candidate set the people in opposition to either the military or the bureaucracy. This was required because voters were required to support imperial rule.
Some objections to the founding of the 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...
or Imperial Rule Aid Association, came on the grounds that kokutai, already required all imperial subjects to support imperial rule.
For the leaders of Japan's "fascist-nationalist clique", writes Miller (1982:93), "kokutai had become a convenient term for indicating all the ways in which they believed that the Japanese nation, as a political as well as a racial entity, was simultaneously different from and superior to all other nations on earth."
This term, and what it meant, were widely inculcated in propaganda. From this pamphlet, pupils were taught to put the nation before the self, and that they were part of the state and not separate from it. The final letters of kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
pilots expressed, above all, that their motivations were gratitude to Japan and to its Emperor as the embodiment of kokutai. A sailor might give his life to save the picture of the Emperor on a submarine.
During World War II, intellectuals at an "overcoming modernity" conference proclaimed that prior to the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
, Japan has been a classless society under a benevolent emperor, but the restoration had plunged the nation into Western materialism (an argument that ignored commercialism and ribald culture in the Tokugawa era), which had caused people to forget their nature, which the war would enable them to reclaim.
"Japanist" unions endeavoured to win support by disavowing violence and pledging support for nation and emperor. Nevertheless, because of the mistrust of unions in such unity, the Japanese went to replace them with "councils" in every factory, containing both management and worker representatives to contain conflict. Like the Nazi councils they were copying, this was part of a program to create a classless national unity.
Because many religions had figures that distracted from the central emperor, they were attacked, such as the Oomoto
Oomoto
Oomoto also known as Oomoto-kyo , is a sect, often categorised as a new Japanese religion originated from Shinto; it was founded in 1892 by Deguchi Nao...
sect condemned for worshipping figures other than Amaterasu
Amaterasu
, or is apart of the Japanese myth cycle and also a major deity of the Shinto religion. She is the goddess of the sun, but also of the universe. the name Amaterasu derived from Amateru meaning "shining in heaven." The meaning of her whole name, Amaterasu-ōmikami, is "the great August kami who...
, and in 1939, the Religious Organization authorized the shutting down of any religion that did not conform to the Imperial Way, which the authorities promptly used.
Post-1945
By the surrender of JapanSurrender of Japan
The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
in 1945, the significance of kokutai diminished. In autumn 1945, GHQ
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II...
forbade circulation of the Kokutai no Hongi and repealed the Peace Preservation Law
Peace Preservation Law
The Public Security Preservation Laws were a series of laws enacted during the Empire of Japan. Collectively, the laws were designed to suppress political dissent.-the Safety Preservation Law of 1894:...
(15 October 1945). By enact of the Constitution of the State of Japan
Constitution of Japan
The is the fundamental law of Japan. It was enacted on 3 May, 1947 as a new constitution for postwar Japan.-Outline:The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights...
(3 May 1947), Tenno
Emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is, according to the 1947 Constitution of Japan, "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." He is a ceremonial figurehead under a form of constitutional monarchy and is head of the Japanese Imperial Family with functions as head of state. He is also the highest...
's sovereignty and the lese majesty were repealed.
Nevertheless, some authors, including Miller (1982:95), believe that traces of Japanese kokutai "are quite as vivid today as they ever were."
See also
- National Spiritual Mobilization MovementNational Spiritual Mobilization Movementan organization in the Empire of Japan established as part of the controls on civilian organizations under the National Mobilization Law by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe....
- Uyoku dantaiUyoku dantaiUyoku dantai are Japanese nationalist right-wing groups.In 1996, the National Police Agency estimated that there are over 1000 right wing groups in Japan with about 100,000 members in total.-Tennō period:...
- Statism in Shōwa JapanStatism in Shōwa JapanStatism in Shōwa Japan was a political syncretism of Japanese right-wing political ideologies, developed over a period of time from the Meiji Restoration...
- Socialist thought in Imperial JapanSocialist thought in Imperial JapanLeft Socialist thought in Imperial Japan appeared during the Meiji period, with the development of a large number of relatively short-lived political parties through the early Shōwa period...
- Shinbutsu ShugoShinbutsu Shugo, literally "syncretism of kami and buddhas" is the syncretism of Buddhism and kami worship which was Japan's religion until the Meiji period...
- An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as NucleusAn Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus, was a secret Japanese government report created by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Population Problems Research Center, and completed on July 1, 1943....
- NihonjinronNihonjinronThe term literally means theories/discussions about the Japanese. The term refers to a genre of texts that focuses on issues of Japanese national and cultural identity. The literature is vast, ranging over such varied fields as sociology, psychology, history, linguistics, philosophy, and even...
- VolksgemeinschaftVolksgemeinschaftVolksgemeinschaft is a German expression meaning "people's community". Originally appearing during World War I as Germans rallied behind the war, it derived its popularity as a means to break down elitism and class divides...