Taisho Manchuria class

Taisho Culture
• Cosmopolitanism
• Consumerism
• ero-guro-nansensu
• Particularism
Taisho Consumer
Society
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New, fluid relationships
Space of the city, Tokyo
Cosmopolitanism
Fashion
Shopping
“Taisho Chic”
Mobo-Moga
Marubo-Enga
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Out of shakai-mondai
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Russian Revolution 1917
Japan Socialist Party
1906-banned same day
Rice Riots 1918
Japan Communist Party
1922
1923 Earthquake
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Police Murder of
Koreans, Anarchists,
Socialists
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Osugi Sakae
Ito Noe
Taisho Cosmopolitanism
• The “I”-novel (私諸説）
• language of the psyche (言文一致)
• Universal, World Civilization
• Self-consciousness (内面性)
Akutagawa Ryunosuke
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Fragmentation of the
Self
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Crisis of Representation
“In a Grove”
“Rashomon”
Suicide 1927
Fragmentation
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Asakusa
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Scarlet Gang of Asakusa,
Kawabata, 1930
1890s Paris, 1940s Times
Square
ero-guro-nansensu
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Edogawa Ranpo
Detective Stories
The Blind Beast, 1931
The Vampire, 1930
Cultural Particularism
• East/West encounter
• Nitobe, Bushido, (1900)
• Okakura, The Book of Tea, (1906)
• Yanagida Kunio, Tales of Tono, (1910)
• Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows, (1933)
• Watsuji Tetsuro, Climate, (1935)
Modernity vs. Culture
A few years ago I spent a great deal more money than I could
afford to build a house. I fussed over every last fitting and
fixture, and in every case encountered difficulty. There was the
shoji: for aesthetic reasons I did not want to use glass, and yet
paper alone would have posed problems of illumination and
security. Much against my will, I decided to cover the inside
with paper and the outside with glass. This required a double
frame, thus raising the cost. Yet having gone to all this trouble,
the effect was far from pleasing. The outside remained no
more than a glass door; while within, the mellow softness of
the paper was destroyed by the glass that lay behind it. At that
point I was sorry I had not just settled for glass to begin with.
Yet laugh though we may when the house is someone else’s,
we ourselves accept defeat only after having a try at such
schemes. (p. 2)
Watsuji Tetsuro
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East-West Encounter
has not been a defeat
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Climate (風土) 1935
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Monsoon and Desert
peoples
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Passivity and Passion
Japan as higher synthesis
Tosaka Jun
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Critique of Japanese
cultural particularism from
global perspective
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The Japanese Ideology (1935)
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See Sources pp. 251-55
Marxist, imprisoned
1938-45
Manchurian Incident
Unification of Culture/Military/Economy
Classic Gold Standard
• Basis of international money and trade
• Built on autonomy of central banks and
international finance
• Strained by WWI expenses and rebuilding
• Deflationary and undemocratic
• Japan on gold in 1897
1920s retrenchments
and retreats
• Desperate attempt to restore currency to prewar
par
• Required severe cuts amidst existing recession
• “Frugality campaigns” and the enlistment of
women in economic initiatives
• Failed attempts in Europe and Japan
• Gold restored in 1930 by PM Hamaguchi
• Discovery of “effective demand” problem
Anti-zaibatsu movements
1.Bury the traitorous millionaires
2.Crush the present political parties
3.Bury the high officials and nobility
4.Bring about universal suffrage
5.Abolish provisions for inheritance of rank and wealth
6.Nationalize land and bring relief to tenant farmers
7.Confiscate all fortunes above 100,000 yen
8.Nationalize big business
9.Reduce military service to one year
Peace Preservation Law
1925
• Criminalized Two Things
• 1: Criticism of the Emperor
• 2: Criticism of “Private Property”
• Universal Manhood Suffrage also 1925
• nation-state-capital?
Anti (liberal) capitalist
violence 1930-36
• Prime Minister Hamaguchi assassinated
1930
• Manchurian Incident Sept. 18, 1931
• 5.15 Incident, May 15, 1932
• 2.26 Incident (二二六事件) Feb. 26, 1936
Ishihara Kanji
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Architect of Manchurian
Incident Sept., 18, 1931
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Architect of Pan-Asian
Empire against Stalin
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“Total War” with Soviets
“Final War” with US
Replaced by Tojo by
1937
Ishihara Kanji, May 1931
The Value of Manchuria and Mongolia
!
A world dominated by the five superpowers that emerged
from the Great War in Europe will eventually be united
into one system. A struggle for supremacy between the
United States, as the representative of the West, and Japan,
as the champion of the East, will decide who will control
it.
The basic principle of our national policy must be to
acquire rapidly what we need to qualify as the champion
of the East.
!
Ishihara Kanji, May 1931
To overcome the current economic depression and to
secure what we need to become the champion of the East
requires rapidly expanding the borders necessary to
maintain our sphere of influence. Although the ManchuriaMongolia region is not suited to the solution of our
population problem or endowed with sufficient natural
resources for Greater Japan, at the present moment the
solution of the so-called Manchuria-Mongolia problem
should be our first priority....
!
Manchukuo
New Socio-Economic Order