Japanese dissidence during the Shōwa period

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

According to Andrew Roth, the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) was the only group which had been able to maintain underground resistance within Japan. However, Roth, and Saburo Ienaga highlights that there were dissidents who were not members of the JCP. According to Ienaga, organized resistance was absent in wartime Japan. Only passive resistance, and insignificant protests occurred. Some Japanese went abroad, while others were imprisoned until the end of World War II.

Japanese dissidents faced a regime that was unique from other Axis countries. Elise K. Tipton compares prewar Japan to the eighteenth and nineteenth-century police states of Germany, Austria, and France, rather than to Nazi Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and Stalinist Russia. According to Ben-Ami Shillony, Japan was not an ideological disciple of the Axis. Shillony describes the Japanese regime as oppressive, but not a dictatorship. The Peace Preservation Law of 1925 criminalized opposition to the Kokutai (national body/structure). The Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu (Special Higher Police), often shortened to Tokkō, monitored dissent amongst the Japanese populous. Suspects were given the option to make Tenkō (ideological recantation) statements.

Pre-war period
Beginning in the 1920s, the Japanese government led a campaign against the communist movement in Japan. The Japanese Communist Party, founded in 1922, was outlawed. On March 15, 1928, mass arrests took place in the March 15 Incident. On April 16, 1929, another wave of arrests took place in the April 16 Incident. By the 1930s, the communist movement in Japan was severely weakened.

Labor activism was active amongst both the rural, and urban workers of Japan. By 1938, the government could no longer tolerate dissent amongst the working class. In 1940, labor unions in Japan were dissolved, and replaced by the ultranationalistic Industrial Association for Serving the Nation (Sangyō Hōkokukai, or Sampō).

The anarchist movement in Japan collapsed in 1935 following the nationwide roundup of members of anarchist groups.

In 1933, faculty, and students of Kyoto Imperial University protested the government's suspension of Professor Yukitoki Takigawa from the university. The government was able to suppress the protests. This incident became known as the Takigawa incident.

Dissidence in Japan
Teacher Tsunesaburō Makiguchi, and Jōsei Toda were founders of the Sōka Gakkai, a religious movement founded in 1930. In 1943, Makiguchi, and Toda, along with others, were imprisoned for advising their followers not to buy amulets from the Grand Shrine of Ise. Makiguchi died in prison. Toda was released in July 1945. He rebuilt the Sokka Gakkai after the war.

Dissidence in China


Throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japanese dissidents, and defectors from the Imperial Japanese Army stationed in China, joined the Chinese, and served as propagandists. The purpose of the Japanese propagandists, serving with either the Kuomintang, or the Chinese communists, were to demoralize Japanese soldiers. The Japanese military were hostile to Japanese propagandists from both sides of the Second United Front, and used extreme measures to combat them.

According to Koji Ariyoshi, Wataru Kaji, Kaji's wife, and fellow dissident Yuki Ikeda, and Kazuo Aoyama were the first to re-educate and use Japanese captives on the front lines in Asia. Re-educated Japanese POWs, who had been held by the Kuomintang, were sent to the front lines to broadcast propaganda to Japanese soldiers.

The Chinese communists began to re-educate Japanese POWs in 1938. In 1940, the Political Department of the Eighth Route Army established the Peasants' and Workers' School, which re-educated Japanese POWs. By 1943, the "students", as what the Japanese POWs who attended the school were called, held virtually all the posts in the school, including teaching. Re-educated Japanese POWs distributed written propaganda, and were sent to the front lines to broadcast propaganda to Japanese soldiers. The School was handed over to Sanzo Nosaka (also known as Susumu Okano), a founder of the Japanese Communist Party, following his arrival in communist-controlled China on 1943. Jun Sawada, a member of the Communist Party in Japan, escaped to North China from Japan on 1943.

Political prisoners


Before the end of World War II, "thought criminals" in Japan were imprisoned by the Japanese government. Fuchu Prison, located outside Tokyo, had housed incarcerated communists, including Tokuda Kyuichi, and Shiga Yoshio. In October 1945, during the Occupation of Japan, French journalist Robert Guillain, and two American journalists reported on Fuchu Prison. That same month, Fuchu prison was investigated by John K. Emmerson, and Canadian diplomat E. Herbert Norman. Sugamo Prison, located in northwest Tokyo, was used by the Japanese government to house political prisoners.

On 4 October 1945, the GHQ (General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) issued the Removal of Restrictions on Political, Civil, and Religious Liberties directive, which stipulated the release of political prisoners. The National Diet Library estimated that 3,000 political prisoners were released by the Shidehara cabinet after the war. Henry Oinas-Kukkonen estimates that amongst the 3,000 political prisoners released consisted mainly of communists and socialists.

List of notable dissidents

 * Takiji Kobayashi, author of proletarian literature
 * Kenji Miyamoto, Japanese Communist Party member
 * Sen Katayama, founding member of the Japanese Communist Party
 * Teru Hasegawa, esperantist
 * Taro Yashima, artist
 * Mitsu Yashima, artist, and wife of Taro Yashima
 * Shigeki Oka, socialist
 * Ayako Ishigaki, journalist
 * George Ohsawa, pacifist
 * Taisen Deshimaru, buddhist teacher
 * Shoichi Ichikawa, Japanese Communist Party member

Organizations

 * Japanese People's Anti-war Alliance, a resistance group in the Republic of China
 * Japanese People's Emancipation League, a resistance group in communist-controlled China
 * League to Raise the Political Consciousness of Japanese Troops, a resistance group

Media

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

In popular culture

 * An Artist of the Floating World, 1986 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro
 * City of Life and Death, 2009 Chinese drama film directed by Lu Chuan
 * The Human Condition, 1959–1961 film trilogy
 * Kabei: Our Mother, 2008 film directed by Yoji Yamada
 * Millennium Actress, 2001 animated film directed by Satoshi Kon
 * No Regrets for Our Youth, 1946 film directed by Akira Kurosawa
 * Runaway Horses, 1969 novel by Yukio Mishima