Shūmei Ōkawa
Shūmei Ōkawa | |
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大川 周明 | |
 Shūmei Ōkawa, c. 1936 | |
| Born | 6 December 1886 Sakata, Yamagata, Japan |
| Died | 24 December 1957 (aged 71) Tokyo, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Education | Tokyo Imperial University, 1911, Ph.D. 1926 |
| Occupation(s) | Educator, political philosopher, Islamic scholar, historian |
| Employers |
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| Known for |
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| Criminal charges |
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| Parent | Shūkei Ōkawa (d. 1914) |
| Notes | |
Shūmei Ōkawa (大川 周明, Ōkawa Shūmei, 6 December 1886 – 24 December 1957) was a
.Ōkawa advocated a form of
clash of civilizations" between the East and West was inevitable, and that Japan was destined to be the liberator and protector of Asia against the United States and other Western nations.[5]
In the
class-A war criminal based on his role as an ideologue.[6][7] The Allies described him as the "Japanese Goebbels",[3] and of the twenty-eight people indicted with this charge, he was the only one not a military officer or government official. The case against him was dropped when he was found mentally unfit to stand trial.[8] Ōkawa's writings were used in the final verdict as part of the evidence for the crime of conspiracy to commit aggression.[7]
Background
Ōkawa was born in
Imperial Japanese Army General Staff doing translation work. He had a sound knowledge of German, French, English, Sanskrit and Pali.[9]
He briefly flirted with
Maulavi Barkatullah appeared in the magazine Michi, published by Dōkai, a religious organization in which Ōkawa was later to play a prominent part. While he studied, he briefly housed the Indian independence leader Rash Behari Bose
.
After years of study of foreign philosophies, he became increasingly convinced that the solution to Japan's social and political problems lay in an alliance with Asian independence movements, a revival of pre-modern Japanese philosophy, and a renewed emphasis on the kokutai principles.[10]
In 1918, Ōkawa went to work for the
South Manchurian Railway Company, under its East Asian Research Bureau. Together with Ikki Kita he founded the nationalist discussion group and political club Yūzonsha. In the 1920s, he became an instructor of history and colonial policy at Takushoku University, where he was also active in the creation of anti-capitalist and nationalist student groups.[11] Meanwhile, he introduced Rudolf Steiner's theory of social threefolding to Japan. He developed a friendship with Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba
during this time period.
In 1922, he published Fukkô Ajia no Shomondai in 1922. Ōkawa hailed the movements started by
Mustafa Kemal in Turkey as new types of Asian revival.[12]
Ōkawa believed in a narrative of history based on a dichotomy between
clash of civilizations" between the East and West was inevitable, and that Japan was destined to be the liberator and protector of Asia against the United States and other Western nations.[5]
Involvement in attempted coups
In the early 1930s, Ōkawa was involved in a number of attempted
Japanese military
.
During the
Diet Building in Tokyo, which was intended to initiate the coup. When the riot failed to occur, Ōkawa wrote a letter to General Kazushige Ugaki explaining the plot and asking for his cooperation. Ugaki declined, but when the plotters were arrested after making another attempt at the riot, he intervened to hush up the whole collapsed affair and ensured that the plotters received very mild punishments.[13][14] For his role in the March incident, Ōkawa was sentenced to five years in prison in 1935.[4] Released after only two years, he briefly re-joined the South Manchurian Railway Company before accepting a post as a professor at Hosei University
in 1939.
Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal
In the
class-A war criminal based on his role as an ideologue.[6][7] Of the twenty-eight people indicted with this charge, he was the only one not a military officer or government official. The Allies described him as the "Japanese Goebbels"[3] and said he had long agitated for a war between Japan and the West. For example, in his 1924 book Asia, Europe, and Japan, he had predicted an inevitable war to be fought between Eastern and Western civilizations, with Japan and the United States as the respective leaders, and discussed what he later described as "the sublime mission of Japan in the coming world war".[7] In pre-trial hearings, Ōkawa said that his 1924 writings were merely a translation and commentary on Vladimir Solovyov's geopolitical philosophy, and "did not necessarily constitute a plan for a Japanese attack".[7]
During the trial, Ōkawa behaved erratically, including dressing in pajamas, sitting barefoot, and slapping the head of former prime minister
U.S. Army psychiatrist Daniel Jaffe examined him and reported that he was unfit to stand trial. The presiding judge Sir William Webb concluded that he was mentally ill and dropped the case against him. Some thought he was feigning madness.[8] Because of the diagnosis, he was able to avoid potentially sharing the fate of the other defendants, of whom seven were hanged and the rest imprisoned.[15][8] Ōkawa's writings were used by the prosecution and the final verdict as evidence for the crime of conspiracy to commit aggression.[7]
After the war
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Ōkawa was transferred from jail to a US Army hospital in Japan, which confirmed his mental illness caused by syphilis. Later, he was transferred to Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital, a mental hospital, where he completed the third Japanese translation of the Quran.[16] He was released from hospital in 1948, shortly after the end of the trial. He spent the final years of his life writing a memoir, Anraku no Mon.
In October 1957, Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru requested to meet with him during a brief visit to Japan. The invitation was delivered to Ōkawa's house by an Indian Embassy official, who found that Ōkawa was already on his deathbed and was unable to leave the house. He died on 24 December 1957.[17]
Major publications
- Some issues in re-emerging Asia (復興亜細亜の諸問題), 1922
- A study of the Japanese spirit (日本精神研究), 1924
- A study of chartered colonisation companies (特許植民会社制度研究), 1927
- National History (国史読本), 1931
- 2600 years of the Japanese history (日本二千六百年史), 1939
- History of Anglo-American Aggression in East Asia (米英東亜侵略史), 1941
- Best-seller in Japan during WW2
- Introduction to Islam (回教概論), 1942
- Quran (Japanese translation), 1950
Notes
- ^ "Okawa Shumei". Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary (fee, via ) Biography in Context.
- ^ (PDF) on 27 September 2007, retrieved 20 January 2014
- ^ a b c d Hofnung T (30 January 2024). "When Anticolonialism Masks Authoritarianism". TIME. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
- ^ a b Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan, p. 572
- ^ a b Wakabayashi, Modern Japanese Thought, pp. 226–227
- ^ a b 15 March 1946 Tavenner Papers & IMTFE Official Records Files on Defendants; Okawa, Oshima 1946 University of Virginia Law Library
- ^ a b c d e f g h Japan’s Pan-Asianism and the Legitimacy of Imperial World Order, 1931–1945
- ^ a b c Halzack, Sarah (17 January 2014). "A Curious Madness: An American Combat Psychiatrist, a Japanese War Crimes Suspect, and an Unsolved Mystery from World War II". The Washington Post. p. B7. Retrieved 30 January 2014. (review of book by Eric Jaffe)
- ^ Wakabayashi, Modern Japanese Thought, p. 226
- ^ Samuels, Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia, p. 18
- ^ Calvocoressi, The Penguin History of the Second World War p. 657
- ISBN 978-0-231-13778-2. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
- ^ Harries, Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army, page 147
- ^ Samuels, Machiavelli's Children: Leaders And Their Legacies In Italy And Japan, page 155
- ^ Maga, Judgment at Tokyo: The Japanese War Crimes Trials
- ^ While Ōkawa made reference to the Arabic original, he made his translation from about ten language editions, including English, Chinese, German, and French, as his knowledge of Arabic was only basic. See Krämer, "Pan-Asianism's Religious Undercurrents," pp. 627–630.
- ^ Sekioka Hideyuki. Ōkawa Shūmei no Dai-Ajia-Shugi. Tokyo: Kodansha, 2007. p. 203.
References
- ISBN 0-14-028502-4.
- Jaffe, Eric (2014). A curious madness : an American combat psychiatrist, a Japanese war crimes suspect, and an unsolved mystery from World War II (First Scribner hardcover ed.). LCCN 2013040208. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
eric jaffe.
- ISBN 0-674-00991-6.
- Krämer, Hans Martin (August 2014). "Pan-Asianism's Religious Undercurrents: The Reception of Islam and Translation of the Qur'ān in Twentieth-Century Japan". S2CID 55349358.
- Maga, Timothy P. (2001). Judgment at Tokyo: The Japanese War Crimes Trials. ISBN 0-8131-2177-9.
- Samuels, Richard J (2007). Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia. ISBN 978-0-8014-4612-2.
- Wakabayashi, Bob (2007). Modern Japanese Thought. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4612-2.
Further reading
- Esenbel, Selçuk (October 2004). "Japan's Global Claim to Asia and the World of Islam: Transnational Nationalism and World Power, 1900–1945". The American Historical Review. 109 (4). American Historical Association. Archived from the original on 9 March 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
- Szpilman, Christopher W. A. "The Dream of One Asia: Okawa Shumei and Japanese Asianism". In Fuess, Harald (ed.). The Japanese Empire in East Asia. pp. 49–64.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shumei Okawa.
- Ōkawa hitting Tojo illustration
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