From the viewpoint of people after World War II, it is easy to disapprove of imperialism that swept the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, at a time when this idea was considered standard, a Japanese socialist Kōtoku Shūsui developed a logical criticism of the problem in his first work, Monster of the Twentieth Century: Imperialism(Nijusseiki No Kaibutsu Teikokushugi 廿世紀之怪物帝国主義). In this book, Shūsui describes the Chinese, Japanese,and European history and the trend in Japan and Europe at the time and argues that imperialism is an ideology woven with patriotism and militarism.
One of the most notable features of Monster of the Twentieth Century: Imperialism is its foresight. Prior to the British economist John A. Hobson’s Imperialism: A Study (1902) and Vladimir Lenin’s Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), Shūsui identified the complex structure of imperialism and raised the alarm. However, this work by Shūsui presently tends to be appreciated for its lack of economic analysis and its strong moral and ethical aspects through comparison with Hobson’s and Lenin’s analysis of economic factors of imperialist behaviour[1]. However, this work can also be regarded as an intellectual attempt to integrate literature and social science. This is well illustrated by the fact that Shūsui refers to the Chinese classics such as Mengzi and Shiji, as well as multiple Japanese literary works as the basis of his logic. For example, Shūsui cites Mengzi: Gong Sun Chou I. Accepting Mengzi’s teaching on the innate benevolence of all people, that anyone who sees an infant about to fall into a well will run to save him, he argued that patriotism is highly egoistic and is distinguished from the innate, pure benevolence. He also attempts to construct a more comprehensive argument fusing the West and the East by combining those works with the European counterparts.
What provides a distinctive philosophical depth to Shūsui’s Monster of the Twentieth Century is that he unravels the unique characteristics of Japanese imperialism while grounding it in the historical events and ideas of Japan and China. Shūsui’s approach to developing the logic can be traced to his teacher, Nakae Chōmin 中江兆民. Chōmin, about whom Shūsui wrote a biography called Chōmin Sensei 兆民先生, had re-evaluated the Confucian tradition in the face of concepts such as ‘civil rights (minken 民権)’ and ‘equality and freedom (byōdō jiyū 平等自由)’. In Ichinen Yūhan, he regards civil rights as the principle (shiri 至理) and equality and freedom as the righteousness (taigi 大義) and argues that these ideas are not idiosyncratic to the West, as they have existed in the Confucian tradition of East Asia since they were detected by Mencius and Liu Zongyuan[2]. Accordingly, he seeks ways to develop the idea of democracy (minpon shugi 民本主義) as well as freedom and equality based on the Confucian tradition. In Mengzi: King Hui of Liang II, ‘the theory of the expulsions of disqualified monarchs by King Tang and King Wu (tōbu hōbatsu ron 湯武放伐論)’ is developed, which discusses whether subjects and people ought to remain submissive even when the monarch is a tyrant in accord with Confucianism, which emphasizes the importance of the relationship between sovereign and subject as one of the five relationships. Chōmin sheds light on the potential for ultimate democracy, which has been inherent in this Confucian philosophy.
Whereas Chōmin reexamines the Confucian tradition of East Asia for its possibility of modernity, Shūsui revisits that tradition and criticises Japanese imperialism for deviating from it, assuming that prosperity and happiness, which are national honours, lie in a high degree of morality and nobility of ideals. In other words, while following Chōmin’s methodology of using the Confucian tradition as the basis for the realization of his ideals, Shūsui used it to criticize the actual situation in Japan.
Although Shūsui criticises the spread of imperialism as a global phenomenon, the significance of Monster of the Twentieth Century is that it highlights the peculiarity of Japanese imperialism on an East Asian intellectual basis and develops an analysis that focuses on its ideological aspects. His progressive argument, which is underpinned by his literary flair, has a continuity with the lengthy intellectual history of East Asia, as a result of overlooking imperialism from an ideological point of view and succeeding his teacher’s method of rethinking Confucianism, and hence gained profundity.
Bibliography
Dirlik, Arif, Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution (California, 1991).
Nakae, Chōmin 中江兆民, Sansuijin Keirin Mondō 三酔人経綸問答, trans. and ed. Kuwahara, Takeo 桑原武夫, Shimada, Kenji 島田虔次 (Tokyo, 1983).
Nakae, Chōmin 中江兆民, Ichinen Yūhan, Zoku Ichinen Yūhan 一年有半・続一年有半, trans. and ed. Ida, Shinya 井田進也 (Tokyo, 1995).
Tierney, Robert T., Monster of the Twentieth Century: Kōtoku Shūsui and Japan’s First Anti-Imperialist Movement(California, 2015).
[1] Robert T. Tierney, Monster of the Twentieth Century: Kōtoku Shūsui and Japan’s First Anti-Imperialist Movement (California, 2015), p. 7
[2] Chōmin Nakae, Ichinen Yūhan, Zoku Ichinen Yūhan, trans. and ed. Shinya Ida (Tokyo, 1995), p. 56.