Abstract
This chapter examines why Yanaihara emphasized the importance of autonomy rather than advocating the immediate independence of Japanese colonies. He was often described as a stark liberal who criticized the oppressive nature of Japanese colonial policies. Susan Townsend has indicated that Yanaihara was one of the rare liberal Japanese scholars who foresaw that colonies would inevitably acquire independence in a distant future.1 In her view, the fact that he did not advocate independence was largely due to his self-censorship. However, Kang San Jun has questioned the nature of Yanaihara’s liberalism itself.2 As a professor of Tokyo Imperial University, Yanaihara was ultimately on the side of imperial authority. Therefore, he did not see the depth of Korean and Taiwanese resentment to Japanese rule.3 In this chapter, I argue that his aversion to the demand of immediate independence was associated with his civic nationalism. For Yanaihara, the independence of colony was not a priority. What was more important was the creation of an ideal multiethnic society in a colonial context.
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Notes
Susan C. Townsend, Yanaihara Tadao and Japanese Colonial Policy: Redeeming Empire (Richmond, VA: Curzon, 2000).
Kang San Jun, “Shakai Kagaku-sha no Shokumin Ninshiki: Shokumin Seisaku to Orientarismu” [Social Scientists’ Perception of Colonialism: Colonial Policy and Orientalism], in Iwanami Kōza Shakai Kagakuno Hōhō 3: Nihon Shakai Kagaku no Shisō [Iwanami Lectures on the Methodology of Social Sciences 3: The Philosophy of Japanese Social Sciences], ed. Yamanouchi Yasushi et al. (Iwanami, 1993), 101–130.
Also, see Kang San Jun, “Kirisutokyō, Shokuminchi, Kenpō” [Christianity, Colony and the Constitution], Gendai Shisō [Modern Philosophy] 23, no. 10 (1995): 62–76.
Tai Kokuki, Taiwan to Taiwanjin: Aidentiti wo Motomete [Taiwan and Taiwanese: Seeking Identity] (Kenbun, 1979).
Mark R. Peattie, “Japanese Attitudes toward Colonialism, 1895–1945,” in The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945, ed. Ramon Hawley Myers and Mark R. Peattie (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 106–107.
Michael A. Schneider, “The Limits of Cultural Rule: Internationalism and Identity in Japanese Responses to Korean Rice,” in Colonial Modernity in Korea, ed. Gi-Wook Shin and Michael Robinson (Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 1999), 105–106.
Komagome Takeshi, Shokuminchi Teikoku Nihon no Bunka Tōgō [Cultural Integration of Japanese Colonial Empire] (Iwanami, 1996).
Yanaihara Tadao, “Gunjiteki to Dōkateki: Nichifutsu Shokumin Seisaku Hikaku no Ichiron” [Military and Assimilation: A Comparison between Japanese and French Colonial Policy] (1937), in YTZ 4, 371.
Yanaihara Tadao, Shokumin oyobi Shokumin Seisaku [Population Migration and Colonial Policy] (1926), in YTZ 1, 470.
Oguma Eiji, Nihonjin no Kyōkai: Okinawa, Ainu, Taiwan, Chōsen, Shokuminchi Shihai kara Fukki Undō made [The Boundaries of the Japanese: Okinawa, Ainu, Taiwan, Korea, from the Colonial Rule to the Movement for the Return of Okinawa] (Shin’yōsha, 1998), 192.
Sakai Tetsuya, Kindai Nihon no Kokusai Chitsujo-ron [The Political Discourse of International Order in Modern Japan] (Iwanami, 2007), 214.
Duncan Bell, The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860–1900 (Princeton, NJ, and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007).
Yanaihara’s citation of Turgot appears in several of his works. See Yanaihara, “Shokuminchi Kokuminundō to Eiteikoku no Shōrai” [Nationalist Movement in Colonies and the Future of the British Empire] (1930), in YTZ 4, 437.
Yanaihara Tadao, “Sekai Keizai Hatten Katei to shiteno Shokuminshi” [The History of Migrations as the Process of Developing a World Economy] (1929), in YTZ 4, 163.
For Zimmern’s argument on the survival of the British Empire, see Alfred Eckhard Zimmern, The Third British Empire (London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1924).
Mark Mazower, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations (Princeton, NJ, and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2009), 34.
Yanaihara Tadao, “Daiikkai Eiteikoku Rōdō Kaigi” [The First British Commonwealth Labor Conference] (1926), in YTZ 1, 766.
Gordon Dewey, The Dominions and Diplomacy: The Canadian Contribution, vol. II (London, New York, Toronto: Longmans, Green and Co., 1929), Ch. 11.
Yanaihara wrote, “What is michi? According to Christ, it is Him, michi is truth, the true God. Thanks to Christ, the heart of human beings shall be redirected from falsehood to genuine truth. Christ is our Savior.” This statement was based on the Gospel of St. John, 14:6. Yanaihara Tadao, “Kirisutokyō no shuchō to hansei” [Christian Argument and Reflection] (1942), in YTZ 18, 722–723.
Yanaihara Tadao, “Chōsen Tōchi no Hōshin” [The Direction of Rule in Korea] (1926), in YTZ 1, 742.
Yanaihara Tadao, “Minzokushugi no Fukkō” [The Rise of Ethnic Nationalism] (1933), in YTZ 18, 16.
Kevin M. Doak, “Colonialism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Political Thought of Yanaihara Tadao (1893–1961),” East Asian History 10 (1995): 88.
Yanaihara Tadao, “Mikai Dojin no Jinkō Suitai Keikō ni tsuite” [On the Tendency of Aboriginal Populations to Decrease] (1933), in YTZ 4, 196–275.
Yanaihara Tadao, “Adamu Sumisu no Shokuminchi-ron” [Theory of Colony by Adam Smith] (1925), in YTZ 1, 680.
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations: A Selected Edition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 364.
Leo Ching argues that Taiwanese identity under Japanese rule was complex: while they shared a sense of historical roots and cultural traits with mainland China, they looked up to Japan as a successful model of modernization in Asia. Leo. T. S. Ching, Becoming “Japanese”: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation (Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2001).
Wakabayashi Masahiro, Taiwan Kō’nichi Undō-shi Kenkyu [The Study of the History of the Taiwanese Anti-Japanese Movement] (Kenbun, 1983).
Wakabayashi Masahiro, “Taiwan Gikai Secchi Seigan Undō” [Taiwanese Movement for the Establishment of a Formosan Parliament], in Iwanami Kōza Kindai Nihon to Shokuminchi 6: Teikō to Kutsujū [Iwanami Lectures on Modern Japan and Its Colonies 6: Resistance and Submission], ed. Ōe Shinoo et al. (Iwanami, 1993), 3–27.
Yanaihara Tadao, Teikokushugi-ka no Taiwan [Taiwan under Imperialism] (1929), in YTZ 2, 386.
Chin Peifeng, “Dōka” no Dōshōimu: Nihon Tōchi-ka no Kokugo Kkyōikushi Saikō [Assimilation as Different Dreams in the Same Boat: Revisiting the Japanese Education under Japanese Colonial Rule] (Sangensha, 2001), 209–210.
Ts’ai Pei-ho, “Waga Shima to Warera” [Our Peninsula and Us], Taiwan Seinen [Youth Formosa] 1, no. 4 (1920): 21.
Yanaihara Tadao, Shokan [Letters] (April 28, 1927), in YTZ 29, 62.
Yanaihara Tadao, “Taiwan Hakuwaji Mondai ni tsuite” [On the Issue of Taiwanese Hakuwaji] (1934), in YTZ 5, 125–127
Yanaihara Tadao, “Sai Baika: Kirisutokyō no Tomo ni Gekisu” [Ts’ai Pei-ho: To My Christian Friend] (1941), in YTZ 25, 502–503.
Yanaihara, Shokan (April 28, 1927), 61.
Ts’ai Pei-ho, Nihon Kokumin ni Atau: Shokuminchi Mondai Kaiketsu no Kichō [To the Japanese Citizens: The Basic Solutions to Problems in Colonies] (Iwanami, 1928), 19–20.
Komagome Takeshi. Shokuminchi Teikoku Nihon no Bunka Tōgō [Cultural Integration of Japanese Colonial Empire] (Iwanami, 1996), 60–61.
Yanaihara Tadao, “Kokusai Keizairon” [International Economics] (1955), in YTZ 5, 72.
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James Tully, Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity (Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), Ch. 3.
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© 2013 Ryoko Nakano
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Nakano, R. (2013). Autonomy under Imperial Rule. In: Beyond the Western Liberal Order. Palgrave Macmillan History of International Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137290519_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137290519_5
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