Islam in Japanese History

The Second Book The Influence of Islam in Japanese History

By Al Haj Mustafa Fujio Komura

Edited by Prof. Dr. Salih Samarrai [email protected]

Introduction by Prof. Dr. Salih Samarrai

Al Haj Mustafa Komura is one of the Muslim leaders in Japan. He served Muslims in China before the Second World War. After the war he was active in Dawa, formed two legal Muslim Organization , trained Japanese Muslim youth and sent many Muslim students to study in Muslim world and helped Umar Mita in the translation of the meaning of Qran in to Japanese when they lived together in Makkah . He compiled encyclopedia work on the history of Islam in Japan ( Japanese language ) . The present work is the English version of his book which he thought is pertinent to Muslim Ummah that may benefit from it. Islamic Center Japan helped both the Japanese whole book and the present English version and translated part of it to Arabic.

Chapter 1 First Encounter With Islam – The Nara and Heian Eras (710-1192)

Japan is a considerable distance from the birthplace of Islam. In ancient times this remoteness was even more pronounced. The first mention of knowledge about Islam in Japanese history is found in the old chronicle Shoku-Nihongi where the name of "Tahji-Koku" (the country of Tahji) is mentioned. Tahji originally comes from the word Tazi or Tazik, which in ancient China and Japan meant Arabia. A narrative in the Shoku-Nihongo talks about the Chinese emperor receiving foreign envoys during the New Year celebration in 753 A.D, and the honor of the first audience with the emperor was granted to the envoys from Tahji. The representatives of Tibet and Korea were to follow them, then Japan. One of the Japanese envoys, Otomono Komaro, was angered by Korea preceding his country in the audience order, because Korea was then paying tribute to Japan and was thus considered in an inferior position, according to him. It is recorded that the Chinese emperor accepted the Japanese demand that they be granted an audience ahead of the Koreans. The important point is to note that this occurred in 753, which was 131 years after Hijra. Komaro and his group more than likely met the envoys from Tahji in the

emperor's palace, the first official contact of Japanese with Muslims from Arabia. However, it is probable that there were many unrecorded encounters that preceded this historically recorded one.

Muslim Visits To Japan

During the Nara period (646-794 A.D.), the Japanese emperors and their courts encouraged the spread of Buddhism. Many Japanese monks were sent to China for religious studies, and high priests from there were invited to Japan to teach. Ganjin is the most famous of these Chinese priests and is still greatly revered by Japanese Buddhists. However, it is interesting to focus on one of his attendants, An Johoh. In 754 his name was recorded in the book Toh-Daiwajoh-Tohseiden. It is noteworthy that in ancient China many people from Bukhara in Central Asia used the name “An.” Bukhara was repeatedly invaded by the Saracentic army from 674, and in the year 710 the famous Arab general Qutayba bun Muslim succeeded in occupying the area. Therefore, if An Johoh came from that newly Islamized area, he is likely to be one of the first Muslims who visited Japan in that pre-Buddhist era, or at least he may have had a great deal of first hand knowledge about Islamic culture in Bukhara. Another possible record of a Muslim visitor to Japan is found in an entry of the chronicle Zoku-Nihon-Shoki. It is

said that in 736, "a Persian, Ri Mitsui, and some others were granted court ranks." Islamization of Persia occurred about 100 years before this recorded event. Although some historians consider Ri Mitsui a Manichean, Zoroastrian or Buddhist who fled from his Islamized homeland, it is also possible that he may have been Muslim.

Cultural Contacts With Islam

In addition to visitors there were probably a number of cultural influences on Japan from various Islamic contacts, including indirect trade. The Toh-Daiwajoh-Tohseiden, for example, says that when the high priest Ganjin travelled to Japan in 750, he stopped at Guangzhou (Canton) and Yangzhou (Yangchou) in China. They were the largest port towns in the world at that time. He bought many foreign products to bring back to Japan. Among them were more than 10 kinds of incense, including borneol, benzoin and olibanum -- originally from Persia and Arabia. It is a curious irony that the Islamic world supplied such needs as incense to esoteric Buddhism for its rites and ceremonies. Foreign made glassware was also a favorite item in Japan at that time. Members of the imperial court and Buddhist priests valued it quite highly. The Shosoin Temple in Nara is famous for its imperial treasures many of which came from the Western areas of China, a part of the Islamic world.

The ancient chronicle Nihon-Kohki mentions in 799 that a small foreign boat drifted ashore in July of that year and its crew introduced the cotton seed to Japan. The crew may have been Malaysians or Indians, but if they were from what is now known as Pakistan, they may have been Muslims. That area was a major cotton producing region of the world at the time, and converted to Islam some 80 years before the boat event was recorded. Cucumber, sesame, walnuts and other foods also came from Islamic Central Asia. Japanese names of such agricultural products include the term “Hu,” one of the old names in Chinese for Central Asia. Incidentally, sitting cross-legged is expressed as sitting in the Hu style in Japanese. Also, the court music of the Chinese Tang dynasty was accepted by the Imperial court in Japan and still continues to be performed for the past 1000 years. Among this musical genre, Tokoku-gaku (Tang-guo- Yue, or Tang music) originated from Samarkand, Ankoku-gaku (Anguo Yue) from Bukhara, Kuji-gaku (Quici Yue) from Kucha, Kosho-gaku (Gaochang Yue) from Turfan and Soroku-gaku (Shule-Yue) from Kashgar. All of this music traces its origins to Persia. Musical instruments among the treasures of the Shosoin are also linked to Persian Islamic influences. Dates are painted on an old five stringed lute, and some notes from China are written in Tahji tune style. Moreover, the names of the days of the week are written with Sogdian pronunciation in some books of the Heian period. Some Japanese monks learned Sogdian

because many of the Buddhist scriptures at the time were translated from Sanskrit to Chinese by way of the Sogdian language. However, the original Sogdian speakers were shrewd merchants in Central Asia, and were not Buddhists. Sogdians had been converted to Islam from Manichieism in that era. In 894 Japan stopped dispatching envoys to China. Cultural exchanges between the two countries were also limited, and as a result so were contacts with Islam. But, in the last years of the Heian period, following the replacement of the Tang dynasty with the Song emperors, the official exchanges between China and Japan began anew. Trade goods from the Islamic civilization were brought to Japan via the land route of the Silk Road and the sea trade of the Spice Road. Backgammon from India and polo from Persia were introduced into Japan in that period. These pastimes were very popular with the nobles of the aristocracy. As Japan began to free itself from mere exotic interest in foreign cultures, a clearer but still vague image of the Islamic world began to develop.

Chapter 2 The Kamakura Period -- Attempted Invasion by The Yuan Dynasty

The ambitiously expanding Yuan dynasty of China directed its military might towards Japan in 1274. A huge naval invasion force was assembled and set sail for the Japanese islands. However, a typhoon hit the armada at sea on 20 October and a 100,000 Yuan soldiers drowned with their ships in the ill fated invasion. The Japanese refer to this typhoon as the "kamikaze," the divine wind. Although this invasion attempt ended in failure, the emperor Kublai Khan did not abandon his ambitions. He sent a mission to Japan in 1275 to demand tribute. The five members of the mission came from diverse backgrounds. The main envoy was Mongol, the vice envoy was Chinese and the others were Persian, Uighur and Korean. The Persian and the Uighur were very possibly Muslims. The mission was taken to Kamakura, then the seat of power of the ruling shogun, and thus the center of the Japanese government at the time. They were imprisoned for months and then beheaded at Tatsunokuchi on 7 September. Their epitaphs there still tell of their sorrow, their nostalgia for home, and their disillusionment. A second invasion attempt followed their executions, but this one too ended in failure for the Yuan forces. Again,

a typhoon, a "divine wind," struck and annihilated their ships and men. The main body of the Yuan dynasty forces were Mongols, but it was usual for them to recruit a variety of nationalities from their occupied territories. These multi-national forces included a number of Turkis, Uighur, Kazakh and other Muslims in addition to Manchurian Tunguses, Chinese, and Koreans. Contrary to other Chinese dynasties, the Yuan emperors appeared to treat Muslims well and granted them high positions in various fields. Emperor Kublai Khan invited two Muslim engineers to his court to make better guns for his military forces. They were Ala-al-Din and Isma'il of Bukhara. They apparently received good treatment in the emperor's service. Yuanshi, the chronicler of the History of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote about an episode in which Kublai Khan ordered Isma'il of Khorazm to make large guns weighing 90kg to assault castles of his enemies. Those guns were called "huihui-pao." Huihui-pao was a rudimentary cannon, but it was the newest weapon of its day and its thundering roar astounded samurai warriors of the Kamakura shogunate as well as the Muslim soldiers of Baghdad, the greatest city of the Islamic world at the time. Without the help of a friendly typhoon, Baghdad quickly capitulated to the Mongol forces which laid siege to their defenses with the dreaded huihui-pao.

The Origin of the Teikyo Calendar

In the 13th century, Persia was an important center of highly advanced scientific studies in the Islamic world. Emperor Kublai Kahn recognized this and called upon a Persian Muslim, Jamal-al-Din, to design a new calendar in 1267. It was called the Wannian Calendar. Again in 1269, Kublai prevailed on another Persian, Kuwamaru-al-Din, to design yet a newer one which was called the Huihui Calendar. This latter calendar was introduced into Japan through China. Tsunayoshi, the fifth Tokugawa shogun, adopted it by the Japanese name Teikyo-reki in 1684. The teikyo-reki was widely used for almost 200 years until 1872 without it being known by most Japanese that it was of Islamic origin.

Chapter 3 The Muromachi Era (1333-1573) Ships From the Sultan

A driving rainstorm forced two foreign ships aground at Naka-minato-hama on the coast of Fukui Prefecture on June 22, 1408. The ships had an unusual cargo including an elephant, Arabian horses, two peacocks, a parrot and other curiosities of foreign origin. They were gifts from Sultan Ala-al-Din of Sumatra to a king of Japan. The sultan was an Indonesian ruler, not an Arab. After repairs that took over a year, the ships left for home on October 1, 1409. The elephant, originally brought from India by a Javanese merchant, was taken to the old capital of Kyoto. It was the first elephant the Japanese had ever seen and it created a sensation with the shogun of the time, Ashikaga Yoshimochi, and his followers. Yoshimochi later gave the elephant to King Tae Jong of Korea perhaps in gratitude for the gift of the Daizo-Kyo (Complete Buddhist Canon) in February 1411. The elephant was also a novelty for the Koreans. Although the king reportedly loved the animal, it ate too much and trampled a visitor to death, so in the end he had the beast exiled to an isolated island, according to the Korean chronicle Yi Jo Tae Jong Sil Rok (True History of Tae Jong, King of the Yi Dynasty). In 1411 a Japanese chronicle mentions the safe arrival

of a Javanese ship in the port of Hakata in northern Kyushu. In the Muromachi era, foreign ships from Southeast Asia increasingly entered the seas around Japan. This was due in part to the technical developments in shipbuilding and advances in navigation. Naturally, trade was the main impetus for these forays into the heretofore unknown seas around Japan. A major side-effect was increased contacts with Islamic cultures through these trade and economic ties. Yet, Islam as a religion was still not really recognized as a force to be taken into account by the Japanese at the time.

Ryukyu Islands and Arab Merchants

The Ryukyus (Okinawa) are the southernmost islands of Japan. They have a culture and traditions which are quite different from the Japanese mainland. The islands are near to China, which helped facilitate more frequent trade contacts with Muslim merchants posted in major ports along the Chinese coast at the time. An old chronicle, Lidai Baoan, records in October 1432 the arrival in Okinawa of a merchant fleet led by a Muslim, Abu-Satto. He visited the King of Ryukyu and brought with him spices from Java, Sumatra and the Sunda Isles. The Ryukyu islanders resold these foreign goods bought from the Muslim trader to mainland Japan and Korea. This type of trade brought great wealth to Okinawa at the time.

The 760 Years Old Persian Documents in Kyoto

An old Kyoto family, Chozaemon Yamada, has in its possession ancient documents (referred to in old times as the "Southern barbarian letters") written in Persian which are designated as an important national cultural asset. The documents were originally kept at the Buddhist temple Hobenchi-in, a branch of the Kozanji Temple in Togano-o, but they were lost in the social turmoil of the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate (early 1860's) and rediscovered by Chozaemon. Close investigation of the documents in 1909 revealed their origin to date even before the establishment of Hobenchi-in. Their history dates from 1217 when a young Japanese monk, Keisei Shonin, who would later become the high priest of the Hokkeji Temple, was travelling in China during the Song dynasty. He met a trading man from Persia in a ship anchored at Canton (Guangzhou) harbor and was given the documents as a gift. After returning to Japan, Keisei Shonin gave the Persian's gift to his friend Myoe Shonin as a souvenir of his travels. Myoe Shonin was the chief priest of the Kozanji Temple and made the strange documents a property of the temple. The Persian trader told Keisei Shonin that he was in Canton on business, and the contents of letters among the documents reveals that he was a pious Muslim.

A Visit To the Huihui-renguan (Muslim House)

Toyo-ho, a Japanese commercial envoy to the Ming dynasty, sailed in his ship Tenryu-uji-bune to China in March 1452. Tenryu-uji-bune was dispatched by three temples: Tenryuji of Rakusei, Hase-dera of Yamato, and Myorakuji of Tonomine to sell minerals (mainly gold), swords and spears to the Chinese. The permission of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa was obtained to carry out the mission. Toyo-ho arrived in Peking (Beijing) and was granted an audience with the emperor Daizong on October 20. He wrote in the record of his trip, Toyo-ho-nittoki, that he became acquainted there with a mission of Huihui-ren (Muslims) who presented 20 horses to the emperor on the same occasion. The next day Toyo-ho and his party visited Huihui-renguan, House of the Muslims. They were perplexed to see strange writing that was different from Chinese and Sanskrit. At the time Huihui-renguan was a national school for training interpreters in Arabic, Persian, Uighur, and other languages. What Toyo-ho saw was undoubtedly Arab script, or an example of one of these languages that was unfamiliar to the Japanese. Toyo-ho also describes the scene when his party offered presents from Japan to the Chinese emperor in the presence of missions from Tibet, Korea, Turkish Tartars, Nuzhen (Manchuria), Yunnan, Sichuan, and the Ryukyus. The record of his travels is the first Japanese document

in which the term Kaikai (Huihui) is used to refer to Muslims or Islamics and matters relating to them. Research in the treasure house at the Hase-dera Temple of Yamato some years ago revealed a glassware of Islamic style. A temple priest said there was only one other example of this glassware style, and that was in an Istanbul museum. There is no record in the temple about the origin of the glassware, but it is very possible that one of the priests in Toyo-ho's mission may have brought it to Hase-dera when he returned from China.

First Japanese Marriage With An Arab

A man of Islamic origin lived in Kyoto 600 years ago, according to an account in the chronicle entitled Daijohin-Jisha-Zatsujiki. His house was in Sanjo-Bomon-Karasuma, and he was known by the name Hishiri. Zekkai-Chushin, a priest of the Sokokuji Temple, which is one of the five major temples in Kyoto, brought this Muslim gentleman from China during the time of the Ming dynasty in 1376. Hishiri married a Japanese woman and they had two sons. The first son was named Musuru, which could possibly be the Japanese phonetic version of Muslim or Mosul (al-Mawsul, a city in northern Iraq). This first son later took the name Kusubanyudo-Sainin, which includes the name of his mother's birthplace. His younger brother was named Minbukyo-nyudo. Both brothers married and Musuru had three sons, but

Minbukyo reportedly had no children. Apparently, Musuru was well informed about the situation in Ming China and other foreign countries, probably due to education he received from his father. Because of this expertise, Yoshimochi, the fourth shogun of that era, gave him a high position in the government. Musuru also knew the art of navigation very well. From 36 years of age he travelled to Ming China many times as a foreign trade consultant for the shogunate. He retired after the death of Yoshimochi, and later passed away in 1486 at the age of 93.

Chapter 4 The Azuchi-Momoyama Era (1573-1603) Age of Grand Voyages From Japan

In the 16th century the power of the Ashikaga shogun was on the wane and local lords struggled for power. Eventually, civil war broke out. It was called the age of warring states. Contacts between Japan and Europe also reached a new stage at that time. Direct communications with the West without China or India acting as an intermediary began in earnest. On 12 August 1543 a Portuguese ship was driven ashore on Tanegashima Island by a storm. The crew introduced the islanders there to the first muskets ever seen in Japan. Six years later on 3 July 1549, a Spanish priest, Francis Xavier, landed at Kagoshima and began propagating Christianity throughout southern Japan. The introduction of guns and Christianity both had a profound effect on the Japanese mind, opening their eyes to the encroachments and power of the outside world. The hundred years or more prior to these direct contacts with Europeans had seen a great deal of Japanese trade developing with the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

The Japanese were propelled as much by curiosity for these distant, exotic places as they were by the trade in the rare, valuable products they brought back in their ships. It can be assumed that crews from these Japanese trading ships made contacts with Muslims at ports of call in Southeast Asia. But no records or descriptions of Muslims or Islamic matters have ever been found in Japanese archives about these contacts.

Perhaps this is because most of the traders' attentions were drawn to Christianity, the religion of the European powers that were sweeping into and beginning to dominate Southeast Asian affairs. Or, it is conceivable that there was no interest in Islam and it simply did not occur to any of the Japanese traders to write down their impressions about this virtually unknown religion. Whatever the reason Japan was just about to enter a period of self imposed isolation from the rest of the world that would last for almost 250 years. The Tokugawa Shogunate decided on a strict quarantine that barred foreigners from Japan at the beginning of the 1600's. The only exception was a miniscule Dutch trading post, Dejima, that was only allowed to function under very rigid control of the shogun. It was on a small island in Nagasaki harbor. The Dutch traders were kept under virtual house arrest and could not leave their compound to visit the local inhabitants.

Newly Imported Goods From The Islamic Civilization

Although nothing was known about the Islamic religion among the Japanese, a number of products were imported from Islamic areas during this time. Carpets woven in Turkey, Persia, and the Caucauses were brought to Japan and some of them are still being used today. For example, there are many traditional festivals in Kyoto. The most famous of these is the Gion Festival. Many beautifully decorated floats are paraded through the city and some of the floats have been ornamented for 600 years with exotic Islamic carpets brought to Japan during the period of the golden voyages to S.E. Asia. At the head of the Gion parade is a float called Naginata-Hoko. It is lavishly furnished with Persian and Turkish carpets. The next float, Tsuki-Hoko, has carpets of Persian and Caucauses origin. The third one, Kita Kannon-yama, is decorated with Turkish carpets. The Kodaiji Temple at Higashiyama in Kyoto preserves in its treasure house a battle vest of the great feudal warrior Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Lions, deer, and other exotic animals are embroidered on the vest, which is a light green cloth originally woven in Persia. A number of the richest nobility in Hideyoshi's time favored such fabrics which came from the Islamic world. The slave trade probably brought Muslims to Japan as well. The feudal lord Nobunaga Oda is known to have had a groom for his horse who was a black man.

The black groom was given to Nobunaga by a Japanese merchant from Sakai who bought the man from a Chinese slave trader. It is impossible to know whether the slave was Muslim or not, but it can be assumed that the slave may have come from Somaliland or some other area in East Africa. Slaves were a common commodity of world trade at that time, therefore, it is quite possible that some slaves, including Muslims, may have been imported into Japan to serve the ruling samurai class. However, their names, origins and even their very existence mostly went unrecorded exactly because they were slaves.

Chapter 5 The Edo Era (1603-1867)

Joken Nishikawa and Hakuseki Arai

The isolation policy of the Tokugawa shogunate was an extremely effective method for protecting the domestic political system and maintaining the status quo. However, it completely closed the door to those Japanese who had any ambition to go abroad for trade or study. The great trading routes of the pre-Tokugawa period disappeared, and the only window open to the outside world was the port of Nagasaki where the Dutch and Chinese were allowed to maintain small trading posts. The Tokugawa authorities strictly controlled contacts with these traders for almost 300 years, but some Japanese were allowed access to the foreigners to gain information for the shogunate about what was happening in the outside world. Nearly two decades after the start of the isolation policy, the first atlas of the world, Bankoku Sozu (Map of Barbarian Countries), was published in Nagasaki. It was based on the atlas produced by the Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci in China. The atlas mentioned names of some Islamic countries which had been completely unknown to the Japanese. Outside religions were highly suspect. The Tokugawa shogunate outlawed Christianity and suppressed its converts. The authorities banned the Portuguese from Japan because they were eager to spread Catholicism, but

the Protestant Dutch were allowed to trade at Nagasaki partly because they had no interest in proselytizing. Thus, Holland became the only source for information in Japan about the world. Despite their colonization of the Islamic Indonesian islands, the Dutch offered very little information about Islam and Muslim customs. Of course, the purpose of their activities in Japan consisted entirely in their pursuit of economic interests through trade, so there was no need or obligation for them to teach anything about Islam. It was unfortunate for both Japan and the Islamic countries that no opportunity existed during this era to acquaint themselves with each other's culture. It was during this early period of isolation that the first Japanese geographer who specialized in mapping the location of foreign countries appeared on the scene. His name was Joken Nishikawa. He published Kai-Tsusho-Ko in 1695, and its enlarged and revised edition Zoho-Kai-Tsusho-Ko in 1708. In the latter edition, he detailed the names of Islamic countries, their positions and distances from Japan. It was an outstanding work of scholarship for 300 years ago. Joken mentioned the Mogul Empire in India calling it "Mouru," and said it was the largest country in Southeast Asia. He also described it as an Islamic country situated to the northwest of Siam (Thailand), and added it was about 8,000 kilometers from Japan. Persia was mentioned in his map as "Harusha." It was said to be on the western frontier of Southeast Asia or in West Asia and about 10,000 kilometers from Japan. Harusha had a big gold tower, which probably meant the

minaret of a mosque, a symbol of Islam. Turkey was "Turukein," and said to be 16,000 kilometers from Japan. Turukein and Harusha "produced golden textiles," a euphemism for woolen carpets. Joken described Arabia saying: "to the west of South India and 12,000 kilometers from Siam was a large, sand desert. Sandstorms often occur and swallow travellers in the sand." Egypt was introduced as "Ejitto," and was written up as having a big river called the "Nina" or "Niro." Joken was then followed by the great scholar Hakuseki Arai who supplemented the work of his predecessor in a volume entitled Seiyo-Kibun in 1715. Arai made foreign names easier to read by applying the Japanese phonetic writing system instead of the unwieldy Chinese characters used by Joken and others. Seiyo-Kibun described "Harusha" (Persia) as having the best horses in the world and said this country was situated to the west of India and to the east of Africa. Turkey was called "Toruko" or "Tsuruko," and its capital Constantinople (Istanbul) was written up as “Konstanchin'I” or “Konsutanchinopuru.” Hakuseki said correctly at the time that Turkey connected Asia, Africa, and Europe. This was when Turkey was the center of the Ottoman Empire. Hakuseki mentioned the prosperity of the empire saying the manners and customs of the Ottomans were similar to the Tartar. He noted that the Ottomans frightened their neighbors with their bravery and powerful armies equipped with more than 200,000 horses.

"No country is a match for the empire and the European countries had to form an alliance to avoid being invaded by the Ottomans. All Africa is a part of its territory, which spreads from 'Zerukonia' (Germany) in the northwest to 'Suma'atara' (Sumatra) in the southeast. The most important fact to notice about Arai and his book is that he was the first Japanese scholar to recognize Islam as one of the largest religions in the world. Arai called Islam the "Ma'agometan religion of the Mogohru (Moguls)," and said its followers were in Africa and Toruko (Turkey, or the Ottoman Empire). He identified it with the Kaikai (Huihui) religion in China and described it as one of the world religions, ranking it in importance with Christianity. Two years later in 1717 Arai published a more detailed book about Islam, "Sairan-Igen," in which there is a description of the sacred Kaaba shrine in Mecca. "This temple of worship has a square perimeter. Each side measures about 160 meters, so it is 640 meters in girth. Each pillar and column is built with white stones. A black stone the shape of a cube about 3 meters to a side is located in the center of the temple. "There is a tower with many floors (the minaret) at the top of which people wait for a new moon to appear in the sky to know the time of worship.” He concluded his comments about the followers of Islam by saying: "They have a custom of worshiping by looking up at the sky and reciting their prayers in unison."

Chapter 6 Scholars and Scientists of Dutch Studies

A certain amount of social and political reform was introduced in 1716 by the eighth Tokugawa shogun, Yoshimune. One of the reforms relaxed the strict prohibition against foreign books. This allowed many scholars and scientists to develop their work using new knowledge from outside sources. Some of the most famous scholars at this time were Konyo Aoki, an agriculturist; and three medical doctors -- Ryotaku Maeno, Genpaku Sugita, and Gentaku Otsuki. Their major source of information was from books written in the Dutch language, and their work was called “rangaku,” Dutch studies. In 1792 during the rule of Ienari, the eleventh Tokugawa shogun, the geographer Kokan Shiba compiled an atlas which was far superior to the ones in Japanese which preceded it. It was named Chikyu-zu (The Atlas of the World), and for the first time in Japanese history, two sacred cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina, appeared in it as "Morittsu" and "Meteme." By the early 19th century, nearly 200 years had passed since the beginning of the reign of the Tokugawa shoguns and the strict, closed door policy towards foreigners. However, whatever hopes the Japanese had about remaining in somnolent isolation from the rest of the world were gradually eroded by the increasing appearance of Russian and British ships in seas around Japan. The growing number of these ships produced a sense

of impending crisis among the ruling Japanese elite. New works about foreign affairs were published including Shintei-Bankoku Zenzu (Newly Edited Atlas of the Whole World) by Kageyasu Takahashi in 1810. This atlas indicated more knowledge of world geography than had ever been produced before. The map of North Africa clearly showed Tunis, Algui-ir (Algeria), and Maroku (Morocco). In the same period another atlas produced by Kaiko Yamaji showed the locations of Tripoli, Teheran, and Hindustan. Yamaji used Chinese characters to write these foreign names.

Monotheism and Prophecy

In 1801 Shoei Yamamura published a work entitled Teisei-Zoyaku-Sairen-Igen. This was a compilation of information based on Chinese and European books and documents. It was an enlarged and revised edition of Hakuseki Arai's Sairan-Igen. Yamamura's book devoted many pages to descriptions of the Islamic world, especially Arabia: "Arabia, a country in West Asia, is the land of Mohammedanism (Islam), and Mecca is the birthplace of Mohammed. "Medina, a dependency of Mecca, is called Medina-al-Nabi in Arabic. The grave of Mohammed is located there. The Islamic temple in Medina has a dome of gems and precious stones. "It is considered the most sacred temple of this religion. The priest of the temple is regarded as one of the noblest

in Islam. "Mohammed began the religion in the 7th century mixing Christianity and Judaism. In 622 he left Mecca and escaped to Medina. This is the initial year of the Turkish calendar. "In this religion there is only one true God and Mohammed is considered God's prophet. Those who believe in this with their mind and words are called Mussulmans (Muslims), which means ‘True Believers.’ "The scripture of Mohammed is called the Koran and it is written in Arabic. The Turks don't eat pork and wine is prohibited. A larger temple is called masjid and a smaller one is a mosque. "The head priest is called Mufti. Even the Turkish emperor respects him. The Mufti takes charge of all the affairs of the religion, gives religious orders to the followers, and is requested to consult with the emperor in times of crisis. "However, the emperor can dismiss the Mufti if he makes a mistake or opposes the emperor in some way." Although this description has some misunderstandings and is confused about some tenants of Islam, it is fairly accurate and can be said to be outstandingly correct for its time. Yamamura was also careful to point out that Islam was monotheistic and Mohammed was considered a supreme prophet of God.

Southeast Asian Muslims

In 1787 Churyo Morishima described the life of

Malaysian Muslims in a book entitled Komo-Zatsuwa . "They usually eat rice and fish. They never eat pork, and they do not eat chicken unless they kill it and perform the last rite over it themselves," he wrote. "They do not eat four footed animals except cattle, because beef is a staple food in Arabia. They use Malay letters which look like Japanese phonetic letters. "They don't teach their language to the Japanese or other foreigners unless they are asked with high courtesy and the foreigner agrees to obey some of their religious ideas, as well as swear they will not eat pork and some other foods as long as they live." A Japanese in Nagasaki, Shihei Hayashi, witnessed a foreigner's funeral whom he presumed to be a Muslim. He wrote: "The coffin was made of cedar boards and the dead person was stretched out in it. The funeral party started from their office and travelled to Mt. Inasa by boat. "Their priest accompanied them to the Goshinji Temple where they held their last rites over the deceased without assistance from the temple priests. "The mourners pulled the corpse out of the casket in front of the grave, stripped it of clothes, and put as much earth in its mouth as possible. "They laid it with its face turned sideways after dressing it formally in unlined cotton clothing called ‘saron,’ which is everyday wear in their home country. "Sitting on a mat spread on the ground, they worshipped and recited prayers from a religious book in their hands. The text in the book was written horizontally with Malay letters. "They recited the prayers in it with a solemn tone of

voice. After reciting, they made obeisance a hundred times to the right and then to the left with their palms joined together and repeated the word Amen until they buried the dead man under the ground." Hayashi later asked a friend, Gentaku Otsuki, who was staying in Nagasaki to study medicine to write down his observations about another foreigner's funeral. Otsuki recorded it as follows: "The people bathed the corpse and buried it in a coffin with its body wrapped in a cotton cloth. They laid flowers on the grave mound, opened their hands and joined the finger tips of both hands together in a sign which Nakayoshi Morishima interpreted to be the sign of mifurenge (a lotus flower coming into bloom) from Buddhism. "They repeatedly put their joined fingers on their forehead and recited the prayer wishing for a peaceful rest for the dead. The mourners used the words towan, perhaps a word of veneration, and arara which appeared to be the name of their god." In the first half of the Edo era, the conditions in the vast Islamic world had been almost unknown in Japan. But in the latter half, the Japanese deepened their contacts with the West, gaining access to its advanced sciences, including modern geography and history. Also, the Islamic world began to be recognized and given a distinguishable image.

Part 2 Islam in Japanese History (Modern Period)

Chapter 7 The Meiji Era (1868-1912)

Visitors to Islamic Countries in the Middle East and Central Asia

The beginning of the Meiji Era heralded the awakening of modern Japan. At the same time, it began the dawn of Islam in Japan. However, it took a few more years until the first Japanese Muslims appeared. The first Japanese in the Meiji Era to visit Islamic countries in the Middle East was Genichiro Fukuchi. He published the first modern newspaper in Japan, the Koko Shimbun, in 1868. The Meiji government appointed Fukuchi as one of the 48 members of a diplomatic mission to Europe in 1871. He accompanied the main envoy, Tomomi Iwakura, and the two vice emissaries, Takamitsu Kido and Toshimichi Okubo. Fukuchi was assigned the special task of making observations of the Ottoman Empire. He visited the capital, Constantinople (Istanbul), on his way to Europe. There was a lesser known earlier delegation from Japan to Europe in 1867, four years before the Iwakura

mission. It was dispatched by the Tokugawa Shogunate in its waning days to participate in the World Exhibition in Paris, and was headed by Akitake Tokugawa, a younger brother of the last shogun. Tokugawa and his party stopped over in some cities and towns of Arabia and Egypt, but they left few written accounts of their trip.

In 1876 Meikyo-sha publishers released the first biography about Mohammed in Japanese. The book was entitled Mahometto-Den. It was a translation of an English version, Life of Mahomet, which two Japanese priests, Renjo Akamatsu and Mokurai Shimaji, came across on their way to Europe. The book's translator, Tadasu Hayashi, was one of the most able diplomats of that time. The Tokugawa shogun sent him to England to study in 1868, and the new Meiji government made him a member of the Iwakura mission to Europe in 1871. Hayashi later became the minister of foreign affairs at the turn of the century, and he also served as minister of post and telegraph services. At the time he excelled over most of his Japanese contemporaries in his expertise of the political scene in foreign affairs. In his preface to Mahometto-Den he wrote: "As the author is a Christian priest, we should take into consideration that perhaps he cannot help including some prejudices." In 1877 Hayashi's accounts of his travels in Russia and the Middle East were published in three volumes called

Roshia Torukisutan Yukitei. Hiroshi Nakai (also known as Oshu Sanjin) also contributed to sections of Hayashi's book. Nakai wrote about his experiences of travel from England, where he served three years as an attache in the Japanese legation. He travelled with Hayashi, his superior at the legation, making notes about the cities and countries they visited on their return to Japan. This included Odessa, Constantinople, Suez, Aden, Bombay, and Singapore. Then on 6 April 1880, the Meiji government specifically dispatched a delegation to the Middle East. The members of the mission were both government civil servants and private citizens. They included Masaharu Yoshida, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Nobuyoshi Furukawa, an army captain of engineers; and Magoichiro Yokoyama, manager of the Imperial Hotel. This group visited many places along the Persian Gulf and the heartland of Persia where they were welcomed by the royal courts there. They travelled on the Japanese warship Hiei. The captain of the vessel was Yukyo Ito, who later occupied a high military post during the first Sino-Japanese War and retired as a fleet admiral. In the same year in China, General Zuo Zongtang was summoned to Beijing (Peking) by the Ching (Qing) government to be recognized for his handling of an Islamic uprising. The general had just subdued the rebellion of Ya'qub Bek (known in Chinese as Qingzhen-wang, King of Islam) who tried to declare an independent Islamic state in

Turkistan. The result was the establishment of Xinjiang, an independent province in China under the rule of the governor of Xiagan.

The First Japanese Muslims (1883-1897)

Although the number of Japanese visiting the Islamic world rapidly increased, there was not a single convert to Islam during the first 15 years of the Meiji Era. But with the rising interest in Islamic civilization, many enlightened Japanese began to recognize the religious value of Islam and Japanese Muslims appeared for the first time in history. In 1885 there were two different attitudes among educated Japanese towards Islam. One was a highly sympathetic and romantic image which was initiated in that year by the novel Kajin no Kigu (Adventure of Beauty), written by Shiro Shiba (also known as Tokai Sanshi). The novel originated from earlier experiences Shiba had while accompanying the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, Kanjo Tani, to Europe. The minister's entourage happened to stop in Ceylon and by chance Shiba met Colonel Arabi Pasha, who was in exile there from Egypt. Shiba made his conversations with Pasha the basis of the material for his novel which appeared in 1885. In this romantic book written on a grand scale, many patriotic fighters and beautiful women appear to sacrifice

themselves to gain independence for their beloved Egypt which was suffering under British oppression. The story's stage ranges widely from Egypt to Sudan, Spain, Turkey, Poland, Madagascar, and other countries. The novel was very popular among the Japanese and this contributed to raising sympathy for the Egyptians and Muslims. Secondly, at the same time an anti-Islamic point of view was put forth by the famous Meiji politician Kowashi Inoue. He spent his younger days studying in France and Germany. He began his career as a bureaucrat under Hirobumi Ito, a major Meiji figure, drafting important legislation such as the Meiji Constitution, the Imperial Household Law, and the Imperial Rescript on Education. Inoue later became Minister of Education. He said in his book Mahometto-Ron (On Mahomet) that Mohammed was malicious and wicked, and added that Islam was a religion of savagery and inferiority. Unfortunately, Inoue was not an exception among Japanese intellectuals who mostly had a distorted view of Islam and Mohammed. These attitudes and influences had a deep impact on the Japanese of the time and they still continue until recent days. In 1886 Tokujiro Nishi published a record of his trip to Central Asia, Chu-Ajia Kiji. He started his trip in St. Petersburg, visited Samarkand and travelled widely around Central Asia. The Japanese Imperial Army supported the publication of Nishi's book because he collected important data on their potential enemy, Imperial Russia. In 1887 Prince Komatsunomiya Akihito met Ottoman

Sultan Abdulhamit II on his way to Europe. The two talked about promoting friendship between their two empires. This exchange later became the basis of the first Japanese conversions to Islam. In 1889 the first Japanese explorer Keiichi Ura left Japan on an expedition to Xinjiang-Turkistan. Unfortuately, nothing was ever heard from Ura after his departure. He disappeared somewhere on the old Silk Road. The English explorer Younghusband ventured into the identical area at exactly the same time, achieved success in his travels and returned safely to England. In 1890 Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamit II sent his rear admiral Osman Pasha to Japan. He carried a decoration of the highest order of the Ottoman Empire to present to the Emperor Meiji in thanks for the visit of Prince Akihito in 1887. It was an ill-fated voyage. Osman's battleship, Ertoghril, enjoyed smooth sailing most of the way but was struck by a typhoon off the coast of Japan. The ship went down at midnight on 16 September. Osman, the ship's captain Ali Bey, and 540 of the 609 member crew perished at sea. In 1891 the General Staff Office of the Imperial Japanese Army published a book entitled Perushia Kiko (A Travelogue of Persia). The writer was Nobuyoshi Furukawa, an army engineer captain. The book recounted his experiences of a trip he made 11 years earlier in 1880. In 1892 Captain Tsunetsuna Tanaka was ordered to escort the 69 survivors of the Ertoghril disaster to Istanbul.

A young Japanese, Torajiro Yamada, petitioned the navy and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shuzo Aoki, to allow him to make the trip. Yamada had collected donations from the public to present to the Ottoman Sultan and also wished to present his family treasures, the armor of Meichin and his highly valued sword, to the Middle East leader. Yamada's petition was accepted and he was allowed to become a passenger on Captain Tanaka's battleship Hiei. Later in Istanbul, Yamada became a Muslim. At about the same time another Japanese, Bunhachiro Ariga, converted to Islam in India. They became the first Japanese Muslim converts. In 1894 Masaharu Yoshida published Kaikyo Tanken: Perushia no Tabi (Exploring the Muslim World: Travels to Baghdad and Basra). Yoshida was a diplomat and had travelled with the army engineer Captain Furukawa. In 1895 Torajiro Yamada wrote an article,"Toruko no Engeki" (Drama in Turkey), and sent it to the magazine Taiyo (The Sun). The next year he came back to Japan and contributed another article "Toruko Tsushin" (On the Turkish Situation) to that magazine. He also visited Taiwan in that year and soon after coming back from there in 1897, he travelled to Turkey again to study the manufacturing process of the paper for cigarettes, because smoking had begun to spread among the Japanese at the time. Also in 1897 a biography about the caliphs and their line of succession (Kaikyo Kyoshu no Seikei ) was published. The author was Komakichi Takakuwa.

Japanese Pilgrims Visit Mecca 1898-1911

During the last stage of the Meiji Era, the first Japanese Muslim pilgrims visited Mecca. Thereafter, the religious doctrines of Islam, the Koran and the Hadith came to be studied by the Japanese academic world. In 1899, the Hakubunsha publishing company brought out Kenichi Sakamoto's biography of Mohammed, Mahometo. In 1900, Minyusha published Nishi Ajia Ryokoki (West Asia Travels Diary) by Toyokichi Ienaga, who journeyed to India, Persia, Turkey and other countries in the area to study opium addiction relief projects. The Japanese colonial governor of Taiwan sent Ienaga to West Asia to find ways of dealing with the drug addiction, a problem inherited by the Japanese after they occupied Taiwan following the Sino-Japanese War of 1885. The travels of Torajiro Yamada to Taiwan in 1896 was also partly aimed at applying his expertise and experience of the Middle East towards narcotic addiction problems.

Soon after, the Boxer Rebellion began in China during April 1900. Japan sent 22,000 soldiers to Beijing (Peking) to rescue and protect Japanese diplomats and citizens endangered by rioters who entered the Chinese capital. The Japanese army gained fame for its strict military discipline as it cooperated in suppressing the rebellion in cooperation with European troops during this affair. Interestingly, among the leaders of the Boxers in North China were two famous Muslims, Duan Qunwang and

Dong Fuxiang.

Afterwards, in 1902, a Japanese religious group went on an expedition to Central Asia led by Kozui Otani, the Buddhist leader of the Nishi-Honganji school of the Jodo sect. This was known as the first Otani mission. In 1903, Minyusha published Chuo Ajia Ryokoki (Travelogue of Central Asia), written by Masaji Inoue and Shunzanbo. The same company brought out Mahometto no Senso-shugi (Mohammed's Perspective on War) by Hannosuke Ikemoto. Then in 1905 the Russo-Japanese War broke out. In the same year Kaiten Nukariya, president of Toyo University, published the book Kaiketsu Mahometto (Invincible Mahomet) and wrote an article,"Mahometto ni Kansuru Itsuwa" (Anecdotes about Mahomet) for the annual publication of Keiogijuku University. Nukariya's descriptions and evaluation of Mohammed were moderate and reasonable, which was very different from the writings of Tadasu Hayashi of 30 years before. At the same time in far away Egypt, a famous poet Hafiz Ibrahim (poet of the Nile) wrote a poem entitled "A Beautiful Japanese Girl" in which he expressed understanding for the development of Japan as a modern state through the story of a devoted Japanese war nurse. In those days Japan was considered a star of hope for many Asian and African countries suffering from the oppression of the European Great Powers. The poem of Hafiz Ibrahim gave a very favorable impression to those oppressed people. It is still used in some school textbooks in Lebanon and other Middle

Eastern countries. But it was the victory of little Japan over giant Russia in the war of 1905 that surprised people all over the world and encouraged many oppressed countries. This was one of the reasons many foreign students including Chinese and Egyptians came to study in Japan during the Taisho Era (1912-26). In 1906, the first Chinese Muslims came to Japan. They were admitted to the Military Academy and such private universities as Waseda and Hosei.

Roka Tokutomi, the great writer of the Meiji Era who was famous for the novel Hototogisu (A Little Cuckoo), made a trip to Arabia in 1906. He travelled there again 12 years later in 1918, this time accompanied by his wife. Historically important to Japan at that time, on 26 December 1906 the South Manchurian Railway Company was founded and became a powerful instrument for the government of Manchuria. And, in the same year, Chuta Ito of Tokyo Imperial University published the results of his study of Islamic architecture, "Shiria Sabaku" (Syrian Desert) in the Journal of Geology (Chigaku Zasshi) and followed that with the article "Seishinji" (Mosques in China) in the journal Rekishi Chiri (History and Geography). Also at this time, an Indian Muslim, Baraka Allah, visited Japan to appeal for support for the Pan-Islamic Movement. Previously, he had studied in Egypt and when he came to Japan he was admitted to the Tokyo Academy of Foreign Languages (today's Tokyo University of Foreign

Languages). He later went to Afghanistan and is said to have died in Russia (he published Islamic Fruterrnity magazine – He died in USA 1926- Dr. Salih Al-Samarrai) . In 1908, Kikuo Fukuda (Zheng Cahozong in Chinese) opened a school, Toho Gakudo, in the center of the Chinese city of Zhoujiakou in Henan (Honan) Province to teach Japanese to Muslim children there. On 16 June 1908, Zuicho Tachibana and Eizaburo Nomura of the Nishi-Honganji Buddhist sect left Beijing to explore Turkistan (the second Otani mission). The same year, Naigai Shuppan Kyokai published a book, Mahometto Genkoroku (Words and Deeds of Mohammed), the 39th volume of its series of studies about the lives of great men. The author was Takeshi Matsumoto and it was the first translation of the Hadith in Japanese. Kiso Fujita wrote a three part series article "Kaikai-kyo no kyoten ni tsuite" (On the Sacred Book of Islam), for the magazine Toa no Hikari (Hope of East Asia). Then in September 1909 a Japanese Muslim, Mitsutaro Yamaoka, left Japan for a pilgrimage to Mecca. It was 1327 A.H. This same year, Egyptian Muslim scholar Ahmad Fudhly came to Japan and spoke in English to an audience of more than 2,000 people at Waseda University. A Tartar Muslim, Rashid Ibrahim, also visited Japan this year. He left but returned again and served as an Imam of the Tokyo mosque until 1944. Many Japanese and foreign Muslims in Japan studied Islam under his able guidance before and during World War II. In 1910, a young Japanese, Naotaro Kumon, visited Makoto Nishimura at an institute in Fushun, China.

Kumon continued his journey, crossing the Takla Makan Desert and reached Calcutta in India. He was converted to Islam during his trip and became a pupil of Ippei Tanaka. In 1911, the first Japanese pilgrim to visit Mecca, Hajj Mitsutaro Yamaoka, returned to Japan. He was warmly welcomed, but did not rest long and departed soon to China for the Wuhan Sanzhen area to support Li Yuanhong in the Wuchang Revolution. Torajiro Yamada published the book Toruko-gakan (Scenic Sketches of Turkey) with Hakubunkan Publishing Company, and Sasaki Saito wrote an article "Shina no Kaikaikyo ni Tsuite (On the Islamic Religion in China) for Toyogakuho (Journal of Oriental Studies). There were other Japanese religious contacts with the Middle East at this time too. In March 1911 two Christians, Yugoro Chiba and Takeharu Komatsu, journeyed to Turkey to attend the World Conference of Young Christians held there.

In 1912, Jitsuzo Kuwabara wrote the article "Soken Seishin-Hi" (The Erection of the Islamic Monument) for the journal Geibun, and Toyohachi Fujita published his treatise "Senshu ni Okeru Arabiajin Bo Juko" (An Arabian Pushougeng in Quanzhou) in the journalToyogakuho. Hajj Mitsutaro Yamaoka wrote about his experiences of his pilgrimage to Mecca in the book Sekai no Shinpi-Kyo: Arabia Judan-Ki (Mystery of the World: Travels in Arabia), published by Toado. Yamaoka was privileged with the honor of submitting his book to Emperor Meiji and Empress Dowager Shoken for their study.

The first generation of Japanese Muslims such as Ariga, Yamada, Yamaoka, and Tanaka were said to have exemplified themselves by their pious faith and active spirit. These moral qualities were taken over by the second generation of Muslims: Ryo Matsubayashi, Ryoichi Mita and Masatsugu Suda during the Taisho Era.

Chapter 8

The Two Pioneers of Islam in Japan Abd Al-Halil TorajiroYamada and Ahmad Bunpachiro Aruga

The Life of Ahmad Bunpachiro Ariga

The big pioneer of Islam in Japan, Ahmad Bunpachiro Aruga, was born in a small village in Fukushima Prefecture on March 5, 1868. Ariga distinguished himself at a very early age because of his hard working, sincere nature. When he was only 16 years old, he got a job as an assistant teacher in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture. Soon afterwards, he was appointed as principal of an elementary school because of his excellent work. A century ago, the educational system wasn't as developed as it is today, but his rapid rise says something about how well qualified he was. At 22 years of age he married his colleague Nakako, who was then 18. She came from a village near Saitama Prefecture. Several years later, Aruga was feeling ambitious and not totally content with what he was doing. He decided to move to Yokohama, which was then the international center of Japan. This was the gorgeous Rokume Ikan era. He worked at a foreign book store; then employed as

an interpreter at a mercantile house where he brushed up his English. This would all prepare him for his future world wide activities. He also learned photographic techniques from Isshin Ogawa, the pioneer of photography at the beginning of the Meiji Era. In 1890 Ariga returned to Fukushima with some foreign meteorological experts to observe a solar eclipse there. Because of his cheerfulness and ability in English, he received the patronage of Viscount Eiichi Shibusawa who was a leading figure in the financial world, and became good friends with Shibusawa's son. In 1891 the two younger men, sponsored by Shibusawa, established a trading company in the South Pacific. When Aruga was 23 years old, he was appointed branch manager in Palau. Perhaps one of the reasons for setting up the island business was the influence at the time of Ukichi Taguchi, an economist who expounded a theory about setting up businesses and a government in the South Seas. Ariga and his colleagues exported matches, lamps, biscuits, shirts, rice, wheat flour, etc. from Japan and imported phosphate rocks, aluminum, and sea products from Palau. Aruga made the trip to Palau many times, but on one of the voyages a storm sank his ship on the way to the Yap Islands. Nearly all hands were lost in the disaster. Ariga drifted for days on some of the wreckage before being rescued by a local fisherman. Some time later in the Taisho Era a representative of

the local elders in Palau visited Japan to present him with tortoise shells and other gifts to honor him for his work on the island.

Bombay Days and First Contact With Islam

Following his shipwreck experience, Ariga was sent to Bombay in 1892 to import indigo plants, which were scarce in Japan. The plants were imported until the Taisho Era when chemical dyes were developed in Germany and Japan started buying them instead. Ariga was a pioneer of trade with Bombay. Although a voyage to Bombay at that time took three months with stops at more than 7 ports, he made the voyage four times. When he first arrived in India he expected to find temples devoted to Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism, but he was surprised to see many Islamic mosques with domes and lofty minarets standing close together along the main streets. Inside the mosques there were no idols, altars, or decorations. Hundreds of Muslims prayed in perfect order under one imam's command facing Mecca. The devoutness and earnestness shown by these worshipers shook his soul. He had not seen such attitudes in other religions. During intervals in his business, he went to a mosque near his hotel every day. He became acquainted with Heydar Ali, an Indian Muslim businessman and was converted to Islam from Christianity. He was given the Islamic name Ahmad by the imam of the mosque.

Almost at the same time in a different part of the Islamic world in Istanbul, Abd Al-Halil Torajiro Yamada was also converted to Islam by Sultan Abdul Hamit II. This set the stage for Ariga and Yamada as Islamic pioneers and they were to become the two greatest authorities on Islam in Japan. Ariga thought that for Islamic religious activity to be spread in Japan it would require an enormous sum of money because there were many obstacles to overcome compared to India and Indonesia. At that time, Islamic countries were still colonized by European powers and were very weak in contrast to the Arabian oil rich countries of today. Ariga keenly felt that in order to propagate Islam in Japan he would have to be very active on business frontiers to obtain enough funds to do so. His propagation activities covered the latter part of the Meiji Era and the Taisho Era. The field of his business activity extended from Tokyo to Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe. He established and ran companies in pioneer industries such as textiles, cement, petroleum and oxygen. His most successful venture was the Ujigawa River Hydroelectric Company. It had a 40 thousand-horse power generator and in 1906 he invited an English engineer, Henry Pasha, to set it up. Even today one can see a monument dedicated to Ariga near the Ujigawa River and his name carved on the railing of the former Ujibashi Bridge. Ariga experienced both successes and failures. For example, his editing and publishing of "Who's Who In Japan" ended in failure because few prospective customers

followed up on paying for the book in spite of ordering it. He always took total responsibility for his failures. His motto was "Never Give Up." When the Xinhai Revolution broke out in China in 1911, he sold all the stocks in his hydroelectric company and went to Wuchang to financially help Sun Wen, the leader of the revolution. He met Ikki Kita, who served as a secretary to Zong Jiaoren, Sun Wen's comrade. Sun Wen and Zong Jiaoren both admired Aruga's chivalry and appreciated his financial aid.

Devoting All His Property To Allah

Ariga often said that he would devote his life and property to Islam when he became 60 years old. On 25 December 1926 the Taisho Era ended and the Showa Era began. He became 60 at the beginning of Showa and launched his plan.

He was decisive, competent, and active. He retired from his previous concerns in the business and financial world and devoted all his property to his religious mission. The first mosques in Japan were established in the 1930's. A mosque in Nagoya might have been the first although its exact date of establishment is unknown. A mosque was built in Kobe in 1935, and one in Tokyo in 1938. Aruga exerted a lot of efforts for these mosques both physically and spiritually. His character ripened with this

dynamic career, and he kept a neutral stance toward foreign Muslims. Moreover, he was chivalrous. When Crown Prince Abdul Karim of Ottoman Turkey took refuge in Japan, Aruga helped Karim hide from the Japanese police. Among those who helped shelter Karim was Tokijiro Jitsukawa, one of those who assisted in establishing the Tokyo mosque. Ariga often suggested to Prime Minister Shigenobu Okuma that Japan should promote political, diplomatic, economic, cultural and trade exchanges with the Islamic world. He said for the sake of its own future Japan shouldn't ignore the 40 million Muslims in Asia and Africa. Okuma's sympathetic attitude towards Islam may have been influenced by Aruga. When Qurban Ali sought refuge in Japan with more than 10 Muslims from the Bashkir tribes, Okuma personally welcomed them and had a pleasant meeting. Before the establishment of the Tokyo mosque, Qurban Ali introduced Sheikh Shamuguni and Mr. Hujja, the head of Indian Muslims, to Ariga in Kobe. Aruga had difficulty in communicating with the former because he spoke neither Japanese nor English. Fortunately, however, Hujja could speak both and Aruga established a friendly dialogue with him. Ariga also had close relationships with Indian and Turkish Tartar Muslims in Kobe before the establishment of the Kobe mosque. He usually stayed with his fourth daughter in Kobe when he visited there because she lived near the mosque.

In Tokyo he was friends with Ayaz Ishaqi who came to Japan a few years after Qurban Ali. Ayaz and Qurban became rivals in the Muslim community and often conflicts arose between the two men, but Aruga kept his friendships with both men and welcomed everyone equally. His well rounded and easy going character was a great advantage to doing Islamic missionary work in Japan. This included publishing books and leaflets. In 1938 Ariga and Goro Takahashi translated and published the Holy Koran into Japanese from his own home. This was followed by the "Life of Mohammed" which he worked on at his second daughter's home. "Explanation of Islam in Japan" and "Guide to Worship" were distributed from his first son's house in Kyoto. All costs of printing, paper, mailing, and transportation were covered from his own funds, except for the printing of the Holy Koran. The expenses for that were handled by a separate foundation which helped with the publishing costs, mainly thanks to Kinjiro Nozue, an important figure in the foundation who was chief accountant at the time. Ariga also took time to discuss the cause of Islam with Yutaka Oshima, chief director of the foundation. Always working at ways to propagate the faith, Ariga established the Kaikyohan (Islamic Association) as a follow up to the Mokohan (Mongolian Association). In 1941 Ariga sailed to Shanghai from Kobe. Twenty-eight years had passed since his first visit to China at the time of the Xinhai Revolution. In Shanghai he again met Elias (Teijiro) Sakuma and

renewed their friendship. Sakuma was nearly 20 years younger than Ariga. Several of Sakuma's contemporaries were Dr. Tomohide Naito and Kentaro Omura (later chief director of the Kaikyohan. Omura was well versed in Islam, especially in Chinese Islamic studies and wrote quite a few commentaries on this subject. Ariga also met with old friends who had survived the Xinhai revolution, and he visited Chinese Muslims and mosques to get to know them.

Wartime Missionary Work

In the latter part of 1941 Ariga was in good health and did a lot of missionary work alone in the Hanshin (Osaka, Kobe) area and in Kyoto. In autumn of 1941, I, the author of this book, returned to Japan from Mongolia where I had been leader of the 5th Mongolian Mission which had included 12 local Muslims. At that time, I saw Ariga as much as possible. Foreseeing a severe economic situation in Japan, I and my companions carried as many raisins and dried fruits with us from the mainland. These dried fruits had been carried by camel from Eastern Turkistan (present day Vighur) to Mongolia over a distance of 2,000 km. In Japan at that time, the distribution of rice, salt, sugar, soy-sauce, and many other foodstuffs was extremely limited. Sugar was so scarce that even substitutes such as saccharin were very precious. Many people longed for

sweets. No one had eaten luxuries like raisins for a long time. So Ariga was as pleased as a child to have some raisins to eat. He didn't at all mind the trouble of guiding the Mongolian Muslim Mission around the Kansai area. He took the lead in holding a reception after the prayers of Jum'a for Muslims in Kobe. He also helped Muslims in Nagoya take refuge in Kobe. One of the representatives for the Nagoya mosque predicted it would be bombed during World War II because the area in which it was located was important for the munitions industry. The great old Ariga emphasized the mutual aid spirit of Islam and continued to practice it in spite of his old age.

Aruga's Last Years

Aruga took refuge in Fukushima Prefecture in 1944 because all the places involved in his activities were being bombed except for Kyoto where his first son lived. Following Japan's defeat in 1945, he moved to Kyoto and stayed with his son. He thanked Allah for the natural surroundings of the city which was at peace and silent. He swore that he would perform Islamic activities even more devotedly than in the pre-war period. However, he became weak due to the food shortages and the hot climate of Kyoto despite his normally healthy and energetic condition. Having survived the war, I met Ariga in Kyoto in 1946. In spite of his age, he hadn't lost his active spirit and emphasized the importance of preparation for religious

activities. He foresaw that Japan would succeed in reconstruction and prosper again within 10 years. He asked about his colleagues who had not returned to Japan from overseas yet. Ariga died at the age of 80 on August 19, 1946. He was buried side by side with his best friends of Kobe mosque in the foreigners' cemetery on Mt. Rokko. From there he has been gazing at the rising tide of Islam in Japan. "Salaam!"

The Story of Abd Al-Halil Torajiro Yamada --

Torajiro Yamada was born in Tokyo in the mansion of the feudal lord of Gumma Prefecture on 23 August 1866. Yamada's father was an official of this feudal clan. The political upheaval at the end of the Edo Era and the beginning of the Meiji Period convinced the Yamada family to leave Tokyo during this time of disorder. When Yamada became 8 years old, he was taken back to Tokyo and entered into an old pre-Meiji style elementary school, but later he was switched to one of the government's new national schools established by the equally new Ministry of Education. He graduated from the school and although still just a boy he continued studies in Chinese literature as well as language studies in English, German and Chinese. He then entered an English school in Yokohama, where a large international port had just opened. There, he also started

studies at a school managed by the French. He displayed a great ambition to go abroad and did so. A few years later he returned to Tokyo and became friends with some famous novelists of the time. Among them were Sanji Tokai, Koyo Ozaki, and Ozaki's leading rival, Rohan Koda. Yamada also kept company with a number of journalists at the beginning of the Meiji Era, and wrote reports about Turkey for a magazine. It was at this time that a chance occurrence introduced him to Islam.

The Ertoghril Disaster

The Turkish warship Ertoghril floundered in a typhoon off the tip of the Kishu Peninsula at midnight on 16 September 1890. The disaster occurred as the ship was on its return voyage home after bringing an envoy to extend courtesies to the Japanese government for Prince Komatsunomiya's visit to Turkey in 1887. This event was to play an important role in the life of Torajiro Yamada. Fishermen in the area of the Ertoghril sinking did their best to rescue the crew of the ship, but in the end almost all hands perished except for 63 survivors. An additional 21 bodies of the crew were also recovered. The Emperor Meiji was saddened by news of the accident and had the Empress give flannel clothes to the survivors. Then, he gave orders to send the rescued crewmen back to Turkey.

When he heard news of the disaster, Yamada, who at the time was only 23 years old, held lectures and various events for the purpose of raising money for the Ertoghril's survivors and the bereaved families. He visited the foreign minister to present the funds he raised and asked to have them sent to Turkey. The foreign minister was deeply touched and suggested that Yamada visit Turkey himself to pass along the donations. Yamada agreed and the minister asked the navy for permission to arrange passage for him aboard a chartered English warship which was to take the Turkish crew home. The request was granted and Yamada left Yokohama on 31 January 1892 for Turkey (Before him Noda went to Estambul . It is he who accompanied the Turk who were saved – Dr. Salih Samarrai). Yamada was interested in foreign countries, and being eager to learn as much as possible, he took all the opportunities available to him to leave the ship at the different ports of call along the way to Turkey. When the ship reached Port Said after passing through the Suez Canal, Yamada asked the captain, Tsunatsune Tanaka, to let him go ashore by himself. Captain Tanaka sympathized with Yamada's request and gave his permission to land, suggesting he go to see Mr. Surur, the manager of Othman Bank in Port Said. When Yamada visited Surur, the banker proposed that he go sightseeing in Cairo during the ten days that the ship would be in port before sailing for Istanbul. The next day Yamada left by train for Cairo, the capital of Egypt. In Cairo, Yamada met Pasha 'Abd Al-Qadir, a highly placed Egyptian official with whom Surur had arranged an

introduction. The Pasha was quite familiar with Japan, praised Japanese silk highly, and said that Yamada was the third Japanese he had met. On his third day in Cairo, the Pasha invited Yamada to a luncheon party at his mansion. Yamada dressed in traditional Japanese clothes with one long sword and one short one, and added the Turkish hat, the fez, for good measure. He left for the party in a carriage drawn by a pair of Arabian horses.

Arrival in the Ottoman Empire

Yamada bade farewell to the Pasha, thanking him for his hospitality when the time came to set sail from Alexandria. Four days later he arrived in Istanbul. More than fifty days had passed since he left Japan. Early in the morning on the day after his arrival in Istanbul, he set out for the Turkish foreign minister's residence. Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sayyid Pasha, was in his mid-sixties. He welcomed Yamada politely. The minister’s son translated the conversation into French for his father. Sayyid Pasha thanked Yamada for his goodwill, and expressed his delight at the Japanese gentleman’s enthusiasm for visiting Turkey. Sayyid told Yamada that Turkey was inferior in some ways to Christian countries in the West, but superior in other points. Yamada showed a great deal of interest in Sayyid’s remarks and he was invited to the statesman’s home that evening for dinner. The next day Yamada completed his original mission

by arranging to pass over the funds he had collected in Japan to the Turkish Naval Ministry. Encounter With the Greatness of Islam

Yamada was then granted the honor of an audience with the Turkish Sultan. At that time, six hundred years had passed since Ottoman I had established the Turkish Empire in 1299. The Ottoman’s golden age had passed and the empire was on the decline, but its territory still ranged over a wide territory from the Balkan Peninsula in Eastern Europe to the Mediterranean coast of North Africa. This stands in contrast to the small territory of the present Republic of Turkey today. However, at the time, the Ottoman Empire was the largest, united Islamic force in the world with the Sultan as the political and religious leader of more than three hundred million Muslim subjects. Abdul Hamit II was the 35th Sultan. His seat of power was the gorgeous “Star Palace.” Yamada was guided through the many ministers and officials at the palace and introduced directly to the Sultan, who shook hands with him and presented him with a Turkish medal. On a different day, Yamada returned to the palace and presented the Sultan with family treasures – a Japanese sword, helmet and armor. These gifts and other items brought to Turkey by Yamada are still carefully preserved and displayed in the Topcapi Saray Museum in Istanbul. The Turkish Sultan was so pleased with Yamada from their first meeting that he invited him to the Star Palace many times and they exchanged information about each

other’s countries. The Sultan advised Yamada to stay in Turkey for several years to study the language and prepare for the Turkish-Japan Friendship Treaty that was eventually going to be signed between the two countries. Yamada was introduced by the Sultan to a private tutor who understood English and French. Also at that time, the Japanese began his studies of the holy Koran. By that time, Yamada’s basic ability in Turkish had already begun to develop. In return, Yamada accepted the Sultan’s request to help establish friendly ties with Japan by teaching the Japanese language to a selected group of Turkish military officers. He was given a room at the military academy and started with seven students – six army officers and one navy officer.

Yamada Returns to Japan and Visits Turkey Again

Yamada stayed in Turkey for three years. He carefully observed the country’s manners, customs, and industry in detail, and fully expected to return again in the future for another visit. When he returned to Japan, he keenly felt that trade between Turkey and his country was the best way to establish friendly relations. He visited the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Takeaki Enomoto, the successor to Shuzo Aoki, who had helped Yamada get to Turkey. Enomoto arranged a meeting at which Yamada made a report on the Turkish

situation to senior, successful businessmen. It turned out to be very fortunate for Yamada that Enomoto took such an interest in him because he was a man of considerable power at the time. Yamada also travelled to Osaka to give reports about Turkey, and at all these meetings he emphasized that trade between Japan and Turkey was the most effective way to establish friendly relations. About one year later, Yamada set out on his second trip to Turkey. In Istanbul, local officials of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry assisted him to display Japanese special products, especially arts and crafts in a showroom. This exhibition was well received by the Turkish people and it resulted in orders for silk, Japanese tea, and other daily goods. Sultan Abdul Hamit II was particularly interested in arts and crafts, especially elaborately designed works of art. Among the handicrafts Yamada brought, he presented to the Sultan some very traditional items, including flower vases and picture scrolls. The Turkish monarch was familiar with both birds and plants, and knew there were thirty different types of persimmon trees in Japan, all of which he decided to order. Later, many types of rare birds were also sent from Japan to the Sultan. Yamada often travelled to Turkey during the twenty years between the time of the Sino-Japanese War of 1895 and the start of World War I in 1914.

Conversion to Islam

Sultan Abdul Hamit II recommended that Yamada

convert to Islam in 1902 since he had been taught the Koran by a private teacher and was thus qualified to become a Muslim. The Sultan gave Yamada the Muslim name Abdul Halil. Thus, two Japanese pioneers of Islam had arrived on the religious stage – Yamada and Ahmad Bunpachiro Aruga. Activities in Osaka Business Circles

It was the beginning of the Emperor Taisho Era when Yamada returned from Turkey because of the outbreak of World War I. He took up quarters in the Osaka financial district. At the time he was just over fifty years old and in his prime as a businessman. He gave lectures about Turkey sponsored by the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and continued to make friends with a number of influential figures. He exported textile goods, green tea, Japanese handicrafts, bamboo items, and other traditional products from Japan, and imported rock salt, dried flowers, sheep skins and wool from Turkey. In 1925 Yamada visited the Turkish Ambassador in Japan, Mr. Fuad Bei, to ask him to visit Osaka. He introduced the ambassador to many Osaka businessmen, and this visit was the motivation for establishing the Japan-Turkey Trade Association centered around the Osaka Chamber of Commerce. In November 1925 the bilateral association was formally announced with an opening ceremony attended by the

ambassador who was appointed the honorary president, and Yamada was named the manager of the organization. Some important persons were also appointed to positions on the board of directors. They were also supported by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and a branch was set up in Turkey. The organization had a bright future. After the establishment of the Japan-Turkey Trade Association in Osaka, a Tokyo office was also embarked upon and His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsunomiya became the president. The Tokyo office sponsored the visits of some official delegations from Turkey and Yamada acted as interpreter for the prince when meeting with the Turkish guests. Yamada also tried to introduce cigarettes and cigarette paper in Japan on a larger scale (Turkey was famous for its cigarettes at that time). This was only one of a number of business ventures in which he was very active. He seemed to think that the increase of industrial production was the basis for national enrichment and security. Despite his busy schedule, in addition to his regular visits to Turkey, he also made as many trips to Asia and Europe as he could. He made a very emotional journey to Turkey in 1931. The old imperial Sultanate during which he had spent 20 years of his youth had been replaced with a republic. Yamada was surprised and delighted to learn that Kemal Pasha, one of the officers he had taught Japanese 40 years earlier, had become the first president of the new Republic of Turkey. A long time had passed since Yamada visited Turkey

for the first time at the age of 23. He was now 70 years old and had gray hair. Yamada's Late Years As Soyu Yamada, the 8th Master of the Tea Ceremony

There is a part of Torajiro Yamada's life that needs to be introduced here. He was also the 8th master of one of Japan's tea ceremony schools, the Sohen style. Just before he died, the former master, Soju Yamada, appointed the then 16 year old Torajiro as his successor in 1883. It was Torajiro who performed the Japanese tea ceremony for the first time in front of the Turkish Sultan. After his first return from Turkey and when he decided to settle in Osaka, Yamada also taught the Sohen style tea ceremony and trained pupils. He also published "Sado Kihan" (Models of Tea Ceremony) and the journal "Chion." He excelled in writing about nature and wrote many articles and literary works. Some of his important contributions were "Plays in Turkey" for the magazine Taiyo (Sun) in 1895, "Picture Arts of Turkey" in 1911, and "50 Years of Memories about Turkey" for the journal Kaikyoken (Islamic World) in 1939. He displayed many of the items he had brought from Turkey over the years at exhibitions dedicated to the Islamic world in Tokyo and Osaka in 1939. The exhibits were sponsored by the Greater Japan Islamic Association and the Tokyo Islam Order. In 1944 he organized a major tea ceremony group called the Ryumei Dokai in Osaka which his daughter

directed during his latter years. Yamada came from a family background involved in the fine arts such as painting, writing, and bamboo crafts. He was a successful businessman, a splendid artist, and a pious believer in Islam. He ended his eventful and brilliant life on 13 February 1957 at the age of 92. He was buried with his ancestors at the family grave in Ueno, Tokyo.

Chapter 9 The Taisho Era (1912-26)

The Taisho Era started domestically with successive labor disputes in Japan and with a worsening political situation of the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. The latter situation resulted in the start of World War I in 1914. Japan played a relatively small political and military role, but greatly benefited economically from the munitions boom. Lieutenant Colonel Nobutaka Shioten was sent to Europe as a military attache to examine the war situation and report back to Japan his findings. While there, he acquired a rich store of knowledge about the Muslims and Jews, especially in regard to the Palestinian problem. He was later promoted to Lieutenant General and was appointed the second president of Dai-Nippon Kaikyo Kyokai (Greater Japan Muslim League). In 1915 Hajime Sato accompanied Lieutenant Colonel Kamesuke Nagamine to the border between East and West Turkistan, the dividing line between China and Russia. Sato remained there for three years examining the political situation in that Islamic area. On 24 October 1915 the independence of the Arabs was declared in the Husayn-MacMahon correspondence. Chishu Naito wrote an article "Kaizeru to Kaikyo-to" (The Kaiser and the Muslims) for the journal Rekishi-Chiri (History and Geography).

In 1916, Ippei Tanaka revisted China and met with the revolutionaries Sun Wen and Wang Tongyi in Shanghai. In July 1917, Naito (The Kaiser and the Muslims) and others founded a new academic association in Tokyo, the Babironia Gakkai (Society of Babylonian Studies), the forerunner of today's Nihon Oriento Gakkai (The Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan). In September 1917, the Morison Bunko (The Morrison Library/ The Asiatic Library of G.E. Morrison, was established in Tokyo. It consisted of 25,000 books about Asia collected by the Australian journalist G.E. Morrison. Thousands more books were added to this collection by Hisaya Iwasaki of the Mitsui conglomerate from the Iwasaki Library. Later the Morrison Library developed into the Toyo Bunko (The Oriental Library). In 1917, Kame Segawa published the book Kaikyo (Islam) through the company Keisei-sha. Naito continued to publish many articles dealing in particular with problems of the Balkan Peninsula and ethnic problems in the new Republic of Turkey. Masatsugu Suda majored in Russian at the Tokyo Academy of Foreign Languages, and went with the army as an interpreter to the Zabaikaru area, where he made contacts with many Tartar Muslims and began to take an interest in Islam. The Military Agreement for Cooperative Defense signed between Japan and China in May 1918 allowed Japanese officers and soldiers to move freely through any area of China including the far flung frontier with West Turkistan. The Japanese government, responding to a request

from the chief representative of the governor of Xinjiang Province, sent Tamuro Tsugu as a military advisor to that area in 1919. With the end of World War I, Japan accelerated its colonial expansion, raising anti-Japanese sentiments in China and Korea. In 1920, Kenichi Sakamoto translated the Koran in its entirety and published it for the first time in Japan. It was produced in two volumes as a part of the complete series of world religious scriptures of the publishers Sekai Seisho Kanko-Kai.

Also in 1920, Ippei Tanaka wrote the article "Shina Kaikyoto Mondai no Shorai to Kokoku Shinto" (The Origin of the Islamic Problems in China and Imperial Shintoism of Japan). Ryoichi Mita, who travelled the areas along the Yangtze River, returned to Japan in this year. He visited Yamaoka to tell him of his attraction to Islam when he met Kikuo Fukuta at the"Toho-Gakudo" of Shukako in China. Mita asked for Yamaoka's guidance to Islam. The latter accepted this request and gave Mita the Muslim name Umar. Qurban Ali, travelling from Bashkir, visited Japan for the first time in 1920 accompanied by some of his countrymen. Before returning to his homeland, which was then ruled over by the Soviet Union, he met Shigenobu Okuma, president of Waseda University, and explained Islam to him. At this time many Turkish Tartar Muslims left their

homeland in Central Asia and came to Japan in small groups to escape the oppression of the Soviet Red Army. They settled in some cities in China which later came under Japanese rule and a few immigrated to Japan. Mainly, however, they settled in Harbin, Fengtian (or Shenyang), and Dalian (or Luda) in China, Keijo (Seoul) in Korea, as well as Kobe, Nagoya, Tokyo, and Sendai in Japan. Japanese philanthropists, some of whom were leaders of ultranationalist groups, welcomed these Muslims to Japan and assisted them with a traditional chivalrous spirit. These Central Asian Muslims played a beneficial role in running mosques in Kobe and Tokyo. Two books about Islam were published in 1921. One was Kaikyo Oyobi Kaikyokoku (Islam and Islamic Nations) written by Tekeshi Yasujima, and the other was

Kaikaikyo no Shimpiteki Iryoku (The Mystic Power of Islam) written by Mitsutaro Yamaoka, published with Shinkosha. The year before, Tadazumi Iida made his debut in the academic world and contributed many articles to various publications in 1921. Also in that year, Qurban Ali returned to Japan with ten young men from Bashkir. He met Waseda University's Okuma and leaders in the political and financial world. Ali discussed the greatness of Islam with them and explained the difficult political situation in his homeland. He pointed out the similarities in traditions and customs between the Japanese and the people of Bashkir, arousing sympathy with a large audience of Japanese.

Some Japanese commented that Ali understood their modest and pious ways. Ali said his group considered Japan a peaceful place to live and a fruitful place to propagate Islam among the people.

Also at this time, two nephews of the Egyptian viceroy came sightseeing in Japan, staying here for three weeks, and a Chinese Muslim scholar Wang Jinqi went to Egypt to study at Azhar University. The year 1921 was a momentous one. The Turkish army led by Kemal Ataturk defeated the Greek army at Zakariya. Afghanistan and Persia signed a mutual non-aggression pact, and the kingdoms of Iraq and Jordan were founded. On 4 November 1921, Prime Minister Takashi Hara was stabbed to death at Tokyo Station. The murderer, Konichi Nakaoka, was sentenced to death, but he was later pardoned and released from prison at the beginning of the Showa Era. Nakaoka left for Harbin in China where he came in touch with Islamic teachings. He converted to Islam and as

a Muslim he devoted himself to various charitable works for the welfare of the Chinese people until he left to return to Japan at the end of World War II. The year 1922 was a fruitful one in the Taisho Era for the publication of Islamic issues. The magazine Kaizo took the lead. Shumei Okawa contributed an article to the magazine entitled "Kaikyoto no Seijiteki Shorai" (The Future of

Muslims in the Political Structure). Okawa's rival Chishu Naito wrote "Pan-Isuramizumu no Shorai" (The Future of Pan-Islamism). Koji Okubo, who specialized in Turkish affairs, wrote the article "Toruko no Fukko to Kaikaikyoto no Undo" (Revival of Turkey and the Muslim Movement) and contributed other reports. Mitsutaro Yamaoka published the book "Gaiyu Hiwa" (Travelogue of the Middle East). A newly rising writer, Kitsuo Kuchimura, wrote "Yasei Mahometto" (Mahomet: The Vagabond Prophet) for the Raito Publishing Company. Akira Nakanokoji wrote a drama "Sabaku no Hikari" (Light In The Desert) with the Prophet Mohammed as its hero. Ippei Tanaka translated into Japanese the famous Chinese writer Liu Kielian's work "Tarjama al-Mustafa." It appeared in Japanese as "Tenpo Shisei Jitsuryoku" (The True Story of the Holy Prophet in Arabia). It was not until ten years later that the book was published by the Dai Nippon Kaikyo Kyokai (Greater Japan Muslim League). Kazuyuki Obayashi, who spent a great of time in Gansu Province in China and was an expert on the Chinese northwest frontier situation, published the article "Shina no Kaikyo Mondai" (The Situation of Islam in China).

At this time Ahmad Inayat-Allah, Imam of the Harbin mosque, came to Japan to lead worship services for the general public with Ippei Tanaka. Two senior statesmen of the Meiji Era died that year,

Shigenobu Okuma and Aritomo Yamagata. Both had been major figures in the Japanese government since the Meiji Restoration. The death of Okuma was a particularly hard blow to the Muslims of Japan because he had been their strongest sympathizer among Japanese prime ministers in that era. In 1923 Ippei Tanaka left for Arabia to realize his long cherished dream of a pilgrimage to Mecca. He became the second Japanese pilgrim to visit the sacred site after Mitsutaro Yamaoka first came in 1909. On 2 September 1923, the day after the Great Kanto Earthquake hit Tokyo, Chishu Naito boarded the ship Fushimi Maru of the Nippon Yusen company to travel to Iran and Iraq. Kenichi Sakamoto published "Muhameddo-Den" (Biography of Mohammed) in two volumes with the Sekai Bunko Kanko Kai. Sohoku Kawase contributed the article "Kaikyo no Dai Kakumei" (The Great Revolution of Islam) to the magazine Taiyo (The Sun). Koji Okubo discussed his area of interest, ethnic problems in Turkey, in several articles including "Kaikaikyo no Jinshu Hohyosei" (The Racial Toleration of Islam) in the journal Gaiko Jiho (Official Gazette of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). The newspaper publisher Osaka Mainichi Shimbunsha brought out the book Kaikyo Minzoku no Katsudo to Ajia no Shorai (Activities of Muslims and the Future of Asia) written by one its reporters, Minojiro Watanabe. Towards the end of 1923, Puratappu, advisor to King Amanullah of Afghanistan, came to Tokyo to arrange a

treaty of amity with the Japanese government that year. Ultranationalistic groups which were interested in the ethnic problems of Afghanistan welcomed him to Japan and asked him to discuss these issues with them. In early 1924, Ippei Tanaka arrived in Jinan, a city in Shandong Province in China. He confessed his devotion to Islam before Cao Fenglin, Imam of the Jinan mosque, and entered a more formal phase of expressing his Islamic beliefs. He turned 42 years of age that year. On 1 January 1924, Jiro Soejima, who had a long cherished desire to make a trip across Central Asia, left Beijing to fulfill his dream. Sohoku Kawase published Kindai Kaikyo Shicho (Comprehensive History of Islam) with Chugai Nippo Sha of Kyoto, whose owner was the famous writer Ruiko Kuroiwa. She was said by some to be the publisher of the only purely religious newspaper in Japan. Shozaburo Dazai wrote and published Shina Kaikyo no Kenkyu (A Study of Islam in China) through the main office of the South Manchurian Railroad Company. He was an expert on Islam in China in that company. Chijo Akamatsu, who was later to become a professor of the Imperial University of Seoul, wrote "Kaikyo Shiso no Tokushoku (Characteristics of Islamic Thought) for the ninth volume of the journal Tetsugaku Kenkyu (Journal of Philosophical Studies). They were carried in the third and fouth issues of this volume. Koji Okubo again discussed the ethnic problems of Turkey in the magazine Toyo (The Orient). It could be said that a lot of academic attention towards Islam was centered on Turkey at this time, and not

towards Arabia, which contrasts sharply with the focus of scholars after World War II. The Chinese politician Sun Wen (Sun Yixian) stopped in Kobe on his way from Guandong (or Kwantung) to Beijing in 1924. He gave a lecture in that beautiful Japanese port city on the subject of "Pan-Asianism," an idea he had promoted for some time. Among Sun Wen's Japanese friends were Mitsuru Toyama and Tsuyoshi Inukai, who had supported him since the Xinhai Revolution. Other Japanese who gathered to listen and give moral support to Sun Wen during his stay in Japan were Shumei Okawa, Bunhachiro Ariga, Mitsutaro Yamaoka and Ippei Tanaka. In January 1925 Qurban Ali who was in Dalian (or Luda) and Zhang Dechun, chief Imam of the Wenhua Qingzehnsi (Wenhua Mosque), in the Chinese city of Sekkenchou in Fengtian (or Shenyang) Province came to Japan. Their acquaintance Ippei Tanaka made every effort to make their stay a comfortable one and he facilitated their activities in Japan. Qurban Ali organized the Tokyo Kaikyo Dan (Tokyo Islamic Order) as the first step of his Islamic campaign in Japan. In March 1925, the Japanese government sent Torikichi Kohata to Turkey as its first ambassador. Chishu Naito accompanied him as an interpreter of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In July 1925 a party was held in Tokyo to celebrate the Feast of Sacrifice, Id al-Adha or Kurban Bayram (The Greater Bairam) that marks the month of pilgrimage to

Makkah.

The event took place at the grand banquet hall of Shinjuku Tokyo Hotel and there was also a memorial dinner at the residence of its sponsor, Jingoro Okamoto. Okamoto was a graduate of Tokyo Imperial University. He was sent to Mindanao Island in the Philippines by the Dai Nippon Kaikyo Kyokai (Greater Japan Muslim League) to investigate the situation of the Moros with Seifu Furokawa of Waseda University, who later became a professor and president of the university library. The Moros are Muslims who mainly live in the southern islands of the Philippines. Upon his return from Mecca, Ippei Tanaka wrote of his experience and published it with Lixia Shuyuan of Jinan in Shandong Province as Isuramu Junrei: Hakuun Yuki (Pilgrimage to Mecca Through China). A professor of Kyoto Imperial University, Jitsuzo Kuwabara, wrote an article "Chusei Shina ni Ijuseshi Saiiki-Jin Ni Tsuite" (On the Central Asian Immigrants To China In The Middle Ages) for the journal of historical studies, Shirin. Shigetaka Shiga wrote about his experiences two years before in an article for the magazine Taiyo (The Sun) entitled "Oman Keraku Ryoko no Ekken (Audiences With The Kings of Oman and Kerak). Chishu Naito contributed reports to two journals. One was "Morokko Mondai" (Issues Concerning Morocco) to the journal Shigaku (Historical Studies), and the other was "Ajia no Tabi (Travels in Asia) to Mita Hyoron (Mita Review). Other scholars also directed their attention to

Morocco that year. At the time, it took six hundred days but Jiro Soejima completed his epic trip on horseback across the vast grasslands of Central Asia from Beijing and arrived in Istanbul.

Yasunosuke Tanabe of the Toa Dobunkai entered the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, after passing through the Khyber Pass and was granted an audience with King Amanullah Khan. The year 1926 began in Japan highlighted by growing social discontent. Union activities were stepped up and strikes on a large scale in many towns and cities were initiated by the Rodo Nomin-to (Workers and Farmers Party) and the Shakai Minshu-to (Socialist People's Party). This year Ippei Tanaka accepted a lecturership at Daito Bunka Gakuin (today's Daito Bunka University) and also gave private lectures at Suidobata-cho in Koshikawa about the general socio-political situation in Asia, and he also lectured on the worship procedures of Islam. Chijo Akamatsu contributed a series of articles to volume three of the journal Shukyo Kenkyu (Religious Studies) under the title "Kinto ni Okeru Kaikyo Minzoku no Doran ni Tsuite" (On Muslim Strife in the Near East). Akio Kasama discussed the political situation in Turkey with his reports in Gaiko Jiho (Official Gazette of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). He was an expert on Islam in the ministry and became a senior diplomat in Japan's embassy to Iran.

A world famous geographer at the time Shigetaka

Shiga published the book Shirarezaru Kuniguni (The Unknown Countries) in 1926. Yasunosuke Tanabe on his return from Afghanistan reported his experiences in the article "Shinko Afuganisutan no Genjo" (The Present Situation of Rising Afghanistan) in the magazine Toho Koron. Takashiro Kobayashi wrote "Arabiajin no Kiroku ni Mietaru To ni Tsuite" (Tang Dynasty Seen in Arabian

Records) for an official publication of Keiogijuku University, his alma mater. Lieutenant Colonel Masaharu Homma wrote "Reimeiki no Nishi Ajia" (West Asia at Its Dawn) in three parts for Gaiko Jiho (Official Gazette of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Homma was the Japanese Imperial Army's top authority on Britain and served as a liaison officer to Prince Chichibu, as well as a military attache to the Japanese Embassy in London. He later became a Lieutenant General but was executed as a war criminal in the Philippines in 1946. Also in 1926 the American Orientalist, Owen Lattimore, drove through Inner Mongolia and Turkistan by car. His route was the same followed by Sven Anders Hedin the next year. Lattimore's book on his travels was translated into Japanese under the title"Torukosutan e no Sabaku no Michi" (original title -- The Desert Road to Turkestan). This book was very popular among Japanese readers.

Chapter 10 The Showa Era Before The End of World War II (1926-1945)

The Rise of the Islamic Movement in Japan

At the beginning of the Showa Era, there was an enlargement of Muslim circles in Japan and their activities were stepped up. The background to this was the national policy of Japan to expand its influence to the continent of the Chinese mainland and Mongolia. Heroes of that period belong to the third generation of the Japanese Islamic Movement. First generation Muslims were born in the last years of the Edo Era. They were Torajiro Yamada and Bunhachiro Ariga. Second generation Muslims were born in the first ten years of the Meiji Era: Mitsutaro Yamaoka, Ippei Tanaka, Shumei Okawa, Chishu Naito, Teijiro Sakuma, Kentaro Omura and others Some of these personalities became Muslims and others were non-Muslims with a deep interest in Islam. Third generation Muslims were born in the second decade of the Meiji Era and were in their forties, the prime of their lives, at the beginning of the Showa Era. The main contrast between the second and third generation Muslims was the focus of their activities. The second generation concentrated primarily on literary

works, while those of the third generation devoted themselves to events in Manchuria, Mongolia, and China. The number of Japanese pilgrims travelling to Mecca changed with the times too. There was one pilgrim in the Meiji Era and then one more in the Taisho Era, but more than ten Japanese made the pilgrimage in the first years of the Showa Era. Foreign Muslims resident in Japan were also active in supporting the Islamic movement in Japan during the first part of Showa. Qurban Ali was a pioneer in that field of activities. Ayasu Ishuhaki and Imam Rashid Ibrahim followed in his footsteps. After World War II, Islamic activities were continued by a group of the Tabligh sect led by Al-Shado of Pakistan during the period 1956-1965, and then by Samarra'i from 1976 to 1985.

The Beginning of the Showa Era (1926-27)

The Showa Era started with bankruptcies, financial panic, and strikes. At the same time Qurban Ali and Ippei Tanaka went on a tour to give lectures and propagate Islam in many cities and towns throughout Japan. On one occasion Tanaka spoke about"Kaikyoto to Sono Seikatsu" (Muslims and Their Way of Life) at Hoteiro in Kanda, Tokyo. Qurban Ali opened a small private school, the Tokyo Kaikyo Gakko (Tokio'da Mekteb-i Islamiye

Idaresi/Ma'had al-Thaqafa al-Islamiya al Yabani -- The Islamic School in Tokyo) and as its president he trained Japanese Muslims. Chishu Naito was active as usual writing an article "Kaikyo-shu Mondai" (On The Abolishment of the Caliph) in volume 27 of Meiji Shotoku Kinen Gakkai Kiyo (Bulletin of the Memorial Association of Meiji Shotoku). On 15 May 1926 Kyodo Kawamura started the journal Kaikyo (Islam). It served as the periodical for the Pekin Kaikyo Kenkyukai (Peking Society for Islamic Studies).

Expanding Influence of Qurban Ali in 1928

In 1928 the grand coronation ceremony for Emperor Hirohito was held in Tokyo. The special secret service police, organized under the control of the Ministry of Interior, arrested over 1,600 Communist party members that year. Some of the most famous liberal professors were expelled from the state universities at the time. It was also the year that Qurban Ali began the strong propagation of Islamic activities in Japan. He had visited Japan twice in the Taisho period. He said there was a strong similarity of customs between Japan and his homeland of Bashkir, and also noted the sincere piety and strong unity of the Japanese people. Ali believed that Japan was the only place for him to live in peace. He said it was his second home. To strengthen his Islamic propagation activities, Ali approached Ippei Tanaka, Matsunaga Suda, and Saburo Shimada. Suda was an expert on Russia and was said to be

better at speaking Russian than the Russians themselves. At the time there were many Turkish-Tartar Muslims taking refuge in Japan from the Soviet Union. Their support and cooperation was very important to Ali. He tried to rally these Muslims together and establish a leadership role over them. As part of these activities and after the founding of the Tokyo Kaikyo Gakko (The Islamic School in Tokyo), he appealed to all the ethnic Turks in Japan proposing to hold the "Bomei Kaikyo-to Zenkoku Daiichiji Taikai" (The First National Meeting of Muslims in Refuge in Japan). The conference was held on 3 October in the grand banquet hall of the Tokyo Hotel in Shinjuku. Following the conference, he organized the Nippon Kaikyo-to Renmei (Union of Muslims in Japan) and he was appointed the first president of the organization. Qurban Ali then stood as the unrivaled leader of Islamic movement in Japan until Ayasu Ishukai arrived after escaping from Berlin. It was at this time that Kota Koizumi became a pupil of Qurban Ali and began to study Arabic and Turkish in earnest. Later, Koizumi left Japan to make a lone pilgrimage to Mecca by land but disappeared somewhere along the Silk Road and was not heard of again. Mitsutaro Yamaoka was asked to work temporarily on special duties with the South Manchurian Railroad Company. He came in contact with many Islamic leaders in Manchuria, especially in meetings with them in the cities of Jilin, (or Kirin), Changchun, and Harbin. Yamaoka became acquainted with Yosuke Matsuoka, one of the most able directors of the company, who was

later promoted as president of the company. At the beginning of World War II, Matsuoka was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. Yamaoka's close friendship with Matsuoka in Manchuria helped him to publish a book Ajia no Nidai Undo: Kaikyoto to Yudayajin (Two Great Movements in Asia: Muslims and Jews). It was published with the Watanabe Jimusho Company in Osaka. The fateful rivalry between the Muslims and the Jews was a theme that Yamaoka followed for a long time. His main work on the subject was Chi to Zeni (Blood and Money). He also published a record of his pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina under the title Seito Kara Seito E (From a Holy Town To Another Holy Town). Yamaoka appeared to be at the top of his form as a globetrotter and writer. Teijiro Sakuma wrote "Kaikyo no Ugoki (Movement of Islam) for Gaiko Jiho (Official Gazette of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and Egypt opened a consulate in Kobe in that year. In China, Yang Zengxin, the governor of Xinjiang, was murdered by one of his staff. General Feng Yuxing of the Xibei military clique killed more than 10,000 Muslims in Liangzhou and Hezhou (a beautiful holy town known as the Mecca of China) in Gansu Province. This genocide against Muslims in China fueled a fierce hatred for General Feng, who incidentally was Christian. In India, thousands of Muslims and Hindus died or were injured in violent clashes with each other in the Calcutta Incident of 1926.

In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood was organized and confronted the Wafd Party, a bourgeois party, in national elections which ended in a landslide victory for the Wafd.

Beginning of the Islamic Movement of Japan in 1929

The stock market crash in New York led the whole world economy into a depression. Only one third of the graduates of Tokyo Imperial University could find work that year. The Japanese government introduced austerity policies. This included a ten percent cut in the salaries of judicial officers, National Railways' workers and other public servants, a move strongly opposed by those affected. The government arrested many members of the Communist Party, and there was a rise in atrocious crimes in Tokyo and other cities throughout Japan. Qurban Ali continued his energetic work for the propagation of Islam that year. Ali imported Arabic printing types from Egypt and established the Tokyo Kaikyo Insatsujo (Tokyo Islamic Printing Center) adjacent to Kaikyo Gakko (The Islamic School) to print and distribute propaganda leaflets, and he was assisted in his efforts by Kota Koizumi. Ippei Tanaka gave a lecture entitled "Isuramu to Isuramu Kyodan (Islam and Islamic Brotherhoods) at a meeting of the Association of Junior High School Teachers of History and Geography at the First Tokyo Metropolitan Middle School (today's Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya High School) on 16 February 1929.

The Japan-Turkey Society (Nitto Kyokai) was inaugurated with a ceremony at Tokyo Kaikan on 8 June with Prince Takamatsunomiya Norihito in attendance. Torajiro Yamada was a main figure among the leaders of the organization. Membership was over 60 people at the beginning of the society. Among them was Chishu Naito, who was a professor of Tokyo Women's Higher Normal School in Ochanomizu (today's Ochanomizu University). Naito, who was a top expert on Turkey and entrusted with some work involving that nation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gave a speech at the inauguration of the society. Some of the important personalities who attended the inauguration were the Turkish ambassador, Mr. Jehad and his wife, and the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Shigeru Yoshida, who became prime minister after World War II. Yasunosuke Tanabe, who had just returned from Afghanistan the previous year, gathered members of the Toa Dobunkai for a meeting at which he was elected chairman of the group and he gave a report on the situation in Afghanistan. One of the attendees was Mitsuru Toyama, a leader of an ultranationalist group. In all, there were over 150 members of the Dobunkai present. They sent a congratulatory letter to Amanullah Khan for his unification of Afghanistan. Shumei Okawa was appointed chief director of the new Toa Keizai Choza Kyoku (East Asian Economic Research Bureau), which originated from a section of the South Manchurian Railway Company but was reestablished into an independent foundation and moved

into the second floor of the Totaku Building at Uchisawaicho in Tokyo. Its journal Shin Ajia (New Asia) enjoyed a good reputation and many liberal, intellectual men applied to work with the organization. Among them were Hotsumi Ozaki and Shin Ito. Ozaki was an expert on Chinese affairs and was later sentenced to death for espionage after being implicated in the famous Richard Sorge spy case. Ito later became a confidential advisor to Kyuichi Tokuda, Secretary General of the Japan Communist Party. New Asia’s Okawa had a right hand man, Saburo Shimada, who was an expert on the Soviet Union. He later cooperated closely in laying the groundwork for the establishment of a mosque in Tokyo. Hajime Kobayshi contributed "Mahometto no Sobyo" (A Sketch of Mohammed's Life) to the magazine So-En. The translator of the biography of Mohammed (Mahometto-Den) in 1923, Kenichi Sakamoto, translated the Koran and published it as Koran-Kyo in two volumes (Vol. 14 and Vol. 15) in the Complete World of World Scriptures of the Kaizo-Sha Publishing Company. Chishu Naito wrote "Han Kaikyo Undo no Hatten" (The Development of the Pan-Islamic Movement) for the Shigaku Zasshi (Journal of Historical Studies), and Shumei Okawa wrote an article about Iran for the magazine Toa (East Asia).

The Rise of the Islamic Movement During The Economic Depression in 1930

The Japanese economy was suffering hard from the effects of the economic depression in 1930. Labor strikes were frequent in urban areas, and the slump of rice and raw silk prices caused increased traffic in human beings in the rural areas. There was rising socio-political unrest and the government came under severe criticism from all sides. This discontent turned into a violent attack against the "Lion" Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi, who was shot and wounded by an ultranationalist. From 1930 onward, many Islamic studies groups and students began to share the notion that one way to solve the growing social problems was to increase their diligence in studying the Arabic and Turkish languages. Among those who advocated more fervent studies were Hiroaki Yamaji, Masakatsu Nakamura and Kazuo Kamiya. Hideji Tamura, who would become the ambassador to Saudi Arabia after World War II, succeeded in persuading his old school, Osaka School of Foreign Languages (today's Osaka University of Foreign Studies), to establish a course in Arabic. In April 1930 Tenrikyo, one of the largest new religious sects at the time in Japan, had been interested in Islam since its foundation and decided to send a delegation led by Seizen Nakayama to China. The group travelled through such major cities as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai. In each city they made it a point to visit the local mosques. They learned basic Islamic doctrines from Kyodo Kawamura in Beijing and collected a number of materials

on Islam everywhere they went. Those materials were later added to the collection of the Tenri Central Library when its construction was completed on 18 October 1930. Ippei Tanaka wrote"Kaikyo-to no Seikatsu Oyobi Mekka Junrei Nitsuite" (Life of the Mohammedans and My Pilgrimage to Mecca) for the Meiji Shotoku Kinen Gakkai Kiyo (Bulletin of the Memorial Association of Meiji Shotoku). Shumei Okawa wrote"Afuganisutan wo Meguru Ei-Ro no Kakuchiku" (British and Russian Confrontations for the Control of Afghanistan) for the magazine Toa (East Asia). Hitoshi Ashida published three articles in various magazines dealing with related themes. He was a diplomat and became prime minister after World War II. Chishu Naito wrote an essay on Turkey for Gaiko Jiho (Official Gazette of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and Chijo Akamatsu wrote "Gendai Kaikyo no Kiki" (The Crisis of Modern Islam) for a special edition of Shukyo Kenkyu (Journal of Religious Studies). The research and compilation section of the Toa Dobunkai published Afuganisutan (Afghanistan) written by Yasunosuke Tanabe. The most noteworthy occurrence in that year was when First Lieutenant Isamu Mashiko of the Imperial Army's Hirosaki Regiment asked that his commission be withdrawn so that he could leave the service to study at Azhar University in Egypt. Mashiko had attended lectures given by Ippei Tanaka

in Aomori and Hirosaki the previous year and was so deeply moved by the presentations on Islam that he decided to convert. At first he studied under Tanaka and made preparations to leave for Egypt.

The Turning Point of History For Modern Japan and Its Islamic Movement -- 1931

The year 1931 marked the turning point in the history of modern Japan. The Japanese military broke through the civilian restraints that had been imposed upon them and began to prevail with its power on almost every aspect of national affairs. Its decisive influence was extended over national politics both in domestic and foreign affairs, and it initiated a control over industry, economics, education and culture that served the interests of expanding its power base. Unfortunately, few Japanese realized the extent to which the country was being militarized until it was too late. It is deplorable, but it is a fact that the growing militaristic movement also initiated more public interest in Islam during that period. The reason is that following the Manchurian Incident in 1931, a pretext used by the Japanese military to occupy Manchuria, many Japanese turned their attention to that region which was close to Japan. It was also quickly realized that many people in northern China and Manchuria were Muslims, and that this Islamic influence stretched from this area all the way to the Middle East.

Thus, it became expedient to learn as much as possible about this culture which was coming into Japan's colonial and political sphere of influence. The attitude is reminiscent of the Islamic studies boom in the 1970s when there were numerous books, television programs and articles in the newspapers about the Middle East. What stimulated this interest in the 70s were several realizations. One was the fear of a shortage in oil. Everyone recognized that oil was an indispensable commodity for daily life, and it also became apparent that good relations with the oil producing nations of the Middle East was in Japan's national interest. It was felt that the more Japan knew about the Arab countries the better, including a deeper familiarity with Islamic culture and thinking. In 1931, however, there were not so many publications available about Islam and weight was placed on finding out as much as possible about it. Two major works were published this year. One was brought out by the Izumi Shoin Publishing Co. This was Chishu Naito's Nitto Koshoshi (History of Japan-Turkey Interactions), and the other work was Toru Haneda's Seiiki Bunmei-shi Gairon (An Introduction to the Civilizations in Central Asia), published by Kobundo-Shoten. Haneda was a great authority in that field and later became president of Kyoto Imperial University. Kyodo Kawamura, who in Beijing had earned the esteem and trust of the Chinese people, went to Changchun soon after the Manchurian Incident. There he began to organize the unification movement of the

Muslims in Manchuria. Also, Qurban Ali decided to go to Manchuria that year after following the political events occurring there and noting the reaction of the Japanese government to the situation. Qurban was not alone. The Turkish Tartar Muslims, many of whom had come to Japan by way of Fengtian in Manchuria, and still had close ties with people in Central Asia, Mongolia, and Manchuria were in full support of the Muslims there. The Muslims living in Nagoya in 1931 organized the Nagoya Kaikyo-To-Dan (Muslim Association of Nagoya), which started to collect voluntary contributions to build a mosque in that city, the first mosque in Japan. The government of Afghanistan requested that Kodo-kan, the largest judo organization in Japan, send a teacher to introduce judo to that country. The grand master Jigoro Kano willingly responded to the request and selected Shinzo Takagaki, who held the sixth degree black belt, to send him to Afghanistan. After World War II, Takagaki came to hold the ninth degree black belt and became the chief director of Kodo-kan's international affairs section.

The First Institution of Islamic Studies in Japan -- 1932

Following the Manchurian Incident of the previous year, the Japanese army expanded the field of battle in Manchuria. It occupied Fengtian on 5 February 1932 and

the "independence" of Manchuria was declared on 1 March. In central China, the Imperial Marines precipitated the First Shanghai Incident, thus setting the stage for the protracted hostilities and long war between China and Japan. This was the year of assassinations in Japan. On 9 February, the Minister of Finance, Junnosuke Inoue was shot and killed by the ultranationalist group Ketsumei-Dan (The Brothers of Blood). The group's leader was Nissho Inoue, who advocated the philosophy of "one kills one." On 5 March, the same group murdered Takuma Dan, chief director of Mitsui-Gomei Co., one of the largest Japanese financial conglomerates. This was followed by the assassination of Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai by a group of young naval officers. Ultranationalist groups were highly active this year. Shumei Okawa organized the Jinmu-Kai and Masaatsu Yasuoka founded the Kokui-Kai. These various groups gathered together to form the Nihon Fashizumu Renmei (Japan League of Fascism). This was an active year for Islam in Japan too. Qurban Ali went to Manchuria and organized the Manshu Kaikyo Kyoshin-Kai (Association of Progressive Cooperation of Manchurian Muslims). His good friends Ippei Tanaka, the expert on Islam in China, and Masatsuga Suda, who was the expert on Islam in Russia gave a lot of support to his association. Chishu Naito, Koji Okubo, and Hajime Kobayashi

formed the Nihon Isuramu Bunka Kyokai (Japan Society of Islamic Culture) in Tokyo. These three graduates of Tokyo Imperial University were great authorities on Islam at that time. They gave courses on the Arabic and Turkish languages, and published the journal Isuramu Bunka (Islamic Culture) for their society. This society was the first academic institution of Islamic studies in Japan, and became the parent organization for other groups that were to follow. Members of the Arabia Toruko Gakkai (Society of Studies of Arabia and Turkey) which was also organized in 1932 were not scholars. They lacked official institutional support and the members ran the society at the own expense. They joined forces to study Islam and the Arabic language. Two members of the society, Masakatsu Nakamura and Yoshiro Nagakura, made a gift of an original Koran in Arabic to Enku Uno, professor of Tokyo Imperial University. Uno gave a lecture on interpretations of some chapters for NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) radio, the semi-government broadcasting company. Hajime Kobayshi wrote an article "Ninju no Higeki: Mahometto no Baai" (The Tragedy of Submission: The Case of Mahomet) for the journal Isuramu Bunka (Islamic Culture). Chishu Naito wrote "I-Minzoku Shido Seishin Toshite no Kaikyo" (Islam As The Spirit Leading Some Nations In The World) for Gaiko Jiho (Official Gazette of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

At the end of this year Kota Koizumi, who had learned Arabic and Turkish from Qurban Ali, went to Beijing and set off from there to make a pilgrimage to Mecca on foot, but his heroic goal was not achieved. The feelings of the Chinese towards Japan in those days were not good. Koizumi was arrested and executed somewhere near Lanzhou on suspicion of espionage.

Refugees and The Visits of VIP Muslims: 1933

Japan quit the League of Nations in 1933 after it turned down a resolution demanding that it withdraw from Manchuria. This action deeply isolated Japan from the international community. The Japanese military and nationalistic groups further strengthened their cooperation among themselves. Most of the members of the newly organized rightwing association, the Meirin-Kai, were ex-soldiers. The Kodo-Kai, led by Rikizo Hirano, was another such group. The government made more inroads against freedom of speech and human rights. Many leftists were arrested and tortured into a conversion to rightwing thinking in prison. Yukitoki Takigawa, a professor at Kyoto Imperial University, was dismissed because he advocated a more liberal interpretation of the penal codes which were being used to punish people with different political ideas. In those days, the Islamic movement in Japan had curious ties with the nationalistic and imperialistic movements. Qurban Ali and other Muslims tried to gain power and

influence with the rising militarists, nationalists, and Japanese advocating overseas expansion. When a farewell party was held for Ippei Tanaka in Tokyo at the Koyo-Kan in Shiba prior to his leaving on his second pilgrimage to Mecca, Qurban Ali and other Muslims were among the guests, but many others were members of nationalistic rightwing groups. This included representatives of Dai-Nippon Kokusui-Kai, Kokuryu-Kai, Genyo-Sha, Dai-Toa Kensetsu-Sha, and the big names Mitsuro Toyama and Ryohei Uchida. The Dai-Toa Kensetsu-Sha (Society for Constructing Greater East Asia) was organized at Hibiya in Tokyo this year. Its goal was as its title indicates, of course with Japan as the driving force behind the new Asia. It was organized with the support of Fumimaro Konoe, a famous aristocrat who was later to become prime minister from 1937 to 1939. The group was under the supervision of Yoshiaki Kasagi, and the president was Iwane Matsui, Lieutenant General of the Imperial Army. Two of its members were Muslims: Masatsugu Suda and Tetsuma Sawai.

In 1933, Japan was visited by famous Muslim refugees and Islamic VIPs. The crown prince of the Ottoman Empire, Abdulkerim, defected from his homeland after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. He moved from Hong Kong to Japan with the support of the president of the Osaka Shosen K.K. Shipping Co. The next president of the company, Shozo Murata, and

a well known pro-Turkish Muslim entrepreneur, Torajiro Yamada, supported the prince in Japan. Murata later became a vice president of Dai Nippon Kaikyo Kyokai (Greater Japan Muslim League) during World War II, and also served as the Minister of Communication and ambassador to the Philippines. Kaku Mori, an influential statesman of Japan's largest political party at the time, the Seiyu-kai, sheltered Abdulkerim at his home in Tokyo, and had the prince secretly sent to the United States after the new government of Turkey had requested the Japanese police extradite him to Istanbul. Another famous refugee was Ayas Isuhaki. He escaped from Russia after the Soviet Revolution broke out, and moved to Berlin. He was a poet and writer who advocated Pan-Turkism. Isuhaki left Berlin in 1933 for Tokyo. He immediately became a strong rival of Qurban Ali. Also coming from Russia that year was 90 year old Rashid Ibrahim Bey. He was exceedingly active for his age, appearing very young, and he earned the esteem of all the Muslims in Japan. His first visit to Japan had been in 1906. In 1933 he decided not to return to his homeland. He lived in Tokyo until 1944 and died there. The last famous Muslim to come to Japan in 1933 was Toufiri Pasha. He was an Arabic speaking Turk and had served under King Ibn Saud of Saudia Arabia as his advisor and minister. He had participated in the independence movement of Turkistan but when this failed he had been urged to take refuge in a foreign country. He arrived in Japan this year

and stayed for some time.

As for publications, Kenzo Akiyama contributed an essay "Heian Kizoku to Arabia Shonin" (Heian Aristocrats and Arab Merchants) to the journal Rekishi Kenkyu (Historical Studies). Koji Okubo wrote the essay "Kaikyoto no Sekai wo Nozoku" (An Introduction to the World of Muslims) for the journal Toa (East Asia), and Jo Iimura contributed "Toruko Oyobi Barukan Shoho no Kinkyo" (Recent Situation of Turkey in the Balkans). Iimura was an army lieutenant general, an expert in total modern war theory, who foresaw the defeat of Japan in World War II. Three scholars of Nihon Isuramu Bunka Kyokai (Japan Society of Islamic Culture), Chishu Saito, Koji Okubo, and Hajime Kobayashi wrote six articles dealing mainly with Turkey that year. Kenji Shimonaga published Afuganisutan-Ki (Diary of Afghanistan) with Bunseisha Publishing Co. He was an army colonel and later published Nichi-Mo Kaiwa Jiten (The Japanese-Mongolian Conversation Dictionary). Qurban Ali wrote a pamphlet Shin Nippon Jijo (New Information About Japan). It was the only book published at Kaikyo Gakko Insatsu-Jo (Islamic School and Printing Office) which Ali founded at Shibuya in Tokyo. Its original title was "Yani Yapon Mohibiri" and was written in Tartar Turkish to introduce Japan to Tartar speakers. Masakatsu Nakamura and Kazuo Kamiya published a translated work Sekai no Shihyo (The Leader of the World).

Its original title was Hadi Alam by Abdal Majid Qarishi. The Japanese version was carried in Kaikyo Kenkyu Sosho (A Series of Islamic Studies), put out by the Isuramu Bunka Kyokai (Society of Islamic Culture). The Kaikyo Kenkyu-Kai (Society for the Study of Islam) was established at the Daito Bunka Gakuin School. This was the first specialized course on Islam in a Japanese educational institution. Noboru Kaneko, Keinosuke Nakajima and Yoshio Okada, all of whom were originally pupils of Ippei Tanaka, took this course at the school and later played active roles in northern China and S.E. Asia during World War II. China was at war on a number of fronts both domestically and externally at this time. One military clique pitted itself against another for power, the Nationalist Party fought with the Communists, ethnic Chinese struggled against Muslims and other minorities, and there were even clashes among Muslims against each other. Central Asia was a focus of some of the struggles because of its ethnic mix and religious diversity. These issues attracted the attention of a number of Japanese, including Muslims, though they were still few in number, as well as many foreign Muslims who had come to live in Japan.

Rivalry Between Two Leaders of Turkish Muslims in Japan: 1934

In 1934 Turkish Muslims had grown increasingly active in spreading the teachings of Islam in Japan. But rivalry had openly erupted between Qurban Ali and Ayas Isuhaki. Their clashes grew heated until 1938 when both left Japan after the founding of the Tokyo mosque. Both had come to Japan from Russia and both shared the same goal of making Islam, still alien and unknown among the Japanese, accepted as one of the major public religions and spread it throughout the country. However, the two men showed clear differences in their personalities and in their policies. Qurban Ali was a man of politics. He often took the lead in the Islamic movement and tried to use his close ties with the Japanese nationalists and politicians to achieve his own agenda. Isuhaki was more a man of literature. He was modest, and only became a leader of the Islamic movement after being requested to take an active role. He was supported by those who considered Qurban Ali too high-handed in this methods and attitudes. The two differed in ethnic origin. Qurban Ali was from Bashkir and Isuhaki was from Kazan. This affected the makeup of the members of the two largest mosques in Japan, the one in Kobe and the other in Tokyo, both of which had still not been founded in 1934. The Tokyo mosque was later to be mainly made up of members who were from Uzbek and Bashkir, while the members of the Kobe mosque were predominately Kazanese, Tadzhik, and Kirghiz. Isuhaki formed the Toruko Tararu Bunka Kyokai (The Cultural Society of Turkish Tartars) in Tokyo. This group published the journal "Miruribairakku." Following the

society's first general meeting in February 1934, Isuhaki opened another meeting in Kobe in March for his ethnic group, the Khuriltai. Qurban Ali was planning the publication of a Turkish translation of the Koran at his Islamic School and Printing Office in Tokyo. Rivalry between Qurban Ali and Isuhaki became so heated that it precipitated a bloody incident that year. Moderate Turkish Muslims including the respected old Rashid Ibrahim didn't want to have anything to do with these clashes. Japanese Muslims and pro-Isamic Japanese could not find a way to mediate between the two increasingly antagonistic factions, and at times they got drawn into the polemics between the two camps. Chishu Naito and other Islamic scholars had little in common with Qurban Ali because of his political attitudes, so they rather tended to have a good impression of the highly educated Isuhaki and supported him instead. Many of Qurban Ali's associates were involved with their work in Manchuria. His best friend, Ippei Tanaka, returned from his pilgrimage to Mecca on 24 May. He was not in good health and took to bed in a state of exhaustion soon after arriving back in Japan. He had worked strenuously in Japan and China for a number of years, and the long, three month trip between Japan and Saudi Arabia had taken a heavy toll on him. Tanaka's condition rapidly grew worse and he died at home in Kawasaki, near Tokyo, in September. He was 52 years old. Old Rashid Ibrahim acted as the Imam and conducted

the funeral ceremony in the purely Islamic manner at Aoyama in Tokyo. Tanaka's was the only Japanese Muslim ceremony to take place in Japan prior to World War II. Even following the war there have only been two other recorded Islamic funerals for Japanese -- one for Yoshio Imaizumi and the other for Ryoichi Mita. Also in 1934, the Zenrin Kyokai (Society for Friendship with Neighboring Countries) was established, and it provided support to Japanese Muslims who were active in Asian countries. On 30 December, a cornerstone laying ceremony was conducted for the construction of the Kobe Muslim Mosque. This was three years before the start of the building of the Tokyo mosque. The ceremony was attended by many Muslims and their sympathizers, including Hajime Kobayashi from Tokyo, Bunhachiro Ariga of Kobe, Kyodo Kawamura from Beijing, and Zhang Dechun from Fengtian. The Kobe Muslim Mosque is one of the largest and oldest mosques in Japan, and its exotic, beautiful appearance continues to grace the central part of Kobe where it was constructed.

Events of 1935

This year Bunhachiro Aruga retired from business in order to concentrate all his efforts on the propagation of Islam. He opened the Nippon Isuramu Fukyo Honbu (Japan Head Office For Islamic Propagation) in Tokyo, where he wrote and published various guidebooks about Islam, one of which, Sei-Muhamumaddo Shoten (A Brief

Biography of Mohammed) was written in collaboration with Kan Nishimoto. This book became widely known among ordinary people for its plain and simple style, suitable for beginners. Shigenobu Okuma, Tsuyoshi Inukai and other influential politicians of the Meiji Restoration, many of whom had been sympathetic to Islam had died, and Aruga carried on his work without their previous support. Long years of experience had taught him how difficult it was to propagate an alien religion such as Islam in Japan, and it demanded alot of financial input. Aruga sold much of his property to devote to his efforts for Islam and fortunately gained the financial support of the big trading families, the Yoshikawa and Oya clans. Ilias Teijiro Sakuma published Kaikyo Kaisetsu (Comments on Islam) with Genkai Shobo. Toho Shoin publishers brought out a collection of manuscripts left behind by Ippei Tanaka under the title Kaikyo Oyobi Kaikyo Mondai (Islam and Islamic Issues). Akio Kasama, ex-envoy to Iran, published Sabaku no Kuni (Land of the Desert) with Iwanami Shoten. The Kobe Muslim Mosque's construction was completed in September and the inauguration ceremony was held there. Ayasu Isuhaki went to Manchuria and organized the Ideru Uraru Toruko Tataru Bunka Kyokai (Cultural Society of Turkish Tartars of Ideru Uraru) in Fengtian. This later developed into a large organization that brought thousands of Tartar Muslims to Manchuria. Ryo Matsubayashi, a member of the nationalistic

group Seikyo-sha, was trying to keep watch over the movements of over a million Muslims in Manchuria with the support of Imam Zhang Dechun. Matsubayashi lived with Imam Zhang Ahon and his deputy A Ahon in the Bunka Seishin-ji Mosque in Fengtian, and learned about Islam there. In 1935, he brought five Chinese Muslims, including Sho Ahon of Qiqihar (Tsitsihar), to Japan and acted as their guide during their stay, which Masahiko Amakasu financially supported. Amakasu, an ex-captain of the Kempeitai (Japanese Military Police), had murdered several famous Japanese anarchists, Sakae Osugi and Noe Ito, in 1923 during the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake. He escaped to Manchuria where he enjoyed a great deal of influence during 1935.

Chapter 11 Islamic Activity of the Turkish Tartar People in Japan – Early Showa Period

Turkish-Tartar Islamic Activity

The beginning of the Showa Period was the starting point of the Japanese Islamic movement. The driving force was mainly political refugees from the Russian revolution, especially the Turkish Tartar people from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. They escaped from the relentless pursuit of the red revolutionaries and desperately started their life from scratch in Japan. Their will power and anti-Communism were very strong. Their true faith was Islam. But the situation was very severe for the Turkish-Tartar Muslims who were in a very small minority in Japanese society at the time. The nationalist parties such as Kokuryu-kai and Genyo-sha were the only people who paid any attention to their strong anti-Communist thoughts. At the time, the nationalists were about to advocate their belief in Greater Asia-ism as part of the formation of their power base. The nationalist trend of the times was to advocate a Japanese policy of advancing into the Chinese continent. Their backing of the Turkish Tartar Muslims was accepted and supported by authorities in the military, political, and

financial worlds. The nationalists were very practical in their approach to matters. Focused on how to attain power, they were very bold in that regard, and, they were very generous to suffering people such as the Turkish Tartars. In that sense, the situation was rather suitable for the Turkish-Tartar refugees in Japan, while having capable leaders among themselves. Their first leader was Qurban Ali, the second was Ilyas Isuhaki, and there was the great Ibrahim, the Imam, who unified the other two. The energetic and vigorous Qurban's activities to increase the power of Islam were very impressive. But at times, it was said that he did things as publicity stunts to promote himself. Some Turkish Tartars said he was trying to do too much, and others wondered if he might be spying on Japan for the Soviets. Isuhaki, on the other hand, was just the opposite to Qurban. A quiet, calm, scholarly man, he was often brought forward by the anti-Qurban camp to balance the equation among the Muslims. The competitive period ended when both of them left Japan. That was the beginning of the golden period of Islamic teaching in Japan under the great Ibrahim. This lasted until his death in 1944, a year before Japan's defeat in the war. During the golden period, three major mosques were built and many Islamic associations and study groups were formed. This chapter deals with the Islamic activity of the

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Turkish Tartar Muslims of the early Showa era, focusing on the competition between Qurban and Isuhaki, and a biographical sketch of the great Ibrahim.

Ippei Tanaka, Qurban Ali and Isuhaki

Ippei Tanaka and Qurban Ali were the two major characters who led the Islamic work in Japan during the early Showa era. Their outstanding activity for Islamic propagation was incomparably energetic and powerful. Tanaka taught Islam at his school and he also toured throughout Japan lecturing about the Islamic world. Noboru Kaneko, Keinosuke Nakajima, Yoshio Okada, Tsuyoshi Suzuki, Hiroshi Hosokawa, Shozo Kori, and Taro Yamamoto were his students. Naotaro Kumon, Isao Masuko and Yoshitetsu Uchida were devoted Muslims who were also inspired by Tanaka's lectures. Qurban Ali established a private school by himself for propagating Islam, and his publications of Turkish and Arabic materials on Islam is worthy of special mention. Tanaka and Qurban often traveled together to lecture in Tokyo, Osaka, and Hokkaido.

First Decade of Showa, 1926-36

Tanaka took a post as an instructor at Daito Bunka Gakuin at the invitation of its president Professor Tetsujiro Inoue in 1926. In December 1926, Tanaka opened a private school

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called Reisai Juku and started to teach subjects dealing with the Asian political situation and worshipping methods of Islam. This year, Qurban was married to the daughter of Iman Yanguraji in Seoul. Her name was Umm Kulthum. They moved to Kamakura from Korea. Previously, they had been in Manchuria. One of their children, Asad Qurban Ali, later worked at the Islamic Center of Japan. In June 1927, Tanaka and Qurban traveled to Hokkaido to lecture on Islam and Greater Asia-ism. In December of that year, Tanaka spoke at Hoteiro in Kanda, Tokyo about "Muslims and Their Daily Life," detailing how believers value their daily worship and followed strict doctrines. The lecture was the program for the regular monthly meeting of the Toka Ikai, an association of physicians who met on the 10th of every month. In November 1927, Qurban established the School of Islam in Shibuya, Tokyo and became its president. He built a printing shop in the school to prepare to publish the monthly magazine "Yeni Japon Mofubiri" in the Tartar language, which came out regularly a few years later. In 1928, he moved from Kamakura to Sendagaya in Tokyo and became the president of the Islamic Association of Japan at the recommendation of other Turkish Tartar Muslims. Later in the year in October, he gathered together most of the Turkish Tartar Muslims in Japan who were political refugees from the Soviets to hold the first general meeting of the association. It was held at the Tokyo Hotel in Shinjuku. In February 1929, Tanaka gave a lecture on "Islam and

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Its Religious Structure" at Tokyo's first secondary school (present day Hibiya High School) to a national meeting of junior high school teachers of historical geography. At that meeting Tanaka started to use the word "Islam" instead of the purely Japanese word "Kaikyo." In November Tanaka and Annosuke Tanabe sent a congratulatory letter to the new king of Afghanistan, Nadir Khan. Tanabe was the leader of the To-A Bundokai, an organization set up to create friendly ties with Asian countries. He had previously made a trip to Afghanistan. In 1930, Tanaka traveled to the Tohoku district of northern Japan to give a lecture on Islam. Deeply moved by the lecture, a first lieutenant of the Japanese army named Isamu Masuko converted to Islam and retired from the army. He later left on a pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1932, Qurban Ali visited Manchuria to organize the Islamic Propagation Association. Since it was the year in which the Manchurian Empire was founded, he probably formed the association in response to the establishment of the empire. The next year was an unforgetable one which greatly influenced the lives of both Tanaka and Qurban Ali.

Events of 1933

Qurban finally started publication of his monthly magazine Yeni Japon Mofubiri in Tartar at his Islamic school in 1933. Many important Muslims visited Japan that year, including the last crown prince of the Ottoman Empire, Abd ul-Karim, who took refuge in Tokyo for a short time.

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He secretly moved from Turkey to Singapore, then to Japan with the help of the President Mori of the Osaka Shosen Steamship Line. The crown prince temporarily took shelter in Mori's Tokyo home in Sendagaya, and he later traveled secretly to the United States. He was later assassinated there by an anti-monarchist. A Saudi Muslim, Tawtiq Pasha, also visited Japan the same year. He had successively held various posts such as minister and advisor to the Ibn Saud royal family, and was famous for devoting himself to the war of independence for Turkestan. The aim of his visit to Japan was to request financial and military support from the Japanese government. Also in that year, Ilyas Isuhaki first came to Japan. He was a scholarly person and wrote many novels in Kazan Turkish. Through his writings he appealed for a movement of enlightenment among Muslims. He wanted the Turkish people to be conscious of their heritage and their race. Compared with Isuhaki, Qurban was a political tactician who was leading Islamic activities in Japan using every practical means at his disposal. It was 1920 when Qurban Ali first visited japan, so he had an additional 14 years of experience over Isuhaki in that sense. Although Isuhaki was a latecomer, he was well known not only in Islamic countries but to the outside world as well through his books and other activities. In short he was a celebrity. His followers sometimes complained that Qurban Ali was not officially qualified to be an iman. They also

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slandered Qurban's wife Umm Kulthum saying that she was not lawfully married to him. She once complained to the author about this emphasizing that she was indeed lawfully married to Qurban and showed me her engagement ring. Qurban and Isuhaki's rivalry culminated in the violent Izumibashi Club incident in which both factions' feelings about the other came to the surface. Although their aims were the same -- they both wanted and devoted themselves to the independence of Turkish Tartar Muslims -- their characters and methods were completely opposite. On 11 February 1934, Isuhaki and his followers held the inaugural meeting of the Ideru Uraru Turkish Tartar Cultural Association at the Izumibashi Club located in central Tokyo. Suddenly, Qurban Ali and some of his followers intruded into the meeting and beat up Isuhaki in front of policemen present at the scene. Since the incident happened among foreigners, it did not become a criminal case, but Turkish Tartar Muslims in Nagoya and Kobe strongly condemned Qurban;s behavior. Following their inaugural meeting, Isuhaki's movement spread to Nagoya and Kobe, and even Manchuria. In May of that year Isuhaki held a convention called "Kurultay" in Kobe, and it was decided there to establish branches of their cultural association in other cities as well as publishing their own organizational magazine called Mili Bayrak (Flag of Our Race). After Isuhaki established the Nagoya and Kobe branches, he established a center in Kumamoto, Kyushu.

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The Far East branch was set up in Manchuria. He held a ground-breaking ceremony for the Kobe mosque on 30 November and invited such guests as Professor Hajime Kobayashi from Tokyo, Bunpachiro Aruga from Kyoto, Zhang Dechun from Fengtian, and Kyodo Kawamura from Peking. Qurban Alli, on the other hand, was mainly interested in increasing his power in Tokyo rather than forming a systematic organization all over Japan. He established the Tokyo Islamic organization and its school, and his printing equipment in Arabic was the first one in Japan. His monthly magazine, Yeni Japon Mofubiri, introduced Japan to many Islamic countries. Isuhaki decided to leave Japan and Qurban Ali also left for Dalian in Manchuria. The rivalry inspired by their differences was over. Dr. Tomohide Naito recallled that the Japan Islamic Association and its executives had been very confused due to the two men's confrontation. Tanaka was also having a big year in 1933. He left Tokyo for his second pilgrimage to Mecca on 7 December. Qurban Ali and Ibrahim joined with Mitsuru Toyama to give Tanaka a send off party at the Kohyo-kan restaurant in Shiba, Tokyo. Tanaka's trip was meaningful in two ways. One was that he stopped in Teheran to visit Mitsuru Masuko's grave there. The other was that his old friend Hideo Nakao, who was traveling in Turkey at the time, joined him in Beirut to travel together to Mecca. Tanaka returned from his pilgrimage after six months. Although he gave lectures in many places after his

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homecoming, the overwork during the hard travels had an effect on his health. His strength gradually declined and he died on 15 September 1935 at his home in Kawasaki. He was 52 years old.

Qurban Ali's Story

There were many foreign Muslims who contributed to Islamic work in Japan during its early days. Among them, Mohammed Kabudoruhai Qurban Ali was the most powerful contributor. From his arrival in Japan in the Taisho Era until his reluctant departure to Dalian, he energetically devoted himself to developing educational and propagative work through Arabic and Turkish publications. He traveled all over Japan during his 20 years stay in the country. His father participated in the war for independence of the Tartars during the Russian revolution and was killed during that period. His younger brother was also killed by the Communists. Qurban Ali managed to escape to Manchuria. He joined the anti-revolutionaries led by General Semyneov Miyonof, himself a political refugee, and fought against Communist guerrillas in the Far East. After the revolution succeeded, Qurban worked under the military attache Masatane Kanda at the Japanese Embassy in Turkey. He was ordered to gather about 20 young fighters from the Bashkir area and came to Japan as leader of the group at the end of 1920. He visited the Greater Asia Association to teach about Islam, and he later published a book entitled “Ural-Altai

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Language Tribes.” Due to the influence of Qurban's book, the Greater Asia Association published "Day Break." Qurban became acquainted with Shigenobu Okuma, the elder statesman of the Japanese political world, and had many talks about how his people were treated during the revolution. He also learned a great deal about Japanese culture and the nature of the Japanese people. He realized how much his culture and Japan had many things in common. In the winter, for example, both cultures used kotatsu (foot warmers) and the whole family would enjoy their leisure time by sitting around together with their feet under the kotatsu. Both cultures also had jackets with left-side front collars, and they were both warm-hearted, brave peoples. Gradually and naturally, Qurban and his Bashkir comrades started to like Japan, and he made up his mind to make Japan his second home. Qurban got to know President Matsuoka of the Manchurian Railways and with his assistance he was employed by the railway as a special, non-regular staff member. He started to make contacts with other Turkish Tartar Muslims in Japan and made plans to gather them together to form the Tokyo Islamic Association. In 1926, he married Umm Kulthum, a daughter of Iman Yanguraji of the Seoul mosque. In autumn 1924, he moved from Manchuria to Tokyo and started putting together his Islamic group. In January 1925, he finally established the Tokyo Islamic Association

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and became its leader. He was very cleaver and prudent, and never neglected making contacts with influential people in the political and financial world. He explained the Islamic world to them and emphasized Islam's importance for Japan's planned expansion to the Asian continent. Thus, he persuaded them to support him run the Islamic association. Qurban's energetic activities with these influential people created a lot of wide open eyes. He had contacts with prime ministers and ex-premiers such as Shigenobu Okuma, Tsuyoshi Inukai, and Tetsujuro Hayashi. He had access to the top men among the nationalists like Mitsuro Toyama, Ryohei Uchida and Tokijiro Sanikawa, and he also had the backing of financial cliques and military officers, including Ogasawara Chosei and Jiro Nango.

Ideru Ural Turkish Tartar Association and Ilyas Isuhaki

Ideru Uraru Turkish Tartars are the people who live between the Ideriin Gol River and the Ural Mountains. They are the Kazan-Turkish, Bashkir Turkish, Astrakkhan-Turkish, and Tartar Turkish peoples. In 1907, Imam Afummad Inayatullha was invited from Russia to establish a mosque in Harbin, Manchuria. He added an elementary school in 1922. He was the most respected figure among the Turkish Tartar Muslims in the Far East. He once made a trip to Japan and on 8 April 1922 held an official worship service. It was the first Islamic ceremony conducted in Japan.

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The great iman appealed for the unification of Turkish Tartar Muslims in Manchuria, Korea, and Japan in order to promote the propagation of Islam. In October 1933, Ilyas Isuhaki visited Japan from Germany where he had taken political refuge from the Soviets. Isuhaki was born in Kazan in 1878. He wrote a great deal in the Kazan-Turkish language appealing for their racial self-determination and helped to enlighten his people about the pride of being Turkish. In May 1934, which was his second year in Japan, Isuhaki established the Ideru Ural Turkish Tartar Association in Kobe and became its leader. In August the same year, he also established a Kyushu district office in Kumamoto. The next year he set up a branch in Harbin, Manchuria. As he energetically spread his organization, he increasingly came in serious conflict with his rival Qurban Ali.

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Chapter 12 Islamic Cultural Associations Established By Japanese in Showa Period

Islamic Cultural Association

This association was established in May 1937. Its aims were cultural exchange, research, and mutual understanding between Japan and Islamic nations. To realize these aims, the following activities were set out: 1) introducing the cultural, economic, and social situation of Japan to Islamic nations, 2) stimulate interest of Islamic nations in Japan, 3) printing of publications about Islamic topics four times a year in Japan and three times a year in Chinese, Turkish Arabic, Persian, Malay, Urdu, etc., 4) sponsoring various academic study sessions, and 5) exchange of scholars and academic publications.

Japan Islamic Cultural Association

This organization was established in December 1936 when Japan was confronted with the many contacts it faced with Muslims overseas in Japanese occupied China and Manchuria, in Central and West Asia, Africa, and the "Southern Seas" which Japan considered as a new economic market. A serious problem was lack of objective information about Islamic culture in these areas. This impelled the authorities to establish an organization which could

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exchange information by learning native languages such as Malay, Urdu, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, etc. The activities of this organization were very similar to the Islamic Cultural Association.

Research Center for the Islamic World (RCIW)

In March 1938, the RCIW developed out of the Academic Association of Islam which was set up in October 1933. Its main activities from April 1938 to March 1941 were: 1) offering academic courses about the Turkish language, the Koran, and the Islamic world. 2) Publication of the "Monthly Islamic World," "Readers in Islam," "Major History of Islam," "Economic Situation of the Islamic World," Turkish for Beginners," and "Facts About Japan" in Arabic, Malay, Persian, Hindi, Turkish, and French. These publications were distributed to Islamic countries through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 3) Distribution of a newsletter twice a month dealing with Chinese and Manchurian Muslims.

East Asia Research Center

In May 1940 the East Asia Research Center was established within the Association of International Situational Research. The president of the association was Haruo Munakata. The executive members of the research center were president Fumimaro Konoe, vice president Kimmochi Okura, and other high ranking Japanese

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officials of the period.

East Asia Economic Research Department (EAERD)

There were many Islamic associations in Tokyo prior to and during World War II. All of them were competitors in a sense, and the best of them was the East Asia Economic Research Department due to its vast amount of financial data and information it gathered through a variety of research activities. EAERD was established as a department within the Southern Manchurian Railway Company's Survey Section and was directed by Dr. Shuei Okawa. Okawa was employed by the Southern Manchurian Railway in April 1917 after graduating from university. The next year he became editorial assistant manager in the survey section. He was engaged in research about European colonial policies in Asia, especially that of Britain towards India. In 1925 he received his PhD degree from Tokyo Imperial University for his dissertation "Research on Colonial Company Patent System." At this time Omar Ryoichi Mita entered the EAERD due to the recommendation of Hajj Kotaro Yamaoka. Mita's speciality was research on agricultual economic policy in Manchuria. This was a serious security problem at the time due to the dangerous situation in the area. In July 1929, the EAERD led by Okawa became independent from the Southern Manchurian Railway Co. and set up its headquarters in Tokyo. Okawa's protege was Saburo Shimano, who would

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later play an important role in helping to build the Tokyo mosque. Shimano was strongly influenced by Ikki Kita, a national socialist followed by young right-wing army officers, but later he was greatly influenced by Okawa. Shimano even referred to himself as Okawa's shadow. When Shimano published his "Russian-Japanese Dictionary" as part of his work with EAERD in 1928, Okawa wrote the foreword for him. In 1932 Okawa resigned as head of the EAERD after participating in the famous 15 May coup attempt. At first Shimano was suggested to succeed him as the new president, but the military authorities intervened and opposed his appointment. About the same time, Shimano began to involve himself in the Islamic movement in Japan. He was close to Qurban Ali, the leader of the Bashkir tribe in the Soviet Union, who was rapidly gaining power in the Japanese Islamic scene. Shimano helped Qurban to establish the Tokyo mosque by approaching key figures in the financial world through right-wingers such as Mitsuru Toyama and Ryohei Uchida. The result was sufficient donations of funds and land to build the mosque.

EAERD's Other Experts

Dr. Shinji Maekawa, who later became a professor at Keio University in the post-war era, started his career at the East Asia Economic Research Department in 1939. At that time there was a "South West Asia Office"

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within EAERD headed by Kisuke Kataoka, who also oversaw issues related to Islamic ideas. A colleague of Maejima in the EAERD was Toyoji Kotake who was an expert on public finance in India and who was also later to become a Keio University professor. Authorities on the Persian language at EAERD were Kametaro Yagi and Kiyoto Furuno. The latter published a book entitled The Life of Holy Mohammed. Furuno became the president of Kita-Kyushu University of Foreign Languages after the war and was later elected to the Japan Academy. There were about 40 researchers in EAERD at its peak. They also published a monthly magazine called Monthly New Asia. During the war the head office had to be moved many times to escape from American air force bombings. This was both to protect the lives of the staff and the important information gathered by them. After the war all the files and data was seized by the occupation authorities and sent to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Translation of the Holy Koran and Shumeo Okawa

After the war Shumei Okawa successfully completed translating the Koran. He first became interested in Islamic teachings after he graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1911. He became interested in the philosophical and religious aspects of India and the life of the Prophet Mohammed. The appeal of Islam grew greater day by day.

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He wrote "Introduction to Islam" during World War II and "Koran" after the war. He was classified as a Class A war criminal when the war ended in 1945, and was held at Sugamo Prison. In May 1946, he was involved in a famous incident at the war crime trials of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. He slapped Hideki Tojo, ex-general and former prime minister, on the back of the head while they were seated in the dock listening to testimony against them. Okawa was diagnosed as mentally ill and hospitalized. Strangely, however, right after hospitalization he recovered quickly and completed the translation of the Holy Koran. It took him only three years from the spring of 1946 to do the translation with notes and explanations he had gathered from German, English, French and Chinese versions of the Koran. This great achievement would probably have not been accomplished without his extensive research of Islam at the East Asia Economic Research Department.

The Good Neighborhood Association -- Cultural Activities Towards Muslim Areas

The Good Neighborhood Association (GNA) had several main cultural goals. First, publication of the Japanese translation of the Holy Koran. The translation started in the fall of 1933 when the association asked a scholar of English literature to translate a English translation of the Koran. It took about a

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year to complete the project. Second, the GNA was involved in cultural activities in the Mongolia area by order of the military police. When the Sino-Japanese War started in 1937, the GNA stopped its strictly cultural activities in Mongolia and began cooperating with the Japanese Army. After the first phase of the war, the GNA again separated from the army and expanded its activities beyond the Inshang Mountains. It established a local office in Changchakoh and hospitals in Paotoh and Kouwa. In February 1938, the GNA moved its headquarters from Tokyo to Changchakoh by order of the chief of staff of the Japanese occupation army in Mongolia. The association's tasks before the start of the Sino-Japanese war were medical care for Muslims, research, education and stock farming, and then after the start of the war, cultural activities towards Muslim areas were added to their duties.

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Chapter 13 Personal Profiles of Japanese Muslims -- Showa Era

Senjuru Hayashi, First President of the Greater Japan Islamic Association

Senjuro Hayashi was born in Kanazawa City on February 23, 1876. After finishing his junior high school course, he passed the examination to enter the Army Academy. It was just at the beginning of Japan's militaristic period. Without going into details of his military career here, in 1937 he was appointed prime minister, but his cabinet's life was very short, just 119 days. There were various reasons for its short span, but we can summarize them into two major points: 1) he was purely a military man, not a politician, and 2) he had conflicts with various political parties because of his fanatic, nationalistic, expansionist policies.

Hayashi As A Literary Man

By telling his story as a literary man we will be able to understand two points -- why he stated the fanatic expansionist policy as a general principle even though he was in a responsible post as prime minister, and second, why he was recommended to be president of the Greater Japan Islamic Association after his resignation from the

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premiership. Hayashi already had a great reverence for the gods and ancestors in his junior high school days. After entering the Army Academy, he usually went to Daido Gakusha meetings, an association headed by Kiyomaru Kawai and received instructions in concepts that unified the three religions of Shintoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. At this time in the middle of the Meiji Era, even someone like Kawai who taught religious studies didn't know much about Islam. Hayashi also knew nothing about Islam but had an inclination towards religion. Gradually, he was exposed to a broader point of view in his experiences overseas. In the Russo-Japanese War, he met many Turkish-Tartar and Central Asian Muslims among the Russian prisoners of war. They were of a lower rank because they were non-Slav. In the Taisho Era when he had reached the rank of major general and assigned to be the superintendent-general of education, he was sent to Soviet Russia. Hayashi met many Muslims in the Ukraine and the Kazan area. He was also sent to other European countries as a military representative. Through all his experiences, he responded positively to Islam when he was exposed to the atmosphere. After his retirement from the premiership, he especially became interested in studying racial and ethnic problems. In those days, Kinjiro Nozue, a director of the Mongolian Friendship Association, visited him many times and emphasized the importance of Islam. Later, Nozue assisted him in performing activities related to

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Islamic policies. In addition, various people, including religious experts and ethnologists, visited Hayashi. He listened to their opinions earnestly and put them into practice if he appreciated their ideas.

The Greater Japan Islamic Association and Hayashi

The relationship between the Greater Japan Islamic Association (GJIA) and Hayashi came about amidst the climate both before and after his serving as prime minister in 1937. Many intelligent people at this time had become concerned with nationalistic issues involving southeast Asia: Thailand, Burma, India, and Indonesia. These areas had been neglected in political, economic, military, diplomatic and cultural aspects by some scholars, although they later became part of the philosophy of the so-called Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Gradually, in response to the domestic and foreign situation, more emphasis was given to these areas. The birth of the GJIA came amidst the thinking about these problems. The motive was to establish a golden age of Islam in the Showa Era. Thus, the GJIA could be considered very significant in the Islamic history of Japan. It performed a very valuable role for eight years until its dissolution by the Allied Occupation Forces of General Douglas MacArthur in 1945. The members of GJIA were from various circles -- political, economic, academic, cultural and the military. An organization on such a large scale made selection of a

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president difficult. A suitable candidate could not be found easily. The president was obliged to fulfill the following requirements: 1) to be a person with great erudition in Islam, 2) a noble and upright person who represents every circle, and 3) a person who has control over the military. From these points of view, Hayashi was selected as the president of the association in spite of some objections, because he had the rank of general in the reserve forces and was also a former prime minister. He had also been recommended as an advisor to the Mongolian Friendship Association. Lieutenant General Nobutaka Shioten, who was also an authority on Jewish problems, was appointed as vice president of GJIA. Directors of various government bureaus and ministries took offices as chairman of the board and directors in the organization. Leading men in financial and cultural circles were also directors, as well as men of major general and rear admiral rank. Thus was born this majestic supra-partisan association consisting of more than two hundred noted persons from various circles. On September 19, 1938 a celebration was held at the Kudan military hall in Tokyo to announce the establishment of GJIA. It can be imaged how proud Hayashi must have felt to have the top post in this organization. Plans for completion of the Tokyo mosque also got a boost as a result of the formation of the GJIA. As prime minister, Hayashi had a bad reputation

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because his cabinet's life was so short, and he didn't have a chance to display his complete political talent. But as a literary and religious man, he had great success because he was well read and studied racial-nationalistic problems. In addition, his exceeding devoutness was also one of the reasons why he was chosen president of the organization. GJIA held an opening celebration of the Tokyo mosque on 12 May 1938. The next year, it held a welcoming reception for the Prince of Yemen at the Imperial Hotel which was attended by more than three hundred noted Koreans, representatives from the military and the government, and other well known public figures. This was a time of high prosperity in Japan, for the association and for Hayashi. But in December 1942, because of overwork, he handed over his post to vice president Nobutaka Shioten and voluntarily retired. He then became honorary president of GJIA. The next year he died suddenly at the age of 66 from a cerebral thrombosis. His funeral service was conducted according to Shinto rites. More than two thousand mourners attended the services, including then prime minister Hideki Tojo. The imam of the Tokyo mosque, 100-year-old Mr. Ibrahim, also attended the services and bowed deeply to honor the spirit of the departed Hayashi. Turkish-Tartars and Southeast Asian Muslims wearing their colorful ethnic clothes also showed their respects at the funeral.

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Nobutaka Shioten, The Second President of GJIA

Shioten was born in Saitama Prefecture in 1878. He graduated from the Military Academy and served in the Imperial Guards Battalion as a cadet. In 1900 at the age of 22 he was selected as a platoon leader of a Japanese engineering corps stationed in northern China around Beijing and Tenshin at the time of the Boxer Uprising. Hardly a year had passed since he was appointed a second lieutenant. He helped form a united front with British, American, Russian, Italian, German, Austrian and Spanish troops in the area and played a main role in negotiating with the Boxers although he was only a young officer. Partly owing to this experience, he later became an authority on ethnology of the Jewish and Islamic people. The commander of the Japanese Army at the time was Lieutenant General Goro Shiba, whose elder brother was Shiro Shiba, also known as Sanji Tokai. At the time, the Boxers attacked the areas of the foreign legations quite intensively. Shioten's duty was the protection, construction and repair of demolished roads in the area, so he had to master several foreign languages. He seemed to have a natural talent for linguistics. After his return to Japan, he studied French and Russian by order of the Ministry of the Army. When he later became a colonel, he was assigned to the French Army as an observer in World War I and stayed in France for three years. He became fluent in French, and also had the opportunity to go on an inspection tour of

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Sweden, a neutral power. General Shioten was a farsighted person who took a broad view of life due to his travels throughout the world. He asserted that Japan should not regard itself as a great power merely because it had won the Sino-Japanese, Russo-Japanese, and the Japanese-German wars. He gave these opinions to high ranking officials of the Ministry of the Army as well as presenting lectures throughout Japan. When he served with the allied forces intervention against the Soviet Union in Siberia as a staff officer, he had contacts with many Turkish-Tartar Muslims from Central Asia. Later, he served with the Special Service Agency in Harbin, Manchuria where he came to know many Jewish people and Tartar Muslims in particular. Around that time, he became acquainted with Qurban Ali who was in the headquarters of General Ataman Semiyonof, the famous commander of the White Russian Forces. This experience became valuable later because from the end of the Taisho era to the beginning of the Showa Era, an underground movement of communists was active in Japan. The Japanese security police suspected Turkish-Tartar Muslims of being communists for the simple reason that they came from Siberia when in fact they had escaped from the communist revolution. Shioten did everything he could to protect the Turkish-Tartars under these circumstances. The then Japanese consul general in Harbin, Hajime Matsushima, later took office as the first chairman of the

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board of GJIA in 1938 while serving concurrently as the director of the Treaties Bureau in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After duty in Manchuria, Shioten was reassigned to Kyoto as a major general attached to the headquarters of the 16th Division. He was then transferred to the headquarters of the 3rd Division in Nagoya. In Nagoya he ended 30 years of military life with honorary promotion to lieutenant general. It was mid-summer in 1929 and he was still only 50 years old. After his retirement from the army, he spent a lot of his daily life reading "Two Great Movements in Asia" by Kotaro Yamaoka, and gave lectures on Islamic peoples at the invitation of school groups in various places. Shioten continued studying the fatal conflicts between the Jewish people and Muslims. He lectured and wrote a great deal about this subject when invited to do so. He even travelled to Korea and Manchuria where he spoke about the significance of these issues with many audiences.

Vice Admiral Viscount Chosei Ogasawara

The Viscount Chosei Ogasawara was born on 20 November 1867. His father was the lord of the Karatsu feudal clan in present day Saga Prefecture. After the Russo-Japanese War, he was appointed a captain in the navy. In 1911, he was assigned to be a commissioner of Gakushuin University, the aristocrats' school, whose president was Maresuke Nogi.

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Ogasawara soon gained the trust of Nogi and became absorbed in the education of the aristocrats' children. He also took office as director of the Peerage Hall where for seven years he helped President Togo educate the Crown Prince, later to become the Showa Emperor. Ogasawara also enjoyed Togo's confidence and the younger man returned this with great respect for his superior. Promoted to rear admiral, Ogasawara was also appointed an unattached Imperial Court official. When he finally retired from the navy, he was promoted to vice admiral. He distinguished himself as a literary talent. Many novels, journal dramas and scenarios were written under his pen name. Writing seemed to be in his blood. His father had been a man of culture, particularly as a calligrapher. Ogasawara also endeavored to improve his calligraphic style as the president of two educational calligraphy societies towards the end of his life. When he turned 71 years of age in 1936, he resigned his posts as counselor and director of the Peerage Hall and his membership in the Gakushuin council. He expected to spend the rest of his life free from care, but the situation at the time did not allow it. On 7 July 1937 the Marco Polo Bridge incident broke out in China and suddenly China and Japan were at war. This excited interests about what would happen on the continent. At the same time, some men in government began to look closely at the intimate relationship between problems on the continent and Islam. Thus, the establishment of the Greater Japan Islamic

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Association (GJIA) took on much importance. Nearly 80 important figures were selected for the establishment of the GJIA from government and political circles, financial groups, academia, and the cultural world. Prior to the formal establishment of GJIA, Senjuro Hayashi was recommended as president of the organization and Nobutaka Shioten was nominated as vice president as mentioned above. Ogasawara was also recommended to be a vice president of GJIA, but he respectfully declined for the reason of his old age and the fact that he was still sad about the death of his old teacher Togo (he had died three years before). But his friends entreated him to stand for the office. They did so because of Ogasawara's noble personality, he could be neutral, and he was a genuine military officer. On the other hand he was familiar with music and literature, and had insight and experience with foreign countries. In addition, Ogasawara was brought up devoutly by his mother to study Shintoism. His religious nature caused him to be interested in studies of Islam, although he had no general knowledge about it at first. Based on these characteristics, we can say that Ogasawara and Shioten were the most suitable candidates for the position of vice presidents. Also worth noting at the time was the appointment of Takayoshi Matsumuro to the Board of Directors of the GJIA. Takayoshi Matsumoto was born in Kyoto. He was distinguished for his interest and study in nationalistic

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problems among many generals and admirals. Adventures of Masatsugu Suda

Masatsugu Suda was born in Yamanashi Prefecture on 10 August 1893. He graduated from a special course in the Russian language at the Tokyo Foreign Languages University. Thereafter, he played an active role in Russian affairs. Hajj Umar Kotaro Yamaoka graduated from the same Russian language course several years before Suda. In 1905, Yamaoka became one of the first Japanese pilgrims to go to Mecca. When the Russian Revolution broke out in 1917, Suda joined the Japanese Army in Siberia as a Russian interpreter. He took part in various battles from the Maritime Provinces in the east to Lake Baikal in the west. He endured many hardships including 40 degree below zero cold in the vast Siberian wilderness which extends over thousands of kilometers. He became very fluent in Russian through this practical experience. Many Russians praised him saying that he spoke the language better than themselves. Japanese forces were often targets of surprise attacks by Communist guerrilla bands in the area. For instance, a formation under the command of Major Masaru Tanaka was wiped out at Yutaf on 25 February 1918, and Consul General Ishida's family and other Japanese residents of Nikolaevsk were massacred on 25 May 1919. Central Asian Muslim troops such as Turkish Tartars under General Ataman Semyonof's command assisted Japanese forces during these times. The general was a

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leader of the White Russian, anti-Communist army. General Semyonof was part Russian and part Buryat Mongolian. He looked like an oriental. His dignified appearance and admirable personality attracted his subordinates to him. Due to his character, his Muslim soldiers gradually grew to admire him and they developed a strong friendship with their commander. While in Siberia for three years, Suda had slowly and almost unconsciously been attracted to Islam and was eventually converted. After the returned to Japan, he had the chance to approach Islam even closer with the visit of the Bashkir tribal leaders in 1919 and 1920. Suda and the Bashkir leader, Qurban Ali, became good friends, and he agreed to assist Qurban in Islamic activities throughout Japan. Among Suda's friends was Saburo Shimano, who also an expert on Russia. They both cooperated behind the scenes to establish the Tokyo mosque in 1938. Suda was asked to work in a special section of the Manchurian Railways because of his ability in the Russian language. This gave him a free hand and the opportunity to show his capabilities in Manchuria. Whenever he made trips from Harbin to Japan, he visited Qurban Ali to renew their friendship. Suda and Shimano started to appeal to important figures to help with the establishment of the Tokyo mosque. He also often visited the Arabia-Turkey Academic Association which had been established in front of Senshu University in Jinbocho, Tokyo. There, he encouraged Masakatsu Nakamura, Kazuo Uetani and Yoshiro

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Nagakura in the pursuit of their activities. Qurban Ali also made visits to this association, as did Bunpachiro Ariga and Dr. Tomohide Naito. Another frequent visitor was Kota Koizumi, who tried to make a pilgrimage from Beijing to Mecca on foot and disappeared without a trace. The bitter conflict between Qurban Ali and Ilyas Isuhaki intensified about this time. Although Qurban was his close friend, Suda sought to reconcile the two men and bring about harmonious cooperation for the overall development of Islam in Japan, but this attempt to arbitrate their personality dispute ended in failure. Suda had been deeply influenced by his ancestral spiritual training to study both Shinto and the different sects of Buddhist philosophy since he was a young boy. He continued to visit great priests and religious specialists to listen to their lectures. He devoted himself to clarify the issues of national Shintoism and national policy in order to successfully establish Japanese Islam, agreeing with the ideas of Makoto Matsubayashi and his group in this respect. He established friendships with important figures of other groups such as Chigaku Tanaka, Ryozo Ioki, Tanenori Irie, and Tokijiro Sanekawa who made many efforts behind the scenes to help in the construction of the Tokyo mosque in May 1938. Funds for the construction came from some of Japan's giant financial organizations, but it was these friends of Suda who played an important role in the fund drive. Conditions in Japan had rapidly changed since the occupation of Manchuria and the outbreak of the

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Sino-Japanese War. Many intelligent people began to pay attention to Islamic problems. It was at this time that the Japan Islamic Cultural Association was founded in Kyobashi, Tokyo. The chairman of the board of trustees was Ryusaku Endo, who was ex-secretary general of the Manchurian government and the governor of Aichi Prefecture. At the time, experts such as Koji Okubo and Hajime Kobayshi came to the forefront of Islamic activities as well as Dr. Tomohide Naito, an authority in Turkish Islamic studies. Then, Suda's star began to rise. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked him to establish a Japanese presence in a corner of Inner Mongolia which would be the bridgehead for Japan's advance into central Asia. Inner Mongolia had attracted domestic and international attention because it was a strategic point which connected both European and Asian continents with the Silk Road. Moreover, Soviet Russia had to be watched, and an opportunity was not to be overlooked that could mobilize for this purpose the many thousands of Muslims in this area. The ultimate vision was to set up several semi-independent Islamic regions in Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai and Eastern Turkistan where the Uighur Muslims lived. Suda was asked to work on this task in spite of the many talented men in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because of the lack of experts on Russia and Islam. Suda and Kotaro Yamaoka were the only ones with such expertise.

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The topographical and strategic importance of Inner Mongolia had awakened the interests of Japanese intelligence organizations. Temporarily, the army general staff office and the Ministry of War took over matters dealing with Islam in Inner Mongolia and prohibited other government agencies from activities there. Desk studies were the only exception allowed. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education were dissatisfied with the army's control of this important area. This was just before they established several departments that oversaw greater Asia policies. Irritated by the army's arbitrary attitude, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs belatedly established a desk in the third inquiry section dealing with Mongolian Islamic affairs. Muneo Tanabe was put in charge. The heart of the problem for the ministry was who to send to Inner Mongolia. No one was thought equal to the task except Kotaro Yamaoka and Masatsugu Suda. Yamaoka was considered something of a vagabond who was too unorthodox for the diplomats of the ministry, so Suda was the one finally selected. He was an expert on Russian Islam and had alot of practical experience with the army in Siberia as an interpreter during the Taisho Era. At the beginning of the Showa Era he had worked for the special duty section of the Japanese Army in Harbin as an intelligence agent. Therefore, he was invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to go to Inner Mongolia. He consulted with Sadajiro Sakuma who was soon to leave for the area himself and had no objections to Suda's presence there. Before leaving Japan, Suda attended the establishment

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ceremony of the Tokyo mosque in spring 1938. When the author returned to Japan after having finished an inspection tour of Inner Mongolia, he met Suda at the Tokyo mosque the day before the opening ceremony. It was unimaginable for the author that he would be acting together with Suda and the Muslim movement in Inner Mongolia for the next eight years until Japan's defeat in the war. One of Suda's accomplishments in Inner Mongolia was the setting up of "Suda Common House." The author’s righthand man, Kiyomasa Mu, found a building there for Suda which had been a local industrial bank. Mu was a fearless Salar Muslim who was killed in a case of mistaken identity by someone who thought he was the author in autumn 1943. Suda Common House served as an inn for Japanese traveling to Inner Mongolia. There were very few hotels or inns in the area at the time. The guests were multifarious. They came from both the right-wing and the left. There were always seven or eight regular guests. Among them were Buntaro Nishino, Goro Hani and Jinzo Nomoto. Nishino's father had stabbed the Minister of Education, Are Mori, during the Meiji Era. Nomoto was an adventurer of unexplored Tibet. Sadajiro Sakuma was of course one of the regulars. It was a grand sight worthy of the name Liangshanpo that these guests often argued hotly all night. Suda Common House was well received because Russian dishes served there were considered to be better than in Russia. Moreover, a guest could stay there for a

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very small amount. Suda spent alot of his own high salary of 650 yen a month on running the place. Besides travelers from Japan, many strange types always gathered there, including White Russians, Tartar Muslim refugees, Mongol-Tibetans, Donggan Muslims, and even the dreaded Japanese military police. The house fell under the special protection of Major General Tatsuji Ogura "the literary general" and Lt. Colonel Sueiwa who were in charge of the special duty section in the Japanese Army. In this regard, the house was an exceptional place. Suda worked for the Houhe consulate general during the day along with Fujio Mitsuhashi, who later was a professor at Chiba University. His great work "Turkistan" was translated about this time. At night after a nap and dinner, Suda got up at midnight and went to the basement to listen to a wireless telegraph, intercepting Moscow broadcasts on ultra-shortwave receivers which were built by GOMI, a technical unit of the special duty section. As a Russian expert his special duty was to immediately translate into Japanese what he intercepted and send these messages to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He knew the conditions of the outside world very well due to listening to the Soviet broadcasts, and grew afraid that Japan would be defeated soon in the war. But even he could not foresee the invasion of Inner Mongolia by Soviet mechanized units on 6 August 1945 after the Soviet Union unilaterally abrogated the Soviet-Japan Non-Aggression Pact. Suda remained calm in the face of the Soviet invasion.

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He hurried to the "Institute of Northwest Conditions" for which he was responsible, and went through the formalities of donating several thousands of valuable books and historical materials concerned with the local area in its library to the only charitable organization in Inner Mongolia. He then sent a Turkish Muslim boy named Kemal to Uranhowa at the foot of Great Blue Mountain to tell the Uighur refugees there to gather at Common House at once. Although it was midnight, Kemal hurried by horseback to the Uighur camp which was 10 kilometers away. The next morning, they joined another group of more than ten Uighur refugee soldiers who had also gathered together with Suda. They divided into two groups. Suda led one over the Great Wall and another escaped safely from Datong via Taiyuan to Beijing.

Return to Japan

Suda returned to Japan in 1946 after an absence of ten years. Because Tokyo was in ruins, he was obliged to live in the country. At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, a munitions boom to supply the American Army suddenly gave Japanese industry a shot in the arm and helped encourage economic recovery. In the midst of this situation, Suda established his own Islamic Institute near Tokyo Station. He continued his translations of some chronicles dealing with Altai explorations and intended to publish them from his institute. The chronicles were written by two White

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Russian explorers Mr. and Mrs. Sumingnof who were Suda's old friends. He was then invited to join Nihon University's general research institute as a staff member. There he studied ethnic issues involving post-war Islamic problems. He published studies on ethnic minority groups in China in the magazine "World Window." The author also visited this institute in Nishi-Kanda about this time. Suda attended old boy meetings in Higashi-Ginza presided over by Shoji Watanabe, who had been in the South Pacific. These meetings were sometimes held at the Ryushotei Restaurant in Ueno. Among the members were his old Muslim friends Ryoichi Mita, Makoto Matsubayashi, and Yojiro Iokibe, who had returned from Singapore, and young Muslims such as Jun Kobayashi. A new generation was rising in Japanese Islamic circles but the old one was still in high spirits, including the so-called lone wolves: Sakuma, Matsubayashi and Suda. When Sheikh Alshad, an important figure at the Tabligh School in Pakistan, visited Japan with a group, Suda and Mita escorted them to Keirinji, a famous temple involved with Shingen Takeda, a general during Japan's civil wars. It was the last chance for Suda and Mita to meet. Afterwards, when Mita and the author went to Pakistan at the invitation of Sheikh Alshad, we heard that Suda had died. He now sleeps in a Muslim cemetery in Monjuin, Shioyama City. A stone monument stands at the entrance

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of the cemetery dedicated by those who cherished Suda's achievements. Minoru Mochizuki, an expert in martial arts, who lives in Numazu City represented those who gathered contributions for the monument.

The Story of Makoto Matsubayashi

Makoto Matsubayashi was one of the members of the Northern Asian continent Muslim clique along with Sadajiro Sakuma, Masatsugu Suda and Ryoichi Mita, who formed the backbone of the Muslim group in the pre-war era. Mita was very strict on himself but kind to others. The other three were well known for their evenly matched characters. Matsubayashi was the most stubborn and undaunted among them, a man of integrity with a bold, defiant spirit who risked his life for justice and the weak. He practiced patriotic spirit based on ultranationist ideas. After World War II, he gave a big speech in front of Shimbashi Station to protest the "Li Chengwan Line" established between Korea and Japan by the South Korean president at the time. Mita took the position that the line oppressed Japanese fishermen. He also lodged his protest with the U.S. and South Korean embassies. His friends included Gennai Saito, Tokujiro Sanekawa, Ainosuke Iwata, Jingo Okamoto and Tanenori Irie who were ultranationalists and followers of Sekirei Miyake. They all helped materially and spiritually as Muslims

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or as Muslim supporters to raise funds for the construction of the Tokyo mosque by direct and indirect methods. On the Northern Asian continent, Mita stayed at Fengtian (Mukden), the present day Shenyang, in Manchuria for a long period. He enjoyed Sheikh Zhang Dechun's favor and was invited to Wenhua Ching Zhensi Mosque as an advisor in 1935. I met him at this mosque for the first time. It was tastefully furnished and had many books. When Matsubayashi made plans to take seven or eight Manchurian sheikhs to Japan on a visit. I learned 30 years later that Masahiko Amakasu happened to hear about the plan and secretly supported it financially. Amakasu was called the Demon or Dark Emperor of Manchuria. He later died an unnatural death. In the meantime, he had become aware of the importance of Islam. He sent Hisashi Tabuchi who worked at the Harbin Cooperative Association to Berlin to study the situation of Islam in Europe. After the war, Tabuchi became mayor of Okayama. Makoto Matsubayashi was apparently a man of frank and stern disposition but a kind man at heart. He visited Taiwan between 1965 and 1974 many times to meet his old friends the Chinese Muslims after a 30 year interval. He succeeded Tsuyoshi Urashige and Sekirei Miyake as head of the Seikyosha, a political education group, established by them before the war. General MacArthur, head of the occupation army, orderedSeikyosha disbanded after Japan's defeat. Urashige, a patriot, was a teacher of the Emperor

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Showa when he was still the Crown Prince. Matsubayashi died in September 1980 at the age of 88. Kensho Kawatani succeeded him as head of Seikyosha.

Kikuo Fukuda, “Zheng Chaozong”

Kikuo Fukuda was born in Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture in 1884. His acquaintances included Keiichi Ura, who was born in 1860, Tsunenobu Tatara and Yoshitetsu Uchida. All of them were unconventional heroes. Fukuda predicted Russia's ambition to expand its territory in East Asia, which culminated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. He went alone to China when he was 21 years old saying at the time, "Russia will still be ambitious to expand its territory to the East in spite of its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. "If such an occasion should arise, Xinjiang would probably be the main stage of competition among England, Russia, and China. "In Xinjiang (Eastern Turkistan) there are nearly 10 different Islamic tribes like the Uigur. They number nearly three million people. It is necessary to strengthen friendly ties with them, otherwise, we will regret it later." Fukuda went from Nagasaki to Shanghai. At the time, many ambitious young men gathered in Shanghai. While he stayed at the Eastern Light Association (Tokokai) , members of the association were moved by Fukuda's ideas and contributed a small sum to him. He left Shanghai with

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a parting gift of nearly 80 yuan. Next, he went to Yunnan taking the land route which was more difficult than taking a ship, because he wanted to use the money contributed to him as carefully as possible so he could see more of China. About two months into his trip, Fukuda had an unexpected experience. He was arrested under suspicion of being a Chinese revolutionary. The military police put him into jail for 50 days under severe conditions. After his release on the false charge, he continued his travels and arrived in Yunnan a month later. He achieved what he set out to do in Yunnan and decided to return to Shanghai where he planned a detailed trip to Xinjiang. But a dozen days out of Yunnan on his way back to Shanghai, he dropped into Zhoujiakou in Henan. This small town was as famous as Zhangjiakou and Laojiakou in Hubei Province. Almost all of the inhabitants of this small town in the mountains were Muslims. A well known teacher taught him about Islam and he was converted. He decided to stay in the town and several years passed. He changed his name to Zheng Chaozong and established a private school called Toho Gakudo, which was approved by the local Muslim community. This school aimed at giving Muslim children a pro-Japanese education. His passion and virtue attracted many young men. The ties between him and his students became very strong, therefore, he put off his departure for Xinjiang until he could find a suitable successor.

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That turned out to be Rokusuke Nitta. After Nitta got settled into Toho Gakudo, Fukuda left for Fuzhou and then Guangdong. This is the last information we have about his whereabouts. While he was still in Zhoujiakou, he wrote an essay in Chinese entitled, "Wo wei wo" (What should I do?). In the essay he insisted: "Japan should have friendly relations with Muslims in Eastern Asia and China in order to confront Soviet Russia. "For that purpose, Japanese themselves must convert to Islam and teach Chinese Muslim youth to be go-betweens with us." The chief official, Duan Qirui, in one of the Chinese provinces heard about this essay in 1918 and wanted to read it for himself. The official knew that the writer, Zheng Chaozong, was really Kikuo Fukuda, a Japanese Muslim. The official sent his political advisor, Takeshi Otani, to Hankou to investigate the possibility of carrying out the "Wo wei wo" policy for Muslims in China, but concluded that this couldn't be done in Eastern Asia. Kikuo Fukuda was never heard of again after he became 28 years old. We cannot help but to think that he died in a faraway foreign land.

Masaru "Kaizan" Sato

Kaizan was born in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1887. In 1902 he left for Manchuria midway through a school course because he was indignant with Czarist Russia for invading East Asia.

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He made his way to Siberia firmly convinced that a military conflict would occur there between Russia and Japan sooner or later. At the time he was only 16 years old. He was arrested by Russian police on suspicion of spying while traveling along the Siberian coast. By this time the Russo-Japanese War had already broken out while he was wandering there. The Russians considered him a dangerous character and he was thrown into prison. Fortunately, he escaped the death penalty and was banished to Turkistan in Central Asia. Although he experienced many hardships during this time, there were some advantages. He came to learn about Islam while wandering through Turkistan from the Muslim inhabitants. Eventually, he was converted and got to know many important figures in the Muslim community. His pseudonym "Kaizan" originated from the Japanese word "kaikyo, which means Islam. Literally, "kai " is the Chinese character for Islam and "kyo" means religion. After spending several years in Turkistan, Kaizan traveled to Europe before returning to Japan. But with his energetic personality he didn't stay at home for long. He went to Andong, Manchuria and helped Tenmon Nakano with his business. In 1909, his precious and abundant experience was appreciated at last by the General Staff Office of the Army which ordered him on a secret inspection trip to Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou with Colonel Toshi Kaetsu. Yunnan Province in southwest China was the home to many Chinese Muslims as well as Xinjiang Province in

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the northwest. Numerous fights for independence had broken out in Yunnan since the 18th century. In 1915, the Staff Office sent him on another mission to Ili in Xinjiang Province with Captain Kamesuke Nagamine. Ili is a strategic spot on the Russian-Chinese border which was made famous in Japan in the "Ili Diary" written by Major (later Colonel) Tsuyoshi Hino. Kaizan stayed in Ili and Urumchi, the capital of Xinjiang Province for three years. His knowledge of Islam helped him a great deal in fulfilling his assignment. After leaving Xinjiang, he worked for the Qingdao special duties unit in Shandong Province. He died from a disease in Qingdao on 29 March 1929. He was 42.

Isamu Masuko -- Fated To Die In Iran

Isamu Masuko was born in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. He graduated from the Military Academy in 1922. He was promoted to infantry first lieutenant in 1924. He was very famous for his skill in kendo, the ancient martial art of sword fighting and was ordered to go the army's Toyama School to improve his skills. When Ippei "Tensho" Tanaka and Qurban Ali made a provincial tour in the Tohoku area to do Islamic missionary work, Masuko happened to hear one of their lectures. He learned from the talk that friendship with Muslim tribes of Asia was a primary consideration for advancement of the ideas of Greater Asia-ism which he wholeheartedly supported.

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Masuko also learned that Islam was not contradictatory to his view of Asia based on Japanese Empire beliefs, so he began to have an inclination towards Islam. While he continued his duties in the infantry, he studied Islam with Japanese and foreign books. Qurban Ali advised him that going to an Arab country and studying in Arabic was the best way to achieve his purpose. Masuko submitted his resignation to the army and left Japan to study at Azhar University in Cairo several years before Tetsuo Kobayashi. They were among the first Japanese students to enter Azhar University in the pre-World War II period. Unfortunately, he became involved in an altercation there in 1931. It was the time of the Manchurian Incident in which Japan occupied Manchuria. Chinese Muslim students were incensed with the actions of Japan, and they began to boycott Japanese students in concert with the anti-Japan movement in China. Although Masuko had resigned from the army, the Chinese Muslim students saw him simply just as a Japanese. One day he got into a conflict with several young Chinese for a petty reason and there was a scuffle. The Chinese had knives and clubs but Masuko was unarmed. In spite of his martial art skills, he was badly outnumbered and was beaten unconscious. When he revived, he found himself lying in a hospital bed. News of his injury was reported to Masayuki Yokoyama, the consul general in Cairo, by Mr. Ude a Japanese businessman.

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The consul general immediately ordered one of his subordinates, Hideji Tamura (later to be ambassador to Saudi Arabia), to look into Masuko's condition. Tamura offered to move Masuko to a private room from the large, open ward in which he had been given a bed, but he politely and firmly refused saying that his injury was not that serious. Consul General Yokoyama advised him to return to Japan as soon as he was well enough to travel, but Masuko decided to go to Iran to continue his studies as originally intended. He was even more determined than ever to study Islam because of the distance he had traveled from Japan and the obstacles that he had encountered. It is surmised that the route he took to Iran started at Suez, and from there to Beirut, Lebanon. Then he must have gone by foot to Teheran. His lack of money and incomplete recovery from his injuries in Cairo must have made the trip extremely difficult and painful. By the time he reached Teheran nearly three months later he looked more like a vagabond than the vigorous soldier he had been prior to leaving Japan. He paid a courtesy visit to the Japanese Embassy upon his arrival. As soon as he saw the Imperial flag, he gave three cheers (banzai) and passed out. Considered an embarassment, he was sent to a charity hospital by the embassy staff. No one made the effort to discover that he had been a first lieutenant of the 5th Infantry Division in Aomori just a few years before. No news was forthcoming about him for over a year

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until the Mainichi Newspaper reported that he died at the age of 34 in a mosque in southern Iran. The report also criticized the Japanese embassy staff in Teheran for not taking sufficient care of this solitary Japanese. Hajj Nur Ippei Tanaka, Masuko's respected teacher, heard news of his death just before leaving Kobe in 1932 to make his second pilgrimage with Muhammad Ahmad Taro Yamamoto, one of his Islamic students. In Afghanistan, Tanaka ordered Yamamoto to stay in Kabul for Islamic studies and he left the city in 1934. He crossed the Afghan mountains to the Iran border at an altitude of two thousand meters in severe winter conditions. He traveled west across the desert and passed through the sacred Shian city of Mashhad. After a great deal of difficulty he finally arrived in Teheran. There, meditating on Masuko's soul, Tanaka dropped to his knees and wept tears of condolence.

To Makkah on Foot, The Saga of Kota Koizumi

Kota Koizumi was born in Tokyo on 27 June 1903. He joined the Tokyo Islamic School managed by Qurban Ali and was converted to Islam under his instruction. He wanted to make a pilgrimage to Makkah by crossing Central Asia on foot. To do this, he studied Turkish, Arabic, and Islam. He felt that becoming a pure Muslim was very important to his purpose. While he studied at the Islamic School, he often visited

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Makoto Matsubayashi at Seikyosha, a conservative political studies institute, to talk about his plan to walk to Mecca as soon as possible. Matsubayashi felt that it was too dangerous to carry out such a plan after a conference with his colleagues Ryozo Ioki and Tsuno Oka. As eager as he was to set off, Koizumi felt restrained everytime he brought up his idea. Even Qurban Ali's wife, Umm Kulthum, advised him to curtail his enthusiasm. Eventually, however, his eagerness won out. Matsubayashi gave in at last. He, Ioki and Tanenori Irie agreed to support Koizumi with expenses. It was spring of 1931. Koizumi was delighted and started preparations for his trip. In June, he left Yokohama for Dailan and from there he took the train to Beijing. He became anxious about traveling expenses and asked a Mr. Sato, one of the directors of the Manchurian Railways, to help him financially. When Matsubayashi heard this news in Tokyo, he wrote Koizumi and advised him to stay in Beijing for a while to study Chinese because traveling to eastern Turkistan would be inconvenient and dangerous without some knowledge of the language. At the same time, he asked two major right-wingers, Mitsuru Toyama and Ryohei Uchida, for donations (zakat) and sent these funds to Beijing. They sold part of their library to raise the funds quickly. Koizumi, on the other hand, was as impatient as ever, and ignoring his teacher's advice, he set out from Beijing's Xizhimen Station on the Jingsui Railway Line for west

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China. Suiyuan was the last stop on the Jingsui Line. Until that point, he didn't have that much trouble because he was on predictable public transport, but from there onwards he had to travel by foot or on horseback in a strange land. He stayed in Suiyuan for a while to collect information about travel through the desert. He decided to join a caravan that traveled between inner China and Turkistan several times a year on a regular basis. Koizumi approached the Cao family, the most famous Muslim financial group in Inner Mongolia, for help. The Cao brothers, Cao Yong and Cao Ying, had more than 300 camels. Hajj Cao Yong was one of only two or three pilgrims who had been to Mecca in all of Inner Mongolia. Cao Ying was also known by the name Cao Akhon. They both served as imams. Fortunately, they helped him to join a Muslim caravan which left for Baotou crossing the Huanghe River and the desert to the south. It was mid-summer. The caravan rested in the heat of the day and traveled under the stars in the cool air of the night to reach Ningxia, the capital of Ningxia Province (present day Yinchuan). Ningxia was a Muslim area where five warlord groups known as the Five Ma (Wu Ma) vied for power. At that time, Ma Hongkui (also known as Shaoyun) who was a son of General Ma Fuxiang (Yunting) and his cousin Ma Hongbin (Ziyin) had grasped the powers of government, military affairs, and religious leadership. They reportedly spread their religious influence in many directions. Koizumi's caravan stayed in Ningxia for a rest and

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then continued south towards Lanzhou along the Huanhe River. Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, was the biggest city in the four northwest provinces (Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjian). Industry was also developing there. Two Japanese, Gennai Saito (a former soldier) and Yoshinari Maeda (a dentist) had lived there until the end of the Taisho Era. A severe winter descended on the area. The caravan greeted the new year of 1932 in Lanzhou. In the meantime, the Manchurian Incident had occurred in northeast China, aggravating the already deteriorating relations between China and Japan. Anti-Japanese sentiments spread throughout China, including Lanzhou. Koizumi began feeling the discomfort of the way the Chinese looked at him. But, he was still firmly resolved to continue his travels. His determination, however, turned out to be his death warrant. He had already mastered Turkish and Arabic, but he had little knowledge of Chinese. When the Chinese military police arrested him on the charge of being a spy, he could not plead his innocence. The military police were suspicious of him pretending to be a Chinese and couldn't understand why he was traveling alone in the interior. Briefly, Koizumi and two other foreigners who had also been arrested escaped to a church but they were overtaken and captured. The two foreigners were apparently members of Sven Heyden's exploration party for the Ford motor company. It is unknown why Koizumi escaped to a church

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instead of a mosque where he would have been better able to explain himself. Nevertheless, all three were arrested and sent to Xian where Koizumi's personal effects were minutely investigated. The military police grew more suspicious as they found detailed travel notes and bags of gold dust for his travel expenses. Unfortunately, Koizumi was summarily executed at a place near the Weishui Bridge in the suburbs of Xian by a soldier under the command of Yang Hucheng. He was 31 years old when he was shot. His magnificent dream of a pilgrimage to Mecca on foot vanished completely just at the beginning of the Silk Road route to his destination.

A Mysterious Hero, Tadashi Onishi

Among the five Muslim generals of the Five Ma (Wu Ma), General Ma Zhongying was the most famous for his braveness and activities. He appeared as the hero Dama in a triology of books written by Sven Heyden and translated for publication in Japanese during World War II. Some Japanese staff officers were assigned to serve Ma. Among them were Tadashi Onishi, a mysterious fellow whose background and career were not very well known. Onishi first appeared in China to study Islam in Beijing under the guidance of Kyodo Kawamura who was respected by all Chinese Muslims. However, he was involved in an altercation in which

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several people were injured and the police of the Japanese legation in Beijing were ordered to arrest him. Onishi surrendered himself for punishment, but Kawamura intervened by advising him to compensate for his acts by serving Japan in a dangerous assignment. Onishi agreed and Kawamura arranged his escape from police capture. Onishi then made his way to west China with a letter of recommendation written by Kawamura to General Ma Zhongying. It is not clear how Onishi traveled to Xinjiang along the Silk Road, but it is a fact that he made his way there and faithfully served on General Ma's staff in the fight for the independence of eastern Turkistan. He later was called by the Chinese name Gan Huating. He was mentioned in a report "The Turkistan Rebellion" by an official sent from the Nangjing government to the area. Also, Professor Owen Lattimore, the greatest specialist on China, who had lived in the area of the Russian-Chinese border for 30 years, attested to the fact of Onishi's activities. Eventually, a Chinese military unit in Xinjiang Province commanded by Sheng Shicai and supported by Soviet mechanized forces fought a decisive action with Ma's troops and Onishi was captured. He was jailed in Urumuchi, but it is not clear whether he died there or managed to escape.

The Fixer of History -- Takeshi Otani

Takeshi Otani was born in Kochi Prefecture. He served

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with Colonel Nobuzumi Aoki, the resident officer in Peking for the secret service corps during the Russo-Japanese War. Afterwards, due to his Chinese ability, he was placed under the command of Colonel Rihachiro Sakanishi's special service. In 1919 Otani accompanied Major Narita and Captain Kamenosuke Nagamine as a translator when they were dispatched to the town of Xinjing. Otani stayed on to work with Ma Zhongying as a military advisor after the other two left. On the way back from present day Vighur, Otani visited Gennai Sato who had been living in Lanzhou at the time. Sato was the only Japanese in the area and was running a hospital for Chinese muslims. After returning to Japan, Otani usually stayed at his elder brother's home, a vice admiral in the Japanese marines and president of the Naval College located in Fujisawa. Among the militarist factions in China, Otani basically belonged to the Duan Qirui group and helped Emperor Xuantong escape from Peking when it was in the grip of the warlord Feng Yuzhang. In 1931 Otani cooperated with Amakasu, an ex-captain in the Japanese military police, who also helped the Chinese emperor escape from his enforced internal exile by crossing the Baihe River aboard the Japanese ship the Takasago Maru. The last Chinese emperor was then set up as the Emperor of Manchuria in March of the next year. Thus, Otani took a key role in this major event in history without being officially recognized.

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Toshizo Onishi and Takeo Osako

For Nazi Germany under Adolph Hitler, the 1930's was the peak of his power. Japan also had its golden period as a military power at that time. Only God knew that in ten years both countries would by defeated by the Allied Powers -- the United States, Great Britain, France, Holland and China -- and forced to lay down their arms in unconditional surrender. Unaware of the coming disaster for their countries, both Germany and Japan were absorbed in the big project of establishing a direct air route between their two capitals. They would link up at the mid-point -- the roof of the earth, at a town called Pamir near Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. To carry out this project, the Japanese military authorities had to construct the logistical bases for the air route between Japan and Kabul along the old Silk Road. This meant that the Japanese Army had to break through hostile territory to secure oil fields in Western desert areas of China. This was a predominately Muslim area and there were groups, especially the Wu Ma League, that wanted to establish Muslim autonomy and become independent from the National Chinese government led by Chang Kai-shek. This is the background behind the Takeo Osako story. We can assume that he was from the Kagoshima area of Japan from his family name but there is little known about his personal history, nor do we know how and when he

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started to live in China or how he became the chief military advisor to General Ma Butang. But Osako was the person who recommended to the general that he should unite the areas of Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai, proclaim autonomy, and secede from Nationalist China. General Ma agreed to Osako's strategies. The Japanese advisor wanted to ask for the cooperation of the Kanto Army Group to supply Ma with modern weapons and ammunition. Osako obtained information about the oil fields on the Silk Road for the air link with Germany. If it could be carried off, Japanese troops from Manchuria would be used to take the oil fields. Weapons and ammunition were to be moved secretly to General Ma. Osako informed Ma of how the plans were going before he made a secret trip to Xinjing (present day Changchun) for talks with his headquarters in early 1937. The relationship between Germany and Japan was becoming even closer at this time. They were planning to conclude a mutual defense treaty. Manchurian Air Lines and Lufthansa Air Lines in Germany were preparing newly designed aircraft for the anticipated Berlin-Tokyo air link. Osako traveled through mountains, and crossed rivers and deserts taking four months before he finally reached Xinjing in Manchuria. He immediately went to Kanto Army headquarters and told the Japanese military officials there about General Ma and asked for assistance to set up the autonomous Qinghai area. Ma was referred to as King of Qinghai because of his

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overwhelming power there. Japanese army headquarters accepted Osako's request, and in March 1937 a 300 camel caravan was loaded with a large quantity of rifles, machine guns, trench mortars, gasoline and airplane parts, and set out secretly to rendezvous with General Ma's forces. The caravan left Fengtian guided by Osako. Shinji Yokoyama of Manchurian Air Lines also accompanied the group along with ten other Japanese and scores of Mongolian Muslims. It was the sandstorm season, but the caravan crossed the Gobi Desert, passed through Wuyuancheng and Houtao, and headed southwest to their destination of Ochina, where they could restock their water supplies. It was also one the chosen interim bases for the air route to Berlin. The resident officers were head manager Ezaki and several co-workers including Toshizo Onishi, a graduate of the Chinese language division of Osaka University of Foreign Studies. As mentioned before, Onishi was the person who remonstrated with Yoshitetsu Uchida (sometimes called Yoshitetsu Eifuku) about his thoughtless plan to explore the Silk Road. Onishi had said, "Believe in Islam first, then think about the plan." If Uchida had not met Onishi, he probably would not have become a Muslim, and in the worst case he might have died during explorations of the Silk Road just as Keiichi Ura and Kota Koizumi did. In the meantime, the Marco Polo Bridge (Lugouqiao) shooting incident had occurred on July 7, 1937 and Chinese and Japanese forces began full fledged warfare

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against each other throughout all of China. The news reached the small frontier village of Ochina just before the Chinese central government's forces attacked the Japanese outpost. The Japanese were prepared for the worse because anti-Japan emotions had been rising as conflicts in the eastern part of the country escalated. Even though they knew it was a no-win situation Onishi and Ezaki the head manager armed themselves and prepared to fight off an attack with some of their co-workers. They were prepared for an honorable death but were captured before any shooting started. As prisoners they were made to walk a humiliating 600 km. on foot to Lanzhou. Unfortunately, that city had just been bombed by the Japanese air force before they arrived and anti-Japanese emotion was at a peak. In revenge they were marched around the city and then shot on the banks of the Yellow River. They were decapitated and their heads displayed on poles on the bridge spanning the river just outside the city. Almost at the same time Takeo Osako's caravan was attacked and annihilated by an unknown group just ten days travel from Ochina. The attackers might have been bandits, a Communist guerrilla band, or even some of General Ma's troops. In spite of this bad luck, as if by a miracle, Osako made a narrow escape from the attack and hid himself in a Mongolian Muslim village. He lived there for a year but anti-Japanese emotion was so high that he could not escape from searches by government authorities. He was finally caught and taken to the banks of the Datong River where he was executed by gunfire.

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In the end his dream came to nothing -- the dream of establishing an independent Muslim nation in northwest China with General Ma Butang.

The Story of Konichi Nakaoka, The Man Who Stabbed Prime Minister Hara To Death At Tokyo Station --

The name Konichi Nakaoka is probably not that familiar anymore, but it was to every Japanese who was born during the Meiji Era. He was widely known as the person who stabbed to death Prime Minister Hara, who was also the president of the Seiyukai political party, at Tokyo Station's special VIP entrance at 7:30 PM on 4 November 1921. Nakaoka was sentenced to life imprisonment and began serving his time in Kosuga Prison. He was then transferred to Miyagi Prison. Fortunately, he was granted amnesty three times. The first occasion was in 1924 at the time of Crown Prince Hirohito's marriage. The next time was in 1926 with the demise of Emperor Taisho, and finally when Emperor Showa was enthroned in 1928. After 13 years imprisonment, Nakaoka was released on parole on 31 January 1934. He was then 30 years old. He wrote his memoirs about those thirteen years in prison after his release. But following their publication he disappeared. Later it was discovered that he had left Japan for

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Manchuria and changed his name to Tsutomu Nagaoka around the time that the Sino-Japanese War erupted. Later, it was learned that a Japanese Muslim was running a welfare facility called Aishengyuan for unfortunate Muslim children in Hufangdian in South Manchuria. The Japanese turned out to be Nagaoka, the murderer. His constant guiding principle at that time was a comment of Emperor Meiji that emphasized the equality of all human beings. No one knows how or why he became a Muslim, but given the fact that he put so much emphasis on the quote from Emperor Meiji, we can easily imagine that he became acquainted with resident Muslims in Manchuria and was attracted by the Islamic principles of equality. Nagaoka was from a poor, unfortunate environment. He opened the facilities at Hufangdian and looked after orphans and other poor children by nursing and educating them. He was a true Muslim of Islamic spirit, a servant of God. The last anyone saw of him was in 1939 and 1940 in Harbin, North Manchuria. He stayed for a while at a public relations center located in front of the train station, where the local press often gathered. Later he was seen worshipping at a mosque in Paoduijie Street and stayed at a White Russian's home near the Jewish church. It was said that he fell in love with a Turkish-Tartar woman, but that there was some trouble related to this and he ran away to Andong on the Manchuria-Korea border. After that there was no further information about him. If he managed to escape the Soviet invasion at the end

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of 1945 and got back to Japan, he might have been quietly living somewhere up until this time, but he would have to be in his 90's at the time of the writing of this book since he was born in October 1903.

“Lone Wolf” Hiroo Hida Hiroo Hida was born in 1898. He was one of the pre-war Muslims and was a so-called lone wolf who did not belong to any established organization. From the beginning he was a practical Muslim. In spite of his great achievements, he never liked being in the limelight and spared no pains to practice the way of Allah thoroughly. His first access to Islam was probably due to close friend Professor Hajime Kobayashi, or it could have been the influence of Ibrahim Mitsuhiro Iwasawa, an ex-schoolmate. Among the Muslims in the early years of Japanese Islam, Kobayashi was the most profound scholar of Islamic history. He studied Western History at Tokyo University and Iwasawa went to Keio University. Hiroo Hida took up quarters at the foot of Mt. Rokko with a full view of Kobe Bay, where he established a gymnasium for sacred kendo, the ancient art of Japanese fencing. The spirit of sacred kendo was the way to Allah for him according to his peculiar religious philosophy. In 1939 he was training boys to be knightly warriors. His pupils were not ordinary young men, but very wicked juvenile delinquents. He trained them strictly to correct their bad habits and also made them study Islamic

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theology to recover their original spirit. The boys became very strong and healthy both in body and spirit. Most of them were sent to Manchuria to work in the forefront of the construction of the Manchurian Empire. Hida spoke about his opinions on the war in the company of like minded men at a special occasion on 3 May 1943. As the war situation grew worse, Hida himself left for Manchuria. While he was working for the secret service, he visited his ex-students living there. But overwork had ruined his health badly. He returned to Japan after the war and in 1951 he passed away quietly in Osaka. He was 53 years old.

Momotaro Enomoto, Writer

Momotaro Enomoto was born in Oishimura, Saitama Prefecture in 1908. After graduating from Omiya lower secondary school, he went to Urawa high school. But he left there before graduation and entered Rikkyo University. After graduation, he started to work at the Shanghai bureau of the Mainichi Newspaper in 1933. He returned to Japan in 1934 and was introduced to Han Wakabayashi by the ex-chief of the Shanghai Mainichi office. Wakabayashi was an expert on India who was working for the general staff office of the Japanese military as a part time employee at the time. Enomoto joined the Osaka branch of the English language Mainichi Newspaper in April 1935. The

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following year he dared to go on a pilgrimage sponsored by Wakabayashi to Mecca with Tsuyoshi Suzuki and Masashi Hosokawa. It was the sixth Japanese pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1937 he was sent to Shanghai as a special correspondent of the Mainichi. Coming back to the Tokyo head office in February 1939, he was appointed as a reporter in the political division and worked at the official residence of the prime minister. But in eight months he was sent to Paris as a correspondent because of his capabilities in foreign languages. He was very active in Berlin, Madrid and other cities in Europe. After Japan's defeat in the war, he returned to the Mainichi editorial office in Tokyo in May 1946. He retired the next year to join a toy exporting firm as director of the sales department. In October 1948, with the permission of the Allied Occupation Headquarters, he went to India as a leader of a small and medium business technology group. He then became a special advisor to Prime Minister Nehru. Two years later in June 1951 he went on a trip to Nepal and Darjeeling. He drowned himself in the "Maiden Waterfall" near Darjeeling at the age 42. The reason for his suicide is still unknown but it was said that he lost hope in life due to the failure of his business venture. Kenji Mori in Manchuria

Kenji Mori was born in Cholla Kunsan Prefecture (present day South Korea) in January 1911. He attended

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Kunsan elementary school and lower secondary school. In April 1928, he transferred to No. 6 High School (present day Okayama University). Although he entered the law faculty of Kyoto University in 1932, he joined the right-wing Ketsumeidan , the "one-kill-one" group commited to political assassinations. Mori was jailed for attempted murder after he tried to shoot then Prime Minister Reijiro Wakatsuki. In May 1937 Mori was released from prison. He immediately joined the Manchurian Association and worked at the Chengde headquarters in the Rehe district, then moved to Paotow in Inner Mongolia in 1938. He started to practice his pro-Japanese pacification work through the "Northwest Islamic Peoples" group. First, he gathered Muslim children to establish a private kindergarden. Then, he got together 20 Muslim boys to form the Paotow Muslim boys school. Meanwhile, he kept studying Islam and trained himself by worshiping and praying at one of the four mosques in Paotow every night to prepare for the day when he would be in need. Later in 1938 when the Manchurian leader De Wang visited Japan, Mori returned to form the "Inner Mongolia Research Union." The office was established in Tokyo. He gathered students for this organization from some major schools and universities in Tokyo, including Takushoku University, Waseda University, Keio University, and Tokyo School of Foreign Studies. Mori presided over the organization and Commander Koji Yano, the authority on Mongol-Islam ethnology, was

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invited to be an adviser. Perhaps Mori thought it was more important to train some competent leaders for the pacification work first than to do the job by himself in the field. But the next year in August 1941 with the war rapidly approaching with the United States, he was ordered to join the 110th Himeiji Infantry Corps. He was then transferred to the 646th Corps in Jiamusi, Manchuria. Since Major General Isamu Cho, the commander of the corps, was an old friend, Mori was quite pleased with the assignment. (Cho later commited suicide with General Mitsuru Ushijima while working as his chief of staff during the battle for Okinawa in 1945.) Around 1943, Colonel Kosaku Kanagawa, the Chief of Military Special Organizations, oversaw the establishment of the "Northwest Academy" and Mori was appointed as principal. He immediately started training twenty young men there. On 9 August 1945, the Soviet Army, in violation of the Soviet-Japan Neutrality Pact, suddenly crossed the Manchurian border and attacked Japanese troops. In response to the situation, Mori, under the command of Colonel Kanagawa, went out to reconnoiter the situation with six pupils. On 13 August, they encountered Soviet troops at Chiromto in South Xingan and they were all killed in battle. Mori was 35 years old.

Story of the Eccentric Mohammed Naotaro Kumon

Naotaro Kumon was born in Kochi Prefecture on 15 September 1891. He was a very strong and healthy boy

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and went to Korea alone when he was 15 or 16 years old. He traveled through the Korean Peninsula on foot and crossed the Yalu River near the Korean-Manchurian border, arriving at Liaoyang in South Manchuria after walking more than 40 km every day. He was employed at Manchurian Railways headquarters as an office boy. He continued his studies and met Dr. Makoto Nishimura who was working for the railway. Kumon worked for Dr. Nishimura as his assistant. In September 1913, Kumon got permission from Dr. Nishimura to leave for an exploration of Turkistan, the mystic land in the farthest interior of Asia. He first went west through Peking in 1914. His journey took place 10 years earlier than Jiro Fukushima's exploration of this area. Both Kumon and Fukushima took almost the same route along the old Silk Road from Peking and through Lanzhou. Kumon was a self-made scholar, but he was a master of style and wrote many beautiful passages and wonderful sketches in the book about his travels. He traveled through Jiayuguan along the great wall to Hami in present day Vighur and then to the south through Tianshan Beilu and Tianshan Nanlu to Karakoram Ra. Here he crossed in to India. All the details of his trip are not known. But it is clear that his experience along the way with the grandeur of nature seemed to match the sacred philosophy of Islam and he became a Muslim as a matter of course. This is something which we cannot experience in Japan or China with its Buddhist environment.

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When he got to the China-India border, he was arrested by the British on a charge of espionage. Meanwhile, Dr. Nishimura had just returned from Columbia University where he had been doing some studies and was appointed a professor at the faculty of marine products at Hokkaido University. Nishimura happened to be visiting Singapore at this time during an inspection trip around Indonesia and he saw an article in the newspaper about Kumon's arrest in India. Kumon was released however, and he continued his travels throughout India. Being a Muslim he visited and stayed at many mosques and finally arrived in Bombay, the biggest city on India's west coast. While he was training himself as a Muslim, he met the senior Japanese Muslim Haj Nur Tensho Ippei Tanaka, who assisted him to return to Japan aboard the Nagato Maru which landed him at Nagasaki. It had been 20 years since he had been in Japan. It was late October 1924. In November 1925 he visited the head office of Daihonkyo located in Kyoto. Daihonkyo was thought to be the closest religion resembling Islam in Japan. It was a religion of revelations, similar to Tenrikyo, and its doctrines were influenced by its leader, Saint Deguchi, with his outlook of the world and the universe. The resemblance to Islam caused Hirofusa Shigematsu's conversion to Daihonkyo from Islam, and there were many conversions from Daihonkyo to Islam. Kumon visited Daihonkyo many times, sometimes in the company of Ippei Tanaka, to give lectures about his journey along the Silk Road and the Taklamakan Desert.

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He also presented Saint Deguchi with the walking stick that he used during his explorations. Kumon continued his travels for the remainder of his very short life. He visited Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, where Tanaka had become a Muslim. There, he studied under a great religious teacher at Lixia Shuyuan Temple. He returned to Japan from this trip and visited Dr. Nishimura at Hokkaido University. His life was certainly a journey of continuous travels. This extraordinarily strong man died in 1930, perhaps due to his excessive hard work. He was 39 years old.

Chapter 14 Japanese Muslims in Malaya and Indonesia

Role of Tetsuo Kobayashi in Indonesia If the number of all Japanese Muslims are taken into consideration since the Meiji Era, there must be more than 50 people who have made the pilgrimages to both Mecca and Medina, the two sacred sites of Islam. These persons are permitted to put the honorable title of "Hajj" in front of their name to introduce themselves. However, there were no Japanese Muslims who had also done the pilgrimage to Karbala in Iraq, the sacred grounds of Shi'ah, except for Tetsuo Kobayashi, the only Japanese who was permitted to call himself "Karbala'i." We need to understand how difficult it was in the past

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for Hajj Karbala'i Umar Faisal Tetsu Kobayashi to make pilgrimages from Japan due to the difficulties of transportation. At his time in the pre-World War II period there was no comfortable air travel. It took more than half a year to make the trip to these sacred places. One can easily imagine how, compared to the mild climate of Japan, it must have been very difficult for him to endure the heat of the Indian Ocean and the red hot Arabian Sea. Some couldn't endure the heat and the climate. One pilgrim, Aizan Uehara, drowned himself in the Red Sea when his ship was just about to reach the port of Jiddah. He probably lost his mind due to the hot wind from the desert and suffered from the unbearable, searing heat. When Kobayashi studied at Azhar University in Cairo, he twice made pilgrimages to both Mecca and Medina. Furthermore, he also visited Karbala, Najaf, and Kazimayu -- all sacred places to Shi'ah Muslims and he was given the honorable title "Karbala'i." He was a very rare Japanese Muslim who obtained the honorable titles of both Sunni and Shi'ah Islamic followers. To the best knowledge of Japanese Muslims, he is the only Japanese of the pre-war generation who received both titles. Perhaps a contributing factor for this was that Japanese studying at Azhar University at the time received subsidies from the General Staff office of the Japanese Army through the military attache, Horyo Tateshi, at the Japanese Embassy in Turkey. This enabled wider area travels.

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From Turkey to Egypt Kobayashi was born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1912. He first entered the Agriculture and Forestry University in Okayama, and then transferred to Nihon University in Tokyo. He was arrested briefly for his support of the attempted military coup d'etat in Tokyo on 26 February 1936 (the "ni-ni-roku jiken"), but was released on bail because he was still a student. Due to a strange fate, he became acquainted with Major General Yamashita of the army investigation branch, a sympathizer of the Imperial Way Youth Cadets. Under Yamashita's patronage, Kobayashi was sent to Turkey and put under the supervision of the Japanese Embassy's military attache. This was the introduction to his first Islamic country in the Middle East. As he woke up every morning with "adhan" and looking up at the solemnly gorgeous mosques and their minarets, he gradually and naturally became a Muslim. Without the "ni-ni-roku jiken" Kobayashi would never have become a Muslim. He was not only idealistically interested in Islam, but also studied and trained himself to carry out its doctrines. He thought he had to master Arabic first in order to further study Islam, so he moved to Cairo to enter the famous Azhar University. A very influential lawyer supported him to be accepted at the university. It was the spring of 1936. After moving to Cairo, he also benefited from the support of other Japanese residents such as Otoji Saito and

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Hideji Tamura, who later became ambassador to Saudi Arabia after World War II. Thanks to their support, Kobayashi achieved a great deal of progress during his five years stay in Cairo. As he later recalled, the pro-Japanese atmosphere at the university during the period was conducive to treating Japanese students very well. He was even given a personal tutor for Arabic. He officially entered the university the next year and devoted himself to studying the Holy Koran and Hadith. This knowledge would help him a great deal during his later Indonesian years. Although he spent five peaceful years in Cairo, the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War and the gathering war clouds in Europe had an impact on the campus mood. The foreign students were from all over the world, and they gradually became hostile towards those who were from the Axis countries. Japan was still not directly affected by the rising tide of war, but Kobayashi decided to return home temporarily, hoping to come back after the war. It was December 1940, a year before Japan was to enter the war against the Allies.

Kobayashi Goes To Indonesia

The Japan to which Kobayashi returned was under growing pressure from the coming disasterous war. He visited Saito at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to thank him for his friendship in Cairo.

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Unexpectedly, Saito offered him a position working for the ministry. Saito was in a very important position in the Southeast Asia Bureau and experts in Islam were in demand at the time. There were many experts in the ministry with deep knowledge of Europe, Russia, and China, but when it came to Islam the situation was different. In the Cairo days, Saito saw great talent in Kobayashi, and it was even more apparent back in Tokyo. Islamic experts were truly needed in many fields. The Ministry of Marine Forces was no exception. In the coming war, knowledge of Islam to carry out anti-Islam strategy was indispensable to promote the occupation in Southeast Asia. Understanding the situation, Rear Admiral Minoru Maeda and Tadashi Maeda were very impressed with Kobayashi's remarkable talents and how they could be used for the Marines. Unlike the Marines, the Army had experts throughout Manchuria following the Manchurian Incident in 1931, and the start of the Sino-Japanese War. This included the Hongo and Shigekawa organizations, and the author's Seihoku group on the Chinese continent. But the situation was different in the Marines. The Islamic talents of men such as Professor Tomohide Naito and Tsuyoshi Suzuki, the vice president of the Tokyo mosque, were recognized by the armed forces and they were called upon to cooperate with the military.

At the Marines' earnest request Kobayashi was assigned to them rather than the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he

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was sent to the Celebes Islands in Indonesia to operate as a civilian employee with the Marines in the pacification work with Muslims there. It was his first visit to Indonesia, but he had traveled with Indonesian students for pilgrimages to Mecca during his Cairo days. Before his departure for Indonesia, however, he did some prodigious research to write some books about Indonesia. One which he wrote was entitled "Islam In Indonesia," part of a series in the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Part Four," which he wrote due to Saito's encouragement. This book was only 170 pages long but was very valuable at the time in bringing an understanding to the subject. It was published by the "Patriotic Newspaper" in January 1942 when the whole of Japan was flushed with excitement and joy over its triumphs in Pacific battles. A year before this, he also published a guide book called "Islamic Rituals" in which he introduced the complicated methods of worship in Islam. When Kobayashi, his comrades Saburo Kondo and Tamegoro Yoshizumi and others arrived in the Celebes, Kondo took charge of Malay newspapers, Yoshizumi gathered information about the Dutch, and Kobayashi looked after religious matters. Their activities went well and the pacification work was effective. Rear Admiral Tadashi Maeda was very sympathetic about their work and gave them a great deal of support. Kobayashi knew the Indonesian people well for being

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upright and innocent, and passionately advanced the pro-Japanese pacification work which gradually bore fruit.

Not only the native people, but also the Japanese residents in the Celebes admired him a great deal. First, he established the Celebes Islamic Association in Makassar, and later he set up Islamic associations in Borneo, Ambon, and Ceram. Many Indonesian Muslims joined these activities. Of course, these organizations were operated under the supervision of the Japanese Marines. But, unlike other associations, Kobayashi operated them with funds collected from membership fees, so they were all financially independent. He also saw that there was a strong desire among the Indonesians for freedom from Dutch rule, and he and his colleague Kurishiro started to make efforts to actualize this. However, at Japanese headquarters the first priority was to win the war. Kobayashi tried to persuade Tokyo that if independence was granted to the Dutch colony, the Indonesians would cooperate in a positive way to deliver substantial material and human resources for Japan's victory of holy war. He spared no pains to persuade the authorities of his views, but even though he made a trip to Japan to appeal for understanding about the conditions in the Celebes and Indonesia, he failed to win over anyone to his point of view. The military, especially the Marines, feared that if independence was given, resources such as petroleum,

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rubber and tin would slip from their grasp, therefore, a military solution was given the main emphasis. On 21 June 1943, American B-24 bombers based in Port Darwin suddenly attacked Makassar in the Celebes. They bombed major military installations, including the airfield, harbor facilities, and parts of the town.

There was heavy damage and the bodies of many Indonesians, regardless of age and sex were littered everywhere. Kobayashi was in Ambon that day and he took a flight to return to the Celebes, but he didn't make it. His aircraft was attacked by American planes and shot down over the sea. His body was found in the water near Tangedada, Pomara the next day. He was 31 years old.

The Malaysian Tiger, Yutaka "Harimao" Tani

"Harimao" means tiger in the Malay language. Yutaka Tani was a Japanese who sacrificed himself for the mother country by his activities in the Malaysian jungles. He was known as "Harimao," Tani was born in Fukuoka and his family moved to Malaya in 1911 when he was only a small child. They opened a barber shop and laundry in Toreganu, a town on the east coast of the Malay peninsula. Twenty years later in 1931, the Manchurian Incident occurred and Japan occupied Manchuria. Soon,

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anti-Japanese sentiment had spread over the Chinese continent and among the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. They called Japanese "the oriental devils," and there were many acts of violence against individual Japanese and their homes. The next year in 1932, Tani's eight-year-old sister disappeared. He and his parents tried desperately to find her. Eventually, his beloved sister was found dead in the jungle. It was obvious that the assailant was an overseas Chinese.

Tani was 20 years old at the time. After the death of his sister, his parents decided to return to Japan because the violence towards Japanese had become unendurable. Tani remained in Malaya to get revenge for his sister. He went underground and joined a secret resistance movement against the bourgeoisie and police power. The movement had its headquarters in northern Malaya near the border with Thailand. In several years he became the leader of a force of 1000 Thais and Malays. The force mirrored Tani's personal assets -- they were active, quick, and very resourceful. Sometimes they attacked trains and had battles with local government forces. Tani was especially good at guerilla tactics. Other anti-government groups stood in awe of him. Although he increased his power base and his activities were dramatically successful, the police finally captured him and he was thrown into prison. This was

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about at the time that Japan entered the war against the United States. Subsequently, Tani was to be freed by Toshio Kamimoto of Organization F, the code name of a Japanese military unit whose leader was Major Fujiwara. The "F" was also supposed to mean freedom and friendship. Organization F was formed for pacification work against Muslims in Southeast Asia. One of its assignments was to support Japanese army troops led by Lieutenant General Hobun Yamashita attacking north through the Malay peninsula to the Thai border. Although, Yamashita was an excellent officer who had captured supposedly impregnable Singapore, he was still faced with the British Army led by General Salem in the Malaya jungles, which was full of wild animals and poisonous snakes.

Yamashita badly needed men who knew the environment and terrain. Organization F started recruiting men who could do the job. Members of "F" were graduates of the Nakano Intelligence School in Tokyo, which also taught pacification techniques. They included Lieutenants Yamaguchi and Nakamiya, and Captain Tsuchimochi. Their major targets were Indian soldiers in the British Army, mainly Sikhs, who agreed to submit to joining the I.N.A. (Indian National Army) which the Japanese army was establishing in captured British colonies. Organization F also approached the YMA (Young Malay Association), which had been set up to direct efforts

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at pacification of Malays and overseas Chinese. But one of the main tactics was to find Yutaka Tani, the "Malay tiger," and have him cooperate with the Japanese army to help train the I.N.A. in guerilla activities against the British. First, they had to find Tani. Colonel Tamura, the military attache at the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok, assigned Toshio Kamimoto with the responsibility of finding Tani. Kamimoto was highly trusted because of his personality and the results of his duties along the Soviet-Manchurian border. He was also a graduate of the Malay language department of Takushoku University. Since he was already a member of Organization F, Kamimoto seemed to be the ideal man for the job of tracking down Tani. Kamimoto searched for Tani in the almost unpassable, muddy, deep jungles of Malaya only to discover that "Tiger" Tani had been caught and was in a jail located in southern Thailand awaiting execution. Through the efforts of Kamimoto, Tani was released from jail.

Although the "Tiger" was now freed, Kamimoto settled down to the task of indoctrinating Tani with some lessons about how to operate with the Japanese army. Tani had grown up among Malays, Chinese, Indians, and Thais without any formal Japanese education. He knew little about the war raging around him. He only knew about the mangled body of his beloved sister, and his never changing will to seek revenge for her killing.

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Kamimoto tried to teach the "Tiger" some lessons about love for his country and patriotism for Japan. With great patience, the Japanese officer finally got Tani to understand that if their mother country Japan were to be defeated then it and Malaya would be colonized forever, and they would have to submit to Great Britain. Tani took an oath to cooperate with the Japanese army. Tani went back to his beloved jungle and mustered his men for guerilla work and special missions. They became very active behind the scenes. They sabotaged military roads and bridges, intercepted messages of the British Army, and did wonderful pacification work among the Malay people. The highlight of Tani's many memorable exploits and uncountable achievements was his famous Perak Dam feat. When the British Army withdrew from the Perak Dam, they set explosives under the dam to blow it up in the face of approaching Japanese troops. Tani suspected this British plan, so he sneaked into the dam site and neutralized the explosives, making the area safe for the advancing Japanese army.

Later, although Tani was very familiar with the daunting conditions of the jungle, he suffered from malaria and was very ill and worn out. However, he never broke his oath to help the Japanese army, and forced himself to endure and fight under showers of bullets and gunpower smoke. His spirit was so strong that he continued his work until he fell into a death coma. He was finally taken from

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the front lines to a military hospital in Johore. Hearing that Tani was dangerously ill, his close Muslim followers such as Hassan gathered around his bedside. In spite of their desperate attempts to care for him during several sleepless nights, Tani the Malaysian Tiger passed away on 17 March 1942 at 32 years of age. Under his pillow was found an encouraging letter in childish handwriting from his beloved mother in Kyushu. His funeral was conducted by Captain Noboru Kaneko of Organization F.

Chapter 15 World War II Strategies Towards Indonesian Muslims and the Post-War Independence Movement

The Intelligence Team Set Up For Islamic Pacification Strategies Of Java Muslims and The Islamic Association of Celebes (Jami Islami)

The Java Islamic Strategies Intelligence Unit (JISIU) and the Islamic Association of the Celebes were the elite and most active organizations in the maneuvers with the Indonesian Muslims. The official name of JISIU was "Special Unit, Staff of the Occupying Forces of the 16th Army" (Commander, Lieutenant General Kumakichi Harada). The unit was formed in the spring of 1942 when its base was established at Bandung which offered easy

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access to intelligence information. Staff intelligence officer Major Tsugunori Kuriya formed and commanded the unit. His assistants were Captain Yoshio Marus Aki (later major) and First Lieutenant Munenari Yanagawa (later captain). The latter two officers were graduates of Nakano Intelligence School (NIS) and were in actual charge of the unit. They were considered among the best officers to graduate from NIS. But, among their leading agents were several very rare to find Japanese Muslims who had specialized in Indonesian Islamic affairs. The first was Hajj Abd Al-Mun'im (Masashi Inada), who went on pilgrimages to Mecca in 1934 and 1936. He had been sent to Indonesia from the General Staff Office in Tokyo because of his unusually deep experience with Islam. Another of the top agents was Shinji Ono (Shinji Onishi) who was born in Nara, the old capital of Japan. He had been a resident of Indonesia for more than 10 years before he joined the special unit. A third agent who joined later was Mohammed Tawfiq Sasaki. These three put all their vast experience and knowledge into the report "Islam of Java." This less than 100 page document produced on mimeographed paper described the position of Islam in Java under the Japanese military regime. It severely criticized the administration and mishandling of religious matters due to policies based on ignorance. The report was the result of wide ranging research on

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Islam in Indonesia and it was handed to the top ranking Japanese military officers there in 1943. By the end of 1943, the war was not going at all in Japan's favor. The best agent, Masashi Inada, left for Japan just before the fall of the Makin and Tarawa islands in the face of fierce American attacks. The Japanese troops on the islands chose death with honor rather than surrender. In Inada's place, Hajj Sari Suzuki Tsuyoshi was sent from Japan with his assistant Abd Al-Munir Masaharu Watanabe. Hajj Suzuki had been the vice president of the Tokyo Islamic Association and had made more pilgrimages to Mecca than any other Japanese (1934, 1936, and 1937) before the war, thus he was considered senior to his predecessor Inada. One of the most remarkable achievements of JISIU had been the establishment of a communication network between the military administration and the Muslim general public. For example, the Islamic clergy and related personnel at mosques were given a bureaucratic status, the same as general clerks in the central government. These Islamic policies made native Muslims more active in their daily lives. Also, military training was provided to Indonesian youths. The training was established in the suburbs of Bogor City. Sons of prominent Indonesian families from the ages of 16 to 25 had been selected as reserve officers so they would be prepared to fight for the country's independence. They were formed into a division called the Hizb Allah

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of Java Muslim Young Men's Association. The JISIU did its best to instill training based on Islamic principles and the Koran into the young men. Abn Al-Munir Masaharu Watanabe became the manager of the training center. In later years, former members of the Hizb Allah became prominent citizens in the new Indonesia. After independence, many became middle class bureaucrats and some even became ministers in the Indonesian government.

The Islamic Association of Celebes (Jama Islami)

Java was under Japanese army rule but the Celebes fell under naval jurisdiction. The structure of the Japanese controlled Islamic Association of Celebes (IAC) was also different. First, it was strongly connected with the headquarters of the Naval Intelligence Agency in Tokyo. Second, many of the agents posed as journalists. Third, most of its members were naval officers, and none of them were Nakano Intelligence School (NIS) graduates as in Java. And, fourth, the remainder of the agents were artists and scholars with no interest in the military. Many of the last category became quite famous after the war. IAC's aim was to propagate a pro-Japanese atmosphere in the Celebes, just as JISIU was attempting to do on Java. It achieved a high standard of success. Members of the unit, including its chief Tetsuo

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Kobayashi, were experts in the field and good at writing. Their talent flourished in native newspapers such as "The Eastern India Daily News" and "Celebes Newspaper." Their task in these publications was to instill the concept of "Holy War" against the Allies and emphasize the independence of Indonesia. Tetsuo Kobayashi, like Hajj Salih Tsuyoshi Suzuki in Java, stood up against top-ranking naval officers who did not realize the need for Indonesian independence. Until Tetsu Kobayashi's death in June 1943, the IAC extended its influence from the Celebes to Borneo in the west and Anbon in the east. Its members were successful in grasping the feelings of the native Muslims.

Sumatra Events and the Suicides of Masubuchi and Iwata

After the surrender of Singapore and southern Malaya on 15 February 1942, the Japanese army moved into Sumatra on 13 March. Organization F succeeded in persuading the Menado, Battak, and the Menankado tribes in central Sumatra to attack the Dutch Army on 11 March, only a month after the fall of Singapore. The brave Ache tribe also swore to Allah under the name of Islam to pledge their loyalty to Japan and fight against the Dutch. There had been some Japanese who had been very cooperative with the Dutch government and had been appointed its officials in parts of Indonesia. The Ache tribe considered these Japanese the same as the Dutch. These officials were very jealous of Organization F's

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activities and slandered the group with the Japanese military government established throughout Indonesia. The military government and police believed the slanders and they started to suppress Organization F. Lieutenant Commander Fujiwara attempted to explain the facts to the chief of the general staff, but in the end he and the other officers in the organization showed their loyalty to Japan and closed down their activities. After thanking his men for their service, Fujiwara left the Ache tribe to his comrade Sahei Masubuchi, who had been in Sumatra for more than 20 years. Although Masubuchi worked very hard for pacification activities in Indonesia, the sentiment towards Japan got progressively worse each day. The war situation became very bad for Japan and it was trying to survive by overtaxing laborers, seizing their food, and taking other resources. Soon the feeling against the Japanese became worse than their feelings towards the Dutch. Japan became the enemy. The Ache tribe started to use guerrilla warfare against the Japanese everywhere in Indonesia. After Japan's defeat in the war, Masubuchi took full responsibility for the situation and shot himself. He had cooperated with the Japanese military's plans, but I am sure that his dream was for the independence of Indonesia. How can anybody call him a beast of imperialism?

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Tragedy in Borneo -- Massacre of Ponchanak Muslims

Unlike areas such as Java and the Celebes where tremendous efforts were made towards intercultural communication between the Japanese and the local people, some places were totally neglected in this regard. Borneo was one of them. Borneo's largest town is Ponchanak. It is located on the equator. A major massacre claimed the lives of over a thousand Muslim natives here during World War II. They were slaughtered by Japanese swords, but eventually the guilty parties were found and executed after the war. The reasons behind the massacre are related to the 1942 occupation of Borneo by Japanese troops. On the surface Indonesian officials appeared cooperative and calm, but in fact, they were plotting secretly against the Japanese. Two Indonesian Muslim informers betrayed the plotters to the Japanese military. It was discovered that Indonesian officials, communists, and sultans of West Borneo along with the Dutch governor and his men who had escaped to Australia were involved. The goal of the plot was to establish the "Republic of West Borneo" by creating a mass rebellion on 8 December, exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The leader of the plotters was the eldest son of the Sultan, who, ironically had been one of the Indonesians who asked Japan to overthrow Dutch rule in the country. The local Japanese military headquarters immediately ordered the arrests of everyone involved in the plot. At

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first only 120 were detained but that soon increased to over a thousand persons. The top Japanese military officers, Vice Admiral Daigo and Captain Yamaji, quickly decided on executing all those under arrest, because they regarded the plotters as spies and guerrillas, not regular army troops who should be protected under the Geneva Convention. In April 1944, the Japanese Military Police used swords to execute many of the detainees in the jungle to the north of Ponchanak. Two and a half months later, 47 of the ringleaders were sentenced to death by a military court and immediately executed. Among them was the Sultan's son who waited his turn to be killed by calmly chanting verses of the Koran. This severe punishment was meted out for several reasons. One was the worsening war situation in the Western Pacific. Another reason was the lack of Japanese efforts to understand the local culture's customs, traditions, religion, daily life, and manners. But punishment finally came to the perpetrators of the massacre. In December 1947, two years after the war, Vice Admiral Daigo was publicly executed in Ponchanak.

Disaster on Jolo Island -- Six Thousand Japanese Troops Slain by Moro Tribe

Towards the end of World War II in the Pacific, there were many battles in which Japanese troops were badly mauled. The battle on Jolo Island was one of the worst examples in terms of the percentage of survivors.

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There were heavy casualties in other battles, especially due to suicide attacks on Saipan, Guam, and Iwo Jima for example, but in the case of Jolo Island the situation was startlingly different because Japanese soldiers were massacred by the local natives. The island was not that well known. It is small, approximately 60km long and 20km wide, and is located between Luzon and Mindanao islands in the Philippines. The inhabitants are Muslim Moro tribespeople, who are famous for their swordsmanship and fierce fighting spirit. In July 1944, a division of the 14th Army numbering about 6,000 men under the command of General Yamashita was dispatched to the island. They were sent there to slow the northward advance of the U.S. Army by intercepting the Americans before they could get to Luzon Island where the main Japanese force was entrenched and waiting. Japanese Imperial Headquarters, however, badly underestimated the situation on the island in terms of native sentiment towards outsiders. Of the original 6,000 soldiers sent to the island, only 80 got out alive. After a brief battle with the American forces, the Japanese escaped into the island's jungle. The soldiers became completely disorganized and demoralized. It was every man for himself in terms of foraging for food. They started stealing the Moro tribes peoples' food, sometimes killing the natives and domestic animals. The Moros responded with a vengeance. They went after the Japanese with their swords, cutting the throats of every soldier they could find. In 1978, long after the war was over, the Moros

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refused to allow a group of Japanese veterans on the island to collect the skulls of their slain comrades. Japanese Muslims should take a look at this situation for the purpose of establishing better relations with the Moro tribes people. Failure To Control Moro Tribesmen On Mindanao Island

In April 1944, the Greater Japan Islamic Association received a letter from General Staff Headquarters ordering them to select and dispatch intelligence agents to Mindanao Island in the Philippines in help in the maneuvering with Moro tribesmen. Three agents were selected. One was Jingo Okamoto who graduated from Tokyo Imperial University after majoring in political science. He then spent five years in Europe, visited India and Indonesia, and in 1921 he established the Great Asia Association. As president of the association he was recognized as an expert in Asian affairs. He was 56 years old when he was sent to Mindanao. The second agent was Seifu Furukawa. He graduated from Waseda University with a major in English literature. He was 24 years old at the time. The third man was Masato Owada, a graduate of Nippon University who worked in Manchuria as a journalist. He converted to Islam in 1938, the same year the Tokyo mosque was established. He was 30 years old. They arrived in Manila on 14 July 1944, and immediately met with about a dozen military officials. They were shocked to learn that there was no consensus about strategies to deal with the Moro tribesmen and the

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military officials had absolutely no knowledge about the reason for dispatching them to Mindanao, nor did they have any understanding about Islam. The three Islamic experts from Japan were very disappointed at the situation. Conditions were totally different from what they had been led to believe in the letter from the General Staff. The letter mentioned they would have a month to research what they were to do, and then they were to proceed to Mindanao to carry out the necessary strategies to deal with the Moro tribe. In spite of the situation in Manila, they asked for permission to leave for Mindanao Island because they didn't want to waste any time. But, suddenly on 16 August they were ordered to return to Japan for the simple reason that the Manila authorities did not have the funds to fly them to Mindanao. Islamic strategies were, therefore, a complete failure in the Philippines because the local Japanese military totally lacked the ability to realize the importance of Islam.

Japanese Muslims Involved In The Struggle For Indonesian Independence

There were three Japanese Muslims who devoted themselves to Indonesia's war of independence after World War II -- Tamegoro Yoshizumi, Tatsuo Ichirai, and Naoju Aratame.

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Tomegoro Yoshizui Tamegoro Yoshizumi was born in 1911. He was the fifth son of a farmer. In 1932, an acquaintance of his who was a merchant in Jakarta invited him to come to Java. They came back to Japan three years later, but Tamegoro loved Indonesia and couldn't wait to go back. He returned a year and half later. In Jakarta, Tamegoro was employed by a newspaper company, and he was very active as a reporter for a Japanese-Dutch business publication. He got into trouble with the authorities for his strong antagonism towards the "Shimpo," the best selling newspaper in Java at the time. This anti-Japanese newspaper was published by an overseas Chinese. Dutch police marked Tamegoro as a dangerous person, and deported him from Indonesia in January 1941, just 10 months before the outbreak of war in the Pacific. Tamegoro wanted to return to Indonesia right away but his description was posted everywhere. Nevertheless, he did slip into the country again. This was his third trip to Indonesia and it was carried out secretly with great difficulty and care. He managed to land in Sumatra, but he was soon arrested and was expelled to Australia. This was in January 1942. After nine months in captivity, he was sent back to Japan. He was ill from cruel tortures he had suffered in captivity. Although his condition became worse when his ship stopped in Singapore, he was able to continue the voyage and return home. After visiting his mother's grave, he recuperated at his

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father's house. Zentaro, his father, recommended that he marry Masano Kobayashi, who happened to be the younger sister of Tetsuo Kobayashi. All Tamegoro wanted to think about at the time was going back to Indonesia, but he followed his father's recommendation. His fourth voyage to Indonesia was undertaken with seventy comrades. He asked his friend Ainosuke Iwata to gather seventy young men from two schools, Konan Gakuin and Koa Senmon Gakko (Asia University). He started to train them especially for the hard conditions they would face in Indonesia. On 26 February 1943, they held a ceremony at the Shibazojo Buddhist Temple for their safe voyage and departed for Macassar. Tamegoro had only been married 20 days before to his wife Masano. They reached Macassar on 3 March. Tamegoro and his comrades spread out to places where they could make contacts with Indonesian young people. Their networks and activities for pacification of the Indonesian Muslims went well, but their hyperactive attitudes caused a conflict with Ikutake Hanada, the chief commander of Naval Organization "Hana" in the area. This conflict ended in Tamegoro having to dissolve his organization. No matter how right his activities were, the naval official had the power to bring to a close Tamegoro's private operation. Tamegoro wasn't happy about this turn of events and couldn't stop grumbling about this misfortune. His brother-in-law Tetsuo Kobayashi happened to be in Macassar at the time, so he and an ex-colleague Saburo

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Kondo from his newspaper days encouraged Tamegoro a great deal. Tetsuo and Tamegoro were of the same generation and their political intentions were the same. Tetsuo was doing his pacification work through Islam after the break-up of his Muslim association. He had a great influence on Tamegoro.

Starting Over In Java However, Tetsuo was in a plane shot down by American forces in the air over the Celebes. The death of his brother-in-law seriously discouraged Tamegoro. Rear Admiral Seikai Maeda of the Jakarta Naval Office was an acquaintance of both Tetsuo and Tamegoro. He became worried about Tamegoro after his brother-in-law's death and helped him to move to Java. In Java, Tamegoro worked in the Jakarta Naval Office as the third chief in the public relations office under the command of Tsuneo Yoshioka. It was 1944. Although he worked very hard in the pacification program, the sentiment towards Japan got steadily worse. The tide of war was going against Japan and Japanese military forces were struggling to survive. They overtaxed Indonesian laborers, seized their food, and took other resources from the people. Tamegoro's thoughts were with the Indonesian people. They would be hostile to Japan if the navy kept exploiting them in this way. Even if Japan won the war, the Indonesians would never accept them as a friendly nation again. He loved the country and its people. He had wanted to

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liberate them from the Dutch, and give them freedom and independence. For him, the Japanese military plans and schemes were no longer policies he could agree with. Japan became the enemy to him and he wanted to free his beloved Indonesia. Although the Japanese government issued an official statement on independence for Indonesia, Tokyo never fixed a date. Disappointed by the irresolution of the Japanese government, the radical groups led by Sukarno and Hatta began their anti-Dutch activities for independence. For Tamegoro and his comrades who loved Indonesia and wished to see it independent, the situation became more crucial. A declaration of independence never materialized before Japan surrendered unconditionally on 15 August 1945, losing the war to the Allies. But Tamegoro and other Japanese Muslims refused to return to Japan in shame.

Forming The Guerrilla Organization

As soon as Japan's defeat was announced, most Japanese in Indonesia looked forward to returning to Japan as soon as possible. But Tamegoro and his friends were different. From the beginning they had not supported the Pacific War. They cooperated with the Japanese military and its schemes because they wanted independence for Indonesia. Now,without the support of Japan, they had to fight against the return of the Dutch colonial forces alone. Knowing the severe situation they faced, they decided to

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stay in the country anyway. Tamegoro joined and devoted himself to helping 51-year-old revolutionary Tan Malaka, leader of Jakarta's people's front, which was waging guerrilla warfare against the Dutch. Tamegoro raised war funds and organized the subordinate structures of the guerrilla bands. He made money from selling war supplies from the dismantled Japanese military administration on the black market. And he tried to organize promising young men he had known through his pacification work during the war. He trained them to form the Rashugaru People's Army. Indonesia eventually declared its own independence, but it was haunted by factionalism, and the factions struggled for power. Tan Maraka's people's front, for example, came out against newly inaugurated President Sukarno. This meant Tamegoro was aligned against the power structure of Indonesia. Sukarno was cooperative with the Netherlands, but Tan Maraka was completely opposed to Sukarno and offered resistance. Friction developed rapidly among the different groups. On 15 November 1947, Sukarno signed the Ringarujatei agreement with the Dutch. Tan Maraka's people's front opposed the treaty, and many of his comrades were arrested or heavily suppressed by the new government. Before the agreement was signed, the Dutch armed forces carried out devasting air raids from 21 July of that year on Surabaya, Jogjakarta, and other areas.

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Under these attacks the lightly armed guerrilla fighters were having a difficult time surviving. They desperately tried to fight with only hand held weapons and perhaps some hand grenades. After six months of see-saw warfare, a final armistice agreement was concluded on January 1948 after arbitration by India, Australia, and the United States with the two warring sides. Tamegoro was exhausted. A total of 16 years stay in this humid, hot country had ruined his health completely. He was suffering from a chest ailment. However, he never showed this to his followers, and kept commanding the guerrilla bands. He led his group with Ichirai and over 10 other Japanese comrades who had devoted themselves to Indonesian independence. None of these guerrilla fighters had chosen to go back to Japan after the war. Probably he knew how badly his health had been ruined, and that he would not be able to fight as he could before, so he started dictating an essay on his guerrilla tactics. This ended up as a 170 page book entitled "Tactics on the War of Independence of Indonesia." It had a lot in common with Mao Tse-tung's "Guerrilla Tactics in Communist China." Independence was soon to come, but Tamegoro may have sensed that his book was to become his last will and testament to his beloved Indonesia. He died in the autumn of 1948, just before a united front of his guerrilla bands and the 13th brigade of the 16th division of the Indonesia Army was to make a general

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offensive against the Dutch Army. Tamegoro, known by the name Tohon Arif Yoshizumi, never went back to his motherland Japan. He ended his eventful life in Indonesia never seeing his beloved wife Masano again. He was 37 years old. His body was buried ceremoniously in the Islamic style at the Buritan military graveyard by his comrades of the special Japanese guerrilla group and Indonesian military officers and men.

The Last Brave Moments of Tatsuo Ichirai

The death of Captain Tamegoro Yoshizumi created much despair among the followers of the special Japanese guerrilla group in the people's united front. This was especially true of Tatsuo Ichirai, the co-captain of the band who shared the sufferings and hardships of the war with Tamegoro. Ichirai was desperately disappointed over his friend's death. He swore that he would risk his life for their dream of Indonesian racial liberation, so that he would be able to proudly follow in the footsteps of his friend and comrade Tamegoro. Ichirai was deeply concerned about the suffering of the ordinary Indonesian people. He ordered his intelligence chief Hussein Yamaguchi and his tactics coordinator Hassan Tanaka to be very careful about the pacification work with the people. In their fight against the Dutch Army, they needed to get enough information to get a grasp of its military

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equipment and movements. To do that, the native people's cooperationn was very important. Both Yamaguchi and Tanaka were former non-commissioned officers in the Manchurian police headquarters. They were sent to Indonesia when the Pacific War broke out. They were typical Japanese military officers who were bold and calm at the same time. Resourceful men, they joined the guerrilla band because they would have been executed anyway by either the Dutch or British armies. With the start of 1949, four years after Japan's defeat in the war, reconstruction had started in earnest in Japan and the nation was recovering from its state of stupor, but Indonesia was still under the occupation of the Allied Powers, and Ichirai was in an increasingly desperate situation. Still, he never hesitated to be at the head of his troops and he continued to fight for independence. He was now well known to his enemy. He was a major target. On the morning of 9 January 1949, he was at the head of his column when Dutch artillery shells rained down on them. Ichirai was one of the casualties. He was 42 years old when he died. About a year after Ichirai's death, on 27 December 1949, the red and white colors of Indonesia's national flag, the Mela Putee, were hoisted over the Dutch flag all over Indonesia. There is a three meters high stone monument on the grounds of the Mannenzan Aomatsudera Temple near Atagoyama in Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo dedicated to Ichirai and Tamegoro.

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The inscription on the stone reads:

“For Mr. Tatsuo Ichirai and Mr. Tamegoro Yoshizumi Independence is not only for a race But for the human race. 15 February 1958 The President of the Indonesian Republic, Achmed Sukarno”

The message was written by President Sukarno who visited Japan in 1958 to re-establish diplomatic relations with Japan. Tamegoro and Ichirai were part of the secret history and bitter tears behind the establishment of an independent Indonesia. The heroes of the secret history were finally being recognized and remembered for their self-sacrificing contributions, but to the bereaved families it meant little, mainly due to the fact that most of the world was welcoming peace after years of the misfortunes of war. Masano Yoshizumi, Tamegoro's wife, lost both her brother, Tetsuo Kobayashi, in Indonesia, and her husband who left her three weeks after they married. She never saw him again. One more misfortune was to befall her. After Tamegoro's death, she remarried. Her second husband was Naoju Aratame, who was then working for a private ship operating association in Jakarta. He was born in 1904. He was a graduate of the naval academy and had been appointed as a sub-lieutenant. He resigned after

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differences of opinion with other naval officers. He happened to be a very close friend of Masano's brother in Indonesia. In fact, he was the person who buried Tetsuo Kobayashi's body in Celebes after he was shot down. After the start of the Sino-Japanese War, he had been hired by the Japanese consulate-general and was well respected among old timers in Indonesia such as Saburo Kondo. He began culturing pearls on Butung Island after the war. In 1966 he took Masano to visit the site where he buried her brother. He prepared an Islamic grave stone, and moved Kobayashi's remains to the public cemetery for Muslims in Macassar. Unfortunately, he died in an accident in 1970. Masano was left with the memories of the deaths of three beloved men in her life as she took up residence in Chiba Prefecture.

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