The Fascist Effect S Tudies of the W Eatherhead E Ast a Sian I Nstitute, C Olumbia U Niversity
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THE FASCIST EFFECT S TUDIES OF THE W EATHERHEAD E AST A SIAN I NSTITUTE, C OLUMBIA U NIVERSITY The Weatherhead East Asian Institute is Columbia University’s center for research, publication, and teaching on modern and contemporary East Asia regions. The Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute were inaugurated in 1962 to bring to a wider public the results of signifi cant new research on modern and contemporary East Asia. THE FASCIST EFFECT Japan and Italy, 1915–1952 Reto Hofmann CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON Copyright © 2015 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. First published 2015 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Hofmann, Reto, 1975– author. The fascist effect : Japan and Italy, 1915–1952 / Reto Hofmann. pages cm. — (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8014-5341-0 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Japan— Relations— Italy. 2. Italy— Relations— Japan. 3. Fascism— Japan— History. 4. Fascism— Italy— History. 5. Po liti cal culture— Japan. 6. Po liti cal culture— Italy. 7. Japan— Civilization— Italian infl uences. 8. Japan— Politics and government—1912–1945. 9. Italy— Politics and government—1914–1945. I. Title. DS849.I8H64 2015 327.5204509'04— dc23 2014032607 Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable- based, low- VOC inks and acid- free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine- free, or partly composed of nonwood fi bers. For further informa- tion, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu. Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Cover design: Richanna Patrick. Cover photograph: Shimoi Harukichi posing with portrait of Benito Mussolini, early 1920s. Shimoi wears the uniform of the Italian shock troops (Arditi) who held the city of Fiume (Rijeka) in 1919–1920. From Shimoi Harukichi, Taishenchû no Itaria (Tokyo, 1926). To my parents, Karl and Yvonne Hofmann Contents Ac know ledg ments ix Introduction 1 1. Mediator of Fascism: Shimoi Harukichi, 1915–1928 8 2. The Mussolini Boom, 1928–1931 38 3. The Clash of Fascisms, 1931–1937 63 4. Imperial Convergence: The Italo- Ethiopian War and Japa nese World- Order Thinking, 1935–1936 89 5. Fascism in World History, 1937–1943 109 Epilogue: Fascism after the New World Order, 1943–1952 136 Notes 143 Bibliography 177 Index 195 Ac know ledg ments I am grateful to many people for support throughout the writing of this book. I owe my greatest debt to Carol Gluck, who has provided guidance and criticism at every stage of the project, giving more of her time than I could have expected. I thank Victoria de Grazia for helping me think through Italian history and for her encouragement; Greg Pfl ugfelder, for offering his advice on all matters whenever I needed it; Harry Harootunian, for his sharp reading of various drafts and his thought-provoking seminars; Kim Brandt, for her constructive criti- cism of an earlier version of the manuscript. The book benefi ted immensely from the comments I received from Bain Attwood, Mehmet Dosemeci, Federico Finchelstein, Takashi Fujitani, Janis Mimura, Sam Moyn, and Umemori Naoyuki. I was fortunate to have many friends and colleagues who helped me by reading drafts or discussing ideas. I am particularly grateful to Adam Bronson, Alex Bukh, Giuliana Chamedes, Adam Clulow, Chad Diehl, Yumi Kim, Federico Marcon, Ben Martin, Ben Mercer, Dominique Reill, Sagi Schaefer, Saikawa Takashi, Sakuma Ken, Shōda Hiroyoshi, Suzuki Tamon, Brian Tsui, Max Ward, and Steve Wills. At Columbia, Mark Mazower shared his thoughts on the historiography of fas- cism. In Japan I benefi ted from participating in the seminars of Hori Makiyo and Umemori Naoyuki at Waseda University and in Nagai Kazu’s seminar at Kyoto University. More recently, at Monash University, colleagues and members of my research seminar, too numerous to name individually, tuned into the fi nal stages of the manuscript, giving invaluable feedback on several chapters. Back in the late twentieth century, at the University of Western Australia, Richard Bosworth and Rob Stuart laid the groundwork for this project as inspiring teach- ers and undergraduate advisers. Warmest thanks go to Kuribayashi Machiko, who kindly granted me access to her family’s private papers, welcoming me on repeat visits for over a de cade. Many individuals in Italy helped in dealing with the intricate archives and librar- ies in Rome. A fellowship at Columbia’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute gave me time to work on the manuscript— I thank Myron Cohen and Waichi Ho for making this into an intellectually stimulating experience in a friendly envi- ronment. At Cornell University Press, Roger Haydon offered expert editorial oversight. I was fortunate to present my work at a number of scholarly meetings, in- cluding the Seminar on Modern Japan at Columbia University and the History ix x AC KNOW LEDG MENTS Seminar at Monash University. I am also grateful for having been invited to speak at the workshop “Modern Germany, Italy, and Japan: Towards a New Perspective,” held at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, the Albert-Ludwigs- Universität Freiburg, and or ga nized by Patrick Bernhard, Sven Reichardt, and Lucy Riall. I am indebted to all participants at these venues for their comments and sug- gestions. A version of Chapter 4 has appeared in the Journal of Contemporary History. I would like to acknowledge the fi nancial support I have received over the years. Generous grants and scholarships from Columbia University, the Weather- head East Asian Institute, the Leonard Hastings Schoff Fund, the Whiting Foun- dation, and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology allowed me to carry out research on three continents. Monash Uni- versity contributed by covering last- minute expenses. This book would not have been possible without my wife, Siew Fung, who shared with me the ups and downs of a nomadic life, always unwavering in her loving support. Our daughters, Yza and Cya, brought much happiness. My deepest gratitude goes to my parents, Karl and Yvonne, who have helped me out in more ways than they may realize. I dedicate this book to them. THE FASCIST EFFECT The Fascist sympathizer Shimoi Harukichi posing with a portrait of Benito Mussolini in the early 1920s. Shimoi is clad in the uniform of the Italian shock troops (Arditi), who held the city of Fiume (Rijeka) in 1919–1920. (From Shimoi Harukichi, Taisenchū no Itaria [Tokyo: Shingidō, 1926].) Introduction Are we in a period of “restoration- revolution” to be permanently consolidated, to be or ga nized ideologically, to be exalted lyrically? — Antonio Gramsci, 1935 Our revolution is a restoration. — Mikami Taku, 1933 On different sides of the Eurasian continent— and on opposing sides of the barricades— Antonio Gramsci and Mikami Taku spoke of a common problem in similar terms. In the 1930s, when liberal capitalism had entered a period of crisis, they debated the contemporary trend to enact po liti cal reform while main- taining social relations unaltered or, to borrow the novelist Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s dictum, “to change everything so that everything would remain the same.” Gramsci, the Marxist thinker imprisoned by Benito Mussolini, analyzed this condition in terms of a “revolution- restoration” (rivoluzione- restaurazione), a moment of crisis when neither the forces of progress nor those of reaction man- aged to prevail.1 Lieutenant Col o nel Mikami, interrogated in a Japanese court- room about why he had shot Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi, had or ga nized a response to this condition by calling for a “restoration- revolution” (ishin- kakumei), explaining that this meant bringing about the “emperor’s benevolent rule and one- ness of sovereign and subject.”2 Together, these comments captured the mecha- nism of fascism, its role in revolutionizing the old and restoring the new in order to reconcile the tension between capital and the nation. In interwar Japan, as elsewhere, the global nature of capitalism and its tendency to crisis clashed with the nation’s attribute of exclusivity as well as its claims of harmony and timelessness. Across the world class confl ict was intensifying, the gap between city and countryside had widened, and culturally, the dislocations of modern life were refl ected in a sense of a fragmented everydayness and com- modifi ed social relations.3 Fascism promised to realign the nation with capital by restoring authority, hierarchy, and community as central notions in modern 1 2 INTRODUCTION politics. The result would be a new order premised, as Mussolini put it in 1922, on fascism’s ability to rid the “politi cal and spiritual life of all the parasitic en- crustations of the past which cannot carry on existing indefi nitely in the present because this would kill their future.”4 Why Japanese intellectuals, writers, activists, and politicians, although con- scious of the many points of intersection between their politics and those of Mussolini, were so ambivalent about the comparability of Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy is the subject of this book. Focusing on how contemporary Japa nese understood fascism, it recuperates a historical debate that has been largely disre- garded by historians, even though its extent reveals that fascism occupied a cen- tral position in the politics of interwar Japan. Since the 1970s historians of Japan have often dismissed the concept of fascism as Eurocentric and vague, but for Japa nese of all backgrounds who came of age from the 1920s to the 1940s, fascism conjured up a set of concrete associations.5 They discussed fascism for its na- tionalism, its leader, its economics of autarky and corporatism; and later, for its drive toward empire and a new world order.