The Reconstruction of Self and Society in Early Postwar Japan 1945-1949 by Owen Griffiths B.A., The University of Victoria, 1989 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of History) We accept this thesis^as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA August 19,99 @ Owen Griffiths 1999 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. 1 further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of WA^O^ The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date DE-6 (2/88) The Reconstruction of Self and Society in Early Postwar Japan 1945-1949 Abstract This dissertation examines a moment of unprecedented crisis in Japan's modern history - the crisis of defeat - and the impact it had on the Japanese self-image. Defeat unleashed a wide range of responses, from profound despair (kyodatsu) to a sense of new life (shinsei). Just as the material destruction of defeat defined the landscape of Japan's cities, so too did the coexistence of these two emotions create the psychological ground from which public discussion about Japan's past, present, and future emerged. From these discussions arose two interrelated debates, one concerning who was responsible for war and defeat, and the other focusing on the defects in the national character. In both cases, many Japanese believed that the resolution of these debates was a necessary first step in constructing a peace-loving, democratic nation. The deconstruction of the national character was akin to the process of negation through which many Japanese people believed they could discard the "sins of the past" and move smoothly forward into the new postwar world order. It is in this context that Tanabe Hajime's "philosophy of repentance" (zangedd) is relevant, both as a model and a metaphor for the Japanese attempt to overcome the past. Ultimately, however, Tanabe's road to salvation was not taken by many, partly due to the intellectual difficulty of his message, but also due to the re-emergence of the Emperor whose reconstruction as a symbol of new life circumscribed the public debates over war responsibility and the deconstruction of the national character, leaving unresolved fundamental questions concerning the Japanese peoples' relationship with their own past. Drawing on a broad variety of primary sources, this study explores these debates and the Emperor's resurrection in a brief but intense four-year period after Japan's defeat. Any appreciation of later postwar history must begin from this era. Through the experiences and memories of the "generation of the scorched earth" (yakeato jidai) we can gain new insights into Japan's re-emergence as an economic power, the preoccupation with "new," and the enduring sense of particularism that predominates in Japan today. ii Table of Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents iii Acknowledgement v Introduction: Self and Society in the Turning Point 1 Preamble: A Statement on History and the Past 1 Identity, History, and Early Postwar Japan 6 Coverage and Periodization 20 Part One: Kyodatsu and Shinsei Chapter One: The Yakeato Jidai 26 Descent into Hell: July 1944 - August 1945 30 Their Master's Voice: Enduring the Unendurable 48 New Life Among the Ruins: "Now I Have Interest 60 Chapter TwoiKyodatsu and Shinsei in the Black Market 78 New Life in the Black Market 87 The Treasure Trove 98 Sabotage and the Black Market 109 Daraku and the Black Market 120 Part Two: Repentance and Responsibility Chapter Three: Tanabe Hajime and the Philosophy of Repentance 127 Zangedd: The Way of Repentance 132 Tanabe's Critique of Reason 147 Repentance and the Logic of Species (Shu no Ronri) 164 iii Chapter Four: The Debate Over War Responsibility 180 Ichioku Sozange - One Hundred Million in Remorse 184 Senso Sekinin versus Haisen Sekinin 200 Damasareta ron (We Were Deceived) 208 Kyodo ron (We Collaborated) 215 Japanese Intellectuals: Deceivers and Deceived 220 Chapter Five: The Deconstruction of the National Character 228 Rationality and Science as "Other" 235 Cast Off "Old Stupid Habits" 241 The "Shackles and Fetters" of the Family 257 A Sick "Maladjusted People": The Victor's Discourse 278 Chapter Six: The Emperor's New Clothes 296 American Pre-Surrender Planning and the Emperor 302 The Emperor's Resurrection 310 The Emperor and the People 321 The Ningen Senden and the Emperor as "New Man" 329 The Busiest Man in Japan 340 Hirohito, Tojo, and War Crimes 359 Epilogue: The Corner Turned 372 Wakon/Ydsai Revisited 380 Directions for Future Research 390 Bibliography 394 iv Acknowledgements This dissertation has been a long journey, both professional and personal. Along the way, I have had help from many; in particular, my adviser Bill Wray of UBC. In addition, thanks goes to the members of my dissertation committee, Ed Hundert, Glen Peterson, and Steve Salzberg, and to my other graduate school professors, Al Tully, and Alex Woodside, all of whom made the experience intellectually challenging. I also want to thank my friends and colleagues Cyril Welch and Andrew Nurse of Mount Allison University. Finally, I want to express my sincere gratitude to Hayashi Naoko whose friendship and generosity over the years made my experiences in Japan particularly memorable. This work is dedicated to Hayashi- san, and to the memory of my good friend and teammate, Bob Fidler, who died tragically in Yokohama in January 1996. v Introduction: Self and Society in the Turning Point Introduction: Self and Society in the Turning Point A Statement on History and the Past Some years ago in an introductory anthropology course, a few months before my first Japanese adventure, the instructor offered a working definition of culture as "the arbitrary imposition of symbols upon a natural environment."1 This became the touchstone for our subsequent explorations into the world of cultural anthropology. For many years this lesson remained dormant in my memory, locked away in that dark place reserved for forgotten experiences. It was only when I began a more intensive study of history that the dark place was illuminated and the memory revived. Since then, and despite a certain uneasiness about the degree to which symbolic construction is arbitrary,2 I have grown to appreciate this definition of culture because it is central to an 1 This definition came from the introductory lecture given by Bruce Smith, a sessional instructor in Anthropology 100 at the University of Victoria in January 1985. ^The term arbitrary refers to the fact that the use and manipulation of symbols is a human act in that we actively participate in the production of symbolic meaning rather than, as Socrates would argue, have symbolic meaning emerge naturally from the inherent properties of the things themselves. For Socrates discussion on the origins of language, see the "Cratylus," in Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (eds), The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Princeton University Press, 1963, pp. 421-74. Introduction: Self and Society in the Turning Point appreciation of historical interpretation as a culturally-mediated project, and one that addresses two fundamental issues of human existence: the creation of meaning and the definition of self. The imposition of symbols, be they oral, visual, or material, represents the process by which humans make sense of the world around them.3 It is the way we "know" the world. But constructing knowledge of and giving meaning to the world is not objective in any absolute sense because the performer of the action cannot separate him or herself from the performance. To know the world is to possess it but it is also to be possessed by it.4 When we impose meaning on the world through the utilization of symbols we create a structure into which we, ourselves, are incorporated. This is true whether we speak of historians 30ral symbols are utterances while visual symbols are textualizations of those utterances (words on a page) as well as any two-dimensional rendering such as a photograph or an image projected on a television screen. Physical symbols are similar to their visual counterparts with the difference being that the former are three-dimensional. A reproduction of a work of art in a book is a visual symbol whereas the actual piece of art as well as the book itself are physical symbols. ^Edward Said, Orientalism, Vintage Books, 1979, esp. pp. 32-49. As I write this dissertation about a particular moment of lapan's past by selecting and combining various symbolic forms - documents and my own written words -1 take possession of it in the sense that I choose the symbols and the manner in which they are organized. I possess it because I am the one who made it. At the same time, I am possessed by it because the choices I make and the product I create also define me. If accepted by my committee, this dissertation will define me as a professional historian whose speciality is Japan. More fundamentally, however, in the process of constructing this work I have created an identity by locating myself not only in the world of professional historians but in the larger world of which my history of Japan is a part. I impose order on the world with symbolic forms which in turn defines my relationship with, and position in, that larger world.