The following is from an article by Professor Emeritus Tadae Takubo of Kyorin University, published in today's Sankei Shimbun "Sound Argument."
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
(Emphasis in black except for the headline is mine.
Boldly challenging the "monster" without a national outlook
Mr. Yoshihiko Seki, professor emeritus at Tokyo Metropolitan University and former member of the House of Councillors of the Democratic Socialist Party of Japan (DPJ), has been studying socialist thought in various countries, particularly the British Labour Party.
I sometimes recall him saying, "I never thought I would be able to witness the collapse of communism in my lifetime.
Japan's Unique Discourse Space
For a while after World War II, a particular discourse situation covered Japanese society, in which miscellaneous intellectuals who had lost their view of the nation were swarming around.
The result of the "50 Years of Sound Argument" was to sweep away most of the unpleasant odor that these people created.
To recall, some of the frightening and undefinable "progressive intellectuals" whose names immediately come to mind are Ikutaro Shimizu (professor at Gakushuin University), Genzaburo Yoshino (chief editor of Iwanami Shoten's "Sekai"), Masao Maruyama (professor at The University of Tokyo), Hani Setsuko (Professor at Jiyu Gakuen), Hiroshi Suekawa (President of Ritsumeikan University), Yoshitaro Hirano (Vice President of the Japan-China Friendship Association), Tomoji Abe (writer), Tsugimaro Imanaka (Professor at Kyushu University), Kaoru Yasui (Professor at Hosei University), Kanzo Uchiyama (President of the Japan-China Friendship Association), and the list is endless.
If you look at the breakdown, it is challenging to identify occupations such as progressive cultural people, Marxists, and journalists.
There have been many studies on the significance of the postwar period, but my interest is as follows.
What adherents of the Soviet Union, China, and others, as well as proponents of American democracy, had in common was a kind of shared dislike of prewar Japan.
If one lacks a sense of one's national perspective, monsters will be rampant who will praise socialist nations with impunity and represent the national interests of other countries.
Since the GHQ (General Headquarters of the Allied Forces)'s thoroughgoing policy to neutralize Japan and the prewar efforts to destroy capitalism through the Comintern were implemented in tandem, it is not surprising that Japan was in a period of great ideological turmoil.
This article continues.
