Kōtoku Shūsui (1871-1911)

Kotoku Shusui (幸徳 秋水 Kōtoku Shūsui, November 4 or September 23, 1871–January 24, 1911) was a socialist and anarchist who played a leading role in introducing anarchism to Japan in the early 20th century, particularly by translating the works of contemporary European and Russian anarchists, such as Peter Kropotkin, into Japanese. He was a radical journalist and is often considered an anarchist martyr, as he was executed for treason by the Japanese government. Image File history File links KotokuShusui. ... Image File history File links KotokuShusui. ... November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 57 days remaining. ... September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... 1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... Socialism is an ideology of a social and economic system in which the means of production are collectively owned and administered by all of society. ... Anarchism is derived from the Greek αναρχία (without archons (ruler, chief, king)). Anarchism as a political philosophy, is the belief that rulers, governments, and hierarchal social relationships are unnecessary and should be abolished, although there are differing interpretations of what this means. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... World map showing Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ... Peter Kropotkin Prince Peter Alexeevich Kropotkin (In Russian Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин) (December 9, 1842 - February 8, 1921) was one of Russias foremost anarchists and one of the first advocates of what he called anarchist communism: the model of society he advocated for most of his life was that of a communalist society... Journalism is a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying, and presenting information gathered regarding current events, including trends, issues and people. ... Historically, a martyr is a person who dies for their convictions or religious faith, such as during the persecution of early Christians in the Roman Empire. ... Treason also commonly refers to a book by Ann Coulter In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation or state. ...

Biography

Socialist years and imprisonment

Kotoku moved from his birthplace, the town of Nakamura in the Kochi prefecture, to Tokyo in his mid-teens and became a journalist there in 1893. From 1898 onwards he was a columist for the Every Morning News, one of the more radical daily papers of the time; however, he resigned that position when the paper switched to a pro-war stance in October 1903 in the build up to the Russo-Japanese War. The following month he co-founded the Common Peoples' Newspaper with another Every Morning News journalist, Sakai Toshihiko. This paper's outspoken anti-war stance and disregard of the state's press laws landed its editors in trouble with the government on numerous occasions, and Kotoku himself served a five month jail sentence from February to July 1905. Nakamura (中村市; -shi) is a city located in Kochi, Japan. ... Kōchi Prefecture (高知県 Kōchi-ken) is located on the south coast of Shikoku, Japan. ... Headquarters of Tokyo Metropolitan Government View of Tokyos Shibuya district Tokyo ) (help· info), literally eastern capital, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and includes the highly urbanized downtown area formerly known as the city of Tokyo which is the heart of the Greater Tokyo Area. ... Combatants Imperial Russia Empire of Japan Strength 500,000 Soldiers 400,000 Soldiers Casualties 25,331 Killed 146,032 Wounded 47,387 Killed 173,425 Wounded Greater Manchuria, Russian (outer) Manchuria is region to upper right in lighter Red; Liaodong Peninsula is the wedge extending into the Yellow Sea The... The Common Peoples Newspaper (Heimin shimbun) was a paper for the Commoners Society (Heimin-sha), founded by Kotoku Shusui and Sakai Toshihiko. ... Hiroyuki Sakai Toshihiko (堺 利彦, January 15, 1871 - January 23, 1933) is a Japanese socialist. ...

America and the anarchist influence

In 1901, when Kotoku had attempted to found the Japanese Social Democratic Party with Sakai, he was not an anarchist, but a social democrat — indeed, Sakai and Kotoku were the first to translate The Communist Manifesto into Japanese, which appeared in an issue of the Common People's Newspaper and which got them heavily fined. His political thoughts first began to turn to a more libertarian philosophy when he read Kropotkin's Fields, Factories and Workshops in prison. In his own words, he "had gone [to jail] as a Marxian Socialist and returned as a radical Anarchist." [1] The Communist Manifesto (German: ) was first published on February 21, 1848, and is one of the worlds most influential political tracts. ... Fields, Factories and Workshops is a landmark anarchist text by Peter Kropotkin, and arguably one of the most influential and positive statements of the anarchist political position. ...

In November 1905 Kotoku travelled to the United States in order to freely criticise the Emperor of Japan, whom he now saw as the linchpin of capitalism in Japan. During his time in the US, Kotoku was further exposed to the philosophies of anarchist communism and European syndicalism. He had taken Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist as reading material for the Pacific voyage; after he arrived in California, he began to correspond with the Russian anarchist and by 1909 had translated The Conquest of Bread from English to Japanese. One thousand copies of his translation were published in Japan in March of that year and distributed to students and workers. His Majesty Emperor Akihito of Japan Imperial Seal of Japan The Emperor (天皇 tennō, literally heavenly sovereign) is a constitutionally-recognized symbol of the Japanese nation and the unity of its people. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Capitalism Capitalism has been defined in various ways. ... Anarchist communism, also known as Communist anarchism, Anarcho-communism, or Libertarian communism, is a political ideology related to Libertarian socialism. ... World map showing Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ... Syndicalism refers to a set of ideas, movements and tendencies which share the avowed aim of transforming capitalist society through action by the working class on the industrial front. ... For other meanings of Pacific, see Pacific (disambiguation). ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 3rd 410,000 km² 402. ... Cover of Elephant Editions reprint of Conquest Of Bread, 1985. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Return to Japan

On Kotoku's return to Japan, in June 1906, a public meeting was held to welcome him. At this meeting, on June 28, he spoke on "The Tide of the World Revolutionary Movement", which he said was flowing against parliamentary politics (ie. Marxist party politics) and in favour of the general strike as "the means for the future revolution." This was an anarcho-syndicalist view, and one which, because anarcho-syndicalism was growing in the US at the time, with the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World, showed the American influence clearly. A general strike is a strike action by an entire labour force in a city, region or country. ... Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labor movement, hence the syndicalism qualification. ... The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is a famous international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. It contends that all workers should be united within a single union as a class and the wage system abolished. ...

He followed this speech with a number of articles, the most well-known of which was "The Change in My Thought (On Universal Suffrage)". In these articles, Kotoku was now advocating direct action rather than political aims such as universal suffrage, which was a shock to many of his comrades and brought the schism between anarchist communists and social democrats to the Japanese working class movement. This split was made clear when the relaunched Common People's Newspaper folded in April 1907 and was replaced two months later by two journals: the social democrat Social News and the Osaka Common People's Newspaper, which argued from an anarchist position, in favour of direct action. Direct action is a method and a theory of stopping objectionable practices or creating more favorable conditions using immediately available means. ... Universal suffrage (also general suffrage or common suffrage) consists of the extension of suffrage to all adults, without distinction as to race, sex, belief, or social status. ...

Although most anarchists preferred peaceful means, such as the dissemination of propaganda, many anarchists in this period turned to terrorism as means of achieving revolution and anarchist communism, or at least hitting out against the state and authority. Repression of publications and organisations, such as the Socialist Party of Japan, and "public peace police law", which effectively prevented trade union organisation and strikes, were both factors in this emerging trend in Japan. However, the only incident was when four anarchists were arrested for possessing bomb making equipment. Although no attacks had been carried out, on January 18 1911 twenty-six anarchists were convicted of plotting to assassinate the Emperor. Kotoku was hanged along with ten others on 24th January, 1911, (the one woman, Kanno Suga, was executed the following day because it had already turned dark, not for reasons of delicacy) even though only four of the many arrested were found to be involved in a planned attempt on the Emperor's life, and Kotoku had by this time removed himself from the plot. This episode became known as The High Treason Incident (Taigyaku Jiken). U.S. propaganda poster, depicting a Nazi stabbing a Bible. ... The term terrorism is largely synonymous with political violence, and refers to a strategy of using coordinated attacks that typically fall within the time, manner of conduct, and place commonly understood as unconventional warfare. ... The Japan Socialist Party (日本社会党) (in Japanese Nihon Shakai-to) was a former Japanese political party with a socialist, left-wing ideology, which functioned between 1945 and 1996. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... It has been suggested that Targeted killing be merged into this article or section. ... The High Treason Incident (Taigyaku Jiken) relates to a plot in 1910 to assassinate the Japanese Emperor by Japanese socialists-anarchists. ...

See also: anarchism and violence

Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of hierarchy and imposed authority. ...

External links

• The Anarchist Movement in Japan, a pamphlet by John Crump and one source for this article.

• e-texts of Shusui's works at Aozora bunko