Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (152 page)

In 1900 the Yamagata cabinet pushed through the “Security Police Law,” which included provisions directly affecting union activities. It did not prohibit strikes but punished both those who incited them and those who used violence to end them. This might seem evenhanded, but in fact the intent of this and similar clauses in the new law was to control the unions and prevent them from striking. K
ō
toku wrote an editorial on the new law for the
Yorozu ch
ō
h
ō
in which he said that although “violence, defamation, coercion, enticement, and agitation” were all undesirable, they should be available to the labor movement because workers “lack education, money, writing, or speech-making ability, and haven’t the vote.” He argued that in their struggles with capitalists, they had no choice but to resort to what otherwise would be considered misdemeanors.

K
ō
toku, who emerged as Katayama’s chief rival as leader of the left wing, published in 1901 his study
Imperialism, the Monster of the Twentieth Century
. Although he disclaimed any originality, saying that he had done no more than repeat what European and American scholars had already written, this was a pioneer work.
²²
His discussion of imperialism was effective, if not unique; his comments on the emperor were distinctive:

The emperor of Japan, unlike the young kaiser of Germany, is not fond of war; he places high value on peace. He does not delight in the barbarous vanity of victory for one country and desires that culture thrive for the benefit of the entire world…. He is definitely not one of the so-called patriots or imperialists.
²³

K
ō
toku was convinced that Emperor Meiji used troops only for the sake of peace, humanity, and justice. He was sure that the emperor would prefer that soldiers fight not for him or out of loyalty but for these same three ideals. At this stage of his career K
ō
toku revered the emperor. In response to articles by Yamakawa Hitoshi condemning the crown prince’s arranged marriage, K
ō
toku expressed extreme regret that even two or three people were capable of “such insane impiety.” He hoped for a union of the people and the imperial house.
²⁴

At this time the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in Peking attracted the attention of K
ō
toku and other progressive writers, who considered the intervention of the European powers (and Japan) to be a crass instance of imperialism. K
ō
toku was moved to write a series of forty editorials denouncing imperialism and advocating pacifism, two concerns that occupied a prominent place in his later writings.

In May 1901 K
ō
toku, Katayama, and others who had acquired reputations as socialists decided to form a socialist party, to be called Shakai minsh
ū
-t
ō
(Social-Democratic Party). The collapse of the Jiy
ū
-t
ō
(Freedom Party) in the previous year and the renunciation of its ideals by former members who joined It
ō
Hirobumi’s newly formed Seiy
ū
kai had created the need for a party that stood for the rights of the underprivileged. At Nakae Ch
ō
min’s request, K
ō
toku wrote an editorial mourning the loss of the Jiy
ū
-t
ō
. It was brilliantly composed in the elaborate language then in favor and earned K
ō
toku the reputation of an exceptional stylist.

Abe Isoo (1865–1949), a member of the former socialist study group, drew up a manifesto for the new party. Before long, most of its demands would be realized, but at the time they seemed dangerously revolutionary to the authorities. The demands included public ownership of the railways, free and compulsory elementary-school education, a prohibition on night work for children and women, and an end to the death penalty.
²⁵
No sooner was the manifesto issued than the government decided to ban the formation of the party and confiscated the manifestos.

According to Abe’s notes, the police leaked to him the information that the government would not prohibit the formation of the party provided that three of its demands were excised: the call for a reduction or an abolition of armaments, the advocacy of a popular referendum on every major decision, and the demand that the House of Peers be abolished. But Abe, an idealist, stubbornly refused to change a word.

The decree banning the party was issued by the minister of the interior, Suematsu Kench
ō
(1855–1920).
²⁶
Sakai Toshihiko (1870–1933), a close associate of K
ō
toku’s on the
Yorozu ch
ō
h
ō
and an acquaintance of Suematsu, went to ask why the party had been banned. Suematsu’s answer was simple: “Other countries all have their hands full with the socialist party and are doing their best to suppress it. We in Japan must likewise devote all our efforts to suppressing it.” K
ō
toku, learning of Suematsu’s attitude, wrote a withering reply saying that if Suematsu really wanted to prohibit socialism, he would have to drive all the socialists out of the country, burn all the relevant documents, and forbid the importation of foreign books. If he had the courage, the willpower, and the ability to do this, he might succeed in holding up socialism for one generation at most.
²⁷

Shortly afterward (on May 30, 1901), K
ō
toku wrote “Japanese Democracy.” In the epigraph he quoted two
tanka
by Emperor Meiji: “Whenever I look at the writings of long ago, I wonder what will happen to the country I rule” and “When I put on layers of figured silks and brocade, I think of those who have not even sleeves to keep off the cold.”
²⁸
K
ō
toku stated that the message conveyed by these two poems was democracy itself. Anyone who did not seek to carry out the emperor’s aims “committed a crime against His Majesty.” The emperor, the incarnation of democracy, deeply desired the happiness of his people, but some people in the government sought only their own profits and blocked the happiness of the people. K
ō
toku called for new principles and new ideals to suit the new age.

In September 1901 K
ō
toku met Tanaka Sh
ō
z
ō
, a valiant battler against the pollution stemming from the copper mine at Ashio. In February 1900 some 3,000 farmers from Gumma and Tochigi Prefectures had traveled to T
ō
ky
ō
to stage a peaceful demonstration, but the government ordered armed police to break up the demonstration and arrest the leaders. Tanaka, concluding that it was hopeless trying to appeal to the government, decided to throw himself on the mercy of the emperor by making a direct plea. He felt incapable of writing the fancy language needed for such a document and asked K
ō
toku, now known as a stylist, to compose the appeal. On December 10, 1901, Tanaka attempted to push the document into the emperor’s carriage, but it never reached his eyes. Tanaka was arrested, as was K
ō
toku as his accomplice. The government, not knowing what to do with the two men, finally released them as madmen.
²⁹

Three days after this incident, Nakae Ch
ō
min died of cancer. When doctors informed him that he had only a year to live, he decided to devote his remaining days to writing his memoirs. His book,
A Year and a Half
, sold 10,000 copies in three days and went through twenty-two printings, evidence that liberal thought, despite governmental suppression, was of great interest to the public. K
ō
toku, who thought of Ch
ō
min as his only teacher, wrote a moving tribute that was published the next year.

In 1903 K
ō
toku published
The Essence of Socialism
, an exposition of the principles of socialism. He acknowledged in the introduction his indebtedness to Marx, Engels, and others. His conclusion was that once socialism was put into effect, liberty, brotherly love, progress, and happiness would be solidly established. He earnestly hoped men of goodwill would come forward to help achieve socialism.
³⁰
The work had seven printings.

In October 1903 K
ō
toku resigned from the
Yorozu ch
ō
h
ō
. Its editorial policy had changed from that of a free forum, allowing even sharply contrasting opinions in its pages, to a mouthpiece of the government in its bellicose policy toward Russia.
³¹
K
ō
toku and Sakai decided that they would publish a periodical in which they could print their opinions without having to defer to anyone else. The first issue of the weekly
Heimin shimbun
(Common People’s Newspaper) appeared in November 1903, published by the Heiminsha, the newspaper’s parent organization.
³²
An announcement appeared at the top of the front page, stating the weekly’s future policy: the
Heimin shimbun
would promote liberty, equality, and fraternity. It advocated democracy, socialism, and pacifism. It hoped, to the degree the law permitted it, to obtain the active cooperation of many people. And while absolutely renouncing the use of force, it vowed to promote the socialist movement.

Even after war with Russia began to seem inevitable, the
Heimin shimbun
continued to print editorials denouncing warmongering. K
ō
toku asked in one article who had the power to declare war. According to the constitution, it was the emperor’s prerogative, but before this prerogative could be exercised, someone else made the decision—not public opinion, the elected members of the Diet, or the administrative officials, but the “the usurers called bankers.”
³³

Even though K
ō
toku’s writings could not prevent war with Russia, he continued his untiring efforts to douse the mindless war frenzy. In March 1904 he published his “Memorandum to the Russian Socialist Party,” calling its members his “comrades” and blaming the imperialistic greed of both countries for the war. He told his “brothers and sisters” of the Russian Socialist Party that both peoples had the same common enemies—so-called patriotism and militarism. His article, given also in translation in the English-language section of the
Heimin shimbun
, had a great impact on other countries where it was soon reproduced or translated.
Iskra
, the organ of the Russian Socialist Party, praised K
ō
toku’s message as a document of the highest historical significance and joined in the cry of “Down with Militarism!”
³⁴

Despite the encouragement from the Russians, K
ō
toku and the other members of the Heiminsha were no match for the war fever that gripped all Japan. In March, K
ō
toku published the leading article “Alas, a Tax Raise!” in which he criticized the rise in taxes to pay for the war. The government, deciding that the article was harmful to national interests and disruptive to social order, sentenced Sakai, the publisher and editor of the
Heimin shimbun
, to two months of minor imprisonment, the first instance of a prison sentence being imposed because of socialist activity.
³⁵

The November 13, 1904, issue of
Heimin shimbun
was intended to celebrate the first anniversary of the publication. It was decided to devote the issue to a translation of the
Communist Manifesto
. But before the periodical appeared, K
ō
toku, Nishikawa Mitsujir
ō
, and Ishikawa Sanshir
ō
, all members of the Heiminsha, were charged with disruptive activity against the state. K
ō
toku was sentenced to five months’ imprisonment and a fine of fifty yen. The issue of
Heimin shimbun
carrying the translation by K
ō
toku and Sakai of the
Communist Manifesto
was confiscated, and K
ō
toku and Sakai had to pay an additional eighty yen in fines.

K
ō
toku went to prison in July 1905. He spent the five months studying works of political doctrine and Joseph-Ernest Renan’s
Life of Jesus
. The period of uninterrupted time for study was a blessing in disguise, but he had never enjoyed robust health, and his stay in prison further weakened him. When he emerged, he was in no condition to attempt to revive the Heiminsha, as his old colleagues hoped. In a letter he wrote to the American anarchist Albert Johnson on August 10—the day the peace treaty between Japan and Russia was concluded—he revealed that although he went into prison as a socialist of the Marxist variety, he had returned to the outside world as a “radical anarchist.”
³⁶
He also listed the reasons that he thought he should go abroad. First, he wanted to master the foreign languages needed to understand international Communism and the anarchist movement. He wished also to visit revolutionary leaders in foreign countries and learn directly from their activities. Finally, he wished to go where the emperor’s poisonous hand did not reach and where he could discuss freely the emperor’s position as well as the political and economic system.
³⁷

K
ō
toku did not explain the startling change in his attitude toward the emperor. His friend Kinoshita Naoe, like K
ō
toku a socialist and pacifist, had in the past criticized the inconsistency exemplified by K
ō
toku’s insistence on employing only legal means and his deferential attitude toward the emperor. But he now believed that as the result of his five months in prison, K
ō
toku had become thoroughly and rigorously consistent in his views.
³⁸