CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Japan entered a period of colonial expansion in the late 19th century, starting with its annexation of Taiwan in 1895. Within just a few years of this colonial conquest, an anti-imperialism movement began in Japan. One of the key figures in the movement was Kōtoku Shūsui, a journalist and anarchist who wrote a book opposing imperialism and who was executed by the Japanese government in 1911.
Robert Tierney, a University of Illinois professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, has written a new book about Shūsui and the early anti-imperialism movement in Japan that he led. His book, “Monster of the Twentieth Century: Kōtoku Shūsui and Japan’s First Anti-Imperialist Movement,” includes the first English translation of Shūsui’s seminal work. The book was recently published by University of California Press.
“I think this book will be a valuable resource for people who want to study not only the history of modern empires, but also of the long-standing critique of imperialism and of the movements that opposed it,” Tierney said.
Shūsui contended that imperialism is not the result of economics – the growth of capitalism and export of money to foreign markets, as some early 20th-century theories suggest – but rather derives from political and psychological motivations. Tierney said Shūsui’s theory is that imperialism offers governments a way to divert public attention from domestic inequalities and conflicts and instead focus the energy of citizens on an external enemy, “a manipulated hatred of other nations.”
Shūsui helped establish the first Japanese socialist party in 1901, and he started an anti-war and pacifist newspaper during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) that was eventually driven out of business by the government. He was subsequently jailed for six months, went to the United States in 1906, and later started the Asia Solidarity Association, forming alliances with Chinese and other Asians studying in Japan. In 1910, he was accused of being the ringleader in an alleged conspiracy to kill the Japanese emperor and executed, an important case known as the High Treason Incident. As a result of postwar research of the trial records, most Japanese historians believe that Shūsui was framed by the authorities in order to destroy the early socialist movement; Tierney said Shūsui is widely considered to be a martyr today.
At the same time Shūsui was opposing Japanese imperialism, similar movements were happening in the U.S., with the formation of the Anti-Imperialist League, and in Britain, with opposition to the Boer War in South Africa. In addition, Shūsui is an important forerunner to the Japanese peace movements that developed after World War II.
Tierney believes the audience for the book will include those interested in the history of empire, as well as those interested in Japanese history.
“Although this book is about a specific period and discusses events that people may not be familiar with, the bigger issues raised by Kōtoku Shūsui and that he faced during his life are still relevant to us today,” Tierney said.
For example, Tierney is interested in whether a different form of imperialism exists today, in the concentration of the world’s wealth and imbalance of power, and problems of inequality and terrorism.
“We can use (Shūsui’s work) as a lens to understand the problems in the world today,” Tierney suggested.
Editor’s note: To reach Robert Tierney, email rtierney@illinois.edu.
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