Restoration of Japan IV

Japan entered the 1960s on a bad note. The ANPO protests, the resignation of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi and finally the assassination of Inejiro Asanuma. However Japan would make a complete turn around by the mid 60s becoming one of the most successful nations in the world. This episode covers the legacy of Nobusuke Kishi and Japan's transformation into the Japan we know today.

Topics covered
Assassination of Inejiro Asanuma
Suicide of Otoya Yamaguchi
Hayato Ikeda Rises to the Call
Japan Becomes an Economic Powerhouse
The Turbulence of '68
The Legacy of Nobusuke Kishi

Transcript

Restoration of Japan

While Nobusuke Kishi was recovering from his wounds, A televised debate was being held between the 3 major political parties in front of an audience of 2,500 people. The participants in the debate were Suehiro Nishio of the Democratic Socialist Party, the newly ascended Prime Minster Hayato Ikeda of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Inejiro Asanuma, of the Japan Socialist Party. 

Inejiro Asanuma was a charismatic figure who lived a modest life, he was also a controversial figure, a veteran of the Japanese Diet and ardent opponent of Western Imperialism.

During the days of the 2nd World War Asanuma was a supporter of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and of Imperial Japan, once the war ended he spearheaded the Japan Socialist Party or JSP’s opposition to revising Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, or Japan’s remilitarization. His Logic was always anti Western Imperialism.

The year before he was widely criticized in an incident where he visited Mao Zedong’s China and called the United States “the shared enemy of China and Japan” during a speech in front of the Chinese Communist Party. 

When he returned from this trip he wore a Mao suit while disembarking from a plane in Japan, sparking criticism even from Socialist leaders.

Japan, as well as its ally the United States legally recognized Taiwan’s ROC as the sole legitimate ruler of China. Mao’s Communist China was therefore illegitimate.

Under Asanuma's leadership, the JSP played a leading role in the massive Anpo protests against revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in 1960, angering rightists who supported the treaty.

The Debate started at 3:00 P.m and Nishio of the Democratic Socialist Party would speak first. Once he finished Asanuma approached the podium and began his speech.

Immediately, right-wing groups in the audience began loudly heckling him, and the television microphones and reporters sitting in the front row could not hear him, forcing the moderator to interrupt and call for calm.

A few minutes later the audience finally calmed down and Asanuma  resumed Speaking…

-INSERT ASANUMA SPEAKING-

While speaking a young man dressed in school clothing rushed on stage with a Wakizashi, a Samurai Short sword. He thrust it through Asanuma’s ribs, Asanuma grabbed his left side in pain before the boy attempted to stab him again.

Onlookers from the crowd began rushing the stage and the young man attempted to commit suicide with the sword but the sword was wrestled from him.

Asanuma died within minutes from massive internal bleeding            

His violent death was seen in graphic detail on national television, causing widespread public shock and outrage. the tape of Asanuma's assassination was shown many times to millions of viewers.

A Pulitzer prize winning photograph captured right as the sword was being pulled from Asanuma shocked the world. 

The Assassin

The Assassin was a member of a Far-Right party led by Bin Akao, a Japanese Ultranationlist who strangely enough was a lifelong supporter of the USA, even during the 2nd World War, Akao was opposed to going to war with the USA.

During his youth Akao had become acquainted with Asanuma while the two lived on an agrarian commune together. Akao became disillusioned with communism during his time on the farm and was later sent to jail by the Japanese thought police for a speech that was against the Emperor. While in prison he converted to right-wing Ultranationalism.

Eventually after the war he formed his party, the Greater Japan Patriotic Party of which the 17 year old Assassin named Otoya Yamaguchi had become a member of. Although Yamaguchi grew up in relative privilege he became radicalized by his older brother and joined Akao’s Pro-American Anti-Communist movement.

During the ANPO protests Akao led many counter-protestors. on the other side was Asanuma leading his own sect of protestors.

Yamaguchi was arrested and released 10 times over the course of the ANPO protests and came to the conclusion that Akao was not radicle enough.

Yamaguchi resigned from Akao's group to be free to take more "decisive" action.

Following the assassination, Yamaguchi was arrested and imprisoned awaiting trial. Throughout his imprisonment, Yamaguchi remained calm and composed and freely gave extensive testimony to the police. Yamaguchi consistently asserted that he had acted alone and without any direction from others. Less than three weeks after the assassination, on 2 November, Yamaguchi mixed a small amount of toothpaste with water and wrote on his cell wall, "Long live the Emperor" and “Would that I had seven lives to give for my country”. Yamaguchi then knotted strips of his bedsheet into a makeshift rope and used it to hang himself from a light fixture.

Yamaguchi would become a legend to the Japanese far right, the day of his suicide is still celebrated to this day. His actions inspired a series of Right-Wing copycat crimes.

Even Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes has found inspiration from Yamaguchi, in October 2018 while in Manhattan

 He stepped out of his car wearing glasses with Asian eyes drawn on the front and pulled a samurai sword out of its sheath. Police forced him inside. Later, McInnes and an Asian member of the Proud Boys re-enacted the 1960 murder of Inejiro Asanuma; a captioned photograph of the actual murder had become a meme in alt-right social media.

AFTERMATH

On the night of Asanuma’s assassination protesters began flooding the streets of Tokyo calling for the entire Ikeda cabinet to resign in order to take responsibility for failing to ensure Asanuma’s safety.

Ikeda and his advisors worried that a new protest movement might arise that would be the second coming of the Anpo protests

Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda had not even been premier for 3 months by this point and many saw him as a stand in man to restore the peace after Kishi. He was not very charismatic and had the image of an unpopular politician out of touch with the common people and prone to verbal gaffes. 

You are not alone Joe Biden

few expected Ikeda to be anything more than a temporary placeholder prime minister.

However Ikeda proved them wrong 

Asanuma although controversial was well liked, he was a modest and hardworking man who earned respect from all across the political spectrum. 

His assassination truly shocked Japan. Shortly after his death, Ikeda gave a heartfelt eulogy for Asanuma on the floor of the Diet. Commemorating Asanuma as a "speech-giving everyman" (enzetsu hyakushō), Ikeda declared:

“You made service to the people the core of your political principles. Literally running from east to west, you were constantly appealing directly to the people with unrivaled eloquence and unmatched passion.

’Numa truly is a speech-giving everyman

With his soiled clothes and tattered briefcase;

Today in this public hall,

Tomorrow at a roadside temple in Kyoto.

This is what Asanuma’s comrades used to sing about him back in the 1920s, when they were founding the Japan Labour-Farmer Party. Even after he became Chairman [of the JSP], this “speech-making everyman” spirit never showed the least sign of flagging. Even now, we all still have vivid recollections of you giving all those speeches in every corner of this nation.” 

Ikeda's short speech was met with thunderous applause and left many lawmakers in tears.

With far-right groups conducting a series of violent terrorists acts they began losing support from the common people

With Asanuma’s assassination the Japan Socialist Party broke up. Before his death the JSP had been an unhappy marriage between far left socialists, centrist socialists, and right socialists.

Asanuma was a charismatic figure who had been able to hold many of these mutually antagonistic factions together through the force of his personality.[17] Under Asanuma's leadership, the party had won an increasing amount of seats in the Diet in every election over the latter half of the 1950s and seemed to be gathering momentum.

Asanuma’s death deprived the party of leadership

His successor Saburo Eda was a centrist and took the party in a centrist direction far faster than the left socialists were ready to accept.[17] This led to growing infighting within the party, and drastically damaged its ability to present a cohesive message to the public. Over the rest of the 1960s and going forward, the number of seats the Socialists held in the Diet continued to decline until the party's extinction in 1996

The failure of the ANPO protests also broke up the student movement Zengakuren which disintegrated into numerous warring factions, paving the way for the rise of the radical New Left sects 

 The irony of the situation was that the political violence of both the left and right would pave way for a new peaceful era of Japanese History.

The Anpo protests also influenced a series of transformations in Japanese art and literature, as disillusionment with the failure of the protests to stop the treaty led more artists and writers to experiment with new types of artistic and literary forms.

-INSERT LES RALLISEZ DENUDES –

IKEDA ECONOMY GROWTH

Prime Minister Ikeda surprised observers by undertaking a dramatic personal makeover. He drew a sharp contrast to Kishi's "high posture" (高姿勢, kō shisei) and ruthless, take-no-prisoners approach by taking a "low posture" (低姿勢, tei shisei) and by adopting an accommodating stance toward the political opposition and making "Tolerance and Patience" (i.e. toward the political opposition) his slogan for the fall election campaign.[4]: 76  Ikeda also underwent a deliberate physical makeover, switching out the dark, double-breasted suits and severe, wire-rimmed glasses he had worn prior to becoming prime minister for more approachable light, single-breasted suites and thick, plastic-rimmed glasses.[4]: 84  Most dramatically of all, Ikeda announced his bold Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double the size of Japan's economy in just ten years' time

ECONOMY of the 60s

Japan’s eonomy had been growing massively since the occupation ended, between 1953-1965 GDP expanded by more than 9% per year.

By the early 1960’s this success was beginning to be felt calming tensions around Japan. 

When the economy is good and you are gaining more wealth than your parents’ generation and their parents’ generation before them, it is hard to focus on things like Communist revolution and Ultranationalism. A good economy breeds a healthy society.

In Japanese imperial society the Three Treasures represented the aristocracy, The sword, The Mirror and the Jewel. Representing virtue, wisdom and benevolence, this equaling authority. 

As the ancient Japanese Legend goes, these 3 treasures were brought to earth by Ninigi-no-Mikoto grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu and great-great grandfather of the first Emperor of Japan Jimmu these three treasures eventually passed to Jimmu and became ingrained in Japanese culture

With American influences continuing and the growth of the economy throughout the 1960s, the three treasures transformed into the refrigerator, the washing machine and the television set of which all Japanese families needed to have.

By 1962, it was estimated that 79.4% of all urban homes and 48.9% of rural homes in Japan had television

Japan by the mid 60s also ushered in a new type of industrial development as the economy opened itself up to international competition. products, such as automobiles, electronics, ships, and machine tools assumed new importance.

As population growth slowed and the nation became increasingly industrialized in the mid-1960s, wages rose significantly. Labor unions which survived the ANPO protests kept salary increases growing

Ikeda also set out to repair the US-Japan relationship Which had been damaged by the anti-American character of the anti-Treaty and the cancellation of Eisenhower's visit.

 He gave numerous reassurances to the U.S. government that he would staunchly support U.S. Cold War policies, including support for Taiwan and non-interaction with mainland China. He asked for, and was granted, a summit meeting with incoming U.S. president John F. Kennedy in Washington D.C. in the summer of 1961. At the summit, Ikeda reiterated his support for U.S. policy, and Kennedy promised to treat Japan more like a close ally such as Great Britain.[4]: 60–62  Ikeda hoped to make up for Eisenhower's inability to visit Japan by hosting Kennedy in Tokyo, and Kennedy agreed.

US investment and financial support was drastic for the growth of the Japanese economy.

In 1962, French president Charles De Gaulle famously referred to Ikeda as "that transistor salesman,"[5] signalling that Japan was becoming more known for exporting electronics than for the cheap toys, bicycles, and textiles it had exported in the 1950s.

In the election of 1963 Ikeda to the outrage of Kishi announced the LDP would renounce any effort to revise Japan’s postwar constitution and specifically Article 9, which banned Japan from having a standing military.

Ikeda even made "no constitutional revision on our watch" one of the LDP's campaign slogans for the general election.

Ikeda shortly after winning the election contracted cancer, it progressed rapidly and the day after the closing of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Ikeda announced his resignation. Hoping to avoid a vicious intra-party struggle to succeed him, Ikeda took the unusual step of personally designating Eisaku Satō the younger brother of Nobusuke Kishi, as his successor. 

Shortly after Ikeda entered hospital for operation, he died of pneumonia several days after the operation, aged 65

 Eisaku SATO continued Ikeda’s economic model and the Japanese economy continued to grow substantially. To Kishi’s continued resentment Sato did not attempt to revise Article 9.

Education and those attending university arose drastically duing the 1960s. after the Old left fell apart a New Left formed  in Japan. 

The New Left often based their ideas on Western Existentialist, like that of Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sarte. They were more inclusive in the Western world and thus the tumultuous Year 1968 caught their attention.

 Mass Protests erupted everywhere,

 in Eastern Europe anger at the communist regimes and their limiting of Freedom of speech resulted in the Prague Spring. protesting began in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia.

 In many other countries, there were struggles against dictatorships, political tensions and authoritarian rule, such as the beginning of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City, and the escalation of guerrilla warfare against the military dictatorship in Brazil.

In Western Europe student movements took place protesting against capitalism, consumerism, American Imperialism, and traditional institutions.

In Paris the protest grew so large that At one point French President Charles de Gaulle secretly fled France to Germany in fear of a revolution.

With the assassination of Martin Luther King JR and the Tet offensive Underway

 the US erupted in rioting against social injustices and the war in Vietnam.

By the late 1960s, the number of university students and universities in Japan reached an all-time high. 

The lack of post-war publication censorship,[10] the printing of affordable Marxist texts and the abundance of free time at university led to the radicalization of many more students. The generation born in the postwar baby boom had reached university and universities had accommodated this change by opening up thousands of additional spaces. Tensions had already risen, and the student movement had been mostly dormant since the Anpo protests. The situation in the universities had become increasingly unstable, leading to the 1968 protests.

Starting with a controversial reform made by the University of Tokyo in late 1967 regarding unpaid medical internships a student strike at the university soon began

The protests by the University of Tokyo medical students spilled over to other universities.

Nihon University saw 10,000 of its 86,000 students demonstrating over the suspicious use of two billion yen by the university’s board of directors

In July 1968, the University of Tokyo Zenkyōtō,[note 1] or All-Campus Joint Struggle Committee was formed to coordinate protests at different universities across the country.

Zenkyoto was not centralized and each campus took a different leftist ideology.

Whereas only undergraduate students protested against Anpo in 1960, the Zenkyōtō included graduate students and some members of staff

The protests focused on issues ranging from increasing student tuition to corruption of the faculty to some schools being traditional and conservative in nature. 

 By the end of 1968, students had seized control of 67 campuses, with hundreds of campuses subject to significant student unrest. 

Eventually the protest became massive in scale and led to a series of nationwide campuses shutting down.

However the university student protests failed to gain legitimacy with the Japanese populace,

Japan had become a stable, successful member of the world society, many didn’t want to return to the hardships of World War 2, the occupation, or the turbulent 50s

Protests began occurring outside university campuses

Thousands of students entered Shinjuku Station on October 21 (International Anti-War Day)[45] and rioted,[46] leading the police to invoke the Riotous Assembly Crime Act.[47] The scale of the riot provoked public backlash that increased public support for the police, which led them to use more force when assaulting occupied campuses. The Sophia University occupation, for example, collapsed in December 1968 after a police siege of the campus.

With the students increasing violence, they garnered less public support, the police began to single out student radicals.

By the end of 1969, the students had been broken. Many barricades had been dismantled, and violence slowly dissipated. Zenkyoto failed to unify and fractured from infighting.

 Attention at the universities gave way to the 10 year anniversary of the ANPO treaty, which upon its revised terms the treaty would renew every 10 years unless stipulated by either Japan or the USA.

The protestors changed their goals to that of ANPO 1970

prime minister Eisaku Satō opted to ignore the protests completely and allow the treaty to automatically renew.

Japan today has changed considerably from the times of ANPO and the occupation, If you were to take a stroll down the street in Tokyo you would be greeted with a mild mannered people, who keep to themselves going to work in a hurried manner in their clean city. They think about Nobusuke Kishi, or Inejiro Asanuma probably about as much as your average American thinks of Martin Luther King Jr or Dwight Eisenhower.

 Since that time, no attempt has been made to abrogate the US-Japan Security Treaty by either party, and U.S. bases remain a fixture on Japanese soil. With 85 separate facilities hosting almost 50,000 American military personnel

The U.S.-Japan Security Treaty has lasted longer than any other alliance between two great powers. 

(that is, depending on if you consider Portugal a world power or not)

To this day relations between the United States and Japan remain high

 In a 2019 Pew survey, 63% of people in Japan named the United States their closest ally, far higher than any other country named by Japanese respondents.

An overwhelming 84% of Americans have positive views about Japan, according to a Gallup poll.

Minus a few hiccups during the Trump administration the alliance remains strong.

For the rest of his life, Nobusuke Kishi remained devoted to the cause of revising the Japanese Constitution to get rid of Article 9 and remilitarizing Japan. In 1965, his pro-American tune had changed considerably.

he gave a speech where he called for Japanese rearmament as "a means of eradicating completely the consequences of Japan's defeat and the American occupation. It is necessary to enable Japan finally to move out of the post-war era and for the Japanese people to regain their self-confidence and pride as Japanese."

 In his final years, Kishi grew increasingly bitter that constitutional revision had not yet come to pass.[76] In his memoirs, he somewhat angrily recalled, "the idea of constitutional revision had always remained at the forefront of [my] mind....The two main culprits in destroying the momentum toward constitutional revision were Hayato Ikeda and my brother, Eisaku Satō, who, while they held power, made sure the constitution would remain unchanged. That is why the call for constitutional revision died with my administration."[77]

Kishi remained in the Diet until retiring from politics in 1979. Even after he retired, he remained a strong influence behind the scenes in LDP politics.[9] After several months of illness, Kishi died on August 7, 1987, at the age of 90.[9]