Interwar Japanese Communism

I know that the possibility of a Communist revolution in Japan is essentially nil, but who were some prominent Japanese communists from the interwar era who have any potential, no matter how small, to have lead the JCP? Specifically Trostkyists, but any in general.
 

Angel Heart

Banned
I know that the possibility of a Communist revolution in Japan is essentially nil(...)

You're so damn right! As you said: If there would have been a communist movement, they wouldn't have stood a chance. You should keep in mind that the Japanese people back then were almost totaly different from their modern day grandchildren. First of all there was the monarchist mentality and the total obedience to the Tennô which lasted for many centuries. The mentality and the social values hardly changed during the centuries and they were very similar to i.e. the ones of the Area of the Warring States. Although Japan quickly became an industrialized superpower, the society and moral standards didn't chance a lot de facto, not even after the Meiji Restoration.
Communism would mean eradicating everything "old" and traditional like it happened in the USSR, the PRC, Yugoslavia and Albania for example. So it was very unpopular in a country of conservative and traditionalist people. Don't believe me? Then check out the FRG during the 50s.

If you want a communist revolution so badly, why not trying the Cold War when the Japanese Red Army was around? If they would have recieved a lot more aid from the USSR, the PRC and the DPRK it might have worked. And the Japanese were "reeducated" after WWII so they adapted themselves more to the Western standards by tossing their ancient culture over board more or less...so the commies might get more approval by the locals.

To your question:
The Japanese Communist party was indeed founded during the interwar years but it seems that they didn't have that much power to do something. :/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Communist_Party
 
It is true that probably the best chance of getting momentum behind a communist movement in Japan is during the interwar period of the late Taisho era. This was the period when the combination of a weak Emperor, the aging of the Meiji era's Genro elites, and the democratic ideological fervor following the end of World War I combined to allow a flourishing of political parties and popular control of the government. However, as others have said, communism was not very well-recieved by many Japanese due to its often antithetical interactions with traditional Japanese culture and values, as well as the (ironic) perception that the philosophy was itself another form of Western imperialism. Further, the communist, socialist, and labor movements in general suffered in their development from frequent suppression by the wealthy Zaibatsu industrialists.
 
I know that the possibility of a Communist revolution in Japan is essentially nil, but who were some prominent Japanese communists from the interwar era who have any potential, no matter how small, to have lead the JCP? Specifically Trostkyists, but any in general.

You could always go with the OTL Communist who did lead the JCP.


The founders of the JCP - Hitoshi Yamakawa, Kanson Arahata, Toshihiko Sakai, Kyuichi Tokuda and Sanzo Nozaka - would work as well.

Toshihiko Sakai and Hitoshi Yamakawa were also prominent.

Note that Comintern considered the JCP to be infected by Trotskyism, and gave then little help, so any of them would do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_thought_in_Imperial_Japan
http://www.marxists.org/subject/japan/index.htm
http://www.jcp.or.jp/english/

I'm back in the US for most of this month, but if you want some more personal stuff, I can get ahold of some of my communist pals when I get back to Osaka.

One thing I can tell you is that a true Communist Japan would most likely make the DPRK look sweet and gentle...
 
It is true that probably the best chance of getting momentum behind a communist movement in Japan is during the interwar period of the late Taisho era. This was the period when the combination of a weak Emperor, the aging of the Meiji era's Genro elites, and the democratic ideological fervor following the end of World War I combined to allow a flourishing of political parties and popular control of the government. However, as others have said, communism was not very well-recieved by many Japanese due to its often antithetical interactions with traditional Japanese culture and values, as well as the (ironic) perception that the philosophy was itself another form of Western imperialism. Further, the communist, socialist, and labor movements in general suffered in their development from frequent suppression by the wealthy Zaibatsu industrialists.

Post war years would have been a better bet. "July Storm", instead of August Storm, or a delayed atomic bomb could set up a divided Japan.
 
Post war years would have been a better bet. "July Storm", instead of August Storm, or a delayed atomic bomb could set up a divided Japan.
Potentially, but the problem with the post-WWII scenario is that you have the U.S. actively working to contain the spread of communism. Despite the social/labor reforms during the occupation, socialist and communist inroads were curbed by the reverse-course that took place in the later part of the occupation. At least one very significant factor that contributed to the reverse-course was China's fall to communism in 1949. The only way the U.S. is going to allow much communist influence in Japan is if China remains squarely nationalist.
 
Potentially, but the problem with the post-WWII scenario is that you have the U.S. actively working to contain the spread of communism. Despite the social/labor reforms during the occupation, socialist and communist inroads were curbed by the reverse-course that took place in the later part of the occupation. At least one very significant factor that contributed to the reverse-course was China's fall to communism in 1949. The only way the U.S. is going to allow much communist influence in Japan is if China remains squarely nationalist.

Well, with a Soviet occupation of Eastern Japan, resulting from an earlier August storm or a delayed bomb, there's little the US could do, short of a direct confrontation.
 
Well, with a Soviet occupation of Eastern Japan, resulting from an earlier August storm or a delayed bomb, there's little the US could do, short of a direct confrontation.
This is a possible occurrence, but with relations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. already beginning to show strain, the U.S. would likely try its very best to secure the vast majority, if not the whole of, the Japanese islands as quickly as possible.
 
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