Episode 546 – The Extreme Right in Postwar Japan, Part 2

Facing Backward Podcasts

This week, we’re continuing last week’s footnote on the postwar ultraright. How did the fall of the Soviet Union affect the anti-communist focus of the extreme right? How has its rhetoric been shaped by an odd relationship with the left? And how does modern extreme rightism manifest in the ideas of men like Kobayashi Yoshinori and groups like Nippon Kaigi?

Sources

Jo, Gwan-ja. “The Revival of Japanese Right-Wing Thought and the Coincidental Collaboration of the Left and Right.” Seoul Journal of Japanese Studies 1, No 1 (2015)

Shields, James. “Revisioning a Japanese Spiritual Recovery through Manga: Yasukuni and the Aesthetics and Ideology of Kobayashi Yoshinori’s ‘Gomanism'”. Asia Pacific Journal 11, No 47(2013)

Sakamoto, Rumi. “‘Will You Go to War? Or Will You Stop Being Japanese?’ Nationalism and History in Kobayashi Yoshinori’s Sensoron.” Asia Pacific Journal 6, No 1 (2008)

Dr. Levi McLaughlin’s talk on Nippon Kaigi, put on by the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

Images

Kobayashi Yoshinori is still making right-wing revisionist manga in the Gomanism series. This book is called “Pal’s Truthful Account” (my rough translation) and the subtitle is all about how justice Radhabinod Pal vindicated Japan after World War II at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials (see episode 484 for more about this).

The celebration of Nippon Kaigi’s 20 year anniversary in 2017.

A panel from Kobayashi’s Sensoron saying that Japanese soldiers deserved applause for kicking Western empires out of Asia in 1941.

An image from Kobayashi’s manga on Yasukuni showing the people’s reverence for the emperor.

The 2019 celebration of Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement put on by Nippon Kaigi. From the Asahi Shinbun.