Effects of Japanese Cultural Identity Inquiries on Japanese Nationalism (Pre Second World War Period)

Abstract

This article aims to examine the superiority discourses of the Japanese people, which can be evaluated with reference to the increasing Japanese nationalism in the pre-war period, by means of the concepts such as national unity (kokutai), country studies (kokugaku), country literature (kokubungaku) and family state system. The evolution of the thought system, which emphasized the traditional structure of the Japan and united under the imperial system (tennōsei), and the transformation of the Japanese people's supremacy arguments into Japanese militarism was traced in the historical process. This frame of mind is examined on the basis of Max Weber’s expression of “religion in the ideological agency of state”. Before and during the war years some arguments which constantly glorify the Japanese people as that the Japan is an elite nation in the world have been imposed on the Japanese people in Japan. In the process of imperialism's evolution into a pro-militarist politics and, its intersecting points with ideologues and ideologies which emphasize the local values in the past are examined. As a result, it is obvious that the Japanese nation consciousness, shaped by the external threats and evolved into extreme nationalism, was formed with the effect of the process reflecting the changing power balances as well as the effect of the colonial system in the world. Moreover, it is argued that it was a reflection of the attempts to emphasize the completeness of the nation-state consciousness in Japan. 

Keywords

• Kokutai
• nationalism
• Shintoism
• tennosei
• supremacy rhetorics of Japanese

Japonların Kültürel Kimlik Araştırmalarının Japon Milliyetçiliği Üzerindeki Etkileri (İkinci Dünya Savaşından Önceki Süreç)

Öz

Bu makalenin amacı, II. Dünya Savaşı öncesi süreçte artan Japon milliyetçiliği bağlamında değerlendirilebilecek Japon halkının üstünlük söylemlerini, ulusal birlik (kokutai), ülke çalışmaları (kokugaku), ülke edebiyatı (kokubungaku) ve aile devleti sistemi gibi kavramlar çerçevesinde incelemektir. Tarihsel süreç içinde, Japonların geleneksel yapısına vurgu yapan ve imparatorluk sistemi (tennōsei) çatısı altında birleşen düşünce sisteminin evrilerek Japon halkının üstünlüğü savlarının Japon militarizmine dönüşümünün izi sürülmüştür. Bu düşünce yapısı Max Weber’in “devletin ideolojik aygıtında din” anlayışı temelinde incelenmiştir. II. Dünya Savaşı öncesinde ve savaş yıllarında Japon halkı yüceltilmiş ve Japonların dünyada seçkin bir ulus oldukları Japon halkına empoze edilmiştir. Emperyalizm, militarizm yanlısı bir siyasete evrilme sürecinde geçmişteki yerel değerlere vurgu yapan ideologlar ve ideolojiler ile kesişen noktalar incelenmiştir. Sonuç olarak, dış tehditlerin şekillendirdiği ve aşırı milliyetçiliğe evrilen Japon ulusu bilincinin, dünyada değişen güç dengeleri ve sömürge sisteminin etkisini yansıtan sürecin tesiri ile oluştuğu ortaya konmuş, Japonya’da ulus - devlet bilincinin tamlığını vurgulama girişimlerinin bir yansıması olduğu tartışılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Kokutai
• milliyetçilik
• Şintoizm
• tennosei
• Japonların üstünlük söylemleri

Kaynakça

1. Anderson, Mark (2009), Haga Yaichi’s Institution of Classical Japanese Literature, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
2. Aron, Raymond (2007), Sosyolojik Düşüncenin Evreleri. çev. Korkmaz Alemdar, İstanbul: Kırmızı Yayınları.
3. Bentley, John R. (2017), An Anthology of Kokugaku Scholars (1690 - 1868), New York: Cornel University Press.
4. Brownlee, John S. (1997), Japanese Historians and the National Myths 1600 - 1945. Vancouver: UBS Press.
5. Cave, Peter (2016), “Story, Song, and Ceremony: Shaping Dispositions in Japanese Elementary Schools During Taisho and Early Showa”, Japan Forum, C. 28 S. 1 s. 9-31, DOI10.1080/09555803.2015.1077875
6. Colley, Linda (1996), Britons, Forging the Nation 1707–1837, London: Vintage.
7. De Mente, Boya Lafayette (1990), Japan Secret Weapon The Kata Factor: The Cultural Programming that Made the Japanese a Superior People. Arizona: Phoenix Books.
8. Doak, M. Kevin (2001), “Building National Identity through Ethnicity: Ethnology in Wartime Japan and After”Journal of Japanese Studies, C. 27, S. 1, s. 1 - 39.

9. Doak, M. Kevin (2007). A History of Nationalism in Modern Japan: Placing the People, C. 13, Leiden & Boston: Brill.
10. Earhart, Byron H. (1974), Japanese Religion: Unity and Diversity, California: Dickenson Publishing Company.
11. Eizawa, Kōji (1995), Dai Tōa Kyoeiken no Shiso (大東亜共栄圏の思想).Tokyo: Kōdansha Gendai Shinsho.
12. Fridell, W.M. (1983), “Modern Japanese Nationalism: State Shinto, the Religion that was ‘Not a Religion”. Ed. P.H. Merkl, & N. Smart. Religion and Politics in the Modern World. New York: New York University Press.
13. Fukase-Indergaard Fumiko and Michael Indergaard (2008), “Religious Nationalism and the Making of the Modern Japanese State”,Theory and Society, C.37 , S. 4, s. 343-374.
14. Gluck, Carol (1985), Japan’s Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period, Princeton& New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
15. Gordon, Andrew (2002), A Modern History of Japan from Tokugawa Times to the Present, UK: Oxford University Press.
16. Greenfeld, L. (1992), Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
17. Haga, Noboru (1963), Bakumatsu kokugaku no tenkai　（幕末の国学の展開）, Tokyo: Hanawa Shobō.
18. Halpern, Ben (1961), “Myth and Ideology in Modern Usage”, History and Theory, C.1, S.2, s. 129-149.
19. Hastings, Adrian (1997), The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
20. Hata, Ikuhiko (1983), Kanryō no kenkyū　（官僚の研究）, Tokyo: Kodansha.
21. He, Jing (2011), “Okakura Tenshin and Pan – Asianism 1903 – 1906”. ed. Svan Saaler; Christopher W.A. Szpilman Pan – Asianism: A Documentary History, Vol. 1: 1850 – 1920, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
22. Headrick, Daniel R. (1981), The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
23. Hobsbawn, E.J. (1995), 1780’den Günümüze Milletler ve Milliyetçilik: Program, Mit, Gerçeklik, çev. Osman Akınhay, 2. Basım, İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları.
24. Hotta, Eri (2007), Pan – Asianism and Japan’s War 1931 – 1945, New York: Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series.
25. Hunter, E. Janet (2002). Modern Japonya’nın Doğuşu. Ankara: İmge Kitabevi.
26. Kalpaklı, Fatma (2016), Amitav Ghosh ile Elif Şafak’ın Romanlarında Öteki/leştirme, Konya: Çizgi Kitabevi.
27. Kamigaito, Ken’ichi (1994), Sakoku no Hikaku Bunmei Ron　（鎖国の比較文明論）, Tokyo: Kōdansha.
28. Kingsley, Rebecca (1999), Japanese Gods and Myths: Ancient Culture, London: Quantum Books.
29. Kitasawa, Shinjiro (1915), “Shintoism and the Japanese Nation”, The Sewanee Review, C. 23, S. 4, s. 479 - 483.
30. Kosaku, Yoshino (1992), Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan: A Sociological Enquiry, London & New York: Routledge.
31. Kundakçı, Deniz (2015), Max Weber. Istanbul: Say Yayınları.
32. Kushner, Barak (2006), The Thought War: Japanese Imperial Propaganda, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,.
33. Lincicome, Mark E., (1995), Principle, Praxis, and The Politics of Educational Reform in Meiji Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
34. Matsumoto, Sannosuke (1957), Kokugaku Seiji shisō no Kenkyū　国学政治思想の研究, Tokyo: Yūhikaku.
35. Maxey, Trent, (2007), “The Crisis of Conversion and Search for National Doctrine in Early Meiji Japan” ed. Dennis Washburn; Kevin Reinhart, Converting Cultures: Religion, Ideology and Transformations of Modernity, Brill, Leiden & Boston. 3- 26.
36. Mendl, Wolf (2005), Japan’s Asia Policy: Regional Security and Global Interest. Londra: Routledge Publishers.
37. Montesquieu (2014), Kanunların Ruhu Üzerine, çev. Fehmi Baldaş, Hiperlink: İstanbul.
38. Moyser, G. (1991), Politics and Religion in the Modern World, Routledge: London.
39. Naka, A., (1979). Gakko no Rekishi: Dainikan, Shogakko no Rekishi　学校の歴史第二菅小学校の歴史. Tokyo: Daiichi-hoki shuppan.
40. Nishijima, H. (1995), Sozo no ‘Nippon’: shoka no tsukutta Genfukei. Ed. N. Morita vd., Kyōikugaku nenpō 4: kōsei to iu genso教育学年報４構成という幻想. Yokohama: Seori shobō, s. 433 - 466.
41. Nishimura, S., & Norinaga, M. (1991). “The Way of the Gods. Motoori Noriaga’s Naobi no Mitama”. Monumenta Nipponica, C. 46, S. 1, s. 27 - 41.
42. Nozaki, Yoshiko (2008), War Memory, Nationalism and Education in Postwar Japan 1945 – 2007, New York: Routledge Contemporary Japan Series.
43. Ohnuki Tierney, Emiko (2002), Kamikaze Cherry Blossoms and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
44. Padover, Saul (1943), “Japanese Race Propaganda”, The Public Opinion Quarterly, C. 7, S. 2, s.191 - 204.
45. Saaler, Svan (2009), “Men in Metal: Representations of the Nation in Public Space in Meiji Japan, 1868-1912,” Comparativ 19, s. 27-43.
46. Saaler, Sven (2016) “Nationalism and History in Contemporary Japan”, The Asia Pacific Journal, vol. 14, Issue 20, Number 7, 1 – 17.