| After the September 18 th Incident,“Japanese spirit” has always been a hot topic in the Japanese public opinion,and its related statements are called “Japanese Spirit theory”.At that time,the academic celebrities tried to actively explain the cultural connotation,philosophical value and practical significance of the “Japanese spirit” from their respective academic positions,so as to take it as the highest guiding principle of the wartime country;politicians and soldiers encouraged the public to support and participate in the government’s foreign war by vigorously promoting the “Japanese spirit”;the religious community is not willing to lag behind,and strives to advocate the “harmony” and “unity” of religion and “Japanese spirit”and is willing to act as an accomplice of Japanese fascism.In a word,Japanese academic circles,military and political circles,religious circles and other social circles all hope to highlight the uniqueness and superiority of the Japanese nation and beautify the aggressive war launched by Japan through the interpretation,publicity and popularization of the“Japanese spirit”,so as to incite the war sentiment of the domestic people.Since the rise of “Japanese Spirit theory”,Japanese academic circles have always played an important leading role.Their relevant writings are not only rich in content,but also profound in theory,which has a profound and lasting impact on other circles.Therefore,this article takes the Japanese academic circles as the center,tries to sort out the content and characteristics of the pre-war Japanese “Japanese Spirit theory” trend in different historical stages,and finally reveals the absurdity of “Japanese Spirit theory” and its fascist characteristics.This paper is divided into three parts: introduction,text and conclusion.The first part is the introduction.Firstly,it defines the concept of “Japanese Spirit theory” and the time limit;secondly,it combs and analyzes the research status of “Japanese Spirit theory” in domestic and foreign historians;finally,it briefly introduces the writing ideas,research methods and innovation deficiencies of this paper.The second part is the text,which consists of 5 chapters.Chapter 1 focuses on the ideological origin and theoretical prototype of “Japanese Spirit theory”.First of all,it starts from the sinology thoughts of Mabuchi Kamono and Norinaga Motoori in the Edo period(especially the “Yamatogokoro” advocated by Motoori Norinaga),and then discusses the evolution process from the “Yamatodamasi” in the Meiji period to the “Japanese Spirit theory” in the late Taisho period.Most of the pre-war “Japanese spirit” theorists regarded Mabuchi Kamono and Norinaga Motoori ’s thoughts as the ancestor of “Japanese spirit”,and equated the “Yamatogokoro” advocated by Norinaga Motoori with the “Japanese spirit”.Therefore,this chapter focuses on the analysis of their ideological propositions.After the Meiji Reformation,Japan began to advocate the “Yamatodamasi” due to the development of national strength.Especially before and after the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War,the “Yamatodamasi” was widely promoted as a war slogan.It was not until the publication of the two works of Masahiro Yasuoka and Shumei Okawa at the end of Taisho period that the “Japanese spirit” officially appeared,and later gradually replaced the“Yamatodamasi” as an era slogan in the early Showa period.The second chapter mainly introduces the rise of “Japanese Spirit theory” after the September 18 th Incident with Tetsujiro Inoue as the center.This chapter focuses on the analysis of Tetsujiro Inoue’s philosophical thought,and extracts the philosophical idea of“phenomenon is realism” that affects his life.“Phenomenon is realism” is formed by Tetsujiro Inoue’s integration of German idealism philosophy and Eastern Confucianism and Buddhism,which still belongs to the category of idealism philosophy in essence.Under the guidance of this philosophical concept,Tetsujiro Inoue has always been seeking an ultimate,internal and transcendent spiritual “reality”,which has prompted his theory of national morality to undergo an expansion process from Bushido theory to “Japanese Spirit theory”.After the September 18 th Incident,“Japanese Spirit theory” rose,and Tetsujiro Inoue quickly shifted from the previous study of Bushido to the study of “Japanese Spirit theory”.With his profound academic foundation,he highly theorized “Japanese Spirit theory” and had an important influence on “Japanese Spirit theory” in this period.However,Tetsujiro Inoue,in his “Japanese Spirit theory” equated “Japanese spirit” with “Kannagaranomichi” and still did not get rid of the narrow nationalist position,which was also the general feature of “Japanese Spirit theory” before and after the September 18 th Incident.The third chapter mainly introduces the proliferation of “Japanese Spirit theory” before and after the July 7th Incident with Tadayosi Kihira as the center.Influenced by the German total war thought,Japan began to construct the total war system before the July 7th Incident,and gradually realized the significance of the ideological war.After the July 7th Incident,the Cabinet Intelligence Department invited “Japanese Spirit” theorists to explain the relationship between “Japanese Spirit” and ideological warfare,which contributed to the connection between “Japanese Spirit” and ideological warfare.The connection between the two is embodied in the social movements and institutional organizations established in Japan.For example,the Konoe Cabinet has launched a massive “National Spirit Mobilization” campaign,trying to achieve the goal of “national unity” through the “high-spiritedness” of the “Japanese spirit”.The Ministry of Education of Japan has successively set up three major institutions:“National Institute of Spiritual Culture”,“Teaching Refreshing Council” and “Teaching Bureau”.They have vigorously promoted the propaganda and popularization of “Japanese Spirit theory” nationwide in the form of holding workshops and issuing publications.The above promotion of the military and political authorities eventually led to the proliferation of“Japanese Spirit theory”,of which the most authoritative one was Tadayosi Kihira.He has always used his “Japanese Spirit theory” to interpret the war policy of the military and political authorities.Influenced by Yangming Doctrine in Japan,Tadayosi Kihira’s “Japanese Spirit theory” presents two major characteristics: first,the activism of emphasizing “action”and neglecting “knowledge”;second,the first “filial piety” after “loyalty” to the concept of filial piety.His “Japanese Spirit theory” was adapted to the country’s war policy,so it was valued by the military and political authorities and was vigorously promoted.Represented by Tadayosi Kihira,the “Japanese Spirit theory” in this period actively cooperated with the government’s policies and guidelines,and used their own “Japanese Spirit theory” to interpret and publicize them,resulting in a strong political orientation of the “Japanese Spirit theory” at this stage.The fourth chapter mainly introduces the upgrading of “Japanese Spirit theory” before and after the outbreak of the Pacific War with two symposiums as the center.Before and after the outbreak of the Pacific War,the Japanese academic circles organized two symposiums on the theme of “the position of world history and Japan” and “Overcoming Modernity” trying to build a new world order centered on “Japanese spirit”.At the Symposium on “The Position of World History and Japan” the Kyoto School raised various questions and challenges to the“modern” of the West in order to break the fixed pattern of “West = modern”.At the same time,in order to establish Japan’s dominant position in East Asia and the world,they demonstrated that Japan had a “modern” of the same nature as the West before the Meiji Reformation.The Kyoto School advocates the construction of the Greater East Asian Common Circle with “moral vitality”.They believe that this war is a war between the new order and the old order,and should always play the leading role of the “Japanese spirit”.At the symposium on “Overcoming Modernity” academic representatives divided “ modern” into“modern” in the West and “modern” in Japan,and criticized both at the same time.They believe that if we want to go beyond these two “modern”,we must return to the traditional spirit of Japan,that is the “Japanese spirit”.Therefore,from the standpoint of subject’s nonexistence,Keiji Nishitani created a new “Japanese Spirit theory” with world significance,which realized the theoretical upgrading of the previous “Japanese Spirit theory”.The two symposiums had a great influence on the later “Japanese spirit” theorists.A group of new“Japanese spirit” theorists who served the “Greater East Asia War” emerged in various fields such as science,philosophy and law.The fifth chapter focuses on the absurdity of “Japanese Spirit theory” and its fascist characteristics.This chapter absorbs and draws lessons from the criticism of “Japanese Spirit theory” before the war by Soukichi Tsuda,Tetsujiro Watsuji,Tsunetsugu Muraoka and others,and analyzes and summarizes the absurdity of “Japanese Spirit theory” in the three dimensions of history,philosophy and politics.Specifically,in the historical dimension,first of all,“Japanese Spirit theory” ignores the objectivity of history and intentionally exaggerates the “Japanese spirit” as the eternal national spirit;secondly,regardless of the specific context of history,the sentences in the classics are interpreted wantonly;thirdly,it is customary to connect two different and even conflicting things in history to draw a predetermined conclusion;finally,it ignores the seriousness of history and combines tradition with modernity at will.In the philosophical dimension,on the one hand,“Japanese Spirit theory”does not correctly handle the relationship between the part and the whole,and only selects some special examples to explore the “Japanese spirit”,so it is separated from the whole of Japanese culture.On the other hand,it intends to expand the “Japanese spirit” to “absolute spirit”,thus ignoring the national characteristics of Japan.In the cultural dimension,first of all,in order to challenge the Western order and defeat the West,“Japanese Spirit theory” has been in opposition to Western culture since its rise;secondly,in order to attract Asian countries to jointly fight against the West,“Japanese Spirit theory” strongly advocates“Oriental cultural integration theory”.By drawing on Masao Maruyama’s analysis of Japanese fascism after the war,it can be concluded that “Japanese Spirit theory”,as a fascist thought,contains three distinctive characteristics different from Western fascism: familism,agrarianism and Asianism.The third part is the conclusion.Firstly,it analyzes the tendency of national superiority in “Japanese Spirit theory”,and then focuses on the various hazards caused by “Japanese Spirit theory”.The tendency of Japanese national superiority theory has existed since ancient times,which is very significant in the popular period of “Japanese Spirit theory”.This kind of“Japanese Spirit theory” with a strong tendency of national superiority provides an opportunity for the entry of divine thought and leads to people’s blind faith and blind obedience.More seriously,the advocacy of “Japanese Spirit theory” has strengthened Japan’s internal and external ideological control and accelerated the process of fascism in Japan. |
PDF Full Text Request