Research On Ryotaro Shiba’s View On War His Tory

Ryotaro Shiba (1923-1996), as a Japanese famous postwar historical novelist, published57novels and36proses during his lifetime with representative works such as Saka no Ue no Kumo, Ryoumaden, Tobuga Gotoku, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang,etc, and won many awards including Bunka Kunsho and Culture Contributor. Shiba’s literary works mainly take history as the theme. The histories described and the historical viewpoints expressed have great impacts on historical understandings of Japanese common people and social elites and can’t be underestimated. However, there is a heated debate about what the "historical viewpoints of Shiba" really are in Chinese and foreign educational circles. Phenomena of "historical viewpoints of heroes","historical viewpoints of liberalism","historical viewpoints of super ideology","historical viewpoints of materialism" and "historical viewpoints of idealism" have faithfully reflected the complexity of this problem. Obviously, lifting the hazy veil about the "historical viewpoints of Shiba" is not only a serious academic task but also important, real concern.This paper takes dialectical materialism and historical materialism as a guide, applies the basis theories of history, uses theories and analytical methods of related subjects for references, takes previous research both at home and abroad into consideration, and focuses on Ryotaro Shiba’s viewpoints on wars on the basis of comprehensively grasping historical viewpoints of Shiba and its basic characteristics. As far as structural arrangement, chapter one starts with Ryotaro Shiba’s family environment, education and social life background along with his life course, and discusses the forming process, main contents and basic structure of the historical viewpoints of Shiba. Chapters2-4then investigate Shiba’s understanding of the Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, and "Fifteen Years War"(also named the "Showa War" meaning Japan’s aggressive war from1931to1945). These chapters also provide analysis of Shiba’s views and standpoints on the causes of each war, the nature of wars, the reasons for victory and defeat, the influence of wars, Hirohito’s responsibility for wars, etc. The last chapter combs various opinions on the historical viewpoints of Shiba in domestic and foreign educational circles, and gives further opinions on the characteristics and essence of the historical viewpoints of Shiba through a combination of the above investigation and analysis.Compared to most research on the historical viewpoint of Shiba in domestic and foreign educational circles, the characteristics and originality found in this paper may differ in the following ways:In past research targets, there has always exhisted a large amount of discussion about Ryotaro Shiba’s views on the Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, and the Showa War. However, the problem has been that Shiba’s attitude and evaluation of the three wars has been quite different, so correlational studies have been suspected of fragmentation, causing an indistinct overall image of Shiba’s historical viewpoint of wars. Therefore, this paper attempts to integrate Ryotaro Shiba’s attitude and standpoints of the three wars (namely Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War and the Pacific War) in a more systematic manner, in an effort to truly reveal the connotations and essence of Ryotaro Shiba’s viewpoint of the wars.This work also differs from other research results in its aspect of its research perspective and methodology. While other research has usually started from a literary perspective, this paper strives to investigate the historical viewpoint of Shiba and Shiba’s viewpoints on wars through a combination of text interpretation and historical facts. Therefore, the author has read a mass of Ryotaro Shiba’s original works such as historical novels, prose, speeches, letters, etc; has referred to a large amount of relevant literature and research writings of Japan’s modern history; has strived to take objective historical facts as support; and has surveyed Shiba’s historical viewpoint of wars.Through above research, this study analyzes all kinds of historical viewpoints of Shiba which are still a matter of discussion, and puts forward the following understanding on the basis of absorbing and adopting their proper elements. For example, on the one hand Ryotaro Shiba highly praised "glorious Meiji" and approved the Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War started by Japan. On the other hand, he also slandered "gloomy Showa" and criticized Japan’s ignorance of starting wars. However, behind these fact-oriented presentations is a rationalism, advocated by Descartes and Max Weber in modern times, that seems to constitute the basis of Shiba’s historical viewpoints of wars and has been prosecuted to this day. As for Shiba, when recognizing, judging and evaluating various wars started by Japan, he considers whether subjective behavioral choices are in accordance with objective facts as his sole standard. The reason why he conquers readers’ support is usually that his war plots are attractive and his analysis and comments are fair and reasonable. However, this rationalistic starting point is not only a reason for Shiba’s historical novel "success"; it could also be considered his fatal flaw. In Shiba’s viewpoints on wars, human morality, national equality and social fairness and justice are not included in his scope of consideration, which weakens his arguments and purpose. In this sense, Ryotaro Shiba’s historical viewpoint of wars is somewhat anesthetic which causes vagueness about Japanese historical cognition.