A Study On Hiroyuki Kato’s Thought Of Nationalism

Hiroyuki Kato (1836--1916) is a modern famous Japanese thinker, statesman andeducator. His ideas produced a bigger effect on Modern Japan, so he played a decisiverole in Japan’s ideological circles.Throughout Hiroyuki Kato’s life, his thoughts are mainly divided into two stages.The first stage is that under the influence of the western enlightenment thoughts,Hiroyuki Kato promoted democracy, human rights, which provided theoretical basisfor the Japanese civil rights movement. The second stage is that Hiroyuki Katodeparted from the past thought of free civil rights completely, and he became thedaring vanguard against what he admitted. Under the influence of the social evolutiontheory, his ideas developed Nationalism, Mikado Absolutism and Social Darwinism.No matters in the Edo period or the Meiji period, Hiroyuki Kato’s thoughts wereinfluenced by the Japanese social environment, and also his thoughts had a greatimpact on Japanese’s ideological circles, academia, and even the entire social at thattime. Before Hiroyuki Kato’s thoughts" steering”, he advocated free civil rights,whichproduced a certain effect on Japanese people out of feudalism rule to the road of freecivil rights. However, after the " steering”, because of espousing social Darwinism,Hiroyuki Kato began to advocate the thought of nationalism, which had a great impacton Modern Japanese which embarked on fascism.Through researching, the author thinks that social Darwinism as a basis for theformation and establishment of Hiroyuki Kato’s nationalism thought. Meiji fifteenth(1882), Hiroyuki Kato published<New Human Rights>, marking the thought ofnationalism was formed. Later, in Meiji twenty-sixth (1893), he published <The Rightof the Stronger Competition>, marking the thought of nationalism was establishedformally. Therefore, through analyzing and explaining nationalism thought of HiroyukiKato, the author draws that, the sources of the nationalism thought of HiroyukiKato----social evolutionary theory----is absurd; the content of which----ignoring othercountry’s and our own people’s interests for the national interest----is wrong; theinfluences of which----embarking Japan on the roads of militarism and fascism----isbad. Therefore, we should take history as a mirror, rejecting the idea of nationalism.