Tokutomi Soho And Tokutomi Roka's Views On External Wars

There are two reputed brothers in the modern history of Japan-Tokutomi Soho and Tokutomi Roka.The elder brother Tokutomi Soho is a speaker and thinker who was active in Meiji,Taisho and Showa periods.His views had a great influence on Japanese politics and he was considered the greatest thinkers after Fukuzawa Yukichi.The younger brother Tokutomi Roka is an excellent novelist and essayist in the Meiji and Taisho period.His works are very popular and have been chosen as textbook material for many times,influncing the whole generation.An important focus of the research on the Tokutomi brothers is their rupture.There are many reasons behind theirs rupture.However,undoubtedly the divergence in their thoughts-nationalism which Roka adopts and humanism that Roka believes-is the most important aspect.It also explains their completely conflicting views on external wars.This paper intends to discuss Soho's and Roca's attitudes towards external wars.In a word,Soho's thoughts varied from Populism,peaceful productivism to militarism and Japan expansion,which finally turned into frantic fascism in the name of royal centralism.On the contrary,Roca's view on wars shifted from blindly compliant to critical and judgemental until later he came up with the theory of peaceful liberalism.The thoughts of the two brothers represent two major conflicting social trends in modern Japanese history,which are closely connected to the social outlook and the developmental trend of modern Japan.