In which the author lambastes the T\u014ddai Faculty of Law for its failure to respond forcefully to the attacks from the outside on one of its most distinguished professors, Minobe Tatsukichi. Minobe had already retired, but the attacks intensified after 1934. In September 1935 he resigned from the House of Peers. The author focuses on Minobe\u2019s disciple Miyazawa Toshiyoshi and his junior colleague Nambara Shigeru. This chapter is Chapter 51 in the Japanese original. Readers should remember that they are beginning the author\u2019s account not in mid-stream but fully three-quarters of the way across.<\/p>\n
Going along or acting out of conviction, most Tokyo Imperial UniversityRHM: The formal title of the university before the war was Tokyo Imperial University (T\u014dky\u014d teikoku daigaku, Teidai for short). After the war it became Tokyo University<\/a> (T\u014dky\u014d daigaku, T\u014ddai for short). To minimize confusion, I have used T\u014ddai throughout. professors cooperated actively with the military and the war. But some professors\u2014albeit a minority\u2014stood at the opposite pole. The two who deserve to stand at the top of this list are Kawai Eijir\u014d<\/a> and Yanaihara Tadao<\/a> of the Faculty of Economics. Because of their fierce critical spirit, both lost their positions as professors. Kawai was forced out in 1939 and died during the war, in 1944. Yanaihara was ousted in 1937 but reinstated right after the war and after serving as dean of the Faculty of Economics and then head of the General Studies Division, became president of T\u014ddai (1951-57).<\/p>\n Japan\u2019s sudden turn to the right and the establishment of political control by the military took place after the February 26 Incident, and Kawai Eijir\u014d was the only person in the entire world of commentators to criticize the military head-on for the Incident. In the Imperial University News of March 9, right after the Incident, he wrote: \u201cFirst of all, we feel a duty to express deep condolences on the deaths of Home Minister Sait\u014d, Finance Minister Takahashi, and Chief of Military Training General Watanabe, slain by the cruel bayonets. Quite a few politicians have fallen victim to the violence of the last several years\u2014Hamaguchi Osachi<\/a>, Inoue Junnosuke<\/a>, Inukai Tsuyoshi<\/a>; but when these people were felled, it was still unclear what the ideology of the opposing side was.RHM: Hamaguchi (prime minister), shot 1930, died 1931; Inoue (former Finance Minister) and Inukai (prime minister), assassinated March 15, 1932.So their deaths were literally unforeseen. But since the May 15 Incident, fascism\u2014particularly fascism within the military\u2014has become obvious and cannot be covered up. The men killed this time made opposition to this fascist trend their conscious goal and likely foresaw that the result might be their own deaths; yet they faced that prospect head-on and sought with their bodies to stem the tide of fascism.\u201d<\/p>\n (state socialism) bore the brunt of his criticism. Beginning in 1933 he published essays on current events from that perspective, one after the other, in various journals of opinion; in 1934 he collected them into the book Critique of Fascism. Fuasshizumu hihan, Tokyo: Nihon hy\u014dronsha, 1934. This book sold well, one printing after another. The infamous Minoda Muneki, leader of the right-wing assault on \u201cleftist\u201d intellectuals, deluged him with criticism\u2014Kawai was an \u201cearly proponent of the tactic of the Popular Front,\u201d a \u201ccollaborator with social democratic revolution,\u201d a \u201cproponent of bald-faced intervention in the prerogative of supreme command,\u201d an \u201canti-military, anti-war\u201d thinker, a \u201cproponent of Chinese-style dependence on England and the U.S.\u201dRHM: Minoda\u2019s phrase shinajinteki [literally, like Chinese people] has at least a tinge of condescension. Shina for China was common, usually derogatory, usage in the 1930s. The Home Ministry, too, told Kawai through intermediaries that it wouldn\u2019t ban his books but asked him to withdraw them voluntarily. Kawai refused to do so, saying, \u201cIf you want to ban them, be my guest!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"