Grassroots Fascism
The War Experience of the Japanese People
Columbia University Press
Grassroots Fascism
The War Experience of the Japanese People
Columbia University Press
Grassroots Fascism profiles the Asia Pacific War (1937–1945)—the most important though least understood experience of Japan's modern history—through the lens of ordinary Japanese life. Moving deftly from the struggles of the home front to the occupied territories to the ravages of the front line, the book offers rare insights into popular experiences from the war's troubled beginnings through Japan's disastrous defeat in 1945 and the new beginning it heralded.
Yoshimi Yoshiaki mobilizes diaries, letters, memoirs, and government documents to portray the ambivalent position of ordinary Japanese as both wartime victims and active participants. He also provides penetrating accounts of the war experiences of Japan's minorities and imperial subjects, including Koreans and Taiwanese. His book challenges the idea that the Japanese people operated as a mere conduit for the military during the war, passively accepting an imperial ideology imposed upon them by the political elite. Viewed from the bottom up, wartime Japan unfolds as a complex modern mass society, with a corresponding variety of popular roles and agendas.
In chronicling the diversity of wartime Japanese social experience, Yoshimi's account elevates our understanding of "Japanese Fascism." In its relation of World War II to the evolution—and destruction—of empire, it makes a fresh contribution to the global history of the war. Ethan Mark's translation supplements the Japanese original with explanatory notes and an in-depth introduction that situates the work within Japanese studies and global history.
Yoshimi Yoshiaki mobilizes diaries, letters, memoirs, and government documents to portray the ambivalent position of ordinary Japanese as both wartime victims and active participants. He also provides penetrating accounts of the war experiences of Japan's minorities and imperial subjects, including Koreans and Taiwanese. His book challenges the idea that the Japanese people operated as a mere conduit for the military during the war, passively accepting an imperial ideology imposed upon them by the political elite. Viewed from the bottom up, wartime Japan unfolds as a complex modern mass society, with a corresponding variety of popular roles and agendas.
In chronicling the diversity of wartime Japanese social experience, Yoshimi's account elevates our understanding of "Japanese Fascism." In its relation of World War II to the evolution—and destruction—of empire, it makes a fresh contribution to the global history of the war. Ethan Mark's translation supplements the Japanese original with explanatory notes and an in-depth introduction that situates the work within Japanese studies and global history.
Grassroots Fascism reveals, through the careful culling, instructive reading, and lucid contextualizing of an array of documents, a broad range of Japanese voices speaking of their experiences in wartime. It is a necessary book for understanding how life was lived and felt and articulated during these difficult years. Alan Tansman, University of California, Berkeley
The translation of Yoshiaki Yoshimi's unprecedented Grassroots Fascism makes available his compelling narrative of popular participation in the actuality of Japanese fascism before and during the Pacific War. Although this classic work concentrates on how ordinary people were enlisted into Japan's fascist project, it also shows in rich detail the role they were willing to play as agents at the level of everyday life. Yoshimi's book joins a post–Cold War historiographical tradition that once more recognizes the necessity to take fascism seriously as a global conjunctural event. Harry Harootunian, Columbia University
These searing and honest accounts drawn from the diaries and memoirs of ordinary Japanese soldiers and civilians make abundantly clear the brutality of the Japanese Imperial Army. They also reveal the suffering, the blind devotion, the gradually emerging seeds of doubt, and finally both the catharsis and the disillusionment that came with the collapse of the empire. Ethan Mark's excellent historiographic introduction places Yoshimi's work in the context of postwar Japan's long process of coming to terms with its imperialist past. A crucial contribution to our understanding of modern Japan. Jordan Sand, Georgetown University
Yoshimi skillfully shows how people, who were initially opposed to the military government's policies, ultimately became fervent collaborators with the fascists and committed atrocities in various parts of the Asia Pacific during World War II. Yoshimi also challenges the difficult question of why the Japanese failed to develop a strong sense of war responsibility for victims of the Asian war despite their dire experiences. A valuable volume for comprehending why Japan as a nation is still unable to resolve the problem of war responsibility. Toshi Yuki Tanaka, author of Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II
Ethan Mark's elegant translation... is sure to add a crucial level of complexity to the global scholarly discourse on the nature of Japan's war, and indeed on the social mechanics of war in general... Insightful, eminently readable. H-Net Japan
This is an important work that anyone with an interest in historical disputes in East Asia should read. Lanxin Xiang, Survival
[Grassroots Fascism] offers a comprehensive narrative of the situation from the beginning of the war in Asia to the early days following surrender to the Allied forces. Eric Brittingham, The Japan Times
Drawing from an impressive array of primary sources... the book provides one of the richest articulations of the voices, beliefs, and attitudes developed by million of Japanese as they moved from their villages to the expanding boundaries of the wartime empire. Japanese Studies
Ethan Mark deserves praise for translating this seminal work and for supplying a valuable introductory essay setting it in the broader context of Japanese scholarship. Asian Affairs
This chronicle of wartime mentalities from the bottom up is essential reading for anyone interested in fascism conceptually and the Asia-Pacific Theater of World War II. It testifies to Yoshimi's unflinching scholarship and his ongoing quest to promote serious debate about Japan's wartime past. Eri Hotta, World War II
This book will enliven our classrooms and enrich historiographical discourses on war, empire, and fascism both within and beyond Japanese history Pacific Historical Review
Translator's Introduction: The People in the War
1. From Democracy to Fascism
2. Grassroots Fascism
3. The Asian War
4. Democracy from the Battlefield
Postscript
Notes
Index
1. From Democracy to Fascism
2. Grassroots Fascism
3. The Asian War
4. Democracy from the Battlefield
Postscript
Notes
Index
Read an excerpt from Ethan Marks's Translator's Introduction: