Nagayama Yoshida (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Yoshida Nagayama (ながやま よしだ; 永山吉田; Nagayama Yoshida; Koshigaya, Musashi Province, April 8, 1871 – Tokyo, July 25, 1952) was a Japanese nationalist, revolutionary, politician, writer, journalist, and political theorist. He was the leader of Nationalist Party of Japan (1919-1952) and the first President of the Republic of Japan (1931-1941; 1946-1948).

He is popularly referred as the "Senior Comrade" (じょうきゅう どうし; 上級同志) for his seniority as the leader of Japanese Revolution and as the "Great Teacher" (だいし; 大師) for his great contributions in the development of the revisionist branch of Socialism, that known as "Social Nationalism".

Early life
Yoshida Nagayama was born in Koshigaya, Musashi Province on April 8, 1871, the only son of Masano (正野) and his wife, Aiko (愛子), the small landowners from low-ranking bureaucrat family. His father was a former disciple of famous rangaku scholar, Ogata Kōan. After the government regulated the law in 1870s for allowed the commoners to have a surname, his family adopted “Nagayama” surname in 1875.

Due to family poverty, Yoshida voluntarily entered the first Imperial Military Academy in Osaka at the age of 15. He formally joined the Imperial Navy of Japan in 1890 at the age of 19. After contacted tuberculosis, Yoshida discharged from the Navy and returned to his hometown in 1891. Followed his father’s step, Yoshida began to study rangaku and French in Keio-Gijuku School in 1895 while also worked as part-time editor in Hochi Shimbun.

Revolutionary Activities
Nagayama joined the Society for the Study of Socialism in 1896 and began his interest about socialist thought. Young Yoshida wrote an article for the organisation weekly journal entitled "The Future of Our Empire and Its Working Men." In the article, Nagayama stated:


 * "Our Empire now steps toward an new era of imperialism: the era of international capitalism. We must prepares our working men, either the laborers, the peasants, or the intelligentsia to bring this Empire as a one of world powers. The prosperous people and the glorious empire are our primary priority today"

Nagayama used word "bun'ya" (ぶんや; 分野), instead of "teikoku" (ていこく; 帝国), to refer Japanese Empire, which means not referred for the monarchical system of Japanese government at the time, but instead for the whole area came under the influences of Japanese state.

In 1897, Nagayama wrote another article entitled "The Fate of Japanese Working Men". He stated:


 * "The government must equipped the working people with the better living condition. Today, the condition what we can see from the working people is the lack of healthcare, segregated life, housing in slum area, low minimum wages, succumbed into prostitution and gambling, and linked with the criminal organizations. This nation, who constituted mostly by the men who works for their life, actually in very bad condition and if we resist that reality, we will defeated..."

It was not until 1900 when Nagayama radicalized his political views. Influenced by the works of Tanaka Kakurabe (1637-1674), the kokugaku scholar of Momiji School, Nagayama gradually shifted from a moderate centre-socialist into a revolutionary left-minded nationalist.

In 1900, Nagayama wrote his first work, The Study of Our National Roots. In that book, Nagayama glorified the Japanese pre-Confucian and pre-Buddhist past. Nagayama argued the Confucian idea that brought to Japan created the static and hierarchical society where the working people have no place underneath the intellectuals and the aristocrats. The Confucian idea was destroyed the real Japanese society which he stated as "dynamic and egaliterian." The true Japanese society had wakon or Japanese spirit as its philosophy of life. Nagayama argued wakon as the spirit of "an ancient hard working people who struggle for his own life throughout the hard-to-life mountainous and hilly islands of Japan."


 * "Our geographic condition is very hard to live and the only strong people who can survive. Our ancestors were never lazily strolling around the mountains, they worked, they struggled, they challenged the hardness of Japanese nature and they survive. We are destined by the Nature to be the superior race. Today, only the ones who worked can survive the era of international capitalism."

In 1901, Nagayama wrote another book, The Truth, the Destiny, and the Spirit. In The Truth, Nagayama appealed the reader for the revival of ancient Japanese pride and spirit to establish the revolutionary Japanese society.


 * "If we want to survive, we must return to our ancient root, embrace the life ideal of our ancestors and the way of thinking created by our own culture and our people. If the Japanese working people accepted their racial destiny and realized their power to change their own condition, then Japan will welcomes the new kind of empire: the Empire of Men."

Nagayama became the member of proto-fascist Reform Party in 1902. The Reform Party supported the establishment of strong imperial government directly under the reign of Chrysanthemum Throne and the reorganization of Japanese military as a citizen army. With his strong socialist ideal, Nagayama often clashed with another party members that came from aristocratic or middle-class background.

Nagayama left the Reform Party to establish his own party, the National Society, in 1903. Similar with the Reform Party, the National Society also a quasi-fascist organisation, but its membership came from the lower-class background and had a strong supporter base in working-class urban areas. The National Society campaigned for the better healthcare, better housing, integration of society, and increasement of laborers' minimum wage. The National Society tried to expand its base toward the rural areas in 1905 for campaigned the reformation of land, better education, and universal healthcare.

The National Society soon overpowered the Reform Party and able to manage several victory in the local elections. Nagayama Yoshida elected as the party representative for Kyoto City Council in 1905. In 1908, the Society adopted the Aokai flag, the blue banner with white circle on the center, as its party flag, which later became the flag of Japanese Realm.

Although the party remained had a small membership during its time, its nationalist programs, however, gained extensive sympathy from the linguists, the historians, and the kokugaku scholars. Nagayama's idea of Japanese national revival inspired the linguist Kitamura Arashi (1869-1937) to write The Study on National Language History, which nativitized several Sino-Japanese terms in 1910. He also encourage the use of kana instead of kanji and the change the writing direction into left-to-right horizontal direction. Arashi later joined the Nationalist Party of Japan from 1921 until his death in 1937 and became the Minister of Education (1931-1939).

The government increasingly irritated by Yoshida's works and his political activities. The secret police arrested him in 1908 and he being sentenced with the five years of imprisonment for "insulted His Imperial Majesty Emperor of Japan and threatened the power of the Empire". Nagayama released from the prison in 1912

In Exile and The Study of Pacific Race
Yoshida exiled himself to Hong Kong in 1912 and brought together his personal library comprising by 521 books (141 of them are classical texts) to support his further study about Japan. Yoshida's long-time interest on anthropology led him traveled to Indochina, Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) and Philippines islands from 1913 to 1917.

During his stays in Dutch East Indies, Yoshida (disguised as a Chinese professor from Hong Kong named "Chou Sh'ih-chien") recollected several folklore and local legends from all parts of Indonesian Archipelago and found the link between Malay cultures with the Japanese one. This led him to write his most famous work and eventually also the most controversial one, The Study of Pacific Race (1915).

Yoshida concepted the “natural realm” of “Pacific race” that covered from "Japanese Archipelago in the north, to Malay Archipelago in the South and from Malagasy island in the west to Polynesian islands in the east". "This natural realm, as Yoshida said, "probably created the one of main world civilizations in the past time beside Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, Roman Empire and Chinese Empire."

As result, Yoshida began to radicalizes his views of wakon. He was not only supported the elimination of Neo-Confucianism and any Chinese influences in Japanese society, but also rejected the traditional belief of Japanese as East Asian relatives. Yoshida goes further by stated the similarity of Japanese people are more closer with the South East Asian and Pacific islanders rather with Chinese or Korean.

The The Study of Pacific Race not only being the major force on development of Japanese new nationalism, but also triggered the appeal to purify the Japanese traditional religion from the imported Buddhist, Taoist and Confucianist influences and the movement to establish the Republican government in Japan. The book widely regarded today as a "Bible of Japanese Social Nationalism".

Emergence as Nationalist Leader
Japan entered the World War I in 1916 and sided with Central Powers. But, as the War advanced, the Central Powers suffered by the defeat, Japan changed it side to the Allies. Toward the end of the war, Japan succumbed into deep economic crisis. In August 1918, rice riots caused by this inflation erupted in towns and cities throughout Japan.

At the north, the White Russian Army who escaped from Siberia after the Bolshevik gained controls over the country, occupied Karafuto (Japanese part of Sakhalin island) and northern Hokkaido in September 1918. The anti-communist Shogunate tried to cooperate with the White Russians for halting the spread of Communism. This action sparked to protests from revolutionary-nationalists who accused the Imperial government as foreign puppet.

The wave of mass demonstrations arose throughout Japan and Korea, demanded the Emperor to rid the Russian forces from northern Japan. The peak of the wave in Japan was the mass meeting in Ii Naosuke Square, Kyoto on November 4, 1918. As leader of Japanese People's Party in Kyoto, Yoshida addressed the crowd to “drive out the Barbarians (White Russians) from Karafuto and northern Hokkaido and save Asia from Western imperialism.” He added, “Although we just the yellow-colored people in the Westerners’ eyes, we must believe and forever believe, we can stand in our own feet, by our own strength, to our own nation. Neither me nor you, whole Japanese nation, wanted to be a slave in our own country!”

Yoshida’s speech quickly spread through every newspaper, either the organ of Left or Right movement, and succeed to electrify the nation. Less than two weeks, Yoshida's popularity sky-rocketed and he became the icon of Revolution. The number of People's Party members also significantly increased, especially in the Northern provinces.

In June 16, 1919, Yoshida and other eighteen leaders of People's Party convened the meeting at Kyoto and concluded the resolution which known as “Proclamation of the Action” that called for Japanese people to form a new grass-root government and defend the nation by themselves, not depended on Imperial Army. The resolution is very important to lay the foundation of modern Japanese Republic and Japanese Republican Army.

Backed by eighteen Party leaders (more known as “Kyoto Faction”), Yoshida took over control of Party leadership; changed the Party name to "Japanese Nationalist Party"; and adopted Bolshevik rigid organizational system and inner-party democracy into the Party Constitution. He even formed the Party militant organization, National Pioneers, in September 1919, aimed to mobilize the people against White Russian aggression. Yoshida himself decided to work behind the scenes as the main ideological theorist and political strategist of the Party, rarely appeared before the public. However, Yoshida still partially responsible for commanded the Pioneers to bomb the building of Imperial Foreign Ministry in January 1920, which killed Foreign Minister Tomichii Hasegawa and his aides.

Formation of Revolutionary Government
In August 22, 1920, the National Protection Government (國民保護政府 Kokumin Hogo Seifu) formed in Kanazawa, Kaga Province with the decree issued by the Central Committee of National People’s Conference. Yoshida elected unanimously by all Central Committee members as the “Political Commander of the Navy and Army” (海陸軍政治司令官 Kairikugun Seiji Shirei-kan), the supreme command of the Revolutionary Army.

As the Political Commander of the Revolutionary Army, Yoshida referred as “Generalissimo” by the Western media and brought the Nationalist Party hegemony over the Revolutionary Navy. After the establishment of Republic, the position of Political Commander later included into the office of President of the Republic, as stated in 1931 Japanese Constitution: “The President of the Republic is the political commander of the National Navy, the National Army, and the National Air Force”

Under his commands, the Revolutionary Army formed the military base along Central Highland of Japan which consists of mountainous and hilly areas. The first region fall under the Revolutionary was Hida Province in September 1, 1920, followed by Etchu Province in September 24, the eastern part of Mino Province in October 7, western part of Mino Province in November 24, Echizen Province in January 14, 1921, Shinano Province in March 17 and Kozuke Province in August 26. Most of the area conquered without any battle with the Imperial Army since the Revolutionary helped by the locals to enter the cities and the villages.

The National Protection Government and the Revolutionary Army then moved its seat to Nagano, Kaga Province in August 4, 1921 together with the establishment of first National Headquarters of Japanese Revolutionary Army in August 20, 1921.

As the Revolutionary area only few miles away from Tokyo, main commercial centre of Japan, the Imperial government sent its troops from Musashi Province to halt the Revolutionary advances toward Shimotsuke Province. As result, the Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Army engaged in their first protracted battle in Kanume, Shimotsuke, known as the Battle of Akayama, occurred on September 13, 1921. The battle gained its name from the mountain (Yama) that battle took place became red (Akai) because the blood from both side of the troops. This bloody battle marked the beginning of the series of battle between the revolutionary army and the imperial army which would last from September 1921 until April 1930.

Second Japanese Civil War
In 1922, the Japanese Revolutionary Army able to push the White Russian Army out of northern Ezo and Karafuto with the aid from Soviet Red Army after the Revolutionary occupied southern Ezo in July 14, 1922. This momentum seen as the act of national liberation by most of Japanese and increased the people’s supports toward the Revolutionary government.

For the third time, the National Protection Government and the Revolutionary Army moved its seat to Hakodate, Hokkaido in January 3, 1923 to keep away from the Imperial threats. Nagayama Yoshida exclusively took his residence on the Western wing of Goryokaku fortress.

In the 1923 Nationalist Party Congress, Yoshida voted unanimously as the member of Party Central Committee as well as the Chairman of Party Politburo. As both the head of government and the leader of Nationalist Party, Yoshida keep working tirelessly for the Government and Party administrative affairs, like signed the important documents, orders, and decree; drafted the speech for the Central Committee meeting; wrote the articles for the Party newspaper; and inspected the Party bureaus and government offices every week.

However, he still indirectly involved in the matter of Civil War. In 1924, Yoshida approved the document to give permission for the Party agents to do a series of terror to the peoples that accused against the Revolution and supported the Bakufu government. The terrors swept Tokyo, Kyoto, and other important cities in Home Islands and killed more than 900 peoples; most of them are local aristocrats, rich merchants, government officials and military leaders.

In November 28, 1924, Grand Marshal of Republic of China and the leader of Chinese Nationalist Party, Dr. Sun Yat-sen traveled to Japan and met personally with Nagayama Yoshida at Goryokaku fortress, Hakodate, Hokkaido. Sun showed his support to Japanese Revolution and gave a speech on Pan-Asianism before the Central Committee of National People’s Conference of Japan. When Sun died in 1925, Yoshida was among the first ones who sent the condolences and gave an obituary speech before the Central Committee of Japanese Nationalist Party.

On March 13, 1926, the Revolutionary Army succeeds to occupy Musashi Provinces and Tokyo, and Mizuho-no-hata, the flag of Revolution hoisted in Tokyo Imperial Palace. The Revolutionary Government then able to move from Hakodate to Tokyo on July 8, 1926. Yoshida and all revolutionary leaders welcomed by the thousands of Tokyo citizen.

In Tokyo, Yoshida started the new level of leadership by issued the order to transfer the land owned by the aristocrats to the local farmers in all occupied provinces in 1926 and to organize the People’s Bank of Japan in 1927. By 1927, all provinces in Northern and Central Japan under the administration of Revolutionary Government. The new Revolutionary Cabinet formed in October 20, 1927 composed by all representatives from the National Front member parties. Yoshida once again elected unanimously as the Political Commander of the Army and Navy.

The Revolutionary forces successfully defeated the Government forces in Kitakyushu, Buzen Province, Kyushu at April 27, 1930. Prime Minister Shidehara agreed to surrender and signed the Instrument of Surrender in Kyoto at May 16, 1930. Emperor Shoen announced his abdication from the Chrysanthemum throne in May 18, 1930 and the Empire of Japan officially abolished in May 21, 1930 and the Tokyo Revolutionary Government, led by Nagayama Yoshida and Hotori Etsu effectively took over the control of the country in May 29, 1930.

Leadership of Japan
In February 16, 1931, the new republican government of Japan proclaimed in Tokyo. Yoshida elected by the Provisional Convocation of National Congress as the first President of the Republic of Japanin February 19, 1931. The National Congress approved the National Security Law issued by the provisional Legislative Council of Japan in February 24, 1931. The Law allowed the State to banned the organisations that suspected as the "counter-revolutionary" movement.

As result, the Nationalist Party of Japan rose as a vanguard party for the newly proclaimed Republic. With his position as the President of the Republic (executive branch of government) and the Chairman of Politburo (leader of Party), Yoshida confirmed as the paramount leader of Japan.

Yoshida appointed Hotori Etsu as the new Minister of Economic Affairs and the Chairman of Economic Planning Council in February 21, 1931 to preside Japan's economic development. The Great Economic Plan, which modeled after the Soviet’s Five-Year Plan, officially introduced in July 27, 1931. Under the Great Economic Plan, the state controlled the industries, banks and foreign trades while some small non-industrial private enterprises still permitted to exist

The Great Economic Plan succeed to boast Japanese national development. Japan economy growth significantly between 1931 and 1940 and became the Asia's leading producer of agricultural products, rubber, coal, cement, natural gas and other minerals were also of major importance.

Yoshida also led the social reforms in Japanese society such as the abolition of noble titles, the reorganization of Japanese folk religion and the reformation of Japanese language. Between 1931 and 1940, there are a significant number of former Japanese aristocrats and conglomerates that arrested or executed by the Republican government under the suspicion being a potential "counter-revolutionary force" (although several former aristocrats also joined the Nationalist Party). They who not executed, forced to provide a hard labor in "special industrial complexes" and "special state farms". This methods not only implemented in Japan, but also in Philippines, Korea, Manchuria and New Guinea, and continued through the Fascist era until 1945.

However, in 1936, the Republican government introduced the free education and free health care campaign due the success of Great Economic Plan. Yoshida actively involved in National Librarian Association of Japan for the modernization of library system in the country and preservation of Japanese classical literature. In 1937, Yoshida called the people "to abandon the Chinese characters" and "support the Japanese cultural purification."

Rise of Fascist Government
In his late 60s, Nagayama's health slowly started to decline. In 1937, Nagayama got hospitalized after suffered an acute pneumonia and the presidential powers executed by Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. At the age of 68, Nagayama suffered a massive stroke and lessened his direct action in the government. Although unable to lead the government by himself, Nagayama still the Chairman of Party Politburo and viewed as the symbol of national unity, which making his role similar with the role of king in constitutional monarchy.

Rarely attended the government meetings and the Congressional convocations, Nagayama absent led to the power struggle within the Nationalist Party of Japan between the moderates led by Yoshinohe Toyoda and Fumimaro Konoe which supported the expansion of Japanese interest into China and the radicals led by Nakano Seigo and Kouki Hirota which supported the expansion of Japanese interest into Pacific islands.

The coup attempt by the Navy occurred in May 19, 1940. The pro-Navy military polices surrounded the Presidential Palace, the Government Hall, the Tokyo Municipality Hall and the building of National Congress and pressured the Congress to appoint Nakano Seigo as the new prime minister.

The martial law declared in June 4, 1940. The 1931 Republic Constitution breezed. The power of National Congress transferred to the Council of Ministers led by Nakano Seigo. President Nagayama Yoshida house-arrested in the Tokyo National Palace on June 5, 1940.

The Nationalist Party of Japan officially disbanded in June 7, 1940 after the military government accused the institution already infiltrated by foreign powers spies. Some of Party leaders arrested and executed, while others such as Hotori Etsu, Sazaki Oda, Mizunari Kazama and Yoshinohe Yamada succeed to escape to Vladivostok and formed the National Committee of Constitutional Protection in July 12, 1940.