Social Nationalism (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Social Nationalism is a political philosophy developed by the Japanese nationalist Nagayama Yoshida (1871-1952) as the suitable practical application of socialism for the socio-cultural conditions of the Japanese Empire (1590-1930). Social Nationalism considered as a specific form of socialism and called the implementation of socialism and the centralization of working class-based democratic organization on one nation to achieve the nation’s common glory and to establish the nation as an integrated organic body.

Background
The opening of Japan on 1854 and the movement for Japanese national modernization arisen on 1874 saw the significant changes on the Japanese society which transformed from the traditional feudal Confucian society to the modern westernized Capitalist society.

As the Japanese economy being industrialized, the industrial workers emerged as the new Japanese working class. However, the traditional Japanese working class, the rural peasants, still held a significant influence on the Japanese rural areas and constituted 70% of the population of Japan at the time.

The industrialization on urban areas led to the emergence of downtown housing by the industrial workers which came from the rural areas. The working-class districts usually had poor quality of hygiene and lack of health care. As result, the unequal distribution of wealth between the rich factory owners and the poor workers were very visible.

On the rural areas, the changes on the local administration following the modernization of Japan threatened the traditional Japanese rural society. The increasing centralization of government led to the loss of traditional village autonomy and the unequal ownership of the land.

The introduction of Western socialism led to the increasing labour activism in Japan on the late 1800s. The Society for the Study of Socialism established on 1896 with its leading members included Abe Isoo, Shusui Kotoku and Katayama Sen. Among its early members was a young part-time editor of Hochi Shimbun, Nagayama Yoshida.

Nagayama’s personal ideology was influenced mainly by the political philosophy of French syndicalist, Georges Sorel. Nagayama initially a supporter of gradual implementation of socialism through a peaceful way. However, due to a specific nature of Japanese politics, Nagayama began to develop his own political philosophy.

Nagayama viewed the nationalism as the core of working class activism. He argued a nation is of a single organic entity which binds people together by their ancestry and is a natural unifying force of people.

Nagayama argued the true socialism of one nation should have exploited from the nation’s own history. He believed the common national identity is the nucleus form of socialism and the nationalism as the tool to preserve the socialistic goal. Nagayama believed the nationalism and the socialism are the inseparable ideology and its goals completed each other. Only by the implementation of socialism, the Asian nations can liberated themselves from foreign intervention.

The trend of “liberation socialism” quickly spread up throughout Asia, especially to the countries under the yoke of Western imperialism and colonialism. Nagayama viewed the working class of one nation can effectively overthrow the aristocratic government that influenced very much by the Western colonial powers.

Social Dynamism
“The social conditions that constantly changing as time goes by, lead to the immortal dynamics on the relationship between individuals within a nation” (Nagayama Yoshida, The Nation Within the Human Civilization, 1903)

The nation, as Nagayama believed, is not just a temporary phenomenon or an illusionary social myth, but rather as a real social condition that everyone ever experienced. The reality of a nation made its have the specific functions within its body. The historical materialist conception of Marxism actually occurred within a nation, as a dynamic on the change of civilization

Nagayama believed both industrial workers and agricultural peasant are the working classes that both has a similar function within the nation and will contributed most on the modern social transformation.

National Restoration
“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 at the progress of international civilization” (Nagayama Yoshida, The Truth, the Destiny, and the Spirit, 1901)

Opposed to the class struggle concept of Karl Marx, Nagayama believed the real struggle of human history came from the conflicts between the different races or tribes to establish the civilization superiority over another.

On the survival from those conflicts, one nation must return, at sense, to the early stage of traditional development of civilization: the primitive communism. By return to the sense of primitive communism, one nation will find its true socialist identity that fit enough with their respective social and cultural conditions.

The national restoration only can being achieved through the consciousness and the action from the working classes under the leadership of vanguard revolutionary party of the proletarian intellectuals and within the political structure of the government by the workers, the peasant, the middle bourgeois, and the intelligentsia class.

National Solidarity
“The nation is a single organic entity and the social egoism will collapsing the structure and the strength of a nation” (Nagayama Yoshida, The Nation Within the Human Civilization, 1903)

The individualism and the social egoism viewed as the things that will blocking the path of one nation to step into its economic self-determination, national glory, and national sovereignty. The individuals must realized their function and their importance within the national development. The social nationalist view of individuals based mainly from Social Darwinism. The individual belongs to its community on the defense on the universal race struggle.

National Democracy
“The government of working class of the nation must instituted on the people-based system for the benefit of the nation itself” (Nagayama Yoshida, The Republic, 1912)

Social Nationalism rejected the idea of liberal democracy as its viewed as a part of individualism. The social nationalist hoped for the establishment of an integrated nation where the able people help the disable ones, the rich help the poor, and the powerful help the weak.

The democracy within the social nationalist context is a different one with the democracy within the Western context. The Japanese social nationalist words for “democracy” is “minpon-shugi”, literally means “the people-based system”, instead of “the people-governed system”.

Nagayama Yoshida argued the democracy must preserved the social unity and the social harmony of the working classes of the nation: the industrial workers, the rural peasants, the middle bourgeoisies, and the intelligentsias and aimed for the common national goal.

View on Capitalism
"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 Yoshida, The Future of Our Empire and Its Working Men, 1896)

Social Nationalism viewed the capitalism on a different way with the orthodox Socialism. Nagayama Yoshida divided the capitalism into two categories: the “evil and vicious” individual capitalism and the “good and glorious” international capitalism. Nagayama argued the capitalism as the new stage of the evolution of human civilization where the race struggle better being accommodated into its than through the war.

The anti-elitist and anti-monopoly nature of Social Nationalism against the individual domination over national economy. The business conglomerates, the landowners, and the capitalist viewed as an opportunists who exploited the working class for their own personal belief and to increase their own personal wealth, instead for the national development. The working-class government must replaced their position over economic domination in order to establish a powerful and prosperous nation.