Anticommunism of Japanese Socialist Thinkers during the Occupation Period, 1945–52

In the study of postwar U.S.-Japan relations, Japanese socialist intellectuals – whether Marxist or non-Marxist – often appear as the oppositional force against the conservatives and the United States, particularly as peace and post-occupation security arose as a political issue toward the end of the Occupation period. However, the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) was divided roughly into two factions, the rightists who, looking to the British Labour Party, sought to make a “mass” party, and the leftists who tried to create a “class” party, while differentiating themselves from the communists, so were Japanese socialist thinkers who were publicly active without joining the party. Due to their differing political ideologies and goals, they saw labor activism, communism, and Soviet Russia differently, but they both critically looked at the Japanese communists’ political strategy, modernization ideas, and relationship with the Soviet Union. As to the peace and security issue, it is interesting to note that some on the left opposed the partial peace – i.e. a peace without communist countries – and the U.S.-Japan security alliance in order to protect Japan’s democracy and peace from communism; some supported even Japan’s rearmament due to their hostility to communist Russia. By reexamining the thought of selected socialist thinkers both on the right and on the left, this presentation attempts to show their diversity and shared anti-communist and essentially “conservative” outlook, thus blurring the line between the right and the left.