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Tag: Anarchism

The March First Movement

Published June 7, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson
The March 1st Independence Movement (Suh Se-ok)

Beginning in 1910, the Empire of Japan illegally annexed Korea after victories in the Russo-Japanese War (1905). This annexation led to the establishment a colonial government within the country that lasted until the Axis Powers surrendered in 1945. With harsh assimilation policies, forced labor, and censorship, Japan attempted to deliberately subjugate Korea, which consequently urged the development of socialist and nationalist resistance.

Thus, the March First Movement, or the Sam-il Movement, was the physical response to these tools of oppression. Beginning on March 1st of 1919, the campaign involved various student-led demonstrations demanding the Independence of Korea as a result of Japanese imperialism. Inspired by the Treaty of Versailles and Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the movement sought to dispel Japanese colonial power through peaceful protest and the creation of a Korean Declaration of Independence. While the event did not single-handedly attain Korean Independence, it is notable for empowering the Korean Independence Movement and inspiring various influential activists.

FURTHER READING

Baldwin, Frank Prentiss, JR. 1969. “The March First Movement: Korean Challenge and Japanese Response.” Order No. 7220026, Columbia University. https://proxy.wm.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/march-first-movement-korean-challenge-japanese/docview/288040533/se-2?accountid=15053.

Neuhaus, Dolf-Alexander. “”Awakening Asia”: Korean Student Activists in Japan, The Asia Kunglun, and Asian Solidarity, 1910–1923.” Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 6, no. 2 (2017): 608-638. doi:10.1353/ach.2017.0021.

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Ricardo Flores Magón

Published April 30, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

Ricardo Flores MAGÓN (1874–1922) was an indigenous Mexican anarchocommunist whose activism helped lead to the Mexican Revolution. He was born during the military dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, the porfiriato, which greatly shaped his career. He and his two brothers founded Regeneración, a newspaper meant to unveil the injustices under the porfiriato. Magón independently authored countless articles and stories about anarchism as a solution to the ills of capitalism.

Ricardo Flores Magón

Magón’s writing often used fiction to illustrate anti-capitalist uprisings and ended with vehement calls to action. Not only did he support an uprising, but he more generally supported workers’ rights, elimination of private property, and anti-clericalism. He questioned the need for government entirely; however, he described his radically anarchocommunist works as liberal to gain wider approval. Magón’s popularity prompted the formation of a radical political party to oust the porfiriato—the Mexican Liberal Party (PLM). The PLM initiated several uprisings. Although Díaz was ousted and replaced with a liberal, Magón still expressed doubts. He believed that only the workers themselves could obtain workers’ rights.

FURTHER READING

“A world without borders” in New York, 2006

Magón Flores Ricardo, Chaz Bufe, and Mitchell Cowen Verter. Dreams of Freedom: A Ricardo Flores Magón Reader. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2005. 

Magon, Ricardo Flores. “Government?” The Anarchist Library, August 4, 2020. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ricardo-flores-magon-government. 

Magon, Ricardo Flores. “Land and Liberty.” The Anarchist Library, June 14, 2018. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anarchist-communist-group-land-and-liberty.

Archivomagon.net. “Archivo Digital de Ricardo Flores Magón | Archivo Digital Del Trabajo Histórico de Ricardo Flores Magón,” 2021. http://archivomagon.net/.

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Hashiura Haruko and the Photographic Legacy of Protest

Published April 29, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson
Hashiura Haruko at the Second May Day Protest, 1921

HASHIURA Haruko (1898-1975) was one of the pivotal figures of the Sekirankai. While not a prominent leader of the small feminist collective, she is recognized for her acts of protest with the group, especially for her work in the second May Day Protest. Moreover, as she was born to a family of active socialists, she learned at an early age about socialist principles despite later embracing a nihilist perspective later in life.

Detailed in her testimonies within Mikiso Hane’s Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, Hashiura was famously photographed at the age of 23 while being arrested for participating in the socialist demonstration and assaulting a police officer. Depicting her with confidence and composure, this photograph was published by the Yomiuri Shinbun, which rallied members of the left and represented the power evoked by the Sekirankai. While Hashiura died displeased with the success of her photo, her writings indicate that she utilized the abuse and struggles she encountered to advocate for feminist reform.

FURTHER READING

Hane, Mikiso. 1998. “The Sekirankai.” In Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, 131–38. University of California Press.

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The Sekirankai

Published April 29, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson
Yamakawa Kikue, Itō Noe, Sakai Magara

The Sekirankai (1921), or Red Wave Society, was a Japanese women’s-rights organization born from leftist members of a Japanese newspaper group called the Seito circle. Established explicitly by Sakai Magara, Hashirura Haruko, Kutsumi Fusako, and Akizuki Shizue, these socialist figures assembled the group as a response to the Taisho government’s misogynistic policies, censorship, and increased militarism. Moreover, with the assistance of various political connections to the Japanese Communist Party and prominent advisors, Yamakawa Kikue and Itō Noe, the organization pushed for a reformist transformation of the Japanese government.

Overall, the Sekirankai is notable for its political rallies in support of feminism and its position as the first women’s socialist organization. Throughout 1921, the association participated in a variety of seminars, leftist book distributions, and public demonstrations, such as the prominent May Day Protest. However, following a surge in imprisonment and assassination of the leadership, the group eventually disbanded only six months after its inception. Regardless, the Sekirankai remains an organization that demonstrates the origins of organized female political resistance and reformist ideology within the Taisho period.

FURTHER READING

Hartley, Barbara. 2020. “Sakai Magara: Activist Girl of Early Twentieth Century Japan.” Girlhood Studies 13 (2): 103–18. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2020.130209.

Hane, Mikiso. 1998. “The Sekirankai.” In Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, 125-27. University of California Press.

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The Meiji Restoration

Published April 1, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson
The First May Day Event, 1920

Throughout most of Japanese history, monarchies and feudal military dictatorships ruled the country. However, after a coup d’etat in January 1868 that stripped Tokugawa Yoshinobu of authority, Japan entered a tumultuous and revolutionary period known as the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912). Following hundreds of years under the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the country was forced to construct a new government that appealed to the people. Moreover, as this period marked the continuation of Japan’s new relations with foreign countries for the first time in centuries, there was tremendous pressure to pursue distinct ideologies from foreign governments.

Therefore, the Meiji Era enabled vastly different perspectives to propose courses of action for economic, social, and cultural development. From socialism rooted in Christianity to Japanese Marxism, various systems were posited as options for the new centralized government. Thus, this section explores the numerous perspectives of Japanese resistance against the former government and the dominant ideologies that persisted throughout the era.

FURTHER READING

Beasley, William G. 1972. The Meiji Restoration. ACLS Humanities EBook. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.00345.

Theodore, William, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E Tiedemann. 2005. “The Meiji Restoration.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition. Vol. 2. New York: Columbia University Press.

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Kaneko Fumiko and Anarchism in the Meiji Restoration

Published April 1, 2022 by Franchesca Johnson

KANEKO Fumiko (1903-1926) was a political activist who advocated for an anarchist approach to Japanese society in response to the Meiji Restoration. Born out of wedlock to an impoverished mother and unrecognized by her father, Kaneko encountered the hardships of society very early in life, which eventually led her towards nihilism. However, even though these disadvantages could solely rationalize her anarchist perspective, her emigration to Korea and experience witnessing the mistreatment of Korean servants altered her stance on government and Japanese society.

Within interrogation records translated in Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan, Kaneko describes her initial endorsement of socialist policies and eventual criticism of the system. With frequent criticism of the upper-class and the emperor system, Kaneko became known as a thinker who embraced the futility of life and denounced all people’s greed and hypocrisy. Therefore, even though Kaneko was eventually imprisoned for her controversial opinions and ultimately committed suicide at age 23, her political perspectives remain markers of the disillusionment with the parliamentary government of the Meiji Era. 

FURTHER READING

Hane, Mikiso. 1998. Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan. University of California Press.

Theodore, William, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E Tiedemann. 2005. “Socialism and the Left.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition. Vol. 2. New York: Columbia University Press.

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