8.15 Japan surrendered, why are they not responsible for this war?
Letter from Iwo Jima
On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered. Japan's war of aggression not only wiped out decades of nation-building, but also committed heinous crimes across Asia.
So, why did Japan start this war? Shang Zhaoqi, associate professor of the Department of History of Fudan University and the keynote speaker of "The History of the Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire: 1895-1945", in "Empire Without Responsibility: The Expansion and Destruction of Modern Japan 1895-1945", quotes the theory of the famous Japanese intellectual historian Maruyama to explain.
Maruyama believes that the emperor system, the system of no responsibility, and fascism are the root causes of Japan's destruction. Part of his discussion of the "non-responsibility system" applies not only to World War II Japan, but also seems to be used to analyze any invigorated, rigid organization.
The following is an abridged section on "The Bet of Masao Maruyama" in "The Empire Without Responsibility: The Expansion and Destruction of Modern Japan 1895-1945".
The "irresponsible" emperor system
Maruyama said that the basic feature of the pre-war emperor system was "no responsibility," which was an important reason for Japan's slide into the abyss of war. The reason why the emperor system leads to "no one is responsible" can be summarized as follows:
First, the emperor had unlimited power, but he assumed no responsibility under the protection of the Meiji Constitution. At the same time, although the emperor has the power of an absolute monarch, he must maintain a constitutional monarchical posture of "ruling but not ruling". Since the emperor, as the supreme power, does not make any decisions (limited to internal affairs, excluding military affairs) except in rare cases, and does not assume any responsibility, this lays the foundation for the situation of "no responsibility" in the entire political system.
"The Emperor"
Second, the "dual character" of the emperor system, which includes both a constitutional monarchy and an absolute monarchy, has led to the formation of a "multi-headed" political structure in Japan. Senators, ministers, courts, cabinets, bureaucrats, parliaments, and military ministries each share certain powers, but often lack unity and coordination. The plurality and coexistence of power and mutual constraints have led to a weak sense of responsibility.
Third, in prewar Japan, the emperor had a monopoly on all political and spiritual authority. The emperor is not only the seat of supreme power, but also the ethical embodiment of truthfulness, goodness, and beauty. Under the emperor system, everyone, including civil and military officials, is insignificant. If they do not have an independent personality, they will not develop a sound sense of responsibility.
Fourth, Japan's civilian and military officials are not politicians in essence, but only bureaucrats, and what bureaucrats are best at is shirking responsibility. Bureaucrats do not have their own ideas, but only speculate on the divine will, observe words, fight for power, and "carry the palanquin" when the wind makes the rudder.
"The Emperor"
But then again, if only the cautious bureaucracy "carried the palanquin", this palanquin would not have fallen into the abyss. In the process of Japan's march towards war, in addition to bureaucratic irresponsibility, there is another irrational force stirring up trouble, that is, lawless people represented by the right wing and young officers.
Outlaws have no power and no qualifications to "carry the palanquin." And because they do not learn and have no specific political ideas and programs of action, they only have blind anger and are only satisfied with their tyranny. Although they are small in number, they are ruthless and resolute. They create chaos and terror to vent emotions and self-indulgence.
They carry out assassinations and terrorist attacks in order to undermine the old system and shock the scattered majority. As for what happens next, they may not care. However, this rampage often causes the "sacred palanquin" to change its direction of travel. Outlaws never controlled Japan, but they were direct arsonists in foreign wars.
Therefore, the system of no responsibility that Maruyama talks about consists of three forces: the "shrine" that represents authority, the bureaucracy who represents power, and the lawbreaker who represents violence.
The transfer of pressure with the next gram
However, lawbreakers have no power, they only have a few knives and a few pistols, how can they change the direction of state power? Even a coup on the scale of the 226 Mutiny was not without warning. Why can't high-ranking officials who control the police and military restrain these outlaws?
Maruyama came up with two other concepts in order to answer this question: stress transfer and Shimokagami.
As mentioned earlier, the emperor has unlimited power, but does not assume any responsibility. So who is responsible? The first is the top level of government. However, the top of the government, under the weight of responsibility, will pass the pressure on to their subordinates, the middle bureaucrats. Under pressure from the top, middle-level bureaucrats will first increase the pressure and then continue to transfer it to their subordinates, that is, lower-level bureaucrats. The lower bureaucracy is under pressure from the middle level, and the pressure is passed down until the end of the bureaucracy. This pressure increases from top to bottom, and eventually falls on the people at the bottom.
Letter from Iwo Jima
In a jurisprudence-based authoritarian society, the inferior can resort to law or public opinion to resist the undue oppression of the superior. In a pyramid society dominated by traditional authority, the oppression of the superior by the inferior can only be silently endured and these pressures transferred to the inferior. Those at the bottom bear the most pressure, but cannot pass it on.
There are two ways out that they can find, one is outward "xenophobia" and the other is upward "downward gram up". "Xenophobia" is the psychological compensation obtained through discrimination and hatred of other peoples, or the expectation that war will bring about social restructuring and peace. Although the cowardly bottom layer does not dare to resist upwards and only dare to vent outward, those bottom layers with brutal temperaments can often be "down" through violent means.
The power of the bureaucracy did not come from the people, but was given by the emperor. Therefore, those in power always have some lack of confidence in the face of subordinates and the people. On the one hand, they had to guard against popular resistance; On the other hand, they are always cautious and fear being held accountable for their mistakes. If bureaucrats encounter cowardly subordinates and the population, they can act as a blessing. But if they encounter difficult subordinates and brutal people, they will only tremble and shrink.
If lawbreakers make a big deal out of it, the bureaucracy wants to calm the situation on the one hand, and on the other hand, because they are worried about being held accountable, they will choose to acquiesce after the fact. Therefore, in Japan's modern history, the "Shimokagami" operation has been repeatedly successful.
Subjectivity and freedom of conscience
Maruyama said that in the entire system of no responsibility, whether they are "shrines", bureaucrats, or outlaws, what they have in common is a lack of subjectivity. Without subjectivity, there will be no sense of responsibility.
So, what is "subjectivity"? Simply put, subjectivity is an independent personality, that is, the consciousness that each person takes responsibility for his or her own actions as a free and independent individual with independent judgment. Of course, that alone is not enough. It is also necessary to face others with this attitude and understand others. All people regard each other as free and independent individuals, and while having the same respect and understanding for each other's personalities, they have the courage to assume their own responsibilities, without shirking or evading, only in this way can a sound subjectivity be formed.
"Junior H"
Those who respect only their own judgment and personality, and do not respect the judgment and personality of others; As long as rights, not responsibilities; The unwillingness to accept imposed value judgments, but to impose one's own value judgments on others, will not form a sound subjectivity.
According to Maruyama's understanding, the spiritual foundation of modern people is subjectivity, and the background of modern civilization is also subjectivity. Unfortunately, although Japan achieved economic, industrial, and institutional modernization after the Meiji Restoration, it failed to form an independent sense of personality in society. A key factor in this is that there is no "freedom of conscience".
Freedom of conscience, that is, the freedom to think differently. In human history, freedom of conscience did not appear out of thin air, but was established after many years of bloody wars. In the 16th and 17th centuries, there were brutal religious wars in Europe, and the various Christian denominations fought bloody rivers because of their different beliefs. The sects fought each other, finding that they could only hurt each other, and neither could change the other.
Europeans then realized that they had to be tolerant of each other in order to survive together. On the basis of this understanding, the political system began to distinguish between the public and private spheres. State power is defined as "neutral" public power, dealing only with matters in the public sphere, such as security, foreign affairs, and judicial matters. With regard to the spiritual life of the individual, public power should take a detached and neutral position.
But in pre-war Japan, the situation was very different. Before the war, the emperor system was not only the core of all political systems and social order, but also the basis of all morality and ethics. In this case, the social bond is not a horizontal relationship of cooperation among equal citizens, but a vertical relationship of successive attachment from the last subject to the top emperor. A person's distance from the supreme authority, the Emperor, determines his social value.
Letter from Iwo Jima
The emperor himself became the embodiment of truth, goodness, and beauty, and his unlimited support for the emperor system became the greatest virtue; And doubting and resisting the emperor system is not only a violation of the law, but also of morality. Since the emperor system monopolized both power and ethics, this led to the externalization of morality in the entire society.
But the problem is that morality is intrinsic in nature, and no one can get into someone else's mind to see what he is thinking. Therefore, the imposition of public power on society to recognize a certain morality can only encourage social dishonesty and morality. In other words, it doesn't matter if a person genuinely supports the emperor system, as long as he acts like he or she supports the emperor system. In a society without "freedom of conscience", people will only say and do things against their will, and will not have the consciousness of being responsible for their words and actions.
fascism
In addition, the lack of freedom of conscience in prewar Japanese society was also an important reason for the breeding of fascism. Because everyone as an individual is weak, when separated from the protection of the law, society and the community, everyone's state of existence is extremely fragile. In a society without "freedom of conscience," individuals choose to submit to the most powerful forces and voices in society in order to protect themselves.
This tendency is most pronounced among the most value-deprived people at the bottom, who have the most scarce means of subsistence and have only labor to sell in societies governed by the law of the jungle. They can have the spirit of most resistance to power, or they may actively move closer to powerful authorities, hoping to gain refuge with allegiance. They become one with the strong in spirit and action to gain security and eliminate all kinds of frustration in life by burying themselves in great power.
"The Taste of Saury"
If the economic situation is good, the international environment is stable, and the standard of living is constantly improving, they may bury their heads in making money and their private lives. But if the economy declines and the gap between the rich and the poor widens, many people will choose to support fascism because of poverty and despair. Internally, they demand violent reshaping of society and "equality under autocracy," while externally they demand military expansion to ravage weaker peoples and seek psychological compensation.
Fascism was a fundamental reaction to the 19th-century principles of state and social organization, which opposed both capitalism and socialism. Of course, this is only a manifestation in principle. In practice, fascism is often flaunted under the banner of socialism and is associated with capitalism.
Fascism preaches that "collective interests prevail over individual interests," but in fact it can constantly sacrifice the collective interests of the masses for the personal interests of those in power (as Hitler and Emperor Showa did). Fascism denies the parliamentary system and party politics internally in order to establish a violent dictatorship, denies the existing international order externally, and advocates the redivision of the world. To achieve this goal, fascism continues to create domestic and foreign crises, thus opening the way for forced integration.
"The Destruction of the Empire"
Japan, Germany and Italy, the three pre-war fascist states, although different from each other, all have the general characteristics of fascism, that is, the promotion of statism, totalitarianism, ultra-nationalism and militarism.
As Collingwood argued, the value of history is to tell us what people have done, and thus what people are.
Reflecting on the pre-war world with these words, we cannot help but be pessimistic again about human ignorance, blindness, arrogance, greed and cruelty. Understanding the post-war world in these words, we may be able to regain faith in human wisdom, courage, humility, temperance and fraternity.
Seventy-eight years ago today, the Japanese Empire collapsed, but the significance of this history will not be diminished. Because the contemplation of human nature requires us to refer to the solemnity of history, and the concern for reality requires us to seek lessons from the richness of history.