On February 26 of 1936 a coup d’etat was attempted by a radical nationalist group of the Imperial Japanese Army. Tokyo was put under the martial law. Though the plot was cracked down, police investigated and arrested not only socialists but also liberalists. Labor unions as well as workers’ parties were incorporated into imperial-nationalist organizations, the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and the government-sponsored national workers’ organization, Sampo.

SIMILAR CAPITALIST CRISIS EMERGES TODAY

Fascism does not conquer the world today in the same way as before. Similarity is, however, is perceived; a rise of populism. The economic depression led to fascism in the 1930s, while capitalist crisis following the Lehman Shock has attained to rightwing populism. A parallel is found.

In the name of renovation

We cannot but forget experiences of the February 26 incident. Workers and peasants suffered from the economic impasse and seriously poor harvest years, while capital owners enjoyed enormous wealth brought about by the military demands. Peasants were exhausted profoundly. Many of soldiers in the army came from this social class and dissatisfactions saturated inside the military on the social gaps between the rich and the poor. Fascism infiltrated easily into the military in the name of renovation, which instigated hatred against rich people and government officials connected with the former.

The insurgent group assaulted the official residence of Prime Minister and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police stations, killing government leaders, including Finance Minister Takahashi Korekiyo, and injuring others. The group was led by imperial officers. The February 26 coup was culmination of the social trends. But this acme was one of the peaks. The government and the military authority quelled the coup, but later a real fascist system was completed on the basis of the Zaibatsu groups, or big financial circles, and ‘innovative’ bureaucrats.

On July 7, 1937, the following year, the Japanese troops provoked armed clashes at the Marco Polo Bridge in the suburbs of Beijing, China. Afterwards Japan invaded China militarily on a full scale.

In December of the same year members of legalized leftist organizations and trade union leaders were arrested in the campaigns against the Popular Front. Liberalists, too, lost the right to say. A dark era lasted until August 15, 1945.

In Japan the established authorities absorbed rapidly-growing fascist forces, while in Germany the established capitalist authorities were forced to surrender to fascist forces. One more different point was a fact that movements led by workers’ parties in Japan could not develop efficient anti-fascist mass movements. Rather the major organizations fell into line with fascists.

1930s and today

In the general elections held just before the February 26 incident workers’ parties had gained 21 seats in the national assembly, which was a record high, four times bigger than the previous number. In the elections held in April of the following year, 1937, these parties obtained 38 seats. But the majority of members had sided with the ‘innovative’ fascist faction, in which dissatisfactions were targeted at the Zaibatsu groups and the established political parties. Concerning the February 26 coup, these parties announced to ‘stop frivolous criticisms’ (the statement of the Social Mass Party), while liberalists harshly condemned.

Thus, political parties rapidly grew to be nationalist parties in both nominal and real terms, following the beginning of aggression war against China in 1937.

Now, let’s look at the situation today. Unlike in Europe, rightist populism has not emerged. The Abe government has maintained its authority for long time, integrating rightwing forces, including the Japan Conference. Mass movements led by leftists against austerity measures are inactive, being different from the European popular movements. People are sunk in anxieties about social gaps and poverty, cheated by the government’s money politics. Opposition political parties are not successful in presenting a bold countermeasure to redistribute wealth.

Constitutional social rights are not materialized. That shows Japanese people have not yet overcome lack of democratic principles. Under these circumstances another February 26 might be produced politically by casting a new actor to replace with Prime Minister Abe when his tenure ends.

February 26, 2019