2004
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Fascism
  4. Volume 14, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 14, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2211-6249
  • E-ISSN: 2211-6257
file format pdf download PDF

Abstract

Abstract

This article investigates, for the first time, how Japanese anti-fascist intellectuals in the mid 1930s approached the socio-political and cultural reality of Spain as the world’s main stage of the anti-fascist struggle. As the article will show, modern Spanish society contained significant parallels with prewar Japan. That is partly why those intellectuals set their eyes on the Spanish Second Republic under fascist attack as a way to indirectly project an allegorical model that allowed implicit criticism of the problems of their own country in a context where freedom of expression was more and more repressed. In an atmosphere of increasingly advanced fascistisation, these intellectuals were arrested in 1937. Therefore, reporting from Japan on the fight against fascism in Spain meant, to some extent, attacking fascism as a global phenomenon and thus as both a Japanese and Spanish reality. Study of this empirical case opens the way for non-Eurocentric theoretical reflections on fascism and anti-fascism as universal phenomena with their national particularities, thus contributing to decentring comparative fascist studies from new perspectives.

© Ferran de Vargas.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5117/FASC2025.2.003.VAR
2025-12-10
2025-12-14
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/22116249/14/2/FASC2025.2.003.VAR.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.5117/FASC2025.2.003.VAR&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Akashi. “Supein bunka nyūsu [Cultural news from Spain].” Sekai Bunka3, October 1937 (reprint, Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Duus, Peter, and Daniel I.Okimoto. “Fascism and the History of Pre-War Japan: The Failure of a Concept.” Journal of Asian Studies39, no. 1 (1979): 65–76.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Fujino, Shiori. “Shinmura Takeshi to ‘Sekai Bunka’: 1930-nendai Kyōto no furansuteki bunmyaku o fumaete [Shinmura Takeshi and ‘Sekai Bunka’: Addressing the French context of 1930s Kyoto].” Jinbungakuhō122 (2024): 115–41.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Furihata, Setsuo. Senjika no teikō to jiritsu [Resistance and autonomy in times of war]. Shakai Hyōronsha, 1989.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Griffin, Roger. “Decentering Comparative Fascist Studies.” Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies4 (2015): 103–18. https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-00402003.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Griffin, Roger. The Nature of Fascism. Routledge, 1991.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Harootunian, Harry. Uneven Moments: Reflections on Japan’s Modern History. Columbia University Press, 2019.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Hirabayashi, Hajime (moderator). “‘Sekai Bunka’ no koro [The times of ‘Sekai Bunka’].” Sekai Bunka3, 1937, 18–19 (reprint Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Hirabayashi, Hajime. “Kaisetsu (Commentary).” Sekai Bunka3, 1937, 2 (reprint, Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Hoston, Germaine A.Marxism and the Crisis of Development in Prewar Japan. Princeton University Press, 1987.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Ienaga, Saburo. The Pacific War, 1931–1945: A Critical Perspective on Japan’s Role in World War II. Pantheon Books, 1978.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Ichimura, Keigo. “Chūsei Kataronia geijutsu tenrankai [Exhibition of Medieval Catalan art].” Sekai Bunka3, May 1937, 17–21 (reprint, Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Ishida, Takeshi. “‘Fashizumu-ki’ Nihon ni okeru dento to ‘kakushin’ [‘Reform’ and tradition in Japan in the ‘Era of Fascism’].” Shiso, January 1976, 1–20.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Kawanari, Yo. “La guerra civil española y los japoneses [The Spanish Civil War and the Japanese].” In La guerra civil española en la prensa japonesa [The Spanish Civil War in the Japanese press], edited by Instituto Cervantes. Instituto Cervantes, 2019.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Marcon, Federico. Fascism: The History of a Word. The University of Chicago Press, 2025.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Marshall, Byron K.Academic Freedom and the Japanese Imperial University, 1868–1939. University of California Press, 1992.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Maruyama, Masao. “The Ideology and Dynamics of Japanese Fascism.” In Thought and Behaviour in Modern Japanese Politics, edited by IvanMorris. Oxford University Press, [1947] 1963.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Minlos, Bruno Robertovich. “Supein no fashizumu shisō [The ideology of Spanish fascism].” Sekai Bunka2, June 1936, 29–31 (reprint, Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Minlos, Bruno Robertovich. “Supein no fashizumu shisō: Shita [The ideology of Spanish fascism: Second part].” Sekai Bunka2, July 1936, 18–30 (reprint, Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Nezu, Masashi. “Supein no shakaiteki kōzō [The social structure of Spain].” Sekai Bunka2, September 1936 (reprint, Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Paxton, Robert. The Anatomy of Fascism. Penguin, 2004.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Payne, Stanley G.A History of Fascism, 1914–1945. University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Polanyi, Karl. La naturaleza del fascismo. Virus, 2000.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Sadoul, Georges. “Pikaso o atorie ni toburafu [Visiting Picasso in his atelier].” Sekai Bunka3, October 1937, 36–41 (reprint, Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Shinmura, Takeshi. “Hanfashizumu undō to Nihon no gensuikin undō no iki shōnin toshite [As a living witness of the anti-fascist movement and antinuclear movement in Japan].” In Undō tōitsu o motomete: Shinmura Takeshi no heiwa to ningen e no omoi [Searching for the movement’s unity: Shinmura Takeshi’s reflections on peace and humanity]. Shinmura Yasuko, [1983] 2004.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Shinmura, Takeshi. “Kokusai hanfashizumu bunka undo: Furansu-Supein [The anti-fascist international cultural movement: France and Spain].” In Shinmura Takeshi chosakushū [Collected works of Shinmura Takeshi], vol. 2. San’ichi Shobo, [1948] 1994.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Shinmura, Takeshi. “Okeru Supein no rōshisōka Unamuno [The late old Spanish thinker Unamuno].” Sekai Bunka3, 1937, 36–38 (reprint, Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Shinmura, Takeshi. “‘Sekai Bunka’ no koto [On ‘Sekai Bunka’].” In Shinmura Takeshi chosakushū [Collected works of Shinmura Takeshi], vol. 2. San’ichi Shobo, [1975] 1994.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Shinmura, Takeshi. “Supein no nairanka no minshū engeki [Spanish popular theatre in the civil war].” Sekai Bunka3, January 1937, 29–30 (reprint, Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Stolz, Robert. “Introduction.” In The Japanese Ideology: A Marxist Critique of Liberalism and Fascism, by Jun Tosaka, translated by RobertStolz. Columbia University Press, 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Tomioka, Masugorō. “Supein dōran to ongakuka Paburo Kazarusu [The Spanish upheaval and the musician Pau Casals].” Sekai Bunka3, May 1937 (reprint, Shogakukan, 1975).
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Tosaka, Jun, translated by RobertStolz. The Japanese Ideology: A Marxist Critique of Liberalism and Fascism. Columbia University Press, [1935] 2024.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Washiyama, Yasuhiko. “Intaanashonarizumu to kakushintōitsu no shisō [Internationalism and the idea of reform and unity].” In Midori no ki: Shinmura Takeshi tsuisō [The green tree: Remembering Shinmura Takeshi]. Dojidaisha, 1995.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Weber, Eva. “Japan: Political History.” In Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture, edited by John S.Bowman. Columbia University Press, 2000.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Williams, David. The Philosophy of Wartime Resistance. Routledge, 2014.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Wilson, George M. “A New Look at the Problem of ‘Japanese Fascism’.” Comparative Studies in Society and History10, no. 4 (1968): 401–12.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Young, Louise. “When Fascism Met Empire in Japanese-Occupied Manchuria.” Journal of Global History12 (2017): 274–96. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1740022817000080.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Žižek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. Verso, 1989.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.5117/FASC2025.2.003.VAR
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): anti-fascism; fascism; Japan; popular front; Sekai Bunka (1935–1937); Spain; Spanish Civil War

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error