Kotoku Shusui
Portrait of a Japanese Radical

This text examines the life and times of Kōtoku Shūsui (1871–1911).

F. G. Notehelfer (Author)

9780521131483, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 April 2011

240 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.36 kg

This 1971 text was the first Western study of Kōtoku Shūsui (1871–1911) - Japan's leading left-wing thinker at the turn of the century - whose career and ideas had a decisive influence on subsequent radical movements in Japan and also in China. Kōtoku was a bitter opponent of aggressive Japanese nationalism and militarism, foreseeing as early as 1906 that its ultimate consequence would be conflict with the United States. He was executed in 1911 on charges of 'high treason' in a plot to take the life of the Meiji Emperor. Professor Notehelfer presents a personal as well as political biography. Drawing on Kōtoku's extensive diaries and correspondence, he examines the psychological conflict Kōtoku suffered between traditional and Western ideas. The book therefore has the wider theme of illustrating the pressures and difficulties faced by a traditional society in a period of rapid social change.

List of plates
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Tosa years, 1871–1888
2. In search of power and glory, 1889–1899
3. From loyalism to socialism, 1899–1903
4. Pacifist opposition to the Russo-Japanese War, 1903–1905
5. The transition to anarchism, 1905–1906
6. Direct action, 1906–1907
7. High treason, 1907–1910
8. The trial, 1910–1911
Epilogue
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]