Japan's Holy War: The Ideology of Radical Shinto Ultranationalism

Walter Skya

Published by Duke University Press 2009

Japan's Holy War

The Ideology of Radical Shinto Ultranationalism

Walter Skya
Edited by: Rey Chow , Harry Harootunian and Masao Miyoshi

In the series Asia-Pacific: Culture, Politics, and Society

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822392460

Overview
Contents

About this book

A work of history documenting the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century transformation of State Shinto into a radical ideology that ultimately drove Japan into a holy war against Western civilization.

Author / Editor information

Walter Skya is Director of the Asian Studies Program and Associate Professor of History at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Reviews

“The study may help illuminate some otherwise indecipherable currents of thinking that exist in Japan even today.” - Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs

“Japan’s Holy War makes an important contribution to an understanding of Shinto ideology. Skya overturns the view that the ideology underwent no significant changes, challenging assumptions about the primacy of the ideas of Hotsumi and presenting pioneering analyses of the works of Uesugi and Kakehi. Skya has been thorough in his research of these theorists.” - Janice Matsumura, Canadian Journal of History

“Walter Skya deserves praise for writing what is perhaps the only extensive
study in English in decades that focuses on right-wing Shinto nationalism until 1945. . . . [T]his book is an important contribution to ongoing discussions on the significance of Shinto in modern Japan’s political arena.” - Fabio Rambelli, Journal of the American Academy of Religion

“The careful reader will come away with a very detailed overview of prewar Japanese fascism. The book is very detailed, very well written, and carefully researched. Japan’s Holy War is a classic work that should be on the reading list of any scholar of Japanese history who wishes to gain some deeper insights into the direction of Japanese politics from the late 1920s through World War II. A Japanese translation of this book should be made as soon as possible. Skyra is to be commended for this major academic achievement.” - Daniel A. Métraux, Virginia Review of Asian Studies

“Japan’s Holy War is an absolutely outstanding and necessary work, a major contribution to international scholarly debate. Walter A. Skya gives the most convincing account to date of Shintō’s ideological implications. His book will become the standard work on the intellectual and ideological history of modern Shintō.”—Klaus Antoni, University of Tübingen

“Walter A. Skya has something new and important to say about Japanese nationalism, and he says it through compelling, thorough research and documentation. Over and against the excessively abstract analyses that see Japanese nationalism as a monolithic, ahistorical force, he reveals how it changed as it responded to contingent events. Such an exciting, theoretically informed, comparative study of Japanese nationalism is long overdue.”—Kevin M. Doak, author of A History of Nationalism in Modern Japan: Placing the People

“Japan’s Holy War is an important work. Walter A. Skya shows clearly that religious ideologies play various roles in public life; State Shintō transformed from an ideology deeply supportive of entrenched authority to one profoundly and violently opposed to it.”—Mark Juergensmeyer, author of Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence

“Japan’s Holy War makes an important contribution to an understanding of Shinto ideology. Skya overturns the view that the ideology underwent no significant changes, challenging assumptions about the primacy of the ideas of Hotsumi and presenting pioneering analyses of the works of Uesugi and Kakehi. Skya has been thorough in his research of these theorists.”

-- Janice Matsumura Canadian Journal of History

“The careful reader will come away with a very detailed overview of prewar Japanese fascism. The book is very detailed, very well written, and carefully researched. Japan’s Holy War is a classic work that should be on the reading list of any scholar of Japanese history who wishes to gain some deeper insights into the direction of Japanese politics from the late 1920s through World War II. A Japanese translation of this book should be made as soon as possible. Skyra is to be commended for this major academic achievement.”

-- Daniel A. Métraux Virginia Review of Asian Studies

“The study may help illuminate some otherwise indecipherable currents of thinking that exist in Japan even today.”

-- Andrew J. Nathan Foreign Affairs

“Walter Skya deserves praise for writing what is perhaps the only extensive study in English in decades that focuses on right-wing Shinto nationalism until 1945. . . . [T]his book is an important contribution to ongoing discussions on the significance of Shinto in modern Japan’s political arena.”

-- Fabio Rambelli Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I. Emperor Ideology and the Debate over State and Sovereignty in the Late Meiji Period
1. From Constitutional Monarchy to Absolutist Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
2. Hozumi Yatsuka: The Religious Völkisch Family-State Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
3. Minobe Tatsukichi: The Secularization of Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
4. Kita Ikki: A Social-Democratic Critique of Absolute Monarchy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
II. Emperor Ideology and the Debate over State and Sovereignty in the Taish¯o Period
5. The Rise of Mass Nationalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
6. Uesugi Shinkichi: The Emperor and the Masses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
7. Kakehi Katsuhiko: The Japanese Emperor State at the Center of the Shint¯o Cosmology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
III. Radical Shint¯o Ultranationalism and Its Triumph in the Early Sh¯owa Period
8. Terrorism in the Land of the Gods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
9. Orthodoxation of a Holy War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	262
conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
select bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	363
index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	379

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 400
Illustrations
- Other: 1 figure

eBook

Published: April 3, 2009
ISBN: 9780822392460