Shūsui Kōtoku

[Искра]

Does somebody have some articles by Shūsui Kōtoku (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%ABsui_K%C5%8Dtoku)?

After reading about his life I'm very interested in his works. And yeah, of course, I don't know Japanese :)

[HEAD ICE]

I only found one thing he wrote - "Abolish Money"

katesharpleylibrary.net/s4mxdq

[Искра]

I only found one thing he wrote - "Abolish Money"

katesharpleylibrary.net/s4mxdq
Link doesn't work to me :( Can you post whole text here?

[HEAD ICE]

:thumbup1:

When bacteria enter a person’s bloodstream, so that person’s health is gradually undermined.

It is the same with money as with bacteria. Since money has unlimited power in the world, the ways of the world are bound to be increasingly debased. Step by step, morality is bound to be ruined and human nature faced with corruption. In the end, society is driven to destruction.

There are people calling for the abolition of prostitution, waxing indignant over the depravity of the gentry, advocating the reform of popular customs urging that morality be improved … and so on. Yet, it seems to me that at times like these, when money is needed even to get hold of a volume dealing with the subject of morality or to gain admission to a half-day course of lectures, all the endless chatter of their sermonising is utterly futile.

Nobody willingly becomes a prostitute. Nobody willingly sells their honour. There is nobody who does not want popular customs to be reformed or who does not want morality to be improved. Yet the reason why things work out differently is simply because of money.

Instead of people putting so much effort into overworking their tongues and wearing out their pens it would be better for them to give priority to demonstrating the omnipotent power of money. If one does not get rid of money, then one cannot destroy the omnipotent power which money exercises in other spheres. To put it another way, unless one abolishes the necessity for money in this world, it is quite impossible to improve the ways of the world or human nature.

Someone who has no money cannot live. This is the way the world is at present. Yet even in today’s corrupt society, no-one could say that this is right and proper. Truly, a person lives by other things than money. Over and above money, there is strength and there is honour. There is right and there is duty. There is bread and there are clothes. Yet nowadays, when money has unlimited power, is there any room for truth in the world? Can what is right be done?

If one fine morning it were put to the test, if money were abolished and the need for it completely eradicated, what a noble place the world would be! How peaceful! How happy!

Bribery, corruption, people selling their principles – all these would completely disappear. Murder, robbery and adultery would be greatly reduced too. There would be no need to call for the abolition of prostitution, nor to advocate the reform of popular customs. All at once it would be just like the Buddhists’ pure land and the Christians’ heaven.

It is natural that there should be any number of rises and falls in history but, if money had not existed in the civilisations of ancient India, Egypt, Greece and Rome, I believe that it would have been possible for them to have lasted several thousand years more.

But in days like these when money has such power, if we utter the words ‘Abolition of Money’, people look at us as though we are mad. Is it madness, though? Are you prepared to say that the modern European socialists who are spreading everywhere throughout the world (sic) are all mad, then? – because the socialists have the abolition of money and the suppression of the private ownership of capital as their ideals.

They take this position because they want to see the individual – and society as a whole – live by other things than money. In other words, they want to replace money by strength and honour, by right and duty. Indeed, truth and righteousness lie in doing just this. So if you agree that truth and righteousness really should be put into practice, then why should you think of socialism as being difficult to realise in actual life? Socialism is far from being an impossibility. Rather it is just that it has not been put into effect up till now.

Why don’t people who want to improve human nature and the ways of the world stop their petty squabbles and put their efforts into achieving socialism? If they did this, it would be the quickest way for them to achieve their objectives.

The nineteenth century was the age of liberalism but the twentieth century is about to become the age of socialism. All capable people need to wake up to this new trend in the world – and to this alone.

[Absolut]

Google gave me this: Shūsui Kōtoku (biography) (http://books.google.com/books?id=qa88AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=Sh%C5%ABsui+K%C5%8Dtoku&source=bl&ots=H5Y_T9mB3K&sig=aGdd9XdwXOlZhh5EyQu1K9_jKjY&hl=sv&ei=1OjsSpW-EIvc-QaatrD7Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CDEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false)

[Искра]

Google gave me this: Shūsui Kōtoku (biography) (http://books.google.com/books?id=qa88AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=Sh%C5%ABsui+K%C5%8Dtoku&source=bl&ots=H5Y_T9mB3K&sig=aGdd9XdwXOlZhh5EyQu1K9_jKjY&hl=sv&ei=1OjsSpW-EIvc-QaatrD7Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CDEQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false)
Do you know if I can print this? I don't like those google books. You can't download them, I don't know how to print them... This is 100% capitalist crap :rolleyes:

Snack: Thx for text. I'm translating it into Croatian :)

[Искра]

Btw. this is better Google book link: http://books.google.hr/books?id=qa88AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=K%C5%8Dtoku+Sh%C5%ABsui,+portrait+of+a+Japanese +radical&source=bl&ots=H5Y_TadB0H&sig=SZhXYsgLZVYVt0wiBgk5y5Q7uv0&hl=en&ei=BezsSv6aOoW6sgaUlLzkCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false whit 3rd and 4th page. But how can I print this :(

[Revy]

A short biography of Kotoku Shusui

Kotoku Shusui was born in a town which is now known as Kyomachi of Shimanto-city in the 4th year of Meiji (1871), and his real name was Denjiro.

His well-established family ran a pharmacy and sake brewery in the town. His father's name was Atsuaki and his mother's name was Taji. He was the youngest of their four children.

His father died while he was still young, so he was brought up entirely by his mother. Shusui was physically fragile and suffered from gastroenteric problems during his childhood, causing his family to doubt whether he would ever actually grow up to be a man. However, it is said that even an infant, he was so clever that he could write characters on his mother's chest with his fingers while he was being breast-fed. During his childhood, he was so intelligent and precocious that people called him a child prodigy. While attending elementary and junior high school, he was also able to attend Kido Kakusho's private school, where he started studying Chinese classics from the age of 9.

During his youth he started to take interest in the democratic rights
movement, and started reading "Jiyuu Shimbun" (the Liberal Newspaper) at the age of 15. When he was 16 years old, he represented the townspeople by reading the congratulatory address at a small dinner party arranged for Itagaki Taisuke's visit to Nakamura. He became Hayashi Yuzo's student houseboy the next year, but the government had already started to purge the liberal democrats. Next he became Nakae Chomin's student houseboy. Chomin was a person that Shusui respected and mentored throughout his entire life, and from whom he received a great deal of ideological and personal influence. Shusui became a newspaper writer, and as his reputation as a writer grew, he began gradually leaning towards socialism as he became into contact with various social problems.

The Japanese Social Democratic Party was formed in the 34th year of Meiji (1901), but was promptly forced to disperse in the same year. However, they found a way to continue their activities by joining forces with the Socialist Association. In the same year Shusui published his thesis entitled "The Problem of Imperialism in the 20th Century", which is a surprisingly insightful publication that demonstrates his pioneering theories 15 years before Lenin's "Imperialism".He advocated pacifism in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, and actively continued his work in the anti-war movement. In the 38th year of Meiji (1905), he was indicted for articles written while he was an editor of the Common People's Newspaper, and while in prison he read theses written by Engels and Kropotkin, which turned his political thoughts towards anarchism. After being released from prison, he traveled to the United States where he continued to be politically active, making speeches in Oakland celebrating the Russian Revolution and taking part in other political activities. His sympathy with the ideals of the Russian Revolution grew, which strengthened his views towards syndicalism. He predicted the Japan-US war in a paper he wrote, and throughout the time before the war continued to advocate the avoidance of war,as well as continuing to make pioneering insights that demonstrated his talents. On his return to Japan, Shusui argued the necessity of activism against parliamentarists at the 2nd Socialist Party's convention, an issue which finally caused a break of the party into two factions.

After the formation of the 2nd Katsura Cabinet, the crackdown on socialists was strenghtened and oppression became increasingly more severe. Shusui intended to retreat from the front line of the movement because of his financial hardship and poor health. Under the advice of his close friend, Koizumi Sanshin,he had devoted himself to a life of rest and writing at the Yugawara hot spring when he was arrested, accused of grand treason. He was put to death on the gallows, and his punishment was imposed by a closed trial, which was unprecedented in the legal history of Japan.

He died at 8:06 a.m. on January 24, in the 44th year of Meiji (1911), aged 40.The prison chaplain, Mr. Numanami, said that Shusui met his fate bravely, and remained stoic and undistracted until the end.

<The Association for Honoring Kotoku Shusui>

[MarxSchmarx]

Do you know if I can print this? I don't like those google books. You can't download them, I don't know how to print them... This is 100% capitalist crap :rolleyes:

Snack: Thx for text. I'm translating it into Croatian :)

Your best bet is to take a screenshot and print that.


And yeah, of course, I don't know Japanese :)

A handful of his articles are available online in the original.
http://www.aozora.gr.jp/index_pages/person261.html
You can use google translator usually to get the gist of what it's saying.