Japanese, Chinese and Korean Anarchism

[LebenIstKrieg]

any one willing to shed any light on this? I've looked at the usual sources such as lib-com and Wikipedia but it's really hard to get English articles on non American/European/African anarchism. It would greatly appreciated if some one could contribute some links or titles of books.:)

[LebenIstKrieg]

look's like ill have to translate myself then. *sigh* :(

[ContrarianLemming]

see here http://wiki.infoshop.org/Anarchism_in_Korea#Autonomous_Shinmin_Region_.2819 29-1931.29

one of the anarchist revolutions happened in Korea, people forget about it.

[Os Cangaceiros]

You should look into Ito Noe and Osuge Sakae, two Japanese Anarchists (and two of my personal heroes). They were actively involved in working class organization, anti-war efforts and translating anarchists texts in an extremely reactionary country, which ultimately resulted in both of them being murdered by the military/police in the chaotic aftermath of the Great Kanto earthquake. They were the Japanese Anarchist versions of Liebknecht and Luxemburg.

[bricolage]

Anarchist Federation have a pamphlet; http://www.afed.org.uk/ace/japan.html

[Salmonella]

one of the anarchist revolutions happened in Korea, people forget about it.

There are a lot of things we forget.
But I have to say, that was news for me.

[LebenIstKrieg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re_60lBaiJg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-i6jRWu8Ts

[AK]

It was of no social importance to the world or to the liberation of African or Asian people.
*yawn*

I suppose working class revolution is of no social importance to the world or to the liberation of African or Asian people then?

[LebenIstKrieg]

It was of no social importance to the world or to the liberation of African or Asian people.
Don't talk shit what about all the anti authoritarian workers movements.
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/africa.html
http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/africa/uganda/adf1sep2000.html

[AK]

Neat. A handful of anarchists in Africa attacked police. American anarchism is the shit too. People got arrested at the DNC and the RNC, you know!
Way to ignore class struggle and anti-capitalist movements. What did your party do, sell newspapers?


Seriously, the only popular movements worth a damn that liberated these countries were communist, communist-influenced, or separate independence movements made up of socialists. Anarchists have never done anything of note in Africa. By my count, there were seven Marxist-Leninist revolutions in Africa in the 20th century and countless independence movements with socialists forming the nucleus.
Yet, I didn't see any of them put the working class in power or abolish class society. Why is that?

[Os Cangaceiros]

It was of no social importance to the world or to the liberation of African or Asian people.

"Liberation" of African or Asian people?

Anti-colonialist movements didn't result in African/Asian liberation, either, at least not as far as I can tell. How organizations define themselves (as anarchist, Marxist, or what have you) is less important to me than how they conduct themselves. Perhaps liberation from one form of oppression, but that doesn't mean much when you're swiftly delivered into another form (such as when blacks in the antebellum slavery were delivered from official slavery into de facto slavery.)

And as far as Africa is concerned, one of the most interesting libertarian socialist groups in the world at the moment is Zabalaza, IMO.

(And your post came off as extremely arrogant, by the way. "no social importance to the world"...pfft.)

[scarletghoul]

The Korean Anarchist movement is one of the greatest revolutionary movements in history. The Japanese was great too and to a lesser extent the Chinese. They were all tied together of course because of the Japanese Empire. A huge amount of Korean Anarchists were active in Japan. Aswell as Noe Ito and Osugi Sakai already mentioned, another heroic couple were Kaneko Fumiko and Park Yeol, japanese and Korean. They were jailed for apparently trying to blow up Hirohito.. she wrote some great prison memoirs and then killed herself. Park Yeol lived and later went to support North Korea during the war and for the rest of his life.

Many Korean Anarchists sided with DPRK, because back then, Anarchists were actually socialists and not liberals.

Same with Chinese Anarchists and the CPC. Anyway yes there was a liberated Anarchist Korean territory in Shinmin, now Manchuria. The leader was Kim Jwa Jin, who was shot while repairing a windmill. Seems to have been pretty awesome.

It's true there is barely any work available in English on Korean/Japanese/Chinese Anarchism :(

[LebenIstKrieg]

It's true there is barely any work available in English on Korean/Japanese/Chinese Anarchism http://www.revleft.com/vb/../revleft/smilies/sad.gif Good I'm learning Japanese Then.

[AK]

A little something about the WW2-era Japanese anarchist anti-war movement: http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/anarchism/texts/war/japan.html

Excerpt:

What to do about war

The Japanese militarists have mobilised their army to China on the pretext 'For the peace of the Orient' or 'To defend the Japanese people in China'. They always use, whenever a state crisis occurs, such beautiful expressions as 'For Our fatherland' or 'For justice' and try to stir up the people's patriotism. But what is the fatherland? For whom does it exist? Never forget that all states exist only for the wealthy. It is the same with war. War brings injury or death to the young men of the poor, and hunger and cold to their aged parents and young brothers and sisters. But to the wealthy it brings enormous riches and honour.

The true cause of the mobilisation to China is none other than the ambition of the Japanese capitalist class and military to conquer Manchuria. Japan has its own Monroe doctrine. Japanese capitalism cannot develop, or even survive, without Manchuria. That is why its government is inclined to risk anything so as not to lose its many privileges in China. Therefore it has approved the enormous expense of the mobilisation, despite the fact that it is experiencing a deficit in the current year's income of the state treasury. American capital has flowed into China in larger and larger amounts. This represents an enormous menace to the Japanese capitalist class. In other words. now Japan is forced to oppose American capital in China. In fact, this is the direct cause of the mobilisation.

From another point of view, we can see that this incident is a drama written by the Japanese military as a militaristic demonstration to all pacifists, cosmopolitans and socialists within Japan, and to other countries in general, and China in particular. Even we Japanese have been surprised at the rapid mobilisation. How were they able to make preparations so rapidly? It is clear that the mobilisation was totally prepared for long ago. That is the drama. Did we say drama?! In this way the military have engineered the opportunity to demonstrate and establish their strength, which has been weakened of late by disarmament and pacifist public opinion. Of course, a secret agreement had been reached between the military and the capitalists, because they both belong to the ruling class.

In this situation, what must we do? The Communists say 'Defend and come to the aid of the Chinese revolution!' But who will benefit in China when Japanese power is totally eliminated from that country? It will be none other than the newly rising Chinese bourgeoisie and the capitalists of other countries. We must keenly observe and criticise all that takes place. In the face of war, we must not make the mistake which our comrade Kropotkin and others made during the World War. Of course, we opposed the mobilisation. But we found that merely one-sided opposition is a very feeble response. The sole method to eradicate war from our world is for us. acting as the popular masses, to reject it in all countries simultaneously. We must cease military production, refuse military service and disobey the officers. Complete international unity of the anarchists would signal our victory, not only economically but in the war against war.

ANARCHIST GROUPS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!

ABOLISH IMPERIALIST WAR!

[Devrim]

Many Korean Anarchists sided with DPRK, because back then, Anarchists were actually socialists and not liberals.

I don't think the Korean anarchists back then were socialists. I think they were nationalists pure and simple.

Anyway for the OP here (http://libcom.org/history/articles/anarchism-in-korea) is a short article on Libcom on it, and there are a couple of old threads from Revleft here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/korean-anarchist-movement-t121146/index.html?highlight=Shinmin) and here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/anarchist-korea-1920s-t67342/index.html?highlight=Shinmin) on the topic.

Devrim

[AK]

What's with half the links leading to different websites having the exact same content? I mean, Devrim's first and second links brought up the exact same content (that has also been linked to on other websites in this thread).

[Devrim]

What's with half the links leading to different websites having the exact same content? I mean, Devrim's first and second links brought up the exact same content (that has also been linked to on other websites in this thread).

There is a three page thread on the second link though, which I think goes into it in some depth.

Devrim