Uchida Ryōhei (nationalist)

Uchida Ryōhei

Uchida Ryōhei ( Japanese 内 田 良 平 ; born February 11, 1874 in Fukuoka , Fukuoka Prefecture ; † July 26, 1937 ) was a Japanese ultra-nationalist and Pan-Asianist . From 1901 until his death in 1937 he was the head of the ultra-nationalist association Kokuryūkai, which he founded himself .

Childhood and youth

Uchida Ryōhei was born as the third son of Jōdōka Uchida Ryōgorō in Fukuoka. Ryōhei, too, was interested in traditional martial arts such as kyūdō , kendō , jūdō and sumo from childhood . In his youth he was called Ryōsuke, but he changed his name to Ryōhei in 1902.

Deguchi Onisaburō , Tōyama Mitsuru and Uchida Ryōhei

He is said to have received his first formative impression of the world as a two-year-old when he was able to glimpse Imamura Momohachirō , the leader of the Akizuki rebellion , from the back of his older sister , while he was being driven to the place of execution in a Jinrikisha . As the nephew of Hiraoka Kōtarō , the first chairman of the Gen'yōsha , he joined this association as a teenager and became a student of Tōyama Mitsuru .

Uchida studied from 1893 at the Tōyōgo University the Russian language and was interested in the Chinese classics. When the Donghak uprising broke out in Korea in 1894 , Uchida Ryōhei went to Korea with other members of the Gen'yōsha to support the insurgents, with whom they had much in common as traditionalists.

In 1897 he went on a trip to Siberia after he had already taken a radically anti-Russian stance because of Shimonoseki's intervention . After further trips to the Far East of Russia , Uchida came to the conclusion that Japan did not have to fear this corrupt nation and henceforth advocated a war between Japan and Russia.

Uchida Ryōhei and the Kokuryūkai

Foundation of the Kokuryūkai and Russo-Japanese War

Upon his return in 1901, Uchida founded the Kokuryūkai, an ultra-nationalist association that called for an expansionist foreign policy by Japan on the East Asian continent , advocated an early war with the Russian Empire to drive the Tsarist Empire out of Manchuria and East Asia . The Kokuryūkai and Uchida themselves were very active in publishing. As early as 1901, Uchida published the text "On the Decline of Russia" ( Roshia Bokokuron ), in which he outlined the necessity of a war with Russia. However, the publication was banned by the Japanese government immediately after its publication , so that the author could only publish a revised version entitled "About Russia" ( Roshia Ron ). At the same time Uchida drove the establishment of a Japanese-Russian Society ( Nichi-Ro Kyōkai ), in which he was supported by Itō Hirobumi . The company was intended to restore Japanese-Russian relations after a victory by Japan in the war propagated by Uchida and the Kokuryūkai. In 1903 Uchida joined the "Anti-Russian Society" ( Tairo Dōshikai ) founded by Konoe Atsumaro , which also went to war with Russia in public and with the government.

Annexation of Korea

After the Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War , he agitated against the Portsmouth Peace Treaty and after the establishment of the Japanese Protectorate over Korea, Uchida campaigned for the complete annexation of Korea by Japan. For this purpose he went to the Korean Peninsula , where he was briefly in the service of the Japanese General Resident in Korea, Itō Hirobumi, and in turn advised and supported the Japan- friendly Iljinhoe under I Wan-yong .

Uchida Ryōhei and China

Sun Yat-Sen (far right) and Japanese supporters in Tokyo 1900. Uchida Ryōhei is second from left

During the Chinese Xinhai Revolution in 1911, Uchida again acted behind the scenes and supported the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-Sen by using his military relations to put pressure on Japanese companies that were selling weapons to the Beijing government. He also published a booklet on the "Reorganization of China" ( Shina Kaizon ), in which he called on the Manchus to hand China over to the revolutionaries and to return to Manchuria, which would have resulted in a division of China. A little later, Uchida again asserted his influence when he presented Prime Minister Ōkuma in November 1914 with the "Memorandum to Solve the China Question" ( Taishi Mondai Kaiketsu Iken ), on which the twenty-one demands on China of January 1915 were largely based. Against the background of the outbreak of the First World War in Europe , Uchida demanded the expansion of the Japanese position on mainland China and the removal of what he believed to be unreliable and unpopular Yuan Shikai . But he also called for an alliance with China and warned of inevitable uprisings in China. Ultimately, however, he was unable to assert himself with the demands for a change of government or for an alliance with China. The Japanese side was only able to obtain a few minor concessions from China with its demands, but at the same time triggered a wave of anti-Japanese nationalism that culminated in the May Fourth Movement .

The twenties and thirties

During the 1920s and 1930s, Uchida Ryōhei turned his attention to combating liberal and internationalist currents in Japanese domestic politics. So Uchida was temporarily arrested in 1925 in connection with the failed assassination attempt on Prime Minister Katō Takaaki . During the economic crisis of the 1930s, Uchida was a leading figure in the Dainippon Seisantō , an influential fascist group that promoted the rule of the military.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Okamoto Shumpei: The Japanese Oligarchy and the Russo-Japanese War , New York a. London 1970, p. 61
2. ^ Hilary Conroy: The Japanese Seizure of Korea 1868-1910. A Study of Realism and Idealism in International Relations , Philadelphia 1960, p. 231
3. ↑ ibidem
4. ^ Okamoto, The Japanese Oligarchy and the Russo-Japanese War , p. 61
5. ↑ ibidem , pp. 62f.
6. ↑ Peter Duus: The Abacus and the Sword. The Japanese Penetration of Korea 1895-1910 , Berkeley 1995, pp. 217f.
7. ^ Marius B. Jansen: The Japanese and Sun Yat-Sen , Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1954, pp. 147ff.
8. ↑ ibidem , p. 180f.
9. ↑ ibidem , p. 37.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Uchida is the family name, Ryōhei the first name.