Shūmei Ōkawa
Japanese nationalist and Pan-Asianist ideologue / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Shūmei Ōkawa (大川 周明, Ōkawa Shūmei, 6 December 1886 – 24 December 1957) was a Japanese nationalist and Pan-Asianist writer, known for his publications on Japanese history, philosophy of religion, Indian philosophy, and colonialism.
Shūmei Ōkawa | |
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大川 周明 | |
Born | (1886-12-06)6 December 1886 Sakata, Yamagata, Japan |
Died | 24 December 1957(1957-12-24) (aged 71) Tokyo, Japan |
Nationality | Japanese |
Education | Tokyo Imperial University, 1911, Ph.D. 1926 |
Occupation(s) | Educator, political philosopher, Islamic scholar, historian |
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Parent | Shūkei Ōkawa (d. 1914) |
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Ōkawa advocated a form of Pan-Asianism which promoted Asian solidarity. He co-founded the Japanese radical nationalist group Yūzonsha, and in 1926 he published his most influential work: Japan and the Way of the Japanese (Nihon oyobi Nihonjin no michi), which was so popular that it would be reprinted 46 times by the end of World War II. Ōkawa was also involved in a number of attempted coups d'état by the Japanese military, including the March Incident. After his arrest following the March incident, Ōkawa was protected by the intervention of General Kazushige Ugaki, and received a sentence of five years in prison, of which he served two years.[3] He continued to publish numerous books and articles, helping popularize the idea that a "clash of civilizations" between the East and West was inevitable, and that Japan was destined to be the liberator and protector of Asia against the United States and other Western nations.[4]
In the Tokyo tribunal after the end of World War II, Ōkawa was prosecuted as a class-A war criminal based on his role as an ideologue.[5][6] The Allies described him as the "Japanese Goebbels",[7] and of the twenty-eight people indicted with this charge, he was the only one not a military officer or government official. The case against him was dropped when he was found mentally unfit to stand trial.[8] Ōkawa's writings were used in the final verdict as part of the evidence for the crime of conspiracy to commit aggression.[6]