ABSTRACT
Kōtoku Shūsui (1871–1911) is a prominent figure in the history of Japanese socialism. Having started out as a small nation in the Far East with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, modern Japan strived to build an empire modelled on those of great Western powers. At the beginning of the 20th century, early Japanese socialism took a critical position against the Empire of Japan’s militarism and capitalism. Kōtoku played a leading role in this movement and opposed the Russo-Japanese War on socialist and pacifist grounds. However, his criticism of modern nations is only one side of the coin. This chapter will bring to light Kōtoku’s “small-nationist” side. He saw small nations as the ideal form of nationhood. After providing an overview of this chapter’s aims, the first four sections turn to the development of Kōtoku’s ideas about small nations. Section 6.2.1 examines his remarks on “little England” in his 1901 Imperialism, Section 6.2.2 examines his praise of Switzerland’s direct democracy in 1902, and Section 6..2.3 provides his advocacy for a “small Japan” in 1904. Section 6.3 then investigates the intellectual sources of Kōtoku’s “small-nationism.” The chapter concludes by showing the significance of small-nationism for his anti-imperial arguments and arguing that he underestimated the “existential precariousness” of actual small nations.
