Libmonster ID: JP-1564
Author(s) of the publication: V. V. Sovasteev

Thomas M. HUBER. The Revolutionary Origins of Modern Japan. Stanford University Press. Stanford. 1981. 260 - XII p.

In recent years, American bourgeois historiography has been noticeably interested in studying the new history of Japan. A number of books have appeared about the country's transition to capitalism1 . Typical of bourgeois science in the United States is the formulation of the question of the combination of traditional and new elements in the formation of a new social order, of the correlation of revolutionary and evolutionary factors in the process of transition to a capitalist society. As a rule, the role of evolutionary factors and the "special character" of the Japanese way of development are emphasized .2 The reviewed work is devoted to a relatively narrow topic-the ideological prerequisites for the transition of Japanese society to capitalism, but the author does not limit himself to it and offers his own holistic concept of this transition.

In the context of the general development of modern American bourgeois historiography, Vol. Huber's 'Meiji Revolution' is notable for its well-known novelty. The author opposes the widespread interpretation in the United States of the events of 1868 in Japan as a "unique type of revolutionary transformation" of society. He sees in the Meiji Experiment elements of similarity with the bourgeois revolutions of the West (p. 224). T. Huber comes to this conclusion by comparing the Japanese bourgeois revolution with the Western ones. At the same time, he uses the theoretical constructions and methodology of M. Weber, who considered the intelligentsia as a special "social class". Accordingly, T. Huber defines the Japanese intelligentsia of the late feudal period as a "new social class", a "middle social class", including "scientists, administrators, doctors, clergymen, military technicians, and even some poets who grew up in the Tokugawa era" (p. 226). T. Huber follows M. Weber not only in the development of the new social class, but also in the development of the new social class. the role of the intelligentsia, but also in the interpretation of the social structure of feudal society. Fascination with" historical sociology " M. Weber is characteristic of bourgeois social studies (including in the United States) in recent decades. The ideas of this major ideologue of the imperialist bourgeoisie are widely used as an alleged "overcoming" of Marxism3 . T. Huber's view of the Japanese bourgeois revolution echoes the assessment of Ueyama Shumpei, who, based on a comparative historical study of the Meiji Revolution and the French bourgeois Revolution of the late eighteenth century, comes to the conclusion that they are similar.4 The approach of Huber and Ueyama Xiumpei reveals deep methodological flaws inherent in bourgeois comparative studies in general: the desire to build broad comparative-historical schemes based on the coincidence of individual aspects of the compared events, the lack of a sufficiently serious justification for conclusions and generalizations, and in general - an idealistic understanding of the historical process. In this paper, all this results in an exaggeration of the role of the intelligentsia and the ideological factor in the revolutionary process. The author does not limit his generalizations only to the material of the bourgeois revolutions in Western Europe and Japan, but also extends them to the development of the revolution in Russia, which he connects mainly with the "search for utopian values and necessary structural reforms" that were conducted in the XIX century, attributing the intelligentsia to the "leading role" in the revolutions of 1917 (p. 229).

1 See: Reishauer E. O. The Japanese. Cambridge (Mass.). 1977; Reishauer E. О., Craig A. M. Japan: Tradition and Transformation. Tokyo. 1980; Jansen M. В. Japan and Its World: Two Centuries of Change. Princeton. 1980; Najita Tetsuo. Japan: The Intellectual Foundation of Modern Japanese Politics. Chicago. 1980.

2 See, for example, Reischauer E. O. Op. cit., pp. 84-85.

3 Istoriya bourzhuaznoy sotsiologii XIX - nachala XX veka [History of Bourgeois Sociology of the XIX-early XX century], Moscow, 1979, p. 307; Vainshtein O. L. Ocherki razvitiya bourgeois philosophy and methodology of History in the XIX-XX centuries, Moscow, 1979, p. 36-37; et al.

4 Ueyama Xiumpei. Analysis of meiji yixing. Tokyo, 1968, pp. 20-22 (in Russian).

page 160

Considering the question of the ideological origins of the bourgeois revolution in Japan, the author focuses on the evolution of social and political views of thinkers and political figures of Japan in the 1940s and 60s: Yoshida Sein, Kusaka Genzui, and Takasugi Shinsaku, whom he considers as the ideological leaders of the Japanese intelligentsia, the very "new social class" that was created in the Soviet Union. from his point of view, he played a crucial role in the "revolutionary transformation" of Japanese society. At the heart of their intellectual and social activities, he sees the presence of certain "class interests", which he also calls "collective self-interests" (p. 52).

However, Comrade Huber does not connect these "class interests" with the emergence of the bourgeoisie in feudal Japan, and at the same time seeks to distinguish them from the interests of the lower samurai class, which, as is well known, played an active role in the revolution of 1868. He calls Yoshida Sein and his followers " intellectual workers "(ibid.). Emphasizing the" special role "of the intelligentsia, T. Huber distinguishes between the" material "and" ideal "interests of individuals in social behavior, giving preference to the" ideal", which in his reasoning serves as an additional argument in favor of the special role of the intelligentsia in the development of society. Considering the motives that guided the followers of Yoshida Sein in the revolution of 1868, T. Huber writes that "social altruism was their highest self-interest and surpassed small material and class interests" (p. 59).

The concept of T. Huber is not something essentially new. Drawing the events of 1868 in Japan closer to the European bourgeois revolutions, he focuses on the elements of evolution, on the "historical continuity" (p.42) between the 1950s and the reform period, which, in fact, is characteristic of modern American bourgeois historiography as a whole. The specificity of this interpretation of Japan's transition from feudalism to capitalism probably consists in highlighting the points of ideological and political continuity, which, from the point of view of T. Huber, is "a matter of decisive importance". Describing the reforms of the 70s of the XIX century, he writes that they "went smoothly, because the principles of the programs and even the programs themselves were understood long before 186-8" (p. 224).

The book presents an interesting analysis of the socio-political views of ideologists of radical samurai art in the 1950s and 60s, based on original sources published in Japan for many decades, taking into account the results of works on this topic by Western and Japanese historians, including progressive ones.

T. Huber pays special attention to the analysis of the ideological evolution of Yoshida Sein, whom he calls "one of the most brilliant political thinkers" in Japan during the late feudalism period (p. 7). The author considers Yoshida Sein to be a "romantic extremist", an "impractical idealist" who did not have a positive political program to be incorrect. Unlike many researchers, he finds much in common in the political views of Yoshida Sein and supporters of reforms in Tokugawa society in the 1950s, for example, Sakuma Shozan (p. 19).

Attention is also drawn to the book's attempt to clarify the traditional question of whether Yoshida Sein "had any special influence on the outcome of the restoration" of the imperial power (p. 23). The author solves this question by studying the activities of Yoshida Sein in the private boarding school "Seka Sonjuku" founded by him, from which prominent Japanese political figures of the second half of the XIX century emerged: Takasugi Shinsaku, Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo, etc. Analyzing the subsequent political activities of the students of this boarding school, G. Huber came to the conclusion that Yoshida Sein "was able to have a significant impact on the outcome of the restoration by teaching social values to many of the people who later really led the Meiji reforms" (p.41). This position does not differ from the interpretation of the role of this figure in Soviet historiography .5 However, when considering the influence of Yoshida Sein, T. Huber somewhat exaggerates its role in developing the program of future social transformations. The author sees the basis of this influence in the development of a "model" of reforms implemented in Japan after the overthrow of the shogunate (p.42).

T. Huber reduces the main provisions of the political program of Yoshida Sein to three

5 See Essays on the New History of Japan, Moscow, 1958, p. 137.

page 161

ideas: 1) restoration of imperial power (sonno); 2) prevention of the threat of invasion by European powers (joi); 3) carrying out reforms of the existing socio-political system (jinzai toyo) (p.64). The book examines the ideological origins of Yoshida Sein's socio-political views. According to T. Huber, the origins of Yoshida Sein's political views lay in the "eclectic neo-Confucian tradition", which he adapted for the ideological justification of his program (p.60). The book also notes the special influence on Yoshida Sein of the teachings of the greatest representative of Confucianism, Mengzi, as well as the ideas of representatives of Japanese "mercantilism" at the end of the XVIII century-Honda Toshiaki, Hayashi Shinsei and others (p.54, 67). Along the way, the author suggests that the formation of Yoshida's views was influenced by "the methods used by England and other Western powers in their relations with the Asian countries of those days" (p.50). Finally, the influence of the reformist ideas of his immediate predecessors - Murata Seifu, Sakuma Shozan, as well as, most likely, Yokon Senan and Fujita Toko-on Yoshida Sein is recorded (p. 67).

It has already been noted that T. Huber exaggerates the role of the ideological factor in the Meiji transformation process. But his analysis confirms that there was a certain continuity between the ideology of the end of the Tokugawa era and the ideology of capitalist Japan, which left an imprint on the development of Japanese society. Soviet historiography emphasizes the conservatism of the ideology of bourgeois Japan, which was reflected in the interpretation of the events of 1867-1868 as an incomplete bourgeois revolution. the bourgeoisie could not abandon the feudal-noble ideology .6
6 Ibid.

page 162


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