February 11, 2025

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

February 11 marks the “National Foundation Day” of Japan which was called “Kigensetsu (Empire Day)” during the prewar and wartime period based on a historical mythology regarding the first emperor’s enthronement. The imperial Meiji government in 1873 established “Kigensetsu” with the aim of legitimating the despotic rule of the Tenno (Emperor). The mythology has no basis in either scientific or historical grounds.

The Imperial government used “Kigensetsu” as a tool to instill worship of the Tenno and militarism onto the general public at every occasion such as promulgating the Meiji Constitution in 1889 and issuing a press release announcing the start of the Russo-Japanese war in 1904.

In 1940, the prewar/wartime government held a major campaign to celebrate the 2,600th anniversary of the accession of the first Emperor of Japan, Emperor Jimmu.

While promoting the campaign, the government on February 10, the day before “Kigensetsu”, decided to prohibit four books written by historian and Waseda University Professor Tsuda Sokichi from being published. Tsuda in his work critically analyzed the Chronicles of Japan “Nihonshoki” and the Record of ancient matters “Kojiki” and expressed his view that among the successive emperors, the first 14, including Jimmu, were made up and not real.

In March of 1940, Tsuda was charged with violation of the publication law on the grounds that his view blasphemed the Emperor. Along with Tsuda, his book’s publisher Iwanami Shigeo faced prosecution for the same offense. After that, Tsuda was forced to resign from his position.

On February 14, 1940, three days after “Kigensetsu”, eight members of a haiku poet group called “Kyodai Haiku Kai” were arrested on charges of violation of the notorious Public Order Maintenance Law. The group, established mainly by Kyoto University students, played a major role in the newly rising Haiku (Shinko Haiku) movement in which haike poets published work critical of the prewar government. Under the crackdown on the movement, another 15 Kyodai Haiku group members were arrested, leading to the abolition of the group’s magazine.

It should be remembered that with the use of the “Kigensetsu” campaign, the government mobilized the general public to ideologically support the war of aggression and stepped up the oppression of academic freedom and free expression.