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26 Historically Speaking * September 2002 The Pacific War as a Civilizational Conflict? Genzo Yamamoto The concept of "civilizational conflict " has recently received both scholarly and public attention. Samuel Huntington's provocative thesis, which argues among other things that the world is made up ofcompeting cultural and religious civilizational groupings, has generated responses by Edward Said and others decrying die use ofsuch broad analytical categories . Such analysis, they argue, places insufficientweight on die complexities within societies and encourages die reification of static and mistaken stereotypes. Moreover, Huntington's critics note that the attempt to understand conflict along civilizational boundaries does not adequatelyaccount for the global interactions that have increased die exchange ofideas andvalues amongcivilizations. Despite their marked differences, the views ofbodi Huntington and his critics , I contend, are useful for revisiting the historical significance ofthe Pacific dieater in World War ?. Civilizational conflict was indeed a central issue; at the same time, it is critical to understand the complex developments widiinJapan prior to the war, as well as the exchange ofideas taking place across civilizational boundaries. Many keyJapanese leaders viewed die Pacific War as a civilizational conflict . The rationale given forJapan's foreign policy at the start ofthe China War in 193 7—the war that would lead direcdy into the Pacific War—shows how important the defense ofJapan's civilizationwas toJapanese leaders. For example , die Shewa ResearchAssociation, die think tank affiliated widi Prince Konoe Fumimaro (prime minister whenJapan began the war with China and in the period immediately prior to the outbreak ofwar with die U.S.), carefullysoughtto locateJapan's civilizational role in world history vis-à-vis other civilizations . Prominentphilosophers such as Nishida Kitaro and Watsuji Tetsuro did die same. An official document published by the MinistryofEducation in 1937, the Kokutaino hongi ("Cardinal Essence of the National Polity"), illustrates the fact diatWestern civilizationwas perceived as antidietical toJapanese civilization. DefiningJapan's enemy also clarifiedJapan's identity. The Kokutai no hongi criticized "Europeanization" and die "ideologies ofthe Enlightenment" and die "rationalism " and "individualism" that arose from them. The document called forJapanese to return to die standpoint peculiar to our country, clarify our immortal national entity, sweep aside everything in the way ofadulation, bring into being our original condition .... This means diat the present conflict seen in our people's ideas, the unrest in their modes of life, the confused state of their civilization, can be put right only by a thorough investigation by us of the intrinsic nature of Occidental ideologies and by grasping the true meaning of our national entity. The Kokutai no hongi reiterated the qualities essential toJapanese civilization, particularly loyalty to die emperor, which entailed rejecting the notion that individual self-fulfillment arose from the demand for one's rights in favor ofsubmitting one's life to the emperor. These were onlysurface reflections of a much deeper and sophisticated philosophical disagreement with Enlightenment philosophyregarding the nature of the human individual, culture, society, the state, and nature. To die extent diat Enlightenmentphilosophywas understood as characterizing Western civilization, it was indeed a civilization built uponvalues antidietical to the values upon which modernJapanese civilization had been built. This was a "war between civilizations ." The ideas expressed in the Kokutaino hongiwere notnew. The drafter of the 1889 Meiji Constitution upon which the modernJapanese nationstate was based, Prince Ito Hirobumi, had explicidysoughtto shape die documentso as to oppose die ideas ofdie European Enlightenment. Ito drew from German Romantic legal and political philosophers, who were explicit in their antagonism toward Enlightenment ideas. They extolled the importance of the "volk" in the formation ofcommunities and states. These conservative thinkers viewed as fundamentally flawed the Enlightenment principles that gave ontological, legal, and political priority to the individual over largersocial and cultural entities. Rather, diey believed diatdie proper developmentofstate and community required a more organic understandingofthe particularities ofa people —their history, traditions, customs, and dieirland. These larger entities, not the individual , should formdie basis ofdie state's legal and political structures. After studying con- September 2002Historically Speaking27 stitutional systemsinvarious Europeanstates, civilizing mission to mean "spiritual colo- military, though no doubt diatplayed a part Ito wrote: "The situation in our country is nization," or the spreading ofdie virtues of It was also the return to power ofa certain characterized bythe...

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