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Chapter 17 Retirement (1926–1929) In Nishida’s time university professors retired on their sixtieth birthday . Because his father had changed Nishida’s official birth date to August 10, 1868, so that he could enter Normal School, his retirement was to come in August 1928. He welcomed early retirement. (Incidentally , 1928 was also the year of Edmund Husserl’s retirement from the University of Freiburg, on March 31.) The timing of Nishida’s retirement coincided with a period of social unrest and transition from the “Taishö democracy” to the turbulent Shöwa years. Although Nishida had looked forward to his retirement and planned to devote himself to philosophical contemplation , he could not avoid the political realities that had begun to embroil the university. The year 1925 marked the beginning of the Japanese government’s move to exercise overt nationalistic control over the people. In April the public peace ordinance (chian ijihö) was put into effect to suppress socialist and Marxist movements that were then gaining momentum. It was also in 1925 that the government suggested to each imperial university that “if the university so wishes, a military officer may be dispatched to each campus to conduct military training.” Students who participated in the on-campus training were eligible to shorten the length of their mandatory military service. Attracted by the prospect of shorter service, about three hundred students wanted the training to be made available at Kyoto Imperial University . Strong objections, however, were raised by faculty members who felt that military training on campus would inevitably have a negative impact on the university as an institution. The faculty senate (hyögikai) decided to accept the offer with the proviso that the training should be carried out “only for those who presently wish it, and that it shall never be forced on the students.” Thus, the military train- Retirement (1926–1929) ing was allowed on campus during the summer recess of 1925. Once the military made its entry onto university campuses, however, it was there to stay. As time went on, on-campus military training not only became a fixture but also a compulsory requirement for all students.1 On December 1, 1925, a serious confrontation between university students and the Kyoto Prefecture police took place. The police launched a raid, without a search warrant, of the dormitories, private apartments, and boarding houses where members of the Social Sciences Study Group (Shakai kagaku kenkyükai, hereafter SSSG) lived.2 The SSSG, established in May 1924, drew mainly students of economics ; in September of that year, it had joined the national organization , the National Union of the Social Sciences Students (Zennihon gakusei shakai kagaku rengötai, known as “Gakuren”). The SSSG hosted Gakuren’s second annual meeting in Kyoto in July 1925, flouting the ordinance that prohibited such a meeting. It was this meeting that led to the December raid. On January 15, 1926, the police began arresting leading members of the SSSG, alleging that the students had violated the public peace and the publishing ordinances. The university publicly protested against this intrusion by the police. President Araki Torasaburö traveled to Tokyo with Sasaki Söichi, dean of the Faculty of Law, and Sakaguchi Takashi, dean of the Faculty of Letters, and met with the home minister, Wakatsuki Reijirö, and Okada Ryöhei, minister of education. Araki promised to bring student unrest under control. An ad hoc committee of faculty members was formed to defuse the conflict, and Nishida was asked to join it. The committee decided that the SSSG could continue as a purely academic research group but prohibited it from engaging in actual political activities. It was also ordered to sever its ties with the national organization, Gakuren.3 Nishida’s otherwise tranquil letter to Mutai Risaku in Heidelberg contains a reference to the student arrests: Everyone says Heidelberg is a charming quiet town. It is enviable that in Germany small towns like Heidelberg maintain the old academic tradition and are proud of it. Have you seen Professor Rickert yet? I intended to give all I’ve got to my lectures this quarter, but I was asked to be on the faculty committee to deal with the student incident; also I will have to go to Tokyo at the end of this month for a meeting.4 With this and that, I haven’t been able to give my best to the lectures. I’m looking forward to the days when I can quietly devote myself to...

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