Kenkokukai

The Kenkokukai (建国会) (National Foundation Society) was a Japanese secret society founded in April 1926. It was formed by the Nazi sympathizer Motoyuki Takabatake (高畠素之) along with Nagoya Anarchists Shinkichi Uesugi (上杉慎吉) and Bin Akao (赤尾敏).[1] It proclaimed its object to be "the creation of a genuine people's state based on unanimity between the people and the emperor".[2] At its height, the organization reached a nationwide membership of around 120,000.

Goals

Its state socialist program included the demand for "the state control of the life of the people in order that among Japanese people there should not be a single unfortunate nor unfully-franchised individual".[2] The organisation embraced Pan-Asianism declaring "The Japanese people standing at the head of the colored people, will bring the world a new civilization." It was at one time in favor of universal suffrage.[2]

The Kenkokukai worked in close concert with the police to break the miners strike in Tochigi, and other strikes by factory workers in Kanegafuchi, tramway workers in Tokyo, and tenant farmers in Gifu Prefecture. Uesugi soon withdrew in 1927, and Takabatake supporters left following his death in 1928. This left the organization with only around 10,000 members. Tōyama Mitsuru (頭山満) of the Black Dragon Society (黒龍会) was appointed honorary chairperson, and Nagata, a former Police Chief, vice-chair. Others of this new influx included Ikihara, Kida, and Sugimoto. Akao was director of the league, which organized gangs of strike breakers and in 1928 bombed the Soviet embassy.[3] Their paper Nipponshugi was virulently anti-communist with slogans such as "Death to Communism, to Russian Bolshevism, and to the Left parties and workers' unions".

References
  1. The Japan Annual of Law and Politics, Volume 1 Science Council of Japan. 1956. Retrieved: 04/05/18
  2. The Living Age Vol 350. Littell, E & R,S, Littell. 1936
  3. British documents on foreign affairs - Japan, January 1928-December 1929 Bourne, K & A, Trotter. 1991. pp48-49. Retrieved: 04/05/18


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