Japan

1945: US responses to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

August 6, 1945, 8.15 am, the uranium atom bomb exploded 580 metres above the city of Hiroshima

Selected quotations from US officials about the dropping of nuclear weapons on Japan which demonstrate that the bombing was not to end the war, but was to issue a warning to its Cold War rival.

"...the greatest thing in history."
- Harry S. Truman
President of the United States during the Atomic Bombing

"It always appeared to us that, atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse."
- General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold
Commanding General of the U.S. Army
Air Forces Under President Truman

The Chinese anarchist movement

A history of the Chinese anarchist movement in France, Japan and China itself from 1900 up to the formation of the Chinese Communist Party.

R. Scalapino and G.T. Yu.

Berkeley: Center for Chinese Studies, 1961

Contents
Editor's Note
Preface
The Origins of Chinese Anarchism
Anarchism and the Nationalist Revolution
The Work-Study Movement
The Anarchist Conflict With Marxism
Editor's Footnote

Editor’s Note

1918: Rice riots and strikes in Japan

From July-September 1918, Japan was swept with a wave of riots from rural fishing villages to major industrial centres and coal fields, in what was the largest upheaval in Japan to date, and the widest ranging popular disturbances since the unrest during the Meiji restoration of 1868.

1905-1918 in Japan was called the Era of Popular Violence (民衆騒擾期, minshû sôjô ki). This began with the Hibiya Incendiary Incident (日比谷焼討事件, Hibiya Yakiuchi Jiken) - a citywide riot in Tokyo that started with a banned protest in Hibiya park; against the terms of the Portsmouth Treaty which ended the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905.

Sakae, Osugi, 1885-1923

A biography of Japanese anarchist Osugi Sakae.

1. Ōsugi and Bakunin

Narita Airport riots (video clip)

A video of the riots against the construction of Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan during the 1970s.

The video is hosted on YouTube and has English subtitles. The riots included students and farmers protesting against the airport's construction, and involved pitched battles against the police with molotov cocktails and explosives.

Precarious workers and the cyber-homeless - Mayday march in Japan

There are 2.3 million young casualised and part-time workers in Japan.

Takeshi Yamashita does not look like a homeless person. From his carefully distressed jeans to his casual-cool navy striped T-shirt, he is every bit the trendy Tokyoite. Yet the 26-year-old has been sleeping in a reclining seat in an Internet cafe every night for the past month since he lost his steady office job and his apartment.

1990: Worker insurgency in Osaka

You must help yourself: Neo-liberal geographies and worker insurgency in Osaka.

YOU MUST HELP YOURSELF:
NEO-LIBERAL GEOGRAPHIES AND WORKER INSURGENCY IN OSAKA

"I realize as the train pulls in that the station is on fire. The platform is aflame and below the streets are empty with people running past occasionally. Something is happening. I pick up some rocks and start throwing them at a police line."

-anonymous rioter at Kamagasaki

Notes on an ongoing workplace struggle - Sphinx

An article by Sphinx addressing workplace activity and the potential for organising disparate individuals in a Japanese workplace. The article is distinguished by its acceptance of, and engagement with, real world conditions, and yet is able to maintain a light and transcendent tone. It is also articulates the necessity for workers to establish their own goals.

Japan’s worker co-operative movement into the 21st century

The pace of Japan’s economy is picking up again after more than a decade of stasis. During this long period of economic stagnation, the many personnel practices favoring employees known by the rubric “lifetime employment” have been subjected to increased criticism by pro-investor, neo-liberal voices.

The Depression and the liberation of Kamagasaki (1973-1978)

A pamphlet in Japanese and English about the Kamagasaki area of Osaka.

This pamphlet is presented in PDF format (56mb). We'd welcome OCRed versions of this pamphlet for dial-up and low-bandwidth users in either Japanese and English.