Japan
1945: US responses to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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.
The Depression and the liberation of Kamagasaki (1973-1978)
A pamphlet in Japanese and English about the Kamagasaki area of Osaka.
Don't die silent like a Dog
「黙って野たれ死ぬな」船本洲治著作 - 資本主義、帝国主義や日常性活に反対する戦闘的な文集である。船本洲治は１９６０年代における革命的な労働者で、主に在日韓国人と一緒に活動していて、天皇の訪沖に反対して焼身してしまった。
Don't Die Silent Like a Dog - A collection of militant texts against capitalism, imperialism and everyday life by Funamoto Shuzou.
Shuzou was a revolutionary worker in the 1960s who worked mainly with exploited Koreans and eventually immolated himself in protest of the visit of the emperor to Okinawa. (all text Japanese)
1894-1931: Anarchism in Korea
A short history of anarchism and the anarchist movement in North and South Korea.
In the 2,000 years of Korean history there arose movements fighting for peasants rights and for national independence. Within these movements there were tendencies that may be seen as forerunners of modern anarchism, in the same way as we might view the Diggers in the English revolution.
1868-2000: Anarchism in Japan
A history of the once-influential anarchist movement in the Japanese Islands in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Shusui, Kotoko, 1871-1911
A short biography of journalist Kotoku Shusui, who helped introduce anarchism to Japan and was executed for treason.
Kotoku Shusui
Born 4 November or 23 September 1871 - Japan, died 24 January 1911 - Japan
Japan's prisons of torture
A Japanese town council has decided to introduce new rules allowing the jailing of householders who don’t paint their homes a chosen colour for up to a year.
The threat is a strong one for people who don’t like the preferred shade of green, for those incarcerated in Japan’s prison system life is systematised daily torture.
The Anarchist Movement in Japan, 1906-1996 - John Crump
John Crump's history of anarchism and the anarchist movement in Japan from the beginning of the 20th Century up until the pamphlet was written in the 1990s.
by John Crump, prefaced by the Anarchist Communist Federation
Anarchist Communist Editions ACE Pamphlet No. 8
Paper edition printed by Pirate Press (Autumn 1996). This Electronic Edition (Summer 1998)
Published by the Anarchist Federation www.afed.org.uk
1960s: Beyond the New Left Part 2- Muto Ichiyo & Inoue Reiko
Beyond the New Left Part 2- Muto Ichiyo & Inoue Reiko
Presented in PDF format (7mb).
1945-84: Class struggle on the shop floor, the Japanese case - Muto Ichiyo
Class struggle on the shop floor, the Japanese case 1945-84
Muto Ichiyo
Presented in PDF Format (3mb).
France: Protests take international turn
As the protests agains the First Employment Contract (CPE) continue in France, young workers and students across the world have begun to show support for the French movement or take similar action themselves.
http://libcom.org/blog has received reports from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Brazil, the USA, New Zealand, Ireland and Turkey so far, with actions ranging from university occupations and school walkouts to protests against French consulates and businesses.
See also French version below.
