Note on Racial Ideas of the Japanese

Author(s): H. H. Smythe
Source: Social Forces , Mar., 1953, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Mar., 1953), pp. 258-260
Published by: Oxford University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2574224

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Social Forces

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 258 SOCIAL FORCES
analytic conjecture alone can be very misleading
because of its esoteric quality and its appeal to the
easy generalizer. While it has much to offer as a
subsidiary technique or as part of a broader tech-
nique, psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical reason-
ing are hardly be-alls and end-alls for studying
national personality structure and traits.45
The serious errors and bias of these wartime
psychoanalytical analyses of Japanese personality
research. Curiously enough, he contradicts himself by
first saying that American educators are not qualified
to reeducate the Japanese because they lack insight into
Japanese culture and then by supporting, at least
American culture as one that functions but in which it
tacitly, the questionable findings of the Western psy-
choanalytic school. His heavy emphasis on the need for
field research on a cooperative basis, however, is very
healthy. It should be noted that the same type of ap-
proach described in this paper is by no means pass6
among psychoanalytic writers. A quite recent and still
unsatisfactory contribution is Moloney's. See James
Clark Moloney, "A Study of Neurotic Conformity:
The Japanese," Complex, V (1951), 26-32.
45 In another paper the writer hopes to give the as-
sumptions implicit in doing personality research in
Japan, as well as to suggest hypotheses to be checked.
These hypotheses will be specifically oriented to Japan-
ese child-rearing practices.
NOTE ON RACIAL IDEAS OF THE JAPANESE
H. H. SMYTHE
Yammaguchi National University, Japan
A LTHOUGH the western world was made
keenly aware of the racial ideas advocated
by the Nazis, it remains still largely un-
informed about racialism among the Japanese.
The Nipponese wartime slogan of "Asia for the
Asiatics" received some notice during the war but
the fundamentals underlying this philosophy of
oriental unification were never accorded by the
West the serious attention they deserved. Despite
the efforts of the Occupation to eliminate sources
of racial and nationalistic ideas, currently in
Japan the approach to sovereignty is being ac-
companied by references to such things as "our
racial spirits," "our racial energies," and the
"racial integrity" of the Japanese as the things
which can be counted upon to bring them through
this trying postwar period of austerity and to
return Japan once again to a prominent position
among the nations of the world. Because of the
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must be strongly emphasized. They illustrate the
dangers inherent in studying any people, especially
during a war. The greatest pitfalls appear to be
ethnocentrism, intellectualism, and easy generali-
zation. Embree's words on the subject are very
pertinent, and neatly summarize the thesis of this
paper:
. .. Japanese culture is an old one with well-grooved
patterns of behavior to which the child is trained. He
knows what is expected of him. . . . Too many uncer-
tain situations may lead to nervous breakdown, in
rats, in Japanese, and in Americans. From this point of
view the Japanese would be justified in referring to
is "not pleasant" to live.
All of this is not to deny that different social groups
are characterized by particular culture patterns or that
there are culturally determined ways of inculcating
these patterns of behavior and associated values in the
growing child. But more attention should be given to
objective fact when making generalizations about such
culture patterns, especially when we are involved in
descriptions of whole nations.46
46 John F. Embree, "Standardized Error and Japan-
ese Character: A Note on Political Interpretation,"
World Politics, II (1950), 439-443.
significant role race played in recent world history
and its current and future significance in the social
relations of mankind, an analysis of race con-
sciousness among the Japanese as a potentially
tremendous social force seems both necessary and
timely. The growing reemphasis in Japan on basic
elements in the national heritage along this line,
as well as a trend towards a revival of things
Japanese, needs to be watched carefully and
thoroughly understood by the West in dealing
with Japan; for this knowledge can be of help not
alone in regard to Japan but in understanding
the myriad problems that America and other
western nations must cope with in working with
other Asiatic nations.
Japan's history dates back officially some
2,600 years to 660 B.C. and the roots of racialism
thus have a strength fortified by a time-depth
of centuries, but it was the immediate pre-war
 RACIAL IDEAS OF THE JAPANESEA59

period of the 1930's that ushered in the purposeful
and planned development of the traditional idea
that the Japanese are racially a unique people.
It is, therefore, in this period extending up to the
surrender in 1945 to which we must turn to acquire
a sharp insight into the racial feeling instilled in
the Japanese, vestiges of which still remain and
are increasingly being alluded to once again today.
Immediately before and during the war Japanese
leaders continually impressed upon the people their
unique and superior racial traits. In general these
the Ministry of Education of Japan made required
teaching in the primary schools such "information"
as the following:
Great Japan is the Land of the Gods. Here the Deity of
the Sun has handed on her eternal rule. This is true
only of our country and there is nothing like it in any
other land. We, the people of this nation, must realize
the nature of the splendor of our national structure and
must be increasingly zealous in the manifestation of
loyalty and must exert ourselves in the patriotic pro-
tection of the state.4

consisted of a strong sense of loyalty and super-

patriotism, tremendous assimilative power which
enable Japanese to adopt the best of a foreign
culture and yet remain distinctly Japanese.
Further, they were told they are especially en-
dowed with superior powers of organization and
unmatched ability for expansion and achievement.
This was enhanced by a special reverence for
ancestors and family name, a worldliness and
practical nature, an appreciation for natural
beauty, a refined artistic ability and superior
manual skill. All of these were supplemented by
frankness, kind heartedness, optimism, an affinity
for purity and cleanliness, propriety and order,
and a soft and patient disposition.'
How did the Japanese acquire all of these
superb attributes? The answer is to be found in
the indigenous religion, Shinto, which, as the state
religion, played a key role in the lives of the people
during the war. The sociological implications in-
herent in these "racial qualities" are better under-
stood when it is realized they are said to rest upon Japanese people, holding that in spite of the in-
not only religious sanction but are reinforced by
a mythico-supernatural origin. The Japanese have
been told that they are the "recipients from the
kami,"2 by direct descent through the ancestors,
of a specific endowment of "tendencies and ca-
pacities" and "as a race we are one with our
ancestors, a part of divine nature."3 In the 1930's
I D. C. Holtom, Modern Japan and Shinto National-
ism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947), p. 15.Japan. See W. G. Aston, Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan),
2 The term kami is generally translated as "god,"
"gods," or "deity." Here kami refers to the mythicalfrom Japan, XVI (October 15, 1940); Japan Advertiser,
sun goddess, founder of the Japanese nation, A materasu-
February 25, 1940; Seimei no Idzumi (The Foundation
omikami. of Life), Tokyo, 1939, p. 2.
3 Kazusaki Kanzaki, "Shinto Honkyoku no Kyori,"
(The Doctrines of Shinto Honkyoku) in Uchu (The
Universe), January 1930, pp. 13-15; Kan Kiuchi,
"Nisen Roppyaku Nen Shisho" (Aspects of Two
Thousand Six Hundred Years of Japanese History)
Shuhd (Weekly Gazette), February 7, 1940 (Tokyo:
Thus the national gods were said to have given
to Japan a divine land, a divine racial psychology,
and a divinely created structure in the Japanese
state.
This type of thinking was behind Japan's dedica-
tion to her "holy war" in Asia: as a special race
of mankind she was sent to save the world and
to pass along to less fortunate people the blessings
of her superior institutions;5 also Japan has pro-
duced a superior and enduring culture because
of the contribution of a special type of "Japanese
man"-a being furnished with a genius for ac-
culturation, yet peculiarly endowed with the
power to remain "forever Japanese."6
The factor of racial purity, always an accompani-
ment of racialistic thought, has received due atten-
tion in the construction of the myth of racial
greatness. Hideo Horie,7 an authority on Shinto,
furnishes an example of how this was done at the
time. He points out how the consciousness of
unique racial integrity underlies the thinking of the
fusion of the blood of other peoples in times past,
the genuine Yamato8 stock predominates and that
Published by the Department of Home Affairs, Japan-
ese Government), p. 46.
4 Shogaku Kokushi Ky5shi Yosho (Teacher's Manual
of National History for Primary Schools), V (Tokyo,
1931), 1-12.
6 "Hakko ichi-u" (The whole world under one roof)
was looked upon as being the great timeless mission of
London, 1924, pp. 11, 131; International Gleanings
6 Holtom, op. cit., p. 198.
7 "Kaigai ni okeru Jinja Mondai" (The Shinto
Shrine Problem Overseas), Shuikyo Nenkan (Yearbook
of Religion), Tokyo, 1939, p. 145.
8 Yamato is the ancient name of Japan and used to
refer to the Japanese people of that period.

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 260 SOCIAL FORCES
for the most part the breed is pure. These are the
factors that underscored the racial awareness of
Japanese that blossomed forth and gave strength
to the nation as it carried on war, and these
foundations remain even today as basic elements
in the folkways.
But for nearly seven years Japan has been under
the direct influence of America, a leading exponent
of democracy. A nation like Japan, whose people-
especially the younger generation upon whom were
made the deepest impressions of this "uniqueness
of race"9-does not change so easily its ways of
thinking and acting. This is all the more important
to consider because of the feudalistic social frame-
work of Japanese society for 700 years which en-
courages absolute obedience to superiors and
respect for authority.
The sociological and cultural implications of the
race consciousness of the Japanese deserve atten-
tion, too, because today in Japan there are emerg-
ing organizations'0 whose purposes are avowedly
nationalistic, and whose programs are based on
race pride and the unification of Asiatic peoples.
The social scientist has an important role to play
here as the new Japan stands at the crossroads of
decision whether to return to a glorification of the
9 This was done through the required textbook,
Kokutai no Hongi (The Fundamental Principles of the
National Structure), Tokyo: Japanese Department of
Education, 1937. This is basically a study of the spirit-
ual foundations of the Japanese state. It was banned
by the Occupation.
10 Some of these are Nihon Kakumei Kikuhata
Doskikai (Japan Revolutionary Chrysanthemum Flag
Association), which parallels much that was found in
Hitler's National Socialism in Germany; Kyowato
(Republican Party), Toa-Renmei (East Asia League),
Daito-juku (Great Asia Organization), Shinsei Nippon
Kokumin Domei (New Japan National League), and
Dai Nippon Dokuritsu Seinen To (Young Men's Self-
Defense Corps).
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Japanese as a racially superior people, or to root
out the vestiges of racialism lingering from the
past and face the fact that such ideas are scientific-
ally untenable.
Social research can make a singular contribution
here in discovering, analyzing, and indicating that,
just as the array of excellent racial qualities lack
scientific support, so does the characterization of
the Japanese during and since the war, as having
inherent traits of sadism, treachery, and lust for
power, likewise fail to be sustained by science.
Social research can show the Japanese that it is
scientifically as unsound to ascribe such a peculiar
psychological and cultural endowment to the
Japanese as it is to assume that there are certain
psychological, sociological, and cultural traits that
make certain people "forever Jewish," "forever
American," or "forever Negro." The factors of
social change, the flexibility of human nature,
and the influence of a malleable environment must
all be taken into consideration and given due
emphasis.
In view of this, the Japanese can then assess
themselves in terms of how their culture and
society have developed in them a capacity for
hard work, along with a resiliency and fatalism
that have enabled them to face calamity calmly.
This realization should help them to probe into
their background on a more rational basis and
thus have a sounder understanding of the social
and cultural sources of their aesthetic feeling and
skill in working with their hands, their love for
simplicity, strong attachment for their birth-
place, great appreciation of nature, intelligence,
alertness, and pride in national achievements with
limited resources. These factors provide a rich
field for sociological investigation, the results of
which, if founded on scientific study and pro-
cedure, can go far towards helping the Japanese
to solve some of the problems that have accrued
from both their past and recent history.