Revolution Goes East: Imperial Japan and Soviet Communism

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

by Tatiana Linkhoeva

Revolution Goes East is an intellectual history that applies a novel global perspective to the classic story of the rise of communism and the various reactions it provoked in Imperial Japan. Tatiana Linkhoeva demonstrates how contemporary discussions of the Russian Revolution, its containment, and the issue of imperialism played a fundamental role in shaping Japan's imperial society and state.

In this bold approach, Linkhoeva explores attitudes toward the Soviet Union and the communist movement among the Japanese military and politicians, as well as interwar leftist and rightist intellectuals and activists. Her book draws on extensive research in both published and archival documents, including memoirs, newspaper and journal articles, political pamphlets, and Comintern archives. Revolution Goes East presents us with a compelling argument that the interwar Japanese Left replicated the Orientalist outlook of Marxism-Leninism in its relationship with the rest of Asia, and that this proved to be its undoing. Furthermore, Linkhoeva shows that Japanese imperial anticommunism was based on geopolitical interests for the stability of the empire rather than on fear of communist ideology.

Thanks to generous funding from New York University and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access (OA) volumes, available from Cornell Open (cornellopen.org) and other Open Access repositories.

Genres: Japan, History, Nonfiction, Academic

300 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 1, 2020

Reviews

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dry but really fascinating account of the Japanese responses to the October revolution. Includes the early years of the Japan Communist Party, the rise and fall of Japanese anarchism, the Japanese ruling class's curious 'USSR, ok, Comintern, very bad, local Communists, even worse', position, the first translation of Capital being the project of one of Japan's earliest fascists, and the far right's often very enthusiastic reaction to Stalinism - ultimately arguing that Japanese communism was doomed by the widespread cross-class support for Japanese imperialism and racism. Would have liked at least a little on the more impressive fortunes of the post-war JCP, which became an arguably minor but very enduring fixture of the political scene right up to this day, but very very interesting on what it does discuss.

[Michael Paone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book that tackles an understudied topic, left wing movements in Imperial Japan. This book is not limited to that, the first half shows how the Russian Revolution impacted Imperial Japan as a whole and the second half focuses on Japanese Anarchism, communism as well as the Japanese variant of National Socialism. In addition to being interesting, this book challenges a number of assumptions, most importantly that of Japanese anticommunism as an a priori given. Indeed, depending on the time period, anti-capitalism was allowed, if only from a certain perspective.

Only thing hold me back from giving the book 5 stars is that overall it could have benefited from a clearer structure, the book, while very interesting, seems to weave in and out of topics without clearly focusing on specific arena. Perhaps narrowing the scope a little bit would have helped. Still, this is a fascinating book that is not bogged down in academic terminology and I would recommend it to anyone interested!

[Tobias · Rating 5 out of 5]

what's great about this book is that Linkhoeva takes a simple concept -- interwar Japan's fears of the Soviet Union -- and disentangles it, showing how Soviet Union was a source of fear, attraction, and admiration (sometimes simultaneously) across the political system. A lot of counterintuitive findings. Came away with a significantly more nuanced understanding of both Japanese communism and anticommunism.

[Karol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book! Had a blast reading it.