Ultranationalist Japanese Supporting Ethiopia
Encyclopaedia Aethiopica
University of Hamburg
http://users.ju.edu/jclarke/wizzat1.html

By 1937, more than 100,000 Japanese had joined one of hundreds of right-wing, pan-Asiatic, and ultranationalist groups. Seeking to replace Western imperialism in Asia with Japanese domination, many of these ultranationalists stretched the concept of "Asia" all the way to East Africa and Ethiopia. Some even believed the Japanese and Ethiopian peoples had a common ancestry in the area between the Altai Mountains and the Caspian Sea. Under Japanese leadership, these Pan-Asianists sought to unify all "colored" peoples against white hegemony. Two such groups were Nihon Echiopia Kyokai (Japanese-Ethiopian Society) and Echiopia Mondai Kondan-kai (Roundtable for Ethiopian Issues). Newspapers, student groups, and chambers of commerce also drummed up popular support for Ethiopia. These organizations promulgated resolutions and statements, held public lectures and exhibitions, and offered money and medical aid to Ethiopia in its conflict with Italy. Despite their members’ close ties to governmental bureaucracies, these were private organizations, which the Japanese government co-opted after the Italo-Ethiopian War.

Lit.: Kokuryu Kai, Kokuryu Kai Yonju Nen Jireki (The 40 Years History of Kokuryu Kai), Tokyo 1940); Unno Yoshiro, "Dainiji Itaria-Echiopia Senso To Nihon" (Japan and the Second Italo-Ethiopian War), Hosei Riron (The Journal of Politics and Law [Niigata University, Japan]) 16, 2, 1983, 188-240; Okakura Takashi, "1930 Nendai no Nihon-Echiopia Kankei: Echiopia senso O Chushin Ni" (Japanese-Ethiopian Relations in the 1930s), Afurika Kenkyu (Journal of African Studies) 37, Dec. 1990, 59-64; Sumioka Tomoyoshi, "Maegaki" (Forward), In Shoji Yunosuke, Echiopia Keizai Jijou (Ethiopia’s Economic Conditions) Tokyo 1935; Shoji Yunosuke, Echiopia Kekkon Mondai wa Donaru, Kaisho ka? Ina!!!: Kekkon Mondai o Shudai to shite Echiopia no Shinso o Katari Kokumin no Saikakunin o Yobo su (What Will Happen to the Ethiopian Marriage Issue, Cancellation? or Not!!!: I Request the Re-recognition of the Japanese Nation by Narrating the Truth of Ethiopia with the Marriage Issue as the Central Theme) Tokyo 1934. See the newspaper, Osaka Mainichi.

J. Calvitt Clarke III

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