Planned and Controlled Economy Study and Thought Questions

Gao Managed Economy Who coined the term the “fifteen year war?” What significance is there to using this term rather than other terminology to talk about war in the 1930s-1940s? –What other terms are there?

Gao Managed Economy Who are some of the prominent academics who have emphasized the “war years” and their impact on postwar Japanese society? How does this emphasis differ from other interpretations such as that of Maruyama Masao? When did it become “fashionable” to stress the impact of the “war years” on “postwar” Japan? Why was this theme not taken up earlier?

野口悠紀夫

Gao Managed Economy Gao lists four areas in which he finds a “fascist” impact on Japan in the 1930s- 1940s that was carried over into the postwar years. –What are these four impacts? –How does his notion of “fascism” differ from the “fascism” of other writers such as Maruyama Masao or Reynolds?

Gao Managed Economy What role does Gao assign to the Great (1929) Depression in leading Japan to a managed economy? How did intellectuals view the Great Depression? (other readings)

Gao Managed Economy Some writers see Japan before 1931 as having a laissez faire ( 自由放任主義 ) economy. What does Gao think? Did Japan have any ideological tradition of laissez faire ideology? –What impact is the Tokugawa sakoku ( 鎖国 ) policy said to have in this context?

Gao Managed Economy Gao divides the years into three stages. What differentiates his first stage ( ) from subsequent stages? –Why is 1937 a turning point? –What was the impact of large scale warfare in China beginning with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident ( 盧溝 橋事變 )? –What connections were there between Kwantung Army ( 関東軍 ) policy in Manchuria ( 満州国 ) and post-1937 developments in Japan?

Gao Managed Economy Who gained political power after 1937? Who lost political power after 1937? Which social classes (strata) benefited from developments in this period? Suffered losses in this period? If economic gain leads to enthusiasm and support while economic loss leads to indifference or hostility, who should have (did) respond positively to “fascism” in Japan?

Gao Managed Economy How did post 1937 developments impact on –Organized labor (unions)? See Saguchi article for detail. –Banking? –Large firms? –Small firms? See EHK article for detail.

Gao Managed Economy Gao asserts that some (many) of the patterns that appeared in Japan in the period may also be found in the USA and USSR in the same period. –What are these patterns? –What are the differences? –Is seeing similarities among Japan, the USA and the USSR a common view? –Who, other than Gao, has made this connection?

Gao Managed Economy What is meant by a “bloc” economy? –What other countries were striving for a “bloc” economy in these years? –What was the ideological basis of the quest for a “bloc” economy? –What alternatives exist? How does the concept of a “bloc” economy differ from that based on autarky ( 閉鎖経済 ) ? –To what degree are these concepts extent in contemporary Japan?

Gao Managed Economy To what extend did Japan in the period have a “racial policy?” –What was it? –How did it change? –At the 1919 Versailles Conference Japan sought to have this clause inserted in the agreement. The equality of nations being a basic principle of the League of Nations, the High Contracting Parties agree to accord as soon as possible to all alien nationals of states, members of the League, equal and just treatment in every respect making no distinction, either in law or in fact, on account of their race or nationality. –This was rejected. Why? –What did the Japanese government and Japanese ideologues mean by “racial equality?”

Gao Managed Economy What was tenkou ( 転向 )? –Who did it? Why? What were the rewards? –What does tenkou say about the degree to which “fascist” Japan was or was not a repressive, totalitarian state? How much “conversion” or “change of course” was involved in going from international socialism to national socialism?

Gao Managed Economy Gao postulates a division in what he calls those calling for “state reform.” –What are these divisions? –What was “right” about one tendency and “left” about the other? –To what degree did these differences reflect the class, education, and status of those associated with the divisions postulated by Gao?

Gao Managed Economy What was the Social Policy Association? –Using Okochi Kazuo as an example, consider why a “liberal” academic might find the “fascist” developments of the late 1930s attractive. –What famous novel and film is based on an idealistic Japanese intellectual trying to work within the structure of late 1930s “fascist” Japan?

Gao Managed Economy What is meant by tousei keizai ( 統制経済 ) and keikaku keizai ( 計画経済） ? –Who were the advocates of these? –What were the models behind these patterns of economic organization? –What was the connection between these models and notions of historical development current in the 1930s? –How specific were these models to “fascism?”

Gao Managed Economy Numerous publications in the late 1930s advocated “ the separation of ownership and management ” ( 所有 と経営の分離 ) and “ public profit ” ( 公益 ) over “ private profit ” ( 私益 ). One such work [( 笠信太郎 # 『日本経済の 再編成』（中央公論社、 1939 年） ] went through more than 300 printing and “ raised the price of paper. ” What was the political significance of such advocacy? Which groups would see their political power increase by the adoption of such policies? See their political power decrease? In terms of social class and education, such policies reflected the interests of what groups in Japanese society?

Gao Managed Economy Numerous publications in the late 1930s advocated “ the separation of ownership and management ” ( 所有 と経営の分離 ) and “ public profit ” ( 公益 ) over “ private profit ” ( 私益 ). One such work [( 笠信太郎 # 『日本経済の 再編成』（中央公論社、 1939 年） ] went through more than 300 printing and “ raised the price of paper. ” What was the political significance of such advocacy? Which groups would see their political power increase by the adoption of such policies? See their political power decrease? In terms of social class and education, such policies reflected the interests of what groups in Japanese society?

Gao Managed Economy What is a “brain trust” ( ブレーントラスト, シンクタン ク ) ? –What foreign models were available to Japanese in the 1930s? –What domestic models were available to Japanese in the 1930s? –What were the influential “brain trusts” and “think tanks” in this period? See Brown Shepherds of the People See Crowley Intellectuals as Visionaries of the New Asian Order

Gao Managed Economy What is meant by an “economic general staff” ( 経済参謀本部 ) ? See Johnson Economic General Staff –Where does this concept come from? To what extent was it “fascist” or “Marxist” or “New Deal?” –Who was Miyazaki Masatoshi ( 宮崎正義 ) ? –What was the Cabinet Planning Board ( 企画院 ) ?

Gao Managed Economy In terms of social class and education, what strata gained political power as the result of the creation of the Cabinet Planning Board and related think tanks? Who saw their political power decrease? If the developments of the late 1930s represent fascism, who can be said to have gained political power as the result of this “fascism?” How does a conclusion based on the patterns described by Gao differ from that presented by Maruyama Masao and others who have followed his analysis?

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