Study On The Socialism Thoughts Of Kotoku Shusui

Japan is the first eastern country to introduce socialism and it produced the country's first generation of socialist thinkers and activists, represented by Kotoku Shusui and Katayama Sen. Kotoku Shusui is a well-known forerunner and organizer of socialist activities and the struggle against imperialism and war.The development process of Kotoku Shusui's thoughts can be divided into three phases, a free democrat, a socialist thinker and an anarchist, and two transformations, from democratism to socialism and from socialism to anarchism.The socialist thoughts of Kotoku Shusui contain the elements of both scientific socialism and other types of socialism and they displayed different contents and methods in different historical phases. His socialist thoughts are mainly expressed in his works Imperialism, The Essence of Socialism and On the Obliteration of Christ. He tried to understand socialism from the point of traditional Confucius idea and advanced some socialist ideas with Japanese characteristics. The major points include the analysis of the historical laws by which imperialism is replaced by socialism, the hypothesis of the targets of the future socialism and the revolutionary path and dynamics to realize socialism.Kotoku Shusui was an incomplete and immature Marxist. He was the first person to publicize socialism, to criticize imperialism and to introduce the works of Marx and Engels. The Communist Manifesto co-translated by him and Sakai Toshihiko is the first Japanese version. Judged from the angle of the development of the world history, there are both positive and negative points in his socialist ideas, including his revolutionary and evolutionary views, view of war, view of the Japanese emperor and the historical view of heroes.The tragedy of Kotoku Shusui is connected with the confusion of Japan's socialist course. There are two major reasons as to why Japan's socialism is marginalized. For one thing, it is due to the special national conditions of Japan and conservatism of the Japanese people. For the other, he didn't completely understand the nature of socialism. The death of Kotoku Shusui is a personal as well as historical tragedy.By comparing him with his contemporary, Katayama Sen, we can see the development of his ideas. Both as Japan's first generation of socialist thinkers and activists, why did they choose different revolutionary course later? Kotoku Shusui became an anarchist and Katayama Sen turned out a Marxist. The key reason lied in their different education and overseas experiences and different contacts they had made.Being a very important socialist in the Japanese history, Kotoku Shusui also exerted profound influence over China's socialist thoughts. He advocated the union of the Asian revolutions, believing that there was an inseparable connection between Chinese revolution and Japanese revolution. He was on a close term with Chinese revolutionists, such as Sun Zhongsan, Zhang Binling, Liu Shipei, Zhang Ji and so on. His masterpieces were translated into Chinese one after another. Among them, The Essence of Socialism was translated into Chinese only three months after it was first published. The growth of China's early communist intellectuals was incubated by Japan's socialist thoughts, especially influenced by the works, reputation and personality of Kotoku Shusui.