Analysis Of Saburo Ienaga's Historical Understandings

Saburo Ienaga(1913-2002)is a high-profile Japanese historian whose studies cover almost all the subfields of the Japanese history,ranging from the intellectual history,the history of warfare to the history of the Japanese Constitution.With fruitful academic achievements,however,Ienaga did not confine himself to the academia.Instead,he paid close attention to the society,actively put his thoughts into practice and conducted several democratic movements among which the most influential one was the lawsuits against the Japanese Ministry of Education.Ienaga campaigned against censorship on his depiction in history textbooks of Japanese wartime atrocities,which triggered heated debates in the international community.The previous studies of Ienaga mainly focused on his thoughts from a single aspect,paying little attention to which theories had shaped his historical understandings,and even less attention to his historical understandings about the “Fifteen Years' War” and those related to China.Up until now,divergences of historical understandings have remained a significant factor in China-Japan relations.This is closely related to the distinct ideologies and national pride of the two countries and thus different understanding towards the same historical event tends to trigger disputes and even conflicts between them.However,sticking to one's own opinions and refusing to talk with each other can lead to nothing but misunderstanding and confrontation.Only with equal dialogues can the oppositional emotions be removed and the cornerstone of mutual trust be laid.Under this circumstance,the study of Saburo Ienaga's historical understandings can not only help Chinese scholars to know better about the diversity of the Japanese historical understandings but also promote the improvement of China-Japan relations.The first chapter is dedicated to the analysis of Ienaga's intellectual history works and papers.By looking back on the figures and their philosophies that had left an indelible imprint on Ienaga,the author hopes that the origins of his historical understandings can be found.Passing away at the age of 89,Ienaga had undergone not a few great changes in his thoughts,but ultimately his historical understandings were based on a transcendental outlook on world and a negative outlook on life.The thorough “logic of negation” of both Buddhism and Christianity provided Ienaga with the basic standpoint and modern ideologists Tatsukichi Minobe,Soukichi Tsuda and Hajime Tanabe who could almost be called his intellectual instructors also had a profound influence on him.He critically inherited and developed the constitutionalism,democracy,liberalism and limited power of the state from Minobe's interpretation of constitutional law,research methodology,critical spirit and “kokokushikan”(nationalistic views of history centered on the Emperor)denial from Soukichi Tsuda's historical studies as well as the spontaneity of individuals,the path of confession and practice principles from Hajime Tanabe's philosophy.The second chapter focuses on Ienaga's works related to the “Fifteen Years' War” so as to explore his historical understandings from the perspectives of the causes,nature,aftermath and responsible parties of the war.According to Ienaga,the “Fifteen Years' War” covers all the warfare involving Japan from the Manchurian Incident(918 Incident)to the close of the Pacific War.He tried to find out the causes of the war from intellectual history and eventually attributed it to the Japanese' contempt for the Chinese and the Koreans,the unity of national ideology and the non-democracy and irrationality of the military.In addition,he realized the aggressive nature of the war launched by the Japanese and the democracy of the troops led by the Chinese Communist Party.Ienaga condemned the atrocity committed by the Japanese soldiers and agreed on the double identity of the Japanese as both the persecutors and victims.He believed that there was no responsibility-free entity in war.Judging from the international responsibility and domestic responsibility,he pointed out that the war responsibilities of Japan,or more specifically,the Japanese authorities,should be jointly taken by such people as the emperor,political elites,intermediate and junior officers and soldiers,teachers.Furthermore,he analyzed in detail the war responsibilities of the Japanese citizens,believing that intellectuals,the common people,anti-establishment groups and the postwar generation should be responsible.The third chapter focuses on the relationships between Ienaga's historical understandings and the lawsuits against the Japanese Ministry of Education.During three textbook lawsuits,Ienaga resolutely supported the Peace Constitution and insisted that the state should not interfere in individual ideology.With a strong spirit of criticism,he criticized himself and Japanese society.Ienaga believed that the relative entities must overcome their own relative finiteness by practical activities.As a history educator,he argued that history education should respect science and truth so as to cultivate students' beliefs in anti-war and peace.In short,Ienaga repetitively refused to submit to power and authority in real life and his rebellious thoughts and actions were not driven for the welfare of a single person,organization,nation or state but for transcending the contradictions of the relative finite world so as to enter the absolute infinite world.Throughout his life,Ienaga devoted himself to unifying his thoughts and practices.