The Development Of Ikuo Oyama’s Democratic Thought And The Public View (1915-1928)

As one of the flag bearers of the Taisho democratic movement,Ikuo Oyama never stopped speaking about democracy,but because the national union was so important to him,Oyama’s democratic ideas were initially nationalistic in nature.The realities of his life led him to examine the public from a "class" perspective,which eventually led Oyama to the path of political practice.The purpose of this paper is to focus on the period from 1915 to 1928,and to analyze in detail the process of change in Oyama ’s democratic thought and public view during this period.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper is divided into four chapters.The first chapter focuses on Oyama’s personal growth experience before 1915,and aims to explain the process of accumulating his ideas from his family environment,his experience at Waseda University,and his study in Europe and America,so as to lay the foundation for the subsequent explanation of Oyama’s democratic ideas and public views.The second chapter introduces the process of Oyama’s advocacy of political democracy for the purpose of national unity during the period 1915-1917,in which Oyama called on rulers to replace autocracy with ethics from the perspective of political morality,and advocated political equalization of opportunities at home,but recognized the legitimacy of "force" in international politics.He expected to rely on cultural statism and nationalism to reconcile the conflicts between individuals and classes,at this time,Oyama ’s public view stands on the position of the nation and is based on the state or nation.The following part introduces the process of Oyama’s gradual shift from "national" to "class" after he left Waseda University in 1918-1920,when he first encountered social reality.He began to criticize bureaucrats and political parties,but he rejected violent public revolutions and for a short time had illusions about the international democratic situation that emerged after World War I.Later,taking the trend of transformation as an opportunity,Oyama’s democratic ideas broke through the political sphere and expanded to all areas of society,and he began to focus on workers as the creators of culture and advocated public culturalism.The fourth chapter focuses on the process of Oyama ’s gradual development into a proletarian party from the proletarian standpoint during 1921-1928.Taking the turn of the proletarian movement as an opportunity,Oyama affirmed the necessity of political action,advocated the unity of the proletariat through single proletarian partyism,and finally participated in political practice under the guidance of the principle of "combining theory and practice," becoming the chairman of the left-wing proletarian party,the Laonong Party,and establishing deep ties with the masses.