Background
Kanson Arahata was born on 14 August 1887 in Yokohama; his personal name is Katsuzo, Kanson being a literary name.
荒畑 寒村
Kanson Arahata was born on 14 August 1887 in Yokohama; his personal name is Katsuzo, Kanson being a literary name.
After completing higher elementary school, he entered the naval shipbuilding yard at Yokosuka as an apprentice worker.
In 1922 he became secretary of the newly formed Communist Party of Japan, and the following year visited the Soviet Union.
After his retirement from political affairs, he devoted all his attention to writing. In 1974 he received an Asahi Cultural Award. His most recent publication is Heiminsha jidai.
After reading an editorial in a newspaper called Yorozu ChohO, he determined at the age of fifteen to join the socialist movement. He became a member of the Heiminsha, an organiza¬tion formed by Sakai Toshihiko and others, traveling about and spreading the word of socialism while he made his living as a peddler. Along with the other members of the organization, he continued to speak out in opposition to the Russo-Japanese War. Around this time he became acquainted with Tanaka Shozo, a leader in the fight against industrial pollution, and at the age of nineteen published a work entitled Tanaka mura metsubo-shi, which ranks as a classic in the literature on environmental pollution.
In 1908 he was arrested along with Osugi Sakae and others for displaying an anarchist slogan at a gathering in the Kanda district of Tokyo and was imprisoned for a year and a half. As a result, he escaped in 1910, when a number of socialists were arrested on suspicion of plotting to assassinate the emperor. In 1912 he joined Osugi in publishing a magazine called Kindai shiso to spread the ideas of anarcho-syndicalisme.
When the Communist Party was reconstituted in 1927, he did not become a member, however, but separated himself from the prevailing ideology of the party. He joined Sakai Toshihiko and Yamakawa Hitoshi in publishing a magazine called Rond, becoming a leading member of the so-called Rono, or Labor-Farmer, group, which regarded the socialist revolution as the most important objective at hand. He was imprisoned and released a total of seven times, but remained faithful to his convictions.
After the conclusion of the war, he became a Socialist Party member of the Diet in 1946, but in 1948 he voiced solitary opposition to the budget of the Ashida cabinet and as a result withdrew from the Socialist Party.