Background
Shūsui Kotoku was born on 5 November 1872 in Kochi Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku.
journalist politician translator
Shūsui Kotoku was born on 5 November 1872 in Kochi Kochi Prefecture in Shikoku.
In his youth he received a Confucian education and was thoroughly dedicated to Confucian ethical ideals.
In 1888 he became a combination student and houseboy in the home of Nakae Chomin, a proponent of Western political thought who was living in Osaka at the time, and was much influenced by his ideas and personality. When Nakae moved to Tokyo, Kotoku accompanied him, where in 1893 he graduated from the Kokumin Eigakkai.
He became a newspaper reporter, serving first on the Jiyu Shimbun and later the Chub Shimbun, and in 1898 joined the Torozu Choho as an editorial writer.
In 1903, on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, when the Torozu Choho came out in favor of a commencement of hostilities, Kotoku, along with Sakai Toshihiko and Uchimura Kanzo, resigned from the staff. He and Sakai then formed the Heiminsha and began publication of a newspaper called Heimin Shimbun, which opposed military action and continued to do so even after the outbreak of the war. While the war was still in progress, the newspaper published the text of a letter sent to the Socialist Party of Russia. As a result, the paper was forced to close down in 1905, and Kotoku was sent to jail.
After his release, he went to the United States, where he joined the American Socialist Party. In 1906 he formed the Shakai Kakumeito (Social Revolution Party) made up of Japanese living in America. He remained in California for about half a year, during which he became increasingly influenced by anarchist thinking. After returning to Japan, he launched an appeal for direct action, proclaiming the necessity for a general strike. At the second general meeting of the Japan Socialist Party in 1907, he spoke out in opposition to Katayama Sen, Tazoe Tetsuji, and others who advocated reform by parliamentary methods. In the face of increasing harrassment from the government, he returned to Kochi for a time to recover from an illness. With the so-called “red banner” incident in 1908, when a number of left-wing leaders were arrested for displaying anarchist and communist slogans at a gathering in Kanda in Tokyo, he went to Tokyo once more. There he joined Kanno Suga in publishing a magazine called Jiyu Shiso. At the time of the lese-majeste affair in 1910, he was arrested along with other socialist leaders on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Emperor Mciji. He was charged with being a major conspirator in the plot and was sentenced to death. In 1911 he and Kanno were among the eleven men who were executed as a result of the affair.
He became attracted to democratic ideas, and on completion of middle school went to Tokyo through the help of Hayashi Yuzo, a political leader from Kochi, where he devoted himself to the popular rights movement. In 1887 he was among the large group of persons from Kochi who were forced by the newly promulgated Peace Preservation Regulations to leave Tokyo because of their political activities.
In the same year he became a member of the Socialist Study Group, and also acted as secretary to an organization advocating universal suffrage.
Later he became increasingly attracted to socialism and in 1901 joined Abe Isoo, Kinoshita Naoe, and others in forming the Shakai Minshuto (Social Democratic Party), the first socialist party to be formed in Japan. The party was outlawed the same day it was formed and was forced to disband immediately. In the same year he was requested by Tanaka Shozo, a crusader against industrial pollution, to draft a petition to present to the emperor on behalf of the victims of the Ashio Mine pollution.