“Death as Life”: Political metaphor in the testimonial prison literature of Kanno Suga

Critical Asian Studies

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 3-12

  Raddeker, Hélène Bowen ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84901569418     PISSN: 14672715     EISSN: 14726033     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14672715.1997.10413079     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. In English, for example, valuable contributions have been a near-complete English translation of Kanno's prison diary in Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan Mikiso Hane, Pantheon New York 1988 58 74 and a chapter on Kanno in Sharon L. Sievers, Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1983
2. Both in this essay and more explicitly elsewhere, my work on Kanno Suga so far has been based on the premise that an intrinsic part of this political critique was her self-presentation and representation of her death, her life and her self: Hélène L. Bowen, “Victims as Victors, Death as Life: Representation and Empowerment in the Works of the Prewar Japanese Traitors, Kanno Suga and Kaneko Fumiko,” (Ph.D. dissertation, History Department, La Trobe University, Melbourne, 1992—published as Raddeker Hélène, Bowen Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan: Patriarchal Fictions, Patricidal Fantasies Routledge London, New York 1997
3. Not all of those sentenced were anarchists. The supposed “ringleader,” Kotoku, was among those executed, apparently because he was responsible in the eyes of the authorities for having “introduced anar-cho-communism into Japan.” See Suga's Kanno, Kanno Sugako Zenshu, III Unosuke Shimizu, Koryusha Tokyo 1984 3 248 248 Sixth Preliminary Court Interrogation (13 June 1910), in, Complete Works of Kanno Sugako, III, Only records from the preliminaries of the Meiji high treason trial are extant
4. See, for example, Kanno's preliminary interrogation records for 3 June 1910, in Shimizu, Zenshu III 205 217 Kanno, Miyashita Daikichi, Nümura Tadao, Furukawa Rikisaku, and Uchiyama Gudo met a number of times to discuss a possible insurrection. They not only discussed the need for arms and explosives but began to lay in supplies and experiment with the manufacture of bombs. Uchiyama was the first to be arrested in May 1909 for an infringement of the explosives control laws. Then the arrest on 25 May 1910 of Miyashita, Furukawa, Nümura, and two others quickly led to mass arrests. Since Kanno was already in prison by the time of the first arrests, having begun on May 18 to serve an earlier sentence for a publication infringement, the small group of conspirators were therefore all incarcerated before an insurrection could be attempted However, they had met the day before Kanno went into prison and vowed to carry out their plans on her release in the autumn
5. Some like Kotoku might have had doubts about the efficacy of violent tactics, but he well understood the frustrations that had led others to want to stage their own “Paris Commune,” even if, he insisted, no “concrete” plans for one had really been made. See Shusui Kotoku, Gokuchu yori Boiyoku Kakumei o Ronzu Monumenta Nip-ponica 22 309 309 Discussion of violent revolution, from a jail cell), trans. George Elison, in, nos 3-4 (1967): 468-81. This is discussed also in Crump, The Origins of Socialist Thought in Japan, ff
6. Kanno, Prison Declaration (to prosecutors), no. 1 (2 June 1910), in Shimizu, Zenshu III 198 198
7. Kanno, Court Interrogation (3 June 1910) Zenshu III 210 210 and Mi-yashita Daikichi, cited in Crump, The Origins of Socialist Thought in Japan, p. 312. On the new role of the emperor in Meiji, see Carol Gluck, Japan's Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985), pp. 213-46.
8. In a letter to Kotoku Shusui dated 16 May 1910, Kanno wrote, “I will go [into prison] resolutely. I'd rather sleep in prison than here. It'd be better to die in prison than linger on and die here. That would have some meaning. Then there would be some consolation in death Shimizu, Zenshu III 162 162
9. It is not so common today for scholars to posit, in liberal-humanist ideological style, a necessary separation between literature and politics. There is no doubt, however, that in literary analysis this sort of binary distinction long informed the view that the less overtly political a text is, the “[greater] a work of literature” it will be. In Japanese studies, works on prewar proletarian literature are a good case in point: Arima Tatsuo, The Failure of Freedom: A Portrait of Modern Japanese Intellectuals (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969), chapter 8 Keene Donald, Proletarian Literature: The Tyranny of Politics Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era Henry Holt New York 1984 173 214 594 628
10. Beverley, John. 1992. “ The Margin at the Center: On Testimonio (Testimonial Narrative ”. In De/Colonizing the Subject: The Politics of Gender in Women's Autobiography, Edited by: Smith, Sidonie, and Watson, Julia. 91–114. 115–138. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. and Caren Kaplan, “Resisting Autobiography: Out-Law Genres and Transnational Feminist Subjects,” in, I see no need for extended comment on this definitional issue of what constitutes “autobiographical” forms: there are strong arguments to be made in support of both positions but, rather than trying to avoid the term altogether because of its association with Western liberal-humanism, I prefer to see definitions of autobiography extended to include “out-law” “resistance” forms. Hence I will speak of Kanno's prison writings as “testimonial literature/autobiography
11. I find unconvincing the argument that the “era of Nihonjinron” is the 1970s and 1980s, since I do not believe that this discourse on Japanese cultural identity/difference/uniqueness has shown any real signs of abating in recent years. Nor do I think that criticisms of it as a “disturbing resurgence of nativism” or nationalism necessarily hinge upon an assumption of there being “only one correct [Western] form of modernity.” See Waswo Ann, Modern Japanese Society, 1868–1994 Oxford University Press Oxford 1996 90 90 103 103 Even in some of its more moderate forms recently in Japan, demands for Western recognition of cultural diversity all too often take the form of an inverted, but still essentialized and hierarchized “difference” between cultures or nations. To cite but one example, it seems that while Japan was once represented as the only truly “socialist” society, now it is portrayed as being more purely “postmodernist” than anywhere else. This sort of nationalistic discourse is still “orientalist,” which is to say that it is still premised on the same binary logic of East-West difference that, arguably, has long disabled the recognition of shared transnational experiences of oppression and thus the potential for solidarity
12. See, for example, Kanno's letter to Yoshikawa Morikuni (21 January 1911), in Shimizu, Zenshu III 182 182
13. The poem in Japanese reads: “Senjin no gake to shiritsutsu isogi iku hitosuji michi o furi mo kaerade.” See Kanno, Shide no Michikusa Zenshu II 255 255 A pause on the way to death), in Shimizu, I shall henceforth refer to this simply as her Diary.) Kanno's use of “hitosuji michi” (literally, a straight road or path) suggests a path from which she could or would not deviate, so I prefer to read it as “unswerving” because of the word's common association with devotion, commitment, and purpose
14. 17. The twelve who went to the gallows did not know in advance the date of their execution, which was January 24 in the case of the men, January 25 in the case of Kanno. On a card she wrote to a comrade, Okano Katsuishi, on 22 January 1911, three days before her death, she expressed the expectation that she would be alive for another ten to fifteen days. See Shimizu, Zenshu III 188 188
15. In letters to Yoshikawa Morikuni (January 19) and to Sakai Toshi-hiko (January 24), Kanno willed some of her few possessions to friends and comrades (see Shimizu, Zenshu III 182 182 190 191
16. On teleology in life-writing see Raddeker Hélène, Bowen The Past through Telescopic Sights: Reading the Prison-Life-Story of Kaneko Fumiko Japan Forum 7 155 169 no. 2 fall 1995
17. Kanno. January 1911. “ Shide no Michikusa ”. In Zenshu, II January, 245–245. in Shimizu, She also said this in a letter to Tamikawa “Takeo” (Kotoku's niece) on January 21 (in Zenshu, III, p. 183
18. Kanno, Diary. January 1911. Zenshu, II January, 263–264.
19. January 1911. Zenshu, II January, 261–261.
20. Kanno had referred to this prosecutor's heartlessness in an earlier statement to interrogators (Prison Declaration, no. 1 [2 June 1910], in Shimizu, Zenshu, III 195 196
21. Kanno, Diary. January 1911. Zenshu, II January, 268–269. in Shimizu
22. January. Zenshu, II January, 246–247.
23. Zenshu, II 249–249.
24. January. Zenshu, II January, 260–260.
25. January. Zenshu, II January, 270–270.
26. Shimizu. January. Zenshu, II January, 272–272. 248–250. While being interrogated seven months earlier Kanno had also remarked that she and her co-conspirators had hoped that the anarchist theorist and leader, Kotoku Shusui, would survive them to send news of the rebellion overseas. Doubtless they accorded him this role partly because he had visited the United States before and had contacts there. “If Kotoku survived when we died he would communicate the news to comrades overseas for us,” she said. “If he died with us, we wouldn't be able to send the news overseas, and this would not be at all beneficial to the natural development of anar-cho-communism in Japan. They wanted comrades and others overseas to know of the systematic political repression and injustice suffered by dissenters of all descriptions in Japan, largely to help the cause of anarchism and progress there. See Kanno's Sixth Preliminary Court Interrogation (13 June 1910), in, Zenshu, III
27. Kanno, Diary. January 1911. Zenshu, II January, 250–251. in Shimizu
28. January. Zenshu, II January, 266–267. Here she sets up the truth of scientific (socialist) materialism in opposition to Buddhism. Moreover, her asking to be buried in the convict graveyard, not in the grounds of a temple, probably reflected her rejection of institutionalized religion and her identification with other recipients of State “justice.” She actually said that while she really wanted to be buried with her sister, whose grave was at a temple named Shoshunji, she did not like the priests there. And she even went so far as to say that, far from following the proprieties of funereal ritual, it would not matter to her if her ashes were “scattered to the wind or thrown into the river
29. Another early example of this was Hideko Kageyama-Fukuda, Warawa no Hanshogai Nihon-jin noJiden Heibonsha Tokyo 1980 6 by this time a veteran of the earlier popular rights movement and an active socialist-feminist. In 1904 she had written an autobiography entitled, My life so far), which was published in, This is discussed in Vera Mackie, Creating Socialist Women in Japan: Gender, Labour and Activism, 1900–1937 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), chapter 1
30. Kanno. January 1911. Zenshu, III January, 182–186. Letters to Yoshikawa Morikuni, Tamikawa “Takeo,” and Osugi Sakae and Yasuko, in Shimizu
31. Kanno, Diary. January 1911. Zenshu, II January, 250–251. in Shimizu
32. Zenshu, II 251–251.
33. January. Zenshu, II January, 255–255.
34. While I might appear to be attributing Kanno's regeneration or “reincarnation” imagery to her Japanese/Asian cultural context, I doubt that picturing social change in terms of seasonal changes, or an “eternal return” of the seasons, is specifically “Eastern.” Of course, the longstanding “East-West” philosophical discourse on cyclical/linear time (and monism/dualism) has had its Western detractors for just as long, among them Nietzsche and, more recently, Mircea Eliade. See Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return Pantheon New York 1965
35. Kanno, Diary. January 1911. Zenshu, II January, 256–256. in Shimizu.
36. January. Zenshu, II January, 259–259.
37. Watson, Julia, and Smith, Sidonie. “ De/Colonization and the Politics of Discourse in Women's Autobiographical Practices ”. In De/Colonizing the Subject xvii–xvii. xix–xix. in Smith and Watson
38. Kanno wrote in her diary on January 23 that this personal victory was due to her “unwillingness to accept defeat.” A further example of her distancing herself from other women might have been an admission (attributed to her by a lawyer, Hiraide Shu) of a sense of shame at being a woman: “For me the only disappointing thing is that the [‘XX’-two characters censored: ‘plan’ or ‘revolution’?] ended in complete [‘XX’–‘failure‘?]. It's because I'm a woman-and women lack spirit- this is my shame.” Kanno had said earlier that she regretted that foolish mistakes had led to their arrests and thus to the failure of their plans. Nonetheless, the statement may not be entirely accurate because it is derived only from Hiraide's report of what she said in the Supreme Court in his fictionalized account of the trial. I am not entirely convinced of their accuracy Shu Hiraide, Kanno Suga 197 197 cited in Itoya
39. This difference is not surprising as Kotoku was known as a theorist while Kanno explicitly styled herself as an activist. However, it was common for socialist women to write autobiographical works in prison in prewar and wartime Japan. In fact, I cannot recall any prison writings by women that were not memoirs of some kind-though prison autobiographical works were not the particular preserve of women. An early example of one by a man that was personal in style was by well-known anarchist, Osugi Sakae. See Marshall Byron, K. The Autobiography of Osugi Sakae University of California Press Berkeley 1992
40. Beverley. The Margin at the Center 91–114. It should be noted that Beverley includes in this genre of testimonio–“whose unit of narration is usually a ‘life’ or a significant life experience”–both autobiographies or autobiographical novels and confessions, memoirs, and diaries
41. Japanese sources have debated the “literary merits” of Kanno Suga's writings (both her early journalistic works and her prison diary), at leastsince the editor of her collected works, Shimizu Unosuke, explicitly questioned assessments of her works as mediocre, crude, or immature. Such negative assessments partly stem from the opinions of a jilted lover, the well-known prewar socialist Arahata Kanson. Scholars have long taken his pronouncements on Kanno's achievements-as well as his judgments on her “promiscuous” character-at face value. Shimizu, by contrast, aigues that the literary quality of one of Kanno's early articles compares favorably with works by her famous contemporary, Yosano Akiko. He also praises her diary as a masterpiece in the genre of prison memoirs. See his biography of Kanno in Shimizu, Zenshu, III 299 300
42. Kaplan. “ Resisting Autobiography ”. In De/Colo-nizing the Subject 121–121. in Smith and Watson
43. Harlow's, Barbara. 1987. “ De/Colo-nizing the Subject ”. In Resistance Literature, 120–120. New York: Methuen. Here Kaplan is citing
44. Beverley The Margin at the Center 96 96
45. Beverley The Margin at the Center 93 93
46. The Margin at the Center 94–95.
47. On the sympathetic attitude toward Kotoku of one of the defendants' lawyers, Hiraide Shu, and his ambivalent, sometimes hostile attitude toward Kanno, see Rubin Jay, Injurious to Public Morals: Writers and the Meiji State University of Washington Press Seattle, London 1984 162 166 It is clear in her diary and letters that Kanno felt constrained to justify herself even to her comrades because of her feelings of guilt over inadvertently involving in the incident some who had not been involved in the “conspiracy.” She also expressed herself at times with a humility suggestive of a consciousness of being a woman presuming to speak for male comrades. The most explicit example of a typically feminine humility would have been where-at least according to the lawyer, Hiraide Shu-Kanno attributed her/their failure or suppression to her “womanly lack of spirit.