The Autobiography of Osugi Sakae (Voices from Asia)

Voices from Asia

by Sakae Osugi, Byron K. Marshall (Introduction)

In the Japanese labor movement of the early twentieth century, no one captured the public imagination as vividly as Osugi Sakae (1885-1923): rebel, anarchist, and martyr. Flamboyant in life, dramatic in death, Osugi came to be seen as a romantic hero fighting the oppressiveness of family and society.

Osugi helped to create this public persona when he published his autobiography ( Jijoden ) in 1921-22. Now available in English for the first time, this work offers a rare glimpse into a Japanese boy's life at the time of the Sino-Japanese (1894-95) and the Russo-Japanese (1904-5) wars. It reveals the innocent―and not-so-innocent―escapades of children in a provincial garrison town and the brutalizing effects of discipline in military preparatory schools. Subsequent chapters follow Osugi to Tokyo, where he discovers the excitement of radical thought and politics.

Byron Marshall rounds out this picture of the early Osugi with a translation of his Prison Memoirs (Gokuchuki) , originally published in 1919. This essay, one of the world's great pieces of prison writing, describes in precise detail the daily lives of Japanese prisoners, especially those incarcerated for political crimes.

Genres: Japan, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Politics, Japanese Literature

Paperback

First published January 1, 1923

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considering that this is the autobiography of an anarchist socialist who was repeatedly jailed, and had a lurid affair ending in his lover trying to murder him, t's a pretty unexciting book. Not that this makes it a useless read. It has a certain everyday character to it, which gives the reader a "slice of life" of the late meiji period or early Taisho period. But pretty much none of that exciting stuff is mentioned in any detail. Only in passing.

Interesting points: Osugi was clearly a rather rebellious person early on in his life,  so it's interesting to see how that manifests in the context of a very hierarchical military family, and military schools. Of course, in real life such ideal hierarchical models are never fully realized, so how Osugi finds little moments of freedom, by nepotism, by his sociability, by his own destructive impulses, or ultimately, by actually finally applying his mind to studying is pretty interesting.

I also found it interesting that this man was a radical thinker, yet he never seems to have fully broken ties with the military establishment. I wonder if this is a theme shared by other Japanese anarchists or socialists from a similar background? His admiration for samurai rebels, and assassins, etc, all mirror Yukio Mishima in personality. It does seem to me like authoritarian and anarchist Japanese traditions are united by common heroes and values, namely violence, sacrifice, a worthwhile death, and so on. Even by the end of the book, though he describes his father's campaign preparations as ludicrous, this seems to be a rather forced or caveated judgement.

Prevalence of homosexuality in schools including military schools, and of sexual activity between children was unexpected.

The later chapter which mentions Osugi's conversion to Christianity, and the influence which Christianity had on Japanese socialism was a fascinating tidbit which i wish i had gotten to read more about.

The relationship between Osugi and his parents is very odd. Very abusive mother and distant father. Yet, he seems to have felt warmly towards them anyway, and in their own way they do seem to have had his best interests at heart. There seems to be a strained admiration of his father, which is influenced by the aforementioned confluence and tension of Japanese imperial militarism, and anarchist socialism. But you get the impression that his parents in the end were just happy that he stopped being a total fuckup and just applied himself to something.

The final chapter detailing his life in prison feels tacked on (it was tacked on).

The censorship of the text from the time period is interesting to note in passing.

One wishes to have gotten a better picture of everything which made Osugi's life exciting, and a better picture of the development of his political ideas. But it seems like there's a decent secondary literature on that, and other books by him as well perhaps.

All in all, it's a worthwhile read if you are interested in the life of someone in modernising Japan before shit even started to hit the fan, a rebellious son of a military officer who is intelligent, freedom loving, engrossed in new ideas. A contemporary of the European classical anarchists, but in such a different context that i don't even know if it should be considered the same movement (i need to read more on the topic). Anyway that's my 2 cents.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Achei a história de Ôsugi Sakae muito interessante. Nem só de samurais o Japão é formado.

[Mikaela · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought there would be politics. This was boring.

[Harald Gao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, although how much of that is Osugi's skill as a writer and how much of that is attributable to the supple translation is questionable. However, while the writing itself is good, Osugi does not delve into the most immediately fascinating aspects of his life: his anarchism, his social activism, his love affairs - in short, all the things that made him famous and infamous.

Far be it from me to say what is worthy in his life and what is not, but it's an account that cuts out the meat of Osugi's life, like an Obama memoir that made no mention of his political aspirations or time as a community organizer. It is informative and enjoyable, but it doesn't answer. It is a book that explains how Osugi Sakae grew up - but the relation between the Osugi Sakae in the book and Osugi Sakae the historical (and oft-romanticized) figure is minimal. The final chapter, the prison memoir, wasn't even part of the original text! One must question what Sakae's intent was, in providing such a de-politicized portrait of himself.