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Title: Nakahama Tetsu Author: Kurihara Yasushi Date: 2018 Language: en Topics: Nakahama Tetsu, history, Japan, anarchist history, propaganda of the deed, illegalism Source: Kuruizake, Freedom Notes: Translated by Max Res. Names in this article are last name-first name, so if anglicized this person's name is Tetsu Nakahama, for example. This is one of a series of prefaces to compilations of Japanese anarchist writings in the book Kuruizake, Freedom. Kuruizake refers to flowers blooming out of season, so roughly, Freedom, Bloom when You Will.
Nakahama Tetsu was born in 1897 in Moji-ku, Kitakyushu. He moved to
Tokyo when he was 20. He’d planned to work hard at his studies, but was
snatched up by recruiters and ended up in the military. And just when he
thought his two years of service was up, in 1918 he had the misfortune
of being deployed to Siberia and wasn’t able to be discharged. Pissed
off, Nakahama wrote an anti-war leaflet and had every soldier he could
read it. Caught by the military police, he was tossed into military
jail.
At this time, Nakahama desired freedom from the bottom of his heart. In
the military, you had to kill other people or even throw away your life
saying “banzai!” because of orders that came from above. They told you
this was natural because it was thanks to the country and His Majesty
the Emperor that you were alive today. If you denied this, you were told
you were useless, anti-patriotic, and disposed of. Mindlessly kill
people? Become a better subject? Damn, ain’t that just slavery?
Nakahama was finally discharged in 1920. Hanging around Tokyo for a
while, he realized that this world was structured the same as the
military. Workers were given money by capitalists, so wasn’t it natural
they got ordered around? Wives were fed by their husbands, so wasn’t it
natural they served them? If they didn’t obey they were berated that
they were useless, ungrateful and so forth. They were asked thanks to
whom were they alive. There was a better future in store for you if you
worked hard? Become a better citizen? They made you keep your head down
and your mouth shut. Ain’t that just slavery? Ahh, this world’s done
for.
While he was thinking this, his older brother died, and his father was
on his deathbed. When he went back home his aged mother seemed to want
him to stick around. What to do… Nakahama decided to abandon his home
and set out on a wandering journey. After all, people were bound to die
anyway. You couldn’t live being bound by stuff like home and money. If
you were living for a better future, you’d spend your whole life not
being able to do the things you wanted to. Fuck becoming a better
anything. You had to live as if you could die at any minute.
But people were still living bound by this world. Even he was frequently
trapped by money, so that was obvious. But what could you do? With this
on his mind, he met Furuta Daijirou, who was wrestling with the problem
of Saitama’s peasants. Furuta thought about it this way: all poor people
thought those in power were totally incredible, that without their
patronage they’d be dead, that they had to obey them, and that all of
this was their life and their future.
But things weren’t really this way. The people in power weren’t shit. If
you lived like you were gonna die, most things weren’t a big deal. Let’s
let the world know this in a way that’s easily understood. Give up your
body right now and kill the people in power, show the world that you
could bring down any of these guys at any time. Destroy the symbols of
this world, destroy the you that’s trapped too. Live in the moment,
seize terror!
The two were quick to hit it off. Let’s give it everything we’ve got,
partner. Well, if we’re gonna do this, who’s gonna get it? Why, the
Emperor, of course. That guy says that because he’s a living god and
protects his subjects like children, it’s natural that they should obey
him. He’s a symbol of this world. But the Emperor Taisei was sickly and
dying so there was no need to kill him, and they decided that if they
were gonna kill someone it would be his son Hirohito.
Nakahama gathered allies. For this he appealed to day laborers who
lacked even a workers’ movement to improve their working conditions. In
August of 1922 the members, gathered in their hideout, named themselves
the Guillotine Society. That name was meant to say “give Hirohito the
guillotine!” Gathering savings started with ryaku, an abbreviation for
ryakudatsu [robbery]. They went around to businesses flashing a knife or
pistol, threatening people for money. They seized a fair amount, but it
was quick to disappear. That’s because they were spending it on booze
and brothels. Live like you’re gonna die and you spend money instead of
saving it.
While all this was happening they stole too much in Tokyo and the
imperial police began taking a closer look at what was going on. From
the summer of 1923 they relocated their base to Osaka. There they began
to steal and live the fast life, and just when they said we ain’t saving
any money, that September was the Great Kanto Earthquake. Osugi Sakae,
an anarchist Nakahama and Furuta idolized, was slaughtered by the
imperial military policeman Amakasu Masahiko. If that’s how it’s gonna
be let’s take revenge, and get back to our original principals.
They then shot Amakasu’s brother, but the attack failed. Furuta’s
attempt to seize money for their savings by holding up a bank also
failed, and he stabbed a bank employee to death in error. After this
almost the entire membership of the Guillotine Society was arrested.
Furuta and Nakahama fled to Korea where they planned to obtain
explosives, but didn’t have the money. Nakahama returned to Osaka where
his attempts at robbery failed and he was arrested. Furuta made a bomb
himself, and together with Osugi’s friends attempted to kill Amakasu,
but this too failed. He was arrested after a little while. Both were
sentenced and executed.
The actions of Nakahama and his friends didn’t go very well. But that’s
not what’s important. It doesn’t matter whether they were useful as
assassins or not. Let’s stop talking about better futures or living
lives we don’t wish for. Let’s live our lives to the fullest right now.
And if we’re not allowed to, blow away this world and our lives along
with it. If you’re gonna do it, do it now, that goes for everything.
Blow your life up. Dying in vain is just fine, everyone get eaten by
ogres!