Tagore’s Critique of Nationalism in Japan， 1916

Abstract

　Rabindranath Tagore first visited Japan in 1916, three years after he received the Nobel prize for literature. Since he was the first Asian to be thus honored, many Japanese regarded him as a ‘face-saver’ for Asian countries. Furthermore, they considered him a nationalistic poet, partly because he wrote three short poems in celebration of the Japanese victory over Russia in 1905. His first visit was reported in great detail by many Japanese newspapers, especially the Asahi Shinbun.

　Tagore delivered three speeches in Japan : ‘India and Japan’, ‘The Message from India to Japan’，and ‘The Spirit of Japan’. In the second of these he emphasized the following points :① harmful nationalistic trends in Europe, ② Japan’s mission to infuse civilization with a fuller humanity,③ India’s experimental contribution to the solution of the race-problem. Among the published comments on Tagore’s views the philosopher-novelist Iwano Homei refused to admit Tagore’s dichotomy between the nation and the individual, charging the poet with having failed to grasp the real situation. In the end, Tagore’s anti- nationalistic claims were disbelieved in Japan, both because his argument was not convincingly constructed and because the Japanese were becoming strongly nationalistic.