Raja Mahendra Pratap (1886-1979) was born the third son of the Mursan royal family of Uttar Pradesh in India, and received his education under strong Muslim influence in Aligarh. At the age of 21, young Raja traveled around the world through Europe, the United States, Japan, and to China.The next year (1908), having become aware of the finiteness of material wealth, Pratap established the “Prem Mahavidyalya (University of Love)” in Vrindavan.
With the outbreak of World War I, Pratap went to Europe hoping to gain the support of Germany for the cause of liberating India from British rule. He joined in secret maneuvers with Germany and Turkey, and in 1915 went to Afghanistan as part of a delegation for both nations to ask the royal king to enter the war against England. The negotiations failed, and he established the Provisional Government of India in Kabul.
In 1918 Pratap rushed to the post-revolutionary Soviet Union, and had a meeting with Trotsky. Since he could not continue carrying out activities in Germany because of WWI, he fled to Budapest in Hungary, and there, established the religious organization “Religion of Love.” He began to appear for the idea of “World Federalism” based on the spirit of “love.”
In 1922 Pratap went to Japan in order to strengthen sympathies for the Indian independence movement in East Asia, at which time he also began to associate with R. B. Bose. His goal of visiting various nations gradually shifted to one of propagating his ideas regarding the “Religion of Love” and “World Federalism”, and to this end he published many articles while in Japan. In September 1929 he founded the “World Federation” magazine in Berlin. Moving from the United States to Japan to Manchu-kuo, he continued to publish a total of 100 issues until March 1942. His unique notion of religious ontology influenced many Japanese Pan-Asianists and produced various linkages among their ideas.
Pratap settled down in Japan in November 1930, and became involved in anti-British maneuvers in Manchu-kuo. The results of these activities however did not turn out well. His social position drastically declined in the mid-1930s and he gradually lost the influence he once had in Japan. Nonetheless, Pratap kept a wide range of personal connections all over the world, and managed to maintain certain ideological associations by means of correspondence with people of different races, nations, and religions.
This paper focuses on the process of how the World Federation movement, which Pratap developed, inspired connections with Japanese Pan-Asianists, and how it was used as propaganda to expand Japanese Imperialism. The relations between Pan-Asianism and both anti-colonial and religious networks that allowed Pratap to travel the globe are also discussed in this paper.

抄録全体を表示

The Anti-Japanese Immigration Act which the Congress of the United States of America passed in May, 1924, shocked the Japanese very much. There was a strong possibility that it might cause the Japanese, who believed that they had been one of the five big powers in the world since the first World War, to get rid of the attitude of “Leaving Asia and Identifying with Europe” which they had taken since they opened up their country to the world; in other words, it could possibly shake the basis of the Japanese national identity. This identity crisis could be understood from various public opinions expressed after the establishment of the Anti-Japanese Immigration Act, that is to say, the arguments for reconsidering the meaning of the relationship between Japan and the United States of America which had been continuing since Perry's visit to Japan, the arguments for close relations with other Asian countries, and the arguments for emigration to the Asian Continent which was said to be impossible because of historical reasons.
It should be understood that these opinions were expressed on the basis of the very sense of crisis over national identity and the foundation of the Japanese existence and from the point of view that it would be possible to overcome the crisis by identifying with Asia. After all, however, the arguments were gradually absorbed into the insistence that Japan should advance upon China.

抄録全体を表示

The term Eurasia is more than just a geographical statement; it acquired political meaning in the first half of the 20th century. As the term is capable of various definitions, here we restrict the meaning to former-Soviet lands. This paper examines the political intentions of imperial Japan towards the region in the interwar period in terms of Japanese policy towards Islamic populations and the Axis allies, especially German–Japanese military co-operation. The sources are mainly those that relate to questions about Islam and anti-Soviet feelings during this period.
The strategy of supporting those who opposed the regime in Russia dates back to the Russo-Japanese war. Based on this experience, Japan, in an attempt to play a more important role in international issues after the Paris Conference in 1919, tried to make Tokyo an émigré-center, like Berlin, Paris, and Istanbul at the time. From early 1920s Turkic-Muslim people were recruited and formed a community in Japan under the leadership of the influential Muhammed Abdulhay Kurbanali. Subsequently, Abdurresid Ibrahim arrived in 1933 and took the initiative by replacing Kurbanali in 1938. It was assumed that Japan was utilizing these anti-Bolshevik Muslim factions to foster the anti-Sovietism adopted by the military; this explains the infiltration of Japanese influence into the Muslim groups, especially those suppressed by Soviet Russia.
As is well known, imperial Japan and Nazi Germany signed the Anti-Commintern Pact in November 1936 against international communism in name, but in fact against Soviet Russia. Hiroshi Oshima, Japanese military attaché to Germany at the time, made an agreement with Wilhelm Canaris on behalf of the German army covering two areas: (i) anti-Soviet intelligence co-operation; and (ii) aid to support propaganda of anti-regime minorities based on an order from the Chief of the Army General Staff of imperial Japan. To summarize the agreement: ‘To collaborate with the German army concerning the intelligence of the Soviet Union so that the independence movements of minorities in the Soviet Union and anti-communist propaganda can be easily supported. This would assist the Japanese army to understand the deficiencies of Soviet Russia and move accordingly in the case of war between Japan and Russia’.
Finally, the plans mentioned above did not bear fruit in terms of putting Eurasia under Japanese influence due to the fact that Japanese military operations on the Asian mainland and the German invasion in Russia ultimately ended in failure.

抄録全体を表示