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| |  | | Shumei Okawa | | | context : | Japan  | | judgement place : | Tokyo IMT | | status : | Dismissal - lack of jurisdiction | | particulars : | Declared mentally unfit by the president of the IMT-Tokyo, the case against him was dropped; transferred to a mental hospital; released in 1948 | | position : | Scholar, ideologist |
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| | | | Shumei Okawa was born on December 6, 1886, in Sakata, Yamagata, Japan, into a family of doctors.
In 1911, he graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University where he had studied Vedic literature and classical Indian philosophy. However, instead of looking for a job, he continued to study at the university’s library. In 1916, he published an essay on “The origins and the present state of the nationalist movement in India”. Four years later, he was appointed professor at the University of Takushoku where he lectured on the history and politics of colonization.
In 1919, he expressed the idea that the reconstruction of Japanese society was necessary in order to fight communist aggression. That same year he was hired by the South Manchurian Railway Company, a Japanese company, to run the editorial section of the East Asian Economic Research Bureau (EAERB) in Tokyo. He held this position until the end of the war, when the Bureau was disbanded. In 1928, he became chairman of the board of directors of the Bureau.
During the same period, he continued to pursue his academic career, and, in 1926, he received his Ph. D. from the Tokyo Imperial University. He also published several works, one of which, in 1942, was an essay on “The Concept of Islam”.
Well known as a Japanese ultra-nationalist, Pan-Asian writer, and Islamic, scholar, prior to 1928, he is said to have publicly advocated Japanese territorial expansion throughout the Asian continent by simple threat or, if necessary, by the use of military force. He is also reported to have advocated that Japan should seek to dominate Eastern Siberia and the South Sea islands, and to have predicted the outbreak of war. His work inspired many right-wing extremists groups in the 1930s. He himself personally created and participated in some of these organizations, amongst which was the Yuzansha Society.
Shumei Okawa is alleged to have been at the origin of the assault against Japanese officials in Manchuria in 1931, which was aimed at having the Chinese bear responsibility for it thereby setting off the hostilities in Manchuria.
Shumei Okawa is equally alleged to have participated in 1932 in two attempted coups against the Japanese government. Arrested on June 15, 1932, for his participation in the attempted coup of May 15, he was released on bail on September 11, 1934. In 1935, the High Court sentenced him to five years imprisonment for his complicity in the attempt. He was paroled on October 1937 and returned to his job at the EAARB where he supervised the research on China and East Asia.
He is said to have had a great influence during the war over the Japanese government’s domestic propaganda programme. In this respect, he was considered by the Allies to be the ideologist of the regime. With the advent of war in the Pacific he went into journalism. He is also believed to have tried to bring an end to the war with China, but his efforts were in vain.
On December 12, 1945, Shumei Okawa was arrested by the Allies and transferred to the Sugamo prison as a class-A criminal. | |     click for more... | | Trial Watch would like to remind its users that any person charged by national or international authorities is presumed innocent until proven guilty. | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Japan | | | date of birth : | | | 06.12.1886 | | | judgement period : | | | 06.05.1946 - 12.11.1948 | | | charges : | | | Aggression | | | profile last modified : | | | 09.12.2007 |
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