Japan: The Not So Harmonious Society

Before and during the 1960's Japan was a bitterly divided nation. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was in power with a great majority in parliament. Nevertheless, had Japan also had a very vocal left and an active student movement. The socialists and youth wanted to break with the militaristic past and workers were unhappy with their working conditions. Japan was experiencing vicious protests and strikes.

The discontent of the opposition and Japan's youth was not only about their own political and economic elite, but also with U.S.A' s military ambitions in Japan. The U.S stationed weapons, fighter planes and naval vessels all over Japan during the 1950's under a U.S- Japan security treaty signed after the war. The protestors feared that Japan would become a nuclear battlefield between the U.S and the Soviet union.

In the late 1950's the post war military treaty was expiring. Prime minister than was Kishi Nobusuke which legacy would be marked by the turbulent opposition campaign against a new U.S.–Japan security treaty agreed to by his government. No discourse about the new treaty was allowed in the diet. Before the final vote, the protests almost led to the occupation of the parliament building. Only with unprecedented police force could the diet vote on the revised treaty. In the end the new treaty passed with great majority, because the socialists boycotted the session.  By the students and the left this was viewed as high-handed, undemocratic, and provocative act. Large-scale public demonstrations against Kishi and its government erupted, which more and more turned violent.

 But the violent upheaval in Tokyo was only the beginning. Ferocious strikes and bloody protests, eclipsing those in Toyo, were about to spill over to other Japanese provinces.