Transcribing the Past

  From Episode 81 of Isaac Meyer's History of Japan Podcast http://isaacmeyer.net/ In 1910, an anarchist plot to assassinate the Meiji Emperor was uncovered. Seizing the opportunity, conservatives in the government pounced in to arrest 26 anarchists. The background of this confrontation between the government and the radical left, the trials themselves, and their modern legacy are our topics I've become something of a podcast junky thanks to my work schedules, and I've slowly been working my way through Isaac Meyer's History of Japan podcast. Meyer has spent several years in several cities across Japan, has a PHD on the nations history and can speak the language to a degree so he's quite the expert. This episode 81, caught my interest as its about the history of Japan's anarchist movement, an often overlooked subject despite the roots anarchism was able to spread within Japan. In the 1910s-30s Japanese and Korean and Chinese anarchists were a majo...

  Link https://youtu.be/p5G8A7oCa6I This week, we cover the Miike coal mine strike of 1960. As labor and management do battle over the future of the mines, how will the future of the country be shaped by their clash? http://isaacmeyer.net/2018/06/episode-245-the-summer-of-rage-part-2/   Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 245 the Summer of Rage Part II. Last week we covered the protests that brought down the Kishi government and set the tenor for the next half century of Japanese politics. A consensus on economic growth and nothing else. This week I want to talk about another protest which also stretched into the summer of 1960, and which helped set the tone for the future of post-war Japan. Last week we looked at what is by any measure the beating heart of Japan, Tokyo itself. This week our focus is about as far away from that as you can get, a small called Miike, split between Fukuoka and Kumamoto Prefectures in central Kyush...

  ZENGAKUREN, the All-Japan Federation of Autonomous Student Bodies is a mass revolutionary organisation, with a militant tradition of struggle against American Imperialism and the Japanese ruling class. In 1960, it organised strikes and continuous demonstrations, in which many were wounded, outside the Tokyo Diet, against the Ratification of the Japanese – US Security Treaty. These reached such an intensity that the US Government thought it advisable to cancel a proposed Eisenhower visit to Japan. The Zengakuren have recently called for the establishment of an anti-war International. They are supported in this by the Committee of 100, the Student Peace Union in the US, the Socialist Students Organization of West Germany and many other organizations opposed to both American and Russian tests. On August 17, 1962, representatives of the Zengakuren, including Nemoto, their President, attended the Leningrad Conference of the International Union of Students. On their way, they had ...