| Popis: |
Yanaihara tried to go beyond the sovereign state which he thought an obstacle to lasting peace. Alternative orders he considered were first, a commonwealth of nations, secondly a confederation, and thirdly a world federation, with the latter as the ideal and ultimate order of international relations. This article also clarifies Yanaihara’s attitude toward the Kokutai (Emperor system) after World War II. He continued to admire the emperor and thought that Kokutai, as the spiritual community of traditional Japan, was unbroken, although the legal character of it had changed greatly. Moreover, he regarded postwar Kokutai as compatible with democracy, but did not insist on the sovereignty of the people. In this respect Shigeru Nanbara (1889-1974) and Soukichi Tsuda (1873-1961) were of the same opinion. As old liberals, they esteemed the traditional continuity of Japanese history, and at the same time welcomed democracy. In this age of globalization, we need to take notice of Yanaihara’s effort to combine patriotism with cosmopolitanism. This was surely highly optimistic, since he underestimated the persistence of sovereign states, but the direction itself is not beside the mark. |
