Fascism in Asia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fascist movements and ideologies gained varying degrees of popularity across Asia during the interwar period. These developments were often characterised by a synthesis of European fascist models such as Italian fascism and Nazism with indigenous ultranationalism, traditionalist conservatism, and anti-colonial sentiment. While some movements, such as those in Shōwa Japan, achieved state power, others remained fringe political entities or served as paramilitary adjuncts to broader nationalist fronts.[1]
East Asia
China
Kuomintang
Under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang (KMT) incorporated elements of fascist ideology into its governance. The party aimed to establish a one-party state, or Dang Guo, to solidify ideological supremacy and political control, drawing inspiration from contemporary European authoritarian models.[2]
The Blue Shirts Society has been described as one of the most relevant fascist groups in China at the time. It began as a secret society in the KMT military before being reformed within the party.[3] By the 1930s, it held influence on China's economy and society.[4][5] Historian Jeffrey Crean notes, however, that the Blue Shirts impacted only elite politics, not the vast majority of China's population.[6]: 64–65 The Blue Shirts held contempt for liberal democracy and stressed the political usefulness of violence.[6]: 64 They were influenced by KMT contact with Nazi advisors and inspired by the German Brownshirts and the Italian Blackshirts. Unlike those organisations, however, the Blue Shirts were composed of political elites, not the popular masses.[6]: 64
Close Sino-German ties also promoted cooperation between the Nationalist Government and Nazi Germany in the early-to-mid 1930s. However, despite an early diplomatic honeymoon between Nationalist China and Nazi Germany, the Sino-German relationship rapidly deteriorated as Germany failed to pursue a detente between China and Japan, which led to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. China later declared war on fascist countries, including Germany, Italy, and Japan, as part of the Declarations of war during World War II and became the most powerful "anti-fascist" nation in Asia.[7]
The New Life Movement was a government-led civic movement in 1930s China initiated by Chiang Kai-shek to promote cultural reform and Neo-Confucian social morality, and to ultimately unite China under a centralised ideology following the emergence of ideological challenges to the status quo. The Movement attempted to counter threats of Western and Japanese imperialism through a resurrection of traditional Chinese morality, which it held to be superior to modern Western values. As such the Movement was based upon Confucianism, mixed with Christianity, nationalism and authoritarianism that had some similarities to fascism.[8] It rejected individualism and liberalism, while also opposing socialism and communism. Some historians regard this movement as imitating Nazism and being a neo-nationalistic movement used to elevate Chiang's control of everyday lives. Frederic Wakeman suggests that the New Life Movement was "Confucian fascism".[9] The New Life Movement drew inspirations from the Blue Shirts Society, although some historians debate to what extent it was fascist.[3]
People's Republic of China
Some accounts of the People's Republic of China (PRC) have described it as fascist and drawn on analogies with Nazi Germany.[10] Hu Deping, the son of Hu Yaobang, used the term in a discussion about PRC society in 2005.[11] Contemporarily, an increasing number of scholars and journalists have drawn comparisons between fascism and the Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping;[12][13] similarities between the PRC in the 21st century and classical fascist regimes lie in their proximity to state capitalism (rather than orthodox communism) as well as their anti-democratic, anti-labour, and chauvinistic expansionism.[14] However, some others have called such descriptions of the PRC "superficial".[10] For example, John Delury criticised the use of the term to describe contemporary China,[11] and Edward Luce called such analogies as "ahistorical".[15] Generally, the Chinese Communist Party is often labelled as left-conservative,[16][17] social conservative,[18][19][20] and "smart authoritarian"[21] rather than fascist. Some scholars have defined the Chinese Communist Party as "para-fascist" (rather than "fascist" in the pure sense).[22][23]
Japan
Emperor-system fascism
Emperor-system fascism (天皇制ファシズム, Tennōsei fashizumu)[24][25] is the view that ultranationalistic politics, society, and ideas based on the Empire of Japan's "Emperor system" were a kind of fascism until the end of World War II.
Statism in Shōwa Japan
Shōwa Statism (國家主義, Kokkashugi) is the nationalist ideology associated with the Empire of Japan, particularly during the Shōwa era. Developed over time since the Meiji Restoration, it advocated for Japanese nationalism, traditionalist conservatism, militarist imperialism and a dirigisme-based economy.
Taisei Yokusankai
The Imperial Rule Assistance Association (大政翼賛会, Taisei Yokusankai) was created by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on 12 October 1940. It evolved into a "militaristic" political party, which aimed to remove sectionalism from the politics and economics of the Empire of Japan to create a totalitarian one-party state, to maximise the efficiency of Japan's total war effort in World War II.[citation needed]
Tohokai
Tohokai was a Japanese Nazi party formed by Seigo Nakano.[citation needed]
National Socialist Workers' Party
The National Socialist Japanese Workers' Party is a small neo-Nazi party which is now classified as an uyoku dantai, a small Japanese ultranationalist far-right group.[citation needed]
South Korea
Lee Bum-seok, a Korean independence activist and national-conservative politician, opposed the regimes of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan while expressing support for their emphasis on patriotism and ethnic-based nationalism. Along with South Korea's right-wing nationalist Ahn Ho-sang, he embodied the One-People Principle, a major ideology of the Syngman Rhee regime.[26]
Some South Korean liberal-left media have defined Park Chung-hee administration as an anti-American, Pan-Asian fascist and Chinilpa regime influenced by Ikki Kita's "Pure Socialism" (純正社会主義, Korean: 순정 사회주의).[27][28][29]
South Asia
India
Hindutva is a far-right Hindu nationalist ideology. Inspired by the rise of fascist movements in Interwar Europe, Hindutva was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922.[30][31] It is championed by the Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),[32][33] and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar. Hindutva has been described as "almost fascist in the classical sense", adhering to a concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony.[34][35] Some analysts dispute the "fascist" label, and suggest Hindutva is an extreme form of conservatism or ethno-nationalism.[36] Some Hindutva organisations advocate for the irredentist concept of Akhand Bharat (Undivided India).[37] Since the 2014 general election and the subsequent premiership of Narendra Modi, India has seen a significant main-streaming of Hindutva within state discourse.[38][39]
Indian independence activist and militant nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose insisted on the union of Nazism and communism, in what he termed "Sāmyavāda."[40]
Pakistan
Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan is considered fascist by some analysts because of its engagement in Islamic extremism and militant terrorism.[41][42]
Southeast Asia
Indonesia
In 1933, in the Dutch East Indies, the Javanese politician Notonindito created the short-lived Indonesian Fascist Party. He had previously participated in the political party of Sukarno, the Indonesian National Party.
There also existed a branch of the Dutch National Socialist Movement (NSB) in Indonesia, namely the Indo NSB. It mainly consisted of Indos, who were of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent.
Notonindito, the party's founder, was already well acquainted with Europeans and European society in the Indies in his youth through his membership in the Theosophical Society. In the early 1920s, he had travelled to Europe to complete his education, first in The Hague and then in Berlin, where he finished a doctorate in Economics and Commerce. After his return to the Indies, he became involved in the Indonesian nationalist movement, at first in the Sarekat Islam Party in 1927 and then Sukarno's Indonesian National Party in 1929, eventually becoming its chairman in Pekalongan.
In the early 1930s in the Indies, the influence of fascism was being increasingly felt, with organisations such as the Netherlands Indies Fascist Organization (Dutch: Nederlandsch Indische Fascisten Organisatie, NIFO) and Fascisten Unie. These organisations appealed to expatriate Germans living in the Indies, as well as some Dutch and Indo people.
In the summer of 1933, newspapers in Java reported that Notonindito has broken his ties with the Indonesian National Party and founded his own party which he called the Partai Fasis Indonesia (Indonesian Fascist Party). The party was said to have as its goal an independent Java with a descendant of Sutawijaya (founder of the Mataram Sultanate) as its constitutional monarch. The party also wished the Indies to become a federation of such independent kingdoms with a non-aggression pact with the Netherlands. Reaction to the new party was generally quite negative in the Indies press. For example, a newspaper associated with the Indonesian National Party, Menjala, stated that solutions to the Indies' problems should be found in the present, not in the Feudal past. Sikap, likewise, thought that such a project was against the interests of the common Indonesian and that a twisting of Javanese historical figures into Fascist mythology was poorly considered, whereas the editors of Djawa Barat thought the party was counterproductive and harmful. Notonindito quickly denied to newspapers that he had "accepted the offer" of this party to become its leader. An investigation by De Locomotief indicated that the party did indeed exist and comprised several dozen members. Its subsequent history remains undocumented.
In 1965, Indonesia experienced a political purge when the Indonesian military led by Major General Suharto killed more than half a million people and arrested about a million others without trial from the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and leftist movements. These events formed the foundation of the emergence of the New Order (Orde Baru) led by Suharto. [43]
Thailand
It is well known that the Thai Prime Minister during World War II, Plaek Phibunsongkhram, was inspired by Benito Mussolini. On 29 September 1955, Phibunsongkhram established the Seri Manangkhasila Party. It was the first political entity registered following the enactment of the Political Parties Act, B.E. 1955. The party secretary was Pol. Gen Phao Sriyanon, the Director of the Police Department. The deputy leaders of the party were Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army, and Air Marshal Fuen Ronnaphagrad Ritthakhanee, Commander of the Royal Thai Air Force, with the party head office located at Manangkhasila House.
Malaysia
The political framework emphasising Malay supremacy (Ketuanan Melayu) emerged from a series of congresses that led to the 1946 formation of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), a right-wing nationalist party. It was founded on 10 May 1946 at the Third Malay Congress in Johor Bahru, with Datuk Onn Jaafar as its founder with the slogan "Long Live Malays" and "Malaya For Malays". After that, UMNO joined together with two other right-wing parties from the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA), which represented the Chinese ethnic group, and the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC), which represented the Indian ethnic group. This new alliance of UMNO, MCA, and MIC, united in their commitment to nationalism, was officially founded on 30 October 1957 under the name "Alliance Party" (Parti Perikatan) and replaced and reformed the party on 1 January 1974. Thenceforth, the alliance was known as the BN Party (Barisan Nasional) or Front National and sought to continue the ideology of Racial Supremacism according to their respective ethnic parties to bring a combination of right-wing ideology.
West Asia
Iran
Fascism in Iran was adhered to by the SUMKA (Hezb-e Sosialist-e Melli-ye Kargaran-e Iran or the Iran National-Socialist Workers Group), a neo-Nazi party founded by Davud Monshizadeh in 1952. SUMKA copied not only the ideology of the Nazi Party but also that group's style, adopting the swastika, the black shirt and the Hitler salute. At the same time, Monshizadeh even sought to cultivate an appearance similar to that of Adolf Hitler.[44] The group became associated with opposition to Mohammad Mosaddegh and the Tudeh Party while supporting the Shah over Mossadegh.[44] The Azure Party and Aria Party were other fascist groups. The Pan-Iranist Party is a right-wing group that has also been accused of being fascist due to its adherence to chauvinism and irredentism.[45] After the Iranian Revolution, right-wing populist politician and former ultraconservative ("Deviant current") Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is suspected of being "fascist".[46][47][48]
Iraq
The Al-Muthanna Club (Arabic: نادي المثنى) was an influential Pan-Arab fascist society established in Baghdad c. 1935 to 1937 which remained active until May 1941, when the coup d'état of Pro-Nazi Rashid Ali al-Gaylani failed. It was named after Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha, an Iraqi Muslim Arab general who led forces that helped to defeat the Persian Sassanids at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah. Later known as the National Democratic Party, Nadi al-Muthanna was influenced by European fascism and controlled by radical Arab nationalists who, according to 2005's Memories of State, "formed the core of new radicals" for a combined Pan-Arab civilian and military coalition.
In 1938, as fascism in Iraq grew, Saib Shawkat, a known fascist and pan-Arab nationalist, was appointed director-general of education.
With co-founder Taha al-Hashimi, Shawkat founded the al-Muthanna club in 1939, and the club remained under his guidance.
Under German ambassador Fritz Grobba's influence, the al-Muthanna club developed a youth organisation, the Al-Futuwwa, modelled on European fascist lines and on the Hitler Youth.
Yunis al-Sabawi (يونس السبعاوي) (who translated Hitler's book Mein Kampf into Arabic in the early 1930s) was active in the al-Muthanna club and in the leadership of the al-Futuwwa. He was a deputy in the Iraqi government, minister of economics. Al-Sabawi had become anti-Semitic; on 1 and 2 June 1941, members of al-Muthanna and its youth organisation led a mob that attacked Baghdad's Jewish community in a pogrom later named the Farhud. Two days before Farhud, Al-Sabawi, a government minister who proclaimed himself the governor of Baghdad, had summoned Rabbi Sasson Khaduri, the community leader, and recommended to him that Jews stay in their homes for the next three days as a protective measure. He had planned for a larger massacre, planning to broadcast a call for the Baghdad public to massacre Jews. However, the broadcast was never made since al-Sabawi was forced to flee the country.
After the British overthrew the coup government, Sabawi was court-martialed for the mutiny, sentenced to death, and hanged on 5 May 1942.
Israel
Mandatory Palestine
During the interwar period in Mandatory Palestine, a short-lived fascist-inspired ideology known as Revisionist Maximalism emerged within the broader Zionist Revisionist Movement (ZRM). Formed in 1930 by Abba Achimeir—a self-described fascist who rejected liberalism and humanism—the ideology served as the foundation for the radical underground faction Brit HaBirionim.[49][50] Driven by a rejection of British colonial rule and rising regional tensions following the 1929 riots, the maximalists advocated an integralist, militant nationalism modelled on Italian Fascism, including a demand in 1932 for the ZRM to adopt dictatorial policies "in the spirit of complete fascism." This push was fiercely resisted by moderate democratic revisionists like Yaacov Kahan.[51] Despite opposing Nazi anti-Semitism, Achimeir briefly and controversially praised the Nazi Party's rise in early 1933 for its anti-Marxist core and its rejection of Jewish assimilation.[52] This stance provoked swift, overwhelming condemnation across the Zionist spectrum, causing a rapid collapse in internal support; the faction reversed its position to militantly oppose Nazi Germany by mid-1933 before entirely disintegrating later that year.[53]
Lebanon
Within Lebanon before World War II, two groups that drew inspiration from the fascist movements which were active in Europe at that time emerged:[54][55]
- In 1936 Pierre Gemayel founded the Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalange Party); this group took its inspiration from the European fascists, using the Nazi salute and a brown-shirted uniform.[56] The Kataeb Party also espoused a strong sense of Lebanese nationalism and a leadership cult. However, it did not support totalitarianism and as a result, it cannot be characterised as fully fascist.[57][58]
- Al-Najada.[59][60]
Both groups are still active, although neither of them demonstrates the characteristics of fascism now.[citation needed]
The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP; French: Parti populaire syrien (PPS)), founded in Beirut in 1932 as a Greater Syrian enterprise, has been influential in Lebanon and beyond; it has faced accusations of fascist-like ideology.[61]
Syria
The Syrian Social Nationalist Party was founded in 1932 by Antun Saadeh to restore independence to Syria from France and take its lead from Nazism and fascism.[62] This group also used the Roman salute and a symbol similar to the swastika[63][64][65] while Saadeh borrowed elements of Nazi ideology, notably the cult of personality and the yearning for a mythical, racially pure golden age.[66] A youth group, based on the Hitler Youth template, was also organised.[67]
In 1952, the Syrian dictator and military officer Adib Shishakli founded the Arab Liberation Movement, based on the ideas of "Greater Syria" (similar to the SSNP, Shishakli's former party) and Arab nationalism, but also with fascist-type elements.[citation needed] After the 1963 Syrian coup d'état the party was banned.[citation needed]
Turkey
In Turkey, the group known as the Grey Wolves is widely regarded as neo-fascist; they are understood to operate as a paramilitary group and are famous for their salute known as the Wolf salute. They are regarded as a terrorist group variously in Austria, Kazakhstan, and France.[68]