Japanese dissidence during the early Shōwa period was dissidence by Japanese citizens of the Empire of Japan (1868–1947) during the Shōwa period, the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito (1926–1989). The early Shōwa period witnessed the rise of Japanese militarism, and Imperial Japan's full-scale invasion of China in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), which escalated into a full-scale invasion of the Asia-Pacific during the Pacific theatre of World War II (1941–1945). Throughout the period, there was political repression in Imperial Japan.
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History
The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) was suppressed by the Imperial Japanese government. Mass round ups took place on March 15, 1928, and were followed by mass round ups on April 16, 1929. In February 1930, the central committee of the Japanese Communist Party approved the formation of "red self-defense bodies".
The JCP protested against the Manchurian Incident. Following the Manchurian Incident, the JCP continued anti-war activities.
The Party was finished by 1935. A communist party rebuilding committee was established, and was active until May 1941.
Several anarchist groups operated in Japan. The Black Youth League (Kokuren), Farming Villages Youth Association (Noseisha), and the Zenkoku Jiren. The Koto branch of the Tokyo general workers Union and the Tokyo Food Workers Union merged into the anarchist syndicalist union federation Libertarian Federal Council of Labour Unions of Japan, or Jikyo.
The Zenkoku jiren protested against the Manchurian Incident.
The split in Zenkoku Jiren led to a split of pure anarchists and anarchist syndicalists. Zenkoku Jiren came to an end following the mass arrests of anarchists in 1935–1936. Anarchism was active in Japan until 1935.
In 1933, the government suppressed a faculty and student protest in Kyoto Imperial University. The protest was in reaction to the government's suspension of Professor Yukitoki Takigawa from the university. This incident became known as the Takigawa incident.
In 1940, labor unions in Japan were dissolved, and replaced by the ultranationalistic Industrial Association for Serving the Nation (Sangyō Hōkokukai, or Sanpō).
Japanese who went abroad went to countries such as the USSR, China, the United States, Mexico and France.
In wartime Japan, only passive resistance, and insignificant protests occurred. In 1943, the Sōka Gakkai were imprisoned for advising their followers not to buy amulets from the Grand Shrine of Ise.
Political prisoners in Imperial Japan were not released until the end of World War II.