An examination of Hotsumi Ozaki’s China-focused commentaries in major Japanese journals, revealing how his arguments for war expansion, rejection of compromise, and Marxist ideological foundations influenced the Konoe administration and Japan’s wartime political structure.

Ozaki’s writings on China shaped Japan’s wartime ideology, linking major media outlets, Marxist theory, and the political inner circle of the Konoe administration.

2017-03-21

What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.

Criticism and Political Activity

As a commentator, Ozaki vigorously argued China-related issues in Asahi Shimbun, Chūō Kōron, and Kaizō.
When the Marco Polo Bridge Incident occurred in July 1937, he published “On the Nanjing Government” in the September issue of Chūō Kōron.
There, he harshly criticized Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government as a “semi-colonial, semi-feudal Chinese ruling class” and a “bourgeois nationalist regime,” describing it as a form of warlord politics and arguing that Japan should not remain committed to it.
In the September 23 special issue of Kaizō, he further asserted that neither a localized settlement nor a non-expansion policy had any meaning, opposing peace negotiations and non-expansion, and advocating instead for an expansion of the Sino-Japanese War.
In the November issue, he published “The Path of Defeated China,” predicting China’s communization by arguing that unification in China would be linked to a path of non-capitalist development.
These arguments influenced the First Konoe Statement issued on January 16, 1938.
In May of the same year, Ozaki published “The Course of a Protracted War” in Kaizō, asserting that the only path given to the Japanese people was victory in war, that no alternative could be contemplated, and that in order to bring Japan’s ethnic war with China to its conclusion, Japan must exert its military power and annihilate the core of the enemy leadership.
Similarly, in “Problems Under a Protracted War,” published in the June issue of Chūō Kōron, he opposed the view that cooperation with China was essential, arguing instead that as long as hostile forces existed, they must be completely defeated.
He rejected the conclusion of a peace treaty and maintained that a prolonged war was unavoidable, calling for total resistance.
With the formation of the First Konoe Cabinet, Ozaki became a close aide to Konoe Fumimaro and maintained close relations with the military leadership.
Upon discovering Ozaki’s true identity, Konoe was shocked and apologized to the Emperor, stating, “I am utterly at a loss and feel profoundly sorry and deeply responsible.”

The Shōwa Research Association, in which Ozaki participated, provided ideological justification for national policy and promoted the formation of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, steering Japan’s political system toward a one-party dictatorship led by the military and bureaucracy.
Members of the Shōwa Research Association later independently formed the “Shōwa Juku,” composed of communists such as Ozaki and “reformist bureaucrats” from the Planning Board.
Their ideological foundations were entirely based on Marxism.