紀元二千六百年奉祝記念事業をめぐる政治過程

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The commemoration of Japan's 2600th anniversary was a project to commemorate the enthronement of the first emperor, Jinmu Tenno 神武天皇, at the palace of Kashihara-no-Miya 橿原宮 as recorded in the Nihon Shoki 日本書紀 chronicle. The celebration was planned to be held mainly during the 15th year of the Showa 昭和 era, or 1940, and included many lavish events and projects. By just one official announcement made by government, a total of fifty million people in and out of Japan were mobilized, and helped organize and implement a total of 15,000 separate commemorative events and projects at a cost of 163,000,000 yen. This would make the celebration prewar Japan's largest social event. Unfortunately, the research to date has not matched its importance. In the present paper, the author attempts to place Japan's 2600th anniversary celebration in historical context based on the process by which it unfolded. The author's research here covers a period of time between 1930 and August 1937, takes up three examples of planned events … a World's Fair, the Olympic Games (both of which were abandoned in July of 1938) and the repair and expansion of the palace site at Kashihara-no-Miya … and focusses on the relationship between the three events, the people who sponsored them, and the public reaction to them. As a result of his research, the author shows that the movement to hold a 2600th anniversary, which was the national slogan behind the plan to host the 25th Olympiad in Tokyo, then spilled over into a plan to hold a World's Fair, and also formed the motivation for a locally sponsored plan to repair and expand the Kashihara Palace site. Therefore, we can see an expansion of the original plan to merely celebrate a Japanese historical milestone expanding into decisions to organize projects on the international scale of a World's Fair. The hosting of both an Olympiad and a World's Fair was a big step for Japan towards becoming a recognized world power, not only politically, but socially and economically as well. The decision to sponsor these events was regarded as a way by which Japan could be the first nation to escape the depression of the 1930s through the regional development projects they would stimulate, their beneficial effects on Japan's international balance of payments, and the long term growth and prosperity that would result. In other words, the main motivation behind the decision to hold a national 2600th anniversary celebration was not ideological, but rather the hope of making Japan into a first rate country of the world both socially and economically. Moreover, in the fact that the state made actual decisions towards the implementation of these international events (that were later abandoned) shows well the image that the Japanese of the 1930s held about the world and the times in their perception that the realization of a prosperous society, like that enjoyed by the leading nations of the time as a result of economic growth, was clearly within their grasp.
財団法人史学会の論文
1994-09-20

紀元二千六百年奉祝記念事業をめぐる政治過程

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