In his 1975 work the late Víctor García (editor of the anarchist youth paper Ruta) profiled three important Japanese libertarians whose struggles took place during what might be described as the heroic age of the organised anarchist movement in Japan (1903-1937). It was a period in which many of them died challenging the cruel and despotic Mikado regime.
Víctor García selected three freedom fighters from this period: Denjiro Kotoku, Sakai Osugi and Taiji Yamaga, chronologically placed at the beginning, middle and the end of that heroic time frame to give Westerners some insight into the anarchist movement in Japan.
Víctor García, considered by some to be the Marco Polo of the international anarchist movement (because of his wide travels), visited Japan in 1957 and again in 1974. During his first visit he was welcomed by the last of the anarchist biographees — Taiji Yamaga — with whom he spent three months travelling to many cities and towns in the archipelago (except Hokkaido) being presented to most of the survivors of the Japanese libertarian movement. On his second visit in 1957, Víctor García interviewed more old and new militants to glean the material for the present work and for his more substantial (600+ pages) study of Japanese anarchism, ‘Museifushugi’, which was translated by Paul Sharkey and edited, substantially expanded and enhanced by ‘Wat Tyler’, an English teacher — a comrade —living in Osaka. ‘Museifushugi’ was originally scheduled for publication in 1981 by Cienfuegos Press but had to be scrapped when the printer ‘lost’ the corrected galleys in a fire — and refused to re-set the book. Fortunately, we have recently salvaged the corrected text and it is currently being re-proofed and further updated by Wat Tyler, Victor Garcia’s joint author and original English-language editor. It should be available in Kindle format sometime later this year.
Víctor García selected three freedom fighters from this period: Denjiro Kotoku, Sakai Osugi and Taiji Yamaga, chronologically placed at the beginning, middle and the end of that heroic time frame to give Westerners some insight into the anarchist movement in Japan.
Víctor García, considered by some to be the Marco Polo of the international anarchist movement (because of his wide travels), visited Japan in 1957 and again in 1974. During his first visit he was welcomed by the last of the anarchist biographees — Taiji Yamaga — with whom he spent three months travelling to many cities and towns in the archipelago (except Hokkaido) being presented to most of the survivors of the Japanese libertarian movement. On his second visit in 1957, Víctor García interviewed more old and new militants to glean the material for the present work and for his more substantial (600+ pages) study of Japanese anarchism, ‘Museifushugi’, which was translated by Paul Sharkey and edited, substantially expanded and enhanced by ‘Wat Tyler’, an English teacher — a comrade —living in Osaka. ‘Museifushugi’ was originally scheduled for publication in 1981 by Cienfuegos Press but had to be scrapped when the printer ‘lost’ the corrected galleys in a fire — and refused to re-set the book. Fortunately, we have recently salvaged the corrected text and it is currently being re-proofed and further updated by Wat Tyler, Victor Garcia’s joint author and original English-language editor. It should be available in Kindle format sometime later this year.
