The Political Dissent of a Senior General: Tamogami Toshio's Nationalist Thought and a History Controversy

Abstract

Confronted with a period of socioeconomic and political stagnation and the volatility of territorial disputes, contemporary Japanese conservative nationalists are dismayed by the deterioration of national consciousness and waning of traditional values. The policymakers' recent East Asian unity campaign accelerated their concern over the "marginalization" of the value of the sovereign state and consequent apathy over the danger of losing their national identity. In this context, this article explores the thought of General Tamogami Toshio through an examination of his political dissent in 2008, which elevated him into a torchbearer for the popular conservative nationalists' agenda. The article sheds light on his popular nationalist cause that, on the one hand, accentuated the ideological divide between conservative nationalists and skeptical and caustic ideologues, and on the other, galvanized previously politically uninterested citizens to demand rigorous epistemic investigation of national history.