The Sokaren (Imperial Palanquin) carrying Emperor Showa’s coffin makes its way to the Funeral Hall during the state funeral, February 1989 — Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo.
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The recent Liberal Democratic Party leadership race has reignited debate over what conservatism truly means.
For me, Japan's conservatism stands at the intersection of two axes. One is the vertical, which honors the traditions and culture passed down by our ancestors. The other is horizontal, which boldly embraces the universal values of civilization. It's a form of gradualism — eschewing radicalism while seeking steady improvement.
Japan has consistently espoused this spirit. In ancient times, as the country absorbed elements of Chinese civilization, it rejected dynastic upheavals and preserved its unique national polity (kokutai) centered on the Imperial House.
During the Meiji Restoration, Japan embraced modern Western civilization while safeguarding its national polity, becoming the first non-Western nation to establish both a constitution and a constitutional monarchy.
These two histories stand as enduring proof that the country has evolved from a fundamentally conservative foundation.
Defending the Monarchy
During the Showa era, Japan's constitutional monarchy faced serious threats from both left- and right-wing totalitarians, who viewed liberalism and parliamentary democracy as enemies.
In analyzing prewar politics, Michio Ezaki proposed a framework in which "conservative liberals," committed to freedom and parliamentary democracy, defended Japan's constitutional monarchy.
The conservative liberals found themselves caught between left-wing totalitarians pursuing a Soviet-style communist revolution and right-wing totalitarians advocating state-controlled radical reform.
Ezaki identified Emperor Showa as embodying the conservative liberals.
The Moral Calculus of Surrender
I've always held close to my heart the following passage from Emperor Showa's Imperial Rescript of the Termination of the War:
"The enemy has begun employing a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of and injuring many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight? It would not only result in an ultimate collapse of the Japanese nation but also lead to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are we to save the millions of our subjects? Or to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors? This is the reason why I have accepted the provisions of their Declaration."
Emperor Showa strongly condemned the American use of atomic bombs as "killing and injuring the innocent." He warned that continuing the war would "ultimately bring about the collapse of our nation." But he goes on to say that such an act would also lead to "total extinction of human civilization."
Why, then, would the fall of a single nation mean the destruction of civilization itself?
Path to Universal Civilization
I understand it as follows. From a modern Western perspective, for a civilization to be truly universal, it must be non-exclusive.
If it remains a value confined to Western whites, and if the peoples of Asia and Africa are unable to learn from it and build their own modern states, then civilization cannot claim to be a genuine universal value for humankind.
Japan encountered the imperialist Western powers in the late Edo period. The country recognized that, to avoid colonization, it had no choice but to adopt its civilization and build a modern nation.
It therefore overthrew the shogunate and carried out the Meiji Restoration. At great cost, Japan established a modern state.
Civilization Beyond the West
This profound transformation was guided by the unifying authority of the Imperial Household, all the while cherishing and preserving the traditions and culture that have endured since ancient times.
Western nations initially regarded people outside the white Christian cultural sphere as subjects to be dominated rather than as bearers of civilization.
Yet for the civilization they pioneered to be recognized as a universal human value, it had to be embraced and carried forward by people from other cultural spheres as well.
Outside the Western Christian cultural sphere, Japan has, since the Meiji era, pursued civilization with unwavering resolve, realizing universal human values.
The Emperor's Case for Universality
Based on that premise, Emperor Showa would likely have argued to the Allied Powers as follows. The modern civilization you inaugurated has at last unleashed the atomic bomb — a terrifying force unprecedented on Earth.
But its use against our nation produced the unforgivable massacre of innocent civilians. That is a clear violation of the laws of war. Did not modern civilization teach us the universal value of the rule of law?
If you trample that value and seek to annihilate our people, you thereby negate modern civilization's claim to universality and non‑exclusivity. That would, in effect, imperil the very foundation of human civilization.
What would remain after our people perish is a barbarous world in which white people continue to dominate and exploit people of color through naked violence.
Japan's Axes of Conservatism
Emperor Showa, having grounded his stance in universal values, reflected from a perspective that cherished the traditions and culture bequeathed by his ancestors.
"How are we to save the countless children of our nation or atone for the spirits of our imperial ancestors?"
In accepting the Potsdam Declaration, the Emperor expressed regret not only to the Japanese people of the present but also to the spirits of the imperial ancestors.
He then addressed the nation, urging them to "unite your total strength to be devoted to the construction for the future…and work with resolution so as you may enhance the innate glory of the Imperial State and keep place which the progress of the world."
Herein lies the gradualism I envision for conservatism. The intersection of the vertical axis, which upholds the legacy handed down by our ancestors, and the horizontal axis, which boldly embraces universal civilizational values.
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Author: Tsutomu Nishioka
(Read this in Japanese)
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