A CHRISTIAN SOCIALIST STIRS JAPAN
KLEIN, GERTRUDE W.
A CHRISTIAN SOCIALIST STIRS JAPAN Toyohiko Kawgawa, Secretary of the Japanese Federation of Labor, Interviewed A Poet and Novelist of Distinction as Well as a Labor Leader. By GERTRUDE W....
...While in this country Mr...
...The So¦ ialist Parly of .( hina was re-rived in June, 1024 lis recog lized leader is Di...
...Ofcoiir.se, these are questions which no orthodoxly "original" interviewer would dare to ask and I suppose I write myself down with the great Unwashed by admitting an interest in such inanities...
...There are 50,000 organized workers in the Japanese Federation uf Labor, of which Mr...
...Kawgawa is secretary, and he feels that they are much further along the road of political and social progress than the Americans...
...Instead we talked of Japan and the I.alioi movement, of Socialism and Christianity, and I was surprised toi find this representative of a racei which is supposed to rank only with I I lie pure Nordic in imperturbable calm and easy poise, a vigorous opinionated and fiery character...
...Most of the people in Japan, says Mr...
...Norman Thomas and regretted that illness cut into his availahlo time to such an extent that he was unable to visit The New Leader, in which he professed great interest, being himself the editor of a' Labor paper in Japan...
...Kawgawa is always careful to emphasize that the workers must, not expert SJso much from suffrage alone...
...And the workers are revolutionary...
...And strikes...
...lalist Party of China...
...He has lived in the slums of Japan, bringing his fellow workers to Socialism and Christianity—strange as that may seem to some of us—and after his first, book, "Crossing the Death Line," made him famous in 11120 he did not set up a literary coterie with other select young novelists in Tokio, but remained where he felt his work would be most effective...
...Kul il is not levelled at Labor unions...
...Kaw-ga,wa spoke every night to a crowded auditorium in the Japanese Christian Institute., lie also spoke at Yale, the Union Theological Seminary, the Y. M. C. A. and at Princeton where he studied twelve years ago...
...Rebel...
...I asked...
...That will make no difference to us...
...There can be no freedom of thought under such conditions...
...women...
...Kawgawa, 'ItH per cent of the people are literate, and because there are so few really wealthy people we have no <uch thing as a capitalist controlled press, hence little jingoism and none :>f the perversion of thought which Ihe Americans suffer...
...I notice the International Ladies' Garment Workers are using this novel method in the conduct of their present strike in New York City...
...kawgawa is a rebel...
...May, HUM, Hi Sun became President of the Canton Government...
...Socialist organizH tions and publications developed hi rapidly thai i nan Sin Kai, why succeeded Dr...
...Sun as Provisional I'residenl, issued a decree in lillS calling upon the provin rial governments and geneials to dissolve the Socialist Party...
...Kawgawa believed in sabotage, I inadvertantly set off a spark by asking Mr...
...Poverty of Worker...
...It proves that it is rather silly tc say such and such a people as « people or a rare are cool and self contained anil such and such a peopb are gesticulatory and wild...
...His privations and sacrifices sapped his strength and he had been failing in health for two years...
...How do the Japanese people feel about the naval maneuvers taking place in the Pacific Ocean...
...Kawgawa de nounced me in no Uncertain iiiannei — hut now I am getting ahead of mj story...
...peasant class and he is devoting a great deal outline of organizing the tenant farmersv ..While the Japanese will soon have aiiu.lt suffrage—for men only —Mr...
...Kawgawa why he had not made contacts with the Socialist and Labor union groups while in this country rather than speaking exclusively to the religious groups...
...He did manage to get to sec Mr...
...In America there are too many rich people and Ihe poor think as the rich, who control the newspapers, want them to think...
...Sun had travelled extensively and came in contact with the Socialist move raent of Europe and America...
...Rut there is a very general bitterness because of Ihe Japanese Exclusion Act...
...We laugh at (hem," said Mr...
...The Chinese Social i.-ts were mill war...
...Although !KI per cent of our people are poor...
...This is his open sesame: "Organization and love and mutual aid," twinkled Mr...
...Kawgawa believes that no real progress ran lie made along economic lines without the cooperation of the...
...Toyo-twa, Socialist, preacher, poet novelist and Labor leader, in tin- Japanese Christian Institute J where he is staying, while 1 was on a lecture tour of this country, the con vent inns of radical newspapcrdom won' stronger than my inclinations and I asked no unorthodox questions...
...Specifically I wanted to know whether in his opinion the conversion to Christianity of all the Japanese would offer any panacea for their social ills...
...Mr...
...We have gone to jail and will go to jail again and again...
...This is aimed at Bolshevist anil Socialist propaganda...
...We will tight, on just the same...
...Kiang Kang ill, President of Southern lliuver-lity, Shanghai, and co trauslator With Witter Hynner, the Aineii •an poet, of the T'ang poems which will soon be published by Knopf, the New York publisher rile New Leader will soon publish an article on the reorganized So...
...I he militarists and grafters of the North at Peking, unit tin Iiheials and Social ists in the South at Canton...
...We feel that this was an unnecessary affront and I particularly hate the American Federation of Labor for its attitude in the matter...
...I THE DREAM OF SUN YAT SEN The death of Sun Vat Sen last week removes from ( hum one of its most influential and devoted Socialists and representatives of the Chinese toileis Dr...
...I was told of the great shipyard strike in Kobe in 1021 when Mr...
...By GERTRUDE W. KLEIN WE are very much nit crest fd in what distinguished foreign visitors think of America...
...Go to Jail for Ideas "They are far more revolutionary Ihan the American workers...
...ffawifrr, when I faced Mr...
...Kawgawa himself has been imprisoned many times for his activity during strikes...
...Kawgawa with other Labor leaders went to jail, where he wrote most of his second book...
...Spiritual things mean nothing to you Americans," vehemently declared Mr...
...We are Anarchists, Socialists, Communists...
...I "What about the bill recently passed by the Japanese I'arliament making it a crime to participate in revolutionary activity...
...Labor unions are quite generously healed in Japan...
...We ai'c not afraid of anything...
...And strikes when necessary...
...We watch the United States throwing wealth into the ocean and laugh...
...Sun, voted against this...
...Kawgawa, "but remain idle at their benches or machines...
...In fact for a few moments, what promisee at the outset to lie a peaceful enough interview threatened to become i .stonnv .session, for Mr...
...everywhere burn with a file that cannot be restrained...
...His book is an autobiography in novelized form telling an unvarnished story of the dregs in a.gneat industrial city, the dregs that are making great strides toward freedom...
...About 10(11 he organized a semi Socialist Party adapted In Chinese ideals and conditions following the revolution of KHZ he be came Provisional President for a short time...
...We arc very much interested in vvhal they feel about the Woolworth Building...
...In my country I find a most eager response to my spiritual message...
...The war niaikcil a division of China into two governments...
...And Mr...
...The party was destroyed and many leaders Were either imprisoned in executed...
...After I had learned that Labor unions in Japan are organized very much along the lines of Labor unions in this country, that collective bargaining existed and organizers had the right to visit shops and that Mr...
...Mr...
...Strike at Work ".Sometimes Ihe workers do not actually walk out on strike," said Mr...
...Ife declared that (he war with I'ekin for the previous four years was not a war between North and South, but a wai between militarism and democracy...
...Upon the request of I'residenl Wilson in 1017, China broke relations with Germany, A minority in Parliament, including Socialists led by Dr...
...said Mr...
...are poor, terribly poor...
Vol. 2 • March 1925 • No. 12
