Ikki Kita

Independent activity Nationalism 1883–1937 ✕ Executed

Political philosopher whose call for a military coup made critics name him the ideological father of Japanese fascism

Born on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, he was drawn to socialism at 14 and in 1906 published The Theory of Japan’s National Polity and Pure Socialism, attacking kokutai ideology. He joined Song Jiaoren’s Tongmenghui and travelled to China to aid the 1911 Revolution. His An Outline Plan for the Reorganization of Japan, written in Shanghai and published in 1923, called for territorial expansion and a military coup to remake the state; always censored, his writings inspired the radical army factions of the 1930s. A self-described socialist who also drew on pan-Asianism, Nichiren Buddhism and egalitarianism, his label as “ideological father of Japanese fascism” is contested. Arrested by the Kempeitai for complicity in the coup attempt of 26 February 1936, he was tried by a closed military court and executed in 1937.

Also known as: Kita Terujirō