일본 군국주의의 한 내면(內面): 이시와라 간지(石原莞爾)에 있어 ‘세계최종전쟁론’과 ‘국방국가론’

Abstract

Ishihara Kanji was a Imperial Japanese Army’s elite military officer who graduated Japanese Military Academy and Imperial Army College at a top ranking till the 1920s. When Japanese Imperial Army began to conduct the Manchuria Incident in 1931 and Sino-Japanese War in 1937, he deeply involved in projecting such plans. However, evaluation of his thought and acts was divided sharply: some praises him as a proponent of Japanese pacifism objecting Imperial Japan’s war against China in 1937; others criticized his behaviors and thoughts which paved the way to Imperial Japan’s aggression of Asian mainland. This paper tries to re-organize and analysize his views on ‘the World Final War’, ‘National Defense State’ and “East Asia Confederation’ in accordance with the evolution of Imperial Japan’s continental expansion. His views on ‘the World Final War’ which foresaw a final war between Japan and the United States at the final state of human history was originated from the Nichiren, a Japanese religious faction’s world view. Based on the conception of a Final World War, Ishihara Kanji urged the necessity of establishing a National Defense State internally and an East Asia Confederation externally with an aim of mustering Imperial Japan’s capabilities in terms of military and diplomacy. In that sense, his political and military ideas can be evaluated as one of exemplary views reflecting Imperial Japan’s logic of militarism.