防衛協会・自衛隊協力会に関する一研究―1960年代の全国的設立を中心に―

Abstract

It is assumed that the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), was negatively recognized in postwar Japan. However, public opinion surveys have clearly shown that the perception of the JSDF has been consistently positive ever since the 1960’s; it was in this decade that overwhelming support for the JSDF could be seen easily from the very fact that the Defense Associations/Self-Defense Forces Cooperation Associations (DA’s/SDFCA’s) were established in 38 of Japan’s prefectures. Consequently, this paper firstly introduces what the DA’s/SDFCA’s are and then, secondly, examines the reason why they were established all over Japan in the 1960’s. As a result of the research, the following became clear: First, the DA’s/SDFCA’s were private voluntary organizations which mainly aimed to support the JSDF and to raise public awareness on the defense issues. After foundation in various places around the 1960’s, the DA’s/SDFCA’s had already reached more than 1,000 associations and about 600,000 members nationwide in the latter half of the decade. In addition, it was also found that they were established by the people from the business world such as Konosuke Matsushita, the Panasonic founder typically referred to as “the god of management” in the Osaka Defense Association that was established in 1964. In the establishing of the DA’s/SDFCA’s, there are some backgrounds. First, the “anti-JSDF trend” represented the ideas of “unarmed neutrality” and “tax thief” theories that began to increase in the latter half of the 1950’s. Second, there was an increase in people who felt “indifference” to the JSDF and defense issues amid the high economic growth in the 1960’s. Additionally, under these circumstances, some natural disasters were also occurring triggering the national mood further still. Consequently, and to assist the JSDF who had been dispatched for a disaster relief mission during the “Isewan Typhoon” and “the disastrous snowstorm of 1963”, the DA’s/SDFCA’s were established all over Japan.