Since the late 19th century up until 1945, there were constant wars throughout the East Asian region. As great as the damage was the wars left behind, there were many efforts and endeavors for peace. Anti-war movements sprang up in then colonial Korea and half-colonial China, as well as in Japan, an aggressor nation. Anti-war sentiments first arose in Japan in the 1900s as an aftermath of the Sino- and the Russo-Japanese wars. 亚洲和亲会, a solidarity movement for national independence of various Asian nations, was also organized in Tokyo at that time. During this period, anti-war pacifism emerged in Korea in the form of Ahn Jung-kuen (安重根)"s The theory on Eastern peace(東洋平和論). Beginning in 1910,nationalist activists moved into China and engaged in various independence movements, joining forces with Chinese nationalists. At the time, a variety of forms of socialism were flooded into East Asia, but out of all those forms, anarchism was taken as a remedy to overcome the theory of social evolution. Anarchism took an important role in the international solidarity activities in the 1910s～1920s East Asia. Represented by Japan"s Kotoku Susui(幸德秋水), China"s Li Shi-zheng(李石曾), and Korea"s Shin Chae-ho(申采浩), anarchists of the three East Asian nations actively engaged in anarchist movements. During this period, anarchists used Esperanto to communicate,as it is a language focused on encouraging peace through universal communication for an international solidarity. Unlike the European anarchists who declared absence from World War I and II, protesting the imperialistic nature of the wars, the anarchists of East Asia argued that military resistance against imperialist invasion was a war of justice and survival, and urged the followers to fight against Imperial Japan. In the 1930s,as Japan expanded the war, various anti-imperialist movements,including nationalism and communism, were on the rise, and they sometimes joined forces to fight against Imperial Japan. Describing Japan"s imperialist aggression and the resistance against it and describing personal and organizational efforts across borders to change the flow of the history is an essential task to establish a new trend of the historiography of East Asia that goes beyond the historiography of a nation-state. The future of East Asian history education needs to uphold the spirit of solidarity for anti-war and peace and avoid the spread of a narrow nationalism and patriotism that are currently underway in East Asia.
Since the late 19th century up until 1945, there were constant wars throughout the East Asian region. As great as the damage was the wars left behind, there were many efforts and endeavors for peace. Anti-war movements sprang up in then colonial Korea and half-colonial China, as well as in Japan, an aggressor nation. Anti-war sentiments first arose in Japan in the 1900s as an aftermath of the Sino- and the Russo-Japanese wars. 亚洲和亲会, a solidarity movement for national independence of various Asian nations, was also organized in Tokyo at that time. During this period, anti-war pacifism emerged in Korea in the form of Ahn Jung-kuen (安重根)"s The theory on Eastern peace(東洋平和論). Beginning in 1910,nationalist activists moved into China and engaged in various independence movements, joining forces with Chinese nationalists. At the time, a variety of forms of socialism were flooded into East Asia, but out of all those forms, anarchism was taken as a remedy to overcome the theory of social evolution. Anarchism took an important role in the international solidarity activities in the 1910s～1920s East Asia. Represented by Japan"s Kotoku Susui(幸德秋水), China"s Li Shi-zheng(李石曾), and Korea"s Shin Chae-ho(申采浩), anarchists of the three East Asian nations actively engaged in anarchist movements. During this period, anarchists used Esperanto to communicate,as it is a language focused on encouraging peace through universal communication for an international solidarity. Unlike the European anarchists who declared absence from World War I and II, protesting the imperialistic nature of the wars, the anarchists of East Asia argued that military resistance against imperialist invasion was a war of justice and survival, and urged the followers to fight against Imperial Japan. In the 1930s,as Japan expanded the war, various anti-imperialist movements,including nationalism and communism, were on the rise, and they sometimes joined forces to fight against Imperial Japan. Describing Japan"s imperialist aggression and the resistance against it and describing personal and organizational efforts across borders to change the flow of the history is an essential task to establish a new trend of the historiography of East Asia that goes beyond the historiography of a nation-state. The future of East Asian history education needs to uphold the spirit of solidarity for anti-war and peace and avoid the spread of a narrow nationalism and patriotism that are currently underway in East Asia.
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