In the 20 years since its founding, Japan has taken the opposite path. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, New China had the intention of concluding state-to-state relations with both the Eastern and Western camps at the same time, not to close off the country. In fact, by the beginning of 1950, at China's request, not only the Soviet Union, Eastern European countries, Burma, India, Pakistan and other Asian countries, but even Western countries such as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland had established diplomatic relations with China. The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and other countries have also expressed their intention to establish diplomatic relations with China. But the United States stubbornly refused to recognize China and became involved in the Korean War in 1950, leaving its relations with China in a state of hostility. It can be seen that China's intervention in the Korean War was not due to China's preferences, but was forced. As a result, China de facto had to sever relations with Western countries against its own wishes.

The Korean War was a three-year war between the United States, the world's most powerful country, and China, which represented impoverished Asia. Many Japanese saw the December 8, 1941, attack on Pearl Bay as the direct cause of Japan's defeat in 1945. It is believed that the fundamental reason for Japan's defeat in World War II was the disparity in material and economic strength between Japan and the United States. Therefore, many Japanese in the early postwar period had the consciousness that hostility and resistance to the United States was impossible, and should not be done. Undoubtedly, it was this that led Japan to follow the United States after the war. At the same time, for the Japanese, it is astonishing for the Japanese that poor China is challenging the rich and powerful United States. Moreover, China unexpectedly pushed the United States into a difficult situation, and in 1953 forced the United States to sign the Panmunjom Armistice Agreement, which was no different from defeat, which greatly changed the Japanese perception of China. From this point on, the anti-communist conservative strata who were positive about following the United States even began to see China as a threat. And the tolerant reformist class, especially the younger class, who are resistant to following the United States. As nationalist sentiment soared, praise for China intensified.

The praise of China was the initial reason for the later support of cultural activities and the praise of Mao Da by a part of the revolutionary class. In their view, China must have some kind of great power that can defeat the material power of the United States. If it is not a material force, it must only be a spiritual force. Thus, a striking contrast between the spiritual and ethical degradation of the Japanese nation and the spiritual and ethical purity of the Chinese - is imagined.

Yoshiyoshi Takeuchi, who had a profound influence on the post-war Japanese literary scene, was at the height of the Korean War in April 1951. In the monthly magazine "Central Public Commentary," he published an article entitled "Mao Dada's Commentary," in which he spoke highly of Chinese nationalism full of the spirit of resistance and set a precedent for praising China. Maruyama Mao, who can be regarded as the leader of Japan's political science circles, spoke highly of the "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom and a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend" movement advocated by Mao Dada in May 1956, believing that it was an attempt to become a democratic country promoted by the revolutionary regime after the founding of New China. In this situation, the negative impact of the anti-rightist struggle that took place after the Mingfang Movement was almost rightly ignored. Even in the early 60s, when news of the failure of the Great Leap Forward and the People's Commune Movement came through Hong Kong, positive evaluations of China still dominated all walks of life in Japan.

The Vietnam War, which broke out in full-scale in the mid-'60s, showed the same composition as the Korean War, with Vietnam as a small country in poor Asia. In order to seek national independence and unity, we dare to challenge the powerful United States. When the news of the defeat of the U.S. military in 1965 continued to arrive, the Japanese who were critical of following the United States began to openly stand up for the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and North Vietnam, and tried to discover the indomitable spirit of the Vietnamese who were not afraid of the material power of the United States. Cultural activities occurred during the protracted period of the Vietnam War, which was one of the reasons why the reformist forces that supported the Viet Cong and North Vietnam at that time lacked criticism of the extreme spiritualist character of cultural activities.

Cultural activities were a revolution launched by socialist China on the way to embark on a completely different path from Japan in the post-war international situation. Therefore, the more Japanese people have a negative attitude towards the history of post-war Japan, believing that it is a depravity of human nature, the more they tend to affirm cultural activities. Like what. In the late 50s, when China made the transition from agricultural collectivization to people's communes, it achieved collectivization and communalization without mechanization. This has a strong spiritualistic overtone of relying on human power. The concrete manifestations of the collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union, such as collective farms and state farms, were premised on large-scale mechanization. Although it belongs to agrarian socialism, the latter cannot be compared with China's collectivization and people's communization. The subjective initiative demanded by Mao Zedong during the period of communization and the Great Leap Forward fully demonstrated the spiritualist characteristics of this movement.

After the failure of the Great Leap Forward and the People's Commune with great sacrifices, China entered a period of adjustment from 1962 onwards. The beginning of the implementation of the "three-self and one-package" policy and the theory of productive forces represented by the "cat theory" are regarded today as an indispensable move to shake off exhaustion and rebuild the economy. But for the Japanese, who supported Vietnam and hated the United States for relying on strength to dominate the world, in 1965 and 1966 they never dreamed that Chinese spiritualism would fail and pay such a terrible price. Therefore, when Liu Deng's adjustment policy was carried out in cultural activities, it was criticized as "the theory of productive forces". When Liu and Deng were targeted for defeat as "the largest capitalist party in power," they were understood and unhesitating to be supported by the Japanese who were inclined to spiritualism.

The first sensitive reaction of the Japanese to "cultural activities" was the news of Mr. Guo Moruo's self-criticism at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on "burning all my political, historical, and literary works." Mr. Guo Moruo, who studied in Japan and has many confidants and friends in Japan, is the highest-ranking figure seen by the Japanese cultural delegation during his visit to China, and can be said to be the commander of China's cultural and academic circles.

Minoru Takeuchi, an expert on Chinese literature, said in his article "Guo Moruo's Self-Criticism and Cultural Activities" that "although it is difficult to guess the true meaning of Guo Moruo's move, it is clear that the tide of the cultural revolution has turned into a critique of intellectuals, and at the same time, there is a lot of anxiety about the extent of the red thread that is strictly cut from traditional thought and the harm that hinders creativity caused by it."

Similarly, another expert on Chinese literature, Mura Matsuying, pointed out in her article "The Rectification Movement and Chinese Culture" that "modern Chinese literature has always been inseparable from politics from its origins to its encounter with Marxism", and he believes that Chinese literature is subordinate to politics, and that the leadership's distrust of intellectuals can be seen from the "Dream of the Red Chamber Issue", "Hu Shih's Criticism of Thought", "Hu Feng's Criticism", "Ding Ling's Criticism" and other events. Then, he warned: "The antagonism between China and the Soviet Union has brought rigid dogmatism to literature and art, from the criticism of "The Dismissal of Hai Jui" to Guo Moruo's self-criticism, showing a completely different atmosphere from the previous rectification movements, which will bring devastating disasters to traditional culture and literature."

The crackdown on freedom and democracy in China began with a movement within the literary and artistic circles to restrict and purge writers' freedom of creation. Among Japanese writers and literary researchers who are extremely sensitive to literature, there are also those who are keenly aware of the abnormality and danger of "cultural activities" just as a canary has a sensitive sense of toxic gases. (To be continued.) )