Japanese politician (1893?1970)
Mosabur? Suzuki
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/Suzuki_Mosaburo.JPG/220px-Suzuki_Mosaburo.JPG) Mosabur? Suzuki in 1953
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Born
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1893-02-07
)
February 7, 1893
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Died
| May 7, 1970
(1970-05-07)
(aged 77)
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Nationality
| Japanese
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Occupations
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- Journalist
- essayist
- politician
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Mosabur? Suzuki
(
鈴木 茂三?
,
Suzuki Mosabur?
, February 7, 1893 ? May 7, 1970)
was a Japanese journalist, essayist, and
socialist
leader.
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Biography
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Suzuki was born in
Gamag?ri
,
Aichi Prefecture
, to a family descended from medieval
hatamoto
; however, his father had lost the family's fortune, and as a result Suzuki was forced to work his way through school. He attended
Waseda University
and graduated with a degree in politics and economics in 1915. After graduation, he wrote for several newspapers, including the
Hochi Shimbun
,
Taish? Nichi Nichi Shimbun
, and
Mainichi Shimbun
, becoming well known as a business writer.
In 1918, Suzuki was a
war correspondent
during the
Japanese intervention in Siberia
where his sympathies were with the
Bolshevik
movement, and was later known as a consistent opponent of Japan's war efforts. In 1920, he traveled to the United States, where he met several Japanese socialists living in the United States and became interested in socialism.
Afterwards, Suzuki visited the
Soviet Union
several times, and developed a socialist worldview based on his Soviet experiences and his memories of his impoverished childhood. In 1922, he became a member of the newly-founded
Japanese Communist Party
(JCP).
As Japan became increasingly
militarist
, Suzuki devoted most of his energies to the socialist movement starting around 1928. With
Kat? Kanj?
, he formed the Proletarian Workers' Conference in 1936 and the
Japan Proletarian Party
in 1937. However, Suzuki became an increasingly prominent target of the government, and he was arrested in 1937 under the
Peace Preservation Law
as part of the
Popular Front Incident
.
Until the end of
World War II
, he was prohibited from public political activity.
Following Japan's surrender in 1945, Suzuki participated in the formation of the
Japan Socialist Party
.
In 1946, he won a seat in the
House of Representatives
; he became party secretary in 1949 and chairman in 1951. As chairman of the lower house's Budget Committee in 1948, Suzuki passed a veto over
Katayama Tetsu
's proposed budget, which later led to the downfall of the cabinet. Later, in his inaugural speech as party chairman, he famously said "Young men, do not take up arms; young women, do not send your husbands and sons to the battlefield" which caused a huge political stir and became a rallying cry of the
pacifist movement
in Japan, although it was only intended to rebuke Prime Minister
Yoshida Shigeru
's attempt to secure aid from the
United States
to rebuild the
military of Japan
.
After the signing of the
San Francisco Peace Treaty
in 1951, the Socialist Party split into
left
and
right wings
. Suzuki remained chairman of the left wing, which had only 16 seats in the House of Representatives; in the
1955 elections
, it jumped to 89 seats, thanks to support from the
General Council of Trade Unions
and popular support from a war-weary electorate that largely agreed with the party's principle of
unarmed neutrality
.
The two socialist parties reunited that year to form a united front against the emerging right-wing conservative
Liberal Democratic Party
, but the issue of whether or not to participate in the
Anpo protests
reignited the left-right tension within the Socialist Party.
In 1960, right-wing leader
Suehiro Nishio
left the party and formed the
Democratic Socialist Party
.
Taking responsibility for the party split, Suzuki resigned as chairman.
During the 1960s, Suzuki gradually pressed the Socialist Party to the left, but it continued to languish as Japan's economic recovery sped up. He retired from politics in 1967. Thereafter, he collected socialist literature and other materials, establishing a "Socialist Library" which he later donated to the
Museum of Modern Japanese Literature
.
Suzuki died of
liver cirrhosis
in 1970.
References
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Citations
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Sources cited
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