Today’s revival of Mishima’s figure in Japan, which has resumed its patriotic and, most importantly, security policies since the beginning of new tensions with North Korea and China, means that the dialogue of two camps is going on. In 1960, similar protests have already taken place, resulting in Michiko Kanba’s, undergraduate female leftist activist, murder by the riot police and the resignation of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, grandfather of current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Starting as a protest against the embezzlement of university funds, indecent working conditions and a lack of the reforms, the Zenkyoto revolution, culminating in the occupation of the Yasuda Auditorium of Todai with the protesters hurling molotovs and worse at the policemen, ended after the introduction of stricter measures by the government that successfully renewed the treaty. Indeed, one of the attendees, Masahiko Akuta, who would later become an acclaimed avantgarde theater explorer and was the only interlocutor more or less matching Mishima’s intellectual capacity, at one point of their 15 minute solo debate exclaimed, “This is all philosophical nonsense! I’m here to see Mishima get beaten up!” On the other hand, Mishima declaring onstage that he is “pro-violence,” be it left-wing or right-wing, would hardly object against this argument – as long as it was the battle of words as they agreed. Leaders of this loose alliance of various factions, united by their discontent with the war in Vietnam and the renewal of the Anpo (post-war Japan-US Security Treaty) obliging Japan to assist the US war effort, like Mishima himself, were not sure about his safety during the meeting.Īfter all, in the atmosphere partly resembling the one at the Deutschlandhalle during Klaus Kinski’s 1971 performance of his unorthodox interpretation of Jesus Christ’s figure, “Jesus Christus Erlöser” (Jesus Christ the Saviour), which gathered far left students and Christians alike, everything could happen. Other members were scattered among the crowd, probably for the first time side by side with their ideological opponents. Mishima accepted the challenge, having attended the event with a bodyguard from Tatenokai (Shield Society) militia founded by him and trained with the Japan Self-Defense Forces.
A renowned novelist by that time, Yukio Mishima, however, was invited by the Zenkyoto (All Campus Joint Struggle Committee) precisely as an “anachronistic gorilla” known for his support for the Emperor and right-wing ideas.
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