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While the democratization in the early post WWII period in Japan (Aug. 1945-1947) was encouraged by the mainly American occupation policies, grassroots movements for "Academic Democratization" support...ed by the common people themselves also emerged all over the country; Mishima Syomin Daigaku (School for the Common People of Mishima) is a well-known example of such movement. Seinen Bunka Kaigi, established in Feb. 1946, was an association of young transwar intellectuals and its main purposes included giving public lectures, advocating democracy at the grassroots and promoting "Academic Democratization". Maruyama Masao (1914-1996), a pioneer of Japanese political thought in the postwar period, actively participated in public education activities of Seinen Bunka Kaigi in Mishima Syomin Daigaku in order to establish a democratic spirit by "Academic Democratization". In this article, I examine what kind of experience did Maruyama Masao gain from public education activities, and what kind of impact did it have on his concept of post-war democracy in Japan. To give a conclusion, for Maruyama Masao "Academic Democratization" was a disappointment and a failure in its aim of establishing the democratic spirit through educating the public by the intellectuals. Maruyama's activities made him realize the specificity of the Japanese situation and the difficulty the public had with digesting knowledge in order to make political judgments and improve their social circumstances. The bitter experiences of Maruyama Masao in the period right after the war are the key to clarifying his complex elaboration of post-war democracy.show more
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