| Abstract |
This paper attempts to describe the ways in which the Esperanto movement in the early twentieth century Japan aimed at achieving a broadly-defined international solidarity. Esperanto is a planned lang...uage that was designed as a medium for advancing intercultural communication and understanding, but at the same the movement concerned with it gave high importance to the concept of an ethnic group, in a nationalistic manner. In Japan, Esperanto achieved popularity after the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05, because of the development of Japan's international relations. At the beginning of this period, some intellectuals-positively aimed to assimilate European culture and at the same time spread Japanese tradition and culture overseas, therefore they had an interest in Esperanto as an international language. This study reveals that what made the Esperantists come together, despite their political differences, was an interest in the pragmatic usefulness of Esperanto. However, there appeared clearly different political tendencies amony them, Which led to three groups in the Japanese Esperanto movement in early 1920s, including some people who promoted Esperanto but did not practice it themselves. This paper aims to reveal why in the period immediately after the First World War these intellectuals attempted to adopt Esperanto, how Esperanto could be used for political purposes, and how Japanese Esperantists promoted international solidarity in a world where socialism and nationalism were on the rise. This paper explores some reasons and back ground of a growing Japanese Esperanto movement in the early twentieth century and the way in which Japanese Esperanto movement has oscillated between internationalism and nationalism.show more
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