The Question Before Dawn: Youth and the Nation, July 1967

The Question Before Dawn: Youth and the Nation, July 1967

In 1967, Japan was enveloped in the light of rapid economic growth, but the youth felt a deep shadow amidst the dazzle. The number of students increased as the percentage of students going on to university rose, but education became institutionalized and society took on a more administrative color. What sprouted in their hearts was a simple but earnest question about the "relationship between the state and the individual. In October of the same year, Hiroaki Yamazaki was killed in an anti-war demonstration at Haneda Airport when riot police clashed with students protesting Prime Minister Eisaku Sato's visit to South Vietnam. The young people questioned how they could make their voices heard against the giant that was the nation state. The following year, university conflicts spread throughout Japan and the era of the Zenkyoto movement began, but the debate at this time was still a purely ideological search. Who is the state for and where is freedom? Their words were resistanc
e that began not with anger but with questions. The desire to regain human dignity and freedom, which were being lost behind the backdrop of affluence, burned in their quiet dialogue. The year 1967 was the dawn before the storm, a time that marked the breath of the people.