Kiyoshi Miki: Philosopher who embodied the critical edge of modern Japanese thought and died with the times, 1910-1945

Kiyoshi Miki: Philosopher who embodied the critical edge of modern Japanese thought and died with the times, 1910-1945
Kiyoshi Miki (1897-1945) was a philosopher who, while studying under Kitaro Nishida, absorbed Marxism, existentialism, and Hegelian philosophy, and keenly grasped the spiritual crisis of modern Japan. The period between 1910 and 1945, when he deepened his thought, was a turbulent time in which modernization accelerated and militarization advanced simultaneously, and the liberalism of the Taisho democracy was suppressed by the security law system in the Showa period. Amidst the spread of thought control in universities and publishing circles, and the growing atmosphere in which thought itself was subject to state surveillance, Miki continued to defend reason and freedom.

In "An Introduction to Philosophy" and "Society and the Individual," Miki analyzed modern man's anxiety, freedom, and tension with the community, and in his masterpiece "Notes on the Theory of Life," he delved into universal themes such as happiness, loneliness, and fate in plain language, providing readers exhausted by the war with opportunities for deep contemplation. Miki's philosophy stands out in that it is not limited to abstract theory, but is rooted in the practical question, "How do people live in history?

However, Miki was detained in 1942 under the oppression of the Public Security Law, and died in prison in Abashiri Prison in 1945 while ill. His death is considered a symbol of the suppression of ideology. Despite his short life and tragic end, Miki's ideological legacy continues to have a profound influence on postwar ethics, philosophy, and social thought.