The Spectacle of Global Fascism: The Italian Blackshirt mission to Japan's Asian empire

Abstract

In the spring of 1938 a mission of the Italian Fascist Party journeyed to the Japanese empire, visiting China, Korea, Manchukuo, and Japan itself. Those were happy days for the Axis and, as such, characterized by a flood of shuttle visits and requests for cooperation between Italy, Japan, and Germany. As we explore the choreography of the visit and accompany the Italian Blackshirts on their two-month-long trip, two processes become clear. On the one hand, the presence of the Blackshirts in Japan helped place the nation's regional war with China in the broader context of worldwide conflicts. On the other hand, this trip assisted in firmly placing the new Axis alliance in the context of a pan-Asianist empire under Japanese control. This article suggests that both processes were linked and mutually enhancing of one another. At the same time they were part of a much more far-reaching phenomenon, namely the globalization of the Axis alliance. This, I will argue, was acted out on the stages provided by what is best described as the ‘spectacle of global fascism’. Of course, this spectacle proved to have its tensions and oddities. But as the focus on the performative aspects of the Italian-Japanese encounters shows, this novel form of fascist diplomacy was a way of handling contradictions within the alliance. At the same time, the spectacle served to strengthen it. In other words, seen through the lens of the Blackshirts’ mission, the Axis appears significantly stronger, diverse, and also more global than conventional diplomatic history has perceived it to be.

Through East Asia to the sound of ‘Giovinezza’: Italian travel literature on China, Korea and Japan during the Fascistventennio

“…As a non-governmental event, the mission had an unofficial and informal character and it did not have a big mediatic impact in Italy at the time. However, Mussolini and Ciano were both enthusiastic about the mission and they both personally welcomed back the Italian delegation, since it brought to international attention the global relevance of the Fascist revolution (Hedinger 2017, 2021) 7…”

“…1.For the concept of global fascism and its influence in Japan, see Hedinger 2013 and 2017, Hofmann 2015a 105–125, and Young 2017.…”

“…7.For more details on the friendship mission to Japan and its reception in Italy and Japan, see Hofmann 2015a, 113–117; and Hedinger 2017, 2006–2023.…”

Fascist Samurais: the Japanese race in the Italian imaginary during the Second World War and beyond

“…It was arranged to celebrate the Anti-Comintern Pact (November 1937) and to prepare the ground for a fascist world order. Writing of this highly publicised ceremony, scholars have emphasised how the performative and choreographic aspects were a constitutive part of its political message, in which the military pageantry and display of friendly relationships were meant to make up for the lack of a coherent and joint vision of a future world order (Hedinger 2017). The contradictory nature of this diplomatic approach would emerge only a few months later, in November 1938, when Italy passed new racial laws that would align the country with the principles of Aryan superiority and anti-Semitism that informed the German racial doctrine.…”