Hatta Shuzo and Pure Anarchism in Interwar Japan

This is a study of Japanese 'pure anarchism' between the wars and of its principal theoretician, Hatta Shuzo. The Japanese pure anarchists were a sizeable movement, many thousands strong, which fought against the militaristic state and developed anarchist communist theory at a time when in Europe it was in decline. In arguing and agitating for decentralised communes, which would blend agriculture and small-scale industry and be locally self-supporting, the pure anarchists anticipated the concerns of many modern Greens.