The radical Nihilism of Fumiko Kaneko

By Timo Schmitz, Philosopher

Part 25 of the series Individualism between Moral and Virtues, Government and Religion

Fumiko Kaneko (1903-1926) was not a classical philosopher, neither in a Western nor an
Eastern sense. She was mainly a political activist, who lived a harsh life, being abondoned by
her family and turned agianst the Japanese monarchy and its colonialism in Korea. The
Japanese monarchy wanted to get rid off its critic voices and thus put Fumiko Kaneko on trial
for trying to assassinate the monarch. Although being innocent, she made a confession to the
assumed crime in hope to be sentenced to death, since she saw the meaning of life in death.
After she was sentenced to death, she openly spoke about her opinions and seemingly saw her
sentence as a kind of salvation, which probably made the royal family that angry that the
monarch reverted her sentence into a life sentence. Kaneko was probably of deep intellect if
one takes a look at her careful statements that showed a strict logic, but at the same time a
form of definition that is like running over a razor blade, so concisely are her words that she
chose.
In her memoirs, she stated that she affirms life, but defines affirming as the choice that one
can handle ones free will, even if it is self-destruction. According to this, life negation would
be the restriction of deciding over life oneself to put her thoughts consequently in the negative
turn. However, life is not the same as being able to move, she rather defines it as moving in
accordance with ones will 1. Therefore, when one moves by means of ones own will and
this leads to the destruction of ones body, this is not a negation of life 2.
Kaneko was an anarchist, rejecting all kind of governance and love towards the nation, but at
the same time she had a certain mistrust into revolutions. Seemingly, she wasnt sure whether
revolutions will be able to change anything, she rather saw being alive as a human-being as
her main cause of trouble. One also has to mention that she had a very tough life and went
through a lot of hardships. Being the child of an unmarried couple, she could not be registered
and thus had no right to go to school, her father left her early and she was sent to Korea where
she expected to be adopted by her fathers mother. Instead of being adopted, she was ranked
as a maid and had to do overwork. Despite that she was physically abused by her host family.
In 1919, at the age of 16 she was sent back to Japan to get married quickly. However, she just

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married shortly before her death sentence. Her husband Pak Yl was a Korean activist, and
like her, an anarchist.
Fumiko Kaneko was said to have knowledge about Max Stirner and Friedrich Nietzsche as
her friend introduced her into these authors in 1922, at that time she developed her main ideas
on nihilism, although the nihilist view of life was probably already shaped during her time in
Korea, where she saw a lot of misery and injustice towards the Korean people, as well as her
own daily misery, which probably made her desire to death bigger than those to live. Max
Stirner, a famous German anarchist (Individual Anarchism/ Egoism) and Young Hegelian,
who opposed Feuerbach and the atheist enlightenment in general, stated: Unsere Atheisten
sind fromme Leute

3 4

. In addition, he criticised revolutions, as the new ruling elite just

establishes a new state, and thus a new statist system. Friedrich Nietzsche was already
depicted in depth in Part 18.
But as Fumiko Kaneko was concentrated on nihilism, it is worth to depict the views on
nihilism of her two idols.
Nihilism is a philosophical direction that is vastly scattered, but united by the key concept that
something is not worthy or inexistent. Existentialist nihilists for instance deny that life has a
deeper meaning and see the world in which they live as a state of chaos and thus seek
salvation in death, which according to them means life or living. Fumiko Kaneko was one
of these existentialist nihilists. However, both Nietzsche and Stirner are classified as moral
nihilists. Moral nihilism rejects morality, since nothing is moral or immoral. However, the
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that The popular but inaccurate description of
Stirner as a nihilist is encouraged by his explicit rejection of morality. Morality, on Stirners
account, involves the positing of obligations to behave in certain fixed ways. As a result, he
rejects morality as incompatible with egoism properly understood. However, this rejection of
morality is not grounded in the rejection of values as such, but in the affirmation of what
might be called non-moral goods 5. Anyways, we can observe that Kaneko and her two idols
were both of different categories of nihilism in their general view. This doesnt mean however,
that Kaneko cannot be seen as a moral nihilist at the same time, as a consequence of her
anarchist ideology, since morality in her lifetime was mainly being loyal to the emperor, and
by being illoyal she refused to accept the moral code. Unlike Stirner, who was critical towards
morality since it is hindering the ego, the ego as an emotional being stood in the foreground in
Kanekos writing, which is a bigger part of existence. Thus, she is not just rejecting the
emperor or the moral society, but authority and power in general, as she states: No amount of
struggling for an education is going to help one get ahead in this world. And what does it

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mean to get ahead anyway? Is there any more worthless lot than the so-called great people of
this world? 6. We can see her despair that she used in this phrase, and the determination that
people faced during her time. Especially her life story, where she wanted to educate herself,
which led to hardships since people ristricted her access, is shown here. However, she finally
arranged to take evening lessons that she had to pay herself and became very qualified, yet it
didnt help her to stand in life and persue a successful career, as she saw herself being
determined through the debts and saw herself exploited. She was very critical towards
authority and people considered to be great. We can go even further and assume that they
are enslaved to their wealth and greatness (a question we already faced in Part 24 when
discussing Diogenes of Sinope) making them ungreat, but for Kaneko it played radically a
role, since she tried to gain for something very hard, while in contrary Diogenes of Sinope
even didnt see trying any worth. Kaneko struggled for the right of education and a career all
her life, especially as it was prohibited for girls to persue a career by social convention at that
time, and Hane pointed out that even the poet Higuchi Ichiyo who was the daughter of a
government official was not allowed to complete even primary education, because her
mother believed that education would be harmful for girls 7.
Despite Nihilist works, such as Nietzsche and Stirner, she was also aware of Mikhail
Artsybashevs works. Artsybashev was a fictional writer of naturalism around her life time.
He was influenced by Lev Tolstoy, a Russian anarchist, and Fyodor Dostoyevski, a fictional
writer of realism. Thus, he might have influenced her on questions of determinism
(determination vs. free will), fate, political and societal reality and probably the darker aspects
of life. This again fits in her views that she had about the so-called great men and her
rejection, since wealth and power are also accompanied by negative side-effects.
On the contrary, she had a rather mixed feeling towards Socialism, as she states: Socialism
did not have anything particularly new to teach me; however, it provided me with the theory
to verify what I already knew emotionally from my own past 8.
Again, affection as a motivation of drive was the main force in the big vehicle of her
philosophy. However, she was greatly influenced by Russian Anarcho-Communist Peter
Kropotkin 9. Kropotkin wrote a great work in which he explains the absurdity and arbitrary of
morality, as it is imposed by state institutions like the lawgiver or a religious institutions, such
as the priest (see Part 7). Here again, Fumiko Kaneko could bring in her experience with the
state and its reason, as well as the cultural morality that was suppressive towards women.
Here again, the absense of morality is just a small framework in the big vehicle of her
philosophy, the bigger framework seemingly was existence, to which she also connects the

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moral stance. In addition, morality can only be imposed on living beings, not on beings that
live in another dimension whereever it might be. She also came into touch with Christian
groups, due to her job. So it might be possible that she took a few points, as the idea that there
might be a better world, a kind of paradise without sorrow, could have been a relief for
Kaneko. However, I would not describe Christianity as a main driving force, but also not
unimportant for her. Most of her idols rejected religion and saw religion as a cause for the bad
conditions, so she probably also saw religion as unsatisfying in the beginning. Especially as
she saw the chains of religion as her uncle had to go for a priests career, because everyone
told him to

10

. At the same time, the passage also shows the hypocrisy of society, as her

uncle was chasing many women to have sex, but had the requirement for virginity to marry a
woman

11

. However, later Kaneko also described in her work that she was touched by the

Christians when they were praying and it emotionally overcame her, and she decribed herself
to be a sudden Christian member 12.
As Kaneko saw how women were treated rather like toys that can be used, than treasurable
human-beings it was an even bigger motivation to deny society, as women were oppressed
very much and extremly unfree. Thus, social role was another fragment of the big vehicle.
Like Diogenes, Kaneko consequently lived her philosophy, but unlike Diogenes who lived
like a dog, her consequence was committing suicide as her life affirmation.
While Diogenes can be seen as a pure man-in-nature, Kaneko can be seen as example for
slavehood. She always had to deal with rejection, she was persecuted by the monarch and
denied by her family and while being in Korea she was not allowed to read more than
necessary for school. Thus, she had no freedom, no choice. The absence of being able to make
choices is the sign for slavehood, and she tried to escape it through suicide. Eventually, in her
belief, in this way she regained her freedom.
As a conclusion we can say that Fumiko Kanekos philosophy is emphasized through several
key thoughts and stages: 1. society: 1.1. the role of women, 1.2. the role of authority, 1.3.
hypocrisy; 2. getting out of slavehood: 2.1. Socialism, 2.2. Anarchism rejection of authority,
fight for education, supporting suppressed people such as the Koreans, social resistance, 2.3.
Christianity; 3. nihilism: 3.1. rejection of morality, 3.2. rejection of existence: 3.2.1. life
negation (earlier stage), 3.2.2. life affirmation (affirmation defined as being able to persue a
free will): 3.2.2.1. life affirmation through death. Putting together this puzzle framework, we
are able to understand Kanekos development on her three keys, and the consequences which
can be summarized as: a) rejecting society and its shaped roles (1.1 to 1.3), by getting out of
slavehood as taught by Socialism and Anarchism (2.1 and 2.2) including denying any

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morality (3.1), however, then she saw a kind of uselessness in revolutions or in making an
active change and thus negated life, however, in the end she tried to fulfill point 2 through
point 3.2.2. Possibly, she saw it as her salvation! To her, being able to decide over it herself
was life, since a moving being that is not able to follow ones free choice is not really alive
according to her thoughts.

Annotation:
1. To get an insight in the living conditions of Korea during the colonial period, I
recommend you to watch the 1972 DPRK movie The Flower Girl which is based on
a 1930 opera. It shows a great historic authenticity although the plot is fictional. It was
written by independence activists (probably including Kim Il-sung). However, as the
work and content comes from pre-segregated Korea, it can be hardly classified as
North Korean propaganda work.
2. As mentioned above Kaneko tried to escape slavehood. In my philosophical views,
slavehood and man-in-society are not the same, as man-in-society still can act
although limited, while a slave has no choice. However, I strongly disagree with
Kanekos way to get out of serfdom through suicide, since it doesnt help to change
the society for better and therefore I think it is a bad solution.
3. Kanekos work is not a philosophical work as such, but an autobiography. However, I
hope the scheme in the end of the article sums up the main points of her philosophy in
a categorical order.

Notes:
1. Raddeker, Hlne Bowen: Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan Patriarchal
Fictions, Patricidal Fantasies, London: Routledge, 1997, p. 74
2. ibid.
3. Stirner, Max: Der Einzige und sein Eigentum, Stuttgart: Reclam 1972, p. 203
4. passage translated by the author: Our atheists are pious people.
5. Max Stirner, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 27 June 2002 (edited: 17
September 2015), http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/max-stirner/, retrieved on 18 June
2016

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6. Kaneko, Fumiko; Inglis, Jean (transl.): The Prison Memoirs Of A Japanese Woman,
1991, New York: Taylor & Francis, p. 236
7. Hane, Misiko: Introduction, in: Kaneko, Fumiko; Inglis, Jean (transl.): The Prison
Memoirs Of A Japanese Woman, 1991
8. Kaneko/ Inglis (1991), p. 216
9. Hane, in: Kaneko/ Inglis (1991)
10. Kaneko/ Inglis (1991), p. 137-38
11. Kaneko/ Inglis (1991), p. 139
12. Kaneko/ Inglis (1991), p. 194

Timo Schmitz, 21 June 2016.

This article is Part 25 of the series Individualism between Moral and Virtues, Government
and Religion. Reprinting for ones own personal non-commercial use is allowed.
http://schmitztimo.wordpress.com