Die Grundprinzipien des Reichswesens

As the official handbook of the Japanese Ministry of Culture, the "Kokutai no hongi" of 1937 represented the orthodox ultranationalist interpretation of a complex of topics concerning the political and social essence of the Japanese nation – questions that had been piling up since the Meiji era. Underlying its argumentation was the emphasis on the ideal of the loyal subject, who unconditionally submitted to the state and surrendered to the throne, whose rule in ultranationalism was considered "coeval with heaven and earth." Die Grundprinzipien des Reichswesens makes this fundamental work of Japanese ultranationalism accessible by examining its historical and cultural references as well as embedding it in the broader context of Japanese nationalism by means of a historical discourse analysis. For the first time ever, the entire body of the Japanese original was translated into German and annotated.