Masahiro Yasuoka (安岡正篤, Yasuoka Masahiro, February 13, 1898 – December 13, 1983) was a Japanese scholar of yangmingism who, through his philosophy, reportedly exerted considerable influence on many Japanese politicians, including postwar prime ministers of Japan. He has been considered a backroom power brokeroreminence grise.
He was born in Osaka city on February 13, 1898. When he was a child his parents taught him to read the Chinese classics, the Four Books (The Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius, and Mencius).
He studied at Tokyo Imperial University and his graduation paper A study of Wang Yangming caught the attention of many intellectuals and politicians of the era. After graduating in 1922, he worked for six months at the Ministry of Education.
He established an institute of Asian studies and insisted on the traditional nationalism of Japan when Taishō democracy was in vogue (1912–1926). While working as an instructor at the Department of Asian Thought, Takushoku University, he wrote books such as Studies on the Japanese Spirit and Studies on Emperors and Government Officials, attracting the attention of some noblemen and military officers. In 1927, he established a private school, Kinkei Gakuen, in the house of Sakai Tadamasa who was a member of the House of Peers (Japan). In 1931, with the help of zaibatsu, Japanese conglomerates, he established a private school in Saitama Prefecture, Nihon Nōshi Gakkō, (or, Japan Farmers' School) to teach Asian thought and his philosophy. In 1932, he founded a right-wing group called Kokuikai. Fumimaro Konoe, Kōki Hirota and other influential figures joined, but the group came to be perceived as an eminence grise, leading to its end after two years.
He was a brilliant student; however, he skipped classes when he was at Tokyo Imperial University in favor of reading books at the library. In the second edition of his study on Wang Yangming in 1960, he wrote of reading many important Western works, but also of returning to Chinese and Japanese works. He said, "I felt that my backbone was strengthened when I read through Records of the Grand Historian and Zizhi Tongjian."[1]
The GHQ ordered the dissolution of his previous groups and schools, and Yasuoka himself was purged on the ground of his involvement in the Ministry of Greater East Asia. In 1949 he organized the Shiyukai (Friends of Teacher); this group has continued to this day (2012) and includes a Hokkaido Shiyukai, Kansai Shiyukyokai and Himeji Shiyukai. After the war, he was asked to write the policy speeches of many prime ministers. He also became a spiritual guide and teacher to many prime ministers, including Shigeru Yoshida (who called Yasuoka old teacher in spite of Yoshida's being 20 years senior), Hayato Ikeda, Eisaku Satō, Takeo Fukuda and Masayoshi Ohira. He was reluctant, however, to speak of this.
Yasuoka is known to have edited the Imperial Surrender Rescript in some points. On August 12, 1945, Hisatsune Sakomizu, the chief Secretary of the Cabinet, visited Yasuoka at his house and asked him to audit the Surrender Rescript. Yasuoka made many changes, but on the next day found one of the three points he insisted on remained unchanged.[2] Yasuoka met Hirohito three times after the war, at garden parties. Hirohito thanked Yasuoka for the trouble at the end of the war, and asked Yasuoka if he was studying as before, to which Yasuoka replied "Yes" with delight.[3] After Yasuoka's death Hirohito once attended a round-table discussion at which one of the attendants noted, "Yasuoka had once said that once the emperor said something, nothing could be told in addition." To this, Hirohito nodded.[4]
Due to his knowledge of the history of China, Yasuoka was asked to name various societies: Kōchikai ("Broad Pond Society") is one of them.[5] Also thanks to his Chinese scholarship, he gave the new era its name, Heisei, although he did not outlive the Shōwa era. Heisei was conceived by Yasuoka in 1979, which was communicated to the government. Tatsuro Yamamoto, professor emeritus of Tokyo University, again told the government, as reported in 1995.[6]
