Japanese intellectuals of the 1930s-1940s: counteracting the nationalistic ideas in the Kyoto school of philosophy during its emergence

The study demonstrates the nature of the interaction of the first representatives of the Kyoto school with the nationalistic ideas in the context of the 1930s-1940s Japanese Empire as an authoritarian state following the concept of the national essence, or kokutai, as the source of its state ideology. The fundamental traits of the school are briefly defined, and the views of its founders are elaborated, in particular the attitude towards state policy and the war in Nishida Kitaro’s later writings and correspondence, and Tanabe Hajime’s definition of the nation in an essay on the logic of species, as well as later statements. The textual criticism analysis shows an attempt to conceal the true views of philosophers through the nationalist terminology adopted in the contemporaneous state propaganda. Their attitude was anti-system in nature and did not seek to justify nationalism.