Bertrand Russell at Keio University, July 1921, n.8

* Source: Kindai Nihon Kenkyu(Modern Japan Study), v.14(1997), p.171 - 192

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Osugi: 'What are they doing in Russia at the moment?'
Russell: 'I met them both last year in Moscow. As they have nothing else to do they are collecting things for a Museum to the Revolution.
They are quite satisfied with their treatment by the Bolshevik government, although they disagree with some of it's institutions.'*21

That was the extent of their conversation; hardly a great meeting of minds. Osugi noted that other people had started to arrive and were being introduced to Russell. It was hot, so Osugi went out onto the veranda. His final estimation of Russell was that he was "too intellectual."
Later the same day the Chronicle reported that a meeting, which was disrupted and appears to have turned violent, took place at the Kanda Y.M.C.A. Hall, where lectures were made on the escalating strike situation at industrial plants in Osaka and Kobe, now a month long and with no settlement in sight. Eight of the speakers were arrested, including the chairman, following a 'collision between the speakers and the police force' who were in attendance. Later Suzuki Bunji (leader of the Tokyo Yuaikai)*22 read a letter from Russell addressed to the Tokyo labourers.
The letter expressed deep sympathy with the present labour movements in Japan and earnest hopes of a speedy but sound development of labour unions. It also extolled the emancipation of labour and prophesied the decline of capitalism.
(Japan Chronicle, July 28th, p. 5)


*21 "Kusho no Rasseru", The Collected Works of Osugi Sakae [Osugi Sakae zenshu. vol. 14 (Tokyo: Gendai Shichousha, 1965), p. 122. From an article printed in Kaizo issue no.10.
*22 The Yuaikai [Friendly Society] which began as a welfare association for workers in 1912, transformed into a trade union federation. "The Japan Federation of Labour". See George O. Totten, III, The Social Democratic Movement in Prewar Japan (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1966),pp. 31-34. The Tokyo headquarters were situated adjacent to the Keio University Mita campus.