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What Was the Cold War? Imagined Reality, Ordinary People's War, and Social Mechanism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
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What was the Cold War? Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar World (Harvard University Press, 2015) is an inquiry into the very nature and meanings of the conflict. It traces the Cold War's metamorphosis during the Korean War from a diplomatic stand-off among policymakers to an ordinary people's war at home through examining not only centers of policymaking, but seeming aftereffects of Cold War politics during the Korean War: The Red Purge in Japan, the White Terror in Taiwan, Suppression of counterrevolutionaries in China, the crackdown on “un-Filipino” activities in the Philippines, and McCarthyism in the United States. Why did such similar patterns of domestic repression occur simultaneously around the world? Were there any similarities among these repressions? What would happen if we were to remove the Cold War lens? What were the implications of such a worldwide phenomenon?
While these events have usually been examined separately and are commonly considered aftereffects of the global Cold War, the book redefines these events as parts of a global phenomenon of nativist backlashes—a sort of social conservative suppression—that operated to silence various local conflicts that surfaced in the aftermath of World War II. It shows how ordinary people throughout the world strove to silence disagreements and restore social order under the mantle of the global confrontation, revealing that the actual divides of the Cold War existed not necessarily between the Eastern and Western blocs but within each society, with each, in turn, requiring the perpetuation of such an imagined reality to maintain order and harmony at home. Exploring such social functions and popular participation, Cold War Crucible suggests that the Cold War was more than an international and geopolitical confrontation between the Western and Eastern blocs. It was also a social mechanism for purity and order, which functioned in many parts of the world to tranquilize chaotic postwar and postcolonial situations through containing a multitude of social conflicts and culture wars at home. This article draws on and extends parts of Chapter 8 and 9 concerning Japan's Red Purge and China's Suppression of counterrevolutionaries.
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Notes
1 Sodei Rinjiro, ed., Yoshida Shigeru—Makkasa ofuku shokanshu 1945–1951 The Collection of Correspondence between Yoshida Shigeru and MacArthur 1945–1951] (Tokyo: Hosei Daigaku Shuppankyoku, 2000), 205–206.
2 Asahi Shinbunsha Reddo Paji Shogenroku Kanko Iinkai, ed., 1950-nen 7-gatsu 28-nichi: Asahi Shinbunsha no reddo paji shogenroku July 28, 1950: The Collection of Testimonies about the Red Purge at the Asahi Newspaper] (Tokyo: Banseisha, 1981), 28–29; Hirata Tetsuo, Reddo paji no shiteki kyumei [Historical Inquiry into the Red Purge] (Tokyo: Shin Nihon Shuppansha, 2002), 214.
3 We still do not know the exact number of dismissals because small businesses and companies were, from the beginning, excluded from statistics. The number given is based on statistics published in “Shakai undo tsushin [Newsletters for Social Movements],” 1 November 1950, Collections of Journals, Ohara Shakai Mondai Kenkyujo [Ohara Institute for Social Studies] (OISS), Hosei University (HU), Tokyo, Japan; see also, for instance, Miyake Akimasa, Reddo paji to wa nani ka [What Was the Red Purge?] (Tokyo: Otsuki Shoten, 1994), 7–10.
4 Hans Martin Kramer, “Just Who Reversed the Course? The Red Purge in Higher Education during the Occupation of Japan,” Social Science Japan Journal 8:1 (November 2004), 1–18.
5 “Redo paji kanshi [Brief History of Red Purge],” Collections of Documents Related to the Red Purge, No. 17–4, OISS-HU.
6 Letter, Burati to Sullivan, 6 September 1950, File 12, Box 1, VBP, WPRL-WSU.
7 Robert Amis, interview in Takemae Eiji, Shogen Nihon senryoshi: GHQ Rodoka no gunzo [Oral Testimonies of the Occupation of Japan: The Figures in the Labor Division in the GHQ] (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1983), 324–325.
8 See, for instance, Takemae, Shogen Nihon senryoshi, and Miyake, Reddo paji to wa nani ka.
9 Letter, Burati to Sullivan, 22 August 1950, File 12, Box 1, VBP, WPRL-WSU.
10 Sasaki Ryosuke, interview in Kawanishi, Kikigaki, 56.
11 “Shakei undo tsushin [Newsletters for Social Movements],” 25 October 1950, Collections of Journals, OISS-HU; see also Miyake, Reddo paji to wa nani ka, 87–88.
12 “Mr. Kaite's Comments on the ‘Red Expulsion,‘” 23 September 1950, File 11, Box 5, Valery Burati Papers (VBP), Walter P. Reuther Library (WPRL), Wayne State University (WSU), Detroit, MI.
13 “The Announcement of the President,” 23 October 1950, File 12, Box 5, VBP, WPRL-WSU.
14 Letter, Valery Burati to Philip B. Sullivan, 10 May 1951, File 13, Box 1, VBP, WPRL-WSU.
15 “Mr. Amis Gives Warning to the Management,” 26 October 1950, File 13, Box 5, VBP, WPRL-WSU.
16 “Memo for Mr. Amis,” 24 January 1951, File 15, Box 5, VBP, WPRL-WSU.
17 Memorandum, “To Mr. Amis,” n.d., File 15 Box 5, VBP; and “Memo for Mr. Amis,” 8 February 1951, File 15 Box 5, VBP, WPRL-WSU.
18 “Memo for Mr. Amis,” 24 January 1951, File 15, Box 5, VBP, WPRL-WSU.
19 “Exclusion of Communistic Destructive Elements in Enterprise,” n. d., File 13, Box 5, VBP; and “Nikkan rodo tsushin” [Daily Labor Bulletin], 18 October 1950, File 13, Box 5, VBP, WPRL-WSU.
20 “Niigata Tekkosho File,” No. 20–11, Collection of Documents Related to the Red Purge, OISS-HU.
21 Letter, Val Burati to Greechhalgh? International Federation of Textile Workers' Association, UK, 23 May 1951, File 13, Box 1, VBP, WPRL-WSU.
22 Kawanishi, Kikigaki, 169, 239–240, 263, 303, and 373.
23 Similar remarks can be found in various statements of Densan [All-Japan Electricity Union] and Kawasaki Seitetsu [Kawasaki Steel Company] in this period.
24 Sasaki Ryosaku, interview in Kawanishi, Kikigaki, 77.
25 Documentation of similar experiences can be found in various court records, such as in charge sheets, which are kept in the Collection of Red Purge Documents in the OISS. A group of discharged persons at Yomiuri, Mainichi, and Asashi Shinbun, for instance, sued their companies, and their statements described these struggles; for these companies, see Files No. 20–5. See also various testimonies in 1950-nen 7-gatsu 28-nichi [July 28, 1950.
26 See, for example, court documents in the Collection of Red Purge Documents in the OISS; see also 1950 nen 7 gatsu 28 nichi July 28, 1950], 66 and 132.
27 Shiryo sengo gakusei undo Source Book for Postwar Student Movements], vol. 2 (1950–1951) and vol. 3 (1952–1955) (Tokyo: Sanichi Shobo, 1969).
28 Waseda daigaku shinbun, 1 October 1950 NRR-NDL.
29 Todai gakusei shinbun, 5 October 1950, NRR-NDL; Todai toso nyusu, 11 October 1950 and 24 October 1950, Student Movement File, OISS-HU.
30 “Sodai de kuzen no gakusei fushoji [Unprecedented Student Scandal at Waseda],” Mainichi Shinbun, 18 October 1950; Asahi Shinbun, 18 October 1950. For more detailed discussion of student and peace movements in postwar Japan, see, for example, Masuda Hajimu, “Fear of World War III: Social Politics of Japan's Rearmament and Peace Movements, 1950–53,” Journal of Contemporary History 47: 3 (Summer 2012), 551–571.
31 Waseda daigaku shinbun, 1 December 1950.
32 “Sodai de kuzen no gakusei fushoji.”
33 Asahi Shinbun, 18 October 1950.
34 Waseda daigaku shinbun, 21 October 1950, NRR-NDL.
35 Asahi shinbun, 9 December 1950; Mainichi shinbun, 19 December 1950.
36 Togawa Yukio, Waseda gakusei shinbun, 7 October 1952. NRR-NDL.
37 For the perspective of the conservatives, such as Yoshida Shigeru, see, for instance, John W. Dower, Empire and Aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese Experience, 1878–1954 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979).
38 See, also, Ronald Dore's earlier fieldwork, such as Land Reform in Japan (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959) and City Life in Japan: A Study of a Tokyo Ward (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1958).
39 Letter, anonymous Kyoto resident to Ashida Hitoshi, Correspondence File, No. 284–3, AHP, MJPHMR-NDL.
40 Ibid.
41 Letter, Hidaka Hiroshi to Ashida Hitoshi, Correspondence File, No. 272, AHP, MJPHMR-NDL.
42 Ibid.
43 Takekura Kin'ichiro, Kirarera batten: Shiryo reddo paji [Got Fired: Documents on the Red Purge] (Fukuoka: Densan Kyushu Futo Kaiko Hantai Domei, 1980); see also various memoirs and local history books, such as Tokyo Hachi-ni-roku kai, ed., 1950-nen 8-gatsu 26-nichi: Densan reddo paji 30-shunen kinen bunshu [August 26, 1950: The Thirty-Year Anniversary Collection of the Densan Red Purge] (Tokyo: Tokyo Hachinirokukai, 1983); 1950-nen 7-gatsu 28-nichi; Amagasaki reddo paji mondai kondankai, ed., Kaiso Amagasaki no reddo paji [Recollections: Red Purge in Amagasaki] (Osaka: Kobunsha, 2002); and Fukushima-ken minshushi kenkyukai, ed., Hatsudensho no reddo paji: Densan Inawashiro bunkai [The Red Purge in Power Plant: Densan's Inawashiro Branch] (Tokyo: Koyoshuppansha, 2001).
44 “Public ‘Confession’ and Execution,” Manchester Guardian, 14 November 1951; “China: Mass Slaughter,” Time, 30 April 1951; “China: Justice on the Radio,” Time, 7 May 1951; “China: Kill Mice!” Time, 21 May 1951; and a report of the Shanghai Military Control Commission, Xinwen Ribao, 25 July 1951. Also, see memorandum, Tientsin [Tianjin] to Foreign Office, UK, 13 July 1951, in “Reports, Comments and Information from Many Sources Showing the Extension of Power of the Ruling Chinese Communists over the Political, Social and Economic Life of the Whole of China …” FO371/92204, TNA. See, also, Yang Kuisong, “Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries,” China Quarterly, no. 193 (March 2008), 111; and Julia Strauss, “Morality, Coercion, and State Building by Campaign in the Early PRC: Regime Consolidation and After, 1949–1956,” in Julia Strauss ed., The History of the PRC, 1949–1976: The China Quarterly Special Issues New Series No. 7 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 52–53.
45 “Shanghaishi junshi guanzhi weiyuanhui panchu fangeming anfan de juedingshu [Shanghai Military Control Commission's Written Verdicts on the Cases of Counterrevolutionaries],” 12 May 1951, B1–2–1050–45, SMA.
46 Ibid., 18 April 1951, B1–2–1050–62, SMA.
47 Ibid., 28 May 1951, B1–2–1063–12, SMA.
48 Norimura Kaneko, Zanryu shoujo no mita chousen sensou no koro [The Time of the Korean War through the Eyes of a War-Displaced Japanese Girl] (Tokyo: Shakai shisosha, 1992), 96–98.
49 Ibid., 98–102.
50 Ibid., 102–105.
51 Luo Ruiqing, “Weida de zhenya fangeming yundong [The Great Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries],” Renmin ribao, 1 October 1951.
52 See telegrams, memorandums, and reports sent from Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan, Nanjing, and other places to the Foreign Office, U.K. between March and July 1951. These documents can be found in a series of files, called “Extension of Power of the Chinese Communists,” from FO371/92192 to FO371/92206, TNA.
53 Telegram, Beijing to Foreign Office, 6 April 1951, in “Extension of Power of the Chinese Communists,” FO371/92196, TNA.
54 These numbers were based on Deputy Public Security Minister Xu Zirong's report in 1954, which was recounted in Yang, “Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries,” 120–121. Frank Dikotter estimates the scale of terror much larger, with an estimate of total death at “close to 2 million people.” See Frank Dikotter, The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution, 1945-57 (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2013), x, 99-100. In fact, a British diplomat who was in Shanghai at that time reported that, in his opinion, actual figures of death toll would far exceed those acknowledged officially. See a telegram from Shanghai to Foreign Office, 8 June 1951, in “Extension of Power of the Chinese Communists,” FO371/92198, TNA.
55 Yang, “Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries,” 102–121; idem, “Xin Zhongguo zhenfan yundong shimo [The Story of the Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries in New China]” and “Shanghai zhenfan yundong de lishi kaocha [Historical Examination of the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries in Shanghai],” in Yang Kuisong, Zhonghua renmin gongheguo jianguo shi yanjiu [A Study of the History of the Establishment of the People's Republic of China], vol. 1 (Nanchang: Jiangxi renmin chubanshe, 2009), 168–217 and 218–259; Strauss, “Morality, Coercion, and State Building by Campaign in the Early PRC,” 37–58; Julia Strauss, “Paternalist Terror: The Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries and Regime Consolidation in the People's Republic of China, 1950–1953,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 44:1 (January 2002), 80–105; Frederic Wakeman Jr., “‘Cleanup’: The New Order in Shanghai,” in Jeremy Brown and Paul Pickowicz, eds., Dilemmas of Victory: The Early Years of the People's Republic of China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 21–58; Konno Jun, Chugoku shakai to taishu doin: Mo takuto jidai no seiji kenryoku to minshu [Chinese Society and Mass Mobilization: Political Power and People in the Era of Mao Zedong] (Tokyo: Ochanomizu shobou, 2008); and Izutani Yoko, Chugoku kenkoku shoki no seiji to keizai: Taishu undo to shakai shugi taisei [Politics and Economy in the Early Period of the People's Republic of China: Mass Movements and Socialist Regime] (Tokyo: Ochanomizu shobou, 2007).
56 Yang, “Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries,” 104–105, 107–108.
57 Ibid., 106.
58 Ibid., 117–119.
59 “Gong'anbu guanyu qunzhong dui chuli waiji fan geming fenzi de fanying [Memorandum from the Ministry of Public Security Concerning Popular Responses Toward Dealing with Foreign Counterrevolutionaries],” June 25, 1951, No. 118–00306–15, FMA. For the official policy of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, see, e.g., “Zhongyang guanyu waiguo fangeming de chuli wenti dao gedi de zhishi dian [Directive from the Central Government to Various Regions Concerning the Issue of Dealing with Foreign Counterrevolutionaries],” 2 August 1951, No. 118–00306–01, FMA. In this telegram, Beijing declared that, in general, foreigners who were considered counterrevolutionaries would be deported from the country, and basically would not be executed.
60 “Zhongnanqu guanyu zhenya fangeming de zhishi de dianbao [Telegram of the Mid-South Regional Bureau Concerning the Directive of Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries],” 30 November 1950, No. 118–00306–16, FMA.
61 Yang, “Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries,” 106.
62 Ibid., 107.
63 “Beijing shi tanshang Kang-Mei Yuan-Chao jingsai yundong youguan wenjian [Documents Related to Beijing Street Vendors' Movements to Resist America and Aid Korea],” No. 022–012–00497, pp.25, 142, 185–187, and 194, BMA.
64 Ibid., 194.
65 Ibid., 196.
66 “Dong'an shichang Kang-Mei Yuan-Chao aiguo yundong [Kang-Mei Yuan-Chao Patriotic Movements in the Dong'an Market],” 14 May 1951, in “Beijing shi tanfan Kang-Mei Yuan-Chao gongzuo jihua zongjie [Planning and Summing-Up of Beijing Street Vendors' Work of Resisting American and Aiding Korea]” (hereafter “Beijing Street Vendors' Work of Kang-Mei Yuan-Chao”), 42–43, No. 022–010–00314, BMA.
67 Ibid., 15 May 1951, 96, No. 022–010–00314, BMA.
68 Ibid., 132–134, No. 022–012–00497, BMA.
69 Izutani Yoko, Chugoku kenkoku shoki no seiji to keizai: Taishu undo to shakai shugi taisei [Politics and Economy in the Early Period of the People's Republic of China: Mass Movements and the Socialist Regime] (Tokyo: Ochanomizu shobou, 2007), 224–225.
70 Ibid., 225.
71 Arif Dirlik, “The Ideological Foundations of the New Life Movements: A Study of Counterrevolution,” Journal of Asian Studies, 34: 4 (August 1974), 954–958.
72 “A New Pattern of Life,” Manchester Guardian, 20 November 1950.
73 “Beijing qunzhong dui zhenya fangeming de fanying [Popular Reactions in Beijing toward the Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries],” 9 April 1951, Neibu Cankao, CUHK; “Lanzhou zhenya fangeming fenzi hou de shehui fanying [Social Reactions after the Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries in Lanzhou],” 9 April 1951, Neibu Cankao, CUHK; and Strauss, “Morality, Coercion, and State Building by Campaign in the Early PRC,” 51.
74 Konno, Chugoku shakai to taishu doin, 119–120.
75 “1951 nian shangbannian yilai jinxing Kang-Mei Yuan-Chao aiguo zhuyi jiaoyu de qingkuang baogao [A Report on Situations Concerning the Ongoing Patriotism Education to Resist America and Aid Korea in the First Half of 1951],” 21 September 1951, C21–1–108–13, SMA.
76 “Jiaoqu funü Kang-Mei Yuan-Chao aiguo yundong 4 yue zongjie [The Summary of Women's Activities of the Resist America and Aid Korea Patriotic Movements on the Outskirts of Beijing in April],” April 1951, No. 084–003–00008, BMA; and “China: Mass Slaughter,” Time, 30 April 1951.
77 “Qingnian tuan Shanghai shiwei guanyu zai Kang-Mei Yuan-Chao, zhenya fangeming yu tudi gaige yundong zhong dui shehui qingnian gongzuo de zongjie [The Youth Group in the Shanghai City Committee's Final Report Concerning The Activities Toward the Youth During The Movements of Resisting-America and Assisting Korea, Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries, and Land Reform],” 17 October 1951, No. C21–1–143, SMA.
78 Jingshi fangeming fenzi luxu tanbai dengji jiaochu wuqi [Counterrevolutionaries in Beijing Are Confessing, Registering, and Surrendering Their Weapons One After Another, But There Are Some Special Agents and Bandits Who Still Refuse to Realise Their Errors and Continues Their Activities],“ 13 April 1951, Neibu cankao, CUHK.
79 “Shanghai Shijiao quwei guanyu zhenya fangeming de qingkuang tongjibiao; fangeming fenzi zisha dengji biao [Statistical Tables Concerning the Situation of Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries on the Outskirts of Shanghai; Tables Registering the Suicides of Counterrevolutionaries],” 25 July 1951, No. 71–2–94, SMA.
80 Ibid.
81 Memorandum, Beijing to Foreign Office “A Final Report on China,” October 1951, in “Extension of Power of the Chinese Communists,” FO371/92206; telegram, Beijing to Foreign Office, 19 January 1951, ibid., FO371/92192; telegrams, Beijing to Foreign Office 3 and 6 March 1951, ibid., FO371/92194; as well as telegram, Foreign Office to Embassies, 11 May 1951, “China: Political Situation,” DO133/27; and Telegram, Beijing to Foreign Office, 7 April 1952, ibid, DO133/28, all at TNA. Also, see Strauss, “Morality, Coercion, and State Building by Campaign in the Early PRC,” 46–48.
82 Telegram, Beijing to Foreign Office, 3 March 1951, “Extension of Power of the Chinese Communists,” FO371/92194, TNA.
83 Fukumoto Katsukiyo, Chugoku kakumei o kake nuketa autorotachi: dohi to ryubo no sekai [Outlaws in the Chinese Revolution: The World of Local Rebels and Rogues] (Tokyo: Chuo koronsha, 1998).
84 Konno, Chugoku shakai to taishu doin, 102.
85 “‘Gongchang sanfan yundong tongbao’ 1951 nian di 2 hao [‘Bulletin of Sanfan movements in Factories’ Vol. 2, 1951],” 12 February 1952, in “‘Gongchang sanfan yundong tongbao’ ji gongchang sanfan zonghe qingkuang [‘Bulletins of Sanfan movements in Factories’ and the comprehensive situation of the Sanfan movements in factories],” cited in Konno, Chugoku shakai to taishu doin, 127.
86 Luo Ruiqing, “Weida de zhenya fangeming yundong [The great campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries],” Renmin Ribao, 1 October 1951,; Konno, Chugoku shakai to taishu doin, 92–93.
87 Yang, “Xin Zhongguo zhenfan yundong shimo,” 203–204.
88 Ibid., 204.
89 “The Credit in the Balance-Sheet,” Manchester Guardian, 17 November 1950.
90 Ibid.
91 “Beijing Street Vendors' Workings of Kang-Mei Yuan-Chao,” 23–25, No. 022–010–00314, BMA.
92 Yang, “Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries,” 105.
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