Ernst Jünger and Ishiwara Kanji: A Comparative Examination of the Concept of Total Mobilization for Germany and Japan

Abstract

This essay undertakes a comparative examination of the concept of total mobilization in Germany and Japan during the 1930s and 1940s through the careers and thought of the military officers Ernst Jünger and Ishiwara Kanji. Important conceptual similarities and differences are identified in the process of comparing the two men’s theories of total mobilization, and the utter demise of the total mobilization project in each country is addressed in an effort to ascertain whether or not Jünger’s and Ishiwara’s goals were indeed realized. This paper stretches beyond a reading of the two men’s military biographies in order to provide a theoretical examination of two particular concepts of total mobilization, and their possible consequences for German and Japanese domestic and foreign policy. The essay is divided into three sections, the first of which undertakes a biographical comparison of Ishiwara and Jünger before leading into a literary-theoretical analysis of their articulations of total mobilization. Finally, the theoretical weaknesses of each theories will be discussed, and linked to the authors’ views on the relationship between total mobilization and liberal democracy.