THE GREAT EUROPEAN WAR AND THE RISE OF RADICAL SHINTO ULTRANATIONALISM IN JAPAN
The Great European War was one of the most important events in modern world history because it paved the way for the great contestations of the twentieth century. Out of it came communism in Russia, fascism in Italy, and Nazism in Germany. However, few students of history know that it produced mass nationalism in China and in Korea, and also led to the rise of radical Shintō ultranationalism in Japan, the ideology that mobilized the Japanese masses and inspired the Japanese elite to embark on a bid for global power in the 1930s and 1940s. Furthermore, few people are aware of the fact that Shintō nationalism served as the inspiration for the Italian Fascists and that German Nazis were in absolute awe of this Völkisch Japanese state religion.