ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

In the late 1960s, Nihon University, Japan’s largest comprehensive university, became the scene of a student movement that symbolized Japan’s “1968” as thousands of students gathered in central Tokyo. In May 1968, after the Tokyo National Taxation Bureau accused the Nihon University Board of Trustees of misappropriating nearly 2 billion yen in unaccounted for funds, Nihon University’s students formed the Nichidai-Zenkyōtō to protest and resist the private university’s educational system. The Nihon University struggle is largely considered to have stemmed from the structural problems of private universities in the post-war period, with the commercialized education system being a key cause. Nihon University introduced a mass-produced education system that prioritized economic interests, resulting in a decline in the quality of education, and students felt frustrated and threatened by the loss of their right to pursue their studies. In addition, the university authorities mobilized right-wing ideological groups and athletic clubs to suppress students in an authoritarian manner, including censoring students’ on-campus activities and using physical violence. Under these circumstances, students engaged in a struggle to express their collective will. Through this struggle, they sought both to ‘express’ and to document their ‘expression’. Three key documents emerged from this process: (1) the documentary Barricade of Rebellion, (2) the two documentary films Nihon University Struggle and the sequel Nihon University Struggle, and (3) the photo book Kaihoku’68. These works represent an achievement of “mini-communication” as a practical record of the Nihon University student movement, which aimed to spread the struggle socially by producing media on their own to disseminate information. These examples offer an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of ‘expression’ in the documentation activities of the parties in the history of social and student movements in Japan.

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