• 동북아역사논총
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• no.59
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• pp.150-186
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• 2018

This paper explains what Japanese progressive liberalism was in postwar Japan by clarifying Maruyama Masao's "Cold War Liberalism," focusing especially on his realism and nationalism searching for "democracy" and "peace" in the context of the early Cold War Japan. Maruyama's Cold War liberalism can be grasped from two perspectives: how the Cold War defined his liberalism and how Maruyama interpreted the Cold War as a liberalist in postwar Japan. The liberal interpretation of the Cold War captures the spatial manifestations of liberalism in the Cold War while Cold War liberalism was to grasp the temporal succession of modern Japan. Maruyama revealed his liberal thinking by combining it to his idea of nationalism and realism. He was concerned about the reshaping of the fascist atmosphere provoked by anti-communism emerging from 186 | 동북아역사논총 59호the Cold War confrontation structure. He sought "neutrality" and "peace" to overcome the so-called "two worlds" of the Cold War. And he stressed the importance of "fair judgment" and "autonomous association" to restrain the fascistic atmosphere in postwar Japan. For Maruyama, subjectivity aimed at the concept of "nation" rather than "citizen," and nationalism was a condition for "democracy" and "peace" in postwar Japan. Maruyama's critical liberalism worked through nationalism and realism.