Nihon University Struggle : The Aftermath of the 9/30 Mass Bargaining

The Nihon University student movement of 1968-69 accomplished the first and probably the last mass bargaining with the institution's board of directors. Around 30,000 students within the campus participated in this action in an era when the total number of students nationwide was said to be approximately one million. It is positioned as one of the two most significant All-Campus Joint Struggle League student movements of that period along with the University of Tokyo All-Campus Joint Struggle League student movement. This paper is a sequel to the author's manuscript entitled "Questions Raised by the 1968 University Struggles-With the Nihon University Struggle as a Case Study," which examined the characteristics of the organizational and movement theories of the Nihon University All-Campus Joint Struggle League movement. This paper further continues discussion on ascertaining the development process of the Nihon University Struggle from basic facts and varied material resources. The previous paper targeted the period up to the time when the Nihon University All-Campus Joint Struggle League (Nichidai Zenkyoto) had the possibility of winning at the mass bargaining. In this paper, the authors reevaluate the process of the "9/30 Bargaining" on September 30, 1968. While describing the basic course of events that occurred until February- March 1969 when the barricades of each department and school building that symbolize the tactics of the Nihon University Struggle were lifted and forcibly removed, the paper examines the periodical changes in the Nihon University All-Campus Joint Struggle League organization and movement. Specifically, the first section contends with the enhancement of the unifying power of the All- Campus Joint Struggle League in the wake of the struggle surrounding the forcible execution of the removal of barricades in the beginning of September. It also deals with the process of further investigating the significance of the enforcement of mass bargaining that was continually being demanded since June. Section two presents a multifaceted exploration of the trends that became noticeable between October and December, including the implementation of all kinds of reviews at each organizational level after mass bargaining and the government's political intervention. This part of the paper also considers the types of exploration for a solution that occurred within the movement, the actions of faculty members and parents, the changes in police authority and jurisdictional involvement, the issues of graduation and enforcement of class evacuation, and the cooperation of other sections of society with the University of Tokyo Struggle. In section three, the authors discuss the course of the movement up to the demise of the barricade struggle from the beginning of the new year until the end of March and the factors that influenced the continuation of the struggle thereafter. As the only study that targets the entire process of the Nihon University Struggle, the authors refer to Chapter 9, entitled "Nihon University Struggle" in Eiji Oguma's "1968 (cited above)," which based on the Nihon University Newspaper Research Association for the study "The Truth of the Nihon University Struggle-Steps toward the Struggle for Democracy" among others. This paper presents an analysis based on primary sources that have become newly available for use that relate to the parties concerned.