 In retrospect Nishitani wrote: “My attempt was, on the one hand, to explain where Japan was situated within the world to those intellectuals remaining on the sidelines [of politics]; and, on the other hand, with respect to the extremely nationalistic thought that was becoming increasingly prevalent at the time, I attempted from within to open up a path for overcoming this extreme nationalism” (NKC IV, 384). Rather than either stand up and die, or sit out and wait, Nishitani and other members of the Kyoto School attempted to walk the razor’s edge of what Ōhashi Ryōsuke has called “anti-establishment cooperation” or “cooperative resistance” (hantaiseiteki kyōryoku) (see Ōhashi 2001, 20ff.).