Download or read book National Identity and Japanese Revisionism written by Michal Kolmas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-26 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the course of the twentieth century, Japan has experienced a radical shift in its self-perception. After World War II, Japan embraced a peaceful and anti-militarist identity, which was based on its war-prohibiting Constitution and the foreign policy of the Yoshida doctrine. For most of the twentieth century, this identity was unusually stable. In the last couple of decades, however, Japan’s self-perception and foreign policy seem to have changed. Tokyo has conducted a number of foreign policy actions as well as symbolic internal gestures that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago and that symbolize a new and more confident Japan. Japanese politicians – including Prime Minister Abe Shinzō – have adopted a new discourse depicting pacifism as a hindrance, rather than asset, to Japan’s foreign policy. Does that mean that “Japan is back”? In order to better understand the dynamics of contemporary Japan, Kolmaš joins up the dots between national identity theory and Japanese revisionism. The book shows that while political elites and a portion of the Japanese public call for re-articulation of Japan’s peaceful identity, there are still societal and institutional forces that prevent this change from entirely materializing.
Download or read book Rethinking Identity in Modern Japan written by Yumiko Iida and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a major reconsideration of Japanese late modernity and national hegemony which examines the creative and academic works of a number of influential Japanese thinkers. The author situates the process of Japanese knowledge production in the interface between the immediate historical and the wider socio-economic and politico-cultural contexts accompanying the Japanese post-war experience of modernity. This book will be of great value to anyone interested in the history of contemporary Japanese culture and society.
Download or read book A History of Nationalism in Modern Japan written by Kevin Doak and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2007 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This magisterial history of Japanese nationalism reveals nationalism to be a contested and pluralistic practice that seeks to center the people in political life. It presents a wealth of primary source material on how Japanese themselves have understood their national identity.
Download or read book National Identity and Great Power Status in Russia and Japan written by Tadashi Anno and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a comparative historical study of how the two "non-Western" great powers emerged as challengers to the prevailing international order in the interwar period, each seeking to establish an alternative order.
Download or read book The Victim as Hero written by James J. Orr and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2001-04-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first systematic, historical inquiry into the emergence of "victim consciousness" (higaisha ishiki) as an essential component of Japanese pacifist national identity after World War II. In his meticulously crafted narrative and analysis, the author reveals how postwar Japanese elites and American occupying authorities collaborated to structure the parameters of remembrance of the war, including the notion that the emperor and his people had been betrayed and duped by militarists. He goes on to explain the Japanese reliance on victim consciousness through a discussion of the ban-the-bomb movement of the mid-1950s, which raised the prominence of Hiroshima as an archetype of war victimhood and brought about the selective focus on Japanese war victimhood; the political strategies of three self-defined war victim groups (A-bomb victims, repatriates, and dispossessed landlords) to gain state compensation and hence valorization of their war victim experiences; shifting textbook narratives that reflected contemporary attitudes and structured future generations' understanding of the war; and three classic antiwar novels and films that contributed to the shaping of a "sentimental humanism" that continues to leave a strong imprint on the collective Japanese conscience.
Download or read book Rethinking Japan written by Arthur Stockwin and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-02-15 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors argue that with the election of the Abe Government in December 2012, Japanese politics has entered a radically new phase they describe as the “2012 Political System.” The system began with the return to power of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), after three years in opposition, but in a much stronger electoral position than previous LDP-based administrations in earlier decades. Moreover, with the decline of previously endemic intra-party factionalism, the LDP has united around an essentially nationalist agenda never absent from the party’s ranks, but in the past was generally blocked, or modified, by factions of more liberal persuasion. Opposition weakness following the severe defeat of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration in 2012 has also enabled the Abe Government to establish a political stability largely lacking since the 1990s. The first four chapters deal with Japanese political development since 1945 and factors leading to the emergence of Abe Shinzō as Prime Minister in 2012. Chapter 5 examines the Abe Government’s flagship economic policy, dubbed “Abenomics.” The authors then analyse four highly controversial objectives promoted by the Abe Government: revision of the 1947 ‘Peace Constitution’; the introduction of a Secrecy Law; historical revision, national identity and issues of war apology; and revised constitutional interpretation permitting collective defence. In the final three chapters they turn to foreign policy, first examining relations with China, Russia and the two Koreas, second Japan and the wider world, including public diplomacy, economic relations and overseas development aid, and finally, the vexed question of how far Japanese policies are as reactive to foreign pressure. In the Conclusion, the authors ask how far right wing trends in Japan exhibit common causality with shifts to the right in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. They argue that although in Japan immigration has been a relatively minor factor, economic stagnation, demographic decline, a sense of regional insecurity in the face of challenges from China and North Korea, and widening gaps in life chances, bear comparison with trends elsewhere. Nevertheless, they maintain that “[a] more sane regional future may be possible in East Asia.”
Download or read book Studying the Enemy written by Christiane Reinhold and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-24 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlike the majority of contemporary scholarly works that examine Sino-Japanese relations between 1925 and 1945, this study de-emphasizes the story of conflict and war in favor of one that revolves around the way in which the Chinese intellectually encountered the "enemy", the Japanese.
Download or read book Imperial Japan and National Identities in Asia 1895 1945 written by Li Narangoa and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume includes chapters on the Japanese imperial campaign in India, Tibet, Siberia, Mongolia, Korea, Manchukuo, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
Download or read book Identity Change and Foreign Policy written by Linus Hagstrom and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identity has become an explicit focus of International Relations theory in the past two to three decades, with one case attracting and puzzling many early identity scholars: Japan. These constructivist scholars typically ascribed Japan a ‘pacifist’ or ‘antimilitarist’ identity – an identity which they believed was constructed through the adherence to ‘peaceful norms’ and ‘antimilitarist culture’. Due to the alleged resilience of such adherences, little change in Japan’s identity and its international relations was predicted. However, in recent years, Japan’s foreign and security policies have begun to change, in spite of these seemingly stable norms and culture. This book seeks to address these changes through a pioneering engagement with recent developments in identity theory. In particular, most chapters theorize identity as a product of processes of differentiation. Through detailed case analysis, they argue that Japan’s identity is produced and reproduced, but also transformed, through the drawing of boundaries between ‘self’ and ‘other’. In particular, they stress the role of emotions and identity entrepreneurs as catalysts for identity change. With the current balance between resilience and change, contributors emphasize that more drastic foreign and security policy transformations might loom just beyond the horizon. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Pacific Review.
Download or read book Transforming History written by Brian Moloughney and published by The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. This book was released on 2012-02-03 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transforming History examines the profound transformation of historical thought and practice of writing history from the late Qing through the midtwentieth century. The authors devote extensive analysis to the common set of intellectual and political forces that shaped the study of history, from the ideas of evolution, positivism, nationalism, historicism, and Marxism, to political processes such as revolution, imperialism, and modernization. Also discussed are the impact and problems associated with the nationstate as the subject of history, the linear model of historical time, and the spatial system of nationstates. The result is a convincing study that illustrates how history has transformed into a modern academic discipline in China.
Download or read book Mass Media Consumerism and National Identity in Postwar Japan written by Martyn David Smith and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-05 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mass Media, Consumerism and National Identity in Postwar Japan addresses Japan's evolving nationalism and national identity in relation to its newly rising consumerism during the two decades from 1952 to 1972, through a study of the transformation of the print media and the market for weekly and monthly magazines. Martyn Smith argues that the transformation of the print media in the 1950s and 1960s expanded the possibilities for social, individual and national identities in Japan. From the late 1950s, the growth in the market for weekly magazines was fuelled by the huge potential for advertising revenue, the rapid development of the Japanese economy, and the necessity for the growth of a consumer society. This resulted in the merging of national identity with individual subjectivity – which this book describes as 'national subjectivity' – as the Japanese media promoted individual consumption to aid the recovery of the Japanese nation as a whole. Examining housewife magazines such as Fujin Koron, Fujin no Tomo and Fujin Gaho, as well as news magazines such as Mainichi Graph and Asahi Graph, and publications aimed at young people – Shukan Heibon and Heibon Punch – Smith shows how the relationship of nationalism to everyday life is best understood by taking into account the changing nature of consumption in the period. By presenting an alternative to the traditional 'top-down' narrative of state-driven economic nationalism, this book therefore makes a unique contribution to the study of postwar Japanese history and Japanese nationalism.
Download or read book Japanese Cultural Nationalism written by Roy Starrs and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-10-01 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the premise that Japanese cultural nationalism has been and is a major cultural/historical force throughout the Asia Pacific this book has dual focus: Part 1 explores Japanese literature, philosophy, education, politics, diplomacy, music; Part 2 extends Japanese role to Asia Pacific at large.
Download or read book Identity Culture and Memory in Japanese Foreign Policy written by Michal Kolmas and published by Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers. This book was released on 2021 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book discusses the changing nature of Japanese foreign policy through the concepts of identity, culture and memory. A set of chapters written by established Japanese and foreign experts show the nuances of Japanese self-images and their role in defining their understanding of the world.
Download or read book Japan s Arduous Rejuvenation as a Global Power written by Victor Teo and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-04-08 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book assesses the profound impact of Japan’s aspirations to become a great power on Japanese security, democracy and foreign relations. Rather than viewing the process of normalization and rejuvenation as two decades of remilitarization in face of rapidly changing strategic environment and domestic political circumstances, this volume contextualizes Japan’s contemporary international relations against the longer grain of Japanese historical interactions. It demonstrates that policies and statecraft in the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s era are a continuation of a long, unbroken and arduous effort by successive generations of leaders to preserve Japanese autonomy, enhance security and advance Japanese national interests. Arguing against the notion that Japan cannot work with China as long as the US-Japan alliance is in place, the book suggests that Tokyo could forge constructive relations with Beijing by engaging China in joint projects in and outside of the Asia-Pacific in issue areas such as infrastructure development or in the provision of international public goods. It also submits that an improvement in Japan-China relations would enhance rather than detract Japan-US relations and that Tokyo will find that her new found autonomy in the US-Japan alliance would not only accord her more political respect and strategic latitude, but also allow her to ameliorate the excesses of American foreign policy adventurism, paving for her to become a truly normal great power.
Download or read book Imagining Japan in Post war East Asia written by Paul Morris and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-26 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the decades since her defeat in the Second World War, Japan has continued to loom large in the national imagination of many of her East Asian neighbours. While for many, Japan still conjures up images of rampant military brutality, at different times and in different communities, alternative images of the Japanese ‘Other’ have vied for predominance – in ways that remain poorly understood, not least within Japan itself. Imagining Japan in Postwar East Asia analyses the portrayal of Japan in the societies of East and Southeast Asia, and asks how and why this has changed in recent decades, and what these changing images of Japan reveal about the ways in which these societies construct their own identities. It examines the role played by an imagined ‘Japan’ in the construction of national selves across the East Asian region, as mediated through a broad range of media ranging from school curricula and textbooks to film, television, literature and comics. Commencing with an extensive thematic and comparative overview chapter, the volume also includes contributions focusing specifically on Chinese societies (the mainland PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan), Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. These studies show how changes in the representation of Japan have been related to political, social and cultural shifts within the societies of East Asia – and in particular to the ways in which these societies have imagined or constructed their own identities. Bringing together contributors working in the fields of education, anthropology, history, sociology, political science and media studies, this interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to all students and scholars concerned with issues of identity, politics and culture in the societies of East Asia, and to those seeking a deeper understanding of Japan’s fraught relations with its regional neighbours.
Download or read book A Different Mirror written by Ronald Takaki and published by eBookIt.com. This book was released on 2012-06-05 with total page 787 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Takaki traces the economic and political history of Indians, African Americans, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese, Irish, and Jewish people in America, with considerable attention given to instances and consequences of racism. The narrative is laced with short quotations, cameos of personal experiences, and excerpts from folk music and literature. Well-known occurrences, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the Trail of Tears, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Japanese internment are included. Students may be surprised by some of the revelations, but will recognize a constant thread of rampant racism. The author concludes with a summary of today's changing economic climate and offers Rodney King's challenge to all of us to try to get along. Readers will find this overview to be an accessible, cogent jumping-off place for American history and political science plus a guide to the myriad other sources identified in the notes.
Download or read book Designing History in East Asian Textbooks written by Gotelind Mueller and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the efforts throughout East Asia to deploy education for purposes of political socialization, and in particular in order to shape notions of identity. The chapters also examine the trend of ‘common textbook initiatives’, which have recently emerged in East Asia with the aim of helping to defuse tensions arguably fuelled by existing practices of mutual (mis)representation. These are analysed in relation to the East Asian political context, and compared with previous and ongoing endeavours in other parts of the world, particularly Europe, which have been keenly observed by East Asian practitioners. Written by a group of international education experts, chapters discuss the enduring focus on the role of curricula in inculcating homogenous visions of the national self, and indeed homogenized visions of significant 'others'. Including contributions from scholars and curriculum developers involved personally in the writing of national and multi-national history textbooks this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian education, Asian history and comparative education studies. Gotelind Müller is Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg, Germany
