11.6.2008 | 8:38 pm | History, Japan, Research
The Japanese librarian of my university sometimes asks me to take a look at the catalogues that she receives from Japanese publishers, and to pick the stuff I need for my research. She does this because she knows that I am working on colonialism and youth mobilization. I cannot exaggerate how much I love this collaboration between us! In fact, there have been a lot of reprints (復刻版) of colonial documents published by a number of Japanese publishers. Columbia seems to own a lot already, and is trying to keep up with new purchase as more students are working on Japanese imperialism now. These reprints are really useful since they are usually compiled in an organized way by specialists, and will save us A LOT of time to go through many different archives. It will certainly make it easier for Japan historians to step into the colonialist aspect of Japanese modern history, which probably intimidated many scholars who have no Korean and/or Chinese language ability in the past.
Unfortunately, these great resources are scattered around the library web catalogue, and there is no easy way to know the existence of these reprints unless you already know the title. I am thinking of making an annotated bibliography of the reprints of primary documents on Japanese colonialism that our library owns (as my final project for the Japanese bibliography class that I am taking this semester).
In the meantime, I would suggest that you take a look at 6 publishers to get a sense of what’s been reprinted. If it is reprinted, there is a high possibility that it is available through interlibrary loans in the US, so there is no need for you to spend hours to make a copy of them in Asia.
不二出版: The most prominent publisher famous for lots of important reprints. You can see the complete list of their publications here.
近現代資料刊行会：It mainly publishes reprints of social welfare related documents and journals. 朝鮮社会事業 etc.
ゆまに書房：Most famously they sell the digital version of 台湾日々新報. Their website does not have the complete list of 復刻版 for some reason, but they have reprinted a lot of interesting things. To find their publications, I would go to ジュンク堂書店’s database and search ゆまに書房, and then 絞込 with keywords like “台湾” or “朝鮮.”
緑蔭書房: I cannot find their website. Again, I would use ジュンク堂書店’s database and narrow down with keywords. They have reprinted 近代朝鮮文学日本語作品集、日本統治期台湾文学集成, and a lot of other interesting journals from the colonial period.
龍渓書舎: Search in ジュンク堂 again. It has lots of reprints of single volume publications from the colonial period, as well as massive 資料集 like 日本植民地教育政策史料集成.
三一書房: Not so much on Japanese colonies but it has lots of reprints on modern Japan. Their 資料集 titles are here.
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10.25.2008 | 10:06 pm | History, Japan, My Grad School Life
I am taking Kim Brandt’s seminar on consumerism in (mostly) prewar Japan this semester. In this seminar, students organize 4 sessions by ourselves. Another student and I decided to assign readings on ‘the rural’ since both of us work on rural Japan, and ‘the rural’ seems to be treated as a separate subfield while ‘the urban’ is usually the default space of investigation when discussing Japanese history. It is indeed worth asking when we study the rural, and when we don’t, I think. We assigned the whole or chapters from:
柳宗悦『地方性の文化的価値』1940
柳田国男『町風田舎風』「都市と農村」 Ch.4, 1929
小林多喜二「不在地主」1929
Kim Brandt, Kingdom of Beauty, 2007
Kerry Smith, A Time of Crisis, 2001
Some of the large questions we asked are:
Combining the Smith reading and the Kobayashi Takiji novel with what we read on the department stores, café waitresses and exhibitions in the preceding weeks, we see that there was a huge gap between the urban consumer society and the devastated rural society in the late 20s and the 30s. Intellectuals like Yanagita and Yanagi, Agrarianism activists and the state at the time all adopted the dichotomy of the rural and the urban. But thinking about the great mobility of the population between the two and more information circulation, what exactly was this distinction about? — was it about materialistic differences, conceptual differences or differences in consciousness? Does Brandt’s book blur or solidify this dichotomy?
In the historiography of the history of Japan, too, the urban is the default space of analysis, and the rural is often defined as the Other in the same nation. So, for those urban intellectuals at the time, as well as for historians today, why and when does the rural Other become important, and where does the distinction between the urban and the rural exist? Finally, what is the use of the dichotomy for us, historians?
Although their approaches were somewhat different, both Yanagi and Yanagita found true national values in the rural villages. They were the authorities who determined what was valuable and what was not, and in many ways they treated the rural as the pure, simple, beautiful Other. It is very tempting for us to conclude that it was an example of Said’s Orientalism, taking place within the national framework. But maybe we should examine the idea of Orientalism a bit more carefully. For example, Yanagi thought that the rural was superior to the urban, and tried to project the national Self to the rural. Yanagita was critical of the pastoral romanticism in the literature, and he himself was caught in the dilemma of how scholars could escape urban-centered analytical mode. Is Orientalism a useful concept here, or not? Is it better just to see it as a part of modernity, rather than Orientalism? Finally, are we, as urban intellectuals, capable of escaping the urban-bias in general?
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09.22.2008 | 10:07 pm | Languages, My Grad School Life
I just got a certificate of Chinese language ability that should let me fulfill the department’s language requirements. To be honest, I haven’t spoken serious Chinese for three years so it was embarrassing to claim that “my Chinese is good” in my very rusty spoken Chinese, but anyways the instructor agreed with me that it would be better-off for me to review Chinese in Taiwan when I do dissertation research than taking classes while I am in the US. Phew! But our little conversation convinced me that I really need to study Chinese again.
I like studying languages and I would not mind taking Chinese classes at all if I weren’t taking many seminars right now. I am taking Mark Mazower’s class on comparative empires, in which I am learning a lot of new things (or in other words, I feel like an idiot for knowing very little about European empires), Chatterjee’s class on Hegemony and Power (meaning Gramsci and Foucault), Kim Brandt’s seminar on modern Japan’s consumerism, and then Japanese bibliography class, which is more like a series of workshops. I feel a little guilty for not taking any class on Korea this semester but I am really happy taking Chatterjee’s class instead. Finally someone is teaching me Gramsci (look at the shameless title of this blog!).
There is a new master’s program in International Global History in my university, starting this semester. I have talked to a few students in the program. They need to take 30 credits of classes in the first year here, and then spend another year at LSE in London. 30 credits of classes (languages don’t count) are A LOT of classes! It is not easy for them to get into very popular seminars since PhD students get a priority over them. It sounded like a very tough student life.
One of the IGH master’s students asked me how I am finding a balance between regional focus and comparative/global focus in deciding which classes to take. It is actually a big problem for me. With a broad regional speciality and broad thematic interests, I am everywhere. I think I will have to pay the price when I prepare for my oral exams for not focusing on a narrow area of study. The whole IGH field is experimental anyways, so we will see how I will turn out as an intellectual product of the program.
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09.8.2008 | 2:27 pm | Academic, History, Research, Taiwan
The main ‘research’ part of my paper looked at 12 issues of the journal 台湾教育 (Taiwan Kyōiku), published in 1940. The year 1940 was chosen out of a mere technical problem of accessibility to the materials – the Library of Congress only holds thirteen issues; one from 1928 and twelve from 1940. I wanted to explore the mentality of teachers, especially Taiwanese teachers, in Japanese schools, because Chen Peifeng argues that Taiwanese people engaged in ‘resistance’ through ‘acceptance’ of Japan’s modernity and education– i.e. selective assimilation. If Chen’s argument is right, teachers must have been in a very important position to decide what to accept and what to reject. I have a mixed opinion about this thesis and wanted to find teachers’ direct accounts. However, because of the limited access to primary sources while in the US, I could only find the official publication of the Taiwan Education Association (台湾教育会).
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Analysis of the 1940 issues of Taiwan Kyōiku (台湾教育) Journal
Taiwan Kyōiku was an official publication of the Taiwan Education Association (台湾教育会), and reported and discussed events, educational news, pedagogy, teachers’ experiences, speeches by presidents of the association and sometimes Governors-General of Taiwan between 1912 and 1943. The year 1940 was not a big turning point in colonial policy, but was in the middle of the kōminka movement, and was the year when the Japanese literacy rate among the Taiwanese exceeded 50% for the first time. The year before, leftist activists of the Romanization movement and the Esperanto movement, and other scholars were arrested for propagating a proletarian ideology in Japan. In October 1940, the Taisei Yokusan kai （大政翼賛会）, a league of political parties, was formed for total war mobilization, consolidating the fascist character of the Japanese imperial government. In this political and social atmosphere, how did the authors in the journal understand the specific role of teachers and education in Taiwan? How did they perceive the essence of the kokugo education within kōminka?
The 1940 issues of Taiwan Kyōiku start with a celebration of the anniversary of two thousand and six hundred Imperial Years (皇紀二千六百年), emphasizing the long history of the Japanese nation that proved its ‘superiority’ over others. The authors of celebratory articles emphasize the importance of education within total mobilization for further military advance (or ‘crusade’ 聖戦). Throughout the year, a number of memorial events took place, which Taiwan Kyōiku frequently advertised enthusiastically.
Kokugo (Japanese Language) and Japanese Spirituality
It is not surprising, in this context, that most of the contributors to the journal drew upon a connection between imperial spirit (皇国精神) and the kokugo education in all the twelve issues. Some of them emphasized the practical necessity to mobilize Taiwanese human resources. For example, at the annual Kokugo Convention (国語演習会), the Governor-General Kobayashi Seizō mentioned in his speech:
Today the empire is, under the chaotic international situation, mobilizing its total power to settle the incident [Japan’s aggression in China starting in 1937], and to realize the sacred project to revitalize Asia. Taiwan, as the basis for the southern advancement plan, bears a crucial mission, and the duty and responsibility of Taiwanese people are further increasing. In order to accomplish this grave mission, it is necessary to spread kokugo, and to improve their quality as imperial citizens.
Many other articles stress how kokugo embodies imperial spirituality. In an article that discusses the problems of the compulsory education, the author argues, “kokugo is a product of two thousand years of development of our Yamato race, and is the maternal incarnation (母體) of the Japanese spirit. It is most effective and relatively easy to instill national ideology if we let children directly experience national inspiration through kokugo.” A most meticulous investigation of the Japanese spirit expressed in kokugo was offered in the May issue, by an author called Nishioka Hideo. He first defines that the essence of the Japanese spirit is “an ideology that places the Emperor at the center and evolves based on the united ethnic consciousness,” which cherishes “the natural and beautiful development of various phenomena.” He continues by arguing that Japan, embracing this national spirit that developed through more than two thousand years of history, is unique in the world, and thus the language they speak possesses distinctive beauty. He provides a linguistic argument on the frequency of vowel usage and the absence of strong consonants that make the language sound bright, light and elegant. In addition to that, the rich variety of honorific forms, the flexibility of the sentence structure, and the power to absorb foreign vocabulary, he argues, all reveal the superior characteristics of the Japanese spirit. Nishioka insists that it is only the kokugo education that would make it possible to spiritually convert the Taiwanese in the kōminka movement.
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09.7.2008 | 9:13 pm | Academic, History, Research, Taiwan
Colonial education is one of the most popular research topics especially in Taiwanese academia, and I am afraid that I am very ignorant of the major literature in Taiwan. I will post a part of my term paper on colonial education in two parts here shamelessly even though this is not one of my proudest papers. It is just a personal blog, anyways, so I hope that readers will just enjoy whatever information useful for them.
Thank you, Mark, for your request.
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Colonial Education and Dōka in Taiwan
Historians agree on the fact that education in the colonies played a central role in the assimilation (dōka) program under Japanese imperialism, and was unique compared to other modern colonial experiences in the world in a number of ways. Patricia Tsurumi points out that “[w]ith the exception of the Americans in the Philippines, no other colonial power in Asia or elsewhere approached native education with anything like the seriousness of purpose of Japanese educators in Taiwan.” Even compared to the Philippine case, where American rulers invested more money on education, “the Japanese probably expended educational funds more effectively.” The effort and seriousness that Japanese colonial rulers demonstrated in colonial education reflect the importance of the dōka policy in Japan’s overall colonial strategy.
The dōka policy has often been viewed as a rhetorical and ideological tactic of the Japanese state for governing the colonies and opposing the Western domination of the world. Leo Ching, for example, argues that, by the 1920s, “dōka had consolidated itself as the rhetoric of the Japanese Empire for pacifying the liberal tendencies in colonial Taiwan and differentiating itself from Western colonialism.” However, for education policy makers in the frontier of colonial Taiwan, the assimilation and Japanization of native people were emphasized not merely as a rhetorical tactic, but as a major goal from the very beginning. The first chief of educational affairs in Taiwan, Izawa Shūji, put it this way in 1895:
In order to maintain the order of the new territory… , it is necessary not only to conquer it with force, but also to conquer the spirit of the people, to make them abandon the old nation’s dreams, and to instill a new spirit in them as Japanese subjects. In other words, it is crucial to Japanize them. We need to convert their thoughts and assimilate them with Japanese thoughts, making them subjects of the same nation. It is, therefore, the duty of public education to conquer the spirit of the people [in Taiwan].
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09.7.2008 | 5:45 am | My Grad School Life
In my opinion, being a graduate student is an eternal journey to find the most comfortable place for reading books. Music is important, not only for aesthetic reasons but to keep myself reading. Over the last few days, all I did is ordering books for the new semester and buying new songs specifically for reading background. When I started a phd in political science three years ago, it was a bunch of post-rock (?) bands (Explosion in the Sky, Mogwai, etc) and classical music that let me survive the first year. I tried various kinds of music for the reading purpose since then, but it seems I am settling down with very quiet ‘ambient’ (whatever it means) like Brian Eno and Sigur Ros, and a bit more electronic pop kind of music including Broadcast, Stereolab, Air, etc. I downloaded new albums so it feels like I am fully loaded for this semester.
I wonder what other people listen to when they read.
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08.30.2008 | 5:30 pm | Korea, Languages, Taiwan, Travel
One of very important reasons to stay being a student and to work in academia is the long summer (and winter) vacation. It is not really a ‘vacation’ since we usually have lots of work, but we have a chance to become a total vagabond for three months every year.
I fully enjoyed my summer 2008. First I participated in a graduate conference at UCLA on China studies, where I presented my paper on colonial education in Taiwan. I flew to Taiwan, helped Michi to settle in, ate a lot of xiaolongbao and my favorite food there. I am still in love with Taiwan, and I always want my friends to enjoy their stays in Taiwan, too. I am very glad to hear that Michi has also developed a personal attachment to this amazing island over the summer. I also flew back to Japan to visit my parents in Takarazuka, and also made a weekend trip to Tokyo to see a number of friends who had just got married, had a baby etc.
My main goal this summer was to improve my Korean to the extent to which I can manage academic discussions with Korean professors. Last two summers, I attended university affiliated language courses (at Seoul National and Yonsei), which was probably a good idea since I was still studying very basic grammar and expressions. This time, however, trusting my ability to motivate myself to study hard without any group pressure, I decided to work with a personal tutor, make language exchange friends, and read academic materials by myself, instead of going to one of these language programs.
I have to say, this was a brilliant idea. My teacher, Bong sonsengnim, was a very experienced professional instructor and linguist. She is fluent in Japanese, and has lived in Japan and the US so she knew common traps for Japanese and English speakers. I studied intensively with her, and ended up doing a lot of writing exercises. I did not intend to emphasize writing ability but it helped me (and my teacher) a lot in learning subtle differences between expressions and mistakes that I tend to make frequently, and in internalizing new vocabulary.
I also did language exchange with four students at Yonsei University. Sookyeong is starting her phd at Cornell this fall. We were supposed to do language exchange between English and Korean, but it soon turned into discussions in whatever language we feel like using, since she also got the same combination of languages that I have. We share lots of similar interests and ideas on approach to history and academia, and I could not help but get excited every time I see her, imagining us collaborating together on publications and conference panels in the future. Sookyeong introduced me two of her friends, Hongsuk and Mihyeon. Both of them are studying modern Korean history. We strictly stuck to an hour-based Korean-Japanese language exchange style (unlike with Sookyeong). We mostly discussed academic subjects or academic life in Korea. The other language exchange friend was Yelee, whom my teacher introduced to me. She studies historical linguistics and will go study in Japan soon. She is doing comparative research on changes in Japanese and in Korean during modernization (if I understood correctly), which sounded very interesting to me. I learned a lot from my language exchange friends, and thanks to them I grew significantly more attached to Seoul this summer. Another good thing about academia is that, since it is reasonably a small world, I am sure that we will meet each other again, and can help each other from wherever we are.
I read quite a bit in Korean, too. I collected a number of dissertations and master’s theses related to my topic at the National Library, and Sookyeong introduced me major works in Korea that I should know of. It is always hard to stop myself from buying more than I could read the next year or so at bookstores in Asia.
I spent the last 10 days of my vacation in Bali, Indonesia. Colm was in Yogyakarta studying the language for the whole summer, so we decided to gather in Bali. Bali is full of European people, and I assume it does not look like the rest of the country at all.
Putting aside many sociological questions that occurred to me about westernization of one part of the country, it was simply a relaxing vacation for both of us. We traveled to Ubud, Mt. Batur, and Gili Trawangan. We could see one small part of extremely diverse natural environments in Indonesia when we did sunrise trekking to Mt. Batur. Gili islands are tiny islands (north of Lombok), and have beautiful beaches where we just relaxed and snorkeled. One guy was setting up a tent on the beach. It is actually a great idea to bring your own tent and stay there on Gilis and use shower and bathrooms at some of the diver’s cafes. We were also stunned by the beautiful view of mountainous Lombok Island (next to Bali). Maybe we will explore Lombok next time…! Mental note: Bring more cash to Gili islands since things are more expensive and there is no ATM on the islands. I uploaded some pictures here.
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07.27.2008 | 3:00 am | Feminism, Korea, Travel
I just heard an incredible story about some side effects of the Special Anti-Prostitution Law put into effect in 2004 in South Korea.
My friends and I were discussing the fact that there are very few cocktail bars any more in high-end downtown areas in Seoul. My friend told me that it is because, as a result of the 2004 Anti-Prostition law, female workers (and capital in the prostitution industry, I assume) rushed to other industries, including hostess bars. There is a universal law that cocktails could not be expensive enough to pay the human cost in hostess bars, so many turned into bottle charge bars where hostesses consume a considerable amount of their customers’ bottles and charge them extra for serving at the table. According to my friend, there has been a huge increase in the number of ‘perverse’ bars (bikini bars etc). In high-end areas, this system functions because it is usually government officials and corporate businessmen who regularly go to these expensive bars.
Another phenomenon that was triggered partly by the 2004 law was sex trafficking towards abroad. The Asia Foundation seems to have held a conference on this issue. They discussed at the conference that, combined with the credit card debt crisis among young people in Korea around the same time, many female college students in debt were recruited to serve in the sex industry in Japan for a summer in return for clearing their debts. He told us an episode of how one girl and her family escaped from sex trafficking to Japan, which was incredible…
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07.24.2008 | 1:44 am | Academic, Languages, My Grad School Life
I blame the path dependency in our citation rules, especially on foreign sources. Why do we need to romanize Japanese, Chinese and Korean titles? If you cannot read these languages, romanized titles are not useful at all, anyways. We provide rough translations of the titles. Why don’t they let us just type in foreign languages.
Ok. Japanese and Chinese romanizations are pretty straightforward. But Korean is so hard to romanize, and when you do, it is really hard to read it back as Korean. Please, please, please, please, someone who has the authority to change the system. The current citation system is totally Euro-centric, and has no consideration for other languages which do not use roman characters. Help us save a lot of time that we currently spend to make a romanized bibliography which is no use to anyone.
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