Japanese Authorities Research Articles

The initial period of the sino-japanese war 1937-1939

The article provides political assessments of the attitude of German military specialists to the processes of the initial period of the Sino-Japanese War. The authors are based on previously little-known documents from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, some of these documents are put into circulation for the first time. The article reflects the struggle of ideologies on the territory of China during its military clash with Japan. The authors, based on German documents, show the harsh anti-communist nature of Japanese policy in the occupied Chinese territories, and also address the problem of Japanese chauvinism in the late 1930s. The complexity of relations between the Japanese military and representatives of the political and economic elites of China at the initial stage of the Sino-Japanese War led to the support of the Chinese bourgeoisie for the Kuomintang regime, which weakened the position of Chinese collaborators. The article shows the failure of the strategy of the Japanese occupation authorities aimed at splitting the Chinese society. The article reflects the role of Alexander von Falkenhausen at the initial stage of the Sino-Japanese War. The authors highlight the issues of strategic miscalculations of the Japanese high command and shortcomings in the strategy of Chiang Kai-shek.

Little-known Facts about the Activities of Consul A. T. Belchenko in Yingkou

The article is devoted to the activities of the Russian Imperial Consulate in Yingkou (Niuzhuang) in the period from 1899 to 1909. Promoting Russian interests in South Manchuria, Russia paid great attention to the acquisition of real estate in this open Chinese port on the banks of the Liaohe River. At the initial stage, one of the main issues of the foreign mission was to assist in the acquisition of land for the construction of the Russian concession, as well as in the construction of the Yingkou station of the Yingkou — Dashiqiao branch of the CER. During the period of the Provisional Russian Administration, the building of the Russian Imperial Consulate, a doctor’s house and a bacteriological station were built here, the construction of the Mayor’s House began, and at the same time land plots were acquired for various household needs. The successful expansion of Russia in this region was disrupted by the Russian-Japanese War (1904–1905) and its results. Starting from the end of July 1904 to the end of November 1905, only one Russian citizen lived in Yingkou. The Russian Imperial Consulate which was reopened in December 1905 actively dealt with the issues of returning consular real estates and private property of its citizens. The Japanese military authorities, who were in charge of Yingkou until November 23, 1906, interfered in every possible way with this process. After the return of the city to the Chinese authorities, the Russian buildings were occupied by Chinese officials. However, thanks to the professional and well-coordinated actions of Russian diplomats in China and Japan, in particular the employees of the consulate in Yingkou A. T. Belchenko, V. K. Nikitin, Ambassador to Japan Y. (G.) P. Bakhmetev, delegate to China D. D. Pokotilov, the Russian consular property in Yingkou was returned to its rightful owners. Of course, the main role in this complex matter was played by Consul A. T. Belchenko, who, after solving the tasks assigned to him in Yingkou, was transferred to the consulate in Fuzhou. The choice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was determined by the high assessment of his diplomatic service.

일본의 총력전 체제와 조선에 대한 방공(防共)정책

This research examines Japan's total war system during the war from the aspect of anti-communist policy. Among them, Japan judged that the threat of the Communist Party was more serious in Korea than in Japan, and analyzed that it implemented an anti-communist policy in Korea that combined the judicial Peace Preservation Law and the cultural Korean Anti-Communist Association. The Soviet Revolution of 1917 had a great impact on the Western nations, and in 1920, it became a fashion in Europe and the United States to enact security legislation in order to prevent forces that would cooperate with the Soviet Union and promote domestic revolutionary movements. Japan enacted the Radical Social Movement Control Law in the early 1920s, and in 1925 it enacted the Peace Preservation Law. And Japan tried to deal with communism not only with the Soviet-Japanese Basic Treaty. This Peace Preservation Law was applied to suppress nationalist and socialist-affiliated independence movements in Korea. In Korea, not only communism, but also national and independence movements had to be suppressed and cracked down, so the Peace Preservation Law was applied to all cases.
 Also, in the 1930s, Japan began to feel the effects of the Great Depression, and as a result, the labor movement and the peasant movement grew to an unprecedented scale. Then, in 1936, he submitted a bill to revise the Peace Preservation Law and passed the ‘Thought Criminal Probation Law’. In 1938, Japan began to advocate the need for a complete revision of the Peace Preservation Law, mainly through on-site ideological examinations. This is because Japan recognized that maintaining security in the rear was the most important issue in the process of developing a total war system following the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. Such demands resulted in a complete revision of the Peace Preservation Law in 1941. At that time, Japan had an overwhelming number of cases of applying the Peace Preservation Law in Korea compared to other colonies. This was due to the perception of the Japanese authorities that the geographical and social conditions of Korea were more influenced by communism than Japan. In addition to this, on August 15, 1938, the Korean Anti-Communist Association was established to thoroughly eradicate communist ideology, and carried out anti-communist education through various projects. In this way, Japan tried to prevent the spread of communism to Korea under the total war system during the war through the Peace Preservation Law and the Korean Anti-Communist Association.

Temporal evolution of plutonium concentrations and isotopic ratios in the Ukedo - Takase Rivers draining the Difficult-To-Return zone in Fukushima, Japan (2013–2020)

In 2011, the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident released significant quantities of radionuclides into the environment. Japanese authorities decided to progressively reopen the Difficult-To-Return Zone after the decontamination of priority reconstruction zones. These areas include parts of the initially highly contaminated municipalities located to the north of the FDNPP, including Namie Town, an area drained by the Ukedo and Takase Rivers. Eleven years after the accident, research focused on the spatial distribution of plutonium (Pu) and radiocesium (Cs) isotopes at contrasted individual locations. To complement previous results, the current research was conducted on flood sediment deposits collected at the same locations after major flooding events during eleven fieldwork campaigns organised between 2013 and 2020 at the outlet of the Ukedo and Takase Rivers (n = 22).The results highlighted a global decrease of the Pu and 137Cs contents in sediment with time during the abandonment phase in the region, from 2013 (238.20 fg g−1) to 2020 (4.28 fg g−1). Furthermore, based on the analysis of the 240Pu/239Pu isotopic ratios, the plutonium transiting these rivers (range: 0.166 – 0.220) essentially originated from the global fallout (0.180 ± 0.014 (Kelley et al., 1999)). Sediment showed contrasted properties in the two investigated rivers, which is likely mainly the result of the occurrence of Ogaki Dam on upper sections of the Ukedo River as it strongly impacts the material supply from this river to the Pacific Ocean. A statistical analysis highlighted the strong correlation between Pu activity concentrations and 137Cs activities in both rivers, confirming that both radionuclides are transported with a similar pathway. Despite it was detected early after the accident (2011–2013), the current research demonstrates that plutonium originating from FDNPP is no longer detected in these rivers draining the Difficult-To-Return Zone at the onset of the reopening of the area to its former inhabitants.

Migration Policy in the Context of Demographic Development of Japan

Remaining one of the largest economies in the world, Japan is experiencing a deep social and economic crisis with deteriorating demographic dynamics, that means total population decline, a reduction in the number of newborns with an increase in life expectancy, and the transformation of marital and family values and priorities towards the Western European model. The current situation is seen by the Japanese authorities as an opportunity for a qualitative change in national economy, the disclosure of its potential, improving the quality of life of the population and achieving other national goals like modernization of Japanese productive capacities and services through the introduction of large-scale robotics. The Japanese government is implementing demographic and migration reforms and introducing targeted support measures for the Japanese population and companies. Among these measures, there are fundamentally new and at the same time controversial solutions for the nationalistic Japanese society, such as the weakening of migration legislation regarding foreign labor. Now it is planned to temporarily open access to foreign citizens from the Southeast Asian countries with a similar ethno-cultural composition to the Japanese labor market in order to fill a lack of both highly skilled and low-skilled workers within the states.

Kawaii: fenomén roztomilosti v japonské kultuře a společnosti

The main objective of this study is to introduce the Czech reader to the hitherto unexplored phenomenon of cuteness (kawaii) in Japanese culture and society. The term kawaii, which is used to describe cute objects (toddlers, animals, mascots, toys), represents one of the most culturally persuasive aesthetics of the new millennium and is a significant economic driver of Japan’s cultural industry (manga, anime, fashion, music). In other words, kawaii is not a temporary fashion trend – it is virtually a ‘standard aesthetic’ that has permeated all areas of Japanese everyday life. In this study, I focus on three thematic units, namely psychology, aesthetics, and history of cuteness. Within psychology, I analyze kawaii as an intense emotional response to some significant stimulus that triggers a ‘maternal’ desire. Within aesthetics, I firstly focus on the stylized Japanese script, which started the kawaii fever in 1970s. Secondly, I point out the main specifics of Japanese product design with kawaii features and explain how kawaii aesthetics permeated the field of Japanese fashion. Thirdly, I focus on various mascots and animal characters that represent the main platform of kawaii aesthetics today, and demonstrate how Japanese authorities and institutions utilize this aesthetic to maintain the status quo. Finally, I offer a brief history of Japanese cuteness, which began in court literature of the 10th century and culminated in the second half of the 20th century.

Japan’s energy policy in the context of the energy transition and the "sanction wars"

Japan is one of the largest economies in the world and at the same time one of the most technologically advanced countries. These two factors, coupled with the country’s insular position, determine the traditional dependence of Japanese energy on imports of raw materials and energy carriers. The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011 and the stagnation of administrative regulation of domestic energy markets led to a rethinking by the Japanese authorities of the previous paradigm of national energy policy. This is reflected in the policy documents that consolidate the main provisions of the Government’s energy policy for the next few years. In pursuance of these government programs, new technological solutions are being introduced and the production of energy from renewable sources is growing. At the same time, the authorities carry out the energy transition smoothly, guided by practical considerations, and not by “green” ideologies. Concurrently, an administrative and legal reform of the intra-Japanese energy markets is being implemented. The growth of green energy generation does not detract from the fact that Japan will remain a major importer of fossil hydrocarbons in the long term.

The Manchukuo Young Girl Envoys and their visit to Japan: an underestimated prelude of Japan–Manchukuo interactions, June 22–July 12, 1932

AbstractThis study analyzes the little known Manchukuo Young Girl Envoys – Manchukuo's first government-appointed diplomats – and their official visit to Japan between June 22 and July 12, 1932. Existing studies on the Envoys tend to interpret them from an angle of contemporary Japanese people's national sentiment and deem their visit to Japan a show that the Japanese authorities in Manchukuo and Japan orchestrated together, to render Japan a strong world power. This study problematizes that view and considers the Envoys more of a product of intense power struggles inside Manchukuo's highest Japanese ruling strata, suggesting that Manchukuo's decision-making circle in 1932 was far from being a unified entity. Examining the Envoys' interactions in Japan and comparing relevant Japanese- and Chinese-language news coverage on them, this study argues for the possibility of tracing the intertwined national ideals of Manchukuo's Chinese and Japanese government leaders based on the inspiring example of the Envoys.

Development of Monoclonal Antibody Therapeutics for Alzheimer's Disease

Background: In a previous review article in the Taiwanese Journal of Psychiatry (Takeda and Tagami: Taiwanese J. Psychiatry 2020; 34: 152-61), we gave the development status of drugs for Alzheimer's disease, presented a relatively pessimistic view, and highlighted the difficulties in their development. Methods: Since I have witnessed some encouraging development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics against Alzheimer's disease, I have decided to contribute this article. I reviewed new data from published journals and from internal reports of pharmaceutical companies. I have also offered some explanations and comments. Results: In 2021, I saw promising clinical trial results reporting the use of aducanumab, a monoclonal antibody treatment against amyloid β protein, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a decision for expedited approval of aducanumab. But the results of aducanumab's phase III clinical trials were considered by some to be insufficient for the approval, and the FDA's decision was controversial. The European and Japanese regulatory authorities did not approve aducanumab. In September 2022, however, more promising results were announced from Phase III clinical trials of another monoclonal antibody, lecanemab. Conclusion: In this review, I have recounted the state of the arts of drugs for treating dementia and highlighted remarkable recent progress in the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease.

Japanese and Jews in Shanghai

Abstract The actions of the Japanese government and military before and during the Holocaust saved tens of thousands of Jews in Shanghai from murder by Japan’s Nazi allies. Because the Japanese were brutal aggressors in East Asia, because their treatment of the Chinese population was genocidal, because the details and organization of Japanese sexual abuse of Korean women are still matters of international dispute, approaches to the Japanese treatment of European Jewish refugees begin from a negative standpoint. Japanese authorities have not investigated or revealed these actions, and Japanese academics have only just begun to consider this issue worthy of study. Discussion of Japanese policy in Shanghai is often dominated by evidence of antisemitism in Japan, the creation of the Designated Area in 1943 to confine Jewish refugees, and the brutally officious behavior of Kanoh Ghoya. The issuance of life-saving visas by Chiune Sugihara, Japanese Vice-Consul in Kovno, is treated as exceptional humanitarianism. This study focuses on the decisions and behavior of Japanese authorities toward European Jewish refugees in Japan and in Shanghai which allowed them to survive.

Living with the Enemies: Japanese Imperialism, Protestant Christianity, and Marxist Socialism in Colonial Korea, 1919–1945

During the Korean War, conflicts between right-wing Protestants and radical socialists escalated and erupted into massacres, killing thousands of Korean civilians. Such extreme violence and tumultuous events afterwards—including Korea’s division into two separate states and the Cold War system—eclipsed the imbricated interactions between Protestant Christianity and socialism under Japanese colonial rule. While focusing on Korean Protestantism and socialism to probe their contest and compromise for survival, this article traces the tripartite relationship among the followers of Protestant Christianity, Marxist socialism, and Japanese imperialism as it evolved throughout colonial Korea between 1910 and 1945. These 35 years comprised a period of multiple possibilities for interaction among Korean Protestants, socialists, and Japanese authorities in the changing global environment. The international organizations with which they were associated influenced Korean Protestants and Marxist socialists while facing the common crisis of Japan’s assimilation. Namely, the Korean Protestant churches affiliated with Western missionaries’ denomination headquarters in their home countries and world Christian conferences, while the Korean socialists allied with Moscow’s Comintern and other radical political movements abroad. Within this broader context, these two religious and ideological forces competed for supremacy, cooperated in a joint struggle against the colonial regime, and antagonized each other over their divergent worldviews. By examining their complicated tripartite relationship, this essay comprehensively depicts the dynamic history of the Western-derived religious and political doctrines meeting a non-Western empire in a foreign land.

능력주의의 식민지적 기원 - 조선일보 독자란에 나타난 입신주의

This paper aims to trace the historical origins of meritocracy in Korea back to the perception and thoughts of the general public during the colonial period. To this end, the classified advertisement section of Chosun Ilbo titled 〈Dokja Sagyoshil (Readers’ Lounge)〉, which started in 1936, is analyzed. 〈Dokja Sagyoshil〉 printed classified ads submitted by the readers on matters ranging from job search, help-wanted, buying, selling and trading of goods to exchange of practical information.BRWith any hopes for progressive social change blocked under the colonial rule, frustrated young elites or those who aspired to become one flocked to what seemed to be the path to success, leading to power and capital. However, it was extremely difficult for the young people to actually succeed; it was almost impossible for the people of Choseon to pass various qualification exams offered by the Japanese colonial authorities and gain credentials. The young generation of Choseon deliberately ignored this reality, in which they were discriminated, and stubornly worshiped the illusionary mantra of “work hard, succeed and make a name for oneself in the world.” But the trapped and frustrated young generation of Choseon had no escape. The blind pursuit of literature and art among the young people could be understood as an expression of the same frustration, only on the other side of the spectrum. Success stories, decorated with academic credentials and passing of state qualification exams, were far out of reach for most young people of Choseon at the time. The meritocracy observed in Korea nowadays clutches on to the idea that ‘fairness’ must prevail, even though it does not translate into equality. This mirrors the popular hype over exams being seen as a panacea for success in the 1930s, where the harsh reality of the colonial rule was brushed under the carpet and the mantra of ‘success achieved through one’s hard work’ heavily hung above everyone’s heads.

일제강점기 강제동원피해사건에 대한 손해배상청구 문제 검토

The incidents of forced mobilization during the Japanese occupation occurred between 1938 and 1945, about 77 years ago. Victims of forced mobilization during the Japanese colonial period and their bereaved families were unable to receive compensation for damages from Japanese companies because diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and Japan had been cut off until June 22, 1965. After the normalization of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and Japan, the “Agreement on the Settlement of Problem concerning Property and Claims and the Economic Cooperation between the Republic of Korea and Japan”(so-called ‘the Claims Agreement’) was concluded between the Governments of the Republic of Korea and Japan. But its contents had not been disclosed. It had generally been accepted in Korea that the Korean national’s individual claims against Japan or Japanese nationals had been comprehensively resolved in accordance with the Claims Agreement. Accordingly, it was still difficult for the victims and their bereaved families to claim damages from Japanese companies. Then, in January 2005, documents related to the Claims Agreement were made public in Korea. On August 26, 2005, the public-private joint committee expressed an official view that the Korean national’s individual rights to claim damages due to anti-humanitarian acts involving Japanese national authority or illegal acts directly related to Japanese colonial rule could not be considered resolved by the Claims Agreement. And on October 30, 2018, the Supreme Court finally confirmed the jurisprudence of upholding the claims of the victims of forced mobilization during the Japanese colonial period and their bereaved families for damages against Japanese companies through its en banc Judgment 2013Da61381. This paper focuses on the legal issues in the trial process and the judgment of the domestic courts until the damage caused by forced mobilization is recognized as compensation for damages due to illegal activities against Japanese companies. In addition, I would like to present countermeasures against the Japanese companies’ defense that the claims of the victims forced mobilization during the Japanese colonial period and their bereaved families were not exercised within a reasonable period of time related to the Principle of Good Faith.

Stalemate within Stalemate: The 1923 Changsha Incident

On June 1, 1923, Japanese soldiers in Changsha, Hunan, opened fire on and killed two anti-Japanese protesters seeking to prevent the landing of Japanese goods. Through a comprehensive review of the “Changsha Incident,” this article explores the interplay between local and central diplomatic power during the high tide of provincialism. The incident demonstrates how the autonomous Hunan government, faced with the rise of anti-imperialism in local societies and the central government’s inability to fend off foreign coercion, mediated between the local parliament, the central diplomatic office, and Japanese authorities for a solution to the case. By unpacking the multilayered power dimensions of the time, this article demonstrates that the interactions between local and central diplomatic offices were characterized by both cooperation and distrust. Meanwhile, attempts to reach a negotiated settlement over the incident hinged more on competing domestic agendas than on diplomacy. Conflicts between Hunan provincial authorities, a lack of coordination between diplomatic officials in Hunan and Beijing, civilian elites’ distrust of military officials, and rivalry between regional warlords all combined to hinder progress in negotiations.

Pharmaceutical markets in Japan and the United States

Although the United States and Japan are the two largest markets for branded pharmaceuticals, their structures and market performance are quite different. Like its European counterparts, a Japanese government ministry sets the prices paid to national and international drug companies. In contrast, US prices are set largely through negotiations between private health insurers and drug companies. Related to these different structures are quite different results. In particular, for pharmaceuticals sold in both countries, US prices are about twice what they are in Japan. Since many of the same companies sell pharmaceuticals in both countries, these differences require an explanation. A frequent one offered is that Japanese authorities exercise their inherent monopsony power to obtain the low prices, which private insurers in the United States are unable to impose. While correct on the surface, this explanation fails to confront deeper policy issue concerned with promoting public health. Because pharmaceutical research and development is a global public good, there are strong incentives for buyers to “free ride” on the outlays of others. Under those circumstances, global R&D outlays, based on country-specific incentives, would be set below optimal levels, and the supply price of substantial pharmaceutical innovation would not be covered. Because the US market is more than half the world total, its incentive structure is fundamentally different from that of Japan. Indeed, higher US drug prices, which drive worldwide incentives, are needed to promote current numbers of new pharmaceuticals introduced in both countries.

Overcoming the Fukushima Wastewater Crisis: What the Japanese Authorities Could Do to Address Opposing Views.

In April 2021, the Japanese authorities' announcement of their decision to release processed wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean over 30 y, beginning in 2023, triggered strong domestic and international opposition. Failure to handle this situation tactfully can lead to public disorder, civil disobedience, loss of trust in the authorities, and even diplomatic sanctions. In this article, we explain the underlying reasons behind this resistance, and we offer some strategic methods that the Japanese authorities can deploy to address opposing views and overcome the Fukushima wastewater crisis.

China's Muslims and Japan's Empire: Centering Islam in World War II by Kelly A. Hammond

Reviewed by: China's Muslims and Japan's Empire: Centering Islam in World War II by Kelly A. Hammond Selçuk Esenbel (bio) China's Muslims and Japan's Empire: Centering Islam in World War II. By Kelly A. Hammond. University of North Carolina Press, 2020. xviii, 294 pages. $95.00, cloth; $29.95, paper, $22.99, E-book. In China's Muslims and Japan's Empire: Centering Islam in World War II, Kelly Hammond examines the Japanese empire's cultivation of China's [End Page 453] Muslims—primarily Sino-Muslims—amidst the multiethnic composition of the Japanese-occupied territories in China. Identified as regional collaborators in East Asia, Sino-Muslims were also designated as representatives of Japan's interests in the wider world of Islam beyond East Asia, reaching out to Muslim communities in South East Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa through their longstanding transnational network across the Muslim world. The book's first chapter discusses Japan's growing interest in Sino-Muslims from the Meiji period through the puppet regime of Manchukuo until the end of World War II. The second chapter exposes the difficult situation of Sino-Muslims "sitting on a bamboo fence" between the Chinese Nationalists and the Japanese empire. The third chapter situates Sino-Muslims in the Japanese empire's Islam policy projects to "undermine Soviet Communism and Western imperialism" (p. 109)—projects such as presenting Japan as the savior of Islam, the 1938 opening of the Tokyo Mosque, and providing haven to anticolonial and anti-imperialist Muslims and to Tatar Muslims. The latter were officially designated as Japan's Muslims. The Japanese authorities built mosques, erected schools for the education of Sino-Muslim men and women, and sponsored the 1938 Sino-Muslim religious pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca and Medina and the pilgrimages of Japanese Muslim agents during the 1930s. The government formed the Greater Japan Islamic League (Dai Nippon Kaikyō Kyōkai) in Tokyo in 1938 for Islamoriented public relations propaganda, with General Hayashi Senjurō as its president and the Russian Muslim Tatar religious cleric-activist Abdurresid Ibrahim as the Muslim "face" of the organization. In 1937 Japanese authorities had already founded the All China Muslim League in Beijing with Wang Ruilan as chairman and Takagaki Shinzō as the Japanese advisor. Chapter 4 moves on to the deployment of Sino-Muslims in Japan's aspirational empire in regions beyond East Asia, discussing the reports of the Greater Japan League which argued in favor of using Sino-Muslims as a "model" for modern Muslims and as a commercial network to sell tea in the Middle East and North Africa as part of Japanese "cultural diplomacy." The final chapter 5 and the conclusion link Japan's policy toward Islam with fascist entanglements, whereby "Islamic spaces and overlapping interests" (p. 183) tied policies of the Japanese empire to those of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy within the global fascist project. The book concludes that both the Chinese Nationalists and the Chinese Communists were in their postwar regimes impacted by Japan's Sino-Muslim policies factoring in the formation of Sino-Muslims as an ethnic community—Hui minzu. It ends with an epilogue on lessons of history, addressing the current violent and repressive Chinese oppression of Uyghurs. Highlighting the connection of Sino-Muslims to imperial Japan's prewar "Islam policy" (frequently termed kaikyō seisaku in the writings of [End Page 454] Japanese Pan-Asianist intellectuals such as Ōkawa Shūmei), Hammond makes particular use of the photographs, journals, and policy reports of the Greater Japan Islamic League, the Japanese government's propaganda and networking agency targeting Muslim lands near and far. Many publications on Islam in Japan were written by the first generation of Japan's own Islamic studies experts. These included the Arabist scholar Kobayashi Hajime, who was educated in Egypt and became an instructor in the Army Academy during the war; Tanaka Ippei, an expert on Chinese Muslims and interpreter for the Imperial Army; and the Japanese Muslim Suzuki Takeshi, who participated in and wrote about the Japanese Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. Hammond tapped other rich materials deposited in Waseda University's Dai Nippon Kaikyō Kyōkai database, including the journals Isuramu (Islam) and...

Seeds of Control: Japan's Empire of Forestry in Colonial Korea by David Fedman

Reviewed by: Seeds of Control: Japan's Empire of Forestry in Colonial Korea by David Fedman Robert Winstanley-Chesters Seeds of Control: Japan's Empire of Forestry in Colonial Korea by David Fedman. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2020. Pp. xvii + 292. $40.00 hardcover, $40.00 e-book. "The mountain ranges in Korea cover more than half the total area of the country. Owing to indiscriminate felling of trees without public supervision, which was practiced for a long time past, most of the mountain slopes … have become denuded of trees."1 Traditionally, academic histories of Korean forests almost inevitably start with the assertions of the Japanese colonial authorities, such as this quotation from a report published by Tokyo's famous precolonial Resident-General Itō Hirobumi 伊藤博文 in 1907. In this colonial narrative, Korean forest history, in comparison with Japan's, was not auspicious. The Chosŏn dynasty bequeathed only degraded forests and mountains, covered not in trees but in vividly red soil. Japan has a long history of appointing forest wardens (yamamori 山守) and timber magistrates (zaimokuishi bugyō 材木石奉行) to quantify and survey national, regional, and local [End Page 158] timber resources. In comparison, "the ownership of forests" in Korea was historically ambiguous.2 When it comes to environmental history, these colonial presumptions became commonsense knowledge globally; they have been both internalized by Koreans and projected onto postcolonial Korean narratives about the peninsula's own forests. This intellectual inheritance from the colonial period means that to most academic readers, Park Chung-hee's 박정희 efforts at greening South Korea, through the New Village movement (K. Saemaŭl undong 새마을운동) and other projects in the 1960s and 1970s, are a huge surprise and feel in some way counter to the grain of Korean history. The barren slopes close to population centers in North Korea, with their damaged and depleted ecologies, are what we expect when it comes to Korean forest spaces. This unbalanced narrative inherited from pre-1945 prejudices is of course not true. It was never true. But academic writing is only recently beginning to find a more nuanced and empirical direction. While Conrad Totman's masterful 1989 book outlines in beautiful, intricate detail the minutiae of pre-Meiji Japanese forestry, we have waited until now for a piece of work that does the same in Korean history in English.3 David Fedman's Seeds of Control aims for a historical frame closer to our present time than Totman's, but it shares similar ambitions. It is worth saying at the outset that Fedman's work is the first in an emergent body of work in Korean environmental history. John Lee's doctoral work on Chosŏn's "kingdom of pines" sets the tone for a complete reconfiguration of Korea's forest history: Lee illuminates the reality that Korea had a long history of coherent forest management revolving around red pine (Pinus densiflora) and black pine (Pinus thunbergii), which were perhaps not as practically attractive as the hardwoods most important and traditional to Japan.4 Fedman's book beautifully plays off colonial horror on Korea's alien red soil, as much as it plays on James Scott's words for its title: if states have to see in a particular way to assert political claims and their legitimacy, then they have to seed in a similar way, both agriculturally [End Page 159] and arboreally.5 Seeds of Control explores the various processes by and through which Japanese imperialism constructed a particular vision of modernity on Korean forest landscapes. As with most developmental narratives related to colonial Korea, the approach Fedman describes does not apply to the later period of total-war mobilization, when all the peninsula's resources, including its trees, served Tokyo's military strategy. Fedman's work is most fascinating for the unexpected glitches in the colonial system it describes. Just like the colonial administration, Japanese scientists were unimpressed by Koreans' love for red pine. Pine associations (K. songgye 松契), Korea's traditional institutions for local forest management, were regarded with suspicion and deemed ripe for modernization. According to the Japanese, "Songgye had failed to curb deforestation on a national scale … precisely because of their parochialism. Their legacy was atomized pockets of protected...

Christian Sorcerers on Trial: Records of the 1827 Osaka Incident by Fumiko Miyazaki et al.

Reviewed by: Christian Sorcerers on Trial: Records of the 1827 Osaka Incident by Fumiko Miyazaki et al. Avery Morrow Keywords Japan, sorcery, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, fumie, persecution fumiko miyazaki, kate wildman nakai, AND mark teeuwen, TRANS. Christian Sorcerers on Trial: Records of the 1827 Osaka Incident. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. Pp. 408. From the 1620s until the 1860s, Christianity was a mysterious banned sect in Japan, known to the common people chiefly as something they had to denounce and abhor. Most people had to affiliate themselves with a Buddhist temple to prove their disavowal of this unknown foreign religion; some had to swear oaths, and in the former Christian hotspot of Nagasaki, people were called regularly to local administrative offices to trample on images of Christ and Mary, called fumie. For one group of peasants in the 1820s, though, Christianity became a source of magical power. For the first time in English, Christian Sorcerers on Trial tells their stories, filtered through confessions to their prosecutors exacted under torture, as well the way their underground circle became rumor and legend in Edo salons. This book is a translation of primary sources buttressed by some scholarly commentary that situates it within Japanese history. The first section contains [End Page 158] confessions offered by the sorcerers, including some detective work and cross-analysis by the prosecutors. The second section is about the difficult process of sentencing, showing how the prosecutors had to step around sensitive political issues in their handling of Christianity. The final section translates the stray references to this case in contemporary literature. The editors offer background on the origins of each of the documents translated, and as an account of the incident the book feels fairly complete. The originator of "Christian sorcery" was apparently a man named Mizuno Gunki, already deceased by the time the group was uncovered. The Osaka prosecutor was unable to ascertain his origins, other than that he had moved to the city from somewhere else. He owned a few illicitly imported Chinese texts about Christianity (some by Matteo Ricci), and from 1818 onwards he carried with him a scroll bearing images of Mary and Jesus, but there is no evidence that he knew anything about the ordinary Christian form of worship. Instead, he selected only a few most trustworthy people around him to be invited into his inner sanctum, where they would drip their blood or sign an oath over his picture of the Virgin Mary, swearing to keep the worship of the "Lord of Heaven" and his mother a lifelong secret. In return, Gunki promised that his initiates would be able to work miracles and gain in material wealth. Gunki's most important initiate was Toyoda Mitsugi, a woman who was trained in yin-yang divination and mediumship through the deity Inari, often associated with foxes. Mitsugi created her own chain of initiation which ran through two other women. Among these women, Inari's mediumship became their outward practice, with the chanting of Christian names becoming the secret inward practice. Through this combination, the women claimed to have achieved worldly wealth and benefits, although when pressed by the prosecution, one claimed that she had impersonated a fox in order to encourage the others to wonder. None of the later initiates had actually read the Chinese Christian texts which Gunki possessed. Most embarrassing to the Japanese authorities was the adventure of the female initiate Sano, who never had a chance to see Gunki's scroll herself and wanted to know what the form of Jesus looked like. She had heard of the fumie practice mentioned above and so traveled to Nagasaki specifically in order to see the fumie and stamp on it, which heightened her faith. The fact that Sano made use of the fumie for precisely the opposite of its intended purpose caused much consternation among the prosecutors and it was eventually decided to censor this part of Sano's testimony from the final report. This translation makes careful note of both the original report and the revision and discusses the juridical procedure at length. [End Page 159] Much of the prior literature about this case concerns its chief prosecutor Ōshio Heihachirō, who...

Comparison of modernization waves in Russia and Japan over the past 150 years (institutional approach)

Aim. The presented study aims to structure the major elements of modernization policy and to conduct a comparative institutional analysis of modernization practices in Russia and Japan.Tasks. The authors identify common and different elements in the modernization strategies adopted by Russian and Japanese authorities; determine the reasons for the success of the implemented policy and the reasons for failed modernization attempts.Methods. This study uses general scientific methods of cognition and the institutional approach to analyze economic processes and examine the modernization policy in Russia and Japan over the past century and a half.Results. Despite a certain connection and some similarities between modernization waves in Russia and Japan, the origins, driving forces, and, most importantly, the results of modernization processes in these countries have significant differences. Japanese reformers have the advantage of the inherently Japanese ability to adapt a variety of institutions to solve the urgent tasks of national development. The peculiarity of Russian modernization waves was their scale, along with a radical restructuring of basic institutions. This resulted in both the outstanding success and effectiveness of the reforms as well as their cost and incompleteness, which generated waves of counter-reforms.Conclusion. By studying and comparing modernization waves in Russia and Japan, it is possible to identify the national specifics of problems associated with social reforms and factors that ensure favorable results of the modernization process. Institutional reforms play an important role among such factors. A criterion of their success is the ability to adapt traditional institutions to productive work in new conditions.