Interpreting World War II Intelligence Data for Cultural Heritage Studies

Abstract

Archaeological and cultural resource management analyses of sites of conflict of the recent past regularly draw on archival intelligence sources, in particular on aerial imagery. Like any other data source, they have their limitations. Using a case study, the World War II battlefield of Kiska in the Aleutians, this paper outlines the processes that generated these intelligence resources, as well as the factors that influenced their survival to the present day. Understanding these processes is necessary when using such sources to understand the development of cultural landscapes as well as specific sites.     

Eighteen Histories in Brief and its influence in Japan

ABSTRACT

Eighteen Histories in Brief (Shiba shilue 十八史略) was a concise general history text created in the Yuan dynasty, which developed into many editions and achieved widespread popularity by the Ming dynasty. After being introduced to Japan, Eighteen Histories in Brief became as well known as historical classics such as the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji 史记) and the Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government (Zizhi tongjian 资治通鉴). During the Meiji Restoration period, a demand for abbreviated histories arose in Japan. This was seen in the large-scale publication of many new editions of Eighteen Histories in Brief. Continuations to the book, as well as histories in brief of Japanese and Western history were also widely published. This had a profound impact on Japanese society, culture, and historiography, with a legacy extending into the contemporary period.     

A civilized nation: Japan and the Red Cross 1877–1900

Abstract

The history of both the Red Cross and the Japanese Red Cross is based on a teleological and eurocentric narrative which is strongly shaped by national histories and focused on persons. To assume 1863 as the founding date of the Red Cross is highly debatable, considering that most national relief organisations were renamed ‘Red Cross Societies’ only in the 1880s. In this Japan is no exception, since first a Haku-Ai-Sha (Philanthropic Society) was founded in 1877 and then turned into the Japanese Red Cross Society in 1887. Japanese actors must be regarded as intrinsically motivated and active participants in the Red Cross movement who saw an ideal and a model in the Euro-American ‘way of civilisation’ and humanity. It has taken about 30 years to turn the Haku-Ai-Sha in Japan into a humanitarian society which is accepted both at home and abroad and, with its 728,507 members in 1900, which constituted the largest Red Cross Society in the world.     

Disciplined love: the Chinese Communist Party’s wartime restrictions on cadre love and marriage

ABSTRACT

During the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the Civil War, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imposed restrictions on the marriage of its cadres, so as to maintain the Party’s effective control and combat cohesion. The Central Committee of the CCP did not issue uniform regulations on this topic; most decisions were made by the base areas, with the indirect support of the Central Committee. Marriage and love are personal matters, and the restrictions certainly caused emotional suffering for ordinary cadres affected. However, there were important reasons for the CCP’s implementation of these measures. Through punishment and guidance, these restrictions were carried out smoothly and did not cause great upheaval. As love and marriage became areas subject to the political power of the CCP, they unexpectedly became a focal point of the collision between individuality and Party spirit and between the individual and the group.     

Trace,incident, and testimony: The story of Amano Kozo,lieutenant of the 33rd regiment of the 16th division of Japan’s China expeditionary army

ABSTRACT

Instead of writing on the grand narrative of the Nanjing Massacre, this article studies a much smaller and lesser known event, or the incident of Amano Kozo, a lieutenant in Japan’s China Expeditionary Army, who (or his soldiers) slapped John Allison, an American consul. It ignited a serious diplomatic dispute between the United States and Japan and led to Kozo’s own indictment by a Japanese military trial. The author analyzes the circumstances surrounding the incident, using the Japanese trial records and telegrams from the American side. He discusses the problematic testimonies from Japanese war veterans made half a century later and concludes that it is impossible to understand the details of history by simply bringing known facts into causal relationships; rather, combing through the traces left behind from the incident and analyzing their semantic meaning may well be a better way to deepen our understanding of history.     

Diplomatic compromises between the United States and Japan during the Nanjing Massacre

ABSTRACT

During its assault on Nanjing, the Japanese Army bombarded and sank the USS Panay, an American gunship, straining the relations between Japan and the United States. During the Nanjing Massacre, to ease tensions with the United States, Japan allowed the staff of the American embassy in Nanjing to make an early return to the city. While investigating allegations that Japanese troops had trespassed on American property and kidnapped and raped a Chinese woman, the American diplomat John M. Allison was struck in the face by a Japanese soldier. The U.S. government exerted pressure on Japan over what was referred to as the “Allison Incident”: under orders from Tokyo, the Japanese occupying force in Nanjing apologized to Allison and placed the officers and soldiers involved in the incident under court-martial. The incident was thereby resolved. However, amidst the furor of the “Allison Incident,” the Chinese woman who had been assaulted was forgotten by both the American and Japanese governments as well as by public opinion. The Japanese soldiers were placed under court-martial not for raping the Chinese woman, but rather for striking an American diplomat. The U.S. government received a great many reports on the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army, but in policy and deed, the American response was limited to safeguarding its national interests in China.     

The Evolution of the Pre-Confucian Meaning of Jen 仁 and the Confucian Concept of Moral Autonomy

Abstract

Once ostracized and relegated to a mere marginal position in the history of modern Chinese literature, Lin Shu 林紓 (1852–1924) has now become an important and relatively well-known figure. This paper summarizes existing research on Lin Shu's translations and the controversy between the vernacular and the classical language, emphasizing the achievements of Chinese and Japanese scholarship during the past century. For practical reasons, results have been divided chronologically into four categories: (1) Criticism of Lin Shu before 1924; (2) Early Chinese Scholarship (1924–1935); (3) Late Chinese and Early Japanese Scholarship (1935–1960); (4) Renaissance of Studies on Lin Shu outside China (1960–2000). This periodization is supplemented with a brief excursus on the current state of Lin Shu studies.     

The Woollen Industry of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) 1450–1550: Problems of a Balkan Textile Centre

Abstract

This article examines British responses to changes in Japanese dress during the Victorian period. The disapproval of the Japanese adoption of European clothing is shown to be linked to British anxieties regarding their political relationship and cultural engagement with Japan. The ways in which the kimono served as a touchstone for the British understanding of the country, representing an unchanging and romanticised view of the cultural identity of its Japanese wearer, is also explored. However, the kimono did not only signal ‘Japaneseness’, but was assimilated in British fashion as well. This article further explores how the kimono was related to issues of late nineteenth-century dress reform in Britain as well as to British unease about the cultural changes that they themselves had experienced in the wake of industrialisation.     

The Ainu of Japan: an indigenous people or an ethnic group?

Abstract

In 1997 the Japanese Parliament ratified the Act for the Promotion of Ainu Culture and the Dissemination and Advocacy for. the Traditions of the Ainu and Ainu Culture; this act officially designates Ainu culture and language for restoration and promotion in Japan. However, despite demands from Ainu people to be recognized as an indigenous group, the Japanese government designates the Ainu only as an ‘ethnic minority’. Generally, the Japanese define Ainu people as descendants of those. who assumed Ainu culture in Hokkaido during the period of Japanese colonization (from the 13th/14th centuries to the middle of the 19th century). A primary consideration today is to identify and date the origins of Ainu culture (which can then be conserved in accordance with the 1997 Act). Most Japanese academics agree that the Ainu people are the prior inhabitants of Hokkaido, but they also consider Hokkaido ‘Japan's inherent territory’. At present, the Japanese authorities seem to consider the term ‘indigenous’ to mean a population who had prior possession of land, but who now have no right to it or its natural resources. However, many Ainu continue to demand recognition as an ‘indigenous people’, rather than an ethnic minority.     

Tales of Two Fijis: early 1960s Japanese travel writing by Kanetaka Kaoru and Kita Morio

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses impressions of Fiji in 1961, recorded by two well-known Japanese travel writers: travel journalist Kanetaka Kaoru and writer Kita Morio. Their comments on ethnic Fijians' attitudes to work and on encounters with a variety of Indigenous Fijians, including ratu (hereditary chiefs), made the observed people ‘others' informing the travellers' views on post-war colonial Fiji in an era when little was known about Fiji in Japan. Differing views on colonialism underpinned the two authors' views. At the time, Kita and Kanetaka revised but replicated the assumptions of pre-war Japanese writing about Nanyō (the South Seas) and of Western travelogues on the Pacific Islands. While Kita passed blunt and prejudiced judgements, he demonstrated an awareness of colonialism's adverse effects and of concerns also felt by the colonial administration about the place of Indigenous Fijians in the modern world. Kanetaka, seemingly without awareness of her latent prejudice, praised Fiji as a near-perfect colony that benefitted from colonialism.     

Analysis of Japanese influence on the three major historiographical trends in early modern China

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the intrinsic relationships between Japanese historiography and the three great historiographical trends of New Historiography, Debates on Ancient History, and Marxist historiography, from the macroscopic perspective of the transformation, development, and early modern growth of modern and early modern Chinese historiography, exploring how Chinese historical researchers selected, deviated from, and assimilated Japanese historiography, while also particularly focusing on how the recipients utilized Japanese historiographical methods and concepts as well as the achievements of Japanese scholars in researching Chinese history to construct their own interpretation of Chinese historiography, in a study of the academic trend of indigenization.     

Japanese culture and society: A feast of perspectives

Eichiro Ishida. Japanese Culture: A Study of Origins and Characteristics. Translated by Teruko Kachi. An East‐West Center Book. Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press, 1974. 156 pp. Appendices, bibliographies, and index. $9.00.

Thomas P. Rohlen. For Harmony and Strength: Japanese White‐Collar Organization in Anthropological Perspective. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1974. 299 pp. Figures, tables, references, and index. $12.50.

Takie Sugiyama Lebra and William Lebra, eds. Japanese Culture and Behavior: Selected Readings. An East‐West Center Book. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1974. xi + 459 pp. Tables and figures. $5.95 (paper).     

Party Ideologies and Regional Inequality: An Analysis of Party Manifestos in Japan

ABSTRACT

Regional inequality within Japan has been a key political issue in Japanese politics throughout the entire postwar period. In this analysis, we examine how Japanese parties have positioned themselves on the question of regional inequality, focusing on how the party system response has been shaped by ideas and ideologies. The article analyses two 15-year periods separated by a quarter of a century (1960–75 and 2000–15) during which regional inequalities became a particularly salient and pressing issue. We compare institutional and socioeconomic contexts, broader governing ideas, and policy responses to this issue by major parties in their election platforms (manifestos). We find that party ideology and broader paradigms continued to shape party responses to regional inequality during both periods.     

Gender geography in Japan: the trajectory,fruits of research and future challenges

Abstract

The indication by female geographers outside of Japan that, due to the original dearth of female geographers, a gender perspective had been missing from geography held true for Japan as well. In 1993, Yoshida was the first person to discuss the importance of a gender perspective in a Japanese journal of geography. Nearly 25 years have passed since its publication, and the aim of this paper is to investigate what developments have taken place in Japanese geography on gender research. As the accomplishments of feminist geography in English-speaking countries was merely ‘imported’ to Japan around 1990, there is no firm starting point of ‘feminist’ geography, which originated in women’s liberation movement of the 1970s, in the country. Rather, it can be said that Japanese geographers, regardless of sex, undertake gender geography, which does not limit a particular sex as the sole subject and/or object of research. The results of research on gender geography by men geographers began to appear from the year 2000. The use of life history method emerged as a trend in research since 2000. While there has been gradual progress in research on gender geography in Japan, the number of researchers are still by no means large. While Japanese geography has hitherto involved a one-way absorption of the fruits of overseas research on gender/feminist geographies, at least based on studies that have already accumulated in Japan, it is now necessary that Japanese study results also be communicated to overseas.     

Sight and Sound on the Western Front: Surveyors,Scientists, and the ‘Battlefield Laboratory’, 1915–1918

Abstract

The Japanese were a race who considered themselves to possess a mission in the world, and were a military race from beginning to end. In a comparatively short space of time Japan had brought three wars to a successful conclusion.

Admiral Earl Beatty, First Sea Lord (1919–1927), 3 July 1925

it is on record that one young samurai… was so convinced at first that bravery by itself was sufficient to overcome the power of the western ‘barbarians’, that he swam out to Perry's flag-ship with his sword in his teeth, intending to fight the whole ship's company single-handed. This man was Yamagata, who died but recently.

Captain M.D. Kennedy, Military Language Officer in Japan (1917–1920), 1928     

Editorial

Abstract

Artefact distributional data from a pre-World War II Japanese residential complex is interpreted to discuss infantry combat during the invasion of Saipan. Site interpretation is used to interpret the history of World War II operations in the Marianas and to comment on current battlefield archaeology in the Pacific.

Discussion concentrates on military artefacts in relation to structural remains on the site. Architectural remains and pre-battle artefacts are related to combat conditions and used as evidence of pre-combat incendiary bombardment. Combat activities and fire team composition are inferred for the American and Japanese units that participated in this small group action.     

Toyotomi Hideyoshi's effort of retreat and the ending of the East Asian War

Abstract

During the second stage of the East Asian War, Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豐臣秀吉 hopefully sought to make an honorable exit, but the Choson 朝鮮 formulated a unique diplomatic strategy that brought the Ming to the battlefield, and there was no way for Toyotomi Hideyoshi's retreat and attempts at peace talks to be successful. In the end, the war concluded with Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death from illness and the retreat of the Japanese army in defeat, and the international order established between China and Korea was maintained.     

Loyalist,patriot, or colonizer? The three faces of Zheng Chenggong in Meiji Japan and late Qing China

ABSTRACT

This article examines the transformation of Zheng Chenggong’s image in Meiji Japan and late Qing China. Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, Zheng Chenggong was often depicted as a Ming dynasty loyalist in Chinese narratives and as a Japanese hero adventuring in a foreign land in Japanese narratives. The two groups of narratives converged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, transforming Zheng Chenggong into a patriot, an anti-imperialist hero, and a conqueror and developer of Taiwan. Underlying the convergence of Chinese and Japanese narratives of Zheng Chenggong was surging nationalist sentiment in response to different forms of imperialism. This study aims to show how different nationalist agendas activated efforts to recreate Zheng Chenggong’s image in China and Japan at the turn of the nineteenth century.     

Residents' attitudes toward ethnic neighborhood tourism (ENT): perspectives of ethnicity and empowerment

ABSTRACT

Ethnic neighborhood tourism (ENT) has the potential to not only alter the identity of the ethnic landscape but to also influence the distribution of power and economic benefits from tourism between ethnic groups. Such unequal distribution may foster divergent attitudes toward tourism between minority residents whose culture is at the center of ENT and those of the majority population whose cultural heritage is being overshadowed. With this in mind, this study compared the relationship between Japanese and Brazilian residents’ perceived empowerment from tourism and their attitudes toward tourism development in the ENT destination of Oizumi, Japan. Results revealed that even though the Brazilians perceived themselves to be more psychologically and socially empowered from ENT, the perceptions of empowerment among the Japanese were slightly better predictors of support for tourism and Japanese residents’ perceptions of tourism's contributions within the community. The findings suggest the importance of sociocultural determinants of resident attitudes especially among those who do not perceive economic benefits from tourism. The study also indicates the appropriateness of combining social exchange theory with more holistic theories to capture the complexities influencing resident attitudes toward tourism.