Naval Battlefield Archaeology of the Lost Kublai Khan Fleets

From AD 1274 Chinese emperor Kublai Khan dispatched fleets of ships in a series of attempts to expand the empire's hegemony and extend his rule into East Asia (Japan) and Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Champa and Java). Archaeological remains associated with the fleets and battles have been found at Takashima Island, Japan and on the B?ch Ð?ng River, Vietnam. This paper develops a thematic approach to these sites within a framework of naval battlefield archaeology. It compares the similarities and differences in environmental conditions and archaeological contexts of the two sites in Japan and Vietnam. It also outlines recent archaeological research conducted between 2008 and 2010 on the physical remains at the B?ch Ð?ng River battlefield site.     

Femininity, Race and Treachery: How 'Tokyo Rose' Became a Traitor to the United States after the Second World War

Based on archival and printed sources, this article revisits the ordeal of Iva Toguri d'Aquino (1916–2006), the Japanese American woman who became trapped in the myth of 'Tokyo Rose' and was tried for treason in 1949. It retells the tale by weaving together the various narratives of her story and pays particular attention to the ways in which the media constructed her story. The larger purpose is to explore why the federal government and the mainstream media deliberately ignored the other available narratives that explained Toguri's actions as a broadcaster for Radio Tokyo during the war. An analysis of the alternative narratives in conjunction with the stories of other female announcers who were  not  prosecuted ('Manila Rose') or who did not gain the infamy of 'Tokyo Rose' ('Axis Sally') will help us better understand how treason is gendered and orientalised.     

How natural are natural woods from wetland sites? – a case study at two sites of the Jomon period in central Japan

To clarify the characteristics of natural woods from wetland sites, the taxonomic composition and diameter of natural woods were compared with those of wooden artifacts at two sites of the middle to latest Jomon periods (ca. 5300–2800 cal BP) in central Japan that have contrasting characters. The Oise-yama site in Saitama was a least used site only with a few pit dwellings and pits on the surrounding upland and no structures in the wetland. The Shimo-yakebe site in Tokyo was a heavily used site with wooden structures and rows of stakes in the wetland and many remains on the upland. Natural woods of the Oise-yama site had an exponential decrease along the diameter gradient, irrespective of taxa, but wooden artifacts of the Shimo-yakebe site had clear marks of human selection both in the taxonomic composition and diameter. Natural woods of the Shimo-yakebe site also had an exponential decrease along the diameter gradient similar to those of the Oise-yama site. Thus, the exponential decrease in the diameter distribution seemed to be intrinsic in naturally deposited, allochthonous woods found at wetland sites.     

The military, psychiatry, and "unfit" soldiers, 1939-1942

This article examines the psychiatric screening of U.S. soldiers during the Second World War, established by psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan (1892-1949), as a key moment in the public application of clinical psychiatry, as well as a turning point in Sullivan's intellectual and professional career. After a brief look at the ideas and expectations Sullivan brought to the screening system, I discuss a major problem of the screening: the mismatch between the medical concept of disease prevention and the realities of the mass screening as a public policy. As a way to highlight this mismatch, I focus on Sullivan's failure to protect homosexual men from medical and social stigmatization by screening them out of the armed forces. Despite his liberal approach to the issue of homosexuality before the war, which he had created in his clinical practice, Sullivan was unable to persuade the military and the public of gay men's right to serve the nation. The examination of how his sympathetic view of homosexuality became circumscribed reveals not only the gap between clinical insights and public policy, but also how tentative views of homosexuality in public debate among liberal psychiatrists during the decade preceding the war contributed to the failure to make non-homophobic policy in the 1940s. This article shows that the relative conservatism in the politics of sexuality among liberal psychiatrists, as well as the intransigent conservatism as seen in homophobic tradition of the Army, contributed to the discriminatory screening criteria.     

Historical Development of Asian Anchors,as Evidenced by Two Wooden Anchors Found in Northern Vietnam

This article presents the result of research on two large wooden anchors recently identified in Hanoi, Vietnam. Some features of the anchors show similarities with anchors originating from East Asian regions, but the research demonstrates that they are probably from ships locally constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the attempt to clarify the origin of these anchors, it was discovered that there has been little discussion on the historical development of anchors in East and Southeast Asia. Therefore, this article will also assess the significance of the two anchors in the regional evolvement of anchors. © 2010 The Authors     

Late Holocene human impact on the vegetation around Mizorogaike Pond in northern Kyoto Basin,Japan: a comparison of pollen and charcoal records with archaeological and historical data

Pollen and macroscopic charcoal analyses of AMS radiocarbon-dated sediment from Mizorogaike Pond, located near Japan’s ancient capital established in AD 794, were used along with archaeological and historical data to reconstruct vegetation change in the northern Kyoto Basin since 7300 cal yr B.P. Between ca. 7300 and 3400 cal yr B.P. (Early to Late Jomon period), the site was surrounded by warm-temperate forest composed of Quercus subgenus Lepidobalanus and Q. subgenus Cyclobalanopsis with Celtis/Aphananthe trees. With the occurrence of fire disturbance, Q. subgenus Lepidobalanus increased from ca. 3400 to 1400 cal yr B.P. (Late Jomon to Kofun periods). In the early seventh century (Asuka period), Pinus started to increase, coinciding with a significant charcoal peak, probably related to the operation of roof tile kilns near the site. Pinus continued to increase and Q. subgenus Cyclobalanopsis decreased through the seventh to tenth centuries (Asuka to Heian periods). Further increase of Pinus occurred in the eleventh century, possibly reflecting the establishment of the manor of Kamigamo Shrine. From the eleventh to seventeenth centuries (Heian to medieval periods), no significant vegetational change or fire disturbance took place. In the eighteenth century, the landscape became totally open, with poor vegetation and sparse Pinus woodland. The medieval and early modern landscapes reconstructed from the palaeoecological record are rather similar to those described from studies of ancient artwork and historical documents. This study demonstrates that late Holocene vegetation change in the northern Kyoto Basin was closely tied to anthropogenic activities, such as the pottery industry and fuel wood collection.