Call for Papers: From “Asia’s Prussians“ to “Yellow Devils“: Images of the Japanese Army from the Meiji Restoration to the End of the Second World War

CFP: From “Asia’s Prussians“ to “Yellow Devils“: Images of the Japanese Army from the Meiji Restoration to the End of the Second World War

Prof. Dr. Frank Jacob (New York) and Prof. Dr. Sepp Linhart (Vienna)

The Meiji Restoration since 1868 changed Japan as a whole, including the Japanese Army, whose soldiers should resemble a modernized and strong nation state. Trained by French and later Prussian officers the armed forces of the Japanese Empire became emblematic for the progress the country went through. In the West, the Japanese soldiers were seen as an expression of Western superiority, especially when the forces of the island empire were victorious against China in 1894/95. Japan achieved a major goal a decade later, when the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the victories during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904/05 emphasized Japan’s great power status. In this war Japan tried to present its soldiers as noble, gentlemen-like warriors, because they fought against a Western army for the first time. However, the image of the Japanese soldier was an ambivalent one. While military observers emphasized the abilities of the Asian combatants, those who feared the “yellow peril“ began to depict the Japanese soldiers as monkeys.

While the First World War, due to which Japan fought as an ally against Germany, further strengthened the positive image of the Japanese soldier, the events of the 1930s and 1940s would stimulate the image of the “violent yellow devil.“ Events like the Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March or the treatment of Allied POWs in Japanese prison camps changed the former positive perspective tremendously. Japanese soldiers were accused to use violence without mercy against soldiers and civilians alike. For a volume on the perception of Japanese soldiers outside Japan, the two editors welcome proposals that deal with, but are not limited to the following major topics:

• Military and public images of the Japanese Army 1853-1945 in films and novels
• The image of Japanese military leaders abroad
• Experience reports and their perception by foreign readers
• Western newspapers and the image of the Japanese Army
• The Japanese Army in Korea
• The perception of Japan’s modern Wars (1868-1945)
• Japanese POW camps and the reports of imprisoned soldiers
• Chinese reports on Japanese cruelties (1931-1945)

Proposals (ca. 300 words) and a short CV should be sent to fjacob@qcc.cuny.edu and sepp.linhart@univie.ac.atuntil July 30, 2016. Final chapters, 7,000-10,000 words, using footnotes (Chicago Manual of Style) are due byNovember 15, 2016.

Contact Info:

Frank Jacob, History Department, CUNY-QCC, 22205 56th Ave, Bayside, 11364 New York, USA

Contact Email:

fjacob@qcc.cuny.edu

 

Funding: 2016 Abe Fellowship

Now Accepting Applications – Deadline: Sept. 1, 5PM (EST)

OVERVIEW

The Abe Fellowship Program and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP) announce the annual Abe Fellowship competition.

The Abe Fellowship is designed to encourage international multidisciplinary research on topics of pressing global concern. The Abe Fellowship Program seeks to foster the development of a new generation of researchers who are interested in policy-relevant topics of long-range importance and who are willing to become key members of a bilateral and global research network built around such topics.

RESEARCH AGENDA

Applicants are invited to submit proposals for research in the social sciences and related fields relevant to any of the following four themes:

• Threats to Personal, Societal, and International Security

• Social, Scientific, and Cultural Trends and Transformations

• Growth and Sustainable Development

• Governance, Empowerment, and Participation

Research projects should be policy relevant, contemporary, and comparative or transnational.

FELLOWSHIP TERMS

Terms of the fellowship are flexible and are designed to meet the needs of Japanese and American researchers at different stages in their careers.

The program provides Abe Fellows with a minimum of 3 and maximum of 12 months of full-time support over a 24-month period.

Part-time residence abroad in the United States or Japan is required.

ELIGIBILITY

Applicants must:

•          be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or Japan. (Nationals of other countries MUST demonstrate a serious, long-term affiliation with research communities in the United States or Japan.)
•          hold a PhD or the terminal degree in their field, or have equivalent professional experience at the time of application.

Applications from researchers in professions other than academia are encouraged.

CONTACT

For further information and to apply, go to:
http://www.ssrc.org/fellowships/abe-fellowship/
Contact SSRC staff at abe@ssrc.org.

Book Announcement: Conflicts of Interest: Art and War in Modern Japan

Via University of Washington Press.

Utagawa Kunimasa IV, Japanese, 1848–1920; published by Kodama Yakichi, Japanese, active late 19th century; The Lone Cavalryman Lieutenant Colonel Fukushima on his Expedition: Actor Fujisawa Asajirô as Lieutenant Colonel Fukushima, 1893; triptych of color woodblock prints; 14 7/8 x 28 3/4 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Lowenhaupt 8:2015a-c

Conflicts of Interest: Art and War in Modern Japan
PHILIP HU, RHIANNON PAGET, SEBASTIAN DOBSON, MAKI KANEKO, SONJA HOTWAGNER, AND ANDREAS MARKS

paperback not available
$49.95 HARDCOVER (9780295999814)

TO BE PUBLISHED: November 2016
SUBJECT LISTING: Art History / Asian Art; Asian Studies / Japan
BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: 288 pp., 240 color illus., 9.5 x 11 in.
TERRITORIAL RIGHTS: World Rights
PUBLISHED WITH: Saint Louis Art Museum

CONTENTS

This fascinating publication showcases the Saint Louis Art Museum’s collection of Japanese military prints and related materials-one of the largest collections of such works in the world. The 1,400 objects in the collection are mostly color woodblock prints, but the holdings also include paintings, lithographs, photographs, stereographs, books, magazines, maps, game boards, textiles, ceramics, toys, sketchbooks, and commemorative materials. This extraordinary body of visual works chronicles Japan’s rise as a modern nation from the beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868 through the aftermath of Pearl Harbor in 1942, with a focus on the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars. Conflicts of Interest will bring to light an important aspect of Japan’s visual culture and the narratives it circulated for its citizens, allies, and enemies on the world stage.

PHILIP HU is associate curator of Asian art at the Saint Louis Art Museum. RHIANNON PAGET is the A. W. Mellon Fellow for Japanese art at the Saint Louis Art Museum. SEBASTIAN DOBSON is an independent scholar based in London and Antwerp. SONJA HOTWAGNER is an independent scholar based in Vienna, Austria. MAKI KANEKO is associate professor of Japanese art at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. ANDREAS MARKS is the Mary Griggs Burke Curator of Japanese and Korean Art and Director of the Clark Center for Japanese Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Fun Link Friday: The Oldest Sake Shop in Tokyo

What a week it has been. In all the chaos of the news, I barely remembered to look up a Fun Link Friday this week. But in the end, what we could all use is a drink (if that’s your thing). So here’s a mini-documentary that was posted to Savvy Tokyo about Toshimaya tavern and brewery, the oldest sake shop in Tokyo. Clocking in at 420 years old, the business was first established in 1596. In the video, originally posted here, you can take a peek into the lives of people passionate about keeping traditions alive in Japan while innovating for a new generation. Stay well and enjoy, everybody!

Resource: Truku-Japanese War Postcard Collection

The East Asian Image Collection hosted by the Skillman Library at Lafayette College recently added a new collection of picture postcards and rare books to their open-access digital archive, “The Truku-Japanese War Commemorative Postcard Collection.” The editor of the collection, Paul Barclay, describes the background and content as follows:

The Truku-Japanese War of 1914 was the culmination of Japan’s 20-year campaign to disarm and assert sovereignty over Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples. This 100-postcard set provides an intimate photographic portrait of camp life, logistics, battles, terrain, and Japanese interactions with Taiwanese conscripts, allies, enemies, and objects of ethnographic interest. From May to August of 1914, the government deployed 3108 soldiers, 3127 police, and 4840 laborers (over 11,000 people) against a Truku population of roughly 10,000 people. The goal was to avenge previous uprisings and to finalize the conquest of the island colony. After burning several Truku villages, taking prisoners, confiscating rifles, and killing countless combatants, the Japanese declared victory on August 23, 1914.  Mr. Fang Hsien-hui 方晛煇 lent these items to the Puli Municipal Library for a November 2014 exhibition. The Library’s Mr. Chen Yi-fang 陳義方arranged the transfer of digital images to the East Asia Image Collection, as well as providing invaluable advice. We also thank Dr. John Shufelt and Dr. Wang Peng-hui 王鵬惠 for their contributions to this project.

Each individual postcard in the collection is presented with a high-resolution photograph, below which is the item’s metadata, including a title in English and Japanese, a detailed description of its physical characteristics, and its location and origin. While there is not much more information than these basic details, the postcards themselves are a very valuable visual and historical resource for research on East Asia. Be sure to check out this incredible image database!

Follow the direct link below to the 102 records in the new collection:

http://digital.lafayette.edu/collections/eastasia/tjwar-postcards/browse

Call for Papers: Animals and Human Society in Asia

The Asian Sphere: Trans-Cultural Flows
An Inter-University Graduate Program of
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Haifa

Call for Papers for an International Conference on

Animals and Human Society in Asia
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
26 February to 2 March 2017

We are delighted to announce the second conference of the Asian Sphere Program. The conference will take place from February 26 to 2 March 2017, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

We invite proposals for novel or integrative (unpublished) papers in one of the following thematic domains:

# Animal Domestication and Animals in Prehistoric Societies in Asia
# Animals, Medicine, Diet and Culinary Taboos in Asia
# Draft Animals and their Place in Asian Society
# Animals and their Representations in Asian Cultures, Religions and Ideology
# Animals in Wars and Diplomacy Across Asian History
# Pets in Asian Societies
# Animals in Asian Economies

Proposals, as well as further enquiries, should be sent by email to the conference secretariat (TheAsianSphere@gmail.com).

Proposals should include:

• Name and affiliation
• Name of the domain the paper is applicable.
• Title and a short abstract (150-200 words)
• Brief CV (1-3 pages).

The deadline for submitting proposals is 15 August 2016. Accepted proposals will be notified by15 September 2016. We require participants to send a full paper (4,000-5,000 words) by 15 January 2017.

The organizers will cover five-night accommodation in Israel including participation in a 1-2-day study trip). Pending on available funding we will also assist in airfare costs (priority to early-career and/or Asian scholars).

The conference will be conducted in English. It is open to the public and participation is free of charge. We would be grateful if you could distribute this call for papers among your colleagues.

Please save the dates!

Conference steering committee:

Prof. Gideon Shelach: Gideon.shelach@mail.huji.ac.il
Prof. Guy Bar-Oz:  guybar@research.haifa.ac.il
Prof. Meir Shahar: mshahar@post.tau.ac.il
Prof. Michal Biran: biranm@mail.huji.ac.il
Prof. Rotem Kowner: kowner@research.haifa.ac.il

Conference’s secretariat: TheAsianSphere@gmail.com

The Asian Sphere program: http://asian-sphere.huji.ac.il/

This new journal has just been launched under the editorship of Cynthea Bogel. The premier issue includes articles relevant to premodern Japanese studies by Ellen Van Goethem, Florian Reiter, Lindsay DeWitt, William Matsuda, Lisa Kochinski, and Yuzhi Zhou.

The full text is available at:

https://www.academia.edu/25726497/Envisioning_History_Editor_Journal_of_Asian_Humanities_at_Kyushu_University_JAH-Q_vol._1_March_2016_

Book Announcement: Radicalism in the Wilderness: International Contemporaneity and 1960s Art in Japan

Reiko Tomii, Radicalism in the Wilderness: International Contemporaneity and 1960s Art in Japan, MIT Press, 2016.

Description from the publisher:

1960s Japan was one of the world’s major frontiers of vanguard art. As Japanese artists developed diverse practices parallel to, and sometimes antecedent to, their Western counterparts, they found themselves in a new reality of “international contemporaneity” (kokusaiteki dōjisei). In this book Reiko Tomii examines three key figures in Japanese art of the 1960s who made radical and inventive art in the “wilderness”—away from Tokyo, outside traditional norms, and with little institutional support.

These practitioners are the conceptualist Matsuzawa Yutaka, known for the principle of “vanishing of matter” and the practice of “meditative visualization” (kannen); The Play, a collective of “Happeners”; and the local collective GUN (Group Ultra Niigata). The innovative work of these artists included a visionary exhibition in Central Japan of “formless emissions” organized by Matsuzwa; the launching of a huge fiberglass egg—“an image of liberation”—from the southernmost tip of Japan’s main island by The Play; and gorgeous color field abstractions painted by GUN on accumulating snow on the riverbeds of the Shinano River. Pioneers in conceptualism, performance art, land art, mail art, and political art, these artists delved into the local and achieved global relevance.

Making “connections” and finding “resonances” between these three practitioners and artists elsewhere, Tomii links their local practices to the global narrative and illuminates the fundamentally “similar yet dissimilar” characteristics of their work. In her reading, Japan becomes a paradigmatic site of world art history, on the periphery but asserting its place through hard-won international contemporaneity.

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Read more about the book on the arts blog Hyperallergic: Japan, in from the Wilderness: Reiko Tomii’s Expanded Modern-Art History.