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448
10/05/2002
5.5 x 8.5 (Hardcover)
5.25 x 8.25 (Paperback)

9781876843830

A Genealogy of 'Japanese' Self-images

Japanese Society Series
This book presents a counter-argument to the Japanese belief that they are a homogeneous nation since the Meiji period. Eiji Oguma demonstrates that the myth of ethnic homogeneity was not established during the Meiji period, nor during the Pacific War, but only after the end of the war. The study...

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This book presents a counter-argument to the Japanese belief that they are a homogeneous nation since the Meiji period. Eiji Oguma demonstrates that the myth of ethnic homogeneity was not established during the Meiji period, nor during the Pacific War, but only after the end of the war. The study covers a large range of areas, including archaeology, ancient history, linguistics, anthropology, ethnology, folk law, eugenics and philosophy, to obtain an overview of how a variety of authors dealt with the theme of ethnicity. It also examines how this myth of homogeneity arose and how the peoples of such Japanese colonies as Korea and Taiwan were viewed in the pre-war literature on ethnic identity. This is the first English translation of A Genealogy of "Japanese" Self-Images, which won the Suntory Culture Award in 1996.

Awards

Suntory Culture Award for Social Sciences and Humanities, 1996

About Editors and Authors

OGUMA Eiji is a Japanese sociologist and Professor in the Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University specializing in historical sociology and correlated social sciences. Although aspiring to study physics at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Nagoya University, he dropped out and instead went on to graduate from the Department of Agriculture, University of Tokyo, in 1987. He joined Iwanami Shoten, a major academic publisher in Japan, and worked as book editor until 1996. He then joined the Department of International Social Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, where he completed his PhD. He served as Lecturer at Keio University, and later as Associate Professor, before assuming his current position. He is actively involved in research and discussions on political thought largely focused on nationalism and democracy and based on history. His books have won prestigious academic awards such as the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities and the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award. He is also known as a guitarist.

Table of contents


Table of Contents
Translator's Commentary
Chronology
Central Terms in the Kiki Myths
An Introduction to the English-Language Edition
Introduction


Part One: The Thought of an `Open Country'
The Birth of Theories of the Japanese Nation
The Debate on Mixed Residence in the Interior
The Theory of the National Polity and Japanese Christianity
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Table of Contents
Translator's Commentary
Chronology
Central Terms in the Kiki Myths
An Introduction to the English-Language Edition
Introduction

Part One: The Thought of an `Open Country'
The Birth of Theories of the Japanese Nation
The Debate on Mixed Residence in the Interior
The Theory of the National Polity and Japanese Christianity
The Anthropologists
The Theory that the `Japanese' and Koreans share a Common Ancestor
The Japanese Annexation of Korea

Part Two: The Thought of `Empire'
History and the `Abolition of Discrimination'
The Reformation of the National Polity Theory
National Self-Determination and National Borders
The Japanese as Caucasians
`The Return to Blood'

Part Three: The Thought of an `Island Nation'
The Birth of an Island Nation's Folklore
Japanisation versus Eugenics
The Revival of the Kiki Myths
From `Blood' to `Climate'
The Collapse of Empire
The Myth Takes Root

Conclusion
Notes
References
Index

 

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