New Perspectives on Japanese Colonialism and Imperialism in East Asia
Lead Investigator: Christian Hess (ext. 4047, cahess@sophia.ac.jp)
ICC Collaborators:
Sven Saaler
Bettina Gramlich-Oka
Affiliated researchers:
The following scholars are contributors to the project:
Mariko Iijima (Sophia), Mark Caprio (emeritus, Rikkyo), Paul Barclay (Lafayette College), Fabienne Uji-Hofer (Univ. of Osaka), Igor Saveliev (Nagoya), Charles D. Musgrove (St. Mary’s College, Maryland), Hoi-eun Kim (Texas A & M), Li Narangoa (ANU), Andrea Revelant (Ca’ Foscari), Jasmin Rückert (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf), Dolf-Alexander Neuhaus (DIJ), Juljan Biontino (Univ. of Chiba), Rotem Kowner (University of Haifa), Evan Dawley (Goucher College), David Malitz (DIJ), Miriam Kingsberg Kadia (University of Colorado, Boulder), Alison Darby (ANU), Ann Marie L. Davis (The Ohio State University),Mariko Iijima (Sophia University), Alistair Swale (University of Canterbury), Jeremy Yellen (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Takuma Melber (Heidelberg), Jeff Kingston (Temple University, Japan), Lori Watt (Washington University, St. Louis)
Roles:
Hess: co-editor, contributor
Saaler: co-editor, contributor
Gramlich-Oka: contributor
Number of years seeking ICC funding:
2 years
Research Aim:
In its quest for an equal position in the international order, Japan from the late nineteenth century onwards pursued imperialist policies and built a colonial empire in East Asia – the only colonial empire in the modern period created by a non-European power. The proposed unit centers on the publication of an edited volume bringing together over 25 scholars working on the Japanese Empire and its aftermath in East Asia. Moving beyond a survey of the colonial territories, the authors of this volume focus on regional developments within the empire, city-building processes and connections between imperial urban centers, interaction between Japan’s empire and colonial territories of other powers in Asia, issues of migration and trade within the empire and beyond, different modes of colonial administration and foreign influences on Japanese colonialism, as well as the connection between colonialism, war, violence and mass atrocities. Lastly, the authors also examine the process of decolonization in East Asia and its consequences for Japan and the former colonies themselves, as well as the legacies of the history of Japan’s colonial empire for contemporary East Asia.
Research Outcomes:
Plans for publication:
The main goal of the unit is to produce a high-quality, highly citated edited volume for use by English-language researchers and students interested in diverse perspectives on Japanese imperialism and colonialism in East Asia. With the support of the ICC Special Budget grant (2024) we held a successful research workshop to kick off the volume.
The edited volume Handbook of the Japanese Colonial Empire (9784909286772) will be part of the Japan Documents handbook series (https://www.mhmjapandocuments.com/handbook-series) now part of a Routledge series, and we have recruited both established experts and junior scholars to contribute chapters focusing on cutting edge interdisciplinary interpretations and approaches to the Japanese empire. The book is under contract, and we have received 80% of the submissions so far and are well on schedule for publication in 2027.
The book will be approximately 150,000 words and will be published in physical and e-book formats. The following is the current table of contents:
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction: Christian A. Hess (Sophia) and Sven Saaler (Sophia)
Origins
Chapter 2 Bettina Gramlich-Oka (Sophia University): Early ideas of colonialism in nineteenth-century Japan
Chapter 3 Mark Caprio (emeritus, Rikkyo): Why did Japan create a colonial empire?
Managing Empire
Chapter 4 Paul Barclay (Lafayette College): Imperial Japan’s Wars of Counterinsurgency in Taiwan and Korea
Chapter 5 Fabienne Uji-Hofer (Univ. of Osaka): German-Japanese knowledge transfer in colonial Taiwan (1895–1914): Prussia’s eastern provinces and Alsace-Lorraine as models for colonial education in East Asia
Chapter 6 Igor Saveliev (Nagoya): Japanese-Russian Rivalry in Northeast China and Railroad Construction, 1896 - 1935
Chapter 7 Charles D. Musgrove (St. Mary’s College, Maryland): Changing Perceptions of Colonial Architecture in Taipei
Chapter 8 Hoi-eun Kim (Texas A & M): Doctors of Empire
Chapter 9 Li Narangoa (ANU): Managing Medicine in Inner Mongolia
Representing Empire
Chapter 10 Sven Saaler (Sophia University): Selling a Lost Cause: The Siberian Intervention 1918-1922 in Lithography
Chapter 11 Andrea Revelant (Ca’ Foscari): China in Japanese colonial newspapers published in China
Chapter 12 Jasmin Rückert (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf): Colonial Photography in the Japanese Empire
Resenting Empire
Chapter 13 Dolf-Alexander Neuhaus (DIJ): The Korean independence movement‚ 1910 – 1919
Chapter 14 Juljan Biontino (Univ. of Chiba) : Korea’s place in the Japanese Empire. Yanaihara Tadao’s (1893-1961) studies on colonialism
Racializing Empire
Chapter 15 Rotem Kowner (University of Haifa): The Racial Factor in the Japanese Colonial Empire
Chapter 16 Evan Dawley (Goucher College): From Settler Colonists to Colonized Natives: Making ‘the Taiwanese’ under Japanese Imperialism
Chapter 17 David Malitz (DIJ): The Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Siam
Chapter 18 Miriam Kingsberg Kadia (University of Colorado, Boulder): Producing “Race” through Fieldwork in Transwar Japan
Chapter 19 Alison Darby (ANU): Contesting (il)legitimacy: Interethnic romance, respectability and family law in colonial Korea and Taiwan
Labor and Migration in the Japanese Empire and Beyond
Chapter 20 Ann Marie L. Davis (The Ohio State University): Gender and Family in Imperial Japan: Curating History with the Thomas Gregory Song and the Song Family Papers
Chapter 21 Mariko Iijima (Sophia University): Japanese Empire and Coffee “Cultures”
Chapter 22 Alistair Swale (University of Canterbury): Empire and Decadence
Empire and War
Chapter 23 Jeremy Yellen (Chinese University of Hong Kong): Japan’s Wartime Empire in Southeast Asia
Chapter 24 Takuma Melber (Heidelberg): Occupation and Resistance in Japan’s Wartime Empire: Malaya and Singapore
Chapter 25 Jeff Kingston (Temple University, Japan): Forced Labor in Japanese Occupied Java
Decolonizing Empire
Chapter 26 Christian A. Hess (Sophia University): Decolonizing Japan’s Urban Empire in Manchuria
Chapter 27 Lori Watt (Washington University, St. Louis): The End of Japan’s Empire in the World History of Decolonization
Chapter 28 NN The realms of memory of Japan’s colonial empire
Plans for presentations:
The second goal is to organize a book launch in 2027 to be held at the ICC. Depending on the timing of the publication, this event might be held after March 2027. In this case, we would ask for a second year of modest funding to hold a book launch event.
Relationship to any existing projects :
This builds from our ICC Special Funds workshop, held on June 8, 2024, which brought together 12 of the contributors to launch the project. In addition, contributions from Professors Kingsberg-Kadia, Musgrove, Hess, and Dawley build on scholarship and connections from Hess’ earlier ICC unit on Postcolonial Cities in E. Asia (2013-2018) and related Sophia Symposium.