Ryota Nishino | Meijo University (original) (raw)
Books by Ryota Nishino
Japanese Perceptions of Papua New Guinea: War, Travel and the Reimagining of History, 2022
Japanese Perceptions of Papua New Guinea exposes the interactions between two ostensibly opposing... more Japanese Perceptions of Papua New Guinea exposes the interactions between two ostensibly opposing worlds: war and travel. While soldiers deployed to Eastern New Guinea during the Second World War recalled first-hand their experience of war, post-war tourists visited battle-sites, met locals, and drew their own conclusions about the Pacific island from the Japanese media. This book, in bringing travel and war closer together through a comparative analysis of veterans' memoirs and the records of postwar travelers, explores how individuals consume, create, and recreate war histories. As a result, Ryota Nishino reveals the extent to which the memory of defeat - for both soldiers and civilians alike - influenced the Japanese perceptions of Papua New Guinea and shaped future relations between the countries.
Translating a diverse range of Japanese primary and archival sources, this book provides the first English-language analysis of the social and political impact of Japanese interpretations of the PNG campaign and its aftermath. As such, Japanese Perceptions of Papua New Guinea: War, Travel and the Reimagining of History is an important text for anyone seeking a sophisticated understanding of war, nationalism, and memory culture in Japan and the Pacific Islands.
The teaching of history in South African and Japanese schools has attracted sustained criticism f... more The teaching of history in South African and Japanese schools has attracted sustained criticism for the alleged attempts to conceal the controversial aspects of their countries' past and to inculcate ideologies favourable to the ruling regimes. This book is the first attempt to systematically compare the ways in which education bureaucracy in both nations dealt with opposition and critics in the period from ca. 1945 to 1995, when both countries were dominated by single-party governments for most of the fifty years. The author argues that both South African and Japanese education bureaucracy did not overtly express its intentions in the curriculum documents or in the textbooks, but found ways to enhance its authority through a range of often subtle measures. A total of eight themes in 60 officially approved Standard 6 South African and Japanese middle-school history textbooks have been selected to demonstrate the changes and continuity. This work contributes to the existing literature of comparative history by drawing lessons that would probably not have emerged from the study of either country by itself.
Read more on Googlebooks:
Journal articles by Ryota Nishino
The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 2022
Upon its publication in 1969, a war memoir by a Japanese veteran, Ogawa Masatsugu (1917–2009), “T... more Upon its publication in 1969, a war memoir by a Japanese veteran, Ogawa Masatsugu (1917–2009), “The Island of Death,” New Guinea: Humans in Extremis (Shi-no-shima Nyūginia: Kyokugen no naka no ningen), rose to prominence for its portrayal of the raw realities of the author’s combat experience in New Guinea. Although it secured its place in Japan’s war memory of the Asia-Pacific War, what remains overlooked, and merits further exploration is Ogawa’s efforts in grappling with his war trauma and psychological damage. This article argues that Ogawa’s memoir marks the initial step in his long healing process through employing two narrative threads. First, he identified the initial traumatic episode as an incident in China, where he had fought before New Guinea. Second, Ogawa created a binary between the compassionate New Guineans and the callous Japanese officers. The two threads led him to frame himself as a victim and bystander but let him leave questions of violence, humanity, savagery, and civilization unaddressed. His capture as a prisoner of war and his repatriation to Japan dealt further blows to his already fragile self. It was this awareness of psychological damage that led Ogawa to write his memoir and to start his long road to recovery. Thus, Ogawa’s memoir is not a mere personal story, but rather it reflects the inner struggle of many war veterans in Japan and elsewhere attempting to come to terms with and give meaning to their traumatic war experiences.
The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 2022
Articles in this special issue re-examine Asia-Pacific War memories by taking a longer and broade... more Articles in this special issue re-examine Asia-Pacific War memories by taking a longer and broader view, geographically, temporally, and spatially. A diverse, global team of thirteen authors highlights subjects across a wide geographical area spanning the Asia-Pacific region especially. In the process, articles question common assumptions and narratives surrounding Asia-Pacific War memories by highlighting crucial, in-between spaces and remembrances. These range from Japanese military cemeteries in Malaysia, to the experiences of Filipino residents living near a Japanese POW camp, and to Japanese veterans’ personal narratives of guilt, trauma, and heroism. Articles also draw attention to the ongoing significance of Asia-Pacific war memories, partly as personal struggles to confront and to find meaning in the past, and partly through memory’s political instrumentalization in Cold War and post-Cold War power struggles.
History and Memory, 2020
This article analyzes travelogues written by Japanese visitors to the battle sites of the Pacific... more This article analyzes travelogues written by Japanese visitors to the battle sites of the Pacific War. It argues that they tend to turn the destinations into exclusively Japanese zones of emotional performance, thereby promoting an imaginary reconquest of these sites. While most of these travelogues recount deepening empathy toward the Japanese victims and ignore the islander counterparts, a minority imagine the suffering of the islanders and view the Japanese as perpetrators. These conflicting visions reflect the historiographical debates in Japan. In order to establish whether the journeys yielded these visions or reinforced previously held beliefs, the
background, styles and motivation of the travelers require careful consideration.
Japan Review, 2019
Renowned manga artist Mizuki Shigeru’s (1922–2015) multiple wartime memoirs and travelogues of hi... more Renowned manga artist Mizuki Shigeru’s (1922–2015) multiple wartime memoirs and travelogues of his time in New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, comprise a historical literature that provides insights into both the constant features and the shifts in Mizuki’s perceptions. This article explores Mizuki’s repeated renditions of his journeys by charting his evolving attitudes of admiration, disillusionment, resolution, and closure. While he identified with the villagers’ carefree lifestyle as an antithesis to the workto- rule postwar Japanese work ethic, each visit made him more concerned about the decline in the idyllic qualities of New Britain Island. The deaths of Emperor Hirohito in 1989 and of ToPetro, Mizuki’s closest village friend, a few years later spurred introspection on his wartime memory and his attitude toward the villagers. Mizuki grew receptive toward the villagers’ past and present grievances and reevaluated his relationship with them. He intended his parting gestures to repay the moral debt he had incurred. However, he failed to ask himself what his journeys meant to ToPetro and the villagers. This article suggests that a consideration of Mizuki’s changing reflections of these relationships could form a sub-genre of war veterans’ travelogues of their former battle site visits. Their writings may be understood to echo the broader power dynamics of the relationship between Japan and Papua New Guinea from the wartime period through to the postwar era.
This article demonstrates how travel writers take on the roles of historians during and after the... more This article demonstrates how travel writers take on the roles of historians during and after their journeys. The manner in which they exercise their roles varies in their understanding of the past, the articulation of personal values, and aspirations for the present and the future. To highlight both the commonalities and the variations, consider three commercially published Japanese travelogues to southwestern Pacific Islands. The article shows how the travellers’ diverse motivations and approaches are reflected in their historical consciousness. The journeys also shaped their perspectives on the relations between Japan and the Pacific Islands, and their raison d’être.
Pacific Historical Review, 2017
Of the numerous commercially published Japanese travelogues about the southwestern Pacific Island... more Of the numerous commercially published Japanese travelogues about the southwestern Pacific Islands, five stand out for their detailed accounts of interactions between the travel writers and the Pacific Islanders. This article explores the common narrative threads in these works. Drawing on the literature on travel writing and dark tourism, it analyzes how the relationship between travelers and the Islanders has evolved over time. The early writers report disturbing encounters with Islanders for whom memories of World War II’s Pacific battles were still vivid. The later writers exhibit greater expectations as patrons of battlefield tourism. Their writing displays less interest in a meaningful cultural exchange with the Islanders. This trend may parallel the asymmetry of political and economic power between Japan and the Pacific Islands.
Between 2005 and 2006 a female journalist Sasa Yukie (b. 1974) participated in and documented the... more Between 2005 and 2006 a female journalist Sasa Yukie (b. 1974) participated in and documented the commemoration of Japanese soldiers who died in the Pacific Islands during the Pacific War with other veterans and the families of deceased soldiers. Sasa's book, Onna hitori gyokusai no shima o yuku (2007), integrates her travel experience, impressions of her fellow travellers, historical accounts, and reflections on battlefields and commemoration sites. This article charts the two-stage process of Sasa's emerging historical consciousness in this travelogue. The first phase involves her growing empathy with her fellow tour members. Sasa follows a well-established Japanese literary trope that exalts the protagonists' loss to a noble cause. Thus, Sasa turns tour members and dead soldiers into tragic yet honourable heroes on her terms rather than theirs. The second phase involves Sasa's transformation into a passionate advocate for the greater recognition of and respect for deceased soldiers, veterans, and bereaved families. This article is a critical reading of this text, and argues that her travel experience was an impetus for Sasa's nationalistic tendencies. Her reduction of the memories of war and Islanders into metaphors of hōganbiiki discourages questions about the responsibilities and suffering of those involved and implicated in the war. I argue that this book is significant because it enabled Sasa to carve a particular journalistic niche as a journalist-activist promoting the interests of Pacific War veterans.
Suzuki Tsunenori (1853–1938; also known as Keikun) was one of the pioneering writers on Pacific I... more Suzuki Tsunenori (1853–1938; also known as Keikun) was one of the pioneering writers on Pacific Islands in the Meiji period. Recent scholarship has exposed flaws in his representation of Pacific Islanders in his landmark travelogue, Nanyō tanken jikki [A True Chronicle of South Seas Exploration] (1892). While the criticism undermined his reputation for his ethnographic eye, this essay employs an alternative critical angle on self-presentation. Suzuki promotes himself as a shrewd multi-talented traveller, culturally astute and willing to venture into the wild. First, this essay sketches the circumstances under which Suzuki embarked on his southern Pacific Islands journey of 1889–1890. Then it analyses how Suzuki projects his desired persona in Jikki. He seeks to develop and exploit these attributes to advertise his performance as a reporter, a cultural interlocutor and a grassroots ambassador. An inward-looking orientation helps us to present a clearer picture of Suzuki's life and travelogues.
The provision of textbooks in apartheid South Africa (1948-1994), a source of controversy and med... more The provision of textbooks in apartheid South Africa (1948-1994), a source of controversy and media interest in recent years, is placed in historical perspective, with particular reference to History textbook production. Michael W Apple (1993) proposes an analytical framework of political economy to enable better understanding of the tensions behind textbook production and distribution. During apartheid bureaucratic structures and commercial imperatives gave rise to a conformist ethos that stifled innovation. The textbook approval and adoption processes led publishers into adopting strategies to ensure approval for and approval of their textbooks. To avoid friction with education departments, editors urged selfrestraint on their writers and instructed them in how to write officially approvable manuscripts. While some authors were disappointed, most wrote to satisfy their
publishers, often resorting to copying the content and style of previously-approved textbooks. Focusing on History textbooks as a field of publishing history, this study synthesises existing primary and secondary sources, further supplemented by interviews with former History textbook writers and editors.
The school history textbook is gaining critical scholarly attention globally as a conte... more The school history textbook is gaining critical scholarly attention globally as a contested medium of conflicting ideologies and interests. At issue are the roles and the consequences of education and textbooks in influencing the ethos of future citizens. The Russian Federation and Japan are two nations that continue to receive strong criticism over their history textbooks from international and domestic critics for using them to legitimise the ruling government, rather than to foster critical understanding of the past. At the same time, both nations equally face criticism from rightist groups in their own countries for not using history textbooks well enough to legitimise the ruling elites, state power and to promote patriotism. This article provides comparative analyses of narrative strategies and ideologies used in 44 history textbooks, 22 from each country, approved by Russian and Japanese Ministries of Education between 1997 and 2010. Under scrutiny are the causes, the course and the consequences of the Russo-Japanese War（1904-05）, the first military conflict of the 20th century where interests of major political players, the United States, Britain, France, Russia and Japan collided. The aim is to reveal the historical perspectives promoted either overtly or covertly in respective textbooks’ narratives.
Asia Pacific Inquiry, vol. 5, no. 1, 2014, pp. 130-144.
In 1961 a renowned Japanese travel journalist Kanetaka Kaoru (b. 1928) paid her first visit to th... more In 1961 a renowned Japanese travel journalist Kanetaka Kaoru (b. 1928) paid her first visit to the South Pacific Islands to film television travel documentary program Sekai no tabi (“The world around us”). Her travelogue that derived from the journey recounts how Kanetaka’s opinion of feminine beauty evolved from comments on beauty by appearance to astute queries of what beauty means. Her views, which sometimes challenged the conventional sociocultural mores of the Japan
of her time, developed from her own descriptions of and interaction with women, and from the responses of tourists to her appearance. In Fiji she became increasingly aware that beauty is not only about appearance, but also about the whole decorum reflecting manners and morals. In Papua and New Guinea Kanetaka’s observation of and interaction with the women prompted questions about aesthetics, which branched off to considerations of what it means to be a human being.
The Journal of Pacific History, vol. 49, no. 4, 2014, pp. 440-456., Nov 3, 2014
This article analyses impressions of Fiji in 1961 recorded by two well-known Japanese travel-writ... more This article 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 postwar 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. Whilst 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 benefited from colonialism.
Life Writing, vol. 12, no. 1, 2015, pp 95-105., Jan 2014
After the end of my solo journey in Southeast Asia, I felt shadows from the trip were following m... more After the end of my solo journey in Southeast Asia, I felt shadows from the trip were following me. It took me some time before I began reflecting on the shadows. My reflections attempt to merge the academic and the personal, and bring my motivation and observations into scrutiny. This reflective exercise begins with my motivation for the journey, and moves to a few individuals and their personal life histories. The reflections made me aware of the naivety and shortcomings in my approach to identity, and the need for continuing dialogues with the shadows.
Studies in Travel Writing, vol. 17, no. 4, 2013, pp. 384-357, Dec 12, 2013
One of the formative experiences the motorcar racer Ukiya Tôjirô (1942–1965) had was his first lo... more One of the formative experiences the motorcar racer Ukiya Tôjirô (1942–1965) had was his first long-distance motorcycle journey. His long-selling travelogue, Gamushara 1500 kiro [My frantic 1500-kilometre journey] chronicles his travel and demonstrates his growing awareness as a young member of an elite socio-economic stratum. This article situates his motorcycle journey in Japanese social history. It then analyses his writing from a socio-economic perspective. Of particular importance were the different reactions the sights of the working people triggered in Ukiya. Busy workers embarrassed him and had him reflect on his leisurely status. Episodes at the cinema and films he saw empowered him to arrive at his future ambitions. Yet, idle workers stirred fear in him and left considerations of socio-economic disparity under-explored. The differences in his reflections not only suggest his selective use to elevate and justify his status, but also reveal an attitude he had towards the under-privileged.
Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 2010
This article examines how middle school history textbooks published between 1951 and 1995 explain... more This article examines how middle school history textbooks published between 1951 and 1995 explain the origins of the Japanese as an ethnic group (minzoku). The analysis shows that despite the relatively long period from which the sample of textbooks was taken, these texts continue to emphasize two categories of Japanese identity: a biologically heterogeneous people through prehistoric immigration and a unified language. Building on the latter theme, the textbooks continued to treat the innovation of the kana as a quintessential development underlying the Japanese cultural achievement. The analysis reveals that the narrative tone shifted from being emotive in the early 1950s texts to somewhat muted in later decades.
2008
The approval of school textbooks by the Japanese Ministry of Education (Mombushô) has attracted m... more The approval of school textbooks by the Japanese Ministry of Education (Mombushô) has attracted much attention
in recent years, in part because of the spirited criticisms both from the governments and the public of Japan’s
neighbouring states, and from concerned Japanese citizens. Mombushô’s practice can best be understood as a
set of historically-rooted phenomena. Over the past decades Mombushô took control of textbook certification and
distribution, thus creating legal and commercial precedence whereby textbook writers and publishers were required
to submit manuscripts that would be approved with minimum friction from Mombushô. These conditions resulted in
narrowing down the variety of textbooks available to teachers and students, with the market becoming competitive
and heavily regulated. This phenomenon has created a shift towards oligopoly and led some publishers to seek
patronage from the governing parties. Thus while Mombushô remained neither wholly responsible for the content
nor the ideology in the texts, it continued to maintain control over the texts that have caused many domestic and
international controversies over the last decades.
Japanese Perceptions of Papua New Guinea: War, Travel and the Reimagining of History, 2022
Japanese Perceptions of Papua New Guinea exposes the interactions between two ostensibly opposing... more Japanese Perceptions of Papua New Guinea exposes the interactions between two ostensibly opposing worlds: war and travel. While soldiers deployed to Eastern New Guinea during the Second World War recalled first-hand their experience of war, post-war tourists visited battle-sites, met locals, and drew their own conclusions about the Pacific island from the Japanese media. This book, in bringing travel and war closer together through a comparative analysis of veterans' memoirs and the records of postwar travelers, explores how individuals consume, create, and recreate war histories. As a result, Ryota Nishino reveals the extent to which the memory of defeat - for both soldiers and civilians alike - influenced the Japanese perceptions of Papua New Guinea and shaped future relations between the countries.
Translating a diverse range of Japanese primary and archival sources, this book provides the first English-language analysis of the social and political impact of Japanese interpretations of the PNG campaign and its aftermath. As such, Japanese Perceptions of Papua New Guinea: War, Travel and the Reimagining of History is an important text for anyone seeking a sophisticated understanding of war, nationalism, and memory culture in Japan and the Pacific Islands.
The teaching of history in South African and Japanese schools has attracted sustained criticism f... more The teaching of history in South African and Japanese schools has attracted sustained criticism for the alleged attempts to conceal the controversial aspects of their countries' past and to inculcate ideologies favourable to the ruling regimes. This book is the first attempt to systematically compare the ways in which education bureaucracy in both nations dealt with opposition and critics in the period from ca. 1945 to 1995, when both countries were dominated by single-party governments for most of the fifty years. The author argues that both South African and Japanese education bureaucracy did not overtly express its intentions in the curriculum documents or in the textbooks, but found ways to enhance its authority through a range of often subtle measures. A total of eight themes in 60 officially approved Standard 6 South African and Japanese middle-school history textbooks have been selected to demonstrate the changes and continuity. This work contributes to the existing literature of comparative history by drawing lessons that would probably not have emerged from the study of either country by itself.
Read more on Googlebooks:
The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 2022
Upon its publication in 1969, a war memoir by a Japanese veteran, Ogawa Masatsugu (1917–2009), “T... more Upon its publication in 1969, a war memoir by a Japanese veteran, Ogawa Masatsugu (1917–2009), “The Island of Death,” New Guinea: Humans in Extremis (Shi-no-shima Nyūginia: Kyokugen no naka no ningen), rose to prominence for its portrayal of the raw realities of the author’s combat experience in New Guinea. Although it secured its place in Japan’s war memory of the Asia-Pacific War, what remains overlooked, and merits further exploration is Ogawa’s efforts in grappling with his war trauma and psychological damage. This article argues that Ogawa’s memoir marks the initial step in his long healing process through employing two narrative threads. First, he identified the initial traumatic episode as an incident in China, where he had fought before New Guinea. Second, Ogawa created a binary between the compassionate New Guineans and the callous Japanese officers. The two threads led him to frame himself as a victim and bystander but let him leave questions of violence, humanity, savagery, and civilization unaddressed. His capture as a prisoner of war and his repatriation to Japan dealt further blows to his already fragile self. It was this awareness of psychological damage that led Ogawa to write his memoir and to start his long road to recovery. Thus, Ogawa’s memoir is not a mere personal story, but rather it reflects the inner struggle of many war veterans in Japan and elsewhere attempting to come to terms with and give meaning to their traumatic war experiences.
The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 2022
Articles in this special issue re-examine Asia-Pacific War memories by taking a longer and broade... more Articles in this special issue re-examine Asia-Pacific War memories by taking a longer and broader view, geographically, temporally, and spatially. A diverse, global team of thirteen authors highlights subjects across a wide geographical area spanning the Asia-Pacific region especially. In the process, articles question common assumptions and narratives surrounding Asia-Pacific War memories by highlighting crucial, in-between spaces and remembrances. These range from Japanese military cemeteries in Malaysia, to the experiences of Filipino residents living near a Japanese POW camp, and to Japanese veterans’ personal narratives of guilt, trauma, and heroism. Articles also draw attention to the ongoing significance of Asia-Pacific war memories, partly as personal struggles to confront and to find meaning in the past, and partly through memory’s political instrumentalization in Cold War and post-Cold War power struggles.
History and Memory, 2020
This article analyzes travelogues written by Japanese visitors to the battle sites of the Pacific... more This article analyzes travelogues written by Japanese visitors to the battle sites of the Pacific War. It argues that they tend to turn the destinations into exclusively Japanese zones of emotional performance, thereby promoting an imaginary reconquest of these sites. While most of these travelogues recount deepening empathy toward the Japanese victims and ignore the islander counterparts, a minority imagine the suffering of the islanders and view the Japanese as perpetrators. These conflicting visions reflect the historiographical debates in Japan. In order to establish whether the journeys yielded these visions or reinforced previously held beliefs, the
background, styles and motivation of the travelers require careful consideration.
Japan Review, 2019
Renowned manga artist Mizuki Shigeru’s (1922–2015) multiple wartime memoirs and travelogues of hi... more Renowned manga artist Mizuki Shigeru’s (1922–2015) multiple wartime memoirs and travelogues of his time in New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea, comprise a historical literature that provides insights into both the constant features and the shifts in Mizuki’s perceptions. This article explores Mizuki’s repeated renditions of his journeys by charting his evolving attitudes of admiration, disillusionment, resolution, and closure. While he identified with the villagers’ carefree lifestyle as an antithesis to the workto- rule postwar Japanese work ethic, each visit made him more concerned about the decline in the idyllic qualities of New Britain Island. The deaths of Emperor Hirohito in 1989 and of ToPetro, Mizuki’s closest village friend, a few years later spurred introspection on his wartime memory and his attitude toward the villagers. Mizuki grew receptive toward the villagers’ past and present grievances and reevaluated his relationship with them. He intended his parting gestures to repay the moral debt he had incurred. However, he failed to ask himself what his journeys meant to ToPetro and the villagers. This article suggests that a consideration of Mizuki’s changing reflections of these relationships could form a sub-genre of war veterans’ travelogues of their former battle site visits. Their writings may be understood to echo the broader power dynamics of the relationship between Japan and Papua New Guinea from the wartime period through to the postwar era.
This article demonstrates how travel writers take on the roles of historians during and after the... more This article demonstrates how travel writers take on the roles of historians during and after their journeys. The manner in which they exercise their roles varies in their understanding of the past, the articulation of personal values, and aspirations for the present and the future. To highlight both the commonalities and the variations, consider three commercially published Japanese travelogues to southwestern Pacific Islands. The article shows how the travellers’ diverse motivations and approaches are reflected in their historical consciousness. The journeys also shaped their perspectives on the relations between Japan and the Pacific Islands, and their raison d’être.
Pacific Historical Review, 2017
Of the numerous commercially published Japanese travelogues about the southwestern Pacific Island... more Of the numerous commercially published Japanese travelogues about the southwestern Pacific Islands, five stand out for their detailed accounts of interactions between the travel writers and the Pacific Islanders. This article explores the common narrative threads in these works. Drawing on the literature on travel writing and dark tourism, it analyzes how the relationship between travelers and the Islanders has evolved over time. The early writers report disturbing encounters with Islanders for whom memories of World War II’s Pacific battles were still vivid. The later writers exhibit greater expectations as patrons of battlefield tourism. Their writing displays less interest in a meaningful cultural exchange with the Islanders. This trend may parallel the asymmetry of political and economic power between Japan and the Pacific Islands.
Between 2005 and 2006 a female journalist Sasa Yukie (b. 1974) participated in and documented the... more Between 2005 and 2006 a female journalist Sasa Yukie (b. 1974) participated in and documented the commemoration of Japanese soldiers who died in the Pacific Islands during the Pacific War with other veterans and the families of deceased soldiers. Sasa's book, Onna hitori gyokusai no shima o yuku (2007), integrates her travel experience, impressions of her fellow travellers, historical accounts, and reflections on battlefields and commemoration sites. This article charts the two-stage process of Sasa's emerging historical consciousness in this travelogue. The first phase involves her growing empathy with her fellow tour members. Sasa follows a well-established Japanese literary trope that exalts the protagonists' loss to a noble cause. Thus, Sasa turns tour members and dead soldiers into tragic yet honourable heroes on her terms rather than theirs. The second phase involves Sasa's transformation into a passionate advocate for the greater recognition of and respect for deceased soldiers, veterans, and bereaved families. This article is a critical reading of this text, and argues that her travel experience was an impetus for Sasa's nationalistic tendencies. Her reduction of the memories of war and Islanders into metaphors of hōganbiiki discourages questions about the responsibilities and suffering of those involved and implicated in the war. I argue that this book is significant because it enabled Sasa to carve a particular journalistic niche as a journalist-activist promoting the interests of Pacific War veterans.
Suzuki Tsunenori (1853–1938; also known as Keikun) was one of the pioneering writers on Pacific I... more Suzuki Tsunenori (1853–1938; also known as Keikun) was one of the pioneering writers on Pacific Islands in the Meiji period. Recent scholarship has exposed flaws in his representation of Pacific Islanders in his landmark travelogue, Nanyō tanken jikki [A True Chronicle of South Seas Exploration] (1892). While the criticism undermined his reputation for his ethnographic eye, this essay employs an alternative critical angle on self-presentation. Suzuki promotes himself as a shrewd multi-talented traveller, culturally astute and willing to venture into the wild. First, this essay sketches the circumstances under which Suzuki embarked on his southern Pacific Islands journey of 1889–1890. Then it analyses how Suzuki projects his desired persona in Jikki. He seeks to develop and exploit these attributes to advertise his performance as a reporter, a cultural interlocutor and a grassroots ambassador. An inward-looking orientation helps us to present a clearer picture of Suzuki's life and travelogues.
The provision of textbooks in apartheid South Africa (1948-1994), a source of controversy and med... more The provision of textbooks in apartheid South Africa (1948-1994), a source of controversy and media interest in recent years, is placed in historical perspective, with particular reference to History textbook production. Michael W Apple (1993) proposes an analytical framework of political economy to enable better understanding of the tensions behind textbook production and distribution. During apartheid bureaucratic structures and commercial imperatives gave rise to a conformist ethos that stifled innovation. The textbook approval and adoption processes led publishers into adopting strategies to ensure approval for and approval of their textbooks. To avoid friction with education departments, editors urged selfrestraint on their writers and instructed them in how to write officially approvable manuscripts. While some authors were disappointed, most wrote to satisfy their
publishers, often resorting to copying the content and style of previously-approved textbooks. Focusing on History textbooks as a field of publishing history, this study synthesises existing primary and secondary sources, further supplemented by interviews with former History textbook writers and editors.
The school history textbook is gaining critical scholarly attention globally as a conte... more The school history textbook is gaining critical scholarly attention globally as a contested medium of conflicting ideologies and interests. At issue are the roles and the consequences of education and textbooks in influencing the ethos of future citizens. The Russian Federation and Japan are two nations that continue to receive strong criticism over their history textbooks from international and domestic critics for using them to legitimise the ruling government, rather than to foster critical understanding of the past. At the same time, both nations equally face criticism from rightist groups in their own countries for not using history textbooks well enough to legitimise the ruling elites, state power and to promote patriotism. This article provides comparative analyses of narrative strategies and ideologies used in 44 history textbooks, 22 from each country, approved by Russian and Japanese Ministries of Education between 1997 and 2010. Under scrutiny are the causes, the course and the consequences of the Russo-Japanese War（1904-05）, the first military conflict of the 20th century where interests of major political players, the United States, Britain, France, Russia and Japan collided. The aim is to reveal the historical perspectives promoted either overtly or covertly in respective textbooks’ narratives.
Asia Pacific Inquiry, vol. 5, no. 1, 2014, pp. 130-144.
In 1961 a renowned Japanese travel journalist Kanetaka Kaoru (b. 1928) paid her first visit to th... more In 1961 a renowned Japanese travel journalist Kanetaka Kaoru (b. 1928) paid her first visit to the South Pacific Islands to film television travel documentary program Sekai no tabi (“The world around us”). Her travelogue that derived from the journey recounts how Kanetaka’s opinion of feminine beauty evolved from comments on beauty by appearance to astute queries of what beauty means. Her views, which sometimes challenged the conventional sociocultural mores of the Japan
of her time, developed from her own descriptions of and interaction with women, and from the responses of tourists to her appearance. In Fiji she became increasingly aware that beauty is not only about appearance, but also about the whole decorum reflecting manners and morals. In Papua and New Guinea Kanetaka’s observation of and interaction with the women prompted questions about aesthetics, which branched off to considerations of what it means to be a human being.
The Journal of Pacific History, vol. 49, no. 4, 2014, pp. 440-456., Nov 3, 2014
This article analyses impressions of Fiji in 1961 recorded by two well-known Japanese travel-writ... more This article 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 postwar 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. Whilst 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 benefited from colonialism.
Life Writing, vol. 12, no. 1, 2015, pp 95-105., Jan 2014
After the end of my solo journey in Southeast Asia, I felt shadows from the trip were following m... more After the end of my solo journey in Southeast Asia, I felt shadows from the trip were following me. It took me some time before I began reflecting on the shadows. My reflections attempt to merge the academic and the personal, and bring my motivation and observations into scrutiny. This reflective exercise begins with my motivation for the journey, and moves to a few individuals and their personal life histories. The reflections made me aware of the naivety and shortcomings in my approach to identity, and the need for continuing dialogues with the shadows.
Studies in Travel Writing, vol. 17, no. 4, 2013, pp. 384-357, Dec 12, 2013
One of the formative experiences the motorcar racer Ukiya Tôjirô (1942–1965) had was his first lo... more One of the formative experiences the motorcar racer Ukiya Tôjirô (1942–1965) had was his first long-distance motorcycle journey. His long-selling travelogue, Gamushara 1500 kiro [My frantic 1500-kilometre journey] chronicles his travel and demonstrates his growing awareness as a young member of an elite socio-economic stratum. This article situates his motorcycle journey in Japanese social history. It then analyses his writing from a socio-economic perspective. Of particular importance were the different reactions the sights of the working people triggered in Ukiya. Busy workers embarrassed him and had him reflect on his leisurely status. Episodes at the cinema and films he saw empowered him to arrive at his future ambitions. Yet, idle workers stirred fear in him and left considerations of socio-economic disparity under-explored. The differences in his reflections not only suggest his selective use to elevate and justify his status, but also reveal an attitude he had towards the under-privileged.
Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 2010
This article examines how middle school history textbooks published between 1951 and 1995 explain... more This article examines how middle school history textbooks published between 1951 and 1995 explain the origins of the Japanese as an ethnic group (minzoku). The analysis shows that despite the relatively long period from which the sample of textbooks was taken, these texts continue to emphasize two categories of Japanese identity: a biologically heterogeneous people through prehistoric immigration and a unified language. Building on the latter theme, the textbooks continued to treat the innovation of the kana as a quintessential development underlying the Japanese cultural achievement. The analysis reveals that the narrative tone shifted from being emotive in the early 1950s texts to somewhat muted in later decades.
2008
The approval of school textbooks by the Japanese Ministry of Education (Mombushô) has attracted m... more The approval of school textbooks by the Japanese Ministry of Education (Mombushô) has attracted much attention
in recent years, in part because of the spirited criticisms both from the governments and the public of Japan’s
neighbouring states, and from concerned Japanese citizens. Mombushô’s practice can best be understood as a
set of historically-rooted phenomena. Over the past decades Mombushô took control of textbook certification and
distribution, thus creating legal and commercial precedence whereby textbook writers and publishers were required
to submit manuscripts that would be approved with minimum friction from Mombushô. These conditions resulted in
narrowing down the variety of textbooks available to teachers and students, with the market becoming competitive
and heavily regulated. This phenomenon has created a shift towards oligopoly and led some publishers to seek
patronage from the governing parties. Thus while Mombushô remained neither wholly responsible for the content
nor the ideology in the texts, it continued to maintain control over the texts that have caused many domestic and
international controversies over the last decades.
The Australasian Review of African Studies, Jun 2002
This article arises out of an oral history project conducted in Grahamstown South Africa in 1999.... more This article arises out of an oral history project conducted in Grahamstown South Africa in 1999. Following the Soweto uprising of June 1976 Township children boycotted their schools across South Africa including in Grahamstown between 1984 to 1987. Seeking to discover the 'human side' of those Grahamstown boycotts and at the same time to examine the value of oral evidence for the history of that period I conducted interviews with a number of former students, teachers who had been teaching in the township schools and parents who had had children at school in the mid-1980s. While the number of interviews was small I found that the recollections of all those who participated in the project provided some valuable insights into their common frustrations during the boycott years. This article, largely using their own words, draws together those insights as a contribution to the growing body of oral evidence relating to that period.
Transpacific Visions Connected Histories of the Pacific across North and South, 2021
This chapter probes an issue she discussed frequently in Oseania, namely Kanetaka’s impressions o... more This chapter probes an issue she discussed frequently in Oseania, namely Kanetaka’s impressions of feminine beauty following her observations of and interactions with the women of Fiji and the Territory of Papua New Guinea (hereafter PNG). These descriptions give us an insight into how she exercised her authorial power to represent the Pacific Islander women and herself. Kanetaka’s aesthetic judgment moved from celebrating women’s superficial appearance to decorum and to the questions of civilization. The chapter ultimately argues that Kanetaka repeated the rhetoric of Western and Japanese writers that privileged the Polynesians over the Melanesians. Oseania shows
how far down the Western influence on Japanese representation the Pacific filtered to a putatively ordinary citizen and a female, and how resistant such mode of representation was even in days after Japan lost the war and the empire. The chapter starts with an outline of her formative years and career and then situates her program and travelogue. To show how her impressions shifted, the following discussion follows her impressions in the order of her journey from Fiji and PNG.
The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity, 2019
This chapter analyzes the descriptions of antiquity in middle-school (Chūgakkō) Japanese History ... more This chapter analyzes the descriptions of antiquity in middle-school (Chūgakkō) Japanese History textbooks to probe the nature of popular perceptions amongst the Japanese: the Japanese are biologically and culturally homogenous. This perception persists despite the empirical and logical flaws of the claim of homogeneity. A total of 20 textbooks, approved and published in two periods, between 1951 and 1993, and 2015–16, presume the Jōmon era (ca. 10,000–2400 BP) to be the foundational period of the Japanese race, culture, and state under the unquestioned premise of Japan as the overarching framework. The textbooks repeat the idea that racial and cultural hybridization during the Jōmon era led to a homogenous Japanese people. What varied was the intensity of the language that lauded the Jōmon era as the source of Japanese uniqueness and superiority. The celebration of Japanese homogeneity and uniqueness is a salient feature of Nihonjin-ron: the popular discourse on Japanese cultural identity. This chapter considers the textbook as a medium conveying Nihonjin-ron through the bureaucratic processes it has to fulfil before approval and the potential influence that the textbook version of history can have on students. The analysis here places textbooks on the spectrum of hard and soft Nihonjin-ron. While hard Nihonjin-ron openly celebrates Japanese uniqueness, soft Nihonjin-ron is subtle. This chapter demonstrates the most recent textbooks are polarized between soft and hard Nihonjin-ron. What remains in common, however, is that the textbooks discuss the Jōmon era without posing questions of what being Japanese means.
The study of the direct and indirect exercise of power in colonial South African history is nowhe... more The study of the direct and indirect exercise of power in colonial South African history is nowhere better surveyed than in Norman Etherington’s incisive works on the historiography of Empire. One form of the exercise of colonial or settler power was through the medium of school textbooks. For students of South African history, the work of George McCall Theal is impossible to ignore because of his influence in establishing the blueprint for this history.
The influence of settler historiography was felt not only in academia but also in officially approved school textbooks. This chapter compares a school textbook written by Theal in 1890 with those published by other authors between 1945 and 1996. I analyse descriptions of the events leading to the fifth ‘frontier war’ of 1818–19 and take the war itself as a case study, to gauge Theal’s influence on later textbooks. Although many textbooks continuously recycled Theal’s pro-settler messages, some aspects were modified to reflect the government policies of the day. When, during the mid-1980s, the South African government hardened its stance on extra-parliamentary opposition and declared a state of emergency, some textbooks openly challenged the assumptions of settler historiography. After the demise of apartheid in 1994, historical perspectives that had been long excluded from textbooks were incorporated. Paradoxically, however, textbooks published during apartheid or those espousing apartheid ideology still circulated.
Pacific Insularity: Imaginary Geography of Insular Spaces in the Pacific, 2021
The chapter looks into the ways a historical novel, Regiman no hi [Fire over Regiman] (privately ... more The chapter looks into the ways a historical novel, Regiman no hi [Fire over Regiman] (privately published 1981, re-published commercially, 1992) employs historical information and literary imagination. The author, Sugimura Mitsuko (1910-1986) tells a story of the Sokehs Rebellion on Pohnpei Island from October 1910 to February 1911. Her admiration for the Sokehs rebels impedes her from developing a fuller plot and characters. These flaws have left us with paradoxical results. On one hand is the rift between the ideological reality Sugmimoto has created and the ways the Pohnpeians commemorate the rebellion. On the other is an alternative circulation of historical memory; the novel has served as the basis for another publication. Regiman leaves scholars with many ruses to solve in years to come.
Body of Abstract (minimum 200 words, maximum 300 words)
This article analyses critically acclaimed Australian and Japanese memoirs of the New Guinea camp... more This article analyses critically acclaimed Australian and Japanese memoirs of the New Guinea campaign (1942-45) through the lens of making and un-making military masculinity. The Australian Peter Ryan (Fear Drive My Feet, 1959) told a bildungsroman tale. Ryan projected a new Australia-PNG relationship that re-imagined a paternalistic bilateral relation. The Japanese veteran, Ogawa Masatsugu (Shi no shima Nyū Ginia, 1969) found Japanese interactions with the New Guineans exposed the ideological bankruptcy of the Japanese officers. The study shows despite very different war experiences observations from interaction with PNG people offer vital points of comparison.
This chapter revises my article published in 2010. It analysed 30 Japanese middle school history ... more This chapter revises my article published in 2010. It analysed 30 Japanese middle school history textbooks approved for use between 1951 and 1995 and compared them with the controversial neo-nationalist textbook approved in 2001. The sections on antiquity consistently articulated the essence of Nihonjin-ron, theories of Japanese cultural nationalism, without posing students questions about the fundamental distinction between the Japanese people, nation, and territories. This chapter compares those textbooks with eight textbooks in current use to ascertain the effects of recent educational reforms since 2006. Whilst these textbooks have consistently presented the same range of facts about the antiquity, I identify a gradation between hard and soft Nihonjin-ron. Hard Nihonjin-ron uses emotional language to celebrate the cultural achievement of ancient Japan. Soft Nihonjin-ron articulates an ethnocentric vision without resorting to emotional language. The minority textbooks amplify its hard Nihonjin-ron message by adhering to the recent educational reform to a great extent.
This is a draft copy for peer review. Please do not cite or quote. I have not had this manuscript edited by a native-English speaker. Will amend errors in grammar and word usage later.
Prolific manga artist Mizuki Shigeru (1922–2015) wrote several travelogues, in manga and prose, o... more Prolific manga artist Mizuki Shigeru (1922–2015) wrote several travelogues, in manga and prose, of New Britain Island in the eastern section of Papua New Guinea. His recollections manifested distinctive characteristics, depending on the journeys he recalled. In particular, his recollections of his relationship with the villagers showed clear beginning, middle and end phases. Mizuki placed different meanings on each of these phases. In the first phase, during the war, he formed a strong bond with the villagers of Namale. Mizuki considered the village a place for heaven-like respite from hell-like hardships in the military camp. Then, from his first postwar return trip in 1971 up to the late 1980s, he documented his disillusionment with the village and the changed demeanour of the villagers. His disappointment heightened his nostalgia and aided his creative pursuits. From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, Mizuki explored a new outlook on wartime memory following the death of Emperor Hirohito. He saw different meanings in the generosity he had received from the villagers and the gift he had given in return. Notwithstanding his self-reflection and reciprocity, he kept his freedom to open and close his relationship with the villagers and gained a great deal from the friendship.
This essay follows wide definitions of travel and travelers, and explores the potential of travel... more This essay follows wide definitions of travel and travelers, and explores the potential of travel writing as a medium of historical information. The travelers surveyed have acted as historians who collected and researched during and after their journeys. Yet, these accounts draw attention to two issues: the roles of interviewees, and the travelers' own development of historical consciousness. The writing on southwestern Pacific Islands show the interviewees acted as historians and storytellers. The travel writers drew inspiration from their journeys and applied their understanding of war history to better make sense of the present and articulate ideal visions of the future.
Travel writing communicates how travel writers develop and articulate historical consciousness, a... more Travel writing communicates how travel writers develop and articulate historical consciousness, and can be a distinct medium of historical representation. A case study of six works of Japanese travel writing about the southwestern Pacific Islands published between 1980 and 2010 shows the travel writers responded to three common triggers: landscape, the remains of the dead, and supernatural phenomena. These responses make the journeys seem authentic, and form the basis for further aspects of historical consciousness: making sense of past events and the status quo, and suggesting visions for the future. (90 words)