New Books on Japan: "Demarcating Japan: Imperialism, Islanders, and Mobility, 1855–1884"

Tuesday, April 23, 2024 | 6:00-7:30 PM ET | REGISTER FOR ZOOM

Demarcating Japan: Imperialism, Islanders, and Mobility, 1855–1884 (Harvard University East Asia Center Press, 2023)

Author: Takahiro Yamamoto, Singapore University of Technology and Design

Discussant:  David Howell, Robert K. and Dale J. Weary Professor of Japanese History, Harvard University

The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with  Takahiro Yamamoto (Singapore University of Technology and Design). Professor Yamamoto will be speaking about his new book, Demarcating Japan: Imperialism, Islanders, and Mobility, 1855–1884 (Harvard University East Asia Center Press, 2023). Histories of remote islands around Japan are usually told through the prism of territorial disputes. In contrast, Professor Yamamoto contends in Demarcating Japan  that the transformation of the islands from ambiguous border zones to a territorialized space emerged out of multilateral power relations. Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Tsushima, the Bonin Islands, and the Ryukyu Islands became the subject of inter-imperial negotiations during the formative years of modern Japan as empires nudged each other to secure their status with minimal costs rather than fighting a territorial scramble. Based on multiarchival, multilingual research, Demarcating Japan argues that the transformation of border islands should be understood as an interconnected process, where inter-local referencing played a key role in the outcome: Japan’s geographical expansion in the face of domineering Extra-Asian empires. Underneath this multilateral process were the connections forged by individual non-state actors. Translators, doctors, traffickers, castaways, and indigenous hunters crisscrossed border regions and enacted violence, exchanged knowledge, and forged friendships. Although their motivations were eclectic and their interactions transcended national borders, the linkages they created were essential in driving territorialization forward. David Howell (Robert K. and Dale J. Weary Professor of Japanese History, Harvard University) will serve as discussant.