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• Professional Development Series: "Ask the Editors: Publishing Your Book in Japanese Studies"

  • When
    December 08, 2023
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Friday, December 8, 2023 | 7:00PM-8:30 PM ET | REGISTER FOR ZOOM
  

  Ask the Editors: Publishing Your Book in Japanese Studies

  

  
  

  Featured Panelists:

  William Masami Hammell, Senior Acquisitions Editor, University of Pittsburgh Press
  Masako Ikeda, Executive Editor, University of Hawai‘i Press
  Daniel Seungchurl Lee, Japan/Korea Editor, Harvard University Asia Center Publications Program
  Akiko Yamagata, Owner & Editor, Graphite Editing

  
  

  Panelists will offer advice and strategies for writing and publishing a book in Japanese studies, with an emphasis on aiming to publish in a peer-reviewed academic press.

   
  

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• New Books from Japan #5: "Chosenseki: A History of the Legal Marker of Koreans in Postwar Japan"

  • When
    December 12, 2023
  •  
    9:00 PM (JST)
  • Location
    Zoom

  Tuesday, December 12, 2023 | 9:00-10:30 PM Japan Standard Time | 7:00-8:30 AM ET | 4:00-5:30 AM PT

  REGISTER FOR ZOOM HERE

  
  

  New Books from Japan #5

  『歴史のなかの朝鮮籍』

  Chosenseki: A History of the Legal Marker of Koreans in Postwar Japan　

  Presenter: 鄭栄桓 (Chong Young-hwan, Meiji Gakuin University)

  Discussant: Sayaka Chatani (National University of Singapore)

  On May 2, 1947, the concept of "Chosen nationality" appeared in the Japanese alien registration system for the first time, and has continued to exist until the present day. The history of this strange "nationality" given to Koreans who continued to live in Japan after liberation from colonial rule is elucidated through a close reading of primary source documents, including diplomatic correspondence between Japan and Korea; administrative documents of the Ministry of Justice and local governments; court records; and documents left behind by political parties and ethnic solidarity organizations.

  1947年5月2日、日本の外国人法制に登場し、今日に至るまで存続している「朝鮮籍」。植民地支配からの解放後も日本で暮らし続けた朝鮮人たちに与えられたこの奇妙な「国籍」の歴史を、日韓の外交文書、法務省や地方自治体の行政文書、裁判記録、そして政党・民族団体の残した文書などの一次史料を精緻に読み解くことで明らかにする。

  
  

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• New Books on Japan: "Japan's Ocean Borderlands: Nature and Sovereignty"

  • When
    December 13, 2023
  •  
    6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  December 13, 2023 | 6:00-7:30 PM EST | REGISTER FOR ZOOM

  Japan's Ocean Borderlands: Nature and Sovereignty (Cambridge University Press, 2023)

  Author: Paul Kreitman, Assistant Professor of History, Columbia University

  Discussant: Miriam Kingsberg Kadia, Professor of History, University of Colorado, Boulder

  The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with Paul Kreitman (Assistant Professor of History, Columbia University). Professor Kreitman will be speaking about his new book, Japan's Ocean Borderlands: Nature and Sovereignty (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Japan's Ocean Borderlands reveals how the politics of conservation have entangled with the politics of sovereignty since the emergence of the modern Japanese state in the mid-nineteenth century. Using case studies ranging from Hawai'i to the Bonin Islands to the Senkaku (Ch: Diaoyu) Isles to the South China Sea, he explores how bird islands on the distant margins of the Japanese archipelago and beyond transformed from sites of resource extraction to outposts of empire and from wartime battlegrounds to nature reserves. This study examines how interactions between birds, bird products, bureaucrats, speculators, sailors, soldiers, scientists and conservationists shaped ongoing claims to sovereignty over oceanic spaces. It considers what the history of desert islands shows us about imperial and post-imperial power, the web of political, economic and ecological connections between islands and oceans, and about the relationship between sovereignty, territory and environment in the modern world. Miriam Kingsburg Kadia (Professor of History, University of Colorado, Boulder) will serve as discussant.  

  
  

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• New Books on Japan: "Nuclear Ghost: Atomic Livelihoods in Fukushima's Gray Zone"

  • When
    January 17, 2024
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  January 17, 2024 | 7:00-8:30 PM EST | REGISTER FOR ZOOM

  Nuclear Ghost: Atomic Livelihoods in Fukushima's Gray Zone (University of California Press, 2023)

  Author: Ryo Morimoto, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University

  Discussant: Anne Allison, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University

  The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with Ryo Morimoto (Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University). Professor Morimoto will be speaking about his new book, Nuclear Ghost: Atomic Livelihoods in Fukushima's Gray Zone (University of California Press, 2023). Nuclear Ghost takes us deep into the liminal zone of evacuated, post-cataclysm Minamisōma, a town powerfully affected by the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. "There is a nuclear ghost in Minamisōma" is how one resident described a mysterious experience following the disaster. Investigating this nuclear ghost among the graying population, Professor Morimoto examines radiation’s shapeshifting effects. What happens if state authorities, scientific experts, and the public disagree about the extent and nature of the harm caused by the accident? In one of the first in-depth ethnographic accounts of coastal Fukushima written in English, Nuclear Ghost tells the stories of a diverse group of residents who aspire to live and die well in their now irradiated homes. Their determination to recover their land, cultures, and histories for future generations provides a compelling case study for reimagining relationality and accountability in an ever-atomizing world. Anne Allison (Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University) will serve as discussant.  

  
  

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• 12 Questions with David Howell: The New Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. II

  • When
    February 06, 2024
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    ZOOM

  Tuesday, February 6, 2024 | 7:00PM-8:30 PM EST | REGISTER FOR ZOOM

  12 Questions with David Howell: The New Cambridge History of Japan, Vol. II

  

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

  Interviewer: Kären Wigen, Frances & Charles Field Professor in History, Stanford University

  With the publication of the highly-anticipated New Cambridge History of Japan Volume II: Early Modern Japan in Asia and the World, c. 1580–1877, please join us via Zoom for an interview with Volume II editor David Howell (Robert K. and Dale J. Weary Professor of Japanese History, Harvard University). It has been over thirty years since the original Cambridge History of Japan first came out. The forthcoming release of Volume II of the new 3-volume set gives us the opportunity to reflect on how the history of early modern Japan has been traditionally conceptualized and consider how and why current trends in history writing may be shifting these views. Professor Kären Wigen (Frances & Charles Field Professor in History, Stanford University) will interview Professor Howell about a wide range of questions about the past, present, and future writing of the histories of early modern Japan. There will be significant time for audience questions and discussion. This event is not to be missed! 

  Click HERE for a shareable PDF flyer!

  
  

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• New Books on Japan: "Reading Medieval Ruins: Urban Life and Destruction in Sixteenth-Century Japan"

  • When
    February 15, 2024
  •  
    8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Thursday, February 15, 2024 | 8:00-9:30 PM ET | REGISTER FOR ZOOM

  Reading Medieval Ruins: Urban Life and Destruction in Sixteenth-Century Japan (Cambridge University Press, 2022)

  Author: Morgan Pitelka, Bernard L. Herman Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  Discussant: Ethan Segal, Associate Professor of History, Michigan State University

  The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with  Morgan Pitelka (Bernard L. Herman Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) . Professor Pitelka will be speaking about his new book,  Reading Medieval Ruins: Urban Life and Destruction in Sixteenth-Century Japan (Cambridge University Press, 2022) . Reading Medieval Ruins takes us back to the Japanese provincial city of Ichijōdani, which was destroyed in the civil wars of the late sixteenth century but never rebuilt. Archaeological excavations have since uncovered the most detailed late medieval urban site in the country. Drawing on analysis of specific excavated objects and decades of archaeological evidence to study daily life in Ichijōdani, Reading Medieval Ruins illuminates the city's layout, the possessions and houses of its residents, its politics and experience of war, and religious and cultural networks. Professor Pitelka demonstrates how provincial centers could be dynamic and vibrant nodes of industrial, cultural, economic, and political entrepreneurship and sophistication. In this study a new and vital understanding of late medieval society is revealed, one in which Ichijôdani played a central role in the vibrant age of Japan's sixteenth century.  Ethan Segal (Associate Professor of History, Michigan State University ) will serve as discussant.  

  
  

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• New Books on Japan: "Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki"

  • When
    March 07, 2024
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Thursday, March 7, 2024 | 7:00-8:30 PM ET | REGISTER FOR ZOOM

  Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Chicago University Press, 2023)

  Author: Ran Zwigenberg, Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Jewish Studies, Pennsylvania State University

  Discussant: Elyssa Faison, Associate Professor of History, University of Oklahoma

  The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with Ran Zwigenberg (Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Jewish Studies, Pennsylvania State University). Professor Zwigenberg will be speaking about his new book,  Nuclear Minds: Cold War Psychological Science and the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Chicago University Press, 2023) . In 1945, researchers with the United States Strategic Bombing Survey canvassed survivors of the nuclear attack. This marked the beginning of global efforts—by psychiatrists, psychologists, and other social scientists—to tackle the complex ways in which human minds were affected by the advent of the nuclear age. A trans-Pacific research network emerged that produced massive amounts of data about the dropping of the bomb and subsequent nuclear tests in and around the Pacific rim. Professor Zwigenberg traces these efforts and the ways they were interpreted differently across communities of researchers and victims. He explores how the bomb’s psychological impact on survivors was understood before we had the concept of post-traumatic stress disorder. In fact, psychological and psychiatric research on Hiroshima and Nagasaki rarely referred to trauma or similar categories. Instead, institutional and political constraints—most notably the psychological sciences’ entanglement with Cold War science—led researchers to concentrate on short-term damage and somatic reactions or even, in some cases, on denial of victims’ suffering. As a result, very few doctors tried to ameliorate suffering. But, Zwigenberg argues, it was not only that doctors “failed” to issue the right diagnosis; the victims’ experiences also did not necessarily conform to our contemporary expectations. As he shows, the category of trauma should not be used uncritically in a non-Western context. Elyssa Faison (Associate Professor of History, University of Oklahoma) will serve as discussant.

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

  • When
    April 23, 2024
  •  
    7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

  Tuesday, April 23, 2024 | 7:00-8:30 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.  

  
  

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• New Books on Japan: "Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity"

  • When
    May 07, 2024
  •  
    6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom

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

  Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity (Harvard University East Asia Center Press, 2022)

  Author: Simon Avenell, Professor in the School of Culture, History, and Language, Australian National University

  Discussant: Robert Hoppens, Associate Professor of History, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

  The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with Simon Avenell (Australian National University). Professor Yamamoto will be speaking about his new book, Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity (Harvard University East Asia Center Press, 2022). Asia and Postwar Japan examines Japanese deimperialization from 1945 until the early twenty-first century. It focuses on the thought and activism of progressive activists and intellectuals as they struggled to overcome rigid preconceptions about “Asia,” as they grappled with the implications of postimperial responsibility, and as they forged new regional solidarities and Asian imaginaries. Professor Avenell reveals the critical importance of Asia in postwar Japanese thought, activism, and politics—Asia as a symbolic geography, Asia as a space for grassroots engagement, and ultimately, Asia as an aporia of identity and the source of a new politics of hope. Robert Hoppens (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) will serve as discussant.

  
  

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