Modern Japan History Association upcoming events

New Books from Japan #13: "A Social History of Modern Japan: Social Groups and a Market Economy, 1868-1914" (May 28, 2026)

Thu, 28 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Thursday, May 28, 2026 8:00-9:30 AM ET | 9:00-10:30 PM JST

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New Books from Japan #13:

『日本近代社会史 -- 社会集団と市場から読み解く 1868-1914』

A Social History of Modern Japan: Social Groups and a Market Economy, 1868-1914

Presenter: 松沢裕作 (Matsuzawa Yusaku, Keio University)

Discussant: Marnie Anderson (Smith College)

Moderator: 池田真歩 (Ikeda Maho, Tokyo Metropolitan University)

Here lie the foundations of contemporary Japanese society. From the late nineteenth century, when the status order of early modern Japan began to collapse, through the Meiji Restoration, and up to World War I, this book portrays Japanese society by focusing on how various social groups engaged with the market. It also examines media, political institutions, and movements for change to offer a comprehensive picture.

現代日本社会の原型がここに。近世の身分制社会が崩れる19世紀後半から，明治維新を挟んで，第一次世界大戦の頃までの日本社会を，さまざまな社会集団が市場とどうかかわっているかに注目して描き出す。メディアや政治のしくみ，変革を求める運動も取り上げ，社会の全体像をとらえる。

New Books on Japan: "A Nation Within: North Korean Zainichi in Postimperial Japan" (June 03, 2026)

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 | 7:00-8:30 PM ET
Thursday, June 4 | 8:00-9:30 AM JST

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A Nation Within: North Korean Zainichi in Postimperial Japan (Stanford University Press, 2026)

Presenter: Sayaka Chatani, Associate Professor of History, National University of Singapore

Discussant: Yumi Kim, Associate Professor of History, University of California Berkeley

Moderator: Joseph Seeley, Associate Professor of History, University of Virginia

The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with Sayaka Chatani, who will be speaking about her new book A Nation Within: North Korean Zainichi in Postimperial Japan (Stanford University Press, 2026). The presence of hundreds of thousands ethnic Koreans in Japan, or "zainichi Koreans," is one of the visible legacies of Japanese colonialism. A surprising and influential group among zainichi Koreans that persists to this day is Chongryon, the only pro–North Korean diasporic group based in a capitalist society. Chongryon historically represented the central grassroots force seeking to liberate Koreans from Japan's imperial and neo-imperial influences. At the heart of the Chongryon community stands a political organization equipped with a central bureaucracy in Tokyo, with a headquarters in nearly every prefecture. Often called a de facto embassy of North Korea, the Chongryon organization has, in effect, functioned as a state within another state—operating hundreds of schools, banks, hospitals, business associations, publishing houses, and many other institutions across Japan. Based on extensive archival research and nearly 250 original interviews collected with co-researcher KumHee Cho, who was raised within the Chongryon community, Sayaka Chatani offers a sweeping social history of this secretive, protective community in xenophobic Japanese society. Weaving together personal accounts and situating them in a multi-layered, transnational political context, the book offers a finely textured, intimate narrative of the community's tumultuous history and decolonial praxis. Through the stories of Chongryon, this book provides a bottom-up analysis of power politics among zainichi Koreans and reshapes our understanding of Japanese history, Korean history, and the Cold War in Asia. Yumi Kim (Berkeley) will serve as interlocutor.

New Books on Japan: "Twelve Japanese War Criminals and One Who Got Away" (June 16, 2026)

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Tuesday, June 16, 2026 | 7:00-8:30 PM ET
Wednesday, June 17, 2026 | 9:00-10:30 AM AEST

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Twelve Japanese War Criminals and One Who Got Away (University of Hawai'i Press, 2026)

Presenters: Sandra Wilson, Professor, College of Law, Arts and Social Sciences, Murdoch University and Robert Cribb, Emeritus Professor of Australian History, The Australian National University

Discussant: Sarah Kovner, Senior Research Scholar, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University

Moderator: Kirsten Ziomek, Associate Professor of History, Adelphi University

The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with Sandra Wilson (Murdoch University) and Robert Cribb (ANU), who will be speaking about their recent book Twelve Japanese War Criminals and One Who Got Away. In this book, Robert Cribb and Sandra Wilson tell the stories of twelve people who were convicted of war crimes in Allied courts in the Asia-Pacific region after the Second World War. Included is the story of one man who escaped prosecution. The crimes were committed in the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Java, Malaya, Singapore, the Maluku islands, New Guinea, and Japan. The characters examined range from senior figures—General Honma Masaharu, who was convicted for the Bataan “death march,” and Japan’s wartime prime minister Tōjō Hideki—to lower-ranking and lesser-known people: a POW camp commander, a camp doctor, a Korean guard, a nurse charged with assisting in vivisection, a doctor convicted of cannibalism, a pimp, a Taiwanese interpreter, a businessman convicted of assault, an officer convicted of massacre, and another convicted of a single execution. Tsuji Masanobu, the man who escaped, was responsible for at least two massacres. He was eventually elected to parliament, indicating the willingness of some elements in postwar Japanese society to overlook wartime atrocities. The book examines the backgrounds and careers of each character and explains how they came to commit the acts for which they were convicted. It also considers their subsequent careers, if they survived (several were executed for their crimes). Based on years of meticulous research, the book brings to life the texture of individual action and experience in the tumultuous years of conflict and occupation during the Pacific War. The authors recognize Japanese cruelty but also suggest that most of the convicted war criminals were not inherently evil. Some were out of their depth or were forced into circumstances where they made bad decisions; some obeyed illegal orders or were caught in impossible situations in a war that Japan fought with insufficient resources. Ironically, the one who got away was probably the worst of them all. Sarah Kovner (Columbia) will serve as interlocutor.

New Books from Japan #14: "International Politics of Migration: Overseas "Chinese" in Japan and the Cold War Regime in East Asia" (July 21, 2026)

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Tuesday, July 21, 2026 8:00-9:30 PM ET | Wednesday, July 22, 2026 9:00-10:30 AM JST

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New Books from Japan #14:

『「人の移動」の国際政治―東アジア冷戦体制の形成と日本華僑』

International Politics of Migration: Overseas "Chinese" in Japan and the Cold War Regime in East Asia

Presenter: 鶴園裕基 (Tsuruzono Yūki, Kagawa University)

Discussant: Evan Dawley (Goucher College)

Moderator: Tadashi Ishikawa (University of Central Florida)

This book seeks to elucidate how Nihon-kakyō (ethnic Chinese and Taiwanese residents in Japan) came to face severe restrictions on their international mobility in the Cold War era. In the prewar period, Chinese and Taiwanese subjects were able to travel to Japan without passports. However, as the Cold War order took shape in East Asia after 1945, both the Japanese and Taiwanese authorities constructed increasingly stringent border and migration control regimes. At the time of the conclusion of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the Japanese government deprived Taiwanese residents of their Japanese nationality and reclassified them, like migrants originating from the Chinese mainland, as “Chinese.” At the same time, however, Japan extended only limited recognition to the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan and deliberately left ambiguous whether the “Chinese” residing in Japan belonged to the ROC or to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Under these circumstances, Nihon-kakyō were prevented from returning to mainland China due to the absence of diplomatic relations between Japan and the PRC. Meanwhile, the ROC government, having retreated to Taiwan, imposed restrictions on the entry of overseas Chinese on the basis of martial law promulgated in 1949. As a result, during the Cold War period, Nihon-kakyō were effectively denied both the right to return to their “home country” and the right to have their affiliation formally recognized. Confronted with this predicament, they were driven to engage in political movements aimed at asserting affiliation with either of the rival Chinese state and securing their rights of residence in Japan as foreign nationals.

本書は、冷戦期に日本華僑と呼ばれた人びとが、いかにして国際移動を制約されるに至ったかを明らかにしようとする。戦前期、中国人や台湾人はパスポートなしに日本に渡航することができた。しかし戦後東アジアに冷戦体制が形成されていくなかで、日本と台湾の当局はそれぞれ厳格な出入国管理を構築していく。日本政府はサンフランシコ講和条約締結のタイミングで、台湾人の持つ日本国籍を喪失させ、大陸出身者と同様に「中国人」とした。しかし、日本政府は台湾の中華民国を限定的にしか承認せず、日本国内の「中国人」が中華民国、中華人民共和国のいずれに帰属するかを意図的に曖昧にした。こうした状況のなかで、日本華僑は日本と中華人民共和国の間の国交の不存在ゆえに中国大陸へ帰還することを制限された。その一方、台湾に撤退した中華民国は、1949年に発令した戒厳令を根拠として華僑の入境を規制した。これによって冷戦期の日本華僑は、「本国に帰還する権利」と、「帰属を確認する権利」を事実上、否定されることになった。これによって日本華僑は、いずれかの中国への帰属を主張し、日本における外国人としての居住権を確立することを目的とした政治運動に駆り立てられていったのである。

2026 Distinguished Annual Lecture: Jordan Sand (October 08, 2026)

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Thursday, October 8, 2026 | 7:00-8:30 PM ET
Wednesday, October 9, 2026 | 8:00-9:30 AM JST

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The fourth annual MJHA Distinguished Annual Lecture, on a topic TBA, will be given in October 2026 by Jordan Sand, Professor of Japanese History, Georgetown University