DOCSLIB.ORG

The Technological Imaginary of Imperial Japan, 1931-1945

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Technological Imaginary of Imperial Japan, 1931-1945 THE TECHNOLOGICAL IMAGINARY OF IMPERIAL JAPAN, 1931-1945 A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Aaron Stephen Moore August 2006 © 2006 Aaron Stephen Moore THE TECHNOLOGICAL IMAGINARY OF IMPERIAL JAPAN, 1931-1945 Aaron Stephen Moore, Ph.D. Cornell University 2006 “Technology” has often served as a signifier of development, progress, and innovation in the narrative of Japan’s transformation into an economic superpower. Few histories, however, treat technology as a system of power and mobilization. This dissertation examines an important shift in the discourse of technology in wartime Japan (1931-1945), a period usually viewed as anti-modern and anachronistic. I analyze how technology meant more than advanced machinery and infrastructure but included a subjective, ethical, and visionary element as well. For many elites, technology embodied certain ways of creative thinking, acting or being, as well as values of rationality, cooperation, and efficiency or visions of a society without ethnic or class conflict. By examining the thought and activities of the bureaucrat, Môri Hideoto, and the critic, Aikawa Haruki, I demonstrate that technology signified a wider system of social, cultural, and political mechanisms that incorporated the practical-political energies of the people for the construction of a “New Order in East Asia.” Therefore, my dissertation is more broadly about how power operated ideologically under Japanese fascism in ways other than outright violence and repression that resonate with post-war “democratic” Japan and many modern capitalist societies as well. This more subjective, immaterial sense of technology revealed a fundamental ambiguity at the heart of technology. While many elites encoded technology as the production of all aspects of life, some articulated technology as unexpected invention, transformative action, and creative self-formation. Such possibility was found within the very technologies that systematically structured society. By examining the thought and activities of the philosopher, Nakai Masakazu, I illuminate another notion of technology as cultural practices of invention that tactically employed the technologies mobilizing everyday life. Thus, I also explore other notions of the political in a context where politics was increasingly incorporated into the wartime effort through technology. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Aaron Stephen Moore earned his B.A. in History at the University of Virginia in 1994. In 1996, he entered the Masters Program in Asian Studies at Cornell University, earning an M.A. in 1999. In the same year, he joined the doctoral program in History at Cornell University and was admitted to candidacy in 2002. He has been a Graduate Research Fellow at Humboldt University in Berlin (2002-2003) and at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Tokyo (2003- 2004). His areas of study are modern Japanese and German intellectual history. iii In memory of the anonymous donor who gave me the gift of life iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is the result of tremendous support from numerous friends, teachers, and institutions over the course of nearly a decade. I would first like to thank my committee, Victor Koschmann, Naoki Sakai, and Michael Steinberg. They have always encouraged me to freely pursue my interests in an interdisciplinary manner and provided incisive criticisms of my work. Directed readings and coursework with Professor Koschmann has very much shaped the problematic of this dissertation, while Professor Sakai has always sustained my interest in modern Japanese philosophy. Professor Steinberg has consistently asked important questions of my work and made me think of the European historical context. I also thank John Weiss for enthusiastically agreeing to read my dissertation at the last minute and participate in my defense. I am grateful to the generous support of the Japan-United States Educational Commission (Fulbright Commission), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Cornell East Asia Program, the Cornell Department of History, and the Cornell Graduate School at various stages of the dissertation process. The Fulbright staff in Tokyo did everything possible to make my year in Tokyo an extremely productive one. Support from the DAAD enabled me to spend six months in Berlin to learn German and study some of the vast material on theories of technology there. Grants from the History department, Graduate School and the East Asia Program made various conference presentations, language study, last minute research trips, and, of course, much of the writing possible. v This dissertation would not have been finished without the miraculous work of the University of Colorado Liver Transplant Unit, without whose care, I would not even be alive today. I would also like to thank my wife, friends, parents, relatives, colleagues, and teachers who expressed their kind support during this very difficult time in my life. Thanks to them, I was able to recover in less than a semester and obtain the strength to finally complete this dissertation. I dedicate this work to my unknown donor and his family for their wonderful gift of kindness. This event has made me appreciate life even more and made me more committed to becoming a better scholar and teacher. Numerous friends and informal study groups in Japan have also shaped this work. The members of “Hagemasukai”—Tomotsune Tsutomu, Shidama Shinri, Suyama Daiichirô, and Kikuchi Naoko—have always encouraged me to “think out of bounds” and presented me with challenging theoretical questions, which I continue to struggle with today. They have been there for me since this dissertation was at the Masters thesis stage. I also thank Uemura Tadao for his encouraging comments and for welcoming me into his intellectual history seminar. His eclectic students also deserve my warm appreciation for their friendship and support: Iguchi Yufu, Hayashi Midori, Nakamura Takayuki, Odawara Rin, Kasai Hirotaka, and Takahashi Hiroshi. Iwasaki Minoru and Nakano Toshio of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies have sponsored me during my stays in Japan, and they have always involved me in various symposia, reading groups, and informal gatherings. Without their warm support, I would not have been able to navigate the Japanese academic world. The “Colonialism/Overcoming Modernity Research Group” (Shokkinken) has been a stimulating arena for me and has made me think of my work in more pan-Asian terms. Finally, I would like to thank vi Yamane Nobuhiro for always forcing me to consider some of the “hard” aspects of technology. Many friends at Cornell have helped me finish this dissertation over the years. My dissertation group—Sheetal Majithia, Anna Parkinson, Doreen Lee, Shirleen Robinson, and Tsitsi Jaji—have given me invaluable comments from various standpoints that have enabled me to articulate my arguments more clearly in the finishing stages of the writing. Susie Pak has been a kind reader and has always asked me focused questions that have helped develop my chapters and research. Ben Middleton and Trent Maxey, my fellow Japanese history colleagues, have shared their knowledge and friendship with me from the very beginning of graduate school. Other friends and colleagues I would like to thank over the years include John Namjun Kim, Mary Gayne, Heidi Voskuhl, Chiming Yang, Yoshiaki Mihara, Taik Kyun Kim, Michael Shin, Hsingchun Hsiao, Matsuko Katada, Takeshi Kimoto, Akiko Ishii, Ahilan Kadirgamar, Richard Calichman, Sharon Hayashi, Yukiko Hanawa, Frederick Neuhouser, Kyoko Selden, Jason Smith, Brett DeBary, John Ricco, Lisa Onaga, Choi Deokhyo, Sven Brandenburg, Iftikhar Dadi, Mark Driscoll, and Wesley Sasaki-Uemura. All of them have helped shape this work in one way or another. I have benefited immensely from wonderful environments in which to write. I am particularly grateful to the Kinugawas of Yakuno, Japan, for the peaceful country atmosphere that allowed me to escape the at times stifling city of Tokyo to write. Colorado Springs and Colorado College have also provided idyllic environments in which to finish. Much love and appreciation goes to my parents, Steve and Chung Moore, who patiently supported me throughout graduate school and my travels all over the world. Finally, I could vii not have done this without my wonderful wife, Nilanjana Bhattacharjya, who helped maintain my sanity and health throughout this whole process with her love, warmth, and wonderful sense of humor. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch iii Dedication iv Acknowledgments v Table of Contents ix List of Figures x Introduction 1 ONE Techno-Imperialism and the New Order in East Asia: Môri 39 Hideoto’s Theory of Technology TWO Subjective Technologies of Mobilization: Aikawa Haruki's 82 Wartime Theory of Technology THREE Cultural Technologies of Mobilization: Aikawa Haruki and the 150 Wartime ‘Culture Film’ FOUR Para-Existential Forces of Invention: Nakai Masakazu’s Theory 208 of Technology and Critique of Capitalism FIVE Nakai and the Politics of the Everyday 272 Conclusion 332 Works Cited 342 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Technologies of Society 122 Figure 4.2 The Logic of Committee 276 Figure 4.3 The Dialectic Between History and Logic 285 Figure 4.4 The Structure of Communication and Judgment 291 x INTRODUCTION Japan as Technological Superpower In December 1990 the Science and Technology Agency and the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy published
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 23. Relativism and Radical Conservatism
    This is the preprint version of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Relativism, edited by Martin Kusch (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020), 219–27 on December 4, 2019, available online: http://doi.org/10.4324/9781351052306-24. 23. Relativism and radical conservatism Timo Pankakoski and Jussi Backman ABSTRACT. The chapter tackles the complex, tension-ridden, and often paradoxical relationship between relativism and conservatism. We focus particularly on radical conservatism, an early twentieth-century German movement that arguably constitutes the climax of conservatism’s problematic relationship with relativism. We trace the shared genealogy of conservatism and historicism in nineteenth-century Counter-Enlightenment thought and interpret radical conservatism’s ambivalent relation to relativism as reflecting this heritage. Emphasizing national particularity, historical uniqueness, and global political plurality, Carl Schmitt and Hans Freyer moved in the tradition of historicism, stopping short of full relativism. Yet they utilized relativistic elements – such as seeing irrational decisions or the demands of “life” as the basis of politics – to discredit notions of universal political morality and law, thereby underpinning their authoritarian agendas. Oswald Spengler, by contrast, took the relativistic impulses to the extreme, interweaving his conservative authoritarianism and nationalism with full-fledged epistemic, moral, and political relativism. Martin Heidegger has recently been perceived as the key philosopher of radical conservatism, and his 1 thought arguably channeled antimodern aspects of historicism into contemporary political thought. We conclude by analyzing how some radical conservative arguments involving cultural relativism and plurality still reverberate in contemporary theorists such as Samuel Huntington, Aleksandr Dugin, and Alain de Benoist.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry-Film & the Film Poem
    Poetry-Film & The Film Poem: Some Clarifications Ever since experimental filmmakers and critics starting theorising the concepts behind avant-garde visual explorations, the idea of poetry was seen as a fruitful model for the creative process of the more lyrical side of experimental film practices. The working mode of the narrative-liberated filmmaker seemed somehow analogous to this of the modernist poet. In some cases (like this of Stan Brakhage) even the very lifestyle of the filmmaker resembled that of the romantic poet, as did the modes of production in creating and distributing the work. This appears as somewhat of a contradiction when we read some of the statements / manifestos of film artists, within which they often stress the importance of film as an independent art, suggesting that film could only be a respectable art form if it struggles to work within the specificities of its own language. [The notion of medium-specificity is a commonplace for modernism]. In the opening sequence of ‘The Man With The Movie Camera’, Dziga Vertov writes his manifesto: “The film presents an experiment in the cinematic communication of visible events without the aid of intertitles (a film without intertitles), without the aid of a scenario (a film without a scenario), without the aid of theatre (a film without actors, without sets etc). This experimental work aims at creating a truly international absolute language of cinema based on its total seperation from the language of theatre and literature”1 In this statement Vertov asks audience and filmmakers alike to see filmmaking as an independent art form with its own language, a language that does not need to borrow from other arts to be meaningful.
    [Show full text]
  • Nationalism in Japan's Contemporary Foreign Policy
    The London School of Economics and Political Science Nationalism in Japan’s Contemporary Foreign Policy: A Consideration of the Cases of China, North Korea, and India Maiko Kuroki A thesis submitted to the Department of International Relations of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, February 2013 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of <88,7630> words. Statement of use of third party for editorial help I can confirm that my thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Josh Collins and Greg Demmons. 2 of 3 Abstract Under the Koizumi and Abe administrations, the deterioration of the Japan-China relationship and growing tension between Japan and North Korea were often interpreted as being caused by the rise of nationalism. This thesis aims to explore this question by looking at Japan’s foreign policy in the region and uncovering how political actors manipulated the concept of nationalism in foreign policy discourse.
    [Show full text]
  • Sexism in the City “We're Simply Buying Too Much”
    SEPTEMBER 2016 Japan’s number one English language magazine Five style-defining brands that are reinventing tradition SEXISM IN THE CITY Will men and women ever be equal in Japan’s workforce? “WE’RE SIMPLY BUYING TOO MUCH” Change the way you shop PLUS: The Plight of the Phantom Pig, Healthy Ice Cream, The Beauties of Akita, Q&A with Paralympics Athlete Saki Takakuwa 36 20 24 30 SEPTEMBER 2016 radar in-depth guide THIS MONTH’S HEAD TURNERS COFFEE-BREAK READS CULTURE ROUNDUP 8 AREA GUIDE: SENDAGAYA 19 SEXISM IN THE CITY 41 THE ART WORLD Where to eat, drink, shop, relax, and climb Will men and women ever be equal This month’s must-see exhibitions, including a miniature Mt. Fuji in Japan’s workforce? a “Dialogue with Trees,” and “a riotous party” at the Hara Museum. 10 STYLE 24 “WE’RE SIMPLY BUYING TOO MUCH” Bridge the gap between summer and fall Rika Sueyoshi explains why it’s essential 43 BOOKS with transitional pieces including one very that we start to change the way we shop See Tokyo through the eyes – and beautiful on-trend wrap skirt illustrations – of a teenager 26 THE PLIGHT OF THE PHANTOM PIG 12 BEAUTY Meet the couple fighting to save Okinawa’s 44 AGENDA We round up the season’s latest nail colors, rare and precious Agu breed Take in some theatrical Japanese dance, eat all featuring a little shimmer for a touch of the hottest food, and enter an “Edo-quarium” glittery glamor 28 GREAT LEAPS We chat with long jumper Saki Takakuwa 46 PEOPLE, PARTIES, PLACES 14 TRENDS as she prepares for the 2016 Paralympics Hanging out with Cyndi Lauper, Usain Bolt, If you can’t live without ice cream but you’re and other luminaries trying to eat healthier, then you’ll love these 30 COVER FEATURE: YUKATA & KIMONO vegan and fruity options.
    [Show full text]
  • AESTHETIC PERSPECTIVE in POETRY FILM: a STUDY of CHARLES BUKOWSKI’S “BLUEBIRD” POEM and ITS VISUAL FORM ADAPTATION by MICHAT STENZEL Abeer M
    Global Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Vol.6, No.9, pp.54-70, September 2018 ___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org) AESTHETIC PERSPECTIVE IN POETRY FILM: A STUDY OF CHARLES BUKOWSKI’S “BLUEBIRD” POEM AND ITS VISUAL FORM ADAPTATION BY MICHAT STENZEL Abeer M. Refky M. Seddeek1, Amira Ehsan (PhD)2 1Associate Professor, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), P.O. Box: 1029, Gamal Abdel Nasser Avenue, Miami, Alexandria, Egypt 2College of Language and Communication (CLC), Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), P.O. Box: 1029, Gamal Abdel Nasser Avenue, Miami, Alexandria, Egypt ABSTRACT: This paper is divided into two parts; the first aims at investigating how poetry film fuses spoken word poetry with visual images and sound to create meanings, connotations and associations stronger than those produced by each genre on its own. The paper studies the stream of consciousness flow of images and nonlinear narrative style as the main features of that genre in addition to the editing/montage aesthetics and the spatio-temporal continuity. It also highlights William Wees’ notion that in the cinema the union of words and images strengthens the film’s ties to realism and sheds light on the Russian film-director Andrei Tarkovsky who developed the filming strategy poetic logic and made poetry assert the potential of the cinematic image as a form of artistic expression. In the second part the paper explores Charles Bukowski’s poem “Bluebird” (1992) and Michat Stenzel’s short film “Bluebird” (2017) by analyzing the verbal and visual forms to prove whether the filmmaker has succeeded in transferring the poet’s message and feelings or not through various tools and techniques.
    [Show full text]
  • Dept of History Draft Syllabus (Cbcs)
    RAJA NARENDRALAL KHAN WOMEN’S COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS) DEPT OF HISTORY DRAFT SYLLABUS (CBCS) I SEMESTER Course Course Title Credit Marks Total Th IM AM CC1T Greek and Roman Historians 6 60 10 5 75 CC2T Early Historic India 6 60 10 5 75 GE1T History of India From the earliest 6 60 10 5 75 times to C 300 BCE DSC History of India-I (Ancient India) 6 60 10 5 75 CC-1: Greek and Roman Historians C1T: Greek and Roman Historians Unit-I Module I New form of inquiry (historia) in Greece in the sixth century BCE 1.1 Logographers in ancient Greece. 1.2 Hecataeus of Miletus, the most important predecessor of Heredotus 1.3 Charon of Lampsacus 1.4 Xanthus of Lydia Module II Herodotus and his Histories 2.1 A traveller’s romance? 2.2 Herodotus’ method of history writing – his catholic inclusiveness 2.3 Herodotus’ originality as a historian – focus on the struggle between the East and the West Module III Thucydides: the founder of scientific history writing 3.1 A historiography on Thucydides 3.2 History of the Peloponnesian War - a product of rigorous inquiry and examination 3.3 Thucydides’ interpretive ability – his ideas of morality, Athenian imperialism, culture and democratic institutions 3.4 Description of plague in a symbolic way – assessment of the demagogues 3.5 A comparative study of the two greatest Greek historians Module IV Next generation of Greek historians 4.1 Xenophon and his History of Greece (Hellenica) 4.2 a description of events 410 BCE – 362 BCE 4.3 writing in the style of a high-class journalist – lack of analytical skill 4.5 Polybius and the “pragmatic” history 4.3 Diodorus Siculus and his Library of History – the Stoic doctrine of the brotherhood of man Unit II Roman Historiography Module I Development of Roman historiographical tradition 1.1 Quintus Fabius Pictor of late third century BCE and the “Graeci annals” – Rome’s early history in Greek.
    [Show full text]
  • Sartorius Thesis.Pdf (5.388Mb)
    Material Memoir Master’s In Fine Arts Thesis Document Andrew Sartorius SUNY New Paltz Spring 2019 Material Memoir: Artist Statement My family owns a fifty acre plot of rolling red clay hills in West Virginia. When I return home, I dig clay, a pilgrimage to harvest from the strata of memory. This body of work explores the potential of wild West Virginia clay through the wood firing process. The kiln creates a dramatic range of effects as varying amounts of ash and heat amalgamate and give vitality to the wild clays I use. The kiln is my collaborator, a trusted but pleasantly unpredictable partner lending its voice to mine to create something made from a life of memory and memorial. Abstract Almost every Sunday of my childhood, my family gathered here for Sunday dinner. My family would meet on a rolling red clay hill topped with pin oak and pine forests, gentle fields, and barns that lean and sag with the weathering of time. My great grandmother lived on one side of the hill, and my grandparents on the other. My great grandmother’s parents started the tradition, and it followed the generations down to my grandmother and grandfather, Alice and Bernard Bosley, who took up the mantle during my childhood. In 2010, I moved to Japan to teach English at a rural high school in Kochi Prefecture. I returned to America in 2014 as a potter’s apprentice studying the traditional Japanese wood-fired ceramics with the ceramic artist Jeff Shapiro in Accord, New York. Since then, my grandparents have passed, but I find that they are more present in my thoughts than ever before.
    [Show full text]
  • Okakura Kakuzō's Art History: Cross-Cultural Encounters
    Asian Review of World Histories 2:1 (January 2014), 17-45 © 2014 The Asian Association of World Historians doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12773/arwh.2014.2.1.017 Okakura Kakuzō’s Art History: Cross-Cultural Encounters, Hegelian Dialectics and Darwinian Evolution Masako N. RACEL Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, United States [email protected] Abstract Okakura Kakuzō (1863-1913), the founder of the Japan Art Institute, is best known for his proclamation, “Asia is One.” This phrase in his book, The Ideals of the East, and his connections to Bengali revolutionaries resulted in Okakura being remembered as one of Japan’s foremost Pan-Asianists. He did not, how- ever, write The Ideals of the East as political propaganda to justify Japanese aggression; he wrote it for Westerners as an exposition of Japan’s aesthetic heritage. In fact, he devoted much of his life to the preservation and promotion of Japan’s artistic heritage, giving lectures to both Japanese and Western audi- ences. This did not necessarily mean that he rejected Western philosophy and theories. A close examination of his views of both Eastern and Western art and history reveals that he was greatly influenced by Hegel’s notion of dialectics and the evolutionary theories proposed by Darwin and Spencer. Okakura viewed cross-cultural encounters to be a catalyst for change and saw his own time as a critical point where Eastern and Western history was colliding, caus- ing the evolution of both artistic cultures. Key words Okakura Kakuzō, Okakura Tenshin, Hegel, Darwin, cross-cultural encounters, Meiji Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 09:32:22PM via free access 18 | ASIAN REVIEW OF WORLD HISTORIES 2:1 (JANUARY 2014) In 1902, a man dressed in an exotic cloak and hood was seen travel- ing in India.
    [Show full text]
  • Modeling Internet-Based Citizen Activism and Foreign Policy
    MODELING INTERNET-BASED CITIZEN ACTIVISM AND FOREIGN POLICY: The Islands Dispute between China and Japan TOMONOBU KUMAHIRA Primary Thesis Advisor: Professor Jordan Branch Department of Political Science Secondary Thesis Advisor: Professor Kerry Smith Department of History Honors Seminar Instructor: Professor Claudia Elliott The Watson Institute for International Studies SENIOR THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in International Relations BROWN UNIVERSITY PROVIDENCE, RI MAY 2015 © Copyright 2015 by Tomonobu Kumahira ABSTRACT How can citizens utilize the Internet to influence foreign policymaking? Optimists emphasize the Internet’s great potential to empower citizens, while pessimists underscore the persistent dominance of conventional actors in shaping diplomacy. These conceptual debates fail to build analytical models that theorize the mechanisms through which citizen activism impacts foreign policymaking in the Internet era. Focusing on the interactions between “old” institutions and new practices enabled by technology, I argue that Internet-based citizen activists are using multiple and evolving strategies to engage with the conventional media and policymakers. My Hybrid Model provides an analytical framework with which scholars can describe new forms of non-electoral representation by citizen movements, while challenging foreign policy decision making theories established before the social media. My model traces the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute between China and Japan, in which nationalist campaigns online and offline have fueled a series of confrontations since 2005. Presenting practical implications for foreign policymakers and the conventional media to respond to the transformation, this Hybrid Model also helps citizens play a more active role in international relations. In conclusion, I explore the analogy between the Internet and past innovations in communication technologies to shed light on the future of the Internet and politics.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy of Social Efficiency. John Deweys Complex Analyses of the Values of Science, Technology, and Democracy for Education in a Technological World Are Examined
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 051 002 08 SO 000 860 AUTHOR Wirth, Arthur G. TITLE The Vocational-Liberal Studies Controversy Between John Dewey and Others (1900-1917). Final Report. INSTITUTION Washington Univ., St. Louis, Mo. Graduate Inst. of Education. SPONS AGENCY Office of Education (DHEW), Washington. D.C. Bureau of Research. PUB DATE Sep 70 GRANT OEG -0 -8- 070305 -3662 (085) NOTE 349p.; Report will be published as Education in the Technological Society: The Vocational-Liberal Studies Controversy (1900-1917), International Textbook Co., 1972 EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.65 HC-$13.16 DESCRIPTORS Comprehensive High Schools, Democratic Values, *Educatfonal Change, *Educational History, *Educational Philosophy, Educational Policy, Educational Sociology, General Education, *Industrialization, Occupational Guidance, Political Influences, Public Education, School Community Relationship, Social Change, Social Values, Socioeconomic influences, *Vocational Education IDENTIFIERS *Dewey (John) ABSTRACT The present study looks at an example of institutional change directly resulting from the industrialization process --the industrial or vocational education movement. The thesis of this study is that an understanding of the debate over how schools should adapt to industrialization will reveal the nature of basic value choices which the American people were forced to face under the pressures of adjusting to technology. Part I examines some of the origins of educational changes related to the industrialization. Next the responses of selected interest groups are considered: business, as represented by the National Association of Manufacturers; the American Federation of Labor; liberal urban reform forces of the progressive era; and, the formation of typical progressive pressure group--the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education (NSPIE), which worked to promote school reform programs at state and national levels.
    [Show full text]
  • The History Problem: the Politics of War
    History / Sociology SAITO … CONTINUED FROM FRONT FLAP … HIRO SAITO “Hiro Saito offers a timely and well-researched analysis of East Asia’s never-ending cycle of blame and denial, distortion and obfuscation concerning the region’s shared history of violence and destruction during the first half of the twentieth SEVENTY YEARS is practiced as a collective endeavor by both century. In The History Problem Saito smartly introduces the have passed since the end perpetrators and victims, Saito argues, a res- central ‘us-versus-them’ issues and confronts readers with the of the Asia-Pacific War, yet Japan remains olution of the history problem—and eventual multiple layers that bind the East Asian countries involved embroiled in controversy with its neighbors reconciliation—will finally become possible. to show how these problems are mutually constituted across over the war’s commemoration. Among the THE HISTORY PROBLEM THE HISTORY The History Problem examines a vast borders and generations. He argues that the inextricable many points of contention between Japan, knots that constrain these problems could be less like a hang- corpus of historical material in both English China, and South Korea are interpretations man’s noose and more of a supportive web if there were the and Japanese, offering provocative findings political will to determine the virtues of peaceful coexistence. of the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, apologies and that challenge orthodox explanations. Written Anything less, he explains, follows an increasingly perilous compensation for foreign victims of Japanese in clear and accessible prose, this uniquely path forward on which nationalist impulses are encouraged aggression, prime ministerial visits to the interdisciplinary book will appeal to sociol- to derail cosmopolitan efforts at engagement.
    [Show full text]
  • Shinto, Primal Religion and International Identity
    Marburg Journal of Religion: Volume 1, No. 1 (April 1996) Shinto, primal religion and international identity Michael Pye, Marburg eMail: [email protected] National identity and religious diversity in Japan Questions of social and political identity in Japan have almost always been accompanied by perceptions and decisions about religion. This is true with respect both to internal political issues and to the relations between Japan and the wider world. Most commonly these questions have been linked to the changing roles and fortunes of Shinto, the leading indigenous religion of Japan. Central though Shinto is however, it is important to realize that the overall religious situation is more complex and has been so for many centuries. This paper examines some of these complexities. It argues that recent decades in particular have seen the clear emergence of a more general "primal religion" in Japan, leaving Shinto in the position of being one specific religion among others. On the basis of this analysis some of the options for the Shinto religion in an age of internationalization are considered. The complexity of the relations between religion and identity can be documented ever since the Japanese reception of Chinese culture, which led to the self-definition of Shinto as the indigenous religion of Japan. The relationship is evident in the use of two Chinese characters to form the very word Shinto (shen-dao), which was otherwise known, using Japanese vocabulary, as kannagara no michi (the way in accordance with the kami).1 There are of course some grounds for arguing, apparently straightforwardly, that Shinto is the religion of the Japanese people.
    [Show full text]