Image of Japan in Lithuania: Analysis of Lithuanian Newspapers 1918 – 1940
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
VYTAUTO DIDŽIOJO UNIVERSITETAS POLITIKOS MOKSLŲ IR DIPLOMATIJOS FAKULTETAS REGIONISTIKOS KATEDRA Elena Visockytė Image of Japan in Lithuania: Analysis of Lithuanian Newspapers 1918 – 1940 Magistro baigiamasis darbas Rytų Azijos regiono studijų programa, valstybinis kodas 62602S106 Politikos mokslų studijų kryptis Vadovas ___________________ __________ __________ (Moksl. laipsnis, vardas, pavardė) (Parašas) (Data) Apginta _____________________ __________ __________ (Fakulteto dekanas) (Parašas) (Data) Kaunas, 2014 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS SANTRAUKA ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................. 5 1. MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS ......................................................................................................................... 9 2. LITHUANIAN MEDIA IN 1918 – 1940 and japan ....................................................................................... 13 3. QUAntitative ANalysis .............................................................................................................................. 20 3.1 Analysis of dynamics ........................................................................................................................ 20 3.2 Positivity of Japanese Image in Research Corpus............................................................................. 23 4. Representations of Japan’s position in International Community ........................................................... 25 4.1 Foreign policies of Japan .................................................................................................................. 25 4.2 Formation of Negative Image ........................................................................................................... 27 4.2.1 Apžvalga.................................................................................................................................... 28 4.2.2 Yellow fever .............................................................................................................................. 30 4.3 Japan and China Relations ................................................................................................................ 32 4.4 Japanese Culture and Everyday Life ................................................................................................. 34 4.4.1 The Letters from A. Margevičius .............................................................................................. 35 4.4.2 Japanese women ...................................................................................................................... 36 4.4.3 Representation of Japanese traditions..................................................................................... 38 4.5 Connections between Japan and Lithuania ...................................................................................... 39 4.6 Japan as an opposition to Communism ........................................................................................... 41 4.7 Chiune Sugihara Residency in Kaunas .............................................................................................. 43 5. CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................................................................... 45 6. LITERATURE .............................................................................................................................................. 48 7. APPENDICES .............................................................................................................................................. 51 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 51 2 SANTRAUKA Iki šiol didžioji dauguma akademinių tyrimų, atliktų tam, kad atsekti Lietuvos ir Japonijos ryšių vystymąsi, yra labai skurdūs, pavieniai ir fokusuojami tik po Lietuvos nepriklausomybės atgavimo nuo 1991-ųjų. Visi ankstesni Lietuvos ir Japonijos ryšių duomenys dažniausiai bendrai apibūdinami kaip „neturintys konkrečios reikšmės“ arba „per daug limituoti“. Nors tai, kad kol Lietuva buvo Sovietų sąjungos sudėtyje, bet koks kontaktas su Japonija išties buvo itin varžomas, to negalima tvirtai pasakyti ir apie Lietuvos respubliką prieš prasidedant okupacijai Antrojo pasaulinio karo pradžioje. Taigi, šio darbo idėja yra paklausti, kokia yra galimybė, kad Lietuva vis tik norėjo ir stengėsi užmegzti konstruktyvius ryšius su Japonija 1918 – 1940 nepriklausomybės metais, tačiau dėl tam tikrų susiklosčiusių aplinkybių ar sunkumų, kaip sudėtingas keliavimo būdas ar nepakankamas bendravimas, jai to iki okupacijos pasiekti nepavyko. Jei Lietuva iš tiesų buvo suinteresuota ryšių su Japonija stiprinimu, kaip Japonija buvo vertinama Lietuvoje? Kokie stereotipai ir įvaizdžiai dominavo ir koks buvo temos, labiausiai dominusios Lietuvius apie Japoniją? Paskutiniu metu priėjimas prie pirminių šaltinių yra gerokai palengvintas ir atsiranda vis daugiau galimybių atlikti akademinius tyrimus apie prieškarinę Lietuvą. Ypač informatyvūs ne tik apie Lietuvos, bet ir apie kitų šalių reikalus gali būti periodinė spauda. Šis darbas galėtų būti viena iš galimybių kaip sustiprinti dabartinį Lietuvos ir Japonijos šalių bendradarbiavimą, sklandžiam dialogui duodant istorinių ryšių tęstinumą kaip pagrindą. Ištyrus ir išaiškinus ryšius, stereotipus ir įvaizdžius būtų galima ištaisyti nusistatymą, kad Lietuva ir Japonija yra naujai bendradarbiaujančios šalys, tuo pačiu pristatant viena kitai kaip turinčias bendravimo istorinį tęstinumą. Tai, kad Lietuva yra linkusi atsekti kad ir kokius neryškius ar neįgyvendintus dialogus su Japonija, teiktų pagrindo Japonijai labiau įvertinti Lietuvos norą stiprinti ryšius, o Japonija tuo pačiu sustiprintų savo teigiamą įvaizdį Lietuvoje. 3 SUMMARY Presently the research done on the development of Lithuanian and Japanese relations is very scarce, limited and the focus is given only to bilateral communications after Lithuania regained its independency in 1991. The rest of the historical connections are usually brushed aside as being ‘not significant enough’ or ‘too strained’. While it is true that while Lithuania was under Soviet regime, the connections between Lithuania and Japan were very strained and pressured, the same cannot be safely said about the Lithuanian Republic before the Soviet occupation and the beginning of the Second World War. Thus, the idea of this work is to question the possibility of Lithuania wanting to build a constructive cooperation with Japan from 1918 to 1940, but the lack of presently known relations could be due to other various difficulties, such as travel expenses or inefficient communications. If Lithuania was indeed interested in building much closer relations with Japan, how was Japan perceived in Lithuania? What stereotypes and images persisted and what topics about Japan had the biggest popularity? Recently the access to primary sources has been made easily accessible and there are more opportunities for conducting an academic research on Lithuania before the Second World War. Newspapers published in that period are especially informative and under researched. This research could be one of the possible manners for creating a more stable and defined image of a country using an in-depth research of country connections throughout the history. By exploring the connections, images and stereotypes that already have been existing it would be possible not only to fix the current image into a more appropriate one, but also to present oneself, in this case Lithuania to Japan, as a country eager to create a dialog and giving an amount of effort to it. The attention to research of historical connections between countries would benefit both Lithuania and Japan, as the positive image is one of the keys to progressive cooperation. But there also has to be a clear understanding of how historic development can be a key to a contemporary productive international dialog. 4 INTRODUCTION After regaining the independence in 1991, Lithuania has been trying to strengthen its political, economic and cultural relations with countries outside the Soviet bloc. Presently there has been made an effort to develop more cooperation between Lithuania and East Asian countries, specifically concentrating on China, South Korea and Japan. Generally in East Europe, including Lithuania, Japan has a rather positive presence, however rather than due to contemporary bilateral dialog, the image of Japan is influenced by the aura of Japan’s economic miracle and high technology boom in the last century. Moreover, the image of Japan in these countries is still usually inert and surrounded by exoticism and some cultural stereotypes reaching back to mid-20th century or possibly even to the times of Japonaiserie.1 It is evident that the stereotyped and real knowledge lacking image is obstructing from developing new connections, as it is needed to figure out the false stereotypes before even starting the dialog. By correcting this image the new connections between Lithuania and