University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2014 Cultivating Class: Tokyo Imperial University and the Rise of a Middle-Class Society in Modern Japan Jamyung Choi University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Choi, Jamyung, "Cultivating Class: Tokyo Imperial University and the Rise of a Middle-Class Society in Modern Japan" (2014). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1238. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1238 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1238 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cultivating Class: Tokyo Imperial University and the Rise of a Middle-Class Society in Modern Japan Abstract This dissertation argues that Tokyo Imperial University (Tôdai), the top school in Japan promoted the rise of a middle-class society in modern Japan. This dissertation clarifies how the university served as a transnational platform where Japanese educators accepted the idea of the middle class as the "core" of a new Japan, and eventually produced a mass middle-class society, that is, a society with a widely shared middle-class identity. In so doing, the study historicizes the enrichment of the middle-class idea and shows that the contemporary sense of the middle class, i.e. people with incomes within a certain range, is a product of history. In understanding the members of the middle class as modern selves seeking distinction from the old aristocracy and manual laborers through meritocratic endeavors, the study shows how Tôdai institutionalized the formation of middle-class citizens and their culture, and how this process mediated a transformation in the nature of the middle class from wealthy elites to the struggling masses in pursuit of elite status whose class formation was statistically gauged and institutionally managed. This dissertation conceptualizes Tôdai collegiate society, which previous scholarship explored as an academic community, as a critical locus for the birth of middle-class discourses, citizens, and the social dissemination of middle-class cultural practices. I look at the university as a social community where professors, alumni and students, developed middle-class values and institutions, inspired by the global flowering of modern education, consumer culture, welfare programs, amateur sports, health culture, and employment practices,. This dissertation highlights a range of middle-class practices promoted by numerous Tôdai institutions--the Red Gate Student Consumer Cooperative, Student Office welfare programs, the Tôdai Athletic Association, the Tôdai Student Medical Center, and career services programs. Also the study examines how middle-class values and practices at Tôdai enveloped the entire society by looking at the controlled economy, student welfare, sports popularization, labor service programs and health administration in wartime Japan. This dissertation portrays the middle-class experience as a life-long pursuit of the individual and situates education at Tôdai as a critical phase of life fashioning a middle-class way of life. While previous research has explored specific aspects of middle-class life, this dissertation examines a nexus of middle- class practices pursued by individual students at a particular institution. In so doing, the study shows how the vision of the people and their lifestyle were co-constituted in the space of higher education, embedding higher education in the middle-class experience in Japan. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Frederick R. Dickinson Keywords Consumption, Employment, Health, Leisure, Middle Class, Tokyo Imperial University Subject Categories History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1238 CULTIVATING CLASS: TOKYO IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY AND THE RISE OF A MIDDLE-CLASS SOCIETY IN MODERN JAPAN Jamyung Choi A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Supervisor of Dissertation ____________ Frederick Dickinson, Professor of History Graduate Group Chairperson _____________ Benjamin Nathans, Ronald S. Lauder Endowed Term Associate Professor of History Dissertation Committee Siyen Fei, Associate Professor of History Marybeth Gasman, Professor of Higher Education, Graduate School of Education ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This dissertation could not have been written without the support of many people, to whom I owe so much. First and foremost, my dissertation committee members at the University of Pennsylvania, Frederick Dickinson, Siyen Fei, and Marybeth Gasman, provided unfailing support for me from the initial stages of this project. Their insights, well-tuned courses, efforts to read my chapters, and even hospitability in arranging for their acquaintances to host me in Japan and Taiwan, greatly facilitated my work. Without their patience with my slow progress, this dissertation could not have been properly written. I also appreciate Sarah Igo, a former committee member who left for Vanderbilt but still continue to enlighten me in American history via email. Eugene Park, though not part of my committee, provided me with the opportunity to systematically learn Korean history for the first time in my life. Graduate students working on East Asian history at Penn also greatly helped me work on this project, many of whom have already graduated from Penn. Leander Seah, Nagatomi Hirayama, Victor Seow, Nathan Hopson, Madeline Wilcox, Yuanfei Wang, Rachel Epstein, Sidney Xu Lu, Frank Clements, Sheng Mao, Robert Hegwood, and Holly Stephens provided critical but supportive comments on my work multiple times, along with sharing kind rides to conferences, parties, and supermarkets. I especially appreciate Victor Seow and Holly Stephens, who have served as my copyeditors, critical commentators, and even mock interviewers many times, which is slightly more than the ordinary friendship among graduate students warrants. iii This luxurious support could not have been fruitful without support from the librarians of East Asian studies at Penn. I cannot appreciate enough Alban Kojima, the former librarian in Japanese studies, for purchasing expensive publications about Tokyo Imperial University during my initial year at Penn. I wish him success in his new career as a writer. Molly Des Jardin, who replaced Alban Kojima recently, also dedicatedly supported my research. Brian Vivier, the librarian of Chinese studies, spent much time to help me get materials for my courses as well. The teaching opportunities at Penn were an invaluable asset in contextualizing my work within bigger interdisciplinary discussions on my topic. My sincere gratitude and best wishes go to the undergraduate students of my seminars, who understood my accent, digested the readings, and made for fruitful class discussions in hilarious ways. The academic community beyond Penn also significantly contributed to my academic growth. Thanks to geographic proximity, I was able to luckily take chances on the courses with Sheldon Garon and Janet Chen at Princeton, where I deepened my understanding of twentieth-century Japanese and Chinese history. My classmates at that time, including Christopher Mayo, William Evan Young, Minlei Ye, Victoria Leung (now happily married as Victoria Lee), Seiji Shirane, Paul Kreitman, Wayne Soon, Xinxian Zheng, Yangyang Sui, and Jolyon Thomas, warmly welcomed me and let me join their wonderful discussions and leisurely chats at Princeton. Though not classmates, Sangho Ro and Songyeol Han extended their hospitality to their funny but mediocre compatriot during my visits to Princeton. I also owe my gratitude to co-panelists at academic conferences, including Mark Jones, Hiromu Nagahara, Sang-mi Park, William Kelly, Robin Kietlinski, Dennis Frost, Stefan Huebner, Igarashi Yoshikuni, Louise iv Young, and Darryl Flaherty, from whom I received much inspiration and warm encouragement for my work. As co-panelists, they helped me articulate panel ideas, critiqued my arguments and sources, and stimulated further thought about my subject. Andrew Gordon, Jordan Sand, and Kariya Takehiko also kindly provided comments and answers to my presentations, manuscripts, and electronically-delivered questions from their perspectives as specialists in the middle class and education in Japan. The Japan Foundation and the Japan Korea Culture Foundation extended generous funding support to my research in Tokyo for two academic years, 2010-2011 and 2012-2013. Professors Kato Yoko and Suzuki Jun at the Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo, kindly hosted me and let me join their graduate seminars where I met excellent graduate students working on Japanese history. I especially appreciate Yasuhara Tetsuya and Sasaki Yuichi, who took pains to copyedit my Japanese prose for my presentations at graduate seminars, and Wakatsuki Tsuyoshi, who guided me to the available primary sources for my research. Also, Yoshimi Shunya kindly invited me to his seminar on the history of the university, which was invaluable to my research. I also want to thank Matsutani Motokazu, who gave me an opportunity to present my work at Waseda and kindly invited me to his place at Sendai. During these stays, I managed to have a research tour