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Arc of Containment: Britain, the United States, and Anticommunism in Southeast Asia

Wen-Qing Ngoei

This book recasts the history of American empire in Southeast and East Asia from the Pacific War through the end of U.S. intervention in Vietnam. It argues that anticommunist nationalism in Southeast ... More

This book recasts the history of American empire in Southeast and East Asia from the Pacific War through the end of U.S. intervention in Vietnam. It argues that anticommunist nationalism in Southeast Asia intersected with pre-existing local antipathy toward China and the Chinese diaspora to usher the region from European-dominated colonialism into U.S. hegemony. Between the late 1940s and 1960s, Britain and its indigenous collaborators in Malaya and Singapore overcame the mostly Chinese communist parties of both countries by crafting a pro-West nationalism that was anticommunist by virtue of its anti-Chinese bent. London’s neocolonial schemes in Malaya and Singapore prolonged its influence in the region. But as British power waned, Malaya and Singapore’s anticommunist leaders cast their lot with the United States, mirroring developments in the Philippines, Thailand and, in the late 1960s, Indonesia. In effect, these five anticommunist states established, with U.S. support, a geostrategic arc of containment that encircled China and its regional allies. Southeast Asia’s imperial transition from colonial order to U.S. empire, through the tumult of decolonization and the Cold War, was more characteristic of the region’s history after 1945 than Indochina’s embrace of communism.Less

Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness: Political Exile and Re-education in Mao's China

Ning Wang

After Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957–58, Chinese intellectuals were subjected to “re-education” by the state. This book draws on labor farm archives, interviews, and memoirs to provide a ... More

After Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957–58, Chinese intellectuals were subjected to “re-education” by the state. This book draws on labor farm archives, interviews, and memoirs to provide a remarkable look at the suffering and complex psychological world of these banished Beijing intellectuals. The book's use of newly uncovered Chinese-language sources challenges the concept of the intellectual as renegade martyr, showing how exiles often declared allegiance to the state for self-preservation. While Mao's campaign victimized the banished, many of those same people also turned against their comrades. The book describes the ways in which the state sought to remold the intellectuals, and it illuminates the strategies the exiles used to deal with camp officials and improve their chances of survival.Less

Bones Around My Neck: The Life and Exile of a Prince Provocateur

Tamara Loos

Prince Prisdang Chumsai (1852–1935) served as Siam's first diplomat to Europe during the most dramatic moment of Siam's political history, when its independence was threatened by European ... More

Prince Prisdang Chumsai (1852–1935) served as Siam's first diplomat to Europe during the most dramatic moment of Siam's political history, when its independence was threatened by European imperialism. Despite serving with patriotic zeal, he suffered irreparable social and political ruin based on rumors about fiscal corruption, sexual immorality, and political treason. This book pursues the truth behind these rumors, which chased Prisdang out of Siam. This book recounts the personal and political adventures of an unwitting provocateur who caused a commotion in every country he inhabited. Prisdang spent his first five years in exile from Siam living in disguise as a commoner and employee of the British Empire in colonial Southeast Asia. He then resurfaced in the 1890s in British Ceylon, where he was ordained as a Buddhist monk and became a widely-respected abbot. Foreigners from around the world were drawn to this prince who had discarded wealth and royal status to lead the life of an ascetic. His fluency in English, royal blood, acute intellect, and charisma earned him importance in international diplomatic and Buddhist circles. Prisdang's life journey reminds us of the complexities of the colonial encounter and the recalibrations it caused in local political cultures. His drama offers more than a story about Siamese politics: it also casts in high relief the subjective experience of global imperialism. Telling this history from the vantage point of a remarkable individual grounds and animates the historical abstractions of imperialism, Buddhist universalism, and the transformation of Siam into a modern state.Less

A Delicate Relationship: The United States and Burma/Myanmar since 1945

Kenton Clymer

In 2012, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president ever to visit Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. This official state visit marked a new period in the diplomatic relationship between the United ... More

In 2012, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president ever to visit Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. This official state visit marked a new period in the diplomatic relationship between the United States and Burma/Myanmar, which this book examines. From the challenges of decolonization and heightened nationalist activities that emerged in the wake of World War II to the Cold War concern with domino states to the rise of human rights policy in the 1980s and beyond, the book demonstrates how Burma/Myanmar has fit into the broad patterns of U.S. foreign policy and yet has never been fully integrated into diplomatic efforts in the region of Southeast Asia. When Burma achieved independence in 1948, the United States feared that the country might be the first Southeast Asian nation to fall to the communists, and it embarked on a series of efforts to prevent this. The book explores attitudes toward Burma (later Myanmar) from anticommunism during the Cold War to interventions to stop drug trafficking to debates in Congress, the White House, and the Department of State over how to respond to the emergence of the opposition movement in the late 1980s. The book concludes with President Obama's visits in 2012 and 2014, and visits to the United States by Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein, which marked the establishment of a new, warmer relationship with a relatively open Myanmar.Less

Empire of Dogs: Canines, Japan, and the Making of the Modern Imperial World

Aaron Herald Skabelund

In 1924, Professor Ueno Eizaburo of Tokyo Imperial University adopted an Akita puppy he named Hachikō. Each evening Hachikō greeted Ueno on his return to Shibuya railway station. In May 1925 Ueno ... More

In 1924, Professor Ueno Eizaburo of Tokyo Imperial University adopted an Akita puppy he named Hachikō. Each evening Hachikō greeted Ueno on his return to Shibuya railway station. In May 1925 Ueno died while giving a lecture. Every day for over nine years the Akita waited at Shibuya Station, eventually becoming nationally and even internationally famous for his purported loyalty. A year before his death in 1935, the city of Tokyo erected a statue of Hachikō outside the station. The story of Hachikō reveals much about the place of dogs in Japan's cultural imagination. This book examines the history and cultural significance of dogs in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japan, beginning with the arrival of Western dog breeds and new modes of dog keeping, which spread throughout the world with Western imperialism. It highlights how dogs joined with humans to create the modern imperial world and how, in turn, imperialism shaped dogs' bodies and their relationship with humans through its impact on dog-breeding and dog-keeping practices that pervade much of the world today.Less

Imperial Eclipse: Japan's Strategic Thinking about Continental Asia before August 1945

Yukiko Koshiro

The “Pacific War” narrative of Japan's defeat that was established after 1945 started with the attack on Pearl Harbor, detailed the U.S. island-hopping campaigns across the Western Pacific, and ... More

The “Pacific War” narrative of Japan's defeat that was established after 1945 started with the attack on Pearl Harbor, detailed the U.S. island-hopping campaigns across the Western Pacific, and culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan's capitulation, and its recasting as the western shore of an American ocean. But in the decades leading up to World War II and over the course of the conflict, Japan's leaders and citizens were as deeply concerned about continental Asia—and the Soviet Union, in particular—as they were about the Pacific theater and the United States. This book reassesses the role that Eurasia played in Japan's diplomatic and military thinking from the turn of the twentieth century to the end of the war. Through unprecedented archival research, locating documents and reports expunged from the files of the Japanese Cabinet, ministries of Foreign Affairs and War, and Imperial Headquarters, the book reconstructs Japan's official thinking about its plans for continental Asia. It brings to light new information on the assumptions and resulting plans that Japan's leaders made as military defeat became increasingly certain and the Soviet Union slowly moved to declare war on Japan (which it finally did on August 8, two days after Hiroshima). The book also describes Japanese attitudes toward Russia in the prewar years, highlighting the attractions of communism and the treatment of Russians in the Japanese empire; and it traces imperial attitudes toward Korea and China throughout this period.Less

My Nuclear Nightmare: Leading Japan Through the Fukushima Disaster to a Nuclear-Free Future

Naoto Kan

Jeffrey S. Irish (ed.)

On March 11, 2011, a massive undersea earthquake off Japan's coast triggered devastating tsunami waves that in turn caused meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. ... More

On March 11, 2011, a massive undersea earthquake off Japan's coast triggered devastating tsunami waves that in turn caused meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Ranked with Chernobyl as the worst nuclear disaster in history, Fukushima will have lasting consequences for generations. Until 3.11, Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, had supported the use of nuclear power. His position would undergo a radical change, however, as Kan watched the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 Power Plant unfold and came to understand the potential for the physical, economic, and political destruction of Japan. This book offers a fascinating day-by-day account of the Prime Minister's actions in the harrowing week after the earthquake struck. He records the anguished decisions he had to make as the scale of destruction became clear and the threat of nuclear catastrophe loomed ever larger—decisions made on the basis of information that was often unreliable. For example, frustrated by the lack of clarity from the executives at Tepco, the company that owned the power plant, Kan decided to visit Fukushima himself, despite the risks, so he could talk to the plant's manager and find out what was really happening on the ground. As the text details, a combination of extremely good fortune and hard work just barely prevented a total meltdown of all of Fukushima's reactor units, which would have necessitated the evacuation of the thirty million residents of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area.Less

Planning for Empire: Reform Bureaucrats and the Japanese Wartime State

Janis Mimura

Japan's invasion of Manchuria in September of 1931 initiated a new phase of brutal occupation and warfare in Asia and the Pacific. It forwarded the project of remaking the Japanese state along ... More

Japan's invasion of Manchuria in September of 1931 initiated a new phase of brutal occupation and warfare in Asia and the Pacific. It forwarded the project of remaking the Japanese state along technocratic and fascistic lines and creating a self-sufficient Asian bloc centered on Japan and its puppet state of Manchukuo. This book traces the origins and evolution of this new order and the ideas and policies of its chief architects, the reform bureaucrats. The reform bureaucrats pursued a radical, authoritarian vision of modern Japan in which public and private spheres were fused, ownership and control of capital were separated, and society was ruled by technocrats. The book shifts our attention away from reactionary young officers to state planners—reform bureaucrats, total war officers, new zaibatsu leaders, economists, political scientists, engineers, and labor party leaders. It shows how empire building and war mobilization raised the stature and influence of these middle-class professionals by calling forth new government planning agencies, research bureaus, and think tanks to draft Five Year industrial plans, rationalize industry, mobilize the masses, streamline the bureaucracy, and manage big business. Examining the political battles and compromises of Japanese technocrats in their bid for political power and Asian hegemony, the book offers a new perspective on Japanese fascism by revealing its modern roots in the close interaction of technology and right-wing ideology.Less

Poppies, Politics, and Power: Afghanistan and the Global History of Drugs and Diplomacy

James Tharin Bradford

This book explores the history of the Afghan drug trade during the 20th century, detailing how, and why, Afghan rulers struggled to balance the benefits of the Afghan drug trade, both legal and ... More

This book explores the history of the Afghan drug trade during the 20th century, detailing how, and why, Afghan rulers struggled to balance the benefits of the Afghan drug trade, both legal and illicit forms, with external pressures to conform to international drug control regimes and more tightly regulate drugs. This book explores why, over time, drug control became a key component of Afghan state formation and diplomacy; by embracing more coercive forms of drug control Afghanistan gained greater access to foreign aid and investment, especially from the United States. And yet, drug control efforts continually failed and the illicit drug trade expanded. This book complicates contemporary analyses of the Afghan drug trade, which depict drugs as juxtaposed with Afghan governance. The longer historical analysis details how the illicit drug trade emerged in response to a series of factors, including coercive forms of drug control, broader policy failures of the Afghan state, as well as, external forces such as the globalization of the illicit drug trade. In this way, drug control, as a component of Afghan governance and diplomacy, was fundamental in shaping the conditions of statelessness and lawlessness that are commonly thought to characterize the Afghan opium industry today.Less

Populist Collaborators: The Ilchinhoe and the Japanese Colonization of Korea, 1896-1910

Yumi Moon

An empire invites local collaborators in the making and sustenance of its colonies. Between 1896 and 1910, Japan's project to colonize Korea was deeply intertwined with the movements of reform-minded ... More

An empire invites local collaborators in the making and sustenance of its colonies. Between 1896 and 1910, Japan's project to colonize Korea was deeply intertwined with the movements of reform-minded Koreans to solve the crisis of the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910). Among those reformers, it was the Ilchinhoe (Advance in Unity Society)—a unique group of reformers from various social origins—that most ardently embraced Japan's discourse of “civilizing Korea” and saw Japan's colonization as an opportunity to advance its own “populist agendas.” The Ilchinhoe members called themselves “representatives of the people” and mobilized vibrant popular movements that claimed to protect the people's freedom, property, and lives. Neither modernist nor traditionalist, they were willing to sacrifice the sovereignty of the Korean monarchy if that would ensure the rights and equality of the people. Both the Japanese colonizers and the Korean elites disliked the Ilchinhoe for its aggressive activism, which sought to control local tax administration and reverse the existing power relations between the people and government officials. Ultimately, the Ilchinhoe members faced visceral moral condemnation from their fellow Koreans when their language and actions resulted in nothing but assist the emergence of the Japanese colonial empire in Korea. This book examines the vexed position of these Korean reformers in the final years of the Chosŏn dynasty, and highlights the global significance of their case for revisiting the politics of local collaboration in the history of a colonial empire.Less

Redemption and Revolution: American and Chinese New Women in the Early Twentieth Century

Motoe Sasaki

In the early twentieth century, a good number of college-educated Protestant American women went abroad by taking up missionary careers in teaching, nursing, and medicine. Most often, their ... More

In the early twentieth century, a good number of college-educated Protestant American women went abroad by taking up missionary careers in teaching, nursing, and medicine. Most often, their destination was China, which became a major mission field for the U.S. Protestant missionary movement as the United States emerged to become an imperial power. These missionary women formed a cohort of new women who sought to be liberated from traditional gender roles. As educators and benevolent emancipators, they attempted to transform Chinese women into self-sufficient middle-class professional women just like themselves. As this book shows these aspirations ran parallel to and were in conflict with those of the Chinese xin nüxing (New Women) they encountered. The subjectivity of the New Woman was an element of global modernity expressing gendered visions of progress. At the same time, it was closely intertwined with the view of historical progress in the nation. Though American and Chinese New Women emphasized individual autonomy in that each sought to act as historical agents for modern progress, their notions of subjectivity were in different ways linked to the ideologies of historical progress of their nations. This book's transnational history of these New Women explores the intersections of gender, modernity, and national identity within the politics of world history, where the nation-state increased its presence as a universal unit in an ever-interconnecting global context.Less

Samurai to Soldier: Remaking Military Service in Nineteenth-Century Japan

D. Colin Jaundrill

This book rewrites the military history of nineteenth-century Japan. In fifty years spanning the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate and the rise of the Meiji nation-state, conscripts supplanted ... More

This book rewrites the military history of nineteenth-century Japan. In fifty years spanning the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate and the rise of the Meiji nation-state, conscripts supplanted warriors as Japan's principal arms-bearers. The most common version of this story suggests that the Meiji institution of compulsory military service was the foundation of Japan's efforts to save itself from the imperial ambitions of the West and set the country on the path to great power status. The book argues, to the contrary, that the conscript army of the Meiji period was the culmination—and not the beginning—of a long process of experimentation with military organization and technology. It traces the radical changes to Japanese military institutions, as well as the on-field consequences of military reforms in accounts of the Boshin War (1868–1869) and the Satsuma Rebellions of 1877. The book shows how pre-1868 developments laid the foundations for the army that would secure Japan's Asian empire.Less

Sovereignty Experiments: Korean Migrants and the Building of Borders in Northeast Asia, 1860-1945

Alyssa Park

This book examines Korean migration and settlement in the Tumen valley, officials’ views of Korean migrants, and competing attempts by Korea, Russia (Soviet Union), China, and Japan to govern them in ... More

This book examines Korean migration and settlement in the Tumen valley, officials’ views of Korean migrants, and competing attempts by Korea, Russia (Soviet Union), China, and Japan to govern them in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It argues that these attempts derived from broader aspirations on the part of statesmen to establish exclusive claims over territory and people—the definition of modern sovereignty—in a borderland where such claims had been asserted but not actively enforced. Migrants posed a challenge because they transgressed borders and defied official efforts to contain their movements and to define them as part of distinct political communities. The book analyzes jurisdictional debates, diplomatic negotiations, international treaties, border regulations, legal categorization of subjects and aliens, and cultural and religious missions that were carried out among Koreans. It further explores migrants’ subversion and use of new laws to their own ends, especially in Russia. Integrating sources across contiguous geographies, this transnational history revises nationalist and imperialist histories that have subsumed the region and its Koreans under narratives of colonization or assimilation by a particular state and instead foregrounds the development of common concerns about mobility, borders, and political belonging across Northeast Asia.Less

The Teahouse under Socialism: The Decline and Renewal of Public Life in Chengdu, 1950-2000

Di Wang

This book explores urban public life through the microcosm of the Chengdu teahouse. Like most public spaces, the teahouse was and still is an enduring symbol of Chinese popular culture, stemming back ... More

This book explores urban public life through the microcosm of the Chengdu teahouse. Like most public spaces, the teahouse was and still is an enduring symbol of Chinese popular culture, stemming back centuries and prevailing through political transformations, modernization, and globalization. The time period covered begins basically with the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949-50, goes through the end of the Cultural Revolution and into the post-Mao reform era. We see clearly that the role and importance of the teahouse changed abruptly, going from severe constriction in its operations to a time when public spaces flourished unrestricted. During the Mao era, the state achieved tight control over society generally, and it was able to penetrate to the very core of society in order to control almost all its resources. Thus, the spaces usually available for sociality and for the natural development of social activities were sharply limited. The post-Mao economic reforms were a turning point in public life because everyday life was dominated by sweeping “open-market” economic reforms that were structured within a unique type of socialist political system, and to a significant degree public life moved away from state control. This book can enhance our understanding of public life and political culture in Chengdu under the Communist state, with its political needs and agendas; from there we may reflect on the situation of other Chinese cities.Less

Waste: Consuming Postwar Japan

Eiko Maruko Siniawer

Affluence of the Heart explores the many and various ways in which waste—be it of time, stuff, money, possessions, and resources—was thought about in Japan from the immediate aftermath of devastating ... More

Affluence of the Heart explores the many and various ways in which waste—be it of time, stuff, money, possessions, and resources—was thought about in Japan from the immediate aftermath of devastating war to the early twenty-first century.It shows how questions about waste were deeply embedded in the decisions of the everyday and shaped by the central forces of postwar Japanese life from economic growth and mass consumption to material abundance and environmentalism.What endured from the late 1950s onward was a defining element of Japan’s postwar experience: the tension between the desire to achieve and defend the privileges of middle-class lifestyles made possible by affluence, and the discomfort and dissatisfaction with the logics, costs, and consequences of that very prosperity. This tension complicated the persistent search in these decades for what might be called well-being, happiness, or a good life. Affluence of the Heart is a history of how people lived—how they made sense of, gave meaning to, and found value in the acts of the everyday.Less