Japanese Society at War: Death, Memory and the Russo-Japanese War

Description

As the first international conflict of the twentieth century, the Russo-Japanese War attracted much contemporary global interest. This text was the first full-length study to examine the war from the perspective of its impact on Japanese society, and sheds light on its implications for modern Japan. What did the war mean to the Japanese people and how did they respond to it? Naoko Shimazu presents a fascinating and highly innovative account of the attitudes of ordinary Japanese people towards the war through a wide range of sources including personal diaries, letters, and contemporary images. She deals with themes such as conscripts and battlefield death, war commemoration, heroic myths, and war in popular culture. Challenging the orthodox view of Meiji Japan as monolithic, she shows that there existed a complex and ambivalent relationship between the Japanese state and society.

Naoko Shimazu's major publications include Imagining Japan in Post-war East Asia (co-editor, 2013), Nationalisms in Japan (editor, 2006) and Japan, Race and Equality: The Racial Equality Proposal of 1919 (1998). She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Professorial Associate of the Japan Research Centre at SOAS, University of London, Associate of MEARC at Leiden University, and a former Japan Foundation Fellow. She serves on the editorial boards of Japan Forum, Modern Asian Studies, Reviews in History, and Theory, Culture and Society. Her current major project is a monograph, Diplomacy as Theatre: Asian and African Performances at the Bandung Conference of 1955.

Review of the hardback: '... a fascinating account of how war, government, and society interact.' Journal of Military History Review of the hardback: '... a valuable contribution to the literature and should be read widely by all people interested in the period when Japan entered the twentieth century ...' Reviews in History Review of the hardback: '... anyone studying modern Japan and the workings of modern Japanese nationalism will find much to think about in Shimazu's thoughtful book. Above all, those with an interest in modern warfare and national identity formation should give this book a serious read ...' The American Historical Review 'Shimazu ... has produced an excellent book, full of fascinating insights, well-illustrated, and above all, one that makes the reader think about the many issues covered.'' Asian Affairs