Long obscured by the more dramatic activities of post-World War II student activists, the history of the Japanese left-wing student movement during its formative period from 1918 until its suppression in the 1930s is analyzed here in detail for the first time. Focusing on the Shinjinkai (New Man Society) of Tokyo Imperial University, the leading prewar student group, Henry DeWitt Smith describes the origins and evolution of student radicalism in the period between the two World Wars. He concludes with an analysis of the careers of the Shinjinkai members after graduation and with an explanation of the importance of the prewar tradition to the postwar student movement.

This book offers a timely and multifaceted reanalysis of student radicalism in postwar Japan. It considers how students actively engaged the early postwar debates over subjectivity, and how the emergence of a new generation of students in the mid-1950s influenced the nation’s embrace of the idea that ‘the postwar’ had ended. Attentive to the shifting spatial and temporal boundaries of ‘postwar Japan,’ it elucidates previously neglected histories of student and zainichi Korean activism and their interactions with the Japanese Communist Party. This book is a key read for scholars in the field of Japanese history, social movements and postcolonial studies, as well as the history of student radicalism.

Emphasizing the political discourse and conflict that have surrounded Japanese education, this book focuses on the three main issues of central versus local control, elitism versus equality, and nationalism versus universalism.

Japanese architecture's commanding presence on the world stage can be traced to the struggles of earlier generations of Japan's modernist architects. This first book-length study of Maekawa Kunio (1905-1986) focuses on one of the most distinctive leaders in Japan's modernist architectural community. In a career spanning the 1930s to the 1980s, Maekawa's work and critical writing put him in the vanguard of the Japanese architectural profession. Jonathan Reynolds illuminates Maekawa's role as a bridge between prewar and postwar architecture in Japan, focusing particularly on how he influenced modernism's ambivalence regarding "tradition" and contemporary practice and the importance of technology in modernist design and ideology. Maekawa studied architecture at the prestigious Tokyo Imperial University before moving to Paris in 1928 to work with Le Corbusier. The latter experience had a powerful impact on Maekawa; he became an advocate for Le Corbusier and modernism when he returned to Japan two years later. Throughout his career Maekawa designed residential, commercial, and government buildings in Japan and abroad. He became particularly well known internationally for his approach to public architecture, especially museums and public spaces such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Festival Hall. These projects illustrated the principles that earned Maekawa the respect and admiration of architects the world over. Carefully researched, with numerous illustrations that complement discussions of Maekawa's principal projects, Reynolds's book will be welcomed in the fields of architecture and design. It will also attract readers interested in twentieth-century Japan, for in addition to highlighting Maekawa's architectural career, Reynolds portrays the broader cultural context within which Maekawa and other Japanese architects and artists sought to be heard and recognized.

Bringing together an expert group of established and emerging scholars, this book analyses the pervasive myth of the 'new man' in various fascist movements and far-right regimes between 1919 and 1945. Through a series of ground-breaking case studies focusing on countries in Europe, but with additional chapters on Argentina, Brazil and Japan, The "New Man" in Radical Right Ideology and Practice, 1919-45 argues that what many national forms of far-right politics understood at the time as a so-called 'anthropological revolution' is essential to understanding this ideology's bio-political, often revolutionary dynamics. It explores how these movements promoted the creation of a new, ideal human, what this ideal looked like and what this things tell us about fascism's emergence in the 20th century. The years after World War One saw the rise of regimes and movements professing totalitarian aims. In the case of revolutionary, radical-right movements, these totalising goals extended to changing the very nature of humanity through modern science, propaganda and conquest. At its most extreme, one of the key aims of fascism – the most extreme manifestation of radical right politics between the wars – was to create a 'new man'. Naturally, this manifested itself in different ways in varying national contexts and this volume explores these manifestations in order to better comprehend early 20th-century fascism both within national boundaries and in a broader, transnational context.

Conformist, mute and malleable? Andrews tackles head-on this absurd caricature of Japanese society in his fascinating history of its militant sub-cultures, radical societies and well-established traditions of dissent Following the March 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear crisis, the media remarked with surprise on how thousands of demonstrators had flocked to the streets of Tokyo. But mass protest movements are nothing new in Japan and the post-war period experienced years of unrest and violence on both sides of the political spectrum: from demos to riots, strikes, campus occupations, faction infighting, assassinations and even international terrorism. This is the first comprehensive history in English of political radicalism and counterculture in Japan, as well as the artistic developments during this turbulent time. It chronicles the major events and movements from 1945 to the new flowering of protests and civil dissent in the wake of Fukushima. Introducing readers to often ignored aspects of Japanese society, it explores the fascinating ideologies and personalities on the Right and the Left, including the student movement, militant groups and communes. While some elements parallel developments in Europe and America, much of Japan's radical recent past (and present) is unique and offers valuable lessons for understanding the context to the new waves of anti-government protests the nation is currently witnessing.

This is a concise, reliable guide to the people, places, events, and ideas of significance from the Meiji Restoration to the present.

Byron K. Marshall offers here a dramatic study of the changing nature and limits of academic freedom in prewar Japan, from the Meiji Restoration to the eve of World War II. Meiji leaders founded Tokyo Imperial University in the late nineteenth century to provide their new government with necessary technical and theoretical knowledge. An academic elite, armed with Western learning, gradually emerged and wielded significant influence throughout the state. When some faculty members criticized the conduct of the Russo-Japanese War the government threatened dismissals. The faculty and administration banded together, forcing the government to back down. By 1939, however, this solidarity had eroded. The conventional explanation for this erosion has been the lack of a tradition of autonomy among prewar Japanese universities. Marshall argues instead that these later purges resulted from the university's 40-year fixation on institutional autonomy at the expense of academic freedom. Marshall's finely nuanced analysis is complemented by extensive use of quantitative, biographical, and archival sources.

Fletcher explains how three writers--Ryu Shintaro, Royama Masamichi, and Miki Kiyoshi--who were supporters of democratic socialism became ideologues for the East Asian bloc ideal that rationalized Japan's dominance of Asia after 1937, and he demonstrates how and why they designed the New Order movement of 1940. He concludes that the advocacy of fascism was a reasoned effort to respond to the ills of industrialization and the challenges of mobilization for war. Originally published in 1982. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.