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"A pathbreaking study that situates Manchukuo where it belongs in the center of Japan's imperial project. In an admirably bold and beautifully textured analysis, Young shows how the military, economic, and social aspects of an imperialism that involved more than a million Japanese in the domination of Northeast China emerged as the fateful outcome of modernity and ended as the ground of a terrible war. Total war, total mobilization, total empire--a gripping account of the lessons of twentieth-century history."--Carol Gluck, author of
Japan's Modern Myths"A work of major importance in the study of Japanese imperialism. Louise Young has opened up areas unexplored by research works in the English language, examining them in rich detail and commenting on them on many levels and in many stimulating ways."--Peter Duus, author of
The Abacus and the Sword"A magisterial work, at once comprehensive and penetrating. At home with both statistics and cultural imagery, Louise Young shows that relations with Manchuria galvanized the entire social body of Japan through its emerging mass culture. She stirs the silent memories of a dangerous place, a place that shaped modern Japan much more intimately than we imagined."--Prasenjit Duara, author of
Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China
List of contents
List of Map and Tables
Acknowledgments
Note on Sources
PART I THE MAKING OF A TOTAL EMPIRE
1. Manchukuo and Japan
2. The Jewel in the Crown: The International Context of Manchukuo
PART II THE MANCHURIAN INCIDENT AND THE NEW MILITARY
IMPERIALISM, 1931-1933
3· War Fever: Imperial Jingoism and the Mass Media
4· Go-Fast Imperialism: Elite Politics and Mass Mobilization
PART III THE MANCHURIAN EXPERIMENT IN COLONIAL
DEVELOPMENT, 1932-1941
5· Uneasy Partnership: Soldiers and Capitalists in the Colonial Economy
6. Brave New Empire: Utopian Vision and the Intelligentsia
PART IV THE NEW SOCIAL IMPERIALISM AND THE FARM
COLONIZATION PROGRAM, 1932-1945
7· Reinventing Agrarianism: Rural Crisis and the Wedding of Agriculture to Empire
8. The Migration Machine: Manchurian Colonization and State Growth
9· Victims of Empire
PART V CONCLUSION
10. The Paradox of Total Empire
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Louise Young is Assistant Professor of History at New York University.
Summary
This examination of Japanese imperialism focuses on the domestic impact of Japan's activities in Northeast China between 1931 and 1945, to consider the "metropolitan effects" of empire building - how the Japanese people imagined and experienced the empire they called Manchukuo.
