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Japanese Studies
Japanese Studies August 5, 2022

Middlemen of Modernity

Local Elites and Agricultural Development in Meiji Japan

Christopher Craig

Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg
Christopher Craig’s Middlemen of Modernity: Local Elites and Agricultural Development in Meiji Japan (U Hawaii Press, 2021) is a thoroughly research and engaging study of the role of local elites …

Japanese Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Japan about their new books.

Japanese Studies August 2, 2022

Sino-Japanese Reflections

Literary and Cultural Interactions between China and Japan in Early Modernity

Joshua A. Fogel and Matthew Fraleigh

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Joshua A. Fogel and Matthew Fraleigh's edited volume Sino-Japanese Reflections: Literary and Cultural Interactions between China and Japan in Early Modernity (de Gruyter, 2022) offers ten richly detailed case studies that …
Japanese Studies August 1, 2022

Eavesdropping on the Emperor

Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britain's War With Japan

Peter Kornicki

Hosted by Jingyi Li
When Japanese signals were decoded at Bletchley Park, who translated them into English? When Japanese soldiers were taken as prisoners of war, who interrogated them? When Japanese maps and plans …
Nordic Asia Podcast July 22, 2022

Japanese Immigration and the Korean Minority

Sara Park

Hosted by Duncan McCargo
Why does Japanese immigration policy have such a bad name? What are the historical origins of tight immigration policies? Where have these policies left immigrants of Korean descent, many of …
Japanese Studies July 21, 2022

Japan’s Occupation of Java in the Second World War

A Transnational History

Ethan Mark

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Japan's Occupation of Java in the Second World War: A Transnational History (Bloomsbury, 2018) by Ethan Mark draws upon written and oral Japanese, Indonesian, Dutch and English-language sources to narrate …
Asian American Studies July 15, 2022

Biotic Borders

Transpacific Plant and Insect Migration and the Rise of Anti-Asian Racism in America, 1890-1950

Jeannie N. Shinozuka

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
In the late nineteenth century, increasing traffic of transpacific plants, insects, and peoples raised fears of a "biological yellow peril" when nursery stock and other agricultural products shipped from Japan …
On Religion July 7, 2022

On 'Just Enough,' Oryoki, and Japanese Cooking

A Discussion with Gesshin Claire Greenwood

Gesshin Claire Greenwood

Hosted by Gregory Soden
Gesshin Claire Greenwood is the author of Bow First, Ask Questions Later and the popular blog That’s So Zen. She trained in Japanese Zen monasteries, including in the kitchen, for …
East Asian Studies July 7, 2022

Japan Rearmed

The Politics of Military Power

Sheila A. Smith

Hosted by John Traphagan
Today I talked to Sheila A. Smith about her book Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power (Harvard UP, 2019). Modern Japan is not only responding to threats from North Korea and …
Japanese Studies July 6, 2022

Animal Care in Japanese Tradition

A Short History

W. Puck Brecher

Hosted by Jingyi Li
In Animal Care in Japanese Tradition: A Short History (Association for Asian Studies, 2022), Brecher offers a brief overview of animals in Japanese culture and society from ancient times to …
East Asian Studies June 29, 2022

Carbon Technocracy

Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia

Victor Seow

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Victor Seow’s Carbon Technocracy: Energy regimes in Modern East Asia (U Chicago Press, 2021) is an account of the modern “world that carbon made” through the case study of the …
Japanese Studies June 27, 2022

Japanese Role-Playing Games

Genre, Representation, and Liminality in the JRPG

Rachael Hutchinson and Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Rachael Hutchinson and Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon's edited volume Japanese Role-Playing Games: Genre, Representation, and Liminality in the JRPG (Lexington Books, 2022) examines the origins, boundaries, and transnational effects of the genre, addressing significant …
Nordic Asia Podcast June 24, 2022

Japan’s Reaction to Russia’s War in Ukraine

Kamila Szczepanska and Silja Keva

Hosted by Ari-Joonas Pitkänen
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has dramatically affected international politics, and the effects are also felt in East Asia. We have heard a lot about China’s position regarding the war, but …
South Asian Studies June 21, 2022

The 24th Mile

An Indian Doctor's Heroism in War-torn Burma

Tehmton S. Mistry

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
The story of India and Indians in World War II has been overshadowed by other historical events of the 1940s, a busy decade that included such historical watersheds as Indian …
On Religion June 20, 2022

On Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan

A Discussion with Jolyon Thomas

Jolyon Thomas

Hosted by Gregory Soden
Dr. Jolyon Thomas is the author of Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan, out now from the University of Chicago Press. Dr. Thomas is assistant professor of religious studies …
Asian American Studies June 17, 2022

Shadow Traces

Seeing Japanese/American and Ainu Women in Photographic Archives

Elena Tajima Creef

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
Images of Japanese and Japanese American women can teach us what it meant to be visible at specific moments in history. In Shadow Traces: Seeing Japanese/American and Ainu Women in Photographic …
East Asian Studies June 15, 2022

The Musha Incident

A Reader on the Indigenous Uprising in Colonial Taiwan

Michael Berry

Hosted by Li-Ping Chen
On October 27, 1930, members of six Taiwanese indigenous groups ambushed the Japanese attendees of an athletic competition at the Musha Elementary School, killing 134. The uprising came as a …
Japanese Studies June 13, 2022

Designing Modern Japan

Sarah Teasley

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Sarah Teasley's Designing Modern Japan (Reaktion, 2022) unpicks the history of Japanese design from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth, focusing on continuities and disruptions within communities and practices …
Nordic Asia Podcast June 3, 2022

The Forgotten Children of the Second Sino-Japanese War

Kanako Kuramitsu

Hosted by Satoko Naito
Disparaged as "Japanese devils" and "half-breed," some children with Chinese mothers and Japanese fathers born during the Second Sino-Japanese war long looked to Japan as their true homeland. Learn about …
Japanese Studies June 2, 2022

Dream Super-Express

A Cultural History of the World's First Bullet Train

Jessamyn Abel

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Jessamyn Abel’s Dream Super-Express: A Cultural History of the World’s First Bullet Train (Stanford UP, 2022) is a history of Japan’s famous super-express (shinkansen) and “the bullet train imaginary.” …
SSEAC Stories May 26, 2022

Boys Love and Japanese Queer Popular Culture across Southeast Asia

A Conversation with Tom Baudinette

Tom Baudinette

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers across East and Southeast Asia have found themselves turning to Thai soap operas known as “Boys Love series” as a source of …