[KS] Re: Oguma Eiji

[Theresa Shim]

From: Mark Caprio <caprio at rikkyo.ne.jp>

> Regarding Oguma's book, I wrote a review
> for an Australian journal, Asian Studies Review (June 1999) for
> The Myth of the Homogeneous Nation.

Thank you very much for your information. I will check it out right away.

> I have since learned that this book has been
> reviewed quite extensively in the U.S.

Does anybody on the list and also in the U.S. know of its existence?
And if possible, where and in what terms?

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From: Michael Goodwin <mgoodwin at greenvillenc.com>

> Now you have made me very curious! I wonder if you could take a minute
> to explain for me what these two books (see below) are about (i.e., the
> arguments they put forth).

> #1. The Myth of the Homogeneous Nation (Tokyo: Shinyosya, 1995)
> #2 The Boundaries of the Japanese (Tokyo: Shinyosya, 1998),


Thank you for your interest. I am sure the above message will do better
as an answer. In any case, although I think I will need more than "a minute"
to well "explain" the arguments put forth in both books - #1 is about 400pp,
and #2 about 800pp. - "a minute's" explanation might be something like
follows.
In the first book, Oguma's main argument is that, what has been so called
the "myth" of Japan/Japanese as a homogeneous nation/people is a
relatively recent, in fact, a "post-war" (WW2) construction. In other
words, before Japan has lost the war, and with it forced to give up Taiwan
and Korea, the overall ideology was that Japan/Japanese are "hybrid"
nation/people. This ideology helped Japanese policy of assimilating the
colonized in the climax of Japanese imperial expansion, thus before the war.

The second book shifts the focus mainly put on the "discourse of
assimilation" in the former, and balances it with the "discourse of
separation," in dealing with the same issue, namely the $B!H(Bboundaries$B!I(B
of Japanese and non-Japanese. According to Oguma, although
the $B!H(Bdiscourse of assimilation$B!I(B was based on Western Enlightenment's
faith in equality among the subjects of a nation, in Japan, equality of
rights itself was rarely their interest. Rather, efforts were put on the
compulsory conversion into being Japanese without the corollary right
given to the subject of the nation, because it was precisely the sense
of $B!H(Bthreat of the West,$B!I(B which propelled Japanese colonial policy
of assimilation. (This position, in my view, seems very much in line with
the stereotypical view of Post War Japan$B!G(Bs evaluation of Japanese
colonialism.) On the other hand, the $B!H(Bdiscourse of separation$B!I(B which was
based on
the theory of social evolution, which in other part of the world endorsed
the discourse of the colony$B!G(Bs self-government for the sake of the
colonizers economic reasons, were not the main in Japan. $B!D(B

Well there is much more going on there, for sure, but I have to confess
that neither $B!H(Breading in Japanese$B!I(B nor $B!H(Bwriting in English$B!I(B is an easy
work for me. I am sorry I cannot claim
$B!H(BI$B!G(Bve read it so that you won$B!G(Bt have to!$B!I(B for these two books.

I am still hoping someone might come up with deeper discussions
on both Oguma and Huruta in regards to Korea related issues.

Thank you.

Theresa Shim




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