In 1890, as Meiji leaders consolidated their power and celebrated Japan's future through the festivities surrounding the opening of the Imperial Diet, Hara Hôitsuan's Secret Politician (Anchû seijika, 1890) spotlighted the turbulent 1880s and the tragic consequences of the government's violent suppression of opposition voices in the Freedom and Popular Rights Movement. Much more than just a notable embodiment of the contestatory nature of the creation of the modern Japanese nation-state, Secret Politician also punctuates the end of the period of political novels (seiji shôsetsu) with a provocative evocation of male-male sexuality (nanshoku). Hara's valorization of men's relationships, which invoke an earlier code of "manhood" shaped by the tropes of nanshoku, operates as an oppositional act. Loyal bonds among government-declared criminals on trial at the end of the novel are framed within the sexualized language and associations of love-pacts between warriors, while the state is depicted as a deplorable villain lacking fidelity to its male citizenry. I maintain, however, that its oppositional stance nevertheless reinforced a growing trend that envisioned the Japanese nation as overwhelmingly masculine, a trend that not only bolstered the very state Hara sought to challenge but also had far reaching consequences for women, whose position in the new nation was greatly circumscribed to fit the needs of the masculinist, imperial state. I suggest that Secret Politician demands attention precisely because of these fissures that reveal the shifting boundaries of modern Japanese literature, contestatory politics, and the contentious struggle to define sexuality and gender that are obfuscated by grand narratives of Japan's smooth and natural "progress" towards "civilization."

抄録全体を表示

The opening of Japan in the mid 19^th century encouraged Japanese women's emigration overseas.Because most of them engaged in prostitution abroad, the existence of these women, usually known as Karayuki, was the focal point of anti-prostitution criticisms in Japan from the early Meiji era. Moral advocates and anti-prostitution activists regarded their presence as a possible disgrace to the nation. However, their discursive circumstances changed in the Taisho era with the inflow and circulation of the ideas of eugenics, which were repeatedly featured in Kakusei, the official bulletin of Kakusei-kai, one of the most influential anti-prostitution organisations in Japan. In this paper I explore the way in which criticism of Karayuki by the anti-prostitution movement was incorporated into a narrative of eugenics, and how its discursive entity resulted in what can best be termed the alleged crisis of "blood purity" of the Japanese race in the Taisho era.

The ideas of eugenics provided theoretical background and offered a highly effective remedy for the anti-prostitution movement as an antidote against both licensed prostitution in the body politic of Japan and "unlicensed" prostitution abroad. By evoking hygienic images, the narratives of eugenics diagnosed prostitution and prostitutes as social pathogen. That is, as the main source of "venereal diseases" threatening "domestic purity." This perspective of racial contamination shaped a crucial aspect of anti-Karayuki criticism, which had never before been in focus: Karayuki's ignorance of interracial intercourse as a representation of an encroachment on the nation's racial purity. The scientific guise of eugenics manipulatively transformed the ethical discourse of sex and the moral discourse of prostitution into the obscure but evocative discourses of "blood," "race," and "national purity." Karayuki's sexual economy began to be imagined as the dismal locus of racial contamination, which then provoked severe assaults on Karayuki.

抄録全体を表示

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between Isoo Abe's pacifism and his recommendation that 'weak' men be sterilized. We are here concerned with the problem of manliness in Isoo Abe.
Little attention has been given to Abe's argument in the 1920s about the necessity for sterilization of the weak. However, it is important to note that Abe was a pacifist and recommender of sterilization in 1920's. In his view, sterilization and 'peace' were inseparably related; American society as 'civilization' was the model for Abe's image of a 'peaceful' society.
Abe was influenced by the American birth control movement of Margaret Sanger, and by the American eugenic movement of Paul Popenoe and Eugene Gosney. Abe insisted that the nation should exclude immigration and 'improve the race (jinsyu-kairyo),' in order to maintain homogeneity of the 'race.' That is to say, he attached importance to the 'race' problem in order to obtain 'world peace.' To solve the 'race' problem, he introduced 'birth control' to the Japanese people, and sterilization was one of the most important means for his theory of 'birth control.'
Abe promoted the sterilization of weak men, because he attached importance to manliness. He believed that it was possible to create an 'ideal' society which was based, like an army, on strong people who have 'strong bodies' and 'masculine spirit.'
This issue of Abe's image of manliness is surely not irrelevant to the issue of manliness in America which was examined in the studies about American history. For example, Gail Bederman has argued that there is a strong connection between ideas of 'civilization' and 'race' and the construction of manliness in America, and therefore it is not at all strange that one of the Japanese intellectuals who had been influenced by American culture also drew a connection between the notion of manliness and 'civilization' and 'race.' Further we can identify intellectual influences of this stream of thought on the international eugenic movement that includes the problem of eugenics of Nazism.

抄録全体を表示

This paper discusses the measures taken to assist disabled soldiers in finding marriage partners from the outbreak of the war between Japan and China to the Pacific War. I will also consider the role that disabled soldiers and their wives were expected to play during wartime. During the war years, the numbers of disabled soldiers increased dramatically, and measures were taken to help these disabled soldiers find marriage partners.
This program to aid disabled soldiers began in 1938 when an organization of women took the lead in efforts to introduce future partners to disabled soldiers. In response to a request from the government, the activities were extended to the whole country in 1941.
A number of goals lay behind the program including: a desire to assist in the rehabilitation of disabled soldiers so that they might comeback to serve the nation; a desire to secure manpower; and bestowing honor on the soldiers. Disabled soldiers needed a strong commitment if they were to complete rehabilitation, and also needed to have a sense of their own identity as disabled soldiers. Thus it was important to draw a distinction between those with congenital disabilities, and the disabilities of the soldiers who were wounded in combat.
The movement sought Japanese woman who were willing to marry disabled soldiers. Women did not normally join the military services, but marrying a disabled soldier and relieving him of despair was promoted as a way for a woman to serve the nation. In the training schools set up to support the brides of disabled soldiers, women were taught useful vocations so that they would be able to earn a living instead of their husbands.
The disabled soldier's wife was also expected to be a caregiver. The wife's most important role was to support the rehabilitation of her husband so that he could again serve the nation. She was supposed to be strong enough to bear the burden in her marriage. We can imagine that it must have taken a very strong resolve for a woman to decide to marry a disabled soldier.

抄録全体を表示

Many of studies about Colonial Taiwan under Japanese rule have narrated a story of coercion and resistance. However such a history stressing protest and overcoming are intensively colored by masculinity, and in such studies, indigenous women are usually missing. This paper examines the subjectivity of indigenous women known as 'Kabanpu' who worked for the Colonial Government of Taiwan especially focusing on the ways in which they accepted and overstepped the gender roles that the Empire and the ethnic group imposed on them. How did indigenous women live under Japanese rule? To clarify this question, I will approach the problem from the point of ethnic customs and changes in society brought about by Japanese rule.
During the early colonial period when the Colonial Government of Taiwan established 'Bukonsho', they needed people who would help them and mediate between 'Bukonsho' and indigenous villages. 'Bukonsho' rewarded people who worked for them, and this, along with the following reasons that I will point out, prompted indigenous women to take the job.
Firstly, divorced women, widows, and women who broke the taboo about marriage were excluded from 'Gaga', a customary group, so they had to find another place to live. After the 'Bukonsho' were established, they regarded the 'Bukonsho' as a kind of refuge. Secondly, since the presence of police/army power grew bigger around 1900, it became difficult to get daily necessaries. But those who agreed to become 'Kabanpu' could easily acquire commodities. Finally, during the 1910s, the prices for the goods produced by indigenous people fell, and at the same time there was a general rise in overall prices. Therefore many women wanted to learn the new weaving skills that the Colonial Government was teaching so that they would be able to earn increased income by weaving fabrics that could be sold for a higher price.
I will conclude that it is not accurate to say that indigenous women were forced to work for the Empire, rather, they themselves—based on their own evaluation of their situation—decided to work for the Japanese.

抄録全体を表示

This paper examines the images of women used in cosmetics advertising during World War II in the United States. Under conditions of full-scale war, the question of whether women should continue to be "glamorous as usual" by using cosmetics was a controversial subject. The national concern for applying makeup reflected the changing conditions of women and the public uneasiness about the ever-expanding role of women during the war.
Advertising for cosmetics frequently depicted women war workers as doing "man-sized jobs," and performing a crucial role in the war effort. Despite such rigors, however, the women in the advertising kept their femininity intact by using cosmetics. Promoting their products as morale boosters, especially for women war workers, these advertisements often suggested to women the possibilities of being more self-assertive, self-confident, and of joining the war effort more actively, even transgressing the limits set by traditional gender norms.
At the same time, women wearing makeup in public spaces often implied a sexually independent character, and could be seen as a challenge to conventional norms of acceptable sexual attitudes and behavior. Although sexually attractive women were required in wartime to provide entertainment to servicemen, the appearance of women in such overtly sexual roles was sometimes seen as "promiscuous."
Nevertheless, cosmetics advertising during the war carefully circumscribed the limits of the traditional notions of gender and sexuality by appealing to women to buy and use their products in order to attract men, especially service men, holding out the hope of eventually finding a marriage partner. Although cosmetics had come to stand for a new meaning during the war—highlighted as essential for women's well being and good morale—they conveyed contradictory messages to women, and never offered a consistent answer to the question of why women should have continued to be "glamorous as usual."

抄録全体を表示