In the middle of the 19^th century Javanese aristocrats (priyayi) who had become bureaucrats in the colonial government managed to stay on good terms with the Dutch colonial government in order to preserve their social status. At the same time, they were charged with governing local society. They had to oversee the social order and local religious activities in order to implement the agrarian system. For self-justification, they needed to involve religious officials known as pangulu.
Discourses between priyayi and Muslim leaders over the religious movement that occurred in the 1850's in the Residency of Pekalongan offers a very interesting example. The leader of this movement, K. H. Ahmad Rifa'i, after returning from Mecca, opened an Islamic shool in the outlying village of Kalisalak and began teaching orthodox Islamic beliefs to the villagers in central Java. He composed many Islamic poetic works in Javanese (with Arabic letters pegon) so that people could understand them easily. In his works he severely criticized local religious officials and the priyayi for serving “the infidel” (the Dutch). He urged the reformation of Javanese Islamic society.
The Priyayi, on the other hand, endeavored to refute Rifa'i's argument, also using Islamic terms. In the one famous work of court literature, entitled Serat Cabolek, Rifa'i is described as an ignorant and arrogant Islamic leader, who had been admonished by the pangulu and priyayi for his acts of folly. According to Scrat Cabolek, Rifa'i spread a heretic Islamic dogma not in accordance with the Koran and was deceiving ignorant villagers into disrespecting the priyayi. At the end of the story, Rifa'i's assertions prove to be false as the result of “religious dispute” with a pangulu, held in the presence of the priyayi and an audience. The pangulu is praised for his intelligence and courage, and the priyayi is also praised for maintaining the order in Javanese society.
The priyayi thus endeavored to justify themselves through the subjugation of a “heretic.”

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The definition of subject differs front one researcher to another, but it is mainly the concept of a syntactic level indicating the component of a sentence that has the maximum grammatical predominance in the nucleus of the event consisting of a predicate in the center and components demanded by its case government. If the word order is not fixed, or grammatical categories like the part of speech classification, intransitive/transitive verb, voice, case marking etc. are not clear, we can not set up Such a subject in an isolating language.
Because Vietnamese, which is a typcal isolating language, may not fulfill all the above-mentioned conditions, I do not think it appropriate to set up a subject, but to submit an introduction of the new concept of “Logical Subject” and “Logical Predicate” (hereafter LS-LP) to the grammatical description of such a language and discuss the appropriateness in this proposal.
LS-LP is the basic structure of the syntactic level in a language that cannot set Lip a subject, and LS is directly governed by the sentence. It is a constituent showing the object of human judgment, while LP expresses the content of human judgment, and it is a constituent correponding to LS.
If the proposition of a sentence expresses at all the speaker's judgment (or propositional acts) toward the actual, so to speak, “an actual reconstruction act”, certainly it is specified with the feature of language, because human thought is fundamentally realized via language. In any language that fulfills the above-mentioned conditions, a proposition consists of the predicate verb and components demanded by case government. Therefore, the syntactic structure is relatively independent of LS-LP structure; but in a language like Vietnamese, the above-mentioned conditions of a syntactic structure becoming independent of LS-LP structure do not exist, and in order to present the primal posture (a pure syntactic structure that has not been influenced by morphological factors) of a human language, we must use LS-LP for grammatical analysis and description. There is not other way.
Since it is the abstract concept to which LS-LP exceed a part of speech, unlike the subject and predicate, to an isolating language like the Vietnamese, grammatical description must begin from the correlation of the meaning of a word instead of the part of speech of each word, and then detect the syntactic proof.
Thus, I would be pleased to see research carried out so that the framework of general grammatical theory can be reexamined.

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The Japanese Occupation in Southeast Asian Histoly is a book based in the results of a symposium held on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the end to World War II. Published in 1997, it was the first piece of research to deal with entire Southeast Asia synthetically, and indeed the author's attempt to present “results of research one can be proud of the world over” had been accomplished. However, even now, after the revised edition of 2001, a full-scale critique of the work has not been done yet. The theme of this book does spread to various topics over Southeast Asia as a whole, making it difficult for one reviewer to cover all the chapters; however, in spite of the reviewer's admitted lack of breadth, the time has come to do a critique of it.
His comments on each chapter emphasize the importance of positivism. In particular, he refers to the methodology of assembling a theory, and shows some related historical materials he has gathered, aiming at succession and development of each topic.
Next, regarding the comprehensive theme, he estimates the degree of achievement in each session, then makes some comments on the whole aim of the book's analysis, making mention of the effectiveness of the way to categorize Southeast Asia within the theme of the Occupation. Finally, he refers to what he deems necessary to further this theme in the future, indicating one concrete case, a district-by-district comparison of Heiho.

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Iwanami History's most remarkable contribution to Southeast Asian historiography is the new framework of periodization. Instead of using a single index, it tries to see change in broader terms. As a key concept it presents “historical circles” or “historical spheres, ” which would be formed through interaction between various factors such as natural environment, life culture, loose commercial networks, exemplary cultural complexes and central polities. Though we need to do more verification of this quite new and valuable index of periodization, we should keep these criteria in mind and see the changes in each field of study.
Vol. 1 (Yamamoto Tatsuro (ed.), The Proto-history of the Southeast Asian World, Iwanami Shoten, 2001, xv+337p.) presents a compilation of knowledge of archaeological and historical studies on the Southeast Asia up to the 10th century. Amazingly, the discussion covers the whole region of Southeast Asia including Yunnan, and each specialist presents well arranged discussions on such important issues as subsistence, state formation, trade and relations with China and India. It is particularly successful in addressing the relationship between trade networks and the formation of the regional polities.
As well known, while written sources related to the pre-modern ages of this area are limited, the archaeology provides new data and is increasing its explanatory role. This volume is one of the best trials to connect studies from both archaeological and documentary sources. However, because of difference of the methodologies and concepts, there are still inconsistencies and unsuitable citations concerning the mutually interesting matters. What is really needed is a balanced dialogue between archaeologists and historians to coordinate concepts and terminology for more effective interdisciplinary studies.
Vol. 2 (Ishizawa Yoshiaki (ed.), The Rise and Development of Ancient Southeast Asian States, Iwanami Shoten, 2001, xii+316p.) deals with the various aspects of change from the 9/10^th through the 14/15^th century. It challenges the “13^th century crisis” theory and tries to view the change occurring in the 14th century. Among those changes it is noteworthy to observe the emergence of new social classes, such as a peasantry in North Vietnam and athi in Burma. In the cultural sphere, there arose popular Tantric-Mahayana Buddhism in various areas. In contrast to such changes, there existed continuity from 13^th century oil. For example, we are shown that there were no drastic changes, like the “Thai Century” in Mainland Southeast Asia and we can still see the flourishing of the “Indian Empire” and Indian culture in East Java. Whether those new facts can be applied to the whole region is still in question, but it is obvious that we need do more research on 14^th century Southeast Asia.

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Anthony Reid's achievements are mentioned in all of the Introductions, showing the deep impact of his research. One special feature of this series is the volume totally devoted to the 18th century. All of the titles enable us to imagine the Southeast Asia from 15th to 19th centuries as one large cycle, with “early modern” as a common keyword. Moreover, we are also reminded of the opinions of Victor Lieberman.
Volume 3 mainly deals with the 15-17th century. It is mentioned in the Introduction that this volume deals with the “early modern” period, corresponding to the “age of commerce”. Moreover, it is regarded as a time when economic quantitative expansion caused qualitative transformations in politics and culture. The volume consists of two parts: Part I dealing with the age of commerce and external powers, in which the editor regards the activity of such powers as the initial moment of the age of commerce; Part II dealing with the formation of the spheres of the Southeast Asian states and internal forces.
Volume 4 asserts the importance of the 18th century, when the present day political framework formed via the 19th century first emerged. The formation process of that framework corresponds to each of the volume's three parts: the expansion of primarygoods demand inducing exploitation and development on the frontier and bringing aboutt autonomous polities (Part I: The Frontier Age); the increasing importance of overseas Chinese as intermediaries and labor force and the formation of singular societies in frontier regions and pluralistic ones in urban areas (Part II: The Chinese Era); and the expansion of colonial and “big” states on the mainland, serving the political framework in which Chinese dropped out of competition and lost political independence (Part III: Broader Geo-Historical Spheres).
Volume 5 deals mainly with the 19th century. Saito summarizes the 19th century as “the age of change accelerated”. Part I, “Initiation for Modernity, ” examines how three countries on the mainland tried to manage the new situation. Part II, “Colonization and Change of “ Traditional” States, ” describes mainly the colonization aspect, and Part III, “Urban Metamorphosis, ” contains a vivid description of four cities which serve as the symbols of their countries even today.
While these five centuries should indeed be considered as a cycle, whether or not that cycle should be called “early modern” is by no means certain. Up to the end of the 19^th century, there still survived the “periphery” and “traditional society”. Both were more steadfast than in earlier period, but look ambiguous from the viewpoint of the modern state. They became the objects of “reorganization”.

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This collection of twelve papers concerns the economy of Southeast Asia from the end of the 19th century into the 1.930s. Each paper fully demonstrates the high level this field of reseach has reached.
In recent years, a new historical image has been appeared via a new approach, and in this review I would like to discuss how this book, published in the 21st century, has responded to that approach.
1. The Inward Vector
(1) The impact on inhabitants
There are several contributions to this collection considering the impact on local inhabitants while the colonial economy prospered and declined. In particular, the fact that plantations became source of cash income is important and needs further study.
(2) Domestic trade
The 5th and 6th papers consider the formation of the trade network in rice that connected the overseas market to domestic agriculture.
(3) What is not easily visible from statistical data
More and more research these days has been concerned with the history not easily found in statistical data. The 8th paper pays attention to the ecology of Java at the time and shows clearly that the rice crop economy changed owing to the reduction in forest land.
2. The Outward Vector
(1) The Development of the “Intra-Asian Trade”
It is shown in the collection that a division of labor among the parties in the “Intra-Asian Trade” materialized at this time. Even during the 1930s, the amount of trade did not decrease.
(2) Chinese merchant networks
The predominance of the Chinese merchant in the Southeast Asian economy, is described in many papers and widely recognized. However, I think that more specific researh in terms of time and field should be done concerning this issue.
(3) Southeast Asia and Japan
The collection points out that the import of Japanese products into Southeast Asia area was rapidly increasing during the 1920s and 1930s. However, it is not clear how Japanese products circulated in the markets there.
From now on, in order to deepen our knowledge of Asian commercial activities, it will be necessary to study by the historical records written in Asian languages.

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In 2002 three books on the modern history of Southeast Asia were published as a part of the Iwanami History of Southeast Asia (published by Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo). Volume 7, Anti-Colonial Resistance and Nationalism (Ikehata Setsuho ed., xii+300p.), covers the period from the end of the 19^th century through the 1930's; Volume 8, The Age of Nation State Building (Goto Ken'ichi ed., x+310p.), covers the period from 1939 through the 1950's. Volume 9, The Age of “Development” and “Exploring” (Suehiro Akira ed., xii+396p.), covers the period from 1960's to the present. This article reviews all three volumes in terms of the study of nationalism.
All three volumes describe the modern history of Southeast Asia from the viewpoint of various actors who had up till now been disregarded in the research. Furuta Motoo (in vol. 8) discusses the role of the Thanh Nghi intellectuals in the Vietnamese August Revolution, while Ikehata Setsuho (in vol. 7) considers the Philippine revolution from the viewpoint of provincial revolutionary leaders on the Visayan Islands.
In Vol. 7, Ino Kenji analyzes the spread of the Hsaya San Rebellion in Burma from the standpoint of Burmese peasants, while Sakurai Yumio also emphasizes the logic of the rural community in understanding people's participation in nation wide movements in his lecture on the Can Vuong Movement in Vietnam.
Hara Fujio (in vol. 8) discusses the role of the Malayan Communist Party in expediting the decolonization process of British Malaya, while Hirosue Masashi (in vol. 7) describes in his lecture, entitled “Jihad in Indonesia, ” the behavior of local officials in the Dutch East Indies in the context of a spreading anti-colonial movement.
Nakano Satoshi presents a new understanding of nation building, using the term of “national sphere” in his lectures about the Philippines under the rule of the United States (in vol. 7) and Japan (in vol. 8). He also re-appraises the “collaborating” elite as a protector of political stability and the welfare of the local people.
After examining each paper in the three volumes, this review article outlines the results being achieved in the contemporary study of Southeast Asian modern history in Japan, especially on the topic of nationalism, and touches upon some problems that still remain.

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