Islamic or Middle Eastern studies in Japan started in the latter half of the 1930's, and developed rapidly along with the expansion of Japan's militarism to Asian countries. In other words, it was a pressing national necessity to gather more knowledge of Islam and information about what was happening in Islamic regions of Asia. Unfortunately, Islamic studies of pre-war Japan seem to gain but a little attention from scholars of both Middle East and Japanese history. Some explain the reason for this by close contacts of the Islamic studies of those days with militarism, and others say that there left only a few original works to evaluate. It may be true, indeed, in several points, but I cannot agree to such assertion as "Islamic or Middle Eastern studies before and during the Pacific War were no more than a part of studies serving the purpose of Japan's expansion to the Continent or of pacification maneuvering toward the Muslims in China and Southeast Asia". In this article, I tried to sketch the scene of Islamic studies in the 1930's by tracing the course of several research institutes. In February of 1932, the ISURAMU BUNKA KENKYUSHO (Institute of Islamic Culture) was formed as the first group of Islamic studies by IIDA Tadasumi, NAITO Tomo-hide, OKUBO Koji and KOBAYASHI Hajime. They published a journal "ISURAMU BUNKA (Islamic Culture)" in November but it ceased with the No.1 issue only. This institute may be briefly characterized as a pure academic group. The "Muslim Question" had to be urgently solved for the Japanese militarists and capitalists who were watching for a chance to advance to the North-western part of China then to the South after the founding of Manchoukuo in 1932. Under this circumstance, the ISURAMU BUNKA KENKYUSHO shortly split up into two groups: One was the ISURAMU GAKKAI (Islamic Academy) established in 1935 by OKUBO Koji, KOBAYASHI Hajime, MATSUDA Hisao, et al, and the other was the ISURAMU BUNKA KYOKAI (Association of Islamic Culture) founded in 1937, the directors' board of which was composed of ENDO Ryusaku, Home Ministry, SOSA Tanetsugu, Navy Ministry, KASAMA Akio, Foreign Ministry, and NAITO Tomohide. This Association published a journal entitled "ISURAMU-KAIKYO BUNKA (Islam-Islamic Culture)" from No.1 to No.6 (October 1937 to January 1939) until it was affiliated in February 1939 by the DAI-NIHON KAIKYO KYOKAI (Great Japan Association of Islam) established in September 1938 with General HAYASHI Senjuro, ex-Prime Minister, as president. In March 1938, OKUBO Koji who obtained the financial support from the Prince TOKUGAWA Iemasa established the KAIKYOKEN KENKYUSHO (Institute of Islamic World) together with KOBAYASHI Hajime and MATSUDA Hisao. It came soon under the financial control of the ZENRIN KYOKAI (Association of Good Neighborhood). In May of this year, the Research Department of Foreign Ministry began to publish a quarterly magazine "KAIKYO JIJO (Islamic Affairs)" to give accurate information on Islamic affairs which lasted until December 1941, and a mosque was constructed in Tokyo by large donations from the ZAIBATSU. It was a demonstration to the Muslim people in the world to show the national understanding of Islam. In August, the TOA KEIZAI CHOSAKYOKU (East Asian Economic Research Bureau of the South Manchurian Railway) headed by OKAWA Shumei launched its monthly magazine "SHIN AJIA (New Asia)" by which they showed the subject of their researches was not limited to East Asia. In September, TOA KENKYUSHO (Institute of East Asia) was established as a research organ of the Cabinet Planning Board "to make all-round researches of culture and nature of East Asia in order to contribute to the overseas expansion of the Imperial Japan". In this way, Islamic and Middle Eastern studies in Japan flourished in the latter half of the 1930's in response

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