One of the present criticism towards modern historical science is that the West is central to history while the non-Western world is “peripheral.” This view can also be seen in international cultural relations, where there is often bipolarization between “bad” and “good,” with the former caused by governments such as through propaganda, and the latter brought about by civil agencies. This research aims to re-examine this problematic structure of international cultural relations based on the hypothesis that “central versus peripheral” in terms of history is a problem inherent in all studies of international cultural relations. This research focuses on two student conferences that took place during the 1930s: the Japan-America Student Conference (JASC), and the Philippines-Japan Student Conference. These two conferences were both managed by the same organization—the Japanese Students English Association—which was a part of kokumin-gaikō, or the concept of the national diplomacy of Japan prior to World War II. Another hypothesis was established to investigate how these two conferences were affiliated without a factor of contingency.

The Japanese side of JASC wanted to communicate the “rightness” of Japanese policy in Manchuria, and the excellence of Oriental culture, while the American delegates viewed this mostly as Japanese propaganda and viewed the country’s censorship as problematic. At the Americans’ suggestion, a rule was created, that prohibited “observers” from entering any rooms at the conference where round-table discussions were being held. This illustrates that the pre-war JASC was not only an example of Japanese kokumin-gaikō but also that it served as an American cultural exchange program. There were also nisei participants in JASC, though they were viewed as “peripheral” actors and unable to send any codes in international cultural relations due to the presupposition of kokumin-gaikō, where a person only has one culture. However, nisei participants did send a code throughout the cultural exchange program, which was the existence of discrimination against Japanese American ethnicity as well as a message of ethical equality towards the white community. As a result, one Japanese delegate at the conference communicated his understanding toward nisei’ duality, where a person have both Japanese ethnicity and American nationality.

At the Philippines-Japan Student Conference, the Japanese side tried to appeal to the existing goodwill between the two countries in addition to highlighting the success of Japanese immigrants in the Philippines. Japanese delegates met with some of the old Japanese workers in the Philippines who were part of the construction of Benguet Road. From this work arose a “legendary story,” where only Japanese laborers were able to successfully complete the construction of this road, while work while non-Japanese laborers were not able to do well. This story was exaggerated by the Japanese working in the Philippines during pre-war period and was exported to Japan, which served to support the idea of Japanese supremacy and the success of Japanese living in areas of nanshin (proceeding south).