Pacific Affairs


Book Description

Includes book reviews and bibliographies.




The Pacific Historical Review


Book Description







Pacific Pioneers


Book Description

Shipwrecked sailors, samurai seeking a material and sometimes spiritual education, and laborers seeking to better their economic situation: these early Japanese travelers to the West occupy a little-known corner of Asian American studies. Pacific Pioneers profiles the first Japanese who resided in the United States or the Kingdom of Hawaii for a substantial period of time and the Westerners who influenced their experiences. Although Japanese immigrants did not start arriving in substantial numbers in the West until after 1880, in the previous thirty years a handful of key encounters helped shape relations between Japan and the United States. John E. Van Sant explores the motivations and accomplishments of these resourceful, sometimes visionary individuals who made important inroads into a culture quite different from their own and paved the way for the Issei and Nisei. Pacific Pioneers presents detailed biographical sketches of Japanese such as Joseph Heco, Niijima Jo, and the converts to the Brotherhood of the New Life and introduces the American benefactors, such as William Griffis, David Murray, and Thomas Lake Harris, who built relationships with their foreign visitors. Van Sant also examines the uneasy relations between Japanese laborers and sugar cane plantation magnates in Hawaii during this period and the shortlived Wakamatsu colony of Japanese tea and silk producers in California. A valuable addition to the literature, Pacific Pioneers brings to life a cast of colorful, long-forgotten characters while forging a critical link between Asian and Asian American studies.




The American Merchant Experience in Nineteenth Century Japan


Book Description

American merchants established trading firms in the ports of Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki which operated from 1859-1899 until the repeal of the Unequal Treaties. Members of a privileged, semi-colonial community, the merchants formed the largest group of Americans in 19th century Japan. In this first book-length treatment of this group, Kevin Murphy explores their interactions with the Japanese in the treaty port system, how the Japanese leadership manipulated them to its own ends, and how the merchants themselves defined the limitations of American business in Japan through their ambiguous but deep concern with order and opportunity, restraint and dominance, and conservatism and dominance.




Political Development in Modern Japan


Book Description

Contents: I. "Introduction," Robert E. Ward. II. "A Monarch for Modern Japan," John Whitney Hall. III. "Political Modernization and the Meiji Genro" Roger F. Hackett. IV. "Fukuzawa Yukichi: The Philosophical Foundations of Meiji Nationalism," Albert M. Craig. V. "Modernization and Foreign Policy in Meiji Japan," Marius B. Jansen. VI. "War and Modernization," Nobutaka Ike. VII. "Popular Political Participation and Political Development in Japan: The Rural Level," Kurt Steiner. VIII. "Elections and Political Modernization in Prewar Japan," Robert A. Scalapino. IX. "The Development of Interest Groups and the Pattern of Political Modernization in Japan," Takeshi Ishida. X. "Structural and Functional Differentiation in the Political Modernization of Japan," Bernard S. Silberman. XI. "Law and Political Modernization in Japan," Dan Fenno Henderson. XII. "Decision-Making in the Japanese Government: A Study of Ringisei" Kiyoaki Tsuji. XIII. "Reflections on the Allied Occupation and Planned Political Change in Japan," Robert E. Ward. XIV. "The Politics of Japan's Modernization: The Autonomy of Choice," Ardath W. Burks. XV. "Epilogue," Robert E. Ward. Index. Originally published in 1968. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.




Extreme Exoticism


Book Description

To what extent can music be employed to shape one culture's understanding of another? In the American imagination, Japan has represented the "most alien" nation for over 150 years. This perceived difference has inspired fantasies--of both desire and repulsion--through which Japanese culture has profoundly impacted the arts and industry of the U.S. While the influence of Japan on American and European painting, architecture, design, theater, and literature has been celebrated in numerous books and exhibitions, the role of music has been virtually ignored until now. W. Anthony Sheppard's Extreme Exoticism offers a detailed documentation and wide-ranging investigation of music's role in shaping American perceptions of the Japanese, the influence of Japanese music on American composers, and the place of Japanese Americans in American musical life. Presenting numerous American encounters with and representations of Japanese music and Japan, this book reveals how music functions in exotic representation across a variety of genres and media, and how Japanese music has at various times served as a sign of modernist experimentation, a sounding board for defining American music, and a tool for reshaping conceptions of race and gender. From the Tin Pan Alley songs of the Russo-Japanese war period to Weezer's Pinkerton album, music has continued to inscribe Japan as the land of extreme exoticism.




The Naval Aristocracy


Book Description