Nation-Empire: Ideology and Rural Youth Mobilization in Japan and Its Colonies

364 Pages·2018·3.235 MB·English

by  Sayaka Chatani

NATION-EMPIRE
Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
T he Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute of Columbia University were inaugu-
rated in 1962 to bring to a wider public the results of significant new research on modern
and contemporary East Asia.
NATION-EMPIRE
Ideology and Rural Youth
Mobilization in Japan
and Its Colonies
Sayaka Chatani
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON
Cornell University Press gratefully acknowledges receipt of grants from the
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Department of History, National
University of Singapore, which aided in the production of this book.
Copyright © 2018 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or
parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in
writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press,
Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website
at cornellpress.cornell.edu.
First published 2018 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Chatani, Sayaka, author.
Title: Nation-empire : ideology and rural youth mobilization
in Japan and its colonies / Sayaka Chatani.
Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2018. | Series: Studies of the
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018011988 (print) | LCCN 2018015970 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781501730764 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501730771 (epub/mobi) |
ISBN 9781501730757 | ISBN 9781501730757 (cloth: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Rural youth—Political activity—Japan—History—
20th century. | Rural youth—Political activity—Taiwan—History—
20th century. | Rural youth—Political activity—Korea (South)—
History—20th century. | Young men—Political activity—Japan—
History—20th century. | Young men—Political activity—Taiwan—
History—20th century. | Young men—Political activity—Korea (South)—
History—20th century. | Nationalism—Japan—History—20th century. |
Nationalism—Taiwan—History—20th century. | Nationalism—Korea
(South)—History—20th century. | Japan—Colonies—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC HQ799.8.J3 (ebook) | LCC HQ799.8.J3 C45 2018 (print) |
DDC 305.253/091734—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018011988
Cover photograph: Taiwanese trainees of the Xinzhu Province Youth Training
Institute, giving a Shinto-style misogi (purification) prayer in the ocean, 1940.
Photography courtesy of Xu Chongfa.
For Zeno, Ash, and Colm
N
U. S. S. R.
Sakhalin
Island
Karafuto
MANCHUKUO
(MANCHURIA)
MONGOLIA
Vladivostok
Shinkyō
(Changchun)
Miyagi
CHŌSEN
Beijing (KOREA)
Keijō (Seoul)
Tokyo
South Osaka
Ch’ungch’ŏng
JAPAN
Nanjing
Shanghai
C H I N A
Okinawa
Taihoku
(Taipei)
Legend
TAIWAN City and town
Hong Shinchiku Case study site
Kong (Xinzhu) The Japanese Empire
in the mid-1930s
0 500 1000 km
MAP 1. The Japanese Empire in the mid-1930s
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Transliteration and Translation xiii
Introduction: Nation-Empire as Global and Local History 1
Part 1 THE SO-CALLED INNER TERRITORIES
1. National Trends 21
2. From Mobilization to the Social Mobility Complex 44
3. Totalitarian Japanization 70
Interlude: Okinawa’s Place in the Nation-Empire 93
Part 2 THE SO-CALLED OUTER TERRITORIES
4. Colonial Intellectuals 107
5. Finding Rural Youth in Taiwan 129
6. The Emotional Basis for Japanization 150
7. Model Rural Youth in Korean Villages 180
8. Opportunities and Loopholes 203
Part 3 CONSEQUENCES
9. As Young Pillars of the Nation-Empire 231
Epilogue: Back in Villages 250
Notes 277
On the Archives and Sources 331
Index 335

Illustrations
Maps
1. The Japanese Empire in the mid-1930s vi
2. The location of Shida village 47
3. The locations of Xinzhu city and Beipu village 133
4. The locations of Kwangsŏk village, Nonsan town,
and Kangyŏng town 182
Figures
2.1. The inauguration of Miyagi Prefecture Seinendan
Federation 57
2.2. Rural youth training institutional setup in Miyagi in
the late 1920s 64
6.1–6.4. Activities at the Xinzhu Province Youth Training
Institute (Shinchiku-shūritsu Seinen Shūrenjō) 156–157
6.5. Xu Chongfa (Nemoto Kenji) at age nineteen 163
6.6–6.7. The Taiwan Patriotic Labor Youth Corps
(Taiwan Kingyō Hōkoku Seinentai) in Hualian,
September 30, 1941 164
6.8. Rural youth training institutional setup in Xinzhu
in the late 1930s 166
8.1. Kim Yŏng-han at seinendan training in Kapsa,
August 5, 1938 212
8.2. Kim Yŏng-han at seinendan training in Kapsa,
August 5, 1938 213
8.3. Rural youth training institutional setup in Nonsan in
the mid-to-late 1930s 214
ix