Utopianism Unrealized

Abstract

Pan-Asian ideology has become firmly rooted in modern Japanese intellectual history. This chapter will enrich scholarly understanding of Japanese pan-Asianism, especially its relationship to imperialism in connection with Manchukuo, by relying on the specific case study of Japanese translator and Sinologist Yamaguchi Shin’ichi (1907-1980), better known to Manchukuo-based Japanese and Chinese writers by his pseudonym Ōuchi Takao. Initially trained as a China expert in the East Asia Common Culture Academy, Ōuchi then joined the Publicity Department of the South Manchuria Railway Company and later served as a major editor for the Manchuria Review before he worked as Manchukuo's primary translator of Chinese literature after 1937. His vision of Manchukuo appears within his translation and literary output, which in turn, shaped his unique identity as a Pan-Asianist in Manchukuo.