{"title":"‘To Adopt the Principles of Freedom’: Christianity, Women’s Education, and Progress in U.S. Press Coverage of the Iwakura Mission","authors":"Joseph M. Henning, Leo Makalsky","doi":"10.1163/18765610-31030003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-31030003","url":null,"abstract":"In U.S. press reports, the visit of Meiji Japan’s Iwakura Mission in 1872 presented both an opportunity for Americans to facilitate progress in Japan and evidence of social reform already underway there. As an opportunity, the mission served as a potential medium for American efforts to improve the Meiji government’s treatment of Japanese Christians. Many American political and religious leaders hoped to convince the mission ambassadors that freedom of religion was an essential component of civilization and a prerequisite for engaging with the treaty powers on equal terms. As evidence of social reform, the five Japanese girls who came with the mission to study in the United States embodied Japan’s new commitment to expanding educational opportunities for women. Focusing on the themes of religion and gender in U.S. newspaper coverage, this article shows how Americans projected onto the Iwakura Mission their own images of the United States as an inspiration and model for reform in Japan. Treating the mission as both an opportunity and evidence, the U.S. press depicted it in a self-congratulatory fashion to embellish Americans’ national identity as a people committed to progress.","PeriodicalId":41460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of American-East Asian Relations","volume":"75 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142191818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mori Arinori: Japan’s Diplomat in Washington, D.C.","authors":"John E. Van Sant","doi":"10.1163/18765610-31030004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-31030004","url":null,"abstract":"This article briefly examines the life of Mori Arinori, who in 1871 became Japan’s first resident diplomat in Washington, D.C., with the primary assignment of making preparations for the upcoming Iwakura Mission. Mori’s pedigree of being from a samurai family from Satsuma domain and his unusual background of having already lived in Britain and the United States led senior officials of the new Meiji Imperial government to name Mori to the all-important position of being Japan’s top representative to the United States despite his youth – he was only 23 years old at the time of his appointment. Notwithstanding his occasional impatience with Japanese traditions and the more reserved senior officials of the Iwakura Embassy, Mori’s connections in Washington D.C., his understanding of American society, and his skill at the English language significantly contributed to the institutional, cultural, and economic information that members of the Japanese delegation gathered. Mori’s post-Washington career as an intellectual, diplomat, and top education official in Japan in the late 1870s and 1880s also contributed to his country’s progression from the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate to the cusp of Japan’s international recognition as a major power in a world being transformed by industrialization and imperialism.","PeriodicalId":41460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of American-East Asian Relations","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142191814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Iwakura Mission and the Network of Japanese Students in the United States","authors":"Haruko Wakabayashi","doi":"10.1163/18765610-31030005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-31030005","url":null,"abstract":"One notable characteristic of the Iwakura Mission was, in Tanaka Akira’s words, its historical and cultural “continuity in discontinuity.” While its leaders were mostly from the aristocracy and the powerful Satsuma and Chōshū domains with little experience in the West, the secretaries who assisted them were former Tokugawa retainers that were experts in foreign affairs. The <jats:italic>ryūgakusei</jats:italic>, or overseas students, who were in the United States or Europe prior to the mission’s arrival and joined them on site, were another group that exemplified the “continuity.” Reform-minded daimyo and the progressive members of the Tokugawa regime had dispatched many to the West during the Tokugawa period with the very purpose to become useful servants to assist Japan’s quick and successful modernization. Once recruited to the mission, these <jats:italic>ryūgakusei</jats:italic> served as guides, interpreters, and investigators, collecting and compiling information on various institutions and policies in the respective countries. The knowledge, experience, and linguistic skills they had acquired and the network they created while abroad were vital in facilitating the Iwakura Mission and the new Meiji government’s subsequent effort of modernization.","PeriodicalId":41460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of American-East Asian Relations","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142191811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cooperation and Struggle Between Vietnam and the United States: Impediments to Improved U.S.-Vietnam Relations","authors":"Nguyễn Anh Cường","doi":"10.1163/18765610-31010004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-31010004","url":null,"abstract":"The relationship between the United States and Vietnam began when Prince Nguyen Phuc Canh worked with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary American Ambassador Thomas Jefferson in 1787. The United States, however, later invaded Vietnam, causing a bloody conflict unlike any in human history from 1954 to 1975. Then, in 1995, a shared sense of humanity and morality motivated the two countries to attempt to form a comprehensive partnership that they achieved in 2013, and they have been working to refine their approach toward collaborating together ever since. In this partnership, there is a need to uncover and resolve a few mysteries. This article’s objective is to analyze the fundamentals of both cooperation and conflict in this historical partnership – human rights (including for prisoners of war and those missing in action), military security, policy reform in Vietnam, and financial gains for Vietnam and the United States. However, differences in political institutions, interests and values, and aims for the relationship have all become points of contention since normalization of bilateral relations in 1995.","PeriodicalId":41460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of American-East Asian Relations","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140571441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Keeping the Cold War Cold: Korea, 1966–1976","authors":"Nicholas Evan Sarantakes","doi":"10.1163/18765610-31010003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-31010003","url":null,"abstract":"During the Cold War, U.S. strategic leaders had to deal with policies and issues in every part of the globe. The main theater was in Europe, but there were other regions that demanded attention. Korea was an important one. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, the peninsula was on the brink of conflict as North Korea initiated a series of operations that were legitimate acts of war. There was a strong desire among South Korean government officials for a military response, but U.S. government leaders said no. Officials in Washington recognized the limits of U.S. power at the time, and designed their responses to maintain the status quo. The story of how the United States handled its undertakings in areas of marginal importance was a chapter in the larger history of the Cold War. A number of historians have suggested that the Third World played a key role in shaping developments in the Cold War, but U.S. actions in Korea indicate something a bit more complicated. Knowing when to become involved and when to limit losses was crucial in how the United States managed events along the periphery of the Cold War.","PeriodicalId":41460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of American-East Asian Relations","volume":"57 2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140571443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Missionaries and Nisei as “Informants” in U.S. Preparation for the Military Occupation of Japan","authors":"Kayoko Takeda","doi":"10.1163/18765610-30040003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-30040003","url":null,"abstract":"<p>From 1944 to 1945, the U.S. Department of War contracted with six universities, including Stanford University, to operate Civil Affairs Training Schools (<span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">cats</span>) for the Far Eastern theaters. Their mission was to prepare U.S Army and U.S. Navy officers with assignments to administer civil affairs in the anticipated occupation of Japan. This article focuses on two groups of “informants” that Stanford University sourced for language and area study instruction in its <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">cats</span> program – first, Christian missionaries repatriated to North America after spending many years in Japan and second, <em>Nisei</em> (second-generation Japanese Americans) recruits from War Department incarceration camps. In response to Stanford University’s inquiries, nearly 130 missionaries shared their first-hand experiences in Japan and offered suggestions on how civil affairs officers should engage with the Japanese. Some of these suggestions showed Christian biases that led to mixed reactions among the Stanford staff. Despite the challenge of bringing persons of Japanese ancestry to a campus with the U.S. government’s exclusion orders in place, Stanford University managed to hire 23 <em>Nisei</em> as “language informants.” Their work, however, largely consisted of leading language drills for student officers as “native speakers” rather than providing expert knowledge. This article highlights the circumstances and issues around the U.S. military’s use of missionaries and second-generation immigrants for their linguistic and cultural knowledge of the enemy.</p>","PeriodicalId":41460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of American-East Asian Relations","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139054133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"China and the United States: Business, Technology, and Networks, 1914–1941","authors":"Lin-chun Wu","doi":"10.1163/18765610-02702002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-02702002","url":null,"abstract":"This paper studies the activities of American enterprises, technology, and related business organizations and engineering groups in China from the outbreak of World War i to the Pacific War and explains how these activities helped establish connections between China and the world. It borrows the concept of “networks” from Professor Sherman Cochran’s extraordinary book titled Encountering Chinese Networks, but broadens the scope of the term to include activity at the level of management and competition, as well as placing Sino-American relations in transnational perspective. Using a multi-archival approach to examine China’s major attempts at internationalization, this article focuses on the cases of the American Asiatic Association, the American Chamber of Commerce of China, and the Association of Chinese and American Engineers to show how these networks played important roles in the development of Chinese-American relations. It also discusses the issues of standardization, “scientific management,” and professionalism of entrepreneurs and engineers in influencing network making.","PeriodicalId":41460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of American-East Asian Relations","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18765610-02702002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44598281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"J. Matray","doi":"10.1163/18765610-02702001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-02702001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of American-East Asian Relations","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18765610-02702001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42448163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Hijacked War: The Story of Chinese pows in the Korean War, written by David Cheng Chang","authors":"Liu Zhaokun","doi":"10.1163/18765610-02702005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-02702005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of American-East Asian Relations","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18765610-02702005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48850126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"China at War: Triumph and Tragedy in the Emergence of the New China, written by Hans van de Ven","authors":"Pete Millwood","doi":"10.1163/18765610-02701005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18765610-02701005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41460,"journal":{"name":"Journal of American-East Asian Relations","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2020-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18765610-02701005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48107621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}