单一民族神话的起源：日本人自画像的系谱

by Eiji Oguma, 小熊英二, 文婧 (Translator)

从“大日本帝国”时代开始直至战后，单一民族神话一直是“日本人”主流的自画像。本书旨在从历史学的角度研究单一民族神话的起源以及它的发展轨迹，并且从社会学的角度分析其功能和作用。

“日本人”究竟是从什么时候开始称自己为单一的、纯粹的民族的呢？那是在什么样的状况下，出于一种什么样的动机呢？这方面的研究不仅有利于帮助我们更加深刻地认识日本的历史，而且有利于解决现代国际社会上出现的纯种民族意识、单一的国民国家意识、排斥乃至歧视异民族等等这样一些重大问题。

Genres: Japan, History, Cultural, Nonfiction

444 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Western profile for the Japanese author and historian 小熊英二

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carried my history IA

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genealogy has many features one would like to see in a scholarly approach to a topic. First, it is based on a comprehensive review of dozens of primary and secondary sources from an impressive array of disciplines. Thus, there are 32 pages of references at the end of the book.

Second, in documenting his points carefully (there are 44 pages of notes) Oguma makes very thorough, highly textured arguments which point out similarities and differences between the various theorists whose work he reviews.. He provides timely quotations from these sources so as to underscore and elaborate on the points he makes.

Third, the book is quite readable in some respects. The chapters are well organized into sections. The translator noted in the preface that he modified the prose so as to make it more readily comprehensible in English.

Fourth, there is a Conclusion in which the author provides a very succinct summary of the two competing perspectives on the origins of the Japanese people. And he makes some cogent observations about the cultural, social, and geopolitical contexts in which these two theories evolved over the period from the 1880’s up to the 1970’s.

However, he minimizes the impact which the colonization had on Korea, in particular, and on Taiwan, to a lesser extent. While he admits that there was ‘discrimination’ against these fellow Asians, he fails to note the cruelty inflicted on them. For example, they were forcibly displaced from their homes and businesses, their agriculture was used to feed Japan while they were left practically starving, their men were conscripted into forced labor and the military, and some of their women were forced into sexual slavery. Although Genealogy was published in 1996, it is unfortunate that Oguma was still in denial about such important, problematic aspects of the Great Japanese Empire.

Another flaw, IMHO, is that Genealogy is a proverbial ‘victim of its own success:’ it is so comprehensive and finely nuanced as to become dense. So many different theorists are discussed that it gets to be difficult to remember, let alone to assimilate, all of the information that Oguma tries to provide. There are at least two chapters which were informative but not really necessary to grasp his main arguments.

Overall, however, this was an informative analysis of an aspect of Japanese intellectual and political history that I had not encountered either in my many years of self study or the university courses I have audited in recent years. I recommend it for those with a deep interest in the country with the proviso that it is slow going in some respects.

[Deedlina · Rating 5 out of 5]

After Japan’s defeat in World War II, it promoted itself as a monolithic nation. Eiji Oguma, a distinguished Japanese sociologist, confirms that the myth of a monolithic Japanese society is relatively post-war construction rather than historical characteristic.

Oguma argues that in the 19th century, during the Meiji era, under the pretext of “restoration,” Japan annexed Taiwan in 1895, Karafuto (southern part of Russia ) in 1905,  Korea in 1910, Manchuria (North East of China) in 1931 as well as occupied Indochina (Vitenam, Laos and Combodia) in 1940, Hong Kong in 1941, Dutch East Indies and the Philippines in 1942. As a result of this colonial and imperial expansion, ethnic minorities like Taiwanese, Koreans and Chinese were absorbed into the social, political, and economic fabric of Japan. In other words, the Japanese population was never an imagined communities, they have always been mixture of unimagined communities.

The hybriditisation, acculturation and transnationalism of cultures continued until Japan surrendered in World War II.

We can draw some parallel between the post-war Japanese identity construction and the Arab identity formation. The Gulf identity construction are also post-war construct, particularly, after independence from the British Empire. Both Japan and Gulf countries experienced a process of forced homogenization in their identity formation by the states. For Arabs or the Arabized population in the Gulf, this selective retelling of the past has led to the erasure of contributions made by diverse ethnic groups such as Persians, Indians, Baluch, Hawala and Africans. For colonised minorities in Japan after war, the states’ rehistoricisation of their colonial past in public discourses, school textbooks, and tourism brochures, meant Japan’s imperial blood thirst was just a ‘mirage’.

[ab · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dense read and can potentially be difficult to follow for someone newer to the topic but very intellectually dense and rich. I particularly appreciate the context Oguma gives on lineages of Japanese nationalisms, so anyone who is interested in that topic will surely find this text very useful.

[Kakanier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich muss dieses Buch für zwei Dinge Loben: Erstens ist es ist unglaublich flüssig lesbar und zweitens behandelt es inhaltlich genau das, was Titel und Titelbild behaupten - den Diskurs über den Ursprung des japanischen Volkes innerhalb desselbigen plus die außenpolitischen Konsequenzen des Diskurses während des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts.

Ich würde es mir neben "Zen War Stories" stellen, das vergleichbar klar verfasst wurde und thematisch ein sehr nahes Feld beackert.

[Kaleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book presents the clearest explanation of "identity" and "self-identity" that I have yet encountered, so it's beneficial from the 30.000ft view of identity studies. It is also an informative and compelling read on the particular subject of Japanese nationalism, identity, and myth-making in the early-twentieth century.

[Benemint · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE Oguma.