European University Institute Library

Nation-empire, ideology and rural youth mobilization in Japan and its colonies, Sayaka Chatani

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Nation-empire

bibliography

1028888157

Sayaka Chatani

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

ideology and rural youth mobilization in Japan and its colonies

By the end of World War II, hundreds of thousands of young men in the Japanese colonies, in particular Taiwan and Korea, had expressed their loyalty to the empire by volunteering to join the army. Why and how did so many colonial youth become passionate supporters of Japanese imperial nationalism? And what happened to these youth after the war? Nation-Empire investigates these questions by examining the long-term mobilization of youth in the rural peripheries of Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. Personal stories and village histories vividly show youth's ambitions, emotions, and identities generated in the shifting conditions in each locality. At the same time, Sayaka Chatani unveils an intense ideological mobilization built from diverse contexts-the global rise of youth and agrarian ideals, Japan's strong drive for assimilation and nationalization, and the complex emotions of younger generations in various remote villages. Nation-Empire engages with multiple historical debates. Chatani considers metropole-colony linkages, revealing the core characteristics of the Japanese Empire; discusses youth mobilization, analyzing the Japanese seinendan (village youth associations) as equivalent to the Boy Scouts or the Hitler Youth; and examines society and individual subjectivities under totalitarian rule. Her book highlights the shifting state-society transactions of the twentieth-century world through the lens of the Japanese Empire, inviting readers to contend with a new approach to, and a bold vision of, empire study. --, Provided by publisher

Introduction : nation-empire as global and local history -- National trends -- From mobilization to the social mobility complex -- Totalitarian Japanization -- Interlude : Okinawa's place in the nation-empire -- Colonial intellectuals -- Finding rural youth in Taiwan -- Emotional basis for Japanization -- Model rural youth in Korean village -- Opportunities and loopholes -- As young pillars of the nation-empire -- Epilogue : back in villages