What is a Nation and Who Belongs? National Narratives and the Ethnic Imagination in Twentieth-Century Japan
Author(s)
Doak, Kevin M.
Abstract
Kevin M. Doak challenges standard accounts of Japanese nationalism that emphasize the rise of the modern state and the institution of the emperor. He does so by shifting the focus to the role that ethnic nationalism has played in historical narratives that are critical of the modern Japanese state. Doak uncovers a broad discourse on ethnic nationalism in twentieth-century Japan and, along with it, a disillusionment with the modern state that was shared both by those on the political right and by some of the most influential historians in Japan who had leftist political sympathies. His analysis of this discourse leads Doak to call for more awareness of how national identity in modern Japan was often a struggle between those who supported the constitutional state and those who rejected its westernized appearance and instead turned toward an ethnicized vision of the Japanese people. This internally contested sense of the Japanese nation enabled historians of differing political ideologies to imagine the Japanese people as victims of “internal colonization,” a people oppressed by their own state. Doak’s compelling reconstruction of this widespread disenchantment with the modern state in Japan and the powerful allure of ethnic nationalism raises important questions for other historians about the meaning and functions of historical narratives, ethnic identity, nationalism, the state, and liberal values in Japan and other modern societies.
