M.A. - History

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/26746

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Seeds deferred: Japanese agrarian development, rōnō and the transformation under industrialism
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2011-08) Witten, Adam Phillip Joseph
The rōnō came into being around the Tokugawa era because it was the Tokugawa period when agricultural technology finally fused with commercial development to provide a strong base for an agrarian order. As before the shōen system agrarian technology had been too fragile to support continuous cultivation, the changes in production that occurred from the shōen period through the early decades of the Tokugawa allowed technological development, commercial integration and political order to harmonize. The social and economic issues attached to these developments then encouraged farmers to invest more labor and capital in increasing the products of their lands. Regardless of the size of their holdings, the rōnō aimed to facilitate continued technological development. In this context, the Rōnō can be thought of as Japanese farmers who refined and advocated specific sets of practices within their regional mode of agricultural production. These practices, among them composting, transplantation, multi-cropping, crop rotation, and dry-island fields, were elements of an agrarian technological order that had been emerging for quite some time within East Asia, but bore unique characteristics within Japan. These developments were conducted and reinforced by the everyday behaviors and applications of Japanese farmers, as a whole. It was these farmers who solidified a rice-based agrarian order through the gradual expansion and modification of relevant techniques, while also highlighting the regional variations that made universal applications of pre-industrial methods rather difficult. Because it was farmers who performed these actions, rōnō must be a subset of farmers, not the best agriculturalists but the more active and vocal contributors to agricultural development. From this perspective Rōnō can be viewed as participants and inheritors of long-term technological changes within an agrarian plurality, one active group among many others. The remainder of this thesis is an examination of the contents of the Japanese agrarian order, with particular attention to the transformations that occurred socially and economically under the Meiji state. It was the Meiji era when the rōnō became employees of a national government, involved in the creation of homogenized agricultural practices and facilitated the formation and solidification of institutional agriculture. In these roles, Meiji era rōnō may have taken on 'new', bureaucratic and technical roles; but they were still practitioners of Tokugawa era agriculture. But to be clear, these periods were not an ideal past. Rather, I will argue that the agricultural complex of that time, as a set of practices and techniques as well as an approach or mentality concerning humanity's place in the natural world, is worthy of replication, at least in part. To substantiate these claims this thesis proposes that the study of Japanese agrarian history, especially over the long term, accentuates the underlying conflict between central and local authorities, which was not resolved until the creation of a national, bureaucratic state. This tension, as the principal cause of agrarian unrest, intensified in the Meiji period when farmer interests and political and national aims were not immediately compatible. Although rural unrest and disorder were one outcome, the loss of local autonomy, both over politics and agriculture, was another. But while weakened local self-determination did not necessitate that the interconnections between agricultural practices, agricultural products and human health would attenuate, the shift towards industrial agriculture's paradigms did.
Tourists in their own time: German experiences of modernity at the international exhibitions, 1851-1904
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2011-12) Wilton, LeJenna N.
This thesis looks specifically at the experience of modernity for German and Austrian populations because of the influence which these empires had on the development of the rest of Europe. As historian John Davis explained in his study of German influences on Victorian Britain, "…beginning shortly after the turn of the nineteenth century, curiosity grew in British intellectual circles regarding German philosophy, literature and theology…by the 1840s this developed into a more widespread interest in German culture among the educated classes, and the widely held belief there that Germany led Europe intellectually. German publications became crucial reading for humanities scholars generally. Meanwhile, in science, German research and publications began to set the pace." The influence of Germany and Austria on the development of nationalism, industrialization and modernity merits further study. The exhibitions provide us with opportunities to study how the German and Austrian empires understood and represented the modern world to their own populations and to other European nations.
The socio-political impact on Chinese medical thought during the Song-Jin-Yuan transition (c.1100-1300 AD)
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2011-08) Welden, John Seth
The literary works of several ruyi 儒醫(Chinese scholar-physicians) of the Song-Jin-Yuan Transition (c.1100-1300 AD) are examined both for their contribution to medical development as well as their engagement in political discourse which generated a new genre of medical literature. The essential elements of this genre are: 1) reliance upon the classical medical canon for their authority but diverging to expound upon distinct medical doctrines; 2) emphasizing the status of the ruyi as members of elite society through references to the Confucian canon or with veiled commentaries on the socio-political crisis; and 3) they are meant to serve as part of a complete yet concise system of medicine with unique approaches to etiology, diagnosis, and treatment.
The discourse of hierarchy: a study of British writings on Siam, c. 1820-1918
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2011-05) Sophonpanich, Ithi
This thesis examines the relationship between Britain and Siam (modern-day Thailand) during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through three events: the East India Company trade mission in 1821-1822, the Burma-Siam-China railway scheme in the 1890s, and the development of Siamese railways from the 1890s to the 1910s. The aim of this thesis is to ―relocate‖ the British in Siam in various ways, and in various spaces, texts, and discourses. The focus in particular is on the rhetorical strategies that British authors used to describe Siam and where they thought Siam was located in the hierarchy of civilizations. The sources used include travel writings, their reviews, fiction, and British Foreign Office documents. These writings are contextualized within the geographical, political, economic, and cultural situations of their times.
The Soviet Union and "new man" formation in Soviet children from 1962-1972
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2011-12) Koble, Justine Alexandria
My research contributes to the growing trend of looking at the individual in Soviet society. Instead of the more traditional view of looking at Soviet Union from a military, diplomatic, or even Soviet Marxist lens, I examine the images a Soviet child would be exposed to on a daily basis. My approach builds on the more traditional Cold War scholarship that has made lasting contributions to the field of Soviet historiography. Not only do I look at traditional mediums such as school policies and posters but also at emerging popular media in television to show how the regime may have adapted its methods to inculcate the nation's children. My research shows how, in a selection of media, the Soviet government may have portrayed values and behaviors that may have affected children's identity formation.
The politics of famine relief in North Korea
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2011-12) Kane, Michael Patrick
This thesis details and assesses the diplomatic and political climates in the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, Japan and South Korea, as they relate to East Asia and the DPRK in the late 1980s and early-and-mid 1990s. These times included an increased albeit limited opening in the relations between the DPRK and the US, the ROK and Japan that took place in spite of acts of violence. North Korea's nuclear program and strained relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would alter this changing dynamic. This period also included the staggering decline of the North Korean economy. Amidst these and other challenges, the US, Japan and the ROK responded to the strategic challenges and humanitarian disaster of the 1990's in North Korea. There were differences in opinion among nations and amongst policymakers and experts on the appropriateness of North Korea as a recipient of aid, the role of the United States in humanitarian efforts, regional relations in East Asia, the threshold for government involvement in food crises, and the relationship between food aid and the nuclear situation. There were also differences in opinion about the nature of aid. This thesis is not an attempt to explain every detail of the origins and conditions of the North Korean famine. It is not an almanac of the overall response. Such works would require the release of information from not only North Korea, but from the classified files of donor nations.
Identity under (threat of) fire: Cathar identity and community in the thirteenth-century Lauragais
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2011-05) Hevert, Joshua Paul
As a means for exploring these notions of Cathar identity and community, the study examines a single manuscript, Toulouse, Bibliothèque Muncipale MS 609, which contains the depositions of around 4500 people connected to Catharism at varying levels.4 These depositions were the result of interviews conducted by two inquisitors, Bernard de Caux and Jean de Saint-Pierre, during a legion-wide inquisition in the Lauragais, the immediate region south-east of Toulouse, from 1245-1246. This inquisition, the largest of its time, was performed in response to the murder of two other inquisitors at the hands of a group of Cathar sympathizers in Avignonet in 1242. Once they arrived, the inquisitors demanded that every male over fourteen and every female over twelve testify in front of them at the monastery of Saint-Sernin in the town of Toulouse.6 The inquisitors deposed the witnesses in Occitan, the language of the region, and scribes recorded the interviews in Latin in the final manuscript in ten volumes. After the inquisitors concluded their interviews, several scribes copied the ten volumes between 1250 and 1260, and the surviving volumes came to rest in Toulouse sometime in 1790. Unfortunately, only two volumes of the original ten have survived, leaving the picture of Catharism in this region tantalizingly incomplete and presenting an intensely localized picture of the religion. The two remaining volumes, however, contain engaging and rich descriptions of how the people in the region's towns and villages participated in Catharism. These descriptions provide a lens through which to gaze upon the religious identities of those called to the inquisitors' court and provide insights on the religions in the medieval Lauragais.
From the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes trials to the International Criminal Court: the converging paths of Great Britain and Germany
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-05) Schultz, Elizabeth A.
This study chronicles the participation of Great Britain and Germany in the international criminal legal system from the post-World War II trials at Nuremberg and Tokyo through the two ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Finally, it focuses on British and German debates at the Rome Conference and in their respective parliaments, which led to each government's decision to ratify the Rome Statute and join the International Criminal Court. The two nations' converging paths highlight a greater movement among the international community as a whole towards recognizing the necessity of an independent legal body that is able to hold accountable those who commit the most serious of crimes.
Competing painting ideologies in the Meiji period, 1868-1912
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-12) Pickhardt, John Brandon
There were many forces that determined the degree of support that each ideology received throughout the Meiji period. The two primary external factors were foreign art critics who admired certain types of Japanese painting for familiar aesthetic qualities like realism, and the demands of the foreign export market that shaped international perceptions of Japanese identity through the taste in decorative goods. The popularity of Japanese art is known as japonisme, and it was characterized by the demand for lacquer, porcelain, bronze work, ukiyoe prints, and other types of decorative goods prized for their "Oriental exoticism." Appreciators of Japanese art romantically saw Japan as a nation "imbued with a deep love, appreciation and almost reverence for art," and, by the 1880s, the presence of Japanese art was seen in the homes of Americans and Europeans.10 The tastes and trends in the foreign market were a constant deterrent to the reception of contemporary Meiji nihonga and yōga painters whose works were dismissed in favor of works associated with Edo that were free from any perceived Western influences.11 It also ensures the support of traditional painting schools by Meiji officials who focused on the export market. Internally, Japanese national painting was affected by the interpretations and beliefs of artists, critics, and intellectuals who introduced and elaborated on European art theories and aesthetics. Okakura and Fenollosa formed the center of a well-connected clique of painters, politicians, and scholars who favored a progressive painting style. However, the importation of Western art ideas carried the implications of superiority of Western aesthetics as well which become an influence in the governmental institutionalization of yōga in the 1890s. This thesis will examine how the domestic formation of painting ideologies affected the international reception of Japanese art. In addition it will cover the efforts by Japanese writers to educate foreign audiences on the qualities and history of Japanese art, while comparing those texts to contemporary publications by European and American writers. Throughout the Meiji Period, there was little recognition of Japanese writings in foreign publications, which suggests that by the end of the Meiji period, a national painting style failed to emerge despite the efforts to adapt European aesthetics and art to Japan.
I had to beat him for a cause: black heavyweight champions as icons of resistance
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-08) Newalu, Michael Christopher
Boxing, historically, has been perhaps the most racialized of all major professional sports in the United States. This is to say that race has played a central role in the politics of the sport since its inception, mirroring the role played by race in the broader politics of American life throughout United States history. From the dawn of American professional prizefighting, which for the purposes of this argument will begin with the adoption of the Marquess of Queensberry rules in North America in 1899, blacks were barred from holding the sport's ultimate prize, the heavyweight championship of the world. Jack Johnson was the first to break this color line in boxing in 1908, and a backlash bordering on mass hysteria on the part of whites obsessed with reclaiming what they felt to be their faltering manhood was to follow. White Americans were so threatened by the idea (one of their own creation, as we will see) that the black race might have produced the world's most powerful, virile man, that when their best hope to regain the title failed in 1910, the entire nation erupted in racial violence. Johnson had emerged as a powerful symbol of threatened white masculinity as well as the self-assertion of powerful black manhood, and with drastic consequences for many. This thesis is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis of the symbolic power inherent in boxing, nor will it try to illustrate this power across the broad and complex span of twentieth century American racial history. What this thesis does hope to do is to trace the lives and careers of the three most consequential black heavyweight champions of the century, Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, and Muhammad Ali, as cultural icons, and to examine the interplay between their careers, their symbolic importance in the broader society, and the wider struggle for black freedom in twentieth-century American life. Following Cedric J. Robinson's delineation of a black radical tradition, but this time in the sport of boxing, I do intend to emphasize the radicalism displayed by these black boxers inside and outside the boxing ring. Rather than asserting the existence of a black radical tradition in boxing, however, the primary aim of this thesis is to examine the ways in which these three iconic black heavyweights were appropriated by white and black Americans as symbolisms of broader social, cultural and political issues in American life as well as the ways in which each actively participated in shaping their respective historical moments. This line of inquiry converges with Frederic Cople Jaher's argument that these three boxers "reflected forces at play in the national and the international rather than in the boxing arenas," as well as Holt's assertion that "African-American sports and cultural figures constitute a kind of synecdoche for America."45 This paper will attempt to grapple with the ways in which Johnson, Louis and Ali forced whites and blacks to confront issues of race, gender, and representation.
Containing the peace process: Henry Kissinger and the Arab-Israeli conflict
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-05) MacClaren, Kevin Dean
No matter from what angle one is looking, Washingtonʼs bold engagement in the Middle East "peace process," established by Henry Kissinger during the 1970s, is hotly contested. This regional dispute is arguably the most talked about, debated, and examined topic in contemporary American foreign affairs. The immense amount of information on the subject and the competing opinions sometimes represented as truth often confuse our understanding of the relationship between the United States and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Contested morality: the Hilo High School affair 1910-1911
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-05) Hawkins, Jenny Lee
The Hilo High School affair began as a feud between a principal and a new female teacher, but eventually involved the town, students, Department of Public Instruction, and Federal Grand Jury. The controversy escalated and unfolded over a period of ten months starting in October of 1910 and ending in August of 1911. Although the affair concluded with neither side emerging victorious it revealed much about the social structure of the 'local' White community in Hilo, the dynamics surrounding the New Woman in Hawaiʻi, the importance of teachers, the shortcomings of the Department of Public Instruction, and the racial power structure in Hawaiʻi. In addition, the conclusion showed who held power in the community, and that the officials intended to uphold the 'local', gender, and racial power hierarchies that composed the social fabric of Hilo.
Whatever happened to Hindustani?: language politics in late colonial India
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-12) Forster, Richard James
The following thesis offers a narrative of the struggle to define the national language of India in the final decades of the colonial era. In doing so, it attempts to probe somewhat further than the compelling yet not wholly satisfying explanation that the abandonment of Hindustani in the Constituent Assembly was a product of Partition and the bitterness that it brought, an inevitable outcome of the two-nation theory and the adoption by Pakistan of Urdu as its national language.14 While the impact of Partition on the ultimate designation of India's official language was clearly momentous, this thesis suggests that woven through the cultural sensibilities of many key figures within the Congress were distinct threads of Hindu nationalism, whatever the official policies of their political organization. Indeed, Hindi and Devanagari as markers of Hindu identity were key components of the nationalist agenda of Congressmen such as P. D. Tandon, and arguably even Gandhi himself, well before the demand for Pakistan was ever voiced. The research presented below furthermore suggests that many prominent advocates of Hindustani were themselves so much the product of a distinctly Hindu cultural tradition and worldview that their ultimate acquiescence in the final denouement of the language question, while disappointing, need not be particularly surprising.
Two views of ancient Hawaiian society
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-05) Fontaine, Mark Alfred Kawika
Since 1950, two opposing views of Hawaii's history in pre-western-contact times have developed. One view is that a dramatic change occurred around the year 1450 CE with the implementation of the ahupuaa system. A culture that had been based in a kinship relationship between chiefs and commoners changed. Power was gathered into the hands of an elite who then exploited and extracted labor and the fruits of that labor from a larger group of workers in order to maintain a privileged lifestyle and pursue political goals. In opposition is another picture of Hawaii's history. This view is that power was shared between chiefs and commoners in a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship. Balancing mechanisms functioned to move the society towards the good, a state sometimes referred to as the Hawaiian word "pono." In this study I will compare and contrast the two views.
The early Hawaiian antislavery movement: 1837-1843
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-08) Coleman, Holly Kilinahe
This thesis explores the development of the Hawaiian antislavery movement among the members of the Sandwich Islands Mission during the late 1830s and early 1840s. At first, a handful of individuals stationed in Hawaii perceived their participation as a necessary part of their religious duty that was parallel to their work to evangelize and educate Native Hawaiians. Involvement in the movement was used to validate the efforts of the missionaries in Hawaiʻi. However, what began as an expression of antislavery sentiment shifted over time, as a result of the growing tensions between the ABCFM and the Sandwich Islands Mission, as well as the changing role of the missionaries in Hawaiian Society. This thesis also explores characterization of Native Hawaiians as slaves and the ways these concepts changed over the course of the movement to increasingly encompass aspects of Native Hawaiian governance and land ownership.
History of the College of Hawaii
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1966) Kittelson, David J.; History
Forty years ago Arthur Lyman Dean delivered the University of Hawaii's commencement address in which he described the institution's college era. His discourse, later published as the Historical Sketch of the University of Hawaii, remained the standard work on the College of Hawaii. Later accounts not only suffered from brevity and inaccuracy, but they also continued to portray the College without reference to the Island community. This thesis attempts to place the College in proper perspective and provide a basis for future studies by filling in gaps and correcting errors found in the present state of University chronology. The Minutes of the Board of Regents were my main source of information ...
Negotiating colonial modernity: Filipinas as consumers and citizens in the American Colonial Philippines, 1901-1937
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-08) Dacanay, Katherine Everett
This study revolves around the story of two women. Like many stories, it is a tale of two people who, at first glance, would seem to be opposites. One was thirty years older, born a generation ahead of the other. One was wealthy, and one was a commoner. One was a society girl; the other, a barrio girl. One enjoyed a lifestyle of wealth and endless opportunity; the other had to work hard to achieve a middle-class standard of living for her and her family. One lived in the Philippines her entire life; the other eventually gave into the tantalizing promise of life in the United States. Still, as in any story of opposites, there exist circumstances that connected the lives of these two women. No, they never met, but they did share similar life experiences. They were both teachers who were deeply committed to the education of young Filipinos. They were both family women, devoted to their husbands and children. And at the root of it all, they were both products of the world in which they grew up. This world was the American colonial Philippines, and Paz Marquez Benitez and Ofelia Hidalgo Dacanay were two women who became part of the bigger story of the evolution of "modern Filipino womanhood" during the first few decades of the twentieth century.
Not that innocent: gender and sexuality in millennial pop music at the turn of the twenty-first century
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-05) Takahashi, Troy Chotaro
Applause is passe; the reaction most eagerly sought by pop culture right now, from music to television to movies, is a high-pitched squeal from a mob of young girls. When it's directed at males, that squeal signifies romantic fantasy while it tests out some newly active hormonal responses. Directed at females, it's a squeal of sisterly solidarity and fashion approval. And for the last few years, its volume has been steadily rising until it threatens to drown out anything with more mature audiences in mind. Kiddie-pop has always been available to those who wanted it, but in the late 1990s it's turning into the only game in town.1 In July 1999, the New York Times published Jon Pareles' article, "When Pop Becomes The Toy of Teenyboppers," in response to the escalating presence of teenageoriented music, films, and television shows in America at the turn of the twenty-first century. Pareles attributed the rise of teen-pop music to a reaction against grunge and "gangsta" music of the 1980s and early 1990s, to rock musicians facing a "creative slump," and most interestingly, to the rise of the Latin pop stars, namely Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez, for the growing population of Spanish-speaking audiences.2 However complex the reasons for the rise of teenage pop music at the millennium were, this new wave of "bubblegum" music swelled into a significant cultural force that shaped the lives of the millennial generation, because millennials joined in the singing and dancing or purposefully distanced themselves from the music. The millennial generation, also interchangeably termed the "millennials," echo boomers, generation Y, and generation me (or the me generation), is the largest demographic group to emerge in the United States since the postwar baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. A consensus for the exact date range has yet to be reached for the birth years of the millennials. Jean M. Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, established the range from the 1970s through the 1990s in Generation Me, while Neil Howe and William Strauss, authors of Millennials Rising, recognized the years 1982 and 2002 as the first and last years of birth for this generation.3 Whatever the temporal boundaries, millennials have grown up in an era vastly different from those of previous generations, and its members have come of age in a technological world where information and fads are exchanged easily and with alacrity, greatly influencing teenage popular culture. Generation Y has been bombarded with information and images quite divergent from materials available to the same age cohort in prior generation. These images helped to shape millennial culture, and these shaping sources were often exhibited on television.
Cesar Borgia in Viana historical memory in Navarra
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-05) Mizumoto-Gitter, Allyson Laule'a
Viana is a small town a little south of the Pyrenees in the Spanish autonomous community of Navarra best known for being the final resting place of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI and brother of the infamous Lucretia Borgia. Cesare has been written about for various (and sometimes contradictory) ends throughout the centuries, by both scholars foreign to the lands he lived in and those intimately familiar with him as a feature of their own local history.1 Because of the number and variety of retellings of his dramatic life and scandalous lineage, as well as for his impact on folklore in Viana in particular, Cesare provides an interesting case study for the creation and use of history and of the symbolic in maintaining and shaping local culture. Historians have relied upon Cesare Borgia's life as a way to explore the Italian Renaissance in general and the years of Alexander VI's papacy in particular, from 1492 to 1503. As Cesare played a very visible role in his father's ecclesiastical and political state, he came to be associated with it in near-contemporary writings and, through them, in later secondary sources as well. As the historian Ivan Cloulas put it, "as the Renaissance became more fashionable than ever, Alexander and his family entered a new phase of notoriety."2 With scant documentation of Cesare's life, historical interpretation has relied as much on earlier historiography as it has on primary sources to reach to portray Cesar and the times he lived in. Therefore, the popularity of Cesare as a historical actor, in both academic in popular sources, has been dependent primarily upon trends in fcenturies since his death, "Cesare" is less an historical actor and more of a metaphor of Renaissance culture, constantly presented with new meanings as interest in the early modern era changes. Cesare Borgia was born in 1475 to Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia and his long-term mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei. As Grace Coolridge argues, Spanish men often had longstanding sexual and romantic relationships with women outside of marriage, and children produced from these unions were often not only seen as members of their family but also were legally naturalized, creating what she terms alternative (but still legally and socially legitimate) families.3 This was part of "almost a system of polygamy among Spanish noblemen, many of whom had a wife and several mistresses," and which was not uncommon among Italian families as well.4 Cesare was the oldest of his three full siblings, although he was Rodrigo's fourth child and had at least one younger half-brother as well. As was common practice for the second son of a well-off family, Cesare was put on track for an ecclesiastical career and he began receiving church benefices and titles at an early age through Rodrigo's influence as Vice-Chancellor of the Church and his great wealth. Rodrigo for his part had been made cardinal (and emphasized his maternal surname of de Borja, translated from Spanish into Italian as Borgia, instead of his paternal surname of Lançol) when his maternal uncle became Pope Callixtus III.
Language, nation, and empire: the search for common languages during the second world war
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-08) Utley, James Andrew
In the January 1943 issue of Nihongo, a Japanese-language education magazine, the following arresting sentence appears: "The true nature of the Greater East Asian War is that it is a thought war. The vanguard of the thought war is language, and its rearguard is also language. The goal of carrying out the Greater East Asian War must be to advance and spread the Japanese language throughout all regions of Greater East Asia."1 Such a sentence seems bold if not hyperbolic. But as the quotation reminds us, the Fifteen Year War was not simply about territory, resources, or power in the most basic sense; it was a war about ideas of how the world should be. Indeed, a quotation in Philippine Review, a magazine published in the occupied Philippines, makes it clear that this was the conviction of the war's participants: "The present World War is not only unprecedented in the magnitude of its scale but quite matchless in the immensity of its implications which is ascribable to the fact that it embodies a stupendous conflict between rival views of the world." Over the course of the war, Japanese was taught to the peoples of the various countries Japan occupied while newspapers reported on the efforts to spread Japanese to audiences at home, and magazines such as Nihongo continuously spoke of the pressing need to make Japanese the common language for all of Asia. Language education, like many other aspects of life, was absorbed into the larger propaganda efforts of Japan's war. In fact, the diffusion of language itself became one form of propaganda. Language is not only a touchstone for understanding the vision of the world held by the Japanese at the time of the war. We can see from the urgency exhibited by writers like the one above that language was also the means to make that vision a reality. This paper is divided into three parts. In order to give more context for Japan's language campaigns,

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