Rethinking Identity in Modern Japan: Nationalism as Aesthetics

337 Pages·2001·1.17 MB·English

by  Yumiko Iida

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Rethinking Identity in
Modern Japan
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11 Rethinking Identity in Modern Japantraces the changing shape of national hege-
mony in post-World War II Japan.
Examining the creative and academic works of a number of influential
Japanese thinkers, including Maruyama Masao, Takeuchi Yoshimi,
Yoshimoto Takaaki, Mishima Yukio, Eto¯ Jun, Ishihara Shintaro¯, Kato¯
Norihiro and others, the author explores Japanese intellectuals’ articula-
tions of the cultural crisis accompanying modernization and the deepening
111 contradictions between native Japanese culture and the culture of the
modern West.
Iida argues that the popularity of nihonjinron (‘theories of Japaneseness’)
in the 1980s and the resurgence of historical revisionism in the 1990s cannot
be satisfactorily understood within the conventional explanatory framework
of nationalism. Instead, by situating Japanese knowledge production at the
intersection of the historical, socio-economic and political-cultural contexts,
the author conceptualizes the emergence and maturation of particular
forms of knowledge as vital constituents of the shaping and reshaping
of national hegemony. Exploring the overlap and tensions between the
111 political-economic and the aesthetic-symbolic realms, this book will be
essential reading for those interested in contemporary Japanese politics and
culture and the intellectual history of twentieth century Japan.
Born, raised and educated in Japan, Yumiko Iida holds degrees from
Yokohama National University, University of Toronto and York Uni-
versity, Canada. The author’s cross-cultural experience and interdiscipli-
nary training have provided a unique foundation for her scholarship. Her
doctoral dissertation, on which this book is based, received York
University’s Faculty of Graduate Studies Dissertation Prize for 1999.
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1 Routledge/Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA)
East Asia Series
Edited by Tessa Morris-Suzuki and Morris Low
Editorial Board: Professor Geremie Barmé (Australian National University),
Professor Colin Mackerras (Griffith University), Professor Vera Mackie
(Curtin University) and Associate Professor Sonia Ryang (Johns Hopkins
University).
1 This series represents a showcase for the latest cutting-edge research in the field of
East Asian Studies, from both established scholars and rising academics. It will
include studies from every part of the East Asian region (including China, Japan,
North and South Korea and Taiwan) as well as comparative studies dealing with
1
more than one country. Topics covered may be contemporary or historical, and
relate to any of the humanities or social sciences. The series is an invaluable source
of information and challenging perspectives for advanced students and researchers
alike.
Routledge is pleased to invite proposals for new books in the series. In the first
instance, any interested authors should contact:
11 Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki Dr Morris Low
Division of Pacific and Asian History Department of Asian Languages
Research School of Pacific and and Studies
Asian Studies University of Queensland
Australian National University Brisbane, Queensland 4072
Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia Australia
Routledge/Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) East Asia Series
1 Gender in Japan
11 Power and public policy
Vera Mackie
2 The Chaebol and Labour in Korea
The development of management strategy in Hyundai
Seung Ho Kwon and Michael O’Donnell
3 Rethinking Identity in Modern Japan
Nationalism as aesthetics
Yumiko Iida
11
4 The Manchurian Crisis and Japanese Society, 1931–33
Sandra Wilson
11
11 Rethinking Identity in
Modern Japan
Nationalism as aesthetics
11
Yumiko Iida
11
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U T LE
O D
111 R G
E
• •
Taylor&Francis Group
111 London and New York
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1 First published 2002
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor and Francis e-Library, 2005.
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“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2002 Yumiko Iida
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
11
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Iida, Yumiko, 1959–
Rethinking identity in modern Japan: nationalism as
aesthetics/Yumiko Iida.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Japan – Intellectual life – 20th century. 2. Nationalism –
Japan. I. Title.
DS822.25 .I339 2001
320.54′0952—dc21 2001034983
ISBN 0-203-99638-0 Master e-book ISBN
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ISBN 0–415–23521–9(Print Edition)
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Contents
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11 Acknowledgements vii
1 Approaching the questions of Japanese identity and
nationalism 1
2 ‘Overcoming modernity’: towards an aesthetic politics
111 of identity 25
3 Uneasy with the modern: the postwar revival of the
modern and the return of dissent 67
4 The age of rapid economic growth and romantic
resurgence: mass society and the erosion of popular
politics and the social imaginary 114
111 5 Back to identity: ‘postmodernity,’ nihonjinron and the
desire of the other 164
6 Japan in the 1990s and beyond: identity crises in late
modern conditions 209
7 Japanese nationalism in the late modern world: in place
of a conclusion 259
111 Notes 277
Bibliography 306
Index 322
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Acknowledgements
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I would like to acknowledge my debt to the following institutions for having
11 made the completion of this book, and the doctoral dissertation upon which
it is based, possible with their generous financial support. The Social
Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada offered me a two-
year Doctoral Dissertation Award and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship, and
York University provided a hard-to-get final year scholarship, ‘President’s
Dissertation Scholarship,’ thanks to which I could devote all my time and
effort towards my research. At York, I was hosted by the Joint Centre for
111 Asia and Pacific Studies, and the York Centre for International and
Security Studies offered me travel funds for my research trip to Japan in
1998 as well as an environment conducive to intellectual labour.
In Toronto, I received a great deal of intellectual input from the following
individuals, without whom this work would not have taken the shape it
has. Robert Cox continuously encouraged me to expand my conceptual
horizons and informed me with an open-ended sense of structured history,
thanks to which I was able to pursue my research in an unconventional
and interdisciplinary manner. Sandra Whitworth opened my eyes to new
streams of literature experimenting with different ways of looking at global
111 issues across various perspectives and theoretical camps. During the process
of revising my dissertation into this book, I became increasingly influenced
by Robert Albritton’s Uno-Sekine approach to capitalism, and that became
one of the principal theoretical threads running through the book. The
sudden death of Ioan Davies in February 2000, whose fertile and creative
mind was capable of effortlessly bridging the social sciences and the human-
ities, was a deep loss for me; my interdisciplinary orientation would not
have developed without his influence and guidance, especially in his last
years. Ted Goossen, the sole member of my dissertation committee with
a literary background and an extensive knowledge of Japan, was without
111 a doubt my greatest leveller, and helped me to strike a just balance. Michael
Donnelly offered wonderful constructive criticisms of my thesis, and I hope
I have made just use of his comments and suggestions. And, it should be
mentioned, this book has benefited enormously from discussions with three
distinct scholars in the field of Japanese studies: Gavan McCormack, Tessa
111 Morris-Suzuki and Victor Koschmann.
viii Acknowledgements
1 During my residence at Cornell University as a post-doctoral fellow in
1999–2000, I had the great opportunity of meeting a number of outstanding
scholars specializing in Japan, especially Victor Koschmann, Naoki Sakai,
and Brett de Bary, as well as their excellent graduate students, all of whom
substantially influenced me when I was reformulating my theoretical frame-
work. In addition, I would like to acknowledge my professional and
personal debts to Kyoko Selden and Mark Selden.
Comments at various conferences and elsewhere provided me with a
great deal of intellectual stimulation and emotional support. Among the
1 many who contributed in these ways were the following teachers, friends
and colleagues: Setooka Hiroshi, Joe Moore, Yi Sookyung, Naoko Iida,
Naoko Idesawa, Nishikawa Nagao, Arif Dirlik, Laura Hein, Adolf
1 Ehrentraut, William Carrol, Hayashi Shigeru, Leslie Jeffrey, Feng Xu,
Mary Young, Marshall Blair, Samantha Arnold, Davina Bhandar, Liz
Philipoze, Marlea Clark, Katrin Oertli, Marta Marin, Carol Bigwood, Rosa
Sarabia, Lynne Kutsukane, Diane Davies, Tam Goossen, Robert Plitt,
Keiko Kikuchi, Maggie Holland, Himani Banajee, Ikeuchi Yasuko,
Matsuko Katada, Micki Honkanen as well as Mark Crimmins who offered
substantial editorial help.
11 Finally, I am dedicating this book to my family spanning the Pacific.
Colman Hogan, my partner, has constantly encouraged, supported, helped
and sometimes goaded me throughout the production of this book and its
preceding works; he has, in addition, been the principal editor of the manu-
script. While turning the pages of my Japanese sources and formulating
my ideas, I have thought much about my own past and the imagined life
of my parents, Tomio and Ryoko Iida, who lived through the turbulent
Japanese history, before, during and after World War II, that I can only
attempt to describe. Across the ocean in Victoria where I am currently
settled, my parents-in-law, Keith and Barbara Saddlemyer have always
11 provided me with warm support.
Chapter 6, ‘Japan in the 1990s and beyond: identity crises in late modern
conditions’ is a revised and extended version of a paper first published in
East Asia Cultures Critique – Positions 8: 2 (Autumn 2000).
Terry Eagleton, The Ideology of the Aesthetic, Oxford, Blackwell 1990, p. 3.
Reprinted here with permission.
Note on Japanese names and translations:
Japanese names appear last name first, first name second, except where
11 the author is principally known through writings in English; in this case
they appear in the standard English order.
All unattributed translations are my own. In a few instances I have modi-
fied my translations by borrowing from others’ translations, and these
borrowings are marked in the endnotes.
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1 Approaching the questions
of Japanese identity and
nationalism
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11 Yet the peculiarity of aesthetic discourse, as opposed to the languages of art
themselves, is that, while preserving a root in this realm of everyday experi-
ence, it also raises and elaborates such supposedly natural, spontaneous
expression to the status of an intricate intellectual discipline. With the birth
of the aesthetic, then, the sphere of art itself begins to suffer something of
the abstraction and formalization characteristic of modern theory in general;
yet the aesthetic is nevertheless thought to retain a charge of irreducible
particularity, providing us with a kind of paradigm of what a non-alienated
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mode of cognition might look like. Aesthetics is thus always a contradictory,
self-undoing sort of project, which in promoting the theoretical value of its
object risks emptying it of exactly that specificity or ineffability which was
thought to rank among its most precious features.
Terry Eagleton, The Ideology of the Aesthetic,
Oxford, Blackwell 1990, p. 3 – reprinted here with permission
Decoding nationalism/reading the violence of
modernity
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Back in 1970, a dramatic series of pictures was posted at the end of the
hallway of my elementary school, displaying a man’s head and his decap-
itated body in army uniform. Next to these photographs were large Chinese
characters for ‘seppuku’ and ‘suicide.’ Although the meaning and signifi-
cance of the event was unclear at the time, the scandalous death of a
famous novelist was sensational enough for a 10-year-old to ponder the
how and the why beyond the headlines. Today, the death of Mishima is
an even greater enigma; as one seeks for and fails to identify the ‘true
cause’ and his intent, this indeterminacy conjures up, as he himself might
111 have foreseen, various interpretations of the event and a search for some
profound symbolic meaning about nation, cultural identity, and spiritu-
ality. In Mishima’s own rationalization, the sensational suicide pact was
an act of protest, an expression of rage at the spiritual degradation of
postwar Japan, and a demand for the cultural revitalization of the Japanese.
111 In Geki (Outrage), written just before the suicide, Mishima claimed: