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Reflections on a Centennial

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

John Whitney Hall
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Extract

Our Association has met this year in Philadelphia, a city of historic memories, an appropriate place in which to contemplate anniversaries. There are several which come to mind.

First, the Association for Asian Studies is itself twenty years old this spring, a fact in which we can all take pride; for we have grown as a professional society from a mere handful of scholars in 1948 to an organization of over 4000 members today.

Next there is Japan, which in its modern incarnation is one hundred years old this year—a memorable national and even international event.

And finally, I am put in mind by our presence in Philadelphia, that by a bit of stretching we can think of the United States as being roughly 200 years old. (In fact it was just 200 years ago that the citizens of this city banded together to prevent imports from Britain. And in 8 more years we shall be able to celebrate the bicentennial of the moment when Philadelphia's Liberty Bell rang out the news of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.)

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , August 1968 , pp. 711 - 720
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1968

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References

This paper is the text of the presidential address presented at the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in Philadelphia, March 22–24, 1968.

1 William Eleroy Curtis' book by this tide and subtitled Sketches of Modern Japan (2 vols., New York) was published in 1896.Google Scholar

2 The most concerted opposition to the government's plans for celebrating the Meiji Centennial has been voiced in the pages of Rekishigakukenkyū (A journal of historical studies). Number 330 (November 1967)Google Scholar of the journal entitled “‘Meiji hyakunen sai’ hihan—gendai fuashizumu no shisō to undō” (A criticism of the “Meiji Centenary”—the thought and activity of contemporary Fascism) was devoted entirely to an attack upon the centenary idea and an exposé of the government plans for celebrating the event. An earlier systematic criticism of the centenary idea appeared in Matsue Shōichi “Meiji hyakuenen sai wo meguru jōsei” (Circumstances surrounding the celebration of the hundredth year of Meiji), Rekishigakukenkyū, 322 (march 1967), 1–11.Google Scholar

3 The reference is to Smith, Thomas C., “Japan's Aristocratic Revolution,” The Yale Review, (Spring, 1961), 371–383.Google Scholar

4 As an example of a high school study text, Tsuda Hideo's Nihonshi sōgōkenkyu (A general study of Japanese history), Tokyo, 1956, presents two preliminary drafts of the Charter Oath besides the original (p. 292) showing that the word kaigi was meant to stand for an assembly of han (domain) representatives.

5 Taken from the minutes of the fourth meeting of the government committee for the preparation of the Meiji Centennial celebration, as quoted in Rekishigakukenkyū, 330 (november, 1967), 55–56.Google Scholar

6 The original Japanese phrase “Tōyōteki no yosa” is rather inadequately rendered “Eastern virtues.”

7 Embarrassment over the possible analogy with the 1940 celebration was not lost on the members of the government planning committee. See committee minutes contained in Rekishigakukenkyū, 330 (november, 1967), 53.Google Scholar

8 While I refer here to younger historians who have yet to express their political opinions publicly, the search for a new approach to Japanese history has led to open debate over the issues of Marxism, nationalism, and war guilt in some of the leading opinion journals since 1963. The early stages of this debate have been ably summarized in the pages of the Journal of Social and Political Ideas in Japan, particularly II.2 (august, 1964)Google Scholar edited by Seki Yoshihiko.

9 Halpern, Manfred “The Revolution of Modernization,” in Friedrick, Carl J., ed., Revolution (New York, 1966), p. 202.Google Scholar

10 I have profited from reading Robert R. Palmer's provocative article “The American Revolution's Influence Then and Now,” in Woodward, C. VannThe Comparative Approach to American History, New York, 1967.Google Scholar

11 Reference here is to Maruyama Masao's stand in 1960 calling for a retention of the idealized vision of “peace and democracy” which Japan accepted in 1945. See, “Fukushō no setsu” (A time for reflection) in Sekai, (august, 1960) 367–371Google Scholar. Essentially the thesis that modern Japan had its origin in 1945 negates the relevance of Japan's history prior to the end of the Pacific War. Against this the government committee would call for pride in Japan's past by accepting the affluent present and by playing down the sense of guilt over the nineteen forties. Between these positions Oi Kai has suggested that the people of present day Japan recognize their involvement with the past generations of Japanese and look back upon this past with “pride, fear, and shame.” “Nihonkoku nashonarizumu no keisei” (The nature of Japanese nationalism), Chūōkōron, (july, 1963), 34–47.Google Scholar

12 For an early attack on the concept of modernization as used by American scholars see, Inoue Kiyoshi, “Kindaika no hitotsu no apurōchi” (An approach to modernization) in Shisō, 473 (november, 1963), 1455–1463.Google Scholar

13 Core, R. P., “On the Possibility and Desirability of a Theory of Modernization,”Google Scholar mimeo, 1965, 4. For an inquiry into the hidden biases of American scholars see, Moscos, Charles C. Jr., and Bell, Wendall, “Emerging Nations and Ideologies of American Social Scientists,” The American Sociologist, 2.2 (may, 1967), 67–72.Google Scholar

14 I refer to Roszak, Theodore, ed. The Dissenting Academy, New York, 1968.Google Scholar

15 Popper, Karl R., The Open Society and its Enemies (Harper Torchbook, 1964, 2 vols.), II.214.Google Scholar

16 The literature on modernization is too voluminous to cite here other than to refer to Black, C. E., The Dynamics of Modernization, New York, 1966Google Scholar. An early effort to apply a “value free” concept to Japan was made at the Hakone meeting of the Conference on Modern Japan. See Hall, J. W. “Changing Conceptions of the Modernization of Japan” in Jansen, Marius B., ed., Changing Japanese Attitudes Toward Modernization (Princeton, 1965), 7–41.Google Scholar

17 Dahrendorf, Ralf, Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society (Stanford, 1959)Google Scholar, especially Chapter V, subtitled “Integration and Values Versus Coercion and Interests—The Two Faces of Society,” pp. 157–205.

18 Dahrendorf, Ralf, “Out of Utopia: Toward a Reorientation of Sociological Analysis” The American Journal of Sociology, LXIV (september, 1958), 121–122.Google Scholar

19 On the shortcomings of the “attribute-checklist” technique of defining modernization see Bendix, Reinhardt “Tradition and Modernization Reconsidered,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, IX.3 (april, 1967), 311Google Scholar ff. Also Dore, R. P., op. cit., 4–5.Google Scholar

20 Gouldner, Alvin W., “Anti-Minotaur: The Myth of a Value-Free Sociology” in Social Problems 9.3 (Winter, 1962), 199–213.Google Scholar

21 See Unger, Irwin “The ‘New Left’ and American History: Some Recent Trends in United States Historiography,” American Historical Review, LXXII.4 (july, 1967), 1237–1263Google Scholar. This is also the main burden of The Dissenting Academy, previously cited.