Regenerating Japan: Organicism, Modernism and National Destiny in Oka Asajirō's Evolution and Human Life
()
About this ebook
As the first step toward a comprehensive reinterpretation of the role of evolutionary science and biomedicine in pre-1945 Japan, this book addresses the early writings of that era’s most influential exponent of shinkaron (evolutionism), the German-educated research zoologist and popularizer of biomedicine, Oka Asajirō (1868–1944). Concentrating on essays that Oka published in the years during and after the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), the author describes the process by which Oka came to articulate a programmatic modernist vision of national regeneration that would prove integral to the ideological climate in Japan during the first half of the twentieth century. In contrast to other scholars who insist that Oka was merely a rationalist enlightener bent on undermining state Shinto orthodoxy, Gregory Sullivan maintains that Oka used notions from evolutionary biology of organic individuality—especially that of the nation as a super-organism—to underwrite the social and geopolitical aims of the Meiji state.
The author suggests that this generative scientism gained wide currency among early twentieth-century political and intellectual elites, including Emperor Hirohito himself, who had personal connections to Oka. The wartime ideology may represent an unfinished attempt to synthesize Shinto fundamentalism and the eugenically-oriented modernism that Oka was among the first to articulate.
Gregory Sullivan
Gregory Sullivan is Associate Professor, United States Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, Long Island, New York.
Related to Regenerating Japan
Related ebooks
Catholicism, Race and Empire: Eugenics in Portugal, 1900-1950 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhysiology of Mollusca: Volume I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Strengthening Young Bodies, Building the Nation: A Social History of the Child Health and Welfare in Greece (1890–1940) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Physiology of Growth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom the Midwife's Bag to the Patient's File: Public Health in Eastern and Southeastern Europe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClimate, Environment, and Society in the Pacific during the Last Millennium Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhotosynthesis V1: Energy Conversion by Plants and Bacteria Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHuman Ecology in the Tropics: Symposia of The Society for The Study of Human Biology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChemical Zoology V4: Annelida, Echiuria, And Sipuncula Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhysiological Mammalogy V2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHealth, Hygiene and Eugenics in Southeastern Europe to 1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBiology of Rice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhotosynthesis V2: Development, Carbon Metabolism, and Plant Productivity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRewilding: The Radical New Science of Ecological Recovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Building the New Man: Eugenics, Racial Science and Genetics in Twentieth-Century Italy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hormones V3: Physiology, Chemistry and Applications Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ecosystem Concept in Natural Resource Management Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeredity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hormones: Physiology, Chemistry, and Applications Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFish As Food V3: Processing: Part 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTeaching and Research in Human Biology: Symposia of The Society for The Study of Human Biology, Vol. 6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrinciples of Sensory Evaluation of Food Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Outline of Developmental Physiology: International Series of Monographs in Pure and Applied Biology: Zoology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFluorescence Assay in Biology and Medicine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarine Interfaces Ecohydrodynamics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cell Biology of Fertilization Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAdvances in Oral Biology: Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIsoxazoles, Part 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Functional Biology of Sticklebacks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPsychology: Theoretical–Historical Perspectives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Asian History For You
The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Love and Be Loved: A Personal Portrait of Mother Teresa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Voices from Chernobyl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Capitalism: A Ghost Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Yakuza: life and death in the Japanese underworld Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 3]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unit 731: The Forgotten Asian Auschwitz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red Hotel: Moscow 1941, the Metropol Hotel, and the Untold Story of Stalin's Propaganda War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Way of the Samurai Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shinto the Kami Way Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Legends of the Samurai Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Caste (Oprah's Book Club): by Isabel Wilkerson - The Origins of Our Discontents - A Comprehensive Summary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShogun: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll Men are Brothers: Life and Thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as told in His Own Words Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Regenerating Japan
0 ratings0 reviews