History of Japan

On August 30, 1974, a bomb went off at Mitsubishi corporate HQ in Tokyo's Marunouchi neighborhood. The culprit was a group calling itself the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front - Wolf Cell. This week: how did this radical movement grow out of Japan's 1960s, and what does it have to do with the wider political phenomenon known as the New Left? Show notes here.

How does a matagi hunt actually work, and how has matagi culture evolved over the course of the 20th century? And finally: why is it that so many today seem to think the matagi will be extinct themselves before too long? Show notes here.

Explore the mysterious Matagi, northern Honshu’s mountain hunters, and the competing theories about their origins. Their world comes into focus through bear-bile taxes, mixed farming and foraging, trade, sacred mountain traditions, and Buddhist-inflected legends. The story also follows their place in Tokugawa society and the dramatic impact of Meiji firearms laws, hunting licenses, and shrinking wilderness.

This week: the Cowra breakout seemed, to those who lived through it, like it came out of nowhere. But nothing does, so what factors led to it? How did the breakout itself play out? And what are its legacies, both in terms of Australia-Japan relations and the wider question of Japanese "fanaticism" in WWII? Show notes here.

The story of the Cowra breakout begins with a look at Japanese wartime fanaticism, surrender, and the competing beliefs of soldiers and military leaders. It then traces Japan-Australia relations, from migration and racial exclusion to the Versailles racial equality debate, trade tensions, and the rise of militarism. Together, these histories reveal why Australia carried such powerful meaning for Japanese prisoners.

At long last, the fight over how to reconstruct Tokyo is done. But what did rebuilding the imperial capital actually look like? Show notes here.

After Tokyo was burned to the ground, the battle over how to rebuild it began almost immediately. The man leading the charge--one of Japan's foremost bureaucrats--would become so frustrated with the experience that it would crush him completely. In the process, the fight would reveal some deep divisions over the importance of the capital and the nature of the postwar state itself. Show notes here.

Why did so many greet the destruction of Tokyo not with consternation, but seeming joy? The answer has to do with one of the most complex phenomenon in the history of modern urbanism, and with the history of Edo's transformation into Tokyo and all the modern vices that came with it. Show notes here.

This week: the Great Kanto Earthquake was also the backdrop for one of the most famous murders of 1920s Japan, one that set the stage for a seismic shift within the nation's political sphere. This week: who was Ito Noe, and how did her murder in a time of national emergency reflect a shift in Japan's political discourse? Show notes here.

This week: in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake, thousands of Koreans living in Tokyo were massacred by angry mobs as well as policemen and soldiers. What animated the survivors to engage in such horrific violence, and how does it reflect both the wider history of the Japan-Korea relationship and the mindset many of us carry into our darkest moments? Note: no new episode next week, as I'm traveling in Japan. Show notes here.