Nationalism and Internationalism in Imperial Japan: Autonomy, Asian Brotherhood, or World Citizenship?

Owing to the increasing scope of unification, there exists a strong desire to get to grips with the unsettling impact of globalisation on the one hand and the resurgence of nationalism on the other. The Japanese case in its historical perspective constitutes in many ways an example for the rapid and extensive transformations we are undergoing today in so many parts of the world. Throughout the history of modern Japan there has been a continuous struggle to create an integrated conception of how a politically and/or culturally autonomous Japan might relate to a pluralistic and interactive world. The aim of this study is to scrutinise nationalist and internationalist rhetoric by means of comparatively constant factors such as personal views of humanity, civilisation, progress, the nation and the outside world, and thus to develop new approaches towards the question of the relationship between Japanese nationalism and internationalism. This project brings together a group of comparatively young scholars who analyse how different generations of opinion leaders in the Japanese pre-war modern era tried to solve what they perceived as the dilemma of nationalism and internationalism. Essential reading for historians, political scientists and social scientists interested in the issues of nationalism and internationalism and scholars working on modern Japan. Dick Stegewerns, Osaka Sangyo University, Japan. Kevin M. Doak, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Annette Schad-Seifert, Universitat Leipzig, Germany. Alistair D. Swale, Waikat