Contributions in Asian Studies - Böcker

Nimmo examines Japanese and Russian attempts to resolve outstanding differences lingering since the end of World War II. He provides an in-depth analysis of Japanese efforts to regain control of the Northern Territories and explores attitudes of both Japanese and Russians at the grass roots level.As the end of the twentieth century approaches, lingering shadows of the devastating mid-century conflict witnessed in World War II are reflected in a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over possession of the South Kurile Islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan. For more than four decades, Kremlin leaders contended there was no territorial problem--the 1945 Yalta Agreement resolved the issue, they claimed--but Japan doggedly insisted the islands were Japanese territory. Yet, even with the major changes that have taken place since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia and Japan have been unable to reach an agreement. Nimmo examines the attempts of the two countries and their statesmen to resolve their differences. He provides an in-depth analysis of Japanese efforts to regain control of the Northern Territories and explores attitudes of both Japanese and Russians at the grass roots level.Nimmo provides an overview of the historical perspectives while giving an extended examination of changing relationships in the post-1991 era. This book will be of interest to diplomatic and military historians, Japanese and Russian (Soviet) Studies scholars, and students of the contemporary East Asia.

In 1871-1882 fifty Americans, along with other foreign experts, were employed by the Japanese government to develop Japan's northern frontier, Hokkaido. Their work covered a wide scope of activities, from introducing Western agriculture and industry, constructing roads and a railroad, and surveying topography and mines, to establishing an agricultural college. While examining the overall undertaking, Professor Fujita specifically focuses on the prominent members who left copious private and public records. She thoroughly examines their ideas as well as their attitudes toward an alien culture. At the same time, she shows the Japanese responses to these experts and their alien culture.This is the first booklength examination of a development project that, in many ways, approaches some of the twentieth century undertakings in scope and complexity. As such, it will be of interest to students and scholars of inter-cultural relations, and Japanese and American nineteenth-century history.

The first work to chronicle the history of Vietnam beginning in the legendary past—a memory that is so significant to the Vietnamese identity and belief system. Written by a native, this history portrays the Sino-Viet interdependence that lasted for 1,000 years and had such an influence on Vietnamese culture. When in the 15th century, the Vietnamese finally evicted their Chinese masters, they were subsequently overrun with the forces of Westernization, the spice trade and industrialization. Chapuis's history takes us to the French conquest through the regimes of Emperors Gia Long, Ming Mang, Thieu Tri, and Tu Duc.

Baark examines the transfer of telegraph technology to China in the late nineteenth century. He shows how the initial Chinese rejection of the telegraph as an inconvenient technology contributed to violent conflicts between foreigners and the Chinese, but that this resistence gradually gave way to an assimilation of the telegraph into Chinese society.The transfer and assimilation of advanced technology has been an important challenge for China's modernization for more than a century. Baark examines some of the dilemmas faced by Chinese modernizers of the yangwu (Western affairs) movement from the 1860s to the 1890s. Telegraph technology emerged in the West on the basis of scientific discoveries in electricity in the early nineteenth century, and was greeted with enthusiasm by governments and the public alike.The Chinese attitudes to the telegraph, however, were informed by entirely different political and cultural priorities. Baark examines the tensions which existed between the Chinese and the foreign companies seeking to extend telegraph technology to East Asian cities, and he shows how the domestic network was shaped by indigenous social and cultural forces. This book will be of considerable interest to historians of modern China, technology, and economic development.