Books by Jessamyn Abel
A symbol of the "new Japan" displayed at World's Fairs, depicted in travel posters, and celebrate... more A symbol of the "new Japan" displayed at World's Fairs, depicted in travel posters, and celebrated as the product of a national spirit of innovation, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen—the first bullet train, dubbed the "dream super-express"—represents the bold aspirations of a nation rebranding itself after military defeat, but also the deep problems caused by the unbridled postwar drive for economic growth. At the dawn of the space age, how could a train become such an important symbol? In Dream Super-Express, Jessamyn Abel contends that understanding the various, often contradictory, images of the bullet train reveals how infrastructure operates beyond its intended use as a means of transportation to perform cultural and sociological functions. The multi-layered dreams surrounding this high-speed railway tell a history not only of nation-building but of resistance and disruption. Though it constituted neither a major technological leap nor a new infrastructural connection, the train enchanted, enthralled, and enraged government officials, media pundits, community activists, novelists, and filmmakers. This history of imaginations around the monumental rail system resists the commonplace story of progress to consider the tug-of-war over the significance of the new line. Is it a vision of the future or a reminder of the past, an object of international admiration or a formidable threat? Does it enable new relationships and identities or reify existing social hierarchies? Tracing the meanings assigned to high-speed rail shows how it prompted a reimagination of identity on the levels of individual, metropolis, and nation in a changing Japan. https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29947
For most of the twentieth century, a rhetoric of international cooperation for peace and stabilit... more For most of the twentieth century, a rhetoric of international cooperation for peace and stability persisted as the lingua franca of foreign relations in Japan and around the world, even during the years of rampant nationalisms and global war. The advocacy and practice of multilateral cooperation, though attenuated and often distorted and abused, did not disappear during the years of aggression and war, but instead were channeled into new and unexpected directions. A broad view of international relations—one that takes into account but also looks beyond the official sites of multilateral cooperation—uncovers a continuous evolution of internationalist thought and activity in Japan that extends across the dark valley of war and the historiographical schism of defeat. By examining international engagement not only in global organizations, but also through cultural exchange, the Olympic Games, political theory, and regional conferences, this study highlights connections between imperial and postwar Japan to tell a synthetic history of internationalism, imperialism, and the performance of diplomacy in the twentieth century through the materials of both high diplomacy and mass culture.
Papers by Jessamyn Abel
Journal of Japanese Studies , 2021
This article considers Japan’s first bullet train, completed in 1964, within the context of an em... more This article considers Japan’s first bullet train, completed in 1964, within the context of an emerging “information society.” Originally conceived as the solution to problems of the industrial economy, the bullet train was reinterpreted as a representative of both the promise and dangers of post-industrial society. Examining development plans and fiction that treated the bullet train as a central infrastructure of the information society, this article tells an intellectual and cultural history of infrastructure as a tool used to grapple with a fundamental socio-economic shift. It is a history of two intersecting tracks, explaining how information became a lens through which infrastructure was read and how the bullet train became a key for understanding social change. Available at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/799774.
Technology and Culture , 2021
In the mid-1960s, the Japanese government brought a technology focus to its relations with the Un... more In the mid-1960s, the Japanese government brought a technology focus to its relations with the United States, aiming to build respect for Japan as an equal partner in world affairs, as well as a source of high-quality industrial products. Efforts to replace its identity as an impoverished and defeated enemy with that of Cold War ally, trade partner, and industrial competitor were constrained by Americans’ preconceptions and the particular functions of technology in international relations. The U.S. government engaged in its own technopolitics, mobilizing American technical knowledge to push Japanese policy in desired directions. This article highlights the difficulty of using technology as a tool of diplomacy by examining its role in U.S.-Japanese relations through a popular cultural initiative and top-level diplomatic discussions. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/783908.
Verge: Studies in Global Asias, 2020
positions: asia critique, 2019
Japan's first bullet train, opening for business on October 1, 1964, played a central role in the... more Japan's first bullet train, opening for business on October 1, 1964, played a central role in the reshaping of both the urban geographies and metropolitan identities of Tokyo, Osaka, and the region as a whole. This article considers the opening of the "New Tōkaidō Line" in terms of theories of the social construction of space in order to highlight the interaction between ideas and physical infrastructure, and to shed light on the dynamics of power over space. The discourse surrounding the bullet train's debut—including planning materials, passengers' impressions, and representations in popular culture—shows the mutual influence among transportation infrastructure, the physical contours of cities, and how people not only lived in them, but also envisioned and understood them. Available at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/736544/pdf or https://read.dukeupress.edu/positions/article/27/3/531/139193/The-Power-of-a-LineHow-the-Bullet-Train.
Modern Asian Studies, 2018
After their government’s 1933 withdrawal from the League of Nations, Japanese internationalists s... more After their government’s 1933 withdrawal from the League of Nations, Japanese internationalists searched for new ways to engage with the world or struggled to accommodate their advocacy of international cooperation to the realities of the wartime empire. The idea of international morality was central to this effort. Ethics textbooks, which presented ideals of international behavior, provide a particular view of this intellectual and policy endeavor of the 1930s and early 1940s, showing how the concept of morality became a means to reconcile internationalism with imperialism and war. Echoing many of the ideas current in both public discussion and behind-closed-doors decision-making on foreign policy at the time, textbook authors and other educators contributed to a broader redefinition of internationalism that enabled it to persist through a period of imperialism and war. Available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/ethics-and-internationalism-in-japanese-education-193345/94FDD063529B98DD0A4176E3CD19F092.
Tumultuous Decade: Japan’s Challenge to the International System, 1931-41. Eds. Tosh Minohara and Masato Kimura. Toronto: University of Toronto Press., 2013
The 1930s was a dark period in international affairs. The Great Depression affected the economic ... more The 1930s was a dark period in international affairs. The Great Depression affected the economic and social circumstances of the world’s major powers, contributing to armed conflicts such as the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. This volume focuses exclusively on Japan, which witnessed a flurry of progressive activities in this period, activities which served both domestic and international society during the “tumultuous decade.”
Featuring an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars, Tumultuous Decade examines Japanese domestic and foreign affairs between 1931 and 1941. It looks at Japan in the context of changing approaches to global governance, the rise of the League of Nations, and attempts to understand the Japanese worldview as it stood in the 1930s, a crucial period for Japan and the wider world. The editors argue that, like many other emerging powers at the time, Japan experienced a national identity crisis during this period and that this crisis is what ultimately precipitated Japan’s role in the Second World War as well as the global order that took shape in its aftermath.
https://utorontopress.com/9781442612341/tumultuous-decade/
International History Review, 2012
At a time when Japanese foreign policy was constrained by the legacies of war and the exigencies ... more At a time when Japanese foreign policy was constrained by the legacies of war and the exigencies of the Cold War, hosting the 1964 Tokyo Olympics was conceived as an alternative means of engagement with the international community. The sporting diplomacy of the Tokyo Olympics centered around elevating Japan’s international position by engaging the people of the world on a grassroots level. The pervasive notion that sports are separate from politics helped smooth Japan’s return to the international community, while concerns about the image presented to foreign audiences motivated efforts to internationalize Japan, in terms of both the physical infrastructure of the capital and attitudes of the people. The development of infrastructure for the Games—including new buildings, roads, and trains, and even a satellite to facilitate live international broadcast—all contributed to making Japan more “international.” The event was a great success for Japan, both athletically and diplomatically, and sports diplomacy became a lasting component of Japan’s foreign policy, still used today to promote international connections and develop greater knowledge and understanding of Japan. At the same time, this build-up of soft power also cleared the way for the development of greater hard power by Japan. Available at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07075332.2012.626572 and https://www.jstor.org/stable/23240822?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
The East Asian Olympiads 1934-2008: Building Bodies and Nations in Japan, Korea, and China. Eds. William M. Tsutsui and Michael Baskett. Folkestone, UK: Global Oriental, 2011
JAPANimals: History and Culture in Japan’s Animal Life. Eds. Gregory M. Pflugfelder and Brett L. Walker. Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies 52. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2005
Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies , 2014
Book reviews by Jessamyn Abel
Journal of Japanese Studies, 2019
Journal of American-East Asian Relations , 2017
Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 2003
The International Journal of Asian Studies, 2010
Pacific Affairs, Sep 2012
In Pacific Historical Review 85, no. 3 (August 2016).
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Books by Jessamyn Abel
Papers by Jessamyn Abel
Featuring an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars, Tumultuous Decade examines Japanese domestic and foreign affairs between 1931 and 1941. It looks at Japan in the context of changing approaches to global governance, the rise of the League of Nations, and attempts to understand the Japanese worldview as it stood in the 1930s, a crucial period for Japan and the wider world. The editors argue that, like many other emerging powers at the time, Japan experienced a national identity crisis during this period and that this crisis is what ultimately precipitated Japan’s role in the Second World War as well as the global order that took shape in its aftermath.
https://utorontopress.com/9781442612341/tumultuous-decade/
Book reviews by Jessamyn Abel
Featuring an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars, Tumultuous Decade examines Japanese domestic and foreign affairs between 1931 and 1941. It looks at Japan in the context of changing approaches to global governance, the rise of the League of Nations, and attempts to understand the Japanese worldview as it stood in the 1930s, a crucial period for Japan and the wider world. The editors argue that, like many other emerging powers at the time, Japan experienced a national identity crisis during this period and that this crisis is what ultimately precipitated Japan’s role in the Second World War as well as the global order that took shape in its aftermath.
https://utorontopress.com/9781442612341/tumultuous-decade/