Konrad Lawson
@kml.muninn.net
Historian of modern East Asia he/him; Lecturer at University of St Andrews; From Stavanger, Norway Live in Edinburgh, Scotland. 林蜀道 https://muninn.net
Manchuria Daily News March 14, 1932: Pu Yi? How dare you call him a puppet, "a mere doll to dance at the bidding of Japan....He is the last man to consider delivering his countrymen into the hands of an exploiting neighbor." Hero of the masses! 😆
TIL: I didn't know that housing shortages used to be called (at least by the Manchuria Daily News) "house famines"
There are 353 issues of 中央公論, 1900-1930 on the Internet Archive to read or download. Together with 改造, many issues of which are also on IA, this is likely the most frequently cited periodical in historical scholarship on modern Japan up to 1945. archive.org/search?query... 1/8
Ridiculously excited for Holly Stephens, whose EMPIRE BY ASSOCIATION, will be out in September, on the economic history of rural Korea under Japanese colonialism, now with a vibrant new cover by @yalepress.bsky.social Just about every history book starts with one of two openers, either
A video of the recent MJHA "New Books on Japan" discussion with Kristin Roebuck regarding her new "Japan Reborn: Race and Eugenics from Empire to Cold War" is now available on the MJHA YouTube channel!
New Books on Japan: Kristin Roebuck, "Japan Reborn: Race and Eugenics from Empire to Cold War"
YouTube video by Modern Japan History Association
youtu.be
📚Introduction free to download📚 It's the official release day of my book and OUP has made the Introduction chapter free to read. academic.oup.com/book/62722/c... Take a look if you're interested in... why do I want to study ideas of 'the west' from without, why do I want to theorize the postliberal
Introduction: Constructing the West from the East
Abstract. This book is positioned at the intersection of two lines of inquiry: the co-production of hierarchical difference in world politics and reading t
academic.oup.com
Love this full page set of prices and instructions on ordering books through the post in Republican China. Appears in the 1932 catalogue of the Mingshan Press 明善書局圖書目錄 crta.info/wiki/%E6%98%...
TOMORROW Join us for Tuesday's #DIJStudyGroup "The Aikoku Fujinkai and Social Welfare Work in Colonial Taiwan and Korea" with @merlekar.bsky.social (Harvard University/DIJ Tokyo) 📅 June 9, 2026 / 6.30 pm JST / 11.30 am CEST 🏚️🖥️ online & onsite @ DIJ Tokyo ▶️ www.dijtokyo.org/event/the-ai...
DIJ Tokyo@dijtokyo.org · 3mo agoRegistration is now open for the upcoming #DIJStudyGroup "The Aikoku Fujinkai and Social Welfare Work in Colonial Taiwan and Korea" 🎤 @merlekar.bsky.social (Harvard University/DIJ Tokyo) 📅 June 9, 2026 / 6.30 pm JST / 11.30 am CEST 🏚️🖥️ online & onsite @ DIJ Tokyo ▶️ www.dijtokyo.org/event/the-ai...
Wow, @universitypress.cambridge.org keeps putting out bangers on early modern Japan! Can’t wait for Laura Nenzi’s Japan After Dark, which challenges the idea that 19th-c. electrification disenchanted night www.cambridge.org/core/books/j... #envhum #envhist #histstm #AsianStudies
In one week! Sandra Wilson (Murdoch U) and Robert Cribb (Australian National U) on their new book “Twelve Japanese War Criminals and One Who Got Away”, in conversation with Sarah Kovner (Columbia U) and Kirsten Ziomek (Adelphi U). Register for Zoom here: mjha.org/event-6693624
There are over 150 issues of the Japanese general interest magazine『改造』 1919-1930 on the Internet Archive to read or download. This is one of the most important historical periodicals for the study of modern Japan. archive.org/search?query...
I like the @simonwillison.net fun SVG pelican riding a bicycle test for new LLMs but lately I’ve been trying the Kapur test (@nickkapur.bsky.social): pick a year and ask a new model (no need to turn off search or thinking) to give you 10 historical figures born that year. Opus 4.8: 8/10
Trump on wars longer than the current Iran mess, we have an 8 year Korean War…has he been reading Bruce Cumings and co. and is going for 1945-1953? 🤔😜
The National Diet Library digital collection has copies of Shogakukan's mad "What and Why Educational Encyclopaedia" series (なぜなに学習図鑑), published from 1970-76. Shigeru Komatsuzaki's dolphin's attacking illustration from the 9th book is the most famous but there are other highlights. dl.ndl.go.jp
Paul Griffin and Cheryl McGeachan, Historical Geography: The Basics - @routledgebooks.bsky.social, December 2025 www.routledge.com/Historical-G...
Historical Geographies: The Basics
Historical Geographies: The Basics provides readers with a thorough grounding in a sub-discipline that revisits the past through a geographical lens. It encourages the reader to pursue researching the...
routledge.com
New article: 'Seeing the Future: Four Stages of Japanese Science Fiction's Literary Evolution, 1870-1937'. A short guide on how the genre was formed well before there was Godzilla or Astroboy. Wild tales from the archives: serena.sharepress.it/giappone/art... #日本sf #科学小説 #sciencefiction #日本科幻 #sf
SEEING THE FUTURE: FOUR STAGES OF JAPANESE SCIENCE FICTION'S LITERARY DEVELOPMENT, 1870-1937 | Il Giappone. Studi e Ricerche
serena.sharepress.it
Stumbled on H.G.W. Woodhead mention of Sun Yat-sen's December 1912 plan for invading Russia and sparking a revolution there (or failing that, march on Moscow) in response to its November treaty with the Bogd Khan gov in outer Mongolia. More in the final two pages of his 倡议钱币革命对抗沙俄侵略通电 (1912.12)
Teruko Ugaya Craig died last week. She was “just a translator,” married to the late Albert Morton Craig, professor of Japanese history who taught at Harvard University for forty years. But I’d wager her scholarship has shaped this field far more than her husband’s. I know she has for me.
I keep forgetting that I need to advertise this! I'll be doing an online book talk. June 3 for the US; June 4 morning of Asia. Yumi Kim is commenting! mjha.org/event-6602790
So thrilled the must-read BANANAPOCALYPSE by Alyssa Paredes will be out in the wild soon, on the shadow ecologies of Japanese conglomerates on Filipino plantations, with environmental effects of chemical drift, fungal pathogens, polluted effluent #envhist #envhum #enviroanthro
Bananapocalypse by Alyssa Paredes - Paper
Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.
ucpress.edu
A video of the recent MJHA "New Books on Japan" discussion with Jung Lee regarding her "Renaming Plants and Nations in Japanese Colonial Korea" (Routledge, 2025) is now available on the MJHA YouTube channel!
New Books on Japan: Jung Lee, "Renaming Plants and Nations in Japanese Colonial Korea"
YouTube video by Modern Japan History Association
youtu.be
wish I had read this excellent article on Du Bois, pan-Asianism, and the "paradox of racial liberation" a long time ago. Had no idea about his affinities for imperial Japan, or even that he visited Manchukuo in 1936. One quote that jumped out: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
There are over 1,000 historical Japanese women’s magazine issues on the Internet Archive, mostly from 1880s-1920s to read and download including 青鞜, 女学雑誌, 女学世界, 婦選, 婦人運動, 処女の友, 新真婦人, and 女性同盟: archive.org/search?query...
Some great books on this list; particularly looking forward to getting some time with #5, "Uncanny Beliefs: Superstition in Modern Chinese History," ed. @emilybaum.bsky.social & Albert Wu, feat. essays by @qiaoj.bsky.social & others
Alexander Boyd@alexludoboyd.bsky.social · 3mo agoDusted off the writing cap for a...listicle! Five new china books, an eclectic bunch that pretty much sums up my reading interests... hope they interest you too! chinabooksreview.com/2026/04/28/n...
The stages of rice cultivation in Japan, "today" (ca. 1983, left column) vs. "in the past" (ca. 1952, middle column).
What can we use GIS for in our scholarly pursuits? 🗺️ Learn about the possibilities and applications in 2015 digital workshop demo by Merrick Lex Berman on “Re-envisioning “Traditional” Scholarship”! guides.nccjapan.org/c.php?g=397542
This is a wonderful tribute to a giant in the discipline! Still, Asian Studies is in desperate need of a transnational/ border-crossing book prize—one that reflects the direction of our field (not to mention, the geographic categories of the AAS conference itself).
Association for Asian Studies@asianstudies.org · 3mo agoAnnouncing the Carter J. Eckert Book Prize in Korean Studies Carter J. Eckert. Photo credit: Martha Stewart Photography The Association for Asian Studies is thrilled to announce the Carter J....
Kyoto University has been threatening to demolish Yoshida dorm—Japan’s oldest—since the 1970s, and it looks like it has finally succeeded. Run as a self-governing co-op, Yoshida was a hotbed of leftist activism, with its own brood of chickens and at one time, a goat. End of an era. Photos here:
築105年、風呂なし鍵なし上下関係なし 京大吉田寮に暮らす人々 - Yahoo!ニュース
京都大学「吉田寮」の建物は今年で築105年、今も200人ほどの学生が生活している。時代に逆行するかのような寮生たちを紹介しよう。
news.yahoo.co.jp
Kjell Ericson@kjelldericson.bsky.social · 3mo agoKyoto University's Yoshida dormitory is slated to be torn down. Built in 1913, it is one of the oldest buildings on campus. Over the years I've talked with a number of graduate students who relied on the dormitory's very reasonable rates to make ends meet. www.asahi.com/sp/articles/...