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EAST-WEST-RESEARCH  February 2009

EAST-WEST-RESEARCH February 2009

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Subject:

a book review: Japan and Russia: Three Centuries of Mutual Images, edited by Yulia Mikhailova and M. William, W. Steele.

From:

"Serguei A. Oushakine" <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Serguei A. Oushakine

Date:

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:12:02 -0500

Content-Type:

text/plain

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Parts/Attachments

text/plain (1 lines)



http://www.nbr.org/ForaUI/message.aspx?LID=5&MID=34106



Mikhailova Yulia and M. William, W. Steele eds "Japan and Russia:

Three Centuries of Mutual Images". Folkestone: Global Oriental 2008.

237pp. 90$ (hardcover). ISBN-10: 1905246420. ISBN-13: 978-1905246427.



Reviewed by: Alexander Bukh, Graduate School of Humanities and Social

Sciences, Tsukuba University, Tsukuba, Japan.



Those scholars who work in the field of Russo-Japanese relations and

are familiar with publications in Japanese and Russian know that the

question of mutual perceptions has been one of the favorite research

topics among the scholars on both sides of the Sea of Okhotsk. Over

the last two decades this trend resulted in a significant number of

publications in both languages of varying length and quality. However,

the majority of English language works devoted to Russo-Japanese

relations have tended to examine mutual perceptions only in a strictly

political context, as reflected in opinions of the political elites

and governmental polls. As such, this edited volume which examines the

various aspects of mutual images both in Russia and Japan ranging from

cinema to perceptions among residents of rural Japan, is a welcomed

addition to the voluminous body of scholarship devoted to relations

between the two "distant neighbors", to borrow from Tsuyoshi

Hasegawa and Kimura Hiroshi.

As it is often the case with edited works, it is quite hard to write a

review that will do justice to all the featured works, where the only

unifying theme is the images of the "other". Therefore, instead of

providing a general review of the book I will briefly outline the

themes and conclusions discussed by all of the authors in this volume.

An Introduction by M. William Steele and Yuila Mikhaliova opens the

volume by providing the background for this volume and a brief summary

of the featured works. The chapters appear in a chronological order:

Chapters I through IV focus on pre-1945 years, Chapters V through VII

examine the various aspects of the Cold War years and Chapter VIII

through X are devoted to contemporary issues.

The first chapter by Michiko Ikuta focuses on the role of Japanese

castaways in shaping mutual images during the Edo period arguing that

while the information and visual images presented by the castaways,

provided a channel of direct communication and somewhat modified the

existing stereotypes, they did not manage to change the persistent

stereotypes of exotic Japan and the uncivilized and expansionist

Russia. These images, Ikuta argues, survived as dominant

representations until the present day.



The second chapter by Elena Diakonova is devoted to Japonisme in

Russian art the late 19th and early 20th centuries, generally

confirming Ikuta's conclusion that exoticism continued to dominate

Russian images of Japan but locating it within both the Russian

self-perception as a bridge between the East and the West and the

broader contemporary trend of romantic nostalgia as a reaction against

modernity in the West.



Rotem Kowner's chapter focuses on the Japanese efforts to create a

positive image of Japan in the West during the Russo-Japanese War. It

shows that the Japanese elites were largely successful in creating an

image of civilized Japan as a result of the already existing negative

image of Russia among the European powers, the explicit support of the

British and American press, the initial perception of Japan as an

underdog, concentrated efforts on behalf of the Japanese elites to

foster a positive image of Japan through humane treatment of Russian

prisoners and military victories of the Japanese army.



Next chapter, authored by Yulia Mikhailova provides a comparative

analysis of the Russian propaganda during the Russo-Japanese War and

the Soviet anti-Japanese campaign of the 1930s. In the chapter

Mikhailova argues that the latter was much more effective in terms of

creating a negative image of Japan because of its appeal to, what

Mikhailova calls, the "geographical consciousness" (p.71-72) meaning a

clear definition of "our land" and extensive utilization of the

territorial images in the 1930s anti-Japanese campaign.



In the following chapter Sergei Kuznetsov and Yulia Mikhailova examine

the role of the visual media in transforming the experiences of

Japanese POWs in Soviet labor camps into Japanese collective memory.

The chapter examines the paintings of former POWs which depicted the

hardships of their life in the camps, the non-univocal memories of the

POWs as well as a number of recent plays devoted to the experience of

"Siberian imprisonment". The chapter concludes by arguing that the

visual images created by former POWs contributed to emergence of a

general sense of Japanese victimhood vis--vis the Soviet Union in the

postwar years.



Irina Melnikova's article on the Soviet-Japanese film co-production

and the images of Japan in the Soviet cinema is probably the most

interesting piece in this volume. By tracing the history of

Soviet-Japanese cine-cooperation and critically examining the

representations of both nations in a number of jointly produced films,

Melnikova examines how the broad political discourses were reflected

or became obscured in these visual media.



Next chapter authored by INOUE Kenii and Sergei Tolstoguzov analyzes

the representation of the collapse of the Soviet Union in Japanese

political cartoons that appeared in Asahi Shimbun in late 1991. The

authors argue that the goal of the cartoons, which were building on

already existing stereotypes, was mainly to inform the reader

regarding the ongoing political processes that were taking place in

the Soviet Union and not to engage in creation of new images or

symbols. This characteristic of the Japanese cartoons is juxtaposed

with those of the West (US), which, the authors argue, were much more

analytical, seeking to analyze and interpret the events.



Chapter VIII, authored by Tsuneo Akaha and Anna Vassilieva focuses on

mutual perceptions of Japanese and Russian residents in three Japanese

cities that receive a large number of long-term and short-term

visitors from Russia-Niigata, Sapporo and Wakkanai. This

interview-based survey traces the differences in mutual perceptions

and explains it through frequency in contact with members of the

opposite group, and, more importantly, to the prevalence of cultural

beliefs, stereotypes and national images.



The following chapter by Yulia Mikhailova and Evgenii Torchinov seeks

to explain the popularity of manga in post Soviet Russia and examines

it as a Russian sub-cultural phenomenon. The chapter also provides an

interesting description of contemporary Russian otaku and their works.



The concluding and a very brief chapter by Leonid Smorgunov, examines

the representations of Japanese politicians on Russian TV and internet

cites, arguing that the construction as well as the interpretation of

the images can be divided into three groups: radically different

"other", familiar and friendly "other" and an indifferent and neutral

"other."



To conclude, the volume provides a multifaceted depiction of mutual

images in Japan and Russia over the last three hundred years.

Unfortunately, despite the frequent appearance of such theoretical

value-laden terms as the "other", "construction" and "deconstruction",

these terms are utilized mainly in their most simple and mechanical

meaning. The "other", it seems, means simply the other nation or state

and "construction" is often used to describe an intentional or

manipulative creation of a certain image. The volume, however,

provides a number of interesting glimpses into the variety of mutual

images in Japan and Russia and would be of interest for both scholars

and students alike.

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