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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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