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Shingetsu Electronic Journal of Japanese-Islamic Relations,
Volume 2, 2007 |
Research Papers
Africa
between the Meiji Restoration and the Legacy of Ataturk: Comparative
Dilemmas of Modernization
By Ali A. Mazrui
Abstract: This paper considers the relevance of the examples of both the
Meiji Restoration in Japan and the Ataturk reforms in Turkey for the
current dilemmas of modernization faced by African societies. It is
suggested that the Japanese experience can broadly be described as a
case in which modernization was successfully carried out in the absence
of excessive westernization. The vision of Ataturk, in contrast,
asserted that westernization was needed as an essential component of
modernization, and Turkey succeeded to some degree in transforming its
society in the desired directions. On the other hand, Africa can be best
described as a case in which westernization has surely advanced among
the elite, but this has not led to a successful African modernization.
The paper concludes with a discussion of the conditions that may
therefore be necessary for Africa to begin to realize its potential and
to finally carry out a successful modernization.
Ali A. Mazrui is Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies
and Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities at State University of
New York at Binghamton; Albert Luthuli Professor-at-Large at the
University of Jos, Nigeria; Ibn Khaldun Professor-at-Large at the School
of Islamic and Social Sciences, Leesburg, Virginia; Andrew D. White
Professor-at-Large Emeritus and Senior Scholar in Africana Studies at
Cornell University; and Walter Rodney Professor of the University of
Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana.
Malay Women
and Syonanto
By Tai Wei Lim
Abstract: Social mobilization for the creation of a modern nation
modeled after the West was a state initiative in Japan. Japan made the
step from a feudal society to a modern nation-state beginning with the
Meiji government’s implementation of ideological education, propaganda
and moral suasion to effect social mobilization. Just as it was
necessary to create greater nationalistic awareness necessary for
nationhood, it was also necessary to create a sense of Japanese
nationhood in other parts of its empire. Following this precedent of
state mobilization, this article examines how the Syonanto military
administration (1942-45) tried to integrate racially-diverse women into
the war efforts and engineer consensus through propaganda and moral
suasion. There was extensive mobilization of Indian and Malay women for
the “New Order.” Malay and Indian women were allowed, and in the case of
Malay women encouraged, to participate in social movements.
Tai Wei Lim is a Biggerstaff Fellow at Cornell University; Assistant
Professor at Georgian Court University (New Jersey) Department of
History; and Research Fellow-Designate at the East Asian Institute,
National University of Singapore.
Translation
A Sea
Voyage to the Persian Gulf (1880)
By Ienori Honjuku
Abstract: This is a translated account of the earliest Japanese naval
voyage to the Persian Gulf in July 1880. The author was a Japanese naval
officer, and the descriptions he provided were the first eyewitness
reports of the Persian Gulf region in Japan. All previous knowledge of
the area had come secondhand through foreign sources. The account begins
in the Arabian Sea, and goes on to describe visits to Muscat and Bushire,
as well as the general climate of the Persian Gulf. His description of
Muscat is the earliest known account of the Omani capital by a Japanese
visitor, and includes a description of Sultan Turki ibn Said and his
court. In Bushire, he makes several interesting observations about the
status of women and the poor armaments of the Persian military. The
account of Ienori Honjuku gives us a rare opportunity to observe how
Meiji Japanese perceived the Islamic world at a very early period in the
establishment of direct contact.
Ienori Honjuku (1852-1891) was an officer in the Meiji Japanese Navy. |
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Source: Shingetsu Institute |
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