Cover Image

Cover art, entitled “Birds,” by Victoria Lester, Wittenberg University, medium is ink painting

Contributors

Author Biographical Statement

Dedication

Every year, the East Asian Studies Journal is dedicated to a Wittenberg University faculty or staff member who is actively involved in the East Asian Studies Program, promotes academic achievement and encourages students to stretch beyond their limits in their chosen fields of study. The student staff would like to dedicate this year’s issue to Dr. Ralph Lenz, our Geography teacher.Dr. Ralph Lenz has a PhD in Geography from Rutgers University. He joined the Wittenberg faculty in 1976 after one year at the University of South Western Louisiana. Dr. Lenz initial publications in Geographical Analysis show his early focus on quantitative and theoretical research in analyzing map patterns. After taking Fulbright-Hays group trips to multiple places including India, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, Dr. Lenz became increasingly focused on regional research with South East Asia as his area of focus. Dr. Lenz has made 27 visits to Southeast Asia and has published multiple pieces on Indonesia and Vietnam. After receiving a Freeman grant which sponsored visits to Eastern China and the Silk Road, in addition to some other travel time, Dr. Lenz has visited 12 provinces in China. Using his research in China, Dr. Lenz began teaching about Chinese Geography and Chinese minority groups in the Wittenberg East Asian Studies department.We at the East Asian Studies Journal would like to thank Dr. Lenz for his great contribution to our program and passion for sharing East Asian Studies

A Failed Mission in Liberation: Japanese Women’s Enfranchisement and American Occupation

In this work, I survey the discourse of Japanese feminists in the early twentieth century to understand the ways in which they were working to attain full enfranchisement. I employ this brief survey to argue that their work, while altered by the chaos of total war, was most severely undermined by the American Occupation and democratization effort. Ultimately, I advocate that, though American occupation effectively granted women legislative rights, this foreign allocation meant that widespread and meaningful social change on the practical level never occurred

Cover art by Linda Wang, University of Maryland, medium is Ink and Mineral Spirits.

The author gives the follow explanation about the piece:This piece is the first in a series of monoprints inspired by the ambiance of Japanese nature and architecture. I had the privilege of studying abroad in Japan during the summer of 2015 and have since incorporated many aspects of Japanese culture into my work, especially with printmaking, an art form highly influenced by the Japanese. I specifically chose to make these monoprints in order to illustrate the transient nature of the images our eyes can perceive before they become memories. Unlike other forms of printmaking, with monoprints, only one copy can exist-similar to how at any given moment, there is a unique snapshot in one’s field of vision that can never be repeated

Mirror Images: The (Lack of) Parallels Between Nogami Yaeko and Her Female Protagonists

Certain characteristics of Japanese woman writer Nogami Yaeko's career and personal life were significantly different from those of her peers. Reading Nogami's works in context of her life story therefore provides an interesting platform on which to perform a literary analysis. This paper performs such an analysis on two of Nogami's short stories, "Persimmon Sweets" (1908) and "A Story of a Missing Leg" (1931). In particular, I show how Nogami was able to make unobtrusive societal criticisms through her writing because the lives of her female protagonists did not closely mirror her own life. As a dedicated wife and mother, Nogami appeared to be a very traditional woman in the eyes of literary critics, who therefore considered her a mere amateur author who wrote without any particular agenda. Nogami used this misguided impression to publish subversive writings which were not recognized as such by critics. In "Persimmon Sweets" and "A Story of a Missing Leg", the protagonists reject the stereotypically female roles that society tries to force on them. However, because Nogami's own life seemed to be in compliance with the rigid adherence to gender roles that her characters renounce, critics did not view her writing as revolutionary. Only by doing a careful reading and remembering that Nogami was not at all an amateur author--as I do in this paper--can readers appreciate the true depth of her social commentary

Issue 38

All pages from Issue 38. Click 'PDF' to view the text

Tears Without Tear Gas: The failure of the Umbrella Revolution and Hong Kong's youth

Hong Kong's recent Umbrella Movement was caused by factors dating back to the British invasion and occupation of the port of Canton. Though on the outside, it looked as though these protests dealt with the upcoming elections of the Chief Executive, they were ultimately protesting the fundamental system of governance in place in Hong Kong. Had the protests merely been concerned with electoral reform, they would have had no legal standing upon which to make their claims, with both the Joint Declaration and Basic Law supporting the system proposed by the People's Republic of China. Though the protests gained some footing early on, they ultimately dispersed, and no electoral reform has yet taken place. The Umbrella Revolution, i.e. the spirit of disbanding and reshaping the current system of governance in Hong Kong, what the protesters were hoping to achieve, will ultimately fail, due to movement's overreliance on youth. Young people in Hong Kong simply do not have enough political efficacy, nor enough economic or militaristic means, to institute any major changes, and with the Basic Law's provisions ceasing in 2047, time is running out

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Existentialism, Choice, and Morality in Ichikawa Kon’s Fires on the Plain

In this essay I explain how the protagonist of Ichikawa Kon's film Fires on the Plain, Tamura, embodies the essence of humanism. The story portrays the development of an unassuming army private as he refuses to accept the fate his superiors have chosen for him. For Tamura, the ability to determine his own actions becomes his resolve. He achieves this by acknowledging the power of choice within himself, a fundamental notion of humanism that he develops throughout the film. In this paper I propose that the character of Tamura, through his personal decision making, is a living allegory for humanism. To support this thesis, I cite specific scenes in the film that reflect the protagonist's evolution from dogmatist to humanist and link them with their corresponding elements of humanism. In conclusion, I find that Tamura effectively represents the functionality of humanism as defined by a selection of modern thinkers