Invading Sexuality: Perception and Response in Postwar Japan, 1945-1957

This dissertation examines Japan during the Allied Occupation and the intersection of Occupation goals for remaking Japan into a peaceful, democratic nation with domestic constructs of sexuality. This study demonstrates how prostitution, sex education, birth control, and obscenity served as crucial lenses to understand how the occupier and occupied attempted to shape sexuality within a complex Occupation power structure incorporating both the victorious Allied Forces and the defeated Japanese government. Rather than proposing a narrative of a dominant occupier subjugating the occupied, this dissertation shows how that dual-power structure allowed Japanese politicians and activists to undermine Occupation reform in order to mitigate perceived negative influences upon domestic notions of proper sexuality and reaffirm a Japanese-constructed sexuality for post-Occupation sovereign Japan

Heroism, Gaming, and the Rhetoric of Immortality

This dissertation examines rhetorics of heroism and immortality as they are negotiated through a variety of (new) media contexts. The dissertation demonstrates that media technologies in general, and videogames in particular, serve an existential or “death denying” function, which insulates individuals from the terror of mortality. The dissertation also discusses the hero as a rhetorical trope, and suggests that its relationship with immortality makes it a particularly powerful persuasive device. Chapter one provides a historical overview of the hero figure and its relationship with immortality, particularly within the context of ancient Greece. Chapter two examines the material means by which media technologies serve a death denying function, via “symbolic immortality” (inscription), and the McLuhanian concept of extension. Chapter three examines the prevalence of the hero and villain figures in propaganda, with particular attention paid to the use of visual propaganda in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Chapter four situates the videogame as an inherently heroic, death denying medium; videogames can extend the player’s sense of self, provide quantifiable victory criteria, and allow players to participate in “heroic” events. Chapter five examines the soldier-as-hero motif as it appears in two popular genres, the First Person Shooter, and Role-Playing Game. Particular attention is paid to the Call of Duty series and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Chapter six outlines an “epistemological exercise,” which attempts to empirically test the claims made in the previous chapters via Terror Management Theory, an experimental paradigm which examines the relationship between mortality, self-esteem, and ideology. The conclusion discusses how videogames can contest prevailing views of the heroic, and calls for a departure from contemporary game design practices

Annotations to Geoffrey Hill's Speech! Speech!

Geoffrey Hill’s Speech! Speech! (2000) encapsulates two thousand years’ worth of utterances in a symbolic act of remembrance and expression of despair for the current age, in which we find “our minds and ears fouled by degraded public speech—by media hype, insipid sermons, hollow political rhetoric, and the ritual misuse of words.” Through 120 densely allusive stanzas—“As many as the days that were | of SODOM”—the poem wrestles this condition from within, fighting fire with fire in an alchemical symbolic labour that transmutes the dross of corrupt and clichéd idiom into a dynamic logopoeia which proves true Hill’s persistent claim: “genuinely difficult art is truly democratic.” Such is the weird, ambivalently hostile position of poetry in the present world and thus the space of our real connection to it: “Whatever strange relationship we have with the poem, it is not one of enjoyment. It is more like being brushed past, or aside, by an alien being” (Hill). Befriending this estrangement, embracing it as a more amicable brushing-up-against, Hassan’s Annotations is a thorough and patient explication of Speech! Speech! that both clarifies and deepens the poem’s difficulties, illuminating its polyphonic language and careening discursive movement. The author’s method is at once commentarial, descriptive, and narratorial, staying faithfully with the poem and following its complex verbal and logical turns. The book generously provides, rather than direct interpretative incursion, a more durable and productive document of “the true nature / of this achievement” (stanza 92), a capacious, open understanding of the text that will prove invaluable to its present and future readers

Mitigating Decline of Church Growth Resulting from Misunderstanding of Selected Messianic Passages in Psalms and Isaiah

Paul admonishes the leaders in Ephesus to guard the flock whom God gave them oversight, to develop their spiritual insight by advancing their Scriptural aptitude so they would be able to withstand opposing forces outside the church as well as threats that would emerge from inside the church (Acts 20:28-30). Christ often engaged religious leaders in Judaism, accusing them of evangelizing to others (Matt. 23:15) and misleading those whom they had evangelized and proselytized (Matt. 15:1-13). The Bible is replete with Scriptures that require the shepherd to protect the sheep from wolves, thus the impetus for this report. This report analyzes the reason(s) there is a decline in Messianic congregations and church growth resulting from Jewish counter-apologist’s misunderstandings of selected Messianic passages in Psalms and Isaiah that has influenced Messianic Jewish parishioners and even Christians to abandon the faith in Christ. This report reviews current literature and scriptural guidance, as well as establishes a training program, modules, and exercises to outline optimal practices for congregants and leaders who need to improve upon their spiritual convictions and develop their Scriptural acumen in order to successfully defend the advent and ministry of Christ. Additionally, this report uses a multi-tiered survey to gauge the knowledge, skill, and comfort level of parishioners who participate in this project report to determine their ability, or lack thereof, in arguing for Christ as the prophesied Messiah. Data from the survey highlights areas that needs improvement and further research. This report then integrates the academic research with applied research, all in light of scriptural guidance to detail best practices as it is delineated in the Bible to benefit congregants and to advance the ministry. Finally, this report provides a guidebook that will address how to mitigate the decline in church attendance by disambiguating passages in Psalms and Isaiah, thereby making it translatable to the congregants so that they may successfully relay their theology to one who inquires or challenges their faith. Peter says “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15). Peter says that a believer should always be prepared to make a defense in one’s belief in Christ. Therefore, this report will enumerate common issues for the decline in church attendance and membership, and the decline in churches and synagogues due to congregant’s inability to successfully mount a defense to Jewish counter-apologists and introduce material that will mitigate attrition

Cyber-Human Systems, Space Technologies, and Threats

CYBER-HUMAN SYSTEMS, SPACE TECHNOLOGIES, AND THREATS is our eighth textbook in a series covering the world of UASs / CUAS/ UUVs / SPACE. Other textbooks in our series are Space Systems Emerging Technologies and Operations; Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD); Disruptive Technologies with applications in Airline, Marine, Defense Industries; Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land; Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies and Operations; Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain: Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 2nd edition; and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the Cyber Domain Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 1st edition. Our previous seven titles have received considerable global recognition in the field. (Nichols & Carter, 2022) (Nichols, et al., 2021) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2020) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020) (Nichols R. , et al., 2019) (Nichols R. K., 2018) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2022)https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1052/thumbnail.jp

The Cultural Politics of Proprietorship: The Socio-historical Evolution of Japanese Swordsmanship and its Correlation with Cultural Nationalism

This thesis provides a detailed socio-historical analysis of the evolutionary process of traditional Japanese swordsmanship (kenjutsu) from the inception of distinct martial schools (bugei-ryuha) in the fourteenth century, to its gradual progression into a modern competitive sport (kendo), and a subject of study in the current Japanese education system. The following questions with regards to the development of Japanese swordsmanship were analysed: 1) How did schools dedicated to the study of martial arts (bugei-ryuha) evolve, and why was the sword so important to the early traditions? 2) What was the process in which kenjutsu become “civilised”, and how did it relate to class identity in the Tokugawa period (1600-1868)? 3) In what way did kenjutsu transmute when class distinctions and national isolationist policies (sakoku) were abolished in the Meiji period (1868–1912)? 4) What were the cultural and political influences in the rise of “state” and “popular” nationalism, and how did they affect the “re-invention” and manipulation of kendo in the first half of the twentieth century? 5) How did post-war private and national cultural policy affect the reinstatement of kendo and its usefulness in inculcating a sense of “Japaneseness”? 6) What are the nationalistic motivations, and perceived dangers of the international propagation of kendo with regards to cultural propriotership? Through applying socio-historical concepts such as Norbert Elias’s “civilising process” and Eric Hobsbawm’s “invention of tradition”, as well as various descriptions of nationalism to the evolution of kendo, this thesis demonstrates how the martial art has continued to maintain a connection with the past, while simultaneously developing into a symbolic and discursive form of traditional culture representing a “cultural ethos” considered to be a manifestation of “Japaneseness”. Ultimately, kendo can be described as a kind of participatory based mind-body Nihonjinron. Japan’s current reaction as it ponders the repercussions if it were to somehow lose its status as the suzerain nation of kendo, i.e. as exclusive owners of kendo - a martial art perceived as one of the most representative forms of traditional Japanese culture – is also assessed in this thesis

From the edge of a rib: pro-ana edgeworking narratives

People who deliberately practice eating disordered behaviors as a lifestyle form digital communities known as pro-ana. Pro-ana identity is constructed through the medicalized frameworks of anorexia nervosa that attempt to maximize weight loss and also manage other eating disorder behaviors such as binging and purging. This thesis examines pro-ana materials requested and produced on websites, Whisper, and Reddit, assembling these discursive and image exchanges into discourses that identify and describe eating disorder pathology and recovery. My ethnographic collection consists of screenshots of written materials and images from websites, Whisper posts, Reddit threads, and a Discord. This thesis examines discursive strategies used by pro-ana writers to avoid censorship, maintain pro-ana identity, move toward lower weight goals, and manage physiological risks and social risks of stigmatization or interference. Personification and other figurative externalizations of eating disorders separate and concretize the chaotic and compulsive aspects of eating disorders. These writers construct iconic figures, skill-sets and practices that both embrace and reject ideologies around anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders

DRONE DELIVERY OF CBNRECy – DEW WEAPONS Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD)

Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD) is our sixth textbook in a series covering the world of UASs and UUVs. Our textbook takes on a whole new purview for UAS / CUAS/ UUV (drones) – how they can be used to deploy Weapons of Mass Destruction and Deception against CBRNE and civilian targets of opportunity. We are concerned with the future use of these inexpensive devices and their availability to maleficent actors. Our work suggests that UASs in air and underwater UUVs will be the future of military and civilian terrorist operations. UAS / UUVs can deliver a huge punch for a low investment and minimize human casualties.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1046/thumbnail.jp

Aspects of Leadership

Aspects of Leadership is a new book edited by Lieutenant Colonel Carroll Connelley and Dr. Paolo Tripodi, the Ethics Branch head, and comprised of essays by a group of 20 leadership and ethics scholars and practitioners. The Lejeune Leadership Institute Ethics Branch, Marine Corps University, provides current and relevant scholarly research and instruction on ethics and moral leadership and the law of war. This collection of essays provides timely and insightful views on current leadership behavior and ethical concerns that men and women of the armed forces face in the demanding, complex, and prolonged decade of armed conflict

Flags and Flag Presentation Speeches, 1860-1865

Articles from Civil War era newspapers about flags and flag presentations, including published speeches