News
JF-GJS Fellow Seminar「Meiji Civil War Losers: Transnational Connectivity Arising from Defeat」が開催されました
報告
The symposium on civil war losers attracted around forty attendees and hosted a lively discussion after the talk. After Dr Chinami Oka and Dr Joel Littler gave their talks, Prof Bill Steele gave some comments and opened the floor to discussion.
Dr Oka talked about a “transnational counter-culture” that emerged from some of the defeated samurai of the Boshin Civil War, covering a little known interaction between former Tohoku samurai and the Brotherhood of New Life, a spiritual Christian commune in the United States. In Dr Oka’s work, the significance of this interaction goes far beyond what is normally assumed the “influence” of Christianity is in Japan. By taking a transnational approach, she showed how Arai Ōsui and his conception of a Mother-Father God was influential in movements to educate women, defend Koreans against persecution during the 1922 earthquake, and the connection to Tanaka Shōzō’s environmental movement. Her presentation sparked lively discussion about terms like transnationalism, universalism, and Christianity in Japan.
Dr Littler gave a work-in-progress talk related to the cooperation between people from former samurai households in Tōhoku from the defeated side of the Boshin Civil War and people who were from the defeated side of the Seinan Civil War. This took place mainly in Kyushu, and had a strong connection to Asian revolutionary activity in China and Korea. Like Dr Oka, he used the concept of transnational history to find significance in the interactions between people at a non-state level. The people he discussed were not diplomats or government ministers, but they nevertheless were deeply involved in political and cultural activity in Japan and East Asia, albeit from a perspective that opposed the Meiji government’s objectives.
Dr Bill Steele drew the talks together and stressed the importance of looking at so-called “losers” to find new ways of looking at Japanese history.
開催情報
日時：2026年2月5日（木）11:00-13:00（日本時間）
会場：Conference Room 1 (304), Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, UTokyo
題目：Meiji Civil War Losers: Transnational Connectivity Arising from Defeat
報告者：Chinami Oka, Assistant Professor, Nagoya University; Joel Littler, JF-GJS Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo
司会：Joel Littler, JF-GJS Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo
討論：Prof M. William Steele, Professor Emeritus, International Christian University
使用言語：English
主催：JF-GJS Initiative, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo
登録種別：研究活動記録
登録日時：FriMay1514:39:182026
登録者 ：GAS事務局・神林
掲載期間：20260515 - 20260814
当日期間：20260205 - 20260205
