Crossing Empire’s Edge
For more than half a century, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Gaimusho) possessed an independent police force that operated within the space of Japan’s informal empire on the Asian continent. Charged with "protecting and controlling" local Japanese communities first in Korea and later in C...
Պահպանված է:
| Հիմնական հեղինակ: | |
|---|---|
| Ձևաչափ: | Online |
| Լեզու: | անգլերեն |
| Հրապարակվել է: |
University of Hawai'i Press
2021
|
| Խորագրեր: | |
| Առցանց հասանելիություն: | OCN: 1229512751 |
| Ցուցիչներ: |
Չկան պիտակներ, Եղեք առաջինը, ով նշում է այս գրառումը!
|
| _version_ | 1869519719242924032 |
|---|---|
| author | Esselstrom, Erik |
| author_browse | Esselstrom, Erik |
| author_facet | Esselstrom, Erik |
| author_sort | Esselstrom, Erik |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | For more than half a century, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Gaimusho) possessed an independent police force that operated within the space of Japan’s informal empire on the Asian continent. Charged with "protecting and controlling" local Japanese communities first in Korea and later in China, these consular police played a critical role in facilitating Japanese imperial expansion during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Remarkably, however, this police force remains largely unknown. Crossing Empire’s Edge is the first book in English to reveal its complex history.
Based on extensive analysis of both archival and recently published Japanese sources, Erik Esselstrom describes how the Gaimusho police became deeply involved in the surveillance and suppression of the Korean independence movement in exile throughout Chinese treaty ports and the Manchurian frontier during the 1920s and 1930s. It had in fact evolved over the years from a relatively benign public security organization into a full-fledged political intelligence apparatus devoted to apprehending purveyors of "dangerous thought" throughout the empire. Furthermore, the history of consular police operations indicates that ideological crime was a borderless security problem; Gaimusho police worked closely with colonial and metropolitan Japanese police forces to target Chinese, Korean, and Japanese suspects alike from Shanghai to Seoul to Tokyo. Esselstrom thus offers a nuanced interpretation of Japanese expansionism by highlighting the transnational links between consular, colonial, and metropolitan policing of subversive political movements during the prewar and wartime eras. In addition, by illuminating the fervor with which consular police often pressed for unilateral solutions to Japan’s political security crises on the continent, he challenges orthodox understandings of the relationship between civil and military institutions within the imperial Japanese state.
While historians often still depict the Gaimusho as an inhibitor of unilateral military expansionism during the first half of the twentieth century, Esselstrom’s exposé on the activities and ideology of the consular police dramatically challenges this narrative. Revealing a far greater complexity of motivation behind the Japanese colonial mission, Crossing Empire’s Edge boldly illustrates how the imperial Japanese state viewed political security at home as inextricably connected to political security abroad from as early as 1919—nearly a decade before overt military aggression began—and approaches northeast Asia as a region of intricate and dynamic social, economic, and political forces. In doing so, Crossing Empire’s Edge inspires new ways of thinking about both modern Japanese history and the modern history of Japan in East Asia. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-31183 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | University of Hawai'i Press |
| publisherStr | University of Hawai'i Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-311832025-07-30T19:18:50Z Crossing Empire’s Edge Esselstrom, Erik History Asia Japan thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history For more than half a century, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Gaimusho) possessed an independent police force that operated within the space of Japan’s informal empire on the Asian continent. Charged with "protecting and controlling" local Japanese communities first in Korea and later in China, these consular police played a critical role in facilitating Japanese imperial expansion during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Remarkably, however, this police force remains largely unknown. Crossing Empire’s Edge is the first book in English to reveal its complex history. Based on extensive analysis of both archival and recently published Japanese sources, Erik Esselstrom describes how the Gaimusho police became deeply involved in the surveillance and suppression of the Korean independence movement in exile throughout Chinese treaty ports and the Manchurian frontier during the 1920s and 1930s. It had in fact evolved over the years from a relatively benign public security organization into a full-fledged political intelligence apparatus devoted to apprehending purveyors of "dangerous thought" throughout the empire. Furthermore, the history of consular police operations indicates that ideological crime was a borderless security problem; Gaimusho police worked closely with colonial and metropolitan Japanese police forces to target Chinese, Korean, and Japanese suspects alike from Shanghai to Seoul to Tokyo. Esselstrom thus offers a nuanced interpretation of Japanese expansionism by highlighting the transnational links between consular, colonial, and metropolitan policing of subversive political movements during the prewar and wartime eras. In addition, by illuminating the fervor with which consular police often pressed for unilateral solutions to Japan’s political security crises on the continent, he challenges orthodox understandings of the relationship between civil and military institutions within the imperial Japanese state. While historians often still depict the Gaimusho as an inhibitor of unilateral military expansionism during the first half of the twentieth century, Esselstrom’s exposé on the activities and ideology of the consular police dramatically challenges this narrative. Revealing a far greater complexity of motivation behind the Japanese colonial mission, Crossing Empire’s Edge boldly illustrates how the imperial Japanese state viewed political security at home as inextricably connected to political security abroad from as early as 1919—nearly a decade before overt military aggression began—and approaches northeast Asia as a region of intricate and dynamic social, economic, and political forces. In doing so, Crossing Empire’s Edge inspires new ways of thinking about both modern Japanese history and the modern history of Japan in East Asia. 2021-02-10T13:48:26Z 2021-02-10T13:48:26Z 2020-12-15T14:08:00Z 2020 book OCN: 1229512751 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/43905 9780824887643 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/31183 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg n/a n/a n/a n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/43905/1/external_content.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/43905/1/external_content.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/43905/1/external_content.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/43905/1/external_content.pdf University of Hawai'i Press University of Hawai‘i Press e44031ed-f19b-493a-b6b0-2a6d8788d971 Knowledge Unlatched 9780824887643 Knowledge Unlatched (KU) KU Select 2019: HSS Backlist Books University of Hawai‘i Press open access |
| spellingShingle | History Asia Japan thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history Esselstrom, Erik Crossing Empire’s Edge |
| title | Crossing Empire’s Edge |
| title_full | Crossing Empire’s Edge |
| title_fullStr | Crossing Empire’s Edge |
| title_full_unstemmed | Crossing Empire’s Edge |
| title_short | Crossing Empire’s Edge |
| title_sort | crossing empire s edge |
| topic | History Asia Japan thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history |
| topic_facet | History Asia Japan thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history |
| url | OCN: 1229512751 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT esselstromerik crossingempiresedge |