Judit Erika MAGYAR

Le labex TransferS et l’AOrOc invitent, de septembre à décembre 2015, le Professeur Judit Erika MAGYAR - Maître de Conférences en Histoire Moderne du Japon et en Histoire Mondiale à l’Université Waseda (Japon).

Crédits : Pôle communication de l’ENS

Modern Japanese History

Maritime networks and pacifist movements

Mardi 29 septembre, 17h-19h, salle F (ENS, 45 rue d’Ulm)

• Mizuno Hironori (1875-1945), the navy man turned pacifist
• Mizuno Hironori, the navy man who served as a captain in the Russo-Japanese War and commanded a torpedo ship in the final battle of Tsushima is best known not as a seaman but as an author. “This One Battle” became a defining work and a must-read for not only navy enthusiast but also for the broader public interested in a close-up narrative of a naval battle. After deciding to leave the Japanese navy in 1921 he became a pacifist and publicist for Kaiyo and Chuo Koron, two leading publications at the time. When blacklisted in 1932 and exiled to Matsuyama city on Shikoku, he still continued to compose poems and articles – his audience mostly consisted of only close friends, family and colleagues – about his conviction of why Japan should embark on an exclusively pacifist route. The current lecture is examining the historical significance of Mizuno’s legacy and his significance as a promoter of peace during Japan’s “total war” period. His ideas reverberate not only with post-war pacifist groups but also with the small number of intellectuals who fought against the military bureaucracy’s policy of aggression toward China and several other Asian countries.

Vendredi 23 octobre, 17h-19h, salle F (ENS, 45 rue d’Ulm)

• Leonce Verny (1837-1908)
• Leonce Verny was appointed as chief administrator and constructor of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in 1865 after spending time in China as an engineer of ships. Verny’s importance did not only lie in the construction of naval vessels but also in diplomatic efforts that culminated in the First French Military Mission to Japan and several cooperative projects with China. He was one of increasing number of oyatoi gaikokujin, foreigners employed by the Tokugawa government in the final days of the era. Although Japan built ships in Saga during the Edo period, Western style structures did not catch on until after the arrival of Commodore Perry and the end of sakoku (meaning “closed country”, indicating the 250 years of voluntary international seclusion in Japan). Verny’s role in the Boshin War and as a trainer of the Japanese in naval tactics calls for further research which the current presentation will outline in relative details.

Mardi 24 novembre, 17h-19h, salle F (ENS, 45 rue d’Ulm)

• Naval Bureaucracy of Taisho Japan
• The Taisho period is regarded in Japan as an era that changed the mostly Western-oriented outlook of the bureaucracy into a more inward-focused but yet expansionist regime. The navy was no exception to this trend and its governance became more and more autonomous as in their bureaucrats made decisions independent of both the army and the Tokyo government. The presentation aims to examine what direction each faction took and which eventually came to dominate naval politics in the middle of the 1920s.