Revisiting 1919 from within Northeast Asia: In Search of a New Narrative

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

This roundtable will examine the events and impact of 1919 in Northeast Asia from a range of new perspectives that will promote a reconsideration of the prevalent historical interpretations of that year. In the existing historiography, 1919 is rightly perceived as a particularly significant year in the pivotal decade of the Great War. The treaty negotiations and settlement of World War I created formal structures, such as the League of Nations and the mandate system, which altered the institutional and ideological underpinnings of empire, while also clearly marking the shift in the center of gravity of international power from the eastern to the western shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Scholars have developed a narrative of that year as a global moment in which Great Britain, France, and the United States reaffirmed their supremacy in world affairs even as a wave of anti-colonial nationalism spread among widely dispersed populations. This roundtable rests on the simple premise that, however important, Manela’s Wilsonian Moment narrative does not sufficiently capture the complexities of that year and its influence.
We will build on that premise by examining the ways in which Japanese and Chinese influenced the post-war world and defined their realities within that context. The importance of Wilson’s declaration of the right to national self-determination is undeniable, but we will go beyond that specific pursuit. In so doing the roundtable asks, to what extent did the diplomatic endeavors, intellectual discourses, and nation-building efforts of individuals and groups within Northeast Asia constitute a rejection of key aspects of European and American hegemony or introduce fissures within it? Three discussants (Kane, Weber, Dawley) will approach that question through reflections on empirical research on Japan’s challenge to the racially segregated underpinnings of the exclusivist Wilsonian world order, the popularization of imperialist and anti-imperialist Asianist discourses in Japan, and efforts by China’s Beijing government and Nationalist Party to incorporate overseas Chinese into their nation-building efforts. The other two discussants (Tipton, Vlastos) will address the broad significance of 1919 in East Asia, before the floor is opened for audience comments.

Area of Study

• Interarea-Border Crossing

Session Organizer

• Evan Dawley, Goucher College

Chair

• Masato Kimura, Shibusawa Eiichi Memorial Foundation

Discussants

• Robert G. Kane, Niagara University

• Torsten Weber, German Institute for Japanese Studies

• Evan Dawley, Goucher College

• Elise Tipton, University of Sydney

• Tosh Minohara, Kobe University