The Conformed/Deviated Self in Diaries of Modern Japan: The Diversity and Contradiction of Self-expression

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

The culture of diaries flourished in Modern Japan. It meant not only that the production and consumption of diaries increased in a rapid and constant manner, but also that they developed to be classified into diverse categories according to gender, age, community, education, profession, or even ethnicity. While diaries created private space for self-expression, they also became ideological apparatus for national education conforming users to the relevant social norms. Although some enjoyed to be a role model, others refused to be so and thus deviated from the norm; diaries constructed conflicting discursive space for self-expression with a tension between subjection and emancipation.
This panel examines how self-expression were performed in the dynamics of the social norms of modern Japan from various aspects. Tanaka will investigate the inculcating nature of mandatory diaries with a focus on censorship by teachers and military superiors. Kawachi will reveal how the youth in agricultural communities were imposed to be an ideal farmer when writing about themselves in diaries. Kō will scrutinize the tangled self-expression in colonial occupation by shedding a light on a diary of a secondary school student in Manchuria, who kept his diary both in Chinese and Japanese. Ōno will explore the case of deviation into the diary space by analyzing the works of Hōjo Tamio, who epitomizes so-called leprosy literature of modern Japan. Through the four studies on diverse and contradicted self-expression in diaries, the panel aims to provide new perspectives to the social intellectual history in modern Japan.

Area of Study

• Northeast Asia

Session Organizer

• Yusuke Tanaka, Meiji Gakuin University

Individual Presentations

• Writing Inculcated Genuine Heart: Self-expression and Censorship in Modern Japanese Diaries - Yusuke Tanaka, Meiji Gakuin University

• Diary-Keeping in Modern Agricultural Society: Self-Representation of The Youth in Agricultural Areas - Satoko Kawachi, Tohoku University

• The School Life and City Experience in Colonial Manchuria: An Analysis of a Chinese Youth’s Diary of 1936 - En Ko, Komazawa University

• Is This What I Wished For?: Hojo Tamio’s Diary As an Literary Refuge - Robert Ono, Japan College of Social Work

Discussant

• M. William Steele, International Christian University