Negotiating Imperialism

This critical study of Japanese imperial historiography examines the complex relationships between scholarship, translation and diplomacy.

This study of Japanese imperial history examines the relationships between scholarship, translation and diplomacy. Focussing on historian-diplomat Murakami Naojirō, Tremml-Werner emphasizes how the past is represented in the intertwined environments of history, memory and the archive. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.In this study of Japan's imperial historiography in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Birgit Tremml-Werner examines the use of history to promote expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. Focussing on historian-diplomat Murakami Naojirō, she highlights the impact of the archive and translation in knowledge creation. Combining empirical examples including early modern diplomatic missions to Europe, indigenous Taiwanese history, colonial education and post-war cultural diplomacy, this work emphasizes how the past is represented in the intertwined environments of history and memory. She argues that the Japanese case also reveals wider questions around the myth-making of nation states, and the extent to which 'historiographical violence' has silenced the voices of actors, including Indigenous peoples and women, within the archival record. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.