Nation-Empire: Ideology and Rural Youth Mobilization in Japan and Its Colonies by Sayaka Chatani (review)

In this fascinating study, Sayaka Chatani examines programs designed by the state and social leaders of imperial Japan to "transform the young rural masses into ideal Japanese imperial subjects" (p. 3) and the responses they elicited from rural youth in different parts of the Japanese empire. These programs ranged from village youth organizations (seinendan) to youth training centers, youth schools, and labor youth corps. With meticulous attention to primary and secondary sources, and use of revelatory oral history interviews, Chatani explores what made these programs meaningful for youth in rural Taiwan and Korea as well as Japan proper. Her central findings are twofold. First, the purchase and appeal of the imperial state's programs were fundamentally determined by local historical and social conditions. Those who responded enthusiastically to the call to become "model rural youth" of the empire did so because in their circumstances, the vision and prospects this offered were attractive not only ideologically but also practically. Second, social and economic class position were key to the responses of youth. In Taiwan and Korea especially, it was those in what Chatani calls the "middling classes"—elementary school graduates who could not afford a secondary education—who most eagerly embraced the opportunities for social and economic advancement offered by youth programs, in what Chatani terms a "social mobility complex."

Following an introductory chapter, the book is divided into three parts. Part 1, on "The So-called Inner Territories" (Japan proper), first provides necessary context about seinendan as a national movement, before two chapters examining the case study of the village and county of Shida in Miyagi Prefecture, and an "interlude" about the situation of Okinawa. Part 2, on "The So-called Outer Territories," looks first at how students and other intellectuals in Korea and Taiwan engaged with discourse and organizations related to youth. This is followed by two chapters on Beipu village in Hsinchu Province, Taiwan, and two on Kwangsŏk village, South Ch'ungch'ŏng Province, Korea. (Chatani throughout uses Xinzhu, the pinyin transliteration for what is Hsinchu in Wade-Giles transliteration, but this review uses the latter because, as Chatani also points out, it is normally used in contemporary Taiwan.) Part 3, "Consequences," examines the experiences of rural youth in empire-wide seinendan gatherings, in Manchuria, and as soldiers in the Japanese military, before turning in an epilogue to look at the continuing lives of rural youth in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea after August 15, 1945.

Chatani's study impresses greatly in its in-depth investigation of three locations across the empire, making excellent use of primary sources and secondary scholarship in four languages. This range is what enables her penetrating analytical comparisons of regional and local variations. Some of the rich primary sources she has uncovered promise to be fruitful material for further studies—notably, the village seinendan newsletters held at the Japan Youth Center in Tokyo. However, the most exciting parts of the book for this reviewer were the sections in the chapters on Taiwan and Korea where Chatani draws on personal archives and oral history interviews with individuals who themselves took part in the youth programs described. These provide a vividly revealing lens on the complexities of motivation and experience involved in becoming a "model rural youth" in the colonies. Chatani handles these life story materials with judiciousness and sensitivity; the willingness of the research participants to share so much with her speaks eloquently of her professional and personal qualities as a researcher. These materials are especially valuable given the tendency of much research on this period to focus on the lives and productions of the better off and better educated, in line with the weight of surviving evidence.

The enormous significance of schooling is something driven home throughout this study—in particular, elementary schooling. Chatani shows that in both Taiwan and Korea, attendance at and graduation from elementary school was...