This trailblazing study examines the history of narcotics in Japan to explain the development of global criteria for political legitimacy in nations and empires in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Japan underwent three distinct crises of sovereignty in its modern history: in the 1890s, during the interwar period, and in the 1950s. Each crisis provoked successively escalating crusades against opium and other drugs, in which moral entrepreneurs–bureaucrats, cultural producers, merchants, law enforcement, scientists, and doctors, among others–focused on drug use as a means of distinguishing between populations fit and unfit for self-rule.
Moral Nation traces the instrumental role of ideologies about narcotics in the country’s efforts to reestablish its legitimacy as a nation and empire.
As Kingsberg demonstrates, Japan’s growing status as an Asian power and a 'moral nation’ expanded the notion of 'civilization’ from an exclusively Western value to a universal one. Scholars and students of Japanese history, Asian studies, world history, and global studies will gain an in-depth understanding of how Japan’s experience with narcotics influenced global standards for sovereignty and shifted the aim of nation building, making it no longer a strictly political activity but also a moral obligation to society.
Japan underwent three distinct crises of sovereignty in its modern history: in the 1890s, during the interwar period, and in the 1950s. Each crisis provoked successively escalating crusades against opium and other drugs, in which moral entrepreneurs–bureaucrats, cultural producers, merchants, law enforcement, scientists, and doctors, among others–focused on drug use as a means of distinguishing between populations fit and unfit for self-rule.
Moral Nation traces the instrumental role of ideologies about narcotics in the country’s efforts to reestablish its legitimacy as a nation and empire.
As Kingsberg demonstrates, Japan’s growing status as an Asian power and a 'moral nation’ expanded the notion of 'civilization’ from an exclusively Western value to a universal one. Scholars and students of Japanese history, Asian studies, world history, and global studies will gain an in-depth understanding of how Japan’s experience with narcotics influenced global standards for sovereignty and shifted the aim of nation building, making it no longer a strictly political activity but also a moral obligation to society.
Spis treści
List of IllustrationsList of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Moral Nation
1. Moral Crusade in Meiji Japan
2. Drug Users in the Epicenter of Consumption
3. Cultural Producers and the Japanese Empire
4. Cultural Producers and Manchukuo
5. Merchants
6. Law Enforcement
7. Laboratory Scientists
8. Medical Doctors
9. Moral Panic in Postwar Japan
Notes
Works Cited
Index
O autorze
Miriam Kingsberg is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Język Angielski ● Format EPUB ● Strony 328 ● ISBN 9780520957480 ● Rozmiar pliku 9.0 MB ● Wydawca University of California Press ● Opublikowany 2013 ● Ydanie 1 ● Do pobrania 24 miesięcy ● Waluta EUR ● ID 5511856 ● Ochrona przed kopiowaniem Adobe DRM
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