Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600-1945

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Japanese Historians & The National Myths, 1600-1945
The Age of the Gods & Emperor Jinmu
by John S. Brownlee

ISBN 0-7748-0645-1
256 pp

The first written histories of Japan are the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters, 712) and the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720). These books form the basis for Japan's "ancient" history and the legitimization of the Imperial House which has ruled in a "line unbroken since time immemorial". They tell the story of the 'Age Of The Gods', the creation of the Japanese islands, and the descent from heaven of Jinmu the first Emperor in 660 BC. But how much of these stories is myth, and how much factual history?

Brownlee gives us a fascinating, informative, and highly readable book that examines how successive Japanese historians have dealt with these stories, and more importantly, how the Japanese state has dealt with the historians. The book begins in 1600, the start of the Tokugawa period, when the influence of Confucianism ushered in a new style of rational historical scholarship. These historians discovered flaws in the calculations of the dating system used to put Emperor Jinmu's accession to the throne at 660BC, and recalculated it to be 600 years later.

However this new information by soon suppressed by the rise of the scholars of the National Learning School, most notably Motoori Norinaga, who worked to reaffirm the truth of the national myths. The bulk of the book then concentrates on the time from the Meiji Restoration (1868) up until Japan's defeat in 1945. Under the influence of western scientific methodology the new historians rediscovered the miscalculations in the dating of the ancient myths, but also came to doubt the existence of the first 6 and possibly the first 14 of the emperors.

In effect this shaved 1,000 years off of Japan's "Imperial" history. The government responded by suppressing, censoring, and punishing historians who questioned the "official" view of history.
Along the way interesting points are made about the distinction between scholarship and education. The upshot was that by 1940, when Japan celebrated the 2,660th anniversary of its founding, not one historian spoke up. The control of history by the State was complete. In a short epilogue the author discusses the situation in postwar Japan, noting that in 1966 the government created National Founding Day and is celebrated every February 11th. February 11th being the date of Emperor Jinmu's acension to the throne, and one still sees today numerous references to Japan's 2,660+ years of Imperial Rule in the mainstream media. Japan is criticized by some for failing to come to terms with its past, specifically its invasions of Asia and war crimes committed during the 1930's and 40's. Reading this book illuminates just how deeply entrenched the denial of history is in Japan's political culture

Though ostensibly a book about historians and the history of history, I learned more about Japanese history from this book than most other books on Japanese history. Clear, concise, and very readable, I recommend this book to anyone interested in Japan's history, and anyone interested in the manipulation of history by those in power.



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