Left-Wing and the 'Other' History: The Native-Land Project and Counter-Mapping

The Native Land Project began in 2015 as a Canadian not-for-profit organisation. In December 2018 the project began in earnest, and now has began a project of 'counter-mapping' to represent indigenous history. It is an unfortunate part of history that indigenous peoples across the world have had their lives and lands taken away from them by colonial forces. Native Land aims to represent indigenous land claims, treaties, and languages on an interactive map, and it is continuously expanding. As it was originally associated with the Indigenous Board of Directors in Canada the project is Canada-centric, but it has expanded to include the rest of the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. So far the project has only focused on the Americas and Oceania, and certain areas are still not represented - Brazil and Nicaragua for example - but the project is still expanding.

What is Counter-Mapping?

A Gall-Peters Map

Maps are not value-free objects - they are all made for specific reasons. As argued by J.B. Harley, 'maps are a cultural text' where maps are intrinsically linked to power. Benedict Anderson linked maps to the formation of national identity; by demarcating where the borders lay it was used by national rulers to build a national community. By delineating who belongs within the border helped create the nation. Counter-mapping aims to put the this on its head, and look at maps through alternate lenses. These 'counter-maps' can vary immensely based on purpose and usage. A good example is the use of a Gall-Peters map instead of a Mercator map. If you look at a map in North America or Europe it will likely use the Mercator scale - it was designed in the sixteenth century to allow sailors navigate their way to the Americas from Europe. This meant that certain areas, especially Europe and Greenland, were made much larger, and other areas, like Africa and India, were shrunk. Due to the legacy of colonialism, the Mercator scale reinforces European importance. In contrast, the Gall-Peters map changes the scale in a different way to more accurately represent the size, and even place, where continents lie. Although not perfect, there is distortion in any global map, it makes the map appear more as does in reality.

Decolonial Atlas' map of Australia from an indigenous point of view

That is just one example of a counter-map. Denis Wood has shown how varied counter-maps can be. The 1971 Detroit Geographic Expedition first mapped where children were killed in hit-and-run accidents, where the white population is, and then transposed both maps over one another. It showed how white motorists travelling between the white suburbs and white business sector hit African-American children - it showed the an indirect racial series of murders. The Decolonial Atlas shows a different version of counter-mapping - this website shows a variety of maps ranging from the US written in indigenous names to bio-regions of Africa. Native Land is a good example of counter-mapping.

The Native Land Project

A board of indigenous activists, historians, and cartographers run the Native Land Project with the aim to bring awareness of indigenous land claims. They themselves acknowledge that it is far from perfect - they argue that it is incomplete and the legacies of colonialism mean that land claims cannot be fully traced. However, it is doing an important job in recognising indigenous history. As contributor Chelsea Vowel, a Metis woman, stated:

If we think of territorial acknowledgments as sites of potential disruption, they can be transformative acts that to some extent undo Indigenous erasure. I believe this is true as long as these acknowledgments discomfit both those speaking and hearing the words. The fact of Indigenous presence should force non-Indigenous peoples to confront their own place on these lands.

They aim to make settlers recognise that there were people who lived on the lands before them - genocide and exploitation forced indigenous peoples from these lands. In contrast to the Canadian government, the Native Land Project expands whose claims to look at - they acknowledge Inuit and Metis claims as well as the First Nations. The map contains no borders to reflect that contemporary borders do not reflect where territories and languages were. For example, the Blackfoot territory was split in half by the creation of the US-Cananda border where Montana and Saskatchewan now are. The languages, territories, and treaties on the map show where peoples and land claims are, and the map supply links to websites made by indigenous activists to inform readers. Looking at the map you get a strong sense of just how diverse and overlapping indigenous peoples are in just small areas. Below is a language map of California perfectly showing this:

It can be usefully compared to other counter-mapping projects. For example, below is the Native Land Project's territory map of Australia showing a similar map as the one shown above.

The map is still in development - as mentioned earlier there are still many areas of the world which need filling in. Brazil, Nicaragua, and Brazil have no treaties, territories, and languages, and the rest of the world needs to be filled in. The Saami of Scandinavia; Tatars of Central Asia and Ukraine; the various peoples of Papua New Guinea, China, and Vietnam; the Khoisan of South Africa; and Ainu and Okinawans of Japan are just some people not included. However, the creators emphasise that it is not complete and not perfect - especially in Australia a wide range of territories overlap so a readable map would be difficult to do. Hopefully, the Native Land Project will continue to be funded, it relies on donations, and can continue to expand to reflect various indigenous peoples across the world.

The sources use are as follows:

-'Native-Land Project,' https://native-land.ca/

-'The Decolonial Atlas,' https://decolonialatlas.wordpress.com/

-Denis Wood, Rethinking the Power of Maps, (New York: Guilford Press, 2010)

-Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, (London: Verso, 1991)

-J.B. Harley, The New Nature of Maps, (Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 2001)

For other Left-Wing and the 'Other' History posts please see our list here. For other blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

World History: Meiji Japan

Throughout the nineteenth-century various states tried to 'modernise' themselves, but many looked to Japan for guidance. Within a space of a decade Japan turned itself from a primarily rural and feudal state, to a capitalist and industrialised one. A British observer called Basil Hall Chamberlain wrote that:

From Andrew Gordon

The last time we discussed Japan we looked at the Tokagawa Shogunate, the last samurai-led government, bakufu, to rule Japan. Even before the arrival of US Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853, which caused Japan to end its isolationist policy towards Europe the year after, the bakufu was facing serious challenges to its authority. The strict social system was becoming blurred with many samurai having to marry their daughters to wealthy merchants, the rise of money undermined the rice-based economy, and with the government in Edo becoming impoverished two hostile domains, Choshu and Satsuma, started to rise in power. Despite strict isolationist policies Choshu and Satsuma had been secretly trading with the Dutch outside of the official port in Nagasaki bolstering their wealth, and the two domains had never forgiven the Tokugawa for seizing power in 1600. Japanese nationalism started to emerge as European and American powers started signing with the bakufu, albeit through coercion, treaties granting them special privileges just as they had done in China, the subject for the next World History post. Angered Japanese nationalists, of various classes, attacked foreigners and those perceived to be aiding them, and issued the cry sonnō jōi (revere the emperor, expel the barbarian). This caused foreign powers to force the bakufu to sign more treaties, which, in turn, inspired more attacks. Meanwhile, the mismanaged economy led to widespread inflation, food shortages and unemployment causing riots countrywide. The people said Ed ja nai ka?, 'Who Cares Anymore?' Thus, this set the stage for the Meiji Restoration.

The Meiji Restoration, or Revolution?

Satsuma samurai during the Boshin War

The southern domains of Choshu and Satsuma had long standing grievances thanks to their defeat by the Tokugawa all the way back in 1600, and the political crisis brought them together in 1866. After decades of secret trading with Western merchants, most recently with Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover, they started to build up their force to resist Edo rule. Then in 1867 two major events happened changing the face of Japan forever. The first, the bakufu army was quickly defeated by Choshu; fires breaking out in Edo and Osaka took a portion of the government's army to try and put it out, so the remains were no match against the better equipped Choshu forces. That same year the emperor died bringing his 14-year old son, Mutsuhito, to the throne as the Meiji Emperor. With Satsuma, Choshu, and another domain Tosa putting pressure on the bakufu to grant the new emperor more power this forced the shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, to resign. In early-1868, young samurai from these domains took control of Kyoto, where the emperor lived, and declared the 'Meiji Restoration.' They issued the Charter Oath declaring: the creation of assemblies, the seizure of Tokugawa lands, all classes being united in carrying out state affairs, the banning of 'evil customs', and 'knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundation of imperial rule.' The shogunate and its supporters did not take this laying down - after the fall of the capital Edo they moved to the northernmost island of Ezo in what has been called the Boshin War. Meiji forces won, being supported by Britain, using an army combining samurai and European methods. While the generals wore British uniforms, rank-and-file soldiers wore their older samurai uniforms.

There has been debate about whether to describe the events as a 'Restoration' or a 'Revolution.' Chris Harding described it as a 'coup' as the events of 1868 replaced a system ruled by samurai with one comprised of samurai - just this time they were from Choshu, Satsuma and Tosa and of a younger generation. Meanwhile, others, such as Andrew Gordon, argue that we can refer to it as 'Revolution' as it facilitated the end of Japanese feudalism. Although the ruling class might be the same as pre-1868, the economic and social changes caused by the Restoration, he argues, can only be described as 'revolutionary.'

Building the Meiji State

Iwakura Mission officials - Iwakura is in the centre

The next stage of the Meiji period has often been described as 'emulating' the West, but in reality it can best be described as 'adapting' the West. To centralise power the emperor was moved to the capital of Edo which was renamed Tokyo. Tax, decentralised and originally paid in rice based on harvest size, was replaced by a centrally assessed land tax paid in cash. To curb the power of a resurgent samurai class the hundreds of domains were replaced by fifty prefectures. In order to break the traditional power of the samurai, and to allow wealthy merchants into the hegemony of power, in 1871 samurai/commoner marriage was allowed, and soon after 'samurai' were abolished. These policies were guided by a principle, similar to the Chinese self-strengthening movement, called fukoko kyōhei (enrich the state, strengthen the military). It was no coincidence that one of the major politicians of the Meiji era was the 'Father of the Military' Yamagata Aritomo. Although the bakufu had sent pupils abroad in the early-1860s to study in Europe and the US, a large scale programme was enacted by minister Iwakura Tomomi from 1871 to 1873 in what has been called the 'Iwakura Mission.' The children of Meiji samurai were sent to Europe and America to study engineering, economics, military, politics, and sciences as a way to produce the next generation of rulers who could use their knowledge they acquired elsewhere. Britain, as another island nation and as a heavily industrialised state, was initially the nation to emulate. Some reformers suggested that adoption of Christianity and even more beef dishes could help Japan become more like Britain. However, German unification under Prussia made Germany the state to learn from. German conscription, schooling, and military training were adapted for Japanese means. The German constitution would come to heavily inspire the 1889 Constitution as it placed the monarch in the centre of politics; the new class were keen to limit the power of democracy. When visiting Chinese minister Li Hongzhang in 1885 one of Japan's leading figures, Mori Arinori, was questioned how he could abandon his culture in favour of the West. Mori replied saying that he and Japan were just doing what they had always done - adapt from other nations what suited them. 

The Rokumeikan

As stated by Mori, the new Meiji class did not simply adapt policies and ideas from the West. Following 1853 Japanese communities were looking at themselves to understand why they had easily been humbled by Matthew Perry. This was soon followed by the promotion of Shinto over Buddhism, and attacks on Buddhist temples with it being seen as an alien faith which hindered Japan. If you are in Europe and the US and see Japanese Buddhist artefacts from the 1850s and 1860s it is likely from a temple pillaged during this period. Even though some Japanese ministers advocated converting the nation to Christianity, this was roundly rejected, such as by one of the key political figures Ito Hirobumi, of rejecting Japan. Andrew Gordon has also highlighted the push and pull about the adoption of industrial capitalism. Some, like Kido Koin who in 1872 described industrialism in the US as being 'astonishing' and 'indescribably', saw it as the best way to stop Japan from being dominated by imperial powers, whereas others warned against this. Far from being socialists, several Meiji ministers warned against the adoption of industrial capitalism as they saw the exploitation of workers and ruthless competition as rupturing Japan's Confucian social order. One of the Meiji era's most important figure, Ito Hirobumi, used the phrase kokutai (national body) to describe how Japan should function - the nation was a family with the emperor as the father, and anything which could disrupt the family should be discouraged. The Rokumeikan, finished in 1883 at ruinous cost, is the perfect example of this. Designed by British architect Josiah Conder, it combined European architecture with Japanese lanterns, ponds, and pines where the elite, and middle classes, could interact with foreign dignitaries. This was commissioned by Ito and Inoue Kaoru to put Japan on the world stage. It was not uncommon for dancers to combine kimonos and suits, and the masquerade ball of 1887 caused rumours that etiquette was abandoned - Ito is rumoured to have had an affair with a married woman that night. These scandals, and satire by the West, caused these balls to be abandoned.

The Emperor Meiji in Western guard - this was issued to show that Japan and its rulers were a new power

There was also a keen urge to create a centralised state with a strong army. We have already mentioned conscription, but education was seen as also being of vital importance. The Fundamental Code of Education in 1872 was released which set out to make a break from the Tokugawa era, and began building more schools out of the hands of religious institutions. A 1875 survey of 20,000 schools found that 18% were in new buildings, and this continued to grow. Elementary education was pushed above all - in 1892 it was found that 27% of conscripts were illiterate and that figure vanished by the start of the First World War. The big push for education began under Mori Arinori from 1885 who stated that it was for 'the sake of our country.' Setting the stage for an authoritarian and nationalist state, Mori had elementary education stress devotion to the state and founded the Imperial University in Tokyo. In 1937 it was found that 73.6% of high civil servants and 49.7% of judicial officials had attended Imperial. Centralisation took many forms. During the 1850s and 1860s loosening restrictions on print allowed a boom in newspapers, and soon they were centralised to prevent regional loyalty. Furthermore, to avoid regional loyalties prefecture governors were prevented from serving in the prefecture they were born in, and were often moved around. A key part of centralisation was industrialism. Building railroads and telegraph lines linked even the most rural areas creating a sense of national unity - by 1877 2,827 miles of telegraph lines had been installed.

The 1889 Constitution and Politics

In 1889, largely drafted by Ito Hirobumi and other Meiji conservatives, Japan's first constitution was promulgated. Inspired by the German constitution it created a top-down state where power, in theory but not practice, rested on the emperor. The concept of kokutai placed the emperor as the father of the nation and his subjects as his children. This Constitution would remain in place until 1947, and would serve as a way to unite the nation - the nation was one large family. However, this concept was used to silence calls for democracy, republicanism, and women's rights, and Japanese fascists and militarists later would use it to justify their own take over. As described by Chris Harding, the 1880s up to the 1900s can be described as a 'dancing cabinet' where the role of prime minister regularly shifted between several figures - notably Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo, and Matsukata Masayoshi. A big reason for this was that the office of Prime Minister was by the Diet which had a very small franchise; only 5% of the male population could vote and the first election of 1890 saw 450,000 people vote, or 1% of the population. It took until the 1920s for universal male suffrage to be passed, and women could not vote until the 1940s. This veneer of democracy allowed a safe way for opinions to be debated without harming the ruling power, and allowed policies to be easily transmitted to the public. This is shown in which parties were elected to the first Diet - the Jiyuto, Itagaki Taisuke brought samurai together to campaign for a national assembly, and the Kaishinto, capitalists who wanted to bring about a British style government. Until the 1940s Satsuma-Choshu controlled the government - Ito was prime minister four times, and Yamagata twice. More radical demands could, therefore, be easily barred from government. A 1909 Press Law allowed 'dangerous' publications to be banned, and the 1894 Peace Preservation Law was used to curb the extra-parliamentary support of the Jiyuto Party.

Japanese Capitalism

Women working in a textile factory

As when we looked at the history of capitalism, Japanese capitalism had its origins far into the past. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate the wealth divisions between merchants and samurai had become increasingly blurred, and in the 1850s had funded anti-bakufu movements. Angered by the bakufu excluding them from power, so they threw themselves behind the Meiji reformers. Many of these merchant families would evolve into zaibatsu, or conglomerates, which would hold monopolies over the Japanese economy until the Second World War. Even then, they still exist under a different name. The 'Big Four' zaibatsu, (Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Yasuda), would hold great influence over Japan, and many politicians were practically in their pockets. By the 1920s they owned 70% of the stock exchange, 30% of mining and chemicals, and 50% of machinery. A reason why they became so powerful was due to the Meiji state relying on them to industrialise. Fearful that contracts with Europeans to industrialise the state would open the door for Euro-American domination, they instead relied on zaibatsu. Soon enough politicians and capitalists became inseparable - a common story was how politicians would order a bento box, and in one of the slots was a wad of cash from a zaibatsu. As in the rest of the world capitalism would drastically shape the demographics of Japan. The cities grew exponentially as people moved to the docks and urban factories to work. E. Patricia Tsurumi has highlighted how it was socially accepted for young rural women to move to the cities to work in textiles until they married when they would move back to the countryside. Furthermore, as expected, capitalism was entwined with empire.

The Japanese Empire

Photos like these were taken to show the difference between the Japanese colonisers and colonised Ainu

Japan answered threats of colonialism with colonialism. As stated by Mori Arinori, the reformers had the view of a 'lips and teeth' policy - Japan was the 'teeth' and needed 'lips' to protect it. One of the first acts of the reformers was to 'incorporate' the island of Ezo into Japan, which they renamed Hokkaido. The Ainu were the indigenous peoples of Hokkaido and had traded with northern Japanese for centuries, but the fear of imperial domination by Russia made Tokyo want to dominate the region. The Hokkaido Colonization Program was set up where former samurai were granted Ainu land, declared terra nullis, and open for distribution. Meanwhile, the Ainu were forced to adopt farming in reservations like Chitose. Like other colonial powers Japan viewed the Ainu as children and tried destroying their culture - their language was banned (in 1993 less the 1% can speak Ainu), the Hokkaido wolf (important to their faith) was driven to extinction, and their home design was also changed. To the south, the Ryukyu Kingdom was annexed and turned into Okinawa prefecture; just as in Hokkaido Ryukyuan identity was attacked. Despite calling Ainu and Ryukyuans 'Japanese' this was far from the case - Ainu in schools were called 'Ah! Inu!' (Ah - A dog), Ainu villages were turned into tourist attractions, and Ryukyuan visitors were horrified at the Osaka Industrial Exhibition of 1903 for being presented as 'savages' in the 'Hall of Mankind.' This was particularly insulting for Ryukyuans as the Japanese state had declared them 'Japanese' even before the annexation; a 'civilising' raid, funded by shipping zaibatsu Iwasaki Yatarō, on Taiwanese indigenous peoples was done in 1874 in revenge for the killings of Ryukyuan fishers.

Japanese Troops arriving in Seoul in 1905

The best known aspects of Japanese imperialism was its actions in China, Taiwan, and Korea. This was supported by both the military and capitalists - it was a way to bolster the military's strength, 'defend' Asia from Euro-Americans, and open up markets and resources for capitalist growth. During the 1880s and 1890s Japan started intervening in Korean affairs - something which caused an uprising as early as 1882. A peasant rebellion called the Donghak Revolution rose up against the Joseon Dynasty in 1894 which brought in both China and Japan. Using this as a way to extend its influence in Korea Japan went to war against China in 1894, and the industrialised military of Japan quickly wiped out the Chinese opponents. Japan took over Korea's politics and economy, and directly annexed Taiwan and Liaodong. Japanese militarists and capitalists pushed for the outright annexation of Korea, which happened in 1910, despite nationalist opposition in Korea. In 1909 Ito Hirobumi, then president of the privy-council, was assassinated by Korean nationalist An Jung-geun for discrimination against Koreans in Japan, having members of the royal family killed, and for dismantling Korean independence. Regardless, the following year Korea lost its independence; even its royal family was brought into the Japanese royal family. During the Meiji era, Koreans were considered 'fellow Asians' but 'requiring' education by Japan - this would soon change to attempts to eradicate Korean culture. Korean land was given to pro-Japanese Koreans and Japanese landowners, and ordinary Koreans became a source of cheap labour for factories. It was under this period that Japan's Korean diaspora began to emerge. Following 1894 Japan joined Euro-American powers in partitioning China, Japan sent troops to put down the Boxer Rebellion as an example. The 1904 Russo-Japanese War began due to competing Russian and Japanese efforts to exercise hegemony in Manchuria (a point we shall discuss soon).

Women in Meiji Japan

We have yet to mention many female voices so far, and this is due to Meiji Japan enforcing intense patriarchy. Meiji reformers argued, partially inspired by Western attitudes, that women's space was in the home with the family. Restructuring the nation as being a family headed by the male emperor meant that women were often sidelined. The state was keen to regulate women's lives, going as far as to regulate hair and clothing in 1872, and women being brought into education was done to ingrain domesticity. This does not mean that women were entirely excluded from Japanese life. Several reformers did campaign for increased women's rights - Mori Arinori ignored conservatives and sent five women to study in the US, and in 1885 Iwamoto Zenji published Women's Education where he equated civilisation with women's rights. Women themselves also challenged the idea of domesticity. In 1876 women comprised 60% of the workforce, and this ratio continued up to 1914. Of course, women were treated horribly in factories being subjected to sexual abuse, poor working conditions, 15 hour work days, and being kept in prison-like housing. However, E. Patricia Tsurumi has shown how women tried to resist this ranging from songs insulting overseers, running away, and wild-cat strikes. Japan's first strike occurred in the Amamiya Silk Factory in Kofu in 1886 when 100 women walked out in response to a dock in wages and an increase in work hours. After four days they succeeded in having this reversed. 

The first issue of Bluestockings

A burgeoning feminist movement further developed in Japan. In the 1870s Itagaki Taisuke's Movement for Freedom and Popular Rights emerged, eventually forming the Jiyuto party, to campaign for expansion of the franchise. Thanks to Kusunose Kita, who received her husband's property and tax liabilities after he died, in 1872 started pressuring the Movement to adopt women's rights. She argued that why should women be taxed like a man, if they lacked the rights of a man? Similarly, Kishida Toshiko in the 1880s became influential by travelling across Japan doing speeches attacking patriarchal systems - in 1883 she was arrested for giving a speech called 'Daughters Confined in Boxes.' This has been seen as the first direct attack on Japan's patriarchal system by a woman. Due to the rising influence of women in politics in 1890 a law was passed barring women from partaking in political activism; this curtailed the growing feminist movement but did not stop it. Socialists like Fukuda Hideko and Sugaya Iwako participated in the underground socialist movements, and in 1911 the influential feminist magazine Bluestockings began publishing.

Resistance

A depiction of the Satsuma Rebellion

Many figures and movements resisted aspects of the Meiji movement - so far we have discussed just a few of them. In the 1870s there were a series of anti-Meiji movements ranging from an attempt by firebrands in Hizen to invade Korea in 1873 as they were angered by the government not doing so, and a few years later in Kumamoto a zealous group tried to reverse the Restoration failed as they refused to use firearms. In 1877 the Satsuma Rebellion broke out under Saigo Takamori, who was angered at inaction over Korea, which lasted for six months and cost over 32,000 casualties. Saigo professed loyalty to the throne, wore his Imperial Army uniform, and declared that ministers were leading Japan down the wrong path. As it was limited to samurai and geographically isolated the rebellion was crushed, and Saigo commit suicide. Not all rebellions were by disgruntled elites. Peasants refused to answer the 1873 Conscription Edict calling it a 'blood tax' as the wealthy could avoid conscription based on a payment. Grassroots rioters attacked government offices, moneylenders, and wealthy merchants and farmers. A similar movement emerged burning down schools in protest of the new tax laws.

Some of the most unique forms of resistance emerged as well. In 1884, Kageyama Hideko had her school for women closed when some pupils attended a political meeting, so the next year she tried to smuggle bombs to Korea to encourage an armed uprising to bring democracy to Korea and Japan. Another female school teacher, Miura Momonosuke in Gunma prefecture in 1884 started recruiting gangsters, farmers, and even sumo wrestlers to take prisoner key imperial officials during an official visit; in neighbouring Saitama 3,000 teachers, artisans, and farmers formed the Poor People's Army to prepare for an armed uprising. As mentioned earlier, the anarchist and Christian inspired socialist movement was quickly oppressed - the first official socialist party was formed in 1906 and lasted two days before being banned. In May 1910 the 'High Treason Incident' was discovered - this was a plot to assassinate the emperor resulting in the execution of 12 leftists (of whom not all were actually involved). One was feminist Kanno Suga who said during her trial 'I think the Emperor as an individual may be deserving of sympathy, but he heads the system that oppresses us and...is politically responsible...The person I consider most abominable as an individual is Yamagata. I think, given the opportunity, I would try to throw a bomb at him.' 

The Russo-Japanese War and Conclusion

As mentioned earlier, when Russia completed the Trans-Siberian railway Japan clashed with it over influence in Manchuria, northern China. In 1904 this sparked a war which saw the Russian navy roundly defeated at the Battle of Tsushima seeing two-thirds of the Russian navy being destroyed. This turned out to be a turning point in history. Japan, who less than forty years before had been a rural and feudal state, roundly defeated what had been considered one of the world's great powers. What is more telling was how it influenced how race and empire were considered. Japan, a non-white nation, had defeated a white power - some in Europe tried to downplay it by saying that Russia was not a 'true' white nation, but its impact was immense. Even in nations it was oppressing Japan became a hero uniting the colonised peoples of the world. From Tibet to America colonised peoples praised Japan. Chinese nationalist Sun Yat-sen said 'We regarded that Russian defeat by Japan as the defeat of the West by the East. We regarded the Japanese victory as our own victory' and Indian nationalist Jawaharlal Nehru said it was a sign that Europe could be defeated. Although the Japanese public were disappointed with the result of the war, the war was a shift in how the world viewed Japan. However, it started a dangerous precedent. Japan would use the war to position itself as the defender of Asia, which it would use to commit atrocities and exploit peoples across Asia until the defeat of the empire in 1945.

When the Meiji Emperor died in 1912 Japan had evolved from a feudal state to a capitalist empire. While inspiring colonised peoples to try and resist colonial domination, the Japanese Empire would go on to become a repressive state. The Constitution would be used to censor pro-democracy and feminist movements, and the rise of the empire would lead to the intense abuses in the wider empire. However, this period also saw the rise of movements which could resist this oppression, and this resistance existing under the surface continues to shape Japan today.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Marius Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan, (Cambridge, MA: 2000)

-Chris Harding, Japan Story: In Search of a Nation, 1850 to the Present, (London: 2018)

-Janet Hunter, The Emergence of Modern Japan: An Introductory History since 1853, (London: 1989)

-Marius Jansen, (ed.), The Cambridge History of Japan: Vol. 5, The Nineteenth Century, (Cambridge: 1989)

-Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, (Oxford: 2014)

-D. Howell, 'Ainu Ethnicity and the Boundaries of the Early Modern Japanese State,' Past and Present, 142, (1994), 69-93

-E. Patricia Tsurumi, Factory Girls: Women in the Thread Mills of Meiji Japan, (Princeton, 1990)

-E. Patricia Tsurumi, "Problem Consciousness and Modern Japanese History: Female Textile Workers of Meiji and Taisho", Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 18:4, (1984), 3-27

-Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World, (London: 1986)

Our next World History post will look at the collapse of the Qing and Chinese between two revolutions, we have a list of other World History here. For other blog posts see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

1990s Africa and the Limits of Community

This was first published by Retrospect Journal in their Autumn/Winter 2017 issue, Individuals and Communities. This can be found here.

A pro-Biafra protester in the 2000s

During the 1990s national and community identities drastically shifted. National resurgence was shown in a variety of ways ranging from the peaceful referendums on Quebec’s independence and the creation of a Scottish parliament in 1995 and 1997 respectively, to the bloody genocides in the Balkans following the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Africa too saw the reshaping of community. For example, a more inclusive community was created in South Africa following the first multi-racial election in 1994 formally ending Apartheid, but in other areas this change became increasingly exclusive. European powers at the 1884 Berlin Conference carved Africa between themselves disregarding ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, and initiated divide-and-rule policies in the colonised regions. The legacies of this are still felt today. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the end of the Cold War, and the IMF’s adoption of neo-liberal and free market ideologies caused dramatic changes in Africa, and the world, which brought ideas of identity and community into question. In particular, this article will focus on Rwanda, Nigeria, and Somalia showing the shifts in communal identity in these regions.

     The Rwandan Genocide is perhaps the most infamous post-war genocide costing the lives of up to a million people in a month long massacre. Before colonial rule the idea of ‘Tutsis’ and ‘Hutus’ had become class distinctions, but the arrival of German, and later Belgian colonisers had made this distinction firmly racially based. In 1916 Belgian colonial authorities handed out identity cards making someone either a Hutu or Tutsi with the Tutsis in a dominant role. Years later this would lead to moderate Hutus, the Tutsi and Twa populations were murdered en masse in 1994 although it was not the first ethnic violence to strike the ‘land of a thousand hills.’ During the Rwandan Revolution – the revolution to overthrow the Tutsi monarchy and Belgian rule – 130,000 Tutsis fled abroad where exiles formed insurgent groups called inyenzi (cockroaches) to raid Rwanda which led the new president, Grégoire Kayibanda, to seek reprisal on the Tutsi community with the World Council of Churches estimating that 10,000 were killed by the end of 1962. The fear of Tutsis increased when a Tutsi extremist seized power via a military coup in neighbouring Burundi in 1965, causing the massacre of 200,000 and another 200,000 to flee to Rwanda. For thirty years Tutsis and Twa faced discriminated which reached fever pitch in the 1990s.

     The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) had been formed in exile by largely Tutsis and invaded Rwanda in 1990, ostensibly to allow exiled Tutsis, (and political exiles), to return home and to potentially end the one-party rule of President Habyarimana initiating the Rwandan Civil War. Under French pressure Habyarimana had been softening his hard-line stance towards multi-party democracy allowing newly forming Hutu opposition groups, like the Social Democratic Party (PSD), to court the RPF. Fighting led to the signing of the Arusha Accords in 1993 which aimed to create a coalition government with Habyarimana’s Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Dévelopment (MRND), the RPF and other opposition parties. Hutus were also allowed to remain in power, being the largest ethnic group, where 60 per cent of upper ranks in the army would be given to Hutus. However, here the limits of community in Rwanda were shown. ‘Hutu Power’ had become a dominant force in Rwandan society and viewed the Arusha Accords as a betrayal. They viewed it as giving too much to Tutsis who they viewed as traitors and not even being human. The Coalition pour le Défence de la Republique (CDR) and the militia Impuzamugambi were formed with the aim to ‘rid’ Rwanda of Tutsis, Twa and Hutu ibyitso. Editor of the paper Kangura, Hassan Ngeze, laid out ‘The Hutu Ten Commandments’ calling any Hutu who worked with, married, or were friends with a traitor, and that only Hutus should have positions in government, administration and the army. Meanwhile, 500,000 machetes were being imported into Rwanda to initiate genocide. On 8 April 1994 Habyarimana and the new president of Burundi were killed when their plane was shot down over Kigali, possibly by Hutu Power ideologues, which initiated the genocide. Willingly or not neighbours killed neighbours, husbands killed wives, and families tore each other apart. For example, several Tutsi pastors wrote to the church president in Mugonero asking for help to receive the reply, ‘There is nothing that I can do for you. All you can do us prepare to die, for your time has come.’ The fear of different communities overshadowed familial, communal and even religious links. Only when the RPF captured Kigali did the genocide stop.

Biafrans in the 1960s

     Like Rwanda, Nigeria has been unable to create a united national community in the same way in which Tanzania or Botswana has. Unlike Ghana, Tanganyika or Algeria, which mostly had one independence movement, what would become Nigeria had several. The British conquest of Nigeria was through ‘colonial violence and metropolitan arbitrariness’ where divide-and-rule policies were most drastically seen. The north was given autonomy due to fierce resistance from the Sokoto Caliphate with an autarkic economy; the west had a cocoa cash-crop economy dependent on foreign markets; and the east had intense British economic penetration with market firms dominating the region. After independence in 1960 Nigeria’s fledgling system was beset by problems of identity. The three main parties were split along regional, and by default ethnic and religious lines. In 1967 this led to the secession of Biafra who feared northern domination following several coups and counter-coups in a civil war made infamous by images of the famine which it caused. In 1999 elected civilian rule returned following over twenty years of military rule, excluding a brief five year period of elected civilian rule, with prospects seeming bright. However, the changing government brought uncertainty with it. The new constitution left many regional groups feeling unrepresented and the new president, Olusegun Obasanjo, was accused of showing favouritism towards his own ethnic group, the Yoruba. Figures pointed to how Nigerian Telecommunications, the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company were at one point ran by Yoruba under Obasanjo. Across Nigeria new ethnic and religious groups have formed in response to state corruption or underrepresentation. Even before this period protests in Ogoniland in 1990 against Shell's destruction of the environment were perceived entirely in separatist terms, and the peaceful protests were harshly crushed. Even when civilian government returned the government continued with executions of Ogoni protesters. Since then Nigeria has seen increased regionalism due to central government misrule. The Igbo People’s Congress in the early 2000s started flying the Biafran flag, and most disturbingly is the rise of the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram in the north which bases its identity on Hausa-Fulani and Wahhabism.

Siyad Barre

     Somalia is a unique case. Unlike Rwanda and Nigeria Somalia had a very strong sense of national identity upon independence possessing a strong communal identity based on a shared culture. In 1969 a military coup brought to power Mohammad Siyad Barre who proclaimed Somalia to be a Marxist republic. However, he made a mistake by invading Ogaden, a region in Ethiopia populated largely by Somalis, as the USSR switched to supporting Ethiopia. Revolutionary groups, many of them Marxist, rose up to oppose Barre, and when the Cold War ended US ceased sending funds to Somalia in 1988. With a bleak situation the army split into factions, guerrilla groups took control of Somalia’s regions, and Barre became a glorified ‘Mayor of Mogadishu.’ Following the failed US-led UN mission, glamorised in Black Hawk Down, Somalia became a failed state. To this day Somalia still lacks a true central government. However, when the national government failed people created local communities. For centuries Somalia has had a strong clan-family society which Somali scholar Ioan Lewis described as, ‘No other bond of mutual interest had so many far-reaching ramifications in all aspects of private and public life.’ As described by Stephen Ellis, the collapse of the state caused people to turn to clans to recreate the community. Although this has contributed to the rise of Al-Shabaab it has allowed Somalians to continue to have a community to rely on. Colonial rule failed to destroy the Somali clan system which has prevented a total collapse of society.

     Rwanda, Nigeria, and Somalia faced dramatic changes in society in the 1990s following either democratisation or the collapse of the state changing the idea of the community. Each case highlights the legacies of colonial rule on these societies – Somalia relying on clan ties which were not destroyed by colonial rule, while Nigeria and Rwanda saw ethnic conflict caused by the legacy of European divide-and-rule. Like the challenges to community shown throughout the rest of the world in the 1990s challenges to community in Africa were shaped by legacies of the past.

Bibliography:

-‘Rwanda: How the Genocide Happened,’ 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13431486; accessed 07 November 2017

-Lucky E. Asuelime, Ojochenemi J. David, Hakeem Onapajo, Boko Haram: The Socio-Economic Drivers, (Cham: Springer, 2015)

-Stephen Ellis, ‘Africa after the Cold War: New Patterns of Government and Politics,’ Development and Change, 27:1, (1996), 1-28

-Patricia Daley, ‘Rwanda and Burundi since 1994: An end to the Discriminatory State?’, in Lindsey Whitfield and Abdul Raufu Mustapha (eds.), Turning Points in African Democracy, (Oxford: Boydell & Brewer, 2009)

-Martin Meredith, The State of Africa, (London: Simon & Schuster, 2005)

-Abdul Raufu Mustapha, ‘Nigeria since 1999: A Revolving Door Syndrome or the Consolidation of Democracy?’, in Whitfield and Mustapha (eds.), Turning Points in African Democracy, (Oxford: Boydell & Brewer, 2009)

-Charles Ukeje and Wale Adebanwi, ‘Ethno-Nationalist Claims in southern Nigeria: insights from Yoruba and Ijaw nationalisms since the 1990s,’ Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31:3, (2008), 563-591

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‘Deutschland’ by Rammstein: A Look at Cultural Memory in Germany

This article was first published by Retrospect Journal on 20/10/2019 here.

French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs described memory as being owned by both the individual and society. One can have different recollections of an event, but societal memory can greatly impact an individual’s own memories. Cultural memory has become especially important in Germany as it tried to come to terms with its dark twentieth century; ranging from division during the Cold War to the horrors of genocide during Nazi rule. In March 2019, German heavy metal band Rammstein released their new, and controversial, song ‘Deutschland’. The lyrics and music video to this song gives us an insight into memories of German history, the politics of national identity, and the controversies which accompany it.

     Due to Rammstein often using cryptic lyrics and imagery in their songs we can only look at a snapshot of the song just as Rammstein looks at a snapshot of German history. The song opens referencing the Battle of Teutoburg Forest: a Roman squadron sees their comrades hanging from a tree as Germania, the personification of Germany played by Afro-German actress Ruby Commey, decapitates a dead soldier. This event was later adopted by German nationalists as the forging of Germany: Arminius uniting the Germanic peoples against Rome halted their expansion, and delineated what was Rome and what was Germania. The rest of the song flashes through snapshots of German history ranging from the very literal, with the Hindenburg disaster to the Red Army Faction (RAF) attacks, to the more metaphorical, the political violence of the 1920s being represented through a boxing match. Naturally, being Rammstein, the video is full of controversial imagery. Monks gruesomely eat a meal over the body of Germania (possibly referencing the Reformation and Wars of Religion) and the band, to show the hypocrisy of the leaders of East Germany, go from drinking champagne to having an orgy. Lead singer Till Lindemann, dressed to resemble East Germany’s premier Erich Honecker, re-enacts the famous ‘socialist fraternal kiss’ with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev in that scene. Even the end credits reference Germany; over the credits their song ‘Sonne’ is played, and its music video features a twisted version of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Originally this was a German fairy tale, so the band has linked their own personal history with wider German culture.

     The most controversial part of the video concerns the concentration camp scenes. The band wear a Star of David, a pink triangle (signifying homosexuality), and a red triangle over the Star of David (signifying that they were a socialist Jew) while awaiting execution on the gallows. Germania is now dressed as an SS-officer and in the background V-2 rockets fire into the sky. Accompanying these images are the words 

Überheblich, überlegen, Übernehmen, übergeben Überraschen, überfallen, Deutschland, Deutschland über allen (Overbearing, Superior, Take Over, Surrender, Surprising, Assault, Germany, Germany, Over Everyone).

 By the end of the video the inmates take their revenge on the Nazis, in typical Rammstein fashion, by bloodily shooting them in the face. Rammstein purposefully chose Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, Nordhausen for this scene for several reasons. Over 350 inmates were hanged and up to 20,000 more were worked to death to build Wernher von Braun’s V-2 rockets. In a great injustice, von Braun never saw justice as he was one of many Nazi scientists taken to the US to work on the rocket project and was never brought to trial for mass murder. 

     In ‘Deutschland’, Rammstein wanted to look at German history through a very particular lens. Despite the initial view that the song is nationalistic, ‘Deutschland’ instead paints German history as a grim and violent one. The Golden Age of Weimar is replaced by political violence and brutality, Germany’s ‘origin’ of defeating the Romans is shown as a gruesome affair and past intolerances are linked to contemporary ones. As witches are being burnt at the stake the Nazis are burning books. Curiously, for a song about German history, the events depicted do not show any recognisable historic figures: Honecker and van Braun somewhat appear through parody, and Karl Marx appears via the giant head which can be found in Chemnitz. Otto von Bismarck, Frederick the Great, Martin Luther, Hitler, and even Arminius are absent. This links us back to Rammstein creating an ‘anti-patriotic’ song, and their own politics. German history is presented as being driven by the masses where the ‘Great Men’ become great only thanks to the agency of the people. The band further tries to highlight a marginalised history of Germany. Germania is represented by an Afro-German woman; Lindemann at one time plays a beaten political prisoner, and the band become Jews and homosexuals being persecuted by the Nazis, who later get violent retribution. Rammstein’s own politics and contemporary issues impact why this version of German history is created.

     History does not exist in a vacuum; it is constantly shaped by future generations to fit new narratives or ideas. Rammstein’s version of history is one part of this constant rewrite of history and is a direct critique of rising xenophobic nationalism in Germany. The band have been very open about their own politics and opposition to fascism; in a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone Lindemann said that he is a socialist and that ‘We used to be either punks or goths – We hate Nazis!’. This is highlighted by their song ‘Links 2,3,4,’ which is a direct reference to the labour movement song Einheitsfrontlied. The far-right has seen a resurgence in Germany over the last decade – the rise of Pegida and the AfD shows that, despite the trauma of Nazism, fascism is exploiting conditions in Germany. On 9 October 2019 a far-right Holocaust denier attacked a Turkish kebab shop and a synagogue in Halle. It is against this backdrop that Rammstein re-evaluates Germany’s history. Rammstein tries to argue that German history is full of darkness which nationalists overlook:

Deutschland, deine Liebe, Ist Fluch und Segen, Deutschland, meine Liebe, Kann ich dir nicht geben, Deutschland! (Germany, your love is a curse and a blessing, Germany my love I cannot give you, Germany!). 

   ‘Deutschland’ becomes a way to fight the rising far-right through its lyrics and its symbolism, and it is no coincidence that an Afro-German actress is purposefully chosen to represent Germania. In a Germany where resurgent fascism attacks anything that is not white, Christian, or cis-heterosexuality, Rammstein aims to directly challenge this.

     However, by making this statement it links back to German cultural memory and what is missing from this history loudly echoes in the video. Antisemitism was rife throughout European history and Germany is one of the many countries to have a long, sordid history of persecution. This ranges from the pogroms during the People’s Crusade to the state-sponsored antisemitism during Bismarck’s Kulturkampf, however, German antisemitism is boiled down to just the Nazi camps. The Holocaust did not simply start with the rounding up of Jews and other so-called untermenschen into camps; it instead built on years of intolerance towards those marginalised in society. This has been a constant tension in German cultural memory; while Germany has started coming to terms with the horrors of the Holocaust there has been little state sponsored memory of pre-Nazi antisemitism. Berlin’s Tiergarten still boasts a large statue honouring Bismarck despite his anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic policies. The inclusion of an Afro-German Germania also raises these issues. Germany’s black population, and its history in colonialism, have regularly been overshadowed by other narratives of trauma. In 1904, the German empire enacted the first genocide of the twentieth-century when, in Namibia, over 100,000 Herero, Nama, and San were murdered by colonial forces. Furthermore, the Nazi sterilisation of the so-called ‘Rhineland Bastards’, mixed-race children born by colonial French and even German troops, has been forgotten in cultural memory of Nazi eugenics. As cultural memory is blind to empire and colonialism, so is Rammstein’s ‘Deutschland’.

     Finally, controversy sparked up when Rammstein released the teaser for the video. This was partially expected thanks to the band’s long history of controversy; BDSM imagery in their concerts has created hysteria, in 1998 during a concert in Massachusetts they threw a dildo into the crowd, and in July 2019 they kissed on stage during a St. Petersburg concert to protest Putin’s homophobic laws. The particular scene they chose to release was the one set in Mittelbau-Dora which caused accusations of antisemitism for trivialising the Holocaust. When the context of the scene was revealed these accusations were retracted, but Felix Klein, Germany’s commissioner for antisemitism, stated it best; that it was ‘a tasteless expression of artistic freedom’. Rammstein could have used any scene from the video; after all, the violence in each scene could have generated the wanted publicity, but instead they chose to use images of genocide to do this. Although Rammstein are firmly against fascism and anti-Semitism, their willingness to use the trauma of the Holocaust shows that cultural memory does not touch everyone equally. While the Holocaust is, and should be, remembered as a horrific event, even in Germany it can still be used as a cynical way to garner publicity. This is at the expense of the 16 million Jews, Roma, Slavs, and other ‘undesirables’ who perished under Nazi rule.

    To conclude, Rammstein’s ‘Deutschland’ offers an interesting snapshot into how history, memory, and contemporary politics comes into play. History and memory are always being shaped by those in the present, and ‘Deutschland’ shows how it can be used to fight resurgent intolerance in society. It also shows how it can be manipulated for publicity. To quote Rammstein, ‘Germany, your breath cold, so young, and yet so old, Germany, your love is a curse and a blessing’.

Image: Single cover of ‘Deustchland’.

Bibliography

Rammstein, ‘Deutschland’, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeQM1c-XCDc, (28/03/2019), [Accessed 13/10/2019].

‘Rammstein video: German rock band causes outrage with Nazi clip’, BBC News, bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47745071, (29/03/2019), [Accessed 13/10/2019].

‘Rolling Stone: Exclusive Interview with Till Lindemann and Flake Lorenz’, Rammstein Press, https://www.rammsteinpress.com/2014/04/02/rolling-stone-exclusive-interview-with-till-lindemann-and-flake-lorenz/, (02/04/2014), [Accessed 13/10/2019].

Cesarani, David. Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews, 1933-1945, (London: 2015).

Fulbrook, Mary. A Concise History of Germany, Second Edition, (Cambridge: 2004).

Hobsbawm, Eric. The Age of Capital, 1848-1875, (London: 1975).

Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945, (London: 2010).

Stone, Dan. Histories of the Holocaust, (Oxford: 2010).