History of Japan

This week: the Great Kanto Earthquake was also the backdrop for one of the most famous murders of 1920s Japan, one that set the stage for a seismic shift within the nation's political sphere. This week: who was Ito Noe, and how did her murder in a time of national emergency reflect a shift in Japan's political discourse?
Show notes here.

This week: in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake, thousands of Koreans living in Tokyo were massacred by angry mobs as well as policemen and soldiers. What animated the survivors to engage in such horrific violence, and how does it reflect both the wider history of the Japan-Korea relationship and the mindset many of us carry into our darkest moments?
Note: no new episode next week, as I'm traveling in Japan. 
Show notes here.

The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 was one of the most devastating catastrophes in modern Japanese history, but in English scholarship it's often overshadowed by the destruction of the Second World War. This week we'll kick off a multipart series on the quake and its legacy with a simple question: what do we know about the immediate aftermath?
Show notes here.

This week: the question of whether Hirohito would remain emperor of Japan or be replaced with "Emperor Kumazawa" was, in fact, decided before the Southern Court claimant had ever gone public. So why was the idea of removing Hirohito never taken seriously, and what did Kumazawa do once it became clear he was never going to sit on the Crysanthemum Throne? And how, strangely, does this all tie back to a Geocities era webpage about alternative medicine?
Show notes here.

In January, 1946, a man came to the headquarters of the American occupation government of Japan and claimed to be Japan's true emperor. Who was he, why did he do this, and how does his story connect to an obscure figure from a civil war that happened more than 500 years earlier?
Show notes here.