Academic Freedom and the Japanese Imperial University, 1868-1939

by Marshall, Byron K.

• ISBN13: 9780520078215
• ISBN10: 0520078217
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr on Demand

Summary

Byron K. Marshall offers here a dramatic study of the changing nature and limits of academic freedom in prewar Japan, from the Meiji Restoration to the eve of World War II. Meiji leaders founded Tokyo Imperial University in the late nineteenth century to provide their new government with necessary technical and theoretical knowledge. An academic elite, armed with Western learning, gradually emerged and wielded significant influence throughout the state. When some faculty members criticized the conduct of the Russo-Japanese War the government threatened dismissals. The faculty and administration banded together, forcing the government to back down. By 1939, however, this solidarity had eroded. The conventional explanation for this erosion has been the lack of a tradition of autonomy among prewar Japanese universities. Marshall argues instead that these later purges resulted from the university's 40-year fixation on institutional autonomy at the expense of academic freedom. Marshall's finely nuanced analysis is complemented by extensive use of quantitative, biographical, and archival sources.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	ix
A Note on Japanese Names and Terms	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(6)
Prologue: The Rise and Fall of Academic Freedom	7	(14)
The Making of the Modern Academic Elite, 1868-1905	21	(32)
The Assertion of Academic Autonomy, 1905-1918	53	(27)
The Transformation of the Academic Community, 1919-1931	80	(42)
The Maintenance of University Autonomy, 1919-1932	122	(23)
The Purge of the Imperial Universities, 1933-1939	145	(36)
The Pacific War and Its Aftermath	181	(10)
Appendix: Total and the Production of National Elites	191	(8)
Glossary and Biographical Notes	199	(10)
List of Works Consulted	209	(24)
Index	233