Glorify the Empire ─ Japanese Avant-Garde Propaganda in Manchukuo

In the 1930s and '40s, Japanese political architects of the
Manchukuo project in occupied northeast China realized the importance
of using various cultural media to promote a modernization program in
the region, as well as its expansion into other parts of Asia.
Ironically, the writers and artists chosen to spread this imperialist
message had left-wing political roots in Japan, where their work
strongly favoured modernist, even avant-garde, styles of
expression.

In Glorify the Empire, Annika A. Culver explores how these
once anti-imperialist intellectuals produced modernist works
celebrating the modernity of a fascist state and reflecting a
complicated picture of complicity with, and ambivalence towards,
Japan's utopian project. During the war, literary and artistic
representations of Manchuria accelerated, and the Japanese-led culture
in Manchukuo served as a template for occupied areas in Southeast Asia.
A groundbreaking work, Glorify the Empire magnifies the
intersection between politics and art in a rarely examined period in
Japanese history.

Annika A. Culver is an assistant professor of East
Asian history at Florida State University. She also serves as a scholar
in the US-Japan Network for the Future.

Annika A. Culver is an assistant professor of East Asian history at Florida State University. She also serves as a scholar in the US-Japan Network for the Future.