https://www.scribd.com/book/352380538/Planning-for-Empire-Reform-Bureaucrats-and-the-Japanese-Wartime-State
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Cornell University Press
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Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Planning for Empire
Reform Bureaucrats and the Japanese Wartime State
BY JANIS MIMURA
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Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in September of 1931 initiated a new phase of brutal occupation and warfare in Asia and the Pacific. It forwarded the project of remaking the Japanese state along technocratic and fascistic lines and creating a self-sufficient Asian bloc centered on Japan and its puppet state of Manchukuo. In Planning for Empire, Janis Mimura traces the origins and evolution of this new order and the ideas and policies of its chief architects, the reform bureaucrats. The reform bureaucrats pursued a radical, authoritarian vision of modern Japan in which public and private spheres were fused, ownership and control of capital were separated, and society was ruled by technocrats.
Mimura shifts our attention away from reactionary young officers to state planners—reform bureaucrats, total war officers, new zaibatsu leaders, economists, political scientists, engineers, and labor party leaders. She shows how empire building and war mobilization raised the stature and influence of these middle-class professionals by calling forth new government planning agencies, research bureaus, and think tanks to draft Five Year industrial plans, rationalize industry, mobilize the masses, streamline the bureaucracy, and manage big business. Deftly examining the political battles and compromises of Japanese technocrats in their bid for political power and Asian hegemony, Planning for Empire offers a new perspective on Japanese fascism by revealing its modern roots in the close interaction of technology and right-wing ideology.
Contents
Introduction
1. Japan's Wartime Technocrats
2. Military Fascism and Manchukuo, 1930–36
3. Bureaucratic Visions of Manchukuo, 1933–39
4. Ideologues of Fascism: Okumura Kiwao and Mori Hideoto
5. The New Order and the Politics of Reform, 1940–41
6. Japan's Opportunity: Technocratic Strategies for War and Empire, 1941–45
Epilogue: From Wartime Techno-Fascism to Postwar Managerialism
Bibliography
Index
PRAISE
AUTHOR
FOR EDUCATORS
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"Drawing on a wealth of largely untapped primary materials and journals, the work focuses specifically on a group of elite bureaucrats, predominantly graduates of Tokyo Imperial University, and army staff officers who were the driving force behind the reorganization of the Japanese economy in the late 1930s and 1940s... Mimura's is the first English-language synthesis that traces the history of central planning in Japan from its inception in the corridors of power in Tokyo, through the experimentation period in Manchuria, to its final implementation in Japan. Mimura’s contribution is particularly valuable precisely because it deals with men who were in a position to put their ideas into practice."Monumenta Nipponica
"Mimura writes, moreover, with great economy, pinpoint clarity, and without embellishment or hint of hyperbole. If Planning for Empire does not, thus, aspire to 'best in show' honors for recent analyses of the Japanese empire, it deserves accolades as likely the most influential of the lot for its measured yet powerful confirmation of several critical trends in the study of early twentieth-century Japanese empire and war... it is a must read for all serious students of modern Japanese history."Journal of Japanese Studies
"Mimura's detailed examination of the administration of Manchuria/Manchukuo offers a useful counterweight to Driscoll's portrayal of Kishi and Ayukawa as little more than misogynistic exploitative brutes... Mimura’s dissection of Japanese techno-fascism—of its appeal across traditional political dividesof its incremental ideological genesis and of its ultimate failure—makes Planning for Empire a welcome addition to a new body of scholarship that has sought to resurrect fascism as an analytical tool for our understanding of mid-twentieth-century Japan."Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History
"Roles played by the Japanese civilian bureaucracy in the course of Japan's militarization before WW II have attracted little attention in academia, in contrast with scholars' heavy focus on the Japanese military. Mimura fills this void with this first in-depth English-language analysis of the Japanese "reform bureaucrats" who, as prominent advocates of "techno-fascism," endeavored to realize their vision of a "managerial state" and "controlled economy" in prewar Japan.... Highly recommended."CHOICE
"'Fascism' is a term of abuse today, but once it was an idea with a future, as Mimura shows in Planning for Empire."The Japan Times
"Anyone interested in the role of reform bureaucrats in Japan and the perpetual debate over fascism will want to read this well-researched, informative, and stimulating monograph."Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
"Planning for Empire offers a powerful new understanding of the core ideas and policies of the wartime Japanese state. Janis Mimura argues that a wartime ideology of technocracy, of a fascist character, drew support from a wide range of elite actors and propelled Japan to war. She offers a finely drawn portrait of the ideas and the political strivings of reform bureaucrats who carried the torch of technocracy first in Manchuria and then back in Tokyo, making clear both the extent and the limits of their achievements. This book should draw wide attention, spark some controversy, and shift the terms of debate of a critical episode in the twentieth-century history of Japan and the world."Andrew Gordon, Harvard University, author of A Modern History of Japan
"Janis Mimura has written a substantial and path-breaking piece of scholarship. She has gone into new territory both in research goals and source materials, and come up with fascinating ideas about, and a cogent analysis of, Japan's wartime fascist industrial planners. Mimura demonstrates that wartime Japan was not simply dominated by the military. Civilians and in particular modern bureaucrats with a new set of ideas rehearsed in Manchuria in the 1930s played a major role in the road to war, and they must share blame with the army and navy for the military and economic disaster."Richard Smethurst, UCIS Research Professor, University of Pittsburgh
"Scholars have long debated whether wartime Japan experienced fascism. Janis Mimura persuades us that elite bureaucrats were at the center of the widespread Japanese embrace of European-style fascist policies. Although we often talk of 'technocracy,' this is the first account to analyze also the role of scientific and technological knowledge among the bureaucrats who developed authoritarian governance. Their innovations went beyond economic policy to shape a rather fantastic wartime mentality. This is the story of how Japanese experts convinced themselves that mobilization of the nation would by itself overcome resource constraints and defeat the mighty United States and its allies."Sheldon Garon, Princeton University
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Top reviews from the United States
Crazy Fox
5.0 out of 5 stars "Labor pains of the expansive power of the Japanese continent"
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2020
Verified Purchase
In explaining Japan's ever closer deadly embrace of fascist ideology in the 1930's and 1940's, it's fairly common on both sides of the Pacific to point to the agrarian pan-Asianist radically right-wing military officers active at the time. And sure, not that they weren't a factor, but "Planning for Empire" makes it abundantly crystal clear that an extremely significant role was played by urbane, highly-educated, laudably un-fanatic bureaucrats with a technocratic and managerial bent looking for plausible solutions to what they perceived as Japan's many ills, solutions that would transcend the impasse between liberal capitalism and leftist communism. So, not your usual suspects, basically.
The author impressively imposes order and clarity on this tangled jumble of a subject, memorably and distinctly portraying the ideas and activities of any number of key figures, some now obscure, some not so much (such as Nissan founder Ayukawa Yoshisuke or future prime minister Kishi Nobusuke) along with their ever-shifting ups & downs, alliances & ruptures, and tensions with other factions--many of whom they managed to outlast after the war was over, as it turns out. All told, an indispensable study for properly understanding the nuanced complexities of Japanese history during this fraught moment of worldwide crisis as well as an ominous tale of unselfconsciously destructive intellectual hubris.
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R.L.D.
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting perspective admirably discussed
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2015
"The leaders of Manchukuo were neither fanatic militarists nor manipulated leaders. They were rational and conscientious public servants who promoted a vision of an ultramodern Japan" Mimura's book tries to elaborate on this view and with much research does an admirable job. It is a scholarly book and not for one who has little or no background in the situation. At times as I was reading I was wishing for a Reader's Digest version. Lots of names of people and organizations (somewhat annoyingly original version in parentheses).
I am sure this research and book has shed much light on another perspective of the Japan of the 30's and 40's.
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morning Os
496 reviews · 63 followers
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August 14, 2017
Solid details on the techno-fascist bureaucrats who attempted to experiment in Manchukuo and implement the economic New Order in Japan. Very technical but gives an overview of their visions. Lacking the evaluation of their policies--any mentioning of the success? failure? mixed results?
fascism
japanese-history
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Tobias
1 book · 27 followers
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December 5, 2017
Good not great intellectual history of the technocrats who built the Japanese empire and whose legacy shaped the postwar planning state. Not necessarily original - especially considering the literature in Japanese - but still a good resource.
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Demming Norder
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November 23, 2015
I read this for a class, so my actual willingness to read this book was not automatically at an all time height, but unlike some required reading it was not all that difficult. The writing style was thankfully simplistic enough for me to follow along without needing to continuously go back to re-read so I could understand the material. It provides an interesting look on what war-time before and during the World Wars were like for Japan, focusing not only on how it reacted with the Allies and Axis, but most on how Manchukuo played a part in their fight as well as the bureaucrats, or technocrats, which allowed the smaller nation to fight on equal ground with the other countries involved in the wars. Very interesting subject material and written in a blessedly easy, yet truthful voice.
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Gwern
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June 20, 2013
Not very good: disappointingly heavy on bureaucrat bio and what they wrote, as opposed to what they actually *did* or what the corporations did in Manchuria & Korea, etc. If the textual analysis informed events, the focus could be forgiven, but since it doesn't, it all comes off as lazy hackwork in lieu of an actual contribution to understanding the period.
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Jessie
13 reviews
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April 25, 2013
This book is as dry as its focus on bureaucrats. I found nothing particularly new about Manchuria or planning for total war, except for more detailed profiles of reform bureaucrats who are the protagonists of Mimura's book. Introduction is well written so I was really looking forward to reading the rest, but I had a hard time keeping awake for most of the book...
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