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This week was the last of the Spring Quarter. We discussed Chapter 9 of Osborne's book, titled "The Second World War in Southeast Asia," where an important topic is the impact and aftermaths of the Japanese invasion.

We followed the expansion of Imperial Japan before the beginning of the Pacific War in 1941. In this regard, the Japanese occupation of the French Indochina following the Fall of France in 1940, in the context of the 1940 Tripartite Pact among Germany, Italy, and Japan, was a crucial turning point.

We watched some newsreels recording important events since the 1940s, some of which are available in the NHK's online archive.

We also shared what each of us learned about the Second World War at high school, which turned out to be significantly different from each other depending on where the person is from.

Finally, we covered three visual representations of the Thai-Burma railway construction by the POWs and forced laborers (romusha): a 1957 epic war movie (The Bridge on the River Kwai), and a 2013 personal psychological drama (The Railway man), and a Malaysian documentary about a former romusha of Indian descent.

In the discussion, we understood that the experiences of the Second World War have been remembered and represented from different perspectives in different countries, which we need to appreciate and be aware of.

We hope to see each other in person in a not so far future. Until then be safe and productive.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 18:35 

This week first, we discuss cases of Kartini, Ho Chi Minh, and Sukarno, for whom Western education, especially the acquisition of Western language, affected their course of life substantially.

The role of ordinary people in the formation of a nation was also discussed. As Spivak's argument on the subaltern, who are deprived of the way to represent themselves, made it clear, this is very important but at the same time not easy to substantiate. It was suggested that sometimes novelist's (another creation of modern times) imagination might help understand the ordinary people's reaction to the change of time.

Finally, we discuss how we can negotiate with such influential concepts as nationalism, seemingly of western origin, which has played a crucial role in non-western nations. It is indicated that it might be more productive to see nationalism (and other concepts) as a part of a series of the transmission, sharing, and adaptation in a local context of concepts instead of focusing on its influence.

A quotation from Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities (p. 47) may be relevant here:

Next week, we will discuss Chapter 9 of Osborne's book, titled "The Second World War in Southeast Asia," where an important topic is the impact and aftermaths of the Japanese invasion.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 18:50 

This week we continued to discuss the topics in Chapter 8 in Osborne's book. The topic we focused on this week was the influence of Western education on the emergence of nationalism in Southeast Asia and the role of traditional local education vis-a-vis Western education.

Western education here means basically two things. First, it is a school-oriented education, where students are divided into grades and classes according to their ages, taught subjects according to a curriculum and a timetable, and evaluated their progress at each term by teachers, who have been also educated at schools. Second, it is the introduction of new subjects which were not taught in traditional education, including language (local or foreign), arithmetic, science, and other skills considered useful in modern society.

We looked into some of the prominent persons in the early modern era in Southeast Asia and their educational backgrounds.

Abdullah bin Abdul al Kadir (Malaysia, 1796-1854), also known as Munshi Abdullah is, because of his autobiography in Malay, regarded as the founder of modern Malay literature. Born in Malacca, he had a mixed ancestry of Arab, Tamil, and Malay. In Singapore, he became a Malay teacher for British colonial administrators, including Stanford Raffles.

We also observed that the 19th century saw an awakening of Islamic modernism, which greatly influenced Muslims in Southeast Asia. The best-known case is Padri War in West Sumatra, whose influence remained as a Muslim reformist movement in West Sumatra and beyond. This prepared an educational environment that facilitated the emergence of many intellectuals from West Sumatra in the era of nationalism in Indonesia.

Jose Rizal (the Philippines, 1861-1896) was educated in Manila in the Spanish education system and later obtained higher education in Spain. His life shows that the introduction of Western education was much earlier than any other place in Southeast Asia and it facilitated him to understand the situation of the colonized country.

Phan Boi Chau (Vietnam, 1867-1940) was regarded as one of the first nationalists in Vietnam. Yet his education was traditional, based on Confucianism and other Chinese classics. He belonged to the last generation of Vietnamese intellectuals who benefitted from the richness of traditional Chinese classical education.

After the beginning of the 20th century, increasingly more people obtained Western education in Southeast Asia. We will discuss its consequence next week.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 19:08 

This week we first looked into scenes from the film Max Havelaar that indicated interesting points, including a multinational component (including indigenous soldiers) of the Dutch army, an appearance of a Chinese man, and Malay language as a common language in the Dutch East Indies.

Then we start discussing questions regarding Chapter 8 of Osborne's book, The Years of Illusion: Southeast Asia between the wars, 1918-1941.

The first question is: Why is this chapter titled the "Years of Illusion"? How did contemporary ordinary Europeans perceive the interwar period?

To facilitate answering the question, we watched a video clip titled "Singapore - Crossroads of the East 1938". This footage, an audio-visual tour of the British colony of Singapore in 1938, typically shows how Europeans perceive the state of the colony in the interwar years; They believed in the continuity of colonization without understanding the changes taking place.

Finally, we briefly touched upon the second question: What is the difference between "traditional" anti-colonial rebellions before the 20th century and "modern" anti-colonial movements in the 1920s and 1930s?

Padri War (1803-37) was fought between the Padri (a group of Muslims who asked for stricter implementation of Islamic law) and the nobility class who wanted to keep traditional customs (adat). The Dutch helped the latter to defeat the former. The case shows a lack of nationalistic solidarity among the local population.

On the other hand, we will see in the 20th century, Islam was associated with nationalist or even Socialist movement.

We will continue on Chapter 8 next week.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 18:52 

This week we discuss the film Max Havelaar (now available at Youtube), based on a novel (a new English translation appeared in 2019) with the same title published in 1860, written by Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker). The novel takes materials from the author's own experience as a Dutch administrator in the Dutch East Indies. The film was directed by the Dutch director Fons Rademakers and released in 1976.

The film focuses on the idealistic colonial administrator Max Havelaar's eventually failed endeavor to change the local ruler's brutal treatment of the local peasants. Though depicted as a righteous champion of justice, Max Havelaar does not advocate abolishing colonial rule but aspires to achieve more humane colonial management. Whether or not he realizes that it is the Dutch colonial system itself that profits from colonial rule that perpetuates injustice depend on how we interpret the film's final scene.

In the end, only the nationalist independence movement, which manifested in different ways, could bring an end to the colonial rule in Southeast Asia. We will look into the emergence of nationalism in the following weeks, base on Chapter 8 of Osborn's book.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 18:43 

This week we discuss the background and consequences of Chinese immigration to Southeast Asia covered in the second half of Osborne's Chapter 7 The Asian Immigrants in Southeast Asia.

First, we critically observe Osborne's comparison between the condition of European immigrants to America or Australia and that of Asian immigrants to Southeast Asia. It is also important to understand that there are different backgrounds among Chinese immigrants and that there is a difference in the way Chinese immigrants interacted with the local communities in different sub-regions in Southeast Asia. Another important point is that a shift from slavery to indentured servitude (contract labor) took place as a source of labor force in the 19th century, and this applies to Chinese and Indian immigrants in Southeast Asia.

Finally, we discuss the constructed-ness of the image of "diligent and rich Chinese" and "lazy and poor natives" in the public sphere. It was pointed out that the division among local populations (including immigrants) benefitted the colonizers.

Next week (11 June), we will review the film Max Havelaar. Please submit your essay if you have not. In the following week (18 June), we will move into Osborne's Chapter 8. Please complete reading it by then.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 18:36 

In this week we discuss our approach to the past and how to understand history, especially from the post-colonial perspective. An empirical approach is certainly important but we need to constantly guard ourselves against taking data as an established fact, as data can be described, collected, and analyzed in a certain perspective. Discussion with others helps keep us falling into the fallacy of self-righteousness. Hence, the importance of history in the public sphere.

After a fruitful time of discussion, we covered the first half of Osborne's Chapter 7 The Asian Immigrants in Southeast Asia. Early settlers in pre-modern times may be discerned as language groups, that is, the Austronesian group in insular Southeast Asia, the Austro-Asiatic group in Vietnam and Cambodia, the Tai-Kadai group in Laos and Thailand, and the Tibeto-Burman group in Myanmar. The last two groups migrated to the present areas relatively later than the first two.

In modern times, the two most important Asian immigrants are Chinese and, to a lesser degree, Indians. They were brought to Southeast Asia by a pull factor of western colonization and by a push factor of the social conditions (which were also caused by western impact) of their home countries. The immigrants originally came as sojourners but then part of them became settlers.

We will look more into the social conditions of Chinese immigrants next week.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 18:13 

Before moving to chapter 6 Economic Transformation, we shared the different perspectives about a plural society in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. While Malaysia is characterized by the migrant communities brought in by the British, Indonesia and the Philippines are characterized by various indigenous ethnic groups. Mestizo communities are another characteristic of the Philipines.

In chapter 6 the author pointed out that Southeast Asia's economy changed most rapidly from the 19th century onward. This is in part caused by the industrialization of the West and also in part accelerated by the utilization of the change by the local population. Some of the products featured in this era include rubber, tin, and rice.

At the end of the class, we discussed different perspectives on, and in what way we can contextualize colonization. We will continue discussing this problematic point in further classes.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 19:53 

In this week, we will continue the discussion based on chapter 5:

• 4. What does the author mean by saying "the flag followed trade into Malaya", and why does the author state that "the usual colonial paradigm was reversed" in this process?
• 5. What are the features of the colonization of the Philippines that made it separate from other places in Southeast Asia? Describe two features.

We find a remarkable change in the western advance before the 18th and after the 19th centuries. The earlier western advance mostly involved the trading of tropical products (spices and coffee), whereas the later advance involved the political and territorial colonization and the exploitation of natural resources (tin and rubber) which were used in the increasingly industrialized European market. The final products were then also sold in the colonies.

The earlier advances were made by the Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch, whereas the later advances were by the British, French, Dutch (after the resolution of the Dutch East Indies Company in the later 19th century), and Spanish (where the mestizo community played an important role). The last point might explain why the Philippines as a Spanish colony shows a striking similarity with its Latin American counterparts.

Before continuing the discussion further on chapter 6 Economic Transformation, we looked into the notion of a plural society, where communities (ethnic or otherwise) with incompatible values exist side-by-side, "meeting only in the market" but not "combining". If this is indeed the situation of the colonies, a question to be asked is whether this is still applicable in a post-colonial independent "nation-state". About this, we will continue our discussion next week.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 20:27 

We continued the photo challenges, in which we covered the following images:

9. The Imperial City of Hue is located in the former imperial capital of Vietnam. The construction was started by the Nguyen dynasty in 1804. An example of a mixture of local and Chinese traditions.
10. San Agustin Church is a Roman Catholic church, located inside the historic walled city of Intramuros in Manila, the Philippines. The church in the current form was completed in 1607 during the Spanish colonial rule. The church is one of the four churches designated as the UNESCO World Heritage site under the collective name of the Baroque Churches of the Philippines in 1993. Catholic missionary activities in Asia began in the 16th century. Francis Xavier, who arrived in Japan in 1549, was one of the pioneers.
11. Bagan is an ancient capital of Myanmar and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Between the 13th and 14th centuries, over 4,000 Buddhist temples were built. An example of the influence of Theravada Buddhism in Mainland SEA.
12. Stone Inscriptions found in Indonesia. Inscriptions began to appear in SEA around 400 CE. While early inscriptions are written in Sanskrit in an Indian script (originated from Southern Brahmi script), later inscriptions are written in local languages in an Indian script with modification. An example of Indianization of SEA.
13. The Laguna copper-plate inscription, found in the Philippines, was made around 900 CE. It is written in Kawi script using a mixture of Sanskrit, Old Javanese and Old Malay. An example of an extensive repercussion of SEA's Indianization.
14. A Dong Son bronze kettle drum. Dong Son prehistoric culture, named after a village of the same name in Vietnam, was introduced to Indochina from the north about 300 BCE. Bronze kettle drums are representative of the culture. They were distributed widely in SEA.

I hope the photo challenges have given us a variety of elements in the culture and history of Southeast Asia. After this, we moved on to the discussion based on a chapter from the following book.

• Osborne, Milton. 2016. Southeast Asia: An Introductory History. 12th ed. Allen & Unwin.

Some of the points we discussed include the following questions:

• 1. According to the author, what is an important (although not the only important) feature of the European advance into Southeast Asia, and why? (Cf. the national border between Malaysia and Indonesia)
• 2. What is the difference between the traditional Southeast Asian idea of "frontier zones" and the European idea of "clearly delineated borders", and why it led to a confrontation between the two? (Cf. the national ownership of Angkor Wat)
• 3. Why was Thailand the only country in Southeast Asia that successfully evaded colonial rule? (Cf. the buffer zone between the British and the French).

In the next week, we will continue the discussion based on chapter 5 before move on to the next chapter.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 18:45 

First, we discussed the significance of the statue of Raffles in its historical and social context of Singapore. In doing so, we found the article "Raffles Must Fall? The Memory and History of Colonialism" written by Gareth Knapman particularly useful, which handles the matter in a balanced manner, paying special attention to the historical change of the way the statue has been used as part of an official narrative by succesive governments both colonial and post-independence.

After this we continued the photo challenges, in which we covered the following images:

5. The That Luang stupa is a Theravada Buddhist monument located in the center of Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. The original structure was built in the 16th century. The statue of king Setthathirath, the founder of Vientiane in the 16th century, is situated in front of the monument.

6. Lapulapu's statue. As a local ruler, he defeated the Spanish in a battle in 1521, in which the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed. Magellan's shrine is seen at the far end of the photo.

7. Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras. They were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1995, as they were believed to be older than 2,000 years.

8. Kampung Hulu Mosque is the oldest Muslim mosque in Malacca, Malaysia. The structure was originally built in the early 18th century. An example of Islamization SEA, where a mixture of local and foreign traditions is obvious.

In the next week, on May 7, we continue the photo challenges, before we proceed to the discussion on the topics in chapter 5 of Osborne's Southeast Asia: An Introductory History.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 19:30 

In this week's meeting, we reviewed four climate regions found in Southeast Asia. They are (in the order of their location from the equator to farther away):

1. Tropical humid climate. Wet year-round. Singapore.
2. Tropical monsoon climate. Wet and dry with a short dry season. Phuket.
3. Tropical savanna climate. Wet and dry with a long dry season. Bangkok.

Tropical climates are hot year-round as they are close to the equator. Tropical monsoon and savanna climates have wet and dry seasons due to the seasonal migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).

4. Humid subtropical climate. Hot and muggy summers and mild winter. Hanoi (also Tokyo).

Tropical wet and dry climates and humid subtropical climates in the northern hemisphere have a wet summer and a dry winter. Note that the pattern is reversed in the southern hemisphere. Tropical monsoon climate (Jakarta) and tropical savanna climate (Dili) have a wet "winter (in the northern hemisphere)" and a dry "summer (in the northern hemisphere)".

A useful summary may be found on this webpage.

Following the review of the climate regions in Southeast Asia, the time-space matrix framework of the history of Southeast Asia was introduced to the class. With this diagram in our mind, we started the photo challenge. Today we covered the first four photos, which are:

1. Angkor Wat. Originally built as a Hindu temple (now converted to a Theravada Buddhist temple) in the 12th century, Cambodia. An example of the Indianization of SEA. The temple is often featured in popular films, for example, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.
2. A railway bridge on the River Kawai, Thailand. The bridge was built by British, Dutch, American prisoners of war and many forced laborers from Southeast Asia as part of the Japanese Burma Railway construction during 1942-43. Featured in the film, the Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), based on the novel of the same by Pierre Boulle, who also wrote Planet of the Apes. More realistic and personal experience of the bridge construction is told in the film, the Railway Man (2013).
3. Sir Stamford Raffles' statue standing at the Raffles' Landing site, Singapore. Raffles, who as a British colonial officer landed in Singapore in 1819, has long been regarded as the founder of modern Singapore, but now faces a serious challenge, as a symbol of British colonization.
4. Borobudur. A Mahayana Buddhist monument built in the 9th century on the island of Java, Indonesia. An example of the Indianization of SEA. Raffles is the first European to make its presence known to the West.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 19:22 

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, as was in the last year, this Graduate School seminar class will be conducted online for Spring Semester 2021. Because of the inclusion of the HIPS program students, we have students from more diverse backgrounds than last year, including Australia, Azerbaijan, China, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Philippines, Portugal, and Japan. We will read some chapters from a history textbook on Southeast Asia and discuss a number of topics to deepen our understanding of the history, culture, and people of Southeast Asia.

The assigned textbook is:

• Milton Osborne. Southeast Asia: An Introductory History. 12th ed. Allen & Unwin, 2016.

The book is available in both paperback and Kindle editions at amazon.com and amazon.co.jp. A new 13th edition will be published in September 2021 (amazon.com and amazon.co.jp).

We will read chapter 5 The European Advance in Challenge and onwards in the following weeks. In the meantime, however, we discuss the climate, geographical setting, and people of Southeast Asia to consolidate and share our understanding of the basics of the region.

投稿者: AOYAMA Toru 日時: 18:38