Pictured above, Joseph Essertier in Japan, on the left and Jeff J. Brown on the right, in China.
Downloadable SoundCloud podcast (also at the bottom of this page), as well as being syndicated on iTunes and Stitcher Radio (links below).
Join me as I host Mr. Joseph Essertier, an American who has lived and breathed Japan for most of his adult life. Growing up in Southern California, he got his degree in Japanese literature at UCLA and has since advanced to his doctoral candidacy, while living and working in Japan for over 20 years. Since 2000, he has been an associate professor at the Nagoya Institute of Technology.
Joseph has written for the Asia-Pacific Journal, New Directions, Counterpunch, ZNet and World Beyond War, the last group for which he is the Japan Coordinator.
With someone this knowledgeable and experienced about Japan, you too will become an expert on this fascinating and historically important country, after just one hour listening to me ask Joseph questions. As promised, please find below all the books and websites we talked about.
The Articles, Books, and Links Mentioned by Joseph Essertier during the Interview and a Few Others that are Directly Related
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
George Orwell, 1984
Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States
Noam Chomsky
On the Great Tempo Period Famine, see
http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/savage/A-JAPFAM.PDF
On connection between the situation in Korea today and the Open Door Policy (“gunboat diplomacy”):
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/22/korea-its-always-really-been-about-china/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/23/why-japans-ultranationalists-hate-the-olympic-truce/
Fukoku kyōhei (富国強兵, “Enrich the state, strengthen the military”)
On the Ainu people:
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2008/0609/p04s01-woap.html
Okakura Kakuzo, The Ideals of the East (1903)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/ioe/index.htm
Peipei Qiu, Chinese Comfort Women
Caroline Norma, The Japanese Comfort Women and Sexual Slavery during the China and Pacific Wars
(This book is also available at Rakuten Kobo, if a cheaper electronic copy of the book is fine with the reader).
Katharine Moon, “Military Prostitution and the US Military in Asia”
https://apjjf.org/-Katharine-H.S.-Moon/3019/article.html
(This is the Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, the best source of analysis of Japanese war history, the “comfort women” issue, the suffering of people colonized by the Empire of Japan, etc.)
Herbert Bix, “The Making of Modern Japan”:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93959.Hirohito_and_the_Making_of_Modern_Japan
Daily news sources:
North Korea News: www.nknews.org
Japan Times: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/
Asia Pacific Journal/Japan Focus: https://apjjf.org/
Okinawa Times: http://english.ryukyushimpo.jp/
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