I have to get to my AAS blogging, I know, but I have to share something I ran across reading — of all things — David Walsh’s HNN reports from the Organization of American Historians conference. Jared Roll, Senior Lecturer at Sussex, gave a paper on radical religiousity in the US South during the Great Depression, specifically on the proliferation of uaffiliated Pentacostal churches. Walsh reports:

Roll took pains to not that these unaffiliated Pentecostals were apocalyptic in nature, but were not as otherworldy as some historians insisted. Indeed, messianic prophets incited a kind of nationalism in rural black communities. Indeed, one premillenialist preacher claimed that Japan would lead a crusade to defeat white imperialism. He used the Book of Ezekiel to claim that Japan would drop poisonous bombs on the U.S. that would kill all American whites and apostate blacks, save for 144,000 chosen.

There is video of Roll’s talk, but unfortunately only the first ten minutes, before, apparently, he got to the good stuff!

I’d love to know when this claim was made. Given the focus of the panel, it’s presumably in the 1930s, and probably post-Manchurian Incident. I wonder if this preacher was just using Japan as a foil because of general tensions with the US or if the GEACPS rhetoric was widely enough known (and considered credible) to actually be cited in this context? Either way, it’s the first time I’ve heard Japan used as a means of apocalyptic fulfillment of any prophecy other than Nichren doctrine and a few Japanese New Religions.

ASPAC was at Soka University of America this year. It’s in the hills above Laguna Beach, just down the road from Irvine, on the edge of a nature reserve. The campus is new — they opened in 2001 — and compact, with shiny new buildings and real ambition. Being a hilltop campus, there’s a lot of stairs; being in southern California, and near a nature preserve, there’s some lovely flora and fauna on campus, and I think I’ve solidified my reputation among my conference colleagues as “the camera guy.” Like so many American colleges, Soka U. has a religious foundation to its community and pedagogy, but is open to non-Soka Gakkai students and faculty¹ and has a secular, transformative mission.

Soka Gakkai tends to be something of a sideshow for Japan specialists — a Nichiren sect with a political wing, it’s the largest single religious institution in Japan but usually gets folded in with the rest of the Buddhist traditions; the political aspects of it get subsumed by the LDP’s continuing dominance — but it has a global reputation for peace, environmental and educational projects which goes well beyond their numbers. One of the papers I heard on Sunday was a discussion of the role of foreign language study in Soka Gakkai pedagogy.² Soka founder Makiguchi Tsunesaburo was an adherent of John Dewey’s liberal humanism and Immanuel Kant’s enlightenment philosophy before he became a Nichiren Buddhist, making it a thoroughly global new religion.³ The engraving on the left reads

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Foster Leaders of Culture in the Community
Foster Leaders of Humanism in Society
Foster Leaders of Pacifism in the World
Foster Leaders for the Creative Coexistence of Nature and Humanity

SOKA UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
FOUNDER DAISAKU IKEDA

Not only is foreign language required at SUA, but a year of study overseas in a country that speaks the language. Since the student body is just over 400 at the moment, that’s got to make the campus seem even emptier,⁴ but it makes sense if you’re serious about training global citizens.

The public centerpiece of the conference is always the banquet, held in the appropriately grand Founders Hall. The featured speaker is almost always the AAS President, who makes the rounds of regional and specialist conferences. Robert Hefner presented some interesting material on religious growth and change in Southeast Asia, including the growth of Pentacostalism and, though he was running out of time, some about the rise of more political Islamic movements. There was a trio of cultural performances — Chinese music, modern Indian dance, and traditional Japanese dance — to cap off the evening. We also got some nice shamisen music — the medly which included the Star Wars theme caught some ears — to accompany our Friday night reception out at the Lotus ponds.

The private centerpiece of the conference is the board meeting, which was held on Friday night this year after the reception. My board colleagues saw fit to nominate me to another two-year term as secretary, putting my neurotic streak to good use, and that was ratified the next day.⁵ Though I’m no longer living in the ASPAC region, I do think it’s one of the nicest conferences there is: diverse, lively, nice folks, nice venues. I’ll keep coming: next year’s meeting will be at Portland State University.

Also, it’s one of the only conferences that takes place in the summer. Why aren’t there more? Is it protectiveness of our summertime? Is it the desire to get away mid-semester? I don’t get it: I hate losing class time to travel, and the paper writing mostly gets done in the summer anyway: the conference is a perfect venue to present a draft, get feedback, then go back and revise, submit.

Anyway, I’ve got a few panels and papers I want to talk about, and I’ll do that over the next few days. Most of the papers I want to comment on were about Japan, which is kind of unusual, actually. There were a couple of China papers, though, so check in over there sometime soon.

1. I can’t speak for the student body, but the Soka faculty who’ve dealt with the ASPAC board aren’t SG adherents
2. The paper was arguing that Soka theory leads to a more advanced and effective language teaching system, but most of it sounded an awful lot like the dialogues, N+1 and immersion methods I encountered in the ’80s. The Makiguchi stuff was fascinating, though.
3. No, I’m still not sure how you combine Kant, Dewey and Nichiren in a consistent theological fashion. The tensions between nationalism and internationalism, enlightenment ecumenicism and Lotus Sutra exclusivism, just to name a few, seem substantial. My personal experience with SG members in Japan suggests that it propogates as a sort of Prosperity Gospel, but that doesn’t actually simplify anything.
4. There were about a hundred people at the conference, plus a couple of dozen people participating in other unrelated groups, and there was clearly capacity for lots more.
5. mostly by the board, since hardly anyone else shows up to the general business meeting

The NYTimes Lede blog [thanks, Mom!] linked Michael Phelps’ marijuana scandal to a scandal in Japanese sumo¹ which has resulted in four retirements.

They almost got it right: they note that Sumo wrestlers are supposed to maintain “monkish” discipline, and there’s some real truth to that.² They also made a classic error: I actually left a comment, which I almost never do at the Times:

“Shinichi Suzukawa” is not his “real name” but his birth name. Sumo wrestlers take on a new name when they enter the sport, and many will take on another when they reach high rank. After they retire, they give up their fighting name and take on a new name, often one based on their stable or coach’s name.

The Japanese tradition is much more flexible than the Western tradition in regard to names.

The name thing and the “monkish discipline” are clear reminders that Sumo, though it’s been a part of the entertainment world for a long time, has its origins in Shinto ritual. The accoutrement of the referrees are drawn directly from priestly garb; the throwing of salt and stamping rituals for purification, etc.

There was a pretty substantial period — most of the Tokugawa era, really — where Sumo seems to have been somewhat divorced of these practices (though ukiyoe of bouts show the presiding referees clearly in traditional garb), and sumo wrestlers were more like free agents and daimyo retainers, but when the modern sport is formulated in the Meiji and Taisho eras, it is clearly resacralized, almost certainly as a result of the state-sponsored resurgence of Shinto and the desire to connect it to a reimagined family-state tradition.

The name changes, then, are also part of this religious tradition: the tradition of taking a new name when taking religious orders is well-known in Buddhism; the tradition of taking on a new name for a new stage in life, and the pseudo-kinship relationship between a stablemaster and his wrestlers also play a role.

1. yeah, MutantFrog got there first!
2. Though also some exoticism, clearly. All athletes are supposed to forego some pleasures in order to maintain high levels of physical training.

I was just catching up on my reading of H-Japan postings, when I came across an announcement that I thought might be worth sharing with those who don’t subscribe to the mailing list. It announces the new online:

Encyclopedia of Shinto

Not only can its contents be read in English and searched online, but I was delighted to find that it has released the contents under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs) that gives visitors the freedom to copy and distribute the material they find there if they provide attribution.

The Online Release of the Encyclopedia of Shinto
May 25, 2007

The 21st century Centers of Excellence (COE) Program at Kokugakuin University (Tokyo, Japan) is pleased to announce the completion, in March 2007, of the online version of its Encyclopedia of Shinto (EOS). EOS was compiled as part of the four-year (2002-2006) COE program entitled “Establishment of a National Learning Institute for the Dissemination of Research on Shinto and Japanese Culture” (please see the address below).

The online EOS is a revised and translated digital version of the entire contents of the reduced-sized edition of the Encyclopedia of Shinto edited by the Institute for the Study of Japanese Culture and Classics (IJCC) at Kokugakuin University; it was published by Koubundou in 1999. The original encyclopedia is comprised of nine sections, three of which have been translated into English and published in print form (Section Two, Kami; Section Four, Shrines; and Section Eight, Schools, Organizations, and Personalities). Under the COE program, all nine sections have been newly edited and translated into English, and photos, audio, and video files have been created and linked to the text; the entirety is available on the web.

40 researchers both within and outside of Japan contributed to the translation and correction process, and around 30 staff members of the COE project were involved with editing and uploading the information. The Encyclopedia of Shinto is designed for anyone who would like to know about Japanese culture related to Shinto in English, and presents a wide range of material related to Shinto with clear academic explanations. It should also be helpful for Japanese people when explaining Shinto in international situations. EOS has been partially available on the web for some time, and has already been accessed many times. However, in light of its recent completion, we hope that an even greater number of people will be made aware of its existence and will use it frequently.

In the future, we plan to supplement and improve the content further, hoping to make EOS an even more accessible and reliable reference source.

The new online Encyclopedia of Shinto is a product of considerable expenditure and effort, and therefore we sincerely hope that you will make full use of it.

Inoue Nobutaka
Project Leader
Professor, Kokugakuin University

URL of the online Encyclopedia of Shinto: http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/
Questions should be directed to Inoue Nobutaka, Kokugakuin University

“For both nations and inviduals have sometimes made a virtue of neglecting history; and history has taken its revenge on them.” — H. R. Trevor-Roper “The Past and the Present: History and Sociology” (1969), cited in Tosh, ed. Historians on History, p. 197.

Welcome to the September 1, 2006 edition of history carnival. I’m finally hosting a carnival with a number as high as my age! In honor of the quotes meme making the rounds, I’m going to use my personal quotation file as, um, decoration around the rich collection of material in this carnival. As usual, I’m making up categories as I go along: anyone who treats them as strict or comprehensive cataloging gets what they deserve!

The Earliest

“Chronology, so the saying goes, is the last refuge of the feeble-minded and the only resort for historians.” — Joseph J. Ellis

Geological History (and souvenirs): John McKay recounts a visit to an erratic rock and discusses the geology, the glory of seeing natural history in situ, and the tragedy of souvenir hunters.

Jared Diamond gets another look at Salamander Candy.

Jim Davila at PaleoJudaica takes us on a photographic tour of Vindolanda “an early Roman fort near Hadrian’s wall which is important for its Latin epigraphic discoveries. Vindolanda is also the setting for Barabara Bell’s Minimus books — Latin primers for children.”

Military Lives

“Historical awareness is a kind of resurrection.” — William Least Heat Moon

Grant Jones presents a WWII hero and Tim Abbott presents his grandfather’s story as a US Navy Surgeon in the South Pacific at Walking the Berkshires

Sayaka presents a discussion of the historical documentary ari no heitai [ant soldiers], about Japanese revisionism about the war in China, particularly the post-1945 anti-Communist campaign

Only Two Rs relates a discussion between military historians about soldiers past and present.

Miland Brown explains that "Falling into Aztecs hands in war time was a not a good idea…".

Lively Discourses

“And this is a matter of which no historian can afford to be simply a dispassionate chronicler and analyst. However great his intellectual and moral detachment, in the last resort he is committed to the values, and to the society, that enables him to remain so detached. He is a member of the polis and cannot watch its destruction without himself being destroyed.” — Michael Howard The Lessons of History (1989), cited in Tosh, ed. Historians on History, p. 187.

Brett Holman sent me Dan Todman’s A step too Farr? was one of many discussions [Ed. Roundup by Brett Holman] of the proposed posthumous pardon for WWI deserters.

Trillwing’s excellent post about one woman in science history at The Clutter Museum included a lament for the paucity of female history bloggers. Ralph Luker responded with a remarkable collection of women history bloggers which spurred much discussion. Here goes: I’m disappointed at the paucity of Asian History Bloggers outside of Frog In A Well….

As Ralph Luker says, “Donald Rumsfeld already has nominations for the next Bad History Carnival from Derek Catsam, Kevin Drum, Hiram Hover, and John Prados.” I suspect we’ll miss Rumsfeld when he’s gone. I’d like to find out.

Orac took some time away from his vacation to strike back at an anti-Darwinist argumentum ad nazium posted at Respectful Insolence. Sergey Romanov also got his licks in, as did a few other folks.

An Artistic Interlude

“Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way around.” — David Lodge, British Museum (1965)

Callimachus reveals his boring old postcard collection. His description, not mine; I’m the one who picked it for the carnival!

Another one I’ll admit to: John McKay’s brief history of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

word into art 4 at Verbal Privilege is a dramatic demonstration of the power of modern art when it uses historical material and themes (see more here). The final piece in that post is stunning; even if (especially if) you have doubts about politically engaged modern art, look at it.

Brett Holman suggests David Tiley’s art, life, terror, the fascinating tale of a women whose artistic talent allowed her to survive the Holocaust and then go on to become a Disney animator, but whose art is being held [that's carefully chosen words, there] by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.

Teaching, teaching, teaching

“A bashful person cannot learn, nor can an impatient one teach.” — Hillel

Dave Fagg’s iHistory Podcast Project deserves a serious look for anyone interested in new technology teaching tools.

In honor of the new semester, Alan Baumler and I discuss our history syllabi. This is an ongoing series at Frog In A Well, and we’d love to see more folks join in: there’s lots of syllabi on the web, but not a lot of discussion of syllabi content and course organization. There should be more.

Sources!

“I wonder why we hate the past so.” — W.D. Howells to Mark Twain
“It’s so damned humiliating.” — Twain’s reply

Scott McLemee suggests YouTube as an Oral History archive. Why not: some scholars already use eBay as a source of manuscripts, etc.

Martin Rundkvist raises a more troubling issue: E-mail migration and the loss of data.

Jennie W. of American Presidents Blog shares some of Lucy Hayes’ Civil War Letters and pictures.

Natalie Bennett’s Diarist Lady discusses Touching the King’s Evil, in great (historical!) detail.

Kevin Levin’s discussion of Ken Burns in the classroom was worthwhile.

Alan Baumler shared a fascinating Han-era document we’ve both used in class.

Language and history

“If the evidence that existed always spoke plainly, truthfully, and clearly to us, not only would historians have no work to do, we would have no opportunity to argue with each other.” — John H. Arnold, History: A Very Short Introduction, p.13.

How should historical fiction writers deal with archaic terminology? Carla explains her common-sense approach

Amanda McCloskey presents an etymology of biliary atresia, drawing on folklore, comparative linguistics, history and medicine.

Speaking of etymologies, Callimachus does a brief examination of fascism and it’s modern applications. Popular topic these days: Shertaugh guest-blogs on it at Eric Muller’s place.

Violent Death

“If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.” — Baruch Spinoza

sepoy sent along Martyrification, a brief history of a woman sniper and her memorial.

Nene Adams is doing a series of crime recapitulations, including a fascinating example of blood libel stymied by forensic pathology and a contemporary of Jack the Ripper.

David Noon presents Nat Turner’s Uprising saying, "for professional and personal reasons, my blog has been reduced to a daily recounting of horrific anniversaries — this entry, I think, is one of the better ones in the series…. It also happens to coincide with the day Bernard Lewis stupidly predicted the world would be cast into a lake of fire…." I can’t improve on that.

Scholarly Life

“Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get when you don’t.” — Pete Seeger

Ralph Luker shared a piece of his own research, a lovely example of how a simple footnote can be an education if you take it seriously and do it right.

Tim Burke offers a dilemma of historical writing from his own work in You Can’t Tell the Players Without a Scorecard (also here), and discusses the dynamics of the end of Apartheid. Finally, in a challenge answered by far too few (I’ll get to it after this carnival is up, really!), he asks about the cleavages and battlefields of our respective subfields.

Finally, Brian Ulrich waxes nostalgic for the “cutting edge” scholars of the past

Politics, of course, means bad history

“At a certain point one ceases to defend a certain view of history; one must defend history itself.” — E. P. Thompson

Konrad Lawson examines George Will’s Yasukuni essay and finds it historically lacking. I thought the concluding point comparing Yasukuni visits with the Confederate flag issue was good, though. In related news, Yasukuni’s got fiscal issues and PR problems, to boot.

Another Damned Medievalist found Creationist Beowulf, apparently a common element in hard-line Christian homeschooling

Sergey Romanov takes on The Ugly Voice denial videos at Holocaust Controversies. When he’s not doing that, he’s going up against David Horowitz, whose web projects have featured a hard-core Holocaust denier (and don’t miss the George Soros debate, either).

Speaking of the Nazis, apparently some people can’t tell the difference between an opportunism and conspiracy. Happens all the time.

Thoroughly Unclassifiable

“Children who tell adults everything are trying to make them as wise as they. Just as children who ask questions already know why the sky is blue and where the lost kitten has gone. What they need is confirmation that the odd and frightening magic which has turned adults into giants has not completely addled their brains.” — Richard Bowes, “The Mask of the Rex.”

Mum to Laura guestblogs at Autism Street and attacks pseudoscience by using blindness as a metaphor for autism. It’s an interesting exercise in counterfactualism as satire.

Joe Kissell presents a geographic absurdity, a group of islands off of Newfoundland which are French territory. As usual, I have another ITOD post which I think is worth reading, particularly for the mystery.

Until Next Time!

“Not only are there no happy endings, there aren’t even any endings.” — Neil Gaiman, American Gods (2001: 483)

In sad news for the Carnival (a minor side effect of momentous happy news in real life), Caleb McDaniel, after hosting HC #37 is going out of blogging on a high note, while he embarks on fatherhood and assistant professorhood. There’ll always be space for him in the HC!

That concludes this edition. If you think you can do better, volunteer to host an upcoming edition. Or just submit blog articles to the next edition of history carnival, to be hosted at Cliopatria (Update: The High Cliopatriarch Himself, Ralph Luker, will host!), using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blogcarnival.com index page or our very own homepage.

“History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.” — Abba Eban

Many thanks to those who submitted their own posts, those who submitted other folks’ work, and those bloggers who I’ve shamelessly selected on my own authority.

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