Academic Freedom and the Japanese Imperial University, 1868-1939
Byron K. Marshall offers here a dramatic study of the changing nature and limits of academic freedom in prewar Japan, from the Meiji Restoration to the eve of World War II.\ Meiji leaders founded Tokyo Imperial University in the late nineteenth century to provide their new government with necessary technical and theoretical knowledge. An academic elite, armed with Western learning, gradually emerged and wielded significant influence throughout the state. When some faculty members criticized...
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Byron K. Marshall offers here a dramatic study of the changing nature and limits of academic freedom in prewar Japan, from the Meiji Restoration to the eve of World War II.Meiji leaders founded Tokyo Imperial University in the late nineteenth century to provide their new government with necessary technical and theoretical knowledge. An academic elite, armed with Western learning, gradually emerged and wielded significant influence throughout the state. When some faculty members criticized the conduct of the Russo-Japanese War the government threatened dismissals. The faculty and administration banded together, forcing the government to back down. By 1939, however, this solidarity had eroded. The conventional explanation for this erosion has been the lack of a tradition of autonomy among prewar Japanese universities. Marshall argues instead that these later purges resulted from the university's 40-year fixation on institutional autonomy at the expense of academic freedom.Marshall's finely nuanced analysis is complemented by extensive use of quantitative, biographical, and archival sources.
List of Tables and FiguresA Note on Japanese Names and TermsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction11Prologue: The Rise and Fall of Academic Freedom72The Making of the Modern Academic Elite, 1868-1905213The Assertion of Academic Autonomy, 1905-1918534The Transformation of the Academic Community, 1919-1931805The Maintenance of University Autonomy, 1919-19321226The Purge of the Imperial Universities, 1933-19391457The Pacific War and Its Aftermath181Appendix: Todai and the Production of National Elites191Glossary and Biographical Notes199List of Works Consulted209Index233
