Paper short abstract:

By examining the representations of Russia in Japanese general magazines during and after the Russo-Japanese War, this paper shows how Japanese conservative and moderate intellectuals understood Russia and its people and promoted Japanese-Russian relations beyond the international hostility.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines representations of, and opinions about Russia in popular Japanese general magazines during the Russo-Japanese War, when the Meiji Government was antagonistic toward the Russian Empire, and afterwards, when it formed a friendship with this nation. It will focus on articles, visual images, such as pictures and photographs, and transnational activities (residence, dispatches, and travels) of writers and correspondents from the nationalistic magazines “Nihonjin” (The Japanese), its successor “Nihon oyobi Nihonjin” (Japan and the Japanese), published by the cultural organization Seikyōsha, and the moderate-imperialistic magazine “Taiyō” (The Sun) from Hakubunkan. These magazines contained articles from various fields— politics, diplomacy, economics, trade and commerce, social problems, science and technology, thought, literature, arts and culture, with plentiful pictures and photographs reproduced at the beginning. Their editors and writers, among which we could mention famous critic Miyake Setsurei and famed geographer Shiga Shigetaka who had founded Seikyō-sha, journalist-editor of “Taiyō,” Toyabe Shuntei, prominent political scientist Ukita Kazutami and others, were seriously concerned about the Russo-Japanese relationships and the state of the War. They attempted to rapidly deepen their knowledge and understanding of Russia during and after the Russo-Japanese War. Therefore, Russian affairs, including the life and culture of its people, were frequently introduced and discussed in their articles. Furthermore, articles from other writers and correspondents from Manchuria, Far Eastern Russia and Siberia were also actively published in these magazines. It can be said that the editors considered the transnational activities of their writers and correspondents as crucial to obtaining new and accurate information about Russia. They looked at postwar bilateral friendship in each field with great interest and did their best to serve the national interests in the Far East, Manchuria and Siberia. This paper shows how Japanese conservative and moderate intellectuals understood Russia and its people beyond war-time hostility, aiming to promote Russo-Japanese relationships in the early part of the 20th century.