Nishiyama Engineering War and Peace in Modern Japan, 1868–1964

Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4214-1267-2
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 0 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Reihe: Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology

The role of engineering communities in taking Japan from a defeated war machine into a peacetime technology leader.

Naval, aeronautic, and mechanical engineers played a powerful part in the military buildup of Japan in the early and mid-twentieth century. They belonged to a militaristic regime and embraced the importance of their role in it. Takashi Nishiyama examines the impact of war and peace on technological transformation during the twentieth century. He is the first to study the paradoxical and transformative power of Japan’s defeat in World War II through the lens of engineering.

Nishiyama asks: How did authorities select and prepare young men to be engineers? How did Japan develop curricula adequate to the task (and from whom did the country borrow)? Under what conditions? What did the engineers think of the planes they built to support Kamikaze suicide missions? But his study ultimately concerns the remarkable transition these trained engineers made after total defeat in 1945. How could the engineers of war machines so quickly turn to peaceful construction projects such as designing the equipment necessary to manufacture consumer products? Most important, they developed new high-speed rail services, including the Shinkansen Bullet Train. What does this change tell us not only about Japan at war and then in peacetime but also about the malleability of engineering cultures?

Nishiyama aims to counterbalance prevalent Eurocentric/Americentric views in the history of technology. Engineering War and Peace in Modern Japan, 1868–1964 sets the historical experience of one country’s technological transformation in a larger international framework by studying sources in six different languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. The result is a fascinating read for those interested in technology, East Asia, and international studies. Nishiyama's work offers lessons to policymakers interested in how a country can recover successfully after defeat.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nishiyama, Takashi

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Nationale und Internationale Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technikgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Notes on Transliteration
Introduction Technology and Culture, War and Peace
1. Designing Engineering Education for War, 1868–1942
2. Navy Engineers and the Air War, 1919–1942
3. Engineers for the Kamikaze Air War, 1943–1945
4. Integrating Wartime Experience in Postwar Japan, 1945–1952
5. Former Military Engineers in the Postwar Japanese National Railways, 1945–1955
6. Opposition Movements of Former Military Engineers in the Postwar Railway Industry, 1945–1957
7. Former Military Engineers and the Development of theShinkansen, 1957–1964
Conclusion: Legacy of War and Defeat
A Note on the Appendix and Sources
Appendix: List of Informants
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Nishiyama, Takashi
Takashi Nishiyama is an assistant professor of history at the State University of New York, Brockport.