Mutual perceptions and images in Japanese–German relations 1860–2010

Generally speaking, Asian–German relation is a growing field, which can be shown by the number of panels devoted to related topics at the annual German Studies Association (GSA) conferences in the USA every year since 2009. Also, similar panels were staged at the last International Association of German Studies (IVG) convention at Shanghai. Furthermore, recently the new ‘Palgrave Series in Asian German Studies’ was launched. In this sense, the volume reviewed here is a welcome contribution to a very dynamic field of study.

Similar to various other recent edited volumes dealing with Asian–German relations like Shen and Rosentock (2015), Beyond Alterity: German Encounters with Modern East Asia, or Cho, Roberts, and Spang (2016), Transnational Encounters between Germany and Japan, Saaler, Kudō and Tajima (2017), Mutual Perceptions and Images in Japanese–German Relations 1860–2010 differs from the older works, which had focused on the prewar period, such as Spang and Wippich (2006), German–Japanese Relations 1895–1945, or Kudo, Tajima, and Pauer (2009), Japan and Germany. Two Latecomers to the World Stage, 1890–1945, by covering the post-war era as well.

While most of the papers at the above-mentioned GSA and IVG conferences were presented by American or German scholars, one of the outstanding features of the edited volume under review here is the fact that it brings together ten Japanese scholars, one Israeli, and five Germans (or six, if you take into account the author of the preface as well). Various veterans of Japanese–German relations like Gerhard Krebs, Peter Pantzer and Rolf-Harald Wippich on the German side as well as Kudō Akira and Tajima Nobuo on the Japanese are joined here by various other, mostly well-established authors and some younger scholars. The volume opens with a very informative but lengthy introduction (63 pages) by Sven Saaler. The rest of the book is divided into five parts, roughly along chronological lines. Part 1 (‘Early encounters’) is presented by three Japanese scholars. ‘Perceptions of the “Golden Age” of Japanese-German Relations’ have always fascinated Germans, and it is therefore no surprise that three out of four chapters in part 2 are penned by German authors. Part 3 (‘Drifting Apart. Tensions and War’) is entirely dealt with by the editors (two Japanese, one German). In terms of authors’ backgrounds, part 4 (“Idealization of ‘The Other’ in the Age of Totalitarianism”) is the most diverse. The four chapters presented here were written by one Japanese, two Germans and an Israeli. The final section dealing with “Post-war Images” is again exclusively presented by (three) Japanese authors.

The List of Contributors opens with a name that does not appear on the contents page, a fact that is somehow confusing. You need to read the acknowledgements carefully to understand why Justin Aukema is mentioned here. Apparently most (but not all) Japanese authors provided their texts in Japanese and had them translated into English by Aukema (no. 15 & 16), Sven Saaler (no. 4) and Michael Wachutka (No. 3, 9 & 10). All other chapters seem to be written in English by their respective (non-native) author. In the List of the Contributors, some minor inaccuracies and incoherencies occurred.

In any edited volume, there are some articles that are more appealing than others. This has something to do with the authors involved but it also depends on the reader’s interests and prior knowledge of the topics dealt with. Therefore, those chapters that seem to be less interesting or less informative to one reader might be the ones most fascinating to others. That, in fact, is part of the whole appeal – or one might say merit (or demerit) – of edited volumes. As can be expected of a book dealing with images, there are 94 illustrations in the book. Statistically that would mean 5.2 figures per chapter (including the introduction), but the illustrations are unevenly spread. Three chapters feature nearly two-thirds of all figures (Saaler [introduction]: 14 figures; Wippich [Chapter 5]: 17 figures, and Pantzer [Chapter 7]: 28 figures) while some others do not even provide a single illustration (Chapters 6, 10, 13, 14, 17). All chapters, which have an average length of around 20 pages, feature (extensive) reference sections for further studies.

Saaler explains the aim of his overview as follows (p. 5): ‘This introductory chapter will first define what is meant by national “images” in this publication, then outline the significance of the topic within the field of international relations and introduce the methodological questions involved. This is followed by an overview of mutual representations of Japan and Germany over the past 150 years’. And, in fact, this is what he does. The text is well structured, yet the usage of two levels of headings (throughout most of the book) is a bit confusing at times. Various opinion polls about images of Germany and Japan are introduced but with so many numbers discussed here, it would have made the results much more accessible if tables were used. Unfortunately, the 14 figures provided by the author are not all that well integrated into the text but instead most of them serve as mere illustrations. To pick up just two examples, the author mentions that the first German delegates were depicted ‘rather like Dutch in Japanese woodblock prints’ (p. 25) but he does not further elaborate on this. Thus, it remains unclear what is really meant here. The actual Fig. 0.4 appears only two pages later. On p. 45, a contemporary Japanese photo (Fig. 0.13) in connection with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in 1940 is shown but neither are we told who the people depicted are, nor where the photo was taken. The only explanation provided is that the picture belongs to the ‘accompanying propaganda’ (p. 43) that went along with the rapprochement of the early war years. Also at some points, one would have loved to be told where the related information can be found. On p. 41, for example, Saaler talks about various Japanese scholars who studied in Germany and about the warm reception that Albert Einstein and Fritz Haber encountered when they visited Japan in 1922 and 1924 – but all of this without providing the necessary evidence. There are some repetitions and minor editing oversights.

Besides the above-mentioned rather trivial aspects of criticism, it has to be said that the text is very dense and informative. The author, for example, provides a very interesting table on the ‘Number of articles in Japanese journals with “Germany” (Doitsu) in the title, 1881–2013’ (p. 47), which is thoroughly discussed on p. 46. The introduction ends with a nine-page reference section with many hints for further study. The only works to be added here might be the publications by Rudolf Hartmann, who compiled and published lists of Japanese students at German universities. The overview introduces the reader very well to the topic of the book, but it might be a bit difficult to understand for readers who are not already familiar with questions of images and perception on the one side and German–Japanese relations on the other.

In Chapter 1, Fukuoka deals with the Shogunate’s internal problems and the discrepancy between the information available to the Japanese about the many German states and the unification process underway. Contemporary Japanese books portrayed the complicated multilateral system of the German Confederation (1815–1871) differently. The existence of the German Customs Union (est. 1833/34) further complicated things. As a result, divergent images of Prussia’s role within Germany existed in Japan. In 1861, Count Eulenburg could thus only sign a bilateral Prusso–Japanese treaty while he had originally intended to conclude an agreement between Japan and the German Customs Union. Hakoishi, in chapter 2, starts his description with the Japanese view of Germany before the Eulenburg mission and briefly discusses the negotiations in 1860/61 before looking at the Japanese Bunkyū or Takenouchi mission to Europe in 1862, concluding that these events lead to an understanding of Germany’s federal character within the contemporary Japanese leadership.

Chapter 3 looks at the image of Prussia in Japan at the time of the Boshin War 1868/69. Hakoishi starts off by saying that these years ‘witnessed a boom in new forms of media’ (p. 110) and consequently analyzes the way Prussia’s main representative in Japan, Max S. von Brandt and the Schnell brothers (Heinrich and Eduard) are depicted in the Yokohama-based, British-owned magazine The Japan Punch as well as in contemporary Japanese newspapers – some of them supporting the ‘Northern alliance’ (and thus the Tokugawa side), others cooperating with the new Meiji government. Without going into detail here, it has to be said that this episode and the illustrations along with translations from Japanese newspapers support the author’s claim that ‘the Boshin War possessed the characteristics of a fierce information and propaganda war’ (p. 126).

Part 2 of the book opens with a short but stimulating chapter about the influence of Prusso–German ideas on the views of Kido Takayoshi, who was – along with Saigō Takamori and Ōkubo Toshimichi – one of the ishin-no-sanketsu (‘three great notables of the Meiji Restoration’). The fact that Katsura Tarō closely cooperated with Japan’s first diplomat in Germany, Aoki Shūzō, is well known, but Katō’s chapter shows that these two men jointly exercised a strong influence on Kido. Katsura and Aoki both saw the German empire, its army along with its conscription system and the constitution as the most suitable model for Japan. Both men strongly favored a close cooperation between the army and politicians. Katō quotes various letters from Aoki, Katsura and Kido in support of her thesis. She concludes: ‘it was due to the information provided by them [Aoki & Katsura] that the constitutionalist-reformist Kido faction developed its design of the future of the state’ (p. 148).

Chapters 5 to 7 deal with the image Germans had of Japan a century ago. Wippich in Chapter 5 analyses two German satirical journals, providing and discussing many concrete examples taken from Kladderadatsch and Simplicissimus, which in most cases reflect historical events and – as Wippich suggests in his conclusion – ‘German hopes and fears with regard to Japan as a new actor in world affairs’ (p. 178). Next, Menkhaus focusses on Georg Michaelis and Albert I. Mosse, two legal experts spending 4 years each in Japan between 1885 and 1890. He criticizes that many of the German legal experts did not engage themselves very much in any kind of ‘Japanese studies’ but remained convinced of ‘German cultural and legal superiority’ (p. 189). Very useful for further studies is Table 6.1 ‘German Law Experts in Japan’ (p. 185). Pantzer in Chapter 7 showcases many Japan-related picture postcards of the early twentieth century, mostly depicting Japanese women or motives related to the Japanese seizure of the German leasehold of Qingdao in 1914. He concludes that ‘picture postcards catered to the popular imagination by […] depicting captivating beauties or the stereotypical image of the geisha. They also glorify war heroes, and on occasion contributed to anti-Japanese war propaganda’ (pp. 216–17).

Section 3 opens with Saaler’s Chapter 8 about the image of Germany in Japan before 1914. He provides two useful tables, showing the number of Japanese officers sent abroad (p. 227) during that period and indicating the number of journal articles dealing with Germany-related topics (p. 232). In conclusion, he states that while the army and parts of the political and academic elite were mostly pro-German, mass media and the general public was much less so. The following concise chapter (9) by Kudō about the influence of Imperial Germany’s ‘total war’ concept differentiates between industrial (Rathenau) and manpower (Ludendorff) mobilization on the one side and three different levels of reception on the Japanese side. The Japanese army and its officers corps were very interested in Germany’s mobilization experience but did not fully grasp the changes of German ‘total war’ efforts taking place during the war, at a time when the flow of information was naturally very limited. Very enlightening is the section about Nagata Tetsuzan’s image of total war (pp. 257–263). Chapter 10 takes up the question of German ideas of East Asia and Japan before the signing of the Anticomintern Pact of 1936. Tajima discusses Hitler’s view and briefly touches on Göring, von Ribbentrop and Rosenberg before dealing with the Foreign Office (under von Neurath). The most interesting part is the one about the military, where he stresses the influence of Eugen Ott and his early reports for the build-up of a realistic view of East Asia within the Wehrmacht. That said, the overall conclusion, i.e. that the Nazis did not have any East Asia policy when they came to power and that the Japanese seizure of Qingdao and Nazi racism were some of the most serious obstacles on the way to the later alliance, is less innovative.

In the following chapter (11), Tano deals with the Nazi Kraft-druch-Freude (KdF – strength through joy) movement and describes how far it was the model of Japan’s kōsei undō (JRA – Japanese Recreation Association). Unexpected and thus attention-grabbing is his coverage of the opposite view, i.e. how the KdF assessed the Japanese recreation activities and the JRA. Also, the German Labor Front (DAF) and its Japanese counterpart Sangyō Hōkokukai are frequently mentioned. Both were centralized organizations created to end all independent workers union activities. In Chapter 12, Bieber briefly summarizes ‘images of German-Japanese similarities’. The most common but already well-known contemporary assumption of similarity was that of the SS ‘spirit’ and the samurai ethic (bushido), which are discussed in Chapters 13 and 14 in more detail. Despite all alleged similarities, some uneasiness always remained due to Nazi racism.

Based on the writings of many contemporary authors, Krebs discusses the development of Nazi enthusiasm about Japanese heroism in Chapter 13. Especially bushido, the Shinto religion and ancestor as well as emperor worshiping were frequently referred to as reasons for Japanese military strength. Despite the alleged racial superiority of the Aryan race, SS-chief Heinrich Himmler was among those strongly impressed by the Japanese soldierly spirt. Yet, Kamikaze tactics were viewed critically by Hitler as well as Himmler. When the general public began to evaluate the Japanese fighting spirit higher than that of the Wehrmacht, Himmler announced that German soldiers did not need foreign models or idols. In Krebs’ otherwise very informative summary of postwar activities of German Japanologists, there are two small mistakes. Trautz was not teaching at any university after 1945 and von Weegmann was not repatriated from Japan in 1947/48.

Orbach in his intriguing Chapter 14 also deals with the SS and their admiration of Japan. He compares this with the views of the conservative resistance movement. In concrete terms, he discusses the East Asia-related ideas of SS-Professor Walther Wüst and Carl F. Goerderler, one of the most famous representatives of the conservative anti-Hitler movement. He points out that Wüst’s pro-Japanese view – like all cooperation between the Third Reich and Japan – somehow contradicted Nazi racism, while Goerdeler’s anti-Japanese approach was partly based on racist ideas, namely on a supposed communality of ‘white’ Western nations.

The contributions in part 5 all deal with ‘post-war images’. Kawakita in his interesting comparative chapter (15) does this by analyzing Japan-related articles in the German news magazine Der Spiegel. But he also looks at some Japanese newspaper coverings of topics like Willy Brandt’s visit to Warsaw in 1970 or the airing of the ‘Holocaust’ series in Japan and Germany in 1978/79. The early Spiegel articles focused on war-related topics, later economic questions figured prominently, yet from the early 1970s onward more and more articles dealt with ‘Vergangenheitsbewältigung’ (coming to terms with the past). German articles often compared German and Japanese ways, while Japanese media reported on German developments without comparing them with Japanese experiences. According to the author, this only changed after Richard von Weizsäcker’s famous May 8, 1985, speech.

Satō’s Chapter 16 deals with the usage of Nazi images in Japanese pop culture. While most of what he writes might be obvious to an (older) Japanese audience, (younger) Western readers will learn many things about the application of Nazi and more concrete Hitler images in Japanese anime and manga in the last decades of the twentieth century. Especially since the already mentioned ‘Holocaust’ series had been aired and Anne Frank’s original diary had been on display in Japan, Hitler for some time was seen as the depiction of the worst evil, which – as Satō points out – ‘ultimately results in seeing him as a “super human” (Übermensch)’, which also is problematic. Since the turn of the century, the Hitler/Nazi boom has ended or moved more toward smaller circles, like the ‘Otaku world’.

The final chapter, written by Iwasa, discusses two sociological theories frequently applied to Japan by European academics, namely the ‘group model’ and the ‘cultural importer model’. He asserts that these interpretations were widely accepted, and especially the ‘group model’ was seen as a positive aspect of Japanese society (as compared to the supposedly more individualistic Western societies). Yet, from the 1990s onward, changes in Japanese (and European) societies meant that the ‘group model’ theory was seen more critically because it did not account for the changes that took place in Japanese society toward more individualism. Equally, trends like anime, manga and more recently ‘cool Japan’ have turned the ‘cultural importer model’ into a ‘cultural exporter model’. The author describes these changes convincingly.

The very instructive volume can be recommended to everyone interested in Japan and its relation with Germany. The 13-page index at the end of the book allows the reader to access the information provided selectively.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christian W. Spang

Christian W. Spang Professor at Daitō Bunka University, Tokyo. Currently (2018/19), Visiting Professor at Erlangen University, Germany. His research focuses on German–Japanese relations. He received his Ph.D. from Freiburg University (Germany, 2009). He has been teaching at various Japanese universities since 2001, including Keiō, Sophia and Waseda University, ICU, and The University of Tokyo. Prior to joining Daitō Bunka University, he was Associate Professor at the University of Tsukuba. He is the co-editor of Japanese–German Relations 1895–1945, London: Routledge, 2006; and Transnational Encounters between Germany and Japan, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. In 2014, he co-edited Heinz Altschul: ‘As I Record These Memories …’ Erinnerungen eines deutschen Kaufmanns in Kobe (1926-29, 1934-46). His monographs Karl Haushofer und Japan. Die Rezeption seiner geopolitischen Theorien in der deutschen und japanischen Politik (2013) and Karl Haushofer und die OAG. Deutsch-Japanische Netzwerke in der ersten Hälfte Des 20. Jahrhunderts (2018) were both published with Iudicium in Munich.