A Comparative Study of the Yellow Peril and Japan's Pan-Asianism

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K02601
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in general
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Hashimoto Yorimitsu 大阪大学, 文学研究科, 教授 (80334613)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 黄禍論 / アジア主義 / 岡倉覚三 / タゴール / 風刺画 / クラ運河 / タイ / 末松謙澄

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The Yellow Peril and Pan-Asianism are two sides of the same coin. Villains like Fu-Manchu in oriental novels spurred the justification of Japan’s imperial fictions. Even objections to racial prejudice were appropriated in order to mould and praise Eastern spiritualism. Lowes Dickinson’s Letters from John Chinaman, which was first published anonymously in 1901, for instance, had been considered a Mandarin’s authentic manifesto against European materialism. This pamphlet hugely inspired both Rabindranath Tagore and Kakuzo Okakura, later idols and ideologues of Pan-Asianism, to sophisticate the idea. And then actual political situations became stranger than the Yellow Peril or Pan-Asianism novels. In the 1910s, Indian revolutionaries had covertly retreated to Japan, but British agents such as Hari Prasad Shastri closely reported their activities. Interestingly, mutual distrust among Japan, Britain and India incited the popularity of spy novels concerning the Pan-Asian plot.

Free Research Field

比較文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

岡倉覚三とタゴールというアジア主義を牽引した思想家が、共にインドでディキンソンの『中国人の手紙』に啓発され、東洋的価値観を形成していた可能性が明らかになった。日本のアジア主義的な言説や小説の英国起源と同時に、英国の代表的な黄禍論小説である『キモノ』(1921)が、皇太子時代の昭和天皇の訪英時期を狙って刊行された可能性が高いことが判明し、言説の相互関係と文脈を新たに解明することができた。あわせて、大川周明やR. B. ボースなどのアジア主義者を内偵していたH・P・シャストリの活動報告を英国公文書館で調査し、アジア主義者の知られざる一面を発掘することができた。