An Interactive Research Project Between Japan and Africa Towards Creating a New Perspective on World War II

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25704010
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: History of Asia and Africa
• Research Institution: Meiji University
• Principal Investigator: MIZOBE YASU'O 明治大学, 国際日本学部, 准教授 (80401446)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: アフリカ史 / 日本アフリカ関係史 / 第二次世界大戦 / アフリカの新聞・メディア / アフリカ人兵士 / インド・ビルマ戦線 / 日本人のアフリカ進出 / ガーナ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Since 2007, I have been conducting research projects on Japanese-African relations during WWII, based on the analysis of local media in both Africa (mainly the British Gold Coast [now Ghana]) and Japan. This project, which started in April 2013, clarified that the Gold Coast media suddenly changed its stance towards Japan, going from describing Japan as a successful model of modernization in the non-Western world to depicting it as a savage enemy, partly due to severe censorship by the British colonial authorities; the Japanese media, on the other hand, continued to describe Africa and Africans as victims of US and British imperialism in order to justify its own expansionist policy and invasions of other Asian countries. This research report was presented at international academic conferences in Russia(Institute of African Studies, Russian Science Academy) and Jamaica (University of West Indies); and an academic paper based on the above mentioned report was published in 2015.

Free Research Field

近現代アフリカ研究・日本アフリカ関係史