The purpose of this thesis is to make a critical interpretation of the nature and implications of anti-Confucianism in East Asian political thought by examining the works of two representative anti-Confucianists, Fukuzawa Yukichi and Yi Kwang-su. In terms of its historical significance, Anti-Confucianism can be said to be equivalent to enlightenment thought in eighteenth century, Europe. Yet notwithstanding its importance, there have been few detailed studies of Anti-Confucian thinkers. This study is an examination of the work of two of the most important anti- Confucianist thinkers - Fukuzawa Yukichi in Japan and Yi Kwang-su in Korea. These writers both sought to attack Confucianism in the light of Western political ideas. In doing so, they employed two cardinal Western political concepts: liberal individualism and nationalism. Their theories contributed to a two phased assault on Confucian values: in the first phase, liberal individualism was used to undermine the Confucian emphasis on the family. But while this first wave of opposition weakened Confucianism, it did not destroy it. The second wave of opposition- however, based on nationalism succeeded in redirecting Confucian collectivism into an illiberal nationalistic form. In the writings of both Fukuzawa and Yi this study traces the path of each of these assaults. In both theorists' work, liberal individualism gave way to nationalistic sentiments, thereby exemplifying and contributing to the currents running through their respective societies, Japan and Korea. The thesis has five chapters. The first two chapters are an introduction to the nature of Confucianism. In chapters three and chapter four, which respectively deal with Fukuzawwa,'s and Yi's anti-Confucianism, discussion centres around the following themes: their conceptions of liberal individualism and nationalism; how they reinterpreted Confucianism in the light of their conception of liberal individualism and nationalism, and how they attempted to reconcile the two different demands of liberal individualism and nationalism in their anti-Confucianism. The conclusion of the thesis is that Fukuzaw a's and Yi's anti-Confucianism failed, in that their association of liberal individualism with nationalism led to a jettisoning of the liberal individualism in their later life. This resulted in an insufficient challenge to the Confucian legacy and a constraint on the growth of liberal individualism in the two countries.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-270).

This thesis examines the image archive of photographs of the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands of Japan within the framework of historically informed visual anthropology. It is argued that investigating the photography of Ogasawara, which has an ethnically diverse population of descendants of the pre-Japanese, nineteenth-century settlement, exposes the processes that have configured modern 'Japaneseness'. Towards this end, the major areas explored are early Japanese photographic practice, visual aspects of Japanese colonialism, Japanese domestic tourism and the use of photography in the creation and maintenance of ideas about Japanese culture. Extremely rare imperial, government and commercial images, including albumen prints, cartes de visite and postcards, from museums, archives and private collections are examined in this study. The trajectories of these images through the 'visual economy' are traced as they are produced, circulated and gather meanings in a variety of contexts, from early colonial encounters to contemporary tourist engagements. These processes are exposed through an investigation of early Japanese photographic practice, colonial expeditions to Ogasawara, the shifting location of Islanders as 'slippery' internal others within configurations of Japaneseness, Japanese domestic tourism and the tourist discourse in contemporary Ogasawara. This has enabled the development of an alternative history of early Japanese photographic practice and a new understanding of Japanese domestic tourism. These new ways of conceptualising photography and tourism in Japan, together with insights gained from ethnographic investigations of the Ogasawaran image archive, demonstrate that photography played a major role in the construction of modern Japaneseness, rather than merely being a by-product of modernisation. Through an examination of images from the archive of photographs of the Ogasawara Islands, one gains an understanding of modern Japan as a society more diverse than the mostly homogeneous nation it is generally represented as, and more fluid in its definitions of Japaneseness than previously thought.

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This thesis deals with the beginnings of the Japanese nationalism. It examines the role of the Sino- Japanese war of 1894-1895 in these beginnings in relation to other national consciousness forming factors. Govermental activities, such as education system and army reforms, and the effort to stress the emperor as a symbol of the Japanese people, and also activities of the intelectual strata, who influenced the society mainly through journalism, were especially prominent among them. It stresses the importance of the period media (newspapers, illustrated magazines, woodcut prints) and early modern theatre to the spread of the national consciousness among masses. It also shows how the way the war was conveyed in the media influenced the view the Japanese had of themselves and of the neighbouring countries. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This thesis examines the deep bilateral tensions surrounding the East China Sea (ECS) disagreements between Japan and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the period from August 19th 2003 to June 18th 2008 from an actor-centred constructivist liberal viewpoint. The East China Sea disputes could be described as a conflicting difference of opinion over a) the demarcation of maritime territory and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) in which potentially significant energy deposits exist and b) the ownership of the strategically important and historically sensitive Pinnacle (Senkaku/Diaoyu) Islands. This research addresses the question of why, given the fact that China and Japan have a strong interest in co-operation and stable relations with each other, small incidents in the ECS blow up into larger problems, cause approaches to the East China Sea to wax and wane, and move the relationship in a direction that goes against preferred national objectives? In attempting to unravel this puzzle, this work argues that domestic politics and popular negative sentiment have been the major issues that have greatly amplified and politicised the ECS problems and have significantly affected positive progress in negotiations aimed at managing and stabilising these disputes. By examining these, the thesis addresses the question of why China and Japan have been so constrained in their attempts to find a workable bilateral agreement over disputed energy resources and demarcation in the East China Sea. It also indirectly deals with the question of why the conflicting legal complexities surrounding these disagreements contributed to both states so fervently maintaining and defending their claims.