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Pivot of Empire: Settler Politics in Japanese Manchuria, 1913-1916

991 views · Published 7 September 2012 · 58:29 · Indexed 18 October 2026

Channel: Library of Congress · 2012 · Education

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In April 1895, Japan was victorious in battle and humiliated in diplomacy. The Triple Intervention orchestrated by France, Germany and Russia compelled the nascent Meiji empire to relinquish its most recent additions, the Kwantung Leasehold and Railway Zone, both located in Northeast China. Journalist Tokutomi Sohō was famously "vexed beyond tears" at news of the reversal of Japan's fortunes, and his grief echoed the consternation of the nation. To memorialize his sense of loss, Sohō kept a handful of gravel from the leasehold in a souvenir box on his desk in Tokyo. Ten years later, following Japan's defeat of Russia, the land was Japan's again, though the vulnerability of this "significant soil" to outside threats would be enduring. O'Dwyer examines an episode of settler activism during the World War I period that captures settlers' complicated relationship with the politics of place in the empire and which foreshadowed later struggles to keep the Kwantung leasehold a center of popular participation in imperial governance.

For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5560.

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