Newsletter No. 388
Research-Review
September 24, 2006

 

A MAJOR BOOK ON JAPAN-AFGHANISTAN RELATIONS IS PUBLISHED

At the beginning of this month, Akashi Shoten published a very substantial book (in Japanese) on the history of Japan-Afghanistan relations. The book is edited by Kosaku Maeda and Masao Sekine, and it runs over 600 pages:

Nihon-Afuganisutan Kankei Zenshi
(The Complete History of Japan-Afghanistan Relations)

Although I don’t intend to give a full review of the book at this time, some basic information will be provided.

The main text takes up the first 260 pages. More than half of the text is actually direct quotations from various primary sources: travelogues, magazines, reports, etc. The strength of the book is that it allows contemporary Japanese to speak in their own voices. The weakness is that the editors don’t seem to make a serious effort to analyze or make integrated comments about Japan-Afghanistan relations. Also, since it does quote so many older documents, it is not so easy to read, as the Japanese use of kanji has changed a great deal in the past century.

 

Table of Contents:

-Chapter One: The Dawn

(Begins near the start of the Meiji period; profiles the role of figures such as Takeaki Enomoto, Tokujiro Nishi, Yasumasa Fukushima, Masaji Inoue, and Muhammad Ayyub Khan. Finishes around World War I)

-Chapter Two: Toward the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations

(Examines early Interwar portrayals of Afghanistan such as those of Shumei Okawa, then looks at the process that led to signing of the first treaty between Japan and Afghanistan)

-Chapter Three: From the Opening of Diplomatic Relations to the Defeat in War

(Examines Japan-Afghanistan relations from the 1930s to 1945 through the eyes of the Japanese press and various writers who touched on the subject in this period)

-Chapter Four: People Who Connected Japan and Afghanistan

(A short chapter that presents accounts of Europeans who talked about Japan-Afghanistan relations in the Interwar period)

-Chapter Five: From the Reestablishment of Diplomatic Relations to the Soviet Invasion

(Examines the 1945-1979 period in the same manner as the earlier chapters. Pays attention to both print and electronic media images)

-Chapter Six: After the Soviet Invasion

(A short chapter that brings the story near 2001. Coverage of the most recent period is very thin)

After the main text, there is a very long timeline of Japan-Afghanistan relations which actually runs for 300 pages. It covers events from 1863 to August 2006 in considerable detail. There are several other tables after that, but, regrettably, no collected bibliography at the end.

Overall, this is a serious work that will clearly become the starting point for a great deal of future research on Japan-Afghanistan relations.