The Library
The social origins of Japanese nuclear power : a Gramscian analysis
Tools
Tools
Tools
Kelly, Dominic (2017) The social origins of Japanese nuclear power : a Gramscian analysis. International Politics, 54 (2). pp. 182-202. doi:10.1057/s41311-017-0024-1 ISSN 1384-5748.
|
PDF
WRAP-social-origins-Japanese-nuclear-analysis-Kelly-2017.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (544Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41311-017-0024-1
Abstract
In this paper I seek to contribute to the post-Fukushima literature on Japan, much of which accepts uncritically the orthodox narrative locating Japan’s nuclear origins in the politics of the Cold War and in the passivity of Japanese civil society vis-à-vis a ‘strong’ state. In contrast, I draw upon Gramsci’s work in order to locate these origins within wider processes of global structural transformation associated with the shift from feudalism to capitalism, and the attendant imperialism of the nineteenth century. I treat Japan’s Meiji Restoration as an instance of passive revolution within this context, one outcome of which was the adoption of a specific form of state (the ‘developmental state’) and a specific form of nationalism (techno-nationalism). I further argue that the US Occupation of Japan (1945-52) can be viewed as another instance of passive revolution. In both cases I examine the economic, political and social channels through which state goals were communicated to the Japanese populace and either embraced or resisted in turn. I suggest that Japan’s techno-nationalism survived into the post-war era, but was stripped of its overt military trappings and portrayed instead as a unique combination of ‘pacifism’ and ‘economic developmentalism’. In this way, despite being victims of nuclear weapons, ordinary Japanese people were persuaded to embrace nuclear power.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DS Asia T Technology > TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering |
||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Nuclear energy -- Histroy -- Japan -- 20th century, Japan --History -- Restoration, 1853-1870, Japan -- History -- Allied occupation, 1945-1952, Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Japan, 2011 | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | International Politics | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 1384-5748 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | March 2017 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
|
||||||||
| Volume: | 54 | ||||||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 182-202 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1057/s41311-017-0024-1 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 14 February 2017 | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 14 February 2018 | ||||||||
| Related URLs: |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year
