Prisons and Forced Labour in Japan: The Colonization of Hokkaido, 1881-1894 (Routledge Focus on Asia) - Softcover

Jolliffe, Pia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0367670402 ISBN 13: 9780367670405

Publisher: Routledge, 2020

Synopsis

Prisons and Forced Labour in Japan examines the local, national and international significance of convict labour during the colonization of Hokkaido between 1881 and 1894 and the building of the Japanese empire.

Based on the analysis of archival sources such as prison yearbooks and letters, as well as other eyewitness accounts, this book uses a framework of global prison studies to trace the historical origins of prisons and forced labour in early modern Japan. It explores the institutionalization of convict labour on Hokkaido against the backdrop of political uprisings during the Meiji period. In so doing, it argues that although Japan tried to implement Western ideas of the prison as a total institution, the concrete reality of the prison differed from theoretical concepts. In particular, the boundaries between prisons and their environment were not clearly marked during the colonization of Hokkaido.

This book provides an important contribution to the historiography of Meiji Japan and Hokkaido and to the global study of prisons and forced labour in general. As such, it will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese, Asian and labour history.

About this title

About the Author

Pia Maria Jolliffe is a Research and Teaching Associate at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies and a Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, UK. She is the author of Learning, Migration and Intergenerational Relations: The Karen and the Gift of Education (2016).

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0367670402
• ISBN 13: 9780367670405
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 82