Japan's Empire of Birds: Aristocrats, Anglo-Americans, and Transwar Ornithology

Japan's Empire of Birds explores the political aspects of Japanese explorer-scientists in the transwar period, examining issues of masculinity, race, and social space in imperial Japan and the Allied Occupation.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 19 October 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Japan's Empire of Birds: Aristocrats, Anglo-Americans, and Transwar Ornithology is a transnational history of science that delves into the political aspects of highly mobile Japanese explorer-scientists, known as cosmopolitan gentlemen of science, who circulated between Japanese and British/American spaces during the transwar period from the 1920s to 1950s. In her book, Annika A. Culver examines a network of zoologists united by their practice of ornithology and aristocratic status. She explores issues of masculinity and race related to this amidst the backdrop of imperial Japan's interwar period of peaceful internationalism, the rise of fascism, the Japanese takeover of Manchuria, and war in China and the Pacific. Culver concludes by investigating how these scientists repurposed their aims during Japan's Allied Occupation and the Cold War.

Inspired by geographer Doreen Massey, the volume addresses themes such as social space and place in these specific locations, as well as how identities transform to garner social capital and scientific credibility in transnational associations and travel for non-white scientists. The book sheds light on the complex relationships between science, politics, and culture during a period of significant global change and provides valuable insights into the experiences of these cosmopolitan gentlemen of science.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350186118