Jiro Abe Lecturing at the South Manchuria Railway Company : A New Japanese "Personality" after World War I

DOI Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 満鉄の阿部次郎 : 第一次大戦・企業・教養
  • マンテツ ノ アベ ジロウ ダイ1ジ タイセン キギョウ キョウヨウ

Search this article

Description

In 1920 Jiro Abe delivered serial lectures at the South Manchuria Railway Company. His lectures, later published in book form with the title Jinkaku-shugi-no-shucho, are interesting because they marked the juncture when the concept of "personality" underwent an epistemological change after World War I. In the lectures, probably influenced by John Spargo's The Psychology of Bolshevism (1919), a book he was reading during the tour in Manchuria, he turned "personality" into something more adaptable for globalization after the war. The audience, mostly of the elite class graduated from imperial universities, was naturally expected to have a personality that could survive in the struggle of the international market. In this essay, by analyzing Abe's lectures, his diary, and the magazines issued by the reading group of the company, I will locate the birth of the new personality in modern Japan.

Journal

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top