Johannes Hoeck’s portrait of Japan and it’s people during and after The Russo-Japanese War

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  • Johannes Hoecks skildringer af Japan og japanere under og efter Den Russisk-japanske Krig

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Abstract

At the turn of the 20th century, as a lot of Danish authors went traveling to the Far East, many travel books about Japan were published in Danish. Especially The Russo-Japanese War in 1904-05, which Japan won, gave rise to many books, essays, and much debate in Denmark about Japan’s growing role in the global world order. Japan was also a central topic in the Danish author and journalist Johannes Hoeck’s professional life. This paper investigates how Hoeck wrote about Japan and its population in the first two decades of the 20th century, not least in the wake of The Russo-Japanese War. The analysis of the novel “Spionliv i Østen” and his essays show that Hoeck, with pro-western perspective and terminology, characterizes the Japanese as imitators of western countries. He considered them as unintelligent, always spying, evil heathens and unreliable repulsive monkeys. At the same time, the western protagonist Randolph Greef and the German character Maria Wender in the aforementioned novel are characterized by being noble, civilized, intellectual, and appealing. The paper argues that this contrast reinforces the racial and cultural gap between the West and Japan. The analysis of Hoeck’s characters shows that the Japanese victory in The Russo-Japanese War was seen as an opportunity to unite the Western powers against a common enemy in a possible military conflict between Japan and the West. Hoeck also highlights the political aspects of Japan’s growing role in the world in his novel and essays by pointing out the worries of the West about Japan as a “yellow peril”, a racist term introduced in 1895. Frightened by Japan’s overpopulation, the West identified a threat to its hold on global power, hardened by perceived connotations of the Japanese skin color. Hoeck believed that there was a necessary connection between the Japanese people’s genes and their culture. He saw miscegenation as an abomination, which undoubtedly would lead to moral insanity. Therefore, Hoeck’s view, the paper argues, is that even if Japan geopolitically and militarily may pose a real threat to the West, the Japanese would never be able to reach the intellectual level of western culture.

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