Norma Field Japan's best-known proletarian novel, Kani Kosen (depicting conditions aboard a crab-canning factory ship operating off Soviet waters)[2] [1] by Kobayashi Takiji (1903-1933), enjoyed an utterly unanticipated revival in the course of 2008. Many attribute the revival of the novel to the deepening impoverishment of the ranks of the irregularly employed, now … [Read more...] about Commercial Appetite and Human Need: The Accidental and Fated Revival of Kobayashi Takiji’s Cannery Ship
Archives for June 2009
Iran and Leftist Confusion
June 29, 2009 By Reese Erlich Reese Erlich's ZSpace Page When I returned from covering the Iranian elections recently, I was surprised to find my email box filled with progressive authors, academics and bloggers bending themselves into knots about the current crisis in Iran. They cite the long history of U.S. interference in Iran and conclude that the current unrest … [Read more...] about Iran and Leftist Confusion
SOA Watch on the Honduran Coup
Resistance and Repression in HondurasAn unknown number of Hondurans have taken to the streets today in an effort to stop the coup that the military, in league with Congress and the Supreme Court, has carried out against democratically elected President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya.Due to intermitant power outages and heavy rain, independent media within Honduras has had extreme … [Read more...] about SOA Watch on the Honduran Coup
US Involvement in Honduran Coup?
Lots of speculation on the left, with some saying it is too soon to say for sure if the US had a hand or not, but that at the very least, the leader of the coup is a graduate of the US Scool of Death (School of the Americas, or SOA) and a supporter of the neo-liberal agenda. He joins many fellow graduates of the infamous SOA, who have gone on to lead coups. … [Read more...] about US Involvement in Honduran Coup?
Japanese Textbook Controversies, Nationalism, and Historical Memory: Intra- and Inter-national Conflicts (Japan Focus)
http://www.japanfocus.org/-Mark-Selden/3173 Yoshiko NOZAKI and Mark Selden Japan’s neonationalists have launched three major attacks on school textbooks over the past half century.1 Centered on the treatment of colonialism and war, the attacks surfaced in 1955, the late 1970s, and the mid-1990s. The present study examines three moments in light of Japanese … [Read more...] about Japanese Textbook Controversies, Nationalism, and Historical Memory: Intra- and Inter-national Conflicts (Japan Focus)