Supporting the Faith, Building the Empire: Imperial Japan’s Islamic Policies in World War II

Supporting the Faith, Building the Empire: Imperial Japan’s Islamic Policies in World War II

 

Friday, March 5, 2021

Hoover Institution, Stanford University

 

Leading up to and through World War II, the Japanese Empire curried favor with Muslims in China and in East Asia. Drawing on examples from Prof. Hammond’s recent book, China’s Muslims and Japan’s Empire: Centering Islam in World War II, the talk discusses Japanese policies and the ways in which the Japanese Government saw itself as the protector of Islam, while simultaneously advancing its imperial vision. For their part, Muslims from the colonial world found Japan’s anti-Western and anti-Soviet rhetoric appealing to a certain extent. By placing Muslims at the center of Japan’s imperial ambitions, it becomes clear that those ambitions extended beyond the boundaries of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and into predominantly Islamic spaces like Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Kelly Hammond is Assistant Professor of East Asian history at the University of Arkansas, an associate editor for the Journal of Asian Studies, and serves on the Public Intellectual Program for the National Committee on US-China Relations. Her recent work has been supported by the ACLS/Luce Foundation, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the American Philosophical Foundation, and the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
This talk is part of the History Working Group Seminar Series. A central piece of the History Working Group is the seminar series, which is hosted in partnership with the Hoover Library & Archives. The seminar series was launched in the fall of 2019, and thus far has included six talks from Hoover research fellows, visiting scholars, and Stanford faculty. The seminars provide outside experts with an opportunity to present their research and receive feedback on their work. While the lunch seminars have grown in reputation, they have been purposefully kept small in order to ensure that the discussion retains a good seminar atmosphere.