History of Japan

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Announcment - No episode this week Sep 21, 2026

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Heads up folks: no new episode this week. I came down with a pretty bad bug and it's put me very behind on production, plus my voice is a bit shot. I'll see you all next week.

Episode 642 - The Hunters, Part 2 Sep 18, 2026

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How does a matagi hunt actually work, and how has matagi culture evolved over the course of the 20th century? And finally: why is it that so many today seem to think the matagi will be extinct themselves before too long?

Show notes here.

Episode 641 - The Hunters, Part 1 Sep 11, 2026

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Not many have heard of the Matagi, the hunters who live in northern Honshu. What do we know of their origins and history, and how do they fit into our knowledge of premodern Japan?

Show notes here.

Episode 640 - The Great Escape, Part 2 Sep 04, 2026

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This week: the Cowra breakout seemed, to those who lived through it, like it came out of nowhere. But nothing does, so what factors led to it? How did the breakout itself play out? And what are its legacies, both in terms of Australia-Japan relations and the wider question of Japanese "fanaticism" in WWII?

Show notes here.

Episode 639 - The Great Escape, Part 1 Aug 28, 2026

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In a wide-ranging episode intended just to be the introduction to the largest mass prisoner breakout of WWII, we first have to tackle...the history of Japan-Australia relations all the way up to 1940 and the role Australia played in Japanese militarist thought. Show notes here.

Episode 638 - The Catastrophe, Part 6 Aug 21, 2026

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At long last, the fight over how to reconstruct Tokyo is done. But what did rebuilding the imperial capital actually look like?

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Episode 637 - The Catastrophe, Part 5 Aug 14, 2026

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After Tokyo was burned to the ground, the battle over how to rebuild it began almost immediately. The man leading the charge--one of Japan's foremost bureaucrats--would become so frustrated with the experience that it would crush him completely. In the process, the fight would reveal some deep divisions over the importance of the capital and the nature of the postwar state itself.

Show notes here.

Episolde 636 - The Catastrophe, Part 4 Aug 07, 2026

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Why did so many greet the destruction of Tokyo not with consternation, but seeming joy? The answer has to do with one of the most complex phenomenon in the history of modern urbanism, and with the history of Edo's transformation into Tokyo and all the modern vices that came with it.

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Episode 635 - The Catastrophe, Part 3 Jul 31, 2026

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This week: the Great Kanto Earthquake was also the backdrop for one of the most famous murders of 1920s Japan, one that set the stage for a seismic shift within the nation's political sphere. This week: who was Ito Noe, and how did her murder in a time of national emergency reflect a shift in Japan's political discourse?

Show notes here.

Episode 634 - The Catastrophe, Part 2 Jul 17, 2026

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This week: in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake, thousands of Koreans living in Tokyo were massacred by angry mobs as well as policemen and soldiers. What animated the survivors to engage in such horrific violence, and how does it reflect both the wider history of the Japan-Korea relationship and the mindset many of us carry into our darkest moments?

Note: no new episode next week, as I'm traveling in Japan.

Show notes here.

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