Update: Progress on my independent learning topic
Throughout this program, I have noticed how I have grown increasingly interested in how Japan has and, in some ways, continues to exist as an empire by operating as a so-called “modern” nation-state. In Tokyo, this framework led me to focus on how the physical movement, society, and culture are centered around the imperial family (a literal representation of imperial power). It helped me understand the fluidity of Japan’s borders, which are so closed off to refugees yet expansive enough to (forcefully) include Okinawa, Hokkaido, and, in the past, Korea, Taiwan, and parts of China. While in Okinawa, this framework of empire and statehood continues to be a lens through which I experience Japanese imperial power from a location arguably on the periphery of Japan’s empire. I also used it to better understand how Japan, as an empire, engages with other nation-states (empires), such as the U.S. With this framework in mind, I want to tie in my independent learning topic as an example of ...
