LibGuides: HIST 412 Seminar in Asian History: Home

Books and ebooks
Primary Sources: Government Documents
Primary Sources: Personal Experiences
Primary Sources: Images
Primary Sources: News

Citing Sources
Reference Sources
Research FAQs

Books and ebooks

Available at PUC: Use keywords to search the library catalog or scroll through lists of books by subject. Most of the links below will open a list of narrower topics. Clicking a narrower topic will open a list of books you can check out or read full text online.

Japan -- Civilization.
Japan -- Colonies -- History.
Japan -- Economic conditions -- 1945-
Japan -- Foreign relations.
Japan -- Foreign relations -- China.
Japan -- Foreign relations -- Korea.
Japan -- History -- 1868-
Japan -- Social conditions.
Missions -- Japan.
Nationalism -- Japan.
Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945

Available online: Search digital libraries.
HathiTrust Digital Library   Contains scanned historical works, some full text.
Google Books   Scanned books and magazines, some full text.
Open Library   Searchable database of books, a few full text, with links to WorldCat to borrow physical copies.

Primary Sources: Government Documents

Explore digitized collections about Japan from libraries, archives, and museums. Collections are listed here by subject or format.

Government documents (Japan)
The Constitution of Japan (1946). Translated into English, full-text online.

Japanese Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR). JACAR is a digital database of documents relating to Japan's historical relations in Asia and elsewhere. This site provides access to official documents of the Japanese Cabinet, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the Army and Navy. JACAR's archives showcase the original records, including full images of the documents.

The National Diet Library. The NDL is like Japan's equivalent to the Library of Congress. In their digital collections you will find newspapers, historical recordings, official documents, military records, and more. Some keyword searching in English is available, and collections are also arranged by subject.

Government documents (United States)
American Foreign Policy – Hiroshima. This digital collection of primary sources contains correspondence and official documentation of the decision to drop the atomic bomb. The documents are made available by Mount Holyoke College.

JARDA: Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives. Personal and official photographs, letters and diaries, transcribed oral histories, art, and more show the experiences of individuals affected by forced relocation.

NARA Japanese American Internment and Relocation Records. War Relocation Authority (WRA) Records available online contain personal descriptive information on all individuals who were evacuated from their homes and relocated to one of 10 relocation centers during World War II.

NARA Inter-agency Working Group on Japanese War Crimes. Downloadable PDF titled "Select Documents on Japanese War Crimes and Japanese Biological Warfare, 1934-2006 (23.2 MB)" contains digital copies of several thousand documents on Japanese war crimes & Japanese biological warfare.

Pearl Harbor Attack Documents, 1941. Available digitized documents include correspondence between the Japanese Government and the U.S. State Department about Pearl Harbor.

U.S. State Department Foreign Relations policy documentation. Digitized documents are arranged in volumes by year and geographic location with available keyword search.

Presidential and Imperial documents
Emperor Hirohito, Accepting the Potsdam Declaration, Radio Broadcast. Transmitted by Domei and Recorded by the Federal Communications Commission, 14 August 1945. Transcript in English.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Presidential papers. To navigate this page, try a ctrl-F search for “Japan” and then select documents to read. Boxes 3, 22, 42, 43, 59, and 100 contain files about Japan. All PDFs of digitized documents are keyword searchable by ctrl-F.

Harry Truman Presidential papers. Documents are arranged by topic.

Primary Sources: Personal Experiences

Primary Sources: Images

Photographs and artwork
E.G. Stillman photograph albums of early Japan. The Early Photography of Japan project is a virtual collection of 35 albums containing nearly 2,000 photographs. E.G. Stillman avidly collected photographs and other materials related to Japan. The albums document the early history of commercial photography in Japan and reflect traditional Japanese culture before the dramatic transformation brought about by modernization and Western influence during the Meiji period.

Etz-Trudell Lantern Slides of Asia. The 500 hand-colored lantern slides in this Fine Arts Library collection were acquired by Universalist minister Roger Frederick Etz (1886-1950); in 1934 he toured Asia and visited their mission in Japan. Most of the images depict Japanese scenes, such as views of Mount Fuji, lakes or rice paddies; agricultural production, craftsmen and their workshops; and stores and merchandise displays.

Harvard University’s “Images of Colonialism” Digital Collection. Constituting a visual record of early European contacts with Asia and Africa, Widener Library’s Images of Colonialism Collection is a primary visual resource for historical and socio-cultural studies. Made up largely of late-19th and early-20th century trade cards and illustrated European newspapers, this collection of more than 700 images offers insight into European perspectives on varying aspects of colonial experience by documenting how popular perceptions of Asia and Africa were created and disseminated.

Japanese Industrial Welfare Association posters, 1920s-1940s. The Industrial Welfare Association (Sangyo Fukuri Kyokai) was established in 1925 by the Bureau of Social Affairs, the Home Ministry, for the promotion of industrial safety. The Ohara Institute owns about 100 posters produced by the association. The posters reflect the civic culture and art style of their era.

Japanese Postcards from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston’s Leonard A. Lauder Collection. Between 1900 and 1940, Japan was transformed into an international, industrial, and urban society. Postcards—both a fresh form of visual expression and an important means of advertising—reveal much about the dramatically changing values of Japanese society at the time.

The National Diet Library "Tokyo in Photographs" collection. This collection covers the Meiji and Taisho Eras and provides photographs with original titles and descriptions (major dates covered, 1898-1911).

The Nagasaki University Library Collection. The NUL contains a large collection of old photographs, approximately 7,000, taken all over Japan from the Bakumatsu through to the Meiji period.

Prange Digital Children's Book Collection. The Gordon W. Prange Collection contains nearly 8,000 children's book titles published in Japan between 1945 and 1949, including 1,608 picture book (ehon) titles, 2,069 comic book (manga) titles and 4,275 story book (yomimono) titles. All of the picture books and a majority of the comic books are available here.

Shiseido cosmetics company archive. Browse digitized images of posters, storefronts, and advertisements (1875-1960). The influence of Western ideals is present in the design and style of Shiseido's branding.

Maps
International Research Center for Japanese Studies Map Database. The website is in Japanese, so use your browser to translate. Browse maps by different categories, including by year (available dates approx. 1100-2000s).

Japanese Historical Maps at UC Berkeley. The Japanese Historical Map Collection contains about 2,300 early maps of Japan and the World.

Kyoto University Library Map Collection. The website is in Japanese, so use your browser to translate. The collection includes historic maps of Japan and the world.

Primary Sources: News

News
ABI-Inform Complete (ProQuest)
Use this database to search full text newspaper and magazine articles from 1911 to the present. Topics tend to be economic or business-related.

Chronicling America
This Library of Congress site offers access to American newspaper articles about the Russo-Japanese War, among other topics. Available dates are 1836-1922.

C-SPAN provides a keyword searchable online library of newsreels up to the present day.

LexisNexis Academic [now Nexis Uni]
Use this database to access Japan Times. Available dates are 01/01/1998-present.

Newspaper Source (EBSCO)
Multi-subject, Journalism, Communication, Film & Television, History. 40 full-text U.S. and international newspapers, selective full text for 400 regional newspapers. Includes full-text television and radio news transcripts.

The New York Times.
Searchable full text archives available after creating an account.

Academic Video Online (Proquest/Alexander Street)
This database provides full runs of many international newsreels produced during the early twentieth century. Key collections include Nippon News. Produced from 1929 through the early post-war period, these films provide a unique—and until now largely neglected—resource that will give scholars real insight into how people learned about and lived through the events that occurred during this period of history. Keyword searching is available, as well as newsreels organized by subject and historical event.