Matthew Penney
Biographic Data
| ID | 251015 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Penney |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Penney |
| SIGNATURE | PENNEY M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital & Atomic-bomb Survivors Hospital |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 38 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Individual, National, General - Obscuring Poverty in Post-Pandemic Japan
This article looks at three recent Japanese mass market works about poverty, arguing that each is representative of a different mode of depicting economic disparity and want in contemporary Japan - individualization, nationalization, and generalization. These modes of representation contribute to a comparatively low level of awareness of poverty as a major social problem as well as political inaction. Following Raymond Williams' interrogation of …
Kata Christon, Mataia, and Physikē Philosophia in Gregory Palamas’s 14th Century Byzantine Philosophy of Education
This paper is a presentation of Gregory Palamas's philosophy of education. It begins with an examination of the details and content of the educational curricula of the exothen and kath'mas traditions in Byzantium. Next, the study undertakes a close reading of Palamas's chief texts which serve to unpack his understanding of the difference of these traditions. Additionally, the study provides a clear critique by Palamas of the misuse of philosophic…
Why on earth is something as important as this not in the textbooks?' - Teaching Supplements, Student Essays, and History Education in Japan
After a short introduction contextualizing revisionist history in Japan and controversies over the representation of imperial and wartime violence in Japanese textbooks, this piece presents translations of a wide variety of student writing projects and classroom resources from progressive educators. Focusing exclusively on textbooks results in a limited view of what actually goes on in Japanese classrooms. This collection highlights some of the w…
Miyazaki Hayao's Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises)
Miyazaki Hayao's new film Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) premiered on July 20 and is on pace to become one of the most successful, if not the most successful, Japanese films of 2013. Miyazaki tells the story of Horikoshi Jiro, the designer of the "Zero Fighter", which was a terrifyingly effective weapon deployed against China, the United States, and its allies in the early war years, but was soon doomed to become the antique target of "turkey shoo…
Japan's Green Energy Push
With the passing of the first anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi failure and meltdowns, various Japanese NGOs, activists, and energy specialists are stepping up efforts to convince the Japanese government to roll out a comprehensive support plan for solar power and other green energy sources
Business as Usual - Controversy Flares Over Japanese Nuclear Exports
Even as the Japanese public turns against nuclear power at home, the Japanese government and corporations such as Toshiba are moving swiftly to expand the country's nuclear business by exporting reactor technology abroad.In a December 10 editorial, the Mainichi Shimbun said that an agreement for nuclear power cooperation and export to Jordan, Vietnam, Russia, and South Korea was based on a decision that "... came too hasty and has not been though…
Contamination Outside Fukushima
The extent of radioactive contamination in Fukushima Prefecture is at the center of important debates as some scientists, NGOs, and citizen's groups argue that the Japanese government has not gone far enough in dealing with the fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi accident and has deliberately downplayed the potential health effects of radiation. With so much attention focused on Fukushima, however, there has been less consideration of the impact o…
The Voices of Ten Million
A group of Japan's most prominent public intellectuals have launched a movement to amass ten million signatures calling for an end to Japanese nuclear power. The group, which includes Uchihashi Katsuto, Ooe Kenzaburo, Ochiai, Kamata Satoshi, Sakamoto Ryuichi, Sawachi Hisae, Setouchi Jakucho, Tsujii Takashi and Tsurumi Shunsuke, also plan a nationwide series of protests on September 11, the six month anniversary of the tsunami and the beginning of…
Nuclear Workers and Fukushima Residents at Risk
Japan's leading business journal Toyo Keizai has published an article by Hokkaido Cancer Center director Nishio Masamichi, a radiation treatment specialist. The piece, entitled "The Problem of Radiation Exposure Countermeasures for the Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Concerns for the Present Situation", was published on June 27 and is consistent with the critical coverage of the Fukushima crisis that has appeared in independent weekly magazines, nota…
Miyazaki Hayao and the Asia-Pacific War
Miyazaki Hayao, director of famous animated films such as My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), and Spirited Away (2001), is one of the most popular and influential media figures in Japan. The premiere of a new Miyazaki film is a major event and on July 20, Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises), his first project since the 2008 hit Ponyo (an eco-fable discussed here by Susan Napier), arrives in theatres across Japan
Public Opinion and the July 21 Election
The Japanese House of Councillors election will be held on July 21, 2013. It now seems certain that PM Abe Shinzo's Liberal Democratic Party will follow its landslide win in the December 2012 House of Representatives election with another overwhelming victory. This essay summarizes the results of recent Japanese opinion polls in order to identify major election issues and assess what it is about the new iteration of Abe's LDP that has made them s…
Abe and History - The Kobayashi Yoshinori Interview
The recent controversy over Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Toru's statement that the wartime comfort women system was "necessary to maintain discipline" and "needed to provide rest to ... brave soldiers" shows that historical revisionism in Japan's public sphere is by no means limited to Abe Shinzo's Liberal Democratic Party. Abe is known to hold revisionist views and a firm belief that the current approach to history in Japanese education is "masochistic…
Racists Go Home!", "Go Crawl Back to the Net!" - Anti-Racism Protestors Confront the Zaitokukai
In the first months of 2013, the rhetoric of the Zainichi tokken wo yurusanai shimin no kai (Citizens' League to Deny Foreigners Special Rights) or Zaitokukai has turned more and more extreme. The above quotes are representative of Zaitokukai slogans and placards in 2013. Now there are signs that anti-racism protestors and ordinary citizens are fighting back
The Abe Cabinet - An Ideological Breakdown
Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21" is a NGO formed in 1998 to resist historical revisionism and fight the removal of material critical of Japan's war record from textbooks
Neo-nationalists Target Barefoot Gen
Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor Nakazawa Keiji's manga Barefoot Gen (1973-1985) is widely regarded as one of the most powerful Japanese works about the Asia-Pacific War. In the decades since it was published, the series has sold millions of copies, been adapted into animated and live action films, and has been used as a part of peace education initiatives in Japanese schools and at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which is currently holding an…
The Fukushima Anniversary
March 13 marks the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of the coast of northern Japan and left over 15,000 dead. Over 3000 are still missing. Memorial ceremonies have been held all over the country
Nuclear Power and Shifts in Japanese Public Opinion
In April 2011, about a month after the 3.11 disasters, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported that opposition to nuclear power had changed fairly little. A 2007 poll established that 7% of Japanese wished to do away with nuclear power completely, 21% wished to decrease reliance, 53% wanted to maintain the current situation, and 13% wanted more nuclear power generation. April 2011 numbers were only marginally different: 11% desired elimination of nuclear …
Okinawa's Fukushima Connection
Of Japan's prefectures, Okinawa lies farthest from Fukushima Daiichi. At over 1000 miles from the plant, even Seoul is closer. Okinawa also has no nuclear plant and seems to be distanced from the consequences of Japan's nuclear policies, but is this really the case
Songs for Fukushima
Popular culture has long been an important tool used by the Japanese government and energy companies to promote nuclear power. In the two months since the 3.11 quake and the beginning of the Fukushima crisis, Japanese netizens have circulated key examples as a reminder of past propaganda. This 1993 video "Our Reliable Friend Pluto" was produced by the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation, a group associated with the Japanese gov…
サイエンス」「ネイチャー」両誌における福島原発事故評価
On April 12 it was revealed that the Japanese government is deliberating raising the level of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster to 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale of the International Atomic Energy Agency. This is the highest level and the same as the 1986 Chernobyl accident. At the same time, the Japanese government has made moves to evacuate high radiation areas outside of the 20km radius. This move is welcome as critic…
Unease or Untruth? - The Removal of Nakamura Koichiro
Magazine Shukan Post has reported that energy bureaucrat Nakamura Koichiro of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency was told to stand down from official press conferences after asserting on March 12, the day after the quake, that evidence pointed to a meltdown underway at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The Shukan Post argues that key cabinet members including Prime Minister Kan Naoto and Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio - who has been praised for h…
"Unforgivable" - Tepco's Plan to Add Reactors in Fukushima
In the midst of one of the most serious nuclear crises in history and with 30,000 dead or missing and close to half a million people rendered homeless in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has submitted plans to build more reactors in Fukushima
Bodies in Fukushima
Amid myriad scenes of tragedy, scenes of horror are also being reported from around the Fukushima Daiichi site. Because of elevated radiation, workers have been unable to collect and bury bodies. There are reports of corpses, at least one of which was found to be heavily contaminated with radiation on March 27, simply left where they lie. This news must be horrifying for families and could be the harbinger of a different public health crisis give…
Heroes or Victims? - The
The Fukushima plant workers have been widely lionized but who they are, why they work under such desperate conditions, and how they are being treated is less discussed. On the 29th, however, the Tokyo Shimbun published an article that sheds light on some unpleasant realities behind the heroic "Fukushima Fifty" (workers at the plant really number in the hundreds) story
Outpouring of International Support for Japan
The exceptions can be brutal, such as the Twitter comments by Alec Sulkin and Gilbert Godfried, but overall, online and print media have conveyed an incredible outpouring of sympathy for Japan in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake. This trend seems particularly pronounced among Japan's neighbors, many of whom have often been at odds with it over historical and territorial issues
Right Angles
23 July 2007 a video short attached an online article in the New York Times proclaimed is asserting itself militarily. It is embracing right-wing nationalism. It is denying its wartime atrocities. And it is flirting with nuclear weapons.1 While the tone of the short sometimes bordered on the histrionic, its conclusions were consistent with a general trend in recent observations about social and political movements in Japan. Speculation about a po…
Far from Oblivion
The Nanking Massacre of 1937 frequently has been described as a forgotten genocidal act or "Holocaust." Concentrating on atrocity as reflected in Japanese popular historical writing for children and adolescents since the 1960s, this essay argues that such war crimes are far from ignored. Representations of the Nanking Massacre in particular, and of Japanese World War II atrocities in general, have been widely mobilized in Japan to inculcate an an…
War Fantasy’ and Reality—‘War as Entertainment’ and Counter-narratives in Japanese Popular Culture
In Japan, there exist popular works in a number of media that use fictional narratives of the nation's wartime history as the foundation for science fiction or ‘what-if’ entertainment. These titles are commonly described as ‘war fantasy’ and have been condemned as revisionist or even immoral by critics both inside and outside Japan. These criticisms, however, overlook important counter-narratives present in ‘war fantasy’ titles. Some works look c…
The Most Crucial Education
Tahara Soichiro's Nihon no sengo (Japan's postwar), a recent work of Japanese popular history from one of the country's best-selling and most widely read journalists, bears the provocative subtitle "Were we mistaken?" [1] This question, asked of the entire postwar period, is representative of a significant current in contemporary Japanese thought - the idea that Japan has strayed from the "correct" path and failed to live up to international "nor…
Bridging the Gap
Journal Article Bridging the Gap: Images of Okinawa in Japanese Popular Culture Get access Matthew PENNEY Matthew PENNEY Matthew PENNEY is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at the University of Auckland. He is currently conducting research concerning the representation of war and the military in Japanese popular culture. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Go…
War Fantasy’ and Reality—‘War as Entertainment’ and Counter-narratives in Japanese Popular Culture
In Japan, there exist popular works in a number of media that use fictional narratives of the nation's wartime history as the foundation for science fiction or ‘what-if’ entertainment. These titles are commonly described as ‘war fantasy’ and have been condemned as revisionist or even immoral by critics both inside and outside Japan. These criticisms, however, overlook important counter-narratives present in ‘war fantasy’ titles. Some works look c…
Far from Oblivion
The Nanking Massacre of 1937 frequently has been described as a forgotten genocidal act or "Holocaust." Concentrating on atrocity as reflected in Japanese popular historical writing for children and adolescents since the 1960s, this essay argues that such war crimes are far from ignored. Representations of the Nanking Massacre in particular, and of Japanese World War II atrocities in general, have been widely mobilized in Japan to inculcate an an…
Right Angles
23 July 2007 a video short attached an online article in the New York Times proclaimed is asserting itself militarily. It is embracing right-wing nationalism. It is denying its wartime atrocities. And it is flirting with nuclear weapons.1 While the tone of the short sometimes bordered on the histrionic, its conclusions were consistent with a general trend in recent observations about social and political movements in Japan. Speculation about a po…
Foundations of Cooperation
In the last week of 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo made an official visit to China. The tone of the trip was set by positive rhetoric on both sides and at one point, Fukuda expressed his conviction that now "Bilateral ties have become increasingly complementary, and one cannot do without the other." Fukuda is working under the assumption that closer Sino-Japanese relations are a key to the future of Japan and East Asia. This article s…
Nationalism and Anti-Americanism in Japan – Manga Wars, Aso, Tamogami, and Progressive Alternatives
In 1967, Astroboy, the Japanese animation and comic book icon, died protecting a North Vietnamese village from American bombers
What Price the Fukushima Meltdown? Comparing Chernobyl and Fukushima
On April 12, 2011 the Japanese government officially announced that the severity of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster had reached level 7, the highest on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Before Fukushima, the only level 7 case was the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, whose 25th anniversary was marked on April 26. Two and a half months after the 3.11 catastrophe, the first to affect multiple reactors, TEPCO and the Japanese government continue …
Japan's Green Energy Push
With the passing of the first anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi failure and meltdowns, various Japanese NGOs, activists, and energy specialists are stepping up efforts to convince the Japanese government to roll out a comprehensive support plan for solar power and other green energy sources
Business as Usual - Controversy Flares Over Japanese Nuclear Exports
Even as the Japanese public turns against nuclear power at home, the Japanese government and corporations such as Toshiba are moving swiftly to expand the country's nuclear business by exporting reactor technology abroad.In a December 10 editorial, the Mainichi Shimbun said that an agreement for nuclear power cooperation and export to Jordan, Vietnam, Russia, and South Korea was based on a decision that "... came too hasty and has not been though…
Contamination Outside Fukushima
The extent of radioactive contamination in Fukushima Prefecture is at the center of important debates as some scientists, NGOs, and citizen's groups argue that the Japanese government has not gone far enough in dealing with the fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi accident and has deliberately downplayed the potential health effects of radiation. With so much attention focused on Fukushima, however, there has been less consideration of the impact o…
The Voices of Ten Million
A group of Japan's most prominent public intellectuals have launched a movement to amass ten million signatures calling for an end to Japanese nuclear power. The group, which includes Uchihashi Katsuto, Ooe Kenzaburo, Ochiai, Kamata Satoshi, Sakamoto Ryuichi, Sawachi Hisae, Setouchi Jakucho, Tsujii Takashi and Tsurumi Shunsuke, also plan a nationwide series of protests on September 11, the six month anniversary of the tsunami and the beginning of…
Nuclear Workers and Fukushima Residents at Risk
Japan's leading business journal Toyo Keizai has published an article by Hokkaido Cancer Center director Nishio Masamichi, a radiation treatment specialist. The piece, entitled "The Problem of Radiation Exposure Countermeasures for the Fukushima Nuclear Accident: Concerns for the Present Situation", was published on June 27 and is consistent with the critical coverage of the Fukushima crisis that has appeared in independent weekly magazines, nota…
Miyazaki Hayao and the Asia-Pacific War
Miyazaki Hayao, director of famous animated films such as My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), and Spirited Away (2001), is one of the most popular and influential media figures in Japan. The premiere of a new Miyazaki film is a major event and on July 20, Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises), his first project since the 2008 hit Ponyo (an eco-fable discussed here by Susan Napier), arrives in theatres across Japan
Public Opinion and the July 21 Election
The Japanese House of Councillors election will be held on July 21, 2013. It now seems certain that PM Abe Shinzo's Liberal Democratic Party will follow its landslide win in the December 2012 House of Representatives election with another overwhelming victory. This essay summarizes the results of recent Japanese opinion polls in order to identify major election issues and assess what it is about the new iteration of Abe's LDP that has made them s…
Abe and History - The Kobayashi Yoshinori Interview
The recent controversy over Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Toru's statement that the wartime comfort women system was "necessary to maintain discipline" and "needed to provide rest to ... brave soldiers" shows that historical revisionism in Japan's public sphere is by no means limited to Abe Shinzo's Liberal Democratic Party. Abe is known to hold revisionist views and a firm belief that the current approach to history in Japanese education is "masochistic…
Racists Go Home!", "Go Crawl Back to the Net!" - Anti-Racism Protestors Confront the Zaitokukai
In the first months of 2013, the rhetoric of the Zainichi tokken wo yurusanai shimin no kai (Citizens' League to Deny Foreigners Special Rights) or Zaitokukai has turned more and more extreme. The above quotes are representative of Zaitokukai slogans and placards in 2013. Now there are signs that anti-racism protestors and ordinary citizens are fighting back
The Abe Cabinet - An Ideological Breakdown
Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21" is a NGO formed in 1998 to resist historical revisionism and fight the removal of material critical of Japan's war record from textbooks
Neo-nationalists Target Barefoot Gen
Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor Nakazawa Keiji's manga Barefoot Gen (1973-1985) is widely regarded as one of the most powerful Japanese works about the Asia-Pacific War. In the decades since it was published, the series has sold millions of copies, been adapted into animated and live action films, and has been used as a part of peace education initiatives in Japanese schools and at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, which is currently holding an…
The Fukushima Anniversary
March 13 marks the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of the coast of northern Japan and left over 15,000 dead. Over 3000 are still missing. Memorial ceremonies have been held all over the country
Nuclear Power and Shifts in Japanese Public Opinion
In April 2011, about a month after the 3.11 disasters, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported that opposition to nuclear power had changed fairly little. A 2007 poll established that 7% of Japanese wished to do away with nuclear power completely, 21% wished to decrease reliance, 53% wanted to maintain the current situation, and 13% wanted more nuclear power generation. April 2011 numbers were only marginally different: 11% desired elimination of nuclear …
Okinawa's Fukushima Connection
Of Japan's prefectures, Okinawa lies farthest from Fukushima Daiichi. At over 1000 miles from the plant, even Seoul is closer. Okinawa also has no nuclear plant and seems to be distanced from the consequences of Japan's nuclear policies, but is this really the case
Songs for Fukushima
Popular culture has long been an important tool used by the Japanese government and energy companies to promote nuclear power. In the two months since the 3.11 quake and the beginning of the Fukushima crisis, Japanese netizens have circulated key examples as a reminder of past propaganda. This 1993 video "Our Reliable Friend Pluto" was produced by the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation, a group associated with the Japanese gov…
サイエンス」「ネイチャー」両誌における福島原発事故評価
On April 12 it was revealed that the Japanese government is deliberating raising the level of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster to 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale of the International Atomic Energy Agency. This is the highest level and the same as the 1986 Chernobyl accident. At the same time, the Japanese government has made moves to evacuate high radiation areas outside of the 20km radius. This move is welcome as critic…
Unease or Untruth? - The Removal of Nakamura Koichiro
Magazine Shukan Post has reported that energy bureaucrat Nakamura Koichiro of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency was told to stand down from official press conferences after asserting on March 12, the day after the quake, that evidence pointed to a meltdown underway at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The Shukan Post argues that key cabinet members including Prime Minister Kan Naoto and Cabinet Secretary Edano Yukio - who has been praised for h…
History (15 works) · Political science (15 works) · Japanese History and Culture (13 works) · Physics (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Nuclear physics (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Fukushima Nuclear Accident (7 works) · Art (6 works) · Nuclear power plant (6 works)