Feb 24, 2023

So far, we've talked about how Micronesia came under Japanese rule, but what was Japan's rule over the region like? 

Show notes here.

Feb 17, 2023

When World War I began, many among the Japanese leadership were hesistant to take advantage of the opportunity to move into Micronesia. What changed their minds, and how were they able to square a colonial government with the idealistic language of the postwar League of Nations?

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Feb 10, 2023

Japan would seize control of German Micronesia in the fall of 1914, but Japanese interest in the region goes back centuries further. This week: how did Japan get from disinterest in the nebulously defined 'Southern Seas' to active military operations to take control of them?

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Feb 3, 2023

This week: the bizarre story of an attempted coup in Korea that, along the way, touches on everything from Japanese liberalism to the birth of overseas empire. 

Show notes here. 

Jan 27, 2023

If the first translation of a text on smallpox vaccination in Japan was finished in 1820, how did it take another 29 years for the first mass vaccination campaigns to begin? The answers involve everything from a German doctor accused of being a spy to networks of physicians trying to navigate obscure bureaucracy. And...