Papers by Shingo Masunaga
This article sheds light on the pre-war military relations between the Baltic States and Japan th... more This article sheds light on the pre-war military relations between the Baltic States and Japan throughout 1930s. At first, Hobbesian sense of ‘fears’ against Communism realized the bilateral and trilateral cooperation in military intelligence sector. The mutual respects ever since the Russo-Japanese War connected the two distant entities. Although its main task, toppling the Soviet regimes in Georgia and Ukraine, was never succeeded, there were some notable achievements and it should be considered as one of the most successful Japanese intelligence activities in the pre-war period. However, this fruitful relationship suddenly came to an end by the Soviet invasion of the Baltic States in June 1940. The word ‘Sarkans Junijs’, which means ‘Red June’ in Latvian, brought not only the extinction of the three Baltic States, but also the historic intelligence activity in Northern Europe.
This article discusses possible cooperation in security sector between Japan and the Vysegrad cou... more This article discusses possible cooperation in security sector between Japan and the Vysegrad countries from the perspective of ‘Hard Power’. While many scholars believed sense of hard power already became outdated and soft power is definitely taking over its position, Russian intervention to the crisis in Ukraine and its conflicts with most of the West states revived the sense and ‘Realism’ theories. Intensification of the Russo-West conflict might lead to the vitalization of global weapon markets. Japan, a nation lifted arms export ban for 60 years finally became able to participate in the competition. Its high-tech equipment would contribute to the defence of Europe.
This article attempts to manifest future of Japanese nationalism through the traditional Shinto n... more This article attempts to manifest future of Japanese nationalism through the traditional Shinto nationalism and the decades-long concept of ‘family nation’. The both are products of contemporary Shintoism hence mutually intertwined. In recent years, Japanese nationalists succeeded to integrate the family nation concept with their Shinto agenda. Through Professor Aiji Tanaka’s ‘Three Dimentional Coordinates Model (TDCM), it was found that the Shinto nationalists are less likely to repeat the historical mistakes of the pre-war State Shinto, however more prone to increase tensions, even wars, with neighbouring states than other ideologies.
Conventions, quotas, refugees: european jews in 1938–1945, 2020
The Évian Conference of July 1938 was a historic event in the history of European
Jews. The deleg... more The Évian Conference of July 1938 was a historic event in the history of European
Jews. The delegates from 32 countries all around the world failed to reach an agreement regarding
the acceptance of Jewish refugees from Germany and former Austria. Ultimately, the failed conference
led to the genocide of the Jewish refugees in the 1940s. Meanwhile, at the time of the conference,
the German military intelligence service (Abwehr) under the command of Admiral Wilhelm
Canaris has been actively organizing intelligence operations against the Soviet Union in Estonia
together with the local Estonian and Japanese intelligence services. Contrary to the persecution of
the Jews in the Third Reich, the Germans employed the émigrés for intelligence operations against
the Soviet Union. The author of the article tried to sum up the trilateral intelligence activities of
Estonia, Germany and Japan, which could be helpful in understanding or analyzing the Évian
Conference from a different perspective.
Acta Historica Tallinnensia, 2019
This article takes up the joint Estonian-Japanese intelligence operation against the Soviet Union... more This article takes up the joint Estonian-Japanese intelligence operation against the Soviet Union in the late 1930s and attempts to recreate a full picture of the operation through never-used primary sources in the Estonian National Archives. Between 1938 and 1940, the Japanese Army organized operations to infiltrate the émigré agents into the Soviet territory near Pskov, in cooperation with the Es-tonian intelligence service.
This article aims to unveil the truths of the interwar Japanese intelligence activities in the Ba... more This article aims to unveil the truths of the interwar Japanese intelligence activities in the Baltic States. Starting from the publication of Yuriko Onodera’s memoir ‘In the Shore of the Baltic Sea’ in 1985, the activities began to catch scholarly attentions. The activities were partially covered in some of the previous academic publications, such as a general picture of Japanese intelligence plan ‘1932’ in Kuromiya & Mamoulia (2016). However, this is the first-ever article to provide a perspective of the activities of the Japanese military attaché office in Riga.
This article sheds light on the prewar military relations between the Baltic States and Japan thr... more This article sheds light on the prewar military relations between the Baltic States and Japan throughout 1930s. At first, Hobbesian sense of 'fears' against Communism realized the bilateral and trilateral cooperation in military intelligence sector. The mutual respects ever since the Russo-Japanese War connected the two distant entities. Although its main task, toppling the Soviet regimes in Georgia and Ukraine, was never succeeded, there were some notable achievements and it should be considered as one of the most successful Japanese intelligence activities in the prewar period. However, this fruitful relationship suddenly came to an end by the Soviet invasion of the Baltic States in June 1940. The word 'Sarkans Junijs', which means 'Red June' in Latvian, brought not only the extinction of the three Baltic States, but also the historic intelligence activity in Northern Europe.
This article attempts to manifest future of Japanese nationalism through the traditional Shinto n... more This article attempts to manifest future of Japanese nationalism through the traditional Shinto nationalism and the decades-long concept of "family nation". The both are products of contemporary Shintoism hence mutually intertwined. In recent years, Japanese nationalists succeeded to integrate the family nation concept with their Shinto agenda. Through Professor Aiji Tanaka's Three Dimentional Coordinates Model (TDCM), it was found that the Shinto nationalists are less likely to repeat the historical mistakes of the pre-war State Shinto, however more prone to increase tensions, even wars, with neighbouring states than other ideologies.
This article discusses possible cooperation in security sector between Japan and the Vysegrad cou... more This article discusses possible cooperation in security sector between Japan and the Vysegrad countries from the perspective of ‘Hard Power’.
While many scholars believed sense of hard power already became outdated and soft power is definitely taking over its position, Russian intervention to the crisis in Ukraine and its conflicts with most of the West states revived the sense and ‘Realism’ theories. Intensification of the Russo-West conflict might lead to the vitalization of global weapon markets. Japan, a nation lifted arms export ban for 60 years finally became able to participate in the competition. Its high-tech equipment would contribute to the defence of Europe.
In March 2014, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had talks with the higher reaches of the Liber... more In March 2014, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had talks with the higher reaches of the Liberal Democratic Party to order implementation of new interpretation of constitution. On the same day, Mr. Shigeru Ishiba, secretary general of the LDP revealed a concept of ‘Asian NATO’ to media which includes the U.S., ASEAN states, and Australia in order to contain China’s aggressions in South China Sea. Only a month later, ‘Right of Collective Self-Defence’ was implemented by Abe regime according to new interpretation of constitution. As the details of the new interpretation are still under discussion, but however this shall be the first step to establish Asian NATO.
I myself quite sceptical about involvement of all ASEAN states to Asian NATO since some of them historically maintains friendly relations with China such as Cambodia and Thailand. Moreover, Indonesia and Singapore may take a distance from such tacit encirclement against China as both countries heavily relying on China economically. However, on the other hand, candidates to Asian NATO at their strong will also exists in the region such as Vietnam and the Philippines. Paradigm shift in Asia’s military balance would occur in around year 2020 when most of the U.S. Marines in Okinawa is expected to retreat to Guam, and in the sense of Chuck Hagel, scale of the U.S. Army will be shrunk to pre-WW2 level. Less military assistance from the U.S., China’s economic growth at its height, Unipolarity or bipolarity, future of Asia in 2020 rests on possibility of establishment of Asian NATO.
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Papers by Shingo Masunaga
Jews. The delegates from 32 countries all around the world failed to reach an agreement regarding
the acceptance of Jewish refugees from Germany and former Austria. Ultimately, the failed conference
led to the genocide of the Jewish refugees in the 1940s. Meanwhile, at the time of the conference,
the German military intelligence service (Abwehr) under the command of Admiral Wilhelm
Canaris has been actively organizing intelligence operations against the Soviet Union in Estonia
together with the local Estonian and Japanese intelligence services. Contrary to the persecution of
the Jews in the Third Reich, the Germans employed the émigrés for intelligence operations against
the Soviet Union. The author of the article tried to sum up the trilateral intelligence activities of
Estonia, Germany and Japan, which could be helpful in understanding or analyzing the Évian
Conference from a different perspective.
While many scholars believed sense of hard power already became outdated and soft power is definitely taking over its position, Russian intervention to the crisis in Ukraine and its conflicts with most of the West states revived the sense and ‘Realism’ theories. Intensification of the Russo-West conflict might lead to the vitalization of global weapon markets. Japan, a nation lifted arms export ban for 60 years finally became able to participate in the competition. Its high-tech equipment would contribute to the defence of Europe.
I myself quite sceptical about involvement of all ASEAN states to Asian NATO since some of them historically maintains friendly relations with China such as Cambodia and Thailand. Moreover, Indonesia and Singapore may take a distance from such tacit encirclement against China as both countries heavily relying on China economically. However, on the other hand, candidates to Asian NATO at their strong will also exists in the region such as Vietnam and the Philippines. Paradigm shift in Asia’s military balance would occur in around year 2020 when most of the U.S. Marines in Okinawa is expected to retreat to Guam, and in the sense of Chuck Hagel, scale of the U.S. Army will be shrunk to pre-WW2 level. Less military assistance from the U.S., China’s economic growth at its height, Unipolarity or bipolarity, future of Asia in 2020 rests on possibility of establishment of Asian NATO.
Jews. The delegates from 32 countries all around the world failed to reach an agreement regarding
the acceptance of Jewish refugees from Germany and former Austria. Ultimately, the failed conference
led to the genocide of the Jewish refugees in the 1940s. Meanwhile, at the time of the conference,
the German military intelligence service (Abwehr) under the command of Admiral Wilhelm
Canaris has been actively organizing intelligence operations against the Soviet Union in Estonia
together with the local Estonian and Japanese intelligence services. Contrary to the persecution of
the Jews in the Third Reich, the Germans employed the émigrés for intelligence operations against
the Soviet Union. The author of the article tried to sum up the trilateral intelligence activities of
Estonia, Germany and Japan, which could be helpful in understanding or analyzing the Évian
Conference from a different perspective.
While many scholars believed sense of hard power already became outdated and soft power is definitely taking over its position, Russian intervention to the crisis in Ukraine and its conflicts with most of the West states revived the sense and ‘Realism’ theories. Intensification of the Russo-West conflict might lead to the vitalization of global weapon markets. Japan, a nation lifted arms export ban for 60 years finally became able to participate in the competition. Its high-tech equipment would contribute to the defence of Europe.
I myself quite sceptical about involvement of all ASEAN states to Asian NATO since some of them historically maintains friendly relations with China such as Cambodia and Thailand. Moreover, Indonesia and Singapore may take a distance from such tacit encirclement against China as both countries heavily relying on China economically. However, on the other hand, candidates to Asian NATO at their strong will also exists in the region such as Vietnam and the Philippines. Paradigm shift in Asia’s military balance would occur in around year 2020 when most of the U.S. Marines in Okinawa is expected to retreat to Guam, and in the sense of Chuck Hagel, scale of the U.S. Army will be shrunk to pre-WW2 level. Less military assistance from the U.S., China’s economic growth at its height, Unipolarity or bipolarity, future of Asia in 2020 rests on possibility of establishment of Asian NATO.