Book Review: Far East, Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey
| Published date | 01 June 1965 |
| Author | Niyaze Berkes |
| Date | 01 June 1965 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000227 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
271
and
the
political
scientist
seeking
to
understand
the international
communist
movement.
Australian
National
University
T.
H.
RIGBY
Far
East
POLITICAL
MODERNIZATION IN
JAPAN
AND
TURKEY.
Edited
by
Robert
E.
Ward
and
Dankwart
A.
Rustow.
1963.
(Princeton: Princeton
University
Press.
Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald
Saunders.
viii,
502pp.
$8.75)
For
many years
after
1905
Japan
continued
to
be
the
object
of
peculiar
interest
to those
nations
of
Asia
and
Africa
which
had
come
under
the
impact
of
the
Western
powers.
Japan's
victory
over
Russia
was
celebrated
by
both
the
intellectuals
and
the
common people
as
revenging
Europe, as
the
defiance of
the
East
to
the
West.
It
gave
relief
to
the
spreading
feelings
of
hopelessness
and
was
taken
as proof
that
non-Europeans were very
well
capable
of
acquiring
and challeng-
ing European
powers.
However,
very few
took
the
trouble
of
asking
how
the
miracle
of
Japan
was
brought
about.
Still fewer
sought
the
answer
to
the
question.
And
when
an
answer
was
given
it
was
not
based
upon
a
knowledge
of
Japan.
All
seemed
to
read
into
the
Japanese
file
their
own
interpretation
of
their
people's
failures
together
with
their
own
remedies.
Turkey
was,
perhaps,
the
most Japanese-obsessed in
the
above
sense.
The
major
schools
of
thought arising
in
reaction
to
the
impact
of
the
modern
civilization-Westernists,
Islamists,
and
Turkists-each
looked
at
Japan
as
the
confirmation
of
its
own
point of
view.
Although
none
knew
Japan at
first
hand,
all
sensed
and
capitalized
upon
one
of
the
various
aspects
in
the
Japanese
transformation.
This
could
serve
as
a
starting
point
from
which
to
make
a
comparative study
of
the
two cases
of
transformation,
as
here
are
to
be
found
clues
to
the
dis-
similarities
and
similarities
in
the
subjective
as well
as
objective
factors.
The
appearance
of
a
book
entitled
as
that
under
review
is,
thus,
most
welcome
not
only
to
scholars
of
the
Turkish
transformation
but
also
to
the
students
of
Japan
who
have
so
far
done
a
great
deal
of
work
towards
depicting
the
story
of
Japanese
modernization,
either
within
the framework
of
Japanese history
itself,
or
in
relation
to
the
Western
impact,
but
never
in
the
light
of
other
non-Western
peoples
likewise
involved
in
similar
processes.
This
particular
book
is
a
product
of
a
conference
in
1962
arranged
by
the
Committee
of
Comparative
Politics
of
the
Social
Science
Research
Council.
Contributing
to
it
are
Western and
non-Western
scholars,
some
concentrating
on
Japan
and
others
upon
Turkey.
Ostensibly,
their
purpose
would
be
to compare
notes
so
that,
eventually,
the
major
factors
operating
positively
and
negatively
upon
the
modernization
of
the
non-Western
societies
would
be
identified,
analyzed,
and turned
to
effect
in
the
processes
of
modernization
itself.
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