Formally declared on August 1, 1894, the First Sino-Japanese War was the earliest significant conflict between Asian nations in modern times. By the time it ended, some nine months later, it heralded the unexpected victory of Japan, the shocking defeat of China, and the transfer of the island of Taiwan from the latter to the former. In subsequent years, and especially after the consequent conflict between Japan and Russia over roughly the same territory a decade later, its long-term outcomes have also become apparent. Japan turned into a regional power and a primary player in the politics of East Asia and China underwent a revolution and remained weak and disunited, whereas Korea was annexed by Japan and completely lost its sovereignty.

The Sino-Japanese War also set the pattern for later wars in which Japan took on other rivals with greater populations, larger economies, and presumably stronger naval forces, such as tsarist Russia and the United States. Its reckless gambling on the fate of the nation is evident, at least in retrospect, in the case of the Pacific War, but to foreign observers during the summer of 1894, the attack on Chinese forces in the Korean Peninsula did not initially seem like a sound move either. But evidently it was, and the confidence Japan gained in its triumph over Qing China was instrumental in its subsequent gambits. What facilitated the Japanese decision to go to war were primarily a certain self-assurance gained by the completion of a military buildup and the consolidation of a new nationalist and patriotic spirit that could support such undertakings. Saya Makito's book The Sino-Japanese War and the Birth of Japanese Nationalism seeks to uncover the latter.

Originally published in Japanese in 2009 under the title Kokumin no tanjō (The birth of a nation or The birth of a people), this thin volume (166 pages of text) provides a broad and innovative picture of the emergence of wartime patriotic consciousness in Japan. The book's importance is magnified in view of the scholarship on this historical event, its origins, and its repercussions. Despite its indisputable role in shaping the entire region of East Asia in the early twentieth century, let alone the fate of the region's three major nations, the available scholarship on this event is meager. This is particularly evident in the scholarship published in English, which amounts to a few books and articles largely devoted to the politics, decision making, and tactics on the Japanese side.Footnote ⁴ As such, Saya's book is certainly a welcome contribution.

Its first chapter deals with the origin of the war and attempts to set it as a legacy of Saigō Takamori's seikanron (lit. advocacy of subjugating Korea) some two decades earlier. The second chapter discusses the way in which the war was reported in Japan and the emergence of war correspondence in the country. The third chapter examines the reports on combat heroism, whereas the fourth chapter describes the introduction of modern theater and the relegation of kabuki to “classical” theater. The fifth chapter examines the advent of war fever and a new social consciousness alongside the public ceremonies that facilitated their consolidation. The sixth chapter surveys the militant culture that mushroomed among Japanese children during the conflict and the portrayal of war in schoolbooks. The seventh and final chapter discusses the memorial services that were held at the end of the war and the monuments that were erected in its aftermath. All in all, the book offers an unprecedented picture of the way in which buds of patriotic popular sentiment, national devotion, and public support for the state and its overseas schemes—so evident in Japan's subsequent wars—emerged and burgeoned.

Despite its title, the book scarcely discusses nationalism nor does it claim that the Japanese strain of nationalism was born in the 1890s. This can be excused as nothing more than a mistranslation, but the book contains several problems that stem from its original version. Its sparse references, for instance, are limited to citations from primary sources, and most of the items that comprise its bibliography do not appear in the text. Furthermore, the book lacks even a token reference to non-Japanese scholarship, whether in English, Chinese, or any other language. In discussing the rise of militant and patriotic sentiment, to mention only a few examples, Ury Eppstein's study on the onset of military poems in Japanese schools shortly before the war could be useful, as could be Mark Ravina's recent study of the politics of Saigō's legend.Footnote ⁵ Similarly disturbing is the tendency to jump from topic to topic without a summary and the absence of substantial discussion and conclusions at the end of each chapter and the book as a whole. These shortcomings may have derived from the broad and nonacademic readership the original book was intended for, but regardless of the reasons, the English text does not at times satisfy the standard expected by current academic scholarship.

Despite these misgivings, Saya's book provides a fresh glimpse of contemporary Japanese writings on the war as well as a solid list of recent work published in Japan concerning the war and the rise of patriotic consciousness in the late nineteenth century. Its focus on the way ordinary Japanese experienced the war is unparalleled and as such is highly recommended, especially for undergraduate classes and certainly for any research library. What the English-language scholarship in this area still requires is a balanced history of the entire conflict that takes both belligerents into account together with a detailed examination of the public response to and repercussions of the conflict in China.