Jan 18, 2021
Medium post #2
Why is Tsurumi’s argument about the importance of Japanese women’s labor power to nation-building an important intervention to week 1’s theorizations of nationalism? On the flip side, what experiences might focusing too much on this point occlude?
In the required readings last week, both Benedict Anderson and Anne McClintock talked about nationalism in different perspective. In Anne McClintock’s article, she talked about how the nation’s development was grown because of women’s contribution. For example, she talked about Afrikaner nationalism where women’s contribution was not weighed as important as the men’s. This also happened in Tsurumi’s article this week. Tsurumi talked a lot about how these girls who worked in the factory were mistreated. Many of them were the only source of income for their families. But even like this, they weren’t treated as important as many other men in the Japanese society. Feminism is another to expand the topic of nationalism. I think Tsurumi focused too much on how these girls were treated so badly. Maybe she can focus more on the strong power these girls have. For example, how they fight back and how they rescue themselves and other girls.
