Welcome to the book exhibit: The Russian Impact on Japan: Building the Japanese Collections at USC.

It is a joint program organized with Peter Berton, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the School of International Relations.

This special exhibit features Russo-Japan relations from the early 19th through 21st centuries, focusing specially on the period of the Occupation era of Japan by the Allied Powers (1945-1952). This is when the Soviet influence on leftwing movements in Japan became the subject of important research in the United States. USC Professors Berton, Langer, and Swearingen conducted research on Japanese Communism and field work in Japan. The books they brought back from Japan for their research eventually became the nucleus of the USC Japanese Collection.

The display starts with the picture of Professor Berton with senior diplomats, taken at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan in 1951. Along the main table, the books from the Occupation era are laid out in a sequence of four groups: foreign affairs, Russian experiences, women writers, and leftist movements.

The books about leftist movements during the Occupation era are laid along the table on this side. The books about Russian experiences are laid on the other side, which are written by the Japanese prisoners of war in Russia.

At the other end of the table, the books written by women writers such as Miyamoto Yuriko and Hayashi Fumiko are displayed.

This package is addressed from a woman writer Hayashi Fumiko () to Professor Paul Langer () who was serving at the Civil Censorship Detachment (CCD) at the time. It contains Hokuetsu seppu (1836), a book published during the Edo period.

Shown here are two examples of Professor Langers ex-libris ownership stamps. On the left the stamp reads (Langaa zsho), and on the right (Langa zsho).

Laid in the forefront is Nihon no akai hata , a Japanese translation (1953) of Red flag in Japan, written by Professors Swearingen and Langer in 1952. The English copy in the back contains their autographs and a note dated December 23, 1952: To the new team member. It is given to Professor Berton, who joined the research at USC.

A selection of works from 1951 to 2000 by Professors Berton, Langer, and Swearingen is displayed here. Included are Manchuria, an annotated bibliography on Manchuria, compiled by Professor Berton when he was a graduate student at Columbia and also working at the Library of Congress; a Japanese translation of his Masters thesis, Nichi-Ro rydo mondai = The Russo-Japanese boundary 1850-1875; and an online print out of his article in Japan Policy Research Institute Working Paper (2000). Also included are Japan: yesterday and today by Professor Langer, who studied Japanese literature at Sorbonne and the University of Tokyo, and the Japanese translation of The World of Communism by Professor Swearingen.

The library resources for Japanese Communist studies are showcased here, which include journals and multi-volume works of major socialist thinkers and activists of Japan. Journals Akahata and Zenei are publications of the Japanese Communist Party. Kan jh and Chian framu report on national and civil security issues.

Collections of writings by Japanese socialist thinkers and activists from the late 19th century through the postwar era are displayed here. The selected works are by Ktoku Shsui , Sakai Toshihiko , Kawakami Hajime , Yamakawa Hitoshi , sugi Sakae , and Arahata Kanson .

Russian Envoy Rezanovs attempt to establish trade relations with Japan marks the beginning of the Russo-Japanese relations in the 19th century. This signification event is recorded in several documents, including Kankai ibun (1807). Rezanov brings back Japanese shipwrecked survivors to Japan during Japans national seclusion era. Displayed on the table is a reproduction of a map of Russia, brought to Japan by the party of Rezanov and translated into Japanese in 1808. It is reproduced in Nihon kochizu taisei: sekaizu hen : = The World in Japanese maps until the mid-19th century.

Thank you for visiting the book exhibit. I hope you enjoyed it. For more information and the complete list of exhibited materials, please visit: http://dornsife.usc.edu/peterberton/.