Mummies, Blood Types, and Race: (Re)Articulating National Identity in Postwar Japan

Time: Oct. 25, 1 pm

Format: In-Person

Location: Graduate Seminar Room (302 Philosophy Hall, next to Nous)

Speaker: Dr. Isaac C. K. (Chun Kiang) Tan, Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Weatherhead East Asian Institute

Register via this link before Oct 23, 8 pm. 

In August 1950, an academic report on a recent investigation of the four Ōshū Fujiwara mummies buried in Chūsonji revealed the successful determination of their blood types. Not only was this an unprecedented event in subjecting revered religious artefacts to scientific scrutiny, it was also a concerted effort in bringing together specialists from different academic disciplines to restore cultural confidence in postwar Japan. Since the discovery of blood types in the early 1900s, blood-type studies provided a scientific platform that served as the discursive nexus for conversations on race and empire—one that outlived the imperialistic ambitions of the Japanese Empire.

This talk looks at the development of blood-type studies in the transition period as the Japanese Empire broke up and reverted back to its island nation entity. Postwar rejection of scientific racism prompted a rearticulation of earlier ideas of racial differentiations by refocusing on other topics such as ethnogenesis and national uniqueness. By analyzing both post- and pre-war publications, the speaker argues that Japanese specialists employed blood-type studies as the discursive language to articulate a definite link between biological body and social life—one that transcended time, space, and even death. Hence, the examination of blood-type discourses in a transwar time frame sheds new insights on the articulation of postwar Japanese national identity.

About the Speaker
Isaac C. K. (Chun Kiang) Tan is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. His current book project looks at the history of blood-type research in Japan—charting its historical development since the 1910s and highlighting its wider political, social, and cultural implications in contemporary Japan. His wider research interests include environmental and natural history, memory studies, and the history of modern East Asia. He has written journal articles on topics ranging from geopolitics in medieval East Asia to the natural history of British colonial India; and has received the 2021 AIHP Glenn Sonnedecker Prize for a manuscript on the dispensing separation issue in Japan. More information on his academic profile can be found at https://tckisaac.wordpress.com.