Dr. Ricky W. Law is a historian of interwar Germany, Japan, and transnational movements. His new book, Transnational Nazism: Ideology and Culture in German-Japanese Relations, 1919–1936, explores the cultural context of Tokyo and Berlin’s political rapprochement in 1936.

Law shares his fascinating story on this episode of the Hour of History podcast explaining how he mastered German, taught in Japan and learned Japanese and combined the two skills to write history. He has shared his knowledge with students in courses that he created, with themes on genocide and weapons of mass destruction, nation-states in film, and democracy. He plans to develop other courses on German, Japanese, and Roman histories.

He is currently working on a book manuscript on interwar and wartime Japanese foreign relations through the lens of foreign language acquisition.

You can follow him on twitter here: @rickywlaw

Read his book:

From the Publisher: 

In 1936, Nazi Germany and militarist Japan built a partnership which culminated in the Tokyo-Berlin Axis. This study of interwar German-Japanese relations is the first to employ sources in both languages. Transnational Nazism was an ideological and cultural outlook that attracted non-Germans to become adherents of Hitler and National Socialism, and convinced German Nazis to identify with certain non-Aryans. Because of the distance between Germany and Japan, mass media was instrumental in shaping mutual perceptions and spreading transnational Nazism. This work surveys the two national media to examine the impact of transnational Nazism. When Hitler and the Nazi movement gained prominence, Japanese newspapers, lectures and pamphlets, nonfiction, and language textbooks transformed to promote the man and his party. Meanwhile, the ascendancy of Hitler and his regime created a niche for Japan in the Nazi worldview and Nazified newspapers, films, nonfiction, and voluntary associations.

Podcast Highlights:

Current relevance of studying Nazification of Japan

What appealed to the Japanese in Nazism?

How Hitler was viewed by the Japanese

Language skills in history

How did people travel between Japan and Germany

Ideological outlooks in pre-War Germany and Japan

Air travel in the 1920s

Nonfiction and the spread of ideology

Radio crossing continents

The "strange alliance"

Suggestions: Listen to find out!

https://youtu.be/KHTu3rIDfuM

Cover image: A scene from a musical revue entitled "Heil Hitler" by the Nichigeki dancing team, staged at Tokyo's Nichigeki Music Hall, Yūrakuchō to welcome the Hitlerjugend that visited Japan in September 1938. From left to right: Keiko Suda, Sanae Shibata, Akemi Shirogane, Chizuko Osabe, Midori Ono. According to the caption in Japanese, the uniform style matches more the United States Army or the Royal Thai Army.