書評◆ 書評 ◆

Chelsea Szendi Schieder

Coed Revolution:

The Female Student in the Japanese New Left

（Duke University Press 2021, ISBN 978-1-4780-1145-3 [paper] US$25.95）

Setsu Shigematsu（Department of Media and Cultural Studies, University of California, Riverside）
Chelsea Szendi Schieder’s Coed Revolution:

fraught family dynamics of women activists,

the Female Student in the Japanese New

and particularly how parents’ variously

Left is an articulate and colorful contribution

viewed their daughters’ activism and, on

to understanding the gendered contours ofoccasion, shared their opinions in the media.

Japan’s 1960s–1970s student movement.

The opening chapter focuses on Kanba

Szendi Schieder’s book offers a corrective toand unfolds a diachronic history of female

existing representations of a male-dominatedactivists. The second chapter title derives

movement by providing a counter-history

from Tokoro Mitsuko’s book, My Love andthat focuses on the figure of the female

Rebellion (Waga ai to hangyaku 1969), aactivist. She presents her work as a partial

posthumously published collection of thisrejoinder to Oguma Eiji’s 1968 (2009) andTodai graduate student’s writings. The author

Suga Hidemi’s 1968 nen (2006). While

discusses Tokoro’s criticisms of the capitalist

shifting our attention to women is important,logic of productivity versus horizontality andthis work can be simultaneously illuminating

women’s logic, which informed many of theyet harmful when undertaken without

principles of the Zenkyōtō movement. Here,adequate care and citation.

Szendi Schieder draws on many insights

One of the book’s original contributions
is an analysis of the family background of

from Guy Yasko’s excellent dissertation onTokoro and Zenkyōtō.

well-known figures such as Kanba Michiko

One of the primary aims of Coed Revolution(1937–1960) who is remembered as ais to analyze the mass media’s impact onmartyr of the 1960 Anpo struggle. Szendi

the movements, while exploring the themes

Schieder’s historiography illuminates theof vulnerability, violence and voice as it

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DOI：10.24567/0002000558

ジェンダー研究第 25 号

2022 年

relates to the agency and representation

and richness to figures such as Kanba,of female activists. The author’s analysis

Tokoro and includes voices of feministof activists such as Kanba and Tokoro areactivists such as Yonezu Tomoko and Mori

welcome contributions to our understanding

Setsuko in Chapter Three, titled, “Is theof their lasting contributions to the history of

Personal Political?” and Chapter Four,

communist and leftist postwar activism.

“When you Fuck a Vanguard Girl”—it isA wonderful dimension of Szendi

unfortunate that the author fails to properly

Schieder’s book are the photographs thatcite published works. There are certainly

provide a rich visual representation of theexpectations and pressures in academia toera. These include photos from inside theappear original; however, there are also

university barricades (92), images of womenestablished referencing practices to cite

injured (88) and arrested (144) and making

works that have analyzed the same subject

onigiri (rice balls) (98). Coed Revolution

matter. For example, the context and content

contains a valuable photo of Kashiwazaki

about Kanba in Chapter One has been

Chieko, the activist who was apparently

published in Organizing the Spontaneous

nicknamed “Gewalt Rosa” (138). The mass

(2001), and arguments in Chapters Two,media used this term for some ZenkyōtōThree, and Four about New Left sexism andwomen activists, which combined themasculinist practices have been extensively

German word gewalt (meaning violenceaddressed in my book Scream from theand force) and Rosa, after Rosa Luxemburg

Shadows (2012) but appear without citation.

(1871–1919), the Polish revolutionary

Moreover, it is concerning how patterns

who was an inspiration for many Japaneseof citation and appropriation can maintainstudents. These women were considered

the racial dynamics in Area Studies/Japandistinct from the negative stereotype ofStudies whereby Euro-American authors

the sexualized activist women who wereare privileged as knowledge producers due(mis)treated like “public toilets” or theto a history of global white supremacy andmore common role of female activists

colonialism.

who willingly offered what is considered

The most original content is in Chapter

feminized support work such as making food,Five, but is framed with a problematic

doing domestic labor, providing first aid,

subtitle: “the Creation of the Terrifying,

mimeographing flyers, and handbills, etc.

Titillating Female Student Activist.” This

While Schieder provides more depth

chapter discusses Kashiwazaki and Katō229

書評

Hiroko, the activist known as “Kikubashi“ugly” Nagata (155), the author reproduces

101,” who became a model of resistancethe vilification of Shigenobu, the leader of thefollowing her refusal to reveal her identity todisbanded revolutionary group, the Japanesepolice while incarcerated. It is unclear how

Red Army, without engagement with their

these women are “terrifying or titillating;”

writing, thought, philosophy, and praxis.

however, these words reimpose a sexist

The author reinscribes the dehumanizing

and sexualized framing of women whoframing of Shigenobu as a “terrorist”

are ostracized and abjected for not being(155–6), a racialized and even racist term

nurturing, peaceful, and appropriately sexual,(especially when used in the US), withoutmodest, and chaste. Such terms reinscribe

critical contextualization. In addition, sheJapanese women activists as frightening andmistakenly blames Shigenobu for helping

alluring and reinforces the media’s dominantorganize the Lod Airport operation (155)perspective. While this approach is notwithout evidence, and thereby validates both

exclusive to this author, it is symptomaticthe mainstream media and the colonialistof how often non-Japanese scholars extract(US-Israel-Japan) states’ master narrative.

from Japanese history and claim expertise but

Fortunately, thanks to digital publishing

may fail to realize the unintentional harm oftechnologies, authors can repair suchtheir scholarship. In this chapter, the author

mistakes and harm to demonstrate an ethics

also addresses Nagata Hiroko (1945–2011)of care toward the subjects that they areand Fusako Shigenobu (1945-), who arerewarded for representing. As scholars,arguably the two most well-known women

we can adapt our practices to address past

activists of this era. In addition to restating

mistakes to avoid replicating gendered andthe media’s misogynist portrayal of theracialized harm.

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