Empire Of Dogs Aaron Skabelund Summary

Skabelund, Aaron Herald. Empire of Dogs: Canines, Japan, and the Making of the Modern Imperial World Cornell University Press. 2011

Aaron Skabelund is a history professor at Brigham Young University, he specializes in the field of modern Japanese history, specifically the social and cultural history of imperialism, animals and military. Skabelund has a Ph.D from Columbia University and a postdoctoral fellowship with the Japan Society for Promotion of Science at Hokkaido University. He has authored many works that focus on the role of dogs in Japan’s social, cultural, and political history, such as “Dogs at War: Military Dogs in Films” and “Leading Dogs and Children to War”. Skabelund’s “Empire of Dogs” is an analysis of how the impact of

Skabelund discusses the use of dogs in the military, particularly during World War I and World War II. In Japan, dogs were used to market the military to children, to encourage people to volunteer their pets for service. All of these different marketing attempts created a greater sense of nationalism. Dogs were the ideal warrior because of their “silent sacrifice” and unwavering loyalty. Skabelund analyzes the implications drawn from relationships between humans and dogs as well as the relationships between the US and Japan postwar. He implies that the two relationships go hand in hand. “Perhaps as important as its prewar roots, dog keeping in the second half of the twentieth century was a reflection of Western and American cultural forces that penetrated Japan and much of the globe.” (Skabelund, 175). Skabelund makes a compelling argument that the postwar occupation of Japan by the US greatly influenced the popular culture through practice of keeping dogs in Japan. Japanese families subscribed to the Americanized image of the ‘perfect family’, which included a small dog, so many native dog breeds were forgotten in favor of Western breeds. Dogs were also used in anti-Japanese propaganda to portray Japan as an uncivilized country that has no laws against animal abuse. This caused mass controversy over dog breeding practices around the world. “Because of changes in

Skabelund’s failure to address the religious position of dogs in Japan made his argument seem incomplete. I think he could have explored a whole different angle in his book and it would have been interesting to see someone with his knowledge of the subject discuss the religious aspects of human-canine relationships. While I think that Skabelund left out a very crucial element of Japanese culture, I think that observations and arguments he did make were well thought out and persuasive. He introduced new theories and perspectives that I found fascinating. I found that Skabelund’s theory that we can study the relationships between humans and animals to better understand world history is very compelling. “It is time we humans more fully acknowledge and more wisely value the assorted barks, bellows, bleats, and cried of our fellow creatures that inhabit our cultures, our histories, and our world. More than simply being our mirrors, dogs and other creatures are our partners in a shared environment, culture, and history, the nature of which is a joint creation, and which encompasses the fate of all species.” (Skabelund, 197). “Empire of Dogs” is well written and structured. The language used is clear and concise. Overall I would say this was a very good