Asian History Commons^™

Jison Jiei: Offensive Realism And Imperial Japan's Spiral Toward Regional Hegemony, John William Dodd

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis examines Imperial Japan’s march from the Mukden Incident of 1931 to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 through the lens of offensive realism. It asks to what extent Japan’s prewar grand strategy can be understood as a bid for regional hegemony, and what that interpretation reveals about the relationship between power politics, international law, and future great-power crises. Rather than treating Japanese expansion as irrational madness or reducing it only to ideology or militarism, this thesis argues that Japanese leaders acted according to a recognizable strategic logic.

Proceeding from theory to historical analysis, this project first situates …

Benturan Norma Islam Dengan Kebijakan Karantina Terhadap Jemaah Haji Wanita Di Pulau Onrust (1912), Tano Susetyo Yoso, Fajar Muhammad Nugraha

Multikultura

Onrust Island is one of the islands in Kepulauan Seribu and served as a quarantine facility for Hajj pilgrims in the early 20th century. This study examines the conflict between Islamic norms regarding the practice of Hajj (the mahram and muhrim principle) and gender-neutral colonial health policies towards female Hajj pilgrims in quarantine on Onrust Island in 1912. The primary data used consists of Dutch colonial government reports from the archive Vervoer van personen en goederen over zee. De voorstellen tot voorziening in het beheer c.a. van de quarantaine-inrichting op de eilanden Onrust en Kuiper. 1909–1912. This study uses Kuntowijoyo’s …

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Student Awards

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Awards for Outstanding Papers Written in 2025

Dam Negotiations: Water, Diné Sovereignty, And The Navajo Dam, George Smith

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On July 30, 1958, contractors working for the Bureau of Reclamation broke ground on the Navajo Dam, located about 35 miles east of Farmington, New Mexico. Diné Tribal chairman Paul Jones had called the dam a “new hope for [his] people,” anticipating increased agricultural and industrial capacity from irrigation and flow management. Though officially approved in 1962, the contingent Navajo Indian Irrigation Project (NIIP) that was to provide those many of those benefits remained to be completed in 2024. By contrast, the San Juan Chama Project (SJCP), the other project contingent upon the dam, diverted water from the San Juan …

Marcion And The Crisis Of Second-Century Christianity, Samuel Petersen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Almost a century after the death of Christ and his original apostles, the 2nd-century Judeo-Christian church found itself in a vicious struggle for survival catalyzed by an ongoing negotiation between the church’s traditional Jewish roots and establishing its own identity. The loose confederation of Jesus-believers fought to gather themselves into a functional body as they wrestled with questions surrounding the very nature of the Christian faith.

“No Hen Should Herald The Dawn Lest Misfortune Follow”: Gender, History, And Power Sima Guang’S Comprehensive Mirror, Zoe Ngan

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

It was not a particularly notable occasion when Emperor Gaozong 高宗 of the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) established Wu Zetian 武則天 as a mid-ranked concubine in 654. Emperors, throughout Chinese history, were polygamous rulers who acquired no shortage of concubines per the Rites of Zhou 周禮, an ancient ritual text which proposed that rulers obtain 121 wives and consorts. Wu’s nomination signified the unpredictability of imperial favour and almost certainly did not turn heads when her appointment occurred.

“I, Too, Want To Be Free”: Women And The Birth Control Movement In Utah, 1914–1940, Evelyn Wilcox

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Like many other women, I too, want to be free,” explained a 33-year- old Utah woman in a 1925 letter to Margaret Sanger, a prominent leader in the birth control movement. This woman, whose name is unknown, was married to a 78-year- old man with whom, she thought, “in her ignorance,” that she would never have any children—she was proven wrong. With six children under the age of eight at the time and wanting to prevent having more, this woman’s predicament reflects Sanger’s mission to inform everyday women of birth control so they could make their own reproductive choices. After …

Christianity Behind The Iron Curtain: How Creative Arts Gave A Voice To The Voiceless, Riana Johnson Wills

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1988, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) held celebrations across the Soviet Union to mark the Millennium of Christianity in Russia, commemorating a thousand years since the baptism of Rus in 988. While this was a monumental day for Christians, many believers across the Soviet Union felt a sense of dissonance. For decades, religious freedom and worship had not been privileges they enjoyed. Thousands of Christians suffered for their belief. The communist regime began in 1922 with Vladimir Lenin. The USSR built upon Marxist ideology where atheism is a fundamental and they expected nationwide compliance to these ideologies. …

Rationed Victory: A Study Of American Civilian Rationing In World War Ii, Alex Moulder

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In any conflict or competition it is often said that the winner is “fueled to victory.” This could come as a result of training, diet, stamina, support from others, or sheer willpower. Even small variations in any of these elements can have significant consequences and affect outcomes. The same can be said about civilians during wartime, especially during the largest conflict of the twentieth century, World War II. The war cemented the United States as a global power, thanks in part to its massive economy, technologies, and industries, which helped to overcome the war of attrition against the Axis powers. …

“It Was The Women Who Kept It On”: The 1984–85 National Union Of Mineworkers Strike In Wales, Brett Bodily

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On March 3rd, 1984, more than 140,000 miners, all members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) walked out on strike in protest of proposed colliery, or “pit” closures. Years of disputes culminated in a major showdown between the largest labor union in the United Kingdom and a resurgent national conservatism led by Margaret Thatcher— leader of the Tory party. The communities built around coal mining recognized the Tory pit closure plan for what it was—an existential threat to their way of life. Women within these communities rose to the occasion and took on leadership and organizational responsibilities, many for …

Leasing Land, Losing Sovereignty: Us Military Land Leasing In Okinawa, Japan, Kathryn Blau

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Military land leasing in Okinawa has played a central role in limiting Okinawan political sovereignty since the end of World War II by fostering economic dependence on US military bases and enabling policies that override local opposition. Tracing the evolution of the leasing system under both American occupation and Japanese administration reveals how land expropriation, compensation policies, and increasingly generous financial incentives encouraged reliance on base-related income while discouraging advocacy for land reversion and base reduction. The analysis further demonstrates how the Japanese government's legal enforcement of mandatory lease renewals, particularly during the 1996 Okinawa land dispute, curtailed the rights …

Editor's Preface, Gabe Smock

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

This editor's preface explores the origins and enduring mission of The Thetean, BYU's undergraduate history journal. Through archival research in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, the journal's founding history is traced to its inaugural 1967 edition, revealing the origin, pronunciation, and meaning of its distinctive name as a reference to Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society. The preface highlights the journal's longstanding commitment to encouraging scholarly research, providing publication opportunities, and introducing students to the work of historians. By recovering the journal's own history, it underscores the broader value of historical inquiry: understanding the past to better …

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Shanghai In The 1930s, The German Civil Code And The Tragic Story Of A Brilliant Legal Mind, Lutz-Christian Wolff

Notre Dame Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Difficult History During Difficult Times: Amache Junior Rangers, Katelyn Morkovsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My research aims to understand approaches to teaching difficult histories to children at cultural heritage institutions. To do this, I examined the creation process of the Amache Junior Ranger booklet that launched at the site in the fall of 2025. Amache, a WWII Japanese American incarceration center, presents significant interpretive challenges in balancing the traumatic nature of the site with age-appropriate content as well as highlighting the agency people exercised without losing the gravity of the situation. In addition to how the booklet was made, I use my research to situate the booklet in the social and political climate in …

Regimes Of Pain: Violence, Silence, And The Reproduction Of Power In Indonesia, Andi Achdian, Erna Ermawati Chotim

Jurnal Politik

This article examines political violence in Indonesia as a continuing mode of governance that extends beyond periods of open repression. Focusing on three historical episodes—the mass violence of 1965–1966, militarised rule in Aceh during the Military Operations Zone, and the racialised violence of May 1998—it argues that violence does not disappear after formal repression ends, but is reorganised within everyday life through bodily injury, social silence, fear, and learned endurance. To explain this process, the article develops the concept of regimes of pain, defined as forms of power that produce and normalise bodily suffering in order to sustain political order. …

Rethinking Pakistan Studies: The Grounds Of Regional Knowledge After South Asia, Zoya Sameen

FAS Pakistan

This article rethinks Pakistan Studies as both a pedagogical project and a field of knowledge by examining the limits of history as a tool of legitimation. It argues that in the public sphere, history often serves to authorize the present, and shows how Pakistan Studies has historically operated within this framework. At the same time, the article suggests that this condition opens up another possibility: to understand history not as passive inheritance but as an active demand upon the present. Seen in this light, Pakistan Studies emerges not as a stable body of knowledge but as a series of shifting …

Petals And Pride: A Botanical History Of Queer Expression, Sarah O. Kowal

Graduate Masters Theses

“Petals and Pride” examines the historical use of flowers as enduring symbols of queer expression and persecution across diverse cultures and time periods, paying particular attention to violets, green carnations, roses, lilies, pansies, and lavender. This study begins with the appearance of violets in the works of the Ancient Greek poet Sappho and traces their adoption by the lesbian community of Paris at the turn of the twentieth century. Around this same time, another floral symbol emerged across the English Channel: the green carnation. Popularized by Oscar Wilde, the green carnation functioned in Victorian Britain as an emblem of sexuality …

Tùn-Scene And A-Futurism: Biomythography, Opacity, And Posthuman Imagination, Minglu Du

Masters Theses

Grounded in the author’s position as a Chinese feminist, this thesis examines how East Asian women, as well as East Asian-coded femininity more broadly, are objectified and othered within futurist visual culture in the age of artificial intelligence. Through an engagement with ornamentalism, techno-Orientalism, and posthumanism1 , it argues that the persistent figure of the feminized humanoid cyborg continues to reproduce colonial and patriarchal structures of desire, rendering marginalized bodies as fetishized and violable surfaces. In response, the thesis develops Tùn-Scene, a biomythographic artistic framework and the first experiment in what the author provisionally names A-Futurism. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s …