New Books in History Kristin Roebuck, "Japan Reborn: Race and Eugenics from Empire to Cold War" (Columbia UP, 2025)
Feb 12, 2026
Kristin Roebuck, historian of sex, reproduction, race, and empire in modern Japan, discusses her book on how Japan’s attitudes toward mixed‑race people and eugenics shifted from imperial openness to Cold War racial nationalism. She covers research origins, translation challenges for minzoku, eugenic policy as racial engineering, adoption and orphan removal, and Cold War population management.
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Race Lumps And Splits Communities
- Race can both lump people together and split them apart, serving imperial inclusion or postwar exclusion.
- Japan shifted from praising mixed blood in empire to stigmatizing it after defeat, revealing race's dual functions.
Discovery Of Targeted Abortions
- Roebuck discovered wartime and postwar campaigns to abort Konketsuji during research on Japan's 1956 prostitution ban.
- Illegal abortions targeted mixed-blood fetuses and influenced later eugenics and prostitution laws.
Don't Rush To Translate Minzoku
- Translating minzoku as 'ethnicity' flattens varied historical meanings and risks misreading sources.
- Roebuck leaves minzoku untranslated and analyzes its use in context to preserve meaning.
