Imperial Animations in Transpacific Contemporary Art situates the Japanese Empire as a world-historical event that persists today through pervasive and deep impacts on regional and global politics. Considering contemporary artwork from across the transpacific region, Namiko Kunimoto documents efforts to expose colonial trauma and reveal its presence in shaping political liberalism in Japan as well as the global rise of aspirational fascism. At the heart of these artistic endeavors is a drive to animate, both in the sense of digitalization and performance and in the urge to enliven, mobilize, and reveal the continuities of imperialism today. The animate art addressed in this book urges us to think critically about imperialism and its links to the digital age, land, racism, and violence, thereby inviting us to reenvision our collective future.
Namiko Kunimoto is Director of the Center for Ethnic Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art at The Ohio State University. She is author of The Stakes of Exposure: Anxious Bodies in Postwar Japanese Art.
"Imperial Animations in Transpacific Contemporary Art creates a compelling map of the aftermath and ongoing manifestations of early twentieth-century Japanese imperialism and fascism, all while contributing valuable new knowledge about an impressive range of understudied contemporary artistic practices."—Bert Winther-Tamaki, author of Tsuchi: Earthy Materials in Contemporary Japanese Art
"Imperial Animations in Transpacific Contemporary Art offers an exciting and sophisticated discussion of art, history, art history, and visual culture at the nexus of Japanese militarism and its afterlives, most notably in the intersection of artistic practice and memory politics set against the contexts of global capitalism and liberal democracy. It is unique in its collection of comparative case studies, showing how artists from the Asia Pacific continue to negotiate and contest the politics of remembering Japan's imperialist past."—Pamela N. Corey, author of The City in Time: Contemporary Art and Urban Form in Vietnam and Cambodia
"In Imperial Animations in Transpacific Contemporary Art, Namiko Kunimoto meticulously demonstrates how the diverse artists from the region she calls the Transpacific expose the enduring entanglements of imperialism, (neo)liberalism, and global capitalism. Timely and incisive, this book makes a compelling case for the critical force of art in confronting contemporary fascisms and envisioning alternatives."—Lisa Yoneyama, author of Cold War Ruins: Transpacific Critique of American Justice and Japanese War Crimes
"Imperial Animations in Transpacific Contemporary Art asks how art can be used today as an animator or intensifier of geopolitical thinking in the context of globally aspirational fascism. Through a series of insightful readings calculated to counteract static acts of commemoration and lamentation, Kunimoto shows how the legacy of the Japanese Empire can serve as a springboard for multiplying domains and forms of antifascist intervention."—Thomas Lamarre, author of The Anime Ecology: A Genealogy of Television, Animation, and Game Media
224 pp.7 x 10Illus: 41 scattered b/w images, 23 color plates in a gathered insert
9780520421592$45.00|£38.00Paper
Feb 2026