Primary Sources on East and Southeast Asia
Below are a selection of potential starting points for primary sources relevant for historical research on East and Southeast Asia. Many of these are open access, while others are available through library electronic resources available at the University of St Andrews. Not all of these sources are in English and I have included some sources here for use by students who are able to read Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Newspapers and Periodicals:
- The Times
- Japan Chronicle
- 19th Century British Newspapers
- 19th Century British Periodicals
- British Periodicals I & II
- British Newspapers 1600–1950
- Historic American Newspapers
- Irish Times
- Los Angeles Times
- North China Herald
- Guardian & Observer
- Periodical Archives Online
- Times of India
- Economist 1843–2010
- Scotsman
- HeinOnline - Legal Journals
- Biblioteca Gino Bianco (Italian)
- Leo Baeck Institute Library Periodical Collection (mostly German)
- Shanghai Jewish Chronicle (1939–1945), Shanghai Echo (1946–1948), Shanghai Woche (1939, 1942), Sport (1942–1943), Shanghaier Morgenpost (1941), S. Z. am Mittag der Shanghai Post (1939–1940), Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt, Acht Uhr Abendblatt (1939–1941), Mitteilungen der Vereinigung der Emigranten-Ärzte in Shanghai (1940–1), Gelbe Post: Ostasiatisch Halbmonatsschrift (1939–40)
- Newsvault
- Combines some of the Databases above
- Old Hong Kong Collections and Newspapers
- Here you may want to check: Hong Kong Collection, Old HK Newspapers, Hong Kong Oral History (you can filter by language)
- Singapore Newspaper Archive 1831–2009
- XXth Century 1941–1945
- unusual magazine from Japanese occupied Shanghai
- Australian Historical Newspaper Archive
- 明六雑誌 1874–5
- Digitized version of the famous Meiji period journal (Japanese)
- 国民之友 1887–8
- 満州技術協会誌
- Journal of Manchuria Technical Association journal 1925–1941
- Digitized version of “The Nation’s Friend” (Japanese).
- Chinese Women’s Magazines in the Late Qing and Early Republican Period (Chinese)
- Xiaobao - Chinese Entertainment Newspapers (Chinese)
- Funü Zazhi - Chinese women’s magazine (Chinese)
- Ling Long Magazine (Chinese)
- Korean Historical Newspapers (Korean)
- PRCHistory.org Archive of Journals Remembrance and Yesterday
- 奈良女子大学所蔵資料電子画像集
- Digital collection of historical journals and other materials related to women’s university education in Japan. (Japanese)
- Puka Puka Parade
- Post 1945 Newsletter of 100th Infantry Battalion of Japanese-American veterans
- Japan Times 1998-
- Press Translations, Japan 1945–1946
- Kobe University Newspaper Clippings Archive (Japanese)
- Hsinhua News Agency 1977-Present (Nexis UK)
Government Documents
- Wilson Center Digital Archive
- Massive collection of Cold War period documents, many of them translated and transcribed
- Wilson Center Chinese Foreign Policy Database
- British Documents on the End of Empire
- Cabinet Papers 1915–1984
- Parliamentary Papers
- FRUS - Foreign Relations of the US
- US Occupation Government in Korea Documents
- The index is in Korean, but the language of the documents is English
- Japanese Diet Proceedings Archive (Japanese)
- 日本外交文書デジタルアーカイブ
- 帝国議会会議録
- 朝鮮王朝實錄
- Truman Library Documents on Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb
- The Gazette (British Government newspaper)
- Office of Strategic Services - United States intelligence agency formed during World War II, predecessor to CIA. Archive.org collection contains many East Asia related documents.
- National Security Internet Archive (NSIA) - Archive.org collection of documents related to US government documents, includes many East Asia related documents.
- Digital South Asia Library
- National Archives of Singapore ArchivesOnline - online collections include government records, maps, oral histories, photographs, and legal documents
- Includes many oral interviews of former POWs in the Changi Military Camp
- CIA National Intelligence Estimates on China
- Tokyo War Crimes Trial Digital Collection
- LTD Legal Tools Database - Tokyo Trials Documents
- IMFTE Judgement transcript
- League of Nations Archives
- Nineteenth Century Collections Online - Asia and the West
- U.S. State Department Consular and Diplomatic Records - despatches from many US consuls in region
- British Foreign Office Political Correspondence: Japan
- Korean, Siamese, Japanese and Chinese legations in the United States
- Missionary Correspondence and Journals
- Annual Report of the Minister of State for Education - Japanese education ministry reports volumes often on Archive.org
- Japan in the Beginning of the 20th Century - Government reports available in several volumes on Archive.org
- An Official Guide to Eastern Asia - Five volumes. Japanese railroads office produced guides going back to early 20th century. Volumes available on Archive.org
- Annual report on reforms and progress in Chosen - Japanese colonial reports on Korea 1911–1923. Search for this title on HeinOnline, some years available on Archive.org.
- Annual Reports to the League of Nations on the Administration of the South Sea Islands under Japanese Mandate - Japanese reports to the League on its rule over former German controlled territories in the Pacific. Many volumes of these reports available on Archive.org but the titles are not accurately produced, search for Annual Reports, League, Micronesia, etc. to get more hits.
- Burma, The Struggle for Independence, 1944–1948: Documents from Official and Private Sources
- Many British documents on Burma from this time
- Towards Freedom: Documents on the Movement for Independence in India, 1943–1944
- Many documents on India from this time
- The Transfer of Power 1942–7
- Many British documents on India from this time
Missionary Reports and Publications
- Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal - Many issues available at Archive.org
- Missionary Research Library pamphlets Columbia University - digitized pamphlets available on Archive.org with many East Asia related pamphlets
- Majority World Collection - Publications include many missionary works related to East Asia from Princeton Theological Seminary Library.
- The Christian Movement in the Japanese Empire including Korea and Formosa - Many volumes published by the Conference of Federated Missions Japan, and often available on Archive.org.
- The Japan Christian Yearbook - Volumes available on Archive.org
- Presbyterian Church of England : report of the Foreign Missions China, Formosa, the Straits Settlements, and India - Many volumes on Archive.org
- China and Formosa : the story of the Presbyterian Church of England (1897)
Memoirs, Diaries, Digitised Books etc.
- Archive.org - Huge and fantastic resource for published works before 1920s
- Google Books - If there is only snippet view on old works, try archive.org
- Gutenberg Project - Pure text versions of many popular out of copyright books
- Hathi Trust
- massive collection of digitized books
- when they cannot be viewed because they are in copyright, they can still help you pin point which pages things are mentioned
- Historical Texts
- Especially the British Library digitised books 1789–1914
- Robert Hart Diaries
- http://digitalcollections.qub.ac.uk/site/hart-diaries/diaries/show_vol.php?v=31
- http://gis.rchss.sinica.edu.tw/cmcs/collections-at-academia-sinica/the-diaries-of-sir-robert-hart
- http://cdm15979.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15979coll2
- Joseph Berry Keenan Digital Collection - Important primary sources from war crimes trials and early postwar Japan.
- Ming Qing Women’s Writings
- Digitised Chinese works by women from Ming and Qing dynasties (Chinese)
- National Taiwan University Open Access Books (Chinese)
- Diary of Joseph Stilwell 1900–1946
- World War II Diaries of Ernest F. Easterbrook, 1944–45
- Hawaii Karate Museum Collection
- PDFs of books in English, Japanese, and Korean on Karate and martial arts, mostly 1950s.
- Gallica (French)
- National Library of France has digitised a huge amount of materials, including a wide range of materials, memoirs, books, images, related to East Asia and Indochina.
Propaganda, Posters, and Pamphlets
Photographs, Postcards, Films
Recordings and Sound
Maps and GIS
Other
Japan
- Selection of Scanned Open Access Harvard-Yenching Books from Japan on Google Books
- Japan Air Raids Bilingual Historical Archive
- Databases of the Historiographical Institute at the University of Tokyo - Most of it on pre-modern Japanese history
- Waseda Kotenseki Sogo Database - Contains a lot of materials related to Japanese and Chinese classics but also some special collections from a more modern period, much in Japanese
- Prange Digital Children’s Book Collection 1945–49 (Japanese)
- Joseph B. Keenan Digital Collection
- Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Digital Archive
- Hiroshima Archive
- PRCHistory.org Document of the Month
- Illustrated Books from the Edo and Meiji Periods - at the Smithsonian Libraries
- Japanese National Diet Library (Japanese)
- has a variety of digital resources
- National Archives of Japan Digital Collections
- Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (Japanese)
- Massive archive of especially military records from pre–1945 Japan
- Digital Library of the Meiji Period (Japanese)
- pretty much every book published in the Meiji period is digitized here, Taisho period books increasingly available too
- Denshō Archive for Japanese-American internment
- Japanese Historical Text Initiative
- Japan Air Raids Historical Archive
- ジャパンアーカイブズ1850–2100
- Exhibition of the Empire of Japan: Official Catalogue (1904)
- A Handbook for Travellers in Japan Basil Hall Chamberlain - volumes from different years on Archive.org
- Terry’s Japanese empire, including Korea and Formosa, with chapters on Manchuria, the Trans-Siberian railway, and the chief ocean routes to Japan - various editions available on Archive.org
- Pocket Guide to Japan - Old prewar government produced guidebook for tourists to Japan, volumes available on Archive.org
- Japan to America - collection of papers and translations on Japan produced by the Japan Society of America going back to early 20th century. Many volumes on Archive.org
- Transactions of The Asiatic Society of Japan - early journal published in Japan going back to prewar days. Many volumes on Archive.org
- Satow, Ernest Mason. A Diplomat in Japan: An Inner History of the Critical Years in the Evolution of Japan. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1983.
- Cortazzi, Hugh. Victorians in Japan: In and around the Treaty Ports. London ; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Athlone Press, 1987.
- Holme, Charles, Toni Huberman, Sonia Ashmore, Emma Lasenby Liberty, and Yasuko Suga. The Diary of Charles Holme’s 1889 Visit to Japan and Northamerica: With Mrs Lazenby Liberty’s Japan: A Pictorial Record. Folkestone, UK: Global Oriental Ltd, 2008.
- Unbeaten Tracks in Japan by Isabella L. Bird
- Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings by Edward Sylvester Morse (1885)
- Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: First Series by Lafcadio Hearn
- Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: Second Series by Lafcadio Hearn (1895)
- Kimiko, and Other Japanese Sketches by Lafcadio Hearn (1896)
- Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life by Lafcadio Hearn (1896)
- My Japanese Wife by Clive Holland (1895)
- The Gist of Japan: The Islands, Their People, and Missions by R. B. Peery
- Japanese Girls and Women by Alice Mabel Bacon (1891)
- Things Japanese: Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with Japan for the Use of Travellers and Others by Basil Hall Chamberlain (1902)
- Kobo: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War by Herbert Strang (1905)
- A Journal from Japan: A Daily Record of Life as Seen by a Scientist by Marie Stopes (1910)
- The Shinto Cult: A Christian Study of the Ancient Religion of Japan by Milton Terry (1910)
- A Daughter of Japan by F. D. Bone (1914) - also on GP
- An Artist’s Letters from Japan by John La Farge
- The Japanese Spirit by Yoshisaburo Okakura (1905) also GP
- Heisig, James W., Thomas P. Kasulis, and John C. Maraldo, eds. Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook. Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2011.
- This is a wonderful series of volumes in our library containing books on Japan, thus serving as contemporary primary sources of a sort, and a separate series of books with pamphlets and press articles from 1906–1948:
- O’Connor, Peter, ed. Critical Readings on Japan, 1906–1948: Countering Japan’s Agenda in East Asia. Series 1, Books ; a Collection in Ten Volumes. Folkestone, Kent : Tokyo, Japan: Global Orient ; Edition Synapse, 2008.
- O’Connor, Peter, ed. Critical Readings on Japan, 1906–1948: Countering Japan’s Agenda and the Communist Menace in East Asia. Series 2, Pamphlets and Press: A Collection in 10 Volumes. Folkestone, Kent : Tokyo: Global Oriental ; Edition Synapse, 2011.
- Pocket Guide to Japan (1926)
- Pocket Guide to Japan (1935)
Korea
Taiwan
China
- Chinese maritime digitization project
- Bibliothèque Numérique Asiatique / Asian Digital Library - many digitized materials from Asia, especially China
- Harvard Yenching Library Chinese Republican Period 1911–1949 digitization project - Chinese books digitized by Harvard-Yenching library.
- The Cultural Revolution in Images: Caricature-Posters from Guangzhou 1966–1977
- Chinese Rare Book Digital Collection
- Chinese Digital Archive 1966–1976
- Virtual Shanghai
- Chinese Text Project
- Collection of classical Chinese texts with translations
- Heidelberg University China Digital Archive
- need to apply for an account to access, application online
- Chinese Civilization in Time and Space
- Hiroshima Archive
- International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online
- Yale Nanjing Massacre Archival Project
- Ailing Zhang (Eileen Chang) Papers at USC
- Three Years’ Wanderings in the Northern Provinces of China by Robert Fortune (1847)
- Memoirs of Father Ripa, during thirteen years’ residence at the court of Peking in the service of the emperor of China; with an account of the foundation of the college for the education of young Chinese at Naples (1849)
- China and the Chinese by Herbert Allen Giles (1902)
- A Tale of Red Pekin by Constancia Serjeant (1902)
- With the Allies to Pekin: A Tale of the Relief of the Legations by G. A. Henty (1904)
- New Forces in Old China: An Inevitable Awakening by Arthur Judson Brown (1904)
- Lion and Dragon in Northern China by Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston (1910)
- Notable Women of Modern China by Margaret E. Burton (1912)
- A Woman In China by Mary Gaunt (1914)
- The Fight for the Republic in China by B. L. Putnam Weale (1917)
- Peking Dust by Ellen N. La Motte (1919) also on PG
- Kuo Sung-t’ao, Liu Hsi-hung, Chang Te-yi, and John David Frodsham, eds. The First Chinese Embassy to the West: The Journals of Kuo Sung-T’ao, Liu Hsi-Hung and Chang Te-Yi. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974.
- The works of Mao Zedong: When citing his writings avoid the occasionally problematic online marxists.org version and use the series collection of his works found in the library: Mao, Tse-tung, and Stuart R. Schram. Mao’s Road to Power: Revolutionary Writings, 1912–1949 Armonk NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1992.
Hong Kong
Southeast Asia
Some Key Secondary Source Databases