"[Ward] has provided his readers with a well-written account of how between 1920 and the 1930s the Japanese nation endeavored to suppress political radicalism." — Augustine Adu Frimpong, African and Asian Studies
"Thought Crime offers a lucid reflection on theories of power and the modern state while refusing to fetishize the particularities of the Japanese case." — David Ambaras, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"Thought Crime sets itself apart from past studies of the Peace Preservation Law by developing a theory of imperial ideology that focuses on its effects on those in proximity to it: bureaucrats, thought criminals, and those who were mobilized to rehabilitate them." — John Person, Journal of Asian Studies
“Theoretically rigorous and reinvigorating . . . a necessary intervention in reasserting the importance of state power, elucidating the fascist logic of the emperor system”
— Catherine Tsai, Journal of Asian Humanities
"Thought Crime is a thought-provoking, intelligent, and necessary book.… It is a must-read for serious students of modern Japanese political and intellectual history." — Jeremy A. Yellen, Journal of Japanese Studies
"Rigorous and creative explorations of the multiple modalities of state power are much needed in the study of the cultural and social history of modern Japan, and in that respect Thought Crime makes an invaluable contribution to the field." — Tomoko Seto, Monumenta Nipponica
“Ward is right that the phenomenon we call tenko is not uniquely Japanese. He has worked out the theoretical arguments of Foucault and Althusser in great detail and shown how they resonate with the Japanese case of tenko. Scholars may now be able to make the connection to other cases without going so deeply into the theoretical weeds.”
— Patricia G. Steinhoff, Japanese Studies
"A conceptually sophisticated study.… If the density of Ward's analysis and conceptual approach may deter undergraduate students, it will certainly captivate scholars interested in the mechanism of authoritarian thought in pre-war Japan." — Nadine Williams, Journal of the Historical Association
"This book is nicely written and well-organized, and the author makes excellent use of Japanese-language primary sources. Overall, this is an outstanding piece of research. It makes a substantial contribution to existing works on this topic and is recommended for use in graduate seminars on modern Japanese history." — Walter Skya, History: Reviews of New Books
"This analysis is a valuable service in increasing our knowledge of the rise of Japanese militarism and the coming of WWII in Asa.… Recommended. Graduate students through faculty." — Q. E. Wang, Choice
"Japan specialists are familiar with the story of 'thought crime' in early twentieth-century Japan. . . . Ward appropriately replaces the orthodox tale of unadulterated oppression with the fascinating history of criminal rehabilitation." — Frederick R. Dickinson, American Historical Review
"Thought Crime is a theoretically and archivally rich intervention into discourse surrounding tenko and the kokutai. . . . Max Ward's incorporation of theory into the body of literature on thought crime in Japan yields an important rethinking of politics and ideology during this most fraught of historical periods." — Jason Morgan, Japan Review
"Ward's study is a major contribution to the field of modern Japanese history. It should become a must-read for scholars of modern Japanese history and graduate students." — Mark McNally, Pacific Affairs
"It is important to note that this book might be of great use not only to those interested in Japanese history, but also to students of historical fascism. This is so because . . . Ward’s theoretical approach does not treat the Japanese case as unique and acknowledges its similarities with processes that happened in other countries." — Carlos Manuel Gonçalves Pereira Martins, Fascism
“No one in English or Japanese has written on the Peace Preservation Law with the conceptual sophistication that Max M. Ward brings to the topic. He deftly considers Japan's national body politic and the phenomenon of ideological conversion in their imbrications with the problems of sovereignty, the monarchy, colonialism, and national territory like nobody else. Thought Crime will be required reading for scholars and students of modern Japanese history.” — Takashi Fujitani, author of Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II
“Max M. Ward's illuminating new book examines the dynamics of left-right political conversions—tenko—during the era of Japanese fascism. Moving beyond the conventional focus on the individual as the site for moral responsibility and political repression, Ward directs our attention to the operations and logic of the imperial state. By examining the nexus of political ideology, state form, and security apparatus, Ward reenergizes debates about Japan's ‘emperor-system’ and injects new life into the practice of political history more broadly. A must read for scholars of interwar and wartime Japan.” — Louise Young, author of Beyond the Metropolis: Second Cities and Modern Life in Interwar Japan