LibGuides: History: Finding Primary Sources Asian History

Local News

Newspapers are an excellent place to go for primary sources. Use this Research Guide for California Newspapers. This primarily for the Central Valley, although some of these papers are from Los Angeles and San Diego. These are published in English, Spanish, and Russian.

So You want to find Local News?

Databases that include Primary Sources

Many of these databases also contain other source types, so make sure you use the limiters to filter results to the kind of content you're interested in.

Academic One File (Gale)
Peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources. Extensive coverage of the sciences, technology, medicine, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects - authoritative and comprehensive.
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)
Multi-disciplinary database providing full text for more than 4,600 journals, including peer-reviewed full text for nearly 3,900 journals.
CultureGrams (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
CultureGrams™ is a primary source reference for concise, reliable, and up-to-date cultural information on the countries of the world. CultureGrams provides an insider's perspective on daily life and culture, including the history, customs, and lifestyles of the world's people.
MasterFILE Complete (EBSCO)
Designed for public libraries, provides full text for nearly 1,700 general reference publications dating back as far as 1975 covering nearly every subject area. Also contains full text for nearly 500 reference books and over 164,000 primary source documents and over 500,000 images.
Newsbank (Access World News)
Electronic editions of record of newspapers, many in California, for valuable local, regional, and national U.S. newspapers--all in one easy-to-search database-- providingunique coverage of local and regional news, including companies, politics, sports, industries, cultural activities, and people in the community. Paid ads are excluded.
Newspaper Source Plus (EBSCO)
Includes more than 700 full text newspapers, providing more than 33 million full text articles and featuring more than 757,000 television and news transcripts.

Selected Primary Source Websites for General Asian History

These are some examples of online primary resource collections.

There are many university and government libraries and museums with online collections of primary source materials. Find these collections using Google.

To limit your results to sites that end with .gov, at the end of the words you enter in the search box, type site:.gov
To limit your results to sites that end with .edu, at the end of the words you enter in the search box, type site:.edu

You can even add the words library or archive to the end of the words you enter in the search box to see if a library out there has a collection on your topic, historical period, or historical figure.

If you have a collection you want to share, contact the librarians.

Birth of the Constitution of Japan
The National DietLibrary's online exhibition "Birth of the Constitution of Japan" presents the major events and important documents involved in the framing and enactment of Japan's Constitution.
China's Cultural Revolution in Memories: The CR/10 Project
This collection contains video interviews with people who experienced China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The CR/10 (Cultural Revolution: 10) Project also includes interviews with young Chinese people born after the Cultural Revolution, who discuss how they learned of this historical incident.
The East Asian Collection
The East Asian Collection includes historical images that present a visual archive of 20th century East Asian cultural heritage. Currently, the collection consists of images that document early 20th century China including the the Sino-Japanese Conflict (1937-1945), a visual history of Buddhist practices and temples in China, and other images of daily life in both rural and urban China.
Endangered Archives Programme
British Library's attempt to digitize endangered material: photos, manuscripts and other records. This link is Asian specific but “The Endangered Archives Programme captures forgotten and still not written histories, often suppressed or marginalised. It gives voice to the voiceless: it opens a dialogue with global humanity’s multiple pasts. It is a library of history still waiting to be written.”
Internet Archive Texts
E-books in fiction, children's literature, academic texts, and historical documents.
Japan Center for Asian Historica Records
JACAR has built and operates an online database for releasing Asian historical records, that are historical documents of Japan concerning to the modern Japanese relations with other countries, particularly those in Asia. The documents of the archive are provided by the National Archives of Japan, the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and the National Institute for Defense Studies of the Ministry of Defense of Japan.
Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
Historical prints and photographs. Most are in the public domain.
Modern Korean History Portal
The Modern Korean History Portal is a learning and a research tool for students, educators, and professional historians interested in Korea and has been funded through the generous support of the Korea Foundation.
Old Maps Online
Search for online digital historical maps across numerous different collections via a geographical search. Search by typing a place-name or by clicking in the map window, and narrow by date. Funded by JISC. Many participating institutions. Many of these maps are in the public domain.
The Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia
Welcome to the Oral History of Twentieth Century Mongolia, a database of the recollections of the lives and times of Mongolians, from herders to prominent politicians as they shaped and were shaped by the events of the twentieth century, which saw Mongolia move from being a part of the Qing Empire to an aristocratic theocracy to Soviet-style socialism and democracy.
Project Gutenberg
The biggest collection of public domain e-books on the web. Many classics and primary sources.
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum, education, and research complex. We are a community of learning and the opener of doors. Join us on a voyage of discovery and explore and learn online.
World Digital Library
Digitized primary source documents from countries and cultures around the world. From the Library of Congress.
Yale University Library Digital Collections
Photographs and digitized archival images. Some are copyrighted; others are in the public domain.
POW Research Network Japan
During the World War 2, the Japanese Armed Forces captured about 140,000 Allied military personnel (Australia, Canada, Great Britain, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States) in the Southeast Asia and Pacific areas. They were forced to engage in the hard labor of constructing the railways, roads, airfields, etc. to be used by the Japanese Armed Forces in the Japanese occupied areas. Of the 140,000 Prisoners of War (POWs), about 36,000 were transported to the Japanese Mainland to supplement the shortage of the work force, and compelled to work at the coal mines, mines, shipyards, munitions factories, etc.