| The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Newsletter |
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Newsletter No. 31. 2012
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July 30, 2012 |
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Greetings!
Oguma Eiji, a sociologist from Keio University, has emerged as one of the most astute commentators on the shifts that have occurred since the 3.11 crises. Here he links recent events to larger patterns of political and economic transformation in post-war Japan, and situates this moment in Japan in relation to similar moments of political crisis beyond Japan.
Tessa Morris-Suzuki tells a long hidden story of the thousands of Japanese citizens engaged in combat-related tasks in their newly liberated former colony of Korea from the outbreak of the Korean War. Although their stories were only a very small corner of the history of Japan's Korean War engagement, their experiences shed particularly interesting light on the nature of the war and on the relationship between occupier and occupied in postwar Northeast Asia.
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Oguma Eiji with an introduction by David H. Slater, From a "Dysfunctional Japanese-Style Industrialized Society" to an "Ordinary Nation"?
Oguma Eiji, a sociologist from Keio University, has emerged as one of the most astute commentators on the shifts that have occurred since the 3.11 crises. He has repeatedly done two things few others have: link the events since 3.11 to larger patterns of political and economic transformation in post-war Japan, and situate this moment in Japan in relation to similar moments of political crisis beyond Japan. We present his recent assessment of Japan's new social movements.
Oguma Eiji is professor of Policy Management, Keio University and an historical sociologist. His book, A Genealogy of 'Japanese' Self-Imagesis a translation of Tan'itsu minzoku shinwa no kigen (The origin of the myth of Japanese as a homogeneous ethnic group), which won the Suntory Culture Award. He is coeditor with Kang Sangjung of Zainichi issei no kioku (Memories of the First Generation of Koreans in Japan).
David H. Slater is an Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Sophia University, Tokyo, whose work involves youth culture, social class and urban space. He is the co-editor with Ishida Hiroshi of Social Class in Contemporary Japan: Structures, Sorting and Strategies. Since 3/11, he has been doing the ethnography of disaster and relief in Tohoku, and was the Guest Editor of Hot Spots: 3.11 Politics in Disaster Japan: Fear and Anger, Possibility and Hope, in Cultural Anthropology (2010).
Recommended citation: Oguma Eiji with an introduction by David H. Slater, "From a 'Dysfunctional Japanese-Style Industrialized Society' to an 'Ordinary Nation'?," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 31, No. 2, July 30, 2012.
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Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Post-War Warriors: Japanese Combatants in the Korean War
In May 1947 Japan, under the influence of its US occupiers, adopted a new constitution which stated, 'aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.' Yet, just two years after this proclamation of lasting peace (and only five years after their defeat in the Asia-Pacific War) thousands of Japanese citizens were once again in a war zone, engaged in combat-related tasks in their newly liberated former colony of Korea; and this engagement was initiated and overseen by the United States, the very country which had ensured the inclusion of the peace clause in the Japanese constitution.
Although there is a growing body of Japanese and English language research on Japan's engagement in the Korean War, this corner of history remains surprisingly little known and seldom acknowledged. This article reassesses the image of Japan as bystander by focusing in particular on the experiences of some 120 Japanese citizens who served in Korea in US uniforms; for although their stories were only a very small corner of the history of Japan's Korean War engagement, their experiences shed some particularly interesting light on the nature of the war and on the relationship between occupier and occupied in postwar Northeast Asia.
Tessa Morris-Suzuki is Professor of Japanese History in the Division of Pacific and Asian History, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, and a Japan Focus associate. Her most recent books are Exodus to North Korea: Shadows from Japan's Cold War, Borderline Japan: Foreigners and Frontier Controls in the Postwar Era and To the Diamond Mountains: A Hundred-Year Journey Through China and Korea.
Recommended citation: Tessa Morris-Suzuki, "Post-War Warriors: Japanese Combatants in the Korean War," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 31, No. 1, July 30, 2012.
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