| The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Newsletter |
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Newsletter No. 38. 2013
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September 23, 2013
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Greetings!
The Asia-Pacific Journal now has Non-Profit Organization status. Your contribution to the Journal is tax deductible.
The Journal is and will continue to be provided free to readers. But if you value the work of our authors and would like to assure continued publication, we hope that you will subscribe at the rate of $25 or $50 ($10 for students and residents of low income countries). You can contribute via Paypal or credit card at our home page on the upper left side.
Check out the most widely read articles at APJ . . . in the last month, last year, last five years and all time: at Top Ten Articles on our home page.
Asia Pacific Journal NEW Free Downloadable Course Readers!!!
The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus announces the release of our second set of volume-length e-book compilations of essays on selected topics with explanatory introductions by scholars. The volume editors have chosen articles from the archive that lend themselves particularly well to classroom use and work well as a set.All volumes have been peer-reviewed, in addition to the initial review process before each article was originally posted, and we have permission from all verified copyright holders.
New Course Readers:
** The Japanese Empire: Colonial Lives and Postcolonial Struggle edited by Kirsten Ziomek
** Japan's "Abandoned People" in the Wake of Fukushima edited by Brian Earl
** Public Opinion on Nuclear Power in Japan after the Fukushima Disaster edited by Brian Earl
** The Politics of Memory in Japan and East Asia edited by Sven Saaler & Justin Aukema
They join the earlier publications:
- War and Visual Culture edited by Hong Kal and Jooyeon Rhee.
- Environmental History edited by Eiko Maruko Siniawer.
- War in Japanese Popular Culture edited by Matthew Penney.
- Women and Japan's Political Economy edited by Valerie Barske.
The volumes are downloadable from the Asia-Pacific Journal website as searchable PDFs. From the home page, please click on the button marked Course Readers at the top and center of the page, or go directly to the course reader page. Interested viewers may download a copy of any reader by clicking on the appropriate link at the course readers home page and entering their email address. In addition, viewers may directly download the table of contents of each course reader for a preview of the volume.
If you are interested in creating a volume yourself, wish to participate as a reviewer and editor, have suggestions for new topics, or want to discuss another aspect of this project, please contact Laura Hein at l-hein@northwestern.edu.
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All recent articles are now available on Kindle, as are several recent articles. If you experience any difficulty in accessing them, please let us know at info.japanfocus@gmail.com.
Our home page has a category Featured Articles. This will take you to the most widely read articles of recent times and over our decade of publication. Check it out to discover some of the most important work that has appeared in the journal..
Our home page has a number of important features. There is a powerful search engine that permits search by author, title, and keyword, found in top left of the home page. For most purposes, author's surname or a keyword entered in Title is most useful. Another is a regularly updated guide to the more than 100 articles we have published on the 3.11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power meltdown which is transforming Japanese politics and society, and is reshaping issues of nuclear power and energy policy in that nation and globally. In addition, we have added a guide to some of the most important, and liveliest, online and print sources on 3.11 including blogs and websites.
More than 11,000 people now subscribe to APJ, either through our Newsletter or through Twitter or Facebook, whose numbers are growing steadily. Please consider joining them by clicking at the appropriate link on our home page.
We invite authors, publishers and directors to bring their books, films and events on East Asia and the Pacific to the attention of our readers. See the home page for information about presenting relevant books and films at our site and for examples of authors, publishers and filmmakers who are presenting their work at the Journal.
Contact Japan Focus by email at info@japanfocus.org
To access our full archive with more than 2,000 articles, and to view the most widely read articles through their titles or via our index, go here.
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Subscription information
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The Asia-Pacific Journal is freely available to all. We invite those who wish to support our work by allowing us to make technical upgrades, defray technical, mailing and maintenance fees, and to enable us to expand our output since the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami. Recommended support level: $25 ($10 for students and residents of developing countries); $40 for institutions including libraries, research centers, government offices. If you experience difficulty in subscribing, write to us with the error message at info@japanfocus.org
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Wayne Dwernychuk, The Spectre Of U.S. Military Defoliants/Herbicides Buried In Okinawa
As accusations and denials swirl regarding the burial of herbicides employed by the U.S. military in Vietnam during that war, there are irrefutable facts that seem not to have been considered in their true context. Denials of such burials by the U.S. military on land that was then part of Kadena Air Base on Okinawa by Dr. Alvin Young, a hired consultant and purported expert on military herbicides, and the U.S. Department of Defense are disingenuous at the very least, and at worst a blatant cover-up of historical realities.
For over 15 years I served as the lead scientist for Hatfield Consultants investigating the impact of Agent Orange on the environment and human population of southern Vietnam. Our studies formed the foundation for understanding the movement of dioxin, originating from Agent Orange, through the ecological landscape and into humans. Implementation of remedial measures in Vietnam has stemmed directly from our Agent Orange research, including work now underway at the site of one of the former U.S. air bases in Vietnam, Da Nang.
Ehime University analyzed liquid residues in 22 30-gallon drums uncovered on former Kadena Air Base land. All but two samples contained the toxicant TCDD (a dioxin), a specific byproduct of the manufacturing process of 2,4,5-T, one of the two constituents of Agent Orange. This constituent, 2,4,5-T, was present in the majority of the drums, but at low levels probably indicative of gradual decomposition over the years inside these drums.
Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk is an environmental scientist specializing in Agent Orange. He retired from Hatfield Consultants, Ltd. a consulting firm with many years experience of investigating and researching Agent Orange in Vietnam.
Recommended citation: Wayne Dwernychuk, "The Spectre Of U.S. Military Defoliants/Herbicides Buried In Okinawa," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 11, Issue 38, No. 2, September 23, 2013.
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Jon Mitchell, Okinawa Dumpsite Offers Proof of Agent Orange: Experts Say.
Two leading Agent Orange specialists have weighed in on the recent discovery of 22 barrels buried on former military land in Okinawa City. Richard Clapp, professor emeritus at Boston University School of Public Health, and Wayne Dwernychuk, the scientist previously in charge of identifying defoliant contamination in southeast Asia, likened the levels of dioxin contamination in Okinawa City to dangerous hot-spots in Vietnam where the U.S. military had stored toxic defoliants during the 1960s and '70s.
Both scientists cited the risks to Okinawa residents and urged immediate clean-up of the land to limit the threat to human health. Dwernychuk also noted that the discovery of the barrels may disprove the Pentagon's repeated denials that military defoliants were ever present on Okinawa.
The scientists' comments came in response to the July 31 release of independent tests undertaken at the request of Okinawa City by Ehime University - one of Japan's top institutes for dioxin testing. The study revealed that all 22 barrels found beneath the soccer pitch in Okinawa City contained traces of the herbicide, 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), the most lethal form of dioxin.
Jon Mitchell is a Welsh-born writer based in Japan. He has written widely on Okinawan social issues for the Japanese and American press. A selection of his writings can be found here. Currently, he teaches at Tokyo Institute of Technology and Meiji Gakuin University.
Recommended citation: Jon Mitchell, "Okinawa Dumpsite Offers Proof of Agent Orange: Experts Say," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Issue 38, No. 1, September 23, 2013.
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