Updates and Events

This section is intended to both inform the public of updates of this website and upcoming events relating to memory and reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as disseminate summaries and transcripts of George Washington University sponsored events pertaining to the topic.

Website Updates:

-January 28, 2008: About Us: Graduate Associates was updated.

-November 5, 2007: About Us: Faculty Advisors was updated.

-October 25, 2007: Bibliography on POWs and Forced Labor was updated.

-October 16, 2007: Bibliography on History Textbooks and Education and Bibliography on Museums and Memorials were updated.

Events:

- September 25, 2007: Faculty Lecture Series: In the Ruin of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia
Speaker: Ronald Spector, Professor of History and International Affairs,The George Washington University

5:30-7:30pm
 Location: The Lindner Family Commons, Room 602, 1957 E Street, NW
 Sponsored by: The Elliott School of International Affairs
 This book was reviewd in New York Times.
Books will be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be served.
Please RSVP to rsvpesia@gwu.edu.

- May 3, 2007: Between the Collapse of Japanese Empire and Normalization with East Asian States: Repatriations, Reparations, and Memories Reconsidered
Speaker: Toyomi Asano, Professor of Chukyo University

3:00-4:15pm RSVP at the Sigur Center
 

- February 28, 2007: The Making of the 'Rape of Nanking ': History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States
Speaker: Takashi Yoshida, Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the U.S.
Institute of Peace

Takashi Yoshida is Assistant Professor of History at Western Michigan
University . He is currently a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the
USIP. His research has focused on the Asia -Pacific War (1931-45) and
historical memory, and is the author of The Making of the "Rape of
Nanking ": History and Memory in Japan , China , and the United States
(Oxford U P, 2006). He is working on a project that examines how
war/peace museums in China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have
presented the history and memory of the Pacific War. He holds a PhD in
history from Columbia University .

- February 15, 2007: The Experience of a World War Two "Comfort Woman": A Dutch Survivor Discusses Her Story
Speaker: Jan Ruff O'Herne, Lee Yong-soo and Kim Koon-ja

Jan Ruff O'Herne was living in the Netherlands East Indies when the
Japanese army invaded Java in 1942. Her female family members, along
with thousands of other women and children, were interned in Ambarawa
Prison camp. Two years later in 1944, when Jan was 21 years old, she was
forcibly removed from the camp into a "comfort station" for the Japanese
Imperial Army. In 1992, when three Korean comfort women spoke out
publicly for the first time, demanding an apology and compensation from
Japan , Jan decided the time had come for her to speak out as well. She
has spoken widely on her "comfort woman" experiences, and is the author
of 50 Years of Silence. In September 2001, the Netherlands Government
awarded her the Order van Oranje Nassau in recognition of her work as a
spokeswoman about the plight of the "comfort women." She currently lives
in Australia .

- January 22, 2007: The Yomiuri Project on War Responsibility in Japan
Speaker: Takahiko Tennichi, Editorial Writer, Yomiuri Shimbun

The Yomiuri Shimbun, the largest daily paper in Japan, with a right of
center editorial position, has recently completed a year-long project to
clarify Japanese leaders' responsibility for the Pacific War. Mr.Tennichi gave a talk on the goal and result of their project. The summary of this talk is available here.
 

- April 21, 2006: Panel Discussion, A Common History in East Asia?:  An Assessment of the First Joint China-Japan-Korea History Book (2005)

EAST ASIA STRATEGY GROUP, CSIS – GWU Sigur Center Panel Discussion

Panelists:
Soon Won Park, Adjunct Professor, Howard University
Jordan Sand, Associate Professor, Georgetown University
Daqing Yang, Associate Professor, GWU Sigur Center for Asian Studies

Moderators/Discussants:
Derek Mitchell, Senior Fellow, International Security Program, CSIS
Mike Mochizuki, Associate Professor, GWU Sigur Center for Asian Studies

Divergent views of the past have often been at the center of historical animosities that divide nations. Before WWII, a number of countries in Europe began to work toward a common view of their history, and in recent decades have succeeded in producing common history textbooks. Dialogue among East Asian historians has also begun recently. In 2005, a modern history of East Asia jointly produced by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean historians was published simultaneously in all three countries. The first of its kind in the region, the book has yet to receive the scholarly attention among American historians or policy analysts it clearly deserves, particularly given the importance of history for contemporary relations in Northeast Asia.

The panel brings together three historians of East Asia to address the following questions: how did this book come into being? How does its content compare with that of the history textbooks currently in use in each country? How has the book been received? What lessons can be learned for future endeavors to overcome the historical animosities in East Asia?  And how might U.S. historians contribute to this process?
 

- December 13, 2005: Panel Discussion, Why Japan has Lagged Behind Germany in Confronting its Negative Past
 
The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), the Korea Economic Institute (KEI) and the Mansfield Foundation cordially invite you to attend a Korea-Japan Study Group meeting featuring:
 
Andrew Horvat
Visiting scholar, International Center for the Study of Historical Reconciliation, Tokyo Keizai University
 
Lily Gardner Feldman
Senior Fellow in Residence, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS), The Johns Hopkins University
 
Moderated by: Bill  Breer, Japan Chair, CSIS

- November 21, 2005: Conference, Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific at the Elliott School, 1957 E St. NW, Washington, DC

***

Please browse summaries of past events below.

January 22, 2007: Talk by Takahiko Tennichi, Editorial Writer, Yomiuri Shimbun, on "The Yomiuri Project on War Responsibility in Japan"

September 29, 2004:  Talk by Andrew Horvat, The Asia Foundation, on "Overcoming the Negative Legacy of the Past:  Why Europe Offers Positive Examples for East Asia"

October 22, 2004:  Talk by Alexis Dudden, Connecticut College, and Sarah C. Soh, San Francisco State University, on  "Memory and Reconciliation Between Japan and South Korea:  A Status Report"

 

 

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