3550 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089

http://dornsife.usc.edu/events/site/192/1012087/
View map Free Event

What is justice and what is reconciliation? Reconciliation, like justice, never exists in a vacuum and rarely exists as a goal on its own; it is inherently linked to other political, economic, or social values. In the immediate post-war, countries involved with war crimes trials debated the question of the justice of the trials (victor's justice or the quest for truth?). This sort of internal and external pressure to bring trials to the forefront of social attention occurred in Japan and throughout East and Southeast Asia. Controlling the postwar conversation about "justice" in newly established military tribunals became a paramount policy. From the mid-1940s to the late 1950s new and old governments in East Asia shifted focus and raised the banner of “humanity and justice” as a means to fortify their own fragile legitimacy. Each nation tried to prove its level of “justness” by enacting what they deemed to be the proper and legal pursuit of Japanese war criminals in the immediate postwar.

Within the public sphere of the media and popular culture this conversation about justice received or denied never abated and continued until the present day. The persistence of East Asia's attention to this problem demonstrates the importance the Allies and the Japanese attributed to being able to define the meaning of the WWII. This historical moment has deep and contemporary political ramifications which will be discussed in this talk.

 

Abstract
Barak Kushner is University Reader in modern Japanese history in the Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge and has a PhD in History from Princeton University. He has written three monographs: Men to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese Justice (Harvard University Press, 2015), (Winner of the American Historical Association's 2016 John K. Fairbank Prize). In addition, he penned Slurp! A culinary and social history of ramen - Japan's favorite noodle soup (Brill, 2012), now available in a traditional Chinese translationSlurp! was awarded the 2013 Sophie Coe Prize for Food History, the longest-running and most generous prize for writing in food history in the English language. The Thought War - Japanese Imperial Propaganda (Hawaii 2006), is also available in a Japanese translation. In March 2013 he launched a 5-year European Research Council funded project, “The Dissolution of the Japanese Empire and the Struggle for Legitimacy in Postwar East Asia, 1945–1965.” This 5-year grant examines the impact of the fall of the Japanese empire in East Asia. The project manages several postdoctoral research associates and offered two full scholarships to PhD students in an effort to investigate this important historical moment. Barak co-edited a volume with Sherzod Muminov concerning new research emerging from this project: The Dismantling of Japan's Empire in East Asia: De-imperialization, Postwar Legitimation and Imperial Afterlife, (Routledge 2017).  See full bio. 

FLYER RSVP

Event Details

0 people are interested in this event

User Activity

No recent activity