Sunday, November 25, 2018

Monday in Washington, October 26, 2018


IMPLEMENTING DEFENSE-INDUSTRIAL POLICY. 11/26, 10:30am-Noon. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Eric Chewning, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy; Caralynn Nowinski Collens, CEO, UI Labs; Arun Seraphin, Staff Member, Senate Armed Services Committee, Jeff Wilcox, Vice President for Digital Transformation, Lockheed Martin; Moderator: Steve Grundman, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council.

AMBASSADOR SERIES: BRITISH AMBASSADOR DISCUSSES THE EVOLVING US-UK RELATIONSHIP. 11/26, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: Hudson Institute. Speaker: Sir Kim Darroch, British Ambassador to the US; Moderator: Walter Russell, the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow, Strategy and Statesmanship, Hudson Institute. 

SUPPORTING GLOBAL INTEGRATION: THE JOINT STAFF APPROACH TO AIR AND MISSILE DEFENSE. 11/26, Refreshments, 1:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: BG Clement Coward, Commander, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command; BG(P) Sean Gainey, Director, Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization (JIAMDO); RADM Archer Macy (USN, ret.), Former Director, JIAMDO; Brig Gen Kenneth Todorov (USAF, ret.), Former Director, JIAMDO; Col Richard Glitz (USAF, ret.), Former Technical Director, JIAMDO; Thomas Karako, Senior Fellow, International Security Program, Director, Missile Defense Project, CSIS; Archer Macy, Non-resident Senior Associate, Missile Defense Project, CSIS. 

SINO-INDIAN RELATIONS: TENSIONS IN ASIA. 11/26, 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsor: Hudson Institute. Speaker: Dr. Manoj Joshi, journalist; Moderator: Dr. Aparna Pande, Research Fellow, Director, Future of India and South Asia, Hudson Institute. 

JERUSALEM AND WASHINGTON: A LIFE IN POLITICS AND DIPLOMACY. 11/26, 5:00-6:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Author, Zalman Shoval, Former Israeli Ambassador to the US; H. Andrew Schwartz, Chief Communication Officer, CSIS.

Friday, November 9, 2018

New Cabinet State Ministers and Affiliations


Vice Ministers
On October 2, 2018, Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe reshuffled his Cabinet. Of the 25 State Ministers in his Fifth Cabinet, six (24%) were reappointed from the previous Cabinet and 19 (76%) are new. Tsukasa AKIMOTO previously a State Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, was re-appointed as the State Minister of the Environment. 

Most the State Ministers are conservative nationalists. The usual metric is memberships or affiliations with various Diet Leagues, especially the Diet Members’ League for the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership [Shinto League] (also can be translated as Shinto Political Alliance Diet Member’s Roundtable; 神道政治連盟国会議員懇談会-Shintou seiji renmei kokkai giin kondankai) and the Diet Members’ Gathering (League) for the Japan Conference, [Nippon Kaigi] (also can be translated as Diet Representative ‘Japan Conference’ Roundtable;日本会議国会議員懇談会- Nippon kaigi kokkai giin kondankai)

Both organizations advocate revising the constitution to return Shinto as the state religion and the Emperor to political power. They oppose the current Constitution support of individual rights, women's rights, and freedom of speech. They advocate a moral education and respect for Japan's past, while rejecting any Japanese involvement in war crimes.

Nineteen (76%) State Ministers are members of the Shinto League, while sixteen (64%) are affiliated with Nippon Kaigi. 

Four State Ministers are members of neither League. Emiko TAKAGAI, State Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare is the only LDP member affiliated with neither.

The other three are from the Komeito Party: Masayoshi HAMADA, State Minister for Reconstruction; Tomoko UKISHIMA, State Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology; Yoshinori OGUCHI, State Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare. Komeito Party is associated with the Buddhist religious group, Sokka Gakkai. The party has been a coalition partner with the LDP since 1999. There is one member of the U.S. Congress who is a Sokka Gakkai member. 

October 18th was the Autumn Festival at Yasukuni Shrine. Although all the Cabinet Ministers refrained from visiting, we determined from public postings that eight State Ministers (32%) visited. Yasukuni is a Shinto Shrine (a form of animism) located in central Tokyo established in 1869 to anchor the new, modernizing Japanese state to a religion and an ideology. It “militarized” the religion. This Shrine is associated with the discredited “state Shinto” created to justify the Emperor-centric, military state. Many war criminals are enshrined there. Thus, visiting the Shrine is a controversial for politicians and bureaucrats. 

Although Abe appointed only two female State Ministers in his previous Cabinet, this time he increased the number to five female State Ministers (20%): Yukari SATO, State Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications; Toshiko ABE, State Minister for Foreign Affairs; Emiko TAKAGAI, State Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare; Yoshihiko ISOZAKI, State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry.

★ New cabinet member
❇︎ Position as State Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Abe’s 4th Cabinet

Position First Name Last Name Shinto League Nippon Kaigi Yasukuni Visit (10/18)
State Minister for Reconstruction Keiichiro TACHIBANA★
State Minister for Reconstruction Masayoshi HAMADA
State Minister of Cabinet Office Akira SATO★
State Minister of Cabinet Office Ryosei TANAKA
State Minister of Cabinet Office Kazuyuki NAKANE
State Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Junji SUZUKI★
State Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications; State Minister of Cabinet Office Yukari SATO★
State Minister of Justice Hiroshi HIRAGUCHI★
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshiko ABE★
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Masahisa SATO
State Minister of Finance Kenichiro UENO
State Minister of Finance Keisuke SUZUKI★
State Minister of education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology Keiko NAGAOKA★
State Minister of education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology; State Minister of Cabinet Office Tomoko UKISHIMA★
State Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Yoshinori OGUCHI★
State Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Emiko TAKAGAI★
State Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Yasuhiro OZATO★
State Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Shuichi TAKATORI★
State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoshihiro SEKI★

State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry;
State Minister of Cabinet Office
Yoshihiko ISOZAKI★

State Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Takashi OTSUKA★

State Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; State Minister of Cabinet Office; State Minister for Reconstruction Ichiro TSUKADA★

State Minister of the Environment Minoru KIUCHI★

State Minister of the Environment; State Minister of Cabinet Office Tsukasa AKIMOTO❇︎
State Minister of Defense; State Minister of Cabinet Office Kenji HARADA★

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Weekend of Comfort Women Herstory

by Christian Poirot 
This weekend is one for the history of the Comfort Women. There are a number of opportunities, especially in Washington, DC. to discuss and consider the history of the Comfort Women and its unique form of sexual violence in conflict. Most of the events below employ the arts to communicate the universal emotions of the trauma and tragedy.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9

[DC] GEORGETOWN GENDER+JUSTICE INITIATIVE’S THIRD ANNUAL FACULTY RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM. 11/9, 1:00-6:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Georgetown Gender+Justice Initiative. Speakers include: Deborah Epstein, Professor of Law, GTU Law; Lisa Singh, Professor, Department of Computer Science, GTU; Jamillah Williams, Associate Professor of Law, GTU Law; Naomy Mezey, Professor of Law, GTU Law; Lane Windham, Fellow, Kalmanovitz Initiative; Kris Tiscione, Professor of Law, GTU Law.

[DC] US DEBUT SCREENING OF NEW DOCUMENTARY ON COMFORT WOMEN CONTROVERSY: SHUSENJO. 11/9, 4:00-6:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: History Department, Georgetown University. Speaker: Miki Dezani, filmmaker who says he interviewed some of the most prominent figures in the debate in Japan and Korea.

[DC] SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN WARFARE: THE FILMS OF UNHEALED WOUNDS FILM FESTIVAL. 11/9-11, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Washington Coalition for Comfort Women (WCCW) and American University. Films: Nine international films highlight the history and trauma of the “Comfort Women” (CW). Four of the films are from Korea, two from Australia, and one each from China, Canada, and the Netherlands. The lives of Dutch, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Indonesian former Comfort Women are portrayed. At Noon on Sunday, November 11th there will be a roundtable discussion with the directors and experts on “The Art of the Witness” examining the importance of the arts in conveying the history of the CW and in preserving CW voices.
NOVEMBER 9
6:00 - 8:00PM I Can Speak (119 min)
8:00 - 8:30 Director's Talk
8:30 - 10:00 Reception

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10

[DC] SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN WARFARE: THE FILMS OF UNHEALED WOUNDS FILM FESTIVAL [SEE ABOVE]

10:00 - 11:00 50 Years of Silence (57 min)
11:00 - 11:15 Daily Bread (15 min)
11:15 - 11:45 Director's Talk
11:45 - 12:15 Break & Snack
12:15 - 1:15 Because We Were Beautiful (60 min)
1:15 - 1:40 Discussion
1:40 - 2:00 Break & Snack
2:00 - 3:40 Twenty Two (99 min)
3:40 - 4:00 Discussion
4:00 - 5:00 Break & Snack
5:00 - 7:10 Spirits' Homecoming (127 min)
7:10 - 7:50 Cocktail / Refreshment
7:50 - 8:30 Ae-Eum-Gil (100 min)
8:30 - 10:00 Director's Talk

[TOKYO] INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: VOICES OF THE ‘COMFORT WOMEN’: REMEMBERING & RECONSTRUCTING. 11/10, 10:00am-6:00pm, Tokyo, Japan. Sponsor: International Joint Nomination Committee (ICJN). Speakers: Heisoon Shin, Director, ICJN Secretariat; Ustinia Dolgopol, Associated Professor, Flinders University; Lilian Sing, Co-chair, “Comfort Women” Justice Coalition; Yasushi Higashizawa (Lawyer); Hye-In Han, Team Leader, ICJN Secretariat; Eriko Ikeda, Commissioner, Japanese Committee; Hyun-Gyung Kim, Post-doc researcher, Berlin Free University; Phyllis Kim, Executive Director, Korean American Forum of California; Shu-Mei Huang, Assistant Professor, National Taiwan University; Edward Vickers, Professor, Kyushu University; Hyun-Kyung Lee, Post-doc researcher, University of Cambridge, Seoul National University; Akihisa Matsuno, Professor, Osaka University; Hye-In Han, Team Leader, ICJN Secretariat; Marie Louise Stig Sorensen, Professor, University of Cambridge; Mary McCarthy, Associated Professor, Drake University; Linda Hasunuma, Visiting Professor, University of Bridgeport; Yujie Zhu, Lecturer, Australian National University; Mina Watanabe, Japanese Committee, Director, Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM); Phyllis Kim, Korean American Forum of California.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11

[DC] SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN WARFARE: THE FILMS OF UNHEALED WOUNDS FILM FESTIVAL [SEE ABOVE]


10:00 - 10:15 For Her (14 min)
10:20 - 12:04 The Apology (104 min)
12:04 - 12:30 Director's Talk

12:30-2:00pm - Roundtable Discussion on The Art of the Witness: Film in Persevering the History of the Comfort Women. Directors will discuss their work with history and media scholars. Free. Lite Lunch. Media Innovation Lab, McKinley Bldg., Rm 100.
WITH Ms. Mindy Kotler, Director, Asia Policy Point (Ms. Kotler is a public historian who works on the intersection of history and politics in Northeast Asia. She writes on the progress toward historical justice for the Comfort Women and the American POWs of Japan. In 2007, she assisted Congressman Mike Honda in 2007 in writing and defending his House Resolution 121 that asked Japan for an unequivocal, official apology to the Comfort Women.) and Dr. Greg Metcalf, Lecturer Twentieth-Century Art, Film, Department of Art History and Archaeology, University of Maryland, College Park (Dr. Metcalf teaches Film and Twentieth Century Art for the Department of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has a B.A. in Art/East Asian Studies/Political Science (St. Olaf), an M.F.A. in Painting and Graphics (Bowling Green) and a Ph.D. in Art and Culture (UMCP).)

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 11TH AND BEYOND
SCREENING AND DISCUSSION OF THE APOLOGY DIRECTED BY TIFFANY HSIUNG.

[PORTLAND, OR] 11/13
, 6:00pm. Sponsor: People Organizing for Philippine Solidarity (POPS)and FeND. Location: US Bank Room, Multnomah Central Library, 801 SW 10th Ave, Portland, Oregon. https://www.facebook.com/events/285638112158553/

Sunday, November 4, 2018

The Ministers of Abe's Fifth Cabinet


On October 2, 2018, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reshuffled his Cabinet. Of the 19 Cabinet Ministers in his Fifth Cabinet, eight (42.1%) were re-appointed from the previous Cabinet and eleven (57.8%) are new. 

This Cabinet is measurably more conservative than his previous ones. The usual metric is memberships or affiliations with various Diet Leagues, especially the Diet Members’ League for the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership [Shinto League] (also can be translated as Shinto Political Alliance Diet Member’s Roundtable; 神道政治連盟国会議員懇談会-Shintou seiji renmei kokkai giin kondankai) and the Diet Members’ Gathering (League) for the Japan Conference, [Nippon Kaigi] (also can be translated as Diet Representative ‘Japan Conference’ Roundtable;日本会議国会議員懇談会- Nippon kaigi kokkai giin kondankai). 

Both organizations advocate revising the constitution to return Shinto as the state religion and the Emperor to political power. They oppose the current Constitution support of individual rights, women's rights, and freedom of speech. They advocate a moral education and respect for Japan's past, while rejecting any Japanese involvement in war crimes.

Only one Minister is a member of neither League: Keiichi ISHII, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. He is from the Komeito Party that is associated with the Buddhist religious group, Sokka Gakkai. The party has been a coalition partner with the LDP since 1999. There is one member of the U.S. Congress who is a Sokka Gakkai member.

Taro KONO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Masatoshi ISHIDA, Minister for International Affair and Communications; Yoshiaki HARADA, Minister of the Environment; and Takuya HIRAI, Minister for Information Technology Policy, although members of the Shinto League, are not members of the Nippon Kaigi.

There is only one female minister: Satsuki KATAYAMA, Minister of State for Regional Revitalization. In Abe's previous Cabinet (4th) there were four female ministers and in his 3rd, two.

★ New cabinet member
❇︎ Past affiliation with Shinto League, but not in recent years

Position First Name Last Name Shinto League Nippon Kaigi
Prime Minister Shinzo ABE
Minister of Finance Taro ASO
Minister for Internal Affair and Communications Masatoshi ISHIDA ★
Minister of Justice Takashi YAMASHITA★
Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro KONO
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology Masahiko SHIBAYAMA ★
Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Takumi NEMOTO ✔ ❇︎
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Takamori YOSHIKAWA ★
Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Hiroshige SEKO
Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Keiichi ISHII
Minister of the Environment Yoshiaki HARADA ★
Minister of Defense Takeshi IWAYA ★
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide SUGA
Minister for Reconstruction Hiromichi WATANABE ★
Chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission Junzo YAMAMOTO ★
Minister for Promoting Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens Mitsuhiro MIYAKOSHI ★
Minister in charge of Information Technology Policy Takuya HIRAI ★
Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Toshimitsu MOTEGI
Minister of State for Regional Revitalization Satsuki KATAYAMA ★
Minister in charge of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Yoshitaka KATAYAMA ★

Monday in Washington, November 5, 2018

GLOBAL ILLICIT ALCOHOL TRADE. 11/5, Breakfast, 9:00-11:00am. Sponsor: Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade (TRACIT). Speakers: Jeffrey Hardy, Director-General, Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade; Monica Ramirez, Global Director, Regulatory & Public Policy, Anheuser-Busch InBev; Juan Ricardo Ortega, Operations Principal Advisor, Inter-American Development Bank; Moderator: Ana Rold, Editor-in-Chief, Diplomatic Courier.

IMITATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS: DEMOCRATIC MALAISE IN POST-COMMUNIST EUROPE. 11/5, Noon-2:00pm. Sponsor: International Forum for Democratic Studies, National Endowment for Democracy. Speaker: Ivan Krastev, Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies (Sofia), Permanent Fellow, Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna); Moderator: Marc F. Plattner, Journal of Democracy

BEYOND LIBERAL ORDER: STATES, SOCIETIES AND MARKETS IN THE GLOBAL INDIAN OCEAN. 11/5, 12:30-1:30pm. Sponsor: Walsh School of Foreign Service, GTU. Speakers: Dr. Harry Verhoeven, Professor, School of Foreign Service in Qatar, GTU.

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN: LEADERSHIP IN TURBULENT TIMES. 11/5, Lunch, 12:30pm. Sponsor: National Press Club. Speaker: Doris Kearns Goodwin, author.

click to purchase
IN SEARCH OF EVIDENCE-BASED SCIENCE POLICY. 11/5, 1:00-2:00pm. Sponsor: Institute for International Science and Technology Policy, GW. Speakers: Author, Dr. Albert H. Teich, Research Professor of Science, Technology, and International Affairs, Elliot School, GW; Dr. Jeff Alexander, Senior Manager of Innovation Policy, Research Triangle Institute (RTI).

VALEDICTORY REMARKS & RECEPTION WITH NEW ZEALAND AMBASSADOR TIM GROSER. 11/5, 4:00-6:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Washington International Trade Assn. Speaker: Amb. Tim Groser, New Zealand. fee.
click to order
INVISIBLE SLAVES: THE VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS OF MODERN SLAVERY. 11/5, 4:30-5:30pm. Sponsor: Institute of World Politics (IWP). Speaker: Author, W. Kurt Hauser.

INVESTING GLOBALLY IN PEACE, SECURITY, AND STABILITY. 11/5, 6:00-8:00pm. Sponsor: Women’s Foreign Policy Group (WFPG). Speaker: H.E. Kåre R. Aas, Ambassador of Norway to the US, Former Political Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway.



Friday, November 2, 2018

Remembering Wartime Slave Labor

Nazi slavery recalled at UNESCO-listed Völklinger Ironworks



Deutsche Welle
October 31, 2018

Grenades, aircraft parts and military equipment created in one of Nazi Germany’s largest steel and ironworks were the product of forced laborers. An installation by French artist Christian Boltanski remembers them. Voices whisper their names from all corners of the vast former iron foundry: women, men and children from 20 countries who were transported from across Nazi-occupied Europe and forced to work under inhumane conditions — and ultimately die — at the Völklinger Ironworks.


The French artist Christian Boltanski, in his installations "Forced Laborers" and "Memories," which are on display from November 1 at the site, reminds us of the 12,396 people taken from countries from Albania to Belgium, Bulgaria to France, from Denmark, Serbia, the Ukraine and nearly everywhere in between, to work as slaves as part of the Nazi arms build-up.

The installation employs the actual spoken recollections of former ironworkers, which are emitted from the numbered lockers that form the focal point for the work. Here long-suppressed memories come to life.

Christian Boltanski




➽  CLICK HERE FOR A PDF OF THE EXHIBITION CATALOG. It lists all the names of the forced laborers. This is the English version.




Worked to death

Set in the 19th century German industrial landmark, the installation also features a pile of anonymous black trousers and jackets on the floor surrounded by stacked archive boxes. The light is sparse. Here the visitor understands why, during World War II, forced laborers who were transported to Völklingen near the French border were deprived of their ID cards and made to wear a special badge. A circular forbid staff in the plant from being friendly with the prisoners: "The enemy remains the enemy," it read.

Hermann Röchling was then the head of the iron foundry and a fervent admirer of Adolf Hitler. He was a member of the senior staff of the Nazi department for the "war economy," and thus responsible for the entire armaments industry and the widespread use of imported slave labor. The deaths of 261 forced laborers, including 60 children and infants, occurred under his watch. Some of them did not see their first birthday.


Read more: South Korea court orders Japan's Nippon Steel to compensate forced laborers
      NB: A number of the Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Steel sites in Japan have become, like the Völklinger Ironworks, UNESCO World Industrial Heritage Sites. These sites used Korean forced labor as well as Chinese (there was a policy of abduction toward the end of the war) slave labor and Allied and American POW slave labor. There is NO acknowledgment of this. 

Boltanski, a conceptual artist, painter, sculptor and filmmaker who is a regular at the Documenta art exhibition in Kassel and in 2011 designed the French pavilion of the 54th Biennale in Venice, creates an emotive outlet to understand this dark chapter in the history of the steel plant.

A history of slavery

The Völklinger Ironworks was once the largest manufacturer of iron girders in Germany following its foundation in 1873. It was already producing war equipment during World War I, including 90 percent of the crude steel used to build German army helmets. Forced laborers from Belgium and Italy — in addition to prisoners-of-war from France and Russia — were also employed in the steel factory at the time. Around 10 percent of these slave workers died on site; these victims are also remembered in Boltanski's installation.

"Industrial culture in all European countries was no innocent culture," said general manager and managing director of the Völklinger Hütte, Meinrad Maria Grewenig, at the opening of the installation.

The postwar period was less controversial, with the ironworks booming in the 1960s and employing some 17,000 people before a worldwide steel crisis hit the in the mid-1970s. By 1986, the chimneys in Völklingen had stopped smoking.

In 1994, UNESCO declared the Völklinger Ironworks a World Heritage Site, the first industrial monument to be placed on the prestigious list. But while the site is the only surviving factory from the heyday of iron and steel production in 19th century Germany, the Völklinger Ironworks has a more sinister heritage upon which Christian Boltanski is again shining light.

The Christian Boltanski installation will be on display at the Völklinger Ironworks from November 1 through August 31, 2019.