War and Memory in Japan

Something Dreadful Happened in the Past: 

Generational Memory of War and Peace in Japan

Akiko Hashimoto (Visiting Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies at Portland State University, and Faculty Fellow of Yale University’s Center for Cultural Sociology) speaks to Temple University's Japan Campus,
Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS) on November 9, 2017.

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She is author and editor of volumes on cultural sociology and comparative sociology, focused on social constructions of reality in varied cultural settings. Her special interests are cultural trauma, war memory, national identity, culture and power, popular culture and media, family and aging.

Japanese children are raised in an environment encoded with generational memory that encourages them to develop negative moral sentiments about the Asia-Pacific War. The “encouragement” comes in subtle and unsubtle ways, as young children develop gut instincts that “something dreadful happened in the past,” even if they don’t fully understand what or why. A growing number of cultural institutions and communities play a pivotal role in producing this generational memory as the wartime generation passes on. Drawing on the emotions of cultural trauma to forge a pacifist moral consciousness is a common technique of transmitting memory at such sites. Hashimoto’s talk will explore the broader cultural premise of the pacifist nation underlying the plural narratives of dark history that continue to cast a shadow on postwar Japan. The talk is based on Hashimoto’s The Long Defeat: Cultural Trauma, Memory and Identity in Japan which has recently been published in a Japanese translation.

Monday in Washington, April 4, 2016

AUSTRALIA-JAPAN-U.S. MARITIME COOPERATION: FEDERATED CAPABILITIES FOR THE ASIA PACIFIC. 4/4,10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Andrew Shearer, Former National Security Advisor to the Australian Government; Robert Schear, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Capabilities, U.S. Department of Defense.

THE WEEK TO REMEMBER OUR HUMANITY: GENOCIDE REMEMBRANCE AND POST-CONFLICT TRAUMA HEALING. 4/4, 11:30am-1:00pm. Sponsor: George Mason University School for Conflict Analysis & Resolution (S-CAR). Speakers: Leslie Dwyer, Associate Professor and Director, Center for the Study of Gender and Conflict, S-CAR; Douglas Irvin-Erickson, Fellow of Peacemaking Practice and Director of the Genocide Prevention Program; Claudine Kuradusenge, PhD Student, S-CAR.

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CHASING GHOSTS: THE POLICING OF TERRORISM. 4/4, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Cato Institute. Speakers: Author of Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them; Author of Chasing Ghosts: The Policing of Terrorism John Mueller, Senior Research Scientist, Mershon Center for International Studies, Ohio State University; Author  of Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security Mark G. Stewart, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Newcastle, Australia; Rosa Brooks, Professor of Law, Georgetown University.

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AJAY MARKANDY, DIRECTOR OF THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION. 4/4, Noon-2:00pm. Sponsor: Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU). Speaker: Ajay Markandy, Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization, fee.

THE KOREAN PENINSULA ISSUES. 4/4, 1:00-3:00pm. Sponsor: Institute for Korean-American Studies (ICAS). Speakers: Synja P. Kim, ICAS President and Chairman; Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Joseph Bosco, Senior Associate, CSIS; Peter Huessy, President, GeoStrategic Analysis; Tong Kim, Washington Correspondent, The Korean Times; David Maxwell, Associate Director, Security Studies Program, Georgetown University; Larry Niksch, Senior Associate, CSIS.

BREAKING NEW GROUND: PREPARING DOD FOR THE FUTURE. 4/4, DATE CHANGE NOW TUESDAY APRIL 5. 1:00-2:00pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speaker: Ash Carter, Secretary of Defense.

THE ROOTS OF THE SRI LANKAN WAR. 4/4, 3:30-4:45pm. Sponsor: Carnegie Endowment. Speaker: Samanth Subramanian, India Correspondent, The National.

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COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM: HOW TO CONFRONT A GLOBAL MENACE. 4/4, 4:00-6:00pm. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. Speakers: Dr. Daniel Serwer, Conflict Management; Dr. Sinisa Vukovic, Conflict Management; Dr. Eliot Cohen, Strategic Studies; Katherine Zimmerman, Special Guest Scholar, American Enterprise Institute.

MISSION FAILURE: AMERICA AND THE WORLD IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA BY MICHAEL MANDELBAUM. 4/4, 5:30-7:00pm. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins. Speaker: Author Michael Mandelbaum, Professor and Director, American Foreign Policy, SAIS.

Historical Trauma

University of Montana

SYMPOSIUM
NOVEMBER 4–5, 2015

UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA, MISSOULA

Co-organized by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and the University of Montana’s African-American Studies Program, this interdisciplinary symposium explores current and emerging research on historical trauma in Holocaust studies, Native-American studies, African-American studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies.

By bringing together scholars, teachers, students, and community members, the Mandel Center’s outreach symposia seek to enrich campus dialogue and forge connections with diverse audiences that will ensure the vitality of Holocaust studies in an increasingly interdisciplinary and multicultural academic landscape.

The symposium is a component of the University of Montana’s DiverseU, a campus-wide series of events focused on topics of diversity. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members discuss, present, perform, and exhibit art throughout the program.

The symposium will be held in Room 332-3 of the University of Montana’s University Center. This program is free and open to the public. RSVP.

This symposium has been made possible by a generous grant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum from the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation and by the University of Montana’s African-American Studies Program, College of Humanities and Sciences, Davidson Honors College, Department of Anthropology, Department of Communication Studies, Department of History, Mansfield Library, Native American Studies Department, President Royce Engstrom, University Center, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.

Highlighted in red are programs of interest to those who work on issues of Japanese war crimes.

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4

1:30 p.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks
Royce Engstrom, President, University of Montana
Robert M. Ehrenreich, Director of University Programs, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

2 p.m. Reframing Knowledge Production
Moderator: Rosalyn LaPier (Blackfeet/Métis), Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies Program, University of Montana

Digging Through the Rubble: Romani Women’s Holocaust Testimony and What It Tells Us about History
Ethel Brooks, Associate Professor, Departments of Women's and Gender Studies and Sociology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

“Reflecting the World Increasingly Made Right”: From Response to Action in Public Libraries
Julie Edwards, Associate Professor, Mansfield Library, University of Montana

The Healing Power of Truth-Telling: Undoing the Many Wrongs and Harms of Colonialist American Historiography
George Price (Wampanoag), Lecturer, African-American Studies Program, History Department, and Native American Studies Department, University of Montana

3:30 p.m. Break

3:45 p.m. Keynote: The Inheritance of Trauma across the Disciplines: A View from Holocaust Studies
Sara R. Horowitz, Professor of Comparative Literature, York University and 2009 Mandel Center Fellow

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5

9 a.m. Children and Historical Trauma
Moderator: Tobin Miller Shearer, Associate Professor, History Department, and Director, African-American Studies Program, University of Montana

“War . . . ain’t Nuthin’ But Hell on Dis Earth”: Children in the Civil War South
Anya Jabour, Professor, History Department, University of Montana

In the Pipeline: Children and Families in the Displaced Persons Camp
Adam R. Seipp, Associate Professor of History, Texas A&M University

Early Education Experiences and Health Later in Life in Older American Indians
Steven P. Verney (Tsimshian), Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico

Psychological and Health Consequences of Historical Trauma in Native Communities
Gyda Swaney (Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation), Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Montana

10:30 a.m. Break

11 a.m. Justice and Historical Trauma
Moderator: Kathryn Shanley (Fort Peck Nakota), Professor, Native American Studies Department, and Special Assistant to the Provost for Native American and Indigenous Education, University of Montana

Victim’s Justice: Holocaust Legacies of Reparations
Kathy L. Powers, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Affiliated Faculty, Africana Studies Program and School of Law, University of New Mexico and 2014 Mandel Center Fellow

Victimized But Not Victims: Narratives of Homelessness in Rural Areas and Small Towns
Daisy Rooks, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Montana

Historical Trauma's Impact on American Indians in the Legal System
Maylinn Smith, Director, Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic, Alexander Blewett III School of Law, University of Montana

12:30 p.m. Break for Lunch

1:30 p.m. Gender, Sexuality, and Historical Trauma
Moderator: Christine Fiore, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, University of Montana

Afterlives of the Catastrophe: Women, Sex, Gender in the Wake of World War II
Neni Panourgiá, Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, New School for Social Research and 2011 Charles H. Revson Fellow for Archival Research

Applying the Concept of Historical Trauma to LGBT Individuals
Bryan Cochran, Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Training, Department of Psychology, University of Montana

Confronting Rape Culture: Analyzing the Historical Erasure of the Perpetrator
Elizabeth A. Hubble, Director, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, University of Montana

3 p.m. Break

3:30 p.m. Roundtable on the Pedagogy of Historical Trauma
Moderator: Krista Hegburg, Program Officer, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

C. Richard King, Professor, Department of Critical Culture, Gender, and Race Studies, Washington State University

Gillian Glaes, Visiting Associate Professor, History Department and African-American Studies Program, University of Montana

Betsy Bach, Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Montana