The Global Asia Research Center holds a special lecture by Barak Kushner, Professor of East Asian History, University of Cambridge.

Title: The Pathology of Defeat: Japan’s Early Postwar Search for a War Narrative

Lecturer: Barak Kushner, Professor of East Asian History, University of Cambridge

Date: July 27 (Thu) 17:00-18:40 JST

Place: 14-402 (Waseda Campus) & Zoom

Language: English

Contact: globalasia-office [at] list.waseda.jp

Abstract

　　Contrary to popular belief, while Japan’s empire was pronounced “finished” in August 1945 the deep layers of its legacies proved difficult to dismantle. War crimes trials in East Asia were therefore more complex than their Western counterparts because the Europeans strove to maintain colonial law in regions where they struggled to reimpose control, while professing adherence to international law. The false story that once Japan militarily surrendered its imperial legacy dissipated at the same time allowed the memory of domestic suffering to take precedence over investigating how the empire ended in very messy situations. In fact, in the immediate postwar fields of power,
frontiers, and political authority were far from clarified in any given region.

　　Defining the parameters and meaning of imperial defeat was an issue very much up for grabs in the aftermath of Japan’s imperial surrender. The situation was fluid and helped shape the new order of who managed to retain power and what political form it would take. Assigning blame and responsibility for Japanese war crimes, while managing that historical debate in court, became a lynchpin to short and longer term geo-political stability. My talk will reconsider the contours of the end of Japan’s empire in Asia, and grapple with the competing legal visions of this defeat and the Allied victory.