Japanese history

Can Japan-Korea Relations Resolve Historical Disputes?

The government of South Korea has dropped its demand for Japanese companies to pay victims of forced labor during World War II. Many Koreans have called the concession a national humiliation, and some surviving victims say they won't accept compensation from Korean sources. 

Forget Pickleball—Retired Japanese Gangsters Embrace Softball

Like the rest of Japanese society, the Yakuza are aging, making a transition out of criminal careers a challenge. Forming a softball team—and changing the uniform colors from black to pink and gray—helped some. 

Can We Condemn One Empire Without Affirming Another?

by Moon-Ho Jung

The experience of left-wing Japanese Americans, who rejected Japanese imperialism while being oppressed by American nationalism, shows that war forces an artificial binary of national allegiance. 

"Pachinko" Tells History of Korean Women in Mid-20th Century Japan

The Apple+ series, based in a fictionalized narrative of Korean immigration to Japan, concludes with interview footage of eight women, now all more than 90 years old, who lived this history. 

Harvard Law Prof Responds to Critics of His "Comfort Women" Claims, Fails to Squelch Controversy

Two Harvard historians (and several colleagues at other instituitons) say that Mark Ramseyer's defense of his article claiming Korean "comfort women" freely contracted their labor as sex workers serving Japanese soldiers during World War II ignores the substance of their criticism. 

A Met Exhibition on Women in Photography Shows All Achievements by Women Don't Need to be Celebrated

by Kelly Midori McCormick

Why did the Metropolitan Museum use a photo of the imperialist Japanese photographer Sasamoto Tsuneko as an exemplar of women's achievements in the medium? 

The Japanese Surrender in 1945 is Still Poorly Understood

by Jeremy Kuzmarov and Roger Peace

American diplomats and military leadership in 1945 believed Japan was close to a negotiated surrender without the use of the atomic bomb, a history that has since been replaced by the myth that the bomb saved lives. 

The Significance of Yasuke, the Black Samurai

by Warren A. Stanislaus

"While media coverage of Afro-Japanese encounters overwhelmingly focuses on incidents of racism or misunderstandings, Yasuke’s interaction with Japan has helped illuminate a rich but overlooked history of Afro-Japanese connectivity." 

Professor’s ‘Comfort-Women’ Lecture Gets Him Indicted—And Sparks Debate on Academic Freedom

"In an interview, Mr. Lew said he had given that same lecture for more than a decade. Students always pushed back and they debated. But the discourse had never before become public."

Why Japan Forfeited Hosting the 1940 Games

by Paul Droubie

Japan's forfeiture of the games amid rising international and internal tensions shows that the Olympics have always been a vehicle for the promotion of national elites' agendas, often at the expense of popular domestic concerns. 

Hideki Tojo's Ashes Scattered By US, Documents Reveal

"Japanese lecturer Hiroaki Takazawa at Tokyo's Nijon University found the declassified documents at the US National Archives in Washington DC."

The History the Japanese Government Is Trying to Erase

by Chelsea Szendi Schieder

  An academic involved in the recent "comfort women" controversy while teaching in Japan warns "In failing to teach what the wartime state did, the Japanese government only emboldens the forces of misogyny and racism and cultivates new generations of violence."

The Tokyo Moment: What Developing Cities Can Learn From The Postwar Japanese Capital

by Ben Bensal

"Studying postwar Tokyo helps historicize the discourse on megacities, which is still in its infancy. While there are important similarities between today’s megacities in terms of their size, organizational complexity, and socio-economic challenges, there are important contextual differences that are best assessed using a historical approach."

Supplement to Special Issue: Academic Integrity at Stake: The Ramseyer Article

by Alexis Dudden

The Asia-Pacific Journal is publishing a collection of letters in opposition to the controversial article by Harvard Law professor J. Mark Rameseyer which characterized the sexual abuse of Korean women during World War II as freely contracted sex work. 

Journal Delays Print Publication of Harvard Law Professor’s Controversial ‘Comfort Women’ Article Amid Outcry

"Against the historical consensus, Ramseyer claims in his paper, entitled “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War," that comfort women were not coerced and instead voluntarily entered into contracts with Japanese brothels."

A Famed Horror Director Mines Japan’s Real-Life Atrocities

In a recent interview, Mr. Kurosawa, 65, said he found it hard to understand why Japan’s war crimes remained almost taboo among the country’s filmmakers 75 years after the conflict’s end.

The Lone Woman of Kokura

by Nyri A. Bakkalian

Who was the Lone Woman in the Kokura Castle town ruins that day in 1866? We don’t know her name, though we know where she died in Kokura.

Centuries ago, women ruled Japan. What changed?

Conservative and patriarchal Japan excludes women -- who make up 13 of the 18 members of the royal family -- from taking the throne. But this wasn't always the case.

New Teacher's Guide on "Comfort Women" To Be Distributed Across California Schools

The debate around teaching this history has been controversial.