Friday, October 31, 2008

15:00-17:00

Note: The Japan Foundation headquarters moved to the new office. Please refer to the link below.

English (no interpretation)

If you would like to attend the seminar, please notify Japanese Studies and Intellectual Exchange Dept. by October 31, 2008 with your name, affiliation, and contact information (tel., fax or e-mail).
If you would apply by e-mail, please be aware to write the name of the presenter and the date of the seminar in the title. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Tel: 03-5369-6069/ Fax: 03-5369-6041

Simon Nantais obtained his Master’s in History from the University of Ottawa and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Japanese History at the University of Victoria, Canada. He completed a doctoral research fellowship at the Ritsumeikan Center for Korean Studies in Kyoto under the supervision of Suh Sung. He conducted research on Koreans in Japan during the American Occupation.

“Koreans in Occupied Japan (1945-1952): An International Perspective”

After Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, there were over two million Koreans in Japan. Most returned to Korea, but after the US Occupation Military government (GHQ/SCAP) suspended repatriation efforts in late 1946, there were about 600,000 Koreans who remained in Japan. During the course of the Occupation (1945-1952), they waged struggles for the right to ethnic education and to protect their livelihood.

The American Occupation of Japan has largely been cast as a bi-national (US-Japan) exercise in democracy building. In recent years, studies on resident Koreans (zainichi chosenjin) have proliferated. When set against Japan’s postwar democratization, scholars have highlighted the racist attitudes and Japanese discriminatory policies towards zainichi chosenjin. In this presentation, I take a larger international perspective and examine the “Korean problem” against the background of the containment of Communism in East Asia. The focus will be on the dissolution of the pro-North Korean organization Zainichi Chosenjin Renmei (“Choren” or the League of Koreans in Japan) in September 1949. What was Choren and what role did they play in Japan’s democracy? This focus reveals how the Japanese government and GHQ framed the presence of Koreans in Japan in terms of the stability of East Asia.