Symposium: "Prisoners of the Asia-Pacific War" (Feb 7-8)

Daniel Milne's picture

We are pleased to announce the opening of our online symposium titled “Prisoners of the Asia-Pacific War: History, Memory, and Forgetting” to registered audience members. The symposium will be held across two days between 16:00-19:30 on Tuesday, February 7 and 9:00-17:00 on Wednesday, February 8, Japan time. This symposium brings together scholars researching the histories, memorialization and forgetting of prisoners and prison camps of the Asia Pacific War. See the schedule below.

Please register via this link:
https://forms.gle/8w6F5tgR3gBudB7EA

Those who register will be sent a zoom link and password on the first day of the symposium.

Symposium Schedule   (# All times are in the Japan time zone)

Feb 7 (Tue)
16:00-16:10
Daniel Milne (Kyoto U): Opening Comments

16:10-17:40
Panel 1. Prisoners of War and the Japanese Military. Chair: Beatrice Trefault (Monash U)

Robert Cribb (Australian National U)
POW Statistics And The Bitter Politics Of Comparison

Paul Taucher (Murdoch U)
POW Responses To Captivity And The Protection Of Reputation In Post-War Trials Of Suspected Japanese War Criminals

Sandra Wilson (Murdoch U)
Crashed Airmen As Prisoners Of The Japanese Military

17:45-18:00 Book
Terry Smyth (U of Essex) Captive Fathers, Captive Children

18:10-19:30
Panel 2. Captivity in Singapore. Chair: Daniel Milne (Kyoto U)

Kevin Peter Blackburn (Nanyang Tech. U., Singap.)
Book: The Comfort Women of Singapore in History and Memory

Kevin Noles (U of Oxford, New College)
Curating Memory: The Commemoration of Indian POWs at the British Commonwealth War Memorial at Kranji, Singap.

Jon Cooper (U of Glasgow)
The Tartan Tenko. Recorded presentation: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AuEQB7ZrWrMjgYhT5-ggfqsN6mm9Fg?e=3ln7hb
Phd link: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/83013/

Feb 8 (Wed)

9:00-10:45
Panel 3. (Trans)imperial and Indigenous Incarceration. Chair: Mahon Murphy (Kyoto U)

Sarah Kovner (Columbia U). Book: Prisoners of the Empire

Benjamin Hiramatsu Ireland (Texas Christian U)
From the Asia Pacific to Algeria: Carceral Memories of Japanese and North African Internment

Desiree Valadares (U of British Columbia)
Salvage Stories: Uncovering Unangax̂ Confinement Histories at Funter Bay

Anoma Pieris (Melbourne U)
Imperial Amnesias: Japanese Civilian Incarceration in India

11:00-12:30
Panel 4. Dealing with Captivity: Travel, Litigation, and Memory. Chair: David Moreton (Tokushima U)

Timothy Webster (Western New England U)    
Selective Liability: Why Does Japan Prefer Asian Victims of War to Western Prisoners of War?

Nipaporn Ratchatapattanakul (Thammasat U)    
Return to the ‘Death Railway’: History of ex-POWs’ Traveling to Thailand, 1945-1990s

Alexandra McKinnon (Melbourne U)
“The worst of the memories won’t subside”: C Force, Cultural Memory, and Commemoration

13:30-15:00
Panel 5. Remembering Places of Transit: Internment and Displacement in Oceania. Chair: Anoma Pieris (Melbourne U)

Christine Winter (Flinders U)
Uneven Remembering: The Pacific War and the Tatura Internment Camps in Victoria, Australia.

Rowena Ward (U of Wollongong)
Nouville and Purana Qila Internment Camps

Yasuko Hassall Kobayashi (Ritsumeikan U)
Life in the Meantime: A Case of Japanese POWs in Rabaul

15:15-16:45
Panel 6: During and After Internment in Mainland Japan. Chair: Alison Starr (U of Queensland)

Ernestine Hoegen (Indep.)
Diaries, Bodies, and the Book of the Names of the Dead: Memories of the Kamioka POW camp

Mine Takada (POW Research Network)
Naoetsu POW Camp and Peace Memorial Park

Kuniko Takagawa (POW Research Network)
Book: Outsiders’ Pacific War—The Unknown Stories of Westerners in Wartime Karuizawa (Japanese)

Taeko Sasamoto (POW Research Network)
Memorials at Former POW Camps in Japan: History, Current Status and Challenges

16:45-17:00
Daniel Milne: Closing Remarks

For further information, contact Daniel Milne at: kyodaidaniel@gmail.com