We are pleased to welcome you to a lecture by Professor David Lowe on November 2. This is the 40th anniversary lecture of the Australia and New Zealand Literary Society of Japan.

Lecture "Australia's Atomic Past: Memories, Mistrust, and Policy Legacies"

Speaker: Professor David LOWE (Chair of Contemporary History, Deakin University/ Visiting Chair in Australian Studies, Center for Pacific and American Studies (CPAS), University of Tokyo)

Moderator: MINATO Keiji (Matsuyama University)

Comments: SAWADA Hannah Joy (Hirosaki University), KOSUGI Sei (Osaka University), ICHITANI Tomoko (Seinan Gakuin University)

Date: November 2, 2019 (Saturday) 14:00-17:00

Venue: Room 204, Hyakunen-kan Bldg., Mejiro Campus, Japan Women's University
https://www.jwu.ac.jp/eng/access.html

URL： https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/7dabb0_c9495b913b0a4f81ac42cd1f99b1b4fc.pdf

Speaker's biography:
David Lowe is the Visiting Chair in Australian Studies at the University of Tokyo. He is Chair of Contemporary History at Deakin University and co-founder of the Australian Policy and History Network. His research focuses on modern international history, including Australia's role in the world, and the remembering of prominent events. Recent books include (with Carola Lentz) Remembering Independence, Routledge, 2018 and (edited, with Cassandra Atherton and Alyson Miller) The Unfinished Atomic Bomb, Rowman and Littlefield, 2018. He is currently working on three projects: an international history of the Colombo Plan for aid to South and Southeast Asia; a history of Australia's foreign aid; and histories of Australia's overseas embassies, including the embassy in Tokyo.

Abstract:
The Australian Government has recently commissioned a parliamentary inquiry considering the prerequisites needed for generation of nuclear power in Australia. Previously in 2019, Australians briefly, and mostly clumsily, revisited some of the lines of earlier debates they had about the potential gains and dangers of developing the nuclear fuel cycle for power generation. These debates were stirred partly by debatable claims about casualties (and inferred lessons) made in the popular HBO television mini-series, Chernobyl, recalling the nuclear plant disaster of 1986 and partly by the publication by Defence expert Hugh White of a book, How to Defend Australia, asking if it was time for Australians to consider arming themselves with nuclear weapons. With a mind for the clumsiness of debate that followed and for the lack of historical content therein (even quite recent developments) I ask in this lecture whether the legacies of Australia's nuclear past, including the great secrecy surrounding testing of weapons in the 1950s and 1960s, and subsequent clean-ups, have impacted in particular ways that have ongoing ramifications for policy relating to uranium mining and nuclear energy. I draw on a range of sources, including earlier inquiry materials, film, teacher's education kits, and a travelling art exhibition.