Dear members of the SSJ-Forum,

we would like to cordially invite you to the conference "Japanese Military Violence During the Asia Pacific War" which will be held at Freie Universität Berlin from 5 - 7 September 2024.

For the conference programme, please see below, following this email.

If you wish to attend the conference (in-person only, online participation is not possible), please register by 30 August 2024 using this link: https://forms.gle/1RfCG4PizrsM9Pxk7

The conference is organised as part of the ERC project "Law Without Mercy: Japanese Courts-Martial and Military Courts during the Asia-Pacific War, 1937-1945" (https://www.lawwithoutmercy.eu).

 

With best wishes,

Urs Matthias Zachmann

 

Japanese Military Violence During the Asia-Pacific War

Conference Schedule

 

Venue: TOPOI Building, Hittorfstrasse 18, 14195 Berlin

 

(Day 1) 5 September 2024

 

09:00 - 09:15 Welcome

 

09:15 - 10:45  Panel 1: Violence in the Philippines

Unavoidable Necessity: The Place of Violence in Kenpei Law Enforcement and Judicial Practice in the Philippines, 1942-45

Kelly Maddox, Freie Universität Berlin

 

Disobedience, Hermeneutics and Fear of Cowardice: The 1945 Manila Massacre Re- examined

Danny Orbach, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

 

10:45 - 11:15 Break

 

11:15 - 12:45 Panel 2: Violence and Strategic Warfare

Technological Violence: Japan's Use of Biological and Chemical Weapons (BCW) in the Asia-Pacific War

Daqing Yang, George Washington University

 

Minami e: The Collapse of the Shuri Line, the Retreat South, and the Abandonment of Okinawa

Alexandra Valdez, Heidelberg University

 

12:45 - 13:45 Lunch

 

13:45 - 15:15 Panel 3: Violence against POWs

Reciprocity and the Dynamic of Violence against Captives in the Asia-Pacific War

Sarah Kovner, Colombia University

 

Inhuman and Imprudent but not Irrational: Japanese Treatment of POWs during the Asia-Pacific War

Rotem Kowner, University of Haifa

 

15:15 - 15:45 Break

 

15:45 - 17:15  Panel 4: Violence in China

Sankō sakusen and chian-sen

Toshiya Ikō, Tsuru University

 

18:00 - Conference Meal

 

(Day 2) 6 September 2024

 

09:00 - 10:30  Panel 5: Strategic Bombardment

Toward a Global History of the Second World War: Including the Japanese Bombing of China

Sheldon Garon, Princeton University

 

Japanese and American Aerial Violence against Civilians during the Asia-Pacific War

Mark Selden/Cary Karacas, Cornell University/City University of New York

 

10:30 - 11:00 Break

 

11:00 - 12:30  Panel 6: Economic Exploitation

Give and Take? Food Administration as a Form of Structural Violence Imposed upon Occupied China

Chi Ho Kiang, Freie Universität Berlin

 

Robbing Civilians to Pay the Military: War Financing and Civilian Wealth Mobilisation in the Japanese Empire

Brian Tsz Ho Wong, University of Edinburgh

 

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch

 

13:30 - 15:00  Panel 7: Violence within the Japanese Military

Agency in Intra-Military Violence: The Guantao jiken of 1942

Tino Schölz, Freie Universität Berlin

 

At the Hands of their Superiors: Violence Experienced by Japanese Military Personnel during the Asia-Pacific War as seen in Insights into Japanese Imperialism

Martin Ward, University of Leeds

 

15:00 - 15:30 Break

 

15:30 - 17:00 Panel 8: Agents of Violence

Civilian Interpreters as Participants in and Victims of Japanese Military Violence

Kayoko Takeda, Rikkyo University

 

The Adjudication of Sexual Violence by Japanese Legal Officers

Urs Matthias Zachmann, Freie Universität Berlin

 

(Day 3) 7 September 2024

 

09:00 - 10:30  Panel 9: The Legal Aftermath of Crimes

Retribution for Inhumane Conduct: The Japanese Military Legal System's Response to the Doolittle Flyers Campaign in 1942

Nicolas Stassar, Freie Universität Berlin

 

Those guilty in 'L'Affaire Haelewyn': A Japanese War Crime and its Complicated Aftermath

Beatrice Trefalt, Monash University

 

10:30 - 11:00 Break

 

11:00 - 12:30  Panel 10: Reflections on the Nature of Japanese Military Violence

Why Did the Japanese Commit War Crimes in the Pacific?

Sandra Wilson, Murdoch University

 

Was Japanese Military Violence Exceptional? Comparing Colonial Wars

Robert Cribb, Australian National University

 

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch

 

13:30 - 15:00  Panel 11: Violence and Memory

Entwined Atrocities: Japanese and American Aerial Indiscriminate Bombings

Yuki Tanaka, Hiroshima City University

 

Japanese "Warscapes" in Memory Frames

Theodore F. Cook, William Paterson University

 

15:00 - Closing Discussion

 

 

----------------------------------------

Prof. Dr. Urs Matthias Zachmann

Professor für Kultur und Geschichte des Modernen Japan

Freie Universität Berlin

Institut für Japanologie

Hittorfstraße 18

14195 Berlin

Tel. +49 (0)30 838 61720