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December 7, 2025
u:japan lectures - Simon Avenell: "Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity"
From: u:japan lectures : Department of East Asian Studies : University of Vienna <ujapanlectures.
Date: 2025/11/01
Dear Colleagues,
The Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna would like to draw your attention to the upcoming hybrid u:japan lecture:
Simon Avenell (Australian National University):
"Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity"
Date and time: Thursday, November 6, 2025, 18:00~19:30 (CET, UTC +1h)
Location: Onsite @ Campus of the University of Vienna Department of East
Asian Studies, Japanese Studies room JAP 1 (2K-EG-21), University Campus
Hof 2.4, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria
https://japanologie.univie.ac.
Online: Join the lecture via Zoom (no registration necessary):
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/
Meeting-ID: 612 7535 7730 | Passcode: 207663
Abstract: War, defeat, and the collapse of empire in 1945 touched every aspect of postwar Japanese society, profoundly shaping how the Japanese would reconstruct national identity and reengage with the peoples of Asia. While "America" offered a vision of re-genesis after cataclysmic ruin, "Asia" exposed the trauma of perpetration and the torment of ethnic responsibility. Obscured in the shadows of a resurgent postwar Japan lurked a postimperial specter whose haunting presence both complicated and confounded the spiritual rehabilitation of the nation.
In this presentation Simon Avenell will discuss his book, Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity (Harvard Asia Center, 2022). The book examines processes of deimperialization in Japan from 1945 until the early twenty-first century. It focuses on the thought and activism of progressive activists and intellectuals as they struggled to overcome rigid preconceptions about "Asia," as they grappled with the implications of postimperial responsibility, and as they forged new regional solidarities and Asian imaginaries. The book aims to reveal the critical importance of Asia in postwar Japanese thought, activism, and politics―Asia as a symbolic geography, Asia as a space for grassroots engagement, and ultimately, Asia as an aporia of identity and the source of a new politics of hope.
For more information on the speaker and future events at u:japan, please follow the link below:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.
We look forward to your participation!
Hanno Jentzsch, Lola Moreau, Anna-Maria Stabentheiner, Ralf Windhab and Julian Wollinger
PS: If you missed a lecture or want to review, head to our recorded lectures section:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.
u:japan lectures
Department of East Asian Studies / Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna
E-mail: ujapanlectures.ostasien@
Kindly sponsored by the Toshiba International Foundation:
https://www.toshibafoundation.
The Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna would like to draw your attention to the upcoming hybrid u:japan lecture:
Simon Avenell (Australian National University):
"Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity"
Date and time: Thursday, November 6, 2025, 18:00~19:30 (CET, UTC +1h)
Location: Onsite @ Campus of the University of Vienna Department of East
Asian Studies, Japanese Studies room JAP 1 (2K-EG-21), University Campus
Hof 2.4, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria
https://japanologie.univie.ac.
Online: Join the lecture via Zoom (no registration necessary):
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/
Meeting-ID: 612 7535 7730 | Passcode: 207663
Abstract: War, defeat, and the collapse of empire in 1945 touched every aspect of postwar Japanese society, profoundly shaping how the Japanese would reconstruct national identity and reengage with the peoples of Asia. While "America" offered a vision of re-genesis after cataclysmic ruin, "Asia" exposed the trauma of perpetration and the torment of ethnic responsibility. Obscured in the shadows of a resurgent postwar Japan lurked a postimperial specter whose haunting presence both complicated and confounded the spiritual rehabilitation of the nation.
In this presentation Simon Avenell will discuss his book, Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity (Harvard Asia Center, 2022). The book examines processes of deimperialization in Japan from 1945 until the early twenty-first century. It focuses on the thought and activism of progressive activists and intellectuals as they struggled to overcome rigid preconceptions about "Asia," as they grappled with the implications of postimperial responsibility, and as they forged new regional solidarities and Asian imaginaries. The book aims to reveal the critical importance of Asia in postwar Japanese thought, activism, and politics―Asia as a symbolic geography, Asia as a space for grassroots engagement, and ultimately, Asia as an aporia of identity and the source of a new politics of hope.
For more information on the speaker and future events at u:japan, please follow the link below:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.
We look forward to your participation!
Hanno Jentzsch, Lola Moreau, Anna-Maria Stabentheiner, Ralf Windhab and Julian Wollinger
PS: If you missed a lecture or want to review, head to our recorded lectures section:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.
u:japan lectures
Department of East Asian Studies / Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna
E-mail: ujapanlectures.ostasien@
Kindly sponsored by the Toshiba International Foundation:
https://www.toshibafoundation.
Approved by ssjmod at 07:12 PM