Sponsored by the Center for Philippine Studies, , Univ. of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Tuesday, March 16 at 12:00 pm in the Center for Korean Studies
Presented by Dr. Tokushi Kasahara (Tsuru University) and Dr. Satoshi Nakano (Hitotsubashi University)

Reconciling Narratives of the Nanjing Massacre in Japanese and Chinese Textbooks by Dr. Tokushi Kasahara: Differences in the ways Chinese and Japanese publics have remembered the Massacre are a major obstacle in reconciliation today. Also, historical education causes a rift in understanding the atrocities associated with this event. In his paper, Prof. Tokushi Kasahara will discuss (1) how clear the differences in those public memories actually are by giving a quick look at the history textbooks used by both Japanese and Chinese; (2) why many Japanese do not know the details of the massacre, while most history textbooks in Japanese schools refer to the Nanjing Massacre; and (3) the significance of the publication of History That Opens the Future (2005), the first piece of educational historiography in East Asia edited by authors from Japan, China, and Korea.

Battle of Manila 1945: Politics of Forgetting and Remembrance by Dr. Satoshi Nakano (Battle of Manila: February 3 – March 3, 1945) which slaughtered approximately 100,000 civilian non-combatants by Japanese soldiers and the collateral damage caused by urban warfare, including US indiscriminate shelling, was once given considerable publicity in the Japanese War Crimes Trials (1946-1948). However, it has long been the subject of amnesia in Japan, the United States, and even in the Philippines. The 50th year’s anniversary (1995) marked the quiet beginning of protest against forgetting with the erection of a small memorial in Intramuros, Manila. Will it cause another “Rape of Nanking” problem for Japanese in the near future? Prof. Satoshi Nakano will discuss a brief history of forgetting and remembrance of the battle in postwar Philippine-Japan relations, and the possibility of a more meaningful reconciliation by not forgetting it but by living with its memories. The presentation includes a film showing (about 20 minutes) of NHK documentary “Remembering the Battle of Manila” (2007).

Tokushi Kasahara, professor in the Faculty of Literature of the Tsuru University in Japan, is a leading scholar of modern Chinese history and has long been fighting against attempts by the Japanese government to whitewash the memories of Japanese wartime aggression, as well as against right-wing revisionists alleging that the Nanjing Massacre was an illusion or fabrication. He is one of the editors of History That Opens the Future (2005). Currently he is “back” to rural history of modern China and Kuomintang history.

Satoshi Nakano, professor in the Graduate School of Social Sciences of the Hitotsubashi University, has pursued various aspects of the Philippines-Japan-United States history, including Philippine Independence, Japanese occupation and war memories, American cold warriors in the Philippines during 1950s, and of Filipino World War II veterans and their migration to the United States and the present equity movement. He is currently an organizer of the grants-in-aid research project “Truths and Memories of the Battle of Manila: Area Studies for Peace.”

Photo from Britannica Online showcasing the aftermath in Manila after the Allied Forces recaptured the city in 1945.