Law and Literature after the Pacific War

2021 ◽  
pp. 228-242
Author(s):  
Tom Ginsburg
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Law And Literature ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
World War ◽  
Back Seat ◽  
Surrounding World ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Favorable Light

Ginsburg examines ethical questions surrounding World War II from the perspective of the Japanese. Endō’s 1958 novel explores an infamous incident in which Japanese doctors performed horrific experiments on captured American airmen. The doctors were later tried as part of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. As Ginsburg explains, Endō asks “the eternal question: What is morality in wartime?” Ginsburg situates this question within the totalizing context of World War II, in which dehumanization on both sides paved the way for atrocity. He connects it with the War Crimes Tribunal itself, where morality took a back seat to America’s effort to shape the Japanese postwar narrative and write its own version of winner’s history. As Ginsburg explains, this history will not necessarily persevere; there are now significant efforts underway by Japanese nationalists to paint Japan’s actions in World War II in a more favorable light. That may be the cost and consequence of promoting a history divorced from morality.

Japanese Labor in World War II

1990 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 29-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rice
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Labor History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
World War ◽  
Japanese Workers ◽  
The Pacific

Apart from the intrinsic value of understanding the fate of Japanese workers during the war, Japanese labor history in World War II also gives us a non-Western point of comparison for studies of wartime labor in the West. To facilitate that comparison, we should consider government policy, the response of the labor movement, and the conditions of workers during the war. In Japan, labor and economic history periodization of World War II does not conform to the European and American conceptions. For the Japanese, the war began with the outbreak of the “China incident” in 1937; Pearl Harbor, traumatic as it was for the United States, only marks the beginning of a new stage the Japanese call the “Pacific War.” It is not surprising, then, that Japanese labor history begins its wartime phase in 1937. In fact, to comprehend changes during the 1937–45 war, at least brief mention must be made of earlier developments.

The Pacific War: World War II and the Japanese, 1931-1945.

1979 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 381
Author(s):  
Akira Iriye ◽  
Saburo Ienaga
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Pacific

The Pacific War: World War II and the Japanese, 1931-1945.

1979 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 106
Author(s):  
Alvin D. Coox ◽  
Saburo Ienaga
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Pacific

French Far Eastern Policy in the 1930s

1989 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Laffey
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
World War ◽  
Japanese Occupation ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Full Picture ◽  
Far Eastern ◽  
Shed Light

The completion in 1986 of the Documents diplomatiques français, 1932–1939 permits a review of French Far Eastern policy during that troubled time characterized by J.-B. Duroselle as ‘la décadence.’ This massive documentary collection, however, still dose not provide a full picture of the forces which shaped French East Asian policy in the years before the outbreak of the Pacific War. Understandably focused upon European developments, it begins and ends, from the Far Eastern perspective, in medias res; that is, after the outbreak of the Manchurian crisis and before the Japanese occupation of Indochina. Moreover, like other compilations of what statesmen and diplomats said to each other, this one slights economic factors and, though to a lesser extent, the role of public opinion. Even taken in their own terms, the documents perhaps reveal more about what others said and did to the French than about what they themselves accomplished. That points to a more fundamental problem, for one can question whether anything so gelatinous as the French responses or lack thereof to developments largely beyond their control can even be described as ‘policy.’ Still, although much more work in archives and private papers will be necessary before the entire story can be pieced together, these documents do shed light on what passed for French policy in East Asia during the years before the outbreak of World War II.

The Pacific War: World War II and the Japanese, 1931-1945. Translated by Frank Baldwin

1979 ◽  
Vol 84 (5) ◽  
pp. 1455
Author(s):  
Richard J. Smethurst ◽  
Saburo Ienaga
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Pacific

Building the Perfect Candidate

2019 ◽  
pp. 33-57
Author(s):  
Sean J. McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
Congressional District ◽  
World War ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Career ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
French Colonial

This chapter explores Kennedy’s pre-presidential political career. By the end of World War II he had emerged as a well-connected Harvard graduate, author of a popular book, a decorated navy veteran of the Pacific War, and a budding young journalist with the Hearst chain. His political career began in 1946 when he was elected Representative for Massachusetts’s 11th Congressional District. In 1952 he was elected to the Senate, where he gained a reputation for sharp anti-colonial rhetoric that often targeted French policy. Throughout his pre-presidential political career, from 1946 to 1960, Kennedy’s most biting commentary was consistently reserved for the French in Vietnam and later Algeria. While Britain had negotiated its way out of India and later ran a successful counterinsurgency campaign against communist Malayan rebels, Kennedy worried openly that French colonial rule would drive the most rebellious of the Fourth Republic’s subjects toward the Sino-Soviet camp. Early postwar decolonization cemented Kennedy’s perception that the British were clear thinkers with long-term vision, while the French by contrast were characterized by a toxic mixture of short-sightedness, stubbornness, and indifference to the collective interests of the West.

The Eagle has Landed: Groping for a Korean Role in the Pacific War

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-33
Author(s):  
Mark E. Caprio
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Southern Korea ◽  
History Of ◽  
Military Support ◽  
First Americans

The first Americans to arrive in Korea following Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II brought with them a quartet of Korean soldiers that U.S. officials had recruited for the Eagle Project, the most ambitious American effort to use Koreans in the Pacific War that punctuated a long wartime effort to enlist Allied diplomatic and military support for overseas Koreans. In response, U.S. officials had insisted that Korean exiles in the United States unify their efforts. This condition referenced squabbles among Korean groups in general, with the most transparent being those between Syngman Rhee and Haan Kilsoo. While Korean combatants on the Asian mainland managed to gain some U.S. support for their cause, recognition of their potential came too late in the war for them to help liberate their country. Ultimately, the United States turned to the Japanese and Japanese-trained Koreans to assist in this occupation. Reviewing the history of both Korean lobbying and U.S. response to it provides the opportunity to ask whether better handling of the Korean issue during World War II could have provided U.S. occupation forces with better circumstances to prepare southern Korea for a swift, and unified, independence.

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