Modern Japan History Association upcoming events

New Books on Japan: "A Nation Within: North Korean Zainichi in Postimperial Japan" (June 03, 2026)

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 | 7:00-8:30 PM ET
Thursday, June 4 | 8:00-9:30 AM JST

A Nation Within: North Korean Zainichi in Postimperial Japan (Stanford University Press, 2026)

Presenter: Sayaka Chatani, Associate Professor of History, National University of Singapore

Discussant: Yumi Kim, Associate Professor of History, University of California Berkeley

Moderator: Joseph Seeley, Associate Professor of History, University of Virginia

The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with Sayaka Chatani, who will be speaking about her new book A Nation Within: North Korean Zainichi in Postimperial Japan (Stanford University Press, 2026). The presence of hundreds of thousands ethnic Koreans in Japan, or "zainichi Koreans," is one of the visible legacies of Japanese colonialism. A surprising and influential group among zainichi Koreans that persists to this day is Chongryon, the only pro–North Korean diasporic group based in a capitalist society. Chongryon historically represented the central grassroots force seeking to liberate Koreans from Japan's imperial and neo-imperial influences. At the heart of the Chongryon community stands a political organization equipped with a central bureaucracy in Tokyo, with a headquarters in nearly every prefecture. Often called a de facto embassy of North Korea, the Chongryon organization has, in effect, functioned as a state within another state—operating hundreds of schools, banks, hospitals, business associations, publishing houses, and many other institutions across Japan. Based on extensive archival research and nearly 250 original interviews collected with co-researcher KumHee Cho, who was raised within the Chongryon community, Sayaka Chatani offers a sweeping social history of this secretive, protective community in xenophobic Japanese society. Weaving together personal accounts and situating them in a multi-layered, transnational political context, the book offers a finely textured, intimate narrative of the community's tumultuous history and decolonial praxis. Through the stories of Chongryon, this book provides a bottom-up analysis of power politics among zainichi Koreans and reshapes our understanding of Japanese history, Korean history, and the Cold War in Asia. Yumi Kim (Berkeley) will serve as interlocutor.

New Books on Japan: "Twelve Japanese War Criminals and One Who Got Away" (June 16, 2026)

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Tuesday, June 16, 2026 | 7:00-8:30 PM ET
Wednesday, June 17, 2026 | 9:00-10:30 AM AEST

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Twelve Japanese War Criminals and One Who Got Away (University of Hawai'i Press, 2026)

Presenters: Sandra Wilson, Professor, College of Law, Arts and Social Sciences, Murdoch University and Robert Cribb, Emeritus Professor of Australian History, The Australian National University

Discussant: Sarah Kovner, Senior Research Scholar, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University

Moderator: Kirsten Ziomek, Associate Professor of History, Adelphi University

The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with Sandra Wilson (Murdoch University) and Robert Cribb (ANU), who will be speaking about their recent book Twelve Japanese War Criminals and One Who Got Away. In this book, Robert Cribb and Sandra Wilson tell the stories of twelve people who were convicted of war crimes in Allied courts in the Asia-Pacific region after the Second World War. Included is the story of one man who escaped prosecution. The crimes were committed in the Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Java, Malaya, Singapore, the Maluku islands, New Guinea, and Japan. The characters examined range from senior figures—General Honma Masaharu, who was convicted for the Bataan “death march,” and Japan’s wartime prime minister Tōjō Hideki—to lower-ranking and lesser-known people: a POW camp commander, a camp doctor, a Korean guard, a nurse charged with assisting in vivisection, a doctor convicted of cannibalism, a pimp, a Taiwanese interpreter, a businessman convicted of assault, an officer convicted of massacre, and another convicted of a single execution. Tsuji Masanobu, the man who escaped, was responsible for at least two massacres. He was eventually elected to parliament, indicating the willingness of some elements in postwar Japanese society to overlook wartime atrocities. The book examines the backgrounds and careers of each character and explains how they came to commit the acts for which they were convicted. It also considers their subsequent careers, if they survived (several were executed for their crimes). Based on years of meticulous research, the book brings to life the texture of individual action and experience in the tumultuous years of conflict and occupation during the Pacific War. The authors recognize Japanese cruelty but also suggest that most of the convicted war criminals were not inherently evil. Some were out of their depth or were forced into circumstances where they made bad decisions; some obeyed illegal orders or were caught in impossible situations in a war that Japan fought with insufficient resources. Ironically, the one who got away was probably the worst of them all. Sarah Kovner (Columbia) will serve as interlocutor.

Summer 2026 MJHA Members Meetup in Tokyo (July 03, 2026)

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT

Join us for an informal meet-up of MJHA members who happen to be in Japan this summer!

We will meet for food and drinks in central Tokyo.

Please register using the button on the left by Friday, June 5. The exact venue will be decided based on the number of people attending.

Please note that due to limited funds, this event is limited to registered MJHA members only. Outside guests cannot be accommodated. To become an MJHA member, click HERE.

New Books on Japan: "Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Most Controversial World War II General" (July 14, 2026)

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:30:00 GMT

Tuesday, July 14, 2026 | 8:30-10:00 PM EDT
Wednesday, July 15, 2026 | 9:30-11:00 AM JST | 10:30 AM-12:00 PM AEST

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Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Most Controversial World War II General (Harvard University Press, 2026)

Presenter: Peter Mauch, Senior Lecturer of Asian History, University of Western Sydney

Discussant: Andrew Levidis, Lecturer in Modern Japanese History, Australian National University

Moderator: Simon Avenell, Professor of History, Australian National University

The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with Peter Mauch (Western Sydney University), who will be speaking about his recent book Tojo: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Most Controversial World War II General (Harvard University Press, 2026). The military general who became Emperor Hirohito’s prime minister, Tojo Hideki is most often remembered as an iron-fisted leader who dragged Japan into World War II and—after spectacular losses—was eventually executed as a war criminal. Yet Tojo was far more than his ignominious end. In fact, as Peter Mauch argues, he was one of the twentieth century’s most accomplished military statesmen. Over a career of some forty years, Tojo successfully launched himself into the highest echelons of political power. He was not only a tactical genius, Mauch shows, but also a savvy administrator, a fierce imperialist, and a deeply loyal advisor to the emperor. Tojo’s career took off with the notorious Kwantung Army in Manchuria, where he played a key role in escalating the Sino-Japanese War during the 1930s. As he rose through the ranks, becoming minister of war and then army chief of staff, he honed the efficiency of the Imperial Army and enhanced its influence within the emperor’s court. All the while, he deftly negotiated the fractious military rivalries that arose wherever he went. Brilliant, ambitious, and often ruthless, Tojo reached political heights that were perhaps matched only by his precipitous fall in the final months of World War II. Andrew Levidis (ANU) will serve as interlocutor.

This event is co-sponsored by the ANU Japan Institute.

New Books from Japan #14: "International Politics of Migration: Overseas "Chinese" in Japan and the Cold War Regime in East Asia" (July 21, 2026)

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Tuesday, July 21, 2026 8:00-9:30 PM ET | Wednesday, July 22, 2026 9:00-10:30 AM JST

REGISTER FOR ZOOM HERE

New Books from Japan #14:

『「人の移動」の国際政治―東アジア冷戦体制の形成と日本華僑』

International Politics of Migration: Overseas "Chinese" in Japan and the Cold War Regime in East Asia

Presenter: 鶴園裕基 (Tsuruzono Yūki, Kagawa University)

Discussant: Evan Dawley (Goucher College)

Moderator: Tadashi Ishikawa (University of Central Florida)

This book seeks to elucidate how Nihon-kakyō (ethnic Chinese and Taiwanese residents in Japan) came to face severe restrictions on their international mobility in the Cold War era. In the prewar period, Chinese and Taiwanese subjects were able to travel to Japan without passports. However, as the Cold War order took shape in East Asia after 1945, both the Japanese and Taiwanese authorities constructed increasingly stringent border and migration control regimes. At the time of the conclusion of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the Japanese government deprived Taiwanese residents of their Japanese nationality and reclassified them, like migrants originating from the Chinese mainland, as “Chinese.” At the same time, however, Japan extended only limited recognition to the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan and deliberately left ambiguous whether the “Chinese” residing in Japan belonged to the ROC or to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Under these circumstances, Nihon-kakyō were prevented from returning to mainland China due to the absence of diplomatic relations between Japan and the PRC. Meanwhile, the ROC government, having retreated to Taiwan, imposed restrictions on the entry of overseas Chinese on the basis of martial law promulgated in 1949. As a result, during the Cold War period, Nihon-kakyō were effectively denied both the right to return to their “home country” and the right to have their affiliation formally recognized. Confronted with this predicament, they were driven to engage in political movements aimed at asserting affiliation with either of the rival Chinese state and securing their rights of residence in Japan as foreign nationals.

本書は、冷戦期に日本華僑と呼ばれた人びとが、いかにして国際移動を制約されるに至ったかを明らかにしようとする。戦前期、中国人や台湾人はパスポートなしに日本に渡航することができた。しかし戦後東アジアに冷戦体制が形成されていくなかで、日本と台湾の当局はそれぞれ厳格な出入国管理を構築していく。日本政府はサンフランシコ講和条約締結のタイミングで、台湾人の持つ日本国籍を喪失させ、大陸出身者と同様に「中国人」とした。しかし、日本政府は台湾の中華民国を限定的にしか承認せず、日本国内の「中国人」が中華民国、中華人民共和国のいずれに帰属するかを意図的に曖昧にした。こうした状況のなかで、日本華僑は日本と中華人民共和国の間の国交の不存在ゆえに中国大陸へ帰還することを制限された。その一方、台湾に撤退した中華民国は、1949年に発令した戒厳令を根拠として華僑の入境を規制した。これによって冷戦期の日本華僑は、「本国に帰還する権利」と、「帰属を確認する権利」を事実上、否定されることになった。これによって日本華僑は、いずれかの中国への帰属を主張し、日本における外国人としての居住権を確立することを目的とした政治運動に駆り立てられていったのである。

2026 Distinguished Annual Lecture: Jordan Sand (October 08, 2026)

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Thursday, October 8, 2026 | 7:00-8:30 PM ET
Wednesday, October 9, 2026 | 8:00-9:30 AM JST

REGISTER FOR ZOOM HERE

The fourth annual MJHA Distinguished Annual Lecture, on a topic TBA, will be given in October 2026 by Jordan Sand, Professor of Japanese History, Georgetown University

New Books on Japan: "Rutgers Meets Japan: A Trans-Pacific Network of the Late Nineteenth Century" (October 22, 2026)

Thu, 22 Oct 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Thursday, October 22, 2026 | 7:00-8:30 PM ET

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Rutgers Meets Japan: A Trans-Pacific Network of the Late Nineteenth Century (Rutgers University Press, 2026)

Presenter: Haruko Wakabayashi, Associate Teaching Professor, Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Discussant: Hiromu Nagahara, Associate Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Moderator: Nick Kapur, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University-Camden

The Modern Japan History Association invites the wider community to a conversation with Haruko Wakabayashi (Rutgers-New Brunswick), who will be speaking about her recent co-edited volume Rutgers Meets Japan: A Trans-Pacific Network of the Late Nineteenth Century. In 1867 Kusakabe Taro, a young samurai from Fukui, Japan, began studying at Rutgers as its first foreign student. Three years later, in 1870, his former tutor, friend, and Rutgers graduate, William Elliot Griffis, left for Japan to teach English and Science for three and a half years. The year 2020 marked the 150th anniversary of two landmark events in the history of the Rutgers-Japan relationship: the untimely death of Kusakabe only weeks before his graduation, and his friend Griffis’ departure to Japan. Griffis and Kusakabe were only a small piece of a vast transnational network of leading modernizers of Japan in the 1860s and 70s. The Japanese students in New Brunswick were young and innovative men of samurai and aristocratic lineage, who were sent by reform-minded leaders of Japan, which was undergoing a dramatic transformation. They came to New Brunswick seeking Western knowledge that was much needed for the modernization of a newly forming nation. New Brunswick became the hub of a network of Japanese nationals that extended to the major cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, and from there to the smaller towns of New England. Once in New Brunswick, these Japanese students were embraced by Protestant ministers, educators, and missionaries—both men and women—whose network encompassed Rutgers College and the neighboring New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and which stretched to Dutch Reformed parishes throughout the Eastern seaboard, and westward as far as the Dutch enclave of Holland, Michigan. Meanwhile, the American teachers and missionaries who left for Japan became part of a network of reformist leaders and Japanese returnees that extended to schools, colleges, and missions in Japan, and formed the foundations of Japan’s modern educational system. Through contributions from scholars and archivists in the U.S., Canada, and Japan, Rutgers Meets Japan aims to reconstruct the early Rutgers-Japan connections and examine the role and impact of this transnational network on Japan and the U.S. in the late nineteenth century. Hiromu Nagahara (MIT) will serve as interlocutor.