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Missionaries and Nisei as “Informants” in U.S. Preparation for the Military Occupation of Japan Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2023-12-26 Kayoko Takeda
From 1944 to 1945, the U.S. Department of War contracted with six universities, including Stanford University, to operate Civil Affairs Training Schools (cats) for the Far Eastern theaters. Their mission was to prepare U.S Army and U.S. Navy officers with assignments to administer civil affairs in the anticipated occupation of Japan. This article focuses on two groups of “informants” that Stanford
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P’yŏngyang’s Posthumous Hostages: The Repatriation of U.S. Service Members’ Remains from North Korea, 1991–2018 Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2023-08-26 Liu Zhaokun
Despite the unending nuclear crises and economic sanctions characterizing U.S.-North Korean relations, North Korea has adopted non-aggressive measures to establish bilateral relations with the United States and bypass U.S.-imposed sanctions without committing to denuclearization since 1990. The repatriation of the remains of U.S. soldiers who died in North Korea during the Korean War became a convenient
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To Each His Turn … Today Yours, Tomorrow Mine: François Sully’s Turn in History Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2023-08-26 Nathaniel L. Moir
François Sully (1927–1971) is an underreported figure in the critical period of U.S.-South Vietnamese relations between 1960 and 1963. As one of the earliest journalists the First Republic of Vietnam expelled in 1962, his reporting introduced Vietnam to American readers, and his journalism influenced a generation of Western reporters covering the intervention of U.S. forces in Vietnam. However, despite
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The Illusion of Neutralism: The Indigenous Third Force and the Filipino Republic from the Late 1940s to the 1950s Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2023-06-03 Tristan Miguel Osteria
It often has been an illusion that Filipinos lack indigeneity due to the ties with the United States since 1898. Lost in these mists were the indigenous agendas that lay underneath the official narratives. The article presents a background and then examines the administration of Elpidio Quirino, president of the Philippines from 1948 to 1953, particularly his neutralist Pacific Pact initiative and
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Foreign Minister Tōgō’s Bitter Struggle and the Acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2023-04-05 Tōgō Kazuhiko, Brian P. Walsh
Japan’s decision to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration was one of the most pivotal events in the country’s modern history. Most students of the decision-making process agree that Foreign Minister Tōgō Shigenori was the principal motive force supporting acceptance of the Allies’ demands throughout the debate over the action. Some recent historiography in Japan has questioned Tōgō’s approach
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In Judgment of Unit 731: A Comparative Study of Medical War Crimes Trials after World War ii Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2023-04-05 Valerie J. Cranmer
The prosecution of the crimes of the Imperial Japanese Army’s Unit 731 are often compared to the prosecution of the crimes of the Nazi doctors. These comparisons emphasize immunity for the Japanese, whereas the Nazis were prosecuted for their actions. However, this comparison is an inaccurate one. While both trials look similar on the surface, their composition, scope, and framework were different
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U.S.–Japan Economic Contention in Manchukuo: What did Manchukuo’s Economic Control Bring to the U.S.–Japan Relationship? Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2023-04-05 Hayato Yukawa
This article examines the impact of Japan’s economic control of Manchukuo on U.S.-Japan relations. From 1933 to 1935, ties between the two countries came to a temporary standstill. However, during these years, Washington and Tokyo waged a diplomatic war in the background over Japan’s control of Manchukuo’s economy. Although the United States accused Japan of violating the Nine Power Treaty it had signed
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Interpreting Empire:English, U.S. Advisors, and Interpreters in the Korean War Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2022-12-26 Syrus Jin
The Korean Military Advisory Group (kmag) – a relatively small unit of U.S. Army officers – developed, advised, and exerted influence over the Republic of Korea (rok) Army from its inception in 1946 through the signing of the Korean War armistice in July 1953. kmag advisors served down to the battalion level, working alongside South Korean counterparts in rok Army units, causing language to be a crucial
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Journey to Equality: The Establishment of the Relationship Between the United States and Republic of Korea Forces in the Vietnam War Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2022-12-26 Hosub Shim
This article examines the problem of Operational Control (opcon) in the relationship the Republic of Korea Forces in Vietnam (rokfv) built with the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. When the rokfv deployed in Vietnam, they faced the dilemma of pursuing their own interests while maintaining a good relationship with U.S. forces. Therefore, the rokfv refused to fight under the opcon of U.S. forces
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‘Why Korea Failed?’: The American Discourse of Korea’s Historical Failure at the Turn of the 20th Century Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2022-12-26 Sang Mee Oh
The discourse of Korea’s failed history has been mostly a production of Japanese colonial scholarship, but the early texts that American authors produced were what guided the Western understanding of Korean history during the long 20th Century. Despite the importance of these texts that left significant imprints on later academic works and policy decisions, scholars have not as yet examined properly
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Exhibiting Transnationalism after Vietnam: The Alpha Gallery’s Vision of an Artistic Renaissance in Southeast Asia Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2022-09-23 Wen-Qing Ngoei
This essay examines the Alpha Gallery, an independent artists’ cooperative that Malaysians and Singaporeans established, which staged art shows during the 1970s to spark an artistic renaissance in Southeast Asia. The cooperative’s transnational vision involved showcasing Balinese folk art as a primitive and, therefore, intrinsically Southeast Asian aesthetic, while asserting that it shared cultural
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British Commonwealth Archives from Far North to Distant South: Neglected Resources for Cold War International History Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2022-07-29 Priscilla Roberts
British Commonwealth archives constitite a rich and often under-utilized source of material for understanding the international history of the 20th and 21st centuries. From the late 19th Century onward, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand each enjoyed close and confidential relations with not just Britain, but with each other and increasingly, too, with the United States. They also participated in major
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Emperor Hirohito’s Post-Surrender Reflections Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2022-07-29 Peter Mauch
This essay introduces readers to the recent discovery of the personal papers of Grand Steward Tajima Michiji. These documents capture the post-surrender reflections of Hirohito, Japan’s Shōwa Emperor, and record him speaking on such issues as his war responsibility, as well as the culpability of prewar politicians such as Konoe Fumimaro and General Tōjō Hideki. In August 2019, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (Japan
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Japanese Primary Sources Relating to World War ii: Post-Cold War Developments Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2022-07-29 Kazufumi Hamai, Peter Mauch
This article introduces readers to World War ii-era Japanese primary sources that have become available, over the last three decades, at the major archives and libraries. It also illustrates how and why some of these hitherto unavailable archival materials have become publicly accessible. At first, political, diplomatic and military historians primarily conducted their research at Diplomatic Archives
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An Insider’s Response to Racism: Abe Fortas and the Japanese Question during the Asia-Pacific War, 1941–1945 Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2021-12-21 Seok-Won Lee
Abe Fortas (1910–1982) has been best known for service during his legal career as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States for four years from 1965 to 1969. His supporters have characterized his life as a lawyer who supported and defended the American Civil Rights Movement during the tumultuous periods of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. However, observers of his career
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Triangular Francs: The Eisenhower Administration’s Complicated Franco-American-South Vietnamese System of Foreign Aid to Saigon Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2021-12-21 Lori Maguire
This article examines the little-known system of foreign aid that the Eisenhower administration called “triangular trade.” Created to increase development aid without specific Congressional authorization, U.S. officials managed it chaotically and often secretly. This article analyzes U.S. application of this policy in relations with France, focusing on an examination of “triangular francs” whose most
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Sarah Kovner, Prisoners of the Empire: Inside Japanese pow Camps Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2021-12-21 Thomas Saylor
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Icebreaking Cooperation: Resuming the Repatriation of U.S. Servicemen’s Remains from North Korea, 1985–1990 Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2021-09-08 Liu Zhaokun
Unrelenting animosity continues to define the relationship between the United States and North Korea, but in the mid-1980s, P’yŏngyang began to seek non-confrontational measures to fulfill one of its major diplomatic objectives—opening a channel of direct negotiation with Washington. The bodies of U.S. soldiers who had perished or gone missing in North Korea in 1950 during the Korean War became bargaining
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‘The Japanese Stand Today as Teachers of the Whole World’: American Food Reform and the Russo-Japanese War Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2021-09-08 Christine M. E. Guth
Japanese food first became the focus of serious attention in the United States during the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), when Japan’s victory over the Russian empire signaled that nation’s arrival as a new world power. This newfound interest had nothing to do with gastronomy. The conviction driving it was that diet and preventative health care in the Japanese military, which had been critical to its
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Negotiating an Unequal Partnership: The Korean Children’s Choir 1954 U.S. Tour and Syngman Rhee’s Diplomacy Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2021-09-08 Hye-jung Park
Most studies of U.S. cultural diplomacy focus on the ways that the United States has leveraged cultural events to achieve its own political ends. The present article takes a slightly different approach in its analysis of the 1954 Korean Children’s Choir (kcc) tour of the United States. Using copious documentary sources and interviews the author has conducted with former child choristers, it traces
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Jennifer Miller, Cold War Democracy: The United States and Japan Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2021-09-08 Taro Tsuda
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Christopher Capozzola, Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America’s First Pacific Century Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2021-09-08 Zachary M. Matusheski
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Odd Arne Westad, Empire and Righteous Nation: 600 Years of China-Korea Relations Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2021-09-08 Zhijun Ren
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Rethinking Sino-U.S. Rapprochement: Unconventional Forms of Diplomacy Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2021-06-23 Alsu Tagirova
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Samuel Wells, Fearing the Worst: How the Korean War Transformed the Cold War Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-12-16 Zachary M. Matusheski
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Craig Etcheson, Extraordinary Justice: Law, Politics, and the Khmer Rouge Tribunals Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-12-16 Kenton Clymer
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Top-Down Democracy in South Korea, written by Erik Mobrand Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-07-15 Clint Work
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North Korea: A History, written by Michael J. Seth Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-07-15 Rob York
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To Build as Well as Destroy: American Nation Building in South Vietnam, written by Andrew J. Gawthorpe Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-07-15 Zachary Matusheski
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“Frank Knox’s Fifth Column in Hawai’i: The U.S. Navy, the Japanese, and the Pearl Harbor Attack” Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-07-15 Brian Masaru Hayashi
Secretary of Navy Frank Knox declared a week after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor that fifth columnist activities were partly responsible for the success of Imperial Japanese forces. Who and what he meant when he used the phrase “fifth columnist activities” is subject to debate. Most assume he was referring to all Japanese Americans or Japanese nationals residing in Hawai’i. But this essay, based on
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Ankit Panda, Kim Jong Un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-05-07 Rob York
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Jung H. Pak, Becoming Kim Jong Un: A Former CIA Officer’s Insights Into North Korea’s Enigmatic Young Dictator Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-05-07 Brandon K. Gauthier
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Eiichiro Azuma, In Search of Our Frontier: Japanese America and Settler Colonialism in the Construction of Japan’s Borderless Empire Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-05-07 Anne Giblin Gedacht
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“Untold Stories of Issei Women: Collective Images and Individual Experiences in Japanese American Oral History” Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-05-07 Ryoko Okamura
This article examines the relationship between the Japanese American redress movement and the oral interviews of two Japanese immigrant women, known as Issei women. Focusing on the shared images of Issei women in the Japanese American community and the perspectives and self-representations of the interviewees in the oral interviews, it explores how cultural consensus produced stereotypical, collective
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Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan, written by Jolyon Baraka Thomas Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-03-19 Jason Morgan
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Satō, America, and the Cold War: US-Japanese Relations, 1964–72, written by Fintan Hoey Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-03-19 Taro Tsuda
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Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power, written by Sheila A. Smith Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-03-19 Jason Morgan
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Gunboat Diplomacy of a Different Kind: Robert H. Pruyn and Japan’s Purchase of U.S. Warships, 1862–1865 Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-03-19 Susanna Fessler
This article examines the handling of a contract between the Shogunate of Japan and private agents in the United States for the construction of three ships of war in 1862. Robert H. Pruyn, the U.S. minister, received the original order and down payment from the Japanese government and assigned the contract to two private citizens in Albany, New York. Over the course of the next three years, complications
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Preparing the South Pacific for U.S. Influence: The uss Narragansett in Samoa, 1872 Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2020-03-19 Kenneth J. Blume
This article explores the diplomatic negotiations that U.S. Navy Commander Richard W. Meade conducted in Samoa in 1872. The resulting agreement that came to be known as “the Meade Treaty” was the first the United States negotiated with Samoa, but scholars usually have not explored the details of it and the process that produced it because the U.S. Senate rejected the treaty. Meade’s motivations and
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Southeast Asia’s Cold War: An Interpretive History, written by Ang Cheng Guan Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Dan McCoy
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Rival Reputations: Coercion and Credibility in US-North Korea Relations, written by Van Jackson Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Mark E. Caprio
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The Evolution of the South Korea-United States Alliance, written by Uk Heo and Terence Roehrig Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Clint Work
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The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empire, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam, written by Michael G. Vann and Liz Clarke Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Zachary M. Matusheski
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“The Anatomy of Allied Occupation: Contesting the Resumption of Japanese Antarctic Whaling, 1945–1952” Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Christopher Aldous
This article scrutinizes the controversy surrounding the resumption of Japanese Antarctic whaling from 1946, focusing on the negotiations and concessions that underline the nature of the Allied Occupation as an international undertaking. Britain, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand objected to Japanese pelagic whaling, chiefly on the grounds of its past record of wasteful and inefficient operations
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“Welcome to Japan!: How U.S. Marine Corps Orientation Materials Erase, Coopt, and Dismiss Local Resistance” Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-12-09 Carl A. Gabrielson
After seventy years, U.S. bases in Japan continue to inspire ambivalence, resentment, resistance, and even fear for many Japanese people. To improve the public image of the U.S. armed forces, base administrators create training materials designed to promote cultural awareness, prevent troops’ crimes, and discourage bad behavior. But how does the organization whose purpose is to violently oppose foreign
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Korea: Where the American Century Began, written by Michael Pembroke, (2018) Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-08-27 David Tizzard
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Heroes and Toilers: Work as Life in Postwar North Korea, written by Cheehyung Harrison Kim, (2018) Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-08-27 Brandon K. Gauthier
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“To Do Nothing Would be to Dig Our Own Graves: Student Activism in the Republic of Vietnam” Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-08-27 Heather Stur
During the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese students were some of the most vocal activists asserting multiple visions for Vietnam’s future. Students’ attitudes spanned the political spectrum from staunchly anti-Communist to supportive of the National Liberation Front. Like young people throughout the world in the 1960s, students in South Vietnam embodied the spirit of the global Sixties as a hopeful moment
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North Korea and Myanmar: Divergent Paths, written by Andray Abrahamian, (2018) Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-05-07 Rob York
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Soldiering Through Empire: Race and the Making of the Decolonizing Pacific, written by Simeon Man, (2018) Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-05-07 Heather Marie Stur
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Mr. X and the Pacific: George F. Kennan and American Policy in East Asia, written by Paul J. Heer, (2018) Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-05-07 Brandon K. Gauthier
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“Treating Allies with Respect: U.S.-rok Alliance and the Second Korean Nuclear Crisis, 2002–2006” Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-05-07 James Jungbok Lee
This article examines the reasons why the level of alliance cohesion between the United States and the Republic of Korea (rok) was suboptimal during the Second North Korean Nuclear Crisis (2002–2006). Existing studies on this phenomenon primarily attribute its causes to factors like the rise of anti-Americanism in the rok and/or the increasing divergence in the two nations’ respective threat perceptions
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“Blood Politics: Reproducing the Children of ‘Others’ in the 1982 Amerasian Immigration Act” Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-02-13 Sabrina Thomas
This article examines the u.s. Congressional debates in 1981 and 1982 over the Amerasian Immigration Act (aia), which provided preferential immigration status for the Amerasians of Southeast Asia. The debates exposed conflict on issues of American identity, race, and nation and the gendered nature of u.s. immigration and citizenship policy. This article considers how lawmakers on both sides of the
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“Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Document Destruction Order of 7 August 1945” Journal of American-East Asian Relations Pub Date : 2019-02-13 Brian P. Walsh
Over the years, there has been a great deal of debate about whether the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the Soviet Union’s entrance into World War ii against Japan was a more decisive factor in bringing about a Japanese surrender. This debate often has focused on the days between the bombing of Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and the Soviet declaration of war (first learned in Japan on
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