conference “Japanese Military Violence during the Asia-Pacific War” that will be held on 5 – 7 September 2024 at Freie Universität Berlin.
For the conference programme, please see below.
If you wish to attend the conference (in-person only, online participation is not possible), please register until next week by 30 August 2024 using this link: https://forms.gle/1RfCG4PizrsM9Pxk7
The conference is organised as part of the ERC project “Law Without Mercy: Japanese Courts-Martial and Military Courts during the Asia-Pacific War, 1937-1945” (https://www.lawwithoutmercy.eu).
Japanese Military Violence During the Asia-Pacific War
Conference Schedule
Venue: TOPOI Villa, Hittorfstrasse 18, 14195 Berlin
(Day 1) 5 September 2024
09:00 – 09:15 Welcome
09:15 – 10:45 Panel 1: Violence in the Philippines
Unavoidable Necessity: The Place of Violence in Kenpei Law Enforcement and Judicial Practice in the Philippines, 1942-45
Kelly Maddox, Freie Universität Berlin
Disobedience, Hermeneutics and Fear of Cowardice: The 1945 Manila Massacre Re- examined
Danny Orbach, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
10:45 – 11:15 Break
11:15 – 12:45 Panel 2: Violence and Strategic Warfare
Technological Violence: Japan’s Use of Biological and Chemical Weapons (BCW) in the Asia-Pacific War
Daqing Yang, George Washington University
Minami e: The Collapse of the Shuri Line, the Retreat South, and the Abandonment of Okinawa
Alexandra Valdez, Heidelberg University
12:45 – 13:45 Lunch
13:45 – 15:15 Panel 3: Violence against POWs
Reciprocity and the Dynamic of Violence against Captives in the Asia-Pacific War
Sarah Kovner, Columbia University
Inhuman and Imprudent but not Irrational: Japanese Treatment of POWs during the Asia-Pacific War
Rotem Kowner, University of Haifa
15:15 – 15:45 Break
15:45 – 17:15 Panel 4: Violence in China
Sankō sakusen and chian-sen
Toshiya Ikō, Tsuru University
(Day 2) 6 September 2024
09:00 – 10:30 Panel 5: Strategic Bombardment (Chair: Aaron Moore)
The Japanese Bombing of Chinese Cities: Toward a Global History of the War on Civilians
Sheldon Garon, Princeton University
Japanese and American Aerial Violence against Civilians during the Asia-Pacific War
Cary Karacas, City University of New York
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:30 Panel 6: Economic Exploitation
Give and Take? Food Administration as a Form of Structural Violence Imposed upon Occupied China
Chi Ho Kiang, Freie Universität Berlin
Robbing Civilians to Pay the Military: War Financing and Civilian Wealth Mobilisation in the Japanese Empire
Brian Tsz Ho Wong, University of Edinburgh
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 15:00 Panel 7: Violence within the Japanese Military
Agency in Intra-Military Violence: The Guantao jiken of 1942
Tino Schölz, Freie Universität Berlin
At the Hands of their Superiors: Violence Experienced by Japanese Military Personnel during the Asia-Pacific War as seen in Insights into Japanese Imperialism
Martin Ward, University of Leeds
15:00 – 15:30 Break
15:30 – 17:00 Panel 8: Agents of Violence
Civilian Interpreters as Participants in and Victims of Japanese Military Violence
Kayoko Takeda, Rikkyo University
The Adjudication of Sexual Violence by Japanese Legal Officers
Urs Matthias Zachmann, Freie Universität Berlin
(Day 3) 7 September 2024
09:00 – 10:30 Panel 9: The Legal Aftermath of Crimes
Retribution for Inhumane Conduct: The Japanese Military Legal System’s Response to the Doolittle Flyers Campaign in 1942
Nicolas Stassar, Freie Universität Berlin
Those guilty in ‘L’Affaire Haelewyn’: A Japanese War Crime and its Complicated Aftermath
Beatrice Trefalt, Monash University
10:30 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:30 Panel 10: Reflections on the Nature of Japanese Military Violence
Why Did the Japanese Commit War Crimes in the Pacific?
Sandra Wilson, Murdoch University
Was Japanese Military Violence Exceptional? Comparing Colonial Wars
Robert Cribb, Australian National University
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 15:00 Panel 11: Violence and Memory
Entwined Atrocities: Japanese and American Aerial Indiscriminate Bombings
Yuki Tanaka, Hiroshima City University
Japanese “Warscapes” in Memory Frames
Theodore F. Cook, William Paterson University
15:00 – Closing Discussion
