Paper short abstract:

This paper explores a possibility of reimagining the Prange Collection, the Archive of the Allied Occupation of Japan, as a vehicle to bridge the periodized historical narratives of print media and reshape literary landscape in response to the series of the events across the transwar decades.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores a possibility of reimagining an archival collection as a vehicle to revise historical narratives across the divide of war and reshape a scope of continuities and changes over the transwar decades. The Gordon W. Prange Collection is identified as the "Archive of the Allied Occupation of Japan" because of its comprehensive print publication holdings issued for the first four years of the Allied Occupation, 1945-1949. However, these materials were not necessarily brand new innovations for the postwar readership. Substantial numbers of the book titles were reprints or revised editions of the publications originated from the first four decades of the 20th century Japan. Numbers of magazines and journals were revival from the wartime suppression with modified or rechristened titles. Publishing companies were also postwar comeback, which emerged and flourished well before the Occupation period.

The Prange Collection, then, could be instrumental in situating the postwar print media retrospectively within the broader literary history, bridging the pre- and post-war literary trends, and revealing the historical continuities and changes from the early to mid-20th century Japan. Andrew Gordon theorizes these decades as the "transwar period," during which modernity emerged and evolved as manifested by the rise of a mass consumer society and the spread of commercialized leisure. If print media plays a key role in shaping and disseminating modern life style and products, analyzing reprinted or revised holdings comparatively with the original versions could be a feasible approach to examining the transwar trends of literary production and consumption and highlighting the process of evolving notions and practices of modernity. Uncovering the continuities and changes in these literary media could make it possible to deconstruct the periodized narratives of 20th literary media history and illuminate transwar landscape of literary phenomena in response to the series of the historical events, such as depression, wartime mobilization, and military occupation. By examining Prange's reprint or revised editions, this paper seeks a possibility of reinterpreting archival materials beyond the specific time and space and constructing transwar literary landscape transcending the periodized historical narratives of Japanese print media.

Paper short abstract:

The paper based upon recently discovered archive materials centers on the post war Sakhalin history when Karafuto library holdings left after the repatriation of the Japanese population were transferred in 1948 to Leningrad Institute of Oriental Studies.

Paper long abstract:

The St. Petersburg IOM RAS Library contains the biggest collection of Karafuto books that have not survived inside Japan.

The paper is focused on "when, why and how" 50-60 thousand Japanese books from Japanese libraries were gathered and transferred from Sakhalin (Jap. Karafuto) to Leningrad in the post war period when the Southern Sakhalin became the part of the USSR. For a long time this topic was hushed up by the Russian scholars, though the first short publication on the topic appeared in 2006, the concrete details of the book relocation operation came to light due to the recent discovery of the 300 hundred pages file in the IOM RAS archive. It contains documents concerning the legal grounds of the books transportation, the circumstances of their gathering, packing and shipment to Leningrad in 1948.

To a certain degree, this operation can be seen as a "rescue" of the abandoned books that were left after the repatriation of the Japanese population. Violence, disorder and chaos reigned in the first post-war years in the Southern Sakhalin. As is specified in the documents, Soviet soldiers and officers"were not aware" that this region became the part of the USSR and that they were not on the occupied territory. Thus the books were subjected to barbaric extermination. After the establishment of the civil administration the trophy books were put to fire as "politically harmful" editions rejected by the new authorities censorship.

The books have survived by a sheer luck - due to the efforts of the Institute Japanologist D.Goldberg who was recruited to the army during the WW2 and was in the Southern Sakhalin till 1947. Due to his official letter, the Institute sent two scholars to the Southern Sakhalin to bring the books.

The documents from the archive file not only allow us not to trace the book gathering and shipment operation, but provides us with a new insight of the post war Southern Sakhalin political situation.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines the historical understanding of the relationships between The Greater East Asia War and British India with a focus on ideologies, circumstances and developments thereby seeking new discussions into Japan-India relations based on newly declassified archival documents.

Paper long abstract:

Two unsatisfactory inquiry Commissions regarding the mystery around the death of the Indian nationalist hero Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in a plane crash over Taihoku, present-day Taipei. The controversial issue of his disappearance almost 70 years ago, resurfaced once again, with the Government of India declassifying 100 secret files on the 23rd day of January 2016. Japan too reciprocated with initiating discussions of declassifying papers in the same context. This dialogue undoubtedly plays a significant role in shaping Japan-India bilateral ties in the 21st century and also brings to the forefront the association of Netaji and the scope of activities by Indian revolutionaries in Japan and the rest of the world in relation to the Daitoa Senso or the Greater East Asia War.

Discussions on the Greater East Asia War, in post-war Japan, until very recently, tend to be or battling with polarized perspectives such as the leftist-liberal Tokyo Saiban Shikan (Tokyo Trial Historical Perspective) or the opposing conservative Kokoku Shikan (Imperial Nation Historical Perspective). Comments are then offered on aspects relating to the conundrum faced in the naming of the War itself. This presentation seeks to reexamine the historical understanding of the relationships between The Greater East Asia War and British India with a particular focus on the ideologies, circumstances and developments influencing both sides. The Greater East Asia War influenced not just South and East Asia but drew similar notions of a Greater Asia from other parts of the world where diasporic Indians had set the ball rolling for Indian aspirations of Self-rule. The nationalist Rash Behari Bose had escaped the British intelligence and landed in Japan in 1915, the initial phase of World War I. By persuading the Japanese nationalists to endorse and support the struggle for Indian freedom Rash Behari Bose paved the path for the arrival of Netaji and the Indian National Army on the scene.

Finally, this presentation will hope to open new research questions, on the past, present and future of Japan-India relations based on newly declassified archival documents.

Paper short abstract:

Based on documents in Swedish archives that so far have not been taken into account by researchers, this paper deals with collaboration between Swedish military intelligence and Japan's military attaché in Sweden during WWII, Onodera Makoto.

Paper long abstract:

Japan's military attaché in Sweden during WWII, Onodera Makoto (1897-1987), is a modern-day hero in the eyes of many Japanese. Arriving in Sweden in early 1941, Onodera was an intelligence officer whose accomplishments made him instantly famous, when they became known to the Japanese public in 1985, with the memoirs of his wife, Yuriko, and a documentary about Onodera on the NHK television channel. His fame rests not only on the fact that he was a skilled intelligence officer but also that he was a key person behind a famous peace feeler that involved King Gustaf V and other Swedish royalties.

A key task of a military attaché is to provide intelligence for his home base. Information is obtained in many ways, espionage, HUMINT, OSINT, collaboration and exchange with officials of the host country and intelligence officers of other countries posted in the host country, etc. Based on documents in Swedish archives that so far have not been taken into account, this paper deals with an area where hardly any research has been presented, the extent to which collaboration and exchange took place between Onodera and Swedish military intelligence. It is shown how the Swedes pursued a two-thronged approach to Onodera, one involving the chief of the C-Bureau, Carl Petersén, and Onodera; and the other involving "X" representing the C-Bureau and "Y" representing Onodera. At the same time exchange was used in deception operations targeting Onodera that Petersén and the C-Bureau were involved in.