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Paper short abstract

How do we balance rigorous historical research with respect for the personal privacy of our research subjects and their descendants? Based on a fascinating set of letters detailing the end of a Japanese-German romantic relationship in 1936, this presentation interrogates the ethics of microhistory.

Paper long abstract

In the early summer of 1936, a Japanese woman called Tsuki received a letter that shattered her world: a break-up note from her German lover, G. A. Voss. Their relationship, already strained by the distance, collapsed under the weight of the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935, which defined and codified racial boundaries and made it impossible for Voss to continue working for his Jewish employer in Tokyo. He framed his decision to remain in Germany as one of duty toward his family and his country, but for Tsuki, this was devastating. She chronicled her heartbreak, her efforts to reconnect with Voss, and her eventual decision to leave Japan for the United States in a series of letters to their mutual friend Aoyama Tadakazu. It was in a folder of Aoyama’s private correspondence that I stumbled upon Tsuki’s story in the archive.

As a historical resource, Tsuki’s letters are invaluable. They allow the historian a rare glimpse into the life and inner world of a marginalised historical actor – an ordinary Japanese woman. Tsuki’s experiences illuminate broader global connections and disconnections in the 1930s, providing a fascinating lens into the entangled forces of race, gender, and empire that shaped the world on the brink of the Second World War. But in the process of digging through the deeply personal details of Tsuki’s lovelife and family history in the name of scholarship, I found myself increasingly confronted by uncomfortable questions regarding the ethical stakes of narrating her story: How do we balance rigorous historical analysis with respect for the personal privacy of our research subjects and their descendants? What responsibilities do we take on when writing about the intimate relationships of someone who likely never intended for their private correspondence to enter an archive or be made public? And need historians even care about these ethical considerations? Drawing on scholars such as Michel Foucault and Saidiya Hartman, and taking insights from disciplines such as archival studies, this presentation will make a start at grappling with these questions, thereby reconsidering both the possibilities and limits of writing history from the margins.