https://wcaas2021.byu.edu/

WCAAS 2021: SHIFTING PARADIGMS IN ASIAN STUDIES (Proposal Deadline EXTENDED)

7–9 October 2021

Virtual Conference on Zoom

Hosted by Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

The tumultuous events of this past year have upended societies around the world, inspiring reevaluations of past traditions as well as social, political, and cultural practices moving forward. For this conference, we invite proposals across a range of disciplines that seek to reevaluate the contexts within which our understanding of the cultural, historical, economic, and political conditions of Asia’s past, present, and future are based. We encourage proposals that deal with traditions in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and other Asian regions; regional connections within Asia; and Asia’s interconnections with other world regions.

Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah will host this virtual conference, which will be held exclusively on Zoom. We invite proposals for three types of events: general sessions of approximately 90 minutes, which could include paper panels, roundtables, workshops, and poster sessions; workshop groups designed for graduate students; and a poster session for undergraduates. Individual paper submissions will not be considered for this conference.

The deadline for proposal submissions has been extended. Please see the new due dates below and follow the links to submit a proposal. We hope to send out letters of acceptance in late August or early September via email. A preliminary program will be posted on our website in September.

Submit a Panel or Roundtable proposal here (Deadline: 15 August 2021)
Submit a Graduate Workshop proposal here (Deadline: 5 September 2021)
Submit an Undergraduate Poster proposal here (Deadline: 5 September 2021)

The conference is free and open to all; no registration fees will be required.

Contact conference organizer Marc Yamada (my@byu.edu) with any questions.

WCAAS 2021: Panel and Roundtable Proposal 

Note: Panels and Roundtables must have a minimum of three and up to four Panelists and a designated Chair (the Discussant is optional). 

Title of Panel:

Post-Colonial/ Post-Cold War Trends in the Studies of U.S.-Japan Relations

Name of Organizer:

Masami Kimura

Organizer’s Email:

masamik520@gmail.com

Organizer’s Affiliation:

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Panel/Roundtable Area of Study

East Asia

Panel Abstract (Max 250 Words):

Postwar U.S.-Japan relations have been informed by the Cold War, and the studies themselves have reflected the Cold War critics’ views of U.S. diplomacy and Japanese domestic politics. Yet, postcolonial studies, the end of the Cold War, and an emergence of younger generations of scholars in this field have contributed to providing new perspectives and insights for our understanding of U.S.-Japan relations, going beyond the bilateral framework and shedding light on the intellectual and cultural nexuses between the two. Masami Kimura reexamines the American and Japanese views of Japan’s “failed modernity” to which both attributed its overseas aggression, showing overlaps of their modernization ideologies and goals which provided a propelling force for post-surrender reform. Yoneyuki Sugita reconsiders the Yoshida Doctrine, postwar Japan’s grand strategy prioritizing economic recovery over rearmament, and reveals how the policy actually led to Japan’s steady militarization, making it one of the world’s leading military powers. Yutaka Kanda discusses Japanese socialists’ role in networking non-communist socialists in Europe and Asia in the 1950s, aiming to expand a U.S.-centric view of the existing literature on Japanese socialists’ foreign policy that focuses only on their anti-Security Treaty stance and “unarmed neutralism.” Thus, under the influence of new scholarly trends, our panel illuminates Japanese actors’ thoughts, policies, and actions and in so doing contributes fresh ways of looking into postwar U.S.-Japan relations.

Panelist 1:

Name: Masami Kimura

Email: masamik520@gmail.com

Affiliation: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Paper 1 Title: Japan’s “Failed Modernity” and the Origins of War: American and Japanese Analyses Reconsidered

Paper 1 Abstract (Max 250 Words):

The study of postwar U.S.-Japan relations has been dominated by political-diplomatic history, but this presentation is an attempt to show the intellectual-cultural factor in the reformation of the relationship between the two after the Asia-Pacific War. In the late 1930s-1940s, the Americans analyzed modern Japanese history and society to find the roots of Japanese overseas aggression and to make a plan for postwar Japan, but in fact, once the war was over, the Japanese themselves discussed the shortcomings of the Japanese state and society rooted exactly in their underdevelopment and, attributing them to war, also called for further modernization. Thus, by comparatively examining American and Japanese discourses of this period, the presentation shows how they, as modernization thinkers, shared similar and parallel ideas about Japan and helped promote not only occupation reform but also the rehabilitation of U.S.-Japan relations.

Panelist 2:

Name: Yoneyuki Sugita

Email: ysugita@kwjc.kobe-wu.ac.jp

Affiliation: Kobe Women’s Junior College, Japan

Paper 2 Title: The Yoshida Doctrine and Silent Rearmament

Paper 2 Abstract (Max 250 Words):

The Yoshida Doctrine has been interpreted as a pillar of post-World War II Japanese foreign and security policy. This presentation will address a research question: What were the consequences of the Yoshida Doctrine? If military development was substantially downplayed in favor of economic growth, how did Japan become a leading military power as it is now? Under constant pressure to rearm, facing repeated demands for an increase in expenditure on defense, Japan slowly but steadily expanded its defense budget so as not to be abandoned by the United States. As a result, an unexpected consequence of the Yoshida Doctrine was that Japan’s steady militarization would eventually make it one of the world’s leading military powers, while attracting little or no negative attention from the Western nations.

Panelist 3:

Name: Yutaka Kanda

Email: yutaka.kanda@gmail.com

Affiliation: Niigata University, Japan

Paper 3 Title: The Japan Socialist Party, Anti-Communism, and International Networks of Social Democracy in the 1950s

Paper 3 Abstract (Max 250 Words):

The foreign policy of the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) has mostly been discussed in the context of bilateral U.S.-Japan relations, particularly with a focus on their idealistic goal of “unarmed neutrality” seeking for peace and independence from the American Cold War strategy. However, Japanese socialists in the 1950s had a broad view on international order and attempted to construct non-communist networks connecting with socialists in Europe and Asia. For competing against the communist offensive, the rightists of the JSP took the initiative to form an anti-communist international network of democratic socialists, trying to combine European and Asian regional socialist organizations. Yet, as the thaw of the Cold War progressed in the middle of the 1950s, the leftists controlled the party and attempted to transform the Asian socialist network into the organization for the solidarity of the South.

Panel Chair:

Name: Masami Kimura

Email: masamik520@gmail.com

Affiliation: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Contact:

Masaki Kimura (Panelist, Chair, and organizer): masamik520@gmail.com

Yutaka Kanda (Panelist): kanda@jura.niigata-u.ac.jp

Yoneyuki Sugita (Panelist): ysugita@kwjc.kobe-wu.ac.jp