2016 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
The potential of war heritage sites as educational and touristic attractions in Japan: comparative studies with five relevant countries
| Project/Area Number |
15H03149
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| Research Institution | Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University |
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Principal Investigator |
吉田 香織 立命館アジア太平洋大学, アジア太平洋学部, 教授 (00550386)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
リー ティモシー 立命館アジア太平洋大学, アジア太平洋学部, 教授 (20635495)
COOPER M・J・M 立命館アジア太平洋大学, アジア太平洋学部, 教授 (50369146)
BUI ThanhHuong 立命館アジア太平洋大学, アジア太平洋学部, 准教授 (80711556)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
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| Keywords | dark tourism / war memory / war and tourism / war and entertainment / war education / war heritage |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The project members have accomplished the followings in the year 2016.
1) Kaori Yoshida: a) Fieldwork in Seoul, collecting materials, visiting war-related sites (war museum, DMZ); b) 2 Field works in Vietnam (Hanoi, Ho chi minh, Da Nang), collecting materials, visiting war-related sites (Southern Central Bureau Base, My Lai Massacre vestige, Army museum Division 5; c) Fieldwork in Okinawa war museum; d) Fieldwork in Tokyo, collecting materials at museums (Showa-kan, Shokei-kan); e) Interviews at 3 travel agencies of educational school tour (shugaku ryokou) in Tokyo; f) Interviews with the director of school tour at Okinawa Tourism Convention Bureau; g) Present results at an international conference; h) Literature review on war and education
2) Huong T. Bui: a) Interview with Department of Trade and Tourism and tour guides at war-related tourism sites in Vietnam; b) 2 Field works in Vietnam (DMZ, Vinh Moc Tunnel system, etc); c) Present results at an international conference; d) Hold workshop at Vietnam National University
3) Malcolm Cooper: a) Further literature review on the Normandy landings of WWII, the involvement of the US, Australia, and New Zealand; b) Field works in South Coast of England, collecting evidence on the role of battlefield site visitation; c) Field work in Normandy, collecting materials; d) Field work in Chiran and Yasukuni Shrine, collecting materials; e) Present results at an international conference
4) Timothy Lee: a) Field work in South Korea (War Memorial and DMZ) to collect materials; b) Interviews with stakeholders
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
We evaluate our progress of the year 2016 reasonably well for the following reasons:
(1) Extensive amount of field works and thorough investigations in each region involved in the project, and accomplished a fair amount of data (Vietnam, Normandy, Korea, Japan)
(2) Accomplished very focused interviews with stakeholders (travel bureaus, governmental officers, travel agencies, tour guides) and collected invaluable information, as well as acquired good connections with them for further research
(3) Each of the project members presented updated results at international conferences and received good feedback
(4) Developed literature review from newer perspectives based on the results from the previous year
(5) Received and worked on a book project based on this project, which we will work on intensively in the final year
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Based on the findings from all of the field works in each region will be synthesized to identify general themes or concepts, in order to link them to the book manuscript project derived from this project in the final year. In so doing the project will proceed on the following 3 main focuses, along with continuing literature review.
(1) Work on and complete the book manuscript (each of the project members will write 2 chapters based on the results from the project); (2) Interviews with school teachers who organize and initiate war-related school trips (Japan); (3) Further investigations on several sites (Vietnam, Japan, South Korea); (4) Follow-up interviews with Okinawa Tourism Convention Bureau to get updated information about war-related site visitation, as well as follow-up interviews in tourism officials in Vietnam; (5) Present the final results at international conferences; (6) Writing articles for academic journals
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