2021 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Multi-Archival Analysis of Critical Junctures in Post-war Northeast Asia
| Project/Area Number |
19H00575
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| Research Institution | Hokkaido University |
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Principal Investigator |
Wolff David 北海道大学, スラブ・ユーラシア研究センター, 教授 (60435948)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
李 鍾元 早稲田大学, 国際学術院(アジア太平洋研究科), 教授 (20210809)
岩下 明裕 北海道大学, スラブ・ユーラシア研究センター, 教授 (20243876)
泉川 泰博 青山学院大学, 国際政治経済学部, 教授 (60352449)
楠 綾子 国際日本文化研究センター, 研究部, 准教授 (60531960)
井上 正也 慶應義塾大学, 法学部(三田), 教授 (70550945)
松本 はる香 独立行政法人日本貿易振興機構アジア経済研究所, 地域研究センター東アジア研究グループ, 研究グループ長 (90450543)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | Northeast Asia / International Relations / Conflict / Foreign Policy / Japan |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
On October 15-18, 2021 a workshop on “Japan and the Korean Peninsula in the Cold War” was sponsored by Kaken A and held at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies of Waseda University. Papers were prepared and presented by scholars from South Korea, the PRC and Japan, covering a range of topics concentrated in the second half of the Cold War.
Cross-archival research made possible the connection of various initiatives not usually studied together. During the detente era, the Nixon opening to China brought on a brief period of relaxation on the Korean peninsula, as well as Japan’s outreach to China. The end of the Vietnamese war brought an end to this hiatus as Kim Il Sung prepared to turn the tide agains the “imperialists” in Asia. A few years later, Carter’s plan to withdraw US troops from South Korea also had implications and connections to Japan. Finally, the shifts of perestroika revealed a fluid conjuncture where, in Northeast Asia, the Korean peninsula was the focal point of new relations and missed opportunities. But the promise of Seoul’s Nordpolitik was never fully met, since it produced an opening to the USSR, but not to North Korea, the ultimate objective.
A sponsored panel at the International Studies Association Convention went further to include analysis of all members of the incipient Quad, including India and Australia.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Document collection and processing, paper preparation and preliminary presentations are proceeding on schedule, but international cooperation was negatively impacted in 2020, since buntansha could not travel abroad and international collaborators could not visit Japan for most of the year. The arrival of zoom facilities allowed us to overcome some of these delays.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
This coming year our Kaken group will continue to revise papers originally presented and critiqued at the SRC Summer Symposium in 2020 in preparation for a conference on national security hosted in Japan. At that time we will also hold a one-day workshop to plan the final stages of the Kaken. An additional event planned for this year is a two-day "Workshop on Japan's Cold War in the Context of Japan's 20th Century Diplomatic History" to be held with the authors of a soon-to-be-published new diplomatic history of Japan to discuss how some of the new perspectives on the Cold War being developed by our Kaken can already be incorporated into the coverage of Japan's postwar in volumes for wider dissemination. This will also be the last year for wholesale collection of new documents, as we focus on receiving copies from international collaborators, since the ravaging pandemic in Russia, the Russia-Ukraine war and China's zero-Covid policy will probably prevent visits to Russia and China. Japanese, Korea, Taiwanese and American archival materials are still being actively sought.
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