2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Multi-Archival Analysis of Critical Junctures in Post-war Northeast Asia

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	19H00575
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 6:Political science and related fields
Research Institution	Hokkaido University
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)
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, 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)
Project Period (FY)	2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
Keywords	Cold War / International Relations / History / Japan / China / Russia / Korea / United States
Outline of Final Research Achievements	This Kaken gathered documentation on major shifts in Northeast Asian politics that took place at “critical junctures” during the Cold War period by drawing on the Japanese Foreign Ministry regular declassifications and filing additional FOIA requests. We focused on divided China, divided Korea, territorial issues, alliance dynamics and Okinawa. The new Japanese materials were paired with American, Chinese, Korean and Russian documents to write fundamentally new accounts of Japan's role in Asia’s Cold War, including hot wars in Korea and Vietnam. The papers completed by members of this Kaken, together with scholars brought together at Kaken events, have been combined into a coedited manuscript of several hundred pages on Japan in the Cold War soon to be submitted to Stanford University Press for inclusion in its Cold War International History Book Series. We hope for speedy publication to disseminate the results of this Kaken as a major contribution to international Cold War studies.
Free Research Field	international relations
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	Our Kaken members analyzed new documents from both sides of the Cold War to understand better the agreements and conflicts of that period and today. Although Japan is often portrayed as a passive actor in the Cold War, our analysis disagrees, highlighting Japanese documentation and activities.