2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Switzerland and Japan during the Long Second World War: A Diplomatic History
| Project/Area Number |
21K13087
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
LOTTAZ Pascal 早稲田大学, 高等研究所, 講師(任期付) (40844014)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | Archival Work |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In the first year of the research project, I was able to search for and find important source materials from Swiss archives and libraries on the bilateral relationship of the two countries during the 1930s. This is a crucial period to understand the over-all economic, political, and diplomatic situation. I could evaluate a large part of the materials, albeit not yet all of it. I could implement OCR process to many machine written documents which enables me to do key word searches of the archival materials and do some statistical analysis of the data as well. However, especially on the economic interactions of the two countries, the project still lacks sources to evaluate the trade relationship. This will be part of this years research agenda.
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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
The first year of the project was dedicated to identifying and obtaining source materials. This has progressed according to plan. However, there are still some holes in the materials gathered. Some additional economic data and information about the propagandistic efforts of the Swiss in relations to Japan will need to be researched in the second year of the project.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I am planning to work on a first draft of several chapters of the project by the end of this year. At the same time, I want to do one more round of research in Swiss Archives. I am hoping to find the missing economic data as well as more sources on the general information environment in Switzerland of the 1930s and 1940s to evaluate if information from or about Japan was treated in the same way as information form or about Germany and Italy. Especially the decisions of the "censorship board" of the Swiss needs to be studied in more detail to understand if parts of the government structure actively tried to manage the information flow about Japan or not.
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| Causes of Carryover |
I could use nearly the entire amount planned last year. The left overs and the amount for this year will be used to finance one more research trip and some data processing costs to analyze the archival documents as well as costs to participate in international conferences to present research findings.
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| Remarks |
I hosted several webinars with other scholars in relation to the project. Some of them publicly accessible through the above homepage of neutralitystudies.com.
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Research Products
(5 results)
