Political economist Phillip Lipscy spoke recently with Estrategia, a leading Chilean finance and business publication, about the politics of the financial crisis in the Euro Area, as well as what kind of implications it might have for the U.S. and Chinese economies. (Spanish-language interview)
The economic reforms of the past two decades have initiated a major social transition in China, characterized by unprecedented social mobility and stratification. Meanwhile, the privatization of health care has increased costs to the consumer and further changed familial and social norms. While such changes would logically affect individuals’ psychological well-being, little attention has been paid to their impact in this regard. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS 2005), this paper looks at the relationships between social change, social support and the psychological well-being of individuals in both urban and rural areas, as well as the role of marital status in Chinese society. We find that an increasing health care burden is significantly reducing individuals’ psychological well-being. Perceptions of social status, especially as it changes over time and when compared against peers, also have an effect. Social support has protective function for psychological well-being, and also compensates for the negative effect of increasing health-care burden and relative deprivation during social change on psychological well-being. Marital status is also significantly correlated with psychological well-being, and moderates the relationships between social change, other social support and psychological health, especially in rural cases.
World War Two, the most violent period in the modern history of Europe and Asia (1937–1945), left deep scars still evident on both continents. Numerous and often conflicting narratives exist about the wartime era, ranging from personal memoirs to official accounts of wartime actions. Many issues, from collaboration to responsibility for war crimes, remain unresolved. In Europe some issues that have been buried for decades, such as the record of collaboration with Nazi occupiers, are now resurfacing. In Northeast Asia, World War Two’s complex, painful legacy continues to impact popular culture, education, diplomacy, and even economic relations.
While differences exist in the wartime circumstances and reconciliation processes of Europe and Asia, many valuable lessons can be gained through a study of the experiences on both continents. The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) facilitated a comparative dialogue on World War Two, bringing together 15 noted experts for the Colonialism, Collaboration, and Criminality conference, held June 16 to 17 at Stanford. Each of the event’s five panels paired an Asia and a Europe scholar addressing a common theme.
The debate over remembrance of World War Two
Asia’s relative lack of progress in achieving reconciliation of the painful legacies of the war in Asia and the Pacific continues to bedevil current relations in the region. This is a consequence of the way the Cold War interrupted the resolution of wartime issues and blocked dialogue over the past, particularly between Japan, China, and South Korea, suggested Daniel C. Sneider, associate director for research at Shorenstein APARC. The widely held image of an unrepentant Japan ignores the fierce debate within Japan over wartime memory, often obscured by the prominence of rightwing nationalist views. Meanwhile, within China and Korea, wartime memory is also increasingly contested ground, from the issue of collaboration to the emergence of a more nationalist narrative in China, further complicating relations among those Asian neighbors.
Daniel Chirot, a professor of international studies at the University of Washington, emphasized that immediate postwar economic and security needs, including the growth of Communism, accelerated West Germany’s willingness to reconcile with its Western neighbors. He concurred with Sneider, saying that no such imperative existed in Northeast Asia until the need for economic cooperation three decades after the war. He suggested that the growth of regional integration might, as in Europe, drive Northeast Asia toward greater reconciliation.
Divided memories
Justice for sensitive historical human rights issues, such as World War Two atrocities, bears increasing importance in today’s ever-globalized economic and political climate, stated Thomas Berger, a professor of international relations at Boston University. Berger noted the challenge that Japan’s factional politics poses to a revision of the country’s official wartime narrative, and suggested that a strong regional structure, such as the European Union, could effectively facilitate reconciliation in Northeast Asia.
Frances Gouda, a professor of political science at the University of Amsterdam, examined the use of Anne Frank and former Indonesian president Sukarno as “icons of memory” in Dutch interpretations of World War Two. She asserted that Frank’s victimization allows people to come to terms with Nazi war crimes, but that Sukarno’s vilification as a Japanese collaborator oversimplifies history and allows the Netherlands to avoid confronting its own colonial past.
Collaboration and resistance
France’s Vichy regime, responsible both for collaborating with the Nazis and acting independently to persecute Jewish citizens, remains a painful and unresolved subject in the country’s contemporary quest for national identity, said Julian Jackson, a professor of history at Queen Mary, University of London. He pointed to French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s act of making a national martyr out of Guy Môquet, a young communist who died resisting the German Occupation, as a key example of the complexities involved in trying to come to terms with France’s past.
Ongoing territorial disputes over islands located between Japan and its neighbors in China and Korea are a product of the unresolved legacy of the wartime era in Asia. Sovereignty over those islands was left deliberately unresolved by the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty which formally ended the war, suggested Alexis Dudden, a professor of history from the University of Connecticut. As a result, the territorial disputes have become a battleground on which larger questions of historical memory about the war are contested, not only by Japanese conservatives but also by Koreans and Chinese, she said.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru’s press statement at the San Francisco Peace Treaty.
(U.S. National Archives)
Paths to reconciliation
Gi-Wook Shin, director of Shorenstein APARC and a professor of sociology, suggested that while Europe’s experience with war and reconciliation offers lessons for Asia, significant differences exist between the wartime and post-war situations of the two continents, and that reconciliation in Asia requires time. Increased economic interaction between the countries in Northeast Asia serves less to foster reconciliation, he said, than to spur competition for regional dominance. Shin emphasized that the United States, which has greatly impacted the region’s post-war history, can play a critical role as a facilitator in establishing lasting regional accord.
The Nazi regime’s systematic attempt to completely wipe out all traces of Jewish history and culture in Europe, even as closely bound as it was with Germany’s own traditions, is a unique case, stated Fania Oz-Salzberger, a professor of history at Haifa and Monash Universities. She explored universal elements in the German-Jewish reconciliation experience, noting, like Shin and Chirot, the important element of time that is needed to reflect upon painful events of the past. Oz-Salzberger especially spoke of the healing that takes place at the level of society and culture, sometimes even before governments are ready to reconcile with one another.
Continuing political impacts
Gilbert Rozman, a professor of sociology at Princeton University, suggested that Northeast Asia’s wartime history debates will continue to complicate regional relations unless China, Japan, and Korea reach a point of mutual reconciliation. He noted the role that Japan’s government, in the 1980s during its financial heyday, and more recently, China’s leaders during a similarly strong economic era, have played in prolonging the debate.
Memories of war are transmitted across the years through a complex process involving multiple actors and they can later influence political behavior, explained MIT political science professor Roger Petersen. He described the process within the context of the Lithuania’s successful declaration of independence from the former Soviet Union in January 1991. Petersen stated that Lithuanian émigrés, in part, helped keep the narrative of Soviet aggression and Lithuanian martyrdom alive until the conditions were right for action many decades later.
The Colonialism, Collaboration, and Criminality conference grew out of Shorenstein APARC’s Divided Memories and Reconciliation project, which for the past three years has examined the legacy of war-era memories in Northeast Asia and the United States and explored possible means of reconciliation. Shorenstein APARC has already published the first in a series of four books based on the project, and an edited volume of papers from the June 2011 conference is forthcoming next year.
Hero Image
Japanese wartime era postcard depicting the seizure of Rehe in northern China in late 1937.
Yoshimasa Waseda is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2011-12. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he has worked for the Japan Patent Office (JPO) since 1999. He has worked as a patent examiner, handling patent applications in the field of semiconductor device manufacturing. In 2010, he was in charge of policy planning of information searching. He obtained his BS and MS in Metallurgy and Ceramics Science from Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Masami Miyashita is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2011-12. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he held positions at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan (METI) for about 12 years, where he took charge of policy making. His latest position at METI was as deputy director for New Business Policy Office. He graduated from Tohoku University in Engineering.
Hideaki Koda is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2011-12. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he had been working at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation for 15 years. Following the national policy called e-Japan Strategy, he had been engaged in designing, developing and deploying information systems for the Japanese Government and the Supreme Court of Japan, as well as coordinating with clients, engineers and vendors as a project manager. He obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees in Electric Engineering from Waseda University.
Yuji Kamimai is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at Shorenstein APARC for 2011-12. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he has worked at Sumitomo Corporation, one of the major trading and investment conglomerates in Japan for ten years. After joining Sumitomo, he has been engaged in management of some of Sumitomo's affiliated companies such as internet streaming channel and CATV operating company in media industries.
He graduated from Waseda University with a degree in Science and Engineering.
Yasunori Kakemizu is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center for 2011–12. Kakemizu has more than 12 years of experience in media markets working for Sumitomo Corporation, one of Japan's major trading and investment conglomerates. Most recently, Kakemizu worked for Jupiter Telecommunications Co., Ltd. (one of Sumitomo Corporation's affiliated companies), and was responsible for service and business development.
Kakemizu received his bachelor's and master's degree in engineering science from Osaka University.
Katsunori Hirano is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2011–12. He was born in Shizuoka prefecture, "the sunny side of Mount Fuji," and has worked for the Shizuoka Prefectural Government for nearly 20 years. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he served in multiple roles at the Shizuoka Prefectural Government, including environmental policy-making, regional diplomacy, and inbound tourism promotion. During his fellowship at Shorenstein APARC, his research will focus on a paradigm shift harmonized with ecosystems and nature for a nuclear-free sustainable future.
Hirano earned his bachelor's degree in law from Chuo University, Japan, and his master's degree of arts in urban affairs and public policy, with a concentration in energy and environmental policy, from the University of Delaware.
The Asia Pacific Observatory (APO) on Health Systems and Policies was established in June 2011. It is a collaborative partnership of interested governments, international agencies, foundations, civil society, and the research community. Modeled on the European Observatory of the same name, the APO has as its main function the collection and analysis of information and research evidence on health care systems, policies, and reforms, with the aim of making this knowledge widely available and easily accessible throughout the Asia Pacific Region; it will also draw cross-country lessons and disseminate these in formats that can be directly used for policymaking.
This presentation will trace the history underlying the creation of the Observatory and indicate its objectives, organizational structure, and proposed modes of operation. It will describe the challenges of attempting to bring a wide range of stakeholders together in support of a regional collaborative research effort. It will also touch on ways that research entities located outside the Asia Pacific region might interact with the APO.
L. Richard Meyers was employed by the World Bank for two decades managing teams that carried out World Bank health sector projects and analytical work in a number of countries in East Asia. He directed a team that produced the first comprehensive health sector review for Vietnam, as well as the first Vietnam National Health Survey. He also led a team that produced the most comprehensive and empirically-based external analysis to date of the rural health sector in China. More recently he has worked with the European Health Observatory, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the WHO Western Pacific and South Asia regional offices, and other stakeholders to facilitate the creation of the Asia Pacific Observatory.
