The Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, the Center for Pacific and Asian Studies at The University of Tokyo and the Department of Area Studies at The University of Tokyo will present a 3 part discussion comparing the formation of divided memories in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States.

The aim of this research is that it puts Japanese textbooks in a comparative framework, and changes the nature of the dialogue about these issues as a result. We will NOT focus on Japanese textbooks per se but rather on the comparative analysis.

Part 1. Comparative Analysis of High School History textbooks in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States

• Professor Gi-Wook Shin (Director, Shorenstein APARC): an overview of our project
• Professor Peter Duus (Stanford University): the comparative analysis of historical narratives presented in the textbooks of China, Japan and the U.S.
• Professor Jae-Jung Chung (The University of Seoul) : the comparative analysis of textbooks in South Korea and Japan
• Dr. Weike Li (Editor, Peoples Education Press, Beijing): on Chinese textbooks
• Professor Haruo Tohmatsu (Tamagawa University): the comparative analysis of Japanese textbooks with other textbooks

Part 2. Textbooks as an International Relations issue

• Dr. Daniel Sneider (Shorenstein APARC): the history of textbooks as an international issue and the different approaches to solving it
• Professor Hiroshi Mitani (The University of Tokyo): the personal experiences with Sino-Japanese and Korean-Japanese historical Dialogue
• Professor Shinichi Kitaoka (The University of Tokyo, former ambassador to UN): the experience of official joint committee between Japan and China

Part 3. General Discussions

• Professor Tatsuhiko Tsukiashi (The University of Tokyo, Korean history)
• Professor Shin Kawashima (The University of Tokyo, Chinese history)

This talk will examine the phenomenon of anti-Americanism in the Republic of Korea (South Korea).  Contrary to widespread perception, the speaker argues that anti-Americanism in South Korea has a deep-rooted history, the expression of which was suppressed during decades of authoritarian rule.  Anti-Americanism in South Korea involves a sophisticated ideology, constituting a kind of belief system.  Kim will trace the history of such anti-Americanism from 1945 until the present.

Hakjoon Kim is a Distinguished Practitioner at Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford.  He is Chairman of the Dong-A Ilbo, one of South Korea's largest and most influential newspapers with a circulation of over two million.  He has served as President of the University of Inchon, the Korean Political Science Association, and the Korean Federation of Teachers' Associations.  He was a scholar at the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation in Germany and a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.  He received his B.A. from Seoul National Univeristy, M.A. from Kent State Universiy, and Ph.D. from University of Pittsburgh.

 

This event is supported by the generous grant from Academy of Korean Studies in Korea.

Mike Chinoy, the Pacific Council’s Edgerton Senior Fellow for Asia and author of the just-published and critically-received book, Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis will discuss the main themes in his book, update us on the recent developments in the Bush administration’s policy toward North Korea and assess what other policy options the next U.S. president might pursue.

Drawing on over 200 interviews conducted in Washington, Seoul, Tokyo and other Asian capitals – as well as insights gained from Mr. Chinoy’s 14 trips to Pyongyang – Meltdown provides a detailed account of the behind-the-scenes policy debates within the Bush administration and other governments that drove the recent confrontation over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.  It also offers important new details of the impact the crisis had on U.S. relations with its key regional allies – Japan and South Korea – and on Washington’s fraught relationship with Beijing. 

» Washington Post’s review of the "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis"

Mike Chinoy is one of America’s keenest observers of Asian affairs, having reported on the most important events in the region for almost thirty years. He previously served as CNN’s senior Asia correspondent (2000-06), its Hong Kong bureau chief (1996-2000), and Beijing bureau chief (1987-95).  Earlier, he spent four years as a reporter with NBC’s Hong Kong Bureau, and from 1975-78 he was a Hong Kong-based freelance reporter, contributing to CBS News as well as Newsday, The Far Eastern Economic Review and other publications.

Mr. Chinoy received an Emmy Award, an ACE Award, a Dupont Award and a Peabody Award for his coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crisis.  His critically-acclaimed reporting during those weeks has been credited with strengthening CNN as an authoritative force in international news coverage. Mr. Chinoy has also covered North Korea extensively, traveling there 14 times since 1989.  In April 1994, he became the first broadcaster to file live TV reports from North Korea, and was the only journalist to travel with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on his historic trip to Pyongyang in June of that year.

This talk will examine the challenges and problems that South Korea faces on its way to full-fledged democracy. The ideological composition of Korean society, the role of political parties, civil society and media as well as the attitude of public intellectuals will be assessed.

Se Il Park is a 2008-09 visiting scholar at APARC’s Korean Studies Program, and a professor of law and economics in the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University. He is the founder and the chairman of the board of Hansun Foundation for Freedom and Happiness, an independent, non-partisan think tank based in Seoul devoted to providing innovative and practical public policy recommendations to South Korean society at large.

Park is the author of many books, including Communitarian Liberalism (2008); National Strategy for Sunjinwha in Korea (National strategy to make Korea a world-class nation) (2006); Blueprint for Tertiary Education Reform in Korea (2003); Strategy for Presidential Success: Authority, Role, and Responsibility (2002); Growth, Productivity, and Vision for Korean Economy (2001); Reforming Labor Management Relations: lessons from the Korean experience: 1996-1997 (2000); and Law and Economics (2000).

Park served as Senior Secretary to the President for policy planning and social welfare in the Office of the President of the Republic of Korea from 1995 to 1998, and was a member of National Assembly of the Republic of Korea from 2004 to 2005. He also worked at the Korea Development Institute as a Senior Fellow from 1980 to 1985. Park received his B.A. from Seoul National University and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.

This event is supported by the generous grant from Academy of Korean Studies in Korea.