Dr Yasuko Claremont
Department of Japanese Studies
20 September 2013
Dear Colleagues,
Please find below an invitation to a three-day symposium at the Academy of
Korean Studies , 23-25 April 2014, entitled: “Wounds, Scars, and Healing: Civil
Society and Postwar Pacific Basin Reconciliation.”
Thank you very much for expressing your willingness to participate in our Seoul
Symposium, 23 – 25 April 2014. On behalf of the organizing committee we are now calling for abstracts.
Call for Abstracts
In keeping with our principle of highlighting the importance of the ongoing discussion concerning postwar Pacific Basin reconciliation, your abstracts should refer to the necessarily broad descriptions of the themes of the Seoul symposium that have been stated in our first letter.
As we will be in Seoul with our Korean colleagues working in this area, we will particularly welcome receiving abstracts specifically looking at Japanese-Korean relationships and ongoing ramifications that exist in the aftermath of the Asia-
Pacific conflict. We ask speakers, contributors and participants to go beyond the spectre of negativity enveloping the China-Japan-Korea triumvirate via the entrenched discourses of ianfu (comfort women); the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; ryōdo mondai (territorial disputes); Yasukuni-shrine visits; history textbook controversies; war reparations; zainichi discrimination, and many other dormant stumbling blocks, and instead concentrate on the often overlooked positive aspects resulting from long standing international relationships between these countries that now flourish.
Please submit a short abstract of no more than 250 words highlighting the positive aspects of Korean-Japanese relations on such diverse topics as: historical reconciliation; cross-cultural and cross-literary trends to highlight mutual
Department of Japanese Studies
Faculty of Arts
Rm 550, Brennan MacCallum A18
University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia
T +61 2 9351 4500
F +61 2 9351 2319
E yasuko.claremont@sydney.edu.au sydney.edu.au
ABN 15 211 513
464
CRICOS 00026A

understanding; socio-political activism towards improving international relations and pop-cultural interests and activities that join young generations together.
We look forward to receiving your abstract by: 31 October 2013.
Please forward your abstract to Dr Roman Rosenbaum on roman.rosenbaum@sydney.edu.au
and cc to me yasuko.claremont@sydney.edu.au
As explained in our first letter, the three-day symposium at the Academy of
Korean Studies in Seoul from 23-25 April 2014 will be part of a larger undertaking to elucidate the contemporary ramifications of the Asia-Pacific War and its consequences.
Part I: An initial one day International Symposium was held at the University of
Sydney on 30 September 2011 entitled: The Asia-Pacific War: Return,
Representation, Reconciliation . References: http://sydney.edu.au/arts/publications/JOSA/AsiaPacificWar.htm
Part II: A follow up symposium was held at the University of Sydney on 5
November 2012 entitled: Looking Back on the Asia-Pacific war: Art, Cinema and
Media . References: http://sydney.edu.au/arts/publications/JOSA/AsiaPacificWarPart2.htm
The result of these Proceedings was published as a special issue entitled Memorial
Diplomacy and the Asia-Pacific War in the Journal of the Oriental Society of
Australia (JOSA): Vol.44
(2012). Available online at: http://search.informit.com.au/browsePublication;py=2013;vol=44;res=IELHSS;iss n=0030-5340;iss=Special%20Issue
This CFA relates to the preparation of the third part in this series entitled:
International Symposium (Part III): Wounds, Scars, and Healing: Civil Society and Postwar Pacific Basin Reconciliation.
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Kind regards,
Yasuko and Roman
The organizing committee members are:
Lionel Babicz, The University of Sydney, Japanese Studies, lionel.babicz@sydney.edu.au
;
Yasuko Claremont, The University of Sydney, Japanese Studies, yasuko.claremont@sydney.edu.au
;
Judith Keene, The University of Sydney, History, judith.keene@sydney.edu.au
;
Michael Lewis, The University of Sydney, Japanese Studies, m.lewis@sydney.edu.au
;
Pankaj Mohan, The Academy of Korean Studies, pankaj@aks.ac.kr
;
Roman Rosenbaum, The University of Sydney, Japanese Studies, roman.rosenbaum@sydney.edu.au
.
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