Featuring
Thomas W. Burkman
Research Professor in Asian Studies, State University of New York at Buffalo
Visiting Fellow, Kroc Institute
Korea and China’s animosity toward Japan is well-known. The populaces who live near Japan perpetuate negative images of the island nation as an imperialist and colonialist state, and their governments do little to moderate the animosity. Koreans and Chinese demand apology, acts of contrition, and revisions to what young Japanese are taught about their national past. Japanese apologies – often conveyed with mixed signals – are never good enough, adding another layer to the rancor.
In this talk, Burkman will consider comparative studies in postwar German diplomacy toward victims of Nazi aggression and atrocities as well as the relationship of Thailand to Japan during and since World War II. Can new paradigms and procedures from the field of peacebuilding and conflict transformation moderate rigid constructs of “the other” and help heal the painful past in East Asia?
Thomas Burkman, a 20th-century Japanese historian, is a research professor of Asian Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he also holds an adjunct faculty appointment in the department of history. Burkman’s work focuses on Japan’s relationship to world order in the 1920s and 30s, as well as the Allied occupation of Japan following the Second World War.
Free and open to the public.
A light lunch will be available.
