Fwd: The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

[Aaron Gerow]

The new issue of Japan Focus is out with an article on Miyazaki, for  
those who are interested:

http://www.japanfocus.org/


Begin forwarded message:

> From: "The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus" <info at japanfocus.org>
> Date: May 11, 2009 5:00:07 AM EDT
> To: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
> Subject: The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus
> Reply-To: info at japanfocus.org
>
> To view this email as a webpage, click here.
> The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Newsletter
> Newsletter No. 19. 2009
> May 11, 2009
> New Articles Posted
> In This Issue
> Georgy Toloraya,
> The New Korean Cold War and the Possibility of Thaw
>
> Mark Levin and Virginia Tice,
> Japan's New Citizen Judges: How Secrecy Imperils Judicial Reform
>
> Fija Bairon, Matthias Brenzinger and Patrick Heinrich,
> The Ryukyus and the New, But Endangered, Languages of Japan
>
> Geoff Gunn,
> Origins of the American War in Vietnam: The OSS Role in Saigon in 1945
>
> David McNeill,
> Modern Life is Rubbish: Miyazaki Hayao Returns to Old-Fashioned  
> Filmmaking
>
> Seungsook Moon,
> The Cultural Politics of Remembering Park Chung Hee
>
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>
> Georgy Toloraya, The New Korean Cold War and the Possibility of Thaw
>
> The North Korean launch of an object -whether missile or satellite  
> - in early April, 2009 was promptly denounced by the United Nations  
> Security Council. Since then, the diplomatic atmosphere has  
> steadily worsened. On 29 April, a spokesman for the North Korean  
> Foreign Ministry issued a statement demanding that "the UNSC should  
> promptly make an apology for having infringed the sovereignty of  
> the DPRK and withdraw all its unreasonable and discriminative  
> 'resolutions' and decisions adopted against the DPRK." Otherwise,  
> the DPRK would take "additional self-defensive measures ...  
> including nuclear tests and test-firings of intercontinental  
> ballistic missiles," and would build a light water reactor to  
> ensure self-production of nuclear fuel. On 4 May, a Foreign  
> Ministry spokesman in Pyongyang declared there was "absolutely no  
> difference" between the Obama and the previous George W. Bush  
> administration.
> In this bleak and apparently deteriorating atmosphere, well-known  
> Russian Korea expert, Georgy Toloraya, visited North Korea. He  
> believes that the situation is not at all hopeless, and that the  
> deep freeze can be thawed. Here he offers his analysis and  
> prescription for a way out of the morass.
>
> Georgy Toloraya is a professional diplomat and currently Director  
> of Korean Research Programs, Institute of Economics, Russian  
> Academy of Science. He was a visiting fellow at CNAPS, Brookings  
> Institution, 2007-2008.
>
> He wrote this article for The Asia-Pacific Journal. Posted on May  
> 9, 2009.
>
>
> Read more...
> Mark Levin and Virginia Tice, Japan's New Citizen Judges: How  
> Secrecy Imperils Judicial Reform
>
> On May 21, 2009, lay citizens will join professional judges in  
> deciding the fate of suspects of major crimes in Japan's new saiban- 
> in or lay assessor system. This system, laudable for pursuing  
> public understanding and reform in a judiciary long criticized for  
> being distant and overly bureaucratized, contains provisions that  
> could do as much harm as good.  Among causes for concern, the new  
> law contains a harsh secrecy provision that stands out as a  
> potential source of problems.  This provision, which threatens to  
> imprison or fine citizens who speak too freely about their service  
> as lay assessors, will make reporting misconduct difficult and  
> chill the public discourse that the system ostensibly aims to  
> foster.  Such secrecy may also inflict significant psychological  
> harm upon those affected by the disturbing details of a criminal  
> trial.  These potential ramifications should be taken into  
> consideration as Japan makes its way through this new world of lay  
> participation.
>
> Legal reform, of which the lay assessor system is but a part,  
> should be seen in the context of a multi-faceted transformation  
> currently taking place in Japan.  The economic crisis in the  
> mid-1990s, as well as a desire by Japan's leaders to assume a more  
> influential role in global affairs, sparked a host of reforms in  
> finance, education, and law to help equip the country for the  
> domestic and international challenges of the 21st century.   
> Additionally, the new system comes at a time when other Asian  
> countries are creating or reinvigorating citizen participation in  
> legal proceedings.  China, for example, reintroduced a mixed jury  
> system in 2004 and South Korea launched a five year pilot jury  
> program in 2007.
>
> All of the new systems will be observed by the global community for  
> the signs of genuine transformation they may stimulate and the  
> lessons they have to offer.
> Several aspects of Japan's plan are drawing concern from the legal  
> community and citizens: the reported reluctance of Japan's citizens  
> to serve in lay assessor roles, whether lay participation will sway  
> judgments and sentencing to unjustly lenient or severe punishment,  
> whether professional judges will be overbearing in the deliberation  
> room, and the potential impairment of media access to full  
> information on criminal trials due to the above-mentioned jury  
> secrecy provision.  Although each of these topics warrants  
> international attention and may offer insight into how a country  
> can transition toward greater citizen participation in criminal  
> justice matters, this article focuses primarily on an issue that  
> appears to have drawn less attention: the potential problems the  
> secrecy provision poses for citizens obligated to participate in  
> the new lay assessor system.
>
> Mark Levin is an Associate Professor at the William S. Richardson  
> School of Law at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, specializing  
> in Japanese law.  His scholarship includes published journal  
> articles on race and minorities in Japan, tobacco control policy  
> and regulation in Japan, legal education in Japan, Japanese legal  
> history, and various annotated translations.
>
> Virginia Tice is a J.D. candidate for 2009 graduation from the  
> William S. Richardson School of Law and a 2004 graduate of Florida  
> State University with a master's degree in Religious Studies.
>
> Levin and Tice wrote this article for The Asia-Pacific Journal.  
> Posted on May 9, 2009.
>
> Read more . . .
> Fija Bairon, Matthias Brenzinger and Patrick Heinrich, The Ryukyus  
> and the New, But Endangered, Languages of Japan
>
> On 21 February 2009, UNESCO launched the online version of its  
> 'Atlas of the world's languages in danger'. This electronic version  
> that will also be published as the third edition of the UNESCO  
> Atlas in May 2009, now includes the Luchuan [Ryukyuan] languages of  
> Japan (UNESCO 2009). UNESCO recognizes six languages of the Luchu  
> Islands [Ryukyu Islands] of which two are severely endangered,  
> Yaeyama and Yonaguni, and four are classified as definitely  
> endangered, Amami, Kunigami, Uchinaa [Okinawa] and Miyako (see  
> UNESCO 2003 for assessing language vitality and endangerment).
>
> Through publication of the atlas, UNESCO recognizes the linguistic  
> diversity in present-day Japan and, by that, challenges the long- 
> standing misconception of a monolingual Japanese nation state that  
> has its roots in the linguistic and colonizing policies of the  
> Meiji period. The formation of a Japanese nation state with one  
> unifying language triggered the assimilation of regional varieties  
> (hogen) under the newly created standard 'national  
> language' (kokugo) all over the country (Carroll 2001). What is  
> more, through these processes, distinct languages were downgraded  
> to hogen, i.e. mere 'dialects' in accordance with the dominant  
> national ideology.
>
> What is the present state of Okinawan languages? What preservation  
> efforts are being undertaken to save the languages? What are its  
> prospects? This article surveys the contemporary situation in the  
> Ryukyus.
>
>
> Matthias Brenzinger, from the Institut für Afrikanistik at the  
> University of Cologne, Germany, coordinates the information on  
> endangered African languages south of the Sahara in UNESCO's Atlas  
> of the World's Languages in Danger.  Since 1995, he has been  
> concerned with language documentation in Japan and by Japanese  
> scholars.
>
>  Fija Bairon hosts a radio show in Uchinaaguchi on Radio Okinawa  
> every Sunday from 13:00 to 15:30. He teaches Uchinaaguchi at  
> various culture centres in Okinawa and has also taught the language  
> at Germany's Duisburg-Essen University.
>
> Patrick Heinrich is a sociolinguist and visiting researcher at the  
> University of the Ryukyus. He is currently conducting language  
> documentation on Yonaguni Island.
>
> They wrote this article for The Asia-Pacific Journal. Posted May 9,  
> 2009.
>
> Read more . . .
> Geoff Gunn, Origins of the American War in Vietnam: The OSS Role in  
> Saigon in 1945
>
> Nearly thirty years have passed since the end of the "Vietnam War"  
> or rather the "American War," as it is known in Vietnam. But the  
> American war in Vietnam originated in the French war to restore  
> colonialism in the power vacuum following the Japanese surrender in  
> August-September 1945. As the following article documents, early  
> U.S. post-war planners seemed to have grasped the iniquitous nature  
> of old-style colonialism only to have forgotten their ideals when  
> confronted with an independent revolutionary movement in the early  
> days of US-Soviet conflict.  History has revealed the disastrous  
> consequences of American escalation in Vietnam on the wrong side of  
> history, just as the lessons of history appear seldom to have been  
> learned as, one generation on, America plunges into no less  
> disastrous military adventures in other theaters in pursuit of  
> militant Islam tied to terror. This article looks back at the OSS,  
> predecessor of the CIA, at the dawn of post-war US strategy in  
> setting the stage for the US-Vietnam War.
>
>
> Geoff Gunn is author of Political Struggles in Laos, 1930-1954  
> (Duang Kamol, Bangkok, 1988; reprint White Lotus, Bangkok, 2005)  
> and an Asia-Pacific Journal coordinator. He wrote this article for  
> The Asia-Pacific Journal. Posted on May 9, 2009.
>
>
> Read more . . .
>  David McNeill, Modern Life is Rubbish: Miyazaki Hayao Returns to  
> Old-Fashioned Filmmaking
>
> Genius recluse, über-perfectionist, lapsed Marxist, Luddite; like  
> the legendary directors of Hollywood's Golden Age, Miyazaki Hayao's  
> intimidating reputation is almost as famous as his movies. Mostly,  
> though, Japan's undisputed animation king is known for shunning  
> interviews. So it is remarkable to find him sitting opposite us in  
> Studio Ghibli, the Tokyo animation house he co-founded in 1985,  
> reluctantly bracing himself for the media onslaught that now  
> accompanies each of his new projects. Miyazaki talks about life and  
> his art.
>
> This is a slightly revised and expanded version of an article that  
> was published in The Independent newspaper on Sunday, 3 May 2009.  
> Posted at The Asia-Pacific Journal on May 9, 2009.
>
> David McNeill writes for The Independent and other publications,  
> including The Irish Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He  
> is an Asia-Pacific Journal coordinator.
>
>
> Read more . . .
>
> Seungsook Moon, The Cultural Politics of Remembering Park Chung Hee
>
> "Whom would I choose as the best leader in the past thousand years  
> of Korean history? There were various leaders who were very  
> competent and did their best. Among them, I would choose the one  
> who dedicated himself to the modernization of this nation with  
> foresight, an ability to read the trends of his time, and  
> outstanding knowledge of the economy. That is President Park Chung  
> Hee."
>
> "Park's regime transformed the Republic of Korea into an entity  
> entirely different from its past form. ... Of course this change  
> never resulted from his individual power alone. It testifies to the  
> Korean people's potential greatness. But we cannot overemphasize  
> that it was Park Chung Hee who forged the necessary conditions and  
> motivations for this transformation. We should avoid becoming  
> hungry again because we curse and humiliate the person who made our  
> stomach full."
>
> Collective memories are integral to imagining a nation. They  
> construct a national identity and maintain it against the  
> vicissitudes of human life. Both organic and prosthetic memories  
> are incomplete and ideological, reflecting the cultural politics  
> involved in selective and elusive remembering and forgetting. These  
> memories also reveal as much about those who are remembering,  
> including their wishes, longings, anxieties, and fears, as they  
> reveal about what is being remembered. This article examines the  
> cultural politics of remembering Park Chung Hee in the wake of the  
> Asian Economic Crisis.
>
> Since his assassination on October 26, 1979, Park Chung Hee (b.  
> 1917) has been transformed from a dead president into a cultural  
> icon that incites wide-ranging and often polarized reactions. These  
> reactions are tied to organic and prosthetic memories of Park and  
> his era. Particularly during the past decade, collective memories  
> of him have shifted from the image of an antinational, fascist  
> dictator to that of a superhuman hero and national savior. This  
> phantasmagoric afterlife is embedded in the sweeping economic and  
> political changes that have shaped Korean society since Park's death.
>
>
> Seungsook Moon is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Asian  
> Studies Program at Vassar College. She is the author of Militarized  
> Modernity and Gendered Citizenship in South Korea (Duke University  
> Press, 2005; Korean edition, 2007) and co-editor, author and co- 
> author of "Over There": Living with the U.S. Military Empire (Duke  
> University Press, forthcoming).
>
> Seungsook Moon wrote this article for The Asia-Pacific Journal.  
> Posted May 9, 2009.
>
> Read more . . .
>
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