Research Description

Launched in Fall 2022, this research initiative focuses on the history and memory of Korean minority in Japan, or Zainichi Koreans as commonly referred to, who have been forced to endure destructive impacts of Japanese colonialism and the Cold War politics: forced displacement, segregation, discrimination, incarceration, inhumane treatment, the atomic bombing, etc. By articulating the concept of phantom history and memory, this project  combines historical research of commemorative practice of Korean forced labor and atomic bomb victims, and literary and theatrical representations of Zainichi Korean communities and individuals and their relationship with modern Korean/Japanese history, politics, and society. Our research project also includes one of the most prominent Zainichi Korean novelists Yu Miri’s speech delivered at the University of California, Berkeley in September 2022 and the first English translation of Ishimure Michiko’s 1968 reportage “Chrysanthemum and Nagasaki: The Ashes of Korean Atomic Bomb Victims Remain Silent,” which has been unknown and understudied in the English literature of atomic bombing. Participating researchers represent various backgrounds and academic disciplines, as a collective, they make a critical intervention in the commemoration of victims of colonial and imperial aggression, as well as the historical amnesia that not only continuously veils Japan’s responsibility for the victims of its violent past, but also allows its government to keep violating human rights of Korean minority.

Research Leader: Dr. Tomoe Otsuki

Tomoe Otsuki is a historical consultant for the media representation and production of Japanese wartime period and postwar Japan. She is currently co-editing a special issue on Zainichi Korean literature, cinema and theatrical performance with Dr. Jooyeon Rhee (the Pennsylvania State University). Otsuki’s articles and book chapters appear in English and Japanese, which include a study of the visual and literal representations of the Fukushima nuclear disaster (Asian Studies Review, 2022; Shoshi-tsukumo, 2022), Nagasaki’s cultural history and postwar politics (Inter-Asian Cultural Studies, 2016), the cultural diplomacy of the United States and Japan’s nuclear history (Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 2015), and the atomic bomb memorial in Nagasaki (Genbaku bungaku kenkyū [Atomic Bomb Literature Studies], 2020). Her research interests are war memory, memorial museums, socially engaged visual art, Japan’s postwar history and contemporary popular culture. She holds a PhD in Sociology of Education from the University of Toronto. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and the Université de Montréal.