Category: Upcoming Events

As eighty years have passed since World War II came to an end in the Asia Pacific, the implications of the passing of the war generations for the war memories became more urgent. How did war generations fit into the domestic politics of memory in the postwar period? How did war generations fit into the transnational politics of memory in the postwar period? What will be the shapes of war memories without the presence of the war generations?

1:00 Welcome

1:10 Keynote Speech

2:25 Coffee Break

2:30 Panel One

3:40 Coffee Break

3:50 Panel Two

5:00 Plenary Discussion

5:30 End

“The Passing Past: Generations and the Future of War Memory,” Carol Gluck, George Samson Professor Emerita of History, Columbia University

“Two Faces of Memory: Japan-China Perspectives on the War Orphans Left Behind in China,” Irene Hyangseon Ahn, Assistant Professor of Justice, Law, & Criminology, American University

“The Loss Boys: Displaced and Disabled Japanese Veterans of the Second World War,” Lee K. Pennington is an Associate Professor of History, U.S. Naval Academy

“Japanese Mediascapes and Historical Memories of the Asia-Pacific War,” Erik Ropers, Director, Asian Studies Program and International Studies Program

“China’s ‘Date Debate’-How Manchurian Scholars Rewrote World War II,” Emily Matson, Professorial Lecturer, the George Washington University

Moderators: Mike Mochizuki, Japan-U.S. Relations Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, the George Washington University, and Daqing Yang, Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, the George Washington University

About the Keynote Speaker

Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor of History. She specializes in modern Japan, from the late nineteenth century to the present; international relations; World War II, and history-writing and public memory in Asia and the West. She received her B.A. from Wellesley (1962) and her Ph.D. from Columbia (1977).  She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society; former President of the Association for Asian Studies; currently co-chair of the Trustees Emeriti of Asia Society and member of the Board of Directors of Japan Society. She is a founding member and now chair of Columbia’s Committee on Global Thought.

About the Speakers

Dr. Irene Hyangseon Ahn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice, Law, & Criminology at American University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 2024, and was formerly a Predoctoral Fellow at Academia Sinica from 2022 to 2023. Her research focuses on the experiences of marginalized individuals and groups affected by state violence. She is particularly interested in Law and Society, Legal Mobilizations, Global Justice, and Transitional Justice in East Asia and beyond. Trained in comparative-historical and ethnographic methods, she seeks to understand how communities aggrieved by state violence engage with state authorities to address past injustices through a sociological lens.

Lee K. Pennington is an Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He received his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University.

About the Moderators

Professor Mike Mochizuki holds the Japan-U.S. Relations Chair in Memory of Gaston Sigur at the Elliott School of International Affairs in George Washington University. He co-directs the “Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific” project of the Sigur Center. Professor Mochizuki was Associate Dean for Academic Programs at the Elliott School from 2010 to 2014 and Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies from 2001 to 2005. Previously he was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He was also Co-Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Policy at RAND and has taught at the University of Southern California and Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. His recent books include Memory, Identity, and Commemorations of World War II: Anniversary Politics in Asia Pacific (co-editor and co-author, 2018); Energy Security in Asia and Eurasia (co-editor and co-author, 2017); Nuclear Debates in Asia: The Role of Geopolitics and Domestic Processes (co-editor and author, 2016); and The Okinawa Question: Futenma, the US-Japan Alliance, and Regional Security (co-editor and author, 2013). He has published articles in such journals as The American Interest, Asia Pacific Review, Foreign Affairs, International Security, Japan Quarterly, Journal of Strategic Studies, Nonproliferation Review, Survival, and Washington Quarterly. He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Allies and Rivals: the U.S.-Japan Alliance and the Rise of China.

A historian of modern Japan, Daqing Yang has research interests in the following three areas: the technological construction of the Japanese empire; the history and memory of World War II; and Japan’s relationship with Asia in the postwar period. In 2004, Dr. Yang was appointed a Historical Consultant to The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group at the U.S. National Archives. He has served as the Edwin O. Reischauer Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at Harvard University, and also taught at University of Tokyo, Waseda University (Japan) and Yonsei University (Korea). The founding co-director of the Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia Pacific program based at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, he is currently working on historians and reconciliation in postwar Europe and East Asia as well as energy resources in the Japanese empire. Dr. Yang is the author of Technology of Empire: Telecommunications and Japanese Expansion, 1883-1945, and has co-edited several books.

In its latest test of democratic resilience, Taiwan recently underwent an unprecedented recall campaign: 31 elected officials nationwide faced recall votes following a year of contentious political debate, controversial legislative actions, institutional paralysis, and a constitutional crisis. The Great Recall (大罷免) involved civil society groups and a wave of new social movement volunteers who sought to remove opposition lawmakers representing the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) from the legislature for a range of issues including national budget allocation controversies, fears regarding maligned influence of the Chinese Communist Party, and other concerns. A counter-recall movement levied against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians was also launched but ultimately did not garner sufficient support to cause a recall vote. The results of the Great Recall appear to be decisive: none of the 31 opposition officials were recalled after votes in late July and August, signaling that divided government is here to stay in Taiwan until the next election cycle. While the Great Recall has been lauded as another successful chapter in Taiwan’s democratic development, it also reflects an increasingly polarized national debate on domestic politics and foreign policy priorities.

What are the implications of the Great Recall on Taiwan’s political, economic, and democratic future? What do the results suggest for U.S.-Taiwan relations in the near-term? Join the Sigur Center for Asian Studies as we host a panel of experts to interpret the results and implications of Taiwan’s Great Recall. Please note that doors will open 15 minutes before the start of the event at earliest. 

“The Great Recall as a Slow Social Movement and its Implications,” Wei-Ting Yen, Assistant Research Fellow, Academia Sinica

“The Great Recall and Taiwan’s Civic Constitutionalism,” You-Hao Lai, Lawyer at the Human Rights Committee, Taipei Bar Association

“The Great Recall, Democracy, and U.S.-Taiwan Relations,” Dr. Raymond Kuo, Director of the Taiwan Policy Initiative and Senior Political Scientist, RAND Corporation

Moderator: Richard J. Haddock, Assistant Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies; Co-Director, Taiwan Education & Research Program

About the Speakers

Wei-Ting Yen is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS). Previously, she was an assistant professor of the Government Department at Franklin and Marshall College. She is also a Public Intellectuals Program Fellow at the National Committee on US-China Relations.

Dr. Yen is a political economist, with a focus on governance and welfare state development in Asia. The first research theme (based on her dissertation) studies the micro-level foundation of welfare states in nascent democracies and pays close attention to the role of economic insecurity. Her dissertation received an Honorable Mention for the John Heinz Dissertation Award from the National Academy of Social Insurance. The second research theme studies the political economy (at both macro- and micro-level) of COVID-19 governance in Asia.

Dr. Yen holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from The Ohio State University

You-Hao Lai is a researcher, practicing lawyer, and think tank fellow specializing in digital rights and democratic governance. He is currently pursuing his doctorate at The George Washington University Law School and serves as the deputy director of Democratic Governance Research Program at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a Taiwanese governmental think tank, where his research focuses on AI, digital authoritarianism, and information security in democracies. He is also a member of the Taipei Bar Association’s Human Rights Committee and serves on both the Constitutional Litigation and Digital Rights Task Forces at Taiwan’s Judicial Reform Foundation. He previously served as a legal and policy advisor to the President of the Judicial Yuan, Taiwan’s highest judicial body, and clerked for the Chief Justice of the Taiwan Constitutional Court. He holds LL.M. degrees from National Taiwan University College of Law and Harvard Law School.

Dr. Raymond Kuo is the inaugural Director of the Taiwan Policy Initiative and a Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation. He specializes in international security, international order, and East Asia. He is the author of two books, and his work has been published in International Security, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and War on the Rocks. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University and has previously worked for Fordham University, the United Nations, the National Democratic Institute, and the Democratic Progressive Party (Taiwan).

About the Moderator

Richard J. Haddock is the Assistant Director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the George Washington University, where he leads the Center’s robust Taiwan affairs programming, outreach, and curriculum development. He is also a member of the UC Berkeley U.S.-Taiwan Next Generation Working Group, where his research focuses on U.S.-Taiwan education diplomacy and exchange. Previously, he has held positions at the GW East Asia National Resource Center, the National Democratic Institute’s Asia team, the American Institute in Taiwan’s Public Diplomacy Section, and the U.S. Department of State. Mr. Haddock is currently pursuing a PhD in Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University, focusing on digital democracy and e-governance development in the Asia-Pacific. He holds an MA in Asian Studies from the Elliott School, with a concentration on domestic politics and foreign policy of East Asia. He graduated from the University of Central Florida with a BA in Political Science and minors in Asian Studies and Diplomacy.