CJS Noon Lecture Series | Democracy on Edge: Japan’s Atsumi Peninsula During the Allied Occupation

Please note: This lecture will be held in person in room 555 Weiser Hall and virtually via Zoom. This webinar is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Once you've registered, the joining information will be sent to your email. Register for the Zoom webinar at: https://myumi.ch/JwxVe

This talk uses Aichi Prefecture's Atsumi Peninsula and the waters that surround it as a lens for understanding post-WWII democratization efforts on a micro scale in a region far removed from the oversight of General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Tokyo. Citizen efforts in the late 1940s and early 1950s to combat the power of entrenched local political and economic bosses will be considered in light of disputes regarding seaweed harvesting rights, opposition to the requisitioning of local land for a Self Defense Forces Shooting Range, and the reconstruction of infrastructure following the 1953 Ise Bay Typhoon.

Emer O'Dwyer is director of the East Asian Studies Program at Oberlin College and associate professor of history and East Asian studies. She specializes in 20th-century Japanese history with research interests in imperialism, democracy, and the post-war Allied Occupation. She is currently working on a history of “boss rule” in Japan from the wartime era through the beginning of the high-growth era in the mid-1950s.

This lecture is made possible with the generous support of the U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at [email protected]. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.