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Since publishing two articles
in the Asahi Shinbun in 1991 about the first "comfort woman" to
tell her story, and particularly in recent years, Uemura
Takashi has been denounced by conservatives as a traitor.
Triggered by an article in Shukan Bunshun, the controversy over Asahi's
retraction of its reports on sexual slavery this past year led to a vicious
new wave of attacks on both Uemura and Asahi. Uemura documents his claim
and rebuts charges that he fabricated the issue of military comfort
women.
As
a result of the difficulties brought onto him, his family and friends, and
his university, Uemura Takahi has brought a libel suit against Bungei
Shunju over the articles it published condemning his reporting on comfort
women over two decades earlier. Uemura announced this on December 9 in a
speech at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
With the votes in the elections last November and December for governor of
Okinawa and the prefecture's seats in the Lower House going to candidates
opposing a new US base in Henoko, it is unclear what will become of the
plans. However, as citizens of Okinawa know all too well, the gap between
campaign promises and post-election reality may be vast. Gavan
McCormack assesses the post-election actions of the new governor
Onaga Takeshi and reflects on the new phase of conflict.
On September 9, 2014, the Imperial Household Agency released to the public
its carefully vetted Authentic Account of the Showa Emperor's Life and
Reign. While the trove of 3,152 primary materials is a valuable resource,
through omissions this official history fails to present a clear picture of
the emperor at key historical moments, particularly his wartime leadership.
Herbert
P. Bix examines the biases discernible in this volume, arguing
that the current political climate in Japan has greatly influenced its
compilation.
Announcing the Kyoko Selden Memorial Translation Prize in
Japanese Literature, Thought, and Society, 2015
The Department of Asian
Studies at Cornell University is pleased to announce the 2015 prize
honoring the life and work of our colleague, Kyoko Selden. The prize will
pay homage to the finest achievements in Japanese literature, thought, and
society through the medium of translation. Kyoko Selden's translations and
writings ranged widely across such realms as Japanese women writers,
Japanese art and aesthetics, the atomic bomb experience, Ainu and Okinawan
life and culture, historical and contemporary literature, poetry and prose,
and early education (the Suzuki method). In the same spirit, the prize will
recognize the breadth of Japanese writings, classical and contemporary.
Collaborative translations are welcomed. In order to encourage classroom
use and wide dissemination of the winning entries, prize-winning
translations will be made freely available on the web. The winning
translations will be published online at The Asia-Pacific Journal .
Submit three copies of a
translation and one copy of the original printed text of an unpublished
work (or a new translation of a previously published work) to the Kyoko
Selden Memorial Translation Prize, Department of Asian Studies, 350
Rockefeller Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. Please also send
the submissions as e-mail attachments to seldenprize@cornell.edu. Repeat
submissions are welcomed. The maximum length of a submission is 20,000
words. The translation should be accompanied by an introduction of up to
1,000 words. The closing date for the prize competition is May 30, 2015.
Awards will be announced on August 31, 2015. For the 2015 competition, one
prize of $1,250 will be awarded in two different categories: 1) to an
already published translator; 2) to an unpublished translator.
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