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Greetings!
Yesterday, September 21, as
400,000 people joined the People's Climate March in New York City and with
hundreds of thousands of others around the world, made this the largest
march of its kind ever, the Asia-Pacific Journal announces the
intention to prioritize climate crisis and climate solutions in the years
ahead. As one marcher signed, "There is no planet B." We invite
submissions accordingly.
Illustrative is Andrew DeWit's
analysis of a surprising range of new green energy policies implemented
after the 3.11 disaster, including those advanced, however unwillingly or
absent-mindedly, by an Abe regime bent on nuclear restarts but thus far
stymied in its efforts to do so. The article elaborates on the promising
role that efficiency and conservation have achieved in Japan's power mix
without nuclear, noting important initiatives from local government and
private capital, and revealing the potential, and necessity, for Japan to
become a global leader in the new green economy.
On the 110th anniversary of
the death of Lafcadio Hearn, Roger
Pulvers reflects on the legacy of the American
naturalized-Japanese writer. Relating the difficulties he faced throughout
his life, the article calls attention to his pseudo-anthropological style,
in particular to his writings on post-reconstruction America, in addition
to his lamenting paeans for the "quaint" Japan he saw
disappearing before his eyes. While Hearn's reputation in America would
subsequently decline, he would be coopted by many Japanese as "proof
that the Japanese soul was more profound, more subtle and more potent in
its pure spirituality than anything the materialistic West could possibly
muster."
Shota
Ogawa describes the history of little-known Korean film
companies during the American occupation. Energized by their liberation
through the defeat of imperial Japan, the Koreans involved were entangled
in the economic, ideological, and cultural realities of the immediate
postwar. By studying the records of US censorship, advertisements in
Japanese and Korean print media and documents kept by the companies, Ogawa
shows how Korean film producers maneuvered between the Occupation
authorities and the Japanese cinema world to project their visions of a
Korean national cinema in Japan.
Misook
Lee traces the rise of a Japan-Korea solidarity movement uniting
Zainichi, Japanese and South Korean activists to play a role in challenging
the dictatorship and contributing to the rise of democracy. Lee contrasts
the free wheeling cross-border movement to the student-centered anti-Ampo
movement of the 1960s.
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