Media advisory: August marks 70th anniversary of atomic bombings; experts available to comment


Tue, 07/28/2015

author

Christine Metz Howard

LAWRENCE – August marks the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an event that marked the end of World War II and is the only use of nuclear weapons in history. The University of Kansas has experts who can speak to the bombings and are experts on wartime Japan’s culture.

Picture found in Honkawa Elementary School in 2013 of the Hiroshima atom bomb cloud

Michael Baskett, associate professor of film and media studies, specializes in Japanese film, has studied Japanese wartime cinema and is currently working on a book about Japanese film during the Cold War. He is author of “The Attractive Empire: Transnational Film Culture in Imperial Japan.”   

Histories of Japanese cinema during the imperial era have typically focused on war films as a mirror of this dark period in Japanese history. But Baskett said there is value to examining the many films about life and culture in Japan's colonies.

"The cinema of imperial Japan wasn't only about war; it was also about opportunity and expansion. For many, mass media was a primary way to optimistically visualize Japan as a dynamic modern empire on the rise,” Baskett said.

Baskett, who has studied and taught film in Japan and worked in the Japanese film industry, can also discuss films and mass media, such as “Barefoot Gen” and “Godzilla,” that draw from the atomic bombings. 

Margaret Childs, chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, can talk about Hiroshima’s commemoration of the atomic bomb and her visits with the city’s survivors.

As director of the KU Summer Study Program to Japan, Childs, who specializes in pre-modern Japan, took students to Hiroshima to learn more about the bombings. Students had the opportunity to meet with survivors.

 “American students tend to expect the Japanese to be angry,” Childs said. “But the survivors' reaction is always a longing for the end of war and that no one else suffers as they did.”

Childs also has edited an anthology of East Asian literature that ranges from pre-modern  to contemporary works. Among the pieces featured is a section of the autobiography of the creator of the manga series “Barefoot Gen” which chronicles the life of a boy who survived the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima.

To schedule an interview with Baskett or Childs contact Christine Metz Howard at 785-864-8852 or cmetzhoward@ku.edu.

Benjamin Uchiyama, assistant professor of history, is available to discuss history and memory of World War II in East Asia and modern social and cultural history of wartime Japan. He is currently working on a book project, "Carnival War: A Cultural History of Wartime Japan, 1937-1945," which explores the intersection between imperialism and mass culture through five media constructs during the Asia-Pacific War.

"The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have, of course, dramatically influenced post-war Japanese identity as the only nation attacked by such weapons. Since 1945, Japanese society has generally shown a strong commitment to pacifist principles and anti-war sentiments, in large part because of the experience and memory of Hiroshima," Uchiyama said. "The atomic bombings have also powerfully shaped popular post-war memories of World War II that tend to center on Japanese as victims of war while ignoring Japanese wartime violence in Asia. For world history, memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — though more the former — have become globalized and adopted by people all around the world as points of reference in an ongoing international debate about nuclear weapons."

To schedule an interview with Uchiyama, contact George Diepenbrock at 785-864-8853 or gdiepenbrock@ku.edu.

Photo: Picture found in Honkawa Elementary School in 2013 of the Hiroshima atom bomb cloud, believed to have been taken about 30 minutes after detonation about 6 miles east of the hypocentre. Aug. 6 will mark the 70th anniversary of the bombing. Image via WikiCommons.

Tue, 07/28/2015

author

Christine Metz Howard

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Christine Metz Howard

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