Reeducation Revisited: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives on the Post-World War II Period in the US, Japan, and Germany
Final Report Abstract
The project “Reeducation Revisited” set out to examine democratization efforts and reeducation programs in West Germany and Japan, led by the US, in comparative and transnational perspective. We have used reeducation in a descriptive manner and as an analytical concept and outlined its different usages and effects in the postwar era on a subnational, national, and transnational level. On that basis, the project focused on the complex transatlantic and transpacific processes of exchange and appropriation between the US, Japan, and West Germany and conducted exemplary case studies. These took into account political strategies and varying interest groups in civil society as well as specific target groups and actors (such as women or workers). Beyond the unidirectional reeducation efforts with their diffuse outcomes, the postwar programs also took on a life of their own in different social and institutional contexts that exceeded or even defied official control. Such a dynamic can already be observed during the war, for example, in the US military, and it can be found in popular Hollywood productions or Japanese radio and TV shows. Another goal of our project was to test the usefulness of reeducation as a concept beyond the postwar era and beyond the triangular relationship between the US, Japan, and Germany and to set it apart from related concepts, such as democratization, reorientation, and Westernization. In a diachronic perspective, reeducation resonates – by way of a tentative heuristic generalization – with discourses and practices of colonialism and imperialism. Our research has shown that there are scenarios and strategies of reeducation, which show its implementation in settings with asymmetrical power relations; at the same time, the very same measures may be used against existing hierarchies. There are, in fact, structural analogies between the reeducation policies of the postwar years with their contradictions regarding, for example, the democratic promise of equality and the (neo-)imperialist expansionism of the West and its elusive promise of civilization. As members of this project, we have organized and participated in many international and interdisciplinary conferences, we have put together two peer-reviewed special issues of renowned journals and have published on questions of reeducation; we have collaborated with cultural and educational institutions to present our work to a broader public. The project has been successful in (re)establishing the term and the different concepts of reeducation in scholarly and public discourses and in facilitating a differentiated view of the phenomenon.
Publications
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Democracy, Consumerism and Gender Roles in U.S. American and Japanese Women’s Magazines during the Cold War.“ BAA Summer Academy „State Narratives in Comparative Perspective“, 25.05-8.06.2019, Nürnberg und Regensburg
Aresin, Jana
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From World War II Battlefield to Cold War Home Front? Reeducation Policies in U.S.- Occupied Japan, 1945-1952.“ Workshop „American Home Front(s)“, 20.-21.07.2019, Bayerische Amerika-Akademie München
Aresin, Jana
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Testing Japan’s Democracy – Remains of WW II in Okinawa and a Message to the US and Japan.“ 22.07.2019, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
Oshiro, Akino
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„Japan im Weltraumfieber. Gagarins Kamera und die große Enttäuschung.“ Ringvorlesung „Mondlandungen. Imaginations- und Rezeptionswelten“, 15.05.2019, FAU Erlangen- Nürnberg/Museum für Kommunikation Nürnberg
Schäfer, Fabian
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„Reeducation and Romance.“ Aesthetics and Democracy – Symposium zu Ehren von Winfried Flucks 75. Geburtstag FU Berlin, 3.05.2019
Paul, Heike
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„The 2019 Henoko Referendum: Exposing US Military Base Issue as ‘Japan Problem’, not ‘Okinawa Problem’.“ Japan-Zentrum Kolloquium, 14.01.2021, LMU München, (online).
Oshiro, Akino
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(Un)Learning Racism? The Racial Logics of US Reeducation Efforts in Postwar Germany.“ HLCS Konferenz, 14.-15.11.2019, Radboud U (Nijmegen, Niederlande)
Gerund, Katharina
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Consumers, Workers, Democratic Citizens? Renegotiation of Women’s Roles in US and Japanese Women’s Magazines, 1945-1960.“ Workshop „Recreating Separate Spheres Across Not-So-Separate Worlds: Gender and Reeducation in Japan, Germany, and the USA after World War II“, 20.-21.02.2020, GHI PRO, Berkeley, CA
Aresin, Jana
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Demokratie, Konsum und Frauenbilder in Japanischen und US-amerikanischen Frauenzeitschriften im frühen Kalten Krieg (1945-1960).“ 35. Tagung der Initiative Historische Japanforschung, 28.-29.11.2020, U Bonn (online)
Aresin, Jana
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Reeducation and the Construction of Whiteness: Race in the Postwar World.“ Workshop „Beyond National Character? Identity Formation in the Context of Postwar Reeducation“, 5.-6.11.2020 (online)
Gerund, Katharina
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Reeducation und Reorientation.“ Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
Katharina Gerund
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„From Farm to Base: The Culture, Politics, and Identity of Okinawan Military Base Workers from 1945–1972.“ Konferenz der Vereinigung für sozialwissenschaftliche Japanforschung, Fachgruppe: Geschichte, 21.11.2020 (online)
Oshiro, Akino
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„Quizzes and Questionnaires: Playing Democracy under American Occupation.“ Workshop „Beyond National Character? Identity Formation in the Context of Postwar Reeducation”, 5.-6.11.2020 (online)
Schäfer, Fabian
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A Conversation about Two Occupations. Re-Education Revisited: Conflicting Agendas and Cross-Cultural Agency in the Early Cold War. Comparativ 31.1: 102-21.
Susan Carruthers, Mire Koikari & Heike Paul
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Compassion, Solidarity, and Recognition: Narrating Shared Identity in Postwar Women’s Magazines in Japan, 1945-1955.“ Symposium „Affective Worldmaking: Narrative Counterpublics of Gender and Sexuality“, 14.-15.01.2021, U Graz (online)
Aresin, Jana
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Democracy, Consumerism and Gender Roles in Japanese Women’s Magazines during U.S. occupation and the early Cold War.“ Konferenz „Cultures of Occupation“, 14.- 17.04.2021, U of Nottingham (online)
Aresin, Jana
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From Farm to Base: Post-War Economic Rehabilitation and the Emergence of the Base Worker in US-Occupied Okinawa. Comparativ 31.1: 39-51.
Oshiro, Akino
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Introduction. Re-Education Revisited: Conflicting Agendas and Cross-Cultural Agency in the Early Cold War. Comparativ 31.1: 9-15.
Paul, Heike
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Japan im Weltraumfieber. Cold Moon Rising, 189–211.
Schäfer, Fabian
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Locating Women’s Political Engagement: Democracy in Early Cold War US and Japanese Women’sMagazines, 1945–1955.“Comparativ 31.1: 66-81.
Aresin, Jana
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Re-Education and the Construction of Whiteness in the US Military.“ Comparativ 31.1: 52-65.
Gerund, Katharina
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Re-Education Revisited: Conflicting Agendas and Cross-Cultural Agency in the Early Cold War. Themenheft Comparativ 31.1. (2021).
Paul, Heike
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Revisiting Stunde Null: The Impact of US-Reeducation Policies in Post-War Germany on Transatlantic Relations.“ New Perspectives on Transatlantic Relations. Hg. Jürgen Gebhardt und Stefan Fröhlich. Heidelberg: Winter, 2021. 71-86. ISBN: 978-3-8253- 7251-4
Aresin, Jana
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The Gift of Democracy: American Occupation, Reeducation, and Gratitude in Postwar Germany.“ Online Symposium „Gratitude in Transatlantic Relations“, 19.05.2021
Gerund, Katharina
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Unofficial Ambassadors? Military Spouses in the Transatlantic World.“ CITAS Ringvorlesung 2020/2021, 18.01.2021, U Regensburg (online) & Deutsch- Amerikanisches Zentrum Stuttgart, 23.09.2020
Gerund, Katharina
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„Beigun Senryouki Okinawa ni Okeru Okinawajin Kichi Rōdōsha: Sengo Fukkou wo Saikou Suru (Military Base Workers in U.S. Occupied Okinawa: Rethinking Postwar Economic Development).“ Konferenz des East Asian Consortium of Japanese Studies, 27.11.2021 (online)
Oshiro, Akino
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„From Farm to Base: Mobilization of Local Population for Military Work in U.S Occupied Okinawa.“ Konferenz „Toward the Future of Island Studies: Networking International Young Scholars 2021“, 23.02.2021, Research Institute for Islands and Sustainability, U of the Ryukyus (online)
Oshiro, Akino
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„Lessons in Democracy? Strategies and Paradoxes of (Re-)Education in Post-War Germany.“ Learning, Unlearning, Relearning: Cultural Expertise and Its Praxis. Virtuelle Konferenz von Euro Expert, 23.-24.11.2021
Paul, Heike
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„Military Base Work as Development in Postwar Okinawa.“ Konferenz der European Association of Japanese Studies, 25.08.2021 (online) & Mini Conference der Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, 5.07.2021 (online)
Oshiro, Akino
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„Quizzes and Questionnaires: Learning to Play Democracy under the US Occupation in Germany and Japan.“ Comparativ 31.1 (2021): 16-38.
Schäfer, Fabian
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„The Legacies of Reeducation in Germany and Beyond.“ Transatlantic Exchange of Civic Educators, 11.10.2021 (online).
Gerund, Katharina
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A Benevolent Empire? Representations of Women’s Liberation and Democracy in Japanese Women’s Magazines under U.S.-Occupation.“ 5. EU-Japan Young Scholars Workshop „Japanese Transnationalism and Empire“, 4.-6.11.2022, Centre Européen d’Études Japonaises d’Alsace/Hosei U.
Aresin, Jana
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Chapter 3 Between Denazification and Reconstruction: US Occupation Policies and Practice in Germany 1945. The Diary of Lt. Melvin J. Lasky, 29-37. Berghahn Books.
Aresin, Jana
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Chapter 5 (Military) Masculinity and a Feminized Europe: The Gender Politics of the Lasky Diary. The Diary of Lt. Melvin J. Lasky, 49-58. Berghahn Books.
Gerund, Katharina
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Democracy, Consumerism and Gender Roles in U.S. American and Japanese Women’s Magazines during the Cold War.“ Summer Academy „Futures of American Studies“, 20.-26.06.2022, Dartmouth College
Aresin, Jana
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The Women Behind the Bamboo Curtain: Admiration and Anxiety towards 'Red China' in Japanese Cold War Women’s Magazines.“ Workshop „Cold War Disconnections and the Transformation of Internationalisms“, 8.-10.06.2022, LMU München
Aresin, Jana
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Visualizing Women at Work: Idealization and Realism in Japanese Women’s Magazines in the early Cold War.“ Workshop „The Politics of the Page: Visuality and Materiality in Illustrated Periodicals across Cold War Borders“, 12.-13.05.2022, U Marburg (online)
Aresin, Jana
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“We need to imagine a new kind of woman”: Narrating Identity in Postwar Women’s Magazines in Japan, 1945-1955. Affective Worldmaking, 127-138. transcript Verlag.
Aresin, Jana
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„Okinawa ni okeru beigun kichi to 'Tochi' no kankei (The Relationship between the US Military and the 'Land' in Okinawa).“ Konferenz der Japanese Language and Literature Association of Korea, 17.12.2022, Seoul, Südkorea.
Oshiro, Akino
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„Re-Education und Westbindung der Deutschen nach 1945: Maßnahmen, Widersprüche, Kritik.“ Workshop „Rethinking the West. Versprechen und Krise eines Konzepts“, 15.12.2022, U Münster
Paul, Heike
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„‘America’s Germany?’ Reeducation and Its Legacies.“ 39th Congress- Bundestag Youth Exchange, 13.01.2023, Nürnberg & 38th Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange, 12.01.2022 (online).
Gerund, Katharina
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From “footprint” to relationships: Impacts of US military base on Okinawa. Sociology Compass, 18(1).
Oshiro, Akino
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„Gender and Economic Citizenship in Postwar Japan: The Politics of Women’s Labor and Consumption.“ NNC/Asianet Konferenz „Consuming Asia: Systems and Structures of Consumption in Modern and Contemporary Asia“, 22.06.2023, U Bergen
Aresin, Jana
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„Re-educational Strategies beyond the Postwar Moment.“ Blogbeitrag „Occupation Studies Research Network Blog“
Aresin, Jana & Katharina Gerund
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„Working for the US Empire: The Relationship between Postwar Economic Development, Modernization, and American Empire-Making in US-Occupied Okinawa.“ Tominaga Seminar, 21.03.2023, Ritsumeikan U, Kyoto (online)
Oshiro, Akino
