Addressing the Allied POW Issue in Japan: The Case of POW Research Network Japan

Since the mid-1990s the Japanese government has pursued reconciliation initiatives aimed at fostering understanding between Japan and former POWs. Nevertheless, the POW issue remains relatively unknown in Japan. This article describes the profile and activities of the POW Research Network Japan (POW kenkyūkai), a civil society group consisting of professional and shimin (citizen/non-professional) researchers as well as concerned citizens investigating the subject of Allied POWs in Japan. The article explores how POWRNJ participated in and contributed to the contestation of memory of the Asia-Pacific War (1931–1945) during the last decade. It describes the manner in which the group promoted its views and strived to achieve its goals. On the basis of these findings, the article identifies the kind of roles the group played, and how it mattered in the debates on Japan's wartime past.     

Three prejudices against terrorism

This article criticises three assumptions regarding terrorism and the agents who carry it out: (1) terrorists are always indiscriminate in their targeting; (2) terrorism is never effective in combating oppression; and (3) terrorists never participate in fair negotiations, as they merely wish to switch places with their oppressors. By criticising these three prejudices against terrorism, the article does not attempt to justify or excuse terrorism generally nor in the specific case of Sri Lanka which is examined. Instead, it creates the necessary room for such justifications or excuses to be critically appraised by dismantling some popular myths surrounding terrorism.     

略论湘赣边三年游击战争及其现实意义

湘赣革命根据地是第二次国内革命战争时期我党领导下的一块重要的革命根据地。艰苦卓绝的湘赣边三年游击战争,是南方三年游击战争的重要组成部分。湘赣边三年游击战争时期红军将士们表现出来的坚定信念和灵活的斗争方略,在今天仍然具有重要的现实意义。     

土地革命时期张闻天对游击战争的认识

在领导苏区革命实践的基础上,在中共党内正确主张的影响下,张闻天逐渐在游击战争的战术形式、政治功能、战略地位等关键问题上抛弃了教条主义和主观主义的错误。张闻天对游击战争的思考和认识,不仅是自己纠正＂左倾＂错误的过程,还对长征期间红军的革命斗争具有重要的指导意义,而且为中共中央探索抗日游击战争问题提供了理论支持。作为中共马克思主义中国化的有机组成部分,张闻天对游击战争的思考和认识成为毛泽东军事思想的重要组成部分。     

抗战时期战区教育员生之救济考论

抗战期间,日本帝国主义为了奴化中国,消弭中国人的抵抗意识,达到长期统治中国之目的,恣意破坏中国的文教机构,导致大批校舍被毁,数十万师生流离.为了保存国家教育基础,增进抗战力量,国民政府勉力应变,采取一系列措施,对战区退出之各类教育员生实施了有效救助.     

抗战时期福建台湾籍民在崇安的垦荒研究

抗战时期,福建省政府将福州、晋江等地的台湾籍民迁居至崇安县。为了安置台湾籍民的生活,崇安县政府拟订了协助就业的赈济方案,其中包括将台湾籍民编入垦务所,参加垦荒。在福建省政府各部门的大力协助下,台湾籍民的垦荒享受长期的伙食借贷以及其它优惠政策。由于多数台湾籍民不谙农事、劳动力弱,加上艰苦的自然环境,垦荒效果很不理想,垦荒业务被迫终止。尽管如此,国民政府为安顿台湾籍民生计所付出的努力,是值得肯定的。     

从社会运动到内战的演变机制 ——基于中东变局的考察

受到中东变局波及的中东国家,尽管结构背景大同小异,但各国爆发的社会运动带来的国内影响却截然不同,如突尼斯和埃及发生了较为平和的变革,而利比亚、叙利亚却爆发了内战。社会运动在不同的国家之所以产生不同的结果,原因在于抗议者能否形成跨阶层动员以及军队的立场选择。抗议者形成跨阶层动员,是社会运动得以持续并实现规模扩大的前提;在大规模社会运动面前,军队内部是否发生分裂,则决定该国是否爆发内战。就此而言,社会运动演变为内战需要两个条件,一个是形成跨阶层动员,一个是部分军队支持抗议活动或在抗议活动中保持中立。这一分析模式有助于研究者对社会运动是否会演变为内战进行预测。     

Narratives of the Past and Present: Young Refugees' Construction of a Family Identity in Exile

Little attention has been given to the ‘refugee experience’of children who follow their parents in escaping violence. Thisstudy examines how the experiences of violence become importantevents in the lives of a group of young refugees who were bornin the Middle East, but escaped with their parents to Denmarkten years ago. On the basis of a narrative analysis the studyshows that the adolescents' experience of being a refugee isgreatly influenced by the stories of the past narrated aboutthe family, and the internal relations and conflicts withinthe families. Adolescent refugees who have grown up with violencein their family relations experience greater difficulties increating new homes in exile than adolescents whose memoriesof violence are connected with a narrative of the historicalpersecution and suffering of their family and people.     

The logic of competitive influence-seeking: Russia,Ukraine, and the conflict in Donbas

The crisis in Ukraine since late 2013 has seen four successive internationally mediated agreements that have been at best partially implemented. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and 42 key informant interviews sides, we explain this outcome with reference to the logic of competitive influence-seeking: Russia is currently unable to achieve a friendly and stable regime in Kyiv and thus hedges against the consolidation of an unfriendly pro-Western and stable regime by maintaining its control over parts of eastern Ukraine and solidifying the dependence of local regimes there on Russian support. This gives Russia the opportunity to maintain the current status quo or settle for re-integration terms through which Russia can sustain long-term influence over Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policy. We conclude by reflecting on the consequences of competitive influence-seeking in the post-Soviet space: the likely persistence of low-intensity conflict in Ukraine; the further consolidation of territorial divisions in other post-Soviet conflicts; and the need for policy-makers in Russia and the West to prioritize the management of the consequent instability.     

The Piper Played to Us All: Orchestrating the Cultural Cold War in the USA, Europe, and Latin America

Review of a recent book on the Congress for Cultural Freedom by British author and documentary filmmaker Frances Stono Saunders, Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War (London: Granta, 1999), leads into an examination of the cold war ideological contest in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. Particular attention is given to the Americas and U.S. efforts to manipulate the social sciences as instruments of hemispheric control. Saunder's book is compared and contrasted to other works on the cultural cold war, while extensive references are provided for further reading and research.