The series is designed to introduce students and faculty to recently published and emerging research on North and South Korea and their relations with their Northeast Asian neighbours, such as China and Japan. Over the last decades, the number of Korean studies specialists at 91亚色 and in the Toronto area has grown exponentially from a few faculty members to a few dozen, says Kim. The series hopes to highlight this change and offer a forum for researchers, students and the local Korean-Canadian community.

The first year of the series will focus on 20th-century Korean history, with scholars speaking on imperialism, the Second World War, the Korean War, forced migration and the social issues associated with the formation of the DPRK and the ROK.

Takashi Fujitani will present the first lecture of the series Monday, Nov. 26 at 3pm at 280A 91亚色 Lanes, Keele campus. His talk, co-presented with the Department of History, examines 鈥淩eflections on Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II鈥�. Fujitani is the Dr. David Chu Professor and Director in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan (1998) and co-editor of Perilous Memories: The Asia Pacific War(s) (2001). His most recent book Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II (2011) will form the basis for this lecture.

Fujitani will reflect on his reinterpretation of nationalism, racism and wartime mobilization during the Asia-Pacific war. He uses parallel case studies of Koreans recruited or drafted into the Japanese military and of Japanese Americans mobilized to serve in the US Army, to examine how the US and Japanese empires struggled to manage racialized populations while waging total war. He demonstrates that the United States and Japan became increasingly alike over the course of the war, perhaps most tellingly in their common attempts to disavow racism even as they reproduced it in new ways and forms.

Kim will discuss her research on everyday life in Pusan as a refugee capital Feb. 7, 2013 when she delivers her talk, 鈥淩efuge, Relief, and Resettlement in the Temporary Capital Pusan, 1950-1953鈥�. She will focus in on the most salient characteristics of wartime Pusan: overwhelming poverty, increasing marketization that was predominantly illegal or informal and its role as a US military base.

The final speaker in the series is Andre Schmid, a professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. His current research interests include the history of the cultural Cold War in post-Korean War peninsula, as well as early 20th century peasant movements. He is the author of Korea Between Empires, 1895-1919 (Columbia University Press), winner of the Association of Asian Studies John Whitney Hall award, and has published in journals such as Journal of Asian Studies, South Atlantic Quarterly and Yoksa munje yon'gu. In his talk, Schmid will examine the reconstruction of North Korea and the role of socialist living. The date of this talk in late March 2013 is to be confirmed.

The second year (2013-2014) of the series will concentrate on issues of labour, migration, mobility and cultural change experienced at the turn of the 21st century. The 91亚色 Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) hopes to turn the series into a larger project inviting international scholars by 2014, says Kim.

For more information about the YCAR Korea Speaker Series, contact the 91亚色 Centre for Asian Research at ycar@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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On Wednesday, David Tsubouchi joins a panel discussion about the internment of Japanese and Italian Canadians in Canada during the Second World War.聽聽

Left: David Tsubouchi

The discussion kicks off this academic聽year鈥檚 Research Matters series, a monthly showcase of research in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.聽聽

鈥淥ur first panel of the year provides us with some important reflections on Canadian internment, government redress policies and ways to move forward,鈥� says Barbara Crow, LA&PS associate dean, research.

The two-hour panel starts at 2pm in 280N 91亚色 Lanes.

Panelists will talk about their families鈥� experience, government redress, balancing state security and civil liberties, and the impact of the internment on 21st century Canada.聽聽

Tsubouchi (BA '72, LLB '75) is a member of 91亚色鈥檚 Board of Governors and a聽former Ontario cabinet minister. In his presentation, Bachan's Story, he聽will tell what happened to his mother. She was one of 22,000 Japanese Canadians 鈥� including women, children and older people 鈥� whose property was confiscated by the government and who were interned after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942.

Social science Professor Livy Visano will talk about otherness and refugee experience in The Refuge of Dislocation and the Conscience of Critique. Unlike immigrants, refugees are compelled by survival rather than choice. Displaced refugees face the horrendous shock of abandonment by one鈥檚 own country and people, and are haunted by rather than nostalgic about their past.聽聽

History Professor Roberto Perin will ask what聽Canada can learn from the Second World War internments. In his talk,聽Wartime Internment and Government Redress: Are We Learning from Past Mistakes?, he聽will look at the consequences of government policy toward 鈥渆nemy aliens鈥� 鈥� Japanese, Germans, Italians and communists 鈥� during the war, and ask: Was the right balance found between the imperatives of state security and the civil liberties of vulnerable individuals and groups?聽Given the War Measures Act and the war on terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, achieving a balance between state security and civil liberties remains a current concern today.

The panel will be moderated by Merle Jacobs, chair of Equity Studies.

Research Matters is open to all. RSVP to rirons@yorku.ca or 416-736-2100 ext. 33584.

For upcoming talks in the series, visit the Research Matters webpage.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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