The Asia-Pacific Journal

Abstract: This paper discusses the work of Japanese painter Nakamura Hiroshi in the late 1950s and early 1960s in light of the politics and literature debate raging among the Japanese intelligentsia in the immediate post-World War II era, focusing specifically on the exchange between Kurahara Korehito and the writers associated with the Kindai bungaku literary journal.

Special Collection: Guest Editors: John Lee Candelaria (Hiroshima University) and Karl Ian Cheng Chua (University of the Philippines Diliman) This special issue examines the complex dynamics of war memory in the Philippines within the broader Asia-Pacific geopolitical context. The Philippine war experience serves as a crucial case study in understanding the intersections of historical trauma, collective memory, national identity formation, and regional geopolitics.

[Ed. Note: This article is part of an ongoing series and online exclusive exploring contemporary artists through interviews, commentary, and visual engagements provided by art historian Asato Ikeda. For other interviews in this series, see “Art and Politics with Asato Ikeda.“] Abstract: This interview features a conversation on art, racism, and immigration across Asian American and Scandinavian contexts.

Abstract: This paper examines how well news articles reflect levels of interstate cooperation, focusing on cooperation between the Japanese and the South Korean governments. The study analyzes events from news articles on Japan–Republic of Korea (ROK) government cooperation from the Global Database of Events, Language and Tone (GDELT) 2.0 Event Database, a global catalog of weighted interstate events.

Abstract: The Japanese occupation of the Philippines (1942–1945) caused the loss of 500,000–1,000,000 Filipino lives—a tragedy largely erased from Japanese visual media. A 2017 study of Japanese television and a 1980–2023 study of Japanese films found Filipino victims scarcely represented or omitted entirely. Unlike Chinese and Korean victims, whose narratives remain visible owing to activism and diplomatic pressures, Filipino experiences have been marginalized.

Abstract: This study examines the role of cultural connectivity in the evolving dynamics of Korea–Japan relations. Since the dramatic downturn in 2019—the worst since the 1965 normalization— there has been a significant shift. In the post-COVID era, the expansion of cultural exchanges, driven by Gen-Z influence and rising consumption of cultural content, has redefined this relationship.

Abstract: This research note examines how people labeled as hikikomori—prolonged social withdrawal—navigate isolation, moral judgment, and attempts at rehabilitation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a rural rehabilitation center, it situates their experiences within broader social transformations in post-industrial Japan.

Abstract: In 2002, the director of the Jindo Cultural Center learned of Waedeoksan, a tomb site said to commemorate Japanese naval soldiers who died in the 1597 Battle of Myeongnyang. Oral tradition framed the burials as an act of virtue toward foreign dead and remained confined to Jindo for centuries. After the discovery of a genealogical reference, the story gained attention and was mobilized as a symbol of Korea–Japan reconciliation, prompting a visit from a Japanese prime minister.

Abstract: This article examines the replication of the Statue of Peace as a form of civic resistance and re-commemoration in response to the Japanese government’s efforts at de-commemoration. It advances three central arguments. First, replication functions as re-commemoration that resists state-led erasure of the “comfort women” memory. Second, this process constitutes a hauntological cycle, in which attempts to suppress unresolved memories only intensify their return.

Abstract: This research reconsiders the true nature of Japanese military comfort stations and comfort women. To summarize the discussion in this paper, comfort stations were military facilities, and comfort women were the third unit of the Japanese military, after soldiers and direct civilian employees of the Army and Navy.