A couple of interesting presentations here at Chicago yesterday by two of Japan's leading intellectual historians: Narita Ryuichi and Iwasaki Minoru. Iwasaki spoke on the complexities of historical memory, exploring the work of Aleida Assman and others. He stressed the importance of achieving a balance between recollections that construct a sense of communal identity and memories that erupt to challenge that identity, between a negative critique of dominant communal memories and a positive embrace of rembrance.

Narita spoke on the history of postwar historiography in Japan, on the relations between the early postwar school of historians, the "people's history" (minshushi) that arose in the 1960s, and the postmodern or "social history" school that arose in the 1980s and 90s, and on how each school understood such concepts as "Japan" or "truth."

There's a very useful article at The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus by Tessa Morris Suzuki on how the discourse of human rights functions in the relations between North Korea and Japan. She argues that while the Pyongyang regime brutally violates human rights, military intervention to topple it would likely cause more death and suffering than the regime itself, and that therefore nonviolent pressure for reform is a better approach.

The problem for those who take this view, though, is that it is very difficult to promote engagement with North Korea while also publicly condemning that country’s human rights violations, and it therefore becomes all too tempting to ignore these violations or sweep them under the carpet. The task of identifying alternative responses to the North Korean human rights problem – responses not linked to a hawkish political agenda – is an urgent and difficult one. In the pages that follow, I shall use a critical analysis of some Japanese debates on North Korean human rights as a basis for considering some aspects of this problem.

I'm currently reading Kanosei toshite no 'Zai-Nichi' (Zai-Nichi as a mode of possibility, 2002), a book of essays by Ri Kaisei (Lee Hoesung), the ethnically Korean novelist who won the Akutagawa Prize in 1972. He wrestles with similar issues: how to maintain a critical distance from both the North and South Korean states while nonetheless trying to contribute to the Korean people as a nation. Again, balance is the goal, but as Ri's experiences show, it isn't so easy to keep your balance when you're being tugged and pushed from all sides.

Finally, on a lighter note, I've updated the CD acquisitions page on my website to include new titles I picked up during my recent Tokyo trip. A few selections:

Bump of Chicken, present from you (2008, Toy’s Factory). A dozen B-sides from singles collected on one CD. I’ve finally figured out who these reigning Kings of J-Rock remind me of: The Byrds. They’ve updated the sound, of course, but you still get the jangly guitars, the sweet harmonies, and the damnably catchy tunes.

Soul Flower Union, Screwball Comedy (2001, Respect Record). Mid-career album from the agit-prop kings of J-Pop, more carnivalesque, Latin-tinged pop and lyrics with political bite—including track 9, “No to ieru otoko” (The Man Who Can Say No), a jibe at Ishihara Shintarô.

Amuro Namie, Sweet 19 Blues (1996, avex). I successfully resisted this enormously popular disk for more than a decade: I steadfastly maintained a snobbish resistance to all of Komuro Tetsuya’s productions. But recently I was reading a close analysis of the title track in Satô Yoshiaki’s book, J-POP Shinkaron (The theory of evolution of J-Pop, 1999), and as I repeatedly listened to the song on-line as I was trying to understand Satô’s analysis, I found myself falling in love with it. Turns out, the whole album is pretty damn solid. As usual, I find myself catching up with fashionable trends about a decade after the fact. I should start learning to dance the Macarena any day now.

the brilliant green, Los Angeles (2001, DefStar). Third album by the beloved (and recently reunited) alternative rock outfit, who had a pretty wide following outside of Japan back in the day. Very tasty stuff. (CD cover pictured above)