{"title":"Tokyo in Tashkent: The Afro-Asian Writers Association and Japanese Cold War Dissent","authors":"Christopher L Hill","doi":"10.1093/pastj/gtad027","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In October 1958, seven Japanese writers attended the first great cultural event of the Bandung era, the week-long Afro-Asian Writers Conference held in Tashkent, the capital of Soviet Uzbekistan. The ‘literary Bandung’ resulted in the creation of the Afro-Asian Writers Association (AAWA), a source of growing interest among historians of anti-colonialism for the institutions it founded to support a literary culture unmediated by London, Paris or New York, and thereby advance political solidarity among colonized and newly independent countries in the so-called Third World. The participation of writers from Japan, a former empire aligned with the United States, has no place in the historiography of post-war Japan, the Cold War or decolonization. Japanese participants and observers used the conference and the AAWA as a means of dissent equally unfamiliar in received narratives. They argued that commitment to the decolonization of Asia and Africa offered a means to resist amnesia about Japan’s colonialist history and obstruct its role in the American empire. The work of Japanese writers in Tashkent and after reveals a broader genealogy of Afro-Asianism and anti-colonial internationalism and opportunities for dissent made possible by crossing between post-imperial and postcolonial worlds in the Bandung era.","PeriodicalId":47870,"journal":{"name":"Past & Present","volume":"70 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Past & Present","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtad027","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In October 1958, seven Japanese writers attended the first great cultural event of the Bandung era, the week-long Afro-Asian Writers Conference held in Tashkent, the capital of Soviet Uzbekistan. The ‘literary Bandung’ resulted in the creation of the Afro-Asian Writers Association (AAWA), a source of growing interest among historians of anti-colonialism for the institutions it founded to support a literary culture unmediated by London, Paris or New York, and thereby advance political solidarity among colonized and newly independent countries in the so-called Third World. The participation of writers from Japan, a former empire aligned with the United States, has no place in the historiography of post-war Japan, the Cold War or decolonization. Japanese participants and observers used the conference and the AAWA as a means of dissent equally unfamiliar in received narratives. They argued that commitment to the decolonization of Asia and Africa offered a means to resist amnesia about Japan’s colonialist history and obstruct its role in the American empire. The work of Japanese writers in Tashkent and after reveals a broader genealogy of Afro-Asianism and anti-colonial internationalism and opportunities for dissent made possible by crossing between post-imperial and postcolonial worlds in the Bandung era.
期刊介绍:
Founded in 1952, Past & Present is widely acknowledged to be the liveliest and most stimulating historical journal in the English-speaking world. The journal offers: •A wide variety of scholarly and original articles on historical, social and cultural change in all parts of the world. •Four issues a year, each containing five or six major articles plus occasional debates and review essays. •Challenging work by young historians as well as seminal articles by internationally regarded scholars. •A range of articles that appeal to specialists and non-specialists, and communicate the results of the most recent historical research in a readable and lively form. •A forum for debate, encouraging productive controversy.