In less than 24 hours I leave Japan for the USA. I have been here almost two years, mostly as a scholarship research student at Waseda University’s Political Science department studying Sino-Japanese relations history with Hirano, Kenichiro (平野健一郎). He has been incredibly kind to me, supporting me both in my studies with him, and in the half year or so I stayed on and did various smaller things such as helping edit a collection of essays Toyo Bunko, being an English conversation partner for a retired prime minister, traveling around East Asia on my limited savings, and helping out with various things at Waseda’s Contemporary Asian Studies Center of Excellence as a research assistant. Today I’m getting together with a group of good friends for a last gathering and tomorrow morning I leave Japan to begin the last step in my formal education: a PhD in history.
This blog will change accordingly. At least for a while there won’t be any more first hand stories of my experiences in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and China and probably more academic sounding babble as I dive into my studies. The frequency in postings will probably drop somewhat (not that it was ever high to start with). I plan to be in Korea next summer and the summer after studying Korean language but I don’t know when my next extended stay in Japan will be.
I imagine you must be feeling a bit choked up.
Well, I made it back. It was a bit emotional at the end but great to hang with friends on my last day.
As a special treat now that you’re farther away from Asia, the head of SK’s Uri Party has resigned in apology for his father’s collaborating with the Japanese. If every descendant of a “collaborator” resigned, the most of the elite would have to quit. You’ve certainly chosen a rich area for research, one that will force you to overturn a lot of hallowed soil in Korea.
SEOUL (Reuters) – The chairman of South Korea’s ruling Uri Party resigned Thursday, an unexpected first casualty of President Roh Moo-hyun’s call for an inquiry into who benefited from working with Korea’s Japanese colonial rulers
No kidding! I have been trying to download lots of articles on this but there is limited coverage in the English media and not very detailed. I wish my Korean was good enough now to where I could skim vast amounts of Korean newspapers. Unfortunately, I need another year and then perhaps next summer before I reach that stage….by that time I’m sure there will have been many who have looked at this closely.