Contesting Memorial Spaces in the Asia-Pacific
SPECIAL SESSION II: Roundtable Film Workshop
ROUNDTABLE PARTICIPANTS:
ALEXANDER BUKH is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Alexander has published extensively on Japan's national identity, Japan's foreign policy and territorial disputes.
DAVID LEHENY is Professor at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University. David’s research looks at Japanese Politics, East Asian Security, and the role of Culture in International Relations.
JUNG-SUN HAN is Professor at the Division of International Studies, Korea University. An expert in modern and contemporary Japanese history and culture, Han has worked on interwar and wartime Japanese political thought and the visual culture of modern Japan.
This Island is Ours: Defending Dokdo/Retrieving Takeshima (Contented Production 2016, 52 minutes)
The documentary is from a collaboration between Alexander Bukh and Nils Clauss, a Seoul-based professional filmmaker. It forms part of a broader research project that focuses on territorial disputes and civic activism in Northeast Asia. The territorial dispute between Japan and Korea over the ownership of Dokdo/Takeshima islets resurfaced in the early 2000s. The dispute is not limited to state-to-state relations, as in both countries there are citizens' groups actively engaged in protesting, lobbying and educating the public. Who are these people? What do they do in their everyday life? What motivates them to engage in this kind of activism? How do they see the other side? The usually sensational media coverage of their activities does not answer these questions. This documentary offers some answers by providing the individual activists with a platform to talk about themselves, their activism and their views of the other country and people. The film focuses on two activists – one from Korea's National Federation for Protecting Dokdo, and another from Japan`s Association for Protecting Prefectural Territory Takeshima.