Dr. Kawamura, of the Department of History, WSU, will give an invited talk at the last session of the DIJ History and Humanities Study Group in 2016: Thursday, December 8 in Tokyo, Japan.

Emperor Hirohito from the Pacific War to the Cold War.

Emperor Showa, better known in the English-speaking world as Emperor Hirohito, has been one of the most controversial figures in the history of the Pacific War. He was both sovereign of the state and commander in chief of the Japanese imperial forces; but above all, he was the manifestation of divinity and a symbol of the national and cultural identity of Japan. Yet under the Allied occupation the emperor was spared from the Tokyo war crimes trial and continued to reign in postwar Japan until his death in 1989 as “the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people” under the new democratic constitution written by the U.S. occupiers.

This talk will examine the extraordinary transformation of Emperor Hirohito from a divine monarch during the Pacific War to a humanized symbolic monarch supposedly with no political power during the occupation years (1945-1952). The talk will focus on the paradoxical role Emperor Hirohito played at home and abroad as tension between the United States and the Soviet Union escalated into the Cold War in East Asia.

Kawamura suggests that underneath the stereotypical portrayal of Emperor Hirohito as a passive but shrewd survivor/collaborator of the U.S. occupiers, he acted as a major player in U.S.-Japanese diplomatic negotiations behind closed doors and participated in the shaping of Japan’s domestic and national security policies. The talk will explore possible reasons behind the emperor’s actions.

Dr. Matthew Sutton will speak at Princeton University on December 8 at the American Political History Seminar. He will discuss his book “(Un)Holy Spies: Religion and American Espionage in World War II.”  Dr. Sutton is an Edward R. Mayer Distinguished Professor of History.

Professor and Associate Director, John Wolff, of the School of the Environment, is giving a Roots of Contemporary Issues-sponsored lecture on Wednesday, Nov 9, 7pm, CUB 220 (Senior Ballroom). The lecture is titled “Volcanoes, Climate, and People: Natural vs. Anthropogenic Causes of Global Change.”   This lecture is also in partnership with the WSU Cougar Historical Society.

For more detailed information on the subject, see more here.

“War and Terrorism in  Historical, Political Contexts” will be discussed  in a free presentation November 7 at 4:30 p.m. in Todd Hall, Room 216.  This is in conjunction with the WSU Common Reading of “I Am Malala” for five campuses in 2016-2017.  See the link to the complete article.

Dr. Lawrence Hatter will give a talk November 3 on his forthcoming book, “Citizens of Convenience: The Imperial Origins of American Nationhood on the U. S. – Canadian Border” at the University of Missouri’s Kinder Institute for Constitutional Democracy.  See the link to the UM Colloquium Series.

Dr. Matthew Sutton will give a talk titled “Anticipating the Antichrist: The Rise of American Fundamentalism in a Global Age.”

Starting in the early 20th century, a colorful and charismatic group of radical Protestants, anticipating the end of the world, paradoxically transformed it. Perceiving the United States as besieged by Satanic forces—communism and secularism, family breakdown and government encroachment—Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and many others took to the pulpit and airwaves to explain how Biblical end-times prophecy made sense of a world ravaged by global wars, genocide, and the threat of nuclear extinction. Rather than withdraw from their communities to wait for Armageddon, they used what little time was left to warn of the coming Antichrist, save souls, and prepare the United States for God’s final judgment. In his talk, Prof. Sutton will show the rise of the American Christian Right from the beginning of the 20th century until today.  See the poster for sponsorship information.