Seventy Years to the Bombing of Tokyo - Conference - University of Haifa

H-Japan Seventy Years to the Bombing of Tokyo - Conference - University of Haifa

Discussion published by Rotem Kowner on Friday, March 6, 2015

(Apologies for cross-posting)

The Department of Asian Studies The University of Haifa

An International Conference

A Tale of Three Cities: SEVENTY YEARS TO THE BOMBING OF TOKYO AND THE ATOMIC BOMBINGS OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI

25-26 March 2015

On the night between March 9 and 10, 1945, 334 massive United States Air Force bombers attacked Tokyo with incendiary bombs and brought about unprecedented urban damages and more than 100,000 - mostly civilian - deaths. It was the greatest aerial bombing of the city during the war, and, in retrospect, also the deadliest conventional bombing of all time. Five months later, a single bomber of the same model dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, and a similar bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki three days later. Both bombs led to fewer casualties than the Tokyo bombing, but the latter bombs led almost immediately to Japan’s surrender. The Tokyo bombing, as well as its place on the road to the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has not heretofore received a significant deal of scholarly attention. Upon the bombing’s seventieth anniversary, this conference is meant to mark the occasion, to examine the developments that led to its execution, to review its implications and its connections to the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to analyze the manner in which the harms inflicted on these three cities has been commemorated in Japanese culture and beyond, and to examine its wider contexts to this very day.

DAY 1 Wednesday, 25 March 2015 Raphael Angel Auditorium, Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art

16:00-17:45 Session I. Greetings and Introduction Chair: Dr. Yoram Evron (University of Haifa)

The Bombing of Tokyo and the Road to the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Introduction and the Main Questions of the Conference

Citation: Rotem Kowner. Seventy Years to the Bombing of Tokyo - Conference - University of Haifa. H-Japan. 03-06-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/20904/discussions/63370/seventy-years-bombing-tokyo-conference-university-haifa Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Japan

Prof. Rotem Kowner (University of Haifa)

Killing Civilians on the Way to Victory: Then and Now Admiral (ret.) Ami Ayalon (Chair of the Executive Board of the University of Haifa)

The Response of Ordinary Civilians to the Bombing of Tokyo Dr. Teruhisa Shino (Independent scholar, The Japan-Israel Friendship Association, Japan)

18:00-19:30 Session II. Testimonies and Memories Chair: Rotem Kowner (University of Haifa) and Eli Tsuchida (Chair of the Japanese Community in Israel)

"Thanks to the Americans for not Burning Us Twice": Testimonies and Memories of Survivors and Family Members Seventy Years after the Event Mr. Michimasa Hirata (Japan), Mr. Masao Sato (Japan), Ms. Atsuko Uehara (Japan), Ms. Kikue Eppstein (Israel), Ms. Michiko Matsumura (Israel), Ms. Nanako Morimoto (Israel)

DAY 2 Thursday, 26 March 2015 Ofer Observatory, University of Haifa

09:40-11:10 Session III. The Bombing of Tokyo Chair: Dr. Nimrod Baranovitch (University of Haifa)

The City as a Target: The Evolution of the Use of "Strategical Bombing" until 1945 Dr. Tal Tovy (Bar Ilan University)

General Curtis Lemay and His European Experience: From Schweinfurt to the Firebombing of Tokyo Prof. Shlomo Aronson (The Hebrew University)

Between Tokyo and Dresden: Similarities and Differences Sarit Shay (University of Haifa)

11:30-13:00 Session IV. The Road to Hiroshima and Nagasaki Chair: Dr. Shakhar Rahav (University of Haifa)

Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Concept of Supreme Emergency

Prof. Daniel Statman (University of Haifa)

Why Were the Atomic Bombs Dropped? The Current State of Research Dr. Noam Kochavi (The Hebrew University)

The Impact of the Atomic Bombs on Japan's Decision to Surrender Prof. Meron Medzini (The Hebrew University)

14:15-15:45 Session V. Documentation and Reconstruction Chair: Dr. Guy Podoler (University of Haifa)

War and Photography: Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki through the Lenses of Three Photographers Dr. Ayelet Zohar (University of Tel Aviv)

"Like Drawing an Ideal City on a Piece of White Paper": Relations between the Killing and Building of Tokyo after March 1945 Prof. Erez Golani Solomon (Waseda University and Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem)

Death and Resurrection in the Mushroom of Smoke: The Atomic Bombs as a Departure Point in Japanese Animation Films Dr. Michal Daliot-Bul (University of Haifa).

16:00-18:00 Session VI. Memory and Commemoration Chair: Dr. Arik Moran (University of Haifa)

The Japanese Construction of the Collective Memory of the Atomic Bombs under the American Occupation Dr. Sigal Ben-Rafael Galanti (Beit Berl College)

Postwar Story: Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japanese Children's Literature Dr. Roni Sarig (Tel Hai College)

Alternative Gaze: A Testimony about War and Multiple Memory in Hiroshima mon amour Maya Michaeli (University of Tel Aviv and Sciences Po, Paris)

From Hiroshima to Fukushima: Post Traumatic Memory of the Bombing in Contemporary Japanese Cinema Dr. Shunit Shahal-Porat (Independent scholar)

All events are open to the public - Day 2 will be held in Hebrew