Tomoka Azuma (Ms)

Proposed Thesis Title: Settlers in Karafuto between Empires and Nations: Human Stories of Returning and Remaining
Supervisor: Assistant Professor Sayaka Chatani

I completed my undergraduate program at Kwansei-Gakuin University, Japan. During my undergraduate, my primary interest was the development of education for children. My father is a specialist in Education; therefore, I had many opportunities to learn the importance of education since I was young. Furthermore, I also researched on Nepal’s quality of basic education and studied Japan’s education history.

When I was researching the development of education, I learned how histories of cultures and social background are deeply involving the formation of education. These educations are diverse in different places and nations. On this point, I reconsidered the diversity of Japan and its education in different regions.  In this manner, I realized my strong Hokkaido identity made me curious about the unique and complicated history of Hokkaido, especially from the beginning of the Meiji era when the name “Hokkaido” was first coined.

The Meiji era was also the time Japanese imperialism was expanded to East Asian society. About the Japanese imperial era (from the Meiji era to the postwar period), I found out some problems of the differences in historical perception which further complicate today's politics and foreign affairs in East Asia. In particular, I consider the multifaceted nature and the lack of a comprehensive perspective of the East Asian history during the Japanese imperial era are deeply linked to the current problems.  In addition, in present-day East Asia, the resurgence of ultranationalism has motivated nations to politically antagonize each other, drawing from territorial controversies and competing historical narratives. Moreover, rather than a nation that actually underwent imperial rule, young people born after the second world war and who learned the history of the imperial rule are facing these problems and confronting the nations and regions as a new nation. To understand these situations, one must not only be aware of the contemporary societies and environments but also need to comprehend the initial formation of these national identities. The future generations should also study the regional micro-history of Japan, together with overseas colonies, mandates, and occupied territories during the height of Japanese imperialism.

To this end, I will try to exhaustively research micro-histories at Hokkaido and the Korean peninsula during the Japanese imperial rule, which had a major impact on the formation of the present-day East Asian geopolitical situation. I also aspire to have my research as a linch-pin for a more comprehensive history pedagogy on the East Asia region in the future.