Lecture – The Nikkei and the LARA Postwar Relief Efforts to Japan

What: Japan Foundation of Toronto and Japan Studies Association of Canada Joint Lecture Series 1
“The Nikkei and the LARA Postwar Relief Efforts to Japan” ”日系と戦後のララ物資”
Date & Time: Monday, September 22, 2014 at 1:00 pm
Location: University of Alberta, Humanities Centre Room 2-33
No reservation required.
Abstract of Talk: “The Nikkei and the LARA Postwar Relief Efforts to Japan”
Immediately after the Pacific War ended in 1945, many Nikkei in Canada and the U.S. suffered from the aftereffect of such experiences during the war as forced removal from their homes, relocation and internment, as well as the government’s inquisitions concerning their loyalty. Scholars argue that those Nikkei developed a very negative self-image and came to feel ashamed of, or guilty about, their Japanese origins. This sense of shame or guilt, caused many of them to eliminate ties to Japan in order to survive in their adopted country, Canada or the U.S. some Nikkei, however, regarded the Japanese in Japan., devastated by their defeat in the war, as “fellow Japanese,” and tried to find a way to help them. They discovered that they could do so through an organization called LARA (Licensed Agencies for Relief in Asia). Twenty percent of the relief supplies sent to Japan by LARA between 1946 and 1952 were collected by Nikkei in Canada, the U.S., and South America. Rather than eliminating their ties to Japan, these Nikkei reaffirmed their ties, by becoming engaged in relief activities for defeated Japan. He talk will examine this fascination period and compare the situation of Nikkei communities in these three regions.
About the Speaker:
Masako Iino is past President and Professor of American History and Immigration Studies at Tsuda College in Tokyo. She has also taught at McGill University and Acadia University and was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley. She has been on numerous committees and boards, governmental and academic, national and international,. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the Japanese Association for American Studies (1992-2010), President of the Japanese Association for Canadian Studies (1996-2000), and was awarded with the Governor General’s International Award for Canadian Studies in 2001. Professor Iino has published many books and papers in the fields of American and Canadian Studies, as well as immigration studies, including another History of U.S.-Japan Relations: Japanese Americans Swayed by the Cooperation and the Disputes Between the Two Nations (Tokyo: Yuhikaku, 200); a History of Japanese Canadians: Swayed by Canada-Japan Relations (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1997) (which was given the Prime Minister’s Award for Publication), an co-author of Ethnic America (Tokyo: Yuhikaku, 2011), a revised version of Ethnic America (1984,1997).