Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University

Full-Day Schedule for October 11th

Chair and Moderator: Walter Carroll, Bridgewater State University
Discussant: Yan Lu, University of New Hampshire

After the Korea War broke out in 1950, the political landscape in Asia changed drastically. Asian politicians, capitalists and intellectuals who were busy to rehabilitate from the war-time chaos, had to deal with the issue of the expansion of communism. A containment policy against communist China was launched by the United States and its allies. Starting from Japan in the north and joined by South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Singapore in the south, China was contained by these so-called fortresses of anti-communism.

Japan was put into the custody of the allied forces after the end of the Second World War. Japan’s external connections with Asian countries, especially with the anti-communist satellites, were placed under the manipulation of the GHQ at Tokyo. A new international order in Asia was formed with the dominance of the United States. Asian politicians, diplomats and intellectuals debuted in this Cold War background of anti-communism, China containment, post-war rehabilitation, and reconstruction of international order of Asia.

This panel will discuss how Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea were linked together under the new political landscape of Asia in the 1950s and 60s. It will focus on several case studies of individual, organization and film production in order to show by what strategies they had adopted to survive on one hand, and to deal with the concept of anti-communism and new Asianism on the other.