Tomohiro Kanno - Appointed in AY2021

Until high school, I had a strong aversion to history classes, which I saw as a subject that was all about memorization. After entering university, I encountered "history" as an academic discipline and learned that it wasn't about memorization but about interpreting and constructing historical events and periods from various angles using diverse historical materials. This is what inspired me to pursue research in history.

I research modern and contemporary Chinese and East Asian history, focusing on the northeastern region of China, once known as "Manchuria." Since the modern era, "Manchuria" has been a region that has undergone significant changes amidst complex internal and external circumstances, influenced in various ways by Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Russia, Mongolia, and the West. In my third year of university, I learned that Japan had once conducted field surveys in various fields across different regions of Asia. This sparked numerous questions for me: Why did Japan conduct these surveys in those regions? What picture of local society emerges from the vast number of remaining survey reports? And how did those local communities change afterward? These questions led to my undergraduate thesis, master's thesis, and doctoral dissertation.

Then, around the time I entered the doctoral program, I also began collecting historical materials and conducting interviews related to Japanese repatriates from Manchuria. In the process of interacting with these repatriates, I became interested in how they remember and narrate their experiences in Manchuria, and what lies behind their stories. I am now also researching the "memory" of Manchuria among the Japanese people.

In the course of my research, I have often traveled to the field to observe the landscape and conduct interviews with relevant individuals. I also actively conduct interviews within Japan. Through these surveys, I can learn about aspects that cannot be fully understood from documentary sources alone. What's also interesting is that rereading the historical materials from that new perspective can give rise to new questions and viewpoints.

In Japan today, a great deal of information emphasizing the "China threat theory" circulates daily. As a result, I believe many students hold a negative image of China. On the other hand, cultural exchange between Japan and China has continued since ancient times, as represented by things like kanji characters and Chinese cuisine. More recently, social video apps and online games originating from China have become popular in Japan, and in some ways, there is also a sense of affinity for China. China has a history of being Japan's closest neighbor and will undoubtedly continue to be an important neighboring country in the future. I want students to understand the complex and diverse nature of China based on their own knowledge, thoughts, and experiences, without being swayed by various kinds of information.

(Interview conducted in January 2022)