Lecture: Surviving Collaboration in the Aftermath of War

Date: Feb. 28, 2013

Time: 6 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

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Free Lecture from Portland State University's Center for Japanese Studies
Surviving Collaboration in the Aftermath of War
with Dr. Naoko Shibusawa of Brown University, Department of History & Department of American Studies

Thursday, February 28, 2013, 6pm 
at the PSU Multicultural Center
238 Smith Memorial Student Union—1825 SW Broadway, Portland
Free and open to the public

Dr. Naoko Shibusawa's talk at Portland State University will focus on a tale of two U.S. Army sergeants, Richard M. Sakakida and John David Provoo, who became prisoners of war when the island fortress of Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese on May 6, 1942. Because both men understood Japanese, both translated and were given tasks by their Japanese captors. Yet one emerged as a war hero—posthumously given a Congressional citation—whereas the other, though ultimately found innocent, remained hounded by the treason allegations against him for the rest of his life. Their stories upend racialized normatives about nation and belonging, showing how the state firmly placed the Japanese American man into the circle of patriotism and honor while denying readmission to the white man. This talk will focus on Sakakida's testimony against Provoo at his 1952-53 treason trial and explain how Cold War racial liberalism, U.S. exceptionalism, and state surveillance allowed one man to survive World War II collaboration more easily than the other.

Go to pdx.edu/cjs to learn more.

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