Sex and Power in Occupied Japan
Monday, March 25th, 2019
Date | Time | Location |
---|---|---|
Monday, March 25, 2019 | 4:00PM - 6:00PM | Seminar Room 208N, 1 Devonshire Place |
Description
Abstract:
Based on Robert Kramm’s book Sanitized Sex, the talk will discuss the various attempts to sanitize sexuality through the regulation of prostitution, venereal disease and intimacy in occupied Japan after World War II. It features sexuality as key element in issues of security, health and morale during the occupation period. In doing so it underscores how the sanitization of sex was a male-dominated struggle for control and authority in the clash of two competing patriarchal, imperial powers: Japan and the United States. That said, the talk is more than a study of the postwar sexual encounters. An analysis of sex, its regulation and negotiation between occupiers and occupied sheds new light on the everyday experiences and asymmetries of power in occupied Japan, the legacies of the Japanese Empire, and the particularities of postwar U.S. imperialism in the postcolonial formation of the Asia-Pacific region.
Robert Kramm is a post-doctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities and is affiliated with the Department of History at the University of Hong Kong. He holds a doctoral degree in history from ETH Zurich and received his B.A. and M.A., also in history, from the University of Erfurt.
If you are attending a Munk School event and require accommodation(s), please email the event contact listed above to make appropriate arrangements.
Disclaimer: Please note that events posted on this website are considered to be public events – unless otherwise stated – and you are choosing to enter a space where your image and/or voice may be captured as part of event proceedings that may be made public as part of a broadcast, webcast, or publication (online and in print). We make every effort to ensure your personal information is kept and used in compliance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). If you have any questions please get in touch with our office at munkschool@utoronto.ca or 416-946-8900.