The Second ICU-COE North East Asian Dialogue (NEAD) : Sharing Narratives, Mapping/Weaving History

• Main Authors: Wasilewski Jacqueline, Hays Paul R., Jacqueline Wasilewski, Paul R. Hays
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 論説 2007
• Subjects: Evenki; Siberia
• Online Access: https://icu.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=1452; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1130/00001438/; https://icu.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=1452&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

In February of 2005 the first ICU-COE North East Asian Dialogue brought together Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian students and civil society members who dentified 78 major obstacles to intercultural communication in North East Asia. Eleven were selected as being of fundamental importance, and of those, the issue of contested history was seen as the "root cause" or fundamental obstacle. If this obstacle could be addressed, it would positively affect the ability to address all the other obstacles. The 2006 ICU-COE North East Asian Dialogue was, thus, organized to begin to address the historical issues in the region. Participants divided up into four Dialogue Circles, each of which represented the diversity of the overall group. Each participant contributed a twenty-minute historical narrative generated from their specific socio-cultural-historical point of view. The other participants in the Circle had an opportunity to ask clarifying questions about each narrative. All the narratives were video taped and are being archived (eventually with translations of the texts into five languages-Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian and English) on a website that is being developed to accompany this project. This virtual dialogue space is meant to provide a venue so that interaction between the participants at the civil society level can continue independently of government funding support in the future. The Circles were successful in taping each participant's narrative. There are about 30 hours of videotaped narratives, as well as a videotape of the whole three day event. There are texts for half of the narratives in either English or Japanese. Collecting the written texts is taking more time than expected. Sometimes, after participation in the Dialogue, people were not satisfied with their initial text. We were hoping that by videotaping the narratives, we could just use the videotaped narratives to create written texts. But sometimes people shared things in the small group, "community" context of the Dialogue Circle that they were uncomfortable sharing in the more public virtual space of the internet. In addition, this project is being carried out in a larger socio-political context where Japanese society is increasingly concerned about the privacy of personal information and in an political environment experiencing increased sensitivity regarding regional history. So, we are proceeding very cautiously in the development of the public website. A preliminary analysis of the oral and written narratives reveals some very interesting themes. There are narratives about constructing a new cosmopolitan concept of the global citizen. Across the different nation-states there are parallel experiences of destruction and loss. There is the emerging, previously untold, comprehensive story, of the Korean diaspora. There are the "hidden" histories of Ainu, Okinawans, Evenki, Khanmigans, Buryats, Japanese "returnees" from Siberia, Manchuria and North Korea, and of people left behind in all three areas. And there are the generational stories of people who actually experienced events versus those who have just read about them in books. What was remarkable was the quality of human relationships that emerged from the work of videotaping each other's narratives in the Dialogue Circles. Real listening was accomplished, and a small step was taken in the creation of a multifocal regional history.