Hi Timothy,
I do not have a Japanese address but am quite interested in the
matters you raise in your email. I am a tourism prof at Southern
Cross University in Australia but my research takes me to Japan and I
have been in involved in Pacific War tourism in Borneo, where I have
successfully used dark toursm to get locals to protect
war memorials. The involvement by locals in running local ceremonies
has also been very theraputic to them ( somewhat to their surprise).
I was able to do these things because of a personal connection: my
father was one of only six survivors out of 2,400 Australian and
British POWs who died there. The Sandakan-Ranau Death Marches were
arguably Australia greatest war tragedy.
My goal is to get Japanese involved in a reconciliation process in
Borneo. I have talked to many Japanese about the war and learned much
about their feelings about what happened. With the help of japanese
ex-servicemen, I have met with priests at the Yasakuni Shine about
changing some of captions in the museum part (so far unsuccesfully).
I am currently writing a book combining Australian, Japanese and
Malaysian perspectives on the war in Borneo.
I would be delighted to make further contact with you to explore possibilities.
Dick Braithwaite
At 06:35 PM 11/01/2008, Timothy Takemoto wrote:
>Dear Dark Tourism Forum Members
>
>I am a lecturer, or English conversation teacher, at a Japanese
>university in a department of tourism studies. When I research
>I do it in the field of cultural psychology (Markus and Kitayama
>etc.) and belong to the social psychology conferences such as
>Asian Association of Social Psychology.
>
>Since my move to my current deparment, I have been attending
>tourism studies conferences such as CAUTHE, which I may
>attend again this year in Queensland in four weeks.
>
>Dark Tourism should be really big in Japan.
>
>Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Chiran (the place where "kamikaze"
>pilots took off from on their missions) spring to mind. There are
>a few memorials to the slaughter of Christians but a whole
>lot more could be made of this.
>
>There are a few haunted house type attractions but I am not
>aware of a Japanese version of the London Dungeon or Madame
>Tussaudes.
>
>There whole lot more that Japanese could commodify if they
>were more prepared to all self-criticism, or if they could think
>of ways of using the same venues to promote Japano-phillic
>interpretations of their causes.
>
>For example, I don't think that there is even a plaque to mark
>the site of the infamous prisioner of war camp?"Fukuoka 17"
>in the (now very depressed) town of Ohmuta, Southern Japan
>http://www.lindavdahl.com/
>where, we hear, allied solidiers broke their own legs to avoid
>forced work in the coal mines.
>
>And that is only the start.
>
>Are there other members from Japan? A search for members
>containing "jp" in their email address and for "Japan"
>in the emails in the list archives yields no hits.
>
>I am just preparing some slides for a lecture on Dark Tourism
>in Japan and there is so much to write about.
>
>Tim
>Timothy Takemoto (ne Williams was Leuers) M.A.
>"Associate Professor"
>Yamaguchi University
>Japan
>http://nihonbunka.com
Professor Dick Braithwaite, PhD.
School of Tourism and Hospitality Management
Faculty of Business
Southern Cross University
PO Box 157
Lismore NSW 2480
Australia
Phone: 61 2 66269178 Fax: 61 2 66222208
http://www.scu.edu.au/tourism
Winner - 1999, 2003 Australian Tourism awards for Industry Education
Winner-1997,1998,1999, 2002 and 2003 NSW Tourism Awards for Business
Excellence - Industry Education
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