“Howard Zinn in Japan: Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and Solidarity in Hiroshima”

Ann Sherif, Professor, East Asian Studies Program, Oberlin College, author of Japan’s Cold War: Media, Literature, and the Law (Columbia University Press), lives in Cleveland Ohio. Her current research focuses on independent and regional publishers and literature in Japan, 1917-1990.

In 1966, historian Howard Zinn and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee member Ralph Featherstone were invited to participate in anti-Vietnam War teach-ins in cities all over Japan by Tsurumi Shunsuke, Oda Makoto and other antiwar activists. This talk focuses on the civil rights leaders’ visit to Hiroshima. Were the teach-in participants able to find common ground with antinuclear and hibakusha (A-bomb survivor) groups in Hiroshima? What objectives and ideas did these disparate social movements share? What can these encounters tell us about transnational solidarity in search for solutions to global problems?