Exploring the Responsibility of Colonial Rule by Japanese Historians(Shinichi Arai): Contributions to intellectual exchanges in East Asia since the 1990s

This paper traces the evolution of histriography by Shinichi Arai(1926-2017), a Japanese historians of the history of international relations. In particular, we will focus on developments since the 1990s, when Japan's war responsibility, responsibility for colonial rule, and historical awareness were severely questioned. Through this, we will examine how Japanese intellectuals deepened their awareness of the issue of Japanese colonial rule. Arai is not an expert on the history of the Korean history or the history of Japan-Korea relations. However, his last book was Colonialism and Cultural Properties: Thinking from Modern Japan and Korea. This book positions Japan-Korea relations within the major trends in world history of colonial rule. This reflects the characteristics of postwar Japanese historiography. How did Arai come to write this book? I will first explore the originality of Arai's analysis in postwar Japanese historiography. In his research, the perspective of war responsibility was particularly emphasized, whereas colonial responsibility was not emphasized until the 1980s. From the 1990s onwards, Arai participated in the establishment of the Center for Research and Documentation on Japan's War Responsibility and was one of its representatives. There, he made contributions as a historian to the issue of Comfort Women and the damage caused by air raids against Japan and China. In the controversy over the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty, he raised the issue from an original perspective that Japanese and Korean history experts do not have. He also contributed to the creation of a forum for common discussion among East Asian intellectuals on the issue of Japanese history textbooks. Through such exchanges of intellectuals, Arai deepened his understanding of the history of colonial rule.