May 8, 2015/ 5:30 PM

UCLA Perloff Hall Room 1102

The experiences of a journalist now fighting a backlash

Colloquium with Journalist Takashi Uemura

Photo: Japan Times, 2015.

UPDATE ON 5/5/2015 - ROOM CHANGED TO PERLOFF HALL ROOM 1102

Uemura Takashi, a former reporter of the Asahi Shimbun, is currently an adjunct lecturer at Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo. In 1991, while a reporter for the Asahi, he wrote two articles on Kim Hak-sun, the first “comfort woman” to come forward to tell her story (1991). Because of these two articles, Uemura has been the target of denunciations by nationalists. He has been labeled "the reporter who fabricated the 'comfort woman' issue" and denounced by nationalists as a “traitor.” Such bashing took a critical turn for the worse in 2014, to the extent that he and his family risk losing their right to a livelihood.

Please see the following related articles:

August 11, 1991 Asahi Shimbun (PDF attached)

December 4, 2014 New York Times

January 12, 2015   The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 13, Issue. 1, No. 1

April 29, 2015 Japan Times

May 1, 2015 Wisconsin Journal Sentinel

This year, he filed libel suits at Tokyo District Court in January and Sapporo District Court in February.

Uemura is visiting the U.S. from late April to early May to give lectures at various college campuses in the U.S. 
Below is the schedule for his public talks:

Apr 30 - Chicago
16:30-18:00, “East Asia: Transregional Histories” Workshop
Uemura Takashi, “Reporting on the “Comfort Women”: The Experiences of a Journalist Now Fighting a Backlash”
With Interpretation by Norma Field (University of Chicago)
Location: Cobb 116, University of Chicago

May 1 (Friday) – Milwaukee
9:00-3:30, Marquette University, 2015 Center for Transnational Justice Workshop
“Integrity of Memory: “Comfort Women” in Focus”
Location: Alumni Memorial Union, Rm 163

10:40-11:30 Keynote Address by Uemura Takashi
“Reporting on the “Comfort Women”: The Experiences of a Journalist Now Fighting a Backlash”
With Interpretation by Norma Field (University of Chicago)

May 4 (Monday) – New York
16:00-18:00, Public lecture at NYU (co-hosted by NYU and Columbia)
Location: 19 University Place, the first floor conference room, “The Great Room”

Organized by Tom Looser
Introduction by Carol Gluck (Columbia University)
Uemura Takashi, ““Reporting on the “Comfort Women”: The Experiences of a Journalist Now Fighting a Backlash”
Commentary by Yukiko Hanawa (NYU) and discussion with the audience

May 5 (Tuesday) - Princeton
12:00, Jones 202, Princeton University
Uemura Takashi, “Scenes from a Japanese Backlash: The Experiences of a Former Journalist Reporting on the ‘Comfort Women’ “
Limited to the Princeton University Community, RSVP required.

May 8 – Los Angeles
17:30-19:00 Public lecture at UCLA
Location: Bunche Hall 10383, UCLA
Uemura Takashi, “Reporting on the “Comfort Women”: The Experiences of a Journalist Now Fighting a Backlash”
With Introduction and Interpretation by Katsuya Hirano and Ted Everhart (UCLA)

Free & open to the public!

Download file: Asahi-Shimbun-with-Timeline-rb-qzu.pdf

Sponsor(s): Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, Center for Korean Studies