Tessa Morris-Suzuki, BA (Hons) (Bristol), PhD (Bath), FAHA
Professor of Japanese History, School of Culture, History & Language
Email: tessa.morris-suzuki@anu.edu.au
Biographical statement
I am currently engaged research projects on conflict and reconciliation between Japan, China and the two Koreas; humanitarianism in mid-twentieth century Northeast Asia; migration and refugee issues in Northeast Asia; local grass-roots civil society in Japan; and the little-known story of Korean kamikaze (tokkotai) pilots. I convene the Asian Civil Rights Network and co-edit the network's online journal Asiarights. My most recent books include My most recent books include Borderline Japan, a study of migration and border controls in the postwar era; To the Diamond Mountains, which retraces the journey made by English traveler Emily Georgiana Kemp through China and Korea in 1910; Exodus to North Korea, a study of the mass migration of ethnic Koreans from Japan to North Korea in the Cold War era, and The Past Within Us: Media, Memory, History, which discusses the representation of history in varied popular media. I also co-edited the eight-volume history of the Asia-Pacific War published in Japanese by Iwanami Publishers, 2005-2006.
Research interests
Border controls and migration in East Asia; national identity and ethnic minorities in Japan; modern Japanese historiography; human rights in Asia; globalization processes (with particular reference to Northeast Asia); memory and reconciliation in Northeast Asia; the Fukushima nuclear accident in social and historical context.
Key publications
- Tennô to Amerika (The Emperor and America, coauthored), Shûeisha, 2010
- Borderline Japan: Foreigners and Frontier Controls in the Postwar Era, Cambridge University Press, 2010
- To the Diamond Mountains: A Hundred Year Journey Through China and Korea, Rowman and Littlefield, 2010 (forthcoming)
- Beyond Computopia: Information, Automation and Democracy in Japan, Kegan Paul International, 1988.
- The Technological Transformation of Japan, Cambridge University Press, 1994. (also published in Chinese and Korean translations)
- Re-Inventing Japan: Time Space, Nation, M.E. Sharpe, 1998. (also published in Spanish translation)
- Demokurashii no Bôken (Ventures in Democracy, co-authored), Shûeisha, 2004.
- The Past Within Us: Media, Memory, History, Verso, 2005. (also published in Japanese translation)
- Exodus to North Korea: Shadows from Japan's Cold War, Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield, 2007. (also published in Japanese translation)
Career highlights
Member of the Priority Panel on Australia's Asian Context, Research Grants Committee of the Australian Research Council (1993); Chair of Faculty, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University (1994-96); International Secretary, Australian Academy of the Humanities (1995-98); Vice-President, Asian Studies Association of Australia (1998-2000); President, Asian Studies Association of Australia (2000-2002); Member, Foreign Affairs Council (1998-2001); Convenor, Asian Studies in Asia Network (1999-2005); Convenor, Asian Civil Rights Network (2003-present). Council member, International Council on Human Rights Policy (2011-present).
