2024 Germany
Looking back, looking forward: Reconciliation from Karuizawa to Jena and Berlin
September 25, 2024
Shinshu University Center for Global Education and Collaboration Field: Comparative and International Education Assistant Professor
Reflections on global citizenship for reconciliation through the lens of place
During the summer school in Karuizawa in 2023 we watched the film Blue Swallow, about the life of Park Kyung-won, one of the first female Korean pilots who trained in pre-war Japan. Tucked away in Waseda University’s private campgrounds in the peaceful forests of Nagano, we watched the Japanese Imperial army carry out horrific acts of torture on screen as Park Kyung-won had been unjustly arrested for inadvertent involvement in the assassination of a Japanese political figure. Walking through the damp, concrete hallways of the Berlin-Hohenschonhausen Memorial (Stasi Prison), the torture scenes from Blue Swallow flashed before my eyes as though I had just seen the movie. This surprised me as I hadn’t thought about the movie since we left Karuizawa, and I was impressed by the ease and vividness with which the memories flooded back into my consciousness. Standing amid heavy steel doors and musty concrete triggered memories of other human suffering, memories that weren’t even my own first-hand experiences. This was a powerful realization of the importance of place in the creation and maintenance of collective memory, and for understanding processes of reconciliation.
In recent academic discussions in international higher education, scholars have questioned the value-added of physically going abroad with its growing carbon footprint and with online alternatives readily available. Place is forefront in these discussions as, in theory, experience in a new and different place is the main educational benefit of study abroad. This claim is anchored in experiential learning theory (especially Dewey, Kolb), which considers experience itself as learning. At the same time, it is not often clear how and to what extent experiences during study abroad facilitate learning and development. During our trips to Jena and Berlin I was weighing these discussions in my mind, thinking back to Karuizawa and what we achieved there. How does “being here” in Germany deepen our understanding of reconciliation studies in ways that the seminar in Karuizawa could not? What implications might this have for the conceptualization of international education for reconciliation?
Place as a lens for analysis
The presentations themselves could have been conducted in Japan, or even online. Yet the very fact that I was “outside” of my normal surroundings, that my senses were heightened to the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of the here and now, brought the idea of place to the forefront of my mind. Because of this heightened awareness, I began to view the presentations through this lens – the significance of place in the process of reconciliation. The presentation by Chen Chih Kang, titled The Japanese Empire and its aftermath: Shrines, war memories and historical memory, revealed that place, in this case Shinto shrines, were manifestations of the shifting relations between the former colonial power, Japan, and the colonized in Taiwan and Okinawa. What struck me about his findings was that, in the case of Okinawa, the shrines, which had been sites of obligation and forced loyalty to the Japanese empire, transformed into a symbol of nostalgia in the face of a new foe (the American occupation). Is this indicative of Okinawan willingness to reconcile with Japan? Or is it evidence of the depth of control of Japanese colonial rule? Is the presence of “another other” part of the path to reconciliation, or is it a temporary shift in frame of reference that detracts from the reconciliation process? The shrines give shape and form to such questions and embody the shifting process of reconciliation itself.
The presentation by Dr. Laura Villanueva, titled Ecosystems of History, Memory and Reconciliation, suggested another role for place in the process of reconciliation. The satoyama of Kosuge, Yamanashi, is an example of how place itself can be a mediator in the process of reconciliation. In her work for an NGO that brings together young women from Israel, Palestine and Japan in the rural village of Kosuge, Dr. Villanueva found that being in a place that is not connected to memories of war, struggle or conflict can aid individual journeys toward reconciliation. The universality of nature and the reminder that there are places untouched by the conflict they experience, that there are people and ways of life that do not rely on the conflict that has consumed so much of their lives, can help to better position them toward reconciliation.
In this way, my physical presence in Germany focused my attention on place, allowing me to consider the presentations in ways that may not have occurred to me in Japan.
Out of the comfort zone: place and transformation
Jack Mezirow’s framework of transformative learning considers “disorienting dilemmas,” or jarring experiences that force us to reconsider our values and preconceptions, as necessary for worldview transformation. While the experience in Germany did not amount to worldview change, being out of the comfort zone put me in a state of heightened perception, receptiveness and courage.
Having missed the group flight from Narita due to Typhoon #7, I made the four-leg trip on my own, navigating the German Deusch Banh transportation system by trial and error, mostly error. It was a welcome initiation, like jumping into a cold lake. The initial shock may have been anxiety-inducing, however it set the stage for my interactions throughout the remainder of the trip.
Further, place played a part in deconstructing the social expectations that dictate communication in Japanese society. Our removal from this hierarchical structure allowed for free and open discussion not only with colleagues but also with professors. At least for me, this is not something I would have been able to do easily in Japan.
Place as memory
Returning to my opening story about Blue Swallow and the Stasi prison, while retracing the footsteps of the prisoners helped me, an unrelated third party, to empathize with the former prisoners and strengthen my resolve to contribute to the building of reconciliation studies, I also wondered to what extent its maintenance as a memorial will or has facilitated reconciliation between the prisoners and the former Stasi officials and staff?
The former prison was turned into a memorial through the efforts of the former prisoners themselves, so that their stories are kept alive as a warning against the horrors of political persecution everywhere. Certainly, the site fulfils this goal, or at least it did for me. What about the Stasi officials? Our docent relayed a story told to her by one of the former prisoners. He had the chance to meet and speak with one of his former tormenters. During the conversation, the former Stasi official joked that perhaps they should return to the prison and take a photo together in one of the interrogation rooms. This former Stasi official had reconciled with himself over his past crimes and apparently felt no guilt or shame in asking the former prisoner to return to the interrogation room to commemorate their meeting. He did not understand the depth of the harm he had caused to the prisoner, or the meaning that the interrogation room might have for the prisoner. When I heard this story, I felt that although the former prisoner and former official were not reconciled, the existence of the prison itself may be a starting point for dialogue. Importantly, the former official acknowledged that the prison exists, whereas it hadn’t appeared on any map during its use as a Stasi prison. This acknowledgement, and the acknowledgement that he was indeed working there, is at the very least a common departure point. While they still have vastly different views and interpretations on the experiences that unfolded in the interrogation room and what it means to each of them, the room itself provides a concrete, agreed-upon location that represents their relationship.
Interrogation room at the Stasi prison
While buildings, monuments and other man-made structures prompted complex emotions and triggered new ways of thinking about reconciliation throughout our study tour in Germany, one of the most impressive moments for me was the visit to the battlefield of the Battle of Jena. After learning about the battle between Napoleon’s army and Prussian forces, seeing the bayonets which had pierced human flesh and organs, we hiked near the places where the battle had unfolded. The juxtaposition of the violent past with the now peaceful, pastoral landscape, with sheep grazing and a light breeze bending the grass, seemed absurd. While the Stasi prison retained desperation and human suffering within its walls like slow decaying radiation, the battlefield had absorbed it and returned it as something new, with no trace of the bloodshed that had occurred. It made me think that nature can be a powerful force for reconciliation, something that transcends the structure of human society, transcends “us” and “them,” “victim” and “perpetrator.” Indeed, as the only thing that is not a human construction, nature may be the only thing that is truly universal.
Near the battlefields of the Battle of Jena
Looking back, looking forward
The summer school in Germany brought the concept of place to the forefront as an analytical lens and as an entry point for reflexivity. Connecting these reflections to international education, place may be a critical approach to consider in the design of international education for reconciliation. In the above examples, place mediated relationships, collective memory and dialogue for different sides of conflict. In natural environments (not man-made), place also offered a universality that may help different sides of conflict transcend the man-made structures that usually confine reconciliation processes.
At the same time, in the study abroad literature, scholars have pointed out that experiential learning abroad is susceptible to a crystallization effect in which the learning experience becomes something banished to the past, something that happened “over there,” without relevance to lives “here” in the present. How can we ensure that our experiences are not lost, fading through the cycle of daily life? Or will these experiences resurface, just as the scenes from Blue Swallow were replayed in the hallways of the Stasi prison?
Looking forward, the consideration of place may be a valuable analytical framework for the conceptualization of international education for reconciliation. Place can be considered as the epitome of local; on the other hand, it is difficult to think of “the global” in terms of place – where would that place be? The globe itself? At the same time, scholars have pointed out that now, with information technology, place and locality take on a different meaning (e.g., Sassen). For Sassen, information technology allows individuals in localities to become agents at the global level, participants in discussions and activities that transcend their local communities and even national borders. When considering place and reconciliation, we are now living in an era in which nothing is purely local. The global, while perhaps placeless in and of itself, takes shape and manifests itself in the local. Thus, processes of reconciliation at every level are influenced by global contexts. Place can provide a platform for understanding how international education can or does influence these processes.