Children in Wartime Asia, 1931-1945

Pomona College presents a history conference with experts speaking on children in Asia during wartime.

The speakers will examine how the horrors of World War II affected children in Asia in both predictable and surprising ways. They were hungry, sick and poorly clothed and housed. They often were separated from their families and lost parents or siblings. Some lost their own lives. The presentations at the half-day conference will address this neglected issue of children in wartime Taiwan, China and the Philippines.

What prompted Pomona College Professor of History Samuel Yamashita to organize this event was, “the paucity of scholarly English-language articles and books on the situation of children in Asia during World War II. This stands in marked contrast to the experience of children in Europe during World War II, which has been amply documented and written about.” In his own research, Yamashita said he discovered that children suffered the most, “First, because they were the smallest and weakest; and second, because they often did what they were told to do.”

Conference Schedule:

1:30 Greetings
Samuel Yamashita, Henry E. Sheffield Professor of History, Pomona College
 
1:35 Introductions
Georgia Mickey, Assistant Professor, California State Polytechnic University- Pomona
 
1:40 Winifred Chang, UCLA
“Preparing for the Final Exam: Wartime Patriotism in Children’s Textbooks in Colonial Taiwan”
 
2:20 Lily Chang, Henry Lumley Research Fellow, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge
“Adjudicating War: Juvenile Offenders in Wartime China,1937-1945”
 
3:35 Introductions
Hans Rindisbacher, Professor, Department of German and Russian, Pomona College
 
3:40 Mariko Tamanoi, Professor of Anthropology, UCLA
“Abandoned Children in Manchuria: Past and Present”
 
4:20 Curtis Tong, Emeritus Professor of Physical Education, Pomona College
“Writing Child of War”
 
5:30 Reception