1948 as Conjuncture: Revolution, Managed Decolonization, and World-Making in Asia-Pacific
Two-Day Conference
Captured partisan in South Korea in 1950 (dated March 20, 1950; New York Times)
This 2-Day conference will be on Friday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Oct. 24 at 10383 Bunche Hall, UCLA.
Friday, October 23, 2026 (Pacific Time)
Bunche Hall, Rm 10383
This two-day conference is organized around the proposition that 1948 was a decisive global conjuncture, a moment when revolutionary aspirations, decolonization, imperial transitions, and the emerging Cold War converged to shape institutions and perspectives that endure today. Developments in the Asia-Pacific and the United States were central to the making of the past-1945 international order. By situating these histories within a wider global moment, the conference asks how seemingly distinct developments might be understood as interconnected. These include political violence in Greece, southern Korea, and the Philippines; the partitions of India, Korea, and Palestine; military occupation in Japan and the US military government in southern Korea; and the displacement and migration of peoples that accompanied these upheavals. At a time when the postwar international order faces mounting crises and shifting geopolitical alignments, revisiting 1948 allows us to understand better the unfinished histories of decolonization and the legacies of empire, and to reimagine emancipatory possibilities foreclosed by partition, managed decolonization, and competing hegemonic projects.
Day One (Friday, October 23rd)
Opening Remarks
9:45 AM
Namhee LEE (University of California, Los Angeles)
Keynote
Henry EM (Korea Journal)
Panel I: Decolonization, the Establishment of a Peace Regime, and International Solidarity of Civil Society
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Jae-Jung SUH (Duke University)
The Shaking of the San Francisco System and East Asia under the "New Cold War"
Sung-hyun KANG (Sungkonghoe University)
The Politics of Exception, Legal Structures, and Politics of Memory Regaining "Hot War" Transformed White Terror During the Cold War
Koichi NAKANO (Sophia University)
Another colony: The Rightward Shift of Modern Japan and the Taiwan Issue
Discussed with Alexyss MCCLELLAN-UFUGUSUKU (UC San Diego) and Moon-Ho JUNG (University of Washington)
Lunch
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Activist Panel
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Yeong-hwan KIM (The Center for Historical Truth and Justice)
A Journey for Human Rights and Peace: Focusing on the Issues of Yasukuni Shrine and Forced Mobilization
Kyung-ran GANG (The Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan)
The Movement to Address the Issue of Japanese Military Slavery: Confronting Historical Denialism
Cathi CHOI (Women Cross DMZ)
From Peace Walk to Peace Movement: Women Organizing to End the Korean War
Alexyss MCCLELLAN-UFUGUSUKU (UC San Diego; Global Indigenous Youth Caucus at the United Nations)
Changing Narrative: Reframing Ryukyuan Issue in the Context of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Lima TOKUMORI (New Era Asia Peace Academy)
Decolonization and the Okinawa Base Issue
Yeon-jin CHUNG (Action One Korea)
A Peace Movement of Connection: The Activities and Vision of Action One Korea
Hyun-kuk SUNG (Peace Network)
Charting a New Path for Inter-Korean Relations
Roundtable: Strategies for International Civil Society Solidarity to Establish a Northeast Asian Peace Regime
Kyung-min KIM (Hangang YMCA)
Report on the August Conference on International Solidarity for a Northeast Asian Peace Regime
Day Two (Saturday, October 24th)
Panel II: Imperial Transition and the People's Resistance
09:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Julian GO (University of Chicago)
1948 as Intellectual Conjuncture: Fanon and Asian Anticolonial Marxism
Moon-ho JUNG (University of Washington)
Embracing "Un-American" and "Un-Filipino" Activities
Discussed with Tejas PARASHER (UCLA) and Ki-chan SONG (Ritsumeikan University)
Lunch
11:35 AM - 1:30 PM
Panel III: Cold War in East Asia and Its Manifestations
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Sung-ho KANG (Sunchon National University)
The Yeosu-Suncheon Uprising (October 19, 1948): A Turning Point from the Asia-Pacific War to the Korean War
Young Hoon SONG and Dongeun SHIN (Kangwon National University)
Necropower in Motion: State Violence and Connected Geographies of Death through Gangwon, Korea, 1948 - 1953
Wendy MATSUMURA (UC San Diego)
Okinawa's Role in the consolidation of U.S. Dollar Hegemony: The 1948 Establishment of the Bank of the Ryukyus
Discussed with Sandra H. PARK (University of Arizona) and S. Can ACIKSOZ (UCLA)
Panel IV: Imperial Transition and the People
3:50 PM - 6:00 PM
Young-hwan CHONG (Meiji Gakuin University)
The Japan-Asia People's Conference and Asian Solidarity
Vina LANZONA (University of Hwai'i at Manoa)
From Manila to Madrid and Back to Manila: Filipinos in the Spanish Civil War and the Growth of Transnational Radicalism in the Philippines
Judy Tzu-Chun WU (UC Irvine)
1948 from the Chinese Diaspora: Edith Yang, Architecture, and Homemaking in the U.S.
Discussed with Young Hoon SONG (Kangwon National University) and Kyung-min KIM (Hangang YMCA)
Roundtable
6:00 PM - 6:30 PM
* This conference is co-organized by the Center for Korean Studies (CKS), UCLA; Kangwon Institute for Unification Studies, Kangwon National University; Institute of Humanities Research, Sunchon National University; Institute for Peace Worlding Studies, Sungkonghoe University; Action One Korea, The Center for Historical Truth and Justice; The Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, Peace Network; International Peace Research Institute, Meiji Gakuin University; Center for Korean Studies, Ritsumeikan University; and New Era Peace Academy. It is supported by the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS Award Number: AKS-2023-SRI-2200001) as part of its Strategic Research Institute Program for Korean Studies,
Sponsor(s): Center for Korean Studies, Academy of Korean Studies
