International Forum on War History

The NIDS International Forum on War History, first held in 2002, reconsiders military history by comparing it bilaterally or multilaterally with other nations’ military histories, providing a multifaceted viewpoint for an area of study which traditionally tends to be analyzed from a one-sided point of view. The forum started in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the National institute for Defense Studies, with an intention of deepening mutual understanding among the countries concerned and contributing to the promotion of trust among them.

Date : September 29, 2009 (Wednesday)
LocationToshi Center Hotel, Tokyo.

(Special Speaker)

• Dr. Martin van Creveld (Professor, Hebrew University)

(Keynote Speaker)
Dr. Masaki Miyake (Emeritus Professor, Meiji University)

(Speakers)

• Dr. Gerhard Hirschfeld (Professor, University of Stuttgart)
• Dr. Nobuo Tajima (Professor, Seijo University)
• Dr. Jost Dulffer (Professor, University of Koln)
• Dr. Nicola Labanca (Associate Professor, University of Siena)
• Dr. Kiyoshi Aizawa (Chief of the Second Research Office, Military History Department, NIDS)
• Dr. Vassili Molodiakov (Visiting Professor, Takushoku University)

(Discussants)

• Prof. Junichiro Shoji (Deputy Director, Military History Department, NIDS)
• Dr. Kyoichi Tachikawa (Senior Fellow, Military History Department, NIDS)
• Lieutenant Colonel Tomoyuki Wada (Fellow, Military History Department, NIDS)
• (Concluding Speaker)
• Dr. Ryoichi Tobe (Professor, International Research Center for the Japanese Studies)

(Chairman)

• Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Tadashi Kagatani
  Director, Military History Department, NIDS

The report of the Forum( Japanese / English )

Date : September 30, 2009 (Wednesday)
Location Grand Prince Hotel, Akasaka, Tokyo.

(Special Speaker)

• Dr. Edward Luttwak
  Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies

(Keynote Speaker)

• Dr. Ikuhiko Hata
  Professor Emeritus, Nihon University/Lecturer, Nihon University

(Speakers)

• Dr. Kiyoshi Aizawa
  Chief, Military History Department, NIDS
• Dr. Williamson Murray
  Senior Fellow, Institute of Defense Analysis / Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University
• Dr. Brian Farrell
  Associate Professor, National University of Singapore
• Col. Noriaki Yashiro
  Senior Fellow, Military History Department, NIDS.
• Dr. Phillips O'Brien
  Director, Scottish Centre for War Studies, University of Glasgow
• Mr. Junichiro Shoji
  Deputy Director, Military History Department, NIDS
• Dr. John Ferris
  Director, Centre for Military and Strategic Studies, Calgary University

(Discussants)

• Dr. Haruo Tohmatsu
  Professor, Tamagawa University
• Mr. Hiroyuki Shindo
  Senior Researcher, Military History Department, NIDS
• Dr. Kanji Akagi
  Professor, Faculty of Law, Keio University

(Chairman)

• Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Tadashi Kagatani
  Director, Military History Department, NIDS

The report of the Forum( Japanese / English )

Noted researchers from the wartime Allies (Australia, Britain, China, the Netherlands and the United States) were invited to this year’s forum, in order to discuss the processes by which their respective nations formed their grand strategies regarding Japan and the characteristics thereof, along with inter-Allied cooperation and differences regarding the formation and execution of those grand strategies.

Date : September 18,2008(Thursday)
Location NS Sky Conference, Sinjyuku, Tokyo.

(Distinguished Speaker)

• Dr. Akira Irie
  Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

(Speakers)

• Dr. Mark Stoler
  Professor Emeritus, Universty of Vermont.
• Dr. Douglas E. Ford
  Professor, School of English, Sociology, Politis and Contemporary History, University of Salford
• Dr. Steven C. Bullard
  Senior Historian,Military History Section, Australian War Memorial. Independent historian.
• Dr. Herman T. Bussemaker
  Independent historian.
• Dr. Lu Xijin
  Professor, Faculty of International Relations, Daito Bunka University
• Dr. Ken Kotani
  Fellow, 1st Military History Research Office, Military History Reseach Department, NIDS.

(Commentator)

• Mr. Hiroyuki Shino
  Senior Reseacher, Military History Department, NIDS.
• Dr. Kyoichi Tachikawa
  Joint research Coordinator, NIDS and Senior Reseacher, Military History Department, NIDS.
• Dr. Nobu Iwatani
  Fellow, 1st Military History Reseach Office, Military History Research Department, NIDS.

(Chairman)

• Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Tadashi Kagatani
  Director, Military History Department, NIDS

Summary of Sessions(PDF)

The purpose of this Forum was to discuss the war efforts and aims of the United States and Japan from the widely differing perspectives of strategic planners, military governments and POWs, in order to seek new and unique insights which would deepen our understanding of the military history of the War in the Pacific.

Date : September 26 (Wed.), 2007
Location : "Ivy Hall," Aogaku Kaikan

(Distinguished Speaker)

• Mr. Masayasu Hosaka
  Military historian and author, Japan

(Speakers)

• Dr. Ryoichi Tobe
  Professor, National Defense Academy, Japan
• Dr. Allan R. Millett
  Ambrose Professor of History and Director, Eisenhower Center for American Studies, University of New Orleans; Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University, U.S.A.
• Col. Michio Haga
  National Institute for Defense Studies
• Dr. Conrad C. Crane
  Director, U.S. Army Military History Institute, U.S.A.
• Dr. Kyoichi Tachikawa
  National Institute for Defense Studies
• Dr. Mark P. Parillo
  Associate Professor, Kansas State University, U.S.A.

(Commentator)

• Dr. Kanji Akagi
  Professor, Keio University, Japan

(Chairman)

• Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Tadashi Kagatani
  National Institute for Defense Studies

Summary of Sessions(PDF)

The Korean War was a major cause of the current instability and opaqueness in the Korean Peninsula. This year’s Forum will therefore analyze and discuss the impact of the Korean War from the perspective of the various countries involved in it, in order to reevaluate the military significance and legacies of the war.

Date : September 20 (Wed.) and 21 (Thu.), 2006
Location : Hotel Grand Hill Ichigaya

(Distinguished Speaker)

• Dr. Fuji Kamiya
  Professor Emeritus, Keio University, Japan

(Special Speaker)

• Gen. (Ret.) Paik Sun Yup
  Former Chief of Staff, ROK Army

(Speakers)

• Dr. Myung-Lim Park
  Professor, Yonsei University, Korea
• Mr. Junichiro Shoji
  National Institute for Defense Studies
• Dr. Zhang Xiaoming
  Professor, Peking University, China
• Dr. Vasily Mikheev
  Director, Center for China, Central and North East Asia Security Studies, IMEMO, Russian Academy of Sciences
• Dr. Allan R. Millett
  Ambrose Professor of History and Director, Eisenhower Center for American Studies, University of New Orleans; Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University, U.S.A.
• Dr. Michael Hopkins
  Associate Professor, Liverpool Hope University, United Kingdom

(Discussants)

• Col. Kazumi Kuzuhara
  Instructor, Military History Branch, Education Department, JGSDF Staff College, Japan
• Dr. Jun Yasuda
  Professor, Keio University, Japan
• Dr. Ken Kotani
  National Institute for Defense Studies

(Chairman)

• Maj. Gen. Noboru Yamaguchi
  National Institute for Defense Studies

Summary of Sessions(PDF)

The purpose of this forum was to reassess the changing roles of Air Power during the century after the first manned powered flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903.

Date : September 14 (Wed.) and 15 (Thu.), 2005
Location : Hotel Grand Hill Ichigaya

(Distinguished Speaker)

• Gen. (Ret.) Hitoshi Omura
  Former Chief of Staff, Air Staff Office, JASDF; Former Director General, Dept. of Technology, Air Staff Office, JASDF

(Speakers)

• Prof. Philip Sabin
  King’s College London, UK
• Prof. Emeritus Williamson Murray
  Ohio State University, USA
• Maj. Jun Yanagisawa
  National Institute for Defense Studies
• Dr. Benjamin Lambeth
  Senior Staff Member, RAND Corporation, USA
• Prof. Toshiyuki Shikata
  Teikyo University; General (Ret.)
• Prof. Matitiahu Mayzel
  Tel-Aviv University, Israel
• Prof. Kim Ihn-Yohl
  Korea Air University; Col. (Ret.), ROK
• Prof. Tomoyuki Ishizu
  National Institute for Defense Studies

(Discussants)

• Prof. Junichiro Shoji
  National Institute for Defense Studies
• Prof. Takashi Genda
  Col., Air Staff College, JASDF
• Maj. Gen. Noboru Yamaguchi
  National Institute for Defense Studies
• Adm. (Ret.) Hajime Sakuma
  Former Chairman, Joint Staff Council

(Chairman)

• Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Yoshinaga Hayashi
  National Institute for Defense Studies

• Keynote Address(PDF)
• Summary of Sessions(PDF)

Researchers from a number of the countries which were affected by the Russo-Japanese War were invited for its 100th anniversary to reassess its international implications, through discussions of the war’s impact on their respective countries.

Date : September 29th, Wednesday - 30th, Thursday, 2004
Location : Hotel Grand Hill Ichigaya

(Special Presentation)

• Prof. Dmitrii B. Pavlov
  Moscow City Archives

(Speakers)

• Prof. Keith Neilson
  Royal Military College, Canada
• Dr. Berthold J. Sander-Nagashima
  German Military History Office, Germany
• Prof. Ewa Palasz Rutkowska
  Warsaw University, Poland
• Prof. Lee Sunhwan
  Keimyung University, Korea
• Prof. Selcuk Esenbel
  Bosporus University, Turkey
• Prof. Yukio Ito
  Kyoto University
• LtCol. Fumio Takahashi
  Air Staff College, JASDF
• Dr. Kyoichi Tachikawa
  National Institute for Defense Studies
• LtCol. Hisayuki Yokoyama
  National Defense Academy

(Discussants)

• Dr. Kiyoshi Aizawa
  National Institute for Defense Studies
• Assoc. Prof. Chiharu Inaba
  Meijo University
• Prof. Fumitaka Kurosawa
  Tokyo Women’s Christian University
• Assoc. Prof. Haruo Tohmatsu
  Tamagawa University

(Chairman)

• Yoshinaga Hayashi
  National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS)

Summary of Sessions(PDF)

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Japan-U.S. alliance is taking on a major role in a context where the U.S. has been seeking a new international order, as seen in the Iraq War. With this global situation in mind, participants from both countries discussed comparisons of strategic ideas of both Japan and the U.S. from a historical viewpoint.

Date : October 15th, Wednesday to 16th Thursday, 2003
Location : Hotel Grand Hill Ichigaya

(Keynote speaker)

• Shinichi Kitaoka
  Universtiy of Tokyo

(Speakers)

• Francis Hoffman
  Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory
• Williamson Murray
  Ohio State University
• Richard Sinnreich
  School of Advanced Military Studies, Command & General Staff College
• Mackubin Thomas Owen
  Naval War College
• Hiroshi Nakanishi
  Kyoto University
• Jun’ichiro Shoji
  National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS)
• Tomoyuki Ishizu
  National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS)
• Narushige Michishita
  National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS)

(Discussants)

• Ikuhiko Hata
  Scholar of Modern History
• Toshikazu Inoue
  Gakushuin University

(Chairman)

• Yoshinaga Hayashi
  National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS)

• Keynote Address(PDF)
• Summary of Sessions(PDF)

At the First NIDS International Forum on War History held in 2002, the participants from Japan and the U.K. compared the war leadership of Japan and the U.K. in World War II. The meeting focused on the war leaders and examined the subject at the level of national strategy, military strategy, the operations in Malaya and Singapore, the operations in Burma and Imphal and air operations.

Date : September 18th, Wednesday to 19th, Thursday, 2002
Location : Hotel Grand Hill Ichigaya

(Keynote speaker)

• Kenichi Ito
  President & CEO of the Japan Forum on International Relations, Inc. (JFIR), Professor, Aoyama-Gakuin University

(Speakers)

• Saki Dockrill
  Senior Lecturer, King’s College, University of London (KCL)
• Ryoichi Tobe
  Professor, National Defense Academy (NDA)
• Brian Bond
  Professor Emeritus, King’s College, University of London (KCL)
• Kanji Akagi
  Professor, Keio University
• Carl Bridge
  Professor, King’s College, University of London (KCL)
• Kyoichi Tachikawa
  Senior Research Fellow, Military History Department, NIDS
• Graham Dunlop
  Retired Colonel, The Royal Marines
• Kenichi Arakawa
  Senior Research Fellow, Military History Department, NIDS
• Michael Dockrill
  Emeritus and Visiting Professor, King’s College, University of London (KCL)
• Hisayuki Yokoyama
  Research Fellow, Military History Department, NIDS

(Discussants)

• Takahiko Tanaka
  Professor, Hitotsubashi University
• Kimitada Miwa
  Professor Emeritus, Sophia University

(Chairman)

• Yoshinaga Hayashi
  Director, Military History Department, NIDS

(Master of Ceremonies)

• Junichiro Shoji
  Chief of 1st Research Office, Military History Department, NIDS

Summary of Sessions(PDF)