As indicated below, we have held public workshops with guests from both inside and outside TUFS at a frequency of once every two months. The workshops were held by Institute of Foreign Ａｆｆａｉｒｓ. The workshop has attracted undergraduate and graduate students as well as participants from outside the University and has had 12 or 13 participants on average, with sometimes more than 20.

April 25th - Group Meeting
The meeting's objective was to discuss the workshop planned in May and to confirm the action plan for the current fiscal year. In addition to confirming the individual schedules of the Group members, the meeting discussed how the minutes of the symposium held on March 15th would be utilized. Thereafter, we have maintained contact with the panelists of the symposium to prepare the publication of "COE Journal Issue No. 2".

May 27th - The 3rd Regular Workshop

Naoko MIZUTANI (Part-time Instructor at Chuo University)
"Orally Dictated History and Modern Chinese History"
- Introduction
- Orally dictated history in Taiwan
- Orally dictated history in the People's Republic of China
- The environment surrounding orally dictated history in China and Taiwan
- Conclusion - "My personal experience with orally dictated history"

This very interesting report was based on the structure noted above and utilized a lot of documentation throughout the presentation, explaining in detail the challenges undertaken in utilizing orally dictated history in the study of the history of China and Taiwan. In Taiwan, not only government agencies, but also tertiary education institutions, private organizations, and political organizations focusing on ordinary people and minorities have been undertaking initiatives in orally-dictated records and utilizing the contents-not in tape form, but as transcripts that are preserved and published. When compared to the situation in Japan and China, the report indicated that Taiwan is far advanced in this area. Finally, Ms. Mizutani referred to orally-dictated history as "the crystallization of the wisdom of both parties" and "the collaborative fruit borne from the efforts of the interviewer and the interviewee" in sharing her personal experience.

June 13th - Report by Mr. Anil SETHI (TUFS COE Project Foreign Fellow)
We received a report by Mr. Anil Sethi on the Archives Project on Partition of India. We received an overview report on the planned research of the vast number of people who experienced many challenges when the partition between India and Pakistan occurred, to hear about their challenges and how they have affected their lives to date. There was a question and answer session after the report.

July 22nd - The 4th Regular Workshop

Kaoru KAWA (Lecturer at The University of Shiga Prefecture)
Working on "Applications" of Oral Archived Documentation

-Focusing on the Yuho-Bunko Recorded Documentation Held at Gakushuin University Research Institute for Oriental Cultures Archives-

The report by Ms. Kaoru Kawa, who has experienced the transcribing of interviews of people involved in the Korean government-general, had a huge impact as a reference point for the Group in determining its endeavors in "recording" and publicizing information. The details of this report are published in the Journal Issue No. 3.

November 18th - The 5th Regular Workshop

Shinzo Araragi (Associate Professor at Kyoto University Graduate School)
"Memories of 'the Homeland' for Returnees from China-Focus on Women Who Were China Orphans"

In the report, Shinzo Araragi first spoke of how meeting a woman who "passionately spoke of her memories of her homeland" triggered thoughts that made him consider the meaning of "homeland" and "memories of the homeland" to such people. He then proceeded to define his position on "memories, speaking of memories, and the transcribing of memories" from a logical perspective. This was followed by what "memories of the homeland" meant for women and women who were orphans left behind in China at the end of the Second World War from a characteristic and background perspective in an extremely detailed and finely defined manner. After the report, there was an interesting question from the audience pertaining to whether the actual word "homeland" is used by such women who were left behind or not, leading to a very lively exchange of opinions and discussions.

December 8th- The 6th Regular Workshop

Hiroshi SATO (Part-time Instructor at TUFS, COE Fellow)
"The Bangladeshi Liberation War and the Records of the Battle Participants and Witnesses
-The "Oral History Project" of the Liberation War Research Institute"-

This COE Fellow has been working in cooperation with the oral archiving project of the Bangladeshi Liberation War to exchange work outsourcing agreements. This report concentrated on an overview of the project and its purpose. There was an introduction on the history leading up to the project, which included mention of the political background, and was extremely interesting. Furthermore, there was much detail on the edited documentation in specific terms, and an introduction on two very different areas in terms of their involvement in the revolutionary war. After the report, there was much debate on the involvement of women in the war.

December 22nd
Discussion on action plans for the following year, objectives as a Group, and individual research and study project plans.

February 10th - The 7th Regular Workshop

Hiroshi ISHII (Professor at Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Member of the Oral Archives Group)
Purna R SHAKYA (Ph.D at TUFS, Member of the Oral Archives Group)
"Tibetan Trade and Newar Merchants -Transformation of Tibetan Trade-"

In this workshop, a report was presented on the research conducted in the summer of 2003 as part of this COE project. First, Prof. Ishii utilized video footage to explain the unique characteristics of Nepal-Tibet trade and the Newar merchants from a historical perspective. There was an explanation on the importance of Dr. Shakya's research and the vast diversity of the interviewed research contents. That was followed by an explanation of how Tibetan trade is divided into two categories. Traditionally, Nepal-Tibet trade is considered to have declined as a result of the Tibetan wars, but there were some very important comments indicating that trade through the Lhasa-Kathmandu artery road was not interrupted. There were also some extremely interesting perspectives put forward, including the fact that the Newar have utilized the gains from their Tibetan trade to establish and maintain cultural assets. There were many questions from the floor and the session ended with comments that the future research through the project will surely produce some very good results.

June 4th
Meeting pertaining to the action objectives of FY2004.

May 25th - The 8th Regular Workshop

Yuka KAWAJI （Associate Professor of Foreign Language Studies at TUFS）
"Interviews of Former Thai Exchange Students During the War Period and Report on the Findings"

At the workshop, a report was presented on the results of the interviews conducted with former Thai exchange students to Japan from February through March 2004. In the 1930's and 1940's, the number of Thai exchange students was second only to Chinese. Ms. Kawaji mentioned that she commenced her research upon learning that these former exchange students have been holding dinner meetings over a period of more than 50 years on a monthly basis to maintain their ties. There was an extremely interesting report on the objectives and lifestyle of exchange students to Japan at the time, and how the war time relationship between Japan and Thailand impacted their lives and emotions during the war. She also touched upon how the Japan of that time is still spoken of by those students. According to Ms. Kawaji, while the actual exchange program experience and the scope of activities differed from one former exchange student to another, she observed: (1) a strong affinity towards Japan at the time when they were exchange students; and (2) a strong bond among the students who went to Japan at around the same time (or a strong segregation from other groups). There was a very lively debate on how to interpret how the Thais may have a strong negative opinion of current Japan (and the Japanese) and at the same time still have a strong affinity to Japan during the war period.

June 22nd
Meeting to discuss the timing, theme, etc. of the upcoming symposium

July 21st
Meeting on the theme and speakers for the upcoming symposium

As planned from the start, the Group members undertook the following research activities:

1) Hiroshi ISHII、P. R. SHAKYA
PERIOD: August 17-24, 2003
LOCATION: Kathmandu, Nepal
Mainly in the town of Patan in Kathmandu, Nepal, interviews were conducted and videotaped with (former) merchants involved in the Nepal-Tibet trade prior to the 1959 unrest in Tibet to understand the trade methods, lifestyle, social situation, etc. at the time. The transcription of the tapes is continuing.

2) Akio IMAI
PERIOD: November 14-25, 2003
LOCATION: Hanoi and Thai Binh, Vietnam
Imai has conducted and recorded interviews with seven survivors of the Second World War when Vietnam was under Japanese military rule, to try to understand more about the Japanese military government and the Japanese military.

3) Kozue TERAUCHI (Student at the 2nd Semester of the Doctorate Degree Programme at TUFS)
PERIOD: September 6-28, 2003
LOCATION: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Terauchi is conducting an ongoing a series interviews on Cambodian women who were born in the same year about their life history. The interviews concentrated on two women: one who was a former dancer in the royal palace and who is now a professor at an art university; and the other a mother who was a dancer from the colonization period. The purpose of the interviews was to deepen the understanding of the relationship between interviews and body language.

4) Zhang Yanhong (Student at the 1st Semester of the Doctorate Degree Programme at TUFS)
PERIOD: September 2-22,
LOCATION: Yanji, Jilin Province, China
Interviews were conducted on the life history of women in minority groups. The purpose of the interviews is to better understand the position of these women in their minority societies, their social status, and education status. Research was also conducted on the consciousness of the students of the ethnic school and the status of modern school culture.

5) Miho NOZAKI (Student at the 1st Semester of the Doctorate Degree Programme at TUFS)
PERIOD: April 13, September 15 and 23, 2003
LOCATION: Ohizumi-machi, Ohra-gun, Gunma Prefecture, Japan
(Also in Edogawa City, Tokyo on July 19th; Sagamihara City on August 4th; and Yokohama City on August 4th)

Interviews were conducted on Japanese Brazilians currently living in Japan. The research concentrated on their migration cycles and the relationship of that with their views on education and professions.