The Legacies of the Japanese Occupation in Southeast Asia
DAY 1/ 19 March 2026, Inalco
I. Japanese occupation in Southeast Asia (Malaysia Indonesia Singapore). Contrasting narratives and international relations in Asia Pacific.
Morning 9.30am to 12.30pm
Auditorium Dumezil, Maison de la Recherche, 2 rue de Lille, 7e
9.30. Welcome Address by Elsa Lafaye de Micheaux, Inalco
1. The Instrumentalisation of Memory or Oblivion: On the Use of Memories of War, Occupation or the Immediate Post-War Period in Asia in Contemporary International Relations in the Indo-Pacific
Introduction & Moderator: Michael Lucken, IFRAE, Inalco. Politics of memory in East Asia: Singapore, Nanjing, Okinawa.
David Serfass, Inalco, IFRAE : Memory as Power: China’s WW2 Narrative in a Changing Global Order
Arnaud Nanta, IAO, CNRS : Evolving Nanking Massacre’s historiography: the trajectory of revisionism in Japanese historiography to the present day.
Discussant : Alexandre Gandil, programme Décript, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, D2iA.
Lunch Break
Afternoon 2p.m. to 5.30 p.m.
Auditorium Dumezil, Maison de la Recherche, 2 rue de Lille, 7e
2. Political Violence in East Asia: History being written and rewritten
Introduction & Moderator: Jafar Suryomenggolo, CASE
Christina Wu (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne): Violence and Subversion in Syonan: Oral Histories and the Politics of Commemoration of Singapore under the Japanese Occupation (1942-1945)
Karl Hack (Open University, UK): Commemorating Chinese Heroes and Martyrs: Malaysian/Singaporean plural memories of the Japanese Occupation, 1945 to present’
Kosuke Mizuno (CSEAS, Kyoto University): The Romusha System during the Japanese Occupation of Indonesia.
Coffee break
3. The contemporary reassessment of Asian historiographies of the Japanese occupation and the early years of the Cold War as from Malaysia and Indonesia
Introduction & Moderator: Cher Hui Yun, ARI, NUS, Singapore
David Delfolie (Sciences Po Lille) : The dynamics of the diachronic construction of plural memories of the Japanese occupation in Malaysia.
Ethan Mark (U. Leiden): Anticolonial Fascism: Japanese Military Training in Indonesia and its Postwar Legacies.
18h30. Official Book Launch “Sans une once de miséricorde” by Sybil Kathigasu, Fayard, Paris (2026).
19h45 Informal Dinner
DAY 2/ 20 March 2026, Inalco
II. Geopolitical conflicts in the Asia Pacific. New waves of memory in Malaysia and Indonesia
Morning 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Auditorium Dumezil, Maison de la Recherche, 2 rue de Lille, 7e
1. Editorial and heritage spotlight on the Japanese occupation of British Malaya (1941–1945): oblivion and memorialisation of Sybil Kathigasu
Introduction & Moderator: Cher Hui Yun, ARI, NUS, Singapore
Elsa Lafaye de Micheaux, Inalco, Paris : Reawakening memories: the socio-political trajectory of the testimony of Sybil Kathigasu, a Eurasian Catholic who resisted the Japanese occupation (in French, simultaneous translation)
Law Siak Hong, Perak Heritage Society, Ipoh, Malaysia: The patient creation of a Lieu de Mémoire (place of memory) in Southeast Asia: 74 Main Street, Papan, Perak
2. Reconsidering relations between Catholicism and communist movements since the Japanese occupation
Introduction & Moderator: Delphine Allès, CASE, Inalco
Round Table with Rémy Madinier (IAO, Lyon), Michel Chambon (ISAC, Singapour, en zoom) and Truly Estrelita (CASE).
Lunch break
Afternoon 2p.m. to 7.30 p.m.
Amphi 6, Inalco, Pôle des Langues et Civilisations
65 rue des Grands Moulins, 13e
3. « Children must not know ». 1945-2025
Document and pass on the memory of the Japanese occupation in Southeast Asia
Film Screening
Amphi 6, Inalco, Pôle des Langues et Civilisations
65 rue des Grands Moulins, 13e
« From Island to Island” (Yu Dao Zhi Dao), by Kek Huat Lau, 2024
Taiwan-Malaysia
Multilanguage, English subtitles.
In the presence of Kek Huat Lau (tbc), the film director born in 1979, Sitiawan, Perak.
Distributor: Hummingbird
Filmography (extract) “From Island to Island” (Yu Dao Zhi Dao), 2024 Golden Horse Award for best documentary feature, 2024; “Absent without Leave”, 2016 (Golden Horse Award for best documentary feature).
Organising committee:
Elsa Lafaye de Micheaux, Inalco, Centre for Southeast Asia View e-mail
David Serfass, Inalco, Institut Français de Recherche sur l’Asie de Est View e-mail
David Delfolie, Sciences Po Lille
Jafar Suryomenggolo, Paris
