PLACE,PUBLIC MEMORY,AND THE TOKYO AIR RAIDS

The one public memorial built to remember the many people killed in air raids directed against the civilian population of Tokyo during the Asia‐Pacific War bears traces of deeper stories related to a prior catastrophe, the effects of the U.S. occupation of Japan, war memory, political power at the municipal and national level, and the ability of citizens' groups to create public sites of exemplary memory. This article examines key chapters of those stories by tracing the dynamics of collective memory as related to the movement to remember the air raids and build a Tokyo Peace Museum. It concludes with an analysis of the existing memorial as a space of literal memory.     

Politics,Public Space,and Memorials: The Brawl on the Mall

This paper examines recent proposals for memorials and monuments on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Demands for memorials are increasingly at odds with the Mall's important role as open green space and public protest space. This article analyzes the broader issues embodied in the competing purposes of this highly visible public space by considering the recent controversy over the World War II Memorial. The controversy focused primarily on the location of the memorial. Opponents contended the World War II Memorial would interrupt or destroy the iconography of the National Mall. Supporters argued that the location selected for the memorial was consistent with its importance in U.S. history and that it deserved such a prized location in the central axis between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. The article then analyzes the politics behind the site selection, and examines the debate about the impact of the memorial's location. It concludes that the location of the memorial was not accidental but intentional, and thereby reveals a purposeful re-writing of the Mall's symbolic space to suit a specific vision of the war and its meaning in American history. The article also contends that the location of the memorial represents an emerging social-political agenda that is prioritizing the Mall as a place of commemoration at the expense of open space, and, perhaps, at the expense of public protest space.     

McDonald's or Golani Junction? A Case of a Contested Place in Israel

This paper investigates the conflict that arose as the result of opening a McDonald's restaurant adjacent to a national shrine in Israel. This conflict transformed Golani Junction, previously associated with the meanings assigned to the Golani memorial, into a contested place and a controversial issue. The paper outlines the conflict and the attempts to reach a compromise solution. The main argument is that the conflict reflects the notion prevalent among those dedicated to the memorial site and to the values it enshrines that the restaurant defies the sacred character of the place and marginalized the memorial in the local landscape. The conflict of meaning is also associated with McDonald's being construed as a prominent symbol of the alleged Americanization of Israeli society and culture. With this, the controversial character of the Golani Junction is also an aspect of a wider debate concerning cultural identity in Israel. Beyond the local context and specific issues involved, the controversies that transform the Golani Junction into a contested place demonstrate how conflicting interpretations of place and the politics of its meaning are formulated in terms of landscape features and architectural details.     

从公共纪念空间到公共休闲空间：广州起义烈士陵园的空间生产

转型期城市公共纪念空间从神圣空间向居民休闲空间的转变成为学界和社会的关注热点。以广州起义烈士陵园为例,运用空间生产理论以及观察法、访谈法等质性研究方法,探讨广州起义烈士陵园在城市转型中从神圣纪念空间向市民休闲空间的转变过程、空间主体所起的作用及其内在机制。研究发现：1）广州起义烈士陵园在发展过程中经历了2次空间转换,1954―1978年烈士墓园的空间生产阶段以及1978年到现在公共纪念与休闲空间生产的阶段。2）政府自上而下的主导作用和居民自下而上的休闲需求是推动烈士陵园空间生产的主要动力。3）政府和居民的共同作用,塑造了烈士陵园多样化空间局面。从政府角度来看,不论是空间规划还是符号化空间的建构都是为了更好地强化其神圣空间特质,公共休闲只是一种衍生功能。从居民角度看,休闲需求在居民生活中占据更为重要的位置,由此形成了混合公共空间。     

Geopolitical Legacies and Central European Export Linkages: A Historical and Gravity Model Analysis of Hungary

This paper analyzes Hungary's export linkages of the interwar and Cold War periods using gravity model and historical analyses. Hungary is a useful example of former Soviet satellites because it combines relative political stability (since 1956) and experimentation with the New Economic Mechanism (NEM) during the 1970s and 1980s. Historical analysis reveals seven events since World War I that changed Hungary's trade patterns. Gravity model analysis for 1955, 1965, 1975, and 1985 shows the dramatic cleavage of the “Iron Curtain,” the effect of the NEM, and particularly strong and weak linkages for Hungarian trade that may result from historical legacies, complementarity, or specific political contacts.     

Geopolitical Legacies and Central European Export Linkages: A Historical and Gravity Model Analysis of Hungary

This paper analyzes Hungary's export linkages of the interwar and Cold War periods using gravity model and historical analyses. Hungary is a useful example of former Soviet satellites because it combines relative political stability (since 1956) and experimentation with the New Economic Mechanism (NEM) during the 1970s and 1980s. Historical analysis reveals seven events since World War I that changed Hungary's trade patterns. Gravity model analysis for 1955, 1965, 1975, and 1985 shows the dramatic cleavage of the “Iron Curtain,” the effect of the NEM, and particularly strong and weak linkages for Hungarian trade that may result from historical legacies, complementarity, or specific political contacts.     

(In)Formal memoryscapes and the unma(s)king of a Malaysian war heroine

The geographical literature on the politics tied to formal commemorations of the past is a burgeoning one. Yet, there has been less attention paid to similar practices undertaken by nonstate agents seeking to ensure that what is written out of official history is not forgotten. This paper explores how and why the story of Sybil Kathigasu, a woman who played a salient role in the resistance movement against the Japanese during the Second World War in Perak, Malaysia, has been peripheralized within formal memory making even as it has been informally revived elsewhere. It specifically suggests that, while the sidelining of her story may be the product of the tendency of the state of Perak to downplay its war past, Sybil's gender, race and political ideologies have also made it more difficult for her to be embraced as a ‘national’ heroine. Drawing on a private museum that was set up in her honor in Papan, the paper also reveals how factors impeding her formal remembrance also have implications for alternative efforts to recover her story. More broadly, the paper offers insights into women's absences in Malaysian public memory, and argues the need for more emphasis on memoryscapes ‘from below’ as a means of nuancing local remembrance politics.     

国家统一的地理学解释——以东西德统一为例

国家的统一问题一直是关乎区域稳定发展、民族复兴乃至世界和平的大事,然而在地理学领域系统讨论该命题的研究尚不多见。事实上,地理学拥有比政治学和法学更为综合的理论分析体系,尤其是随着政治地理学的快速崛起,从地理学视角解析国家统一的发生机理和影响机制已经日渐成熟。本文从国家主权学说、地缘政治学、后殖民主义、新帝国主义等理论出发,试图构建“国家统一地理学”的分析框架,将国家统一分解为地缘政治重构、经济一体化和文化认同重建3个不同的阶段;并通过东西德国统一的案例分析,深入诠释了德国统一过程中政治版图和地缘格局变化,德国统一后漫长的经济一体化和原西德资本主义的野蛮扩张,以及由于长时间受到不同文化帝国主义渗透带来的民族身份认同分歧问题。德国案例很好地展示了从地理学视角探讨国家统一问题的优越性,同时德国的案例分析可为其他国家的统一问题提供参考与借鉴。     

The Unbearable Closeness of The East: Embodied Micro-Economies of Difference,Belonging, and Intersecting Marginalities in Post-Socialist Berlin

Abstract

This article examines the micro-politics of belonging in the post-socialist outskirts of Berlin, in Marzahn, one of many new urban immigrant settlement areas in Europe. More specifically, it focuses on what locals perceive as an acceptance-precluding conspicuous presence of nominally white immigrants of German ancestry from the former Soviet Union, the Aussiedler (resettlers). Long-term residents read and interpret these immigrants’ everyday embodiments by constructing what I call micro-economies of embodied difference in order to mark immigrants as non-belonging Eastern-European. In order to make sense of such practices and local antipathy towards the Aussiedler, I analyze the embeddedness of this suburban locality in the regional politics of belonging, showing how Marzahn and its long-time residents have themselves become post-wall Berlin's (and Germany's) internal Others, saturated with uncommodifiable traces of now-denigrated state-socialist Easternness. I suggest that in such a context these residents’ practice of ascribing the unwanted Easternness to recent immigrants works to deflect it in order to buttress their own claims to full membership citizenship in the unified Germany from which they have long been excluded. [Key words: belonging, immigrants, embodied difference, Othering, Easternness, Berlin.]     

Rural and Urban: Using American FactFinder on the Census Bureau Web Site Lesson Plan: Grades Four through Eight

Abstract

Regional survey courses are often perceived as ancillary to the systematic foci taught by geography programs. This situation stands in contrast to the recent recovery of place and region as key elements in the practice and theory of geography. In this article, I outline one possible approach for bridging the gap between regional geography's revival in theory and research and its instruction in the classroom. This approach is described in the context of a survey course about the former Soviet Union—a region where the conventional boundaries of place have been severely questioned by political, economic, and social upheavals.     

STAMPS AS MESSENGERS OF POLITICAL TRANSITION*

Previous studies of postage stamps noted their importance in promoting national identity and the objectives of the state. Neglected in this literature by geographers and others is a discussion of stamp themes and issues during political and economic transitions. A content analysis of issues during the Soviet Union's last three years and Russia's first three years revealed some significant changes. The Soviet Union issued many stamps and sets on a wide variety of topics, including nature, folk items and legends, international ties, and ideology. Russia issued fewer stamps: Nature was important, but religion and issues that promoted Russia's heritage replaced ideology and international themes. Early Russian stamps evoked an “inward” worldview that promoted a nascent nationalism. In its final years the Soviet Union noted evidence of these changes in priorities and themes with issues that depicted Soviet environmental disasters or honored the individuals killed in the failed Russian coup attempt in August 1991.     

Contesting ‘Local’ Commemoration of the Second World War: the case of the Changi Chapel and Museum in Singapore

This paper concerns the performance of national war memory at the Changi Chapel and Museum, a site honouring the many prisoners interned in Japanese-Occupied Singapore—especially at Changi—during the Second World War. In the light of the global nature of ‘the Changi story’, and the predominantly transnational nature of its present in situ memorialisation, we first examine how the Singapore state has sought to ‘localise’ the site to make it equally appealing to Singaporeans, as a place where a sense of their ‘shared history’ may be invoked. We then explore the Singaporeans' views about the site and its reconfiguration as a national icon, arguing how the state's task of ‘localising’ the site has been a vexed process due to myriad factors such as ethnic and religious plurality, and the already foreign-centric bias of prevailing knowledge about Changi. Following that, we show how this performance of national memory is also inflected by Australia's national remembrance of the same event. More broadly, we highlight the contested process of ‘localising’ such war memoryscapes as national iconography, suggesting how it may be more fruitful to conceive them as ‘international memoryscapes’, or places to which all individuals can relate regardless of race or national affiliations.     

Patterns of disaster commemoration in long‐term recovery

The postdisaster landscape is replete with memorials that help communities collectively remember destructive events and recover psychologically. Although commemoration is intrinsic to all stages of recovery, little research from the disaster‐science field engages memorial texts across disasters. Meanwhile, a rich body of work on memorials and their functions exists in the cultural geographic tradition. Drawing from this literature, the current study examines a sample of U.S.‐based memorials to discern patterns within the postdisaster commemorative landscape. This research leverages discourse analysis to interrogate the meanings and mechanics of postdisaster memory work. Findings revealing that disasters catalyze remembrances that remake places, postdisaster memorial texts construct wide‐ranging degrees of intimacy, and memorials distilling survivor memories impel community recovery differently than memorials that reconstruct imagined pasts. These identified patterns in postdisaster commemoration enable further systematic exploration of memory work in the long‐term recovery process.     

Mawson and Mirnyy Stations: the spatiality of the Australian Antarctic Territory, 1954–61

This article focuses on the spatiality of the Australian Antarctic Territory in the important 1954–61 period. Attending particularly to three key components of polar spatiality—geopolitics, international territorial law, and the built environment—the article analyses the development of the Territory as a unique Australian space. The 1954–61 period is particularly significant: during this period, the International Geophysical Year brought an unprecedented number of people to Antarctica; the continent's first permanent colonies were constructed; and, despite Cold War tensions, the 1961 Antarctic Treaty established the spatial configurations and rules which continue to govern the continent today. The article focuses particularly on two key stations in the Territory constructed during this period: Australia's Mawson Station and the Soviet Mirnyy Station. Mawson is a legal colony, designed to cement Australia's claim to 42 per cent of the Antarctic continent; Mirnyy, in contrast, is an anti-colony, designed to reject Australia's claim. How the individual spatialities of these two stations articulate to the broader politics of Antarctic territoriality—and particularly Australia's claim to the Australian Antarctic Territory—is the focus of this article.     

冷战以来柬埔寨地缘政治变动研究

冷战以来,柬埔寨地缘政治经历了从碎片化到重组的变动。其既是冷战期间美苏两大阵营进行冷战与热战博弈的最前沿阵地之一,也是冷战后各域外政治力量在地缘战略上积极争取的东南亚国家之一。在导致柬埔寨地缘政治变动的诸多因素中,外部因素是决定其地缘政治变动的主导性因素,国内政治派别斗争的分化与组合是导致其地缘政治变动的重要因素。因此,在双重因素作用下,冷战以来的柬埔寨地缘政治具有地缘政治棋盘和地缘战略楔子的显著特点。而对冷战以来柬埔寨地缘政治变动的趋势、成因和特征的探讨,对我国的柬埔寨地缘政治研究和我国对柬埔寨地缘政治的战略定位具有十分重要的学术意义和现实意义。     

Tribulations of Transition

“The black man needs to reflect that he has been America's most fervent Christian—and where has it gotten him? In fact in the white man's hands, in the white man's interpretation … where has Christianity brought the world? It has brought the non-white two-thirds of the human population to rebellion …Only one religion—Islam—had the power to stand and fight the white man's Christianity for a thousand years! Only Islam could keep white Christianity at bay.” (Malcolm X 1965, 449) “At the beginning of the Gulf War the allies went to great lengths to stress that Islam was not an issue, that many Muslim states were fighting on the allies side … The longer war went on, the clearer it became that this part of the war had been lost … What is actually happening is that Islam is becoming the central ideology of the Third World against the first. For long it seemed that Leninism or Maoism would play that role, but it is now clear that Islam has won the race.” (Johnson 1991, 7)     

"The Island has been Handed over to Me": Ascension Island as a Company Colony, 1922–42

Ascension Island has spent almost all its years of organised human settlement as a military base. The major exception was between 1922 and 1942 when it was ruled by a civilian company, an unusual form of governance in modern colonial history. Though nominally subject to St Helena, and through that British colony to London, outside interference was largely restricted to rulings on colonial etiquette. The manager of the company was also head of both the government and legal systems. This paper considers the operation of this company colony, the tensions between the company and its workforce/subjects, and the contestation from 1942 for political supremacy between the company, the British state and the American forces that arrived when the island became involved in World War II. Ascension's narrative helps to exemplify some themes in postcolonial discourse and, given the unusual and extreme nature of the island's experiences, informatively broadens understanding of colonialism.     

Effects of Recent Instability on Cultivated Area Along the Euphrates River in Iraq

We used MODIS NDVI data to determine whether there was a significant change in cultivated area along the Euphrates River in Iraq after the Iraq War compared to before and during the war. Results revealed that mean cultivated area was largest during the pre–Iraq War period (2000–2003) with 99,115 Mha, reduced some during the early Iraq War period (2003–2006) to 83,480 Mha, reduced even further during the late Iraq War period (2007–2011) to 53,813 Mha due to drought, and increased slightly during the post–Iraq War period (2012–2015) to 69,161 Mha, although not returning to previous highs of the pre–Iraq War or early Iraq War periods. Statistical analysis with the Kruskal–Wallis test revealed that the small cultivated area during the post–Iraq War period was more closely related to the late Iraq War and drought period than previous periods, indicating that recent instability, such as political turmoil following the departure of U.S. troops, violent militant extremism, lack of economic investment, and environmental degradation, has had a similar effect on cultivated area as a devastating drought.     

THE U.S. MILITARY AS GEOGRAPHICAL AGENT: THE CASE OF COLD WAR ALASKA*

ABSTRACT. Alaska was strategically key to the U.S. defense plan during the cold war (1946–1989). As such, it was the scene of an enormous and sustained military investment, the effect of which was amplified by Alaska's undiversified economy, sparse development, small resident population, and marginalized political status at the beginning of the era. The strong military presence affected Alaskan demographics, economic development, and infrastructure and figured prominently in the admission of Alaska to the union in 1959. The high profile and long‐term presence of the U.S. military had such a dramatic affect on the course of Alaska that the result was tantamount to a “militarized landscape.”     

THE MONUMENT AND THE BUNGALOW

ABSTRACT. Students of human landscapes often view those landscapes as documents and seek to “read” them for cultural and historical meaning. But how does one learn to read landscape? And how can students be taught to do it? After many years of teaching courses about commonplace American landscapes, I have discovered that students must learn two things before they can expect to read human landscapes. First, they must learn to pay attention to commonplace things which most Americans normally ignore. Second, they must master vocabularies that permit them to classify elements in the landscape and to connect small things with larger ideas. Two examples in the landscape of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania—the town's war memorial and a scattering of California bungalows-demonstrate how these ideas work.