Please note: this event is fully booked. Registration is no longer possible. Looking back upon the extra-long twentieth-century that begins in the latter half of the nineteenth century and that continues today, it has become increasingly clear that „freedom“ is not necessarily the antithesis of oppression and domination. Instead, „freedom“ has too often been the condition for the workings of power. One of the most obvious examples in modern Japan is the Japanese empire’s promise to free those in the Asia-Pacific from the bonds of Euro-American colonialism and racism. This relation between the promise of freedom and new oppressions has been a recurring theme in modern history throughout the world. This talk grapples with this question through the example of Japanese history, including during the Second World War, while discussing the complicity of freedom with the oppressions that have accompanied nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, the “emperor system,” and various forms of social discrimination. This DIJ Forum (onsite only) is the first event in the Max Weber Foundation event series ‚The Ends of War‘, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two. Details here