[KS] The case of Prof. Kim Migyoung

[Vladimir Tikhonov]

Dear colleagues,
I am writing this posting to introduce to you the newly opened site of the Support Committee for Prof. Kim Migyoung, of which I have honour to be a member too: https://justice-for-mikyoungkim.org/  Prof. Kim is a well-reputed and highly productive researcher curently working on the issues of historical memory and memory conflicts in East Asia. The books and articles she wrote and edited - including, but not limited to the Routledge Handbook of Memory and Reconciliation in East Asia (London and New York: Routledge, 2015) and  Northeast Asia’s Difficult Past: Essays in Collective Memory (London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, co-edited with Barry Schwartz, 2010) - are to be found on the reading lists of many universities all around the world. She was, however, recently abruptly deprived of her tenure, dismissed and sent away from Japan by her employer, Hiroshima City University, following an unusually harsh and brutal procedure, which included even arrest and interrogation under detention, while the case was about a simple administrative irregularity. Such treatment, as well as long-term bullying and administrative abuse experienced by Prof. Kim (https://justice-for-mikyoungkim.org/chronology-of-bullying-and-criminalization/ ) appears to be related to her ethnic background (Korean) and gender (female), as well as the discrepancies between her scholarly views and the "truth regime" favoured by the neo-nationalists inside the Japanese academic community. While Prof. Kim's case is pending in the court, I assume that she needs our collegial support and encouragement. The cases like this seriously threaten the freedom of research and may constitute a precedent for further mistreatment against the minority-background scholars whose views are not in sync with theincreasingly nationalistic mainstream, in Japan and elsewhere.
Best wishes,
Vladimir Tikhonov (Pak Noja),
Oslo University.