Center for West Visayan Studies (CWVS) Director Asst. Prof. Frances Anthea Redison concluded her two-month research engagement in Tokyo, Japan. She was accepted at The University of Tokyo as Visiting Research Scholar from January to February 2025 under the tutelage of World War II scholar Dr. Taihei Okada of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Asian Studies.
Her research centered primarily on the cultural politics and social history of Panay Island during the Japanese occupation years. Throughout her stay in Tokyo, she accessed the Modern Japanese Political History archives at the National Diet Library of Japan and the Mauro Garcia Collection at the Sophia University. She also worked with Dr. Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes of the University of Shizouka on the 1930s Matsui films which featured rare prewar footages in Manila, Davao, Cebu, and Iloilo. She also met with other Japanese scholars working on Philippine Studies.
Redison sees the importance of close collaboration and research engagement between the Filipino and Japanese scholars for a more nuanced reading of the Pacific War and the history of the Philippines’ postwar foreign relation.
