A Canadian Conference on
Preventing Crimes Against Humanity:
Lessons from the Asia Pacific War (1931-1945)

 

Friday, March 21 - Saturday, March 22, 2003
at The Longhouse
First Nations House of Learning, UBC
1985 West Mall, Vancouver

 

Seventy years ago, the drums of war were beating.  In Asia, racism, sexism, militarism and imperialism ignited a lethal conflict, precipitating terrible crimes against humanity.  Have we learned the lessons from that war?

 

This two day conference will offer an opportunity to learn from the Asia-Pacific War (1931-1945) in order to eliminate racism, prevent crimes against humanity and stop war.  It will provide a particular focus on how women were affected during the war.  It will also look at how we approach tough issues such as redress and reconciliation.  The conference will be interactive, allowing participants to learn about the past, and to apply the lessons to the present.  Among those who will share their experience are:

 

Madam AHN Jeom Soon: Korean survivor of Japanese military sexual slavery
Indai Lourdes Sajor: former Executive Director of Asian Centre for Women's Human Rights of the Philippines, co-convener of Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery 
Roland David Chrisjohn: First Nation's scholar/activist, principal author of The Circle Game: Shadows and Substance in the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada
Art Miki: former President of the National Association of Japanese Canadians and leader of Japanese-Canadian redress movement
Erna Paris: Author of Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History, called a "best book of the year" by The Christian Science Monitor (U.S.), The New Statesman (U.K.) and The Globe and Mail (Canada)

 

Workshops will include hands-on sessions related to the war (biological warfare, the "comfort women", the Rape of Nanking, Hiroshima, Internment of Japanese Canadians) and to the present (residential schools, violence against women, the "war against terrorism", racial profiling).  Join us in the quest for justice and equality on the 40th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

 

Registration Fee (including conference materials, box lunches):

$20 (students, low income)     $50 (regular)
 

Sponsored by:
Canada Association for Learning & Preserving the History of WW II in Asia (ALPHA)
Canada Asia Pacific Resource Network (CAPRN)
Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens' Association (JCCA), Human Rights Committee
U.B.C. - First Nations House of Learning, Women's Studies and Gender Relations, and International House

 

For further information contact: [email protected]