Brief Description
We present the website as a newspaper that reports events that occurred 70 years ago, to the day. Each day brings a new edition, and all previous editions continue to be easily accessible. This project is presented not only as a webpage, but also as a printed volume. In the near future, we will produce e-books that present each country’s history in greater depth, as well as an overall e-book. Stay tuned.
We start with a simple premise: events during the one hundred days following Hiroshima had a profound effect on politics and society for decades to come. We make our case through 350 events, nearly 100 vignettes that examine specific ideas in greater depth, and hundreds of photographs that bring the era – and the argument – to life.
That Asia would be transformed can be explained by the previous fifty years of colonial history in combination with the shock of war. How Asia would be transformed is not self-evident, as varying mixtures of local, regional and international influences lent a different flavour to the post-war environment of each state. These distinct post-war environments are captured by the vignettes, which can be read mostly as descriptive exercises, each probing more deeply the political and social dynamics underlying one or a few events. The work as a whole nonetheless provides materials that enable the reader to evaluate our premise.
As a whole, the events and vignettes presented here provide a foundation for a wide array of analyses of post-war developments. Our collection is not exhaustive; like all such exercises, reasonable historians can (and surely will) point to ‘crucial’ events not mentioned as well as ‘trivial’ ones that have been included. We encourage these conversations! The project will become even more valuable as people share their insights, experiences, and wisdom on the aspects of this period they view as crucial.
Robert Cribb, Professor of History, Australian National University
Li Narangoa, Professor of History, Australian National University
David Chandler, Professor Emeritus of History, Monash University
