End of Empire100 days in 1945 that changed Asia and the world.

NIAS-1945 was formally launched by Gerald Jackson, NIAS Press’s Editor-in-Chief, in February 2015, when General Editors David Chandler, Li Narangoa and Robert Cribb agreed to join the project. This team then recruited editors for each country explored. Country editors were authorized to invite scholars to their group; each group worked independently of all others.

Each team curated the chronology as relevant to their country, determined which issues should be explored in greater depth, and produced the related vignettes. It turned out that crafting the chronology entries required considerable intellectual energy. We are grateful to our curators, whose only direct acknowledgement appears right here: Li Lin and Kwong Chi Man (China), Anthony Reid (Indonesia), Li Narangoa (Manchuria and Mongolia), Don Seekins (Burma), Kyung Moon Hwang (Korea), Bruce Reynolds and Shane Strate (Thailand), David Chandler (Cambodia), Martin Rathie and Vatthana Pholsena (Laos), Ricardo Jose (Philippines), Clay Eaton and Paul Kratoska (Malaya), and the nearly entire Vietnam team (David Marr, Shawn McHale, Francois Guillemot, Geoffrey Gunn, and Natasha Pairaudeau).

Due to the constraints of a printed volume, every country team strained under the pressure to leave crucial aspects under-explored. This limitation disappears in the e-format and additional vignettes will appear as they are completed. If you would like to write a vignette, please contact us.

Independence and autonomy ensured that the real experts were in control of scholarly production. We also made an editorial decision to allow our scholars to write on their own authority. Citations to the literature in support of the mass of factual claims would make the contributions more academic, but not more authoritative. As a substitute for citations, we instituted a four-level review process. First, we invited recognized authorities in their field to contribute to precisely those areas in which they are recognized as authorities. Second, each country chronology was a collective effort of the members of that country group. Third, we vignettes were subjected to a review process. Finally, the whole collective had a chance to comment on both vignettes and the full chronology after they had been declared ‘ready to typeset’ by the relevant country group.

No changes were made without the author’s approval. The authors remain the authorities. And yet, this broad pre-publication discussion proved to be both illuminating and invigorating. For several reasons, scholars with differing regional foci have varying understandings not only of what is relevant but also of what actually happened. When the full chronology was presented to the full group, a healthy dialogue emerged that strengthened the whole. For example one scholar observed, ‘Unless you are referring to warm bullets, a claim that British troops were “warmly welcomed” on their arrival in Saigon might raise some eyebrows.’ More generally, several events unsurprisingly appeared in many country chronologies, each of which wrote them with slightly different tone and emphasis. We presented these to the group and, again, let the experts sort things out. For all of these reasons, we are confident that what stands below is a reasonable presentation of a complicated history.

Bernd Wunsch designed and programmed the webpage. As with all aspects of the project this task was considerably larger than expected and was accomplished with Bernd’s estimable professionalism and flair. David Stuligross assisted in all aspects of production.

The project has already begun to take on a life of its own. Since the boundaries of the printed volume were set, more than twenty people have approached us with photographs and stories. We would be delighted for this trend to continue.

All in all, we are now more than 100 participants. If your name is missing, please let us know.

Abu Talib Ahmad Is Professor of History, Universiti Sains Malaysia
Charles Armstrong is Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies at Columbia University
David Askew is Associate Professor of Law, Asia Pacific University, Malaysia
Simon Avenell is Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies, Australian National University
Andrew Barshay received his undergraduate and graduate degrees at UC Berkeley, and following teaching stints at Wesleyan and UW-Madison, joined the Berkeley faculty in 1989 as assistant professor in the History Department.  A specialist on modern Japan, Barshay is the author of three books: State and Intellectual in Imperial Japan: The Public Man in Crisis (1988), The Social Sciences in Modern Japan: The Marxian and Modernist Traditions (2004), and most recently The Gods Left First: The Captivity and Repatriation of Japanese Prisoners in Northeast Asia, 1945-1956 (2013).
Tsedendamba Batbayar is Director General of the Department of Policy Planning and Policy Analysis, Global Peace Foundation
Tom van den Berge is Professor of History at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies
Ravdan Bold was Mongolia's Ambassador to the United States (2003 - 2008) and, more recently, to Australia (2012 - 2015)
Uradyn E. Bulag is Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. His interests broadly span East Asia and Inner Asia, especially China and Mongolia, nationalism and ethnic conflict, diplomacy, and statecraft. He is the author of *Nationalism and Hybridity in Mongolia* (1998), Oxford: Clarendon Press, *The Mongols at China’s Edge: History and the Politics of National Unity* (2002), Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, and *Collaborative Nationalism: the Politics of Friendship on China’s Mongolian Frontier* (2010), Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, which received the International Convention of Asian Scholars 2011 book prize in social sciences. E-mail: ueb10@cam.ac.uk 
David P. Chandler is Emeritus Professor of History, Monash University. He has degrees from Harvard, Yale and the University of Michigan. Between 1958 and 1966 he was a US Foreign Service Officer and served two years in Phnom Penh. From 1972 to 1997 he taught SE Asian History at Monash University. He has also held adjunct positions at several American universities and at the University of Paris. His books include A History of Cambodia (4th edition, 2007) , Brother Number One: a Political Biography of Pol Pot, (2nd edition, 1999), Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot’s Secret Prison (1999) and Facing the Cambodian Past: Collected Papers, 1972–1994 (1996).
Mike Charney is Reader in South East Asian and Imperial History, School of Oriental and International Studies

 

Cheah Boon Kheng (1939–2015) was Professor of History at the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, Malaysia until he retired in 1994. He authored many books, including: The Masked Comrades: A Study of the communist united front in Malaya and Singapore, 1945-1948 (Times Books International, Singapore, 1979); Red Star Over Malaya: Resistance and Social Conflict During and After the Japanese Occupation, 1941–1946 (Singapore University Press, Singapore, 1983); From PKI to the Comintern, 1924–1941: The Apprenticeship of the Malayan Communist Party (Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1992); and Malaysia: The Making of a Nation (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 2002)
Chi Pham Phuong is Researcher of Literature, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences
Robert Cribb is Professor of History, Australian National University
John Dower is Ford International Professor of History, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of technology
Marjorie Dryburgh is Professor of History in the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield.
Clay Eaton is a PhD candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University
Bruce A. Elleman is William V. Pratt Professor of International History, US Naval War College
Susanna Fessler is Professor of Japanese Studies, SUNY Albany
Kevin Fogg is Al-Bukhari Fellow in the History of Islam in Southeast Asia, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and Islamic Centre Lecturer, Faculty of History, University of Oxford.
Major (Ret.) Herbert Friedman served for 26 years in the US Army and has consulted extensively on military history
Theodore Friend is Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute
Marc Gallicchio is Professor of History, Villanova University
Chris Goscha is Professor of International Relations and Southeast Asian History, Université du Québec à Montréal
Mikael Gravers is Associate Professor of Anthropology, Aarhus University
Pierre Grosser is Professor of International Relations and History, Centre d'historie de Sciences Po
François Guillemot is an historian and CNRS research engineer at the Lyon Institute of East Asian Studies, France
Geoffrey Gunn is Emeritus Professor, Nagasaki University
Laura Hein is Professor of History, Northwestern University
Christian Hess is Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History, Sophia University
James Hoare is Research Associate, Department of the Languages and Cultures of Japan and Korea, School of Oriental and Asian Studies
Huang Chih-huei is Research Assistant, Academa Sinica Institute of Ethnology
Søren Ivarsson is Associate Professor of History at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen
Ricardo Jose is Professor of History, University of the Philippines, Diliman
Rotem Kowner is Professor of Japanese History and Culture, University of Haifa
Paul Kratoska is Publishing Director for NUS Press at the National University of Singapore
Kwong Chi Man is Assistant Professor of History, Hong Kong Baptist University
Kyung Moon Hwang is Associate Professor of History, University of Southern California
Andrei Lankov is Associate Professor of Social Sciences, Kookmin University, Korea
Jongsoo Lee, Center Associate at Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, is the author of The Partition of Korea after World War II: A Global History
Li Lin is Lecturer in History of Education, East China Normal University
Li Narangoa is Professor of History, Australian National University
Xiaoyuan Liu is David Dean Professor of East Asian Studies and Professor of History, University of Virginia
Sandra Khor Manickam is Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian History, Nanyang Technical University
David Marr is Emeritus Professor of Asian History, Australian National University
Shawn McHale is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, George Washington University
Tessa Morris-Suzuki is Professor of Japanese History, Australian National University
Jason Sze Chieh Ng is PhD Candidate in Modern Southeast Asian History, University of Melbourne
Nguyễn Thế Anh is Emeritus Professor of History, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sciences Historiques et Philologiques, Paris-Sorbonne
Tun Kyaw Nyein, M.B.B.S. Ph.D. is an independent political analyst who resides alternately in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Yangon, Myanmar. A trained medical doctor, he was incarcerated for five years for his role in the student uprising in Burma in 1974. After leaving Burma, he studied in the US and received a Ph.D. in health education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He became a professor in community health and later Dean of adult and continuing education in different institutions of higher education in the US. He is a Research Associate of Asia Research Center at Murdoch.University, Perth and writes weekly articles and political commentaries for the Myanmar journal, Thuriya Ne Wun focusing on the political history of Burma and democratization.
Danny Orbach earned his PhD from the Department of History, Harvard University, in 2015
Natasha Pairaudeau a research associate at the Centre for History and Economics, University of Cambridge
Robbie Peters is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Sidney
Leonid Petrov is Visiting Fellow, Australian National University
Harry Poeze is Senior Researcher, KITLV (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies)
Susanne Prager-Nyein is a political scientist and independent scholar alternately residing in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Yangon, Myanmar. She is a Research Associate in the Asia Research Center at Murdoch University, Perth and was a visiting scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has taught political science and history of Southeast Asia and global politics at Misericordia University in Pennsylvania. Her expertise and research interests are Burma's anti-colonial movement of the 1930s and 40s, civil-military relations and the political economy of military rule in Myanmar. She has written a political biography on Aung San, the leader of Burma's independence movement and articles on military rule in Myanmar.
Shakhar Rahav is Assistant Professor of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Martin Rathie is Historical Researcher and Defence Trainer
Anthony Reid is Emeritus Professor of History, Australian National University
Bruce Reynolds is Professor of History, San Jose State University
Hiromi Sasamoto-Collins is Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Edinburgh
Shigeru Sato is Senior Lecturer in Japanese History, University of Newcastle
Donald Seekins is Professor of History, Meio University
M.G. Sheftall is Professor of Communication and Modern Japanese Cultural History at Shizuoka University
Masaya Shiraishi is Professor of International Relations, Waseda University
Daniel Statman is Professor of Philosophy, Haifa University
Shane Strate is Assistant Professor of History, Kent State University
Sven Saaler is Associate Professor of Japanese History, Sophia University
Stein Tønnesson is Research Professor, Peace Research Institute Oslo, Uppsala University
Uradyn E. Bulag is Reader in Anthropology, Selwyn College, Cambridge
Vatthana Pholsena is Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, Institut d'asie orientale
Lori Watt is Associate Professor of History, Washington University of Saint Louis
Daqing Yang is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, Georgetown University
Souchou Yao is a cultural anthropologist and writer based in Sydney, Australia.
Louise Young is Professor of History, University of Wisconsin
Ayelet Zohar is Lecturer in Art History, Tel Aviv University
Shogo Yamahata, son of Yosuke Yamamata, generously shared his father's memories and photographs, which were taken minutes of the nuclear blast in Nagasaki
Yosuke Yamamata captured some of Nagasaki's most haunting images, 9 August 1945
Kwong Chi Man is Assistant Professor of History, Hong Kong Baptist University
Kyung Moon Hwang is Associate Professor of History, University of Southern California
Andrei Lankov is Associate Professor of Social Sciences, Kookmin University, Korea
Jongsoo Lee, Center Associate at Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, is the author of The Partition of Korea after World War II: A Global History
Li Lin is Lecturer in History of Education, East China Normal University
Li Narangoa is Professor of History, Australian National University
Xiaoyuan Liu is David Dean Professor of East Asian Studies and Professor of History, University of Virginia
Sandra Khor Manickam is Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian History, Nanyang Technical University
David Marr is Emeritus Professor of Asian History, Australian National University
Shawn McHale is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, George Washington University
Tessa Morris-Suzuki is Professor of Japanese History, Australian National University
Jason Sze Chieh Ng is PhD Candidate in Modern Southeast Asian History, University of Melbourne
Nguyễn Thế Anh is Emeritus Professor of History, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sciences Historiques et Philologiques, Paris-Sorbonne
Tun Kyaw Nyein, M.B.B.S. Ph.D. is an independent political analyst who resides alternately in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Yangon, Myanmar. A trained medical doctor, he was incarcerated for five years for his role in the student uprising in Burma in 1974. After leaving Burma, he studied in the US and received a Ph.D. in health education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He became a professor in community health and later Dean of adult and continuing education in different institutions of higher education in the US. He is a Research Associate of Asia Research Center at Murdoch.University, Perth and writes weekly articles and political commentaries for the Myanmar journal, Thuriya Ne Wun focusing on the political history of Burma and democratization.
Danny Orbach earned his PhD from the Department of History, Harvard University, in 2015
Natasha Pairaudeau a research associate at the Centre for History and Economics, University of Cambridge
Robbie Peters is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Sidney
Leonid Petrov is Visiting Fellow, Australian National University
Harry Poeze is Senior Researcher, KITLV (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies)
Susanne Prager-Nyein is a political scientist and independent scholar alternately residing in Chiang Mai, Thailand and Yangon, Myanmar. She is a Research Associate in the Asia Research Center at Murdoch University, Perth and was a visiting scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has taught political science and history of Southeast Asia and global politics at Misericordia University in Pennsylvania. Her expertise and research interests are Burma's anti-colonial movement of the 1930s and 40s, civil-military relations and the political economy of military rule in Myanmar. She has written a political biography on Aung San, the leader of Burma's independence movement and articles on military rule in Myanmar.
Shakhar Rahav is Assistant Professor of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Martin Rathie is Historical Researcher and Defence Trainer
Anthony Reid is Emeritus Professor of History, Australian National University
Bruce Reynolds is Professor of History, San Jose State University
Hiromi Sasamoto-Collins is Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Edinburgh
Shigeru Sato is Senior Lecturer in Japanese History, University of Newcastle
Donald Seekins is Professor of History, Meio University
M.G. Sheftall is Professor of Communication and Modern Japanese Cultural History at Shizuoka University
Masaya Shiraishi is Professor of International Relations, Waseda University
Daniel Statman is Professor of Philosophy, Haifa University
Shane Strate is Assistant Professor of History, Kent State University
Sven Saaler is Associate Professor of Japanese History, Sophia University
Stein Tønnesson is Research Professor, Peace Research Institute Oslo, Uppsala University
Vatthana Pholsena is Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, Institut d'asie orientale
Lori Watt is Associate Professor of History, Washington University of Saint Louis
Daqing Yang is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, Georgetown University
Souchou Yao is a cultural anthropologist and writer based in Sydney, Australia.
Louise Young is Professor of History, University of Wisconsin
Ayelet Zohar is Lecturer in Art History, Tel Aviv University
Shogo Yamahata, son of Yosuke Yamamata, generously shared his father's memories and photographs, which were taken minutes of the nuclear blast in Nagasaki
Yosuke Yamamata captured some of Nagasaki's most haunting images, 9 August 1945