Britain and Japan, fellow island nations, share many geographical similarities, and accordingly both societies have long taken advantage of water transport domestically. In modern times the two nations’ governments have diverged in terms of philosophies toward economy and industrialization. Britain is known as today’s consummate private-industry advocate within western Europe, while Japan is noted for the strong level of government “guidance” in its post-WWII economy. Using the abovementioned similarities as a baseline, this thesis examines how the supposedly different relationships between government and economy in Britain and Japan have affected the ongoing use of water in their domestic transport sectors since World War II. Some forms of water transport have continued to thrive commercially in both nations, due primarily to those forms’ inherent economic and technical advantages, while other water transport modes are maintained through government support because of other, less commercial benefits they offer to the two societies.

acase@tulane.edu / La presente investigación analiza la literatura salvadoreña y guatemalteca escrita tras el fin de las recientes guerras civiles (1980-1992 y 1960-1996 respectivamente). Comenzando desde un análisis literario, esta tesis buscar desarrollar una reflexión política sobre la llamada postguerra. En pocas palabras, esta investigación explora cómo el trabajo del duelo y las nociones de comunidad se han articulado en la narrativa reciente, particularmente en el trabajo de las salvadoreñas Claudia Hernández y Vanessa Núñez Handal, y en los guatemaltecos Denise Phé-Funchal, Javier Payeras y Eduardo Halfon. Mi hipótesis es que la narrativa centroamericana contemporánea utiliza el trabajo del duelo inacabado como una forma de exigir justicia por los crímenes cometidos por el estado. Así, propongo que esta literatura desarticula el concepto de comunidad nacional como el principal espacio de inscripción política y critica el proyecto liberal que ha dominado a ambos países desde la fundación de las repúblicas en el siglo XIX. / 1 / Ignacio Sarmiento Panez

After World War II East and West Germans alike contributed to the maintenance and dismantling of European colonialism, whether by means of direct participation or state policy. At the same time, Germans in both states fashioned a variety of narratives about Germany's own colonial period, selectively including and interpreting facts in order to support sweeping pronouncements on Germany's past, present, and future. In this regard Germans were not unique, as other Europeans after 1945 likewise struggled to find their way in a rapidly decolonizing world and to make sense of the history that had led them to this point. Yet, unlike other Europeans, Germans had been without a colonial empire of their own since World War I. In West and East Germany colonialism permeated political culture. German politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, and workers dealt with colonialism, its decline, and its aftermath on a regular basis. Colonies were objects of foreign policy-making; decolonization provided an important context for political and economic developments within, between, and beyond both German states; and Germany's colonial past offered redemption and reproach to those willing to find them there. These and other encounters with colonialism dot the historical record, appearing in government archives, political pamphlets, and popular culture ranging from periodicals to film and television. Colonialism's continued relevance for Germans--and indeed the continued relevance of Germans in Europe's waning overseas empires--naturally invites one to compare and contrast the German experience with that in France, or the United Kingdom. However, it also points to the importance such similarities or differences had for Germans. Colonialism certainly helped forge connections between Germans and non-Germans across Europe, Africa, and elsewhere, but more importantly it provided a language for defining Germans' relationships with the rest of the world, not to mention with each other.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / Action, agency and protest were notions that seeped through the social and political terrain of 1960s Japan. Opposition to the Vietnam War, disputes in the universities, environmental concerns and anticipation of the US-Japan Security Treaty’s renewal set down for 1970, saw the entire decade engulfed in activism and protest. This thesis explores these sites of activism revealing the disparate character of protest in the 1960s – the often competing tactics and agendas that were manifested within the burgeoning and dynamic cultures of protest. The shifting definitions of protest and the competing ideals that emerged from its various sites of articulation are crucial to our understanding of postwar Japan. Excavating these sites – reading the character of protest and the ideals expressed – exposes the notions of autonomy and activism that underpinned conceptions of the postwar national identity. In the aftermath of the Pacific War intellectuals and activists looked for new forms of political expression, outside the auspices of the state, through which to enact the postwar nation. The identity of postwar Japan was constructed within the spheres of protest and resistance as anti-Vietnam War activists, Beheiren (Betonamu ni Heiwa o! Shimin Rengō), student groups such as Zenkyōtō, and local citizens’ movements negotiated the discursive space of ‘modern Japan.’ Examining the conceptions of political practice and identity that manifested themselves in the protest and resistance of the period, provides insights into the shifting terrain of national identity in the 1960s.

Postwar Guatemala continues to contend with ongoing criminal and state violence, insecurity, racial exclusion and disparity, exacerbated by neoliberal and neocolonial economic policies. These patterns are rooted in centuries of colonial exploitation that intensified in genocide against the Mayan and other indigenous peoples in the early eighties. This thesis explores Maya Achi youth interpretations of the historical and contemporary roots of violence through their interaction with the mandates and practice of the New Hope Foundation Intercultural Bilingual Institute in Rabinal. The institute combines historical memory, a participatory methodology, and cultural revitalization within an intercultural framework. By embracing institute themes of interculturalism, citizenship, leadership and cooperative learning, participants provide insight into the potential to transform structural violence through the promotion of alternative visions of grassroots development and reweaving community in this rural municipality, still impacted by the traumas of armed conflict.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / Action, agency and protest were notions that seeped through the social and political terrain of 1960s Japan. Opposition to the Vietnam War, disputes in the universities, environmental concerns and anticipation of the US-Japan Security Treaty’s renewal set down for 1970, saw the entire decade engulfed in activism and protest. This thesis explores these sites of activism revealing the disparate character of protest in the 1960s – the often competing tactics and agendas that were manifested within the burgeoning and dynamic cultures of protest. The shifting definitions of protest and the competing ideals that emerged from its various sites of articulation are crucial to our understanding of postwar Japan. Excavating these sites – reading the character of protest and the ideals expressed – exposes the notions of autonomy and activism that underpinned conceptions of the postwar national identity. In the aftermath of the Pacific War intellectuals and activists looked for new forms of political expression, outside the auspices of the state, through which to enact the postwar nation. The identity of postwar Japan was constructed within the spheres of protest and resistance as anti-Vietnam War activists, Beheiren (Betonamu ni Heiwa o! Shimin Rengō), student groups such as Zenkyōtō, and local citizens’ movements negotiated the discursive space of ‘modern Japan.’ Examining the conceptions of political practice and identity that manifested themselves in the protest and resistance of the period, provides insights into the shifting terrain of national identity in the 1960s.

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-127). Also available via the World Wide Web.

This dissertation examines the United States' interactions with Japan between 1945 and 1965 to demonstrate how global processes have transformed American culture at home, as well as exporting it abroad. Through U.S. political, military and economic involvement - including postwar occupation, subsequent maintenance of military bases, and the opening of markets to Japanese exports - Americans gained unprecedented exposure to Japan and its culture. At the same time, Cold War pressure to engage other "free world" nations provided impetus to try and understand foreign cultures, like Japan's. While Americans across the economic spectrum took an interest in their new ally, it was members of the middle and upper classes who most typically embraced the Japanese arts of flower arranging, bonsai, filmmaking, architecture, and landscape gardening, and the philosophy of Zen Buddhism. Many argued that Japanese culture reflected tastes and beliefs that they valued, including understatedness, an appreciation of nature, and a desire for serenity; they described these qualities using the borrowed term "shibui." In knowledgeable circles, the word became shorthand for a particular type of Japan-based aesthetic that embraced the design principles of modernism (clean lines, efficient use of space), while in other ways running counter to industrial modernity. For example ikebana flower arrangements were praised for their minimalism, and the fact that practicing the art was supposed to provide respite from the harried pace of the 20th century life. An appreciation for Japanese culture, or the use of Japan-inspired aesthetics in the way a person decorated or dressed, came to signify a certain kind of modernist refinement in postwar U.S. society. Consequently many suburbanites found shortcuts toward incorporating Japanese culture into their lives which enabled them to appear more stylish and cosmopolitan, without altering their lifestyle significantly. However, there were some components of Japanese culture that shibui enthusiasts conveniently ignored, and other uses to which it could be put, as demonstrated by Godzilla movies and Beat Zen. Taken together, each case study presented here reveals processes of transmission and translation in an often-overlooked direction, as well as uncovering previously neglected connections between U.S. policies abroad and the shifting layers of class and social identity formation at home.

This thesis is the first oral history study of English rugby union. Through personally conducted interviews, it focuses on the experiences of men who played rugby union for England in the post-war, amateur era, and considers what they can tell us about both the sport and the society of which it was a part. The period it covers begins with the end of the Second World War, in 1945, and ends when rugby union ceased to be an amateur sport, in 1995. These fifty years were a time of both change and continuity, and it is a primary concern of this thesis to consider the extent of each in both rugby union and in wider society. Through looking at, in particular, English rugby union’s links with education, its relationship with work in a period in which its players were amateur, and its place on the spectrum of class, this study demonstrates, above all, the durability of rugby union’s social core, even in the midst of outward change to the sport. In doing so, it makes an important contribution to the historiography of both British sport and post-war Britain more generally, arguing for consideration of social continuity among a field largely dominated by notions of change. It also constitutes a unique study of a particular group of middle-class men, and demonstrates that sport – and oral history – can add much to our understanding of post-war social history.

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, many of the British government’s attempts to rebuild the social order and improve standards were experienced through design. This was true not only in the home and in the workplace, but also in the everyday civic environment of the street. Ensuring that objects as ubiquitous as lampposts, litterbins and parking meters adopted the visual language of modern design – while at the same time, remaining inconspicuous - was perceived as being vitally important by the authorities concerned. For it was through such objects that Britain’s new social and cultural agenda was given physical expression, and Good Design was deliberately introduced into people’s everyday lives. Yet for a category of object designed to be ignored, postwar street furniture prompted considerable debate. For some members of the public, the new designs were grotesque, and represented a defacement of the country and its landscape’s individual character. While for others, modern street furniture design was a means of civilizing Britain’s streets. The design of these objects also drew strong feelings from the groups involved with its improvement, including central and local government, the Council of Industrial Design and other state-advisory bodies, manufacturers, and civic groups. Sometimes this multi-layered group worked to improve the design of street furniture together, and sometimes in opposition. This thesis is concerned with the critical reception of street furniture design in postwar Britain, and the debate these objects prompted. It emerges out of an interest in the systems and structures underpinning design culture, and a belief that reading the banal built world expands our knowledge of how political power works. Rather than prioritise the designed objects themselves or the intentions of those responsible for producing them – such as the designers and manufacturers – the thesis will expand the debate to include the wide variety of contemporary viewpoints that were expressed, both in public and private, in response to the promotion, dissemination and design of modern street furniture. Extending the discussion beyond the official design narrative to other, equally important voices reflects a more accurate picture of the process through which street furniture was discussed, understood and even determined during this period. Using extensive primary material from archives, contemporary periodicals and newspapers, and interviews with street furniture designers practicing in the postwar period, the five chapters of this thesis address the different arguments employed by the multiplicity of voices active in the debate. While many of these arguments focused on dichotomies - between old and new, local and central, modern and traditional - the thesis contends that postwar dissent over street furniture was informed by wider debates about Good Design, design’s relationship to high and low culture, its social and moral responsibilities, and taste. The dominance of such themes throughout the thesis reflects the wider social context of the period, which witnessed considerable changes to the authority of its institutions and cultural hierarchy, as well as more timely debates about power, influence and class in the shaping of public life.