Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Tessa Morris-Suzuki is Professor Emerita of Japanese History at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on modern Japanese and East Asian history, particularly issues of historical reconciliation, minorities and grassroots movements.
Tessa's recent articles
How an imaginary expert crashed the world economy
On 16 December 1773, the Boston Tea Party (a protest against de facto tariffs on imports) marked the start of the American colonies’ liberation from British rule.
Nuclear power: Fukushima’s lessons for Australia
In November 2011, eight months after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear disaster, I travelled with Japanese colleagues to Iitate, a village some 50 kilometres from the stricken power plant.
TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. Our Leaders Fiddle While Australia Burns
As homes and communities go up in flames, Australian politics descends into new depths of silly-season absurdity. Enough is enough. It is time for Australias leaders to face up to the nations greatest security threat.
TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. Australia, the US, the Yellow Peril, and the Baby-Strangling Chinese: A Cautionary Tale.
As the Morrison government moves ever closer to the Trump administrations approach to our region and the world, it is time to look more closely at the 'expertise' that underlies Trumps China policy. It draws on some very curious sources.
TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. Manus Island - Mr. Turnbull, Just Say 'Yes'
The nightmare scenario that everyone has predicted for months is now unfolding. Desperate and frightened refugees are digging in the ground for tainted water. Hundreds of men who are dependent on psychotropic medication because of neglect and mistreatment now have less than a months supply of medication left. But there is a small window of hope. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern has offered to take 150 of the refugees, possibly opening the way to other resettlement arrangements. Malcolm Turnbull meets Ardern on 5 November, and has the choice of accepting this offer, or slamming the door in the faces...
TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. Australian Roulette: The Games our Government Plays with Asylum Seekers Lives
As the former refugee detention centre on Manus Island is closed down, asylum seekers there are being encouraged by the Australian government to volunteer for removal to Nauru. This confronts them with a pressing and terrible dilemma. Should they stay without support in the dangerous environment of Manus, or put themselves back into de facto detention in a place whose conditions have condemned as unsafe by the UNHCR? The Australian government is forcing them to gamble with their lives.
TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. Anti-PC gone mad.
The moment you condemn something or someone for being Politically Correct, you have transformed yourself from being a billionaire businessman, a media pundit, or the bloke down the street, and have instantly become a champion of the oppressed silent majority against the murky and invisible forces of darkness that are supposedly imposing Political Correctness on us.
TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. The 'information war' hits Sydney.
This action by a small number of Japanese in Australia harms the Japanese community itself and demeans the work of those in Japan and elsewhere who have fought so long and hard for historical truth and justice.
TESSA MORRIS-SUZUKI. Trump: it's time to go back to basics.
The election of billionaire and reality TV host Donald Trump to the most powerful political position in the world has created global shockwaves. As countless commentators have already observed, Trumps election is a stunning reminder of the depth of social division in the United States. For millions of Americans, particularly in the rust-belt states and rural areas, Trumps candidacy provided a golden opportunity to stick a finger up at the political establishment that has so long neglected their needs and anxieties. And the more outrageous his statements, the better he became a symbol of that finger.
Obama and the absence of apology in Hiroshima
As President of the United States of America, I express my profound apologies for the sufferings inflicted on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the atomic bombings.These, of course, are the words that we are not going to hear Barack Obama speak in Hiroshima on 27 May, when he becomes the first sitting US president to visit the city since the atomic bombings in August 1945. It is sad that we will not hear at least a version of these words. A simple but sincere apology might bring some peace of mind to the survivors and their families, and...
Tessa Morris-Suzuki. The ever-shifting sands of Japanese apologies
On 16 February, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida signed a Strategy for Co-operation in the Pacific, in which both countries emphasised their shared values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law As they were doing so, Japanese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Shinsuke Sugiyama was in Geneva addressing a meeting of the UN committee which oversees the implementation of one of the worlds key human rights accords: the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). On the agenda was the Japanese governments treatment of the problems of memory,...
Tessa Morris-Suzuki. Tony Abbott, What have you done for peace?
On 23 February, Prime Minister Tony Abbott in a major national security speech, chided Muslim leaders for showing insufficiently sincere commitment to peace. Ive often heard western leaders describe Islam as a religion of peace. I wish more Muslim leaders would say that more often, and mean it, he said. Abbott also called on immigrants to Australia to be as tolerant of others as we are of them. The vast majority of Australians are appalled by the cruel and ultimately self-destructive violence of groups like ISIS, and by the crimes of the clearly deranged Martin Place gunman. They rightly...
Tessa Morris-Suzuki. The CIA and the Japanese media: a cautionary tale.
When Japan surrendered at the end of the Pacific War, the occupation authorities pledged to democratise the country. They carried out many reforms and introduced a new peace constitution, guaranteeing human rights and freedom of expression. The reforms had a profound and lasting effect, but there was also a less democratic side to US-Japan relations in the immediate postwar era. It has long been known that the occupation authorities chose to retain media censorship for their own purposes. But new dimensions of US media manipulation in postwar Japan have come to light in a large number of CIA documents...
Tessa Morris-Suzuki Rare Earth, politics and human rights.
On 5 July 2014, the ABCs PM program ran a report which revealed that a leading Asian human rights activist has urged the Federal Government to investigate a Queensland-based resources company and a prominent Australian geologist over mining deals with North Korea that he believes may breach United Nations sanctions. (http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s4061381.htm) The report looked at a project by the firm SRE Minerals to develop rare earth mines in North Korea. The prominent geologist in question is Brisbane based scientist Louis Schurmann. This scheme has come under attack from Japanese activist Ken Kato, head of an organisation known in English as...
Tessa Morris-Suzuki. Another Australia-Japan Relationship is Possible.
Today, Australian Prime Minister Abbott and Japanese Prime Minister Abe meet in Canberra, and Prime Minister Abe presents an address to the Australian parliament. This is a historic occasion, and will be remembered as a pivotal point in Australia-Japan relations. In their discussions, the two leaders are highlighting the crucial economic and security ties that bind Australia and Japan together, and emphasizing the vital role that both countries play as leading democracies in the Asia-Pacific region. Like many others who have spent much of their lives trying to further the relationship between Japan and Australia, I applaud these sentiments,...
The Darkening Shadow of Hate Speech in Japan. Guest blogger,Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Japans new Prime Minister, Abe Shinz, has proclaimed Japan a regional model of democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights. Indeed, Japan has proud traditions of free debate and grassroots human rights movements. But ironically - and largely ignored by the outside world - the rights of minorities and the work of those who fight hardest for human rights are under growing pressure in Abes Japan. Japan signed the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, but refuses to introduce anti-hate speech laws. One reason, according to the government, is that such laws...