Film: So Long Asleep: Waking the Ghosts of a War” by David Plath

• Film

• Event Date: Friday, October 14, 2016
• Time: 7:30 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free Admission

In this one-hour video documentary, cameras follow a team of international volunteers carrying home the remains of young Korean men who died doing forced labor in Imperial Japan during the 1940s Asia - Pacific War. At issue: dare we forget our dead?

David Plath, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has taught at the university for 35 years, published six books and more than 60 articles in anthropology and Japanese studies, and is perhaps best known for Long Engagements: Maturity in Modern Japan (Stanford University Press, 1980). Among his many documentary titles are: Preaching From Pictures: A Japanese Mandala (2006), an interactive DVD with materials displaying and explaining the Mandala of the Ten Worlds; Under Another Sun: Japanese in Singapore (2003) about Japanese residents of contemporary Singapore; Makiko's New World (1999), dramatizing family life in Kyoto in 1910; Fit Surroundings (1993) on abalone diving women on Japan's Shima Peninsula; and Candles for New Years (1992), a portrait of the Lahu of northern Thailand, produced with David's wife and frequent collaborator Jacquetta F. Hill. In 2000 the Society for East Asian Anthropology established the David Plath Media Award, given biennially for the best new educational media project on Asian societies and cultures. In 2013, Prof. Plath received the Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies award from the Association for Asian Studies for his long engagement and many contributions to teaching about Japan at all levels and through many media.

The film will be followed by a post-screening discussion with David Plath (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Byung-ho Chung (Hanyang University), Sung Hyun Sohn (Korean Art Conservatory), Yoshihiko Tonohira (East Asian Citizens Network), and Kichan Song (Ritsumeikan University).

This public event is presented by the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (external link) in conjunction with the 2016 Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (external link) and is co-sponsored by the Spurlock Museum.