Ghostly Remains and Converging Memories: Yūshūkan and the Australian War Memorial Exhibit the Pacific War

Focusing on the Yūshūkan museum in Tokyo, and the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra, this article engages how pain and sacrifice in the Pacific War are represented through the characters of kamikaze and prisoners of war respectively. Despite the inimical historical, political and moral orientations, these institutions’ presentations of memory of war display some interesting overlaps. After establishing that historical, cultural and political contexts are significant in assessing how and why pain and sacrifice in the war are engaged by each institution, I examine the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney in 1942, which effectively bridges both institutions. By assessing the emotive nature of the exhibitions it becomes apparent that while the framing of this single act of violence is culturally esoteric, themes of bravery, heroism, loyalty and sacrifice cross cultures.     

Canada and colonial genocide

This introductory article offers an overview of debates about genocide and settler colonialism in Canada. The argument is presented that Canada, although a marginal case to genocide studies, provides important insights and challenging questions, particularly with respect to the need to decolonize the field of genocide studies.     

Assemblages of State Power: Topological Shifts in the Organization of Government and Politics

Abstract: Multi‐scalar or multi‐site power relations offer two contrasting ways of understanding the shifting geography of state power. In this paper, we argue for a different starting point, one that favours a topological understanding of state spatiality over more conventional topographical accounts. In contrast to a vertical or horizontal imagery of the geography of state power, what states possess, we suggest, is reach, not height. In doing so, we draw from Sassen (2006 , Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages, Princeton University Press) a vocabulary capable of portraying the renegotiation of powers that has taken place between central government in the UK and one of its key city regions, the South East of England; one that highlights an assemblage of political actors, some public, some private, where negotiations take place between elements of central and local actors “lodged” within the region, not acting “above”, “below” or “alongside” it. The articulation of political demands in such a context has less to do with “jumping scale” or formalizing extensive network connections and more to do with the ability to reach directly into a “centralized” politics where proximity and reach play across one another in particular ways.     

Book reviews

Gunnar Fermann (ed.), International Politics of Climate Change: Key Issues and Critical Actors. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 1997. vi + 472pp. US$45.00 (cloth).

Sanjay Chaturvedi, The Polar Regions: A Political Geography. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, in association with the Scott Polar Research Institute, 1996. xviii + 306 pp. £35.00 (cloth).

G.R. Sloan, The Geopolitics of Anglo‐Irish Relations in the Twentieth Century. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1997. xii + 320 pp. £45.00 (cloth).

William T. Tow (ed.), Australian‐American Relations: Looking toward the Next Century. Melbourne: Macmillan, in association with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1998. xiv + 226 pp. $36.50 (paper).

Paul Earnshaw, Billion Dollar Business: Strategies and Lessons in Australian Arms Acquisitions. Canberra: Australian Defence Studies Centre, 1998. ix + 165 pp. $20.00 (paper).

Derek McDougall, The International Politics of the New Asia Pacific. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1997. xi + 257 pp. US $55.00 (cloth), US $19.95 (paper).

Nicholas Tarling, Nations and States in Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 138 pp. £69.95 (cloth), £24.95 (paper).

David Martin Jones, Political Development in Pacific Asia. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997. x + 235 pp. $34.95 (paper).

Scott Burchill and Andrew Linklater, with Richard Devetak, Matthew Paterson and Jacqui True, Theories of International Relations. London: Macmillan, 1996. 274 pp. $32.95 (paper).

William Maley (ed.), Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban. London: C. Hurst, 1998. xiii + 25 3pp. £14.95 (paper).

Nancy Viviani, The Indochinese in Australia 1975–1995: From Burnt Boats to Barbeques. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1996. xvi + 208 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Stuart Harris and Andrew Mack (eds), Asia‐Pacific Security: The Economics‐Politics Nexus. St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, with the Department of International Relations and the Northeast Asia Program, ANU, 1997. vi + 305 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Andrew Elek (ed.), Building an Asia‐Pacific Community. Development Cooperation within APEC. Brisbane: The Foundation for Development Cooperation, 1997. xiii + 118 pp. $20.00 (paper).

Markus Wolf, with Anne McElvoy, Man without a Face. London: Jonathan Cape, 1997. xii + 367 pp. £17.99 (cloth).

Mordechai Bar‐On, In Pursuit of Peace: A History of the Israeli Peace Movement. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1996. xix + 470 pp. US $37.50 (cloth), US 24.95 (paper).

Paul Cammack, Capitalism and Democracy in the Third World: The Doctrine for Political Development. London and Washington: Leicester University Press, 1997. 277 pp. £45.00 (cloth), £14.99 (paper).     

An Approach toward Energy Balance Simulation over Rugged Terrain

We develop a digital computer model, based upon equilibrium temperature theory, of the magnitudes of the components of the energy balance for a mountainous topographic surface. The model includes an algorithm for calculating slope, exposure, and horizon information for every point on a digitized grid. Incoming solar and thermal radiation are then simulated for every point. At present the model is designed for clear-sky conditions, but it could be modified for cloudy skies. Air temperature and humidity variations are specified by externally defined relations, and values for albedo and soil thermal properties are specified for every point on the grid. Wind speed variation over the grid is not modeled, but is specified by an empirical function. The model simulates net radiation, soil heat flow, sensible and latent heat flow, and surface temperature at specified time intervals. Output is in the form of contour maps.     

Life tables in palaeodemography: A methodological note

Several errors in the early literature discussing life-table analysis of skeletal populations are potentially misleading to the researcher unacquainted with the mathematical methods of palaeodemography. Additional errors document the hazards of borrowing life-table methods and equations from other applications without fully realizing their context, interpretation, and the potential restrictions on their use. A simple generalization of the life-table equations explicitly to reveal their dependence on the entry age and width of the age intervals used will facilitate the correct computation of life tables and readily accommodate the use of unconventional or otherwise non-standard cohorts. A general procedure for computing a life table for a skeletal population is presented, and a numerical example is included to illustrate the method.