MEPPI Japan Lecture Series – The Tokyo-Berlin Axis, 70 Years Later

  • Thursday, February 19, 2015
  • 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Pittsburgh Athletic Association, Pittsburgh, PA
  • 7

Registration

Registration is closed

2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. Join the JASP for an evening of reflection on the Japanese-German alliance.

The lecture will provide an overview of the origins, formation, development, and fall of the Axis alliance between Japan and Germany before and during World War II. How and why did Japan and Germany, so different, distant, and each espousing nationalistic ideologies, come to embrace each other as comrades in arms? How did the Axis function as a diplomatic and military entity? Did Japan and Germany help each other’s war effort, and could they actually have won World War II? The lecture will explore the answers to these questions by examining the history of Japanese-German rapprochement from the end of World War I in 1918 to the conclusion of World War II in 1945. It will discuss major events such as the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936, the Tripartite Pact of 1940, and the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Ricky Law is assistant professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University. He first experienced Japan as a participant of the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program in Hokkaido. He returned to Japan as a graduate student to research for his dissertation and received a Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently he is completing a book manuscript on the cultural and intellectual backgrounds of the Japanese-German alliance.

Join the JASP for this free evening at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m., February 19, 2015. Light hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be provided. Space is limited so please register by February 13.
 

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Lecture Series Sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric Power Products, Inc.