Post-war Society Research Articles

SOCIAL CAPITAL AND ITS CHANGES IN ARMENIA: CHALLENGES AND EXPECTATIONS

Social capital was the Achilles’ heel of the economic competitiveness of Armenia. In the meantime, the country made significant progress in solidifying it since the Velvet Revolution. In this article, we tried to present and analyze those elements of social capital which demonstrated significant progress in post-revolutionary Armenia, as well as the changes thereof. For that purpose, we have formulated the following research questions: What factors led to this growth, and what factors still lag? What hidden challenges can be observed through factual indicators which probably resulted from the slight decrease in the updated scores? What changes can be expected from the turbulent world and in the post-war society? The applied methodology is quantitative. In particular, to answer the research questions we used index analysis, graphic analysis, and comparison, correlation analysis techniques, pared t-test of the mathematical-statistical significance of changes, and Principal Component Analysis. The results of the analysis showed that a significant increase in the level of social capital was recorded in post-revolutionary Armenia, which was mainly due to the progress in institutional trust. Nevertheless, some revealed anomalies and encountered challenges undermined the archived progress in the growth of trust. Therefore, we put forward several recommendations.

The Silence of the Occupied in Czech Literature, 1940–46

The use of silence to characterize the dominant response of occupied populations during the Second World War recurs throughout post-war European literature and is especially prominent in Czech writing. Interpreting the meaning of this silence therefore became central to Czech efforts to establish a preferred narrative about the German occupation in the immediate post-war period. Through analysis of the motif in more and less well-known works published between 1940 and 1946, I shall map the narrowing understanding of the silence of the occupied from its varied, ambiguous portrayal in the now forgotten first Czech novel about the Occupation, Silences by Josef Horal, to its unequivocal interpretation as resistance in Jan Drda's canonical The Mute Barricade. While this narrowing reflects Tony Judt's notion of a “collective amnesia” necessary for national unity and recovery, the marginalization of certain perspectives also presages the broader move in Czech post-war society away from pluralism to nationalist authoritarianism.

Peculiarities of pension coverage for disabled war veteran and their employment in Tambov Region in 40s and 50s of the 20th century

The study of certain aspects of social adaptation and support, pension coverage and employment of disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic War allows us to clarify the peculiarities of post-war society development, development trajectories of the socialization of the military generation in the 40–50s of the 20th century. During this period, the efforts of the Soviet and party bodies to organize assistance to disabled war veterans, a significant part of whom had mental injuries and illnesses, were especially significant. Military everyday life and traumatization of combatants led to an increase in morbidity, which required a serious transformation not only of public health, but also of the system of social protection and pension legislation. The most intensive study of this problem was carried out during the war years and the first post-war decades, also in the 20s of the 21s century. The methodological peculiarities of the study of the stated problems are based on the author’s concept of attracting the works of contemporaries, primarily specialists in the field of psychiatry, practitioners of the Tambov Region, as well as the actual case histories and anamnesis of mental illness. We use materials from the state and party archives of the Tambov region, many of which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The results of the study allow us to draw a quite obvious conclusion that the central and local Soviet and party bodies made certain efforts to organize social support and employment for disabled war veterans. Highly successful, these events on medical and social work were carried out in the Tambov Region. However, in general, the lack of material resources and hardships of the post-war period did not allow for decent pension coverage and social adaptation of disabled war veterans.

Becoming Korean: Japanese wives in the boundary formation of a leftist zainichi community

ABSTRACT Korean–Japanese marriages were common during and after Japan’s imperial rule of Korea. Following the Japanese Empire’s demise, however, Japanese wives in Korean families faced new political dynamics and their ethnic belonging became an issue. This article introduces the experiences of some Japanese women who married leftist zainichi Korean men in the 1950s and 1960s, obtained through interviews and published memoirs. Their self-identification exclusively as members of the zainichi Korean community – or their experiences of “becoming Korean,” despite facing oppression in both the Korean community and Japanese society reflect the specific historical moment of Korean decolonization in post-imperial Japan. Their stories attest that Koreans’ efforts toward decolonization led to the establishment of an autonomous ethnic sphere and a new center of moral authority among zainichi Koreans. These women stood at the boundary between Korean and Japanese social spheres, which developed based on the malleability in women’s senses of ethnic and national belonging. Recovering their experiences can help us integrate post-imperial tensions and decolonization into the history of postwar Japanese society.

Humor as an effective form of resistance in Franko’ Spain

From 1939 to 1975, Spain had to live under the dictatorial regime. This is the time when the Spanish state was ruled by General Francisco Franco Bahamonde and covers the period from the end of the Spanish Civil War, from 1939 until his death, to 1975. This era is also called the Franco era. The Franco government was known for its repressions, restriction of liberty, propaganda of its own ideology and censorship in almost every field, especially in literature. Censorship prohibited the publication of works that would be harmful or threatening to the established regime. During this period of Spanish history any cultural, communicative, ideological or creative activity was restricted. Censorship was mainly used by the ruling party as the main tool to restrict free thought and spread its ideology en masse. It was a protective tool of the ruling class to maintain the power.The established dictatorial regime was clearly influenced by German and Italian totalitarianism, which was manifested in working relationships, autocratic economic policy, aesthetics, the use of symbols, a one-party system, etc. Political repressions in the 1940s, strengthened the established dictatorial system. The existence of the art and the culture of that period was dependent upon the compliance with Franco's ideology. Nevertheless, authors with opposite ideologies (in literature: Carmen Laforet, Antonio Buero Vallejo, in painting: Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, in music: Carmelo Bernaola, Luis de Pablo, in cinema: Juan Antonio Bardem, Carlos Saura, Luis García Berlanga and others) created the best works of art. Among them were critical works of post-war society. Anti-Franco magazines were also created to enable the public to express themselves freely.In Spanish society during Franco´s regime, humor had a large place in terms of self-expression and criticism of the regime. Political humor was the response of individuals to dictatorial regime and censorship. Spreading anti-regime content jokes and funny stories allowed the public to alleviate the fear and sense of helplessness that was driven by the established political regime. Humor led to a restrained but constant critique of the current regime.The article discusses how Spanish society expressed social and political criticism through humor and describes the different forms of humor that took place during Francoism. The paper analyzes the Spanish humor of the Francisco Franco period as one of the most effective means of criticism of the government and escaping from the censorship.

Legacies of Wartime Order: Punishment Attacks and Social Control in Northern Ireland

Many armed groups create informal institutions to maintain social order during conflict. The remnants of these informal institutions form a key challenge for governments in postconflict societies in their attempts to reestablish themselves as credible state authorities. The persistence of paramilitary groups’ informal “justice” systems in the form of so-called punishment attacks in Northern Ireland, more than twenty years on from the Good Friday Agreement, offers insights into the legacy of wartime institutions. We argue that armed actors can benefit from the social control wartime institutions grant them long after the conflict ends and both armed actors and civilians are socialized into relying on these institutions. Building on research on wartime institutions, criminal governance, and postwar state-building, we examine how the informal “justice” systems created during the Troubles (1968–98) remain at the fringes of postwar society, drawing on historical works, interviews with stakeholders, geocoded data on “punishment attacks,” and survey data.

A Study of Preaching of Donald Owens, the First Missionary of the Church of the Nazarene, in the Postwar Society of South Korea(1954-1965)

The purpose of this paper is to understand the preaching theory and theology of Donald Owens, the first missionary of the Church of the Nazarene in Korea. Before coming to Korea as a missionary, Owens graduated from Bethany-Peniel Nazarene College in the Midwest area of the United States, and was sent to Korea as a missionary while serving in Nebraska. Owens, who first set foot on Korean soil in May 1954, served as a missionary in Korea until the spring of 1965 before returning to the United States for his second sabbatical. Owens' work as the founder of the Nazarene Theological Institute in Korea, the first Korean missionary, pastor and administrator is an important part of understanding the early history of the Church of the Nazarene in Korea. In particular, Owens' preaching ministry and preaching teaching are essential for understanding the early sermons of the Korean Church of the Nazarene and the preaching ministry of the first generation pastors of the Nazarene Church in Korea. Owens' sermon emphasized inner holiness and the experience of the grace of the Holy Spirit based on American revivalism and Wesley's holiness theology. Because of this, the preaching theology of the Church of the Nazarene in Korea emphasized Wesley's holiness theology and the spiritual revival movement. While studying Owens' preaching theology, the conviction that the researcher has is that the preaching on spiritual awakening and Christian holiness based on Wesley's holiness theology should be more emphasized in the 21st century Korean church today. For this, more research on the theology of preaching in the 21st century is needed, and while inheriting and developing the legacy of the past, it is necessary to develop a more evangelical and creative Christian preaching theology for the new era.

Toward a Global History of Young Israel

Abstract This article argues that the first two decades of Israeli state-building can be compared structurally to some main processes in postwar Western-European societies, and that this approach productively situates Israel within a global perspective, uncovering new relationships between the local and the global. In addition, it proposes a methodological reading of the young Israeli society before the Six-Day War and a theoretical framework in which to place it. It provides an analysis of this young society from the perspective of Western history, constituting a new reference point that does not strive to negate other common approaches. If, until now, the history of the first two decades of Israel has been examined from a local and particular point of view – whether the state-building process or political, social, and national controversies – I propose to view the Israel of the 1950s–1960s as a postwar society that underwent the same structural processes as other Western European societies during those years, despite domestic differences.

From beautiful to cute

AbstractJapanese visual aesthetics as represented in traditional arts such as flower arranging, calligraphy and tea ceremony have long been celebrated or even emulated as exemplary expressions of beauty. The Japanese termutsukushii(beautiful) can be used to describe a wide variety of pleasing aspects of daily life, ranging from the human form to nature and even the gustatory experience. This article outlines traditional notions of beauty in the Japanese language, sketching forward to more contemporary expressions of visual culture that cluster around the termkawaii. This word is often translated as “cute” in English, but we maintain thatkawaiiextends well beyond its denotative sense to encompass a more complex spectrum of meanings. For example, it can be used to describe objects and practices which have both sentimental charm as well as dark humour. We argue that thekawaiiaesthetic has been successful because it serves important emotional and social functions. Finally, the differences between the termsutsukushiiandkawaiiare gendered and class based, withkawaiioften providing a democratic expression of resistance to gendered processes of aging, ideas of class and taste, and attractiveness in Japan’s postmodern society. This essay begins with an overview of the semantic meanings of the concepts of beauty and cuteness in Japanese, followed by a discussion focused on the historical antecedents of the Japanese notion of cuteness. The third section shifts to an analysis of the expansion of thekawaiiconcept in post-war society and its socio-cultural functions. The essay closes with exploration of a few of the hybrid offshoots derived fromkawaii, demonstrating that concepts of beauty in Japan are constantly changing and reacting to social and historical trends.

Recasting the Body: Self-production of Japanese Disabled Veterans’ Image

ABSTRACT The defeat of Japan in 1945 saw the return of hundreds of thousands of injured soldiers to Japan from other countries. Once celebrated for their bodily sacrifice by the Japanese Imperial Government, these wounded war veterans were repatriated to a society quickly trying to forget the war, while their bodies produced a constant reminder of it. Following the end of the Allied occupation of Japan in 1952, the Japan Disabled Veterans Association (JDVA) was formed. Although Japan attempted to create a new postwar narrative that emphasised “healthy body and nation”, the JDVA’s members had to find their own way to fit into postwar society. This article explores how wounded war veterans saw and represented themselves in postwar Japan. By looking primarily at the comic strips and images included in the monthly publication Disabled Veterans Monthly Gazette (Nisshō Gekkan), this article examines how maimed veterans expressed both acceptance and disavowal of their bodies, which were permanently inscribed with the memory of the war. I argue that the comics demonstrate the challenges disabled veterans faced as they attempted to participate in, and conform to, Japan’s postwar recovery even as their bodies maintained the scars of war.

Post-war Intellectual Society and the Position of Jo Ji-hoon

Post-war Intellectual Society and the Position of Jo Ji-hoon

Marginalci na marginama hrvatske leksikografije ili o kulturi (ne)sjećanja na romske žrtve genocida u hrvatskoj leksikografiji

Povijest romskoga stanovništva na hrvatskim područjima većinom je bila obilježena razdobljima u kojima su ga vlasti nastojale represivnim putem asimilirati u većinsko stanovništvo. Za vrijeme Drugoga svjetskog rata nacističke su vlasti i njihovi saveznici proveli genocid nad njima. Upravo je to ratno razdoblje smatrano središnjom točkom u povijesti romskoga stanovništva. U radu se analizira na koji se način pisalo o stradanju Roma u odabranim leksikografskim djelima izdanima od 1945. do danas. Kako bi se bolje razumjeli rezultati ove analize, istraživanjem su obuhvaćene leksikografske publikacije određenih europskih zemalja. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su kako je tema stradanja Roma u hrvatskim leksikografskim izdanjima nedovoljno zastupljena, što je bio slučaj i u drugim europskim leksikografijama. Ovakav odnos hrvatske leksikografije prema povijesti jedne od najstarijih i danas jedne od brojnijih manjinske skupine u Republici Hrvatskoj odraz je marginalizacije kulture sjećanja na romske žrtve unutar hrvatskoga društva, posebice u znanosti i kulturi.

Pictures for Schools: visual education in the classroom and the art gallery

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on Pictures for Schools, an art patronage scheme established in postwar Britain by the artist and educationalist Nan Youngman (1906–1995) to sell affordable works of art to educational establishments. Highlighting the use of works of art as a pedagogical tool, Pictures for Schools is contextualised within a wider programme of visual education, which encouraged citizens to be critical observers of the places and objects which surrounded them everyday in postwar Britain. The paper explores the ways in which artworks offered children a critical education across two types of educational spaces, the classroom and the art gallery. Using material from Youngman’s archives, it visits a series of educational spaces where, in the decade leading up to the Second World War, and influenced by the educationalists Marion Richardson and Henry Morris, Youngman established the the value of the active, participatory form of art education she later promoted through Pictures for Schools. The paper then explores the ways in which Pictures for Schools worked to develop children’s skills as critical observers. At the first Pictures for Schools exhibition, held in 1947 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, children voted for their favourite exhibit. At later exhibitions, held annually until 1969, children were given questionnaires which encouraged them to look closely at the artworks. This paper argues that in doing this, Pictures for Schools aimed to develop the critical capacities of future citizens who were asked to play an active part in postwar reconstruction and society.

Dos guerras, enemigos distintos y las mismas víctimas. O cuando el (bi)centenario silencia la posguerra

La postergación de los derechos es una realidad que escinde al Perú y abre más las brechas de desigualdad entre los sujetos nacionales, a imagen de los grupos de poder, y los sujetos a quienes se les cuestiona su ciudadanía por no cumplir con los idearios nacionales. El presente artículo reflexiona sobre cómo la conmemoración del acto fundacional del Estado peruano enaltece los proyectos políticos de modernización y silencia la condición de sociedad de posguerra.

“The London Resistance Movement”: Plotting Postwar Dissent in Rose Macaulay’s The World My Wilderness

This article argues that an ethos of resistance permeates Macaulay’s The World My Wilderness and develops a feminist-historical lens to read the novel as a social critique of wartime myths around collaboration and resistance. Resistance operates at the level of plot and thematically; it also marks the novel’s form; and it describes the book’s status within scholarship, as it straddles traditional timeframes and schools of criticism. The article excavates the novel’s major preoccupations with ruins as sites of resistance to consensus, and collaboration as a problematic but plausible means of wartime survival under occupation. Macaulay’s novel ‘makes history’ in all senses of the phrase: it looks back on the recent past to capture a liminal moment in British history before it solidifies into myth; it reflects in fictional form real tensions in postwar society; and it provides today’s readers with a complex understanding of a period still easily reduced to clichés.

A Nude Horse Is A Rude Horse: The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals

In 1959, Alan Abel began sending out a series of press releases to American media outlets credited to a new organization, The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals. Using the language of conservative moralists opposed to the changes in postwar society, he argued that ‘naked’ animals were scandalous and needed to be clothed. Pets, farm animals, and wildlife were all included, as the organization hued to slogans like ‘a nude horse is a rude horse’ and ‘decency today means morality tomorrow’. Abel employed comedian Buck Henry to play the organization’s president, G. Clifford Prout, who gave interviews and speeches covered widely by the mainstream press. Over the next four years, Prout and the group were featured on every major American newscast. The hoax was exposed in late 1962 after he gave an interview to Walter Cronkite. The following year, Time magazine officially debunked the existence of the group. It was an elaborate hoax, but it was also a satire, using animals to critique moralists attempting to ban books and music for indecency. In so doing, the group also unintentionally laid bare American contradictory thinking about animals, as clothing nonhuman animals and worrying about their ‘indecency’ assumed that they had some level of agency. The United States, for example, had always classified the killing of those wearing clothes as murder. Thus it was that while the satire of The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals was directed toward human moralists, the content of its crusade focused exclusively on nonhumans, raising clear questions about their role in human society.

НАКАЗЫ ИЗБИРАТЕЛЕЙ КАК РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИЯ ПОСЛЕВОЕННЫХ ПОВСЕДНЕВНЫХ ПРОБЛЕМ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ Г. МОЗДОКА

Based on the analysis of a wide range of archival sources that are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the article examines the everyday problems of the post-war city of Mozdok. It is noted that the election campaigns were arranged in such a way that it looked like a kind of ritual symbolizing the symbiosis of power and society. At the same time, the election campaigns were the points of contact when the authorities received an objective picture of the relations of the population of the country to the events taking place. The analysis of the instructions of the voters of 1948 and 1953 indicates that they, as a historical source, contain information that allows us to recreate the picture of the everyday life of the post-war provincial society (on the example of Mozdok). The author comes to the conclusion that the party-bureaucratic apparatus used all sorts of communication mechanisms to obtain objective data about the everyday problems of the residents of Mozdok. This information was used for the preparation and implementation of various activities.

ИЗОБРАЖЕНИЕ СЕКСУАЛИЗИРОВАННОГО НАСИЛИЯ В ЖЕНСКИХ ГРАФИЧЕСКИХ РОМАНАХ: НАОМИ ЮДКОВСКИ И ЕВФРОСИНИЯ КЕРСНОВСКАЯ

This article analyses an image from the work of Polish-born Israeli artist Naomi Judkowski (Zofia Rosenstrauch) in juxtaposition with a work done by Russian artist Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya. The study aims to compare two art works of two women with different backgrounds who both suffered under two oppressive regimes. One of the founders of the Ghetto Fighters kibbutz in Northern Israel with its known museum and archive dedicated to the Holocaust memory and education, Naomi Judkowski was an important voice in the Israeli post-war society. Not only her drawings were used as the state of Israel put Eichman on trial, but she also wrote a memoir of her experiences in Auschwitz-Birkenau available for the future generations. At the same time, Eufrosinia Kersnovskaya represents unique evidence to the experience of forced labour and deadly conditions in the Soviet GULAG. Her memoir together with 680 drawings reached the audience in 1990 when it was published by Russian and foreign periodicals. Despite the importance of these works, none of them has received the proper attention to this day. However, in the works of both authors, one can clearly see the “unique female language” that served as an expression of feelings and emotions in response to the sexualized humiliations perpetrated by the men against these two women. The works of both artists are characterized by a realistic visual language and were created out of a need for emotional expression, making the viewer witness their experience.

(Re)passer la mémoire à travers le rire – le cas d’Alain Berenboom

(Re)passing memory through laughter: The case of Alain Berenboom Laughter, a term that at first sight seems incompatible with the Holocaust, has overcome some seemingly insurmountable barriers and has paradoxically become the essence of many literary and cinematographic works dealing with this painful subject. The aim of this article is to present the role of humor in the transmission of the memory of the Holocaust from selected novels by Belgian writer Alain Berenboom. By analyzing his works, we will show that laughter makes it possible to break with the horror experienced during the Shoah and to protect oneself from a real trauma. We will also highlight its role in demystifying and revealing the illusions of post-war society that can lead to its destruction.

“Retribution for betrayal”: Attempts of social integration of former employees of the local police of the Gebitskommissariat “Bila Tserkva” at the Reichskommissariat Ukraine into post-war Soviet society

The purpose of the article is to identify the forms and means of social integration of former police officers of the Bila Tserkva Commissariat in the post-war Soviet society. Methods of research: analytical-synthetic, historical-chronological, comparative-historical, logical. Scientific novelty. Forms and methods of social integration of the former police commissioner of Bila Tserkva in the Soviet society for the first time are analyzed in detail. Practical importance. The study identifies typical models of social integration of people who, in the context of occupation from different circumstances, embarked on a betrayal path, but failed and tried to return to a peaceful life. The originality of the study is based on the identification and analytical and synthetic processing of previously unknown archival sources of the Soviet special services. Main results. The problem of social integration of former local police officers into post-war Soviet society is considered as an example of a separate administrative district of the Ukraine Reichskommissariat. At the system level, the forms and methods of social integration of people who, during the war, followed the instructions of the German authorities and carried out the main directions of the Nazi occupation policy are clarified. The typical behavior models of former police officers in the post-war period are highlighted. Examples of criminal proceedings against people who served in local law enforcement agencies of the Bila Tserkva gebitskommissariat are given. The facts of mistakes of the investigative Soviet special services of the NKDB and the KGB system are established. On the example of specific life destinies, the conclusion is drawn about the selectivity of the repressive measures against former police officers by Soviet law enforcement agencies. Article type: research.