VNU JO U R N A L O F S C IE N C E , soc S C I H U M A N , N 01E 20 H IS T O R IC A L S T U D IE S AND T H E M E M O R Y O F W A R ( A n in v e s tig a tio n in to t h e f a m in e in V i e tn a m in 1945) F u r u t a M u tin y ’’ 10 years, together with consequently, a ca b in e t headed by T n T rong several Vietnamese historians, I have conducted Kim was set up H ow ever, w h e n Japanese an investigation into the real situation o f the troops su rrendered o n 15,h A u g u st 1945, the fam ine in North V ie tn a m in 1945 [Tie famine adm inistrative was really a d isaster du rin g the occupation of governm ent collapsed Viet M inh, u n d e r the Japanese troops this co u n try H ow ever, this leadership o f H o Chi M inh, c arried out the fam ine has been little k n o w n in Japan O ne o f August Revolution in 1945, forced K ing Bao the m ain reasons is that we have not had Dai to abdicate the throne, and the subverted eno u g h records o f this d isastrous event The Ira n year o f 1945 is seen as a m o m e n to u s turning- established the Democratic Republic o f Vietnam During the past 111 Trong sy ste m of K im -h e a d e d this puppet c a binet, and point o f V ie tn a m 's m o d e rn history U p to the beginning of 1945, V ie tn a m , Laos Due to a series o f su ch political events, no and C a m b o d ia were F re n c h colonies In Septem ber 1940, before the Pacific W a r broke out, Japan brought its troops to occ u p y this land, but the sovereignty o f the F re n ch colonialism in this land was still recognized Predicting that the governm ent had any intention to record fully and thoroughly the fam ine in 1945 In addition, V ietnam had e x p e rien c e d nearly 30 years o f war since to overthrow O ur m eth o d of investigation w as as F rench-backed follows: 23 villages from Q u a n g Tri to the Vietnamese government O n 9,h September 1945, N orthern part o f V ie tn a m were selected, a Japanese troops staged a c o u p d ’etat and, as a census o f the total population in e a c h village in result, snatched their control ov e r the countries 1945 was conducted, households were classified, in Indochina D ifferent from w hat it had done and with other Southeast A sia n countries, Japan did household was identified In the villages under not over investigation, there were very few d o c u m e n ts Indochin instead it de c la re d that they were left, so in m a n y cases, the data colle cte d are independent nations In V ie tn a m , King Bao Dai m ainly based on the m e m o ry o f the e lderly d e c la re d villagers T im e is on e o f the lim itations o f the establish its the num ber of victims w ho d ied o f the fam ine is still not clear allied troops would land in Indochina, Japan decided 1945 T h erefo re, the direct V i e tn a m ’s University of Tokyo - Japan d o m in a tio n in d e p e n d e n c e and, the n u m b er of the victim s in ea ch Furuta Motoo !4 investigation: o v e r h a lf a c e n tu r y has passed m eans, I am a civil servant o f Japan Therefore, since the fam in e o c c u rre d , th e re fo re w h a t we even w hen should is to record as a c c u te ly as possible relationship, it is u n d e n ia b le that I jo in the the real situations o f the fam in e In 1945, a investigation in the c a p ac ity as and for the Report benefit o f a Japanese citizen Japan m ust take on the fa m in e was pu b lish e d in I want to put aside this close its responsibilities for the A sia-Pacific W a r, in V ie tn a m ese by the Institute o f H istory which the fam ine in 1945 in V ie tn a m was one T he famine as seen from the point o f view o f o f the events during that period o f history I, a Japanese researcher therefore, m ain ta in that I c a n n o t escape from the ties and T h e fam in e in 1945 e x e rc is e d a great bonds with my nation w hen participating in the investigation im pact o n the s u b s e q u e n t e v e n ts in V i e tn a m ’s In addition, su p pose I were obsessed by m o d e rn history I f w e ignore the fam in e in 1945, it will be difficult for us to e x p la in the rapid e x p a n sio n o f in flu e n c e by V ie t M in h , the A u g u s t R evolution, and the c o m in g into being of the D e m o c tic afterw ards d eserv e s R e p u b lic T h e re fo re , to V ie tn a m e s e be the s tu d ie d m o d e rn V ie tn a m 1945 by h isto ry of fam in e sc holars of no m a te r what n ationality they are T h a t is w hy I have de c id e d to participate in this in v estig a tio n as a historian the idea that I jo in the investigation purely as a historian, only very few V ie tn a m ese historians would accept and sy m p a th iz e with m y position M ost o f the V ie tn a m e se people I have m et regarded m e as a Japanese, not as an unbiased historian In collecting d a ta from the people who have e x p erien ced a n d survived the fam ine, it is im portant to raise an aw areness o f the close relationships b etw een the researcher and the rath e r than a J a p an e se citizen inform ants witnesses H o w e v er, with re g a rd s to s u c h a topic, I w ere T he d a ta from collected in the the history situations where there was a c o n fu s io n in perception of c a n n o t h elp thinking that I a m a Jap an e se The the story w ould be d iffe re n t if I w ere a British or researcher, and with that betw een a V ietnam ese an A m e ric an In an in v estig a tio n w h ic h is relationship b e tw e e n a farm er and a and a Japanese c o n c e rn e d with J a p a n 's resp o n sib ility for the fam ine in 1945, it w o u ld be irre sp o n sib le for a Besides, an o th e r reason that prom pted me rese a rc h e r to take part in the investigation on to join the investigation is that I w ished to what h a p p e n ed in the past as a m e re historian Ỉ m ake a shift in the understanding o f a Japanese c a m e to V ie tn a m to d o this re s e a rc h as a about the J a p an e se citizen the c o u rs e o f the investigation was carried out in the period investigation, if there w e re a n y p ro b le m s I when the diplom atic ties betw een V ietnam and would Japan had o v erco m e th eir stagnation and had ask E m b a ssy for W hat D u rin g su p p o rt is from m o re , the Ja p an e se I m y s e lf am a professor in a public university in Japan, that V ietnam fam ine been developed W h ile the in 1945 The 1945 fam ine in Vietnam is kn o w n to e v e ryone as a m atter of l XU Journal o f Science, Soc., Sci., Human., No IE, 2002 Historical studies and Ilie memory OÍ war 15 course, It is alm ost u nknow n in Japan It is m y affect view that it this situation were still going on, it d ip lo m atic ties b e tw e e n the tw o countries It is would constructive m y view that this d ip lo m a tic policy has a relationship be tw e en Japan and Vietnam To positive m e a n in g for the investigation Based be harci to have a c hange the situation in Japan, it is important to carry out su c h an investigation, w hich m ight the d e v e lo p m e n t of the existing on this, we are able to c o n d u c t the investigation rather in d e p e n d e n tly o f the d ip lom atic issues bring positive c h a n g es in the Japanese p e o p le ’s I aw areness a nd understanding entirely d is a g r e e w ith the form er opinion I th in k that b e c a u s e I a m a Ja p anese I T he afo re m e n tio n e d is what I expect from the investigation as a Ja p an e se historian have to m a k e c le a r a n d e x p o u n d the V ie tn a m fam in e in arise Is c o n c e a l m e n t o f t r u t h a s h a m e ? 1945 W h a te v e r H o w e v e r, a q u e stio n m ay my w ay of thinking is, “ b e c au se I a m a J a p a n e s e , I should not dig from u n p leasant th in g s d o n e by the Ja p an e se in W hat Ị expect from the investigation this the war,” or “ I have to carry out an investigation time as a Ja p an e se historian has confronted me b e c au se I a m a J a p a n e s e e tc ” , is it true that we with c om pletely reverse doubts I have heard share the s a m e o p in io n o f building a Japanese from m any different sources that it would not history, a J a p a n e s e -c e n te r e d one? he a good thing for the Ja p anese to broach their m istakes, a n d that such an investigation m ay M y th in k in g “ b e c a u s e I am Ja p a n e s e ” dam age the am eliorating relationships betw een d o e s not aim to build a k in d o f history in w hich the two countries the Ja p a n e s e sh o u ld have s o m e sh are (a history for the J a p an e se ), b e c a u s e I think that I cannot A V ie tn a m ese friend o f m in e has raised the issue o f the latter opinion Since turn a blind e y e to J a p a n ’s responsibilities for 1991 the fam in e in 1945 In m y o pinion, w hen the Vietnam has proposed its diplom atic policy: J a p an e se take into a c c o u n t their responsibilities “Close the past and look ahead to the future." I in the war, we p a rticip a te in a c o m m o n issue think that it that people aro u n d th e w orld are c oncerned when the is in the present period o f time Ja p an -V ie tn a m relationships are with, such as d e n o u n c in g m is c h ie f that being im proved that we are capable and in need colonialists a nd w ars have c a u s e d to hu m an o f m en tio n in g and e x a m in in g the fam ine in beings etc W h a t I w ish is that the relationships 1945 - an issue w hich has not yet been m ade be tw e en J a p an a nd V ie tn a m are placed on the clear sa m e level as these issues W e ca rry out the in the two n a tio n ’s ties V ie tn a m ’s diplom atic policy “ C lose the past and look ahead to the future" tow ard J a p an m eans that in the history o f W orld W a r II the fam ine in 1945 investigation not for the p u rp o se that accepting w ar resp o n sib ilities d iplom atic V ietnam was only a n event in that period, w hich will not I\( Journal ()J Science, Sot Sci., Human , S()ỊE, 2002 ties and will J a p a n ’s facilitate inv estm e n t the in Furuta Motoo 16 T h ro u g h the narrations o f the elderly in villages, we were in tro d u c ed to village folks the selected villages, w e have learnt o f other w ho could re m e m b e r the situation o f their tragic stories besides the 1945 fam ine A fter villages W orld W a r II the C h inese N ationalist A rm y stories, the overall picture o f the villages was c a m e in to disarm the J a p an e se troops For refram ed thanks to the m e m o r y o f those w ho ordinary people, this undisciplined a rm y was a were over 70 and w ere ju s t o v e r in 1945 in 1945 S k ip p in g over personal nightm are In the resistance w ar against the First, French (Indochina W a r I), m an y villages in the N orth o f V ietnam be c am e the battle fields In the resistance w ar against the us (the V ietnam W ar), although N orth V ie tn a m was not an im m ed ia te battle field, m a n y y o u n g people were recruited to go to the front in the South and sacrificed their lives there T h a t is why m a n y old people said to us: “ W e show our we he lp e d th e m recall the households in their villages T h o s e who have a good m em o ry could count nearly 100 households, even in s o m e c a se s, w e were really astonished by their a c c u te m em ories o f the whole village A fter w e u n d e rstood som ething about the structure o f the village and the n u m b e r o f people in e a c h fam ily, we surveyed the n u m b e r o f people w h o d ied in the fam ine hatred not just to the J a p a n e s e ” T h e n the collected d a ta w e r e show n to the How ever, I think that it is un rea so n a b le to regard the fam ine sim ply as part the addition, we also a sk ed the existing fam ilies to disasters caused to the V ie tn a m e s e people in attest the accuracy o f the inform ation relating the tw entieth century I f the J a p a n e s e d o not to their neighbors a n d k indreds O u r m ain bear their responsibility in m ethod o f investigation is to bring forw ard the V ietnam in 1945, it will have no right to track m ost reliable in fo rm a tio n and data based on dow n the responsibility for the w ars w aged by what is collected at that m o m e n t for the of other elderly people for a u b le check In fam ine the F ren ch and the A m e ric a n s in V ietnam The point I w ould like to raise here is that if the In the 23 villages u n d e r investigation, the Ja p an e se want to so, they m u st ke e p in m ind proportion o f those w h o d ie d o f hunger to the that the n u m b e r o f the fam in e victim s in 1945 whole population in 1945 is distributed from is m u ch greater than the n u m b e r o f people w ho around 8.37% to 7 % (In fact, Bui X a is scarified their lives in the period o f 30 years o f where there is the h ighest proportion H ere, our war afterw ards final figure is 73.7% D ue to the quick process o f m igration o f this v illage, we could only Methods o f investigation recover the nu m b er o f the fam ilies w hose m e m b e rs died o f hunger A s a result, the data As m entioned above, the narrations o f the does not reflect the real proportion o f the elderly people play a very im portant role in the fam ine victim s to the w h o le population in the investigation W h e n we c a m e to the selected village in 1945 That is w h y we n ot list the I ’NU Journal o f Science, Soc., Sci., Human., No IE, 2002 17 Historical studies and the memory o f war A lthough figure of 73.7% here.) O f the 23 villages, the d a ta were based on the villages had over 40 % o f the population who m em ories o f the old villagers, our investigation died in the fam ine, equivalent to that o f the attem pted to reflect the real state o f the fam ine famine in K do's era in Japan in 1945 as accurately as we could This is an investigation based on the positivist point o f think that for the tim e being this is the view only possible m eth o d to gain access to the real The reason that m ad e m e choose this situation o f the fam ine in 1945, and that the m ethod figures we have attained are highly reliable village, we could show specific evidence o f However, there are som e lim itations to this da m a g e s and losses c a used by the fam ine in m ethod The biggest one is that it is impossible V ietnam in 1945 as co m p a red with that in to the T hien M inh years in Japan O nly in so doing families that had no or alm ost no survivors at c a n we put to an end the prejudice held by the the Japanese that the 1945 fam ine in V ie tn a m was collect time accurate of inform ation investigation from (alm ost 100% m em bers o f those fam ilies died o f hunger) In is that th rough investigating each an unreliable event those Villages we had a c o m m o n problem : it is m any Such events as N am K inh m assa c re (12 people there were in the hou se h o ld s with no or Dec 1937), which have been attracting m uch almost no survivors where the survivors had attention from the Jap an e se society, are in fact, migrated to S om etim es there were disputes a tip o f an iceberg, as seen from the point o f am ong For view o f expanding J a p a n ’s responsibilities o f instance, som e said that there w ere people in war There are still m a n y cases w hich have a family while others refuted that there were been know n to on ly researchers, not to the people in that fam ily bccause o f a new-born ordinary people Due to the lack o f recorded child data, we m ust rely on the narrations o f old really hard the to identify people exactly under how interview villagers and c o n sid e r them to be the prim ary source o f data for this investigation H a lf a Furtherm ore, w hether the m ortality was century has passed since W orld W a r II ended, caused m ainly by the fam ine is also a big problem It we ignore the n u m b e r o f people this also m e a n s that the data based on the m em ories o f old people will co m e to an end In who were confirm ed to have died o f diseases or injuries by the interviewees, o u r investigation would stop at the c onclusion that the mortality rate 111 1945 was m u c h higher than the annual this situation, I think that we should not underestim ate a positivistic m ethod o f study, including the data collected from the m em o rie s o f the old people average m ortality rate in that period Additionally, the reason for e a c h fam ine victim has not been identified I M ' Journal of Science’, Soc , S e t , Human , NiilE, 2002 In the first place, we attem pt to publish our findings in the form of a report in Furuta Motoo 18 V ietnam ese in V ietnam in A u g u st 1995 At m ak e a co n trib u tio n to solving controversial that time, I thought that report in Japanese problem s would be o f great im portance, but until now investigation T h is is also the aim of the what I had in m ind has not yet c o m e true By the time my report was published in Different stories V ietnam ese, only som e o f m y essays and som e o f the articles by Japanese journalists w orking O n e o f the results o u r investigation has in V ietnam were published in Japanese A s a gained is a big d iffe re n c e o f the m ortality rate result, o u r investigation is said to have changed o f the h u n g e r-v ictim s a m o n g th e regions under the debates in Japan about the V ie tn a m fam ine investigation - fro m 8% to 58% This show s the in 1945 diversity in the d e g re e o f d a m a g e s and losses O u r investigation was c o n d u c te d in 23 villages in North V ietnam A lth o u g h it is conducted in a lim ited area, th ro u g h the hunger m ortality rate o f 8% and the fact that the famine happened on a very large scale, it is possible to say that the brought about m an y 1945 serious fam ine has dam ages and losses Thus, after the report was published, it has put to an end the debates about w h ether or not there was a real serious fam in e in N orth o f V ietnam in 1945 T h e debate topics have turned to the issues o f how m u c h d a m a g e the fam ine had and w ho would be responsible for the famine caused by the fa m in e T h e differences occurred am o n g the in v estig a ted am ong d ifferent parts villages, of a but also village The narrations by the old villagers w ere vivid and abundant, and m a n y o f th eir stories relating to the fam ine w ere verified Here, I w ould o n ly like to co n sid e r the stories related to J a p an First o f all, it should be noted that there w a s a little c h an ce for the villagers to c o m m u n ic a te with Ja p an e se troops This is b e c au se in 1945, although Japanese troops c a m e to In d o c h in a un d e r the agreem ent with the F re n ch c olonialists, the F re n ch were responsible for the g a th e rin g o f food from the These two issues are beyond the scope o f people, not the J a p a n e s e In fact, alm ost no our investigation as the aim o f the research is Japanese troops c a m e to the villages for the to re-create the real state o f the fam ine and we gathering are unable to com e to any definite conclusions Instead, they did c o m e to som e villages to concerning them chase the rem n a n ts o f F re n c h troops during the I m y se lf have put m u c h thought about the M arch 1945 c o u p d ’etat and then to pursue the criticism s for not giving definite conclusions to Viet M inh H o w e v er, in N orth V ie tn a m where these two issues But as a researcher, I think I the m ust study carefully in o rder to re-create the Ja p an e se carried o u t s u c h m ilitary operations historical truths as accurately as possible and were limited fam ine o c c u rre d the places w here the I 'NU Journal o f Science, Soc., Sci., Human., NalE, 2002 Historical studies and the memory of war 19 In one o f the villages w e w ere told that province In this village, the Japanese troops Japanese troops encircled it an d s o m e villagers w ere said to strictly o b e y the disciplines They were killed: T his is C am Pho village in Q uang even shared rice with the villagers T hanks to T n province W h e n the F rench and Japanese their help, troops fought e a c h other d u rin g the co u p d ’etat, alleviated SIX that the fam ine in the village was villagers were killed It is a lso confirm ed 111 there were tortures o f the local people by the Japanese troops This village is located near Viet Bae where Viet M inh had its active operations In addition, this IS a place where hungry T he stories by the old villagers are, thus, Kha Ly village in Bac G ia n g province, folks robbed of the rice as tax diversified The point is how to interpret these stories An e x a m p le o f Phuong T hong village I have just m entioned generalized as a above sy m b o l of m ight the be friendly relationship betw een the Japanese troops and collection stored in the house o f one o f the the village dignitaries T he nearby Japanese unit, Japanese troops enc am p e d in Indochina had therefore, was sent there “ to restore o rder.” An V ietnam ese draw n people experience from I the disagree The Chinese battle old villager said one day he w as beaten at the fields and tried to avoid d irect confrontations village gate by Japanese troops o n his way with the V ietnam ese people M ost o f the units back from the m arket (selling fire-w ood), for which had conflicts with local people were sent being suspected o f having supplied food to Viet from C hina before and after the coup d ’etat H ow ever, Minh co n sid e rin g the status of the Japanese troops in V ie tn a m , these were their Although the stories relatin g to the real efforts They w ere a foreign army, Japanese troops we heard from the old people “ uninvited g u e s ts ” with the dom inant military in some villages are indirect pow er which would frighten ordinary people OI1CS, the c om m on impression on the villagers left by the Japanese fear O n the o th er hand, I also think that it am ong the people that the J a p a n e s e would would be unreasonable if we skipped over the com e and punish severely if local people did events in Phuong T h o n g village If we did not not contribute a sufficient a m o u n t o f rice or did take such events into account, it would be easy not grow jute as dem a n d e d to depict the 1945 fam ine as a result o f the war troops was “ frightening” T h e r e was w aged by the Japanese During the process o f Others said that the local people were collecting corroborations from war victims, it scared o f the Japanese troops at first, but after would be d a n g erous if the collector too m uch som e direct c o m m unication, the Ja p an e se were sym pathized with the victim s and let the image not so scaring A fter the war e n d e d , o n the way o f the victims sim ilar to what he had imagined to Hai Phong, one unit o f the Ja p an e se troops O nce a book on the evidence o f the cases like stopped at Phuong T ho n g village H ung Yen those in Phuong T h o n g village appears, people I XI Journal o f Science Soc S e t Human A 2002 Furuta Motoo 20 will be u b tfu l o f a b o o k which is concerned after time Át that m o m e n t, the inform ation m ainly the provided by the fam ine w itnesses contains in troops itself their subjective thinking, and is quite w hile ignoring th eir friendly relationship side contradictory If we d o not realize the fact that as the c a se o f P h u o n g T h o n g village there are c o n tradictory points in these stories, with V ie tn a m ese killing people and by torturing the Japanese of we m ay be doubtful o f th eir truthfulness which, Apart from that, w hen listing contradictory corroborations, a possibility o f doubt over their in turn, m ay lead us to su sp ec t the nature o f the fam ine itself truthfulness m a y o c c u r This logic som etim es I m a k e s people o n ly use unilateral evidence like the events in P h u o n g T hong village (arguing that the opposite e v id e n c e provided from other places is unreliable) and This leads to the suspicion o f the fam in e But it is clear that the stories are not actual facts A lth o u g h what is told can be verified through c ross-checking with others, it is e x tre m e ly difficult to identify the im pact o f the Ja p an e se troops on those who had no direct c o n ta c t with them A ccordingly, it is possible to co n sid e r the im pact o f the think those d iffe re n t stories about the Japanese troops sh o u ld be fully interpreted This is not intended to s h o w both the positive and negative sides o f the presence of the Japanese troops in V ie tn a m It is m y viewpoint that it is im possible to write up a history by m erely listing those stories T he capacity o f a historian can be s h o w n in the way how he ju d g es and treats those stories from the point o f view o f the c o n te m p o ry historical context The “legend” o f a nation historical and political ed u c atio n on the future A s m en tio n e d o u r investigation is not an H ow ever, th ro u g h this investigation, we have leant that the m e m o ry o f the 1945 fam ine in V ie tn a m needs recalling W hile serious losses o f life in the two w a rs o f resistance against the F re n ch and A m e ric an s were seen as “glorious de v o tio n for th e F a th e rla n d ’s In d e p e n d e n c e ” , and were rep e a te d ly m entioned exhaustive one, it w a s lim ited to 23 villages Therefore, the investigation e s not attempt to show any conclusion o f the scale ot losses o f the fam ine - the fre quently m entioned m illion victims A s stated above, the reason why the and there is a lw a y s a “W a r M e m o r ia l" in a nu m b er o f m illion victim s was know n is village, there is n o m ention o f the 1945 fam ine because o f the fact that it was m entioned in the victim s in public places H a l f a century has Declaration o f In d e p e n d e n c e o f the Dem ocratic passed and this w a s the first tim e the old Republic o f V ietnam L ater, in the negotiations people had told their stories a b o u t the fam ine on war reparations b e tw e e n the Japanese and to the c o m p le te strangers T h is also m eans that V ietnam ese what fam ine are not Saigonese go v e rn m e n t), the Japanese side said official stories to be told in p u b lic places time there were “three h u n d r e d thousand victim s" IS related to the 1945 g o v e rn m e n ts (i.e the form er I 'NU Journal o f Science, Soc S c i , Human., NuJE, 2002 H is to ric a l s iik lic s a n ti th e m e m o ry o l Will while the S aiuoncse side said there were “one which has been existing in V ie tn a m for m a n y m illion.” years This m ad e Dem ocratic the adm inistration R epublic o f V ietnam of A m ong V ie tn a m e s e re ^ M ic h e rs there was the indignant a debate aboil* i lie co rre la tio n of the because, as they said, the Saigonese investii’dhort o u tc o m e s an d the n u m b e r o f regime was not the true representative o f the million fam ine victim s P ro fe sso r V a n T ao, a united V ietnam and they doubted the num bers representative o f the V ie tn a m e s e side, in the o f the fam ine victim s put forw ard by both su m m ary o f the report in V ie tn a m e s e , based This IS S id e s That is w h y the governm ent o f the h im self o A th e figures o f the investigation to Dem ocratic R e p u b lic o f Vietnam , currently the average Socialist Republic o f Vietnam , considered this proportion o f the fam ine victim s to the whole as "the conspiracy population could cooked up in order to and o ffe r the I e ach h y p o th esis that the 15% T h is hypothesis alleviate the c rim es o f the French colonialists implied that the investigation supported the and the Japanese fascists.” n um ber o f m illion victim s O n the contrary, som e other researchers c la im that if b a sed on This IS an obstacle for the clarification o f the investigation o u tc o m e s , the n u m b e r o f the 1945 fam ine If It is difficult to ch a n g e the num ber of investigation m illion, of the why real carry situation out an of the famine? In the late 1990s, the policy o f “ Doi m oi" was initiated in Vietnam This m arked the beginning o f the process of re-exam ining the traditional m eth o d of presenting historical m illion would be doubtful It is natural that opinions differ T h is is be c au se our investigation does not start with the n u m b e r o f m illion victim s an d does not o ffe r any c onclusions about the total d a m a g e s and losses o f the famine issues m m odern V ietnam The idea w hether or If in V ietnam the n u m b e r o f m illion not clarifying the real situations of the famine fam ine victims has b e c o m e a leg e n d , in Ja pan more im portant than the intolerance with the there has existed an o p p o s ite legend c laim ing IS num ber of m illion victims among the Vietnam ese historians em erged in this period Our investigation IS carried out with the cooperation o f both Japanese and V ietnam ese colleagues W e were in m utual agreem ent that that this num ber IS u n b e lievable Our investigation had to fac e with “ the le g e n d " in Japan T here seem s to be no c o m p ro m is e betw een the two standpoints O n the on e hand, due to the fact that the n u m b e r o f w itnesses has the investigation sh o u ld not begin with the been decreasing year a fte r year, we, therefore, num ber m illion, but with an aim of cannot anticipate w h e th e r the situ a tio n would clarifying real facts o f the fam ine in 1945 be better, or it would s in k into oblivion This W ithin such a limit, it is exte n d e d to the investigation m eans a “ sm a ll" b re a k th ro u g h to investigation that faces one o f the legends c lear this situation I \( OÍ Journal of Science Soc Sc I Human V,,//;' 2002 Furuta Motoo 22 I think that the investigation has faced responsibilities but a ls o show s th e ir extrem ist with the two opposite “ le g e n d s” in V ietnam attem pts to rebuff w h a t V ie tn a m e s e people had and in Japan H ow ever, this d o e s not m ea n that to suffer from the f a m in e and to co n c ea l this the event Thus, it is im p o ssib le to put these two V ietnam ese and Japan e se stories are absolutely the sam e I su g g e st that we should stories on the s a m e par m ake a distinction b etw een the story by the perpetrator and that by the sufferer I think, with re g a rd to the issues o f the responsibilities o f w ar, the perpetrators should, It would be an unde n ia b le disaster if we first o f all, have th eir c le a r attitude tow ard the ignored the n u m b e r o f m illion V ietnam ese legend in their c o u n try If they c a n n o t d o so, victims o f the 1945 fam ine T his n u m b e r has they have no right to raise a q u e s tio n about the existed partly due to the m e m o ry about the legend o f their victim s If this p oint is ignored, frightening degree o f the disaster o f the people it will lead to a situ a tio n in w hich the stories by w ho have e x p erien ced the fam ine It is possible the perpetrators and the victim s a re put o n the that som e Japanese, on hearing that m illion sam e par This will a ls o lead to the dispute and V ietnam ese people had died o f hunger, m ay m istake that there find it hard to believe But no one was offended betw een the two sides, a n d e a c h sid e claim s the by the story M oreover, that the Japanese think o th e r ’s story that “2 m illion V ie tn a m ese fam ine victim s is the an unbelievable sto ry ” not only blurs their war V ie tn a m will never be solved is alm ost no difference is w rong A n d , fo r this reason, real p roblem s of the 1945 fam ine in REFERENCES Van Tao & Furuta Motoo (1995) The famine in 1945 - Historical evidence Hanoi: The Institute of History Furuta Motoo Actual situations o f the fam ine in a Vietnamese village - Luong Phu village, Tay Luong commune Tien Hai district, Thai Binli province (Report on joint investigation between Vietnam and Japan) Summary record of History and Culture (March 1994) vol 18 University of Tokyo , Japan Furuta Motoo Findings o f the joint investigation between Vietnam and Japan on the fam ine in Vietnam in 1945 UP, vol May 1996, University of Tokyo, Japan Furuta Motoo Historical evidence and modern history - Close the past, look ahead to the future in Grammar o f History edited by Yoshie Akio, Yamauchi Masayuki and Motomura Ryoji The publishing house of University of Tokyo, 1997 Furuta Motoo The famine in 1945 in a village where there was a jute mill - Phuong Thong village Hung Yen province The summary record of the conference onTegional studies College of Culture, University of Tokyo ODYSSEUS vol.l March 1997 I 'NU Journal o f Science, Soc., Sci., Human., NnlE, 2002 ... an of the famine? In the late 1990s, the policy o f “ Doi m oi" was initiated in Vietnam This m arked the beginning o f the process of re-exam ining the traditional m eth o d of presenting historical. .. investigation died in the fam ine, equivalent to that o f the attem pted to reflect the real state o f the fam ine famine in K do's era in Japan in 1945 as accurately as we could This is an investigation. .. our investigation as the aim o f the research is Japanese troops c a m e to the villages for the to re-create the real state o f the fam ine and we gathering are unable to com e to any definite