The Holocaust in the regions that the Nazi occupied as a result of the German-Soviet War is featured by the following points. First, the massacres of Jews were carried out in the field, rather than by transferring them to concentration camps. Second, in the early period of the Nazi occupation, parts of the local population were involved in pogroms against Jews. However, Japanese scholars have hardly conducted any empirical studies on the Holocaust during the German-Soviet War.Our case studies on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the German-Soviet War and investigation on the problem of memories after the War have revealed that especially in terms of local people’s collaboration with the Nazi, there were differences between the Holocaust in the Baltic countries and the eastern part of Poland and that in the Soviet Union, such as eastern Belarus

Recent historiography emphasizes the interactive process between the development of imperial ruling system and nation-building: an approach critical to traditional view on empires oppressing national societies. Based on this historiographical trend, our project understands empire as a space where various groups of populace characterized by religion, class, gender, region, language and culture etc. are negotiating, competing and conflicting each other and with imperial authority. The major contribution of the project is an concrete analysis of the dynamics of this process to make another political and cultural entities, or specifically national societies in the modern period. Especially the comparative study on this subject in Habsburg empire and the Western provinces of the Russian empire is worth mentioning. The project also analyzed construction of collective memories on empires after their destruction and total catastrophe of the 20th century in the European East

The aim of this project is to explore the non-territorial cultural autonomy in the Interwar Baltic states and to show the national policies in the Eastern Europe has been constructed in the historical context and likewise the evaluation on them has been also made in the historical context. In this way the essencialism over nationalism in Eastern Europe was critically reconsidered.By this research project it is claimed that the boundary between liberal and illiberal policies with regards to nations should be recomprehended

This issue of research is transboundary and boundary of reginal/national culture in Europe as social change in globalization.Field surveis in 3 years were Poland-kaliningrad-Ratovia, Rumania-Moldova, Spain-Morocco-Gibraltar.These field research became clear that each regionaly/nationaly political position intentionaly determined their cultures, made them differ from neighbour country, and chose their representations of european culture for economic, especially touristic, interst. In other part, border controle of EU is restriced year by year, it broght some inexpediency to pepole living in these area

On the historiography of Socialist Eastern Europe, basic information was investigated and presented, and individual themes were set and analyzed. Because historical journals are an important medium for considering the history research, we surveyed the history of historical journals of each region. In the individual theme, the members of the project examined the history of historical description, individual historians, and institutions that support and/or regulate historical studies

The members of the research project have developed the analysis of politicization of histories and memories of the WWII and Socialism in Central and Eastern European countries and Russian Federation, which have become more and more serious conflicts in and between these countries, on the grounds of fieldworks and the collection of materials in these countries.In the summer of 0214, we held an international workshop in Tallinn, Estonia, and an international conference in Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan, through which we discussed with foreign researchers and developed the comparative framework for history and memory conflicts between Eastern Asian experiences and Eastern European ones. The proceedings of Tallinn workshop is uploaded to the Repository at Kwansei Gakuin University.The members of the project have already some articles, books and a special issue of the journal , and are preparing other two books in this framework, inviting foreign contributors

This research focuses on the Russian refugees from the 1917 Russian revolution and Civil War, and Russian Jewish questions and anti-Semitism in Manchuria in interwar period. Particularly, we explore the anti-Semitism that spread to Japan during the period of the Siberian expedition, the development of Russian fascism in Manchuria under Japanese rule, and the expansion of Zionist movement in Siberia and Manchuria. This project also aims to clarify the role played by Japan and the Soviet Union in the Jewish refugees question on the eve of the Holocaust

Three nations/regions, each performing a reinterpretation of their culture while in the process of EU integration, were confirmed temporarily when they performed a different cultural practice because of different political circumstances and economic survival strategy. Cross-boundary spatial practices appear in the manner of conforming to EU standards, applying for registration as a world heritage and/or sightseeing spot, or standardizing the results and forms of migration and the market economy. The cultural practice of creating collective bonds to integrate a territory causes differences in cultural representation due to the strength or weakness of the neighboring country's power, the population scale, the main industry, the stability of the political system, the area's history including occupation and liberation experiences, and the affinity with the EU system

Our research project focused on dynamism of constructing nation and nationalism in regions of former Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth (western provinces of Russian Empire and western Soviet republics, Habsburg Monarchy and the Baltic region. Multidimensional functions and construction of nation is here analyzed in a given political society in each period from the early modern times up to the 20th century.Early modern "nation" is constructed in manifold political andculturalcontext, related to various values such as political-dynastic, imperial, humanistic-intellectual, confessional, local, municipal, linguistic,of estates, guilds and other corporations, etc. The understanding of nation is not converged to a single political society. Modern nation claims holistic contextualization of vairous negotiations in a political society. The project reveals this process in European borderlands by empirical case studies and comparative method

Through the study on the circulating processes of the historical knowledge in the Baltic states, especially in the post-socialistic era, I would argue that in the contemporary society, the various “memory devices” make historical memory fluid rather than conflicting. In this sense the so-called official national history does not coinside with the social memories. Besides the border between those who share the social memory and those do not is changeable

The aim of this research project is to pursue the Russian-speaking population problem (nationality, language policy, work, school education, their collective identity and so on ) in Estonia and Latvia not only from the contemporary domestic national perspective in these states but also from the historical and geopolitical perspective on this area and international viewpoints such as the influence of European international organizations.
1.We organized such field works every year in Estonia and Latvia as interviews with officials of both states, international organizations, local authorities, protest movement leaders of national minorities and so on, and the observation of schools for minorities.
2.Through these field works, we clarified the transformation of minority policy in both states to "integration" policy, the stratification among Russian-speaking population themselves and the change of character of the issue from "ethnic problem" to social probelem.
3.We organized the international conferences :
Intenational workshop, 《Perspective of the Integration Policies and Identity Politics in Estonia and Latvia》 (19^<th> October at National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka),
International conference 《Nation Building and Integration in the Transition States and the International Supports : The Experience in Estonia and Latvia》 (21^<st> October at Nagoya University)
International symposium 《Balticum : Russians in the Multicultural Space》 (31st October at Tokyo Technological Institute) The proceedings of these conferences were published by Hiroshima University in February, 2005.

The formation of national intellectuals and the development of university network in the regions under the rule of Russian Empire, where non-Russian national/ethnic groups composed the majority, were analyzed on the cases of the grand duchy of Finland(Finns and Swedes), Baltic provinces(Estonians and Latvians), western provinces(Poles and Lithuanians), Caucasia(Georgians and others), and Volga-Ural region(Tatars). Besides it, activities of non-Russian professors and students of higher schools in Saint-Petersburg were discussed on the ground of archival materials

Based on a new framework of Eurasian Jewish history, we made the research on Jewish Diaspora and refugee/DP questions before and after Holocaust with focus on the Far East and Manchuria where Russia/Soviet Union and Japan had conflicting interests. The research was conducted mainly on archival sources located in Japan, Russia, Israel and the United States. Public lecture meetings and workshops were held in 2009 and 2011 by inviting foreign scholars

We compared broadly defined language policies, including not onlygovernmental policies but also language movements on a popular level, between Europe, well developed regions of language policies and other regions, especially Asia, categorizing 3 types of languages : national and nationality languages, trade and imperial languages, and minority languages. What we have found is that governmental policies are important, but not decisive and that other factors like people's positive acceptance or encouragement are important