Dr Yasuko Kobayashi

Inter-Asia and the Pacific Migration and Mobilities, Migration and Disasters, Inter-Asian Labour Migration, Japan and Australian Transnational Connections during WWII, War and Mobilities/Migration, Minorities in Asia and the Pacific, Postcolonial Studies

She specialises in inter-Asian and Pacific migration/mobilities, and her research covers both historical migration and contemporary migration issues. 

Her current historical migration project is Japanese POWs in Papua New Guinea during and after WWII.  She was recently awarded a research grant by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for a project entitled “Soldiers as mobile subjects: Japanese POWs Experiences in PNG during and after WWII” (Funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science). 

Her contemporary migration research project is disaster and immigrants, and she has recently been awarded a research grant by Murata Science Foundation for her collaborative project with Associate Professor Hitomi Nakanishi (University of Canberra) entitled “Comparative research on disaster prevention framework in multicultural and multi-ethnic society and its application to Japan”.

She is also co-investigator of the National Research Foundation of Korea funded project, “Mobility Humanities based on the Co-Evolution of Human Being and Technologies: Worlding the Human-Mobility Societies in the Future” under the scheme of “Humanities Korea Plus program” and hosted in Konkuk University, Korea.

Selected Research Grants 

I.  Project Title: Comparative research on disaster prevention framework in multicultural  and multi-ethnic society and its application to Japan

Funding Org: Murata Science Foundation

Project No: H30??08

Funding duration: June 2018- May 2019

Recipients: Kobayashi, YH & Nakanishi, H (University of Canberra)   

II. Project Title: Mobility Humanities based on the Co-Evolution of Human Being and Technologies: Worlding the Human-Mobility Societies in the Future

Funding Org: The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea         

Project No: NRF-2018S1A6A3A03043497                                                           

Funding duration: May 2018 - April 2025                                                                             

Recipients: Kobayashi, YH as co-investigator (Chief Investigator: Professor In-Seop, Shin at The Center for Asia Diaspora Studies, Konkuk University, Korea)

III. Project Title: Soldiers as mobile subjects: Japanese POWs Experiences in PNG during and after WWII  (https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/grant/KAKENHI-PROJECT-18K11813/)

Funding Org: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science                                                         

Project No: 18K11813

Funding Duration: April 2018-March 2021                                                                             

Recipient: Kobayashi, YH (Chief Investigator)     

IV. Project Title: ‘Japanese Soldiers Migrant Experiences – through the ATIS Interrogation Reports’ (https://www.nla.gov.au/japanese/grant-recipients/2011-2017)

Funding Organisation: National Library of Australia

Award Scheme: Japanese Studies Program Grant

Recipient: Kobayashi, YH           

Research Projects

Sole Research Projects 

1) Soldiers as mobile subjects: Japanese POWs Experiences in PNG during and after WWII (JSPS Funded Research Project)

2) Space making as everyday multiculturalism: the case of Japanese female professional immigrants in Australian

Collaborative Research Projects 

1) Shared history through war experiences & mobility: the Pacific War with Associate Professor Christine Winter (Flinders University) & Dr Geoffrey Gray (Australian National University). 

2) Comparative research on disaster prevention framework in multicultural  and multi-ethnic society and its application to Japan, with Associate Professor Hitomi Nakanishi (University of Canberra) (Murata Science Foundation-funded project) 

Selected Peer-Reviewed Conference Presentations:

Kobayashi, YH (2019), We need Japanese language command! – Flows (mobilities) of knowledge between Japan and Australia during WWII, The 4th Asian Association of World Historians Conference, Osaka University (Osaka, Japan), 5-6 January 2019.

Kobayashi, YH (2018) “The Role of Japanese Language in Australia during World War II”, the Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, the University of Sydney (Sydney, Australia), 3-5 July 2018.

Kobayashi, YH (2018) “Crossing the boundaries to survive: Japanese POWs Experiences through ATIS Interrogation Reports,” Biennial Conference of the Australian Association for Pacific Studies 2018, University of Adelaide (Adelaide, Australia), 4-7 April 2018.

Kobayashi, YH (2017) “Soldiers as mobile subjects: Japanese POWs Experiences through ATIS Interrogation Reports”, Australian Historical Association 36th Annual Conference, University of Newcastle (Newcastle, Australia), 3-7 July 2017.

Kobayashi, YH (2017) “Japanese Soldiers Migrant Experience – through the ATIS Interrogation Reports”, American Asian Studies Conference in Asia, Korean University (Seoul, Korea), 24-26 June 2016. 

Kobayashi, YH (2017) “Japanese Total War System, War Mobilisation and Migration: The Case of Comfort Women”, Gender Perspectives on Colonial Inter-Asian Labour Migration, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (Singapore), 9-10 February 2017.  

Selected Invited conference presentations 

Kobayashi, YH (2018), “A critical engagement in the Pacific War history from the Southern Hemisphere”, A Panel Discussion on Japanese Archival Materials: Bringing the Archives of Wartime and Occupied Japan to Life: Perspectives from the Public and Private Sectors, UCLA Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library, 30 April 2018. 

Kobayashi, YH (2018), “Who Owns National history? Some Insights from Australia’s Recent History Debate for Japan as a De facto Migration Country”, International Conference on History Education: How Is History Taught? Local, National, and/or Global Perspectives, California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), 29 April 2018.

Kobayashi, YH (2018), We need Japanese language command! – Flows (mobilities) of knowledge between Japan and Australia during WWII, HeKKSaGOn's 6th Japanese-German University Presidents' Conference: East Asia in Global History, Osaka University (Osaka, Japan), 12-13 April 2018.

Kobayashi, YH (2017) Social resilience against hate through the cases of Australian Muslim phobia, International workshop, Mobilities, Migration and Hate, Centre for Diaspora and Asia, Konkuk University (Seoul, Korea), 9 December 2017.

Kobayashi, YH (2015) “It is a Rocky Road: Australia’s acceptance of Refugees and Migrants”, Department of Human Security, Graduate School of Arts and Science, University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan), 17 Oct 2015.

Kobayashi, YH (2014) “Controlling borders in everyday life in Singapore”, Symposium: Migrants Outside the Frames of Community, ANU College of Law, Australian National University (Canberra Australia), 7 March 2014.