Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age 981158513X, 9789811585135

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SPRINGER BRIEFS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE

Keiji Fujiyoshi   Editor

Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age 123

SpringerBriefs in Political Science

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8871

Keiji Fujiyoshi Editor

Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age

123

Editor Keiji Fujiyoshi Faculty of Sociology Otemon Gakuin University Ibaraki City, Osaka, Japan

ISSN 2191-5466 ISSN 2191-5474 (electronic) SpringerBriefs in Political Science ISBN 978-981-15-8513-5 ISBN 978-981-15-8514-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

To all who are struggling to build up the “core to share” in any social sphere of the world

Preface

This small book is the second combined output of our cooperative research on archives and is based on a session in the 40th World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology (IIS) held in Delhi, India, in February 2012. The title of the session was “Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age,” and it comprised nine report presentations with important concepts for the study of archives in society. Our research began in September 2005 when we first visited the National Archives of Australia (NAA) and the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra, as well as the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) and other archives and museums such as the Immigration Museum and Old Melbourne Gaol (OMG) in Melbourne. This visit caused a kind of culture shock, not only because government archives such as NAA and PROV were willing to share with their public the internal information they had created and even presented online via their Web sites but also because such governmental transparency was very unfamiliar to us. We naturally assumed that governments hide or varnish the information and facts they possess. Thus, this experience provided us with an important opportunity to rethink archives, especially from the viewpoint of accountability. After some research, we classified studies on archives in the digital age from the micro- to the macro-level as follows: (1) The standardization of the method of maintaining electronic records may enable the standardization of the style of creating and preserving records throughout government departments and agencies, which may in turn influence the style of performance that differs from department to department. (2) Records are indispensable materials that enable legal verification of a government’s administrative performance. Once digitized and made accessible on the Internet, they can stimulate public interest in government activities. A government could also be expected to maintain records to adequately inform the public about its activities so that the public, as a stakeholder, could monitor the government’s performance.

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(3) The accumulation of records, upon reaching a certain threshold, could serve as at least a material that ensures consistent community identity. Records and memory are sometimes closely related. The subject of society (or community) and memory is interesting and important sociologically. We conducted our research in some countries, including Japan, on the basis of the aforementioned viewpoints. At the same time, we sought foreign researchers with same or similar interests in the relationship between archives and society to organize an international research cooperative program. This quest led us to the Delhi session, which proved to be fruitful and eventually bore this book. The book contains most of the papers presented at the session and other papers on archives, history, memory, and society. These studies explain several issues that must be considered when studying the relationship between archives and society or the development of society based on archives. Our research project began at PROV and has received ceaseless and valuable support from them and many other archival institutions. It has also been supported by professional scholars studying archives and record managers at governmental organizations, foreign and domestic. To them, we express our profound gratitude. We hope to continue together. Ibaraki, Japan

Keiji Fujiyoshi

Acknowledgements

First, I would like to express my gratitude to all the presenters who provided unique observations and insights into archives in Delhi in February 2012 and to the contributors to the book thereafter. We visited many archives and organizations since April 2010 when we started the present research project. In December 2010, we visited the National Archives of Hungary (NAH) and the Open Society Archives (OSA) at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. NAH archivist, Ms. Zsófia Komlósi-Gera, showed us around the NAH building, describing their activities. Mr. István Simon and Mr. Lajos Körmendy furnished us with detailed information about the archives of Communist Hungary and showed us the repository for these documents. At the OSA, Mr. István Rév (Director), Ms. Gabriella Ivacs, and Mr. Csaba Szilágyi introduced us to their wide-ranging activities and showed us their repository. In September 2011, we visited the Library of Congress (LC) in Washington D.C., the DIVA Project Team at San Francisco State University (SFSU), the GLBT History Museum in San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), in the USA. At the LC, Ms. Sayuri Umeda, a lawyer and librarian, told us the story of the LC’s support for the members of Congress. At the SFSU, Prof. Chris Bettinger and his colleagues, Mr. Andrew Roderick, Mr. Alex Keller, and Mr. Daniel Koepke, explained us their activities, especially from the viewpoint of how a university can support locals via digital facilities. At the GLBT History Museum, Mr. Gerard Koskovich, the curator and researcher, showed us around the exhibition room and provided detailed comments on each item. At the UCB, we discussed the archives from the management viewpoint with Dr. Ellen S. O’Connor, an independent researcher based in California. She gave us her stimulating insight into how an organization works differently on the basis of the culture of its location. In February 2012, when we participated in the 40th IIS World Congress, we also visited the National Archives of India (NAI), Delhi. There we met Dr. Meena Gautam (former Deputy Director), who maintained her office as Expert Consultant

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and enjoyed talks on India’s archives. Mr. Raju Naoroibam, a staff member, guided us through the archives buildings such as the conservation room, dust cleaning room, and repository. In September 2012, we visited the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra and the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) in Melbourne. In the AWM, Dr. Keiko Tamura of the Australian National University took us around the site and provided us with an in-depth explanation about the AWM. In Melbourne, we performed a follow-up research at PROV on the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy (VERS) and visited government departments to interview the staff about the implementation of VERS. Among these were the Department of Business and Innovation, Department of Transport, and Department of Treasury. Mr. David Brown (PROV Assistant Director) and his colleagues arranged these visits for us. The staff at each department gave us valuable information about their programs and efforts for the VERS implementation. We also visited Mr. Howard Quenault at CGU Insurance in Melbourne, who was the VERS Program Director at PROV during our first visit in September 2005. At the CGU, he currently works on customer information management system development to bridge frontline staff and the office information repository to conduct the insurance business more smoothly, quickly, and accurately. His work at CGU to bridge record management between frontline employees and archives was an ambitious and important project especially in this digital age. In December 2012, I went to Taiwan and visited the National Archives Administration of Taiwan (NAAT) in Taipei, Taiwan Historica (TH) in Nantou, and National Dong Hwa University in Hualien. At the NAAT, Dr. Tsung-Ming Chang (Deputy Director-General) and his staff warmly welcomed me and explained their mission and activities in detail. We exchanged opinions on how archives serve as a foundation of a democratic society. They provided me with DVD-based educational materials for high school students. It contained many images of records and documents selected from the archives of Taiwan’s past governments. At the TH, I met Mr. Cheng, the archivist and historian, who spoke fluent Japanese. The TH holds the archives of the Taiwan Governor’s Office of the Japanese Empire and helps researchers study them. Dr. Kyoko Higashiyama at the Institute of Social Sciences of Chukyo University, Nagoya, Japan, made these visits possible. At National Dong Hwa University, I had an opportunity to lecture on archives and society to undergraduate and graduate students. They earnestly attended to my lecture, and some asked me important and interesting questions afterward. Professor Mayumi Tabata and her excellent assistants arranged this lecture. We thank all those who have supported our research activities. Our research on the theme of “comprehensive study on the relationship of society and archives based on international comparison” has been supported by KAKENHI (22330164: 2010–2013), a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). June, 2013

Keiji Fujiyoshi

Acknowledgements

Please visit their websites: Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/ Victorian Electronic Records Strategy by PROV http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/vers/ National Archives of Australia http://www.naa.gov.au/ Australian War Memorial http://www.awm.gov.au/ University of Melbourne Archives http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/ National Archives of Hungary http://www.mol.gov.hu/angol/bal_menusor/about_us.html Open Society Archives (OSA) http://www.osaarchivum.org/ Parallel Archives by OSA http://www.parallelarchive.org/ DIVA by San Francisco State University https://diva.sfsu.edu/ GLBT History Museum http://www.glbthistory.org/museum/ National Archives of India http://nationalarchives.nic.in/ National Archives Administration of Taiwan http://www.archives.gov.tw/English/ Taiwan Historica http://www.th.gov.tw/eng/ National Archives of Japan http://www.archives.go.jp/english/index.html

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Contents

1

Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age: An Introductory Essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Keiji Fujiyoshi

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Archives in Parliament: Democratic Role of the Japanese National Diet Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Junta Okada

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Citizen Activities and Accountability: Changing Organizations and Reconstruction of Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Tadaaki Fujitani

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Business Archives: Collective Memory and Selective Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Vrunda Pathare

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Search for Missing Links Between Records Management and Business Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Kazuhito Isomura

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Transitional Justice Strategies of the National State and Its Archivization: A Study on Liquidation of the Past History of the Jeju April 3 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Sungman Koh

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Pluralizing the Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Anne J. Gilliland, Andrew J. Lau, and Sue McKemmish

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Runners in an “Endless Relay”: A Brief Custodial History of the Archives of a Residents’ Movement in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Izumi Hirano

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Current Situation of Ecclesiastic Archives in Transylvania, Romania: Legal Situation and Political Debates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Artur-Lorand Lakatos

10 Regulation of the Female Body in Japanese Society and Its Transformation Through Globalization: From Reigi-Saho to Image Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Nanako Hayami 11 Simmel in the Archive: On the Conflict of Late Modern Culture . . . 99 Natàlia Cantó-Milà

Contributors

Natàlia Cantó-Milà Arts and Humanities Department Barcelona, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Catalonia, Spain Tadaaki Fujitani Faculty of Humanities, Soai University, Osaka, Japan Keiji Fujiyoshi Faculty of Sociology, Otemon Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan Anne J. Gilliland School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA; University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA Nanako Hayami Meiji University of Integrative Medicine, Medical Education and Research Center, Nantan, Kyoto, Japan Izumi Hirano Research Center for Cooperative Civil Societies, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan Kazuhito Isomura Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, Japan Sungman Koh Department of Sociology, Jeju National University, Jeju, Republic of Korea Artur-Lorand Lakatos Institutul Roman Pentru Evaluare si Strategie, Ires, Calea Turzii, Cluj-Napoca Cluj, Romania Andrew J. Lau School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA; University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA Sue McKemmish Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia Junta Okada Faculty of Law, Dokkyo University, Soka, Saitama, Japan Vrunda Pathare Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd., Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

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Chapter 1

Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age: An Introductory Essay Keiji Fujiyoshi

1 Introduction Here I discuss the role of archives in democratic societies and explain this role to the youth who will advance our society in the future. I intend to describe the relationship between archives and society from a specific viewpoint—the separation of powers. The term “archives” is rather new in Japan, as new as the term “accountability.” Both now figure strongly in the Japanese society, especially after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that occurred on March, 11, 2011 and the ensuing nuclear power plant disaster in Fukushima, northern Japan. I will begin by reviewing the decades for which those terms have become significant in Japanese society and then discuss how the concepts of “archives” and “accountability” can contribute to improving the relationship between Japan’s civil society and government. Japan has a long and familiar history, but this history has affected Japan’s “democracy” with its traditional social relationships. I will explain these effects later in this chapter. In this chapter, the term “archives” generally refers to “an accumulation of records and documents created during business processes, properly classified and preserved in an organization, public or private.” In general, however, it often means a collection of cultural materials. The contexts in which we use these terms may sometimes seem confusing. I will explore the background of these situations in the context of Japan. This article aims to explain the role of archives in the separation of the state’s sovereign power into legislative, administrative, and judicial categories. From textbooks, we know that state’s sovereign power is, or should be, separated into these K. Fujiyoshi (B) Faculty of Sociology, Otemon Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_1

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three divisions. I will explain how archives enable people to control the sovereign power. Japan sometimes regards itself as democratic, while at other times as traditional. Of course, we can be both democratic and traditional, but the traditional aspect of Japan often does not accept archives as an accumulation of “evidence.” That is, it enjoys the history and tradition but often neglects the archives’ value as records and evidence. This chapter proceeds as follows. Section 2 describes how the term “archives” has been accepted in Japan. Section 3 explains how the term “accountability” has been accepted there. Section 4 outlines how Japanese high schools teach the separation of powers. Section 5 explains the role played by archives in the separation of powers. Section 6 describes the crucial role played by archives in accountability. Section 7 presents the summary and conclusion.

2 How the Term “Archives” Has Been Accepted in Japan: An Overview As stated previously, the term “archives (archive)” is rather new to the Japanese people, especially in context to an accumulation of well-classified organizational business records. Its most popular usage is referred to the “complete collection of the works of a literary figure,” such as the “Max Weber Archiv” or “Archive d’Émile Durkheim.” However, it was used for a very restricted scholarly subject area, and thus, few outside Japan’s academic circles were aware of the term “archives.” Another usage of “archives” has spread since the popularity of personal computers and the Internet. “Archives” refers to the collection and compression of computer data files. This meaning became familiar to laypeople as an ordinary action, expanding beyond classical academia. However, initially, limited people used this word because the computer and the Internet were not popular throughout all generations in Japan. It became familiar to adults who worked in IT industries and youth who enjoyed computers as a hobby. In the Macmillan Online Dictionary, archive is defined as follows. archive NOUN [COUNTABLE]. 1 [OFTEN PLURAL] a collection of historical documents and records about a place, organization, etc. The Reports Are Preserved in the Official Archives. a. a place where you store historical documents and records 2 COMPUTING a copy of a computer file that you save on a disk or tape a. COMPUTING a copy of information that is put on the Internet so that other people can use it

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3 COMPUTING a collection of computer files that have been saved together in compressed form1 Thus, we realize that its first usage is related to its traditional meaning, although it was used in a narrower sense. It could be said that “archive(s)” was similar to “collection,” as was the case in Japan, as elsewhere. In April 2000, NHK,2 Japan’s public service broadcasting station, started a new series of TV programs titled “NHK Archives.”3 This title was the first instance of “archives” that was heard by all segments of the Japanese public, irrespective of their occupation or generation. This usage meant “an accumulation of programs previously produced and broadcast by NHK,” but thereafter “archive” became widely understood by the public as a “collection.” In 2003, NHK constructed a huge building called “NHK Archives”4 in Kawaguchi near Tokyo to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its first TV broadcast. The building contains a repository of audio and visual materials such as magnetic tapes of radio programs, films, and videotapes of TV programs. TV programs broadcast on the “NHK Archives” series have been largely chosen from the repository at the NHK Archives. Through these events, the Japanese became familiar with the word “archives” as a collection of cultural works and as a physical storehouse. This usage of “archives” is equally popular in the English-speaking world. For example, the BBC—the UK public service broadcasting corporation—has the same type of archives on its website.5 The UK also has the National Archives6 building, which houses the records and documents of its government. However, Japan’s counterpart has not been usually considered as “Archives.” Further explanation must clarify the difference. The translated English name for the Japanese government archives is “The National Archives of Japan.” However, the literal English translation of its Japanese name would be “The National House of Governmental Records.” Most Japanese people find no relationship between the functions of the NHK Archives and the National Archives of Japan. The former is a type of audio and video library, which some people are keenly interested in whereas the latter is a bureaucratic institution of the state government, which they find no reason or right to visit. Thus, the term “archives” has become accepted and used by the Japanese people over the past several decades, especially since the mid-1990s. Now, the archives are popular among the Japanese people as a special library that collects cultural works and materials other than books. 1 https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/archive. 2 NHK

is an acronym for Nihon Hoso Kyokai, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, a public broadcasting service supported by the public’s subscription fees. 3 https://www.nhk.or.jp/archives/nhk-archives/index.html. 4 https://www.nhk.or.jp/archives/kawaguchi/. 5 https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/. 6 https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/.

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Therefore, we must confirm that the term “archive(s)” has at least two meanings before we discuss archives in Japan: (1) a classified collection of cultural materials and (2) an organized accumulation of organizational records. We can add “physical storehouse” for either of these concepts. The NHK archives can serve as an example to differentiate between the two meanings of archives. The common concept of a collection applies to the five decades of TV programs created and broadcast by NHK, which are stored and made available at the NHK Archives in Kawaguchi. The meaning, barely known to the people, comprises the records of the management of NHK. Any program you enjoy on TV or radio has various records and documents about matters such as theme, plan, budget, and accounting. Also, there exist a significant amount of records and documents from every meeting at the NHK organization as well as the minutes of the management committee that defined matters such as the basic management policy, business plan, and annual budget.7 Thus, the popular meaning of “archives” expands to explain the meaning of the term in the following section. The significance of archives in this less familiar sense became clearer as the term “accountability” recently became popular in Japan, as I discuss in the next section.

3 How the Term “Accountability” Has Been Accepted in Japan: An Overview The term “accountability” is also new in Japan, entering common usage not more than two decades ago. Its meaning was usually understood as “responsibility to explain.” Here, we find an interesting problem. Dutch journalist and scholar Karel van Wolferen8 is among the most influential figures in making the Japanese people aware of a crucial connotation that the term had for the relationship between the civil society and government. He first published The Enigma of Japanese Power in 1989, and its Japanese version was published in 1990, at the peak of “Japan bashing.” In 1994, he published Japan: A System that never makes people happy in Japan. It was originally published in Japanese and targeted Japanese readers. In this book, he proposes the term “accountability” to have a different meaning from “responsibility.” In short, his argument is “‘responsibility’ refers to a person’s internal conscience, whereas ‘accountability’ refers to one’s positional duty in an organization.”9 In an organization, on one hand, all staff members have their own sense of responsibility and ethics required for their task. If they fail, it affects those concerned with the results of the task. If they succeed, it has a desirable outcome for them. Their successful completion of the task affects the people involved, which naturally motivates them to work conscientiously. Such self-governance is called “responsibility” and is necessary before and during the mission. 7 https://www.nhk.or.jp/keiei-iinkai/. 8 https://www.karelvanwolferen.com/. 9 Van

Wolferen (1990): p. 80.

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On the other hand, “accountability” is usually required during and after the mission. It refers to a positional duty that is essential regardless of the mission success or failure. At any level or position, all staff members have the duty and power to access the organization’s stored information and make a decision appropriate to their status. They must use the considered information and the applied criteria to make a certain decision that is transparent to their external stakeholders as well as to their own organization members. This is the essential meaning of “accountability.” Such a concept of “accountability” was not common in Japan when used by Wolferen in his book. This concept was particularly unfamiliar to the Japanese people in the social context between the civil society and government. The concept’s translation into Japanese as the “responsibility to explain” or “responsibility to persuade” losts its essential meaning because it does not clearly convey transparency about the information and criteria upon which certain decisions rest. Therefore, it ignited a dispute over the satisfactoriness of a given explanation and the amount and nature of the details necessary to be deemed satisfactory. As you may well imagine, an explanation assumes that two parties are involved: those who provide an explanation and those who receive it. Defining the concept of “accountability” simply as the “responsibility to explain” may result in pointless controversy about whether the explanation is sufficient and satisfactory. The government must sometimes sufficiently explain to warrant public support of its policy. We can observe this phenomenon in any democratic nation and may consider it to be merely the “responsibility to explain.” However, the “accountability” I want to discuss here, according to Wolferen’s definition of “responsibility” and “accountability,” is a different concept. An explanation is not considered sufficient when it fails to inform or persuade the people. A vital criterion to determine the success of the explanation is, therefore, whether those who receive it accept it as satisfactory. An explanation’s satisfactory rating is difficult to decide and could lead to an arbitrary decision by those who receive the explanation or even stop all governmental operations. In general, both Japan’s public and politicians have emphasized on providing a satisfactory explanation since the end of WWII, and it has become a cornerstone in developing a democratic society; however, “satisfactory” has never been adequately defined. When the government wanted to explain their policies satisfactorily, it had to be (or pretended to be) faithful and considerate to the public. The critical issue here is that the public did not strongly demand either the evidence or criterion for the policy and so faithfulness was not always supported by evidence. This situation seems related to the fact that the term “archives” does not usually mean an accumulation of organizational records in Japan but a collection of cultural materials. People were not aware of their rights to access government records because these records were thought to belong to the government and not to the citizens. They thought that they had to ask the government’s indulgence to review its documents. This crucial feature differentiates Japan from other countries such as the UK, which houses the National Archives, formerly called the “Public Record Office”—a name clearly indicating who has rights to the records. However, the concept that public records created and preserved in a governmental office belong to the citizens is

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not familiar to the Japanese public, nor is the concept that the public should check and control their government on the basis of public records, such as government organization and agency business documents that are familiar to the Japanese public. Here we can observe the current significance of the terms “archives” and “accountability” in Japan. These two concepts complement each other to control the government in a democratic society. We must clearly understand how they operate when considering archives’ role in the separation of state power into three divisions: the legislature, executive, and judiciary.

4 How Separation of Powers is Taught to Japanese Students The idea that the sovereign power should be separated into three departments by function can be traced to the French philosopher, Montesquieu (1689–1755) who wrote De l’esprit des lois ((On) The Spirit of the Laws, 1748). I will not go into its detail here because my purpose is to teach the youth who create the future of society about archives’ role in democratic societies. Montesquieu and his theory of the separation of powers is taught in high-school social studies classes as fundamental knowledge in understanding democracy and democratic government, as is John Locke and his theory of the right of resistance. It remains, however, merely a description of how the power is separated into three divisions without explanation. In a lexicon for the subject “Contemporary Society” edited for and widely used by high-school students in Japan, we find the following description of “separation of three powers”: Separation of Three Powers (14) A system that separates a state power’s function into legislature, administration (executive), and judiciary and vests each into the diet, the government, and the court, respectively, to ensure the separation of powers. The Constitution of Japan vests the diet with legislature (article 41), the government with executive (article 65), and the court (article 76) with judiciary, while it prescribes that the diet is superior to the other two and adopts the parliamentary system of government. In short, the Constitution prescribes the separation of three powers to be of a type with diet supremacy.10

This description is nearly identical to the one I read in high school, about fourty years ago. How a state power is separated is understandable, but this description fails to explain why it must be separated and why into three. Let us find an explanation in a textbook. Separation of Three Powers The government has a very important function as a governing structure of the state. But if a certain division of the government holds too strong a power, it may force an unjust restriction on the people’s rights. Hence, modern states have introduced measures to prevent the government’s excessive power. Among them is a system of separation 10 Research

group on “Contemporary Society” Textbooks (2008): p. 178. The number “14” at the head of the description signifies that 14 textbooks among 17 use the phrase. The original description is in Japanese, with English translation by the author.

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of three powers that ensures that the diet, government, and court, which are in charge of the legislature, administration, and judiciary, respectively, check one another.11

Although students may understand how the state powers are separated, the reasons for separation into three divisions remain unclear. Even the explanation above does not describe how this system prevents the abuse of power. Certainly, if the state power is divided into several divisions, they may restrain each other. However, it does not mean that the separation of powers enables desirable functioning. Let us explore another description in the same textbook. Basic Principles of Democracy …Third, there is the principle of separation of powers with the important function of connecting the sovereignty of the people with basic human rights. The people must realize their rights and welfare. It is necessary, therefore, to devise effective means to prevent misgovernment. People tend to abuse their power. To prevent this abuse, the government’s structure must separate state power into the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches by function, and further into a central government and local governments by region, and create a system of checks and balances to keep any one of them from excessively exercising its power. Montesquieu (1689–1755) of France emphasized on the importance of the principle of the separation of powers and maintained the separation of three powers in his De l’esprit des lois.12

Here again, we can understand that separated powers make a system of checks and balances to prevent one branch from operating abusively, but it offers us no explanation of its effectiveness. The argument that it is dangerous to vest full power in one agency is understandable. However, why it is separated into three branches is unclear, nor is the reason for three branches rather than two, four, or five. High-school students need a clear and understandable explanation of the relationship among these three powers. In the next section, we will examine that issue and provide a reasonable description of the relationship of archives with the separated powers.

5 Separation of Powers as Plan-Do-See Human Behavior Pattern with Archives’ Role Without a comprehensive investigation on the theory of separation of powers, let us refer to Michel-Henry Fabre, a distinguished French constitutional law scholar. He describes the separation of powers as follows. The separation of powers This technique consists of distributing three functions, indispensable for the life of society as a whole, among the different constitutional organs. To the parliament is distributed the legislative function, that is the creation of law. To the government is distributed the executive function, that is the execution of law. To the tribunals is distributed the jurisdictional function, that is the application of law to settlement of disputes between juridical persons. Three powers follow this: legislative, executive, and judicial.13 11 Sasaki

(2007), p. 136. p. 123. 13 Fabre (1987): 72. Original text is in French, with English translation by the author. 12 Ibid.,

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Here, we sense that the separation of powers gives each branch of government a different relationship with law. The legislative power creates laws, the executive power executes them, and the judicial power applies them to legal disputes. Thus, we understand why power is separated into three branches corresponding to three separate phases of the law. The judicial power also generally adjudicates disputes between or relating to the other two powers. The court determines whether the exercise of executive power is legal according to the established laws. The court (sometimes the constitutional court) also determines whether the law that the parliament (diet) creates is legitimate constitutionally. Comparing a state to a person helps us demonstrate this concept. A state makes, executes, and checks the laws from the legal or constitutional viewpoint. A person makes plans, carries out plans, and checks the plans’ results. Thus, we can compare a state to a person: the state’s law-creation, law-execution, and law-application parallel a person’s plan-do-see behavior pattern. This comparison illustrates the separation of three powers as dynamic rather than static on the basis of checks and balances. With this understanding of the separation of powers, we can explore how archives connect these powers. By examining the function of archives, we develop a proper understanding of governmental “accountability,” which we will examine in the next section. The discussion to this point has enabled us to relate the separation of powers to the archives through the concept of accountability. First, let us clarify the meaning of “accountability” in this context. In Sect. 3, we saw that in Japan the term “accountability” is usually understood as “responsibility to explain” and that it generates a difficult dispute over whether an explanation is “satisfactory.” If the public remains unsatisfied with the government’s explanation, the government must continue explaining until the explanation is deemed satisfactory; otherwise, the government must fight or exert force to implement its policy against the public’s criticism and disobedience. It is therefore unreasonable to regard “accountability” only as the “responsibility to explain” because that interpretation inevitably invites controversy about its adequacy. The avoidance of suspension of the government’s executive activities thus often requires information, i.e., records and archives. To cite again, Fabre defines a function of the executive power, the government, as execution of law. Although the reality of this point is complex, I will provide a simple explanation for high-school students. Let us acknowledge that nations utilize diverse forms of separation of powers. We can see many forms of relationships between the cabinet (ministry or administration) and the parliament (congress, assembly, diet, or house). Some countries directly elect the President by national vote, whereas others elect the Prime Minister by the vote of parliament members. Some countries have a constitution that is rather prescriptive and difficult to amend, whereas others have a constitution that is rather descriptive and easier to amend. We can observe such types of diversity around the world, but we must simplify the explanation of how separated powers connect with each other

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so that high-school students can understand the principle underlying a system of separation of powers. Let us recall the comparison to human behavior. A state’s legislation, execution, and judiciary functions correspond to a person’s plan-do-see behavior pattern. I want to underline this point for students. Then we can identify the position of archives among the three separated powers on the basis of the concept of “accountability.” We have observed that the “responsibility to explain” easily leads to a deadlock for a dispute over its “satisfactoriness.” This dispute results from the absence of concrete criteria to judge whether an explanation is satisfactory. That is, the explanation provider’s idea of a satisfactory explanation differs from, and sometimes contradicts, that of the explanation receiver. The government must fulfill its “accountability” as the executive power among the three branches, which means that it is responsible to provide an explanation as the state power in charge of executing the law. The point to be explained requires evidence to prove that the government is conducting its business legally. We must note that whether government action is legal or illegal is often a different issue from whether it is good or bad. Disputes over an explanation’s adequacy often concern the confusion of the question of legality versus illegality with that of good versus bad. Put bluntly, the government is not required to prove that its service is good but to perform its service according to relevant laws. Such a responsibility should be considered as “accountability.” The government is required, from time to time, to prove the legality of its service and business procedure by providing necessary and sufficient records and documents. The point is not to check whether the government activity is good or bad. Thus, we can understand the nature of government accountability. We must note, however, that this description of accountability does not intend to allow the government to commit excesses. However, the effort to curb its excesses must, from this perspective, target the legislative power, as discussed in the next section.

6 Role of Archives in the Separation of Powers The disclosure of government records is often related to revealing its “evil” deeds, as done by Wikileaks.14 Of course, this is an important aspect of records, but here I do not want to discuss this aspect. However, I do want to highlight that the government should perform its task in accordance with the law’s demands. If the people consider the government’s performance as “evil,” their first action would be to determine whether the performance is legal. If the people demand the government to stop doing a currently legal “evil,” then they may demand the action to be made illegal. The matter of fact is that the concept

14 https://wikileaks.org/.

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of separation of powers curbs the government (executive power) from performing illegal actions, not evil actions. We have certainly seen many governments that are evil to their people regardless of the law, and the people feel forced to react to such governments in different ways. Even in democratic countries where the rule of law is valid, the government sometimes harms the people according to the law despite the law’s being made to benefit the people. Let us expand our comparison of the three branches of government with a person’s three steps of behavior. You make plans for your purpose, execute them, and sometimes realize afterward that the plans undermined your purpose, which suggests that a good intention and good execution sometimes do not yield a good outcome. Let us simply admit the truth of that. The government addresses a task according to the law to solve a problem, but sometimes the action proves inadequate in solving the problem. In such a case, the next step is to revise the law and not blame the government. When opposing the government in its business execution, we may forget the parliament that created the law, ordering the government to perform that action. The reason behind the government’s action is law. Therefore, if we want to change the government’s action, we must change the law that orders and allows the government to do so. At this point we need archives—an accumulation of records and documents of the government’s business processes. Parliament creates a law to benefit the people, and the government executes it to benefit the people, but sometimes the outcome proves useless or harmful to the people. In such cases, the people must revise the legislation rather than accuse the government. The public must remain aware that the role of a politician is that of a law-maker. In Japan, politicians are often regarded as “tribunes” who protect their people against the government’s evil rule, and the people sometimes expect them to make an exception to certain laws in order to protect their constituents’ interest. In short, people often appreciate politicians for their ability of not making but castrating laws. In many countries, the government—the executive power—is the main agent that creates laws, as in Japan. However, if the people request the government to revise a law that creates problems, they must also realize that they granted the government the legislative as well as executive power. When we discover problems in the laws upon which the government’s activity is based, and not in the government itself, we need to revise the laws, however circuitous it may seem. The problem must originate in an element of the laws and/or its execution. We can trace the problem to its source via government records created by its intention to operate within the law. If the government acted outside the law, then the government deserves blame. If the government acted within the law, then the law requires reexamination. Archives— the government records and documents—serve as evidence of the legality of the government’s activity, regardless of it being good or bad for the people. In general, the people can control their government by the law because the law is created and revised by parliament members elected by the people. If any government activity harms the people, they can eventually stop it by revising the law pertaining to that activity as well as by accusing the government of illegal activity. The people charge the parliament with creating laws for public benefit and the government with

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executing those laws. If they find anything wrong or inappropriate in the laws or their execution, then they first determine whether the government has done anything illegal. If it is legal, then the parliament is required to revise the laws. This is how archives—an accumulation of government records—serve as the tool for the people to control the government through the elected parliament. This process certainly appears very circuitous, but we can consider the human plan-do-see behavior pattern as a state separation of powers, and this explanation clarifies government accountability. When we explain the relationship between the legislative and executive powers by the medium of archives, we can discern how the separation of powers functions, even though this model is simpler than the reality. Despite its simplicity, or because of it, this explanation enables students to easily understand the reason for separating state power into three divisions: It corresponds to the human behavior pattern of plan-do-see. Students will also clearly understand that combining any two of these will enable the state to abuse its power. Here we can summarize the function of each state power as follows: Legislation: decides what the executive power should do in the form of laws. Execution: performs what the legislative power tells it to do in the form of laws. Judiciary: judges whether the decision of the legislative power and performance of the executive power are proper legally or constitutionally. We add the archives’ function within the powers as follows: Archives: preserves government records and documents to ensure its accountability in performing the actions required in laws by the legislative power. This summarization may not directly apply to the reality of politics in any country, but it serves as a model for students to consider the meaning of the separation of powers and the relationship between the government and parliament as well as that between the state and civil society. This model captures what I want to teach high-school students about the relationship between archives and the separation of powers. If students can view the checks and balances among the three powers as a simultaneous interaction, they will find it an interaction over time through the function of archives within it. It will help students understand the relationships of people with their government as more dynamic and less hostile. They will remember that they can participate in creating laws by electing favorable parliament members. Despite being a perhaps overly optimistic view given the present situation in the world, it will serve the youth as a model within which they can envision creating the future.

7 Conclusion This chapter, titled “Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age,” has mainly discussed how archives serve in relation to the separation of powers. However, this discussion enables us to rethink the relationships of people with the

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government. We have seen many arguments maintaining that the government does not serve the people by its nature but oppresses and exploits them. In addition, we have certainly observed many countries where this observation is true. However, we can change the view that the government is opposed to people and teach young people how to control our government so that it serves us. Even though the government sometimes harms the people, it does so not because of an evil intention toward the people but because of improper execution of a law or a defect in the law that controls the government’s performance. We can change the government’s performance through discussion among the members of the parliament whom we elect. Although this method appears to be a very roundabout course, it is a time-honored method of controlling the executive power. When the people accept this type of relationship between the legislative and executive powers connected by the archives, they will become increasingly motivated to control their government by means of the parliament on the basis of archives. At that point, they will consider the government as their political asset and not as someone else’s. As Ketelaar writes, “power is used for restraint and for liberation, for repression and for redemption, power is productive and destructive.”15 Through this process, the people start to control the government through the assistance of archives and, by doing so, begin maintaining their community and the greater society with the government’s support. The Internet has recently made government archives highly accessible, and in this digital age, we stand at the threshold of turning the separation of powers into an instrument for our own rights and welfare.

References Fabre, M.-H. (1987). La République. Aix-en-Provence: Édisud. McKemmish, S., Piggott, M., Reed, B., & Upward, F. (Eds.). (2005). Archives: Recordkeeping in Society. Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies. Research Group on, “, Contemporary Society, ” , & Textbooks. (2008). Lexicon of contemporary society (Revised). Tokyo: Yamakawa Shuppansha Ltd. ((In Japanese)). Sasaki, T. (2007). High school text book, contemporary society. Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki Co., Ltd. ((In Japanese)). Van Wolferen, K. (1990). The enigma of Japanese power: People and politics in a stateless nation. New York: Vintage Books. Van Wolferen, K. (1994). Japan: A system that never makes people happy. Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbun. (In Japanese)

Keiji Fujiyoshi is a Professor of Sociology at Otemon Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan. His research interest is the theory of Gift of Marcel Mauss and its application to the research on modern societies, the role of archives in democratic society, and how to respect the past for the future. 15 Mckemmish

(2005): p. 290.

Chapter 2

Archives in Parliament: Democratic Role of the Japanese National Diet Library Junta Okada

1 Introduction This article would tell about the democratic role of the Japanese National Diet Library (NDL) from the viewpoint of parliamentarism. The NDL was established in order to assist Diet Members in their study and research. It is said the roles of archives today have been significant for democratic society (Okada 2011b, 40–47). And it should be considered that the NDL was established not only as a mere national library but also as a national archives. A concept of Branch library system was its proof. But most of Japanese, including Diet Members and even officials in the NDL, have forgotten the significance of this concept as times goes by. I think that the NDL as archives should take responsibilities for democracy and parliamentarism in Japan, and the concept of “Archives in parliament” would be the way to promote democracy in modern society.

2 Japanese New Constitution and Establishment of the NDL Japanese parliament is called “the National Diet of Japan,” which is Japan’s bicameral legislature. It is provided as “the highest organ of state power” in the Constitution of Japan. While each branches of government are on equal footing and independent under the principle of separation of powers, the National Diet has the political position to lead and coordinate above other branches in the Constitution. J. Okada (B) Faculty of Law, Dokkyo University, Soka, Saitama, Japan e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_2

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In the old Constitution Era, before the end of World War II, the Japanese government was led by the powerful bureaucracy and the military. Legislative power was exercised by the emperor and the then Diet was an organ which consent to the emperor’s enacting legislation. The power of the then Diet was too limited to control the government and to stop the tragic war. Reflected on how to control the government democratically, the new Constitution, established in 1946, designed the Diet as “the highest organ of state power” in spite of the principle of separation of powers. To strengthen the function of the Diet, an institution of collecting information and research for the Diet was needed. It was the NDL. The NDL was established in 1948 by the NDL Law, based on Article 130 of the National Diet Law, “The National Diet Library shall be established in the Diet by a separate law, in order to assist Diet Members in their study and research.” “A separate law” means the NDL Law. The NDL Law declares the ideal of the library’s establishment in its preamble: The National Diet Library is hereby established as a result of the firm conviction that truth makes us free and with the object of contributing to international peace and the democratization of Japan as promised in our Constitution. So the NDL might be inseparable from parliamentarism and democracy, and the NDL Law might be directly connected with the Constitution of Japan.

3 Overview of the NDL The NDL belongs to the National Diet and is supervised by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councillors (upper house). The Chief Librarian, who is in charge of the NDL, should “be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councillors with the approval of the Houses after consultation with the Committees on Rules and Administration of both Houses.” And “[h]e shall continue in office so long as he performs his duties satisfactorily. He shall refrain from political activities and he shall not be dismissed for political reasons,” prescribed by art. 4 of the NDL Law. The NDL is not only the biggest library in Japan but also the research institution to the National Diet’s members. While assisting Diet Members is a primary function of the NDL, it has also a mission to provide library services for the executive and judicial branches of the national government and for the general public. All materials published in Japan “shall be deposited immediately with the National Diet Library” (art. 24 of the NDL Law). But this doesn’t mean that the NDL is a largest storage in Japan. One of the basic concepts of the NDL was the most powerful information center in Japan to support parliamentarism and to overcome the administrative state. At the time when the NDL was established, Japanese People had been severely damaged in the WWII. So the Japanese Constitution declares the ideal of pacifism in

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Fig. 1 Structure for keeping accountability of the government through the NDL

its preamble: Japanese People … resolved that never again shall we be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government. Right Honorable Goro Hani, Former Chairman of the Library Steering Committee of the House of Councillors said, “Politics without truth had plunged this country in tragic situation. Under the Constitution of Japan, the Diet shall be completely equipped with a research institution to accomplish its duties for safety and happiness of the People.” He seemed to image the new library like a “Ministry of Information” belonging to the National Diet. Even if any departments or agencies deny to provide information which the NDL demands, it could be open to public compulsorily through the legislative investigative powers of the each Houses (Article 62 of the Constitution) (Fig. 1). Based on the advice of the U.S. library experts, a basic plan of the NDL was drawn up. So the structure of the NDL is similar to the U.S. Library of Congress, which include the original research institute for the Congress. But the NDL has a unique library system which even the U.S. Library of Congress doesn’t have. It is called “Branch Library System.”

4 Branch Library System of the NDL “Branch Library System”, which U.S. Advisers proposed, is quite peculiar (Branch Libraries Association 1970, 12). Of course it is common and natural that a library has its branch. In spite of the NDL is a part of the National Diet, it has branches placed in the Executive Agencies of the Government and in the Judicial Agencies. The art. 20 of the NDL Law prescribes as follows:

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J. Okada Not later than six months after the first appointment to the post of Chief Librarian, all existing libraries of the executive and judicial agencies of the government shall become branches of the National Diet Library under the provisions of this Chapter. Any national government agency which has no existing library shall establish a branch library not later than within one year.

Exception of the Separation of Powers, all libraries of the National Government of Japan had been requisitioned by the NDL and had been put under control of the Chief Librarian. They not only provide library services but also acquire government publications for the NDL. At the time when the NDL established, Chairman Goro Hani said it was the system to “occupy” the government and to make information which the government kept open to public (Hani 1981, 60–61). Through the Branch Libraries in the government ministries, agencies and even the Supreme Court, all information would be put together at the NDL, and then the National Diet could view whole government and notice important information to the Japanese People. This unique function of Branch Library System has no counterpart in other countries including the U.S.

5 Failure of the Branch Library System However the plan and concept of the NDL was very excellent for the democratization of Japan, it seems that the Branch Library System does not work on the assumption as the system to “occupy” the government and to make information which the government kept open to public. Each branch libraries in the executive and judicial agencies of the government works only as its library, whose materials are commonplace rather than important information for the Japanese People. So the NDL does nothing but collecting materials, which the agencies of executive and judicial branch permit to disclose. It seems never be called the system to “occupy” the government. The Branch Library System was becoming a mere name. I think that the expectations for the NDL and the Branch Library would be too much, and the plan and concept of the NDL was too idealistic to create the system on a realistic base. Actually even the U.S. library experts didn’t have any detailed plan of the Branch Library System and no one could follow the lead of the NDL founders’ ideal. Challenging to overcome difficulties of bureaucratic secrecy was noble behavior, but it was aiming too high at that time. For some reasons, it seems that malfunction of the Branch Library System was unavoidable from the first. One reason is a lack of distinction between ideas of Library and those of Archives. Professor Tsunemasa Arikawa, Japanese eminent scholar in constitutional law, said that the Branch Library System which materialize a principle of library to disclose government information is the blissful product of combination of America’s ideal of informational freedom and Chairman Goro Hani’s thought. Professor Arikawa pointed out the failure of planning to create the Branch Library System based on a principle of library not archives. He said:

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It is not requested for demands from a principle of library; technical skills to “occupy” the documents from concealing bureaucracy, intention to adjust and keep documents with maintaining original order, and properly check and treat for an information including personal privacy and so on. They are the opportunities which came from the inherent expertise of a principle of archives. These opportunities are surely instrumental but they would be the skills to keep the system of disclosure of the government information (Arikawa 2004, 91).

The concept of Branch Library System ignored or misunderstood these skills of real works. Failure of the System is failure of connecting with the Ideal and the skills. But realizing the recent progress of theories of archival skills, it might be reasonable that the NDL founders, including Chairman Goro Hani, could not distinguish between library and archives. By the way, the National Archives of Japan was established in 1971; until then administrative documents had been preserved respectively by each ministry. Second reason is a lack of well-qualified person for the Chief Librarian. As stated above, “[h]e shall continue in office so long as he performs his duties satisfactorily. He shall refrain from political activities and he shall not be dismissed for political reasons.” Its office was as high rank as Minister of State (NDL 1980, 318) . However the office of the Chief Librarian is filled by political appointment, he should act as non-partisan. Right Honorable Tokujiro Kanamori, the first Chief Librarian, had been a bureaucrat in the Bureau of Legislation and after the WWII he entered the House of Peers in 1946 and was appointed the Minister of State in Charge of the Constitution. He was in charge of establishing the new Constitution. Through the 90th Imperial Diet Session, he almost fought alone to defend the draft of the new Constitution. He called himself a midwife of the new Constitution. From 1948 to 1959, he was the Chief Librarian. After resignation of Kanamori, the post was vacant for almost two years because of difficulty to find a suitable person. After all it had become a precedent until 2007 that secretaries-general of Houses of the National Diet would succeed the Chief Librarian. That was a sensible choice but they managed the NDL too bureaucratically to reform or progress its roles in line of the ideals the NDL Law proclaims. Third Reason is a lack of human resources. One of the problems is that though Branch Libraries are under control of the Chief Librarian of the NDL, he has no power to appoint or dismiss the officials who would be appointed by chiefs of each agency. It means that not all of the officers might have skills of librarian or archivist. Another problem is that the number of professionals of archival skills is very few. Recently the graduate schools which have doctoral courses in archival science have been established in Japan, but training archivists at higher-level education is just beginning.

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6 Why Archives for Democracy? As Public Records Management Act of 2009 was enacted, roles of archives have needed to be reconsidered in Japan. But the Act has no provision about the NDL. Though people’s “right to know” and accountability of government would be related with the role of the NDL, members of the National Diet didn’t think of it in the legislative process of the Act. Today we realize about distinction between ideas of Library and those of Archives, but it is important not to think of these ideas separately (Fig. 2). Public record management without progress of accountability of the government should be only a ceremony. So it is important to realize the relations between Archives and Democracy. It is said that accountability serves for democracy and archives serves for accountability. But why and how? Classically a concept of accountability means the obligation to account for its activities in response to censure of the superior. But we see more increasing duties and directions, more expanding range of accountability under the present circumstances of the welfare state. So expanded accountability includes responsibility for expectations of general public to disclose the reasons and results of policies in a transparent manner. One of the principles of the Japanese Constitution is People’s Sovereignty and the National Diet is ranked as the “highest organ of state power” in representative democracy. Making the National Diet work as the highest organ within the doctrine of separation of powers, the NDL and the branch library system was established. Each

Fig. 2 Concept of “accountability”

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Fig. 3 Why archives for democracy?

branch library has the (classical) accountability to the chief librarian of the NDL. And Japanese Government as a whole could certainly keep its accountability to the Japanese People through the NDL as a national archives. The Accountability in this case means expanded one. So record-keeping is involved in accountability-keeping (Fig. 3).

7 Conclusion The NDL is not a national archives actually and we have the National Archives under the jurisdiction of the Cabinet Office. But if the National Archives carries out its services through the Branch Library System collaborated with the NDL, the governmental qualities of accountability and responsibility might be improved. With revival of the ideal of the NDL founders, here seems to be realized “Archives in Parliament”, to which the NDL originally aimed. And these effort should be helpful for all democratic countries which intend parliamentarism. Unfortunately, the Fukushima nuclear plants of the TEPCO had caused severe accidents by the huge earthquake and tsunami on 11th March of 2011. More serious problem is, however, that there are little official records about how the Japanese government decided or what the ministers said in that occasion. Many Japanese people suspect the then-Cabinet of terrible mistake. But the truth has not come out yet without the records. About six months later, the National Diet of Japan established the ad hoc investigation commission (NAIIC). It was the first time to appoint such commission by the Diet in the 66-year history of the Japanese Constitutional Government. But primarily

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Fig. 4 So, what should we do?

it should be a duty of the NDL. If the NDL works as what the NDL should work as seen before, there is no need for such ad hoc institution (Fig. 4). So it is the time for rethinking about the role of the NDL and establishing the new branch library at the Cabinet (Okada 2011a, 35–38).

References Arikawa, T. (2004). Thoughts of archives. Gendai Shiso, 32–12, 81–93 (in Japanese). Branch Libraries Association (Shibu-Tosyokan Kan’yukai) (Ed.). (1970). The unofficial history of the branch libraries of the national diet library of Japan. Branch Libraries Association (in Japanese). Hani, G. (1981). Logic of library: Remarks of Goro Hani. Nichigai Associates (in Japanese). National Diet Library of Japan (Ed.). (1980). The thirty years history of the national diet library of Japan. NDL (in Japanese). Okada, J. (2011a). Archives and constitutional order in Japan: Reconsidering the theory on “the highest organ of the state power. Hakuoh Law Review, 5, 11–38 (in Japanese). Okada, J. (2011b). Meanings of archivists in the Japanese constitution. In K. Fujiyoshi (Ed.), Archives, accountability, and democracy in the digital age (pp. 40–47).

Junta Okada is an Professor at Dokkyo University, Saitama, Japan. His research interest is Constitutional Law. He has been studying the role of the National Diet Library (NDL) in the constitutional order of Japan.

Chapter 3

Citizen Activities and Accountability: Changing Organizations and Reconstruction of Archives Tadaaki Fujitani

1 Overview This paper shows the activities of citizen ombudspersons in Japan, arguing, on the basis of interviews and participatory research, the potential of Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) to reconstruct public archives and facilitate organizational changes. The activities of citizen ombudspersons in Japan are divided into two phases. Since the 1980s, they have scrutinized the utilization of taxes by using Freedom of Information Regulations. Then, since the 2000s, they have practiced other advocating activities, primarily within nursing homes for the elderly. These activities suggest new ways of coping with a civil society. First, they illustrate the significance of accountability of organizations. Second, they represent a new social movement by laypeople as a form of participatory democracy. Finally, they show the transformation of public organizations in the process of interactions with citizens.

2 Research Background According to American philosopher RichardRorty, “it (truth) is what wins in a free and open encounter” (Rorty 1991: 42). This declaration might be regarded as a democratization of truth. However, if accomplished, many issues will arise. In relation to this point, we can develop a deeper understanding of Bruno Latour’s question T. Fujitani (B) Faculty of Humanities, Soai University, Osaka, Japan e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_3

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of cohabitation—whether there is a way for all of us to survive together without eliminating any of our contradicting claims, interests, and passions (Latour 2005: 30).1 From these perspectives, one of the tasks of sociology is to consider how to cohabitate, while possessing contradictory beliefs, in real-life scenarios. Another task might be to research this issue through analyses of democratization. On the other hand, research into organizations has shown the significance of appropriation of an organization. That is due to the fact that, “organizations are embedded in webs of social and cultural relationships” (Greenwood and Hinings 2006: 820). Concerning accountability, one of these social relationships is with citizens, including residents. In today’s democratic environment, there is compliance with the claims, interests, and passions from both internal and external sources. In addition, it is important to address accountability and archives in such interactions. We may presuppose that accountabilities are active, and furthermore, that even public archives are not static. Therefore, the present article presents the hypothesis that they are continually reconstructed in the process of interactions with citizens.

3 Ombudspersons in Japan The concept of ombudspersons originated in Sweden and developed in Western Europe and the United States as institutions of the state or states. However, in Japan they have developed at the local government level, and especially in terms of the activities of citizens, that is to say, those of civil ombudspersons. Many of them call themselves Shimin Onbuzuman (Civil Ombudsmen).2 The activities of civil ombudspersons in Japan can be divided into two phases.3 First, since the 1980s, they have scrutinized the utilization of taxes by using Freedom

1 B. Latour’s “Making things public” consists of articles on the condition of democratization. In this

book, there is an essay by R. Rorty (2005), who analyzed Heidegger’s text, emphasizing the change in perspective from “substantialism” to “relationalism.” Regarding the elderly in nursing homes examined in this paper, we have drawn from “substantialism.” Regarding the elderly in relation with several others, citizens included, this is termed “relationalism.” From this perspective, the environment of the elderly home is regarded as a space for democratization. 2 At the Japanese national level, a public relations institution exists. Approximately 5,000 clerks around the country listen to the nation’s complaints. However, it cannot be called an institution of ombudspersons. At the local governmental level, several ombudsperson institutions have developed, particularly those specialized in welfare services, including nursing homes. Although these ombudspersons are citizens, a significant number of them are professionals, such as lawyers, doctors, and retired assemblypersons. 3 Regarding the first phase, interview research was conducted in 1997 with four central figures of civil ombudspersons that acted as watchdogs; then in 2000 and 2002, a bureau chief of a nationwide network of these organizations was interviewed. Regarding the second phase, the participatory research has been conducted in an NPO since August 2005.

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of Information Regulations. Second, since the 2000s, they have practiced other advocating activities, primarily within nursing homes for the elderly.4 The first civil ombudspersons started functioning in the early 1980s, when they protested against Osaka Prefecture, fighting for the return of money used by an executive for private meetings; the civil ombudspersons won. Subsequently, many citizens all over Japan practiced this against their own local governments, and in 1995, they united to demand that all prefectures in Japan disclose detailed meeting expense reports. As a result, many illegal activities were rectified. In the same year, a nationwide network of organizations of civil ombudspersons was instituted. Currently, many citizen-ombudspersons are active throughout Japan. Each group acts differently; most exchange information among themselves, and some demand for the disclosure of national governments’ information. The network of civil ombudspersons collects the information and suggests activities for each group via the Internet. They also hold an annual national meeting. Next, I shall examine why they call themselves Shimin Onbuzuman. An ombudsman said the following during an interview: Of course, we know Ombudsmen are posts of institutions. But, can posts related to government adequately check the actions of governments? No. Therefore, it is citizens that should do so. We went ahead and called ourselves Onbuzuman (Ombudsmen) ironically anyway. (Interview, 1997.8.28.)

Since inception, many people have participated in these activities. Currently, more than 80 groups are registered with the nationwide network of organizations of civil ombudspersons. As such, there has been a transfer of democratization from institutional organizations to civil activities. Interestingly, many involved in the activities in the second phase also call themselves Shimin Onbuzuman. A representative of an NPO, who has been active for the last decade, mentioned the following during a lecture: We ought to call ourselves arbitrators. But, we call ourselves “Shimin Onbuzuman” because we want to attract a lot of attention, particularly from the mass media, by using the popularly known name of the people who are playing their roles as watchdogs. (Lecture, 2005.9.18.)

The usage of the concept of civil ombudspersons began in Japan as a social movement for or against organizations. Similarly, activities at nursing homes also spread throughout Japan; recently, many members of NPOs also practice them.5

4 The

activities of ombudspersons during the first phase included claim making, i.e., criticism from outsiders. In the second phase, they acted within organizations as arbitrators, i.e., criticism from insiders. Other kinds of civil ombudspersons exist in Japan; for instance, civil ombudspersons against hospitals, against enterprises, and so on. 5 It is difficult to grasp the numbers and situations of all such ombudspersons in Japan because no nationwide network of ombudspersons for nursing homes exists. However, we have found some big NPOs, which support the activities of ombudspersons for nursing homes, for example, in Hokkaido, Kanagawa, Aichi, Kagawa, and so forth. In 2002, a nationwide meeting was held, and there were about 20 groups mentioned in the report, including the one being examined in the present article.

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4 Activities for Nursing Homes for the Elderly In recent years, Japanese society has aged rapidly. At present, around 23% of the Japanese population comprises over 65-year-olds, and it is predicted to reach around 30% in 2025. Therefore, the Long-Term Care Insurance System was introduced in 2000. Nationals aged 40 years and older pay monthly taxes. Elderly citizens over 65 years, who are found to require nursing care, receive care services by paying 10% of the costs. Given the situation, nursing homes for the elderly are becoming increasingly popular in Japan. Thus, some people who have a family member in a nursing home act as ombudspersons, while others want to improve these homes, given that they might reside there in the future.6 For this purpose, there are some government institutions in Japan. Information on nursing homes and other facilities are collected by a national governmental office once a year and disclosed to the public via the Internet. Moreover, some local governments interview nursing home residents who want to be a part of the research and make the results available to the public annually. Although both institutions certainly play important roles, they are not adequate. The former institution has not directly interviewed residents. In addition, both types of research are conducted only once year. Civil ombudspersons visit nursing homes several times a year, directly listening to complaints from residents, observing the environment on-site, and negotiating with nursing homes directly. It is also important to address the significant role of families. Civil ombudspersons continue playing a key role even when families are present. There are two reasons: First, some residents do not have any contact with family. Thus, they require assistance from non-family members. Second, civil ombudspersons can make their propositions on behalf of families from a broader perspective.7 I shall now inquire into the nature of the activities, which are different from ombudspersons as an institution. It is suggested that the communication within institutions is becoming public and creating new agendas; the participatory research on an NPO mentioned before8 has clarified this theory.

6 We

may have many areas where civil ombudspersons are required. An analysis of the activities for nursing homes will also provide a useful perspective on these other areas. 7 The institution of guardianship is also regulated by law in Japan. However, it has not become popular yet, partly because it is expensive. 8 Note 3.

3 Citizen Activities and Accountability: Changing Organizations …

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Table 1 Distribution of cases (11/2001–10/2011) Items

Improved

Not improved

Not Corresponded

Sum

Care

536

73%

199

27%

396

1131

Communication

248

68%

118

32%

224

590

66

54%

56

46%***

115

237

299

68%

138

32%

223

660

Rehabilitation Meals Bathing

50

52%

47

48%***

45

142

Amusement

270

63%

156

37%**

293

719

Going out

108

51%

102

49%***

167

377

Treatment

196

87%***

28

13%

202

426

Environment

542

74%**

186

26%

158

886

11

30%

55

92

16

12%

133

266

1057

30%

2011

5526

Money Others Sum

26 117 2458

70% 88%*** 70%

***p < .001, **p < .01, p* < .05 Source Derived from “The Analysis of Cases 2009.11-2011.10 & the Changes during 10 Years,” Association for Long Term Care Ombudsman Initiatives (2012)

About 80 members of the NPO visit institutions twice a month, listening to clients and conveying their complaints appropriately. In addition, they observe clients’ living conditions, particularly of those who have been diagnosed with dementia, and communicate their findings to institutions. Specifically, some clients want further information regarding their medication. Others complain about odors in their rooms, lack of ventilation, and so on. Table 1 is a distribution of cases.9 As a result, the ombudspersons balance their purposes in terms of the “views of citizens” and encourage improvements in the environment for residents. These reports are assembled, edited, and published annually. In the process of their work, issues within the nursing homes are increasingly becoming public. In addition, the members meet once every two months to discuss how to practice their activities. During these discussions, they often select topics based on the cases that are the most difficult to solve.10 For instance, members debate whether residents should be permitted to wear pajamas during the daytime, Some members believe that nursing homes must be relaxing places, where residents are allowed to wear pajamas even during the daytime. Others insist that nursing homes are public places, and 9 The

NPO members categorize the nursing home events into 11 items. “Not corresponded” means those cases that could not be dealt with, though members listened to claims from clients, such as the ones in which the clients misunderstood the staff’s behavior. 10 Presently, in Japan, less variety exists among residents in terms of ethnicity than in Western countries. If many people from foreign countries come to Japan to work, the number of foreign residents may increase. In addition, many nursing homes employ few staff members from foreign countries. The number is likely to increase because the number of staff in care services is low. Therefore, it will become necessary to grasp intercultural communication in nursing homes.

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residents should be prohibited from wearing pajamas during the day. In fact, there are several such topics, for example, whether the elderly should be prohibited from smoking; should eat with spoons, chopsticks, or their hands; and so on. However, conclusive solutions are usually not reached. As we have seen, these activities cannot always solve issues. However, we should not regard the limitations exclusively. Instead, we can acknowledge the fact that such discussions are happening even outside the institutions. As a result, the communication within institutions is becoming public, proposing further measures and creating new agendas.

5 Discussion So far, this article has focused on the activities of civil ombudspersons in Japan. On the basis of these facts, we will eliminate their relation to accountability and archives in the context of reflexive modernization. In sociology, the concept of reflexive modernization was proposed by several sociologists. For instance, Anthony Giddens defined characteristics of modernity as reflexivity: The reflexivity of modern social life consists in the fact that social practices are constantly examined and reformed in the light of incoming information about those very practices, thus constitutively altering their character. A. Giddens (1990: 38).

Furthermore, he suggested, What is characteristic of modernity is the presumption of wholesale reflexivity which of course includes reflection upon the nature of reflection itself. A. Giddens (1990: 39).

I shall now examine how the activities of ombudspersons are understood from this perspective. The institution of ombudspersons can certainly be regarded as a reflection of organizations. Thus, development, especially in Western countries, is a phenomenon of the process of reflexive modernization. However, at the same time, we should acknowledge Ulrich Beck’s insight on changing aspects of knowledge in reflexive modernization. He suggested “[c]onflictual equalization tendencies in the gradient of rationality between experts and laypeople” (Beck 1992: 165). In other words, experts “[c]an no longer conclude a dispute” (Zinn 2008: 46).11 We have considered that the concept of ombudspersons in Japan is developing as a civil activity. It is certain that using this concept as a civil activity may be unsustainable within a broader academic context. However, according to Beck’s view, we can find within this issue the characteristic of changing relationships between 11 Some differences exist between Giddens’ and Beck’s concepts of reflexive modernization. Giddens focuses on the function of reflexivity as a cause of changing modern society. However, Beck focuses on the changing roles of specialists and laypeople. Although each has different nuances, they comment on the different facets of the same modernity, which refers to reflexivity as an important factor.

3 Citizen Activities and Accountability: Changing Organizations …

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public organizations and society. Moreover, we find a transition of reflections from organizational reflections, to civil reflections of citizens, to social reflections. We will once again observe the case studies. To begin with, the social movements of civil ombudspersons from the 1980s, acting on criticisms of organizations, have been performed by laypeople as well. It can be referred to as a process of democratization. It was also the transition from organizational reflection to civil reflection of organizations. Then, the citizen’s activities, resulting from such reflections, have changed public accountability. During the second period from the 2000s through the movement of ombudspersons as advocates, critical communication has been performed from the viewpoint of everyday life. It can be called a process of participation, which is the second stage of democratization and also refers to an aspect of reflections through cooperation between organizations and citizens. In such a process, their propositions act on the behaviors of nursing home staff members, in addition to altering public archives.12 This is because of the fact that it has become a requirement to describe the ways in which they provide care services in great detail for future accountability. Through these case studies, we have seen the ways that civil ombudspersons have changed the manner of accountability; moreover, they have altered public archives. Therefore, we can conclude that accountability is active, and public archives are not static. In this way, they are continually reconstructed through interactions with citizens.

6 Conclusion This paper has analyzed the actions of civil ombudspersons in Japan and the condition of accountability and public archives in the process of reflexive modernization. In addition to the challenges to this research, there are three main points. First, the present research shows the significance of the actions of citizens to the accountability of organizations. Particularly in the first case, we find that they have changed public accountability. As a result, we understand that accountability requires action by citizens. Second, as Beck suggested, the actions of citizens represent a new social movement by laypeople as a form of participatory democracy in a reflexive society. In the second case, we discovered that the propositions of Shimin Onbuzuman act on the behaviors of staff members in nursing homes. In other words, it refers to the democratization of organizations in the process of reflexive modernization. 12 It

may lead to the possibility of civil ombudspersons in specialized areas. Specifically, a case exists whereby a resident wished to discontinue a medical treatment that she felt was making her sick. Although her complaint was communicated to the institution by an ombudsperson, the staff explained that the treatment was appropriate for her, referring to a doctor’s statement. However, it remained true that the resident felt ill. In such a case, it became necessary for the ombudsperson, as a layperson, to consider whether to try to persuade the staff to stop the treatment or not.

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Finally, we argued that not only accountability but also public archives are never static. In the second case, we see that public archives are continually reconstructed through interactions with citizens. Therefore, in the ongoing debate about public archives, it is important to pay adequate attention to the actions of citizens and investigate their relation to them. Indeed, some challenges remain. It remains to be seen whether our findings can be applied to other institutions, such as mental health institutions, nursery schools, and so on. Especially in government offices, we must consider whether citizens can act as civil ombudspersons. Therefore, referring to the development of the social media, it also remains to be seen what the necessary conditions or the situations will be. Moreover, the cases in this article are Japanese phenomena, and as such, cross-cultural research is required to address the matter in other countries. Whether specific to Japan or universal, research on accountability and public archives appears to be both important and necessary.

References Association for Long Term Care Ombudsman Initiatives. (2012). The analysis of cases 2009.112011.10 & the changes during 10 Years. Beck, U. (1992). 1986→1992, Risk society: Towards a new modernity. SAGE Publications. Fujitani, T. (2009). The individualizing society and changing administrative systems: Information, communication, and the new turn in governance. Toshindo Publishing (Japanese). Giddens, A. (1990). The consequences of modernity. Polity Press. Greenwood, R., & Hinings, C. R. B. (2006). Radical organizational change. In S. R. Clegg, C. Hardy, T. Lawrence, & W. R. Nord (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of organization studies. Sage Publications. Latour, B. (2005). From realpolitik to Dingpolitik or how to make things public. In B. Latour, & P. Weibel (Eds.), Making things public: Atmospheres of democracy publication. The MIT Press. Rorty, R. (1991). Objectivity, relativism, and truth. Cambridge University Press. Rorty R (2005) Heidegger and the atomic bomb. In B. Latour, & P. Weibel (Eds.), Making things public: Atmospheres of democracy publication. The MIT Press. Zinn, J. O. (2008). Risk society and reflexive modernization. In J. O. Zinn (Ed.), Social theories of risk and uncertainty, Blackwell Publishing.

Tadaaki Fujitani Professor of Sociology at Soai University, Osaka, Japan, has been studying the relationship between civil activities and public organization. He has published “Kojinkasuru Shakai to Gyosei no Henyo” (The Individualizing Society and Changing Administrative Systems), Toshindo Publishing, 2009, in Japanese.

Chapter 4

Business Archives: Collective Memory and Selective Approach Vrunda Pathare

“From loss of memory, the destruction of intelligence and from the destruction of intelligence he perishes.”—Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2 Verse 63. The Bhagavad Gita is a 700–verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. This scripture contains a conversation between Pandava Prince Arjuna and his guide Krishna on a variety of philosophical issues).

1 Introduction In Indian philosophical discourses, memory has always been associated with selfintimation and personal identity. Debates over the relationship between memory and identity have taken place in philosophical space. As identity often being linked with memories, individuals devise different methods of treasuring their fond memories by preserving objects that carry those memories across time and space. They can be photographs, letters, diaries, scrapbooks and in today’s age of information technology even emails, blogs, and social networking websites. As Vikram Seth, an Indian novelist and poet, would have described we continue ‘accumulating material for future nostalgia’.1 Memories connect us with one another and our little stories then become a part of larger narrative. ‘A shared history is a large part of what binds individuals into a community and imbues a group with distinct identity.’2 Here memory becomes critical in validating not only the individual but the cultural identity of any society. 1 Seth

(1987), p. 35. and Smith (2012), pp. 41–47.

2 Seaman

V. Pathare (B) Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd., Mumbai, Maharashtra, India e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_4

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How does society choose to remember? How does one reconstruct memory of a society? The quest for the answers to these questions can help us understand the very basis of institutions like museums and archives. It is the fear of losing memory and thereby the identity that might have stimulated a need for institutions such as museums and archives whereby the society preserves collections of its past in all shapes and sizes. They remain ‘no ordinary depositories of empirical evidence about absent subjects and objects’, but they rather become ‘sites that serve to constitute authoritative forms of memory.’3 The paper will explore a case of Godrej Archives—a business archives as a storehouse of corporate memory. In India, the tradition of archiving memory goes a long way. In many travelogues of ancient as well as medieval period we find references to records offices of various kings. Huen Tsang, a Chinese pilgrim, who was in India from 630 to 644 mentions records office known as Nilopita where “good or bad are recorded, and instances of calamity and good fortune, are set forth in detail.” Arthashatra4 mentions ‘Akshapatala’ which was ‘office of accounts’ and considers creation of records as one of the duties of the King. Sukraniti5 even states that ‘no business of the state was done without a written document’. Abdur Razzaq who visited Vijaynagar empire6 in 1442 mentions that in front of the Diwan-khana or minister’s office, there was a raised gallery where records were kept. The Akbarnama also gives a description as to how Emperor Akbar had established a Records office called ‘Daftar Khana’ in 1574 which was situated close to the Emperor’s Palace at Fatehpur Sikri. This tradition of maintaining records is also evident during Maratha period7 and Peshwa Daftar8 holding the administrative papers of Peshwas is still in existence. Interestingly, Shah Shuja9 in his memoirs ‘Waqi’at-i-Shah Shuja’ (1836), while explaining the purpose of writing memoirs recorded that many of the great kings write their memoirs or get them written by historians so that “these compositions would remain as a memorial on the pages of passing time.” It is this urge of capturing fleeting memories that gave rise to ideas of preserving them in more tangible form in records offices and India doesn’t seem to be devoid of such idea of record keeping. However, the idea 3 Rao

(2009). Arthasastra is an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategy authored by Chan.akya (c. 350–283 BC), who was the teacher and guardian of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of Mauryan Empire. 5 Sukraniti is a ‘Treatise on Morals’ of the sage Sukracharya. For the historian it provides ample date on the social, economic and political life of the times. 6 Vijaynagara Empire was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of Sangama Dynasty. The empire that rose to prominence by the end of the thirteenth century started declining after a major military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. 7 Maratha Empire founded by Shivaji Bhosle (1630–1680) in Western Deccan and it lasted till 1818. 8 Peshwas served as chief executives to the king during the Maratha period and later one became de facto rulers of Maratha Empire from 1749–1818. Their record office known as Pweshwa Daftar and it holds valuable records reflecting on administrative aspects of the Maratha empire. 9 Shah Shujah (1785–1842) was the governor of Herat and Peshawar from 1798 to 1801. He later became the ruler of the Durrani Empire from 1803 to 1809. He was overthrown by his predecessor Mahmud Shah in 1809 and went into exile in India. Shuja was restored to the throne by the British in 1839 but was assassinated by Shuja ud-Daula, on April 5, 1842. 4 The

4 Business Archives: Collective Memory and Selective Approach

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of archives in this modern sense of the term germinated in the colonial period. In 1891, on the recommendation of the Civil Auditor to transfer all the records of the Government to a “Grand Central Arsenal”, the Imperial Department was established in Calcutta. After the transfer of the capital to Delhi even this Department was shifted to New Delhi in the year 1911. After independence this department came to be known as National Archives.

2 Rise of Business Archives in Post-independence India Till recently the idea of archives was restricted to preserving governmental records. Furthermore, practice of keeping of business records and archiving them is not as common as one wishes it to be. Businesses being futuristic haven’t deemed it necessary to preserve the past. It was only with the emergence of Business history as separate discipline in 1960s that the critical writing of corporate past made its beginning. Dr. Dwijendra Tripathi, who joined as an Assistant Professor of Business History at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) played a pioneering role. He was soon to realise that business history is not adequately written in absence of records and encouraged businessmen and business houses to preserve their records. His persistent efforts in this area led to a passage of a resolution in 58th Session of Indian Historical Records Commission (Resolution VI) that was held in 2003. The resolution stated that all necessary steps should be taken to identify and list Business Houses that may be willing to make their records available for research and/or that require help in the matter of cataloguing and preserving their holdings so that these holdings are easily accessible by researchers.10 By this time, Tata Group of companies had established the Tata Central Archives at Pune and Tata Iron and Steel Archives at Jamshedpur whereas in Godrej the idea of setting up the archives had germinated. National Archives of India realising the relevance of business records for reconstructing the economic past of India, organised a seminar in 2008 to discuss the precepts and prospects for business archives in India. Over the last decade, there has been a growing interest in preservation of business records as could be witnessed by the presence of 50 companies including banks at the international conference on business archives organised by the Reserve Bank

10 The Indian Historical Records Commission was set up by the Government of India in 1919 as a consulting body, whose opinion would carry weight with the public and which would make enquiries and recommendations regarding (i) treatment of archives for historical study, (ii) the scale and plan on which the cataloguing, the calendaring and reprinting of each class of documents should be undertaken. (iii) the sums required for encouraging research among, and publication of records, (iv) selection of competent scholars for editing documents, and (v) the problems of public access to records (Department of Education Resolution No. 77 dated 21st March, 1919). The Commission has since its inception held Fifty-Eight Sessions and has contributed significantly to the growth of public interest in the conservation and use of archives.

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of India Archives,11 Pune jointly with the International Council of Archives and National Archives of India. Even though few companies seem to have initiated a process of archiving their records, the future of archiving the business past depends on their willingness to make this information accessible to public rather than guarding it in their strong rooms. As companies often use their business archives as a tool for institutional publicity, for increasing brand awareness and thus building the brand identity, it often leads to preserving ‘selective’ memory. Such selections or rather exclusions of unpleasant memories may pose a challenge for archivists to encourage critical writing of business’ history. How do business archives make such selections? Do some stories get preferential treatment? What are the criteria these businesses adopt to identify what’s historically relevant for their history? What are the various ways in which an archive communicates or propagates the memory thus collected? The paper explores the case of Godrej Archives—a corporate archive of Godrej Group, a leading business house in India.

3 Godrej Archives: The Beginning Godrej Story that began in 1897 when Ardeshir Godrej—the Founder ventured into the locks manufacturing as a response to the Swadeshi spirit of the era—is a story of one of the major group of industries in India. It was only in 1995, when the preparations began for centenary celebration that was just two years away, Godrej thought of preserving its story and the idea of setting up an archives was born. Late Sohrab Godrej, the then Chairman of Godrej Group, envisioned archives to be ‘a heritage centre offering invaluable archival material for reference and research’.12 Sohrab Godrej’s intent to offer the archival material for ‘research and reference’ was a clear direction for the archives. This was a significant step on part of a Chairman to take as in most of the cases even though company records are preserved by the company, such records are often kept closely guarded and hence out of reach of researchers. He spelt out the objectives of archives as follows: 1. To help people understand the company’s ethos, growth; 2. To appreciate the quality of the men who shaped these; 3. To trace the Company’s values and commitments from the Founder’s vision to the present-day technological advances.13 Later in 2006 with the appointment of professional archivist, efforts towards promoting a record-keeping culture within the organisation and establishing a process for collecting corporate memory started. 11 The

Reserve Bank of India Archives is oldest archives in the banking sector established in the year 1981. 12 Note to the Centenary Committee written by Sohrab Godrej dated 19th December 1995. 13 Godrej Archives Collection, 1995–96, OFF/ARCH1.

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33

The challenge was to establish a system whereby Godrej Archives can select, collect and preserve important records for posterity. Undoubtedly, businesses are interested in making business profitable rather than keeping records. Moreover, the introduction of technology, changes in the organization structures, mergers, closures, changes in policies have affected the record keeping practices. Trend in favour of e-records in the digital age has also led to the negligence of paper records and, moreover, there are no concerted efforts for preservation of born digital records. Thus in such a scenario where little existed, the task ahead of archivist became even more complicated. Considering the vast expanse of business and its existence spanning over 115 years, it was decided to have a collection policy to establish a process to select and preserve important records for posterity. To understand the records creation activity within the organisation and also the nature and the scope of records being created, a functional analysis of the organizational structure of the Godrej Group was undertaken. Plus, a historical analysis was undertaken to help understand the milestone achievements of the company. This was done to streamline the initial search of records first by concentrating on location of records pertaining to milestones. An initial survey was carried out for ‘Precision Components and Systems’ (PCS), the youngest among all the divisions, in order to understand the types of documents/information available as well as the documentation system at this business unit. During the survey, a few concerns were raised by the managers—creators of records: 1. What business records qualify as historical records? 2. What is to be recorded? 3. How will archives ensure the confidentiality of certain records? These questions became determinant factor to decide the collection scope and policy for the organisation. The close interaction with the department and function heads helped archives in determining the methodology for the selection of records and at the same time it also helped the business to shed its reluctance in sharing all sorts of records including ones of sensitive nature. Business records such as Minutes of Meetings, annual reports, project reports, key correspondence, agreements, contracts, financial records, sales and marketing literature, publicity material, press releases, drawings, photographs, film, tape recordings etc. were then listed as historically important records to be preserved for posterity. The procedure regarding the appraisal and disposal of records was drafted and as per the policy, it is only after the appraisal by the archives team that a business unit can destroy their records. For the appraisal, the selection criteria were kept simple: Any record that has historical/emotional/business or knowledge value will qualify as archival records and it should be no more required for any business transaction. Collection here becomes an act of selection of sources of information. In fact, one can say that selection precedes the actual collection.

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4 Collective Memory and Selective Approach Selection which is referred as ‘Appraisal’ in the archival world determines what information or a record that can be placed in the archives. This also means archivists can selectively exclude data that is not supportive of a collection that does not fall within the scope of collection as decided for the archives. Informed selection depends considerably on the ability of the archivists to understand the history of their organisation plus the research value of records. At the same time, it also depends on the ability of the organisation—the record creator to gauge the historicity of the record. The process of selection of records thus also brings forth the integrity issues that can affect the critical writing of history of the organisation or a business especially when the decisions to select ‘appropriate’ information to collect are based primarily on the brand image of the company. The company treats the archives as a corporate asset for supporting promotional and brand-building activities, for business development and recognizes the role of corporate history in indoctrinating their young recruits by telling them about the history of the company besides Company’s values and principles. Therefore any record revealing any unpleasant aspect of the past often creates a dilemma for an archivist while deciding the selection and accessibility of that record. The circular collection (1940–1980) at the Godrej Archives, while referring to problems of the acute steel shortage, informs that the problem became so acute that in the year 1963 nearly 500 workers had to be laid off. Such incidences might be sensitive in case they come in conflict with the public image of the company or business. However in this case, the incidence belonged to the period not critical enough for the company’s present labour scenario and therefore could see the light of the researcher room. The challenge doesn’t end here as relocation of records from offices to archives that is from ‘private’ to relatively ‘public’ domain but this relocation does not necessarily always mean a transition from ‘secret’ to ‘non-secret’ for in case of Godrej Archives confidentiality is maintained for some of the records for a period as prescribed by the creator of that record—say a company or division or department therein. This is a constant dilemma especially for a company archivist as it becomes critical to decide as to what goes on a public pedestal and what is to be closely guarded in the secured walls of the archives. Being part of the organisation, archivist is not always a free agent as he/she has to cater to their immediate user which in this case is the company itself.

5 Oral History: Had It Not Been Recorded Sometimes the selections became all the more critical when it comes to corporate oral histories. These personal memories or anecdotal details contribute to the ‘trans-generational knowledge’ of the organisation and through these micro stories

4 Business Archives: Collective Memory and Selective Approach

35

emerging out of employees’ own experiences adds to collective experience—collective memory of the organisation and help constructing a macro historical consciousness within the organisation. Recognising the importance of such memoirs, Godrej Archives has started recording the experiences of employees and those associated with the company. These personal narratives have helped many a times to get clues to the past that archivist can trace to make sense of documents and photographs. One of the oral history interviews conducted with former Plant Manager, Mr. Thanewalla revealed the fascinating story of ballot boxes that Godrej manufactured for the first general election of Independent India in 1952. In fact his stories added a life to otherwise inanimate documents available on the ballot boxes in form of drawings, dispatch schedules. He recalled14 : I started in Vikhroli making ballot boxes. When we all shifted there a big order for ballot boxes came in. I think I don’t know finally how many ballot boxes we ended up making (but we manufactured) about 15 or 17 lacs (lac = a hundred thousand) and at our best I think we were producing 22 thousand ballot boxes per day. Pirojsha Godrej15 (used to be) promptly there at 3 o’clock every afternoon asking us how it is going.

His interview also helped us identifying photographs of women workers on the shop floor in early 1970s that had left the Archives team perplexed for a long time as during this period Godrej never employed women for the shop-floor jobs. The mystery got resolved when Mr. Thanewalla, who was also responsible for setting up the Malaysia Plant—the first venture abroad for Godrej—in 1960s mentioned: There (in Malaysia) girls had to be employed. When I was employing no girls, my neighbour - the Fiat assembly plant manager, a Frenchman called René who had been there for 20 years, said, “Employ girls.” I said we didn’t employ girls in Godrej. (He said,) “That’s in India. If you don’t employ girls you will go broke. Malay (men) won’t work. Girls will work.” So we started employing girls.

Thus these photographs talk about a very significant chapter in the history of the Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. where for the first time women were employed to do shop-floor jobs in the company. The story would have been erased from the memory had it not been recorded. Undoubtedly, such memoirs help filling the ‘patchy character of documentary sources, the gap in our knowledge’.16 They prove useful in understanding the organisational culture, interpersonal relationships and documenting everyday practices or work routines which might not be otherwise recorded. Such memoirs across hierarchies bring different and sometimes contrasting viewpoints. However, the authenticity of these oral histories is often contested on the issues of reliability of memory and subjectivity. Edward Casey17 describes memory as 14 Interview

with Mr. Thanewalla, Godrej Archives Oral History Collection, OH06-002.

15 Pirojsha Godrej, younger brother of Ardehisr Godrej joined the business in the year 1906. Pirojsha

laid the foundation for the sprawling industrial garden township now called Pirojshanagar in the suburbs of Mumbai, where the Godrej Group has its headquarters. 16 Kinsey and Green (2004). 17 Casey (1987), p. 283.

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having a “thick autonomy”, where “thick” refers to the multiplicity of overlapping or interacting factors that affect memory and “autonomy” relates to ideas about typifications that lead to social understanding while being unique to each individual. On different occasions, our own memories of the same event, place, or person may vary in the specific details, the precise feelings or impressions that come to mind. This autonomous nature of personal memory in fact makes it a valuable addition as it gives an individual perspective on the events under study.18 But at the same time its subjectivity and the individual selections of what to remember may cause a challenge to get the accurate information. May it be an individual narrating a story or the archivist collecting the information, we all choose to forget unpleasant memories sometimes deliberately or accidentally.

6 Dilemma that Business Archivists Face Here I cannot deny the fact that the archivist’s role in building up a public image for the company means certain stories will be privileged and others marginalised. Choices between what will be closely guarded in repository and what may be put on memory pedestal to be viewed by all are the difficult choices corporate archivists may have to constantly make. Such a choice between the professionalism expected by the management and archivist’s his/her own commitment to ethics of archiving world is the archivists’ dilemma. Here I would like to add that archivists are restricted by various factors like the context in which they work, organisation culture they face, the availability of infrastructure and more importantly budgets and their own intellectual presuppositions. While discussing problems of the Institutional Archives Dr. Indira Chowdhury19 observed, “Ideally, the relationship between Institutional Archives and the Institution is one of reciprocity: Institutions need their own Archives for their own legal, administrative and academic records, while the Archives in turn requires institutional support for its own survival. Yet, the dependence of the Archives on institutional support is problematic in itself, since institutional support could often translate into institutional control. Indeed, the power of an institution to control its archival activities can extend from archival organization and the kind of material made available, to the monitoring of access. This could, consequently, lead to the creation of an archive that confirms and echoes the master narrative of institutional history put in place by the institution itself.”20 18 Kirby

(2008). Indira Chowdhury, Formerly Professor, Dept. of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata is currently a Scholar-in-Residence at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, where she has started the Center for Public History. 20 Dr. Indira Chowdhury, ‘Institutional History, Collective Memory and the Institutional Archives’, Occasional Papers (New Series), 2006/4, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi, 2006. 19 Dr.

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However this whole exercise of selection or appraisal also raises a question. If archives determine what should be admitted to their house of memory and what is to be excluded, how inclusive are their reflections on corporate memory? Whose memory is it anyways? While discussing the role of archives as ‘houses of memory’ of the society, is the term ‘Collected’ appropriate than ‘collective memory’. This reminds me of Helen Samuels’ famous 1986 article21 titled “Who Controls the Past?” She was the first archivist (many have followed since) to evoke George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four. In that dystopian world Big Brother through the Ministry of Truth controlled the past by systematically destroying, manufacturing, or revising historical records. Samuel quoted from Orwell as follows: “Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present, controls the past. …Past events … survive only in written records and in human memories. The past is whatever the records and the memories agree upon. And since the Party is in full control of all records, and in equally full control of minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the party chooses to make it.”

7 Conclusion: Archives in the Corporate Setting This is also quite evident in case of company archives as it is generally believed by the company that their archives is to showcase the history which is often the achievements and make available the resources that help the image-building leaving almost no scope for the critical appraising of the company policies or activities. For the same reason in some cases there is a restricted access to company records as the company archivist is naturally expected to also safeguard the image of the company besides its records. But archivist at the same time is also a representative of research community and hence has to strike a balance between the needs of businessmen and that of researchers. We at Godrej Archives have therefore, while deciding our access policy differentiated between the ‘physical space’ of repository and the ‘social/public place’ of the research room or on the web. What goes into repository may not be always displayed for public in case it is too sensitive. Insistence on part of an archivist on opening sensitive records in the initial stages of building up the archives may prove to be a put off for a company and may hamper the whole exercise of archiving corporate past. By allowing restricted access, we encourage businesses to share the confidential records. This has helped the archives to gain confidence of the records creators, which is a necessity for ensuring the sustainability of any budding archives in the corporate setting and at the same time we have prevented loss of such information which otherwise they wouldn’t have parted with or which they would have eventually destroyed without consulting the archives.

21 Samuels

(1986).

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Considering the long term benefit of corporate initiative in setting up the archives, which is a welcome gesture, archivist should be in constant dialogue with the management to create a favourable environment for records keeping which eventually led to encouraging critical writing of their corporate past. Archivists thus are agents of change and they must continue doing so in the corporate setting.

References Casey, E. S. (1987). Remembering: A phenomenological study. IN, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Kinsey, S., & Green, E. (2004). Married to the bank: Wives and families in the history of HSBC. In E. Green & M. P. Fraser (Eds.), The human factor in banking history: Entrepreneurship, organization, management and personnel (p. 4). Athens: Alpha Bank. Kirby, K. R. (2008). Phenomenology and the problems of oral history. Oral History Review, 35(1, Winter/Spring), 22–38. Rao, V. (2009). Embracing urbanism: The city as archive. Anthropology and the urban archive. New Literary History, 40(2), 371–383. Samuels, H. W. (1986). Who controls the past. American Archivist, 49(2), 109–124. Seaman, J. T., Jr., & Smith, G. D. (2012). Your company’s history as a leadership tool. Harvard Business Review South Asia, 90(12), 44–52. Seth, V. (1987). From heaven lake: Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet (p. 35). Vintage Departures (First published in 1983).

Vrunda Pathare is Chief Archivist at the Godrej Archives, India. She is also a Secretary of the Steering Committee of Section on Business Archives and Labour of International Council of Archives. Vrunda began her career as a research assistant in a project on ‘A history of Rajbhavans (Governor’s Residences) in Maharashtra (India)’ and ‘ONGC Golden Jubilee Museum (Dehradun, India)’. She worked as Assistant Archivist at TIFR Archives of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (India). Postgraduate in history, Vrunda got her archival training from National Archives of India. She has presented papers at national and international conferences, and has participated as a resource person in numerous national workshops on archives.

Chapter 5

Search for Missing Links Between Records Management and Business Administration Kazuhito Isomura

1 Introduction This paper reviews how representative theorists and practitioners of organization and management grasp the role of records and develop their ideas to apply to their practices. Furthermore, through observation, the study will clarify how the development of business administration and organizational design are deeply connected to keeping, analyzing, and utilizing records. The background of this study is based on Pemberton’s (1995) viewpoint of records management, which suggests that scientific management is an origin of records management. Pemberton argued that there are three possible answers to the following question: what is the origin of records management? First, Pemberton referred to the fact that most records management texts suggest that records management is historically a product of the U.S. federal government. Therefore, the standard answer is that records management began to emerge from federal-sector practices. Second, on the basis of Duranti (1989), Pemberton argues that records management is an outgrowth of archives management or archival science. However, Pemberton admitted that records management and archives management have many common interests. In fact, they share the specialized body of theory. However, Pemberton pointed out that records management and archives management do not necessarily share their practices. Therefore, Pemberton did not positively affirm the second answer. Third, Pemberton (1995, p. 69) insisted that “the management in records management as a business practice is primarily a product of the rise of modern management from the Industrial Revolution in the U.S. and the explosion of interest (ca. 1870–1920) in what came to be called ‘scientific management’ and ‘system’, or ‘method.’” Pemberton

K. Isomura (B) Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_5

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basically supported the third answer. Brichford (1972) also argued that the intellectual basis of records management owes much to the application of Taylor’s principles of scientific management (Taylor 1911). Thus, the connection between records management and scientific management is discussed from the viewpoint of records management. In contrast, the history of management thought has not clearly argued how records management is associated with business administration. Therefore, it is significant to review how representative theorists and practitioners such as Fredrick Taylor, Henri Fayol, Mary Follett, Max Weber, and Chester Barnard considered the role of records in their thoughts and practices. In fact, most of them argued that designing organizations and introducing management methods on the basis of records leads to making organizations rational and efficient and to establishing business administration as a science. It is possible to say that paying attention to records causes the shift of business management from experience to science. Thus, this paper explores the missing links between records management and business administration, and confirms whether the hypotheses proposed by Pemberton are reasonable from the viewpoint of the history of management thought.

2 Literature Review on the Theory of Organization and Management In this section, I review the literature on how organization and management theorists and practitioners argued the role of records and developed their ideas to apply to their practices. I examine the research from Taylor, Fayol, Follett, Weber, and Barnard because they are all regarded as pioneers and founders of organization and management theory (Wren 2005; Wren and Bedeian 2009). O’Connor (2012, 2013) especially emphasized the importance of Follett’s and Barnard’s contributions because they balanced theory and practice and established foundations of an applied science of management in the early twentieth century. Frederick Taylor Frederick Taylor is regarded as the father of scientific management (Copley 1923). Taylor insisted that both employers and employees can enjoy and share their prosperity by utilizing scientific management, and that scientific management should be based on observing, recording, and analyzing their work (Taylor 1903, 1911). Taylor engaged in deciding a fair standard of daily job requirements on the basis of systematic observation and measurement. Keeping records is not only for accumulating past data but also for analyzing and utilizing them for the future (Wren and Bedeian 2009). Taylor divided each daily job into as many elementary movements as possible and kept records of the time taken by these elementary movements. By observing and comparing the most skillful workers and average workers, Taylor discovered the most efficient way to carry out each elementary movement. Then, he combined each movement into daily job requirements by considering other working

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conditions such as tools, machines, materials and methods, as well as possible delay, interruption, and breaking time. Thus, Taylor decided a fair standard of daily job requirements and built a payment system on the basis of the standard. Taylor improved employees’ methods of performing their daily jobs by keeping and analyzing records. These records were utilized to build the standardization of work in the field of production management. Henri Fayol Henri Fayol started his career as a mining engineer and was promoted to managing director of Commentry-Fourchamboult-Decazeville, the French mining and metallurgical conglomerate (Sasaki 1984). Fayol tried to enhance the position of professional manager by establishing methods of general management (Peaucelle 2003). He also engaged in building a general theory of business administration as a science (Fayol 1917, 1918). The methodology of Fayol is based on René Descartes, Auguste Comte, and Claude Bernard (Fayol 1918). By referring to Comte and Bernard, Fayol insisted that a scientific method is an experimental method. He also considered that the experimental method is strengthened by being based on Descartes’ method of principles. He applied observation, experimentation, and inference to his research of business administration. Fayol collected facts through observation, inferred principles from interpreting the accumulated facts, tested them through experimentation, and continuously improved the principles (Reid 1995; Wren 1995). Through this research, Fayol argued that industrial businesses include technical activities, commercial activities, financial activities, security activities, accounting activities, and managerial activities; he defined business administration as the process of planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Fayol also proposed the following 14 general principles to apply to business administration: (1) division of labor, (2) authority and responsibility, (3) discipline, (4) unity of command, (5) unity of direction, (6) subordination of individual interest to general interest, (7) remuneration of personnel, (8) centralization, (9) scalar chain, (10) order, (11) equity, (12) stability of tenure of personnel, (13) initiative, and (14) esprit de corps. Finally, he developed and provided concrete management methods such as action plans, organization charts, weekly conferences of departmental heads, liaison officers, as well as annual, monthly, and daily reporting (Peaucelle 2003). Thus, Fayol insisted on the necessity of business administration on the basis of facts. He aimed to improve management by utilizing records of management practices. Fayol enthusiastically collected cases for management education and research; he also built the Centre for Administrative Studies in 1917 (Breeze 1995; Peaucelle 2003). Mary Follett Mary Follett is a social worker and a theorist of business organization and management. She published a number of books and many articles on democracy, philosophy, and management. Follett produced many creative ideas and tried to integrate them into her practices (O’Connor 2012; Tonn 2003); therefore, she is regarded as a prophet

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of management (Graham 1996). She paid attention to dynamic process of business administration and grasped organization as an organism (Metcalf and Urwick 1941; Follett 1949). Follett emphasized the spontaneity of an individual; her basic ideas came from political philosophy and her experiences as a social philanthropist. Follett explicitly argued the importance of building a carefully worked out system of recording. Follett (1925) defined science as knowledge gained by systematic observation, experiment, and reasoning by referring to Sheldon (1923). She insisted that to build a science of coordination, it must be based on an analysis of managers’ jobs. In other words, Follett emphasized the importance of finding the factual basis for managerial jobs. She suggested that each executive should classify and interpret managerial experience with the aid of the carefully kept records. Through these activities, executives could eliminate mistaken notions, prejudice, and suspicion. She said, “poorly kept records, or absence of any systematic recording, are partly responsible for what seems in some plants like a stagnant management, and in all plants for certain leak in management” (Follett 1925, p. 126). Moreover, Follett argued that the recording of executive experience is different from a technique used for the rest of business recording. She suggested that each executive should enhance their technique of keeping records and making reports that have to be practically useful, understandable, and systematized for other people. Therefore, she pointed out that business people need more than records. To educate and develop human resources in an organization, it is required to establish carefully worked out methods for comparing experience that has been scientifically recorded, analyzed, and organized. She also pointed out that the case method developed by Harvard Business School is a possible way to educate business people. Max Weber Max Weber is one of the greatest sociologists; he contributed to building the sociology of religion and the sociology of economic life. Most studies of the structural aspects of organizations have started from the work of Max Weber. He produced systematic categories for organizational analysis. Weber (1947) argued that bureaucracy as an organizational form becomes dominant with increasing industrialization because bureaucratic organization is rationalized by providing economic efficiency. Weber (1947, p. 337) pointed out that “the purely bureaucratic type of administration is, from a purely technical point of view, capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency and is in this sense formally the most rational known means of carrying out imperative control over human beings.” Weber (1947) made a distinction between power and authority. Power means the ability to force people to obey, whereas authority is what makes those who receive orders obey them voluntarily. He showed three different types of authority: charismatic, traditional, and legal, and then argued that legal authority develops bureaucratic organization. In bureaucracy, authority is exercised by a system of rules and procedures implemented throughout the office occupied by an individual at a particular time. Through this system, legal authority no longer needs to depend on a charismatic leader or precedents that control traditional organizations (Gerth and Mills 1946; Weber 1947).

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Weber emphasized that a bureaucratic form of organization is superior to any other from in its precision, stability, stringency of its discipline, and in its reliability. Weber (1947, pp. 329–332) summarized that legal authority is based on the following eight ideas: (1) Any given legal norm may be established by agreement or imposition, on grounds of expediency or rational values or both, with a claim to obedience at least on the part of the members of the corporate group. (2) Each body of law consists essentially in a consistent system of abstract rules, which has normally been intentionally established. (3) A typical person in authority occupies an “office.” (4) The person who obeys authority does so, as it is usually stated, only in his capacity as a “member” of the corporate group and what he obeys is only “the law.” (5) In conformity with point (3), it is held that the members of the corporate group, in so far as they obey a person in authority, do not owe its obedience to him as an individual, but to the impersonal order. (6) In the rational type case, there is also complete absence of appropriation of his official position by the incumbent. (7) Administrative acts, decisions, and rules are formulated and accorded in writing, even in cases where oral discussion is the rule or is even mandatory. (8) Legal authority can be exercised in a wide variety of different forms. Thus, Weber (1947) discussed that a bureaucratic organization is developed as a form of depersonalization. Bureaucracy is based on rules and procedures, hierarchy of office, and written records and files. Weber (1947, p. 332) emphasized that “the combination of written documents and a continuous organization of official functions constitutes the ‘office’, which is the central focus of all types of modern corporate action.” Bureaucracy is basically administered by specialist experts and professional managers. Employing experts and utilizing records combines knowledge and skills with business practices so that economical efficiency is accomplished. Chester Barnard Chester Barnard is a well known management theorist and practitioner. He was a president of the New Jersey Bell Telephone company when he published his classical book about organization and management (Barnard 1938). On one hand, Weber (1947) focused on the structural and coercive aspects of organization; on the other hand, Barnard (1938, 1948) approached organization from both the viewpoint of its structure and dynamism and from paying attention to cooperative aspects of organization (Perrow 1974). Barnard (1938) argued that hierarchical organization creates the specific organizations, such as executives and executive organizations. In complex formal organizations, executive organizations are separated from operational organizations because of the necessities of effective communication and leadership. Barnard (1938, p. 72) defined formal organization as “a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons,” and argued that formal organization is activated by informal organization at all levels of organization.

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Barnard did not explicitly discuss the role of records in organization; however, he developed a theory of organizational knowledge. Barnard’s theory of organizational knowledge is regarded as an origin of knowledge management (Gehani 2002; Isomura 2009, 2012a, 2016; Niwamoto 2006; Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995). Barnard (1936) emphasized that practitioners utilize both logical and non-logical mental processes; Barnard (1995) proposed three different forms of knowledge: organic, personal, and formal knowledge. Knowledge is embedded in a physical body in the form of organic knowledge. Therefore, organic knowledge is also called skills. An individual accumulates knowledge that comes from local context; therefore, personal knowledge is basically context bound. Formal knowledge is expressed in language form and shared in society. Barnard (1950) insisted that practitioners utilize these different types of knowledge in reality, and that action and knowledge are inseparable from each other. Action creates organic knowledge; organic knowledge can be converted into personal knowledge by verbalization; and then, personal knowledge becomes formal knowledge if the former is shared with other people. Business people make judgments on the basis of these three types of knowledge. Thus, action creates knowledge and knowledge returns to action through decision making. Barnard (1937) argued that reality has a stratified structure and is composed of verbalized, consciously perceived, and unconsciously sensed one. In addition, Barnard (1937) emphasized that business people face the unknown and unknowable. What is expressed in language is limited; and practitioners abstract only the least part of the whole reality, collect its fragments, analyze their relationship, and construct their understanding of the reality (Barnard 1937; Niwamoto 2006; Isomura 2010). Consequently, Barnard pointed out that what can be recorded is the least part of reality, and that it is dangerous if business people ignore the existence of what cannot be recorded (Isomura and Kobayashi 2020). He argued that business people are required to connect what can be recorded with what cannot be. That is because Barnard emphasized the importance of logical and non-logical mental processes.

3 Discussion and Conclusion In this paper, I review how five representative theorists and practitioners of organization and management argue the relationship between records and management. Most of them emphasize that managing on the basis of facts is useful to build a science of management. I summarize the main points of discussion, state my conclusions, and propose a plan of future research. First, Taylor discussed that observing workers’ jobs and measuring the time of each elementary movement contributes to creating the standardization of workers’ jobs in production management. Second, Fayol argued that management methods are created by collecting and analyzing cases, and that these methods should be improved by checking the results. Therefore, fact-based management is indispensable for change management. Third, Follett basically shared Fayol’s views on the role of

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records, and suggested that collecting cases and comparing experiences should be utilized to educate people and enhance their abilities. Fourth, Weber argued that bureaucratic organization is designed to administer work by keeping records and setting rigid rules and procedures. Consequently, this type of organization would be systemized and would no longer depend on specific persons. Fifth, Barnard did not explicitly discuss the function of records; however, he emphasized that managers deal with both what can be kept and cannot be kept as records, and warned of the risk that too much dependence on records could mislead managers’ decision making. Overall, this paper concludes that the development of business administration and the organizational design are deeply related to keeping and utilizing records. Therefore, Pemberton’s first and third answers are supported from the viewpoint of organization and management theory. However, it should be added that too much dependence on records is dangerous as practitioners face complicated and everchanging reality. What can be kept as records is a fragment of reality; consequently, balancing what can and cannot be kept is important for managers when making a decision. Finally, a plan of future research is proposed. This paper proposes the research hypothesis that business administration and organization design are developed by keeping and utilizing records. The hypothesis was tested by examining cases of when scientific management was introduced and developed in Japan. The overview of its introduction and development process (Isomura 2012b) has already been reviewed. Therefore, the next step is to collect additional cases to reconfirm that combining scientific management and records management contributes to creating the standardization of work, improving management methods, and developing human resources. Moreover, I intend to examine how managers attempt to avoid the risk of having too much dependence on records and can find a way to incorporate what records cannot be kept into their practices. Acknowledgements This paper was prepared as a research project financially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), 22330164.

References Barnard, C. I. (1936). Mind in everyday affairs. In C. I. Barnard (Ed.), The functions of the executive (pp. 301–322). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Barnard, C. I. (1937). Notes on some obscure aspects of human relations. In W. Wolf & H. Iino (Eds.), Philosophy for managers: Selected papers of Chester I. Barnard (pp. 63–111). Tokyo: Bunshindo. Barnard, C. I. (1938). The functions of the executive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Barnard, C. I. (1948). Organization and management: Selected papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Barnard, C. I. (1950). Skill, knowledge, and judgment. In W. B. Wolf & H. Iino (Eds.), Philosophy for managers: Selected papers of Chester I. Barnard (pp. 129–137). Tokyo: Bunshindo.

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Barnard, C. I. (1995). The significance of decisive behavior in social action: Notes on the nature of decision. Journal of Management History, 1(4), 28–87. Breeze, J. D. (1995). Henri Fayol’s centre for administrative studies. Journal of Management History, 1(3), 37–62. Brichford, M. (1972). The relationship of records management activities to the field of business history. The Business History Review, 46(2), 220–232. Copley, F. B. (1923). Frederick W. Taylor: Father of scientific management. New York: Harper & Borthers. Duranti, L. (1989). The odyssey of records managers- Part II: From middle ages to modern times. Records Management Quarterly, 23(4), 3–11. Fayol, H. (1917). Administration industrielle et générale. Paris: Dunod. Fayol, H. (1918). L’éveil de l’esprit public. Paris: Dunod. Follett, M. P. (1925). How must business management develop in order to possess the essentials of a profession. In H. C. Metcalf & L. Urwick (Eds.), Dynamic administration: The collected papers of Mary Parker Follett (pp. 117–131). London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons. Follett, M. P. (1949). Freedom and co-ordination: Lectures in business organization. London: Management Publication Trust. Gehani, R. R. (2002). Chester Barnard’s “executive” and the knowledge-based firm. Management Decision, 40 (10), 980–991. Gerth, H. H., & Mills, C. W. (Eds.). (1946). From Max Weber: Essays in sociology. New York: Oxford University Press. Graham, P. (Ed.). (1996). Mary Parker Follett: Prophet of management. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Isomura, K. (2009). The gap between knowledge management and records management. CGSA Forum, 7(1), 17–37. Isomura, K. (2010). Barnard on leadership development: Bridging action and thinking. Journal of Management History, 16(2), 216–232. Isomura, K. (2012a). Exploring practical thinking and knowledge on the basis of Chester Barnard’s insights. Paper presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting of Western Academy of Management, La Jolla, California, USA, March 21–24. Isomura, K. (2012b). Review of the introduction and development process of scientific management in Japan. CGSA Forum, 10(1), 95–106. Isomura, K. (2016). Re-examining Chester Barnard’s contributions to knowledge management: Focusing on practical thinking and knowledge. CGSA Forum, 14(1), 1–22. Isomura, K. and Kobayashi, A. (2020). Japanese style of “Genbaism”: Combining intuitive, logical, and holistic thinking through experience. In M. Sinclar (Ed.), Handbook of Intuition Research as Practice (pp. 168–181). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Metcalf, H. C., & Urwick, L. (Eds.). (1941). Dynamic administration: The collected papers of Mary Parker Follett. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons. Niwamoto, Y. (2006). Developing Barnard’s theory of management. Tokyo: Bunshindo. (in Japanese). Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. New York: Oxford University Press. O’Connor, E. S. (2012). Creating new knowledge in management: Appropriating the field’s lost foundations. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. O’Connor, E. S. (2013). New contributions from old sources: Recovering Barnard’s science and revitalizing the Carnegie School. European Management Journal,31(1), 93–103. Peaucelle, J.-L. (2003). Henri Fayol: Inventeur des outils de gestion. Paris: Economica. Pemberton, J. M. (1995). Who put the “management” in records management? Records Management Quarterly, 29(4), 68–73. Perrow, C. (1974). Complex organizations: A critical essay. New York: McGraw-Hill. Reid, D. (1995). Fayol: From experience to theory. Journal of Management History, 1(3), 21–36. Sasaki, T. (1984). Henri Fayol: The man, his strategy and theory. Tokyo: Bunshindo. (in Japanese).

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Sheldon, O. (1923). The philosophy of management. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons. Taylor, F. W. (1903). Shop management. New York: Harper & Brothers. Taylor, F. W. (1911). The principles of scientific management. New York: Harper & Brothers. Tonn, J. (2003). Mary P. Follett: Creating democracy, transforming management. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Weber, M. (1947). The theory of social and economic organization. New York: The Free Press. Wren, A. G. (1995). Henri Fayol: Learning from experience. Journal of Management History, 1(3), 5–12. Wren, A. G. (2005). The history of management thought (5th ed.). New York: Wiley. Wren, D. A., & Bedeian, A. G. (2009). The evolution of management thought (6th ed.). New York: Wiley.

Kazuhito Isomura, Ph.D. is a Professor of Organizational Behavior at the School of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan. Prior to joining Chuo University, he was with the Faculty of Economics, Fukushima University, as an Associate Professor. He was a professor in the MBA program at Chuo Graduate School of International Accounting before being transferred to the School of Science and Engineering. He earned a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph. D. degree of Economics at Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. His areas of research are leadership development, records and knowledge management, corporate strategy, organization theory, and management history. He can be contacted at: [email protected].

Chapter 6

Transitional Justice Strategies of the National State and Its Archivization: A Study on Liquidation of the Past History of the Jeju April 3 Events Sungman Koh

1 Introduction This present study focuses on the so-called transitional justice strategies in postgenocide societies, as well as the archivization of deaths through the establishing of national monuments. There are three questions that I am going to address in this paper. Firstly, “How does the nation state that once committed a mass murder of its own people address and redress those deaths by means of so-called transitional justice strategies, and furthermore, how does the nation state integrate this into the national archives?” Secondly, “How are the deaths caused by the genocide archived in the process of transitional justice strategies?” Thirdly, “How do the families of the dead - either adopting or resisting the transitional justice strategy and the archivization of deaths - build justice in the private sphere?” To answer these three questions, I present the Jeju April 3rd Events as an example of slaughters and infringement of human rights committed by the national government in an East Asian society in the middle of the twentieth century, which took place in Jeju, the southernmost island of South Korea, between 1947 and 1954. Then I focus on the missions of the April 3rd Committee for Investigation of the Jeju April 3rd Events and Recovering the Honor of Victims that was established in 2000 as one of transitional justice strategies of South Korean government. I refer to this committee as the April 3rd Committee from now on.

S. Koh (B) Department of Sociology, Jeju National University, Jeju, Republic of Korea e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_6

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2 Dilemma of the Transitional Justice Strategy After the massacre is over, which leaves numerous losses and infringement of human rights behind, the nation state in transition to a new democratic regime adopted the strategy of transitional justice to redress the past and to integrate and rebuild the society. However, in many cases, the government faced the dilemma of those two purposes of the strategy, such as ‘to deal with the past events righteously and restore human rights’, and ‘to stabilize the state politically through the integration of the people and achievement of the peace’, were incompatible. As is well known, many scholars in the research of transitional justice argue that most of the post-conflict societies have failed to overcome this dilemma (see, for example, Bassiouni 1996; Zuin 2008). It is because in the struggle of memory and symbolic struggle on the past, conflicts and compromises among the members of communities are unavoidable. For example, South Africa, Chile, and Argentina attempted to realize transitional justice through establishing so-called Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRC), however, their attempts have been criticized as a “reconciliation without justice” (Mamdani 1996) or a mere “political compromise” (Phakathi and van der Merwe 2008) despite their pioneering outcomes. I believe that the April 3rd Committee also cannot avoid such a criticism either.

3 Overview of the Jeju April 3rd Events and South Korea’s Efforts to Liquidate the Past Regarding the April 3rd Events 1. Overview of the Jeju April 3rd Events At the end of the Second World War in August 1945, the US Army took over the southern half of the Korean peninsula, replacing the defeated Japanese Army. Nonetheless, the policy of the US Army Military Government was consistently in confusion, and there were conflicts between the right and left leaning political forces. Moreover, worsening poverty and disease contributed to the instability and discontents in Jeju Island. The right-wing factions with the support of the US Military Government sought to establish a separate government in the South, but their move was opposed by the Jeju branch of the left-leaning South Korean Labor Party and Jeju civilians. Thus armed guerrillas, a resistance group, mobilized the populace to protest the partition of the Korean peninsula and UN-sanctioned elections in the South, threatening an uprising against any crackdowns. On the morning of April 3, 1948, outraged citizens attacked police garrisons. Washington and Seoul considered the attacks to be the opening salvo of a proCommunist movement and branded Jeju “Little Moscow” or “Red Island”. The officials launched a sweeping red-baiting operation known as the “Red Hunt”. By

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September 1954 when the island was fully suppressed, thirty thousand—ten percent of the island’s total population—had been killed. The armed uprising led by the resistance group ended in failure. Since South and North Korea reached a truce in 1953 three years after the outbreak of the Korean War, the two Koreas have remained to be “the only divided nation in the world”. 2. Chronology of the Jeju April 3rd Events1 November 11, 1946: The 9th Regiment of Korean Constabulary was established. March 1, 1947: 3/1 Incident/National Police opened fire on protesters. December 12, 1947: Lt. Co. Mansfield was appointed as the Commander of the 59th Major General Company and the Military Governor of Jeju Island. February 1, 1948: Mayor Kim Ik Ryeol was appointed as the Commander of the 9th. April, 3, 1948: April 3rd Uprising. April, 28, 1948: Peace Agreement b/w the 9th Cdr Kim and Cdr-in-chief of the resistance groups, Kim Dal Sam. May 1, 1948: Ora-ri Incident/Breach of PA. May 5, 1948: 5/5 Summit Conference lead by Gen. Dean, Military Governor of Korea. May 6, 1948: Kim was replaced by Lt. Col. Park Gin Gyeong as the 9th Cdr. May 10, 1948: 5/10 General Election. May 12, 1948: American Destroyer Craig was dispatched. May 15, 1948: The 11th Regiment came down from Suwon to Jeju and the 9th was merged with it. Cdr Park of the 9th became the Cdr of the 11th. May 26, 1948: The elections of two districts of Bukjeju-gun were rescheduled on 6.23. June 1, 1948: Cdr Park was promoted to Colonel. June 10, 1948: Reelections infinitely postponed. June 18, 1948: Cdr Park was assassinated. June 21, 1948: Lt. Col. Choi and Major Song appointed as Cdr/Vice-Cdr of the 11th. July 15, 1948: The 9th re-formed, detaching from the 11th. Major Song as Cdr. July 24, 1948: The 11th Regiment went up from Jeju to Suwon. August 15, 1948: Republic of Korea. September 9, 1948: D.P.R.K. October 11, 1948: Jeju-do Security Headquarter established. March 2, 1949: Jeju-do Area Command Post established. June 25, 1950: Korean War. September 21, 1954: The closed areas of Halla Mountain were reopened to the public.

1 Retrieved

February 1, 2012, https://www.jejuApril3rd.go.kr/english/sub05.html.

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3. Chronology of the April 3rd Committee2 January 12, 2000: The Special Act for Investigation of the Jeju April 3rd Events and Recovering the Honor of Victims is enacted and promulgated. August 28, 2000: The April 3rd committee is inaugurated. March 29, 2003: The government accepts seven recommendations of committee. April 3, 2003: A project for establishment of the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park is launched. October 15, 2003: A final report on the investigation of the events is approved. October 31, 2003: President Roh Moo-hyun announces the government’s stance on the events. March 31, 2004: The registration of 14,373 victims is completed. April 20, 2004: The 1st phase of the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park is completed. April 20, 2006: President Roh Moo-hyun participates in a memorial service for the victims. Activities in 2006: Identification of victims, 2nd phase of the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park project, excavations of memorial sites and exhumations of bodies of victims. 4. South Korea’s Efforts to Liquidate the Past Regarding the April 3rd Events A reappraisal of the April 3rd Events became possible as the Korean government took action to settle the past on the basis of the Special Act for Investigation of the Events enacted in 2000. The April 3rd Committee is a governmental organization responsible for liquidating the past regarding the Jeju April 3rd Events. Their main programs are as in Table 1. Among those programs, the committee put emphasis on ‘identifying the “victims” and their “bereaved families”’. In doing so, it created another controversy in terms of who could be included in, and who should be excluded from the status of ‘the Table 1 The April 3rd committee’s major programs for liquidating the past Investigate and reveal the truth

• Identify “victims” and their “bereaved families” • Collect and analyze evidence as part of fact-finding • Publish a report on the findings of the investigation

Restore the honor of “victims” and the “bereaved families”

• Identify “victims” and their “bereaved families” • Erect shrines and memorials to honor the deceased • State the government’s official position on the events • Excavate mass graves and memorial sites and exhume bodies of victims • Provide medical and financial subsidies to ‘the severely physically injured survivors’

2 Retrieved

February 1, 2012, https://www.jejuApril3rd.go.kr/english/sub05.html.

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April 3rd victims’. As a result, the people in the so-called suppression group such as soldiers and the police who were actually the executors of the massacre, as well as the civilians killed by them, can be reconstituted as ‘April 3rd victims’ according to the committee, while people in the so-called resistance group such as the armed guerrillas who confronted the US Army Military Government and the South Korean government and held strongly the national unity of the south and north Korea are excluded from ‘victims’ status’.

4 The Establishment of a National Monument as Archives and Commemoration The criterion to divide the dead into officially-recognized ones and non-recognized ones is regarded as a boundary of the historical fact that is defined by the nation state. Furthermore, the politics of death surrounding this boundary decides the range and characteristic of the national archive. The peculiarity of this kind of concept of ‘April 3rd victims’ appears more specifically on national monuments established in the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park by the committee that functions as archives and commemoration at the same time. The April 3rd Committee spent ten years from 2000 to erect ‘the enshrinement site of the spirit tablets’, ‘the monument of remembrance’, and ‘the tombstones of the missing people’ inside the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park. Those three monuments were built at different times with different designs. However, they show a similarity in that people who can be presented on the monuments are limited to only those who are considered and accepted as ‘victims’. On each memorial days, the national ceremony is held in front of these monuments to commemorate people who died during the events. Thus it serves as an instrument for commemorating the ‘April 3rd victims’ and also serves as archives recording the victims’ information at the same time. The state becomes a sort of chief priest performing a whole public commemoration based on these monuments, and turns from ‘the perpetrator group’ to ‘the righteous group liquidating the negative past’. The structures and facilities in the Memorial Peace Park that are the topics of discussion in this paper are listed in Table 2. 1. Monuments While monuments may differ in form, content or era, they are all united by the purpose of memorializing or remembering the “victim”. However, not all “victims” are equal. It is possible to get a sense of the ranking of the “victims” by the order in which they are arranged. Only the word “victim” and the barest of information is inscribed on each monument, with no mention of the most salient facts of their death—namely, why, how or by whom the dead was killed. While each monument inscribed with “victim” would seem to fall within the same category, there is no way of knowing the relationships between the “victims”. Once again, the politics of death are evident even in the categorization and placement of the monuments.

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Table 2 Shrines, monuments and memorial spaces at the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park Title Monument

Date completed Outline

The enshrinement site of the 2003 spirit tablets

Some 13,000 tablets inscribed with names of recognized ‘victims’ are placed being classified by their places of family register

The monument of remembrance

April 3, 2009

Names, sex, the then ages, date of death or missing, and type of sacrifice of 13,461 deaths and missing people among ‘victims’ are inscribed being classified by their places of family register

The tombstones of the missing people

October 2009

Individual tombstones of 3429 missing persons among ‘victims’ inscribed with their names, places of family register, birth dates, dates and places of missing are installed being classified by places of their missing (Jeju, Gyeongin, Yeongnam, Daejeon and Honam)

Memorial hall Jeju April 3rd Peace Memorial Hall

March 28, 2008 Historical records and relics are exhibited and showcased using art work techniques based on the ‘Report on investigation of truth of Jeju April 3rd events’ published by Jeju April 3rd Committee

The enshrinement site of the March 2011 remains (April 3rd victims) excavated in the killing sites

Having excavated bodies of April 3rd victims from 2006 to 2010, enshrined them after cremation, and it displays reproduced real-size models of excavation sites

On the one hand the spirit tablets for those “excluded from victim status” are conspicuously absent—the outcome of the April 3rd Committee’s decision to destroy the enshrinement tablets of nine such individuals in 2008. Although the enshrinement site for the spirit tablets was originally built to accommodate everyone who died, the tablets for those “excluded from victim status” by the Committee were destroyed and replaced by blank tablets. Because this decision came after the enshrinement site was erected, the blank tablets and tablets for missing persons are a stark reminder of how names have been officially omitted. In this regard, the site is the only facility in the Peace Park that signifies the contradictory nature of how the victims were chosen.

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The specter of blank spirit tablets and empty spaces beg the question, “who exactly were the victims”? Awed by the scale and grandeur of the site, viewers will evidently see that great resources were mobilized to commemorate the dead. They will only see the names etched into the stones, not the ideology that decided whose names have been memorialized. They cannot be blamed for leaving the site under the illusion that though their lives were tragically cut short, they are now resting peacefully for eternity. 2. Memorial Hall In March of 2008, the Peace Memorial Hall opened with an exhibition based on the Truth and Investigations report. The exhibition was divided into six parts: “Prologue”, “Uprising”, “Massacres”, “Aftermath”, “Examination of the Truth”, “A New Beginning”. Critics wondered if the exhibition’s narrative, based on a document with such limitations, might not be yet another example of the government’s botched attempts at settling the past. Their doubts were well-founded, for shortly before the inauguration of the Memorial Hall certain works were excised from the exhibition. Examining the contents of the “Prologue” section, the Committee banned a painting showing the burning of Ora-ri village with an image of the White House in the background. The Committee also took exception to a caricature of President Syngman Rhee, a theatrical piece portraying the massacres as a highly-organized and systematic operation, and other art works deemed to be “excessive or exaggerated”. These works were replaced or altered—to this day, they have never been exhibited as intended. The painting of the White House in the background of Ora-ri village in flames was replaced with a scene from a silent film produced by the US Army stationed in Korea at the time, while the exaggerated portrait of President Rhee was taken out, leaving a blank space. Censorship of the Memorial Hall’s exhibition blurred, if not distorted, representations of the perpetrators, a consequence of the government’s strategy to focus on “reconciliation and co-existence”. The Memorial Hall’s bifurcated approach to victimhood mirrors the ambivalence apparent in the segregation of the spirit tablets outside of the Hall.

5 Double Standards Inherent in the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park 1. Memorial Hall and Monument Resistance groups and suppression groups are represented at the Memorial Hall as instructed by the Committee’s report: Civilian forces were opposed to separate elections in the South and administration in the South because they wanted a united peninsula with freedom for all.

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S. Koh The April 3rd Committee finds that of the 15,000 victims of the Events, 86% were killed by the government or government-backed groups, of which 33% were children, women and the elderly and the disabled.

Only members of the resistance groups were “excluded from consideration as victims” and as such subject to the Committee’s guidelines as to who specifically can be represented inside or outside of the Monument or Memorial Hall at the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park. If the relationship between the suppression and the resistance groups is defined according to the report issued by the April 3rd Committee and their “Guidelines for the Review and Designation of Victims”, then responsibility for fomenting the Events lie with the resistance groups, while suppression groups bear responsibility for 80% of the deaths. This statistic bares the double standard inherent in the April 3rd Committee’s judgment. The very group that committed 80% of the murders is re-classified as “victims,” while distinctions are drawn between the civilians and rebels who were killed, effectively shutting out the latter from the reconciliation process. The April 3rd Committee’s double standard is a reflection of Korean society’s conflicted views of a complex and difficult history, as well as its attempts at finding grounds for agreement and compromise. However, the facilities of the Peace Park only serve to highlight the divisions and the controversies. In contrast to the perpetrators of the massacres, who have been enshrined in the Memorial Hall as “victims”, rebels who fought for the “independence and unification of the Korean peninsula” have been excluded from consideration as “victims.” While their identities have been obscured, the cause for which they fought is highlighted in the memorial. Ultimately, visitors entering and exiting the memorial might stand in front of the wall of inscribed names, or observe a moment of silence. Which reminders of the deceased they encounter will surely determine how they view the historical truth. Also installed in the Peace Park is a remnant of the Berlin Wall that was donated by the German government in 2007. There is also an outdoor installation titled “Unification and Human Rights”, whose symbolism is overshadowed by the Memorial Hall and Monument’s failure to capture the significance and ambiguity of the government’s reconciliation effort. 2. Enshrinement Site and Memorials The Enshrinement Site of the Remains of those Excavated from Killing Site, which opened in March of 2011, is the most vivid representation of the government’s latest project—representations of the open pits where bodies were exhumed from mass graves from 2006 to 2010. 390 remains have been exhumed as of today, of which 380 have been identified as those of victims of the massacres perpetrated in 1949 and 1950 at the Jeju International Airport by the military—rebels and civilians alike. The Enshrinement Site is distinguished from all other facilities in the Peace Park— the government’s official site for acknowledging the Events—in that it is the only one that physically acknowledges the existence of those not accorded “victim” status. Even if the names of the members of the resistance groups are excised from the official

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rolls, their remains will still be enshrined. As such, the Enshrinement Site exemplifies a double standard in its disparate treatment of the “souls” and “physical remains”. The remains are being identified by DNA testing and matching. Will the April 3rd Committee decide to obliterate remains that are positively identified as belonging to members of the resistance groups, just their spirit tablets were? This is but one of many questions that has drawn controversy among Jeju residents.

6 Some Critical Comments on the April 3rd Victims and National Monuments Here are some critical comments on the April 3rd victims and monument that were created by the committee. The first critical insight refers to that the committee’s transitional justice strategy determines only the dead of the suppression group, as well as the civilians as ‘April 3rd victims’, categorizing many different types of deaths into two categories only: ‘the April 3rd victims’ and ‘those excluded from consideration as victims’. I suggest this is a routine of reconstituting the dead seen in this post-conflict society (see, for example, Humphrey 2002). The suppression group and civilians included in the ‘April 3rd victims’ status under the category of the national dead have a strong image of the patriotic martyr involving the ordeal narrative. However, the resistance group is consistently disgraced as a traitor that becomes a political and social taboo. Their names cannot be recorded anywhere in the national realm such as the monuments set up by the government. The resistance group was the one who opposed against establishing a proAmerican government in the South, because the United States tried to create cold-war hegemony over the East Asian region after World War II, and it intended to establish a separate government in the south of Korea in order to restrain the spread of communism. This is why the resistance group and their family members were slaughtered, and the April 3rd Committee, a governmental organization, labeled them as those who ‘debased the national identity of Republic of Korea’, completely excluding them from the project of transitional justice. I think we need to have a correct understanding on the idea of justice adopted by the transitional justice strategy of the South Korean government. For example, ‘today’s justice’ in this post-conflict society is that ‘since they were communists, they should be excluded from being considered as victims’, but it succeeds the justice of the massacre of ‘it’s not guilty killing communists’ that was commonly accepted in the conflict society. The idea of justice in the cold-war categorizing communist outside of the line of demarcation are unchangedly accepted and repeated in the strategy of transitional justice. After those who had involved in the resistance group were refused from the consideration as ‘April 3rd victims’, all monuments of them in the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park were immediately removed. Besides, for example the Spirit tablets, empty tablets without names replaced them.

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Secondly, I point out that the diverse relations between ‘the dead’ composing the conflict society becomes unclear due to the definition of ‘April 3rd victims’ in the post-conflict society. In other words, there are diverse kinds of ‘the dead’ representing the conflict sphere such as someone who slaughtered, who informed, or who were silent, but all of them are only categorized into two statuses—‘victims’ or ‘those excluded from consideration as victims’—in the post-conflict period. Each monument involves only minimum information such as the victim’s name, age, and the place of being killed. For example, there are no details about by whom, why, and how they were killed. Moreover, we cannot know the concrete relations between the ‘victims’ recorded on the monuments. The explanations about them on the stones are simplified as ‘April 3rd victims’. When later generations without direct experiences pay tribute and lay flowers in front of the monuments, they cannot recognize any longer what kinds of turbulent history the dead experienced and what relations there are between the ‘victims’. The implicit characteristic of the monuments as archives is entirely a different category from the list of the dead being stored in the document room. Through the politics of archivization surrounding the monument, the collective memories on the events are integrated into the national history. It is more stimulated by the memorial day and commemoration. Meanwhile, the reconstitution of the dead in the national realm and its archivization generates inescapable conflicts among the related people. This is why the bereaved families excluded from ‘victims’ do not attend the commemoration ceremonies organized by the government. The South Korean government’s attempt ‘to deal with the past events righteously’ through the April 3rd Committee led to selecting and officially recognizing only the deaths of those who were considered ‘not debasing the national identity of Republic of Korea’ among the diverse deaths caused by the massacre. The universal justice of the human society is not applied to their logic. It is undeniable that the transitional justice strategy of the April 3rd Committee contributed to redressing the negative legacy of the conflict in the twentieth century. However, I think they cannot avoid the criticism either that their transitional justice strategy simplifies the various types of the dead into ‘April 3rd victims’ and archives them through establishing national monuments, and integrates the diverse historical facts into the national history to form the nationalism of the nation state. I would like to end this paper considering where we can find the possibilities to overcome those negative legacies.

7 Conclusion—The Possibility of AJ Strategy I believe that we could find the possibility to overcome the conflict caused by the limitation of the transitional justice strategy in the alternative justice strategy (AJ strategy) seen in town communities of the non-national realm. The massacre destroyed everything: the nation, society, communities and personal lives. After the massacre, different spheres such as town communities, families and individuals attempted to build justice, but we did not pay attention to them. The reason why their attempts to build justice in the micro sphere have been neglected might be due

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to the transitional justice strategy in the national realm. For example, Wanbae Kim was a member of the resistance group. He was excluded from the consideration as a ‘victim’ by the committee, so we cannot find his name on any monument in the Jeju April 3rd Peace Park. But, we can see his name on the other monument set up at the town of Buckchon-ri, his hometown. The April 3rd Committee removed his name from the monument in the national realm under the judgment of that he debased the national identity of the South Korean government. But, people in his hometown say “He is not our enemy. He has nothing to do with the slaughter of villagers.” What I learn from this example is that the idea and recognition of ‘the dead’ and the politics of the archives between the national sphere and non-national sphere are different. Now, in realizing the massacre of the past, we come to stand at the crossroads of a new decision: either to meet ‘the dead’ of the conflict society or to meet the ‘April 3rd victims’ which appeared in the post-conflict society. The ‘April 3rd victims’ and the monument seem to be the pioneering outcomes of the transitional justice strategy to overcome the negative legacy left by the conflict, but they also assign a crucial, cognitive task to the non-experienced generation, forcing them to distinguish between the dead and the April 3rd victims in every moment. For instance, due to the magnificence of the monuments, we easily mistakenly believe that the names on the monuments represent the whole events. I think the conflicts caused by the transitional justice strategy and its archivization can be overcome through monuments erected by town communities and their commemorations as an effort to build the alternative justice. Based on the town communities’ own thoughts on the dead, the range of ‘the dead’ were differently categorized from ‘April 3rd victims’ of the national realm. They built monuments within their own politics of archives. Thus I suggest the potentiality to counter the archivization of death leading to nationalism lies in the alternative justice strategy of town communities.

References Bassiouni, C. (1996). Searching for peace and achieving justice: The need for accountability. Law and Contemporary Problems, 59(4), 9–28. Duke University School of Law. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/1192187 Humphrey, M. (2002). The politics of atrocity and reconciliation: From terror to trauma. New York: Routledge. Mamdani, M. (1996). Reconciliation without justice. Southern African Review of Books, No. 46, 3–5. Phakathi, T. S., & van der Merwe, H. (2008). The impact of the TRC’s amnesty process on survivors of human rights violations. In A. R. Chapman & H. van der Merwe (Eds.), Truth and reconciliation in South Africa: Did the TRC deliver? (pp. 116–142). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Zuin, M. (2008). A model of transitional justice for Somalia. PRAXIS: The Fletcher Journal of Human Security, XXIII, 89–108. Retrieved August 15, 2012, from https://fletcher.tufts.edu/ Praxis/Archives/~/media/Fletcher/Microsites/praxis/xxiii/PRAXIS-ModelofTransitionalJusticef orSomalia.pdf

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Sungman Koh is assistant professor at Jeju National University in Republic of Korea. He has been for some years studying by the comparative method of Islands in East Asia Region in the Postconflict Era. His book, Politics of Victimhood: Jeju 4.3/Battle of Okinawa/Taiwan 2.28 and the Agony Surrounding the Settlement of the Past (in Japanese) was published by Kyoto University Press in 2017.

Chapter 7

Pluralizing the Archive Anne J. Gilliland, Andrew J. Lau, and Sue McKemmish

1 Introduction Modern professional archival discourse contemplates archives as institutions that systematically promote, preserve and make accessible memory, culture and identity in the form of bureaucratic and social evidence according to professional best practices. It focuses on the nature of records, their creation and social life, as well as the professional activities associated with appraising, preserving, describing and disseminating them. Recent postmodern and postcolonial discourse in anthropology, sociology, literature and history, as well as interdisciplinary studies such as those on race and ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, and Indigeneity and subalternity take a more critical view of the Archive. They critique the Archive as a societal concept that has been associated with the promotion of asymmetrical power, grand narratives, nationalism, surveillance, and the omission, diminution or silencing of alternate narratives as well as subaltern, non-normative, or non-conforming voices. From postmodern and postcolonial perspectives, aspects of archival and recordkeeping 1 This paper uses the terms “archival” and “recordkeeping” throughout to include all aspects of archival science—as more traditionally understood through the life cycle model, as well as all aspects of the creation, management, use, and social embeddedness of records that are delineated in the records continuum model. The concept of “archival and recordkeeping research” is similarly broadly construed and includes research on archival and recordkeeping topics being undertaken in ancillary fields.

A. J. Gilliland (B) · A. J. Lau School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA e-mail: [email protected] University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA S. McKemmish Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_7

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practice1 are regarded as integral to the apparatus of colonialism and imperialism, with archivists acting as agents who shape how the past is viewed by the present and by the future. Yet another important and increasingly prominent lens relates to how archives can serve as evidence to actions, rights and responsibilities, and to bear witness to, and hold perpetrators accountable for those actions. Records and archives have notably been employed, and recordkeeping regimes established as key instruments in human rights and social justice efforts such as war crimes tribunals, truth commissions, reparations and reconciliation movements, and community activism. International and national efforts have taken place at the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and for Rwanda (ICTR) in the Hague (United Nations Security Council 2011), in post-Apartheid South Africa (Harris 2007) in Cambodia (Caswell 4), and in the former East Germany (“Former Dictatorships …” n.d.). Community activism employing records and archives has included student protest groups such as those involved in Korean democracy movements (Shin et al. 2007), organized labor, migrant farmworkers, and LGBT groups. Thus the Archive today can simultaneously be a physical or digital entity existing in a complex socio-technical ecosystem, a critical construct, and a source of legal and cultural evidence and community memory and identity. In similar vein, archivists are increasingly aware of their own agency and the need to engage with the social justice agenda, thereby acknowledging and addressing the more problematic aspects of archives and their utilization over time. This paper briefly discusses how pluralisation2 of the Archive can help society to address bitter pasts through reconciliation in the present. It refers to Australian and U.S. examples emanating from the concerns and experiences of Indigenous communities, and populations that have been historically marginalized and discriminated against based on gender or sexual identity. Both populations present very distinct issues and concerns, but each is frequently misconstrued as a uniform group, thus glossing over its complexity and diversity. Through these examples, we wish to provoke readers to contemplate several questions: What are the ethical imperatives for archives and archivists to address the legacy of past injustices? How can traditional institutional archives support multiple stories and also protect vulnerable communities and individuals associated with the records? How can differently configured archives enable oppressed, ignored and misrepresented communities and individuals to tell their stories in their own ways? How can recordkeeping and documentation

2 “…

pluralism does not privilege any one community or group. It acknowledges that considerable “messiness” and nuance need to be exposed, addressed, and engaged. Additionally, use of this term over others that are frequently employed in such discourse strives to give equal footing to the range of perspectives explored, encompassing such considerations as culture, race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic standing, gender, gender identity, sexuality, disability, and citizenship status, as well as to recognize the intersections among them.” AERI Pluralizing the Archival Curriculum Group (PACG). “Educating for the Archival eMultiverse,” American Archivist 74 no.1 (Spring/Summer 2011): 72.

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practices address the needs of parts of communities that have been broken up or dispersed, or are closeted or underground? How can archival and recordkeeping theory and practice be transformed to support an archival multiverse?

2 Addressing Bitter Pasts Mbembe argues that archives have no meaning outside the manners in which they are subjectively experienced by their users; and that the experiences of search, discovery, and use constitute the continued relevance and value of archives for social and cultural memory. This view, however, does not directly take account of the perspectives of those who were the “subjects” of the records or the “objects” of the archival gaze, or of those who were trapped within or who have fallen outside the mainstream society’s recordkeeping paradigms due to marginalization or willful resistance.

2.1 Recordkeeping and Australia’s Indigenous Past and Present From the time of the British colonial-invasion in 1788, the 280 cultural groups of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who made up Australia were systematically dispossessed of their lands and subjected to repressive regimes that controlled many aspects of their lives. Many were forced to live on government reservations or mission stations where their language and cultural practices were forbidden. Many children (the Stolen Generations) were removed from their families under government policies which aimed to “breed out” Indigeneity. As was pointed out in the official government inquiry relating to the Stolen Generations, recordkeeping was an essential instrument in the oppression and surveillance of Indigenous communities in colonial and postcolonial Australia (Australian Human Rights Commission 1997). McKemmish et al (2011, p. 211) have argued that “Australia’s mainstream discourse and collective memory relating to Indigenous Australia have largely been built on the actions of a violent past, utilizing systems of remembering and forgetting that have supported a negative construction of Indigeneity within that collective memory.” Archival sources of community narratives are fragmented and dispersed, in many ways mirroring the dispossession, dislocation and disempowerment of colonialism. They include oral memory (broadly defined to encompass traditional stories transmitted orally, contemporary narratives, family stories, and narratives that can be recovered from mainstream narratives), other records created by Indigenous people, and records about them created by others, for example by governments and religious institutions. Whilst colonial-invasion is linked to the loss of Indigenous oral memory, especially in southeastern Australia, the colonial-invaders were also prolific

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creators of records and narratives about Indigenous people. The integration of fragmented archival sources of Indigenous knowledge and their accessibility to Indigenous communities are essential in the production and recovery of Indigenous knowledge today, and vital to processes of recovery for those affected by past government policies, establishing identity, reconnecting families, pursuing land claims, intergenerational healing, supporting community life and culture, redress and reconciliation (Ross et al. 2006). Many Indigenous communities lack frameworks and systems to build and manage a sustainable community archive that integrates, preserves and makes accessible to the community all records relating to it, in whatever form or medium, including government and church records, as well as community and family records. There is a gathering momentum in Indigenous human rights globally and locally reinforced by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) (United Nations 2007). The Declaration recognises the inherent individual and collective rights of Indigenous peoples to preserve identity and culture while participating fully in mainstream culture. Rights of self-determination and the principles of non-discrimination and free, prior, informed consent provide the foundation for exercising cultural rights as human rights. Although Indigenous human rights and cultural protocols provide frameworks for Indigenous people to participate as active agents in decision-making about the management of their knowledge in all its forms (McKemmish et al. 2012), Indigenous people in Australia are currently afforded few rights over that part of their knowledge which is in government and other archival institutions. Many Indigenous people view all records that relate to them as their records. However, many of the institutions that house and control the records take a different view. Indigenous people have few rights in records beyond access rights. Their engagement in decision-making relating to appraisal, description, custody, preservation and access is not supported (Nakata and Langton 2005, p. 4; Ross et al. 2006). Current Australian legal frameworks and archival practices do not recognise that Indigenous people may have special rights in records arising from the part archival records have played in their dispossession, as well as the role they can play in the recovery of identity, language and culture, and links to land and place.

2.2 Queer Communities, Official Records, and Institutional and Grassroots Archives In the United States, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transpeople, intersexed, and other identifications often referred to as LGBT or queer communities, were historically treated as “sexual deviants” and ostracized as sinful and perverted. Homosexuality was officially pathologised as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association until 1974, and as an ego-dystonic sexual orientation until 1987. Official records, such as patient and police records tended to reflect the pathologisation and

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criminalization of queer individuals, and institutional archives seldom deliberately sought to document these communities, although they might do so incidentally as a part of their wider collecting activities. This situation reinforced unidimensionality and silences around the self-identities and life experiences of LGBT individuals, while also unwittingly or even deliberately publicly exposing closeted and otherwise vulnerable individuals. Such discrimination and lack of positive representation prompted collective action and efforts at community organization. The struggle for queer rights can be traced back to groups like the Mattachine Society, the Daughters of Bilitis, and countless others, even before identity politics in the United States had come to national consciousness after the Stonewall Riots in 1969 (Faderman and Timmons 2006; Hurewitz 2008). Documentation of these events occurred primarily through the organizational efforts of community-based archives such as the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles, founded in 1953, and especially from the mid-1970s on. The grassroots imperative to archive became even more urgent with the devastation wrought by AIDS on the gay community in the 1980s and 1990s. During this period, the records of those who had been lost to the disease were being discarded after their deaths by straight family members or simply lost because there was no one left in the community able to take over keeping them. LGBT community archives, however, must also address the complexities of queer identities and groups. Different archival models have been proposed or implemented by both queer and non-queer individuals, communities and organizations to address the multiple histories, experiences, cultures and needs of queer communities, but issues of distinctiveness and intersectionality remain challenges. Even within one community, there may be a need or historical reason for having multiple archives telling different stories. Focusing solely on the shared experiences of marginalization and discrimination of non-heterosexuals elides multiple sexualities and simplifies the different historical trajectories of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, queers, intersexed, and other identifications. It also disregards complex intersections between sexuality and social factors such as race, ethnicity, and class that often result in a “double marginalization” and double silence in archives (McCall 2009; Yuval-Davis 2006).

3 Pluralizing the Archive Kaplan (2000, p. 144) has argued that: “Archivists seeking to balance the record, to incorporate authentic voices, to resolve the problem of the underdocumented, or even, sometimes, to celebrate diversity must reify identity, thereby making cultural differences immutable and eliminating individuality, personality, and choice within the group in question.” Recent archival writings about communities of records and memory, and also the concept of co-creatorship of records, support an alternative approach involving pluralising the Archive. Bastian’s community of records is defined by “[the] relationship between actions and records” and how they “reflect one another in documenting the activities and forming the memory of the community.” In a

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community of records, “traditions of record keeping are developed, manifested, and bounded by recognized and accepted conventions in the drafting of particular types of documents” (Bastian and Memory 2003, p. 5). Ketelaar sees every community as a community of memory wherein collective identity is linked to a community recognising itself “through its memory of a common past … To be a community, family, a religious community, a profession involves an embeddedness in its past and, consequently, in the memory texts [in any form, written, oral, as well as physical] through which that past is mediated” (Ketelaar 2005, p. 44). Ketelaar and Hurley explore the notion of co-creatorship, which acknowledges the role in records creation of all individuals and groups who were parties to the transactions documented therein, including those hitherto not officially recognized in mainstream legal and archival frameworks as records creators, i.e., as objects or subjects of records. The construct of co-creatorship leads to questions about the rights of co-creators, e.g., in determining what and where records should be preserved, how they should be managed and disseminated, how the experiences and perspectives of all co-creators over time can be captured in archival description, and who might have access. Such self-determination issues are a major focus of various Indigenous protocols for archival materials that have been developed in Australia (ATSILIRN 2005) and the United States (First Archivists Circle 2007), and are also in the same spirit as UNDRIP. At the same time the notion of co-creation may be inherently limited in its extensibility. Caswell has argued, in studying the relationship between those victims of the Khmer Rouge regime and the official “mugshots” that were taken in Tuol Sleng Prison of them before almost all were executed, that designating such victims as co-creators of these official records would seriously misrepresent the power imbalance that was at play in the creation of the records (Caswell 2012). Hurley, however, argues that the concept of co-creatorship encompasses unwilling, forced or involuntary participation in the transactions documented in the records (Hurley 2005), and that the assertion of rights of co-creators is even more significant in such circumstances. In cases of egregious omissions, misrepresentations and conflations in the Archive, therefore, especially where these have palpable damaging human consequences and social justice dimensions, we argue that the archival field cannot afford not to act to address these questions, even given the concerns raised by Kaplan and Caswell.

4 Conclusion If we accept that marginalized and oppressed communities may be potentially and variously viewed as complex and diverse communities of records, communities of memory, and co-creators of records, and acknowledge the instrumental roles played by archives and records in their bitter pasts, then how can these communities and archives together identify ways to redress those pasts, achieve archival reconciliation, and at the same time, address and honour the complexities and diversity of the communities? We recognize that different concerns and perspectives arise in different national and community contexts and that these need to be addressed on their own

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terms, however, in concluding, we would mention three areas of research in which we have been engaged that suggest possible approaches.

4.1 Reconfiguring Archival Spaces McKemmish et al. (2011) advocate a reconfiguration of cultural spaces in Australia to represent all cultural voices, including a decolonization of archival functionality and professional recordkeeping practice. They envisage this process as “a collaborative, co-creative journey of archival reconciliation involving Indigenous and archival communities (encompassing archival institutions, organizational recordkeeping programs, the profession, and individual recordkeeping professionals/archivists).” Archival reconciliation involves acknowledgement of the impact of past and existing recordkeeping and archival structures and practices; and situating current and future structures and practices within the Archival Multiverse. The latter includes a recognition of different ways of knowing, evidence paradigms, forms of archives (such as Indigenous keeping places) and records, and transmission methods; and acceptance of differing constructs of ownership, intellectual property, privacy, access, and rights in records, as well as what constitutes the secret and sacred material of different cultures in different space-times. Respectful, negotiated community partnerships, sharing of governance and decision-making about current and historical recordkeeping, and implementation of community-centric protocols such as those emerging from Indigenous communities are essential features of such approaches. Similarly essential is the use of digital and social media technologies to support efforts to pluralize recordkeeping and the contents, uses, and development of archives, as well as digital repatriation. Other approaches include the community-based archiving movement that has grown and contributed extensively to archival ideas and practice in recent years, fueled by activism and social media capabilities, especially in the United States and United Kingdom (Bastian and Alexander 2010; Flinn et al. 2009). However, the caveat here is that although the community archives movement underscores grassroots approaches to community memory, such approaches must account for variation and differences within and between community groups.

4.2 Undertaking Reconciling Research Community research partnerships focus on exploring the archival multiverse (AERI 2011; Gilliland et al. 2016) and transforming research, theory and practice. They emphasize equitable participation that engages all participants, non-academic and academic, as partners and key stakeholders throughout the research processes, from

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research conception to dissemination, and take into account the multiple perspectives, and belief and value systems at work. Records Continuum concepts of cocreatorship and multiple simultaneous and parallel provenance (Hurley 2005; Ketelaar 2005) are examples of emergent theoretical frameworks relevant to social justice and human rights issues that are being applied in archival research studies to reposition marginalized or oppressed communities as active participatory agents in recordkeeping and archiving. This research movement is also benefiting from a global expansion in doctoral education in Archival Studies as a fundamental aspect of developing infrastructures for archival research (Gilliland and McKemmish 2004, 2013).

4.3 Pluralizing Archival Education and Enhancing Pedagogical and Ethical Approaches Pluralist approaches implemented in archival education can achieve greater diversity and cultural sensitivity in practice and scholarship, and produce archivists better equipped to work in complex and emergent national and community settings (Gilliland 2011). This has been a major focus of the Archival Education and Research Initiative (AERI). An agenda-setting paper authored by a large group of international scholars (AERI 2011) proposed the pluralisation of archival studies curricula and pedagogy through critically historicising and contextualising archival theory and practice; expanding existing curricula to focus on core archival concepts and values as well as processes; encouraging multidisciplinary approaches; strengthening community engagement in curriculum development; promoting internships in a wide range of archival contexts; and pluralising the archival faculty, and doctoral and professional student bodies.

References Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library and Information Resources Network (ATSILIRN). (2005). ATSILIRN Protocols. Available: https://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/atsilirn/protocols.atsilirn. asn.au/index6df0.html?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=0&Itemid=6. AERI Pluralizing the Archival Curriculum Group (PACG). (2011). Educating for the archival multiverse. American Archivist, 74(1), 69–102 (Spring/Summer 2011). Australian Human Rights Commission. (April, 1997). Bringing them home: report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families. Available: https://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/report/index.html. Bastian, J. A., & Memory, O. (2003). How a Caribbean community lost its archives and found its history. Westport CT.: Libraries Unlimited. Bastian, J. A., & Alexander, B. (Eds.). (2010). Communities and their archives: Creating and sustaining memory (Principles and Practice in Records Management and Archives). Caswell, M. (2011). Khmer Rouge archives: Accountability, truth, and memory in Cambodia. Archival Science, 11, 25–44.

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Caswell, M. (2014). Archiving the unspeakable: Silence, memory, and the photographic record in Cambodia. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin. Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam). (n.d.). https://www.dccam.org/. Faderman, L., & Stuart, T. (2006). Gay L.A.: A history of sexual outlaws, power politics, and lipstick lesbians. New York: Basic Books. First Archivist Circle. (2007). Protocols for Native American Archival Materials (2007). Available: https://www2.nau.edu/libnap-p/. Flinn, A., Stevens, M., & Shepherd, E. (2009). Whose memories, whose archives? Independent community archives, autonomy and the mainstream. Archival Science, 9, 71–86. Former dictatorships hoping to learn from German Stasi archive. (n.d.) Deutsche Welt. Available: https://www.dw.de/dw/article/0„1197738,00.html. Gilliland, A. J. (2001). Neutrality, social justice and the obligations of archival educators and education in the twenty-first century. Archival Science, 11. Gilliland, A., & McKemmish, S. (2004). Building an infrastructure for archival research. Archival Science, 4(3), 149–197. Gilliland, A., & McKemmish, S. (2013). Archival and recordkeeping research: Past, present and future. In Research methods: Information management, systems, and contexts. Prahan Vic: Tilde University Press. Harris, V. (2007). Archives and justice: A South African perspective. Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists. Hurewitz, D. (2008). Bohemian Los Angeles and the making of modern politics. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Hurley, C. (2005). Parallel provenance: (1) What, if anything, is archival description? Archives and Manuscripts, 33(1), 110–45. Parallel provenance: (2) When something is not related to everything else. Archives and Manuscripts, 33 (2), 52–91. Kaplan, E. (2000). We are what we collect, we collect what we are: Archives and the construction of identity. American Archivist, 63, 126–151 (Spring/Summer 2000). Ketelaar, E. (2005). Sharing: Collected memories in communities of records. Archives and Manuscripts, 33(1), 44. Mbembe, A. (n.d.). The power of the archive and its limits. In Verne, H., et al. (Eds.), Refiguring the archive (pp. 19–26). Dordecht, Netherlands: Klumer Academic Publishers. McCall, L. (2009). The complexity of intersectionality. In Emily, G. et al. (Eds.), Intersectionality and beyond: Law, power and the politics of location (pp. 49–76). McKemmish, S., Faulkhead, S., & Russell, L. (2011). Dis-trust in the Archive: Reconciling records. Archival Science, 11(3–4), 211–239. McKemmish, S., Lynette, R., Melissa, C., & Livia, I. (guest Eds.) (2012). Keeping cultures alive: Archives and indigenous human rights. Special Issue of Archival Science, 12(2). Nakata, M., & Langton, M. (Guest Eds.) (2005). Australian indigenous knowledge and libraries. Special Issue of Australian Academic and Research Libraries, 36(2). Ross, F., McKemmish, S., & Faulkhead, S. (2006). Indigenous knowledge and the archives: Designing trusted archival systems for Koorie communities. Archives and Manuscripts, 34(2), 112–151. Shin, G. W., Paul, Y. C., Lee, J. E., & Kim, S. (2007). South Korea’s democracy movement (1970– 1993): Stanford Korea Democracy project report. Palo Alto, CA: Korea Democracy Foundation and Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center, Stanford University. Available: https://iis-db.sta nford.edu/pubs/22590/KDP_Report_(final)-1.pdf. United Nations General Assembly (2007) Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples 2007. Available: https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf.

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United Nations Security Council. (2011). Assessment and report of Judge Patrick Robinson, President of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, S/2011/316. Available: https://www.icty.org/x/file/About/Reports%20and%20Publications/CompletionStrategy/ completion_strategy_18may2011_en.pdf. Yuval-Davis, N. (2006). Intersectionality and feminist politics. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 13(3), 193–209. Gilliland, A., McKemmish, S. & Lau A. (2016). Research in the archival multiverse. Melbourne: Monash Press.

Anne J. Gilliland is Associate Dean and Professor in the Department of Information Studies, Director of the UCLA Archival Studies Program, and Director of the Center for Information as Evidence at the University of California, Los Angeles. er research is located in multiple national and international contexts and addresses social justice and human rights issues as they relate to archives and records. She is a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists. [email protected]. Andrew J. Lau earned his Ph.D. in Information Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. He currently serves as the Senior Instructional Designers for the Division of Professional and Continuing Education at the University of New Orleans. His research interests include critical revisions to concepts of archival discourse, the history and development of archival theory, community-based archives, digital curation, documentation practices in contemporary art, and ethnographic methodologies in archival scholarship. [email protected]. Sue McKemmish is Professor and Chair of Archival Systems and Faculty of IT Indigenous Advancement Champion, Digital Equity Research Group, Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. She has been engaged in major research and standards initiatives relating to the use of metadata in records and archival systems, information resource discovery and smart information portals, Australian Indigenous archives, and the development of more inclusive archival educational programs that meet the needs of diverse communities. [email protected].

Chapter 8

Runners in an “Endless Relay”: A Brief Custodial History of the Archives of a Residents’ Movement in Japan Izumi Hirano

... A residents’ movement has no desk, No office with a nameboard at the door, it has someone who places a desk in his mind, it has someone who sees herself as an invisible office... from Terue Ashikawa’s Residents’ Movements (1973)

1 Introduction As Ashikawa, a poet, housewife, and anti-pollution activist, vividly depicts in her poem quoted above, the realities of the social movement organizations (SMOs) tend to be far from the archival ideals. The care of records remains at the bottom of their to-do list, as they have to mobilize all available resources to advance a certain cause (Brinton 1951). In Japan, the number of so-called “residents’ movements” has increased “explosively” since the 1960s (Miyamoto 1983, 192–193). While Japan as a whole was profiting from rapid economic growth, environmental pollution, and destructive local development projects were threatening the lives and rights of its people in many local areas. Residents in such areas were suddenly forced to stand up and fight against the polluting companies or the governments, both local and national. Having to act quickly and effectively, with limited time and resources, they gathered, talked, made 1 When the Society of Archival Institutions was established in 1976, it had only 24 institutional members. In 1984, it changed its name to the Japan Society of Archival Institutions (JSAI). Although its membership grew to 42 in 1985, the number of such institutions was still limited during the 70s (The Japan Society of Archival Institutions 1996, 356).

I. Hirano (B) Research Center for Cooperative Civil Societies, Rikkyo University, Toshima-ku, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_8

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decisions, took action, and created records in their “invisible office.” Valuing spontaneity and flexibility, they had neither a hierarchical organization nor a set of rigid rules. As a result, their records usually accumulated here and there, seldom creating an “organic whole” (Muller et al. 2003, 19) in a single, fixed place. When a social movement came to an end, its archives followed the fate of the movement,1 as the organizers rarely found an archival institution eager to house their archives. That is one of the reasons why many such “instant archives” (Ham 1975, 9–10) are now possibly lost or still stuck in closets in private houses in Japan. One of the scholars lamenting this situation argues that there are several “paradoxes” regarding such archives (Harayama 2009, 16). For example, on the one hand, it is impossible to conduct research on a particular SMO without its archives. On the other hand, it is difficult for an archival institution to correctly value such archives without a body of scholarly literature, which leads to their reluctance in acquiring them. This paradox must be solved if the Japanese archivists are to be willing to “take the trouble to compile a whole new world of documentary material, about the lives, desires, needs, of ordinary people.” (Zinn 2011, 130). In this short essay, the author will first examine the case of the archives of a particular residents’ movement preserved in the Research Center for Cooperative Civil Societies (RCCCS) at Rikkyo University in Tokyo where the author presently works. By describing how the archives2 of Yokohama Shinkamotsusen Hantai Undo (The Movement to Oppose the Yokohama New Freight Line, hereafter referred to as the Movement) came to the RCCCS, the author will demonstrate that the archives’ custodial history developed like “an endless relay”—a metaphor used by Fujibayashi (2001, 176)—involving several persons and organizations. She will then briefly discuss the problems shown in the case, and argue for the importance of a concerted effort by Japanese archivists to effectively preserve such archives for the use of future generations.

2 The Baton of the Relay: The Movement and Its Archives 2.1 About the Movement (1966–1981) In 1966, the residents of the Nakatehara Area of Kohoku Ward, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, caught a rumor that Japan National Railways (JNR) was planning to construct a new freight line in the middle of their quiet neighborhood. When the JNR failed to provide the residents with sufficient rationale for the project, they decided to form Yokohama Shinkamotsusen Hantai Kisei Domei (the Alliance Opposed to the

2 In

this paper, the author will refer to this particular aggregate of documents and records as “archives,” not an “archive” or a “collection.” Although the appropriateness of this usage could be argued from an archival point of view, the author will not address the issue as it is outside the scope of this essay.

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Yokohama New Freight Line,3 hereafter referred to as the Alliance), to work together on the issue. The movement gained momentum when the JNR plan, including the route of the new line, was formally approved by the board of directors in April 1967 and the company made clear that it intended to go ahead with the project irrespective of local protests. In June 1967, Yokohama Shinkamotsusen Hantai Domei Rengo Kyogikai (The Conference of Alliances Opposed to the Yokohama New Freight Line, hereafter referred to as the Conference) was formed as a unifying body for the local Alliances. The Representative of the Conference was Teitaro Yagi, a certified accountant, and the Secretary General was Shogo Miyazaki, a business owner. They functioned in tandem as a control center for the whole movement. The residents first thought that Ichio Asukata, the socialist Mayor of Yokohama who was a strong advocate of direct democracy by citizens, would stand by the residents. However, the Mayor eventually chose to support the project after the negotiations mediated by himself failed in 1969. Thereafter, the Conference had to fight against both the JNR, which tried to move the project forward according to the Compulsory Purchase of Land Law, and the Mayor, who was bound by the Law. The activities of the Conference included a sit-in in front of the Mayor’s Office (1972), filing for an injunction (1973), continuous prevention of compulsory land survey by JNR (1974-), and a move for separation and independence from Yokohama City (1975), to name a few (Miyazaki 2005; Yokohama 2003). They created documents prolifically, and used them effectively. They wrote letters, made appeals, issued statements, and published newsletters, flash reports, and flyers. These activities were all financed by donations, sales from boot fairs, and cooperative purchase programs. Despite such efforts, the Expropriation Committee of Kanagawa Prefecture finally issued rulings for individual proprietors in 1978, and in 1979, the new freight line was ready for operation. The movement settled with JNR at the Yokohama District Court in 1981. Mayor Asukata, recalling the turbulent years surrounding the construction of the line in his memoirs, said, “It was a mistake. We made a great fuss over its construction, but it is seldom used anymore” (Asukata 1987, 140–141). This comment somewhat validates the residents’ opposition to the construction, even though they failed to stop it.

2.2 About the Movement’s Archives As Miyazaki was the Secretary General of the Conference, his house became its de facto archives. When the Conference met, the participants voluntarily brought newsletters, flyers, and other documents that they regarded as important for everybody in the movement. Miyazaki set up his own policy of not throwing anything away,

3 English

translation of the names of the organizations related to the Movement by Avenell (2010).

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keeping documents “sometimes in envelopes, sometimes in piles.” When the Conference settled with the JNR in 1981, the Secretariat asked all the Alliances to send the relevant records so that their activities could be as fully documented as possible.4 After this collecting effort, Miyazaki started to organize the “considerable amount of papers” together with two of his colleagues and one graduate student. Going through the pile document by document, they slowly established 28 categories, according to which the most important documents were sorted and filed. Newspaper clippings were also filed. The rest-documents moved from Teitaro Yagi’s house and legal documents from the lawyers’ office-were left unsorted in filing boxes. After this initial arrangement was over in about a year (Miyazaki 1984, 24), the archives waited to be transferred to the Citizen Activity Library (Jumin Toshokan in Japanese), a private Library run by volunteers, in Tokyo.

3 Runners Who Took the Baton 3.1 The First Runner: The Citizen Activity Library (1993 or Earlier-1997) Already in the early 1970s, there were people concerned about the future of the records of Japanese residents’ movements. For those concerned, the loss of such records meant the loss of the evidence of the people’s activism and their “spirit of constantly remaking the institution” (Hidaka 1960, 4). Atsushi Nakai, an employee of the Japan Socialist Party in charge of pollution issues, was one of the concerned. There was also Hisashi Maruyama, a freelance writer and editor, who established and managed the Japan Minikomi Center,5 a special library of minikomis from 1971 to 1973. It was Nakai who contacted Maruyama and succeeded in convincing him of the need to establish a library collecting all kinds of documents created by residents’ or citizens’ movements, including minikomis, so that Japanese citizens could learn from each other’s experience. In 1976, the Citizen Activity Library (hereafter referred to as the Library) was established with Maruyama as its director. Its mission was to collect and preserve minikomis and any other records documenting the activities of Japanese citizens, and to make them available to the public. Miyazaki became an executive committee member of the Library in 1983 and the Conference archives were transferred to the Library sometime between 1984 and 1993. It is difficult to verify when the transfer took place, as there is no record documenting it. The Library, run totally on a voluntary basis, was always short of staff, money, and necessary skills. It was itself a movement; therefore, keeping records 4 Interview

with Shogo Miyazaki conducted by the author on November 19, 2012. term “minikomi” is an abbreviation of a coined word “mini-communication,” which refers to non-commercial serial publications such as newsletters and bulletins published by movements, civic organizations, families, and individuals.

5 The

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of their activities was not their priority. Moreover, even with support from many dedicated volunteers, including some librarians, making the Conference archives accessible proved to be too difficult a task. It slept quietly for years in a secure cabinet donated by the Conference Secretariat to house its archives.

3.2 The Second Runners 3.2.1

Saitama University (1997-)

In April 1997, The Resource Center for Socio-Dynamic Studies (hereafter referred to as the Center) was established within the Department of Economics, Saitama University, a national university in Saitama Prefecture to the north of Tokyo. The Center was the brainchild of Yoshihiko Kamii, Professor of Economics. Inspired by what he had seen at the Labor Studies Center, Wayne State University,6 he envisioned the Center as a place open to any citizen. He also thought that collecting the records of citizens’ activities and making them accessible to the public would be one way to attain that goal (Kamii interviewing Maruyama 2002, 5). His idea was gradually materialized by the capable research associate Yasushi Fujibayashi, through his collecting and community-building efforts for the Center. Sometime in 1997, Fujibayashi visited the Library and met Maruyama and Yoshihiro Sawanishi, a librarian who was the Secretary General of the Library since 1996. It was this meeting that made Maruyama think that some part of their collection, including the Conference archives, might find a better home in the Center (Maruyama 1997a, 2). With Miyazaki’s consent, both organizations agreed upon the transfer of the archives. It was donated to the Center sometime before its opening ceremony in July 1997 (Maruyama 1997b, 4). However, the Center did not have an archivist. Despite the initial arrangement by Miyazaki, it would have been difficult for any users to make sense out of it without an appropriate finding aid. The Conference archives thus stood quietly in the stacks for about two years.

3.2.2

Yokohama City History Compilation Office (1997-)

In May 1999, Hiroaki Hada, an expert researcher for Yokohama City History Compilation Office (hereafter referred to as the Office), visited the Citizen Activity Library. In charge of collecting materials for a chapter on diverse aspects of the lives of Yokohama citizens, he hoped to find minikomis published in Yokohama. It was Sawanishi who suggested to Hada that the Conference archives would be a great source for the history to be written. “I did not know anything about the movement at that time, but

6 https://www.labor.wayne.edu/center/labor-studies

(Accessed October 16, 2020).

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I instantly felt it would be relevant,” recollects Hada.7 As the archives had already been transferred to the Center, Hada went to Saitama University soon thereafter, and arranged to borrow the whole archives for one year to catalog and microfilm it (Hada 2001). When the work was completed, the archives returned to the Center with a detailed, item-level inventory and 40 reels of 35-mm microfilm. In this way, two institutions created a situation where users could access the archives either in Saitama in the original format or in Yokohama in microfilm.

3.2.3

Cooperation

The two bodies have worked in coordination since then. They discussed and negotiated the access conditions for the archives, and compiled and published the Selected Documents of The Movement to Oppose the Yokohama New Freight Line (9 volumes) as a part of a series titled “Corpus of Japanese Post-War Residents’ Movements” from Suirensha in 2008. After this publication, the Center accessioned two additional donations, thanks to Miyazaki’s proposal: The personal papers of Teitaro Yagi, the Representative of the Conference, and those of Mitsuhiro Sawahata, the leader of the Seinen Kodotai (Youth Action Group). The cataloging and microfilming of these papers were again carried out by Hada at the City of Yokohama Municipal Archives Reference Room, the successor body of the Office. With original documents and a set of microfilm in Saitama, another set of microfilm in Yokohama, and a set of Selected Documents in many libraries all over Japan, the accessibility of the important documents contained in the archives increased dramatically during these years.

3.3 The Third Runner: Rikkyo University (2012-) In March 2009, Saitama University signed an agreement with Rikkyo University to jointly own and use the collection of the Center for the Education and Research in Cooperative Human Relations, the successor organization of the original Center established in 1997. It was also decided that Rikkyo University, whose campus was located conveniently in the Tokyo metropolitan area, should have physical custody of the collection. Accordingly, Rikkyo University established the RCCCS in April 2010, “with the aim of contributing to the realization of sustainable and cooperative civil societies by promoting research through collecting, preserving, and making available large amount of documentations on local and global activities by citizens worldwide.”8 The Conference archives were transferred to the RCCCS in March 2012, and are now open for research. With more than 3500 items covering about 12 m of stacks 7 Interview

with Hada, conducted by the author on November 25, 2012. (Accessed October 16, 2020).

8 https://www.rikkyo.ac.jp/research/institute/rcccs/

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(including the papers of Yagi and Sawahata), it is one of the most popular archives among visiting researchers. As the RCCCS still has no facility for the long-term preservation of films, microfilm copies are kept in Saitama, resulting in the shared custody of the archives by three different institutions.

4 Discussion In the preceding sections, the author demonstrated how the archives of the Conference had been preserved by a relay of several organizations, public and private. It changed hands three times in about three decades after its closure. Although it is good news that the archives are preserved, the case shows the lack of some things we archivists value, such as professionalism, documentation, security, and continuity. First, it should be noted that, among the dramatis personae in this brief narrative, there was no professional archivist. Only Hada, trained as a historian, knew how to deal with archives and kept records of how he went about his business. For all the others, the focus was on preserving the records, not on documenting what they did to them. As a result, some important information on the expanded provenance—the story of the archives’ “many adventures” (Yeo 2009, 50)—would remain unknown forever. However, seen from the other side, this very lack of documentation is also an important part of its context. First, it shows that it was the citizens, not archivists, who made a considerable effort to keep the important records of citizens’ activities. Second, the details of such efforts were under-documented and will thus remain hidden unless archivists make an extra effort to find them out. Third, those citizens had not even considered getting assistance from archival institutions, due partly to their reluctance in turning to any public bodies for help. For example, when Miyazaki started arranging the archives, he consulted nobody. He and his colleagues spent many hours acting as self-appointed archivists dealing with the closed fonds of an inactive organization. As a result of their arrangement, the original order-if there had been any-might have been lost. It left, instead, the precious evidence of how the activists themselves organized their memory of the movement ex post facto. The order they imposed possibly reflects how they wanted the movement to be understood and remembered by future generations. Despite the fact that Miyazaki himself is not fully content with this arrangement,9 it has been maintained as the “received order” ever since (Nesmith 2005, 264). One more point to be made is that the preservation of the archives depended as much on the effort of individuals as on sheer luck. The author, knowing it is wrong, still cannot help asking, “What would have happened if one of those people had not been there?” The relay seems to have worked here. The baton, “the glorious records of a residents’ movement” (Nakamura 2001, 83), has been handed off safely. Nevertheless, anyone would instantly see that luck played too important a role in 9 Interview

with Miyazaki, conducted by the author on November 19, 2012.

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this case in moving the right person to the right place at the right moment to receive the baton. Moreover, the relay is possibly not over. Whether the RCCCS, the present home of the Conference archives, could be the anchor of the relay, depends on its survival within the university. Harayama’s paradox has yet to be solved. It must be solved by the concerted efforts of Japanese archivists who are concerned about the fate of SMO archives. We must learn from the experience of the Japanese citizens who tried hard to keep their records. We must also learn from the experience of our colleagues abroad who have been successful in capturing such records in their repositories. Furthermore, we need to work closely with SMOs not only to know more about how they create and keep their records, but also to earn their trust. We have to do all of this before the time comes when “the theories of the citizens’ movements will be written by the citizens themselves” (Koda 1968), as they will not be able to do so without the archives.

References10 Ashikawa, T. (1973). Jumin Undo. [Residents’ movements]. Kankyo Hakai, 4(5), 3–4. [Z6–644]. Asukata, I. (1987). Seiseiruten-Asukata Ichio Kaisouroku. [Metempsychosis - Memoirs of Ichio Asukata]. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha, 1987. [GK38-E1]. Avenell, S. (2010). Making Japanese citizens: Civil society and the mythology of the Shimin in Postwar Japan. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. Brinton, E. S. (1951). Archives of causes and movements: Difficulties and some solutions as illustrated by the Swarthmore college peace collection. The American Archivist, 14(2), 147–153. Fujibayashi, Y. (2001). Jidai ni Saosashita Hitobito no Kiroku o Nokosu. [Preserving the records of people who struggled against the tide of the times]. In: Jumin Toshokan 25-nenshi Henshu Iinkai. (ed.). Jumin Toshokan 25 nen no Ayumi. Tokyo: Jumin Toshokan. 172–176. [UL444-G3]. Hada, H. (2001). Saitama Daigaku Keizaigakubu Shakai Dotai Shiryo Senta Shozo Yokohama Shinkamotsusen Hantai Undo Shiryo. [Records of the Movement to Oppose Yokohama New Freight Line at the Resource Center for Socio-Dynamic Studies, Department of Economics, Saitama University]. Shishi Kenkyu Yokohama, 13, 62–76. [Z8–2747]. Ham, F. G. (1975). Archival edge. The American Archivist, 38(1), 5–13. Harayama, K. (2009). Shimin-Jumin Undo Shiryo o meguru Genzaino Seidoteki Kadai. [Some systematic problems concerning the records of citizens’—or residents’—movements.] In “1970 nendai no Shimin- Jumin Undo ga Chikusekishita Shiryo no Seiri, Katsuyo no Michi wo saguru” Kanko Iinkai (ed.). 1970 nendai no Shimin-Jumin Undo ga Chikusekishita Shiryo no Seiri, Katsuyo no Michi o saguru - Shiryo no motsu Daitaifukano na Kachi o Ikasutameni. Tokyo: Kanko Iinkai, 14–18. [not available in NDL]. Hidaka, R. (ed.) (1960). 1960-nen 5-gatsu 19-nichi. [May 19, 1960]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. [319.8-H431g]. Kamii, Y., interviewing Maruyama, Hisashi. (2002). Jumin Toshokan no 25 nen o Saitama Daigaku ha do hikitsuguka. [How Saitama University will take over the 25-year legacy of the Citizen Activity Library]. Prism 1, 1–5. [Z71-J700]. Koda, T. (1968). Jusho no Kanso. [Impressions on winning the award]. Asahi Journal, July 14, 1968, 7. [Z23–7].

10 Given

in brackets (ex. [Z6-644]) are the National Diet Library Call Number, which gives you Japanese bibliographic information. http://iss.ndl.go.jp/.

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Maruyama, H. (1997a). Kinkyo Houkoku: Nanju suru Jumin Toshokan no Shorai Koso zukuri. [Recent News: Difficulties in Planning for the Future of the Citizen Activity Library]. Purizumu (prism), 63, 1–2. [Z21–936]. Maruyama, H. (1997b). Yokohama Shinkamotsusen Shiryo hoka, Shakai Dotai Shiryo Senta e. [Some Records, including that of Yokohama New Freight Line, were transferred to The Resource Center for Socio-Dynamic Studies]. Purizumu (prism), 64, 4. [Z21–936]. Miyamoto, K. (1983). Showa no Rekishi (vol.10), Keizai Taikoku. [History of Showa. (Vol.10). The Economic Powerhouse]. Tokyo: Shogakukan. [GB511–123]. Miyazaki, S. (1984). Jumin Toshokan ni kitai suru. [Expectations for the Citizen Activity Library]. Kankyo Hakai, 151, 24–25. [Z6–644]. Miyazaki, S. (2005). Ima, “Kokyosei” o Utsu: “Dokyumento” Yokohama Shinkamotsusen Hantai Undo. [To Counter the “Publicness” Today]. Tokyo: Sodosha. [DL825-H50]. Muller, S., Feith, J. A., & Fruin, R. (2003). Manual for the arrangement and description of archives. (Arthur H. Leavitt, Trans.). Chicago: The Society of American Archivists. Nakamura, K. (2001). Kaikan Zengo no Fukei - Jumin Undo to no kakawari no naka de. [Landscape Before and After the Opening - In Relation to Residents’ Movements]. In: Jumin Toshokan 25nenshi Henshu Iinkai. (ed.). Jumin Toshokan 25 nen no Ayumi. Tokyo: Jumin Toshokan. 78–84. [UL444-G3]. Nesmith, T. (2005). Reopening archives: Bringing new contextualities into archival theory and practice. Archivaria, 60, 259–274. The Japan Society of Archival Institutions. (1996). Nihon no Monjokan Undo - Zenshiryokyo no 20 nen. [The Japanese Archival Movement - 20 Years of the Japan Society of Archival Institutions]. Tokyo: Iwata Shoin. [UL14-G4]. Yeo, G. (2009). Custodial history, provemance, and the description of personal records. Libraries and The Cultural Record, 44, 50–64. Yokohama Shi Soumukyoku Shishi Hensan Shitsu. (2003). Yokohama Shishi II, Vol.3 (2) [History of Yokohama City], Yokohama City. [GC76-H13]. Zinn, H. (2011, original speech was delivered in 1970). Secrecy, archives, and the public interest. In H. Zinn (Ed.), Howard Zinn on history (pp. 115–130). New York: Seven Stories Press.

Izumi Hirano is an archivist at the Research Center for Cooperative Civil Societies, Rikkyo University. She is also a part-time lecturer for the Graduate Course in Archival Science at Gakushuin University. Her research interest is documenting social movements and society.

Chapter 9

Current Situation of Ecclesiastic Archives in Transylvania, Romania: Legal Situation and Political Debates Artur-Lorand Lakatos

1 Introduction In November 2011, despite the protests of Political Opposition, the Romanian Parliament adopted the proposal of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR) and gave a favorable vote to the initiave that proposed handing back ecclesiastic funds and collections to their creators, the historical churches and confessions there. The debate is still ongoing, not being free often from nationalist emotive arguments. This situation has its roots much deeper in the history than the present abusive measures of the country’s post-World War II Communist government. Before the Unification in 1918, the situation of church-created documents evolved in a different way in the Old Kingdom, as was in Transylvania. In Moldova and Tara Romaneasca, the historical provinces which formed the Old Kingdom of Romania (unified in 1859), the Orthodox Church was dominating religious life of the habitants, and by tradition, the head of the Church was subordinated to the main representative of secular power, the head of the State. Even if the orthodox priests had kept the evidence of the Act of Civil Status before, their uniform management started at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Civil Code from 1864 laicized the Act of Civil Status and took the related archives into custody of State Institutions. In Transylvania, situation was different. Due to its multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-confessional character, for centuries of Transylvanian Principate and Habsburg Monarchy, many different Churches and Confessions had a greater freedom and often played a key role in evolution of the political life of the habitants. After World A.-L. Lakatos (B) Institutul Roman Pentru Evaluare si Strategie, Ires, Calea Turzii, Cluj-Napoca Cluj, Romania e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_9

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War I, when Transylvania became part of Romania, several legal attempts—like the Law of Archives from 1925—were made for unification of the Archive legislation. But the complete etatization measures were taken during the Communist regime, in 1950, 1971, and 1974, when successive legislative measures transferred great parts of independent Church archives into the State administration. These measures have always been considered to be abusive by Church organizations and after 1989, they took efforts for taking back their heritage from the state government. Our paper will examine both the legal and practical aspects of current situation of the Church archives as a main purpose, with a special reflection on their current legal status and on the political arguments centered on this issue.

2 Church Archives in Romania Churches have always played an important role in East-Central Europe. A Church traditionally meant more than a religious institution for people of these places: It used to fulfill basic roles in building society, national conscience, education through ecclesiastical schools, etc.1 The fact that the province of Transylvania, in its geographical and historical definition, has always been a land of multiethnic, multi-confessional, and multicultural diversity, represented a unity in diversity long before the European integration. Having a Romanian majority, an important Hungarian element, its ethnic landscape is completed by German, Armenian, Jewish, Gipsy, and in a much smaller measure, Bulgarian, Slovakian, and other minorities. From a religious point of view, besides Orthodox and Greek-Catholic, characteristic religions for Romanian majority, Hungarians and Germans (so-called Saxons) mostly became RomanCatholic, Calvinist Reformed, Evangelical, or Unitarian religions. In such a diverse landscape of society, conflicts were often unavoidable. On the other hand, however, peaceful and constructive interactions, coexistence of cultures, and cross-cultural interferences were common, even banal. Competition of different religious cults was often manifested in constructive directions, like improving the quality of education in Ecclesiastical schools, which were practically the main centers for education in the XVI-XIX.2 And all the important churches kept their own system of archives. In the following sections, we present the history of some of them.

1 A list of selective bibliography is here: Sabrina Petra Ramet (ed.), Protestantism and Politics in Eastern Europe and Russia: The Communist and Postcommunist Eras, Duke University Press, Durham, 1992; Christine Chaillot, The Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, Peter Lang Pub Inc, 2011; Bruce R. Berglund, Brian Porter-Szucs (eds.), Christianity and Modernity in Eastern Europe, Central European University Press, 2010; Thomas Bremer (ed.), Religion and the Conceptual Boundary in Central and Eastern Europe: Encounters of Faiths (Studies in Central and Eastern Europe), Palgrave MacMillan, 2008; etc. 2 About role of Ecclesiastical schools and the constructive rivalry see: “A kolozsvári egyházi iskolák helye és szerepe az erdélyi magyar közm˝uvel˝odésben”, in Tudásmenedzsment, Pécs, (Hungary), IX évfolyam, 2 szám, 2008, p 99–109.

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3 A Case of Roman Catholic Archives in Transylvania The center of Roman Catholic religion in Transylvania, Alba Iulia, suffered serious losses for centuries. Due to this, most of the medieval documents of the Bishop are lost forever, and we found only those from 1729 to the present are complete though we could have traced them to 1715. During the Transylvanian Principate, many documents of the Church had been secularized, but under Habsburg rule, most of them were returned to the Church. A part of the archive materials preserved by the Church were lost in 1949, when the Communist regime nationalized the Batthyaneum library, where a part of the archive had been kept.3 During decades of Communist regime, Roman Catholic Church Archives suffered, all together with the other Church institutions, some other confiscation measures, too. Currently, the function of these archives is based on the Codex Iuris Canonici from 1983 that was adopted at the II Synod of the Vatican. It was in 2003 when the collecting centers stared being created in several Transylvanian cities under the initiative of Archbishop Jakubinyi György to collect the archive materials of smaller congregations there.4 The Proclamation at the Diet of Turda in 1568 marks the birth of Unitarian religion in Transylvania, which is based on the Antitrinitarian teachings of Ferenc David. Being a relatively “new” religion, and with regional characteristics—its only Episcopate being in Cluj—most of its documents remained preserved till today, mostly by various church officials, priests of communities and congregations. In the middle of the eighteenth century, the archives dedicated to the Church’s central organs were also found in the center of Cluj, most of the documents being kept.5 The rich collection of the archives is even today under restoration. This small cult—having currently less than 80,000 followers—is the beneficiary of several outstanding international relations, among which we have to mention especially the Transylvania Archive Project (TAP), initiated by history professors of the Boston University, which was granted modern infrastructure for the Archives.6 A similar situation could be seen in the case of Reformed Church, where collections were preserved for centuries, but due to less centralized character of it, funds were also spread in territory, that is, in the custody of institutions and congregations which created them. The first materials were gathered in the end of sixteenth century, and in 1714, Bethlen Laszló, the intendant responsible for the economic situation of the Episcopate, commended a special box for the important documents. The first inventory was realized in the following year, 1715.7 A unified collective archive was created only in during the repressive Communist regime, when the restrictive 3 http://leveltar.katolikus.hu/index.htm?http&&&leveltar.katolikus.hu/gyulafehervar.htm,

Accesed on April 29, 2012. 12: 35. 4 Archives of the Unitarian Church from Transylvania, (AUCT), Archive Legislation Files. F 1–2. 5 http://archives.unitarian.ro/description.htm, Accesed on April 29, 2012. 13:10. 6 Archives of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania (AUCT). Archive Legislation files, f 4. http:// archives.unitarian.ro/indexa.html. 7 Dáné Veronka, Sipos Gábor, Az Erdélyi Református Egyházkerület Központi Gy˝ ujt˝olevéltárának ismertet˝o leltára, Az Erdélyi Református Egyházkerület kiadása, Kolozsvár, 2002. pp 20–34.

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General Instructions no. 6720/1957, completed by Decree no. 353/1957 and Decision of Ministers Council no. 1119/1957, made possible, or actually encouraged diverse institutions and organizations to keep centralized archives of their own materials, being also compulsory for them to function following same rules as the State Archives. Based on that, Reformed Church made its strategy for founding three socalled collecting archives in Targu Mures, Sfantu Gheorghe and Cluj. In 1961, two of them in Cluj and in Targu Mures started its functioning and have been functioning since then.8 After 1989, all the Ecclesiastical Archives became free to develop their international relations and the quantity of materials in custody. Compared to the Transylvanian Principate and the Habsburg Empire, the medieval Hungarian Kingdom promoted a good cooperation with the institutions of the laic state for centuries. For example, Emperor Joseph II stated, in one of his decrees in 1784, that priests of accepted confessions have the obligation to keep their followers’ records of civilian status for the state administration, too.9 A recent position of the Association of Ecclesiastic Archives from Romania contains the following: First of all we have to state… that Historical Churches from Transylvania, the Banat and Partium (both Catholic and Protestant) regulated the Problematics of Document keeping with hundreds of years before any of laic states from this region of Europe… It is not surprising that in this moment, the most complete and best kept historical archives from Romania are the Ecclesiastic Archives from Transylvania, the Banat and Partium.10

4 Cases in Moldova and Walachia The evolution took different directions in other historical provinces of Romania, Moldova, and Walachia (Tara ¸ Româneasc˘a), where, due to Byzantine model, subordination of the Church toward the laic power was more emphasized. Orthodox Church was dominant there, and it was also the beneficiary of a well-organized internal administrative structure that was similar to its western equivalents. It was certainly one of the pillars of culture and society, but it had no special ambition in the field of records for civil status. The beginning of recording registers containing data of civilian status of the parishioners started relatively late, in 1808–1809, a period in which state power was weaker than ever before.11 Following the Unification of the 8 Sipos

Gábor, “A kolozsvári Református Gy˝ujt˝olevéltár negyven éve” in Korunk, September 2001, nr. 9. pp. 46–49. 9 Letter of deputy Mircia Giurgiu toward President Traian Basescu (in the following: Mircia Giurgiu) November 29, 2011, published on http://www.napocanews.ro/2011/11/mircia-giurgiu-ii-scrie-luitraian-basescu-pe-tema-arhivelor-nationale.html, accesed on March 19, 2012. 17: 10. 10 AUCT. Archive Legislation files. f 10. 11 It is the period of the so-called Fanariot princes (in Romanian: Domnitor, or Ruler). The main characteristics of 1712–1821 of Romanian History are represented by the complete subordination of the two states to the Ottoman Empire. The position and function of Domnitor was something to be bought from the Sublime Porte directly but for undetermined period, because the Sultan had the power to replace the once-named Domnitor at any moment if another person came with a better offer. Due to this, these princes (Domnitors) had the major interest in gathering as much income

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two Principates in 1864, the Romanian Civil Code, designed after French model, stated laicization of acts of civil status and disposed the surrender of existing matriculation registers to the state administration. A major difference in attitude can be observed especially between Orthodox and Catholic churches in this case. On the one hand, Orthodox priests generally conformed to the rule. On the other hand, priests of Catholic Church from Moldova who had the Episcopate in Ia¸si where there were many with Hungarian, German, and Italian origins preferred to avoid this, and rather kept the documents in the Episcopate at first. They, however, surrendered them gradually to the State Archives till the beginning of the twentieth century. Following World War I, with the unification of Romanian-inhabited territories in one state, the same measures were applied in the unified provinces too, during the interwar period.12 We have to mention that success of these measures depended a lot on the cooperation of priests and church officials. In addition, the application could not be done immediately. Taking over of these acts proceeded gradually.

5 During and After the Communist Regime The Communist leadership of Romania after WWII confiscated in several waves certain materials, and took them into state custody, on the base of several legal initiatives. Among these, the most important are Decree no. 153/1950, for the surrender of acts of civil status from Confessional Archives to National (State) Archives, and Decree no. 472/1971, regarding National Archivist Fund of Socialist Republic of Romania, which stated, in Article 52, that those religious cults which had different kinds of documents derived from their own activities, should surrender them to the State Archives. In 1989, Romania adopted the model of pluralist democracy, in which the right of property became, at least on declarative level, unalienable right, and retrocession of different goods confiscated by the previous Socialist system, begin. The process is far from being over in this moment, not even on the level of real estate properties, and even less was moved on plan of archive materials. In 2011, the deputies of DAHR initiated modification of the current Law of National Archives, 16/1996, then eventually modified and completed it by several amendments. The issue is, again, far from being over, but already created major debates provoking the heated arguments pro and contra. At one side, a cheap xenophobia is still a political “service” which is bought by a considerable part of voters, and which is often speculated by politicians, even by as possible, from taxes, credits, corruption, and privileges given to relatives and associates before the dismissal. Abuses and arbitrary taxes imposed on the population were common, and this is why the period is perceived to be one of the gloomiest periods of Romanian History. Since most of these Princes were Greek merchants from the Fanar (Fener) quarter of Istanbul, the period is called as Phanariot Age. The Phanariot Age ended with the Greek National Uprising and War of Independence, when these Greek merchants were perceived to be untrustworthy by the Sultan. 12 Mircia Giurgiu, Ibidem.

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some members of Democratic parties. In this approach, the issue of retrocession is manipulated to receive a nationalistic shade, and “National interests” outperforms any kind of moral and legal arguments. This kind of cheap populism, on the other hand, is less used in this case, probably because of a simple reason: Archive funds issues affect only a small part of population, that is, archivists and researchers. Many Archivists—especially officials from the structure of National Archives— and many Historians, among them well-established scholars, are against retrocession. One of their arguments is that retrocession will unavoidably affect the “national” patrimony of the centralized National Archives, the executive process itself—through mismanagement—can create important losses, and will make a great volume of work futile. Making copies and microfilms—which could be a solution of compromise with the original documents kept safe and the exact copies provided for use—also means the use of a great amount of time and work, which could last even for decades. Many researchers are afraid that, in case of retrocession, access to materials could be more difficult, or even impossible if archivists of Church archives or their superiors—heads of the church—decide so. Currently, the archives legislation in Romania might not be the most permissive one in Europe, but it works after certain general rules which are based on the legislation, and its decisions are usually motivated to keep certain documents easy to access on the base of legal paragraphs. But in the moment, certain funds are being handed back and their old-new possessors have a free hand to make decisions on who can access the particular documents, and hence, those researchers whom they see unfavorable because of subjective reasons are easily restricted the access to the archives. There are some fears—even though these are still less generalized—that in case of the centralized church structures, certain documents can “migrate” out of the country’s borders if a higher structure of the respective church asks or orders so, or in other cases, certain funds can be sold or transferred if the church’s archivists decide that several collections or funds should have their respective places elsewhere at a moment. On the other side, those who have a special interest in the ecclesiastic archives, that is politicians, lawyers, archivists, rely on a system of arguments of their own. First of all, their approach is built on universal right for property: If private property is sacred and inviolable, so is the right of historic Churches for the documents which they produced. And there are the other fears related to this. They argue that Ecclesiastic Archives are currently managed more professionally, are better equipped, and have more permissive and flexible internal rules than the State Archives. Thanks to their dynamic system of international relations and cooperation with western religious and laic-professional institutions as archival infrastructure, they are able to provide better service than most units of National Archives.

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6 Conclusion The debate over the issue we have seen above is far from being settled. Actually, it manifests itself as an issue of political battleground in the Romanian Parliament, for which, in current political and economic situation, it is a secondary issue. And, it is unlikely that a decision will be adopted during 2012. On the other hand, for Romanian and the international community of historians and archivists, it can represent the base of legal, moral, and professional debates. It is an issue which can have analogies in other countries too, and by this, deserves the worldwide attention of specialists who are interested.

Artur-Lorand Lakatos, Ph.D. is an Assistant Researcher in CNCSIS Research Grant GAR TE206, Romanian Academy of Science, George Baritiu Institute of History. BA in History and Economic Sciences.

Chapter 10

Regulation of the Female Body in Japanese Society and Its Transformation Through Globalization: From Reigi-Saho to Image Control Nanako Hayami

1 Introduction In this paper, we shall analyze the transformation of female body regulation in Japanese society. The ‘body regulation’ in this paper refers to particular behaviors carried out in everyday life, especially the Japanese rules of etiquette, ‘reigi-saho 礼儀作法’; derived from cultural and political norms. For example, the majority of Japanese people tend to kneel in the seiza position when they sit on tatami, the Japanese traditional straw floor covering, and repeatedly bow even when they talk with each other by telephone. These examples indicate that people can embody cultural and political elements and they unconsciously behave according to certain norms. The main purpose of the research is the analysis of the transformation of female body regulation from the Meiji era (1868–1912) to the contemporary global age. Of course there is great diversity in body regulation style, depending on region, age and ethnicity, and it is almost impossible to define the ideal type. Moreover, we are living in the age of the collapse of the great narrative, and hence face a weakening of common values or special norms. Therefore, body regulation styles have been intricately diversifying, and it is quite difficult to research its details comprehensively. However, we shall start by attempting to examine those styles through the analysis of the main institutional activities concerning female body regulation, including the traditional influential text books on it, by each era. Reigi-saho was originally considered as an expression of respect for others, and its main function was considered to be the creation of a harmonious situation for N. Hayami (B) Meiji University of Integrative Medicine, Medical Education and Research Center, Nantan, Kyoto, Japan e-mail: [email protected]

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_10

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human interaction or communication in general. All regions have their own pattern of behavior derived from cultural and political discourses. In the case of Japanese, it might be considered that the style of body regulation has been changed through civilization in the Edo era (1603–1868), modernization in the Meiji era, and globalization in contemporary society. Originally, reigi-saho was not clearly systematized. The first text book on the rituals of aristocratic society, which should have been the model for the samurai warrior society, was published by the Muromachi government (1392–1573), in order to train subordinates. At this stage, the book was reserved for people in the upper classes, but as civilization moved forward, not only the upper class but common people also started reading it, and began to incorporate its teachings into their behavior in everyday life. From then on, through the process of modernization and globalization, female body regulation style has been diversified, and the female body has transformed from passive to a positive or performative stage. In contemporary society, Japanese women have been released from traditional regulation, but they are forced to choose which manners of deportment is the most suitable for them.

2 Reigi-Saho in Japanese Society, and Manners/Etiquette in Western Society Similar to ‘manners’ or ‘etiquette’ in Western society, in Japan there is a folkway or ‘reigi-saho’ that entails a different style in each community or class, and that people have adapted in their own way in everyday life. Originally, there was a strong connection between folkway and regard for the others, especially towards senior people, or members of different communities. ‘Reigi-saho’ also has the function of keeping order in the community itself or wider world communication.

2.1 Manners and Etiquette in the West As with reigi-saho in Japanese society, there are customs of manners and etiquette in Western society. However, some scholars of Japanese studies and comparative interaction ritual point out that there are slight differences between reigi-saho and these Western customs. For example, Takemitsu indicates that Japanese reigi-saho has been considered as having a strong traditional tie with moral consciousness. Because the traditional Japanese religion ‘Shinto 神道’ has no specific lessons or doctrines concerning conscience, people cultivated their moral sense through the interaction of daily life. However, in Western society, moral issues had been considered in terms of religious values based on Christianity and etiquette had been recognized as necessary for the performance of upper class society (Takemitsu 2008).

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As Takemitsu mentions, some distinguished Western scholars familiar with sociology of the body raise the other definition of Western etiquette. N. Elias mentions that etiquette was necessary to survive in aristocratic society, and analyzes the ‘civilizing processes’ started in the seventeenth century, that is, the process by which the middle class emulated the etiquette of the aristocracy (Elias 1939). J. Arditi analyzed the transformation of the ‘discourse’ in English etiquette books, and mentioned that Western etiquette had a strong relationship with moral or ethical consciousness in the beginning, but that its systematization had sometimes weakened this relationship (Arditi 1988). In other words, etiquette after having been systematized, became not a form learned through daily life interactions, but a pattern absorbed through personal learning from etiquette books. E. Goffman, an American sociologist, mentioned that etiquette in modern society in general does not reflect morality but most people consciously care about it because they are concern with public appearances. His theory stresses that people in modern society respect not normative but expressive issue. Goffman says that people in contemporary society do not care about morality but about their own performance, that their actions look good to others. He believes, from his dramaturgical approach, that people in modern society are just ‘merchants of morality’ (Goffman 1959). As these analyses mention, manners and etiquette tend to address not moral issues or reverence for the others, but personal or utilitarian issues.

2.2 Reigi-Saho in Japan Reigi-saho in Japan is sometimes considered to be the same as etiquette in Western society, because Japanese people traditionally tend to pay a lot of attention to aesthetic appearances. Somewhat against the discourse, the Japanese scholar Minamoto, insists that behavioral patterns called ‘kata型’ were not recognized simply as an issue of bodily appearance in Japanese traditional thought (Minamoto 1992). Minamoto mentions that there are two interpretations of kata: one is just a translation of English words, such as ‘pattern’ or ‘style,’ and the other refers to the pattern embodied by human beings through the routine.1 Minamoto says that the Japanese culture traditionally understands the meaning of kata in the latter sense, and that kata has also been defined as the ‘discipline’ that enables the unity of ‘mind’, ‘skill’ and ‘body’. In Japan, it has been traditionally understood that an acquisition of ‘skill’ through ‘bodily’ exercise will train one’s ‘mind’. In other words, attaining a matured mind and embodying the skill, cannot be done without bodily training. It implies that Japanese people consider that the body and mind are of equal value, and never see dualism of body and mind as in 1 Minamoto

mentions that there are two types of exercise: one type includes cultural exercises such as ’no 能’, ’kabuki 歌舞伎’, ’buto 舞踏’ (traditional Japanese performing arts), calligraphy and ’sado’ (traditional Japanese ritual of the tea ceremony). The other includes martial arts such as ’kendo 剣道’, ’jyudo 柔道’, ’kyudo 弓道,’ and ’karate 空手’ (Minamoto 1992).

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Western thought. Basically, in the western tradition the body and mind have been strictly divided as ‘nature’ and ‘reason,’ and the former, as ‘nature,’ has never been considered an important tool for the creation of a ‘good mind’. On the contrary, Japanese culture accepted the body not only as ‘nature’ that needs to be controlled by ‘reason,’ but also as the ‘receptacle for skill,’ which is indispensable for training the mind. One particular tradition from the Edo era exemplifies this: it is said that when the children of the samurai warrior class tried to learn the ‘bushi-do’ spirit, they never read text books such as ‘the Analects of Confucius’ at first, but trained their bodies according to their fathers’ samurai kata (Takemitsu 2008). This example indicates that people in Japan traditionally placed an emphasis on bodily discipline. Western people consider moral issues according to religious discourse, but Japanese people consider them on a practical level involving the body.

3 Women and Body Regulation Certain records show that in the Edo era, the text book on reigi-saho was read not only by the people in the samurai warrior class or aristocratic class, but also by common people (Nagatomo 1993). As was public policy in the Muromachi era, the government built some schools of Japanese culture meant to systematize aristocratic ritual and bushi (samurai warrior) society ritual, and collate these rituals in one text book on the reigi-saho entitled ‘Reiho 礼法’. Reiho was published first by the Ogasawara School, and it was written according to the doctrines of Confucianism. This text was followed until the Edo era and by this period, civilization had developed to the level described in reigi-saho. Also ‘Jyosei Reiho 女性礼法’, the text book on the daily life ritual for women was published in the same era.

3.1 Body Regulation in Modern Japanese Society Along with the Meiji era, modernization or Westernization was introduced into Japanese society. In this environment, Westernized bodily behavior was adopted by the upper class society, men in particular. Contrarily, most women even in the upper class still followed the traditional Japanese way of bodily ritual and fashion style in the Meiji era (Kato 2004). In this period, the Confucian doctrine of ‘Dan-son Jyo-hi男尊女卑 (predominance of men over women)’ had been reinforced because of military conscription. Moreover, in 1899 the Meiji government launched the slogan of ‘Ryo-sai Ken-bo良 妻賢母 (good wife, wise mother),’ and tried to produce ‘good house wives who can bring up good children for the future of the nation’ (Koyama 1991). As well as these public policies, in educational institutions, a text book on moral education entitled ‘Shushin 修身’ was used from 1880 (Miyasaka 2000). The book

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was written in two sections–one for men and one for women, and it was basically used to foster loyalty to the emperor. The content of the sections for men and women was slightly different: most of the part directed at women was about reigi-saho, essentially outlining correct bodily ritual in daily life. However, the part directed at men mostly contained rational lessons regarding imperial society. This difference might indicate that men were considered to be governed by ‘reason,’ and that women were governed by ‘nature.’ This section examines the influence of political institutions on body regulation. Similar to these rules, there is an important cultural norm derived from sado, practice of the tea ceremony, which is quite influential to the female reigi-saho.

3.2 Women and Sado In contemporary Japanese society, sado is typically a ceremony performed by women, however it was originally practiced by men of the upper classes in order to cultivate the mind. After the Meiji Restoration, the feudal system began to collapse and the most of the sado schools that had been supported by the old regional governments fell into financial difficulty, and were forced to open their lessons to women (Kato 2004). This tendency continued until the end of World War II, hence it is now taken for granted that sado is a ceremony mainly for women. Meiji era, sado schools were used to disseminate reigi-saho amongst women. Furthermore, some women’s high schools employed the practice of sado as a way of teaching reigi-saho (Kumakura 1980). In this period, it was generally agreed on that women do not need to cultivate their minds in the same way that men do. In sado, there is a specific performance or form called ‘temae点前’ for the master and the guests of the ceremony. Temae regulates participants’ conduct, such as entering the room and serving the tea. Originally it was considered that these regulations were not only for up holding proper appearances, but also to cultivate concentration, perseverance, and courage. It was also thought that temae was deeply connected to the morality based on ‘Ichi-go Ichi-e 一期一会 (‘Treasure each moment as it is a once-in-a lifetime experience’)’. However, for most women, the goal of practicing sado was to learn good etiquette in preparation for marriage, and they did not concern themselves with the philosophy of the act.

4 Transformation of Female Body Regulation: Release from Tradition As for contemporary society, it is clear that there is no collective and comprehensive orientation for the etiquette for women in Japan today. Most of the younger generation

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consider that acquisition of reigi-saho through sado is no longer important, because Japanese society has been Westernized.

4.1 Body Regulation in the Post War Period Since the Meiji era, sado schools have been open to women as reigi-saho schools. The peak of the number of pupils learning sado was from 1950 to 1960 (Kato 2004). Because of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in the Taisho era, female fashion started to become Westernized (It is more difficult to run in Japanese traditional clothes, kimono, than in functional Western clothes, so many people who were wearing kimono died because they could not escape from the disaster). The end of World War II saw the democratization of Japan under the GHQ’s program, and most of the traditional political norms were abandoned. Even in such an atmosphere, sado was still considered an important means for women to learn reigi-saho, especially before their marriage. In 1960, as Japan entered a stage of high economic growth, consumer culture gradually started to spread across the society. In 1980, the tertiary industry took up the biggest part of Japan’s economy and many kinds of service industry including schools for reigi-saho were estublished. Soon after that, the spread of electronic media in Japanese society including the Internet also had a part in the diversification of cultural orientation. In the transitional period, the number of Japanese women who wanted to learn traditional reigi-saho with sado fell, while the number of women who wanted to learn Western etiquette thought of as more appropriate to contemporary daily life style, rose. Through the change of needs, the number of Western style etiquette schools was rapidly increased.

4.2 Body and Discipline The Japanese anthropologist Kato mentioned that temae in sado is similar to the concept of ‘discipline’ devised by French philosopher, M. Foucault (Kato 2004). ‘Discipline’ refers to training and standardizing the body through daily life practices. Foucault analyzed body regulation in social institutions such as schools or prisons by using the concept of discipline and revealed the structure of the hegemony in modern society. He considered, against the classical philosophers and sociologists, that the body is an important factor in controlling the mind (Foucault 1975=1977). Although there is a difference between ‘discipline’ and ‘temae,’ the former derived from political norms and the latter from culture, we can find similarities in these two concepts. As mentioned above, Western style etiquette schools were established after World War II, incorporating mixture of simplified and manualized Western table manners

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and Japanese conventional practices for rational learning. In this sense, it can be said that the teaching styles at Western etiquette schools and the traditional sado schools were completely different.

5 Globalization and Female Body Regulation: Appearance of the ‘Image Consultancy Organization’ In contemporary society, female training before marriage has become increasingly unimportant. For women who still wish to undertake such training before marriage, there is a wide variety of options, for example sado, kado (Japanese flower arrangement), cooking, kimono dressing and so on, and it seems difficult for them to choose one specific school. In this final section, we shall introduce the new trend for reigi-saho training for women as regards globalization. We shall use the case study of an ‘image consultancy organization’ in Tokyo to do this.

5.1 Contemporary Female Body Regulation In this section we shall look at the new school of etiquette training, the so called ‘image consultancy organization’. This type of organization was adopted from the United States in the 1980’s. Its main goal is manner training based on a global perspective, and they employ diplomatic protocol as a systematized manner, which could be adapted worldwide. Towards the end of 1950s, high economic growth started in many parts of the world, creating a need for business performance schools. These schools’ aim was to give lectures on strategic behavior for successful business meeting. Whereas business performance schools catered mainly to businessmen, image consultancy organizations are open to women aged 20–40. An image consultant is a professional who teaches situation-appropriated manners and deportment. They teach not only etiquette for interaction with others, but also how to maintain a presentable appearance through color coordination, group fashion shows and so on. The Association of Image Consultants International (AICI) is one of the biggest image consultancy organizations in the world. The head office of AICI is located in the US, and they have a lot of branches all over the world, including Japan. This organization also offers courses to train image consultants, and after completing the course, students can take an examination in order to qualify as an image consultant (the qualification is certified by each organization, not by the national government). There are text books for image consultant training and their main philosophy is ‘elevating your self-image’. In order to do this, students take classes on manners/etiquette, fashion sense, walking, speaking, and so on (Armour 2010). These

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lectures are based on the theoretical framework of social psychology as opposed to the traditional cultural background. In short, the trainers follow a universal standard, and try to learn how to perform attractively at a global level. Owing to the many kinds of service industry that exist in contemporary society, women have a lot of choices of where to learn reigi-saho. The image consultancy organization is a new type of organization where women learn reigi-saho emerging in a global era. The reason why the number of clients for these organizations has been increasing might be that many Japanese women are interested in global ‘expressive’ or ‘aesthetic’ issues (not in normative issues).

5.2 Expansion of the World as Goffman Predicted In traditional Japanese society, body regulation was deeply influenced by political and cultural norms, and most women passively embodied them. However, the ‘great narrative’ (or collective values) has been weakened due to modernization and globalization, and in this situation, women in contemporary society might be forced to choose by themselves which way is the most suitable for their personal values. Image consultancy organizations are one of the choices for women who value their behavior’s expressive aspect rather than the normative one in a global sphere. As described by Goffman’s term ‘merchant of molarity,’ reigi-saho and etiquette have been increasingly separated from the normative or ethical level, and have shifted towards a more expressive level on a global scale. Traditional reigi-saho, original ideal of which was the unity of ‘body,’ ‘skill’, and ‘mind,’ this separation has become evident.

6 Conclusion: From Reigi-Saho to Image Control In this paper, we analyzed the transformation of female body regulation in Japanese society. We especially examined on the effects of the institution on reigi-saho by focusing on the transformation of publications on reigi-saho from the pre-modern period to today. Three major processes have gradually changed Japanese female body regulation chronologically; civilization, modernization and globalization. Originally, the Muromachi government tried to systematize reigi-saho in upper class society, and published the first book on this subject, ‘Reiho’. Owing to that text book, the interaction rituals of Edo era civilization developed, and the domestic body regulation was adopted by the society of common people. Due to the modernization of the Meiji era, Western culture grew dominant in Japan but female body regulation including fashion style did not change as radically as the male side until the Taisyo era. In the Taisyo era, as democratization spread, female fashion gradually changed from a Japanese traditional one to a Westernized one. After World War II, the second wave of democratization came about, and American

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culture penetrated Japanese society. While female fashion radically modernized in this period, the number of women learning sado in order to embody traditional reigisaho before marriage was at its highest in the middle of 1950s. Even after World War II, the traditional bodily ritual, reigi-saho was then still respected by the people in Japanese society. In the 1980’s as Japan became a consumer society, and its industrial structure diversified. Moreover, the penetration of electronic media helped opening people’s mind towards multi-cultural or global-cultural (cosmopolitan-oriented) issues. Throughout this transitional period, women in Japanese society started to seek not domestic but global etiquette patterns. Image consultancy organizations employing protocol based on a theoretical framework of psychology were established to cover these newly arisen needs. In contemporary society, it is not the traditional and domestic norm that is respected, but a global one. 2 However, at the same time most young women have became indifferent to reigi-saho and it is difficult to find a specific ideal of bodily behavior in the collective value. Today, it seems that most of women enjoy choosing a suitable reigi-saho style, with respect to their own expressive level. It is clear that they have been liberated from traditional body regulation but simultaneously they are forced by the new cultural norm to act according to their own code of conduct.

References Arditi, J. (1998). A genealogy of mannerss: Transformations of social relations in france and england from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, University of Chicago Press. Armour, G. (2010). How to do an image consult: 10 steps to fashion & style transformation, Gillian Armour Design LLC. Elias, N. (1939). Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation: Soziogenetische und Psychogenetische Untersuchungen, Francke Verlag. Foucault, M. (1975). Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison, Gallimard. Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life, Doubleday. Kato, E. (2004). Why the tea ceremony has been for the female?: The post war family from the perspective of tea ceremony, Kinokuniya-shoten. Kumakura, I. (1980). Research for the history of the tea ceremony in modern, Nihon-HousouSyuppan-Kyokai. Koyama, S. (1991). The Norm called ‘Ryo-sai Ken-bo (Good Wife and Wise Mothre),’ Keiso-Syobo. Minamoto, R. (1992). The pattern and Japanese culture, In Minamoto, R. (Ed.), The pattern and Japanese culture, Soubun-sya. Miyasaka. Y. (Ed.) (2000). Syushin Zenshiryo Syusei (Book for Moral Education in Meiji era), Shiki-sya.

2 There

is also an alternative movement, returning back to Japanese traditional culture in contemporary society according to the discourse of ’Cool Japan’ by D. Mcgray. It is very complicated to consider which is dominant, universalism or traditionalism, but the case study of the image consultancy organization that we dealt with in this paper indicates the development of former.

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Nagatomo, C. (Ed.) (1993). Onna-chohou-ki/ Otoko-chohou-ki: Genroku- wakamono- kokore- syu (Etiquette Book for the female and the male: For the young generation in Genroku-period), Gendai-kyoyo-bunko. Takemitsu, M. (2008). The pattern and Japanese: Japanese respectable propriety and sense of beauty, PHP-Shinsyo.

Nanako Hayami, Ph.D. is a Associate Professor at Meiji University of Integrative Medicine, Nantan, Japan. Her research interest is Social Theory and Sociology of Body. She has been studying the body regulation in East Asia including Japan from the viewpoint of everyday ritual. [email protected].

Chapter 11

Simmel in the Archive: On the Conflict of Late Modern Culture Natàlia Cantó-Milà

1 Introduction Against a conceptualization of culture that focuses solely upon the material and immaterial productions that human beings inherit and create in the course of time, be it making a distinction between high culture and popular culture, or using the more all-embracing anthropological approach, Simmel stated that culture could only be viewed and described as a vivid, living process. Culture is thus not a sample of objects, practices, traditions, beliefs, institutions and products, but the process of their creation, preservation as well as their renewed incorporation into the minds, practices and productions of concrete human beings. Culture is thus a process that takes place in each human being, in the course of each, always brief, life. At the individual level, this process of culture finishes when the (mental) life of each concrete individual ends. However, viewed from the standpoint of society, culture is a process that does not end as long as interrelations among human beings and with their environment take place. From a social viewpoint, the process of culture is thus renewed by each new generation and within each individual. This process establishes an almost impossible balance between each finite person, each generation, the objects we produce (understanding ‘objects’ in the widest possible sense), and our legacy.

N. Cantó-Milà (B) Arts and Humanities Department Barcelona, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Catalonia, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 K. Fujiyoshi (ed.), Archives for Maintaining Community and Society in the Digital Age, SpringerBriefs in Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8514-2_11

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2 Between the Individual and the Social: On the Objective and Subjective Cultures Simmel’s concept of culture points out a process which is, viewed from the standpoint of each individual, a process of ‘cultivation.’ (Simmel 1997:41–42) Cultivation in the sense that the process and the concept of culture are not to be seen as standing opposite to those of nature, but, in a way, as parts of it. It is ‘natural’ that human beings become ‘cultivated’ into something they can potentially be within their ‘nature.’ As Simmel said, you can ‘cultivate’ a wild pear tree to become an orchard tree, but you cannot ‘cultivate’ the same tree to become part of your home’s furniture, or the mast of a ship. The process of culture for each individual mind is a case of the first type. It is a case of cultivation, not of transformation of that human mind into something different that was not there before. Notwithstanding that a piece of furniture or the mast of a ship are also a part of culture, for they are products of human creative action: they are ‘objective culture.’ With this concept Simmel incorporated the socio-anthropological concept of culture into his conceptualization of culture. (Simmel 1997:42–43) Objective culture includes the spoons we use, the traditions we follow, and the institutions we create. Objective culture includes all those products of human creativity that have emerged from individual or collective production - objects, traditions, manners, conventions, works of art, ideas, beliefs - that people have created and, in the case they have been preserved (even if transformed), may survive the life of their creators, and hence become part of the lives of the generations to follow. This becomes possible because the products we create attain an independent existence from their creators immediately after they have been completed. However, ‘objective culture’, as a concept, emerges when we fragment the process of culture into parts, thus focusing upon its necessary, yet not sufficient, phases. Opposite to this ‘objective culture’ we must identify ‘subjective culture’ as its counterpart, and, as Simmel dares to suggest, as the ‘real’ goal of culture. (Simmel 1997:45) Subjective culture is finite and can only be realized, fulfilled, within each individual person. Subjective culture implies the incorporation, assimilation, and embodiment of a few contents of objective culture into the minds and lives of concrete living individuals. These individuals enrich their lives by assimilating these contents (be them customs, be them artworks, be them rituals, be them laws), and thus the process of socialization implies, beyond the establishment of extremely important emotional bonds, also the process of incorporation of selected parts of objective culture into one’s being and mind (and consequently into one’s social relationships—out of which the very knowledge of the existence of the products of objective culture stems). Furthermore each individual experience soon enough, absorbs more and more contents out of the always-growing objective culture, needing to produce contents itself: to exteriorize, to turn into objects one’s innermost ideas, to discuss, to change, to create, and hence to contribute in a way to this always growing objective culture, which we have inherited, which we fill with life when it becomes part of our lives, and which we enrich for ourselves and for the generations to come.

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3 The Tragedy of Culture Even if Simmel viewed subjective culture as the final goal of the process of culture, subjective culture cannot exist, it cannot develop, without objective culture. It is its necessary counterpart, its necessary scale to its final destination, and its nourishment. Clearly there can be no subjective culture without an objective culture, because a subjective development or state constitutes culture only by virtue of its inclusion of such objects. (Simmel 1997:45)

However, objective and subjective cultures neither evolve in parallel nor follow the same logic and speed of development and accumulation. While subjective culture cannot exist without objective culture, objective culture can become almost unrelated to subjective culture. As will be emphasised later, when we come to discuss the conflict of modern culture, especially under conditions of a highly developed division of labour, extremely developed and ‘perfected’ objects can be produced, without hardly any implication of their actual partial producers. Objective culture (…) can, relatively speaking, become substantially (though not completely) independent of subjective culture, by the creation of ‘cultivated’ objects, i.e. ‘cultivating’ objects, as they should properly be understood, whose value as such is subjectively utilized only to an incomplete degree. Especially in highly developed epochs based on division of labour, the achievements of culture acquire the extent and coherence of a realm with its own kind of independent existence. Objects become perfect, more intellectual, they follow more and more obediently their own inner logic of material expediency. But real culture, that is, subjective culture, does not progress equally; indeed, it cannot in view of the vast expansion of the objective realm of things, divided up as it is between innumerable contributors. (Simmel 1997:45, my emphasis)

The process of culture viewed from the individual standpoint creates a circle that departs from the individual mind and returns enriched and changed at the end. The end station of the process is thus a mind, a person, who has become cultivated thanks to this process. This is why Simmel defined culture, from the subjective viewpoint, as the path of the soul (I shall use mind instead of soul) to itself. A transformative process that changes that very soul/mind, turning it (in an on-going process that stops with one’s death) into something it had the potential of becoming though had not yet become. In Simmel’s words: In the midst of this dualism resides the idea of culture. It is based on an inner fact which can be expressed completely only allegorically and somewhat vaguely as the path of the soul to itself. (…) (C)ulture is the path from the closed unity through the developed diversity to the developed unity. Yet under all circumstances, this can only refer to a development toward a phenomenon which is laid out in the embryonic forces of the personality, sketched, as it were, as an ideal plan into the personality itself. (Simmel 1997: 56)

Thus Simmel views the individual mind as a ‘closed unity’ before the absorption of, and participation within, objective culture. Once individuals enter into the process and circle of culture, they incorporate into themselves the contents of objective culture (that which Simmel calls ‘developed diversity’ in the quote above), and thus the

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human mind becomes (and keeps on becoming until it stops existing) a ‘developed unity’ enriched through this on-going process of culture (and therefore cultivation). Simmel highlights the fact that the two sides of the process of culture follow different logics of accumulation and expansion. On the one hand, on the subjective side, all contents of the objective culture that are incorporated into the subjective sphere, as well as all those that are being designed, created, conceived, before they become ‘objects’, stand in closest relation to the individual, to his or her pulsing life; they are a unity, not just a mere addition of more and more contents. They become part of the living person, who transforms them into something renewed, or give them form out of his or her life. On the other hand, the objects of culture, when they have been created, from the moment on they are finished and completed, or rather, when the process of production finishes and/or stops, they become external to their creators (a fact that does not only awake uncanny feelings, but also sometimes a great joy).1 Once they become separated from their creators, these contents stand next to each other without any criteria, without any prioritisation, without any further logic than the logic of mere unknown and unreflecting co-existence. It becomes rather difficult for the individual to select and incorporate contents out of an always-growing objective culture. The tragedy of culture, which Simmel writes about, resides in the fact that for each subject it is necessary to drink from the objective source and contribute to it in order to become subjectively richer. The subjective side is not enough in and of itself, one has to leave the sphere of the subjective in order to be able to come back to it. The concept of all culture is that the spirit creates something independent and objective, through which the development of the subject from itself to itself makes its way. But, in so doing, this integrating and culturally determining element is predestined to an autonomous development, which still consumes the forces of human subjects, and still draws such subjects into its orbit, without elevating them to its own height: the development of the subjects now can no longer take the path followed by the objects; where the former follow it nonetheless, the development runs into a cul-de-sac or a vacuity of our innermost and most genuine life. (Simmel 1997:72)

Subjective and objective cultures follow different paths of development, despite forming together the process and path of culture. While the subjective culture is clearly framed and limited by the life of each person, objective culture does not have the same kind of limits. It does not require any kind of assimilation, of digestion, of consumption, in order to keep on existing, and it does not require to be kept or maintained in any kind of order. One can pile book after book, painting after painting, building after building, map after map. And they do not need to be filled with life in order to remain. As long as they exist, objects are part of the always-growing objective culture. As long as there is society, as long as people live, the objective culture will keep on growing. And there are no limits, no rules to this growth, leading to an ever-growing gap between the growth of the subjective and the accumulation of more and more contents on the side of the objective culture. 1 Who

does not remember the feeling when reading one’s own finished text?.

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The development of culture externalizes the subject in an even more positive way through the already indicated formlessness and absence of boundaries which the objective spirit experiences from the numerical unrestrictedness of its producers. Everyone can contribute to the stock of objectivized cultural elements without any consideration of the other contributors. This stock may indeed possess certain nuances in individual cultural periods, and thus an internal qualitative limit, but no corresponding quantitative one. In fact, there is no reason not to expand indefinitely, not to line up book after book, work of art after work of art, discovery after discovery: the form of objectivity as such possesses an unlimited capacity for accomplishment. (Simmel 1997: 72–73)

This rhythm of accumulation on the side of the objective culture does not only follow a different logic than the path of growth and development of the subjective culture. It is, moreover, that the pace and formless form of accumulation of the objective culture makes the process of culture (the path of the mind to itself) increasingly difficult. Those objective artefacts which are the precipitate of a creative life and which are, in due course, absorbed by other people as a means of acquiring culture, immediately begin to develop independently in accordance with the particular objective factors involved in their creation. Industries and sciences, arts and organizations impose their content and pace of development on individuals, regardless of or even contrary to the demands that these individuals ought to make for the sake of their own improvement, that is the acquisition of culture. The more finely wrought and perfect in their own way are those things which both have their basis in culture and are themselves the basis of culture, the more they follow an immanent logic which is by no means always appropriate to the process of individual development and selfrealization, which is the whole point of all the products of culture as such. (Simmel 1997:91)

Thus in a way the objective culture, which is a necessary step for the process of culture, for the enrichment of subjective culture is at the same time an impediment to the fulfilment of this very same process. Simmel parallels that which happens with objective culture with that which Marx had depicted as the ‘fetishism of merchandise,’ (Simmel 1997:70) for we are not able to see the traces of human producers behind the inhuman accumulation of more and more cultural productions, material and immaterial, which overwhelm us to the extent that we may not even know where to start, or even why to start. The cold, hieratic, always-growing line of products of the objective culture erases from our sight the pulsing life of their creators, their dreams, their stories… Through their estrangement and through their inassimilable quantity, objective culture feels cold and distant to the individual person, who may seem like an ant standing in front of a titan. We know ourselves on the one hand as products of society: the physiological succession of ancestors, their adaptations and establishments, the traditions of their work, their knowledge and faith, the entire spirit of the past crystallized in objective forms-these determine the arrangements and content of our life so that the question could arise whether the individual is therefore simply anything other than a receptacle into which previously existing elements mix in various amounts; for if these elements are also ultimately produced by individuals, with the contribution of each one being an increasingly faint amount and the factors being produced only through their species-like and social convergence, in the synthesis of which the vaunted individuality would then again consist. (Simmel 2009:47–48)

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All the same, only these ants can give meaning, sense and life to the growing titan. And only after drinking from and contributing to the growth of this titan, can each human grow in his or her subjective culture. This is the real tragedy of culture, according to Simmel. And here is where I believe, and will later argue, that archives can play a fundamental role.

4 On Time and Culture The tragedy of culture, which points at the totally different logics of existence of the subjective and objective cultures, is based upon the radically different relation to life, and therefore to time, of subjects and objects. It is a contrasted and tense relationship ‘between subjective life, that is restless but finite2 in time, and its contents which, once created, are immovable but timelessly valid.’ (Simmel 1997:55) The temporality of human life and the timeless existence of the products of human creation implies furthermore and somehow paradoxically that ‘(w)hereas every inanimate thing only possesses simply the moment of the present, that which is alive extends in an incomparable way over the past and the future.’ (Simmel 1997:56). This apparent paradox is, of course, not a paradox at all. The objects that constitute objective culture are not alive. This matter of course implies a relationship with time that is completely different to that of their creators. The relationship between time and the products of human creation is a relationship webbed strictly in the present tense, as Simmel argues in the quote above. There is nothing beyond the present. On the contrary, living subjects may have a much more limited time of existence, but each second of this existence has a shadow in the past and a projection towards the future. Furthermore, when contents of the always-growing and timeless objective culture are incorporated into people’s subjective culture, these objects regain an echo of life and temporality; they regain a history, a meaning, and become part of the subjects’ memories and experiences. These contents become to a certain extent ‘media’ through which we interrelate with previous as well as with future generations. We inherit a past full of stories, full of traditions, full of objects. This past does not gain meaning through the mere presence of its vestiges. It gains meaning through the stories told by others, through shared moments, through their presence in our most quotidian or most special practices. They gain meaning through our experience. But we cannot experience (not even indirectly) the totality of objective culture. Our relationship to objective culture always implies a selection. A selection which we choose only to a very limited extent. (A)n accentuation of the enigmatic relationship which prevails between the social life and its products on the one hand and the fragmentary life-contents of individuals on the other. The labour of countless generations is embedded in language and custom, political constitutions 2 ‘Infinite’

the English translation. (Simmel 1997:55) However, after contrasting with the German original, I have changed it to ‘finite’, which is the somehow inexact but nonetheless correct translation of ‘zeitlich’.

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and religious doctrines, literature and technology as objectified spirit from which everyone can take as much of it as they wish to or are able to, but no single individual is able to exhaust it all. Between the amount of this treasure and what is taken from it, there exists the most diverse and fortuitous relationships. The insignificance or irrationality of the individual’s share leaves the substance and dignity of mankind’s ownership unaffected, just as any physical entity is independent of its being individually perceived. Just as the content and significance of a book remains indifferent to a large or small, understanding or unresponsive, group of readers, so any cultural product confronts its cultural audience, ready to be absorbed by anyone but in fact taken up only sporadically. This concentrated mental labour of a cultural community is related to the degree to which it comes alive in individuals just as the abundance of possibilities is related to the limitations of reality. In order to understand the mode of existence of such objective intellectual manifestations, we have to place them within the specific framework of our categories for interpreting the world. The discrepant relationship between objective and subjective culture, which forms our specific problem, will then find its proper place within these categories. (Simmel 1997:40)

When Simmel writes about objective culture, he emphasises its timelessness in comparison to the finitude of human life. I think the main point Simmel was trying to make is that, from the standpoint of each individual person, the process of culture is as long as a lifetime can be, while from a social viewpoint, the accumulation of all that each person of each generation has externalised and produced, and thus left behind, is a never ending process (as long as society holds) that enlarges more and more the realm of objective culture, a realm that only exists in the present tense. However, this does not mean that all products of human creation exist for a long time. The contrast with the finitude of human life highlights the very finitude of life itself instead of highlighting the immortality of those cultural products, which, of course, are immortal insofar as they cannot die. But they can break, disappear, become obsolete, or deteriorate. On many occasions, however, they can be kept, repaired, preserved, restored if this is so desired; maybe at an enormous economic cost, but they can be preserved in a way that human life cannot, and they tend to be preserved, more so after modernity reached its first peak in the nineteenth century. We will now concentrate upon Simmel’s analyses of the culture of his time (modern culture), and of our time (late modern culture).

5 The Conflict of (Late) Modern Culture The tragedy of culture that has been presented above is a tragedy that Simmel viewed as present in all processes of cultural production and personal cultivation. However, he argued that modernity (his modernity - at the beginning of the twentieth century) had widened the gap between objective and subjective culture to an unprecedented stage. To put it at its lowest, historical development tends increasingly to widen the gap between concrete creative cultural achievements and the level of individual culture. The disharmony of modern life, in particular the intensification of technology in every sphere combined with deep dissatisfaction with it, arises largely from the fact that things become more and more

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cultivated but people are capable only to a lesser degree of deriving from the improvement of objects an improvement of their subjective lives. (Simmel 1997:45)

The amount of, and perfection reached by, contents belonging to the objective culture had increased exponentially in the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while the state of development of subjective culture had stagnated (if not gone backwards, Simmel 1997:38) Simmel would have asserted the existence of this gap even more emphatically if he had lived to see the twenty-first century. Moreover the modern conditions of production and consumption of those very perfected contents of objective culture make it increasingly difficult for the individual to relate to these objects as to a source of one’s own personal development. On the one hand, and due to the highly developed division of labour, the producers disappear even more easily behind the product. On the other hand, mass consumption makes it difficult to see the product as made for one’s use. In a way it becomes increasingly plausible to see ourselves as if we were made for a special type of product (a symbol of status, class, cultural or symbolic capital). Thus Simmel viewed people approaching objects of objective culture for their technical perfection, for the perfection of their realisation, for their social meaning, in terms of lifestyle or status, rather than for that which they could offer to their personal development. The combination of these factors makes, according to Simmel, the closure of the circle, of the path of the soul/mind back on itself hardly possible, and the development of subjective culture subsequently extremely difficult, while the speed of accumulation and the quality of the accumulated objects on the side of the objective culture keeps on increasing. While objective culture accelerates, subjective culture stagnates. The tremendous expansion of objective, available material of knowledge allows or even enforces the use of expressions that pass from hand to hand like sealed containers without the condensed content of thought actually enclosed within them being unfolded for the individual user. Just as our everyday life is surrounded more and more by objects of which we cannot conceive how much intellectual effort is expended in their production, so our mental and social communication is filled with symbolic terms, in which a comprehensive intellectuality is accumulated, but of which the individual mind need make only minimal use. The preponderance of objective over subjective culture that developed during the nineteenth century is reflected partly in the fact that the eighteenth century pedagogic ideal was focused upon the formation of man, that is upon a personal internal value, which was replaced during the nineteenth century, however, by the concept of ‘education’ in the sense of a body of objective knowledge and behavioural patterns. This discrepancy seems to widen steadily. Every day and from all sides, the wealth of objective culture increases, but the individual mind can enrich the forms and contents of its own development only by distancing itself still further from that culture and developing its own at a much slower pace. (Simmel 1997:453–454)3

Moreover, in order to make individual life more bearable under the conditions of a highly developed objective (objectified) culture, which implies an always-growing chain of means in order to reach final ends (and Simmel thought the development of subjective culture to be one of them), the means that we often encounter on the way (be them money, be them technology) tend to become ends. Simmel argued that we 3 Compare

with Simmel 1997:39.

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become distracted, caught by the ‘fetishism of the object’ (if I may paraphrase Marx as well), and thus lose in the tangent the path to fulfil the process of culture depicted above. The gap between objective and subjective culture grows, and the consequences of this gap change our understanding of ourselves, of our social relationships, and our way of living. (B)y way of the intellectual achievements of the species, the products of its history: knowledge, lifestyles, art, the state, a man’s profession and experience of life these constitute the path of culture by which the subjective spirit returns to itself in a higher, improved state. Therefore all behaviour intended to increase our culture is bound up with the form of means and ends. This behaviour is, however, fragmented into countless separate activities. Life is made up of modes of action which, only to a very limited extent, have, or can be seen to have, any common direction. The resulting tendency towards fragmentariness and uncertainty of purpose is maximized by the fact that the various means which serve our ends, our ‘technology’ in the widest sense of the word, are constantly becoming both more extensive and more intensive. The resulting immensity of the series of ends and means gives rise to a phenomenon of incalculably far-reaching consequences: certain members of these series become, in our consciousness, ends in themselves. (…) The vast intensive and extensive growth of our technology which is much more than just material technology entangles us in a web of means, and means towards means, more and more intermediate stages, causing us to lose sight of our real ultimate ends. This is the extreme inner danger which threatens all highly developed cultures, that is to say, all eras in which the whole of life is overlaid with a maximum of multi-stratified means. To treat some means as ends may make this situation psychologically tolerable, but it actually makes life increasingly futile. (Simmel 1997:91, my emphasis)

Life is increasingly futile, judges Simmel, when we lose our path back to ourselves, and get caught in the unselfconscious tricks of modernity: the all-levelling effects of money, breaking us free from personal ties but not bringing freedom to something concrete and desired, or the use of the most perfected technology without really knowing what to use it for (since individual culture has not grown at the same pace).4 Our objective culture is overwhelming, huge, highly elaborated. We stand there, as ants even smaller than generations before us, in front of an unprecedentedly enormous titan. Without knowing where to start, without knowing what to do, beyond attempting to objectify ourselves in order to be part of the valuable world, the world of the objective (objectified) culture, the world of tangible values.5 Alone, small, and surrounded by an economy that only values what we produce, and a history that locates us where we are, and writes itself quicker than we can read.

4A

point which Simmel made in The Philosophy of Money (2007). link between Simmel’s theory of culture and theory of value has very rarely been worked upon. See the epilogue of Cantó-Milà 2005 for an attempt at establishing this highly interesting link.

5 The

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6 On History and Memory The relationship between objective and subjective culture regarding time could be parallelised with Nora’s reflections upon the relationship between history and memory in Lieux de Mémoire: those very special places in which memory crystallises (Nora 1989), but only in part as it disappears from the rest of our lives. History accelerates, historical knowledge grows, reflection upon historical reflection emerges… but memory vanishes away from our everyday life, those lived stories that do not settle, that are continuously shaped and reshaped by waves of remembrance and oblivion, like water and sand drawing the line between the coast and the ocean, become petrified; they become objectified culture. The “acceleration of history,” then, confronts us with the brutal realization of the difference between real memory-social and unviolated, exemplified in but also retained as the secret of so-called primitive or archaic societies-and history, which is how our hopelessly forgetful modern societies, propelled by change, organize the past. On the one hand, we find an integrated, dictatorial memory-unself-conscious, commanding, all-powerful, spontaneously actualizing, a memory without a past that ceaselessly reinvents tradition, linking the history of its ancestors to the undifferentiated time of heroes, origins, and myth and on the other hand, our memory, nothing more in fact than sifted and sorted historical traces. The gulf between the two has deepened in modern times with the growing belief in a right, a capacity, and even a duty to change. Today, this distance has been stretched to its convulsive limit. (Nora 1989:8)

In this way, Nora sets in parallel, probably unknowingly, history and memory with the wider processes followed by the objective and subjective cultures as Simmel depicted them. Memory and history, far from being synonymous, appear now to be in fundamental opposition. Memory is life, borne by living societies founded in its name. It remains in permanent evolution, open to the dialectic of remembering and forgetting, unconscious of its successive deformations, vulnerable to manipulation and appropriation, susceptible to being long dormant and periodically revived. History, on the other hand, is the reconstruction, always problematic and incomplete, of what is no longer. Memory is a perpetually actual phenomenon, a bond tying us to the eternal present; history is a representation of the past. Memory, insofar as it is affective and magical, only accommodates those facts that suit it; it nourishes recollections that may be out of focus or telescopic, global or detached, particular or symbolic-responsive to each avenue of conveyance or phenomenal screen, to every censorship or projection. History, because it is an intellectual and secular production, calls for analysis and criticism. Memory installs remembrance within the sacred; history, always prosaic, releases it again. (Nora 1989:8–9)

In this fragment Nora paradigmatically depicts the objectification of the subjective in the realm of history and memory. And when it comes to memory, and the sites of memory, as those very special places in which memory is kept (but also in which it is crystallised, objectified, and becomes history), archives come immediately to mind as one of the most (if not the most) important sites of memory.

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7 Bringing It All to the Archive What is the role of the archive in late modernity? In a time in which the objectification of culture has advanced technologically to such an extent that we can keep all our data in a format that does not require much more than a few computers. Just think about the amount of data, of books, of articles, of text that we can carry in our handbags! It had never been so easy to carry data with us, so much data that we shall not be able to assimilate it all within a lifetime… and it all fits within a portable computer or a tablet. We can write our texts, rewrite them, correct them, copy them at a speed, which Simmel could not have guessed. Moreover we can film just about anything, record anything, store it, replay it. Any fleeting moment can thus become an object, become captured by a camera of any mobile device, briefly depicted and tweeted; we can comment on anything and share it, imprint on everything that surrounds us. Objectify and share before the necessary time for reflection (which is not the same for everyone and for every matter) has filtered that which really matters to us, and deserves our attention, from the tremendous noise that surrounds us. We objectify our thoughts, our views, our feelings, at an always-increasing speed. And we have the tools to do so. Tools Simmel would not have dared guessing. Tools that are supposed to permit us to develop and grow as human beings, stay in touch, tell our friends (or so the advertisements tell us)… but which perhaps have helped us to set a pace for ourselves, which we cannot keep up with. The gap between objective and subjective culture grows further. At the same time, data is becoming extremely vulnerable—a software becoming obsolete, a virus, an unexpected mistake, and we can lose it all. Preservation is at stake more than ever… but just as much as the question… what should we be preserving? Lost within the multitude of contents of objective culture, we lack the criteria to distil the important from the banal. However, we are given the wonderful opportunity to keep, to freeze within the castle of objective culture named archive for the generations to come that which has been crystallised and given to the realm of objective culture by a great variety of people, viewing the world from contrasted, sometimes even contradictory, viewpoints. Simmel diagnosed (let me emphasise again: without being able to guess the advances that the objective culture would make in the century that separates us from his writings) the following: (T)his inorganic accumulative capacity, as it were, makes it profoundly incommensurable with the form of personal life. For the latter’s absorptive capacity is not only limited by strength and longevity, but also by a certain unity and relative closure of its forms, and it therefore makes a selection with a determined scope from among the elements offered to it as means of individual development. Now it would seem that this incommensurability need not become a practical problem for the individual because it leaves aside what his or her personal development cannot assimilate. However, this is not so easily done. The infinitely growing stock of the objectified mind makes demands on the subject, arouses faint aspirations in it, strikes it with feelings of its own insufficiency and helplessness, entwines it into total constellations from which it cannot escape as a whole without mastering its individual elements. There thus emerges the typical problematic condition of modern humanity: the feeling of being surrounded by an immense number of cultural elements, which are not

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meaningless, but not profoundly meaningful to the individual either; elements which have a certain crushing quality as a mass, because an individual cannot inwardly assimilate every individual thing, but cannot simply reject it either, since it belongs potentially, as it were, to the sphere of his or her cultural development. One could characterize this with the exact reversal off that saying, ‘Nihil habentes, omni possidentes,’ which characterized the blissful poverty of the early Franciscans in their absolute liberation from all things that would somehow still tend to divert the soul from its path through themselves and thereby make it an indirect route. Instead of that, human beings in very rich and overburdened cultures are ‘omnia habientes, nihil possidentes.’ (Simmel 1997:73)

I believe that, if we agree with Simmel’s diagnosis, or, moreover, if we agree with the thesis that the tendencies, which he already acknowledged, have not but increased in the last hundred years, this is something we should take very seriously into account when we consider the role that archives play in our society, and even more seriously if we wonder which role we think that they should play in our contemporary society. Simmel did not write directly about archives. He did not write much about any kind of institutional setting that takes care of our legacy regarding objective culture. The closest he came to this topic is captured in his brief essay on ‘The Berlin Trade Exhibition’, in which he discussed the effects on the individual mind of an immense accumulation of wonderful and interesting objects and artefacts to be viewed, admired and considered one after the other—and this within the briefest period of time (the exhibition visit). Thus he asserted: (I)t appears as though modern man’s one-sided and monotonous role in the division of labour will be compensated for by consumption and enjoyment through the growing pressure of heterogeneous impressions, and the ever faster and more colourful change of excitements. The differentiation of the active side of life is apparently complemented through the extensive diversity of its passive and receiving side. The press of contradictions, the many stimuli and the diversity of consumption and enjoyment are the ways in which the human soul that otherwise is an impatient flux of forces and denied a complete development by the differentiations within modern work seeks to come alive. No part of modern life reveals this need as sharply as the large exhibition. Nowhere else is such a richness of different impressions brought together so that overall there seems to be an outward unity, whereas underneath a vigorous interaction produces mutual contrasts, intensification and lack of relatedness. (Simmel 1997:256)

Under our contemporary conditions archives have a crucial role to play. And I would dare to assert that they should contribute to the possibility of experiencing this ‘unity’ Simmel mentioned in the last quote, yet not in the same way as the trade exhibition depicted by Simmel. Archives are indeed crucial institutions for the preservation of objective culture. It is therefore necessary to justify why I suggest that they should in a way provide us with this ‘unity,’ which objective culture can certainly not provide us with. Only subjective culture can close the circle. So how could archives contribute to this impossible endeavour? Archives are institutions that preserve a good part of that which we have inherited from the past as well as keep for future generations; they are our witnesses of the passing of time. Thanks to the work of many silent archivists we have been able to

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rescue forgotten stories, and listen to the voices of those who are not with us anymore. We do not need to look too far away in order to find a wonderful example of the incredible work done by archivists. Without them, the two volumes of Simmel’s collected works, which have given us access to Simmel’s letters, would not exist. (Simmel 2008a, b) They would have been lost forever. However, finding many of those letters was extremely difficult. Only the work of many years spent in different archives made it possible to find those many letters, still knowing of many others that have been lost forever, and knowing that there may be others, which we have never known about. The task of preservation is extremely difficult, especially when we do not do it for ourselves, when we are preserving for the future as well. How can we know what will matter to them, when they have not been born yet? How can we read the witnesses of a past, which will always remain a ‘foreign country’, (Lowenthal 1999) and understand their voices? We know that the only way we can actually look into the future and understand the past is from our actual standpoint, from our time and place, from our subjective culture. We can only incorporate contents stemming from the well of objective culture, when we turn them into our own, into part of us—we incorporate them, even if we try to be as faithful as possible to the original will, intentions, time and context of their original authors. Incorporation always implies a previous selection, and an interpretation. And a selection and an interpretation are also implied when we choose what to preserve for the future. Only when selections take place haphazardly, thus preserving and destroying at random, we miss the human made selection (be it conscious, be it not fully conscious), which is based upon values. (Simmel 2007: 56–76). As archivists we may think that we only try to keep the voices of others, but when we engage in an archive, we do more than that. We can only keep them from our own standpoint. And this very standpoint makes, in my opinion, the archive richer. It makes it furthermore more accessible, and more open to those who may approach it. It makes it also more open to the variety of voices that may find their place within the archive. For knowing where we stand may be a step towards acknowledging and including other perspectives and standpoints - as many as possible. By stating our own voice, our own criteria of selection, or way of seeing the task we attempt to fulfil, we fill the archive with renewed life; a life that renovates its contents, and makes them more accessible to those who look for them. It is not that we should turn the voices of those who we try to keep alive in our archives into our own. It is rather that by stating why we are preserving what we are preserving and how we are preserving it, we make the archive more alive. It stops being solely a mere accumulation of contents of that always-growing objective culture, and becomes one single product of human creation. Indeed objectified, as it could not be otherwise, but at least one unity. And this is what the urban dwellers sought for in the Berlin Trade Exhibition, if we believe Simmel’s words.

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We cannot archive experience. Experience is not directly objectifiable, but we can archive our own voice, the voice of those who have made the selection, so that generations to come know what we chose to forget, what we chose to remember, and what we remembered or forgot without being (fully) conscious of it.

References Cantó-Milà, Natàlia. (2005). A sociological theory of value: Georg Simmel’s sociological relationism. Transcript. Lowenthal, David. (1999). The past is a foreign country. 1st ed. Cambridge University Press. Nora, Pierre. (1989). ‘Between memory and history: Les Lieux de Mémoire’. Representations, 26, 7–24. Retrieved October 19, 2011. Simmel, Georg. (2007). The philosophy of money. 3rd ed. Taylor & Francis. Simmel, Georg. (2008a). Gesamtausgabe in 24 Bänden: Band 22: Briefe 1880–1911. 1st ed. Suhrkamp Verlag. Simmel, Georg. 2008b. Gesamtausgabe in 24 Bänden: Band 23: Briefe 1912–1918. Jugendbriefe. 1st ed. Suhrkamp Verlag. Simmel, Georg. (2009). Sociology: Inquiries into the construction of social forms. In Anthony J. Blasi, Anton K. Jacobs, & Mathew J. Kanjirathinkal. Brill. Simmel, Georg, David Frisby, & Mike Featherstone. (1997). Simmel on culture: Selected writings. SAGE.

Natàlia Cantó-Milà is an Associate Professor at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Barcelona, Spain. Her research interest is Qualitative methodology, Social Research Methods and Methodology, Classical and Contemporary Social Theory; Sociology of Culture; Historical and Comparative Sociology; Sociology of the State; Nations and Nationalism; Cultural Policy; Cultural Globalization; Epistemology of the Social Sciences; Sociology of Knowledge., Love, Sociology of Emotion, Georg Simmel, Sociology of Time, and Sociology of Emotions.