WWII Symposium 2018
Wednesday, April 18, 2018 - Friday, April 20, 2018Time 12:00 AM - 7:30 PM
WWII PACIFIC THEATER – “WHAT YOU NEVER KNEW AND SURPRISING STORIES”
Monday – Wednesday, April 18-20, 2018
Community Center Auditorium
After a successful WWII Symposium in April of 2017, the America’s Conflicts lecture series will present a second WWII Symposium focusing on “What You Never Knew and Surprising Stories” about the Pacific Theater of War.
If you purchase Reserved Seating or Sponsorships, you will help underwrite the cost of this program. Sponsors will enjoy reserved seating in the auditorium and an invitation to a very special reception with several of the speakers. In addition to being listed in the program as a Sponsor, you will also receive a charitable gift letter for tax purposes.
Sponsorship
6 lectures, 2 shows, and cocktail party | $500 |
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Early Bird Package pricing available from September 1 to December 31, 2017
General Admission | (6 lectures + 2 shows) | $300 |
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Reserved | (6 lectures + 2 shows) | $400 |
Individual lectures from January to April 2018
Sponsorship | $150/lecture (includes Sponsor cocktail party) |
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Reserved | $60/lecture |
General Admission | $45/lecture |
Entertainment | $25/show |
MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2018
RICHARD FRANK, MILITARY HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR
The Asia-Pacific War 1937-1945: Perspectives from the 21st Century
10:30am
Richard Frank graduated from the University of Missouri in 1969, after which he served four years in the United States Army. During the Vietnam War, he served a tour of duty as a platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division. In 1976, he graduated from Georgetown University Law Center. Frank will explain why the Asia-Pacific War is the neglected “other” part of World War II. It was not just a struggle between the U.S. and Japan across the Pacific, but rather a war spanning most of Asia and touching nearly half the world’s population. In complex ways, its legacies profoundly shape the world of the 21st century. This is a story now radically altered by an enormous leap in scholarship over the past two decades still largely unknown to the public. This new evidence permits a fresh analysis revealing that much of the prior standard historiography was deeply flawed or even an inversion of reality, particularly as it relates to China. And in the background of all of this is the horrendous toll the war exacted, worse in certain aspects than the war in the Europe.
BUY TICKETSERI HOTTA, AUTHOR
Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy
2:00pm
Eri Hotta was born in Tokyo and educated in Japan, the U.S., and the U.K. She has taught at Oxford, in Tokyo, and in Jerusalem, specializing in international relations. Her book, Japan 1941, is a groundbreaking historical account that considers Pearl Harbor from the Japanese perspective, certain to revolutionize how we think of the war in the Pacific. Eri Hotta poses essential questions overlooked for the last 70 years: Why did these men—military men, civilian politicians, diplomats, the emperor—put their country and its citizens in harm’s way? Why did they make a decision that was doomed from the start?
Photo by Brigitte Lacombe
EVENING COCKTAIL RECEPTION WITH SPONSORS
5:00pm
TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2018
PATRICK WEADON, CURATOR OF THE NATIONAL CRYPTOLOGIC MUSEUM
Five Things You Did Not Know About the Battle of Midway
10:30am
The Battle of Midway was the turning point in the Pacific War. Due to the triumphant narrative embraced by the United States after WWII, there is a tendency to think the battle as a straightforward series of events that led to the triumph of U.S. forces. It is true that superb cryptologic work and effective performance in the battle space served as the foundation of the victory, but there is so much more to the story. In the rush to celebrate the events of that day, it is easy to forget that much of what happened was due to the decisions and actions of ordinary human beings at critical moments, who met and overcame immense challenges in extraordinary ways. In this lecture, Patrick Weadon will focus on some of the amazing events and personalities that were part of the incredible victory and provide insights into why at the Battle of Midway, as Admiral Nimitz noted, uncommon valor was a common virtue.
BUY TICKETSJAMES D. HORNFISCHER, NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR
The Fleet At Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific
2:00pm
James D. Hornfischer is the author of four highly acclaimed books on the U.S. Navy during World War II. Hornfischer is a frequent contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and has also written for Smithsonian, Naval History, and other publications. His Book, The Fleet at Flood Tide, is an unprecedented account of the extraordinary World War II air, land and sea campaign that brought the U.S. Navy to the apex of its strength and marked the rise of the United States as a global superpower. Drawing on new primary sources and personal accounts by Americans and Japanese alike, Hornfischer tells the story of the invasion of Mariana Island and the momentous events it produced. From the seas of the Central Pacific to the shores of Japan itself, The Fleet at Flood Tide is a stirring and deeply humane account of World War II’s world-changing finale.
BUY TICKETSEVENING ENTERTAINMENT
“What You Didn’t Know About The Admirals.”
7:30pm
A conversation between Rich Frank and Jim Hornfischer
BUY TICKETSWEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2018
BEN MONTGOMERY, NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR
The Leper Spy: The Story of an Unlikely Hero of World War II
10:30am
Ben Montgomery is the author of the New York Times bestseller Grandma Gatewood’s Walk, which won the 2014 National Outdoor Book Award for History/Biography, and The Leper Spy. In his book, The Leper Spy, Montgomery tells of a tiny Filipina woman who was one of the top spies for the Allies during World War II. The GIs called her Joey, and hundreds owed their lives to her. Joey stashed explosives, tracked Japanese troop movements, and smuggled maps of fortifications across enemy lines for General Douglas MacArthur. As the Battle of Manila raged, young Josefina Guerrero walked through gunfire to bandage wounds and close the eyes of the dead. Her valor earned her the Medal of Freedom, but the thing that made her an effective spy was a disease that was destroying her.
BUY TICKETSRICHARD FRANK, MILITARY HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR
America, MacArthur and the Occupation of Japan: The Critical First Year
2:00pm
The rich academic and popular narratives of the American occupation of Japan overwhelmingly emphasize an array of political, economic and social aspects spanning 1945 to 1952. But they strangely neglect or underplay the towering crisis in the first year of the occupation, when the fate of the enterprise dangled in the balance as disease and famine threatened to kill millions of Japanese. How the U.S. and MacArthur responded to these perils for a nation and people the U.S. had just defeated in a savagely fought war proved fundamental to the success of the occupation and the foundation for the enduring alliance between the two prior foes. This is an account of the American efforts that saved at least as many Japanese lives as were lost in the entire Asia-Pacific War from 1937 to 1945.
BUY TICKETS“FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC” – A LIVE PERFORMANCE
7:30pm | Auditorium
During World War II, live musical broadcasts and mass distribution of music had a unifying, patriotic effect by raising the morale of the troops overseas as well as motivating and inspiring the Americans at home to fully support all aspects of the war effort. This served as a defiant hope for liberation and freedom, and in many ways served as the soundtrack for the war. Spend an evening pretending you’re one of the troops in the Pacific Theater. You’ll be transported to a radio show featuring the music of the Pacific Theater. The songs, the sounds, the laughs will entertain you and help you understand what it felt like to be a member of our Armed Forces in World War II.
Entertainment is always a national asset. Invaluable in time of peace, it is indispensable in wartime.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1943
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