IWG Announces Press Availability for Experts on New Japanese War Crimes Records Volume and Records Guide
Press Release · Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Washington, DC

Press Availability
January 16, 2007

Interagency Working Group Announces Press Availability for Experts on New Japanese War Crimes Records Volume and Records Guide

What: The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) announces the availability of a new book, Researching Japanese War Crimes Records: Introductory Essays, and an electronic records guide that will help researchers locate and use the thousands of newly declassified and previously declassified files in the National Archives related to the war in the Pacific.

The new book and records guide are available in PDF format online.

Free printed copies of the book and guide (on CD-ROM) may be requested by contacting us, and will be available while supplies last.

Book contributors and archivists are available for comment Tuesday, January 16 through Friday, January 19.

Who: The following subject area experts are available for press interviews and background:

• William Cunliffe is the National Archives IWG Staff Director and an archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration specializing in Modern Military records.
  
  
• Dr. Ed Drea is author of the introduction to Researching Japanese War Crimes Records. He recently retired as the chief of the research and analysis division of the U.S. Army Center of Military History and is a specialist in Modern Japanese History.
  
  
• Dr. Greg Bradsher contributed two chapters to Researching Japanese War Crimes that deal with the exploitation and return of captured Japanese records. He compiled the 1,700-page finding aid that accompanies the volume. He is an archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration, specializing in World War II intelligence, looted assets, and war crimes.
  
  
• Dr. Daqing Yang contributed a chapter with a historiography assessment to the volume. He is an Associate Professor of History and International Affairs at The George Washington University, where he teaches modern Japanese history.

How: Contact the experts at the times indicated below. For further assistance, contact Press Officer, Giuliana Bullard at 703-532-1477 or duetto@verizon.net.

Why and Background

The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) locates, identifies, inventories, and recommends for declassification, currently classified U.S. records relating to Nazi and Japanese Imperial Government war crimes. As a result of a thorough investigation by U.S. government agencies for classified records related to Japanese War Crimes pursuant to the Nazi War Crimes and Imperial Government Records Disclosure Acts, more than 100,000 pages of records were recently declassified.

To help researchers find, understand, and make use of these newly available records, as well as the large volume of records already in the stacks of the National Archives, the IWG produced the volume, Researching Japanese War Crimes Records: Introductory Essays and the records guide, Japanese War Crimes and Related Topics: A Guide to Records at the National Archives.

For more information about the new resources and the IWG, go to the IWG web page.

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