With　researchrs  from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (École des hautes études en sciences sociales, or EHESS) and Princeton University invited as guests, the third GHC seminar was held on Tuesday, July 21, 2015. The researchers and their lecture titles are as follows:

1. Larissa Zakharova (EHESS), “Telegraph Connecting or Sharing the World? Tool of Communication as Means of Space Conquest (Europe, Russia, Middle East and Far East, 1870-1920s)”

2. Sheldon Garon (Princeton), “On the Transnational Destruction of Cities:What Japan and the US Learned from the Bombing of Britain and Germany in World War II “

Professor Zakharova first provided an overview on how telegraph lines have been laid on land and seabed and the telegraph network has been expanded throughout the world since 1837 when a telegraph instrument was first patented in the United Kingdom. Then, focusing on the period between 1870 and before World War I, she took countries such as the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom, and Russia as examples to explain the conflict the local government officials, private companies, and central government officials had over centralization through the use of telegraph system. She also discussed subjects such as what circumstances in the Soviet Union during the first half of the 20th century led the telegraph lines once disconnected after the collapse of the empire to be re-laid and how the telegraph network of the Soviet Union is characterized compared to that of Western countries.

Professor Garon first described how the idea of attacking the general public—women and children in particular—at the homefront from the sky to end the war quickly gained popularity since Command of the Air by Giulio Douhet was published immediately after the First World War, and introduced the Chongqing bombing by the Japanese army in August 1940 as its pioneering example. Then, using many slides, he explained in detail how Germany’s air strikes against the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom and the United States’ air strikes against Germany, the United States’ air strikes against Japan, and defenses on those were subsequently executed as the countries involved in the war learned and imitated from each other. He also mentioned that we cannot necessarily deem based on these evidences that the theories of Japanese uniqueness are wrong or that the air strikes in fact expedited Japan’s surrender.

After each lecture, a number of questions and comments were raised from the audience, unfolding interesting discussions. These two lectures are both worth referencing as good examples of credible global history study.

（Masashi HANEDA)