Aomi Mochida, MA
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Biography
Aomi Mochida (1992) is a PhD candidate at the History Department of Radboud University Nijmegen and NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. She completed her summa cum laude bachelor’s degree in History and Political Studies at Colby-Sawyer College in the U.S. In 2017 she obtained a cum laude research master degree in Historical Studies at Radboud University.
Her PhD research investigates the dynamics of local WWII memories in Japan. Her research interests include WWII heritage, public history, and memory culture, especially in relation to the Asia-Pacific theatre.
During her masters, Aomi conducted a research internship at the NIOD and participated in an international summer school in Nanjing, China, on mass violence and memory politics. She wrote her master thesis on the historical development and current appropriation of the Noborito Institute, a WWII-heritage in Japan.
Her current NWO-funded PhD project expands on her previous research and explores the dynamics of local WWII memories in Japan. It focuses on two heritage sites—Nagasaki (atomic bombing site) and Noborito (ill-famed science institute). The project scrutinizes how, in the historical construction of these sites into both commemorative and tourist sites, various stakeholders have negotiated to strike a balance between Japanese victimhood and aggression in a local, national and international context.