DARK TOURISM: A GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND LOCAL APPROACH

In the afternoon of January 21^st, Faculty of Culture, Faculty of Anthropology together with Office of Scientific Research and Project Management co-hosted the seminar “Dark Tourism: A global, national, and local approach” with the presence of guest speaker Prof. Dr. Andrew D. Gordon from Harvard – Yenching Institute and Dr. Truong Thi Thu Hang, vice dean of faculty of anthropology as the interpreter.

Prof. Dr. Andrew. D. Gordon (left) and  Dr. Truong Thi Thu Hang (right)

The seminar welcomed the participations of many students, lecturers, researchers from many faculties, offices, centers including Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies.

Prof. Dr. Andrew talk’s was organized into three main parts:

• Introduction of dark tourism
• Model cases
• Challenges of dark tourism

Dark tourism involves travelling to sites like shipyards, coalmines… that associated with the past, specifically with death and suffering. The purpose of travelling to such places is to contemplate on the historical events in multi-perspective view since stories revolving around those places are usually fabricated by a particular party with a specific purpose. Those stories are just a reflection of one’s opinion but not always the truth regarding the people and events of a period. The task of dark tourism, then, is to expose tourists with different views of opinion to consider both the dark and bright side of an event.

For example, the Meiji Era in Japan is known for its forced labor in which men were forced to work extensively and women had to work to pay off the loan they borrowed. But deeming this era as dark and primitive is just wrong since it was around this period that many technology advancements were introduced as the country started to shift from a feudal system to a more Westernized form of government. Both the dark and bright sides are entwined. By separating one particular event out of its context would be, as he called, “history in the box”, meaning that limiting our view on just one aspect of an event; thus sometimes makes it strange and misleading.

He went on introducing some model cases of dark tourism in Japan, specifically, the Abashiri prison in Hokkaido, the Ashio Copper Mine in Tochigi prefecture, and the Mitsui Coal Mine in Fukuoka prefecture.

The Abashiri Prison is located in Hokkaido, northern Japan that was closed and turned into a museum in 1960. One thing that makes this place a potential dark tourism site is the many stories revolving around this place, one of which is the construction of a road by prisoner. The story is studied by a left-wing group of local historians that focuses on the “Death Institution” proposed by Kentaro, Meiji Government Secretary. It was believed that Kentaro, in a letter to his superior, said the utilization of inmate labour is necessary and if anyone of them dies in the process, the spending to take care of them will be reduced then. It is because of story like this that the image of prisoner in public opinion changes dramatically, making them victims rather than criminals.

The Ashio Copper Mine and Mitsui Coal Mine offer the same story with both positive and negative aspects for tourist to ponder. Both of them involve forced labour and pollution (Ashio Copper Mine) but also represent the achievement of technology and management at the time.

The challenges of dark tourism are how to evoke in tourist the multi-perspective view, how site management can simulate different experience. If done properly, it can help visitors to gain a deeper understanding not only into the past, but also help them develop a critical mind when encountering the multi-facet stories in our daily lives.

Participants of the seminar

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