Japan-related records in the Archives of the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union
We have already presented records related to Australia, Belgium, Denmark and France, which are to be found in the Historical Archives of the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union. Continuing out presentation, we would like to focus on materials related to Japan.
In the Historical Archives of the National Commission records related to Japan are to kept in the following fonds:
- Coordinating Office Abroad of NSZZ “Solidarność” in Brussels,
- National Coordinating Committee and the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union in Gdańsk,
- Press clippings on the Solidarity Trade Union, collected by Aleksandra Dąbrowska – Petersen from Copenhagen.
In the fonds of the National Coordinating Committee and the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union in Gdańsk we can find interesting correspondence with Japanese representatives of trade unions, i. al. of Sōhyō (General Council of Trade Unions in Japan) and Dōmei (Japanese Confederation of Labor), Japanese Teachers’ Union and Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyards Workers Union. The fonds contains descriptions of talks with Japanese delegates on April 22, 1981 and an appeal by Japanese workers and intellectuals to Polish workers from May 8, 1981.
Among the press clippings on the Solidarity Trade Union collected by Aleksandra Dąbrowska – Petersen from Copenhagen there is a newsletter of the Inter-factory Founding Committee of the Solidarity Trade Union of May 21, 1981, dedicated to the Solidarity visit to Japan. It contains an interview with Lech Walesa, a detailed report from each day of the visit (May 10-16, 1981), and numerous photographs.
In the records of the Coordinating Office Abroad of NSZZ “Solidarność” in Brussels there is, i. al., correspondence with the Counselor for Labor Affairs of American Embassy in Japan and the Center for Polish Research in Tokyo. Documents related to Joshiho Umeda, a Japanese intenesly involved in the Solidarity Trade Union activities, may also be of interest to researchers of the subject.
Visit us at the in the Archives of the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union
If you are interested in the attached documents and in our other archival materials in the Archives of the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union, please contact us first by email: .
/Łukasz Grochowski, the Archives of the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union,
Iwona Flis, Stanisław Flis Foundation “Pomerania Archives”/
