Digital Historical Forensics: A Computational Approach to Wartime Media Cultures During World War II

This talk introduces a pioneering digital humanities methodology, "Digital Historical Forensics," which combines artificial intelligence technologies—particularly machine learning and computer vision—with traditional humanities approaches such as close reading and contextual analysis. Focusing on the tumultuous era from the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) through to the early years of the People’s Republic of China (1949–1952), this presentation explores the strategic use of photojournalism by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Japanese forces to sculpt a distinctive media culture amidst warfare and political upheavals. Through computational analysis, this approach illuminates previously overlooked textual and visual evidence, uncovering patterns and tactics embedded in ideological content. This talk not only showcases the institutional and intermedial dimensions of state propaganda but also establishes a methodological framework that marries AI with rigorous historical inquiry, redefining the boundaries of art historical studies and digital humanities research during a critical period in East Asian history.