Publication Type
Book
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
12-2016
Abstract
Seventy years have passed since the end of the Asia-Pacific War, yet Japan remains embroiled in controversy with its neighbors over the war’s commemoration. Among the many points of contention between Japan, China, and South Korea are interpretations of the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, apologies and compensation for foreign victims of Japanese aggression, prime ministerial visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, and the war’s portrayal in textbooks. Collectively, these controversies have come to be called the “history problem.” But why has the problem become so intractable? Can it ever be resolved, and if so, how? To answer these questions, the author mobilizes the sociology of collective memory and social movements, political theories of apology and reconciliation, psychological research on intergroup conflict, and philosophical reflections on memory and history. The history problem, he argues, is essentially a relational phenomenon caused when nations publicly showcase self-serving versions of the past at key ceremonies and events: Japan, South Korea, and China all focus on what happened to their own citizens with little regard for foreign others. Saito goes on to explore the emergence of a cosmopolitan form of commemoration taking humanity, rather than nationality, as its primary frame of reference, an approach increasingly used by a transnational network of advocacy NGOs, victims of Japan’s past wrongdoings, historians, and educators. When cosmopolitan commemoration is practiced as a collective endeavor by both perpetrators and victims, the author argues, a resolution of the history problem—and eventual reconciliation—will finally become possible.
Keywords
Memorialization, Nationalism and collective memory, War and society, East Asia, History, Sociology
Discipline
Asian Studies | History | Political Science | Sociology
Research Areas
Sociology
First Page
1
Last Page
264
ISBN
9780824856748
Publisher
University of Hawaii Press
City or Country
Honolulu
Citation
SAITO, Hiro. (2016). The history problem: The politics of war commemoration in East Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
SAITO, Hiro, "The history problem: The politics of war commemoration in East Asia" (2016). Research Collection School of Social Sciences. Paper 1994.
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1994
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1994
Copyright Owner and License
Publisher
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://www.oapen.org/download?type=document&docid=625901