Saaler, Sven

Schwentker, Wolfgang

The power of memory in modern Japan.

Folkestone

2008

1905246382

9781905246380

Verlagsinfos:

KEY FEATURE(S): Today′s increasing interest in the relevance of memory generated a particularly strong response at the 2005 conference of the European Association of Japanese Studies (Vienna), providing a rich and varied group of papers. A selection of the most significant research relating to modern Japan, not least from Japanese scholars, subsequently edited for publication, forms the basis of this volume.

For the historian and social scientist the opportunity to access recorded memories is invariably welcomed as a valuable building block in research and a determinant in establishing balance and perspective. Subjects treated include the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the Kamikaze Special Attack Corps (Tokkotai), how Comfort Women are remembered in ′historical revisionism′ in Japan, the history and memory of the Nanjing massacre, the ′Tokyo Trial view of history′, historical memory in novels, and an analysis of the post-occupation war movies.
The Power of Memory in Modern Japan will be widely welcomed by students of modern Japanese history, politics and international relations.

Zusammenfassung (Synopsis):

Due to their symbolic and iconographic meanings, expressions of collective memory constitute the mental topography of a society and make a powerful contribution to its cultural, political and social identity. In Japan, the subject of memory has prompted a huge response in recent years. Indeed, it has been and continues to be debated at many levels of Japan's political, social, economic and cultural life. For the historian and social scientist the opportunity to access recorded memories is invariably welcomed as a valuable building block in research and a determinant in establishing balance and perspective. This volume brings together a selection of the most significant research on memory relating to modern Japan. Thematically structured (Politics and International Relations; Memorials, Museums, National Heroes; Popular and Intellectual Representations of Memory; Realms of Memory: Centre and Periphery) the subjects treated include the Nanjing massacre, comfort women, the fate of war monuments, the political use of national memory in post-war Japan and remembering the atomic bomb.

Inhaltsverzeichnis:

List of Contributors

Note on Transliteration

Introduction

The Realms of Memory: Japan and Beyond

Memory in Politics and International Relations

For the Nation or for the People? History and Memory of the Nanjing Massacre in Japan

Japan's 'Comfort Women' and Historical Memory: The Neo-nationalist Counter-attack

Tokko Zaidan: A Case Study of Institutional Japanese War Memorialization

Remembering the War Crimes Trial: The Tokyo Trial View of History

Historical Memory and Shiba Ryotaro: Remembering Russia, Creating Japan

Developing Memories: Alumni Newsletters in Japanese Development Assistance

Institutions of Memory: Memorials, Museums, National Heroes

Remodelling Public Space: The Fate of War Monuments, 1945-48

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and its Exhibition

A Usable Past? Historical Museums of the Self-Defence Forces and the Construction of Continuities

The New Image of Childhood in Japan During the Years 1945-49 and the Construction of a Japanese Collective Memory

Sato Eisaku, Yasuoka Masahiro and the Re-establishment of 11 February as National Day: The Political Use of National Memory in Post-war Japan

How Did Saigo Takamori Become a National Hero After His Death? The Political Uses of Saigo's Figure and the Interpretation of seikanron

Popular and Intellectual Representations of Memory

Literary Memories of the Pacific War - Fiction or Non-fiction? Some Criteria for Further Research on Japanese War Literature

The Nokorimono Mode: Remembering the Atomic Bomb in The Diary of Moriwaki Yoko

Becoming Insects: Imamura Shohei and the Entomology of Modernity

Memories of a Liberal, Liberalism of Memory: Tsuda Sokichi and a Few Things He Forgot to Mention

Realms of Memory - Centre and Periphery

New Dimensions in Sino-Japanese Relations and the Memory of the Sino-Japanese War 1894-95

Development for Preservation: Localizing Collective Memory in 1960s Kanazawa

The Remembrance of the 1871 Nakano Uprising in Takayama Village as a Contemporary Trauma in Village Life Today

History and the Construction of Collective Memory: Positivist Historiography in the Age of the Imperial Rescript on Education

Index