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
author Hiro Saito 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, Saito argues, a resolution of the history
problem-and eventual reconciliation-will finally become possible.
The History Problem examines a vast corpus of historical material
in both English and Japanese, offering provocative findings that
challenge orthodox explanations. Written in clear and accessible
prose, this uniquely interdisciplinary book will appeal to
sociologists, political scientists, and historians researching
collective memory, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, and
international relations-and to anyone interested in the
commemoration of historical wrongs.
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