2017: Politics of War Commemoration

History
The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus,   Volume 15 | Issue 15 | Number 4 | Aug 01, 2017
Mit freundlicher Erlaubnis von Japan Focus.

The History Problem: The Politics of War Commemoration in East Asia

Hiro Saito


Abstract:
This essay summarizes my argument in The History Problem: The Politics of War Commemoration in East Asia. The history problem is essentially a relational phenomenon that arises when nations promote self-serving versions of the past by focusing on what happened to their own citizens with little regard for foreign others. East Asia, however, has recently also witnessed the emergence of a cosmopolitan form of commemoration taking humanity, rather than nationality, as its primary frame of reference. When cosmopolitan commemoration is practiced as a collective endeavor by both perpetrators and victims, a resolution of the history problem will finally become possible.

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