Remembering the Future: The Re-Nationalization of Japan and Its Discontents

May 17, 2005

Main Speaker

Discussants

Moderator

About This Seminar

Professor Fujiwara will discuss how the recent resurgence of nationalist uproar within and against Japan in Northeast Asia may differ from previous disputes over the memories, or the lack of memories of World War II between Japan, South Korea and China. Unlike the memory wars of the past, territorial disputes are now associated with the assumed amnesia of war crimes in Japan, which has in turn politicized territorial disputes between Japan and her neighbors to an unprecedented political tension. Fewer Japanese, however, now see the issue as related to war memories, but to plots that use history as a tool to push the Japanese around. Furthermore, the proposal to give Japan a permanent seat in the U.N. Security Council has become a focus of public anger in Korea and China. Professor Fujiwara will discuss the domestic origins of the changing nationalist discourse over war memories. He will focus on Japan, although he will briefly discuss the domestic contexts of Chinese and South Korean politics.

This event is supported in part by a grant from The Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Japan.

 

Transcript (PDF Format)

© Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA
1819 L St. NW Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036-3855
tel: (202) 296-6694 / fax: (202) 296-6695 / email: info@spfusa.org