Contesting Memorial Spaces of Japan's Empire

(Paperback)

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Ongoing arguments over how histories are honoured as evidenced by the conflict between South Korea and Japan over the opening of Tokyos Heritage Information Centre in June 2020 reveal the extent to which heritage processes enable states to assert legitimacy and power on a global stage.

Here, Contesting Memorial Spaces of Japans Empire shines a timely spotlight on the complicated histories and disputed legacies of various sites associated with Japans empire in Asia and the Pacific.

Bringing together a team of international scholars, this transnational study sees contested memorial spaces as windows for us to explore how borders are created, moved and altered in everyday life. From the Asan Bay Overlook Memorial Wall in Guam and the Puppet Emperor Palace in China to Japans Ainu Museum and the Cowra War Cemetery in Australia, the diverse range of case studies examined here foreground the complex relationship Japan and its neighbours have with their imperial past and reveal how these relations stand at the intersection of individual actions, societal choices and memory collectives. In doing so, this innovative collection of essays bridges history, geography and heritage studies to provide an invaluable new approach to the study of imperial conflict and memory politics in modern Japan.

Reviews

This edited volume offers insightful and thought-provoking analysis of Japans imperial legacies and their entanglement with global histories of memory. The various essays provide a compelling examination of the working of war memory, both within and between sites, making it an invaluable resource for scholars of the topic. * Ran Zwigenberg, Associate Professor of Asian Studies, History, and Jewish Studies, Pennsylvania State University, USA *

Author Bio

Edward Boyle is Associate Professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Kyoto, Japan, and editor of Japan Review.

Steven Ivings is Associate Professor of Economics at Kyoto University, Japan. He is the co-editor of Global Diasporas in the Age of High Imperialism (2017, with Ulrike Kirchberger).