The Political Topography of WAR MEMORY IN POSTWAR JAPAN

As the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II nears, questions about Japan's relationship to its wartime history move into the public limelight once again. What are the ways in which the legacies of war, defeat, and foreign occupation have become embedded in postwar public life in the decades after 1945? How can memory be re-negotiated today to meet the demands facing Japan in the post-Cold War world. This talk surveys the political dynamics that governed struggles over war memory in postwar Japan from the occupation period to the end of the twentieth century.

Sponsored by the CENTER FOR EAST ASIAN STUDIES