GO256: Conflict in East Asia Professor Walter Hatch Colby College Case #2
“One would expect people to remember the past and imagine the future …. But what they more often do is imagine the past and remember the future.” -- Lewis Namier
And then fight over the difference
What is Imagined/Remembered
The Most Contentious Memories “Rape of Nanjing” Unit 731 Comfort Women
Nanjing Massacre
Massacre Museum
Yushukan
Unit 731
Has Japan shown contrition? Depends on whom you talk to
Japanese Apologies Nakasone (1985): regret “ultranationalism” “militarism” Hosokawa (1993): “sincere sympathy” “acts of agression” “intolerable pain and suffering” Maruyama (1995): deep remorse “tremendous damage and suffering”
Yasukuni Shrine
History Textbooks
Question: Why did China decide to make this an issue in 1980s?
Protests
The Snub China’s Vice-Premier Wu Yi Leaves Tokyo
The Burden of History Yasukuni Shrine