Counter-memories of the Asia-Pacific War: The history controversy and school textbooks in the 1970s

While a single war in the sense of actual military conflict usually ceases at

some point in history, the same war in the arena of representation and

consciousness can continue forever. A ‘‘war’’ almost always defines the

boundaries of nations, states, and forces-enemies or allies-in actual as well as in imaginary geography. The binary of ‘‘us’’ and ‘‘them’’ in terms of

the nation-state is easily constructed in this kind of geography, and it is

precisely for this reason that a ‘‘war’’ is often an essential theme and topic

at the site of ‘‘writing the nation.’’1