ABSTRACT

Decades after the end of the World War II East Asia continues to struggle with lingering animosities and unresolved historical grievances in domestic, bilateral and regional memory landscapes. China, Japan and the Korea share a history of inter- and intra-violence, self-other identity construction and diametrically opposed interpretations of the past.

Routledge Handbook of Memory and Reconciliation in East Asia offers a complete overview of the challenges of national memory and ideological rivalry for reconciliation in the East Asian region. Chapters provide authoritative analyses of contentious issues such as comfort women, the Nanjing massacre, history textbook controversies, shared heritage sites, colonial rule, territorial disputes and restitution. By interweaving memory, human rights and reconciliation the contributors actively explore real prospects of redressing past wrongs and achieving peaceful coexistence at personal as well as governmental levels.

Bringing together an international team of experts, this book is an essential read for students and scholars of East Asian studies, anthropology, gender studies, history, international relations, law, political science, and sociology, and for those interested in memory and reconciliation issues.

section I|162 pages

Domestic trauma and prospects of reconciliation

part 1|48 pages

China and political supremacy

chapter 2|21 pages

Cacophonous Memories of the War

Revision of the official narrative on the War of Resistance against Japan in post-Mao China and its limitations

part 2|48 pages

Japan and unsettled ambiguity

chapter 4|16 pages

Memory and Others

Japan's mnemonic turn in the 1990s

chapter 5|16 pages

Reconciliation Prospects and Divided War Memories in Japan

An analysis of major newspapers on the comfort women issue

chapter 6|14 pages

(In)Visible Women

Gendering of popular war memories through the narrative of the battleship Yamato for six decades in postwar Japan

part 3|64 pages

Korea, victimhood and the Cold War wounds

chapter 8|16 pages

Tracing Memories of Tauchi Chizuko

Korean memories of historical shame and the “Japanese mother of Korean War orphans”

chapter 10|14 pages

On Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Korean “collaborators” of Japanese colonialism

section II|258 pages

Bilateral conflicts and lessons for reconciliation

part 4|50 pages

China-Japan relations

chapter 11|19 pages

Troubled Seas

Japan's Pacific and East China Sea domains and claims

chapter 12|16 pages

People's Diplomacy

The Japan-China Friendship Association and critical war memory in the 1950s

chapter 13|13 pages

The Role of Compensation in Sino-Japanese Reconciliation

Compensation as a means to restore justice

part 5|34 pages

Korea-China relations

chapter 15|19 pages

Manchuria

An imagined space for emancipation, conflict, and reconciliation

part 6|60 pages

Japan-Korea relations

chapter 18|17 pages

Transitional Justice, Reconciliation, and Political Archivization

A comparative study of commemoration in South Korea and Japan of the Jeju April 3 Incident

chapter 19|15 pages

The Repatriation Movement

Lingering legacies of DPRK-Japan collusion

part 7|36 pages

North-South Korea relations

chapter 20|15 pages

Semantic Approach for Inter-Korea Reconciliation

Reflection on conceptual division and political divergence

chapter 21|19 pages

Reuniting Families, Reframing the Korean War

Inter-Korean reconciliation and vernacular memory

section III|76 pages

East Asia's challenges and prospects of reconciliation