ABSTRACT
In East Asia, Japan has starred in — or at least shared — the role of principal ‘other’ in many countries' modern histories, both at the time and in the historical retelling. From the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century, Japan not only caught up with, but, temporarily at least, supplanted China, Europe, and the United States as the dominant economic, military, and colonial power in the region, wresting from their control many of the countries discussed in this volume. It is hardly surprising, then, that Japan appears in East Asian history textbooks and other media primarily in relation to coverage of the colonial period (Korea and Taiwan) or WWII (China and Southeast Asia). As several chapters in this volume demonstrate, however, it would be a mistake to assume that Japan is always and everywhere positioned as ‘the enemy’ (cf. Chapters 1, 2, and 5). Although the colonial/wartime period was a hugely significant and painful moment (a rather longer and/or more painful moment for some than it was for others), oppression and resistance have not been the only modes of interaction between Japan and its neighbours before, after or even during WWII. Moreover, Japan has not been these countries’ only ‘other’ in recent history; some were restored to Western colonial control after WWII and fought long and hard for independence, while others have experienced war and/or civil conflict even more brutal than the Japanese invasion and occupation. Japan's historical role — what information is included or excluded, how it is presented, and what presentist purposes it is intended to serve — may vary, therefore, both in response to changing domestic and international contexts and in relation to the representation of other ‘others’ in national and global narratives. Nevertheless, Japan (or Japan-in-our-history) functions consistently as a triangulation point for establishing the political, cultural, and historical coordinates of national identities in East Asia.
