The Formation of Collective Memory about the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands History in China and Japan

Claiming disputed territory is a memory project. A memory project manages the content of collective memory by demonstrating to those at present—both domestic and international audiences—how the past has evolved. A memory project can involve people who reconstruct events from the past, such as people’s memory of September 11 (Clark 2002) or a nation’s memory of a past war (Wagner-Pacifici and Schwartz 1991). I study below the official collective memory of the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands constructed by the Chinese and the Japanese governments and official media through an analysis of relevant pages of four official websites hosted by China and Japan. ¹