ABSTRACT
As the other contributors to this book have highlighted, Anglo-Japanese reconciliation has made much progress, thanks to the numerous activities of governments, civil groups and individuals who have worked tirelessly to ensure that the past is addressed, remembered and commemorated in appropriate ways. The various events organized in the United Kingdom (UK) alone to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II, including the event that led to the publication of this edited volume, symbolize an ongoing desire to remember the past and pay tribute to those who fought during the war.1 As others have noted, there has been a general surge of popular interest since the 1990s in British experiences of war in East Asia, characterized by media coverage of the lawsuits brought by former prisoners of war (PoWs) and civilian internees against the Japanese government, films and documentaries, and the publication of memoirs and diaries. Far from fading into memory with the passing of the wartime generation, the events of World War II are being actively remembered, commemorated and transmitted to the post-war generation, some of whom seem ever more interested in exploring and understanding the past, and seeking ways of coming to terms with it.
