ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Allen widens our transnational understanding of memories of World War Two in Asia and traces their transformation and reception as they cross over into the Western sphere of remembrance. From April to November 2015 the USS Missouri Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, hosted an exhibit of kamikaze artifacts, relics, photographs, and personal letters. This was the first time such an exhibit had been displayed outside Japan. The event was initiated by the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots and the Minamikyushu Council, both from Kagoshima, Japan. The exhibit at Pearl Harbor provided an opportunity to compare how Japan‘s celebrated suicide bombers have been received at home and abroad.
While at Chiran, the humanization of the kamikaze pilots continues to resonate with the museum's main audience, the Pearl Harbor exhibit generated significantly more complex responses. The latter suggest that there are cultural filters informed by history, personal experience, and what White (2000) has referred to as “pragmatic” history that may strongly affect the reactions to a Japanese war exhibit by a mostly non-Japanese audience. This chapter examines this premise and unpacks some of the “pragmatic” reasons behind the exhibit's incarnations in both Chiran and in Pearl Harbor.
