ABSTRACT
Reflecting the growing body of research into what is broadly referred to as ‘dark tourism’, it has come to be recognized that tourism may represent a potentially effective means of confronting difficult or ‘dark’ histories. That is, dark tourism sites offer the opportunity for stakeholders – victims, perpetrators, local communities and visitors/outsiders – to confront death, suffering or dark events/periods in their or a nation’s history, with dark sites adopting a ‘mediating’ role. This chapter explores the manner in which the controversial Kamikaze strategy is commemorated in contemporary Japan. Framed within the concept of dissonant heritage, it explores the extent to which the commemoration and interpretation of the kamikaze might promote mutual understanding, reconciliation and peace through two case studies: the Chiran Peace Museum and the relatively unknown Uzurano airfield near Kasai, where young kamikaze pilots were trained. In so doing, it reveals a dominant revisionist narrative of heroic willing sacrifice and a significant degree of dissonance but also opportunities for confronting a difficult past through both domestic and international tourism at Uzurano.
