ABSTRACT
Memory is a powerful and deeply human quality that is as important for individuals as for the communities from which they come. A reason the memories and their representation in this volume seem so difficult for various people and groups is because of the trauma they evoke. Contention over such attempts at memorialisation and efforts to suppress or alter them play out in cultural spaces, given the difficult nature of the original events. Monuments can and often do seek to modify, revise or even hijack narratives, sometimes inviting strong pushback from groups who find such changes to be affronts to their positions. Memorialisation in literature, film and other media may be especially important when official documentary records are inaccessible or destroyed. National narratives dominate many, if not most, accounts of culture, identity, politics and society in Asia since World War II.
