ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how mourning and funerary rites, graveyard maintenance, shrines, museums, and ‘war tourism’ in the region perpetuate imperial war narratives. Japan’s battles of Imphal and Kohima for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere killed at least 60,000 Japanese, 20,000 Allied, and unaccounted civilians, turning the Naga Hills and Manipur into a vast graveyard. Imperialist metanarratives of ‘glory,’ ‘guilt,’ ‘shame,’ and ‘victimhood’ dominate this twin battle historiography. These graves, shrines, and funerals rarely honour local war dead or their bodies. This absence erased local memories and narratives of WW2, local deaths, and other destruction, creating a climate of amnesia and sustained ignorance in a region that traditionally commemorates war deaths and heroes from colonial wars and recent military conflicts. The chapter also raises concerns about local perceptions of war graves, monuments, and memorial funerary rites.
