ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses issues of history and historical memory in postwar Japan and explains the significance of debates about Japan’s wartime legacy in postwar politics and society as well as in an international context. It argues that Japan went through a phase of sincere attempts to reach reconciliation with its wartime enemies through a policy of apologizing during the 1990s, but that since the 2000s, critical approaches to war legacy interpretation were brushed aside and war-beautifying narratives were prioritized over concerns for reconciliation.
