Remembering Asia's World War Two (Remembering the Modern World)

by EdwardVickers (Editor), Daniel Schumacher (Editor), Mark R . Frost (Editor)

• New

  Hardcover
  2019

  $139.18

  Over the past four decades, East and Southeast Asia have seen a proliferation of heritage sites and remembrance practices which commemorate the region's bloody conflicts of the period 1931-45. Remembering Asia's World War Two examines the origins, dynamics and repercussions of this regional war `memory boom'.

  The book analyses the politics of war commemoration in contemporary East and Southeast Asia, with a range of international authors contributing chapters spanning China, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore and covering such topics as the commemoration of the Japanese military's system of sex slavery ('comfort women'), veterans' tours to wartime battlefields, and heritage sites and museums. Case studies reveal the distinctive trajectories of new and newly-discovered forms of remembrance that operate in and across national arenas, highlighting the growing influence of non-state actors in representations of East and Southeast Asia's violent history and the increasingly interconnected and transnational character of war memory-making in the region. Underlying the book is the argument that in key parts of Asia the public commemoration of the wars of 1931-45 has begun to shift, from their portrayal as a series of national wars with distinctive local meanings, to their remembrance as an identifiably common pan-Asian experience.

  Focusing on non-textual vehicles for public commemoration and considering both the local and international dimensions of war commemoration within the area, Remembering Asia's World War Two is ideal for students and scholars of Asian history, Asian studies, memory studies and heritage studies.