1st Edition
Japan's Contested War Memories The 'Memory Rifts' in Historical Consciousness of World War II
Introduction 1. Historical Consciousness in Contemporary Japan 2. The 'Long Postwar' 3. 'Addressing the Past' 4. The War as a Current Affairs Issue 5. August Commemorations 6. History and Ideology 7. War Stories 8. Regional Memories 9. War and the Family. Epilogue
Biography
Philip A. Seaton is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Media and Communication, Hokkaido University, Japan. His webpage, which contains links to many online resources and an online appendix, is www.philipseaton.net.
'This book has much to offer to journalists and students of comparative media and memory studies as well as the general reader interested in contemporary Japan. In deconstructing the common notion of Japan as the odd one out with respect to memory of World War II, Philip Seaton levels the interpretative playing field to show that Japan’s memory culture is consistent with the dynamics of a democratic, late-capitalist society deeply affected by global trends in public culture... the book’s sizeable acomplishments. As the first systematic survey of the Japanese (and to an extent also the international) media’s role in Japan’s struggle with war memory, it certainly offers a refreshing and highly welcome contribution to the comparative memory literature.' - Franziska Seraphim, Japan Forum, 20:1, March 2008
'[T]his book is a fine addition to our library of ever more nuanced works on modern Japan, taking as it does a distinctive perspective on issues which will surely not leave television screens, newspapers and other media for quite some time.' - Ian Astley, The International Journal of Asian Studies
