Remembering Asia's World War Two

Introduction: locating Asia’s war memory boom: a new temporal and geopolitical perspective

Part I States and citizens

1 Angry states: Chinese views of Japan as seen through the Unit 731 War Museum since 1949

2 Memory times, memory places: public and private commemoration of war in China

3 The Jianchuan museum: the politics of war memory in a private Chinese museum

4 The state of Malaysian war memory: "postcolonizing" moments in Perak

Part II Transnational dynamics

5 Capitalists can do no wrong: selective memories of war and occupation in Hong Kong

6 Transition and transnational loyalties: World War Two remembrance and the overseas Chinese in Singapore

7 Commemorating "comfort women" beyond Korea: the Chinese case

Part III Transnational reconciliation

8 In search of fathers: the pilgrimages to Asia of the children of Far East prisoners of war

9 "Affect" and dislocation: exhibiting the kamikaze in Japan and Pearl Harbor

10 Methods of reconciliation: the "rich tradition" of Japanese war memory activism in post-war Southeast Asia

Biography

Mark R. Frost is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of History, University of Essex, UK. He is a historian of the colonial encounter in the Indian Ocean world, a documentary filmmaker and exhibition designer, and the author of Singapore: A Biography (2009, 2013).

Daniel Schumacher is Associate Fellow at the Centre for Public History, University of Essex, UK. His research interests include East/Southeast Asian memory politics and transcultural education. He is the co-editor (with Stephanie Yeo) of Exhibiting the Fall of Singapore: Close Readings of a Global Event (2018).

Edward Vickers is Professor of Comparative Education and Director of the Taiwan Studies Program at Kyushu University, Japan. A former schoolteacher and textbook author (in Hong Kong and Beijing), he has published widely on the politics of memory, identity, and education in East Asian societies. He is co-author (with Zeng Xiaodong) of Education and Society in post-Mao China (2017).

'A welcome series of informative essays about war memory in East and Southeast Asia. The authors insist on place -- seeing Asian commemorative practices in their own national and transnational terms rather than as refractions of European experience -- and time -- showing that the memory surge of the 1990s had a history long predating the end of the Cold War. A timely intervention in the politics of war memory in Asian and global context.'

Carol Gluck, Professor of History, Columbia University, USA

'Here in Japan, intentional or unintentional erasure of war-related history is rapidly advancing in our educational institutions, where teachers are obliged to adhere to "political neutrality". This book thoughtfully analyzes the focus, intentions and methods of conflict commemoration across East and Southeast Asia, showing the fraught state of heritage politics throughout the region. It reminds us that the pursuit of truth, rejection of erasure, and reconciliation beyond national boundaries will never be achieved through an insistence on keeping history monolithic and static.'

Tomoko Ako, University of Tokyo, Japan

'[The book] provides a strong foundation for understanding the newly-developing dimensions of Asia’s memory formation, and how different countries are putting forth different strategies towards reconciliation with their difficult histories.'

Hyun Kyung Lee, International Journal of Heritage Studies