Lexington Books
Pages: 194
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜
978-1-4985-6769-5 • Hardback • April 2018 • $111.00 • (£85.00)
978-1-4985-6771-8 • Paperback • October 2019 • $46.99 • (£36.00)
978-1-4985-6770-1 • eBook • April 2018 • $44.50 • (£35.00)
Daqing Yang is associate professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University.
Mike Mochizuki is associate professor of political science and international affairs and holds the Japan-U.S. Relations Chair in Memory of Gaston Sigur at George Washington University.
Foreword: Commemorating 1945 in Transnational History, Akira Iriye
Introduction: Anniversary Commemorations: Politics of Collective Memory and Identity, Daqing Yang and Mike Mochizuki
Chapter 1: PRC: Meanings and Contradictions of Victory, Daqing Yang
Chapter 2: Republic of China: Government Balancing Acts in Commemorating World War II, Robert Sutter
Chapter 3: Japan: Contested History and Identity Conflict, Mike Mochizuki
Chapter 4: South Korea: Commemorations, Revision and Reckoning, Christine Kim
Chapter 5: Philippines: Memorials and Commemorations in Seven Decades, Ricardo T. Jose
Chapter 6: Singapore: Commemoration and Reconciliation, Tze Loo
Chapter 7: United States: Remembrance without Recrimination, Marc Gallicchio
Chapter 8: Russia: Commemorating the War in the West More Than East, Marlene Laruelle
Chapter 9: Germany: Comprehensive and Complex “Culture of Remembrance,” Lily Gardner Feldman
This is a powerful, wide-ranging set of essays that provides a genuinely transnational view of the meaning of one turning-point year in modern history: 1945. Bringing together papers on Asia, Europe, and North America, this volume provides a truly innovative contribution to the field of war and memory.
— Rana Mitter, University of Oxford
This is an excellent and timely collection of papers on divergent memories of World War II in the Asia-Pacific region. While Sino-Japanese disputes over islands and the controversies over comfort women make headlines, there is a great diversity of competing historical memories in the region, as this book captures very well. Of particular value is the book’s comparative focus: it considers not only Northeast and Southeast Asia but also the United States—a key player in the Asia-Pacific War—and Germany, a historical benchmark for postwar reconciliation.
— Gi-Wook Shin, Stanford University
Every chapter offers numerous insights, and the book makes an important contribution to the growing literature on memory and Asia-Pacific reconciliation. . . . and will remain relevant
as long as contested memories of this great conflict shape prospects for reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific region.
— Pacific Affairs