Contesting Memorial Spaces of Japan’s Empire

Edward Boyle is Associate Professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Kyoto, Japan, and editor of Japan Review.Steven Ivings is Associate Professor of Economics at Kyoto University, Japan. He is the co-editor of Global Diasporas in the Age of High Imperialism (2017, with Ulrike Kirchberger).

Ongoing arguments over how histories are honoured - as evidenced by the conflict between South Korea and Japan over the opening of Tokyo's Heritage Information Centre in June 2020 - reveal the extent to which heritage processes continue to enable states to assert legitimacy and power on a global stage. Here, Contesting Memorial Spaces of Japan's Empire: Borders of Memory shines a timely spotlight on the complicated histories and disputed legacies of various sites associated with Japan's empire in Asia and the Pacific.Bringing together a team of international scholars, this transnational study sees contested memorial spaces as windows for us to explore how borders are created, moved and altered in everyday life. From the Asan Bay Overlook Memorial Wall in Guam and the Puppet Emperor Palace in China to Japan's Ainu Museum and Thailand's Victory Monument, the diverse range of case studies examined here ground the complex relationship Japan and its neighbours have with their imperial past and reveal how these relations stand at the intersection of individual actions, societal choices and memory collectives. In doing so, this innovative collection of essays bridges history, geography and heritage studies to provide an invaluable new approach to the study of imperial conflict and memory politics in modern Japan.

Brings together an international cast of leading and up-and-coming scholars in the field of Japanese history

Introduction: Siting Japan's Empire and Borders of Memory Edward Boyle (International Research Center for Japanese Studies [Nichibunken], Japan) and Steven Ivings (Kyoto University, Japan)Part I - Struggles for Recognition1. Upopoy and Ainu Ancestral Remains as Sites of Memory Michael Roellinghoff (University of Hong Kong, China)2. Ichigaya Memorial and the (Non-)Representation of the Tokyo Trial Andre Hertich (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria)3. Contesting Memories Online: The Case of the 'Comfort Women' Page on English Wikipedia Jonathan Lewis (Hitotsubashi University, Japan)Part 2 - Cosmopolitan Connections4. Enemies Buried Together: The Remains of War at Cowra Alison Starr (Independent Scholar, Australia)5. Debating the Meaning and Removal of Kyoto's Mimizuka across the 20th Century Daniel Milne (Kyoto University, Japan)6. Japanese Repatriation Museums and Bordering Memories of Empire Jonathan Bull (Hokkaido University, Japan)Part 3 - Stated or Unstated7. Beyond a 'Site of Memory': The Puppet Emperor Palace Emily Matson (University of Virginia, USA)8. Meanings and Uses of Meiji Shrine Peter Zarrow (University of Connecticut, USA)9. Humanizing Bordered Histories: Japanese Locals in Guam's War Memorial Maria Cynthia B. Barriga (Waseda University, Japan)BibliographyIndex