Japan Towards Reconciliation: From Political to Social Wartime Narratives thesis, 2015

This is another one of those things that I run across in my research from time to time that turns out to be really worthwhile reading. My own comments will be in ( ).

The thesis starts out by examining how Germany dealt with its war memories, and how Japan was not as successful, one of the problems being the Yasukuni shrine where war dead are remembered. (During the war many soldiers believed that once they died their souls would go to the shrine and become gods.) Another factor complicating things were the atomic bombs and their after-effect on the country.

The author discusses how Japan does not have a united consensus about the war and Japan's place in it.

Something Japan had to go through that Germany did not was the dropping of atomic bombs that deal great damage to and killed thousands upon thousands of people. (Remember: Japan had never been defeated as a nation. They felt that they were invincible and they even had the "four corners" idea, believing that all four corners of the globe would eventually be united under Japanese rule. The Japanese people got a rude awakening when the Doolittle raid bombed Tokyo and a much ruder awakening when regular American bombing of Japan began later in the war and the Japanese were unable to stop them.

The author also discusses how history can become politicized and what kinds of effects that can have. A good example of this is Yasukuni shrine and how that ties in to how some Japaneses view the soldiers that fought during the war as heroes, including the kamikaze.

Another thing discussed is the end of the war and how the U.S. did not seek severe punishment against Japan largely because they needed an ally in the area as a buffer against Communism.

One of the points of disagreement is the 'Japan was the aggressor" vs "Japan was only trying to defend itself against Western imperialism" arguments. The Yasukuni shrine and visits by Japanese governmental officials is one of the things that is part of this who controversy.

The thesis goes on to discuss how there are five different group approaches to the past and what each one is. Specific organizations are discussed as are their stands on the past. How the mass media in Japan approaches the past events is also covered.

An interesting approach to the Yasukuni shrine involves removing the Class-A war criminals from the shrine. The textbook controversy is also covered.

Specific problems are pointed out as well as specific possible solutions. As you can see, the paper is quite thorough.

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