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- Convenors:
-
Mark Caprio
(Rikkyo University)
Xiaohua Ma (Osaka University of Education)
Kenneth Ruoff (Portland State University )
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- Discussant:
-
Barak Kushner
(University of Cambridge)
- Stream:
- History
- Location:
- Bloco 1, Piso 0, Sala 0.09
- Sessions:
- Thursday 31 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel examines how Japan, China, and South Korea use museums to incorporate their interpretations of the delicate and controversial colonial and Asia-Pacific wartime periods, focusing on how these states weave these histories into their longer national narratives.
Long Abstract:
The recent conflicts that have erupted between the Northeast Asian states over the past three decades are in part centered on how twentieth century wars are to be remembered. Collective war memories influence the views that citizens hold of their nation, as well as those of the peoples their country victimized in these wars. That Japan, China, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) script their wartime participation as just, that they tend to emphasize their victimization over the victims they create, is hardly unique. That these narratives are publicly contested by neighboring states, however, is. This panel focuses first on how the three states attempt to incorporate their colonial and war histories into their national narrative, second, how these narratives are contested by others, and third, how this contestation influences their respective national narratives. Ken Ruoff's paper focuses on descriptions of ROK interpretations of Japan's colonial-era memories in history museums located in the capital, and even in museums dedicated to telling the stories of ROK government post-liberation suppression of its people. Xiaohua Ma contrasts the media-driven disagreements that have arisen between Japan and China with the more positive advancements that have occurred in recent times. Focusing on "Peace Museums" that have emphasized the darker side of this relationship she considers how they may be reconfigured to contribute to healing the wounds of the past. Mark Caprio, focusing on victimhood, examines how Japanese and ROK war museums have justified their less than honorable actions in recent wars, Japanese in the Asia-Pacific War and Koreans in the Vietnam War.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 31 August, 2017, -Mark Caprio (Rikkyo University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will examine how Japanese and Korean museums display their acts of wartime victimization during times of foreign invasion. It will focus on displays on the Asia-Pacific War found in Japan's Yushukan and those on Korea's participation in the Vietnam War found in the War Museum of Korea.
Paper long abstract:
The wars over history that broke out from the 1980s between Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) have primarily centered on differences in interpretation, and, in the case of Japan, alterations in the historical interpretations of the thirty-five years of colonial subjugation by Japan over Korea. The forced use of Koreans in the Pacific War as both laborers and soldiers remains to date among the most important unresolved issues that separate the ROK and Japan. The roles assumed by the two peoples in this narrative dovetails well with the primary narrative found throughout war museums in both countries—historically Korea understands its past as one of foreign invasion; Japan, for its part, spends much time why it had to fight the wars that it did. A comparison of museums found in the lands of the victims and the victimizer is but one dimension found in the war museums in the two countries. Another dimension emerges after the ROK agreed to send troops to Vietnam in the late 1960s. Here, now, the victimized assumes a potential victimizer role. How does the ROK war museum make this transition? In what ways does the ROK example compare with its Japanese equivalent? How do the narratives of the war museums of these two states differ from those of other countries such as the United States?
Kenneth Ruoff (Portland State University )
Paper short abstract:
This presentation, by looking at historical themes ranging from modernization to historical continuities from the colonial period to the especially volatile topic of collaboration, examines how museums in the Republic of Korea narrate the colonial period.
Paper long abstract:
The Republic of Korea's history museum-scape is as pluralistic as one might expect from a liberal democracy of fifty million citizens, with museums ranging from those that glorify the national history (even while pointing an accusing finger at Imperial Japan) to those that are far more introspective about Korea's experience. This presentation, by looking at historical themes ranging from modernization to historical continuities from the colonial period to the especially volatile topic of collaboration, examines how museums including Independence Hall, the War Memorial, the Soedaemun Prison Hall Complex, the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, and the Jeju April 3 Peace Park portray the era when Korea was under colonial rule by Japan.
The presentation will focus mainly on convenient absences from the narratives presented at these museums, absences which reinforce patriotic accounts of the national history. Comparisons will be made to narratives put forth at museums in Japan ranging from the Kyoto Museum for World Peace to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to the notorious Yushukan museum located on the grounds of Yasukuni Shrine. One key difference between Japan and Korea that must be explored is that Japan has no national museum devoted specifically to modern history, whereas Korea has several.
Museum exhibitions are a fundamental aspect of the ongoing history or memory wars between these two countries. They are one of the many vectors by which popular historical consciousness is shaped in this age of growing mobility, and thus they must be included in discussions of how history is told and retold.