More than 70 years on, arguments over how to handle the heritage of the Asia-Pacific War still provoke intense controversy both within Japan and across the East Asian region. While much research has analysed controversies surrounding the narration of the war in school curricula, this symposium focuses on the treatment of ‘war as heritage’. Papers discuss what is (or is not) officially or publicly commemorated, and why, and how particular places or documents related to the war have come to be designated as heritage. As well as discussing the interpretation of the heritage or memory of war in museums, memorials and other publicly-curated sites, the presenters also discuss the role of grass-roots civil society movements in advocating different perspectives on past conflict.
This symposium builds on an ongoing interdisciplinary project on the politics of war memory in Asian societies – the WARMAP project – led by Dr. Mark Frost and Dr. Daniel Schumacher of the University of Essex, Prof. Edward Vickers of Kyushu University and Prof. Tim Winter of The University of Western Australia. It is held with support from The Resona Asia-Oceania Foundation, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Kyushu University’s ‘Progress 100’ Program, and the university’s ‘Collaborative Platform for Research and Education in the Humanities and Social Sciences’.
The symposium feature a number of invited speakers from Taiwan. For further details, see: http://www.warinasia.com/the-politics-of-war-kyushu-university