Abstract
AbstractJapan and Germany were allies during World War II, and both countries committed crimes. Even though the Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany was unprecedented in history, Japan has also been found guilty of serious misdemeanours. Today, Germany acknowledges the magnitude of its responsibility and strives to deal with this legacy. However, in Japan, we find no consensus on dealing with the matter. Nonetheless, it would be short-sighted to conclude that Germany did a better job than Japan from the outset. In analysing the different approaches to remembrance culture in the two countries, we use the theoretical framework ofcivil religionto assess the impacts of the respective civil religions on the culture of commemoration. We hereby analyzed the structural factors as well as the influence of individual political behaviour. Immediately after the war, neither Germany nor Japan were interested in coming to terms with their past. Both countries were subject to Western integration, and both countries experienced remarkable economic growth. One of the major differences between both countries concerns civil religion. While Germany no longer relied on strong nationalism-based politics and instead pursued European integration, in Japan. Shintôism has continued to influence feelings of national belonging, making it more difficult to establish a critical dialogue with the past. Further differences are apparent: the Western origin of Japan’s constitution, the conflicting international environment in Japan, the late regime change, differences in education and, most importantly, the impacts of generational change in Germany. The 1968 student generation strongly condemned Nazi aggression and demanded that the older generation face responsibility, which strongly contributed to a reappraisal of the past in the public sphere.
Highlights
Japan and Germany were allies during World War II, and both countries committed crimes, especially in neighbouring countries
Concerning the new political structure, we find a major difference between Japan and Germany: While the Germans wrote a new constitution by themselves, the Japanese presented only minor changes of the Meiji Constitution
Both Germany and Japan were occupied by the Western Allies, and both integrated large numbers of those responsible for war and war crimes into their society rather than punishing them
Summary
Japan and Germany were allies during World War II, and both countries committed crimes, especially in neighbouring countries. Concerning the new political structure, we find a major difference between Japan and Germany: While the Germans wrote a new constitution by themselves, the Japanese presented only minor changes of the Meiji Constitution This can be attributed to the fact that in Japan the draft was produced by the government under the supervision of the Minister of State and pre-war Minister of Commerce and Industry, Matsumoto Jôji (1877–1954), while in Germany politicians who had been in opposition to the NS-regime negotiated the statutory stipulations. 118) argued that the move towards a revitalisation of Japanese civil religion would inevitably mean the emergence of other related issues, such as a reversal of those parts of the Constitution that refer to the Emperor’s symbolic status, a revision of the Peace Article, or the restoration of traditional ‘moral education’ This is true for the current situation, illustrated by the present discussion about revising Article 9 and an expanded role for Japan’s SDF forces. The textbooks will refer to the Senkaku Islands/Diaoyu (controlled by Japan and disputed with China) and Takeshima/Dokdo (controlled by and disputed with South Korea) as “Japanese territory”, which most likely will lead to a further worsening of Japan’s relations with the neighbouring countries.
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