Abstract
Cornell University
 
 This article is a study of cultural memory, focusing on the case of a particular constructed memorial site, Yasukuni Shintō Shrine (hereafter, Yasukuni), one of the more controversial religious and political sites in Japan. By “cultural memory,” I mean a culturally constructed memory in light of needs and agendas of the present. It denotes exclusively constructions of the past as they are held by people in the given social, cultural, and historical context of the present. I argue that cultural memory is the memory through which people in the present use the past to drive an agenda in the present. This cultural memory is manifested by rituals or performances on special occasions such as commemoration days. What demands attention is that cultural memory is not about revealing past events as accurately as possible, neither is it necessarily about preserving cultural continuity. Rather it is about making “meaningful,” “persuasive,” “true” statements about the past in the particular given context of the present. Within this conceptual framework of cultural memory, this article demonstrates how the cultural memory of Yasukuni has actively constructed the past depending on certain social and cultural milieus of the present.
Highlights
This article is a study of cultural memory, focusing on the case of a particular constructed memorial site, Yasukuni Shintō Shrine, one of the more controversial religious and political sites in Japan
By “cultural memory,” I mean a culturally constructed memory in light of needs and agendas of the present. It denotes exclusively constructions of the past as they are held by people in the given social, cultural, and historical context of the present
I argue that cultural memory is the memory through which people in the present use the past to drive an agenda in the present
Summary
Yasukuni Shrine includes in its precincts a large worship hall (haiden and honden) as well as a very large museum of the Second World War, called Yūshūkan. One of the common points in these five statements is that the speakers have found the occasion of visiting Yasukuni an experience which fosters their nationalist emotions They are encouraged to learn more fully about the view of Japan’s history from what the shrine and museum provide, the circumstances of the time, and the importance of bolstering a sense of the pride in being Japanese and honoring the spirits of the war dead enshrined at the shrine. Their emotional landscape is manipulated to rehabilitate and shape Yasukuni’s memory of its idealized past. Yasukuni performs itself toward the reestablishment of its idealized past
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