Neutralizing the past

Abstract

Remembrance is a legacy of war. For some, it is the scars left by the trauma. For others, it is the need to grieve. We all honor the heroes and condemn the traitors. We ask for justice to be served. Years later, we try to draw historical lessons. Monuments, memorials, museums, but also poems, novels, and movies come to mark the memories. We recognize that we cannot and ought not forget. Through action, through words, through art, and through law, we make sure that we do not. Students of the dynamics of collective memory help us understand why it must be so. In recent years in particular, a great deal of analytical work has been done to illuminate the many complex links between wars and remembrances. Confronted with the attempts at outright denial—of the Holocaust, of the Japanese atrocities—scholars join others in defense of truth. Confronted with the continuing conflict over truth—about Hiroshima, about Vietnam—we also begin to acknowledge the limits of academic endeavors. Yet whether as critical observe...