Reporting the 2001 textbook and Yasukuni Shrine controversies: Japanese war memory and commemoration in the British media

Abstract

In the summer of 2001 there were two major controversies concerning Japanese memory and commemoration of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific: a textbook controversy triggered by the nationalist group, the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform (Tsukurukai) and a row triggered by Prime Minister Koizumi's worship at Yasukuni Shrine. This article presents a critique of how the two controversies were reported in the British quality media. It argues that the British media's reportage was a representative example of the ‘orthodox’ interpretation of Japanese war memory. By focusing on ‘newsworthy’ controversies, the stance of the Japanese government and diplomatic confrontation between Japan and China/South Korea, the British media's reportage presented a largely stereotypical and biased version of Japanese war memory that under-represented its complexity and contested nature. The media's reportage is critiqued using the theoretical frameworks of media theory, war memory theory and orientalism, as well as Japanese accounts of the crises.