War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005

Abstract

Long-anticipated and well worth the wait, Franziska Seraphim's War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945-2005 fills a major gap in Japanese and political history that has long troubled students of Japan's Asian and Pacific War. Drawing on an impressive array of sources and demonstrating a deep understanding of the importance of both war experience and war in Japan since 1945, this book shows not only what Japanese have come to remember about the Asian-Pacific War demonstrably a great deal more than many critics of Japan have argued but also provides insight into the ways contention over of how to remember that conflict has helped shape Japanese and policy ever since Japan's defeat. Seraphim sees Japan's postwar war as developing in three stages, each of which she introduces and analyzes in turn. Five organizations are identified as critical organized groups dedicated to playing roles in Japan's war politics: the Association of Shinto Shrines, the Association of War-bereaved Families, the Teachers' Union, the Japan-China Friendship Association, and the Wadatsumikai, or Memorial Society for the Student-Soldiers Killed in the War. Each of these strands of memory receives detailed attention in the first part of the study and she argues that it was the end of the Occupation in the early 1950s that released these organizations to more actively engage in politics. To look at social politics in greater depth, the second part of the book explores Political Dynamics of War Memory, particularly the years between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s that saw generational change and expansion of disputes between what was perceived as national interest and issues of political and policy. The reader visits such familiar topics as the early rapprochements with Korea and the US linked to the Security Treaty, concerns over how to reintegrate Okinawa into both Japan and its war experience, and the place of Yasukuni Shrine in a secular state. What is different about this book, however, is the depth of analysis, not previously available.