East Asia's Haunted Present: Historical Memories and the Resurgence of Nationalism: Historical Memories and the Resurgence of Nationalism

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Kazuhiko Togo

ABC-CLIO, Jun 30, 2008 - Social Science - 276 pages

This collection of essays by leading scholars from Japan, China, South Korea, and the United States examines how and why bitter historical memories have resurfaced in recent years as freshly virulent and contentious issues between Japan and its neighbors—especially China and South Korea. Moreover, it seeks to identify what set of conditions and what sequence of measures will enable these modern nations to manage, palliate, and exorcise the wrongs of the past in a spirit of reconciliation, so that the dangerous growth of nationalist resentments and revanchism can be checked.

Comfort women … the Yasukuni Shrine … the history textbook controversies … The single sorest issue confronting East Asia today is the growing animosity and conflict between Japan and its neighbors—especially China and South Korea—over their respective and collective memories of Japan's pre-1945 militaristic aggression, oppression, and atrocities. Even as East Asia has established itself as one of the most vibrant economic regions of the world, the strident nationalisms that have emerged here in the post-Cold War period have exacerbated historical grievances and heightened the international tensions that separate Japan from China and South Korea, blocking the development of an international system based on comity and cooperation.

About the author

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa is Professor of History and co-director of the Center for Cold War Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of The Northern Territories Dispute and Russo-Japanese Relations(winner of the Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Prize), Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan(winner of the Robert Ferrell Book Prize), and Anto: Sutarin, Toruman to Nihon kofuku (winner of the Yomiuru-Yoshino Sakuzo Prize and the Shiba Ryotaro Prize).

Kazuhiko Togo is Visiting Professor of International Affairs at Seoul National University. He joined the Foreign Ministry of Japan in 1968 as a Sovietologist and served as the ambassador of Japan to the Netherlands. He has taught at the universities of Moscow, Tokyo, Leiden, Princeton, Tansui (Taiwan), and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Japan's Foreign Policy 1945-2003: The Quest for a Proactive Policy and The Inside Story of the Negotiations on the Northern Territory: Five Lost Windows of Opportunity (in Japanese). Ambassador Kazuhiko Togo is the grandson of the wartime Japanese foreign minister, Shigenori Togo, who is enshrined as one of the A-Class war criminals in Yasukuni Shrine.

Bibliographic information

• Title: East Asia's Haunted Present: Historical Memories and the Resurgence of Nationalism: Historical Memories and the Resurgence of Nationalism; PSI Reports
• Authors: Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Kazuhiko Togo
• Publisher: ABC-CLIO, 2008
• ISBN: 0313356130, 9780313356131
• Length: 276 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Ethnic Studies / General