Confronting Memories of World War II: European and Asian Legacies

Introduction

3 Introduction In 2013, hardly a day went by without some mention in many leading news media throughout the world of the dispute between China and Japan over a set of tiny islands variously called Senkaku by Japan, which owns them, and Diaoyu by China, which claims them. Typical is the story in the New York Times on February 28, 2013, that mentions not only the increasing tension between the two countries but also the fact that Japan’s prime minister , Shinzo Abe, had supposedly compared the situation to the Falkland Islands dispute between Argentina, which called these Atlantic islands Malvinas, and their owner, the United Kingdom, in 1982.1 The year 1982 was when Argentina’s vicious military dictators whipped up ultranationalist passions to cover up their incompetence and cruelty by making an issue over some trivial islands seven hundred kilometers from southern Argentina settled by British fishermen 150 years earlier. Argentina invaded, there was a short war, and hundreds of soldiers on both sides died. Argentina suffered a humiliating defeat, but, as a result, its military dictatorship collapsed. There are some similarities in both cases but also alarming differences , because a war between China and Japan over a few uninhabited rocks in the Pacific could turn into a major disaster. In both cases, however , reawakened old histories brought up by regimes seeking to bolster their legitimacy, wounded pride about the past, and memories of colonial annexations by a formerly great power, now in reduced circumstances, played key roles. In East Asia in 2013, however, there is a more recent historical memory that has been brought into play—that is, World War II. This East Asian confrontation, which has been heating up for several years, is all the more meaningful because it is hardly the only one to involve memories of past outrages, wounded honor, and national pride in this region. As several of the essays in our book point out, there is also an almost equally bitter dispute between South Korea and Japan over some islands in the sea between them and the meaning of Japanese imperialism in the first half of the twentieth century when it colonized Korea. These are Chirot, Shin, and Sneider 4 the Dokdo (in Korean) or Takeshima (in Japanese) islands. Though strategically far less dangerous than the Chinese-Japanese conflict, the dispute between South Korea and Japan also brings up historical memories and nationalist outrage in both countries. How could it be that history and memory play such an important role? Even if there are contemporary economic and strategic reasons for such territorial issues, all of them, including various Japanese claims to some northern islands now controlled by Russia and Chinese claims to a vast part of the South China Sea, could be negotiated peacefully but are far more serious because they have been linked to contested historical interpretations of late nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century wars. This situation is all the more surprising because in most (though not all) parts of Europe, as we shall see, memories of the great and hugely destructive wars of the twentieth century, and especially World War II when Germany occupied most of Europe, slaughtering millions and causing almost unfathomable ruin, are no longer highly contested. Nor are there any territorial issues between Germany and its neighbors, though there well could have been. Why is it that in Europe there is a widespread perception that “justice,” however that may be defined, has been more or less done, and reconciliation between previously bitter enemies has been possible, while in East Asia, historical memories are reaching a critical point not really seen before? Why is it that in Asia angry memories have been reawakened so strongly, whereas in Europe the opposite would seem to be the case? Such questions are relevant for many parts of the world, and the general issue of how history is interpreted, how it is used and manipulated, and how nationalist versions can play a very emotional role is a huge one. In this book we will look at these kinds of controversies as they pertain to what was the bloodiest war in history, at least in terms of absolute numbers of deaths, World War II. We will explain why there is such a perceived contrast between European and Asian memories, but also why close attention to detail shows that the contrast is not quite as great as superficial generalizations would suggest. The Pacific part of the war is sometimes said to have begun as...