Taking a comparative approach and bringing together perspectives from Japan, China, Korea, and Taiwan, this volume considers former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama's 1995 apology statement, the height of Japan's post-war apology, and examines its implications for memory, international relations, and reconciliation in Asia.

This edited volume examines a range of historical and contemporary episodes of reconciliation and anti-reconciliation in the aftermath of war. Reconciliation is a concept that resists easy definition. At the same time, it is almost invariably invoked as a goal of post-conflict reconstruction, peacebuilding and transitional justice. This book examines the considerable ambiguity and controversy surrounding the term and, crucially, asks what has reconciliation entailed historically? What can we learn from past episodes of reconciliation and anti-reconciliation? Taken together, the chapters in this volume adopt an interdisciplinary approach, focused on the question of how reconciliation has been enacted, performed and understood in particular historical episodes, and how that might contribute to our understanding of the concept and its practice. Rather than seek a universal definition, the book focuses on what makes each case of reconciliation unique, and highlights the specificity of reconciliation in individual contexts. This book will be of much interest to students of transitional justice, conflict resolution, human rights, history and International Relations.

East Asia is now the world’s economic powerhouse, but ghosts of history continue to trouble relations between the key countries of the region, particularly between Japan, China and the two Koreas. Unhappy legacies of Japan’s military expansion in pre-war Asia prompt on-going calls for apologies, while conflicts over ownership of cultural heritage cause friction between China and Korea, and no peace treaty has ever been signed to conclude the Korean War. For over a decade, the region’s governments and non-government groups have sought to confront the ghosts of the past by developing paths to reconciliation. Focusing particularly on popular culture and grassroots action, East Asia beyond the History Wars explores these East Asian approaches to historical reconciliation. This book examines how Korean historians from North and South exchange ideas about national history, how Chinese film-makers reframe their views of the war with Japan, and how Japanese social activists develop grassroots reconciliation projects with counterparts from Korea and elsewhere. As the volume’s studies of museums, monuments and memorials show, East Asian public images of modern history are changing, but change is fragile and uncertain. This unfinished story of East Asia’s search for historical reconciliation has important implications for the study of popular memory worldwide. Presenting a fresh perspective on reconciliation which draws on both history and cultural studies, this book will be welcomed by students and scholars working in the fields of Asian history, Asian culture and society as well as those interested in war and memory studies more generally.

Presents revised and updated papers from a March 1997 conference held at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Papers investigate the new relationships emerging among Washington, Seoul, and Pyongyang in which political, military, and economic variables interact in a new way. Subjects include South Korea's nuclear option, US-North Korea economic relations, US public opinion of the two Koreas, and Japan and China's responses to changing developments in Korea. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Japan's Foreign Relations in Asia has been specifically designed to introduce students to Japan’s foreign relations in Asia since 1990, a period in which there have been dramatic developments in Japan, including the reinterpretation of the Constitution and expanded US–Japan defence cooperation. The geopolitical dynamics and implications of these new developments are profound and underscore the need for a new textbook on this subject. Covering not only the key regional players of China and the Koreas, this textbook also encompasses chapters on Japan’s relations with India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand, along with its multilateral engagement and initiatives. Combined with transnational chapters on critical issues, key themes covered by this book include: An historical overview of key post-war developments. Japan’s evolving security policy. Analysis of the region’s escalating maritime disputes. An evaluation of Japanese soft power in Asia. Written by leading experts in accessible, jargon-free style, this new textbook will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Japanese politics, international relations and foreign policy and Asian affairs in general.

Are countries truly reconciled after successful conflict resolution? Are only resource-rich regions capable of reconciliation, while supposedly resource-poor ones are condemned to recurring conflicts? This book examines the availability of various resources for political reconciliation, and explores how they are utilized in overcoming particular obstacles during the process. While the existing literature focus on themes such as justice, apology and resentment, the analysis here is centered on intellectual resources in terms of ideas, memory cultures, master narratives, economic incentives, civil society initiatives and object lessons. The research and comparative research in this volume are conducted by renowned regional experts from South Africa to the Asia-Pacific, thus providing multidisciplinary perspectives and new insight on the subject.

This book is about the 100 years of World Wars and Regional Collaboration in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, investigating and considering how to foster Good Governance and New World Order. The world is currently at the historical turning point. The twentieth century witnessed two World Wars (WWI and WWII), followed by the Cold War that dominated geopolitics. Amidst the post-war devastation, the European Community, soon succeeded by the European Union, came into being. Peaceful governance was nurtured by building economic collaboration and institutions and by establishing liberalism, democracy and the rule of law. In Asia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also pursued regional governance after WWII, but in East Asia, the American Divide and Rule policy is continuing until now by the influence of China, North Korea and Russia. In the contemporary world in the twenty-first century, a new nationalism, Populism and Authoritarianism are spreading. At the same time, a wave of rapid economic growth is occurring in developing countries, especially in China and India. Destabilization is spreading in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia concurrently with the search for “Democratization”. Through the two World Wars and the Cold War which originated in 100 years of the twentieth century, what types of regional institutions and governance have been developed to avoid endless wars and conflicts? In this book, it is examined, what kind of order is necessary to stabilize the regions from conflicts and wars in both Europe and Asia. The themes of the Tokyo Conferences and the Kyoto Conference by SCJ (Science Council of Japan) in December 2020, were investigated and clarified, how the countries that were caught up in global wars have considered regional coexistence in each period, and how to establish peace, stability, and prosperity by means of new institutionalizations, norms and the rule of law. The aim of the authors is to examine and discuss How to create New World Order, Regional Collaborations and Good Governance in the historical power transition period. This book can inspire many scholars and young researchers to join in discussing how to create New World Order in the twenty-first century, from the midst of the unstable situations of the global geopolitics.

This collection examines what happens when one country’s experience of dealing with its traumatic past is held up as a model for others to follow. In regional and country studies covering Argentina, Canada, Japan, Lebanon, Rwanda, Russia, Turkey, the United States and former Yugoslavia, the authors look at the pitfalls, misunderstandings and perverse effects–but also the promise–of trying to replicate atonement. Going beyond the idea of a global or transnational memory, this book examines the significance of foreign models in atonement practices, and analyses the role of national governments, international organisations, museums, foundations, NGOs and public intellectuals in shaping the idea that good practices of atonement can be learned. The volume also demonstrates how one can productively learn from others by appreciating the complex and contested nature of atonement practices such as Germany’s, and also by finding the necessary resources in the history of one’s own country.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book delves into the widely held belief that the 21st century will be the "Asian Century" by examining the Asia's rapid economic development in the post-war era and the challenges it faces in forging ahead of world leaders in the West. The impact of the current turbulent global political climate on Asia is critically analyzed, employing a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, combining economic, social, political and geopolitical perspectives. Written in an accessible style, the book offers students, business, government, and civil society players powerful insights on Asia.

Decades after the end of the World War II East Asia continues to struggle with lingering animosities and unresolved historical grievances in domestic, bilateral and regional memory landscapes. China, Japan and the Korea share a history of inter- and intra-violence, self-other identity construction and diametrically opposed interpretations of the past. Routledge Handbook of Memory and Reconciliation in East Asia offers a complete overview of the challenges of national memory and ideological rivalry for reconciliation in the East Asian region. Chapters provide authoritative analyses of contentious issues such as comfort women, the Nanjing massacre, history textbook controversies, shared heritage sites, colonial rule, territorial disputes and restitution. By interweaving memory, human rights and reconciliation the contributors actively explore real prospects of redressing past wrongs and achieving peaceful coexistence at personal as well as governmental levels. Bringing together an international team of experts, this book is an essential read for students and scholars of East Asian studies, anthropology, gender studies, history, international relations, law, political science, and sociology, and for those interested in memory and reconciliation issues.