Two New Studies about War Memory and Reconciliation

Two new books in English make important contributions to the understanding of war memory and opportunities for reconciliation between Japan and China: Franziska Seraphim, War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945-2005 (Harvard East Asian Monographs, 2006); and Lam Peng Er (ed.), Japan's Relations with China: Facing a Rising Power (Routledge, 2006).
Franziska Seraphim analyzes the particular ways in which five different social organizations in Japan have dealt with the history of the war: the Association of Shinto Shrines, the Japan Association of War-Bereaved Families, the Japan Teachers' Union, the Japan-China Friendship Association, and the Japan Memorial Society for Students Killed in the War. In the Lam Peng Er volume, thirteen authors address different dimensions of the relationship. Of special interest for our purposes are three chapters by Purnendra Jain, Glenn Hook, and Takahara Akio, all of which address sub-national relationships between China and Japan. In another chapter, He Yinan analyzes the contested history problem in Sino-Japanese relations in an innovative way. Conceptualizing the problem as "national myth-making" by both countries, she then undertakes an even-handed assessment of how the relationship over time has been seen in each country.