Political usages of the past in East Asia

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Published: Jul 20, 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/sas.566
Torsten Weber
Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien
Abstract
This article discusses the mechanisms of the political usage of the past in the context of the historical reconciliation between China and Japan after World War II. It focuses on the debate concerning the authenticity and significance of what has become the most controversial event in the modern history of Chinese-Japanese relations: the Nanking Massacre committed by the Japanese Army in the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45). Drawing on a theoretical framework proposed by the historian Paul A. Cohen, this paper seeks to explain how the search for historical truth -in the common sense of the word- has been framed by the political instrumentalisation of the event for public memory. It considers mythologization as the main means of the antagonistic and partisan use of the past, which not only obstructs the reconciliation between the two countries and peoples, but also impedes processes of regional integration in present-day East Asia.
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