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Nationalism, Pacifism, and Reconciliation: Three Paths Forward for Japan's “History Problem”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Extract
Benedict Anderson reminds us that modernity has been characterized by the emergence of nation-states that can mobilize the passion of young men to “die for the country” on a mass scale. Once mobilized, nationalist passion allows a soldier to believe “he is dying for something greater than himself, for something that will outlast his individual, perishable life in place of a greater, eternal vitality.” But after demobilization, this patriotic fervor withers, no longer fed or needed for everyday combat. In peacetime, the fervor that enabled death and destruction for national purpose no longer even has any social or moral legitimacy.
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References
Notes
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10 Japan had the highest proportion of people who are not proud of their country (48.3%) compared to USA (37.1%) and China (20.3%). See Nihon Seishōnen kenkyūjo, Kōkōsei no gakushū ishiki to nichijō seikatsu: Nihon, amerika, chūgoku no 3 kakoku hikaku. Tokyo: Nihon Seishōnen Kenkyūjo. 2004, 8.
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25 This text has been described variously as a textbook, supplementary guide, or a teachers' guide.
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30 Park, Soon-Won. “A History That Opens the Future: The First Common China-Japan-Korean History Teaching Guide.” In History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia: Divided Memories, edited by Gi-Wook Shin and Daniel C. Sneider, 230-45. New York: Routledge, 2011; Sneider, Daniel C. “The War over Words: History Textbooks and International Relations in Northeast Asia” in History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia, 246-68.
31 The reports of the official Japan-ROK South Korea Joint History Research Committee (2002-05 and 2007-10) are available here and here. The reports of the Japan-China Joint History Research Committee (2006-09) are available here. For an assessment of how textbooks contents differ on controversial events, see Yoshida, Takashi. 2006. The making of the “Rape of Nanking”: History and Memory in Japan, China, and the United States. New York: Oxford University Press.
32 Genron NPO. “Dai 2 kai nikkan kyōdō yoron chōsa.” 2014; 2014. “Dai 10 kai nitchū kyōdō yoron chōsa kekka”. Those who thought of Japan as a pacifist society were 10.5% in China and 5.3% in South Korea; those who thought of Japan as a reconciliationist society were 6.7% in China and 3.9% in South Korea. Those who believed that Japan espoused militarism today were 36.5% in China and 53.1% in South Korea. In China, respondents believed that the “history problem” (31.9%) and the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands (64.8%) were major obstacles for developing a good relationship; in South Korea, the respondents ranked Takeshima/ Dokdo Island (92.2%) and the “history problem” (52.2%) highly as major obstacles for building friendships.
33 Nitchūkan 3-goku Kyōtsū Rekishi Hensan Iinkai. Atarashii higashiajia no kingendaishi (jō): Kokusaikankei no hendō de yomu: Mirai o hiraku rekishi Vol. 1. Tokyo: Nihon hyōronsha, 2012. Atarashii higashiajia no kingendaishi (ge): Tēma de yomu hito to kōryū: Mirai o hiraku rekishi Vol. 2. Tokyo: Nihon hyōronsha, 2012.
34 Utsumi, Aiko, Yasuaki Onuma, Hiroshi Tanaka, and Yoko Kato. Sengo sekinin: Ajia no manazashi ni kotaete. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2014.