HIST 4630 - Memories of WWII in East Asia

(3) Credit Hours

This course examines how different groups in various countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia have remembered the Pacific theater of WWII in the many years since its end. What is history? What is memory? How does history shape memory? How does memory shape history? This course will attempt to answer these questions by covering the history of the war and the postwar era with an emphasis on how postwar history shaped the memories of World War II in East Asia. How have different people in different social and temporal contexts remembered the war and understood its significance, such as through films and in museums? How have memories differed from group to group, such as feminists and ultranationalists? How have they changed over time? In what ways are the memories of the war made meaningful for the present? How do these memories influence relations between Japan and other countries in the postwar and contemporary periods? We will examine how these processes have unfolded primarily in East Asia, namely China, Japan, Korea, Okinawa, and Taiwan.