The Japanese movement to “correct” history

Abstract

Why is it that in Japan the question of war responsibility seems to have become more acute as time passes? Following the end of the cold war globally and of Liberal Democratic Party hegemony in the Diet domestically, a particularly sharp debate ensued in the media, Diet, courts, and in the national community in general. As the 1995 commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the war approached, a national consensus in favor of apology, admission of the aggressive and colonial character of the war, and compensation to the victims, gradually took shape. In reaction, a counterforce, repudiating apology and reconciliation and insisting on the absolute purity of the national cause, also emerged. The treatment of the wartime “comfort women” issue became central. This paper considers considers the evolution of the Liberal View of History Study Group and the Society for the Making of New School Textbooks in History. What does it mean that these groups represent themselves as “liberal” and what support do they enjoy? The paper concludes that the movement these organizations represent may be intellectually incoherent, but it possesses a considerable emotional force as the voice of a repressed nationalism, and as such deserves close attention.

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