The Nanking Massacre
Type de matériel :
100
The controversy over what happened in Nanjing in the winter of 1937-1938 has become a stumbling block in Sino-Japanese relationships in the 21st century. This paper argues that the ability of China and Japan to move beyond the current controversy does not simply depend on exercises in historical interpretation alone. On the contrary, the "duty of memory" demands that both sides ask why in China the events of 1937-1938 were concealed for so long itself, and why there is such a new enthusiasm in Japan for claiming that their role in Asia before 1945 was a positive one. The paper examines to what extent the history of the massacre was eluded during the Cold War, and how, from the 1980s on, the People’s Republic of China gave higher priority to the reunification with Taiwan, seeking in it a new source of political legitimacy after the decline of Maoism. In Japan, controversy over the war years was ignited again by investigations carried out by historians and journalists from the left, provoking reactions from the right. The Nanjing massacre gained a new prominence in this discussion, fuelled by the building of the Nanjing massacre memorial museum, and the development of a new genre of literature in China concerning the massacre. In acknowledging publicly the reasons why the massacre, and its context, were concealed from view for so long, the new Chinese openness about the partiality of their own historiography can be seen as a challenge to the Japanese who now rightly condemn their own biased views of the massacre.
Réseaux sociaux