Globalization, politics of historical memory, and enmification in Sino-Japanese relations

Abstract

State control of history education is vital to ensuring a national narrative capable of legitimating the modern nation-state. Teaching socially shared perceptions of the past is an important element in the formation of national, ethnic, or religious identities (Smith, Myth and memories of the nation. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999). Political elites try to control history education in order to institutionalize a particular memory that will reinforce the group’s collective identity. These narratives and historical memory can become a major source of tension and enmification between different groups. At a time of crisis, when there is a threat to a group’s identity, historical memory is used to valorize the group and restore its collective esteem. The rise of neonationalist discourse in the 1990s in Japan can be viewed through the lens of the nation’s identity crisis, a reaction of a nation struggling amidst feelings of insecurity and frustration. The 1990s was also a time of reconstruction of historical narratives in China as the country faced an ideological crisis following the outbreak of the Tiananmen prodemocracy movement which weakened the legitimacy of the Communist leadership. This chapter is about unresolved trauma, historical memory, and identity anxieties generating deep contextual elements for negative dynamics of enmification between China and Japan.