Presentation Schedule
Politics of Collective Amnesia: Tachiarai Peace Memorial Museum (105191)
Session Chair: Haozhen Xu
This presentation will be live-streamed via Zoom (Online Access)
Wednesday, 13 May 2026 13:45
Session: Session 2
Room: Live-Stream Room 1
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
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Memory politics is a powerful tool in international relations for states to dismiss their responsibilities for violating international norms and highlight their victimhood and a newly constructed image without justified consequences. Instead of undergoing an intensive process of reconciliation and reparation like its World War II ally, Germany, Japan took an entirely different approach to remembering its imperialist past. The Tachiarai Peace Memorial Museum, a small cultural institution located on the former grounds of the Tachiarai Imperial Airbase in Kyushu, Japan, serves as a case study of how local museums construct narratives about the war using historical sites and evidence. This essay argues that the Memorial Museum fosters collective amnesia by selectively emphasizing Japan’s victimhood while omitting its imperialist actions during World War II, by engaging with scholarship surrounding victimhood nationalism and collective amnesia as political strategies. This approach complicates Japan’s ability to reconcile with its past, shapes contemporary identity and international relations, and reinforces a narrative of victimhood nationalism.
Authors:
Haozhen Xu, Columbia University, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Haozhen Xu is an MA Global Thought student at Columbia University in the City of New York, United States of America.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule
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