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July 22, 2015

[SSJ: 9039] Joint DIJ History&Humanities, Social Science Study Group 29 July on war memory

From: DIJ History & Humanities and the DIJ Social Science Study Group
Date: 2015/07/22

We would like to invite you to join us for a joint session of the DIJ History & Humanities and the DIJ Social Science Study Group

on Wednesday, 29 July 2015, 18.30 h.

Title
Choosing Ways of Remembering: Comparing Student Narratives about World War II in Japan and Germany

Speakers
Ingvild Bode & Seunghoon Emilia Heo, United Nations University & Sophia University

Abstract
When individuals, be they political elites, bureaucrats, members of civil so ciety organisations, or "ordinary" people on the street, talk about confli cts, they frequently recur on the narrative form – in other words, th ey tell stories. Devising and passing on narratives are basic human sense-ma king methods and thereby contribute to shaping social reality. This paper st udies the narratives about World War II German and Japanese students tell ba sed on a mixed-structure online questionnaire, paying particular attention t o how these narratives depict their respective home countries.

2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, but the war rema ins an important reference point for how Germany and Japan perceive of thems elves and are perceived of by others as public perception of "self" and " others" greatly affects (foreign) policy planning. Both German and Japanese governments choose their ways of remembering World War II, especially throu gh school curricula. In this context, exploring World War II narratives as t old by current German and Japanese university students is significant. While much scholarly attention has been devoted to analyzing school curricula and how these curricula are reflected in school textbooks, little is known abou t how the official version of national/international history is retained by and shared among university students. Our research addresses this question i n two parts: first, we compare the sources and the depth of World War II kno wledge of German and Japanese students. Second, we examine whether their nar ratives about World War II include critical or non-critical assessments of t heir home countries' roles. As current students will play a crucial role in creating their countries' national images, capturing how they choose to re member their countries' World War II past can indicate what kind of referen ce points may shape Japan and Germany's future outlook.

Ingvild Bode is JSPS International Research Fellow with joined affiliation a t the United Nations University and the University of Tokyo. Her research ha s been published in journals such as Global Governance and she is also the a uthor of Individual Agency and Policy
Change: The People of the United Natio ns (Routledge, 2015). Bode's research interests include the human element i n international relations, conflict narratives, UN peacekeeping and state re course to the use of force.

Emilia Seunghoon Heo is Assistant Professor in International Relations at Sophia University and the author of Reconciling Enemy States in Europe and Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). She has a career background in diplomatic service and regularly lectures at the Korean Parliament. Heo specializes in European politics and International Relations and in her research focuses on actors in processes of reconciliation between countries.


The joint DIJ History and Humanities and Social Science Study Group is organized by Miki Aoyama-Olschina, Steffen Heinrich, Phoebe Holdgruen, Carola Hommerich, and Torsten Weber. All are welcome to attend, but prior registration (weber@dijtokyo.org) is greatly appreciated.

German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) Jochi Kioizaka Bldg. 2F, 7-1 Kioicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0094, Phone:
03-3222-5077.
For directions to the institute please see www.dijtokyo.org/access

Approved by ssjmod at 10:25 AM