Asia
Victimhood Nationalism and History Reconciliation in East Asia
By , Hanyang University (November 2009)
Sections: Asia
Subjects: Imperial, Colonial, and Postcolonial History, Study of History, History, Postcolonial History, Comparative History.
Places: Asia, Eastern Asia.
Period: 2000 - present.
Key Topics: nationalism, Second World War, ethnicity, colonialism, genocide.
Abstract
‘Victimhood nationalism’ is a working hypothesis to explicate competing national memories over the historical position of victims in coming to terms with the pasts. Once put into the dichotomy of victimizers and victims in national terms, the victimhood becomes hereditary and thus consolidates the national solidarity beyond generations. Without a reflection on the victimhood nationalism, the postwar Vergangenheitsbewäeltigung cannot be properly grasped. Victimhood nationalism is intrinsically transnational as victims are unthinkable without victimizers. The transnationality of victimhood nationalism demands a histoire croisée to comprehend the entangled past of the victimized and victimizers. A transnational history of ‘coming to terms with past’ would show that the vicious circle of victimhood nationalisms, based on the antagonistic complicity of nationalisms between the victimizers and victims, has been a rock to any historical reconciliation effort. Focused on East Asia this essay is a part of the plan to write a transnational history of the victimhood nationalism in Korea, Poland and Israel with Japan and Germany as counterparts.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00654.x
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