Session 119: Roundtable: 2005/1945: Hot War/Cold War Anniversaries for Japan, Korea, and the United States: Sponsored by the Northeast Asia Council

Organizer and Chair: Ann Sherif, Oberlin College

Discussants: Charles K. Armstrong, Columbia University; Laura Hein, Northwestern University; Sheila M. Jager, Oberlin College; Susan J. Napier, University of Texas, Austin; Franziska Seraphim, Boston College; Ann Sherif, Oberlin College

Keywords: memory, commemoration, politics, representation.

On the sixtieth anniversary of WWII, the identities of nations are still marked by the fact of their victory or defeat, as well as by resulting political alliances and domestic ideologies during the Cold War. Even after the highly contested fiftieth anniversary, WWII commemorations continue to give rise to major controversies over the meanings of war. Our panel will consider Japan, Korea and the U.S.’s cultural responses to these two historical moments (1945 and 1995).

Questions:

(1) In what ways do acts of representation that assign symbolic meanings to the war also influence current ideology and cultural practices?

(2) How have the public/popular controversy over the fiftieth anniversary and the rise in academic studies of memory affected the sixtieth observances?

(3) How have urgent and unsettling events of the past decade changed the way we see our relation to WWII, the Cold War, and commemorative practices?

Panelists will begin the session with brief remarks on the following issues, and then we will open up the roundtable to discussion. Specific topics include the ways that museum educators in the U.S. and Japan handle controversies related to WWII now that ten years have passed since the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian, shifting perceptions of the Korean War in the U.S., narratives of liberation and occupation on the Korean peninsula, changes in the organizational practices and transnational networks in the negotiation of memory in Japan, Korea, and Germany, and Japanese science fiction animated film and historiography.