Japanese war memories in popular film : memorialising victimhood and agency in post-war Japan

This papers aims to explore how popular Japanese war films have memorialized the Japanese experience of World War Two, and in the process mediated Japanese war memories to the post-war generation today. The nature of Japanese war memories during the post-war was conditioned by a strong sense of nati...

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Main Author: Guay, Eik Kar
Other Authors: Hallam Stevens
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73532
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-735322019-12-10T14:46:52Z Japanese war memories in popular film : memorialising victimhood and agency in post-war Japan Guay, Eik Kar Hallam Stevens School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Humanities::History::Asia::Japan This papers aims to explore how popular Japanese war films have memorialized the Japanese experience of World War Two, and in the process mediated Japanese war memories to the post-war generation today. The nature of Japanese war memories during the post-war was conditioned by a strong sense of national victimhood, which excluded memories of Japan’s aggression towards Asia, and was reflected in popular war films. The 1990s onwards however saw the increased awareness and acceptance of Japan’s wartime responsibilities towards its Asian victims by the Japanese people, and yet at the same time, there remained a strong desire to memorialise the Japanese war dead in the Yasukuni shrine. Looking particularly at the films Grave of the Fireflies, In This Corner of the World, and The Eternal Zero, I argue that the changes in the memorialization of the war, from a focus on Japanese victimhood and suffering previously seen in Grave of the Fireflies, towards positive remembrance and highlighting the agency of individuals, seen in In This Corner of the World and The Eternal Zero reflects the changes in the Japanese memory-scape, where Japan seeks to look beyond its own victimhood. Bachelor of Arts 2018-03-28T08:22:37Z 2018-03-28T08:22:37Z 2018 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73532 en Nanyang Technological University 62 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Humanities::History::Asia::Japan
spellingShingle DRNTU::Humanities::History::Asia::Japan
Guay, Eik Kar
Japanese war memories in popular film : memorialising victimhood and agency in post-war Japan
description This papers aims to explore how popular Japanese war films have memorialized the Japanese experience of World War Two, and in the process mediated Japanese war memories to the post-war generation today. The nature of Japanese war memories during the post-war was conditioned by a strong sense of national victimhood, which excluded memories of Japan’s aggression towards Asia, and was reflected in popular war films. The 1990s onwards however saw the increased awareness and acceptance of Japan’s wartime responsibilities towards its Asian victims by the Japanese people, and yet at the same time, there remained a strong desire to memorialise the Japanese war dead in the Yasukuni shrine. Looking particularly at the films Grave of the Fireflies, In This Corner of the World, and The Eternal Zero, I argue that the changes in the memorialization of the war, from a focus on Japanese victimhood and suffering previously seen in Grave of the Fireflies, towards positive remembrance and highlighting the agency of individuals, seen in In This Corner of the World and The Eternal Zero reflects the changes in the Japanese memory-scape, where Japan seeks to look beyond its own victimhood.
author2 Hallam Stevens
author_facet Hallam Stevens
Guay, Eik Kar
format Final Year Project
author Guay, Eik Kar
author_sort Guay, Eik Kar
title Japanese war memories in popular film : memorialising victimhood and agency in post-war Japan
title_short Japanese war memories in popular film : memorialising victimhood and agency in post-war Japan
title_full Japanese war memories in popular film : memorialising victimhood and agency in post-war Japan
title_fullStr Japanese war memories in popular film : memorialising victimhood and agency in post-war Japan
title_full_unstemmed Japanese war memories in popular film : memorialising victimhood and agency in post-war Japan
title_sort japanese war memories in popular film : memorialising victimhood and agency in post-war japan
publishDate 2018
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73532
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