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Remember History, Not Hatred: Collective Remembrance of China's War of Resistance to Japan*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2011

JAMES REILLY
JAMES REILLY*
Affiliation:
The University of Sydney, Department of Government and International Relations, Merewether Building (H04), New South Wales 2006, Australia, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Chinese leaders have repeatedly insisted upon the contemporary relevance of the ‘War of Resistance to Japan’ (1937–1945). However, the content of the official history of the war and the lessons drawn from it have changed dramatically from 1949 through 2010. This paper begins by reviewing theories of collective remembrance and then covers four historical periods: China's ‘benevolent amnesia’ on Japan's wartime atrocities before 1982; China's patriotic education campaign from the mid-1980s; the rise of history activism in China in the late 1990s; and the post-2005 reversal in official rhetoric on Japan and the wartime past. It concludes that, while the party-state retains an impressive capacity to shape the narratives of critical periods of modern Chinese history, Chinese leaders are likely to find themselves increasingly constrained by domestic forces and by external events beyond their control.

Type
Part II: Remembering China's War with Japan: The Wartime Generation in Post-war China and East Asia
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 2: China in World War II, 1937–1945: Experience, Memory, and Legacy , March 2011 , pp. 463 - 490
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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64 Original information was taken from Chinese television programmes, clips of which had been posted on the internet, but which are not longer available. ‘CCTV News Special Broadcast’ (27 December 2007) CCTV News.

65 Original information was taken from Chinese television programmes, clips of which had been posted on the internet, but which are not longer available. The video of the interview with Nakasone was broadcast on the programme ‘Interviews’ (1 April 2007) CCTV 4.

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105 Zeng Qinghong huijian riben zimindang qiang ganshizhang [Zeng Qinghong meets the previous secretary-general of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party] Renmin Ribao [People's Daily], (13 December, 2007).

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108 70 Nian buneng wangqu de jinian [Unforgettable 70 year-old memories], Beijing Qingnian Bao (Beijing Youth Times), (13 December, 2007).

109 Yu, Q. (2007). Shijie renqing lishi zhenxiang riben xu yongyu peihe jiean [The world directly faces the truth of history but needs Japan's cooperation to close the case], Huanqiu Shibao [Global Times], (13 December).

110 Lu, X. (2007). Shoushao baonian Nanjing datusha: foshan liuzhong xuesheng zili Nanjing datusha zhuti shouchabiao [Random survey report on Nanjing Massacre: a spontaneous survey conducted by the middle school students at Foshan number 6 middle school], Nanfang Dushibao [Southern Metropolitan News], (14 December). See also: Callahan, W. (2006). History, Identity, and Security: Producing and Consuming Nationalism in China, Critical Asian Studies 38:2, 179–208Google Scholar.

111 Interview with journalist in Beijing (9 April, 2007).