Description
Book SynopsisExamines how collective memories of Asia-Pacific War continue to affect relations among China, Japan, and United States. This book explores how American ideas about Japanese history shaped US occupation policy following Japan's surrender in 1945.
Trade Review“
The Unpredictability of the Past advances an important and growing literature on the construction of history and public memory, in which World War II and U.S.–East Asian relations figure prominently. By an array of recognized senior and promising younger scholars, the essays introduce an impressive and engaging range of topics and sources.”—Joseph M. Henning, author of
Outposts of Civilization: Race, Religion, and the Formative Years of American-Japanese Relations“Bringing together essays by some of the best authors writing international history today,
The Unpredictability of the Past provides fascinating insights into the formation and uses of memories related to World War II. It is an outstanding collection.”—Thomas W. Zeiler, author of
Unconditional Defeat: Japan, America, and the End of World War IITable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction / Marc Gallicchio 1
I. Memory’s Many Forms
1. Remembering Pearl Harbor before September 11, 2001 / Emily S. Rosenberg 15
II. Policymakers and the Uses of Historical Memory
2. The First Revisionists: Bonner Fellers, Herbert Hoover, and Japan’s Decision to Surrender / Haruo Iguchi 51
3. History and Memory in Postwar U.S.-Japanese Relations / Frank Ninkovich 85
4. Cold War Diplomacy and Memories of the Pacific War: A Comparison of the American and Japanese Cases / Takuya Sasaki 121
III. Making Memory Concrete: Museums, Monuments, and Memorials
5. Constructing a National Memory of the War: War Museums in China, Japan, and the United States / Xiaohua Ma 155
6. The
Enola Gay and the Contested Public Memory / Waldo Heinrichs 201
7. War Memories across the Pacific Japanese Visitors at the
Arizona Memorial / Yujin Yaguchi 234
IV. Transpacific Memories
8. Memory and the Lost Found Relationship between Black Americans and Japan / Marc Gallicchio 255
9. Entangled Memories: China in American and Japanese Remembrances of World War II / Daqing Yang 287
Concluding Remarks / Marc Gallicchio 319
Contributors 329
Index 331
