Mobilizing Meiji Nostalgia and Intentional Forgetting in Japan's World Heritage Promotion

Nakano, Ryoko

doi:10.1017/s1479591420000467

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“… 56 A lack of visitor attention to informational signs can be perceived as a global phenomenon; it is seen among tourists who visit World Heritage sites (Nakano 2021). …”

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confidence: 99%

Beyond “imagined” nostalgia: Gunsan's heritagization of Japanese colonial architecture in South Korea

Lee

2021

International Journal of Asian Studies

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In South Korea, romanticization of the era of Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945) has long been taboo: the period is widely regarded as one of the most painful and shameful parts of South Korean history. However, during the past decade unexpected cracks have appeared in established national narratives on the colonial period. This paper explores the dissonance between long-standing national narratives and the commodification of local heritage sites for tourism, by examining the heritagization of Japanese colonial architecture in the city of Gunsan. Despite the Gunsan Municipal Government positions the city's colonial stories in ways that largely align with national official narratives on Japanese colonial history, such efforts have unexpectedly generated feelings of imagined nostalgia in three ways: (1) through clashes between official colonial history and the means by which colonial daily life is depicted in Gunsan's Modern Cultural Belt; (2) through the interwoven colonial and post-colonial stories presented in the city's Modern Historic Landscape District and (3) through the commercialized colonial and post-colonial stories articulated by private businesses in Gunsan. This paper suggests that productive nostalgia can help to overcome the limit of the current form of Gunsan's heritagization, and to construct Gunsan's diverse local memories

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“… 56 A lack of visitor attention to informational signs can be perceived as a global phenomenon; it is seen among tourists who visit World Heritage sites (Nakano 2021). …”

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confidence: 99%

Beyond “imagined” nostalgia: Gunsan's heritagization of Japanese colonial architecture in South Korea

Lee

2021

International Journal of Asian Studies

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“…Statements about war crimes have consistently been minimised within public discourse in Japan, and attention has been shifted to the Meiji Restoration period, Japan's 'golden past' (Underwood, 2015). The designation of 23 Meiji-era sites as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2015 under the title Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining, is widely seen as an expression of this desire (Boyle, 2019;Nakano, 2020b). The inclusion of Hashima Island in this designation shows how different facets of the past are highlighted or suppressed: Japan emphasised the island's glorious Meiji industrial past at the expense of mentioning that the site used forced labour from China, Taiwan and Korea during the Asia-Pacific War (1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945).…”

Section: Attempts To Memorialise the Nanjing Massacre And 'Comfort Wo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme and claims for recognition of atrocities: The nominations of Documents of Nanjing Massacre and Voices of the ‘Comfort Women’

2023

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This article explores the use of the UNESCO Memory of the World programme in claims for recognition of atrocities, focusing on two recent nominations: Documents of Nanjing Massacre and Voices of the ‘Comfort Women’. We argue that amid domestic and international contestation of memories and historical accounts, cultural programmes, such as the Memory of the World, have become increasingly politicised and used to push for international recognition of past atrocities. The article reflects on the character of the Memory of the World programme and the core reasons for nominations to such programmes. It also considers the possible consequences of registration as it transposes the heritage of memory from the local to the global stage (and back) and in the process subjects both memory and heritage to various forms of authorised transformation and reification. We bring attention to how official recognition by the Memory of the World affects ongoing collective memory formation, and express concerns about the appropriation of individual and local memories, as they are granted universal value.

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“…At its most extreme, heritage, as a signifier and conveyer of identity, can be a target of larger conflicts as seen in the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas (Manhart, 2016) and the destruction of World Heritage properties by ISIS in several countries. The inscription of the "Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution" also demonstrated that the narratives accompanying international heritage designation can create conflicts between states (Nakano, 2021). Given that conflict permeates so many aspects of World Heritage decision making, it seems important that it be incorporated into the framework of ideas.…”

Section: Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using keywords to link World Heritage research and practice: observations from the World Heritage Leadership Heritage Place Lab

Buckley

2023

JCHMSD

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PurposeThere is evidence of emerging silos separating research and practices in heritage. Creating spaces where researchers and practitioners collaborate and learn from their exchanges is therefore needed. This premise was the foundation of the pilot phase for the World Heritage Leadership Heritage Place Lab that allowed eight teams from different geocultural contexts to come together to develop research agendas. This paper provides observations about how these agendas relate to key strands in critical heritage research globally. It complements the other papers in this Special Issue that describe the case studies in detail.Design/methodology/approachA keywords approach has been used to identify areas where shared research agendas can advance both heritage practices and academic interest in the field of heritage studies. This was based on the observations made by the author during the pilot phase of the Heritage Place Lab and the research agendas produced by the research-practice teams. The approach is exploratory and experimental, inviting other contributions.FindingsTwenty keywords are identified and explored via both academic literature and the research priorities identified by the research-practice teams that participated in the pilot.Originality/valueA keywords approach is relatively untested in the field of heritage studies. Recognizing that commonly-used terms (or words) have fluid meanings across disciplines and practices potentially opens new dimensions to the dialogue between heritage practitioners and researchers.

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Mobilizing Meiji Nostalgia and Intentional Forgetting in Japan's World Heritage Promotion

Cited by 9 publications

References 27 publications

Beyond “imagined” nostalgia: Gunsan's heritagization of Japanese colonial architecture in South Korea

Beyond “imagined” nostalgia: Gunsan's heritagization of Japanese colonial architecture in South Korea

The UNESCO Memory of the World Programme and claims for recognition of atrocities: The nominations of Documents of Nanjing Massacre and Voices of the ‘Comfort Women’

Using keywords to link World Heritage research and practice: observations from the World Heritage Leadership Heritage Place Lab

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