History Activists and Revisionism in Japan

• In Event: Japan’s National Identity Crisis and Reactionary Nationalism

Abstract

History has been identified as a core element of nationalism since the nineteenth century. While academic historians have tried "rescuing history from the nation," a different kind of "history activist" has emerged in recent decades that provides historical interpretations that can readily be exploited for political purposes. The Japanese movement of historical revisionism forcefully developing since the 1990s constitutes such a group of "history activists." Central figures are scholars of German and English literature, cartoonists, novelists, scholars of education, politicians and corporate representatives. Historians are all but absent in this movement. In this presentation, I will introduce some of the movement's leading representatives, their objectives and discursive strategies. I will show that a strongly un-, if not anti-academic version of Japanese history constitutes the very core of contemporary Japanese nationalism.

Author

• Sven Saaler, Sophia University