Between History and Recollection: Asia-Pacific War Memory in Contemporary Japanese Art

On the 50^th anniversary to the end of war in 1995, Japan’s Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, gave a declaration, for the first time expressed responsibility and remorse for Japan’s conduct during the war years. Japanese politics had withdrawn from this statement early on, and trends of revisionist historiography took its place in Japan’s national discourse. Despite the wide-spread denial in official narratives, many Japanese artist have since created art projects that directly look into the multiple issues concerning this dark chapter in Japanese history.

In recent years governmental institutions and political representatives try to silence this discourse by actively harming museums' operations, closing exhibitions, and attacking artists personally.

This debate concerns the tensions between official history and those who listen to personal memories and testimonies of their experiences during the war years, bringing to the fore a possibility to create a new phase of attention, compassion, and remorse.

Projects of contemporary artists have become central in Japan’s art scene, bringing manifold concerns under the scrutiny. Papers in this panel will look at the art projects that fearlessly engage with these painful subjects. We seek to include papers concerning (but not limited to)

• occupation and colonization of territories in East Asia
• architecture of War Museums in Japan
• photographic projects relating to the atrocities committed by Japanese military
• Okinawa’s civilian resistance
• censorship of artworks questioning Japan’s responssibility
• Discussion of artworks reconsidering the role of the emperor,
• Art works representing the issue of ‘comfort women’
• Kamikaze pilots and their presence in contemporary discourse