Abstract
In the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese cabinets went to great lengths to achieve reconciliation with its former wartime enemies and to “come to terms” with the nation’s wartime past. These attempts were a part of a policy to restore the country’s image, which had been damaged by its conduct during the Asia–Pacific War (1931–1945). In recent years, however, priorities have shifted once again. As this chapter shows, the increase of ambiguous statements by government representatives regarding the war and a growth of historical revisionism in Japanese politics have negatively influenced Japan’s reputation worldwide and diminished the country’s soft power.
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Notes
- 1.
Nye himself explicitly refers to Japan when he comments that the “Japanese government’s unwillingness to deal frankly with its record of foreign aggression in the 1930s [… and] the residual suspicion that lingers in China and Korea” are an obstacle to the country’s soft power (Nye 2004, 87–88).
- 2.
A representative sample of groups peddling such theories is the list of recipients of a prize awarded by the hotel chain APA Hotels—the “Award for the Best Article about True Modern History” (Shin no kingendaishi-kan kenshō ronbun); see APA 2021. See also the website of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, http://www.sdh-fact.com/essay-article, which is run by former diplomats Moteki Hiromichi and Kase Hideaki.
- 3.
Article 9, “Renunciation of War,” states: “1. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. 2. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.”.
- 4.
One of the materials included was History Wars: Japan—False Indictment of the Century, written by notorious revisionists and denialists and published by the right-leaning newspaper Sankei Shinbun.
- 5.
See, for example, the websites of the Sankei Shinbun, Japan Forward (http://japan-forward.com), and the religious group Happy Science (http://eng.the-liberty.com).
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Saaler, S. (2022). Japan’s Soft Power and the “History Problem”. In: Wigger, L., Dirnberger, M. (eds) Remembrance – Responsibility – Reconciliation. Kindheit – Bildung – Erziehung. Philosophische Perspektiven. J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64185-9_4
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