Japan's Colonical Responsibility and National Subject Formation

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Other Title
  • 日本の植民地責任と国民主体の形成
  • ニホン ノ ショクミンチ セキニン ト コクミン シュタイ ノ ケイセイ
  • Japan's Colonial Responsibility and National Subject Formation

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This article examines where intellectuals in Japan stood on the question of responsibility for the colonial past at the turn of the millennium through analyzing arguments generated by the 1997 symposium, "Nationalism and the 'Comfort Women' Issue." The debate, which took place in a form of interethnic dialogue, focused on the question of national subject formation. The issue of Japanese historical responsibility, which drew a great deal of media and public attention in the 1990s, has yet to be resolved, and is at the beart of anti-Japanese sentiments currently escalating over territorial disputes. It is central to Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors in the twenty-first century. The debate on the issue I analyze here is important because the participants are influential public intellectuals who are shaping the thought and politics of Japanese society. Suh Kyung-Sik, a resident Korean thinker, asserted that people should take responsibility as Japanese so long as they had enjoyed Japanese privilege in postcolonial Japan. He criticized Ueno Chizuko and Hanazaki Kohei, scholars of feminism and multiculturalism respectively, for evading "Japanese" responsibility on the ground that accepting such responsibility effectively promoted national identity. as Japanese. Elaborating on Suh's arguments, Oka Mari, a specialist in Middle East literature and Third-World feminism, and Nakano Toshio, a specialist in intellectual history, illuminated the problematic nature of subject formation among Japanese liberals who approach the issue of responsibility from a universal perspective. Takahashi Tetsuya, a philosopher known for his critical work on the Yasukuni Shrine, argued that people should take both universal responsibility as human beings and particular responsibility as Japanese.

Journal

  • 人権問題研究

    人権問題研究 12-13 77-96, 2013-03

    大阪市立大学人権問題研究会

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