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Germany and Japan have taken different ways of dealing with the past of the traumatic events of World War II and their own role. Even after 75 years, the battles for remembrance are not over in both countries. Questions about responsibility, about the educational consequences of history and about possibilities for reconciliation with former enemies are constantly being asked anew and require new answers. The contributions in the book address these questions from a Japanese and German perspective on the basis of empirical and historical research, combining historical, educational, and philosophical approaches and opening up new perspectives for academic research as well as for practical educational work by comparing the cultures of remembrance.
List of contents
Short Biographies.- Remembrance - Responsibility - Reconciliation. New Challenges for Education in Germany and Japan. Introduction.- "The Meaning of Working Through the Past". Theodor W. Adorno and the Vergangenheitsbewältigung in the Early Years of the Federal Republic of Germany.- Contested Remembrance. The "Old" Federal Republic and "New" Right Politics in Germany.- Japan's Soft Power and the "History Problem".- The Nanjing Massacre in Japanese Historiography and Education.- Moral Education and Historical Revisionism.- Educational Tourism for the Nation? Memory and History at Japan's War Sites.- Japanese War Cemeteries and what they teach us about History.- The Ambivalence of Culture of Remembrance. The Controversy over the "Comfort Women"-Statue in the Relationship between Japan and Germany.- Life Stories as Memory Carriers. Culture of Remembrance and the Importance of Biographical Work and Biographical Research.- Encountering Absurdity through Theater. An Essay on Remembering andEducation about the Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima.- The Problem of Responsibility in Technological Modernity. Reflections Following Günther Anders.
About the author
Lothar Wigger, Dr. phil., is university professor (retired) at the Institute for General Education and Vocational Education at the TU Dortmund University
Marie Dirnberger, M.A in Education, is lecturer at the Institute for German Language at the Foreign Language University in Kyoto, Japan
