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This interdisciplinary study explores the legacies of Japanese American World War II internment experiences and the factors influencing the construction and mediation of cultural memory and national/ethnic identity in the United States. It discusses issues of contested memory and shows how once repressed historic events are selectively commemorated or even erased. By focusing on representations of Japanese American internment experiences recovered, reframed or created since the 1980s, the study acknowledges that these experiences continue to be reevaluated in a climate of ethnic politicization. Covering sites of memory ranging from historic places of Japanese American internment to memorials built both at centers of Japanese American cultural life as well as at centers of national cultural identity, the study also critically approaches sites - or rather sights - in cyberspace that may be visited only virtually, thus taking the scholarship of American memory studies into the digital realm.
Summary
This interdisciplinary study explores the legacies of Japanese American World War II internment experiences and the factors influencing the construction and mediation of cultural memory and national/ethnic identity in the United States. It discusses issues of contested memory and shows how once repressed historic events are selectively commemorated or even erased. By focusing on representations of Japanese American internment experiences recovered, reframed or created since the 1980s, the study acknowledges that these experiences continue to be reevaluated in a climate of ethnic politicization. Covering sites of memory ranging from historic places of Japanese American internment to memorials built both at centers of Japanese American cultural life as well as at centers of national cultural identity, the study also critically approaches sites - or rather sights - in cyberspace that may be visited only virtually, thus taking the scholarship of American memory studies into the digital realm.
