Description
Whether it's the Vatican addressing its role in the Second World War or the United States atoning for its treatment of native Hawai'ian islanders, apologizing for history has become a standard feature of the international political scene. As Alexis Dudden makes clear, interrogating this process is crucial to understanding the value of the political apology to the state. When governments apologize for past crimes, they take away the substance of apology that victims originally wanted for themselves. They rob victims of the dignity they seek while affording the state a new means with which to legitimize itself.
Examining the interplay between political apology and apologetic history, Dudden focuses on the problematic relationship binding Japanese imperialism, South Korean state building, and American power in Asia. She examines this history through diplomatic, cultural, and social considerations in the postwar era and argues that the process of apology has created a knot from which none of these countries can escape without undoing decades of mythmaking.Author: Alexis Dudden
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 04/15/2014
Pages: 184
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.57lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.50w x 0.60d
ISBN13: 9780231141772
ISBN10: 0231141777
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | International Relations | General
- History | United States | General
- History | Asia | Japan
About the Author
Alexis Dudden is professor of history at the University of Connecticut. She has written extensively on Japan's international relations and is also author of Japan's Colonization of Korea: Discourse and Power.