The Politics of Memory, Trauma and Identity in Northeast Asia: WWII Memorial Sites as Foreign Policy Tools

Abstract

Presenter: Carla Melo, Autónoma University of Lisbon Discussant: Taehee Kim, Uni Konstanz The research project titled The Politics of Memory, Trauma, and Identity in Northeast Asia: WWII Memorial Sites as Foreign Policy Tools aims to investigate how World War II (WWII) memorial sites in Northeast Asia – namely on China, Japan and South Korea – shape the collective memory, influence national identity, and impact foreign policy decisions of those countries. Additionally, it wishes to examine how those memorial sites work as soft power tools and as geopolitical instruments within the region.