Beyond Contested Wartime History in East Asia: The Logic of Nationalism and The Potential for Cosmopolitan Memory

Although 70 years have passed since the end of the World War II, Japan has not been able to restore relations with its neighbors, China and South Korea; the three countries remain divided over how to remember and make sense of successive historical events dating from the pre-World War I to the World War II. The past is intimately connected to the present and continues to exert a strong influence over how we understand ourselves and others. In this project, I aim to examine the role of collective memory in identity, nation, and history and discuss how the three countries could overcome national memory as well as reconcile with the past using the framework of cosmopolitanism