Revisionism in Transwar Japan, 1940s to Present
Prof. Rikki Kersten
This project will examine the manifestations of revisionism in the transwar era in Japan, particularly in the areas of history-writing and ideologies about history. It will concentrate on three case studies: the case of the Marxist philosopher Umemoto Katsumi (1912 1974) and debates surrounding his ideas on historical materialism and subjectivity in the 1940s and 1950s; the debates that occurred amongst historians of varying political persuasions in the 1960s about the publication of the book The History of Showa (Showa-shi); and the emergence of a new medium for history-writing, the comic-book (manga), culminating in the neo-nationalist works of Kobayashi Yoshinori in the 1990s.
This research seeks to articulate and elaborate the logic and dynamics of revisionism as an expression of historical consciousness in the transwar period, and make accessible to historians in general Japanese manifestations of a global phenomenon.
