Seminar Series: Abstract

LETTERS TO THE DEAD: ADDRESSING THE LEGACIES OF VIOLENCE IN JAPAN’S BORDERLANDS
Prof. Tessa Morris-Suzuki

The relationship between Japan and its Asian neighbours is haunted by memories of war and colonial expansion. In this paper, I examine the efforts of a grass-roots social movement based in rural Japan to address problems of memory and historical responsibility, particularly in the context of Japan’s wartime use of forced labour from Korea and China. The social movement engages young people from various Asian countries, including Japan, in a project to excavate sites where wartime forced labour was used, and to disinter the bones of workers who died at the sites and return them to their home countries. This project provides a focus for addressing questions about the role of material objects – including landscape and the physical remains of the dead – in memorializing and interpreting the past. It also offers a framework in which to reconsider questions about the meaning and nature of forced labour itself.