Library Catalog

Dark Pasts : Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan /

Dixon, Jennifer M.

Dark Pasts : Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan / Jennifer M. Dixon. - 1 online resource (276 p.) : 3 b&w line drawings, 1 chart

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acronyms -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Coming to Terms with Dark Pasts? -- 1. Changing the State’s Story -- 2. The Armenian Genocide and Its Aftermath -- 3. From Silencing to Mythmaking (1950–early 1990s) -- 4. Playing Hardball (1994–2008) -- 5. The Nanjing Massacre and the Second Sino-Japanese War -- 6. “History Issues” in the Postwar Period (1952–1989) -- 7. Unfreezing the Question of History (1998–2008) -- Conclusion: The Politics of Dark Pasts -- Appendix 1. Research Conducted -- Appendix 2. Turkish High School History Textbooks Analyzed -- Notes -- References -- Index

restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

In Dark Pasts, Jennifer M. Dixon asks why states deny past atrocities, and when and why they change the stories they tell about them.In recent decades, states have been called on to acknowledge and apologize for historic wrongs. Some have apologized, while others have silenced, denied, and relativized past crimes. Dark Pasts unravels the complex and fraught processes through which state narratives of past atrocities are constructed, contested, and defended. Focusing on Turkey's narrative of the Armenian Genocide and Japan's narrative of the Nanjing Massacre, Dixon shows that international pressures increase the likelihood of change in states' narratives of their own dark pasts, even as domestic considerations determine their content. Combining historical richness and analytical rigor, Dark Pasts is a revelatory study of the persistent presence of the past and the politics that shape narratives of state wrongdoing.


Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.


In English.

9781501730252

10.1515/9781501730252 doi

2018008081


Armenian Genocide, 1915-1923--Historiography.
Armenian massacres, 1915-1923--Historiography.
Historiography--Political aspects--History--Japan--20th century.
Historiography--Political aspects--History--Turkey--20th century.
Nanking Massacre, Nanjing, Jiangsu Sheng, China, 1937--Historiography.
Political Science & Political History.
Security Studies.
Sociology & Social Science.
POLITICAL SCIENCE / Security (National & International).

Nanjing Massacre, Armenian Genocide, nationalism, East Asian politics, memory, transitional justice, state narratives, post-World War II.

DS195.5 DS195.5 / .D58 2019

956.620154