書評

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Philip A. Seaton, an associate professor of media and communications at Hokkaido University, is to be congratulated for producing a highly readable and well-organized monograph, commendable both for its message and its method. His book is of huge value for disabusing foreign, largely nonacademic, commentators of a widely shared and derisive myth: "the Japanese" suffer from historical amnesia except when wallowing in the self-pity of victim consciousness. They do not know or care about their imperialist war of aggression in the Asia-Pacific and thus compare unfavorably with "the Germans," who are exemplary for coming to terms with their past through remembrance, apologies, and compensation for victims. Japan's Contested War Memories complements recent studies by Takashi Yoshida, Franziska Seraphim, Ming Wan, Alexis Dudden, and others who convey a similar message. Together, they offer a sorely needed corrective that foreign writers on current-day Japan and members of the news media—even at the estimable BBC, in Seaton's view—should take to heart.

Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, The Journal of Japanese Studies 35.1 (2009), pp. 181-4.

Seaton’s superb book on ‘Japan’s contested memories’ ... Seaton focuses on a very impressive set of memory sites ... excellent analysis ... Seaton’s contribution to the field of ‘Japan Studies’ is squarely based within of (sic) media and cultural studies. These studies have provided one of the main frames for the growth of memory as an academic preoccupation. With their focus on public fields of representation and their interdisciplinary base, media and cultural studies have enhanced and expanded our perceptions of the past. It is within this broad multi- and interdisciplinary field, in Japan as elsewhere, that elements of the past and of memory have emerged as central issues. Seaton’s impressive volume shows us the way in which such studies may further our understanding of Japan.

Eyal Ben-Ari, Social Science Japan Journal 11.1 (2008), pp. 143-6.

As the first systematic survey of the Japanese (and to an extent also the international) media's role in Japan's struggle with war memory, it certainly offers a refreshing and highly welcome contribution to the comparative memory literature.

Franziska Seraphim, Japan Forum 20.1 (2008), pp. 135-7.

[T]his book is a fine addition to our library of ever more nuanced works on modern Japan, taking as it does a distinct perspective on issues which will surely not leave television screens, newspapers and other media for quite some time.

Ian Astley, The International Journal of Asian Studies 5.1 (2008), pp. 157-9.

Stereotypical images of Japanese collectively in denial about the atrocities committed by the Imperial armed forces are grossly misleading and overlook the more prevalent view accepting wartime guilt and favoring atonement. In this excellent study featuring media and cultural analysis, Hokkaido University's Philip Seaton persuasively argues that, "Japanese war memories are not nearly as nationalistic as they are frequently made out to be."

Jeff Kingston, The Japan Times 5 August 2007. Available online.

Overall, the value of Seaton's book is in dispelling several widely held myths of the foreign media regarding Japan's war memory and this it does quite well. ... Seaton's Japan's Contested War Memories is a very informative study that deserves to be read for the fresh perspective that it offers on Japan and World War II".

Charlie Canning, Kyoto Journal 67 (www.kyotojournal.org)