Japan's Contested War Memories: The 'Memory Rifts' in Historical Consciousness of World War II (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series) by Philip A. Seaton

Author:Philip A. Seaton [Seaton, Philip A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Interdisciplinary Studies
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2007-03-11T22:00:00+00:00

Conclusions

After the fiftieth anniversary, NHK's survey of war-related programming concluded that Japanese television clearly showed Japan's role as an aggressor in Asia, although the focus on Japanese victimhood was greater. The television listings survey, 1991–2005, and the sixtieth anniversary commemorations suggest that this conclusion is broadly accurate for the past fifteen years. Producing progressive programmes may have become more difficult since the 'programme revisions' issue, but all the television channels have produced progressive programmes and remain broadly progressive-leaning and anti-war. The NHK debate on 15 August illustrates perhaps the key mechanism that keeps Japanese television broadly progressive-leaning. Under the guise of 'discussing Japan's future in Asia' and media 'objectivity', television programmes play the 'media as a platform for debate' role, introduce war responsibility issues and invite Japanese people with a range of views, and perhaps some Chinese and Koreans, to participate. Conservatives have latitude to express their views, but the programme format presupposes Japanese war responsibility and places conservatives on the defensive.

Pockets of genuinely conservative programming do exist on Japanese television and conservative pundits are ubiquitous, but war-related television across all the channels is conspicuous for being antiwar and concentrated in the progressive-leaning to slightly conservative mainstream. Given the power and reach of television (if the ratings are truly representative of audience levels, then most programmes discussed in this chapter have been seen by between ten and twenty million people), the broadly progressive-leaning nature of Japanese television with its focus on Japanese victimhood and lesser focus on war responsibility helps to explain why Japanese war memories are not nearly as nationalistic as they are frequently made out to be.

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