Section 7 | History, Politics and International Relations| Session 9A, Panel
Chair: Naoko Shimazu
This paper seeks to present one approach, within the context of international relations study in general and foreign policy analysis in particular, to dealing with "memory" as a possible explanatory factor. Drawing on the findings of my dissertation research (at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University), the paper demonstrates how the values attributed to the concept of "national identity" perceived by Japanese policymakers played a determinant role in the country's policy toward the creation of two regional institutions in Asia, namely the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). In this regard, two separate self-conceptions—"a country with a war aggression past against its neighbors" and "a country with a dual membership of Asia and the West"—are found as the perceived national identities, which determined the Japanese policymakers' preference for a region-wide multilateral framework as a desirable policy option. National identity is a special form of identity that has come to be associated with the nation-state and where a sense of national salience develops in relation to others. Concretely, it refers to a conception of what the country is and what it is representing. The experience of interaction with other nations is generally viewed as the chief determinant for identity formation, while the cultural or institutional elements of states' internal and external environment also help to shape state identity. Accordingly, history, or more precisely, "the memory of historical experience," comes into play, as one of the essential factors that shapes and reshapes national identity.
By situating the role of "memory" in this manner with relation to the national identity factor (a key determinant of Japanese foreign policy in the study), the paper will offer a unique perspective toward understanding and examining how the role of memory possibly will, or can, work in helping to shape a state behavior toward the outside world. Specifically, the objectives of the paper include (1) to articulate a causal mechanism between national identity factors (and thus, the role of memory) and foreign policy outcomes, and its theoretical underpinnings (2) to present substantial empirical evidence found in the cases of Japanese foreign policy (and, if necessary, U.S. foreign policy), and (3) to clarify when and under what conditions national identity factors are more likely to function as essential determinants for state foreign policy behavior. Given that the treatment of ideational factors has been the focal point in the ongoing rationalist-versus-constructivist debate over the last decade, the paper will also help to reflect on how the conference's theme "the power of memory" should be understood in the disciplinary context of international relations study.
Preechayana Wongaroon (The University of Birmingham)
The differences in dealing with the legacy of wars have markedly shaped the present Franco-German and Sino-Japanese relations. France and Germany have obviously overcome their bitter past and yielded the fruit of reconciliation, whereas China and Japan are apparently still struggling to overcome the shadow of their terrible past. This is in large part due to the role of the political leaders. When it comes to terms with the past, the top leaders of France and Germany are keen to adopt a let-bygones-be-bygones approach than those of Japan and China. More importantly, the French and German leaders since de Gaulle and Adenauer always take the opportunity to adopt a joint hand-in-hand symbolic gesture to healing the psychological wound of the past and achieving reconciliation. Yet, the Chinese and Japanese leaders do it independently and separately with a differently view.
Annette Skovsted Hansen (Aarhus University)
Memories of war played a significant role in the conceptualization and initial implementation of development assistance as part of Japanese diplomacy in the 1950s and 1960s. War reparations to Asian neighbours preceded Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Japanese diplomats explained reparations and - to a lesser degree - ODA as repentance for war crimes. Officials and other involved parties often coded their interventions of development projects in language of friendship, whereby they expressed a Japanese desire to change the image of Japan from enemy to friend. In the wake of WWII, the vocabulary of enemy and friend had very specific connotations related to recent war experiences in Japan and elsewhere. The invitation of trainees and fellows from developing countries to participate in courses held in donor countries was a central feature of development assistance – in the 1950s and 1960s referred to as technical assistance - within multilateral as well as bilateral programs. Through an analysis of the use of the term 'friend' and its derivations in the material about trainee, scholarship, and fellowship programs written over the past fifty years, this paper will explore how the inclusion of these programs in development assistance initiatives reflected Japanese attempts to redefine themselves as friends rather than enemies in the minds of Asian neighbours. Other donors also used friendship vocabulary in relation to their development assistance and I will apply a comparative perspective in order to isolate elements particular to the Japanese case as it was influenced by war memories specific to Japan.