Northeast Asia’s Difficult Past

DON BAKER teaches Korean history and culture in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada GARY ALAN FINE is the John Evans Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, USA KAZUYA FUKUOKA is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Saint Joseph's University, USA CHRISTINE KIM is Assistant Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of History at Georgetown University, USA HEONIK KWON is Reader in Anthropology at the London School of Economics, UK TIM FUTING LIAO is Professor of Sociology and Head of Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA MIKE M. MOCHIZUKI holds the Japan-U.S. Relations Chair in Memory of Gaston Sigur at the Elliott School of International Affairs in George Washington University, USA LYN SPILLMAN teaches at the University of Notre Dame, U.S.A J.J. SUH is Associate Professor and Director of the Korea Studies Program at The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, USA GUOBIN YANG is Associate Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures in Barnard College, Columbia University, USA BIN XU is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at Northwestern University, USA XIAOHONG XU is a Ph.D student in Sociology at Yale University, USA GEHUI ZHANG is a Ph.D student in Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA LIBIN ZHANG is a Ph.D student in Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

The problem of memory in China, Japan and Korea involves a surfeit rather than a deficit of memory, and the consequence of this excess is negative: unforgettable traumas prevent nations from coming to terms with the problems of the present. These compelling essays enrich Western scholarship by applying to it insights derived from Asian settings.The problem of memory in China, Japan and Korea involves a surfeit rather than a deficit of memory, and the consequence of this excess is negative: unforgettable traumas prevent nations from coming to terms with the problems of the present. These compelling essays enrich Western scholarship by applying to it insights derived from Asian settings.