Dark Heritage in Contemporary Japan: Relics of an Underground Empire

This book examines civic activism to conserve dark heritage built by the colonial and wartime labor regime in contemporary Japan.

Introducing and analysing local organizations and their activities in multiple locations throughout Japan, this book looks at the ways in which the Japanese have remembered, negotiated and re-experienced its wartime past. Drawing insights from disciplines including critical heritage studies, social movements, the history of colonialism, imperialism and decolonization the book brings into focus the Japanese civic activism which confronts the legacies of wartime labour regime operated throughout the colonial empire. By tracing the formation of grassroots movements to conserve war-related sites throughout Japan, it argues that reclaiming places for plural war memories has been pivotal in creating public spaces for civic activism attentive to identities and differences in contemporary Japan.

Delving into the multilayered connections between the memories of imperial wars, colonial empire and place-based politics in postwar Japan, this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of Colonialism, Heritage Studies and Japanese History.