About Us | Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific

Memory and Reconciliation in the Asia-Pacific (MRAP) is a research and policy program located in the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the George Washington University in Washington D.C. The project was launched in the fall of 2003. Initial funding came from a United States Institute of Peace (USIP) grant and has been supplemented by GW and other sources.

At present the project consists primarily of a database of information located in this website. In addition, graduate and undergraduate level courses are being offered, such as a core graduate seminar on violence, history and memory in modern Asia. The project has organized symposia that deal with issues pertaining to the Tokyo War Crimes Trials and remaining historical issues in Asia. In the future, it will focus on commissioning essays and the creation of a Handbook of Historical Reconciliation in East Asia.

Click here to visit our original website.

Purpose and Mission

Faculty & Staff

Contact us

Authenticity and Victimhood after the Second World War examines victim groups constructed in the twentieth century in the aftermath of these experiences. The collection explores the concept of authenticity through an examination of victims’ histories and the construction of victimhood in Europe and East Asia. Chapters consider how notions of historical authenticity influence the self-identification and public recognition of a given social group, the tensions arising from individual and group experiences of victimhood, and the resulting, sometimes divergent, interpretation of historical events. Drawing from case studies on topics including the Holocaust, the siege of Leningrad, American air raids on Japan, and forced migrations from Eastern Europe, Authenticity and Victimhood after the Second World War demonstrates the trend towards a victim-centered collective memory as well as the interplay of memory politics and public commemorative culture.

Why do some governments and societies attach great significance to a particular anniversary year whereas others seem less inclined to do so? What motivates the orchestration of elaborate commemorative activities in some countries? What are they supposed to accomplish, for both domestic and international audience? In what ways do commemorations in Asia Pacific fit into the global memory culture of war commemoration? In what ways are these commemorations intertwined with current international politics?

The book is based on a conference convened by the Project in 2015. This book presents the first large-scale analysis of how countries in the Asia Pacific and beyond commemorated the seventieth anniversaries of the end of World War II. Consisting of in-depth case studies of China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, United States, Russia, and Germany, this unique collective effort demonstrates how memories of the past as reflected in public commemorations and contemporary politics—both internal and international—profoundly affect each other.

The book can be purchased here.

Professor Yang recently moderated an EU-Russia Civil Society Forum panel on memory of World War II in East Asia. The speakers discussed the mainstream narratives on WWII history in East Asia, the current challenges in the WWII commemoration within the region and how WWII is reflected in the history education at school.