Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine how Japanese and Korean museums display their acts of wartime victimization during times of foreign invasion. It will focus on displays on the Asia-Pacific War found in Japan's Yushukan and those on Korea's participation in the Vietnam War found in the War Museum of Korea.

Paper long abstract:

The wars over history that broke out from the 1980s between Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) have primarily centered on differences in interpretation, and, in the case of Japan, alterations in the historical interpretations of the thirty-five years of colonial subjugation by Japan over Korea. The forced use of Koreans in the Pacific War as both laborers and soldiers remains to date among the most important unresolved issues that separate the ROK and Japan. The roles assumed by the two peoples in this narrative dovetails well with the primary narrative found throughout war museums in both countries—historically Korea understands its past as one of foreign invasion; Japan, for its part, spends much time why it had to fight the wars that it did. A comparison of museums found in the lands of the victims and the victimizer is but one dimension found in the war museums in the two countries. Another dimension emerges after the ROK agreed to send troops to Vietnam in the late 1960s. Here, now, the victimized assumes a potential victimizer role. How does the ROK war museum make this transition? In what ways does the ROK example compare with its Japanese equivalent? How do the narratives of the war museums of these two states differ from those of other countries such as the United States?