About
This course surveys the history and memory revolving around the war between China and Japan (1937-45), which was part of the Pacific phase of World War II. At the center of an ongoing controversy was a massacre which took place in Nanjing, China, early in the war that left anywhere between 200,000 to 300,000 people dead, depending on the source of information. By focusing on how the Sino-Japanese War, and especially the Nanjing (Nanking) Massacre has been remembered in both China and Japan, this course explores the relationship between memory, politics, culture, and society in the formation of history and memory in modern China and Japan.