War, Guilt, and World Politics after World War II

by Thomas U. Berger

Overview

When do states choose to adopt a penitent stance towards the past? When do they choose to offer apologies for historical misdeeds, offer compensation for their victims, and incorporate the darker sides of history into their textbooks, public monuments, and museums? When do they choose not to do so? And what are the political consequences of how states portray the past? This book pursues these questions by examining how governments in post-1945 Austria, Germany, and Japan have wrestled with the difficult legacy of the Second World War and the impact of their policies on regional politics in Europe and Asia. The book argues that states can reconcile over historical issues, but to do so requires greater political will and imposes greater costs than is commonly realized. At the same time, in an increasingly interdependent world, failure to do so can have a profoundly disruptive effect on regional relations and feed dangerous geopolitical tensions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107674950
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/16/2012
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Thomas U. Berger is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at Boston University. He is the author of Cultures of Antimilitarism: National Security in Germany and Japan and of Redefining Japan and the US-Japan Alliance and co-editor of Japan in International Politics: Beyond the Reactive State. He has published extensively on issues relating to East Asian and European international relations, including essays that have appeared in International Security, the Review of International Studies, German Politics and Asian Security. His primary research areas include international security, international migration and the politics of memory and historical representation. Prior to joining the faculty at Boston University in 2001, he was an Associate Professor at The Johns Hopkins University. He has held a number of postdoctoral and research fellowships, including the Harvard Academy Junior Researcher Fellowship, the Olin Postdoctoral Fellowship in International Security Studies, as well as Fulbright, Japan Foundation, MacArthur and DAAD doctoral research fellowships. He received his PhD in Political Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his BA from Columbia College.

Table of Contents

1. Politics and memory in an age of apology; 2. Germany: the model penitent; 3. Austria: the prodigal penitent; 4. Japan: the model impenitent?; 5. Asia: the geopolitics of remembering and forgetting: towards an expanded model; 6. Conclusions: the varieties of penitence.

Editorial Reviews

"This is an outstanding comparative study of the process of wrestling with the legacy of the Second World War in Europe and Asia. Thomas Berger chronicles decades of pitched battles over historical interpretations in three societies while never losing sight of the broad dynamics in postwar international politics that shaped the politics of memory in each society. His book provides a model for those looking to uncover the political stakes of traumatic pasts."
David Art, Associate Professor of Political Science, Tufts University

"Thomas Berger has read widely in the now extensive English, German, and Japanese scholarship and produced a thoughtful synthesis about how the governments and peoples of West Germany and then unified Germany, Austria, and Japan have both faced and avoided facing the crimes of Nazism and the Japanese Imperial government during World War II. Berger's balanced assessments and astute analytical efforts should interest historians who have focused on each of these national histories. The work comprises a welcome addition to interpretive, comparative, and historical social science regarding the way official as well as public, collective memory of past crime influences ongoing policy."
Jeffrey Herf, Professor of Modern European History, University of Maryland, College Park

"Thomas Berger’s War, Guilt, and World Politics after World War II is a masterful comprehensive account explaining Germany, Austria, and Japan’s different responses to the suffering they inflicted during WWII. Fluent in Japanese and German, Berger is thoroughly at home in dealing with history, politics, and psychology. An impressive work of scholarship."
Ezra F. Vogel, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus, Harvard University

"Berger shows the interests of the 'aggressors' and 'victims' of WWII, and how they shaped the ability of the multiple factions on each side to dominate the fashioning of historical memory and postconflict policies … The discussion of sometimes surprising cross-party alliances is excellent, as is the sensitive treatment of popular attitudes. Summing up: recommended."
M. Tétreault, Choice

"For over half a century, Germany and Japan have struggled to put World War II behind them. Berger has produced one of the most sophisticated and sensitive treatments yet about how these two countries have contended with their troubled histories."
G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

"Berger’s study focuses on one particular aspect of war guilt, namely the construction of an official narrative by the state in Germany, Austria and Japan to deal with economic, political, security and moral issues that arose as a consequence of their role in WWII. Berger proposes a methodological approach that makes use of historical determinism, instrumentalism and culturalist explanations in an eclectic manner … Berger’s comparative approach forms a valuable contribution that may also trigger further new research on the issues of war, guilt and penitence by other countries and in other parts of the world."
Kurt W. Radtke, The Sungkyun Review

"… [an] exceptionally thoughtful and useful book …"
Wilfred M. McClay, Books and Culture

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