Topics in Japanese Literature: Personal Memories of World War II in Asia

3 units

This course employs the ideas of effective history, the autobiographical pact, and memory terrains in examining how autobiographical writing can comment on and even change popular perceptions of a major world event. Personal memories will be selected from each of the major countries drawn into the conflagration in the Pacific: from Japanese, Chinese, American soldiers; from Japanese and Western POWs; from Korean comfort women; from atomic bombing victims; from Japanese, Chinese, Philippine, and other civilian groups.