Realms of Memory

Remembering the System: Enforced Prostitution by the Japanese Military in Indonesia

The system of enforced prostitution by the Japanese military went unpunished and unexamined for decades after the Asia-Pacific War.  International recognition only began in 1991 when Korean survivor Kim Hak-sun spoke out in graphic detail about her dark past.  In Systemic Silencing: Activism, Memory, and Sexual Violence in Indonesia, University of Melbourne historian Kate McGregor tells the story of the transnational struggle for recognition and redress for and by the women of East and Southeast Asia.  Focusing on the less studied case of Indonesia, she points out how the sexual abuse and exploitation of Indonesian woman began during the Dutch colonial era.  She reveals how collaboration with the Japanese, sentiments of shame, and Cold War political and economic pressures favored the silencing of this past.  

Remembering the System: Enforced Prostitution by the Japanese Military in Indonesia

During the Asia-Pacific War the Japanese military forced thousands of women across East and Southeast Asia into a brutal system of organized prostitution.  The label of “comfort women” only masks the true reality of this massive human rights crime that went largely unpunished for decades after the war.  Most attention to this history has focused on Korea and Japan where the movement for redress began earliest.  Find out how the struggle for recognition and redress unfolded in Indonesia on the January 2nd episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.  Listen to University of Melbourne historian Kate McGregor, author of Systemic Silencing: Activism, Memory, and Sexual Violence in Indonesia.  

Culture, Urban Development and the Memory of the Gwangju Uprising in South Korea

The May 1980 clash between government forces and the people of Gwangju marks a key turning point toward democracy in South Korea.  The nation’s sixth largest city, the citizens of Gwangju suffered immeasurably for the uprising. The city lost development support and its citizens were cast as traitors and North Korean sympathizers.  The decision to select Gwangju to host a major international art exhibition, or what became known as the Gwangju Biennale, was an effort to address the injustices of the past.  Author of The Cultural Politics of Urban Development in South Korea: Art, Memory and Urban Boosterism in Gwangju, HaeRan Shin discusses the challenge of reconciling urban development with the memory of the Gwangju Uprising.  

Remembering the Sewol Ferry Disaster in South Korea

The April 2014 Sewol ferry disaster is an all too familiar South Korean tragedy.  Corruption, deceit, greed, and failed regulations and oversight cost nearly three hundred lives—most of whom were high school students on a trip to Jeju Island, a popular resort destination.  Seoul National University Professor HaeRan Shin explains how the Sewol ferry disaster has become a site of remembering and forgetting.  She reveals how economic interests worked against efforts to memorialize the tragedy.  Lastly, she notes how opponents tried to discredit the memorialization project by associating it with memory activists from Gwangju and the May 18th Gwangju massacre.  

Bolsonaro and the Memory of Dictatorship in Brazil

The military regime, which ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985, murdered hundreds and tortured thousands more perceived enemies of the state.  How is it possible that this period of political repression, censorship, and state sponsored terror is now remembered nostalgically by many Brazilians?  How did Jair Bolsonaro harness this nostalgia to win the 2018 presidential elections?  Once in power, how did Bolsonaro frame the Covid-19 pandemic through the lens of the memory of dictatorship with catastrophic consequences for Brazil?  Leda Balbino, researcher, journalist, and deputy editor at the foreign desk of O Globo, one of Brazil’s leading newspapers, examines these and other questions in her recent book, Digital Memory in Brazil: A Fragmented and Elastic Negationist Remembrance of the Dictatorship.  

Bolsonaro and the Memory of Dictatorship in Brazil

In 1964 the military seized power in Brazil and ruled the country for the next 21 years.  During this period the military used censorship, torture, and murder to silence its critics and maintain its grip on power.  How did Jair Bolsonaro use the memory of this past to catapult himself to the presidency?  How did Bolsonaro’s manipulation of the memory of dictatorship have catastrophic consequences for Brazil during the Covid-19 pandemic?  For answers to these questions and more, listen to the November 7th episode of the Realms of Memory featuring deputy editor Leda Balbino, from Brazil’s O Globo newspaper.  We’ll be discussing her recent book Digital Memory in Brazil: A Fragmented and Elastic Negationist Remembrance of the Dictatorship. 

Memory Activism in Serbia: Remembering the Wars of the 1990s in Yugoslavia

In the face of rising nationalism and denialism about crimes committed during the wars of the 1990s in Yugoslavia, memory activists in Serbia have been struggling to confront the past.  For the last two decades Dr. Orli Fridman, from the Faculty of Media and Communications (FMK) in Belgrade, has made memory activism in Serbia and the wider region of the former Yugusolavia the focus of her research.  Find out how several generations of memory activists have taken to the streets and on-line digital platforms to fight against denial, to preserve and communicate memories of the wars of the 1990s, and to build solidarity, compassion, and empathy in the region.  Listen to my conversation with Dr. Orli Fridman about her recent book Memory Activism and Digital Memory Practices after Conflict: Unwanted Memories.  

Memory Activism in Serbia: Remembering the Wars of the 1990s in Yugoslavia

How do memory politics in Serbia shape the memories of the wars in Yugoslavia?  What role do memory activists play in this process and what practices and claims do they put forward? Dr. Orli Fridman, a professor at the Faculty of Media and Communications (FMK) in Belgrade, has spent the past two decades looking at these questions. Author of Memory Activism and Digital Memory Practices after Conflict: Unwanted Memories, Orli Fridman will be the featured guest of the October 3rd episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.  
 

Entangled Memories of Partition in Modern South Asia

Much of the focus on the memory of the partition of British India has been on the region of the Punjab.  King’s College London Professor Ananya Kabir is interested in the repercussions of partition for the region of Bengal where she has ancestral ties.  How did cultural actors, from archeologists and artists to singers and novelists, use their craft to shape and assess the memories of the new nations of South Asia?  How did they contend with the two stages of partition—the division of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947 then the civil war within Pakistan in 1971 and the creation of Bangladesh?  My conversation with Ananya Kabir draws from a discussion of her book, Partition’s Post-Amnesias: 1947, 1971 and Modern South Asia. 

Remembering Partition in the Punjab Part 2

In part 2 of my conversation with De Montfort University historian Pippa Virdee we’ll look closer at whether the violence of partition could have been avoided.  We’ll consider how the difficulty of labeling the violence complicates efforts to remember what happened.  We’ll learn how much of this violence targeted women who were doubly victimized both during and after partition.  We’ll discuss whether the rise of populist nationalist leaders like Narendra Modi represents a failure to learn from partition.  Lastly we’ll think about whether the recent creation of massive digital archives devoted to the memory of survivors gives us a better understanding of partition.