Mark Selden - "Legacies: Historical Memories of War and Colonialism and Contemporary Conflicts in East Asia"

Mark Selden, Senior Research Associate in the East Asia Program, Cornell University, a Coordinator of The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, and Professor Emeritus of Sociology and History, State University of New York at Binghamton

The Asia-Pacific War and colonial legacies continue to shape the geopolitics of contemporary East Asia, defying attempts to ease tensions throughout the region. I consider examples of two kinds of legacies and why they continue to poison relations between Japan and Korea and Japan and China at a time of major power shifts in the region. First, territorial conflicts over tiny islets involving Korea and Japan over Dokdo-Takeshima and Japan and China over Senkakus/Diaoyu. Second, the continued fierce conflict, particularly involving Korea-Japan and China-Japan over the military ‘comfort women’, the sexual slaves of wartime Japan. Together they illustrate the challenges to the formation of a viable East Asian community.