Title: Structures of Collective Memory: The Last Bannerman in Local Japan
Abstract: In his critique of memory studies as a field of study, Alon Confino challenges scholars to start moving beyond two commonly used methods of writing about history and memory. The first method demonstrates how the portrayal of a topic changes over time, for example, an historical event (memory of the Holocaust, memory of the Nanjing Massacre, etc.). The second method, related to the first, studies the memory vehicle of a particular topic (The American Civil War in film, the First World War in graphic novels, etc.). These studies might lead to interesting conclusions, but by now, memory studies have made it clear to even non-specialists, that memory of the past is being constantly recreated and contested over time and in different forms. Instead, Confino wants to use memory as a tool for answering larger historical questions, in his case, to elucidate the connections among social, cultural, and political experiences.1 KeywordsCollective MemoryMemory ActivistNational MemoryTreasure HunterNational HeroThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.