‘Kamikaze’ heritage tourism in Japan: a pathway to peace and understanding?
公開日 2020.11.18
A research paper on tourism in Japan written by CTR Deputy Director, Prof. Richard Sharpley (Distinguished University Professor, Wakayama University / Professor, University of Central Lancashire) was published in the Journal of Heritage Tourism.
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Title
‘Kamikaze’ heritage tourism in Japan: a pathway to peace and understanding?
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Author
Richard Sharpley, Lancashire School of Business & Enterprise, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
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Source
Journal of Heritage Tourism, 15:6, 709-726
DOI: 10.1080/1743873X.2020.1758117
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1743873X.2020.1758117
*Indexed in Scopus
Journal details: https://www.scopus.com/sourceid/21100455460
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Abstract
Reflecting the wider belief that international tourism offers the opportunity to encourage peace and understanding amongst peoples and nations, one objective of Japan’s recent tourism development policy is the enhancement of mutual understanding and the promotion of international peace. The purpose of this paper is to consider the extent to which this objective is achievable, particularly in the context of continuing controversy surrounding the country’s confrontation of its twentieth century military heritage in general and its role in the Pacific War in particular. Based on research at two ‘difficult’ heritage sites, Chiran Peace Museum in Kagoshima Prefecture and Yūshūkan War Museum in Tokyo, it explores specifically how the kamikaze phenomenon is commemorated and interpreted for international visitors, in so doing revealing a significant degree of dissonance at both sites. Not only is a selective narrative of heroic sacrifice presented within a wider revisionist history of the Pacific War but also no attempt is made to acknowledge the prevailing cultural context that might underpin a more nuanced understanding of the kamikaze. Hence, the paper concludes that a meaningful opportunity to enhance international understanding has been missed.
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Key words
Tourism and peace, Japan, difficult heritage, dissonance, Chiran peace museum, Yūshūkan War Museum
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