• Offered by School of Culture History and Language
  • ANU College ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
  • Course subject Asian Studies
  • Areas of interest History, Asian Studies
  • Academic career UGRD
  • Course convener
    • Prof Li Narangoa
  • Mode of delivery In Person
  • Co-taught Course
  • Offered in First Semester 2021
     See Future Offerings
Reconciliation and the memory of conflict in Asia (ASIA3029)

This course has been adjusted for remote participation in Semester 1 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions. On-campus activities may also be available.

For most of human history in Asia, the end of military and civil conflict was followed only by a renegotiation of the balance of power between the antagonists, and by the division of spoils among the victors. In the middle of the 20th century, in the aftermath of the Second World War, policy-makers became aware that the terms of peace could have a powerful impact on the likelihood of return to conflict. Significant progress has been made in developing peace-making processes that undercut the original causes of conflict and which thus diminish the possibility that conflict will recur. Architectures of international cooperation and inter-dependence also work to diminish the possibility of war. 
The historical memory of conflict, however, has proven to be a serious and intractable obstacle to international harmony. The historical bitterness that afflicts Japan’s relations with Korea and China is greater now than at any time since the Second World War. Ancient antagonisms pit Cambodia against its two neighbours, Thailand and Vietnam. The memory of the massacre of communists in Indonesia 50 years ago looms as an issue in contemporary Indonesian politics. 
Meanwhile, formal and informal reconciliation process in various countries of the region (including Korea, Cambodia and East Timor) have shed light on possible paths to preventing the legacies of bitter histories from causing ongoing conflict.
This course will critically analyse the processes used in dealing with the past, as well as the prospects and challenges for cooperation and reconciliation. 
 

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

By successful completion of this course, students will be able to
- engage the current territorial and political tension of Asia from a historical perspective;
- understand how to engage with different perspectives presented by scholars from different countries;
- develop an understanding of theories and practices of reconciliation in various cultural contexts;
- identify the historical, economic and political underpinnings of memory of conflict in Asia;
- identify possibilities and challenges to reconciliation in Asia.

Indicative Assessment

Participation in discussion 10%
Written response papers (10 written response papers to the readings, 300 words each) 20%
Essay Proposal 10%
Annotated bibliography 10%
Essay (3000-3500 words) 50%

The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.

Requisite and Incompatibility

To enrol in this course you must have successfully completed 48 units of university courses. This course is incompatible with ASIA6042 Reconciliation and the Memory of Conflict in Asia.

Preliminary Reading

Barkan, Elizar, The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices (New York, W. W. Norton, 2000).

Breen, John, Yasukuni, the War Dead and the Struggle for Japan's Past (Columbia University Press, 2008)

Camilleri, Joseph A. and Sven Schottmann,  Culture, Religion and Conflict in Muslim Southeast Asia: Negotiating Tense Pluralisms (London: Routledge, 2013)

Christie, Kenneth and Robert Cribb (ed.) Historical Injustice and Democratic Transition in Eastern Asia and Northern Europe (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002).

Fujitani, T.; White Geoffrey M. and Yoneyama, Lisa, Perilous Memories: The Asia-Pacific War(s) (Durham NC, Duke University Press, 2001).

Gibney, Mark, and Erik Roxstom, 'The Moral Functions of an Apology', (Rodney C. Roberts eds.) Injustice and Rectification (New York: Peter Lang, 2002), pp.111-123.

Jager, Shiela Miyoshi and Mitter, Rana, Ruptured Histories: War, Memory and the Post-Cold War in Asia (Cambridge Mass., Harvard University Press, 2007).

Kwak, Jun-Hyeok and Melissa Nobles, Inherited Responsibility and Historical Reconciliation (London: Routledge, 2013)

Lee, Seokwoo and Hee Eun Lee, Dokdo: Historical Appraisal and International Justice (Martinus Nijhoff, 2011)

Morris-Suzuki, Tessa; Low, Morris; Petrov, Leonid and Tsu, Timothy Y. East Asia Beyond the History Wars: Addressing the Ghosts of Conflict (London, Routledge, 2013)

Nozaki, Yoshiko and Mark Selden, ‘Japanese Textbook Controversies, Nationalism, and Historical Memory: Intra- and Inter-national Conflicts’ (JapanFocus, 2011-07-27, http://www.japanfocus.org/-Mark-Selden/3173)

Pan, Junwu, Toward a New Framework for Peaceful Settlement of China's Territorial and boundary disputes (Martinus Nijhoff, 2009)

Wilson, Trevor,  Myanmar's Long Road to National Reconciliation (Singapore, 2006)

Majors

Minors

Fees

Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.  

Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees. 

Student Contribution Band:
14
Unit value:
6 units

If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.

Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.

Units EFTSL
6.00 0.12500

Course fees

Domestic International
Domestic fee paying students
Year Fee
2021 $3180
International fee paying students
Year Fee
2021 $4890
Note: Please note that fee information is for current year only.

Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links

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The list of offerings for future years is indicative only.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
2021
2022
2023

First Semester

Class number Class start date Last day to enrol Census date Class end date Mode Of Delivery Class Summary
3983 22 Feb 2021 01 Mar 2021 31 Mar 2021 28 May 2021 In Person View

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