Subverting the past: An analysis of Japans construction of state indentity
Date of Publication
2014
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Political Science
College
College of Liberal Arts
Department/Unit
Political Science
Thesis Adviser
Julio C. Teehankee
Defense Panel Chair
Dennis D. Trinidad
Defense Panel Member
Divinagracia Z. Roldan
Benjamin A. San Jose
Abstract/Summary
This thesis is an attempt towards a critical discourse analysis of how Japan consolidates its state identity through multivalent mechanisms of forgetting as a means for identification. It briefly draws from Japans previous conduct of state identity construction from the Meiji Restoration to the postwar Occupation to analyze the dissonance in Japans current pacifist state identity, characterized by the nationalist pursuit to become a normal state and the unfavorable perception of it being an impenitent state. Contrary to the essentializing tendency of dominant International Relations (IR) discourse on state identity that universalizes states into a set of concrete criteria, the dissonance is considered to be symptomatic of Japans struggle to identify with what it perceives to be ideal, and at the same time, aspiring to be superior to this ideal. Using the concept of identification instead of identity, with Lacans notion of subjectivity serving as a supplement, this study shows that Japans attempts to consolidate its identity is tied with the desire to appropriate chosen characteristics of the ideal Other (sameness) and be desirable to the ideal Other (superiority) and is often conducted in ways of historical revisionism that includes tampering with historical thought, mnemonic sites and documents. Identification for Japan, rather than just being driven by a strategic narrative, is a contentious and painful, sycophantic process of historical alteration rupturing in moments of crisis.
Abstract Format
html
Language
English
Format
Electronic
Accession Number
CDTG005820
Shelf Location
Archives, The Learning Commons, 12F Henry Sy Sr. Hall
Physical Description
1 computer optical disc ; 4 3/4 in.
Recommended Citation
Untalan, C. (2014). Subverting the past: An analysis of Japans construction of state indentity. Retrieved from https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/4750