Review Essay: Narratives of Dark Pasts—Continuity and Change

In: Genocide studies international: official publication of the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Band 13, Heft 2, S. 190-198

Abstract

Review of Jennifer M. Dixon, Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018. Pp. 258, hardcover, $55 US. The question raised by Dark Pasts is how countries, that have committed either genocide or other mass atrocities, respond to international pressure to acknowledge and take responsibility for such a past? The author's thesis is that international pressures and domestic considerations both play a role in how a country accounts for and deals with its past transgressions. A detailed comparison of the responses of Turkey and Japan is the focus of the book, offering important information about the two countries' responses over a 60-year period.