FILM 415 Short Essay Proposal
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FILM 415
Short Essay Proposal
Describe topic:
Speaking of archive as a site of slience, I think the Nanjing Massacre can explain this point very well. When I searched the archives about the Nanjing Massacre, I found that the records of the Nanjing Massacre were very limited, and most of them had been destroyed. And the archives of Nanjing Massacre in Japan and China are very different. In China, the Nanjing Massacre is more often commemorated in textbooks, documentaries, films, war museums and memorials as a symbol of the trauma of ethnic unity, and the language is more tragic. In contrast, Japanese education and media have avoided using it as a national disgrace because it undermined nationalist narratives and heroes of wartime martyrs. And Japan prefers a flat tone, constructing a barely critical voice for the Japanese military. The differences in the presentation and evaluation of the Nanjing Massacre stem from the political nature of the official memory of the two countries. As China strives to use the Nanjing Massacre as an ideological weapon of national unity to strengthen its patriotic education, Japan has accelerated its nationalist historiography campaign to rebuild its normal national image by marginalizing the massacre. Therefore, in this essay, I want to start with the incident of the Nanjing Massacre and focus on analyzing the differences in the selection and recording methods of its archives in China and Japan. And thus reflects what kind of purpose those in power achieve by modifying and erasing the archive and what kind of impact it has on society.
Research questions:
1. What is the difference between China and Japan in choosing to store and record archives about the Nanjing Massacre?
2. What are China and Japan trying to achieve by controlling the archives of the Nanjing Massacre? What impact has it had on society and people?
3. In what ways did the Japanese authorities erase the history of the Nanjing Massacre and introduce silences into the archives after World War II?
Why is important:
“Archival slience” defined as “the unintentional or purposeful absence or distortion of documentation of enduring value, resulting in gaps and inabilities to represent the past accurately.” The archives of the Nanjing Massacre are the representative of the archives' silence. The Second Sino-Japanese War is interpreted differently in China and Japan, both of which have struggled over the past three decades to control East Asian memory through both official and unofficial way, leading to media conflicts, diplomatic disputes, and a history of public hostility. As for the Nanjing Massacre, Japan wanted to cover up and downplay its aggression to maintain a normal national image and promote nationalism, while China formed the spread of patriotism by greatly putting effort in the popganda about Japan's aggression. This has important implications for both countries. If the archives of this event can be kept or viewed objectively, it will help people to read critically, reflect on the past, and think in a different perspective. In the long run, this will help the historical reconciliation between China and Japan. Contribute to the building of friendship between China and Japan. To learn and discuss history by preserving it.
Bibliography:
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https://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12541/13687
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7. Japan hits out as UNESCO archives Nanjing massacre documents
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2023-04-06