From Memory Making to Money Making? Japanese Travel Writers' Impressions of Cross-Cultural Interactions in the southwestern Pacific Islands Battlesites, 1961-2007

Nishino, Ryota (2017) From Memory Making to Money Making? Japanese Travel Writers' Impressions of Cross-Cultural Interactions in the southwestern Pacific Islands Battlesites, 1961-2007. Pacific Historical Review, 86 (3). pp. 443-471. ISSN 0030-8684

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Abstract

Of the numerous commercially published Japanese travelogues about the southwestern Pacific Islands, five stand out for their detailed accounts of interactions between the travel writers and the Pacific Islanders. This article explores the common narrative threads in these works. Drawing on the literature on travel writing and dark tourism, it analyzes how the relationship between travelers and the Islanders has evolved over time. The early writers report disturbing encounters with Islanders for whom memories of World War II’s Pacific battles were still vivid. The later writers exhibit greater expectations as patrons of battlefield tourism. Their writing displays less interest in a meaningful cultural exchange with the Islanders. This trend may parallel the asymmetry of political and economic power between Japan and the Pacific Islands.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D731 World War II D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D839 Post-war History, 1945 on P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Ryota Nishino
Date Deposited:	08 Aug 2017 05:00
Last Modified:	08 Aug 2017 05:00
URI:	https://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/10053

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