Author: Ljiljana Radonić, Institut für Kulturwissenschaften (Institute of Culture Studies), Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Austrian Academy of Sciences) - Academia.edu, Wikipedia

Abstract: »The “universalization of the Holocaust” has established the Shoah as a historical reference point that legitimizes a global moral imperative to respect human rights. Much has been written about the ostensible “globalization of memory,” but global comparative studies are still scarce. Scholars claim that “globalized” memorial museums reflect new moral standards and a new language of commemoration, but what is the cost of decontextualization in the name of moral universals? When traveling memories and traveling musealization techniques translate into the national context, this appropriation transforms the “downloaded” traveling tropes according to the needs of national memory politics and identity creation. References to international trends emanating from Holocaust memorial museums can be found at various levels: aesthetics such as exhibiting dark rooms and the names of the victims written in white letters against a dark background; musealization techniques such as the inclusion of individual victims, their private photographs, biographical objects and testimonies; and content, such as inclusion of negative memory of crimes committed, not suffered by one’s own community—and mere verbal references to “our own holocaust.” Many museums, from Japan to the former Yugoslavia exhibit the most sensitive content or the “elephant in the room” at a low level in the “hierarchy of visibility” of exhibits: Japanese museums often display the military system of “comfort stations” during World War II on interactive computer screens which visitors need to search through. Similarly, the Jasenovac Memorial Museum in Croatia presents the biographies of the Ustaša, who ran the camp, only at computer workstations.« (Source: SpringerLink)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. 1)
	Introduction (p. 2)
	Memory for Current Identity Politics (p. 2)
	Memorial Museums as Flagships of National Identity (p. 4)
	Memorial Museums and International Trends (p. 5)
	Memorial Museums and Conflicting Memories in “East” and “West” (p. 6)
	The East Asian World War II Arena (p. 11)
	Memorial Museums and 1990s Genocides (p. 13)
	Summary (p. 15)
	Acknowledgments (p. 16)
	Competing Interest Declaration (p. 16)
	References (p. 16)

Reviews: -

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of China / History of the Republic of China, History of the People's Republic of China | History of Asia: History of Japan / Shōwa era | Museum: Museums in China | Museum: Museums in Japan / Kyoto Museum for World Peace | Prostitution: Forced prostitution / Comfort women | Sex and the law: Wartime sexual violence / Sexual violence in World War II | War: Pacific War / Japanese war crimes