An ethnographic study of subject and agent in the battlefield tourism in Palau

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K01195
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 04030:Cultural anthropology and folklore-related
• Research Institution: University of Kochi
• Principal Investigator: IITAKA Shingo 高知県立大学, 文化学部, 准教授 (10612567)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 文化人類学 / 歴史認識 / 戦跡 / 観光 / パラオ / グアム / ペリリュー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study investigates the way in which various actors visiting old battlefields of the Pacific War as tour destinations interact each other, and at times turn into subordinate subjects remembering the war from their own countries' perspectives or other times creative agents critiquing their nation's war memories. Investigating into the events related to the 75th anniversary of the Peleliu Battle in the Palau Islands and the 75th anniversary of the United States' Liberation of Guam, the study reveals the entanglement of tourism actors, historical materials such as war remnants and monuments, and local societies embracing both foreign visitors and war monuments, and thus examines the construction of agents that remember the Pacific War from transnational perspectives.

Free Research Field

文化人類学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

人、モノ、地域社会のもつれあいのなかで、戦跡観光における記憶の主体が形成されていく過程を検討した本研究は、ホストとゲストの相互作用に注目する観光研究、戦争の記憶のせめぎあいに注目する戦争社会学、太平洋戦争の地域社会への影響を検討してきたオセアニア研究に対する学術的貢献を果たすことができる。また、アジア・太平洋地域の人々が国家的枠組みを超えて戦争の記憶を分有し、相互理解を深めるための基礎資料の提供など、広く社会的還元を果たすことができる。