The role of empathy in reconciliation: for effective apologies and lasting forgiveness

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K01534
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 06020:International relations-related
• Research Institution: Aoyama Gakuin University (2020-2022); International University of Japan (2019)
• Principal Investigator: Kumagai Naoko 青山学院大学, 地球社会共生学部, 教授 (10598668)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 和解 / 共感 / 謝罪 / 赦し / 記憶

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research demonstrates that compassion facilitates sustainable reconciliation in postwar compensation. It hypothesizes that compassion positively corresponds with the level of a sense of social belonging shared between the victims and the perpetrator, that of the perpetrator’s understanding of the harms done to the victims, the understanding of the political validity of perpetration, and the absence of suppression of the memories of perpetration and suffering. The empirical study dealt with four cases: the use of forced labor in Eastern Europe under Nazi rule, the Japanese army’s abuse of American POWs, the Japanese army's forced labor of Chinese workers, and the U.S. air raids on Japan. The research has found that the first two elements facilitate compassion but that victims reject any justification of perpetration. Furthermore, the suppression of victims’memory stimulated their resistance against oblivion. Politics and economy also affect reconciliation.

Free Research Field

国際関係

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の成果は、内戦や政治的抑圧が終焉した後の移行期正義が問題となる国や社会においても活かされると考えられる。本研究は、持続的な和解には、「共感」が重要であり、政治的経済的な外的要因の影響も存在し、さらに被害者にとっての「記憶」も役割を果たすことを、理論的実証的に明らかにした。確かに和解過程は、事象や国・地域、さらには文化にも影響されるので、事例ごとに対応するきめ細かな和解策対応も重要である。しかし、持続可能な和解に共通する核心部分を明らかにすることによってこそ、世界各地の移行期正義、和解政策のための共通の軸となる視点を提供しうるものである。