2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Study on Memories of War in Vietnam after Vietnam War
| Project/Area Number |
16510185
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Area studies
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| Research Institution | Tokyo University of Foreign Studies |
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Principal Investigator |
IMAI Akio Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Professor (20203284)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2007
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| Keywords | Area Studies / Vietnam / Memories of War / Vietnam War |
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| Research Abstract |
North Vietnamese, state had been usedhistory as an instrument for mobilizing popular support during war time Making history serve wartime purposes was achieved by writing the past (history in the lower case) as a narrative of heroic and ultimately triumphant struggle against foreigndomination and inscribing the future as a vision of communist utopia achieved through the inexorable workings of History with a capital H, Marxist-style. Both time past and time future, so it seemed, was on the North Vietnamese side and firmly under control.
When peace finally came, socialism was on the wane worldwide. Even in Vietnam, where the revolutionary generation remained in power, the future had to be rethought. The Doi Moi reforms saved the Vietnamese communist leadership from historical irrelevance when other socialist regimes throughout Europe were being toppled. But with Doi Moi, History lost its capitalH. If revolutions aim to transform the future, and in so doing rewrite thepast, so do counterre
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volutions. The end of utopia has taken away the telos that had made possible a particular writin of Vietnamese history.
Memory is an important aspect of cultural production, a production that the state is eager to control. In the two decades since the war ended, the Vietnamese state has tried shape collective memory to underline the continuity between the Revolution and the War Against the Americans, on the one hand, and past struggles for national independence, on the other. The year 1995, which marked the twentieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon (April 30) and the fiftieth anniversary of independence (September 2) and the founding of the Vietnamese People's Army (December 19), saw an outpouring of commemorative products, speeches, and rituals. It is customary in Vietnam to honor a man by paying one's respect to his mother. In the same sprit, it is the mother, rather than the wife, who is the cultural vector of grief and memory. At the center of commemoration, therefore, was the face of the mother of heroes, full of pride in their deeds and sorrow for their loss.
War commemoration in Vietnam thus is quite different than in the West. Less
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Research Products
(16 results)
