Introduction

The “history wars” in East Asia—particularly between Japan and South Korea, and between Japan and China—remain among the region’s most persistent and emotionally charged political conflicts. Nearly eight decades after the Asia–Pacific War, disputes over historical responsibility, wartime atrocities, and competing victimhood narratives continue to shape diplomacy and public sentiment. These tensions endure not because historical facts are unknown but because interpretations of the past are deeply bound to national identity, intergenerational memory transmission, and contemporary political needs. As a result, historical disagreements repeatedly re-emerge as symbolic arenas through which states negotiate legitimacy, moral authority, and collective dignity. This chapter establishes the theoretical foundations of competitive victimhood and intergenerational responsibility that guide the book’s comparative research. It introduces the book’s central focus on how young Japanese and Koreans learn, inherit, and emotionally engage with their nations’ pasts. The chapter concludes that durable reconciliation requires confronting the symbolic and affective functions of historical memory in both societies, rather than treating the rift as a dispute over empirical truth alone.