Erasing Deathscapes, Preserving Glory: War Commemoration and the Institutional Persistence of Violence in Modern Japan

This article examines the institutional formation and transformation of war commemoration in modern Japan, focusing on the relationship between symbolic enshrinement and the treatment of physical remains. While existing scholarship has emphasized memory, narrative, and political controversy—particularly debates surrounding Yasukuni Shrine—it has paid comparatively little attention to the materiality of the war dead and the embodied practices through which relationships with the deceased continue to be maintained. This study addresses this overlooked dimension as a critical aspect of war’s enduring legacy. Drawing on archival sources, it traces a historical trajectory from early shōkon practices to the establishment of Yasukuni Shrine, the development and postwar dissolution of military cemeteries, and the emergence of large-scale remains recovery. It argues that Japan’s commemoration system developed as a dual structure in which the spirits of selected war dead were symbolically integrated into state-centered institutions, while their bodies were subjected to processes of regulation, mobilization, cremation, and fragmentation. Using Vamik Volkan’s concept of “chosen trauma” and Pauline Boss’s notion of “ambiguous loss,” the article demonstrates that this division has produced enduring tensions in mourning and memory, illustrating the institutional persistence of violence.