The half a century between 1895 and 1945 was an important period in Northeast Asian history.Not only did this period see Japan, China and Korea s entry into the modern international system, but the five decades were marked by military conflicts, colonial controls and unfathomable atrocities.History problems in today s Northeast Asia, regardless of whether they are territorial disputes, textbook controversies or forced labor compensation, can all be traced back to the events that occurred in this period as if history was frozen in time.How to understand the unusual significance of 1895-1945 in Northeast Asia?Based on an in-depth analysis of history problems in the three Northeast Asian countries, the paper addresses this question from three analytical perspectives.First, in terms of historical experiences, Japan, China and Korea s pursuit of modern state-building severely clashed in this period, creating conflicting narratives of modern statehood in Northeast Asia.Second, as competing forms of collective memory, the incomplete modern state-building and the shifting regional order in Northeast Asia led to selective remembering and forgetting of the past, further intensifying the debates on history.Third, I argue from a Hegelian perspective that Northeast Asia s seemingly never-ending history debates also reflect the continued struggle for recognition amid the ongoing shift of regional and global order.
Min Shu (Sun,) studied this question.