Commentators across the world laud Germany for admitting and repenting its World War II aggression and atrocities. Japan, by contrast, is criticized for it reticence to admit and apologize for its atrocities during war and colonization. Examining the role of atonement in international reconciliation in the cases of Japan-South Korean relations and Franco-German reconciliation, Professor Lind finds that atonement is not always necessary or helpful. Countries need to strike a careful balance between remembering foreign victims and answering to domestic constituents without creating backlash from either.
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=0d=0aJennifer Lind is an assistant professor in the department of government, Dartmouth College and an alumna of IR/PS (1996). Her research centers on security issues and foreign policies of East Asia. Her book, Sorry States: Apologies and International Politics, will be published next year by Cornell University Press. Lind has worked as a consultant for RAND and for the Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Defense, and has lived and worked in Japan. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Presented by the Korea-Pacific Program and Mannam.
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