Dark Pasts

Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan (2018) is a book by historian Jennifer Dixon that discusses controversies around Japanese war crimes in World War II and the Armenian genocide denial in Turkey.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8] According to Dixon, states tend to deny rather than glorify their past crimes due to international constraints.^[9]

AuthorJennifer Dixon

LanguageEnglish

GenreNon-fiction

PublisherCornell University Press

Quick facts Author, Language ...

Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan

Author	Jennifer Dixon
Language	English
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Cornell University Press
Publication date	2018
Publication place	United States

References

[1]
Neyzi, Leyla (2020). "A Comparative Approach to Official Discourse on Past Atrocities: The Possibilities and Limits of Models: Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan, by Jennifer M. Dixon, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2018, 276 pp., USD$55.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9781501730245" (PDF). Journal of Genocide Research: 1–5. doi:10.1080/14623528.2020.1800169. S2CID 225373889.
[2]
Goalwin, Gregory J (2020). "Jennifer M.Dixon, Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018. 276 pp. $55.00 (hbk)". Nations and Nationalism. 26 (3): 780–781. doi:10.1111/nana.12630. S2CID 225776763.
[3]
Mouradian, Khatchig (2019). "Mouradian on Dixon, 'Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan'". H-Net. Retrieved 3 January 2021. Throughout the 2000s (and to this day), the official Turkish narrative has denied outright, and systematically, that the experience of the Armenians was a crime at all, let alone a genocide. Whatever linguistic acrobatics the state narrative has performed does not change this reality.
[4]
Smith, Roger W. (2020). "Review Essay: Narratives of Dark Pasts—Continuity and Change". Genocide Studies International. 13 (2): 190–198. doi:10.3138/gsi.13.2.04. S2CID 216385074.
[5]
Bakiner, Onur (2020). "Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan, by Jennifer M. Dixon, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2018, $55.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9781501730245". Nationalities Papers. 48 (5): 958–960. doi:10.1017/nps.2019.126. S2CID 225297846.
[6]
Berger, Thomas U. (2019). "Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan. By Jennifer M. Dixon. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018. 276p. $55.00 cloth". Perspectives on Politics. 17 (3): 934–935. doi:10.1017/S1537592719002160. S2CID 202257445.
[7]
Bose, Sumantra (2020). "Interrogating Dark Pasts: Japan, Turkey, and Beyond: Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan, by Jennifer M. Dixon, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2018, 276 pp., USD$55.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9781501730245". Journal of Genocide Research: 1–4. doi:10.1080/14623528.2020.1800168. S2CID 225409844.
[8]
Zwigenberg, Ran (2020). "Whose Dark Pasts? War Memories and the "Tunnel Vision" of the Nation: Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan, by Jennifer M. Dixon, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2018, 276 pp., USD$55.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9781501730245". Journal of Genocide Research: 1–6. doi:10.1080/14623528.2020.1800170. S2CID 225410314.
[9]
Sanders, Rebecca (2020). "Dark Pasts, Dark Futures? Narrative, Constraint, and the Challenge of Ascendant Nationalism: Dark Pasts: Changing the State's Story in Turkey and Japan, by Jennifer M. Dixon, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2018, USD$55.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9781501730245". Journal of Genocide Research: 1–6. doi:10.1080/14623528.2020.1800167. S2CID 225480162. However, if ardent nationalists and militarists were willing to commit the Armenian Genocide and Nanjing Massacre, why haven't they been willing to admit these atrocities? ... Although focused on the material and ideational reasons why states resist showing contrition, Dark Pasts helps answer why unrepentant nationalists avoid unambiguously justifying dark politics... These patterns of evasion reveal that even far-right Turkish and Japanese nationalists understood that embracing mass atrocity crimes could be politically damaging, a source of shame, and a stain on the nation.

References

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