Bodies of Memory

Rating:
Summary: Interesting perspective, but beware pomo lingo
Review: If phrases like "always already absent" and references to how "Japan had assimilated the alterity of the other" appeal to you, then you will love this book.

But once you get past his trendy lingo, Igarashi has some compelling things to say about postwar Japan and how it has effectively supressed its war responsibility in modern Japanese consciousness. I particularly enjoyed his discussion of the Tokyo Olympics

While I would not consider this "history writing at its best" (see John Dower for that), I do feel the book is a welcome, if at times tiresome, addition to Japanese history studies.