2022 Volume 100 Pages 181-199
This paper clarifies the interaction between journalism and social authorities through commemoration to construct the war memory, focusing on the “memorial visit” conducted by Heisei Tennō and the social remembrance of the Battle of Manila. Heisei Tennō visited the Philippines in January 2016 as a final overseas destination in his lifelong journey to console the spirits of war victims.
In conventional journalism theory, social authorities are perceived as powers enforcing the dominant memory frameworks through commemoration, while “forgotten” memories are invisible. Journalism stands on the same side as social authority and either reinforces these frameworks or opposes the authority’s stance and criticizes them.
During the “memorial visit,” however, Heisei Tennō attempted to unearth the “forgotten” memory （the Battle of Manila）, and his trip triggered a debate about Asian-Pacific war memory in Japanese society. Journalists also noticed the importance of this memory and reported it on a much larger extent than before. This situation shows that social authorities and journalism can interact with each other, and these interactions can excavate “forgotten” memories.
In this paper, I analyze articles from the Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, Nikkei Shimbun, and Manila Shimbun （local newspaper in Manila）, and clarify the structure in which Japanese journalism became aware of the memory of the Battle of Manila through reports on the “memorial visit.” It becomes clear that the three Japanese newspapers had hardly reported on the Battle of Manila before the “memorial visit.” Moreover, the number of reports increased dramatically during the journey. In addition, I discuss the difficulty of the continuous recall of memories led by a one-time event （“memorial visit”） from the viewpoint of journalism routine theory （news value theory and August journalism in Japan）.
