The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices

by Barkan, Elazar

• ISBN13: 9780801868078
• ISBN10: 0801868076
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-09
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

How do nations and aggrieved parties, in the wake of heinous crimes and horrible injustices, make amends in a positive way to acknowledge wrong-doings and redefine future interactions? How does the growing practice of making restitution restore a sense of morality and enhance prospects for world peace? Where has restitution worked and where has it not? Since the end of World War II, the victims of historical injustices and crimes against humanity have increasingly turned to restitution, financial and otherwise, as a means of remedying past suffering. In The Guilt of Nations, Elazar Barkan offers a sweeping look at the idea of restitution and its impact on the concept of human rights and the practice of both national and international politics. Through in-depth explorations of reparation demands for a wide variety of past wrongs -- the Holocaust; Japanese enslavement of "comfort women" in Korea and the Philippines; the internment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor; German art in Russian museums and Nazi gold in Swiss banks; the oppression of indigenous peoples in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. mainland, and Hawaii; and the enduring legacy of slavery and institutional racism among African Americans -- Barkan confronts the difficulties in determining victims and assigning blame in the aftermath of such events, understanding what might justly be restored through restitutions, and assessing how these morally and politically charged acknowledgments of guilt can redefine national histories and identities.

Author Biography

Elazar Barkan is chair of the Cultural Studies Department and associate professor of history at Claremont Graduate University.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction: Amending Historical Injustices in International Morality	xv
PART I : RESIDUES OF WORLD WAR II
The Faustian Predicament: German Reparation to Jews	3	(27)
American Memory: Japanese Americans Remember the Camps	30	(16)
Sex Slaves: Comfort Women and Japanese Guilt	46	(19)
Plunder as Justice: Russian Victims and Glorious Museums	65	(23)
Nazi Gold and Swiss Solidarity: A New Mechanism for Rewriting Historical Crimes?	88	(24)
Restitution in East Central Europe: Deserving and Underserving Victims	112	(47)
PART II: COLONIALISM AND ITS AFTERMATH
``First Nations'' Renaissance: Indigenous Groups and the Pluralistic Model	159	(10)
Native American Restitution: Land, Human Remains, and Sacred Objects	169	(47)
Hawaii: The Other Native Americans	216	(16)
Oceanic Models for Indigenous Groups: Australian Aborigines	232	(30)
Once Were Warriors: The Limits of Successful Restitution	262	(21)
Restitution for Slavery: Opportunity or Fantasy?	283	(25)
Conclusion: Toward a Theory of Restitution	308	(43)
Notes	351	(38)
Acknowledgments	389	(2)
Index	391