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Description
Every person has a story. Every story has a past. How were the lives and experiences of those in East and Southeast Asia during the Second World War (1937-1945) told, received, represented, and remembered? Through an examination of diaries, oral histories, letters, autobiographies, memoirs and other types of personal narratives and life writing, this module examines the limitations, challenges, and ways in which such sources can serve to capture and narrate the relationships between individuals and the state, with their families and communities, with one self, and how wartime pasts are negotiated by individuals and nations in the postwar period. Primary sources include reflections by ordinary civilians (women, the elderly, families, and students); the last letters of fallen soldiers and kamikaze pilots; accounts by missionaries and medical personnel; stories and drawings by children who grew up in the face of familial and social dislocation; and visual and literary representations of wartime East and Southeast Asia. Students will also be encouraged to draw parallels and comparisons with other wartime experiences in Britain, Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world. All documents and primary source materials are provided in English translation.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 8th April 2024.
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