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| 1 |
ID:
182441
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| Summary/Abstract |
Much material heritage is marked by national memorials to war and its heroes. This article considers two examples that commemorate aspects of defeat, loss, and military disaster in war – the Australian War Memorial and attached museum and the museum and Peace Park at Hiroshima Japan. For Australians, the nation became a recognisable entity in the wake of disastrous defeat at Gallipoli in World War I. The physical manifestation of that heritage combines a solemn mausoleum with a massive and expanding museum that celebrates all Australia’s war contributions since then. For Japan, the peace park in Hiroshima focuses on the civilian heritage of the atom bomb Americans dropped in August 1945. Unlike the Australian Memorial, there is no celebration of war, soldiers, or militarism at the Peace Park. This article explores the differences, similarities, ironies, and contradictions of war heritages built out of crushing instances of loss rather than national moments of victory.
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| 2 |
ID:
080577
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| Publication |
2007.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Memories of military sacrifices and demonstrations of 'national' characteristics of bravery, comradeship and integrity still have considerable popular purchase within contemporary states and communities, and as such can accrue significant political capital. With this in mind, this paper will show how Ulster Loyalists attempt to anchor themselves in the memory of the Somme, seeking to deliberately construct a line of direct continuity between modern Loyalism, which has been suffering from a variety of pressures, fissures and marginalization throughout the Northern Ireland peace process, and Ulster Unionism of the early 20th century, a period which in contrast was marked by unity, mass mobilization and elite leadership. Crucially, that political generation's decimation during the First World War is a potent myth of blood sacrifice which thickens, rather than pollutes, the narrative of a Unionist 'Golden Age' of mobilization and strength. As such, the mythic proving grounds of battlefields long gone have become advantageous sites for modern political acquisition. This use of the memory of the Great War as an identity resource will be compared and contrasted with similar projects in Canada and Australia.
Rather than simply miring Loyalists in archaic and militaristic tropes, and invented links to the past, this paper will argue that commemorations, particularly that of the Somme, can have a transformative and cohering effect on modern Loyalism, in both the political and paramilitary spheres.
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| 3 |
ID:
185741
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