The ‘Statue of Peace’ in Berlin-Moabit commemorates ‘comfort women’, a euphemism for women who were sexually enslaved by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. The memorial urges historical justice and reconciliation. After its unveiling in September 2020, the installation drew criticism from Japanese officials. Although the Berlin-Mitte… Read More
In 2017, a civil society organisation unveiled a San Francisco monument dedicated to the “comfort women,” women compelled to provide sexual services for the Japanese military during World War II. The monument became the centre of an international conflict, with both passionate supporters and fierce critics of the monument… Read More
Captain James Cook’s landing site at Kamay Botany Bay has been a focus of public debate, contestation, commemoration, celebration, and mourning in Australia since the 1860s. The recent controversies over the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Cook’s landing presented a new opportunity for multi-stakeholder discussions to take place. Read More
The Jedwabne pogrom memorial was renewed in 2001, following controversies surrounding who the perpetrators of the massacre were. This case study explores moral questions over the commemoration and memory of perpetrators, Poland’s responsibility for the slaughter, and how tragic events such as historical pogroms should be commemorated in the… Read More
The Eye that Cries commemorates all victims of Peru’s two-decade-long internal conflict, regardless of political affiliation. In 2006, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held in the Miguel Castro-Castro Prison v. Peru case that the names of 42 murdered Shining Path members, widely considered to be perpetrators in the… Read More