Wherever I am, the world comes after me. It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it. Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist. "The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver
War Memorialization and Nation-Building in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia | A Book Launch and Lecture
War Memorialization and Nation-Building in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia | A Book Launch and Lecture
Details
The UP Asian Center, in partnership with the UP Department of History, will hold the book launch and lecture "War Memorialization and Nation-Building in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia" on 10 March 2025, 10:00 AM, PHT (GMT+8), at the Seminar Room, UP Asian Center. The event is free and open to the public.
ABOUT THE LECTURE
This event launches John Lee Candelaria’s War Memorialization and Nation-Building in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia published by Routledge, exploring how the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore strategically employ war memory to construct national identity and political legitimacy. As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Pacific War, Candelaria’s book unpacks the deliberate choices behind differing commemorations, revealing how memorials and narratives serve as tools for statecraft. The event will feature an author talk, discussion, and Question and Answer sessions, offering insights into the politics of war memory and its relevance to contemporary Southeast Asia, targeting academics, students, policymakers, and the general public interested in the region’s history and culture.
ABOUT THE BOOK
War Memorialization and Nation-Building in Twentieth-Century Southeast Asia explores how three Southeast Asian countries— the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore—have utilized war memorialization in their nation-building efforts.
Set against the backdrop of colonialism, world wars, independence struggles, and the Cold War, the book interrogates how these nations’ war experiences have shaped national myths and legitimized state narratives. Examining the role of state-sponsored monuments and memorials in these countries, the author sheds light on their impact on national identity formation, state legitimacy, and citizen unity. Through these three distinct case studies, the book highlights the complexity and diversity of memorialization practices within the region, their intersections with state agendas, and the international context that backdropped the region’s nation-building projects. Utilizing war monuments and memorials as its primary data source, the author explains the temporal dynamics of peace and conflict and the significance of tangible history in these nations. He critically examines the transition from heroic to victimhood narratives in war memorialization and its implications for memory cultures and societies at large. Read more.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
JOHN LEE CANDELARIA Assistant Professor, Hiroshima University, Japan
Dr. John Lee Candelaria is an Assistant Professor of History at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, and a Research Fellow at the Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS). He earned his Ph.D. from Hiroshima University in 2022, following his MA and BA in History from the University of the Philippines Diliman. Dr. Candelaria's expertise encompasses international history and politics, media studies, and peace studies, with a focus on memory, memorialization, and heritage related to wars and anthropogenic disasters in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
In addition to his academic roles, Dr. Candelaria co-hosts and produces PODKAS, a podcast dedicated to discussions on Philippine history, politics, and society. His scholarly work has been featured in journals such as Memory Studies, Asian Politics & Policy, and The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Methodologically, he utilizes archival sources, visual texts, and digital media to explore themes like civil conflict, peace processes, post-conflict reconstruction, historiography, and the intersection of peace and sustainability. View his full profile.
For inquiries, please contact us atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586.
The Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The UP Asian Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. It also offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. As an area studies institution, the Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website.
