Revisiting the Past: A Discursive Psychological Approach to Anglo-Japanese Reconciliation Over the Second World War

Abstract

Reconciliation is a ubiquitous social phenomenon, woven into the fabric of everyday lives. It is emblematic of the human condition in post-conflict societies. In this chapter, I will present a positioning analysis of the discursive practice of reconciliation occasioned in accounts produced by British Second World War veterans, who were interned as prisoners of war in a Japanese labour camp. The positioning analysis is aimed at examining ways in which autobiographical accounts of the past produced in research interviews with several surviving British veterans in the 1990s mobilize relevant identities and membership categories within social relations. Drawing on a case of post-Second World War Anglo-Japanese reconciliation (Murakami, 2012), I shall argue that reconciliation is therefore discursively accomplished in the interview talk as the participants—the veterans and the researcher—attend to the delicate issues of post-war animosity against the Japanese. The analytical focus of discursive reconciliation is on social accountability (Buttny, 1993). It is a feature of reconciliation talk in which people actively demonstrate their ability to recast the pejorative significance of past action, repair the broken, and restore the estranged. The discursive approach to reconciliation illustrated in the chapter sheds light onto, and challenges, the core assumptions made in peace psychology and conflict resolution research. In taking a critical stance, I will highlight the assumptions endemic in peace psychology and mainstream approaches to conflict resolution research and propose reconciliation not as an interior phenomenon, but as social practices situated within the discursive community, being observable within communicative activities in an Anglo-Japanese cross-cultural setting.

Appendix: Transcription notation (A)

The transcription convention used in the chapter has been developed by Gail Jefferson for the purposes of conversation analysis (see Atkinson & Heritage, 1984).

[ ]                           Speech overlap

[                             Overlap begins

↑↓        Vertical arrows precede marked pitch movement, over and above normal rhythm of speech.

Underlining           Signals vocal emphasis

CAPITALS            Mark speech that is obviously louder than surrounding speech

ºI know itº             ‘degree’ signs enclose obviously quieter speech

( )                           Inaudible, indecipherable utterance, uncertain hearing

(0.4)                       Pause (in seconds and/or tenths of a second)

(.)                           A micropause, hearable but too short to measure.

((text))                   Additional comments from the transcriber, e.g., gesture, context or intonation comments by the transcriber

she wa::nted          Prolonged syllable or sound stretch

hhh                        Audible aspiration or laughter

.hhh      Audible inhalation

Yeh, Commas indicate that the speaker has not finished; marked by fall-rise or weak rising intonation,

as when enunciating lists.

y’know?     Question marks signal stronger, ‘questioning’ intonation, irrespective of grammar.

Yeh.      Periods (full stops) mark falling, stopping intonation (‘final contour’), irrespective of grammar, and not

necessarily followed by a pause.

bu-u-      Hyphens mark a cut-off of the preceding sound

>he said< ‘greater than’ and ‘lesser than’ signs enclose speeded-up talk.

<he said>     ‘lesser than’ and ‘greater than’ signs enclose slower talk.

solid.= =We said Latched utterance (no interval between them)

Sto(h)p i(h)t.   Laughter within speech is signalled by h’s in parentheses.

heh heh      Voiced laughter. Alternatively, some laughter of Japanese speakers were transcribed as haha, hehehe.

uh um      Filler between words. Alternatively ‘er,’ ‘erm’, and ‘ah’ ‘ehh’ are used.

Oi koi      Italicised words are of Japanese origin.