Remembering and Representing Imprisonment in Postcolonial Cities: Decommissioned Prisons in East Asia

Abstract

At the Lushun Russo-Japanese Prison (LRJP) Museum, I was drawn to a photo display in which one old Japanese man is regretfully writing down his testimony (Fig. 31.1). The Japanese physician Goga Shyoichi was the medical officer in the prison from May 1944 to July 1945. The narratives at the side frame Shyoichi’s memories through shame and guilt, quoting the physician’s own writing entitled: “Retrospect of the Days in Lushun Prison” (published in the 20th issue of the Collected Works of Alumni in Lushun Medical College). Shyoichi’s words apparently were used to validate the crimes of Japanese who allegedly omitted treatment for some political criminals or tortured them to death. How is a representation of death such as this produced and how does it function? My contemplation was interrupted by a conversation among a family next to me, when the parents asked their children to watch “how much the Japs had done to the Chinese.”