The 1942 Beijing Greater East Asia Exposition: War, Exhibition, and Historical Memory

作者：Yan Chen · 发表于：Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.15096/0002000210 · 研究领域：Japanese History and Culture、Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration、World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

Following the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, expositions themed around “Greater East Asia” were successively held the following year in multiple colonial cities, including Beiping, Tianjin, “Xinjing” , and Nanjing. Due to the varying modes, timings, and historical experiences of occupation across these cities, the expositions exhibited diverse dimensions and elicited distinct local responses. In Beiping, the Japanese and puppet authorities collaborated closely to foster a festive and harmonious public atmosphere through administrative mobilization, media propaganda, and the involvement of the entertainment industry. However, this effort formed a stark contrast with repressive policies such as the “Enhanced Peace Preservation Campaign” implemented during the same period, highlighting the tension between the propaganda facade and social reality. Subsequent memories of the exposition, despite forming a cohesive narrative on emotional and moral levels, often oversimplify the intricate context of the historical scene, thereby hindering a deeper critical examination of colonial trauma. By examining multiple dimensions—including the exposition’s organizational mechanisms, entertainment consumption, educational mobilization, regime relations, and subsequent memory—this study attempts to reveal the surface and underlying structures of colonial propaganda practices, the actual dynamics of social participation, and the construction and limitations of historical narratives across d...