Settling Accounts? An Americanist Perspective on Historical Reconciliation

In the United States, criticism has come chiefly from conservatives, who decry the endless rehashing of past injuries as yet more evidence of the fraying of America, the triumph of group identity and self-victimization over national pride and self-reliance. Yet criticism has also come from the left. Also, when it comes to facing painful pasts, the US record is distinctly contradictory, not to say hypocritical. On the one hand, no nation has been more vociferous in demanding that other nations confront their historic crimes. In 2007, for example, the US House of Representatives adopted a resolution demanding that the government of Japan "formally acknowledge, apologize, and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner" for the treatment of so-called "comfort women"--women and girls, chiefly Korean, who were compelled to work as sex slaves in military brothels during World War II. Here, Campbell talks about historical reconciliation on an American perspective. He stresses that while most historians regard the study of history as benign and edifying, they also know that historical consciousness frequently manifests itself in malignant and unedifying ways.