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Abstract

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‘Japan Heritage’ is the name of the official recognition process used by Japan’s Cultural Affairs Agency to identify ‘stories that narrate our nation’s cultures and traditions through regional historical appeal and characteristics’. The system was established in 2015 with a view to preparing for UNESCO World Heritage nominations. This paper looks at the 2016 inclusion of Yokosuka City in this ‘Japan Heritage’ as a ‘former military port city’ and the city’s subsequent rebranding of its military past. This is noteworthy because since the war until recently, the concept of ‘military heritage’ was generally considered to be self-contradictory in Japan. The history of imperial expansion and aggression followed by the defeat and the occupation has meant that the memory of the military was something to be ashamed of and best forgotten, not promoted as a ‘heritage’ that the nation should be proud of and count as a source of collective identity. However, with the new recognition and associated funding opportunities, Yokosuka—the largest naval port city in Japan since 19C and the home of the US Navy 7th Fleet and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force— has exploited its military history as a positive heritage and resource for tourism by renovating, upgrading, and marketing various war- and military-related historical sites. Different agendas and desires of the state, municipalities, citizens groups and tour operators intersect, but the overall effect is the creation of sanitised ‘military heritage’ that conceals violence and aggression and instead highlights technology, modernisation and nostalgia.