Traumatic Pasts in Asia

Mark S. Micale is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. His publications include Beyond the Unconscious, Discovering the History of Psychiatry (Roy Porter, co-editor; Princeton University Press, 1993), Approaching Hysteria: Disease and Its Interpretations (Princeton University Press, 1995), The Mind of Modernism (Stanford University Press, 2004), and Hysterical Men (Harvard University Press, 2008).

“Ranging from the healing effects of singing and pen pals to propitiating ghosts and building memorials, this excellent book brims with insightful analysis that underscores the importance of understanding local approaches to coping with trauma.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI)“[This book] presents a more than welcome and extremely successful attempt to ensure that yet unheard sufferers from Burma to Indonesia are given a voice.” • Medicine, Conflict and Survival“By globalising trauma studies, Micale and Pols break new ground and enrich our understanding of the complex ways in which humans respond to war, genocide and environmental catastrophes…This well-written, engaging, interdisciplinary volume moves the field forward by building a bridge between Western and Asian scholars. Traumatic Pasts in Asia is thus a crucial step in carving a path towards a more global approach to understanding traumatic injury. It identifies where Western-centric conceptions of trauma are problematic, while it also explores universal patterns and experiences, including tensions between state and individual conceptions of traumatic memory. This book should spark interest and ongoing discussions among scholars, policymakers, and members of the public whose lives have been shaped by the traumatic legacies of mass violence.” • New Mandala“A timely contribution to studies of trauma arising from state policies, drawing attention to the possible ethnocentrism of diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder, to the efficacy of local methods of healing for survivors, and to the challenges of interpreting and memorializing events.” • Janice Matsumura, Simon Fraser University“This well-written, engaging, interdisciplinary volume moves the field forward by building a bridge between Western and Asian scholars.  It is an important and valuable volume that will be a cornerstone in the ever-growing field of trauma studies.” • Jason Crouthamel, Grand Valley State University

• List of IllustrationsPreface and AcknowledgementsIntroduction: History, Trauma, and AsiaHans Pols and Mark S. MicaleChapter 1. Tropical Stupor? An Investigation into Patients Affected by Earthquakes and Tropical Weather in Colonial TaiwanHarry Yi‐Jui WuChapter 2. Male Hysteria in Modern Japan: Trauma, Masculinity, and Military Psychiatry during the Asia-Pacific WarEri NakamuraChapter 3. Atomic Trauma: Japanese Psychiatry in Hiroshima and NagasakiRan ZwigenbergChapter 4. “Yankee Style Trauma”: The Korean War and the Americanization of Psychiatry in the Republic of KoreaJennifer Yum ParkChapter 5. “No PTSD in Vietnam”: Psychological Trauma, Psychic Shock, and the Biology of War Suffering in the Context of the American WarNarquis BarakChapter 6. Psychological Trauma and Suffering in Long Distance Friendships Involving Political Prisoners in IndonesiaVannessa HearmanChapter 7. Haunting and Recovery in Post–Khmer Rouge CambodiaCaroline BennettChapter 8. A Field of Happiness: Space, Trauma, and Dealing with Existential Precarity among China's Sent-Down YouthHua WuChapter 9. Performing Songs as Healing the Trauma of the 1965 Anti-Communist Killings in IndonesiaDyah Pitaloka and Mohan J. DuttaChapter 10. Healing Our Sacrifice: Trauma and Translation in the Burmese Democracy MovementSeinenu M. Thein-LemelsonChapter 11. Beyond PTSD: Politics of Visibility in a Kashmiri ClinicSaiba VarmaChapter 12. War Memorials: Materializing Traumatic Pasts and Constructing Memories of the Asia-Pacific WarMaki KimuraAfterword: Traumatic Pasts, Haunting FuturesByron J. GoodIndex