Global history in two chronotopes: time, identity and the practical past in Nagasaki, Japan, 1990 and 2006

ABSTRACT

This article compares two recent expositions held in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1990 and 2006. Both expositions responded to structural economic changes related to deindustrialization that prompted reidentifications with the city’s history as a maritime trade hub in early modern Japan. To compare two temporally laced identities that emerged from this turning point, I distinguish each exposition’s dominant chronotope. The 1990 Journey Exposition is characterized by Tabi (Journey)-time, which departs from a distant past to transit through a disappearing present towards a utopian future where Nagasaki has once again become an international port. The 2006 Saruku Expo is characterized by Saruku (Strolling)-time, which introspectively rediscovers Nagasaki’s local heritage within the present while imagining a changeless future, erasing the temporal divisions formative of Tabi-time. If Tabi-time is national time derived from national expositions, Saruku-time is local time derived from heritage and memory. These chronotopes are characterized by different arrangements of exposition grounds and different mobilities that visitors were expected to perform on their fairgrounds. The Journey Exposition spatially delineated Nagasaki into future and past zones, whereas the Saruku Expo featured a series of wandering strolls that drew no clear temporal boundaries. Visitors in Tabi-time engaged in epic, romantic voyages across national borders, whereas visitors in Saruku-time displaced themselves locally in an inquisitive, slow-paced manner. The article draws from exposition documents like guides and official records as well as a local town magazine to argue that the formal organization of time can be practically utilized for economic and identity-building purposes as well as politically contested between different parties. It also develops recent scholarship in Theory of History such as Hayden White’s concept of the ‘practical past’ and recent theorizations on the disorder of postmodern time.

KEYWORDS:

• Practical past
• Hayden white
• global history
• heritage
• Japan
• chronotope
• time
• identity

Acknowledgement

I thank the staff at NOMURA Co. for welcoming me to their company archives in Osaka, as well as the librarians at the Nagasaki and Nagasaki Prefectural Library for their kind support. At Nagoya University, Nathan Hopson guided the project from start to finish; I also benefited from the advice of Frank Peddie and regular conversations with my peer writing group. Comments from the editors and peer reviewers at Rethinking History also improved my manuscript. An earlier version of this paper was presented in August 2021 at the 12th International Convention of Asia Scholars, Kyoto, Japan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The idea of an ‘urban renaissance’ may derive from Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro’s 1983 ‘urban renaissance’ plan, part of his neoliberalization of urban development. See Edgington 2012, 483.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott Ma

Scott Ma, formerly Research Student at the School of Humanities, Nagoya University, is presently a Master's student at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Japan. He studies the postwar history of Japan, focusing on education and popular culture. From autumn 2023, he is a doctoral student in History at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.