The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan

In this highly provocative text, now considered by many a classic, Ian Buruma examines and compares how Germany and Japan have attempted to come to terms with their violent pasts, investigating the painful realities of living with guilt—and with its denial. The Wages of Guilt follows Buruma's encounters, as he travels through both countries, with people whose honesty in confronting their past is strikingly brave, and with others who astonish by their ingenuous evasions of responsibility. In Auschwitz, Berlin, Hiroshima, and Tokyo, Buruma explores the contradictory attitudes of scholars, politicians, and survivors toward World War II and visits the contrasting monuments that commemorate the atrocities of this conflict. These opposing voices reveal how an obsession with the past, especially distorted versions of it, continually raises questions about who should indeed pay the wages of guilt.