From colonizer to victim: the War in the Pacific (1942-1945) and its aftermath framed through a Dutch national Second World War narrative

This thesis deals with the effects of framing the War in the Pacific and its aftermath through a national Second World War narrative in the Netherlands. Because the national Second World War narrative has played an important role in the formation of the post-war Dutch identity, it is makes it the most dominant narrative in war representations in the Netherlands. As a result, the making of meaning through framing also happens in relation to an ideological hierarchy. My approach in this thesis is therefore to analyse how the dominant Dutch narrative of the Second World War influences the way in which the War in the Pacific and its aftermath are represented through cultural objects. Besides from being the only few contemporary representations that deal with both the War in the Pacific and its aftermath together with the Second World War in the Netherlands, I have chosen the Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam, the TV-documentary series De Oorlog ('The War') and the National Monument in combination with the national commemoration on Memorial Day, because these three all deal differently with the notions of hero, victim and perpetrator. My analysis therefore focusses on the way in which these notions are framed, may complicate the relationship between the Dutch as victims of the War in the Pacific and that as colonial perpetrators. Masterthesis Arts and Culture, University of Amsterdam. pagina's.