Dialogues on the Experience of War: Difficult Heritage

Summary

War in the Pacific: Difficult Heritage recently engaged veterans, veteran families, and WWII survivors on the Pacific island of Saipan in considering how conflict heritage can be seen as universal to humanity and how it can be used to examine the veteran’s experience. The starting point for this consideration was to focus on the historical and contemporary warrior/veteran’s experiences as it relates to collective human experience of war and how we might come to understand and interpret the heritage created through past conflicts as shared, collective heritage. The project trained local community members to lead discussion focused on the Spanish-Chamorro Wars of the 17th century and the WWII Battle of Saipan, as bookends to the history of resistance and aggressions in the Mariana Islands. A multi-vocal approach was used to explore and discuss terrestrial and underwater heritage, film, memoirs, children’s literature, poetry, and graphic novels on the subject of war.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Interpretation and Presentation of Archaeological and Cultural Heritage Sites: Evolving Horizons   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 470