New Books Network Jie-Hyun Lim, "Victimhood Nationalism: History and Memory in a Global Age" (Columbia UP, 2025)
Feb 21, 2026
Jie-Hyun Lim, historian and memory studies scholar from South Korea, explores how nations use past suffering to claim moral authority. He traces how memories—from the Holocaust to colonial atrocities—are repurposed across Poland, Germany, Israel, Korea, and Japan. Short, sharp discussions cover memorial sites, language shifts, transnational memory flows, and paths toward reconciliation.
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Holocaust As A Global Memory Reference
- Holocaust memory became globally familiar through literature, film, and activism, making it a persuasive reference for other memory movements.
- Lim explains activists (e.g., Korean comfort women groups) use Holocaust parallels to reach Western audiences unfamiliar with local histories.
Stockholm Conference Cemented Holocaust Education
- The 2000 Stockholm conference pressed Eastern European states to adopt Holocaust education as an EU/NATO accession condition.
- Lim argues this pushed Holocaust memory into curricula beyond Western Europe, accelerating its global centrality.
Early Japanese Use Of 'Holocaust' For A‑Bomb Suffering
- Japan used the term translated as 'Holocaust' (hansai) for atomic-bomb suffering as early as 1945 to express religious consolation and parallel suffering.
- Lim shows this appropriation predated widespread Western use and shaped Japanese memory of Nagasaki.
