Further Reading
Project scholarship and annotated bibliography
Project Scholarship: Open-Access Essays
The HashimaXR Project continues through two open-access Substack platforms that translate digital historiography into ongoing public dialogue. These essays provide theoretical foundations for the learning resource.
Past Meets Pixel
Essays on XR ethics, design logic, and procedural historiography
Why the Island Is Silent
The foundational essay for this learning resource. Explains why the HashimaXR prototype was never released, reframing the project's "unfinished status" as an object of analysis. Introduces the concepts of "refusal as design" and the "archive of obstruction" — treating institutional constraints not as failures but as evidence of heritage governance in action.
"We did not choose to stop in protest. We were stopped — gradually, materially — through a series of refusals external to the design itself."
Against Authenticity
A critical examination of how "historical authenticity" functions in video game discourse. Argues that authenticity claims often reinforce simplistic and ideologically driven views of history, masking the constructed nature of historical narratives. Drawing on Edward Said and Michel-Rolph Trouillot, the essay challenges the positivist assumption that the past can be "faithfully reproduced."
Simulating the Past: AI, Procedural Rhetoric, and the Historian as Game Designer
Explores how historians can use game design as a methodological tool. Building on Ian Bogost's concept of "procedural rhetoric," argues that games convey meaning through mechanics rather than narrative alone. Historians can move "from describing the past to modeling it" — representing history as a system of forces shaped by structure, agency, and contingency.
Exploring the Potential and Challenges of Historical Video Games
An overview of historical video games as educational media. Examines the tension between visual fidelity and historical understanding, noting that "meticulous recreation of historical settings" does not necessarily translate into genuine historical knowledge. Questions whether commercial games designed for entertainment can provide comprehensive education about the past.
Japanese Modernity
Commentary on modern Japan's cultural memory, historiography, and digital representation
Selective Memory and Strategic Forgetting: Japan's Industrial Heritage Tourism
Analyzes how industrial heritage sites in Japan are curated to celebrate technological achievement while obscuring histories of forced labor and colonial exploitation. Examines the UNESCO controversies surrounding Hashima Island and the Sado Gold Mines, arguing that heritage tourism must "engage with the full complexity of the past, including uncomfortable truths."
"Terminological debates highlight the tension between historical interpretation and the commodification of heritage."
Annotated Bibliography
An annotated bibliography for deeper engagement with the themes of this learning resource.
Heritage Studies and Authorized Heritage Discourse
Smith, Laurajane. Uses of Heritage. London: Routledge, 2006.
The foundational text for Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD). Smith argues that heritage is not a thing but a cultural process — a set of practices and performances that construct meaning in the present. Essential for understanding how institutions define what counts as legitimate heritage.
Lowenthal, David. The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
A critical examination of how heritage differs from history. Lowenthal argues that heritage is selective, presentist, and often nostalgic — serving identity needs rather than historical understanding.
Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.
A landmark work on how power shapes historical knowledge. Trouillot identifies four moments where silences enter the historical record: fact creation, fact assembly, fact retrieval, and retrospective significance. Essential reading for anyone working on contested memory.
Lim, Jie-Hyun. Global Easts: Remembering, Imagining, Mobilizing. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022.
Provides the analytical framework for understanding how "Japanese narratives under-contextualise the issue of labor while Korean narratives over-contextualise Korean victimhood." Essential for understanding the memory politics surrounding Hashima.
Japanese Industrial Heritage and Memory Politics
Johnsen, Nikolai. "Katō Kōko's Meiji Industrial Revolution — Forgetting Forced Labor to Celebrate Japan's World Heritage Sites – Part 1." The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 19, no. 23 (2021).
Detailed analysis of the Meiji Industrial Revolution sites nomination, the diplomatic compromise with South Korea, and subsequent interpretive failures. Documents how Katō Kōko became the pivotal figure behind controversial heritage narratives. Essential context for understanding the UNESCO dispute. Available open-access.
Johnsen, Nikolai. "Katō Kōko and Japan's Industrial Heritage Information Centre — Part 2." The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 19, no. 24 (2021).
A close examination of IHIC's exhibitions and the role of Katō Kōko. Documents how the center presents testimonies denying discrimination while omitting evidence of forced labor. Available open-access.
UNESCO. "State of Conservation Report 2021: Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution."
The official UNESCO/ICOMOS monitoring mission report. Concludes that Japan's Industrial Heritage Information Center "convey[s] the message that there were no instances of such people being forced to work there."
UNESCO World Heritage Committee. "Decision 44 COM 7B.73." July 2021.
The Committee's "strong regret" decision, urging Japan to fulfill its 2015 commitments. Essential primary source for understanding international response to the interpretive controversy.
Historical Games and Digital Heritage
Chapman, Adam, Anna Foka, and Jonathan Westin. "Introduction: What Is Historical Game Studies?" Rethinking History 21, no. 3 (2017): 358–371.
A foundational overview of historical game studies as a field. The authors argue for attention to how games construct "historical problem spaces."
Wright, Esther. "Still Playing with the Past: History, Historians, and Digital Games." History and Theory 61, no. 4 (2022): 166–177.
A critical examination of how terms like "historical accuracy" and "historical authenticity" function in debates about games. Wright argues that these terms mask power dynamics and asks: "whose accuracy, accuracy to which version of events, and who gets to decide?" Essential for understanding authenticity as gatekeeping.
Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007.
Introduces the concept of "procedural rhetoric" — the idea that games convey arguments through their mechanics and rules. Foundational for understanding how historical games make claims about the past through design choices.
Clulow, Adam. "Ghost of Tsushima and the Politics of Historical Authenticity." Journal of Japanese Studies 50, no. 1 (2024): 1–30.
Analysis of how the commercial game Ghost of Tsushima navigated historical representation. Useful comparison for understanding how pressures shape historical representation.
Ethics of Immersive Media
Montefiore, Philip, and Paul Formosa. "Dark Patterns Meet the Gamer's Dilemma: Contrasting Morally Objectionable Content with Systems in Video Games." Games and Culture (2025).
Distinguishes "intravirtual" effects (within the simulation) from "extravirtual" effects (on real people and institutions). Argues that omitting key information in educational contexts can constitute manipulation.
Archival Theory and the Politics of Records
Schwartz, Joan M., and Terry Cook. "Archives, Records, and Power: The Making of Modern Memory." Archival Science 2, no. 1–2 (2002): 1–19.
Argues that archives are not neutral repositories but products of power and selection. Foundational for understanding how institutional silence is produced.
Comparative Cases
Macdonald, Sharon. Difficult Heritage: Negotiating the Nazi Past in Nuremberg and Beyond. London: Routledge, 2009.
Examines how sites associated with Nazi history have been preserved, interpreted, and contested. The concept of "difficult heritage" is directly relevant to Hashima.
Tunbridge, John E., and Gregory J. Ashworth. Dissonant Heritage: The Management of the Past as a Resource in Conflict. Chichester: Wiley, 1996.
Introduces "dissonant heritage" — heritage that is contested because different groups attach different meanings to it. Foundational for heritage conflict studies.
How to Use This Bibliography
Starting points by topic:
- Heritage theory: Smith, Trouillot, Lowenthal
- The Hashima case: Johnsen (both articles), UNESCO reports
- Digital heritage and games: Wright, Chapman et al., Bogost
- Ethics of representation: Montefiore and Formosa
- Memory politics: Lim (Global Easts)
Open-access resources:
The Past Meets Pixel and Japanese Modernity Substack platforms are freely accessible. Many Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus articles are available free online. UNESCO documentation is publicly accessible. Check institutional library access for books and paywalled journals.