New Books Network Podcast Summary

Jie-Hyun Lim, "Victimhood Nationalism: History and Memory in a Global Age" (Columbia UP, 2025)

Host: Leslie Hickman
Guest: Dr. Jie-Hyun Lim
Date: February 21, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Jie-Hyun Lim discussing his groundbreaking book, Victimhood Nationalism: History and Memory in a Global Age. The conversation explores how the collective memory of past suffering shapes and legitimizes nationalist movements, fostering moral superiority. Drawing on cases from Poland, Germany, Israel, Korea, and Japan, Lim analyzes the transnational entanglement of memories—ranging from colonialism and the Holocaust to Stalinist terror—and examines how nations construct and negotiate their identities as victims, perpetrators, or both.

Key Discussion Points

1. Dr. Lim’s Background & the Genesis of the Book

• Personal and scholarly journey: Lim, a South Korean historian working extensively on Poland and European intellectual history, discusses his efforts to challenge the conventional East/West binary and promote the idea of a "global East."

  "My work has been disrupting our conventional edifice about history and the world history and national histories. Nowadays I have been shifting towards memory studies from history proper." (01:17)

• Lim’s perspective questions rigid national categories, inspired by thinkers like Edward Said and the complexities of South Korea’s position in the world.

2. Victim to Sacrifice: The “Sublimation” of National Memory

• Lim explores how nations reinterpret the deaths of war victims, shifting from “passive victims” to “active martyrs” through national memory formation.

  "Victim nationalism appears on the scene in the transition from victims to sacrifices...from victims to sacrifices. So I said this is a sublimation of the innocent deathless into active sacrifice or their willingness to sacrifice. But those dead people cannot really refute. But the historians interpret, oh, this was a really sort of life, the sacrifice for the nation and country." (03:19)

• The linguistic nuances in East Asia: Terms like heesengja (Korean), kisei (Japanese) are closer to “sacrifice” than “victim,” complicating translation and interpretation.

  "In the stenographic language, in Japanese, Korean and Chinese, I would say this is closer to sacrifice, but not exactly as a sacrifice." (05:47)

3. Yasukuni Shrine and Sites of Memory

• The example of Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine as a site where innocent war dead are commemorated as national sacrifices, not a uniquely Japanese phenomenon but rooted in broader East Asian tradition.

  "Yasukuni shrine is a typical site of memory where those innocence victims are being changed into sublime sacrifices for our country, for the empire, for the Tenno, for the Emperor." (07:06)

• Similar cultural and memorial practices across Korea, China, and even Kunming’s historical context highlight transnational shared patterns.

4. The Holocaust and Global Memory Formation

• The Holocaust as a “universal template” for traumatic memory, allowing for the articulation of victimhood in national narratives, especially where local suffering is less known.

  "Korean comfort women memory activists ... pick up the Jewish Cultural center ... because, you know, they know that the Holocaust is quite familiar, this memory to just ordinary Americans who doesn't know about the East Asian history." (09:13)

• The Holocaust provides an accessible parallel for advocacy and for universalizing suffering.

Education and the Politics of Memory

• Institutionalization of Holocaust education in Eastern Europe as a prerequisite for EU and NATO accession, post-Cold War:

  "In January of 2000 ... the most important resolution was made ... Holocaust education is prerequisite for the Eastern European countries to enter the European Union and NATO." (11:48)

• Before this, Holocaust narratives were often subsumed under broader “crimes against humanity” frameworks or marginalized in communist countries.

5. “Dehistorization”: Misuse of Holocaust Memory

• Both Germany and Japan have at times appropriated Holocaust terminology to describe their own postwar suffering, often eliding their roles as perpetrators.

  "Japan is the country which used the term of Holocaust in the public domain ... after the Second World War... to describe ... Catholic victims in Nagasaki.” (15:02)

• Lim describes postwar German emphasis on their own expellee suffering, intentionally borrowing Holocaust-associated language and imagery to construct parallel victimhood narratives.

  "...this Holocaust parallels have been used very willfully and very not graciously. So this is problematic. That's why I said they just took these Holocaust terms in a context totally detached from the historical context." (22:20)

• The danger: removing historical specificity erases complex realities of victim-perpetrator overlap.

6. Beyond Binaries: Victims, Perpetrators, and Collective Innocence/Guilt

• Lim draws on Hannah Arendt’s concepts to critique binary logic:

  "Korean and the Polish nationalists tend to think that oh, they are Germans, they cannot be victims because they belong to the German nation. Whoever belongs to a German nation is a perpetrator." (25:18)

• Many wartime collaborators and perpetrators emerged even within “victimized” nations (e.g., Korean guards at POW camps, Poles collaborating in the Holocaust), but nationalist narratives often erase this complexity.
• Arendt’s ideas are extended to concepts of “colonial guilt and colonial innocence” in postcolonial contexts.

7. Case Study: Maximilian Kolbe and Transnational Memory

• The life and memory of Polish Catholic martyr Maximilian Kolbe, missionary in Nagasaki, as an example of memory's cross-cultural appropriation and transformation.

  "In Japan this semicide of Mashmina Kolbe as an antisemite was totally erased. They just remembered [him] as a great Catholic father who sacrificed himself to save the other inmate in Auschwitz.” (29:36)

• Polish and Japanese memories diverge on controversial aspects; juxtaposition exposes both shared longing for heroic victims and the dangers of selective remembrance.

8. Forgiveness: A Way Beyond the Victim-Perpetrator Divide

• Lim discusses his workshop with Catholic leaders and the landmark 1965 letter from Polish bishops to German bishops, which offered forgiveness and asked for it in return.

  “If we are free from this national binary of collective guilt and collective innocence, even the colonized nation or victimized nation has something to apologize." (35:42)

• The letter anticipated later academic paradigms of transnational and overlapping histories, challenging both sides to move beyond antagonism.

Memorable Moment

• Polish archbishop’s 1965 letter described as "a miracle" and a “pioneer of transnational history or overlapping history." (35:42)

9. The Challenge of Forgiveness and the Violence of Imposed Reconciliation

• Lim notes that forgiveness is ethically fraught; imposing it can be another form of violence, especially if apology is expected to elicit automatic absolution.

  "Forgiveness can be sometimes very violent. For instance, some guy said, oh, I made apology to you, why don't you forgive me? ... some violent forgiveness, violence of imposing forgiveness can be found.” (40:37)

• Stresses the ongoing collective responsibility for remembrance, even among people born after the events ("we are responsible for remembrance of what happened in the past. Because remembrance is a contemporary action." (42:31))

10. “Critical Relativization” and Radical Juxtaposition

• Lim calls for “critical relativization” to avoid the Eurocentric dominance of Holocaust memory and allow space for other atrocities to be recognized.

  “…relativization of Holocaust means actually sort of anti Semitic approach ... but now ... Holocaust memory has become very, very dominant. Sometimes Holocaust memory works out as a memory to stream memory to make the other victims, other sufferings very trivial. So that's why I said, okay, now it's time to come back to relativization.” (43:33)

• Advocates radical juxtaposition for unexpected insights, such as connecting Polish and Japanese memories of Kolbe.

  “Just by juxtaposing ... suddenly we can find an unexpected revelation of this past ... that sort of radical juxtaposition should be welcome.” (47:17)

11. Future Projects

• Lim’s upcoming works:
  • National Megalomania (edited volume): Examines nationalist historiography and myths across Eurasia.
  • Mass Dictatorship for the General Readers: Reframes the relationship between dictatorship and democracy using global, historical, and contemporary examples.

    "I don't posit dictatorship and democracy as an antithesis and they are intermingled ... very dangerous phenomena of today's dictatorship just is a part of democracy or potential danger immanent to our understanding of democracy." (47:32)

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "Victim nationalism appears on the scene in the transition from victims to sacrifices."
  — Dr. Ji Hyun Lim (03:19)
• "Yasukuni shrine is a typical site of memory where those innocence victims are being changed into sublime sacrifices for our country."
  — Dr. Ji Hyun Lim (07:06)
• "The Holocaust is quite familiar ... so I think it was a sort of memory activist tactic to pick up Holocaust as a way of persuading the American ... audience who are ignorant of East Asian history."
  — Dr. Ji Hyun Lim (09:13)
• "In the communist period ... Holocaust education was not that well done in the communist countries because ... they did not specifically emphasize Jewish victims."
  — Dr. Ji Hyun Lim (11:48)
• "They just took these Holocaust terms in a context totally detached from the historical context in which Holocaust was perpetrated."
  — Dr. Ji Hyun Lim (22:20)
• "Whoever belongs to the German nation is a perpetrator. ... Whoever belongs to the Japanese nation is perpetrator. This is collective guilt."
  — Dr. Ji Hyun Lim (25:18)
• "In Japan this semicide [antisemitism] of Mashmina Kolbe ... was totally erased. They just remembered ... him as a great Catholic father who sacrificed himself to save ... another inmate in Auschwitz."
  — Dr. Ji Hyun Lim (29:36)
• "Forgiveness can be sometimes very violent... when you just go deeply into the narratives of history, reconciliation between countries."
  — Dr. Ji Hyun Lim (40:37)
• "We are responsible for remembrance of what happened in the past. Because remembrance is a contemporary action."
  — Dr. Ji Hyun Lim (42:31)
• "Now it's time to come back to relativization. But we need to keep a stance of critical relativization..."
  — Dr. Ji Hyun Lim (43:33)

Conclusion

Dr. Jie-Hyun Lim’s conversation with Leslie Hickman offers a sweeping and bold look at how nations construct and contest narratives of victimhood and perpetration. Through rich comparative analysis grounded in multiple languages and cultures, Dr. Lim shows that collective memory is always in flux, entwined with politics, translation, and the ongoing struggle for moral authority. The episode is essential listening for anyone interested in memory studies, transnational history, and the politics of national identity.

For more in-depth understanding, refer to the full episode and Dr. Lim's book, "Victimhood Nationalism: History and Memory in a Global Age."