“Remember - One Cannot - Forget”: World War II in the National Memory of the Thai People
World War II played a decisive role in the fate of the peoples of Southeast Asia and radically changed the pre-war order that existed in the region. It destroyed the colonial system and created the conditions for the formation of new independent states on the map of Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, there is no unity among the Southeast Asian states in understanding the importance of the war for national and regional history, significant differences are noted towards the memory of World War II. The paper describes the specific features of the perception of the war by the inhabitants of Thailand. It analyzes the nature and the degree of presence of memories of World War II in various areas of the social and cultural life of the Thais: education, scientific literature and fiction, state ideology. The paper reveals various peculiarities of war memorials in Thailand and the attitude of the Thai people towards them as well as the specifics of the celebration of the memorable dates of World War II that exist in the national Thai calendar. Based on the study, the author concludes that Thailand is characterized by a lack of public interest and government attention in preserving the memory of World War II. The analysis of the main causes of Thai national amnesia suggests that it is based not only on the “special” status of Thailand which participated in the war on the “Axis” side. Domestic political circumstances play a major role in a deep conflict that unfolded during the war and post-war period between the institutions of power that dominate in Thailand today (the army and the monarchy) and the opposition democratic movement.