Engaging with temporal others: memory, trauma and (in)security across time

This paper examines how traumatic memory traverses temporal boundaries and shapes ontological (in)security across the past, present and future. Drawing on illustrative cases from South Korea, Japan and Indonesia, it explores how political actors engage with their ‘temporal others’ – constructed manifestations of identity across different temporalities – and how these engagements reveal selective memory and reconfigure identity over time. While temporal othering has traditionally focused on the past, this paper extends the concept to include anticipated future selves, highlighting how actors manage not only historical legacies but also feared or undesirable futures. Through an analysis of South Korea’s Vietnam War compensation dispute, Japan’s resistance to renewed forced labour claims and Indonesia’s acknowledgment of past human rights abuses, the paper examines how states navigate unwanted memories to stabilise fragmented national narratives. Ultimately, it shows how traumatic histories continue to shape contemporary political landscapes and the pursuit of future ontological security.