The nation “is imagined as a community, because, regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that

may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship” (Anderson, 2006: 9).

And “ultimately, it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions
of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings.” (Anderson, 2006: 7).

This is what is symbolized in the tombs of Unknown Soldiers — the identity of each with his fellows and his
nation that takes priority over an individual name (Anderson, 2006: 9). National identities are indeed
made — invented — but they

are not for that reason simply false any more than any other act of creativity.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

While the tombs of unknown soldiers,

Anderson’s ingenious representational equivalent
to one’s unknown national compatriots (9-10),