Hiroshima Memories: the Hiroshima Survivors' Ambivalence between Victim and Victimiser

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the Hiroshima memorial practices. In these practices, the survivors of the atomic bomb appear as innocent victims. However, recent historical studies point to Japanese responsibility for the Asia-Pacific War (1931 - 1945), and challenge the innocent image of the Hiroshima survivors. The Hiroshima community faced a methodological impasse in dealing with its problems: the survivors' ambivalence between victim and victimiser and a tension between history and memory. The purpose of this dissertation is to propose a new perspective on these problems. I adopt and adept Hannah Arendt's 'storytelling' as methodology for this purpose. Chapter 1 explores the complex structure of the commemoration of the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. It presents the results of my interviews with survivors and the younger generation. It also outlines several factors that influence survivors' testimonies and memories. I point out that the Hiroshima memorial practices have developed characteristic views on the following issues: (1) the survivors' identity, (2) the symbolism of the 'spirit of Hiroshima,' and (3) the meanings of the event in Hiroshima. Chapter 2 describes scholars' views of the dropping of the atomic bomb and the commemoration of this event from the 1990s. It especially focuses on opinions concerning Japanese responsibility and Hiroshima memories as argued by Takahashi Tetsuya and Kato Norihiro. Takahashi and Kato find victim consciousness and ethnocentric tendencies in the officially sanctioned Hiroshima memories. Their views of the atomic bomb reflect their nationalism claim the revisionist historians. I argue that their debate considers the following issues: (1) Japan's responsibility for its colonialism in the Asia and Pacific region, and (2) national identity. Regarding (2), Takahashi and Kato examine Hannah Arendt's historical approach, storytelling. The social constructionism presented by Ueno Chizuko, the sociologist of feminism coincides with Arendt's storytelling. Chapter 3 develops Kato and Takahashi's analysis of Hannah Arendt's conception of 'storytelling.' Arendt's storytelling suggests a way to place personal memories into the broader context of the history. I investigate two issues: Arendt's identity and Arendt's characterisation of storytellers, by explaining her life and her philosophical conceptions of 'natality' 'Selbstdenken' and 'judgment.' I point out that the core of Arendt's storytelling is her notion of in-between. 'The notion of in-between' suggests dynamic possibilities for young generation to create new stories about the first nuclear disaster in Hiroshima, by focusing on the equivocal identity of the Hiroshima survivors. In conclusion, I argue that Hannah Arendt's storytelling is the most appropriate methodology to approach the Hiroshima memories in the context of current historical perspectives of Japan's responsibility. However, my analysis of Arendt's storytelling questions her two conceptions: 'sensus communis' and the principle of the 'in-between.' I use Julia Kristeva's notion of the 'abject' as the way to most usefully develop Arendt's notion of in-between' for application to Hiroshima memories and memorial practices.