The divided society: Discursive construction of Japan between atomic bomb (genbaku) and nuclear power station (genpatsu)
Final Report Abstract
The atomic age has marked Japan like no other modern state. In 1945, the country was devastated by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9. In 2011, Japan once again became the site of a nuclear catastrophe when the Fukushima Power Plant was struck by the triple disaster of March 11. Needless to say, the nuclear meltdown on March 11 unequivocally debunked the myth of nuclear energy as safe and controllable. And yet, despite the fact that the nuclear energy harnessed by nuclear power plants is as potentially devastating to humankind as the atomic bomb itself, the belief in nuclear as an energy “without alternative” still persists among broad swathes of society in Japan, a country that is relatively poor in natural resources. Following the Second World War, the nuclear was discursively split into the “good” energy of nuclear power plants versus the “evil” energy of nuclear weapons. Of course, this is essentially paradoxical given that these are two sides of the same coin. This discursive split has significantly impacted the historical self-perception of Japanese society over the entire postwar period. As such, a thorough and comprehensive analysis is clearly necessary. Methodologically grounded on the theoretical concepts of Critical Cultural Studies, our project analyzes how central “factors”—such as institutions, laws, and practices—are historically intertwined within the discursive space that stretches from Hiroshima/Nagasaki to Fukushima. The project illustrates how—and to what extent—the discursive splitting of the nuclear into “good” and “evil” has impacted the construction of identities and subjectivities in postwar Japan. In addition, the project’s in-depth analyses of very different kinds of “texts” and “images” demonstrates how the articulations of the nuclear, as “good” or as “evil”, have created “systems of knowledge” and “regimes of truth” that continue to characterize Japan to this day. As the findings of our project make clear, the first postwar decade—and the U.S.-led Allied Occupation of Japan in particular—was decisive for the discursive splitting of the nuclear. From the very outset, early postwar Japan found itself embroiled in the global entanglements of the Cold War. Consequently, Japan’s vision of its nuclear past and future must be recontextualized and reinterpreted against this specific historical backdrop. “Texts” and “images” of the nuclear provide a vital space in which central discourses of the postwar period intersect. Analyzing them is key to understanding how and why the discursive splitting of the nuclear has affected virtually every sphere of everyday life in Japan.
Publications
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Questioning the politics of popular culture. The Representation of Japanese Politics in Manga, 183-202. Routledge.
Köhn, Stephan
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“Ōta Yōko’s Literary Dilemma: Who Cares about the Atomic Bomb in Times of Peace?”. In: Japonica Humboldtiana 22: 83–118
Köhn, S.
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“How to Teach Peace? On the Difficulties of Implementing Peace Education (heiwa kyōiku) in Early Post-war Japan”. In: BJOAF 44: 107–132
Köhn, S.
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„Die Prange-Sammlung Teil 1“
Hülsmann, K.
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„Die Prange-Sammlung Teil 2“
Hülsmann, K.
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“3/11 and the crisis of representing disaster—a rather polemic reflection on the responsibility of modern writers and scholars”. In: Mladenova, D. / Jawinski, F. / Gengenbach, K. (eds.): Die Aufgabe der Japanologie. Beiträge zur kritischen Japanforschung (Leipziger Ostasien-Studien 21). Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 127–139
Köhn, S.
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“How to Fill the Void in National History. Japanese Peace Education at the Crossroads in the 1970s”. In: Japonica Humboldtiana 24: 167–191
Köhn, S.
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„Hiroshima—Nagasaki—Fukushima: Articulations of the Nuclear. The Case of Japan“
Hülsmann, K.
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„Ōta Yōko: Das Flussufer“. In: HOL 73: 64–92
Köhn, S., M.-C. Dreßen, D. Hochmann & M. Ketikidis
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Der nukleare Tod in Japan: Ōta Yōkos »6. August, 8.15 Uhr« oder der Kampf um die Erinnerung an die Atombombe. Todesarten, 209-230. Böhlau Verlag.
Köhn, Stephan
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„Bericht aus der Forschungsklasse ,Literarisches Übersetzen‘“
Dreßen, M.-C.
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Articulations of the Nuclear: Postwar Japan under the Spell of the Atomic Age (Kulturwissenschaftliche Japanstudien 13). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Köhn, S. & Hülsmann, K.
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From Cities in Ruins to Ambassadors of World Peace: The Daily Press in Hiroshima and Nagasaki from 1945 to 1949”. In: Köhn, S. / Hülsmann, K. (eds.): Articulations of the Nuclear: Postwar Japan under the Spell of the Atomic Age. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 55–80
Dreßen, M.-C.
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“Articulations of the Nuclear: Postwar Japan under the Spell of the Atomic Age—An Introduction—”. In: Köhn, S. / Hülsmann, K. (eds.): Articulations of the Nuclear: Postwar Japan under the Spell of the Atomic Age. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1–30.
Köhn, S. & Hülsmann, K.
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“At the Crossroads to Oblivion—Ōta Yōko’s Literature as a Counter-narrative to National History Writing in Japan”. In: Köhn, S. / Hülsmann, K. (eds.): Articulations of the Nuclear: Postwar Japan under the Spell of the Atomic Age. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 195–213.“At the Crossroads to Oblivion—Ōta Yōko’s Literature as a Counter-narrative to National History Writing in Japan”. In: Köhn, S. / Hülsmann, K. (eds.): Articulations of the Nuclear: Postwar Japan under the Spell of the Atomic Age. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 195–213.
Köhn, S.
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“Depictions of the Nuclear in Children’s Manga from the Occupation Period”. In: Köhn, S. / Hülsmann, K. (eds.): Articulations of the Nuclear: Postwar Japan under the Spell of the Atomic Age. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 81–103
Hülsmann, K.
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“Transcending the Nuclear Fallacy: Japan’s Atomic Legacy as Thematized in Hayashi Kyōko’s Late Work—In Lieu of an Epilogue—”. In: Köhn, S. / Hülsmann, K. (eds.): Articulations of the Nuclear: Postwar Japan under the Spell of the Atomic Age. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 351–363
Köhn, S.
