Atomic bomb literature

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Atomic bomb literature (原爆文学, Genbaku bungaku) is a literary genre in Japanese literature which comprises writings about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[1]

Definition[edit]

The term "atomic bomb literature" came into wide use in the 1960s.[2] Writings affiliated with the genre can include diaries, testimonial or documentary accounts, and fictional works like poetry, dramas, prose writings or manga about the bombings and their aftermath.

There are broadly three generations of atomic bomb writers.[1] The first, made up of actual survivors of the bombings, who wrote of their own experiences, includes Yōko Ōta, Tamiki Hara, Shinoe Shōda, and Sankichi Tōge.[1][3] The second, who wrote about the bomb addressing both individual and broader social and political issues it raises, includes Yoshie Hotta, Momo Iida, Kenzaburō Ōe, Masuji Ibuse, Ineko Sata and the early Mitsuharu Inoue.[3][4] The third, whose writing looks into the past and the future in a post-nuclear world, includes Kōbō Abe, Makoto Oda, and the latter Inoue.[4]

Yōko Ōta's short story Katei no yō na hikari ("A light as if from the depths") was published on 30 August 1945 in the Asahi Shimbun, making it the first published literary text on the atomic bomb.[5] The following month, by directive of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, the censorship of topics like the atomic bomb in the media came into operation,[5] with the effect that books dealing with this topic, like a poetry collection of Sadako Kurihara[5] or Yōko Ōta's novel City of Corpses,[6] initially appeared only in abridged form.

In 1983, Holp Shuppan published the 15 volume edition Nihon no Genbaku Bungaku (日本の原爆文学, lit. "Japanese Atomic Bomb Literature"), which contained fictional and nonfictional writings by the most prominent exponents of the genre.

Essays on the Red Circle Authors website also included works by non-Japanese authors in the atomic bomb literature cycle, like John Hersey's Hiroshima, which was originally published in The New Yorker in 1946.[2][7] Still, anthologies like Nihon no Genbaku Bungaku or The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath are confined solely to Japanese writers.

Selected works[edit]

  • Ōta Yōko (大田洋子): Kaitei no yō na hikari (海底のような光, short story published in Asahi Shinbun, 1945)
  • Sadako Kurihara: Bringing Forth New Life (poem, 1946)
  • Tamiki Hara: Summer Flower (short story, 1947)
  • Shinoe Shōda: Sange (poetry collection, 1947)
  • Yōko Ōta: City of Corpses (novel, 1948)
  • Tamiki Hara: The Land of Heart's Desire (short story, 1951)
  • Sankichi Tōge: Poems of the Atomic Bomb (poetry collection, 1951)
  • Masuji Ibuse: The Crazy Iris (short story, 1951)
  • Yōko Ōta: Ningen ranru (novel, 1951)
  • Yōko Ōta: Fireflies (short story, 1953)
  • Yōko Ōta: Han ningen (novel, 1954)
  • Mitsuharu Inoue: The House of Hands (short story, 1960)
  • Mitsuharu Inoue: Kyokō no kurēn (novel, 1960)
  • Ineko Sata: The Colorless Paintings (short story, 1961)
  • Hiroko Takenishi: The Rite (short story, 1963)
  • Yoshie Hotta: Shinpan (novel, 1963)
  • Masuji Ibuse: Black Rain (novel, 1965)
  • Kenzaburō Ōe: Hiroshima Notes (essay collection, 1965)
  • Momo Iida: Amerika no eiyu (novel, 1965)
  • Katsuzō Oda: Human Ashes (short story, 1966)
  • Takehiko Fukunaga: Shi no shima (novel, 1971)
  • Taijun Takeda: Daiichi no botan (short story, 1971)
  • Minako Gotō: Toki o hiku (short story, 1971)
  • Ineko Sata: Juei (novel, 1972)
  • Keiji Nakazawa: Barefoot Gen (manga series, 1973–1987)
  • Kyōko Hayashi: Ritual of Death (short story, 1975)
  • Kyōko Hayashi: The Empty Can (short story, 1978)
  • Makoto Oda: H: A Hiroshima Novel (novel, 1980)

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "原爆文学 (Atomic bomb literature)". Kotobank (in Japanese). Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  2. ^ a b "The term 'Atomic Bomb Literature' came into wide use in the 1960s". Red Circle Authors. 5 May 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-05-06. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  3. ^ a b Nathan, Richard (6 August 2021). "Literary Fallout: The legacies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki". Red Circle Authors. Archived from the original on 2021-08-06. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  4. ^ a b Treat, John Whittier (1995). Writing Ground Zero: Japanese Literature and the Atomic Bomb. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  5. ^ a b c Ito, Narihiko; Schaarschmidt, Siegfried; Schamoni, Wolfgang, eds. (1984). "Ein Licht wie auf dem Meeresgrund". Seit jenem Tag. Hiroshima und Nagasaki in der japanischen Literatur. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer.
  6. ^ Minear, Richard H., ed. (1990). Hiroshima: Three Witnesses. Princeton University Press. pp. 117–142. ISBN 978-0691055732.
  7. ^ Hersey, John (31 August 1946). "Hiroshima". The New Yorker. Retrieved 22 August 2021.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Nihon no Genbaku Bungaku. Tokyo: Holp Shuppan. 1983.
  • Ōe, Kenzaburō, ed. (1985). The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath. New York: Grove Press.
  • Goodman, David, ed. (1986). After Apocalypse: Four Japanese Plays of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Hersey, John (2009). Hiroshima (new ed.). London: Michael Joseph Ltd.

Further reading[edit]

  • Haver, William (1997). The Body of This Death: Historicity and Sociality in the Time of AIDS. Stanford University Press.

External links[edit]

See also[edit]

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