Pick any book (many, many available in the Gaidai library) or movie about the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki. How does the work you selected deal with the many issues and problems inherent in remembering Hiroshima? How does it reflect the period in which it was written or made? Or compare a Japanese novel or film, such as Black Rain (Shohei Imamura film, not the Riddley Scott film by the same name) with a Western film on the same theme such as Hiroshima Mon Amour (CIE LL). Or compare a movie account of the dropping of the atomic bombs with one of the documentaries available in the language lab such as White Light Black Rain; Hiroshima, Why the Bomb was Dropped; or Lifting the Fog: The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Japan in Western Film and Literature
June 3rd. 2011
Yuhyun Kim
“Hiroshima” has various meanings for different people. For Japanese people, it may mean a painful experience that sacrificed a lot of people of their own. For some Americans, it may mean guilt, or a historical event that led the United States to victory during World War II. For others, it may mean an awareness of the danger of nuclear weapons. Not only Hiroshima is a symbol of various things, but its meaning has also been changing over time.
At first, the United States responded that dropping atomic bomb was an act of civil defense, and thus it is justified. After the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, President Harry S. Truman made an announcement that a new weapon had destroyed the “military base” of Hiroshima. Additionally, he claimed that bombing was a justified act against “treacherous foe,” Japan. One of his arguments also included that “the bomb saved thousands of American lives that would have been lost in an invasion of Japan.” (Boyer, 145) Truman did not mention anything about the lives of innocent women and children that were taken away by the atomic bomb. Ironically, Most Americans accepted the President’s perspective, and even praised America for its technological advance and military supremacy.
Americans’ positive responses, which could be considered as coldhearted and inhumane from a present point of view, were induced by lack of information and visual evidences of horribly injured victims in Hiroshima. At the time, U.S. government banned certain reports and media that contained visuals of terribly wounded Japanese victims that could be used against the government. Once the vivid images of “hibakushas” were provided, Americans were overwhelmed with sorrow. Thus, Hiroshima became a symbol of “war’s horror.” (Boyer, 157)
Despite the effort of the U.S. government to restrict the media, more and more people started to find out more about Hiroshima and its survivors. The more information they got, the more activist groups were formed to go against the use of nuclear weapons.
Furthermore, Hiroshima became “a symbol of what must never happen again.” Publications about survivors of Hiroshima inspired a lot of people, leading them to initiate antinuclear campaigns. Especially, John Hersey’s book, “Hiroshima” published in 1946, helped symbolizing Hiroshima not just as a destructed “city,” but as “death and suffering of thousands of individual men, women, and children, each with his or her own story.” (Boyer, 148)
After 1946, the significance of Hiroshima seemed to fade away as the Cold War arouse in 1947. However, antinuclear activisms came around once again in the mid- 1950s, focused more on a danger of nuclear testing because the U.S. government let poisonous chemicals slip into the atmosphere during the hydrogen bomb test. However, the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was addressed in 1963, reassuring nuclear test-ban campaigners. (Boyer, 152) Consequently, public attention to Hiroshima submerged under the surface since the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In the late 1970s, activists arose again with the “rising concerns about nuclear power and protests in Europe against the deployment of Pershing and cruise missiles.” (Boyer, 153) The antinuclear activism reached its peak in the early 1980s in a campaign “to freeze the testing and deployment of nuclear weapons.” (Boyer, 153) As a result, New England town meetings adopted freeze solutions. Antinuclear activism continued with medical evidences during the 1980s. Moreover, along those campaigns, “Hiroshima memories were often explicitly used by freeze activists to awaken people to the nuclear danger.” (Boyer, 159)
On the text, Boyer mentioned, “from 1945 to the 1980s, the role of Hiroshima in American memory has been linked to the shifting rhythms of confrontation with the threat of nuclear war and with campaigns to reduce that threat.” (Boyer, 159) The significance of Hiroshima had expanded from recognizing the danger of nuclear war to prohibition of nuclear weapons.
Moreover, the responses of Americans to bombing in Hiroshima varied depending on their age, political ideology, and religious beliefs. The younger Americans recognized Hiroshima in a cultural way, rather than a historical way. In contrast, the older Americans remembered atomic bombing in Hiroshima in a historical context.
Public opinion to atomic bombing in Hiroshima has changed significantly since 1946 within the United States. At first, the immediate reaction was positive, gladly accepting Truman’s decision to save thousands of lives that could have been lost to invade Japan. Then, within a year, the public’s emotional sensibility towards Hiroshima had grown deeper due to media that showed the survivors of bombing in Hiroshima. In addition, campaigns regarding danger of atomic bomb and nuclear war had also grown popular. Then, the cycle of activism repeated to fade away and revive for a few times due to many reasons, such as Cold War, and Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.
To sum up, Hiroshima has greatly influenced American thoughts and culture. It enlightened people how powerful and dangerous the nuclear weapons are. At the same time, Hiroshima became an image of war’s horror in their minds. Yet, Hiroshima and its significance have been gradually declining since its occurrence in 1945. “Symbols –even the most potent ones- decay over time” says Boyer. (Boyer, 165) According to Richard Minear, a historian, Hiroshima has already become a “non-issue to most people.” (Boyer 166) However, it is important to make an effort to remember the war’s horror so that we would not make the same mistake twice. Recently, North Korea has been a threat to the world with its nuclear weapons. Hence, it would especially be worth recognizing the significance of Hiroshima more than ever. Hiroshima might have faded away from most people’s memory, but it will never be completely neither forgotten nor faded away from history.
Yuhyun Kim 