Hiroshima to 3.11: Manga and Anime in the Aftermath of Tragedy

Angela Drummond-Matthews, University of North Texas at Dallas Deborah Scally, University of North Texas at Dallas

Hiroshima. Nagasaki. Fukushima II cultural product? What we do see is that Daiichi. The nation of Japan has suffered depictions of disaster in contemporary more than its share of tragedy and anime and manga reflect complacency, devastation in its history. In fact, the whereas post-WWII offerings demonstrate a population has been forced to deal with the desire to react against existential threats. reality of earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods On 27 May 2016, President Barack on a regular basis. Survival after disaster is Obama became the first sitting president to ingrained into the Japanese psyche, and this visit Hiroshima. According to the Japan quality of perseverance under extreme Times, 80% of surviving hibakusha circumstances is reflected in Japanese (survivors of the bombings) did not want the cultural product, particularly media. We see President to apologize for the tragic it in art, film, and literature, and, more destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in importantly for our purposes, in anime and 1945. However, many expressed hope that manga. The events of 11 March 2011 he would address the issue of nuclear brought the Japanese full circle from World weapons. In his speech at the Hiroshima War II, when the United States unleashed its Peace Memorial, he did just that, saying: nuclear might onto two major Japanese cities, to the twenty-first century, when that We may not be able to eliminate same nuclear power brought about an ironic man’s capacity to do evil, so nations self-inflicted devastation to yet another city and the alliances that we form must possess the means to defend in Japan. One can trace the progression of ourselves. But among those nations Japan’s ambivalent relationship with nuclear like my own that hold nuclear power and disaster through examination and stockpiles, we must have the courage analysis of their anime and manga. to escape the logic of fear and pursue Of course, any kind of analysis raises a world without them. (Obama, important questions: In what way does this 2016) contribute to our understanding of Japan as Western fans of Japanese cultural product? Events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki Have the representation and presentation of inspired strong anti-nuclear sentiments disaster shifted, and are they continuing to reflected in popular media. Immediately shift? In what ways are anime and manga after World War II, the discourse about that deal with the Fukushima disaster nuclear power named it as a dangerous evil. creating different worlds than did post-WW Miyake Toshio (2014) describes the perception as “alterity.” She points out that

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 1, August 2017 304 this alterity has been dealt with by othering and anxieties of our own era, and is deeply it onto the monstrous or the foreign, such as marked by the ongoing trauma of the March the USA and Russia, or monsters like 2011 tsunami and the ensuing nuclear crisis Godzilla. Honda Ishiro and Tanaka in Fukushima” (Resurgent Godzilla, 2016). Tomoyuki’s 1954 film Godzilla symbolized Conversely, the original Godzilla’s the chaotic danger of nuclear testing and contemporary, Tezuka Osamu’s Tetsuwan radiation. Awakened by nuclear bomb Atomu or Astroboy (1951-1958 and 1963- testing and empowered by radiation, he 1966), represents the positive side of nuclear vents his rage by blasting and destroying energy. The doe-eyed boy robot is not only a everything in his path. Himself a victim, he heroic figure; he is powered by nuclear represents both a primal force and the result energy. The manga was the first to be of attempting to harness nature to gain adapted to anime format, and Tetsuwan power. Furthermore, his monstrous body Atomu became the most popular reifies the terrible effects of radiation as well manga/anime character in Japan during that as the fears of Japan for its survival. He is time. The show’s popularity promoted the the product of reckless science but also an concept of nuclear energy as productive and uncontrollable force of nature and represents even safe to a generation of children. He a Japan vulnerable to outside threats both became a “symbol of the new Japan, as a natural and political. The 1954 film has a pacific energy in the nation’s service for a serious antinuclear theme, but over time, technoscientific and wealthy future” different iterations of the monster character (Miyake, 2014, p. 77). showed the ambivalence of Japanese society By the 1970s, Nakazawa Keiji’s expressed through his message. In a total of Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen) presented twenty-eight movies, Godzilla shifts the opposing narrative. Barefoot Gen is seen between being a destroyer to becoming a as a national manga, but it is viewed from protector of Japan. He becomes a “defender the standpoint of A-bomb manga, dealing and champion of Japan against legions of only with the aftermath of the American other monsters, credulity-stretching aliens, bombing of Japan, not connected to nuclear and even residents of a reclusive undersea power (Berndt, 2013). Miyake observes, “If civilization” (Tsutsui, 2005). He comes to Atom became the national popular symbol embody both the good and the harm that of the nuclear as … (energy, peace, nuclear power can offer humanity. technology, progress) then Hadashi no Gen The just-released, newest iteration of had a similar role for the complementary Godzilla has a decidedly post-3/11 agenda. representation: that of nuclear as … Shin Gojira (Godzilla Resurgence) is the (weapon, war, holocaust)” (p. 77). Based on brainchild of two of the most famous anime Nakazawa’s own childhood experiences, the directors in Japan: Anno Hideaki, famous manga presents graphic depictions of for the epic series Neon Genesis Evangelion, suffering and destruction as Gen, along with and Higuchi Shinji, creator of Attack on his family, tries to survive the aftermath of Titan. “The new Godzilla reflects the fears the bombing of Hiroshima. The manga was

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 1, August 2017 305 lauded nationally and worldwide, making its the survival of another race, creating a moral way into schools and libraries as a classic of dilemma that offers no good outcome for postwar narrative. Japan is seen as a victim everyone. of foreign threats and the Japanese as a Ototomo Katsuhiro, acclaimed author of people heroically striving to survive. the post-apocalyptic manga and anime Entirely overlooking the issue of Japanese Akira, was born the year Godzilla was aggression during the war, Hadashi no Gen released. He grew up in the milieu of post- focuses on the struggle of the individual and Holocaust Japan and began creating manga the ability of the nation to rise above an in the 1970s. As Thomas Lamarre (2008) almost unimaginable tragedy. explains, “Otomo . . . first set out to destroy In 1974, Uchuu Senkan Yamato (Space Tokyo” in his early short manga Fireball by Battleship Yamato), known in the U. S. as “blowing up a government building . . . Star Blazers, not only reinforced the dangers raining destruction on the architectural icons of radiation but provided a “nationalistic of postwar Japan” (p. 133). He takes that reinvention of history in the guise of sentiment to another level in Akira. The scientific imagination” (Amano, 2014, p. story begins with the scene of a huge bomb 328). The Space Battleship Yamato took its detonating over the city of Tokyo and deals name from the Japanese WWII battleship with the threat of mass destruction of a city Yamato and was drawn in such a way that it that has already had to be rebuilt after a resembled its namesake. The battleship previous apocalypse. Yamato was sunk by United States forces in Akira became the first international 1945 and became emblematic of Japan’s popular and critical success of the global defeat; in fact, Yamato is one of the names manga boom, and both Otomo and his that refer to Japan itself. Space Battleship creation are now iconic figures in Japanese Yamato, then, reclaims a sense of honor for popular culture. It is difficult to determine the Japanese. The ship is on a mission to whether Akira is praising or problematizing save the Earth from nuclear radiation. a post-nuclear culture. The images are Amano (2014) points out, “the enemy’s replete with violence and explosions in Neo- abusive use of technology (nuclear Tokyo, of both objects and people. The radiation) has pushed the earth into a viewer or reader is on ground as shaky as moribund position which can be tackled that occupied by the characters, and the only with the counter technology of the hopeful ending relates directly to the radiation cleaner and the weapons capable of extremely violent and painful “death” of one undermining the enemy” (p. 329). Thus of the protagonists. Otomo’s treatment of Yamato (Japan) acts to overcome its defeat the nuclear issue corresponds to the notion by saving the earth from radiation. Uchuu of both Japan’s ambivalence toward and its Senkan Yamato’s popularity reflects another detachment from the use of nuclear power. shift in the perceptions of the Japanese Lamarre (2008) argues that the anime itself toward nuclear power. The radiation that is a is a new kind of bomb. He claims: “It is a threat to humans in the story is essential for psychic weapon” (p. 135).

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One of the most outspoken opponents of Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture uses both nuclear power, war, and the re- tropes and images of nuclear power and militarization of Japan is the revered anime destruction transformed to cute (kawaii) and auteur Miyazaki Hayao. His first feature- cartoony pop art. Even the title of the exhibit length film, the science fantasy, Kaze no reminds the audience that what they are tani no Nausicaä (Nausicaä of the Valley of viewing is based on the unthinkable the Wind), is an anti-nuclear testament. Set reflected in cartoon art, as Little Boy was in the aftermath of a devastating war, during one of the bombs that America dropped on which radioactive “god-soldiers” unleashed Japan during World War II. The postmodern a destruction so terrible that very little juxtaposition of pop culture and traditional pristine nature remains in the world, art allows Murakami to express his vision of Nausicaä is an examination of the effects of Japan as a “tragic apocalyptic paradise” unleashed militarism and the redemption of (Japan Society, 2005). He asserts that the society through the acts of its girl hero, lack of the ability to address issues of the Princess Nausicaä. Nausicaä is a scientist military, WWII, and the accompanying who wants to restore the world to its former feelings of anxiety or guilt have created a fertility, yet she sees beauty in the terrible “distorted historic condition” (qtd. In twisted landscapes that humans created Miyake, 2014, p. 79). The result is the through violence and hatred. The film is less proliferation of subcultures full of dark and far more hopeful than the manga. exaggerations and abstractions which he and In the comic, Nausicaä has to turn to the other artists express in the exhibition. The very thing she hates, the nuclear god soldier, moral dilemmas of nuclear war become to help save what is left of humanity. divorced from reality, re-imagined and However, this in no way indicates that refigured as “postmodern simulacra” Miyazaki himself is a proponent of a (Miyake, 2014, p. 80) positive use of nuclear energy. Nevertheless, It should be expected that the American the manga does demonstrate that even reaction to the nuclear age would differ someone as adamant in his values as dramatically from the Japanese reaction. Miyazaki must feel a little ambivalence Even during the Cold War, the US saw itself about the necessity of relying on the very as heroic, destined to overcome communist force that destroyed two of his country’s forces. However, the national experience of major cities victimization and refiguring of identity is Although it is neither manga nor anime, common to all cultures that experience the work of artist Murakami Takashi cannot trauma. The US experienced a similar be omitted from this discussion. Japan’s cultural reaction after the attacks of 9/11. moral dilemma with nuclear energy is The differences between the Japanese vividly represented in visual culture by the experience and the American are interesting work of Murakami, one of the neo-pop to note. As a popular current meme points artists credited with the Super-Flat style. In out: “In Japan, radiation creates monsters particular, his 2005 exhibit Little Boy: The

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(Godzilla); in America, radiation creates fantastical hyper-victim entitled to absolute superheroes” (Shower Thoughts, 2015). revenge…” inviting the viewer to revel in When the World Trade Center towers the concept of immediate reaction over and the Pentagon were attacked, the US considered action. entered a state of perpetual emergency. Just Many post- 9/11 narratives also feature as in post-war Japan, American popular the exploration of dystopia. This is cultural product followed a pattern of particularly evident in the burst of dystopian revisiting the trauma in simulated video young adult fiction during this period, like game battles against terrorist enemies and in The Hunger Games and Divergent. narratives featuring ever present yet Commonly, capitalism and unchecked mysterious enemies and effects-generated scientific advancement are to blame for the disaster spectacles. David Higgins (2015) ruination of society. The teen protagonists in notes that alien invasion narratives increased these works are victims of overpowering in the years following 9/11. Unlike similarly regimes or circumstances, fighting to themed narratives in the past, like Men in overcome oppression and Black or Independence Day, the post 9/11 disenfranchisement. American popular alien other is in some way impossible to science fiction, regardless of medium, treats understand, a threat of “mindless hostility.” these narratives as ways to privilege its right This depiction is a reflection of the to attack and defeat a negative force rather inscrutability of the terrorist threat, and it than the ability to valiantly endure or likens the enemy to something monstrous. negotiate for better outcomes. . The popularity of zombie narratives in Miyake (2014) notes that “3.11 marks a the US also exemplifies this fear of a date of no return for postwar Japan, not mindless threat. Like hostile aliens, zombies dissimilar to 9/11 for the USA” (p.71). The represent a dehumanized danger and an triple disaster of March 11, 2011 created a ongoing crisis. These narratives often depict death toll of nearly 16000 people. Japan has failing attempts to restore human social or dealt with earthquakes and tsunami for familial bonds, enhancing the fear and dread centuries, and the people have learned to of the “omnicrisis” presented by the cope with these natural disasters by creating zombies. Moreover, the events of 9/11 better earthquake technology and flood resulted in the increase of narratives that protocol. However, the combination of these position Americans, particularly men, as natural events caused meltdowns in three victims. In many science fiction narratives, reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear the humans are stripped of their privileged Power Plant, which was earthquake-ready position, as in James Cameron’s Avatar but not tsunami-proof. The events reignited when the hero becomes a warrior for the post war anti-nuclear sentiments, but freedom of the threatened Na’vi. Higgins ambivalence still played an important role in (2015) explains, “occupying the position of the way the Japanese reacted to the calamity. the colonized subject enables the protagonist The manga industry responded to the in such stories to self-identify as a kind of disaster with charity/fundraising and by

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 1, August 2017 308 providing complimentary manga online to or Nice Weather Today As Well, and the appease children, but most manga publishers difficulty of adjusting to the changes it also practiced self-restraint or self- brought to rural life. He later wrote censorship, avoiding sensitive topics for Sobamon about the efforts of farmers to some time. One of the first to break the reduce radiation contamination of silence was Shiriagari Kotobuki. His manga agricultural products. Still other manga Seaside Village explores how the 3/11 included the issue as part of their ongoing incidents affected people’s lives. Berndt narratives. A popular food manga Oishinbo (2013) explains that his work explores the by Kariya Tetsu and Hanasaki Akira tragedy from multiple perspectives: “In infamously included a storyline in which a contrast to Akira’s mutated bodies which character visits Fukushima and subsequently showcase the destructive power of radiation, suffers nosebleeds, implying that the area is Shiriagari’s work contains not safe. The manga was accused of anthropomorphized atoms, showing how the spreading false information, and calls were accident looked from the perspective of made to censor it. Kariya stated that the cesium and iodine particles” (p, 73). story came from his own experience of Another of Shiriagari’s manga shows post having fatigue and nosebleeds after visiting human winged children in an image of Fukushima, but government and medical humanity merging with nature. These hybrid experts report that there is no connection creatures are reminiscent of the “angel” between radiation and nosebleeds among character featured in Miyazaki’s seven- residents of the area (Fujimoto in minute music video On Your Mark, which Weatherhead, 2016). itself makes visual reference to the dangers One immediate response to 3.11 was a of radiation. Collected in Shiriagari’s book harking back to earlier narratives that now Ano hi kara no manga: 2011.3.11 or Manga seem prophetic. The aforementioned Space Ever Since 2011.3.11, these narratives Battleship Yamato is one such example. complicate humanity’s relationship with Amano Ikuho (2014) states that internet nuclear energy and radiation. In a comment references to Yamato increased dramatically on his work, Shiriagari, stated: “Scientists after the Fukushima incident. She writes, can produce data. Politicians can produce “These references under contemporary policies. What mangaka can do is to draw socio-cultural and economic conditions also the mood” (qtd. In Berndt, 2013, p. 73). imply that the unfathomable work of the Many other mangaka used their medium Fukushima 50 [a group of first responders to address the issue of 3.11 and the topic of and scientists who endangered themselves to nuclear threat. There were charity manga assist in the disaster] may be honored and such as Heroes Come Back, in which fathomed only through analogy with the famous manga characters are presented in efforts of the fictional Yamato crew who one-off stories. Yamamoto Osamu describes wrestle with the daunting situation by virtue his own experience after the accident in his of courage, dedication, and an unflinching autobiographical manga, Kyou mo ii tenki, sense of commitment” (Amano, 2014, p.

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331). The nostalgia for the heroic tale of the the lives of his friends Shiina Mayuri and Yamato demonstrates the Japanese Makise Kurisu on the line, he is in a perception of Japan post-Fukushima as a situation of continual uncertainty. Yet he dystopia in need of self-examination but continues despite the apparent lack of hope. charged with the hope of survival through Erased (Boku ga dake ga Inai Machi) is societal unity. the story of a young Fujinama Satoru, who Unlike Yamato, Tomonori Inoue’s has the ability to go back in time in Coppelion was not seen as antinuclear anticipation of life threatening events to before 3/11 but by 2012 was seen as such. prevent them from happening. While he is The manga is set 20 years after a meltdown trying to figure out the identity of his at a nuclear power facility contaminates mother’s murderer, Satoru is suddenly sent Tokyo, forcing the government to evacuate back 18 years to the time when he was in its citizens. Tokyo is abandoned due to the elementary school. This gives him the high levels of radiation, and no one is opportunity to prevent the kidnappings and allowed entry by government order. The murders that led to his mother’s death. story follows three teenage girls who work Attack on Titan is a manga and anime for the Japan Self Defense Force (JSDF). series by Isayama Hajime. The story takes They make up the health care team called place in a time when humanity lives in Coppelion. The Coppelion are genetically walled cities because of Titans, enormous engineered to be immune to radiation. Their humanoid creatures who eat people. The mission is to enter hot zones and search for protagonists are Eren Yeager, his adopted survivors. The manga was intended to be sister Mikasa Ackerman, and childhood adapted into an anime, but the plan was friend Arman Arlirt. The three of them join halted after the Fukushima disaster. The plot the army after their hometown is destroyed of the anime was too close to current events, and Eren’s mother is eaten by a Titan. The and the producers felt it would make people walled city that protects the last remaining too uncomfortable. Later, the work, like humans is surrounded by a perpetual threat Yamato, was seen as prophetic. from the Titans. Nevertheless, everyone Recent anime and manga have some continues to live as if the threat were distance on the tragedy of 3/11, but some mundane until they are suddenly forced to themes remain, particularly constant disaster face reality when the Colossal Titan, a much and the determination to continue regardless larger version of a Titan, breaks through the of adversity. For instance, one popular walls allowing the other Titans to rampage anime, Stein’s; Gate, is based on the visual through the city. novel of the same name. In it, a college Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress has been student, Okabe Rintarō, invents a time called a steampunk zombie copy of Attack machine and seeks to change the events of on Titan, but even so, it expresses the dread the past in order to prevent a tragedy. Yet of being under constant threat. A viral the more he tries to change the past, the infection turns humans into undead creatures more complicated everything becomes. With called Kabane that cannot be killed unless

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 1, August 2017 310 their iron encased hearts are pierced. problematic because not only does he have Regular weapons are useless against the super powers, he is also a great teacher, and Kabane. While the protagonists fight against the students respect him. Koro-sensei the threat, the population walls away the represents the existential threat of nuclear monsters, choosing to live in fortified cities. power which must be handled with both The main characters, Ikoma and Mumei, caution and respect. become hybrid Kabane called Kabaneri. Not One of the most recent additions to the only is the well-being of humankind under ever-expanding number of anime and manga threat, but the self is compromised as well, that deal with post 3/11 trauma is a short and the protagonists have to be constantly (thirty minute) anime based on Kyo vigilant to keep from losing their humanity. Machiko’s award winning manga Mitsuami Asano Inio’s Dead Dead Demon’s no Kami-sama (Braided Pig-Tail Deity). Dededededestruction centers on middle Kyo’s manga centers on a pigtailed girl who school students; however, looming in the lives alone in a small house by the sea. She background for the past three years are giant has stayed after a disaster that is never alien spacecraft which are impossible to specified. The manga is a reaction to Kyō’s destroy. The only thing that has been feelings toward the March 11, 2011, destroyed is Japan and its economy. The earthquake and tsunami and subsequent JSDF wants to use guerilla warfare against nuclear disaster, although it is never the threat, while the US military wants to explicitly named in the story, out of escalate the assault. However, this will consideration for those who were affected violate Japan’s pacifist principles expressed by the tragedy (Production I.G., 2016). The in their constitution. Meanwhile, the anime was also part of a larger multi-media students live their lives concerned only with production staged in Tokyo last October. school, family, and friends, ignoring the Pigtails won the New Artist Award in 2014, enormous spaceships that hang above their and the anime features an all-star production heads. crew that includes animators from Studio Even comedies in Japan present Ghibli and from feature films like Wolf characters dealing with ever present threats. Children and Paprika. . For instance, in the manga and anime Missing from most recent anime and Assassination Classroom by Matsui Yusei, a manga is direct criticism of nuclear energy. powerful alien has destroyed 70% of the Miyake (2014) points out that: “While in the moon and claims that he will destroy Earth immediate post-Fukushima scenario it is in a year. However, for some reason, he gets difficult to find mangaesque mainstream a job as a homeroom teacher. In addition to works critically addressing nuclear energy their regular studies, the alien teaches his policies, or even addressing them at all, it is students to be assassins. The government, in the more amateurish and loosely meanwhile, has promised ten billion yen to controlled digital network of the internet that the student who can kill the teacher, nuclear related works have been visible, affectionately called Koro-sensei. This is even in the mostly depoliticized or post

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 1, August 2017 311 ideological circuits of otaku cultures” (p. International Catalunya Prize in Spain, he 87). What she seems to be offering is a noted: “To be Japanese means, in a certain definition of internet otaku culture as sense, to live alongside a variety of natural analogous to the Wild West. Anything that catastrophes.” He states that the concept of can happen, will happen, even raising the mujo, or impermanence, “has been seared specter of nuclear annihilation, which the deeply into the Japanese spirit … since West seems to be fond of in its own ancient times.” He offers this as a reason for literature. In fact, with the exception of a why the people can continue to lead more or few works that deal explicitly with the less normal lives in such a dangerous tragedy, one has to look deeply to realize geography. He further states that the concept that many post 3/11 anime and manga of mujo implies a sense of knowing that all offerings seem to have repressed the things must pass away, and that even if we mention of nuclear power, even in a neutral struggle, that cannot be overcome. One of way, and instead employ real-life or fantasy the positive outcomes of this worldview, scenarios to symbolize the perseverance of says Murakami (2011), is that “the Japanese Japanese culture in the face of day to day are able to actively discover sources of disaster. beauty,” and this is certainly reflected in The Japanese live on an archipelago of their art, their anime, and their manga. relatively small islands; they constantly conduct their lives under threat of more than References one kind of natural disaster. Before Fukushima they saw the nuclear threat as 80% of hibakusha in poll not seeking something they had the ability to control in a Obama A-bomb apology during way that one cannot control an act of nature. Hiroshima visit | The Japan Times. Still, disaster is a constant thread running (2016, May 23). Retrieved 25 May 2016, through every single day. After 3/11, many from Japanese began to realize that this was a http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/ disaster that they were responsible for; they 05/23/national/80-hibakusha-poll-not- had not exercised control or taken seeking-obama-bomb-apology- responsibility for the demon they had hiroshima-visit/#.V6efvrgrJ1s harnessed on their shores. Nuclear power Amano, I. (2014). From mourning to became Godzilla again, and not in his role of allegory: Post-3.11 Space Battleship protector. Rather than look that in the eye, Yamato in motion. Japan Forum, 26(3), they did what they have always done so 325-339. well, carried on as if everything was not doi:10.1080/09555803.2014.915868 falling apart around them. Berndt, J. (2013). The intercultural Murakami Haruki, one of Japan’s most challenge of the “mangaesque”: famous novelists, uses the term mujo to Reorienting manga studies after 3/11” in describe the Japanese response to disaster. erndt, J , erling-Meibauer, B. In his June 2011 acceptance speech for the Manga’s Cultural Crossroads. (pp. 65-

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