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

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). The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 1, August 2017 306 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.

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