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Nagasaki's Atomic Bomb Memory and Politics

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Nagasaki's Atomic Bomb Memory and Politics GOD AND THE ATOMIC BOMB: NAGASAKI’S ATOMIC BOMB MEMORY AND POLITICS OF SACRIFICE, FORGIVENESS AND RECONCILIATION by Tomoe Otsuki A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Social Justice Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Tomoe Otsuki (2016) GOD AND THE ATOMIC BOMB: NAGASAKI’S ATOMIC BOMB MEMORY AND POLITICS OF SACRIFICE, FORGIVENESS AND RECONCILIATION Doctor of Philosophy (2016) Tomoe Otsuki Department of Social Justice Education University of Toronto Abstract There is very little doubt that Hiroshima has become a testament to the destructive capacity of mankind over the last seven decades. Many influential world leaders have visited Hiroshima, pledging themselves to the project of eternal peace. However, very few of them have ever extended their trip to the second atomic bomb city Nagasaki. Likewise, the existing literature and media representations of the atomic bombing of Japan invariably views Japan’s atomic experience through a “Hiroshima first” optic. Studies devoted to the experience of Nagasaki are scarce even within Japan. If Nagasaki is considered at all within the context of these studies, its trauma and its historical significance are assumed to be identical to, or contained within that of Hiroshima. As Greg Mitchell, an American journalist and writer, observed: “no one ever wrote a bestselling novel called Nagasaki or directed a film entitled Nagasaki, Mon Amour.” Nagasaki has been the “forgotten atomic bomb city” (Mitchell, August 9, 2011). My dissertation critically inquires the conception of “forgotten atomic bomb city,” and explores what can account for Nagasaki’s self-effacing attitude from the remembrance of the atomic bomb memory and history and how Nagasaki has become overshadowed by Hiroshima’s powerful symbolism of the nuclear age over the last decades. Put another way, this dissertation examines what have normalized the absence of Nagasaki in the ii remembrance of the atomic bombing both in Japan and abroad. My dissertation demonstrates that Nagasaki has never been forgotten by American and Japanese policymakers. Rather, I argue that the second atomic bomb city has been firmly incorporated within the U.S-Japan Security Alliance since the end of the war. My work shows how Nagasaki’s remembrance and postwar history has been shaped by the politics of sacrifice, forgiveness and reconciliation between the United States and Japan over the last seventy years, and illuminates how the legacy of Japanese imperialism continues to rule contemporary Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Japan. iii Acknowledgment There are many individuals who significantly contributed to my doctoral project over the last years. They provided invaluable resource support, inspirational and constructive suggestions and continuously encouraged me to pursue my studies on Nagasaki’s remembrance of the atomic bombing and its postwar history. Some of them had passed away before I have completed my work. This dissertation is dedicated to all these people. I would like to express sincere thanks to Takahara Itaru for providing his photographs of Nagasaki during the 1950s, especially the evocative images of the ruins of Urakami Cathedral, and for sharing his memories and stories on postwar Nagasaki with me, and Takase Tsuyoshi, the second generation of Nagasaki hibakusha and the author of Nagasaki— Another Atomic Dome Lost (Nagasaki—Kieta Mou hitotsuno genbaku doum) (2009) for sharing his insights and invaluable information on the ruins of the Urakami Cathedral and Nagasaki’s particular history and social culture for my research. I also wish to acknowledge the help provided by Sekigushi Tatsuo, a NBC (Nagasaki Broadcasting Company) journalist for introducing me to the NBC documentary crew that produced “God and the Atomic Bomb: Urakami Catholic hibakusha’s last fifty-five years” (2000), and Yokote Kazuhiko, a Nagasaki-based scholar for his important advices concerning Nagasaki’s remembrance of the atomic bombing. I am also particularly grateful for the assistance given by Abe Hirotaka, a Mainichi Shinbun journalist for helping me to connect with Nagasaki’s local memory community and those individuals noted above. My heartfelt thanks to Tasaki Noboru, the former civil servant at Nagasaki’s peace administration as well as a second generation of hibakusha for providing otherwise inaccessible documents on Nagasaki’s administrative policy. I am also indebted to iv Nagasaki’s hibakusha peace guides/storytellers who walked through Nagasaki’s ground zero with me over and over again, and shared their personal memory of the war period, the atomic bombing and postwar years with me. I would also like to offer my special thanks to Shimohira Sakue, a Nagasaki hibakusha. I learnt the impossibility of the healing of hibakusha’s trauma and the presence of unspoken memory of the atomic bombing by attending her oral testimony. Shimohira’s memory of the atomic bombing has often come to my mind and stayed in my consciousness in the process of writing. My appreciation is extended to Kamata Nobuko, the former director of the Nagasaki Peace Institute (Nagasaki Heiwa Kenkyusho), and Anan Shigeyuki, the director of Nagasaki Human Rights Institute (Nagasaki Jinken Kenkyusho). Mrs. Kamata is the widow of Kamata Sadao, who was one of the crucial actors in Nagasaki’s testimonial movement, and antiwar and antinuclear movements from the late 1960s to 1997. When I visited the Nagasaki Peace Institute in June 2009, Mrs. Kamata introduced me to Anan, who is as one of the most important scholars on the history and human rights issue of the Buraku community in Japan. Without the general assist of Anan and the staff at the Nagasaki Human Rights Institute, I would have never been able to write the forgotten history of the Buraku people in my dissertation. Mrs. Kamata also gave me dozens of texts and materials, including a number of Kamata’s articles, published from the Nagasaki Peace Institute, saying that “we are closing the institute since nobody would take over our work.” The materials she handed in to me are invaluable resource for this doctoral research project. The Nagasaki Peace Institute was closed in June 2010. Mrs. Kamata passed away in January 2013. Thank you to Takazane Yasunori, the chief curator of Oka Masaharu Nagasaki Peace Memorial Museum for providing important archives collected by Masaharu Oka, who v pursued the historical, moral and legal justice for the Korean atomic bomb victims. My sincere thanks to librarians in Nagasaki Prefecture Library, Nagasaki City Library and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum for their great assist to find important local archives for my research. Lastly but not least, I would like to acknowledge Roger I. Simon and Mario Di Paolantonio for their continued support, intellectual inspiration and thoughtful comments through my doctoral studies period. I am privileged to work with the two scholars on memory studies and pedagogical philosophy, and without their supervision I could have never encountered the memory of Nagasaki’s atomic bombing in the way my dissertation unfolds. In particular, I would like to express my very great appreciation to Professor Di Paolantonio for always encouraging me to believe the importance and significance of my work, and having kindly taken over Professor Simon’s position as my supervisor after he passed away in September 2012. While I was overwhelmed by the great sense of loss after the death of Professor Simon, Professor Di Paolantonio gently pushed me to keep up my work, and helped me to think how my work could incorporate and translate Professor Simon’s notion of ethical, pedagogical remembrance into the context of Nagasaki and postwar Japan. Without the persistent commitment of both Professor Simon and Professor Di Paolantonio to my study, this dissertation could not have been completed. December 15, 2015 vi List of Photographs & Figures Photograph 1: Nagasaki’s Peace Keeper ............................................................................ 29 Photograph 2: Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hypocentre Monument ...................................... 30 Photograph 3: A burnt wall of the Urakami Cathedral .................................................... 31 Photograph 4: Statue of the Mother and Child .................................................................. 32 Photograph 5: Mothers and Children ................................................................................. 35 Photograph 6: Memorial Dedicated for Korean Atomic Bomb Victims ......................... 38 Photograph 7: Monument for All the Foreign Victims of WWII ..................................... 39 Photograph 8: Monument Dedicated for 33 Chinese Hibakusha ..................................... 40 Photograph 9: Hirohito greeting to bedridden Nagai ....................................................... 86 Photograph 10: Urakami’s outdoor mass ........................................................................... 97 Photograph 11: Nishizaka Hill, where 26 Catholics were executed and became martyrs in 1596 .................................................................................................................................... 98 Photograph 12: Urakami Catholic parade through the old city center in Nagasaki ...... 99 Photograph 13: Kitamura’s Statue of Terauchi .............................................................. 132 Photograph 14: Kikuchi Kazuo’s “Statue for Peace” (Heiwa zo) ..................................
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