Post 3-11: The Past, Present, and Future of Nuclear Japan(pdf)

Lee Friederich, Ph.D.
Post 3-11: The Past, Present, and Future of Nuclear Japan
through Literature and Popular Culture
Course Description
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are widely recognized as the twin crucibles for
the global flow of popular culture from postwar Japan, with its emphasis on dystopian
vision, monsters, and destruction in film, anime, and manga. The ongoing, multidimensional
crises of the 3.11 daishinsai (great earthquake disaster) that continues to grip
the country provide an unexpected opportunity to reexamine the ways in which artists
represent, respond to, and contribute to the perception of Japan as both a victim and
proponent of nuclear culture. Beginning with the commentary of Ōe Kenzaburō on the
global impact of the Fukushima disaster, as well as emerging fiction and manga by writers
such as Tawada Yōko, Kazushige Abe, Kawakami Mieko, and some of the writers closest to
the disaster in Fukushima Prefecture, we will work our way back to reexamine the major
icons of popular culture in post nuclear Japan, including Honda Ishirō’s Gojira (Godzilla),
Nakazawa Keiji’s manga series Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen) and Mori Masaki’s subsequent
anime, Ōtomo Katsuhiro’s Akira, as well as visual artist Murakami Takashi’s major 2005
Superflat exhibition “Little Boy: Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture” in light of last year’s
nuclear meltdown at the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima. Taking a literary
perspective as well, we will examine U.S. Occupation-era censorship of writings by
hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors), such as Ōta Yōko’s City of Corpses (Shikabane no machi)
and Tamiki Hara’s “Summer Flowers” (Natsu no hana) to discuss the corresponding silences
that so often surround the nuclear subject in Japan and the eerie ways in which the notion
of Fukushima as a zone of contamination reflects the social isolation of the hibakusha as
pariah. In addition to looking at short fiction Ōe collected to promote international
awareness of the “massive wreckage of life, limb, and livelihood caused by the bombings of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki” through his edited volume The Crazy Iris and Other Stories from
the Atomic Aftermath, as well as his nonfiction work Hiroshima Notes, we will also read
poetry by poets Ishigaki Rin and hibakusha Tōge Sankichi. Students who enroll in this
course may participate in a week-long learning service project in Miyagi Prefecture by
volunteering in the ongoing rebuilding projects related to the trifold earthquake, tsunami,
and nuclear disaster.
Student Learning Objectives
This cross-disciplinary course, which draws from Global Studies, Japanese Literature,
History, Popular Culture, Cinema, will allow students:
To acquire an historical awareness of the impact of catastrophic global events on
local cultures through literature and popular culture
To develop an ability to critically “read” and analyze global events from a variety of
perspectives and media, including literary forms such as novels, short stories,
memoirs, and poetry, as well as popular forms such as film, manga, anime, and
visual arts
To negotiate silences, ambiguities, and the complexity of cultural responses to
global events through writing, discussion, and presentation.
To recognize the diverse ways in which traumatic global events are portrayed
through literary and popular forms.

To gain a personal perception of global events by participating in international
teamwork and service by volunteering through an NPO to help rebuild in the
tsunami-stricken area of Miyagi Prefecture on the east coast of Japan. (This segment
of the course is not mandatory.)
Texts for this Course
Hiroshima: Three Witnesses, edited by Earl Minear
Barefoot Gen, Vol. 1: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima by Nakazawa Keiji
Black Rain, Ibuse Masuji
March was Made of Yarn: Reflections on the Japanese Earthquake Tsunami, and Nuclear
Meltdown, edited by Elmer Luke and David Karashima
Additional short readings provided by instructor
Major Assignments and Projects
Tuesday In-class Writing: Each Tuesday, students will do a brief in-class writing
assignment that will be used as a springboard into both small and large group
discussion about the day’s reading assignment.
Thursday Journals: Students will write a two-page journal entry in advance of class
each Thursday responding to the reading that will be discussed on that day.
Formal Writing Assignments: Students will be given 2 formal writing assignments
over the course of the semester dealing with the texts that we explore in this course
(including manga, film, and anime). Depending on the level of the course,
assignments will lead students to integrate outside research into both papers, to
enhance their understanding of the topics that they choose to investigate further.
Learning Service Journal and Presentation: Each student who participates in the
learning service project will be responsible for keeping an on-line journal each
evening detailing his or her experience there. These students will collaborate in a
public presentation of their experience in Japan. Students who do not go to
Ishinomaki will write written responses to the on-line journal as it is being
produced, participate as audience members at the forum, and work together to do a
critical evaluation of the forum.
Semester Units and Reading Assignments
Week 1 (Jan. 29-Jan. 31)
On the Ground in Japan Today: An Introduction
1. “Radioactive Rain and the American Umbrella,” The Journal of Asian Studies,
May 2012
2. “The Ongoing Disaster” by Alexis Dudden, The Journal of Asian Studies, May
2012
3. “History Repeats” by Ōe Kenzaburō, The New Yorker, March 28, 2011.
Weeks 2-3 (February 5-14)
3.11 and the Writer as Activist
1. “The Island of Eternal Life” by Tawada Yōko (pages 3-13), “Nightcap” by
Ogawa Yoko (pages 35-36) and “March Yarn” by Kawakami Mieko (pages
55-69)
2. “Ride on Time” by Abe Kazushige (pages 183-88), “Crows and the Girl” by
Brother and Sister Nishioka (manga)
3. “The Charm” by Shigematsu Kiyoshi (13-33)
4. “Snow Dusk, Death Dusk,” by Yoshikawa Yasuhisa

Weeks 4-5 (Feb 19-28)
Censorship and other silences surrounding Hibakusha Literature with readings from
Hiroshima: Three Witnesses:
1. “Introduction to Hiroshima: Three Witnesses” by Earl Minear (pages 3-18)
and “Summer Flowers” by Tamiki Hara (pages 45-60)
2. “A City of Corpses” by Ōta Yōko (pages 147-178)
3. Poems of the Atomic Bomb by Tōge Sankichi (pages 305-338)
Week 6-7 (Mar 5-14)
The Monster Within: Godzilla (Japanese and American versions)—films to be viewed before
class
1. Gojira (the original Japanese version), 1954 (view by Feb 12)
2. Godzilla, King of the Monsters (American spinoff), 1956 (view by Feb 19)
3. Review of Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters by William
Tsutsui, Journal of Japanese Studies, 2006
Week 8 (Spring Break, Mar 17-24)
Service Learning Project in the Tsunami Zone of Miyagi Prefecture (contingent
on grant funds
Week 9 (March 26-28)
Victim’s Ideology and Barefoot Gen—manga and anime (to be viewed before class)
1. Barefoot Gen, Volume 1, manga by Keiji Nakazawa
2. Barefoot Gen, anime by Masaki Mori (film to be viewed before class)
Week 10 (April 2-4)
Post Nuclear Writers: Ōe Kenzaburō and Ibuse Masuji
1. Hiroshima Notes by Ōe Kenzaburō (pages 7-56)
2. Introduction to The Crazy Iris, “Toward the Unknowable Future” by Ōe
Kenzaburō and “The Crazy Iris” by Ibuse Masuji (9-35)
Weeks 11-12 (April 9-18)
Black Rain by Ibuse Masuji (pages 5-300)
Week 13 (April 23-April 25)
Super Flat and Little Boy: Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture
1. Selections from Super Flat and Little Boy
Week 14 (April 30-May 2)
Postwar Apocalyptic Vision
1. Akira (view anime before class)