Legacies of the Asia-Pacific War
When we look in detail at the various peripheral groups of disenfranchised people emerging from the aftermath of the Asia-Pacific War the list is startling: Koreans in Japan (migrants or forced labourers), Burakumin, Hibakusha, Okinawans, Asian minorities, comfort women and many others. Many of these groups have been discussed in a large corpus of what we may call disenfranchised literature, and the research presented in this book intends to add an additional and particularly controversial example to the long list of the voiceless and powerless. The presence of members of what is known as the yakeato sedai or the generation of people who experienced the fire-bombings of the Asia-Pacific War is conspicuous in all areas of contemporary Japan. From literature to the visual arts, from music to theatre, from architecture to politics, their influence, in many cases guiding principles, is evident everywhere and in many cases forms the keystone of modern Japanese society and culture.
The contributors to this book explore the input of the literary, creative and cultural works of the yakeato generation on the post-war period by drawing out the importance of the legacy of those people who survived truly the darkest hour of the twentieth century. They also consider the ramifications for contemporary Japan of the traumatic experiences of artists of this generation. As such this book will be of great interest to those studying Japanese history, literature, poetry and cultural studies.
Roman Rosenbaum received his PhD in Japanese Literature at the University of Sydney. He specializes in Post-War Japanese Literature and Popular Cultural Studies. In 2008, he received the Inoue Yasushi Award for best refereed journal article on Japanese literature in Australia. In 2010, he will spend a year as a Research Professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) to complete a monograph on the social activist Oda Makoto.
Yasuko Claremont is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney. She has been teaching modern Japanese literature, comparative literature and Japanese language at all levels. Recent publications include The Novels of e Kenzabur, 2009, Routledge, and Japanese Prose Poetry, University of Sydney East Asian Series, No. 16, Wild Peony, 2006.
Routledge contemporary Japan Series
1 A Japanese Company in Crisis
Ideology, strategy, and narrative
Fiona Graham
2 Japans Foreign Aid
Old continuities and new directions
Edited by David Arase
3 Japanese Apologies for World War II
A rhetorical study
Jane W. Yamazaki
4 Linguistic Stereotyping and Minority Groups in Japan
Nanette Gottlieb
5 Shinkansen
From bullet train to symbol of modern Japan
Christopher P. Hood
6 Small Firms and Innovation Policy in Japan
Edited by Cornelia Storz
7 Cities, Autonomy and Decentralization in Japan
Edited by Carola Hein and Philippe Pelletier
8 The Changing Japanese Family
Edited by Marcus Rebick and Ayumi Takenaka
9 Adoption in Japan
Comparing policies for children in need
Peter Hayes and Toshie Habu
10 The Ethics of Aesthetics in Japanese Cinema and Literature
Polygraphic desire
Nina Cornyetz
11 Institutional and Technological Change in Japans Economy
Past and present
Edited by Janet Hunter and Cornelia Storz
12 Political Reform in Japan
Leadership looming large
Alisa Gaunder
13 Civil Society and the Internet in Japan
Isa Ducke
14 Japans Contested War Memories
The memory rifts in historical consciousness of World War II
Philip A. Seaton
15 Japanese Love Hotels
A cultural history
Sarah Chaplin
16 Population Decline and Ageing in Japan The Social Consequences
Florian Coulmas
17 Zainichi Korean Identity and Ethnicity
David Chapman
18 A Japanese Joint Venture in the Pacific
Foreign bodies in tinned tuna
Kate Barclay
19 Japanese-Russian Relations, 19072007
Joseph P. Ferguson
20 War Memory, Nationalism and Education in Post-War Japan, 19452007
The Japanese history textbook controversy and Ienaga Saburos court challenges
Yoshiko Nozaki
21 A New Japan for the Twenty-First Century
An inside overview of current fundamental changes and problems
Edited by Rien T. Segers
23 The Novels of Oe Kenzaburo
Yasuko Claremont
24 Perversion in Modern Japan
Psychoanalysis, literature, culture
Edited by Nina Cornyetz and J. Keith Vincent
25 Homosexuality and Manliness in Post-war Japan
Jonathan D. Mackintosh
26 Marriage in Contemporary Japan
Yoko Tokuhiro
27 Japanese Aid and the Construction of Global Development
Inescapable solutions
Edited by David Leheny and Carol Warren
28 The Rise of Japanese NGOs
Activism from above
Kim D. Reimann
29 Postwar History Education in Japan and the Germanys
Guilty lessons Julian Dierkes
30 Japan-Bashing
Anti-Japanism since the 1980s
Narelle Morris
31 Legacies of the Asia-Pacific War
The yakeato generation
Edited by Roman Rosenbaum and Yasuko Claremont
First published
2011 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2009 Editorial selection and matter, Roman Rosenbaum and
Yasuko Claremont. Individual chapters, the contributor.
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Pindar NZ, Auckland, New Zealand
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wilshire
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Legacies of the Asia-Pacific War : the Yakeato generation / edited by Roman
Rosenbaum and Yasuko Claremont.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. JapanSocial conditions1945- 2. World War, 1939-1945Social aspectsJapan. I. Rosenbaum, Roman. II. Claremont, Yasuko, 1944-
HN723.5.L447 2010
306.0952'09045dc22 2010003759
ISBN10: 0-415-57951-1 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-84671-0 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-57951-3 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-84671-1 (ebk)
