Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima [reprint ed.] 080784344X, 9780807843444

Table of contents :
Hiroshima..............13
The Atomic Bomb Experience..............15
Invisible Contamination..............57
ABomb Disease..............103
ABomb Man..............165
Atomic Bomb Leaders..............209
Residual Struggles Trust Peace and Mastery..............253
Perceiving America..............317

Citation preview

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$ 10.00

The atomic bombing

Hiroshima in the early morning of August 6, 1945, is even today one of the most debated and disturbing events in world historv. No one in Hiroshima was prepared for what happened. For the of

had escaped serious bombing despite its strategic wartime significance, and the people’s attitude— even on that morning as they

city

hurried into the

city’s

center to their jobs—

was a combination of amazement at its good fortune and fear that its turn would come. Robert Jay Lifton, who has lived and worked in Japan for several years, is the first person, American or Japanese, to undertake a wide-ranging study of those

bombing

the atomic

terviewed people in experienced the

munity

who

survived

He inHiroshima who had

of Hiroshima.

bomb— among them

com-

leaders, politicians, clergymen, ad-

ministrators

and directors

of survivor

and

peace movement groups, medical personnel, scholars, writers, artists, foreigners resident in the city,

and

visitors to it— and quotations

from the interviews interwoven with the taut and coolly analytic narrative provide insight into survivors’ struggles and problems: fear of physical afterefi^ is in themselves or their children, cont

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STATE OF VERMONT ;

DEPARTMENT OF U8RARIES REGIONAL U3RARY RD 2 BOX 244 ST. JOHNSBURY, VT 0581

ALSO BY

R O B E R

1

JAY

L

I

F T O

N

Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totcdism A Study of ''Brainwashing in China

The

Woman

in

America (editor

)

DEATH

IN

LIFE

Survivors of Hiroshima

BY ROBERT JAY LIFTON

SURVIVORS OF FHIROSHIMA

First Printing

© Copyright,

1967, by Robert Jay Litton

under International and Pan-American Copyright Con\entions. Published in New York by Random House, Inc., and simultaneously in Toronto, Canada, by Random House of Canada, Limited. Manufactured in the United States of America by American Book-Stratford Press, Inc. All rights reserved

Designed by Cynthia Muser Library of Congress catalog card number:

The author

67-22658

wishes to thank the following for permission to reprint material ap-

pearing in this book; University of North Carolina Press— for a selection

from Hiroshima Diary by

Michihiko Hachiya, edited by Warner Wells. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, an affiliate of Meredith Press— for a selection from

We

of Nagasaki by Takashi Nagai. Copyright, 1951, 1958 by Duell, Sloan and Pearce.

World— for

from Blood From the Sky by Piotr Rawicz and from Children of the Ashes by Robert Jungk, translated from the Japanese by Constantine Fitzgibbon.

Harcourt, Brace &

selections

Inc.— for a selection from The Long Voyage by Jorge Semprun, translated from the French by Richard Seaver. Copyright 1964 by Grove Press,

Grove

Press,

©

Inc. Hill

and Wang, Inc.— for

a selection

from Night by Elie Wiesel.

Kawade Shobo

©

Co., Ltd.— for a selection from Shikabane Copyright 1955.

Orion Press— for

a selectioir

The Hokuseido Press— for

from Survivor

a selection

in

No Machi

by Yoko Ota,

Auschwitz by Primo Levi.

from De\iVs Heritage by Hiroyuki Agawa.

Shincho-sha Co.— for selections from Kuroi Ame by Masuji Ibuse; and the Japan Quarterly for the use of a translation of Kuroi Ame appearing in the April-June, 1967, issue, parts of which I incorporated in my own translation.

To

the

memory

of

my father and the world of my children

7 ^//

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AND RESEARCHER 3

HIROSHIMA

I

II

HI IV

V \T

yn

VHI IX

X

13

THE ATOMIC BOMB EXPERIENCE INVISIBLE CONTAMINATION ‘

‘

A

-

B O

M

B

D

I

A-BOMB MAN

S

E A

S

E

”

13

37

103

163

ATOMIC BOMB LEADERS

209

RESIDUAL STRUGGLES; AND MASTERY 233

R

PERCEIVING AMERICA

U

S

T

,

PEACE,

317

FORMULATION: SELF AND WORLD RESPONSE: literature/’ 397 C R E A T

I

E

'

1

)

‘

A

-BOMB

367

V

CON

1 1 1

XI

r

E

N

1

s

CREATIVE response:

DILEMMAS XII

T

II

E

S

U RV

I

2

)

ART

I

S

T

I

C

451

O R

479

APPENDIX 543 NOTES 557 INDEX 577 LIST OF SURVIVORS QUOTED

593

DEATH

IN

LIFE

Survivors of Hiroshima

INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AND RESEARCHER Research

is

form of

a

re-creation.

I

have

tried

to

record

the most

important psychological consequences of exposure to the atomic in Hiroshima. In order to relate the atomic survivor

bomb

to general hu-

man

experience,

the sur\avor

extended the inquiry to include a wider concept of an entity, highly relevant to our times. These concerns

I

as

m

turn led to a stud\- of death symbolism and the overall impact of nuclear weapons, which will be published later as a separate volume entitled The Sense of Innnortality.

Hiroshima stimulates ready resistance within the would-be researcher. It

does so partly because of

its

specific association

with massive death

and mutilation, and partly because of the general reluctance of those the

in

human

sciences to risk professional confrontation with great historical events which do not lend themselves to established approaches or categories. In any case, I have little doubt of my own resistance to

Hiroshima;

I

had

lived

and worked

in

four years, over a ten-year period, before

Japan for a I

total of

more than

finally visited the cih- in earlv

April of 1962.

At that time

I

was completing two years of research on Japanese

youth, as part of a long-standing interest in the interplay between individual psychology and historical change, or in "psvehohistorical

DEATH

4

IN LIFE

process.” In Kyoto, wlierc

about the world’s

hundred miles undergraduates,

it.

But

by the

whom

about two

lay

was interviewing daily— except by those

I

haye grown up

\yhat

themselvT'S

which

city,

Nor was Hiroshima mentioned paryoung men and women, mostly uniyersity

no memory of the war

either

of

to

atomic bombed

first

thought only occasionally

I

to the southwest.

ticularly frequently

happened

was working,

I

and

became their

in its general area.

at all or only the

clear

when

I

vv'ho

I'he great majority had

most meager

them

explored with

recollections

their sense of

world was the enormous significance for them,

hovyeyer indirectly expressed, of the fact that Japan alone had been

exposed to atomic bombs. 'This historical the power of the peace symbol

important part

in the anti-war

for

'‘fact”

had much

Japanese.

all

to

do with

played a very

It

sentiment of the mass demonstrations of

1960, an extraordinary spectacle

which

was able

I

and

to obserye closelv'

young participants when they could free themselv’cs for a few moments from their demanding activities on the streets. And it was a matter to contend with eyen in the “Reviv^al Boom” whieh follovyed— the reawakened interest in war films, military music, and the to discuss with militant

literature of militarv strategy.

These seemingly opposite tendencies can be understood as related parts of a general struggle to cope with an unmastered past and a threatening future, a struggle in which Hiroshima faces both ways. T he

atomie bombings were experienced, eyen by Japanese born after they took place, as both an annihilatory culmination of a disastrous period of

home-grown fascism and

militarism,

and equally unfortunate

historical

and

a

sudden

destiny— a

destiny

which could,

morcoyer, be repeated, and which vyas open to everyone. \\ hat saving

is

that

nuclear weapons

imprint

powerful

a

left

new

infliction of a

I

am

upon the

Japanese which continues to be transmitted, historically and psychologically,

through the generations. But

the eomplexities of this imprint until

could not begin to understand

I I

embarked upon

my work

with

Hiroshima victims thcmsclycs.

One

effect

the atomic bombings had

discovered, was to create an intensity of

with evaluating their

human

impact.

matter during two preliminary

visits

upon the Japanese, I soon feeling which could interfere

Wlicn to

I

began

Hiroshima,

despite the seventeen years that had passed since the individual or group

general

had

I

discovered that

bomb, no Japanese

carried out a detailed or systematic study of

psychological and social

initiated such studies

to look into the

effects.

had eut them

short,

The few and had

seholars

its

who had

either reported their

Introduction: Research

and Researcher

5

findings in fragmentary, exaggeratedly teelmieal form, or else had been so striiek by the Imman snlTering eneoimtered that thev eeased their researeh and dedieated themselves to programs of nuieh-needed soeial welfare. Nor had anything more than preliminary surveys been at-

tempted by Amerieans, despite

their extensive

plusieal aftereffeets.

it

e

mo

ti

ona1

i

Here too

m ped m en

ts

i

involvement

in studies of

appeared that there w’ere important

’ .

he eomplexities of the researeh w^ere to impress themselves upon me soon enough, but before diseussing them it is w^ell to say a word about 1

faetors

my owm

eontributing to

problem of

this

kind

it

involvement

were at

least

totally free of bias or preeoneeption.

three important influenees

attempt the researeh and

a

partieularly misehievous to pretend that the

is

investigator undertakes his study as a tabula rasa or an

instrument,

With

the w’ork.

in

my

it:

personal interest in East Asian eulture responsible for at the time; a eentral intelleetual

In

upon both

w-ay of going about

commitment

extreme historical situations characteristic of our

my ease there my deeision to

a professional

mv

and

being in Japan

the study of the

to

and

era,

tion of a suitable psychological approach to them;

uneontaminated

to the evolu-

and concern with

nuclear weapons and wdth psychologieal factors influencing war and peace. I had had enough experienee to recognize the vieissitudes of work

broad areas, the importanee of a disciplined reeeptivitv to truths built of unusual eombinations, and the need to aecept limitations in in these

w'hat one could expect to grasp

was

and explain.

aware of the significance of the im'cstigator’s relationship to the environment in whieh he has chosen to w'ork. And I felt drawm to I

also

this glitteringly rebuilt, earefully

too wide and too ewen for

planned

cit\'

bomb monuments,

its

mixed eharm and plainness of be

undistinguished

were

it

attractive

its

not

branches of the Ota River and set

But the these

issue for

in

impact upon the

city:

new

roadw'a\s almost

streets

off b\-

entertainment

and of

softened

its

odd

and equally contemporary distriet,

flat terrain

that

the

would

by the many interlacing

mountains

the distance.

in

Hiroshima was the atomic bomb, louring

sought out people wdio could

first visits I

trators of

me

its

older atmosphere to eneompass,

its

juxtapositions of contemporary tourist hotels

atomic

—

tell

me

about the bomb's

scholars, writers, artists, doctors

and adminis-

medical programs, political and religious ofheials, and leaders

of survivor organizations

Xunibcrcd Notes

and peace movements. Almost

arc listed at the back of the book, beginning

all

of these

on page 5^7.

DEATH

6

IN LIFE

bomb and

people liad themselves experieneed the

spokesmen, usually eontroversial ones, than ninet\' tliousand survivors

in

for

then emerged as

some segment

Hiroshima.

of the

Europeans

also talked to

I

and Amerieans, some of them long-term residents of the there on briefer professional and publie missions.

I

more others

eity,

heard eomplieated

mixtures of personal experienee and publie response, and what emerged

was

less a elear

pieture than a psyehologieal kaleidoseope of an extraor-

dinarv immersion in death, lasting imagery of fear surrounding the possibility of radiation aftereffects,

event and

me

as

of psvehie eonsequenees.

the onlv plaee in Japan where people were

artieulatelv,

aware of

transeend the war there was I

web

elaborate

its

lifelong struggle to integrate the

and

mueh

made

to

W

oriel

\\ ar

The most

itself.

be learned

II

— but

in a

Hiroshima struek still,

manner

vividly

and

so speeial as to

eonsistent impression of

all

was that

Hiroshima.

in

my stay in Japan and devote six months bomb survivors. For most of that April, I

the deeision to extend

to a svstematie study of

atomie

eommuted from Kvoto

to

Hiroshima;

in early

May,

I

moved

there

and

remained until mid-September; and then spent a few additional weeks in Tokyo on atomie bomb issues that could best be pursued there. I conducted the research mainlv through individual interviews with two groups of survivors: one consisting of thirty-three chosen at random

from the

lists

kept at the Hiroshima Universitv Research Institute for

Nuclear Medicine and Biology*

as

a

representative cross-section

of

and the second consisting of forty-two survivors especially selected because of their general articulateness and particular prominence in atomic bomb problems— mostly the scholars, writers, physicians, and leaders mentioned before. It turned out that the two groups responses;

did not differ significantly in their basic psychological responses; rather, the contrasts in their

common

illumination on I

manner

have spoken so

of expression threw varying shades of

themes.

far of ‘'atomic

bomb

survivors,” but there

The

be said about the question of names. hihakusha,\ as

experienced

I

the

shall

throughout

this

bomb. Hibakusha

book, to delimit those is

a

Names were

more

to

Japanese use the term

coined

who have

word whose

meaning, “explosion-affected person (s),” suggests a *

is

little

literal

more than

selected at intervals of five hundred.

1954 edition of Kenkyusha’s New Japanese-English Dictionary is used throughout the book. Japanese surnames are placed last, following Western rather than Japanese practice, both because they are rendered this way in many medical references cited, and as a means t

Pronounced

lii-bak’-sha.

The Roinanization system

of the

of emphasizing the general relevance of the Japanese experiences described.

and Researcher

Introduction: Research

merely having eneoiintered

experieneed definite injury from

and

]x)ml)

tlie

'i'he

it.

a

little

less

7

than having

eategory of hihakusha, aeeord-

ing to offieial definition, inelndes four groups of people eonsidered to

ha\e had possible exposure

who

to significant

bomb u ere

at the time of the

amounts

of radiation; those

within the eity limits of Hiroshima as

then defined (an area extending from the h\poeenter— the plaee above \\hieh the bomb is thought to have exploded to a distanee of four

—

thousand, and

in

into

within

the

city

some

plaees five thousand, meters); those

fourteen

and entered

days

who eame

designated

a

area

extending to about two thousand meters from the hvpoccnter; those

who came

into physical contact \\ith

bomb

forms of aid or disposal of bodies; and those

victims, through various

who were

in

utero at the

and whose mothers fit into any of the first three groups.* But informally, the word higaisha, which means victim or injured party, and definitely conveys the idea of sufliering, is used almost as time,

frequently as hibakusha; and the Japanese word for survivor, seizonsha,

employed by anyone other than scientific investigators, and not too frequently even by them. I was told that Japanese avoid seizonsha is

rarely

because this

it

emphasizes the idea of being alive

emphasis

— with

the implication that

unfair to the less fortunate people

is

who were

killed.

Thus, simply from the choice of terms, we begin to get a sense of the importance of the pattern of “guilt over survival priority,” which we be a major theme of the experience, and also of the strength

shall see to

of the residual sense of victimization. Americans, on the other hand, generally use the higaisha.

While

ing the English

may

also

word

this

sur\'ivor,

usage

word and

reflect

even as a rendering of hibakusha or

may be to the

attributed to conventions surround-

need

for a relativelv neutral term,

American tendencies toward “detoxifving” the

it

ex-

perience.

In

making arrangements

for

the

interviews,

I

was aware of

mv

delicate— even Kafkaesque— position as an American psychiatrist ap-

proaching people about their feelings concerning the bomb.

beginning

I

relied

heavily

From

the

upon introductions— first from Tok\o and

Hiroshima colleagues and friends

to various individuals

and groups

in

the city (particularly at the university, the medical school, and the City Office), *

and then from the

exact distance from

latter to actual research subjects. In the case

liypoccntcr has great significance for tlie question of physical aftereffects. It also has importance for psychological responses, but we shall see that these do not lend themselves to the same precise correlation between distance and impact.'I'lic

tlic

DEATH

8

IN LIFE

randomly selected group,

of the

ordinar\- Japanese

who would have been

extremely dubious about a direct approach from a psychiatrist or an

American,

made

first

I

home, together with

a personal visit to the

Japanese social worker from the Hiroshima University Research tute for Nuclear Medicine

and Biology. He and

summer on

exhausting hours that spring and tracking

down

the hibakusha, or

who I (which made

was, and introduce me.

explain

first

he or she were not home,

if

clear m\'

academic

I

would

affiliation)

Insti-

many

the hot Hiroshima streets,

He would

these dwelling places.

spent

in fact,

I,

a

present his card to

member,

to a family

in turn present

my

and then exchange

card

few

a

words with the survivor or family member, including a simple explana-

mv

tion of

purposes in undertaking the study.

We

would then

arrange for an interview appointment (usually in the small office

rented near the center of the case of elderly or

but sometimes, particularly

had

I

in the

we would telephone) to make

hibakusha, right there in the home); or

time for an assistant to return

a

set

ill

citv,

either

(or else

interview arrangements, and frequently to pick up the hibakusha and

accompany him

My

to

mv office.

previous experience in Japan, including the abilih' to speak a

certain

amount

of Japanese,

was helpful

in eliciting the

many forms

of

cooperation so crucial to the work. But perhaps of even greater impor-

mv being able to convey to both colleagues mv sense of the ethical as well as scientific issues

tance was

and research

subjects

in\olved: the

conviction that

it

was important

to

understand people’s reactions to

exposure to nuclear weapons, and that rather than loose impressions and half-truths, systematic research

research might

make some

and the avoidance of

was needed; and the hope that such

contribution to the mastery of these weapons

knowledge of

their use, as well as to our general

man.

The community’s by

a partly (but

tion,

in

willingness to trust these motivations was

by no means entirely) fortuitous event— the publica-

Asahi Journal

the

Magazine) of

a

enhanced

(something

like

New

the

Japanese translation of an article

I

York Times

had written

six

months before on the Japanese peace symbol.^ The article discussed the symbol’s psychological ramifications, and while noting various manipulative

abuses,

argued

that

if

preserved

and deepened,

Many Hiroshima intellectuals and those in mv “special group” of research

it

could

have

including a

universal value.

officials,

number

subjects, turned out

to

of

have read the

article;

and whether or not they agreed with

every thing

s

Introduction: Research

and Researcher

9

enabled them to overeome wliatever suspieion they niiglit liave had that I was simply trying to gather militarily useful information for the United States government. For preeisely this suspieion had been said,

it

it

held in relationship to other Ameriean researeh seientists working in

Hiroshima on studies of physieal In

all,

was able

I

Only on one detailed

to obtain

aftereffects, as

standing in the city)

unable to arrange at least one

I

whom

interview with people

an authoritative request

shall diseuss later.

exeellent eooperation from hibakusha.

or two oeeasions was

willingness to partieipate were,

we

I

eontaeted.

Iiw'olved

in

this

believe, sueh factors as the response to

I

(from a

person

meet and

that they

group of considerable

or

talk

openlv with me; the

anticipation of finding an outlet for emotions and ideas about the

bomb,

either in the sense of spreading one’s message to the world or of

achieving

therapeutic

(though, as

mv

about

we

shall see,

and

both;

or

relief,

a

generally

affirmative

by no means entireh' unambivalent) feeling

work.

I’he interviews, usually about two hours in length, were conducted in

Japanese with the help of a research assistant trained to interpret in a way that allowed for maximum ease of communication. I tried to see each hibakusha twice, though

Throughout

just once.

sions of thoughts

and

all

saw some three or four times and others interviews I encouraged spontaneous expresI

feelings

of

any kind. But

mv

questions were

focused upon three general dimensions of the problem: recollection of the original experience and exploration of its meaning seventeen years residual concerns

later;

and

rounding delayed radiation

fears of all kinds, particular! v those sureffects;

and the

survivor’s inner ‘fformula-

tion” of his experience, his struggles with mastery and with the overall

hibakusha identity.

I

tape-recorded

the randomly selected group, and as well, always scripts

me

sessions with research subjects in

manv

of those with the special group

with the individual hibakusha'

consent, and had type-

romanized Japanese (romaji) and English, therebv with permanent voice and written records of the original

prepared

providing

all

in

Japanese. I

knew

selectivity

ence.

I

was inevitable that after seventeen vears elements of and distortion would appear concerning the original experiit

tried to evaluate these, in

importance

was the

vi\

in themselves.

ways

I

shall later suggest, as

But what impressed

me

throughout the work

idness of recall, the sense conveyed that the

right there in

my

ha\ang

bomb was

falling

office— a vividness which seems to reflect both the

1

DEA

0

r

IN LIFE

II

and

indelible imprint of the event

its

endlessly reverberating psyeho-

logieal repercussions.’^

“data”— my own reactions interviewing, reactions which gave

'bhere was one other valuable source of

during the

few davs of intensive

first

me new sympathy

the abortive and

for

research on the problem. Prior to this

during which matters

whole

bomb

problem,”

siderable previous

I

human

actual experiences of

had held informal meetings

was confronted with the brutal beings

who

was not prepared

amount

a certain

the

for

though

mv

things

that

heard.

I

some longing

did feel

I

soon— within changing.

a few days,

was listening

I

upon me

lessened.

beginning to detect function, and while

I

in

me

exposure,

I

found that the

I

profoundly shocked

for the relatively relaxed

atmosphere of

Tokvo and Kvoto. But

my

fact— I noticed that

to descriptions of the I

same

responses,

that

horrors, but their

upon

is,

verv

reactions were

concentrated upon recurrent patterns

these

in

left

bomb

did not consider abandoning the enterprise,

I

interviews with universitv students in

effect

knowledge (from

of beginning

completion of each of these early interviews

and emotionallv spent.

details of

me. Despite con-

sat before

informal talks and from reading) of the atomic

earlier

of dealing with

But now, instead

experience with people subjected to “ex-

research

treme situations,” and

nature of Japanese

from pleasant were discussed, but on the

far

at a general interpretive level.

“the atomic

I

erratic

by no means became insensitive

my

I

was

scientific

to the suffering

more comfortable operating distance between hibakusha and mvself quickly developed. This distance was necessary, I came to realize, not onlv to the intellectual but the emotional demands of the described, a

work.

The

“psychic closing-off”

atomic

bomb

It also

taught

calling a

upon

we

shall see to

me

one’s personal

follows

emphasis

*

be characteristic of

is

a

is

and professional resources

all

of

the

aspects of

to give

it

form, as

it.

composite statement of what

bomb

psychological

I

consider to be the

exposure, immediate and long-range.

upon shared psvchological and

these themes express themselves individual

demonstration

the importance of “making sense” of the event, of

major responses to atomic

My

unforgettable

exposure, even of this kind of “exposure to the exposed.”

means of coping with

What

was an

experience

historical themes,

but

through, and are inseparable from,

experience.

In

themselves

they are

neither

These descriptions, moreover, were not only consistent with one another in their general emotional themes, but also with earlier published accounts, Japanese and American, insofar as the latter touched upon psychological patterns."*

hitrochiction: Research patliological nor

tions to nuclear

normal.

both resemble and

'I'liey

diflPer

from

other disasters, and in other kinds of survivors, shall discuss in the final chapter. I hey take shape within the

we

as

1 1

Rather, tlicy arc consistent liinnan adapta-

weapons exposure.

themes encountered

and Researcher

in

psychological contours of Japanese culture, but are distinctly univ'ersal in nature.* And while their composite description includes more

than any

individual person could have experienced, nothing in

it

is

alien to

any

hibakusha.

My

work stems from the psychoanalytic

modified psychoanalytic approach,

I

tradition.

But

in

evolving a

have been moving toward the kind

of symbolic

and thematic emphasis now prominent in much scientific thought which focuses upon form and configuration. The analytic component remains important, though not in the nineteenth-century sense of attributing

all

nisms. Rather, the stress

upon

obser\ations to ultimate explanatory mechais

upon the development

psychoformati\e

a

theoretical issues in

my

perspective.

I

shall

of psychic forms, or

take up these general

next volume, but this perspective wall be evident

confront Hiroshima’s vast patterns of disintegration as well as efforts at psychic rebuilding or '"formulation.” as w'e

its

have learned much over the years from exchanges with Erik Erikson; he and I took the initiative in forming the Group for the Study of I

Psychohistorical Process, to

were

parts of the final chapter of the

generously in

Da\id Riesman and Kenneth Keniston shared the complex explorations of the study. Frederick C.

Redlich, formerly

Chairman

of the

Department of Psychiatry and now

of the School of Medicine at Yale, did

All four

book

presented.

first

Dean

wdiom

made

much

to

make

it

possible.

helpful suggestions concerning the manuscript, as did

How'ard Hibbett,

who was

kind enough to

make

a careful final reading.

Doi contributed much during our by now traditional dialogues in Tokyo and New Haven. Kiyoshi Shimizu and Shoji Watanabe of Hiroshima University provided invaluable help with research arrangeL. 1 akco

ments; and Lawrence Freedman of the Department of Medicine at Yale the principle involv'cd here is the three-way interplay I have elsewhere suggested be applicable to all group behavior: psychological tendencies common to all mankind, those given special emphasis within a particular (in this case, Japanese) cultural tradition, and those stimulated by contemporary historical forces. Under extreme conditions, universal patterns become especially manifest. But while in this to

study

I

stress

experience,

I

psychological

refer to cultural

“nothing-but” position.

universality

emphases

and

as well,

specific

and

(atomic

try to avoid

bomb) an

‘

historical

cither-or” or

1

DEATH

2

IN LIFE

counseled on pliysical effeets of the bomb. All eonclusions are of course

my own. Since

my knowledge

the language,

Kyoko

I

of spoken Japanese

depended

greatly

limited and

Yacko

do not read

upon the

bilingual tran-

Sato. Mrs. Lily B. Finn prepared the manuscript

with her usual dedication and care. John

book of Random House gave

J.

moment

Simon and Rachel White-

sensitive editorial advice.

various kinds of help contributed by

extended from the

I

skillful research assistance of

upon the

Ishikure and Kaoru Ogura, as well as

scriptions of

The

is

my

wife, Betty Jean Lifton,

of our arrival in Hiroshima

(and before

that) to the last revision. Finally,

who

I

gave so

am

extremely grateful to the

much

many

people of Hiroshima

of themselves, both as “research subjects”

fellow observers of a problem

demanding

attention.

and

as

HIROSHIMA

The Name One

hears the

forget

it.

One

shima. For of

it

of a City

word and wants

has heard both too

tlie city

know more, but one also wants to mueh and not enough about Hiro-

evokes our entire nuclear nightmare, and any study

must begin with

Its literal

to

this s\

meaning,

relationship to rivers

mbolic evocation.

broad island,

and

suggests

little

more than the

city’s

Does one care about the literal meaning of Carthage, Troy, Sparta, Ch’ang An, Lidice, or Coventrv? What Hiroshima does convey to us— indeed press upon us— is the realization that

happen again. this idea

to the sea.

happened and the implication that it could The mythological metaphors usually emploved to suggest it

actually

the genie

let

out of the bottle or Pandora’s box opened

not seem adequate for the phenomenon. That of

Frankenstein comes closer, but logically based,

myths

this

finite its

to grasp our relationship to the cool, its

threatened by his

more recent myth, though techno-

humanizes and keeps

nological deity which began

man

— do

monster.

We

need new

ahuman, completely

tech-

destructive reign with Hiroshima.

has often been pointed out that statistics of the power of the blast, or even of the number of people killed in Hiroshima, coiwey no sense of It

the

brutalized

human

being,

because

“statistics

don’t

bleed.”

The

DEATH

4

1

Statement

is

true,

IN LIFE

and

I

sliall

mueh

have

to say

about the phenomenon

numbing” whieh it illustrates. But it can also be somewhat misleading. For when we hear reports about the Hiroshima bomb, our emotions are not exactly the same as when confronted with equivalent evidence of bomb destruction' in London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, of “psyehie

Dresden, or

be

'I'okyo. d'hese cities, to

of man’s capacity

and inclination

(and her neglected historical

sure,

own messages

convey their

to assault himself.

But with Hiroshima

Nagasaki) something more

sister,

in-

is

volved: a dimension of totality, a sense of ultimate annihilation— of cities,

nations, the world.

The

feeling

importance.

may be

What

I

am

are the beginnings of

vague, but

suggesting

it is

is

of the greatest psychological

that our perceptions of Hiroshima

new dimensions

of thought about death

and

life.

by what we

psy-

wisdom no less debts of guilt. But our need and guilt are ultimately bound to actually happened there. And what did happen — what people in shima experienced and felt — seems to be precisely what we

than

These perceptions,

of course, are strongly affected

chically bring to Hiroshima,

thought

least about.

I

am

by deep need

for

its

genuinely uncertain as to

study of Hiroshima survivors can

fill

this strange

or even whether a complete grasp of the

how

gap

in

am

bomb

has specific bearing upon

tence. It follows that a better understanding of

word, this in

coming

name

of a city,

might enable us

to terms with that existence.

all

what

have

my

our knowledge, effects

new

thoroughly convinced that the encounter of people

with the atomic

Hiro-

adequately

bomb’s human

influence our fortunes in our current struggles with the

what

in

deity.

could

But

Hiroshima

nuclear age lies

I

behind

exis-

this

to take a small step forward

—

^

THE ATOMIC

1

)

BOMB EXPERIENCE

Anticipatioii

Anticipation

imagine

a

is

prior imagination,

profound event

lias

and the extent of one’s capacity

important bearing upon the way

to

in whicli

one responds. In the ease of Hiroshima’s encounter with the atomic bomb, the predominant general tone was that of extreme surprise and unpreparedness. Neither past experience nor immediate perceptions the two sources of prior imagination— could encompass what was about to occur.

People did, of course, expect conventional bombing. They knew that Japanese cities were being attacked from the air, and they could observe the destructive power of American raids in the devastation of the nearby naval base of Kure. d'hough wartime censorship kept

knowledge of Japan’s desperate rations

and the

lull in

plight, such things as

military activity in their

own

them from

full

diminishing food

city

were indications

that the situation was serious. 'I’hey also noted the large-scale demolition in

had been

Hiroshima, for which thousands of schoolchildren

recruited, in the effort to create

conflagration.

fire

lanes to control anticipated

They wondered when Hiroshima’s turn would come.

They were puzzled their city, despite

its

that virtually no

bombs had been dropped on

obvious strategic significance as a major staging

-

1

DEA

6

1

IN LIFE

II

China and Southeast Asia, its war industries, there had been

area for Japan’s military oi:>crations in military

large

and

population,

its

when planes passed over Hiroshima on the and when single planes dropped relatively innocu-

frequent air-raid w'arnings

way ous

to other targets,

bombs on what turned out

to be practice runs for the

atomic

bomb

mission. Gradually realizing that Hiroshima was one of the few major

Japanese

cities

not vet badly bombed, people sought to comprehend

this

strange state of affairs through various rumors which began to circulate.

Some

of these rumors were strongly wdshful, such as the very

one emphasizing the

had emigrated

fact that sizable

to America.

numbers

As an elderly widow'

common

of people from the area

recalled:

Hiroshima w'as so related to America. ... So many people had relatives in America, and therefore America would show sympathy toward Hiroshima— there were many in our neighborhood who had relatives in

America, and believed

this.

Equally wdshful was the idea that both Hirsohima and Kyoto were being spared because they were “so beautiful that Americans might build their there [after occupying Japan].

villas

.

Other rumors minimized

.

Hiroshima’s military significance: “There were not too tories in Hiroshima ... so we thought it w'ould not be all

of the really big cities

had been bombed.” 1 here

many big facbombed until

w'as also a

that Americans were holding back because of the presence of

Hiroshima, and a

tant foreigners” in

missionary colleagues, told

me

comment

right “thanks to \ou.”f

more his

seriousness,

far-fetched

mother”— was

rumors

is

in the area.

officials

who, with

would sometimes, with

appreciatively to

In a

rumor that

priest

imporhis

virtualh’ the entire foreign population,

how^ in those da\ s Japanese

humorous all

made up

German

rumor

somewTat

him

The

that things were

similar vein

a relative of President

half-

was the even

Truman— “perhaps

underlying element of denial in these

suggested bv another expression of anxious humor:

“W'e

support of this rumor was the proximity to Hiroshima of the island of Miyajima, a place of considerable beauty as well as religious significance. For Kyoto the rumor turned out to be partly truc-the city was given a last-minute reprieve from atomic bombing, not because of any plan to build American \illas there, but because of its unique cultural importance and concern about the *

Sometimes mentioned

consequences should

it

in

be annihilated.

The Japanese phrase, okagescima de, is more vague in its connotation. Literally “under your shadow,” it is used to convey one s actual or ostensible gratitude toward another,' usually of superior status, for his beneficent influence. There were also rumors, apparently never confirmed, that American prisoners of war were in Hiroshima. One hihcikusha insisted to me that he saw, in a Japanese military area soon after the bomb fell, a severely wounded and moribund GI. ^

7 he Atomic tlioiight that

perhaps

tlie city

of

Bomb Experience

1

7

Hiroshima was not on the American

maps.”

But

was also

tliere

— ^7he Americans must city — wliich turned out

rumor

opjDosite kind of

tlie

be preparing sometliing unnsually big” for tlie to be true. Some discussed tliis possibility in terms of a “special bomb”; and there was an occasional skeptical reference among scientists to an actual atomic

bomb. As one mathematician put

bomb could Many used

a

be made.

.

.

We

.

it,

“I

doubted that such

simply discussed the possibility.”*

the Japanese word bukimi,

meaning weird,

ghastly, or

unearthly, to describe Hiroshima’s uneasv combination of continued good fortune and expectation of catastrophe. People remembered saying to

one another,

man with

be tomorro^^’ or the dav after tomorrow?” One described how, each night he was on air-raid watch, “I trembled

fear.

...

premonitions

form of

\\

I

ill

it

would

think,

'

1

onight

it

will

be Hiroshima.’ ” These

were partly attempts at psychic preparation, partly a imagining the worst” as a magical way of warding off disaster. ’

Leaflets were

dropped on Hiroshima from American planes on July 27, threatening Hiroshima (and other major cities on which they were dropped) with total destruction if Japan did not surrender immediately, but they made no mention of the atomic

weapon. Nor did the a single person

picking one of scoffed at

it,

them

those

up,

I

anv other

many

interviewed, then a child,

and when he brought

whether out of genuine

how one was supposed

or of

appear to have reached

leaflets

among

bomb

it

disbelief or,

back to

more

to react to such a threat. In

of Hiroshima received no warning about the atomic

people

— only

remembered

his elders, they

likely, a

any

special

sense of

case, the

people

bomb; American

policymakers, for \arious strategic reasons, had decided against anv prior notice.! Still

another factor added to the surprise. After two

air-raid

alerts

during the night the sirens had sounded a third time in Hiroshima at 7:10 A.M. because of planes sighted over southern Japan. Some time later a single

atomic

bomb

B-29 approaching the city (which turned out to be the mission s weather plane) was seen, but since it quickly

* Scientists

throughout the world shared enough information about nuclear chain reactions to know that an atomic bomb was theoretically feasible, but few considered it at all likely that one could actually be made at that time. .\ number some form

American scientists and a few political and military leaders favored of warning or demonstration prior to any use of the bomb on a populated area. But they were overruled because the alternatives they suggested ‘were judged impractical, ineffective, or risky.’’^ 'I'he debate on this issue still 1

of

continues in this country.

1

DEATH

8

IN LIFE

departed, the all-elear was sounded at 7:32 a.m. Shortly after 8 a.m.,

defense spotters observed two or three additional B-29s

whieh earried out the atomie bombing) heading

air-

(the planes

Hiroshima, but no

for

additional alert was sounded; a radio broadeast mentioned the planes,

urging that people take shelter should the planes appear over the

and then adding the reassuring note that they seemed

to

eity,

be only on a

reeonnaissanee mission^

This reassuranee might have been one of the reasons those

why most

of

interviewed in Hiroshima had the impression that the all-elear

I

had sounded

bomb

a few minutes” before the

'‘just

fell.

In any ease,

with alerts so frequent and the eity remaining untouched, few bothered to take shelter, alert

and the

and those who did emerged. But the combination of the

all-clear created

the psychological sense that the danger

had alreadv approached and receded — that one had already through

‘‘been

it.”

Since people began their davs early during the wartime summer,

many

were alreadv at work or en route to their jobs by foot or public conveyances. Housewives were completing after-breakfast chores with the charcoal in their hibachi

thought to contribute to the

The

(small braziers)

fires

that sprang

up when the bomb

fell).

general atmosphere of the city was apparently one of early-morning

wartime routine— Hiroshima’s equivalent of retrospect later

burning (a factor

still

by

it

was

to

seem

idvllic, as

we

a

“rush hour.”

But

in

sense from a description written

a historv professor:

The

skv was serene, the air was flooded with glittering morning light.

Mv

steps

were slow along the

absent-mindedness. all-clear signal.

I

The

sirens

dry, dustv road.

and

I

also the radio

had reached the foot

was turning m\- e\es toward the water.

of a bridge, .

People were unprepared for the atomic

.

was

had just given the where I halted, and

.

bomb on many

dimensions: the immediate relaxation induced by the the feeling of being in

some way

of invulnerability which

all

in a state of

psychological

all-clear signal,

specially protected, the general sense

people in some measure possess even (or

especially) in the face of danger,

and the

total inability to conceive of

the unprecedented dimensions of the weapon about to strike them. As

one

man

put

it:

“We

imagined anything

thought something would happen, but we never

like the

atomic bomb.”

^

Immersion

2)

Only those

in

Death

at sonic distance

from the explosion could

clearly distinguish

the sequence of the great flash of light accompanied bv the lacerating

heat of the

then the sound and force of the blast, and finally the

fireball,

impressive multicolored cloud rising high above the spectacle was

little

A

This awesome

not without beauty— as recorded by the same history

who

professor,

citv.

witnessed

more than

blinding

from a suburb

it

thousand meters

five

(a

three miles) awa\':

... I threw myself onto the ground ... in a reflex movement. At the same moment as the flash, the skin over my body felt a burning heat. [Then .

.

flash cut sharply across the sky.

.

.

there was] a blank in time

seconds

.

.

and then

.

blankness raised

[There

.

my I

entire .

.

.

.

.

dead silence

.

.

huge '‘boom”

At the same time

of distant thunder.

down my

a

.

body.

then a

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

probably a few

like the

rumbling

a violent rush of air pressed

Again there were some moments of complicated series of shattering noises. ... I .

.

.

head, facing the center of Hiroshima to the west.

saw] an enormous mass of clouds

climbed rapidly

Then

.

.

.

.

.

.

[which] spread and

summit broke open and hung over horizontally. It took on the shape of ... a monstrous mushroom with the lower part as its stem — it would be more accurate to call it the tail of a tornado. Beneath it more and more boiling clouds erupted and unfolded sideways. The shape ... the color the light were continuously shifting and changing. ... .

.

into the sky.

.

.

.

Even

.

of

.

.

.

.

.

he and others experienced what

at that distance,

“illusion

.

its

centrality,”

as

is

succinctly

bv a

suggested

called the

is

later

poem

originally written in the classical tanka style:

Thinking was a

a

bomb must

pillar of fire five

have fallen close to me,

looked up, but

it

kilometers ahead.*

No attempt has been made to Japanese— z.e., thirty-one syllables in and seven syllables. *

I

retain

in

translation

the classical

five lines of, respectively, five,

form of the

seven,

five,

seven,

DEATH

20 'This

IN LIFE

usually attributed

illusion,

invulnerability,

the sudden

to

loss

of

a

sense

of

aetually an early pereeption of death eneounter, a

is

pereeption whieh the atoinie

bomb

The bomb was eompletely on

engendered at enormous distanees.

and exploded, with a foree equivalent to twenty thousand tons of TNT, eighteen hundred feet in the air near the eenter of a flat eity built mainly of wood. It ereated an target

area of total destruetion (including residential, commercial, industrial,

and military structures) extending three thousand meters (about two miles) in all directions; and destroyed sixty thousand of ninety thousand within

buildings

five

thousand meters

(over

three

miles),

an area

roughly encompassing the city limits. Flash burns from the heat generated by the release of an enormous

amount

of radiant energy occurred at

more than four thousand meters (two and a half miles), depending upon the type and amount of clothing worn and the shielding afTorded by immediate surroundings. Injuries from the blast, and from splintered glass and falling debris, occurred throughout the

distances of

city

and beyond.

The number

of deaths, immediately

and over

a period of time, will

probably never be fullv known. Variously estimated from 63,000 to 240,000 or more, the of

official figure

is

usually given as 78,000, but the city

Hiroshima estimates 200,000— the

total

encompassing between 25

and 50 per cent of the city’s then daytime population (also figure, varying from 227,000 to over 400,000). The enormous related

to

methods

which then

extreme confusion

the

of calculation,

and

to underlying

existed,

a disputed

disparity

to

is

differing

emotional influences, quite

apart from mathematical considerations, which have at times affected the estimators.

can be said

atomic

Two

is

An

that

accurate estimate all

may

never be possible, but what

of Hiroshima: immediately

became involved

disaster."^

thousand meters (1.2 miles)

is

generally considered to be a

crucial radius for susceptibility to radiation effects, tality

in

general— from

blast,

killed outside of this radius.

and

literally incinerated.

Whthin

The

for high

heat, or radiation— though it,

mor-

many were

at points close to the hypocenter,

heat was so extreme that metal and stone melted, and

were

in the

area was enveloped by

human

fires

beings

fanned by

a

violent ‘Trewind”; these broke out almost immediately within a radius

The aiming

Army

Headquarters, but so congested were nearby commercial and residential districts that 60 per cent of the population was within 1.2 miles of the hypocenter. The accuracy of the drop was said to be such that the bomb exploded within two hundred yards of the aiming *

point.

point was a central area adjacent to an

a

The Atomic Bomb Experience more

of

«itli

2

1

tlian three tliousaiid

meters (up to t«o miles). Tlie immdatioii death of the area closest to tlie hypocenter was sucli tliat if a man

survixed witliin a tliousand meters (.6 miles) and was out of doors (that IS, without benefit of shielding from heat or radiation),

more than nine

tenths of the people around

him were

he was unshielded at two thousand meters, more than eight of ten people around him were killed. Mortality indoors was lower, but even then to have a 50-per-eent chanee of escaping both death or injury, one had to be about twentytwo hundred meters (1.3 miles from the hypocenter. fatalities; if

)

d'hose closest to the Inpocentcr could usually recall a sudden flash, an intense sensation of heat, being knocked down or

thrown some distance,

and finding themselves pinned under debris or simply awakening from an indeterminate period of unconsciousness. The most striking psychological feature of this immediate experience was the sense of a sudden

and absolute With death.

shift

Ins

from normal existence

an overwhelming encounter

to

described by a shopkeeper’s assistant, who was thirteen years old at the time of the bomb and fourteen hundred I

is

meters

from the Inpocentcr:

was a been an I

little

ill

...

so

stayed at

I

home

that day.

There had I felt relieved and lay Then it happened. It came very suddenly. It felt something like an electric short— bluish sparkling light. There was a noise, and I felt great heateven inside of the house. 3Micn I came to, I was underneath the destroyed houSe. ... I didn’t know anything about the atomic bomb so I thought that some bomb had' fallen directly upon me. And then when I felt that our house had been directly hit I became furious. dhere were roof tiles and walls-everx thing black— entirely covering me. So I screamed for help. And from all around I heard moans and screaming, and then I felt a kind of danger to mvscif. ... I thought that I too was going to die in that warning and then an all-clear. down on the bed with my younger brother. .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

air-raid

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

wax.

I

felt this

do anything at all by or what I was under

know how

moment

xxayat that

my

because

oxvn poxver.

...

couldn’t hear

I

x

I I

.

.

xvas absolutely

unable to

didn’t knoxv xvhere

oices of

mv

family.

I

I

xvas

didn’t

could be rescued. I felt I xvas going to suffocate and then die, xxithout knoxving exactly what had happened to me. ’I'his xxas the kind of expectation I liad. I

.

Characteristic here vidual

is

the

.

way

.

in

wlhcli

and group death encompasses

tlie all

dominant tlieme

of indi-

other emotions— including

DEATH

22

IN LIFE

tliose of confusion, helplessness,

and abandonment, prominent

in adults

as well as in children.

NTany others (perhaps with retrospective reconstruction, but not without significance in any case) recalled initial feelings related to death and dying, such as "d’his is the end for me”;

"My

think

first

feeling was,

‘I

will die’

I

and, in the case of a psychologist, then a university found himself pinned under the heavy beams of a

who

student,

collapsed house at two thousand meters, and

abandoned by two

who had

out:

unsuccessfully attempted to pull

him

friends

began to see my mother’s image before me. ... I regretted that I was going to die. I thought I was young, and had just been successful in very difficult [academic] competition. ... I wanted to study more in the life ahead of me. And I was dving without seeing I

.

my

.

parents.

This kind of maternal image

m

soldiers

Long

World W'ar

Emperor” on

live the

w^as

reminiscent of reports about Japanese

trained to go to their deaths with the phrase

II:

Both cases suggest an

their lips, they instead called out,

effort to reassert 'the ultimate

m

ship

.

“Mother!”

human

relation-

the face of death’s severance, along with (as the psychologist made clear) a protest against what is perceived as premature death. Beyond these feelings was the sense that the whole world was dying.

A

physicist,

covered

by

falling

debris,

found

himself

temporarilv

blinded:

My .

.

A

tody seemed

Then

.

thought,

I

black, everything

all

"The

Protestant minister,

w^orld

is

seemed dark, dark

all

over.

ending.”

himself uninjured,

but responding to the evidence of mutilation and destruction he saw ever\Avhere around him during extensive wanderings throughout the city, experienced his end-ofthe-world imagery in an apocalvptic Christian idiom:

The

feeling

destroyed.

•

I •

had was that everyone w^as dead. The whole I thought all of my family must be dead—

it

latter

if

I

die.

...

I

a

just

greatly

woman

w'riter,

thought

I

Japan— o humankind.

And

.

.

one

doesn’t

was the end of Hiroshima This was God’s judgment on man.

.

this

— of

Yoko Ota:

could not understand

m

citv w^as

•

instant.

...

I

why our thought

surroundings had changed so it

might have been something

The Atomic Bomb Experience

23

wliidi had nothing to

was said read about It

do with the war, tlie collapse of the eartli whicli would take place at the end of the world, and which I had

as a cliild.

.

.

This sense of world-eollapse

eoiild also

be expressed symbolieally,

as in

the immediate thoiiglit of a devoutly religious domestie worker: "'There

no God, no Buddha.” For many, immersion in death was epitomized by olfaetory imagery— by memories of “the eonstant smell of dead bodies,” and the lasting nature of those memories: “I ean feel the smell of those dead bodies in is

my

nostrils

even now.”

The

survivor originally experieneed this “smell of death” not only from eorpses around him but from the general odor of mass open eremations soon earried out by authorities (both for the prevention of disease and in aeeordanee with

Japanese eustom); how-

ever

derived,

atomie

bomb

it

beeame psyehologieally interwoven with the

entire

experienee.

These eremations eould even give rise to a eertain amount of “atomie bomb gallows humor,” as in the ease of a professional eremator who, despite severe burns,

managed

to

make

way baek

his

(adjoining the erematorium), and said he then

thought

would die soon, and erematorium so elose by.”

DEATH

I

it

to

felt relieved

would be eonvenient

his

home

beeause “I

to

have the

IN LIFE

Beyond death imagery per

there was a widespread sense that

se,

life

and

death were out of phase with one another, no longer properly distinguishable— whieh lent an aura of weirdness and unreality to the entire eity. This aura was often eonveyed by those who had been on the outskirts of the eity

and entered

it

after the explosion, as

was true of an

then in his mid-forties, working at a railroad junetion thousand meters from the hvpoeenter. eleetrieian,

was setting up a pole There was a flash ... whieh I can’t describe. I

.

.

.

.

.

.

over

my

.

.

five

near a switeh in the railroad traeks. a kind of flash I had never seen before, .

My

face felt hot

and

I

put

my

hands

and rushed under a locomotive that was nearby. I crawled in between the wheels, and then there was an enormous boom and the locomotive shook. I was frightened, so I crawled out. ... I coLildn t tell what happened. For about five minutes I saw nobody, and then I saw someone coming out from an air-raid shelter who told me that the youngest one of our workers had been eyes

.

.

.

DEA

24

IN LIFE

r II

...

injured by falling piles

my

and

bicycle

so

tried to take

put the injured

I

him

man on

the back of

Then

to the dispensary.

saw that

I

crowded into the dispensary, and since there was also a hospital nearby, I went there. But that too was already full. ... So the only thing to do was to go into [the of all center of] Hiroshima. But I couldn’t move my bicycle because ... I the people coming out from Hiroshima and blocking the way. saw that they were all naked and I wondered what was the matter When we spoke to people they said that they had with them.

almost

all

of the people in that area were

.

.

.

We

were desbeen hit by something they didn’t understand. perately looking for a doctor or a hospital but we couldn t seem to W^e walked toward Hiroshima, still carrying have any success. Then in Hiroshima there was no place either it had our tools. .

.

.

there

.

.

.

.

— so

companv where injured people were lying inside, asking for water. But was no water and there was no way to help them and I didn t

become an empty office

.

.

know what kind others.

I

had

field

I

carried

of treatment

to let

them

him

to a place near our

should give to

I

my

die right before

this

eyes.

man

or to the

... By then we

from escape, because the fire was beginning to spread out and we couldn’t move— we were together with the dead people in the building— onlv we were not really inside of the building because the building itself had been destroved, so that we were really outdoors,

were cut

off

and we spent the night

there.

.

.

.

This rote and essentially ineffectual behavior was characteristic of many during the first few hours in those situations where any attempt at all

could be

generally

made

more

to

maintain a group cooperative

People were

members of their immediate families same electrician, an unusually conscien-

effective in helping

or in sav'ing themselves. tious

effort.

man, kept

I

his

at his post at the railroad over a period of several weeks,

leaving onlv for brief periods to take care of his family. Again his description of the scene of death

and near-death takes on

a dreamlike

cpialitv:

There was practically no 4 here were dead bodies everywhere. At that time I couldn t room for me to put mv feet on the floor. figure out the reason why all these people were suffering, or what illness it was that had struck them down. ... I was the only person .

.

.

.

taking care of the place as

all

.

since trains weren’t running,

I

.

of the rest of the people

Other ]X'ople came in looking There was no one to sell tickets .

.

had gone.

for food or to use the toilet. in

the station, nothing

didn’t have

Thcrcwasnolightatall, and we were

much work

just like sleepwalkers.

.

.

.

to do. .

.

.

.

.

.

and .

.

.

The Atomic Bomb Experience

25

Part of this aura was the "dcatlily silence” consistentl\- reported hv sun ivors. Rather than wild panic, most described a ghastly stillness

a sense

(whether or not

literally true) of

and

slow-motion: low moans from

those incapacitated, the rest fleeing from the destruction, but iisuallv not rapidly, toward the rivers, toward where they thought their family

members might

be, or

toward where they hoped to find authorities or medical personnel, or simply toward accumulations of other people, in

many

cases merely mor-ing along with a gathering human mass and with no clear destination. Some jumped into the rivers to escape heat and fire, others were pushed into the water by the pressure of crowds at the river banks; a considerable number drowned. Many seemed to be attracted to the disaster center, oxercoming numerous

obstacles— such

as spreading fire and, later on, guards posted at xarious points to prevent any influx of people— and made their way through the debris, often losing sight of their ostensible rescue missions in their aimless wandering.

As Dr. Hachiya described the scene

in his classic,

Hiroshima Diary: /

I

who

hose

distant

w'cre able

hills,

walked

silently

to\\’ard

the suburbs in

their spirits broken, their initiative gone.

When

the

asked

whence they had come, they pointed to the city and said, "That way and when asked where they w'crc going, pointed away from the city and said, "Fins way.” d’hey were so broken and confused that ;

they inox'cd and behax'cd like automatons. heir reactions had astonished outsiders I

ment the

spectacle of long

rough path

files

who

reported with amazeof people holding stolidly to a narrow,

hen close by xvas a smooth, easy road going in the same he outsiders could not grasp the fact that they xxere

XX

direction.

I

xxitnessing

the

exodus of

a

people

who

xxalkcd

in

the

realm of

dreams.^

One

of these "automatons” walking in

the "realm of dreams,” a

watch repairman, at the time of the bomb in his twenties and three thousand meters from the hypocenter, describes

own mindless

his

merging with

a

group of victims:

All the people

were going

taken into this

movement and went with them. ...

any

clear decision

people.

.

.

.

I

lost

in

a

in

that direction and so

specific

wa\’

.

.

.

so

myself and was carried away.

I

I

I

suppose

I

couldn't

make

was

followed the other

DEATH

26

IN LIFE

1 he phrase he and others used, mugci-muchu,

without

literally

self,

The without a eenter,” suggests an obliteration of the boundaries of self. complete physical state of many greatly contributed to this obliteration: blown

or near-nakedness (partly because of clothes

off

by the blast and

an early-morning state of undress), from various injuries and forms of bleeding, faces disfigured and bloated arms held awkwardly awa\’ from the body to prevent friction with through being caught

partly

in

burns,

(and by other burned areas. Fellow survivors characterized such people

many

implication, themselves) as being “like so

like so

or

beggars,

their red Jizo'^ standing on the sides of the road, implying that identity as living human beings had been virtually destroyed. ’

many

Indeed, a few hibdkushd described being rendered literally unrecogthat nizable: one girl of thirteen, whose face was so disfigured by burns until w'hen she returned home, her parents did not know who she was similarly she began to cry; and another, one year older, was not only

disfigured but also unable, probably

a psychological basis, to see or

on

speak:

My see

mother and I were taken to [a nearby] and couldn’t say anything — that is what

eyes were not injured.

I

think

I

my

closed

...

island. I

eyes

heard

later.

when

the

couldn

I .

.

.

bomb

t

M> fell.

was so distorted and changed that people couldn t tell who^I couldn’t was. After a while I could call others’ names but they e were considered the ver\ worst kind of recognize me. two patients. ... Of the thirtv-five people put on this island, only

My

face

.

.

.

W

survived.

Hachiya

Dr.

also

noted

the

“uncanny

stillness”

hospital where he was, for a time, both director

An

woman

old

me

but she made everyone I saw complete

—

about examining .

.

.

Why

walked through

Yoko Ota

and patient:

with an expression of suffering on her no sound. Indeed one thing was common to

lav near

face;

spoke.

permeating the

a

silence.

.

.

.

Kado

NIiss

[a

nurse]

set

without speaking a word. No one was everyone so quiet? ... It was as though I

mv wounds

gloomy, silent motion picture.

.

.

referred to this silence right after her description of the

“end of the world,” and more

explicitly

equated

it

with a general aura of

death: *

A

Buddhist

paths.

deity,

whose images

in natural stone

can be found along roads and

The Atomic Bomb Experience

27

was quiet around us in fact there was a fearful silence which made one feel that all people and all trees and veeetation were It

.

dead.

And

.

.

d'*

.

a grocer, himself severely burned,

profound sense of death

this

.

in

life,

conveyed

in his description

of ultimate death-life disruption:

The appearance of people was well, they all had skin blackened by burns. They had no hair because their hair was burned, and .

.

at a glance

.

.

.

.

you couldn’t

whether you were looking at them from front or in back. They held their arms bent [forward] like this [he proceeded to demonstrate their position] and their skm-not only on their hands, but on their faces and bodies toohung down. ... If there had been only one or two such people perhaps I would not have had such a strong impression. But wherever I walked I met these people. Many of them died tell

in

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

along

.

road— I can still picture them in mv mind— like walking ghosts. They didn’t look like people of this world. They had a special way of walking— very slowly. ... I myself was one of them. the .

.

.

.

.

.

The

other-worldly grotesqueness of the scene, the image of neither-deadnor-alive human figures with whom the survivor closely identifies himself, is typical.

One man

put the feeling more directlv: ‘T was not

reallv

alive.”

‘‘unnatural order’’ Related to the sense of death in

and

social

order— of

rules

life

was a

governing what

total disruption of individual is

expected of one and

whom

one can depend on. Thus, the severely burned thirteen-year-old mentioned before (later to become a hospital worker) was assigned her classmates to do

voluntary labor” on the

meters from the hypocenter, and was as

breakdown of teachers standards of was by her own injuries: I

felt

river.

my body ...

strange.

.

I .

.

fire

much

lanes sixteen

girl

with

hundred

disturbed by the sudden

responsibilitv for their pupils as she

be so hot that I thought I would jump into the couldn t tell what was going on, but everything seemed The teacher from another class, a man whose shirt was to

burning, jumped

And when

was about to jump, our own class teacher came down and she suddenly jumped into the river. The river was filled with people and I could not swim very well, so I was afraid of jumping. ... At that time we felt quite lost. in.

I

DEATH

28

IN LIFE

we wanted to ask themselves had been wounded and

Since vvc had always looked up to our teachers,

them

But the teachers were suffering the same pain we were. for help.

Such disruption reaches deeply into psychic experieuee, and can produce strange and desperate behavior— as it did in a young noncommissioned officer stationed in the center of Hiroshima, but on leave in the

suburbs ten thousand meters away

when

bomb

the

fell;

Wc

were under militarv order to return to our unit immediately in case of anv attack or emergency, so I returned almost without At first I couldn’t get through ... so in the evening thinking. I started out again, d'his time I didn’t try to help anyone but just walked through them. I was worried about the Army camp because .

.

.

had simply gone up in flames and disappeared. I was also a bit ashamed of having taken such a long time to return. But when I finally got back to the camp, just The about eveiAone w'as dead— so there was no one to scold me. first thing I did was to give water to three people lying on the ground who were badlv hurt — but a high-ranking officer came and told me not to gi\e water to wounded people if they were suffering from

according to what

.

.

people told me,

.

it

.

Next thing I did was to look code book— since we had a militarv order

burns.

it

.

.

.

I

furoshiki'^'

militar\-

for the ashes of the military

to look for this

as

full

He

book even

if

it

headquarters as soon as possible, but

there the next morning, the officer scolded thing.

.

was a secret code which had to be protected. located the ashes of the book, and wrapped them in a and carried this around with me. I wanted to take it to

were burned,

Finalh-

.

...

I

when

me

for

I

finally did take

doing such a stupid

was fresh from the Militarv Academy and

of such regulations.

.

.

it

my

head was

.

stuck to militarv regulations so inappropriately, not only because he

was “fresh from the Militarv Academy” and unusually conscientious (even compulsive), but also because he was inwardly not yet able to accept the if

a familiar

* .\

dimensions of what had taken place and was behaving as

form of order

still

existed.!

square piece of cloth of \arying size and quality which

objects large f

full

is

used to wrap and carry

and small.

Idle Japanese cultural stress

upon

external and internal order encouraged this kind

might also have influenced the sense of quiet and slow-motion mentioned before. But similar behavior has been noted by Wolfenstein and other observers in American victims of ordinary disasters. One must also keep in mind the extraordinary intensity of the atomic bomb experience and its capacity to impose its own responses, whatever the racial or cultural group involved. of response, as

it

The Atomic Bomb Experience Ratlicr than

total

disorder,

atmosphere so permeated by \vliate\er life

part of a in

tlic

decimation of

city created

an

evidence of death as to

l)izarre

remained seem unrelated

supernatural

tlie

29

to a “natural order”

make and more

or

imnatnrar’ one. T hese impressions emerged frecpicntly expressed imagery of a Buddhist hell, here described by a

\oimg

sociologist exposed at twentv-five

Everything

saw made

hundred meters:

deep impression— park nearby covered a with dead bodies waiting to be cremated very badlv injured people evacuated m my direction. The most impressive thing I saw was some girls, ^ ery young girls, not onhwith their clothes torn off but with their skin peeled off as well. My immediate thought was that this w^as like the hell I had always read about. ... I had never seen anything which resembled it before, but I thought that should there be a hell, this w'as it— the Buddhist hell, where we w^ere taught that people wdio could not attain salvation always went. And I imagined that all of these people I w'as seeing w^ere in the hell I had read about. I

a

.

.

.

.

.

Most itself

unnatural

as described

of

all

.

.

.

was the sudden nonexistence of the

city

by the historv professor:

climbed Ilijiyama Hill and looked down. I saw that Hiroshima had disappeared. ... I was shocked by the sight. What I felt then I

.

and

still

feel

now

man\ dreadful

I

just

canT explain with

scenes after that

— but

.

.

w'ords.

Of

course

I

that experience, looking

saw

down

and finding nothing left of Hiroshima— w^as so shocking that I simply can’t express what I felt. I could see Koi [a suburb at the opposite end of the city] and a few buildings standing. ... But Hiroshima didn’t

exist— that w^as mainly wdiat

I

saw— Hiroshima

just

didn’t

exist.

And two

days after the

bomb

Dr. Hachiya groped unsuccessfully for

language wTich could comprehend the unnatural order he observed:

For the

first

time,

I

my

could understand what

had meant they said Hiroshima w^as destroyed. For acres and acres the city w'as like a desert except for scattered piles of brick and roof tile. I had to revise my meaning of the word destruction or choose some other word to describe what I saw. Devastation mav be a better word, but really, I know' of no w'ord or words to describe the view'

wTcn

.

.

.

friends

’

DEATH

30

from

my

IN LIFE

twisted iron bed in the fire-gutted ward of the

Communi-

eations Hospitals

Summarizing the psvehologieal

signifieanee

of

this

early phase,

I

imprint of death immersion, which forms the death; basis of what we shall later see to be a permanent encounter with the the fear of annihilation of self and of individual identity, along with

would

stress the indelible

sense of having virtually experienced that annihilation; destruetion of the non-human environment, of the field or eontext of one s existenee,

and therefore

of one’s overall sense of ‘‘being-in-the-world d"

and the

replacement of the natural order of living and dying with an unnatural order of death-dominated

life.

5

“Psychic Closing-off"

)

Human any

for

bcangs arc unable to remain open to experience of

intensity of time, \tory quickly-sometimes within minutes or

lengtli

tliis

even seconds— fuba/cus/ia began to undergo a process of “psychic closingoff’’; fhat is, ther- simply ceased to feel. They had a clear sense of whaf

was happening around them, hut consciously turned

their

emotional reactions were un-

off.

For instance, when the noncommissioned

officer

who had

searehed so desperately for the military eode book was put in eharge of a group assigned to carry out mass cremations, he found that he eould dispose of the corpses with surprisingly little difficulty:

After a while they

m

a

beeame

just like objeets or

very businesslike wa\\

... Of

eourse,

goods that we handled I

didn’t regard

them

simply as pieees of wood— they were dead bodies— but if we had been sentimental we eouldn’t have done the work. had no emotions. Beeause of the sueeession of experienees I had been through, I was temporarih’ without feeling. ... At times I went about the work with great energy, realizing that no one but mvself eould do it. .

.

.

.

.

We

.

His lack of feeling extended even to seemingly supernatural events surrounding death, in sharp contrast to the terror experienced by an outsider

just entering the disaster area

:

Everything at that time was part of an extraordinary situation For mstanee, I remember that on the ninth or tenth of August, it was an extremely dark night. ... I saw blue phosphoreseent flames rising from the dead bodies— and there were plenty of them. These were quite different from the orange flames coming from the burning buildings. These blue phosphoreseent flames are what we Japa.

.

.

nese look upon as

from dead bodies— in former davs we called them fireballs. And yet, at that time I had no sense of fear not a bit, but merely thought, "Those dead bodies are still burning.” But to people who had just eome from the outside, those .

.

spirits rising

.

flames looked very strange.

.

.

.

One

of those nights

I

met a^oldier

DEATH

32

IN LIFE

who liad just returned to the city, and I walked along with him. He noticed these unusual fireballs and asked me what they were. I told him that they were the flames coming from dead bodies. The soldier suddenly became extremely frightened, fell down on the .

.

ground, and was unable to move. of mind in which I feared nothing .

flames now,

I

.

Yet at that time — though if I were .

might be quite frightened.

.

I

had

.

a state

to see those

.

.

Dr. Hachiya similarly recorded his “changed outlook” in which he

began

to “accept

death as a matter of course,” “ceased to respect

awfulness,” and “considered a family lucky

two of

if it

had not

strong efforts to turn

and energy

to caring for

away from the

an injured senior colleague, nonetheless insisted

that he “did not see the disaster,” and “in fact .

[because]

.

closing-off process

disaster, as in the

who, despite having devoted great time

case of a professor of education,

.

more than

members.”

its

Some made

it

lost

its

I

did not

is

more

want

.

.

avoided seeing

.

to see frightening things.”

Here the

clearly allied with conscious will.

Others’ immersion in larger responsibilities was accompanied by a

more gradual form ing.”

A

high city

which may be termed “psychic numb-

of closing-off,

official in

Nagasaki, for instance, immediately became

deeply involved in the enormous task of re-establishing a city office and directing various

hours after the

emergency operations. Only

bomb

fell,

thirteen

at night,

late

home, where he found

did he return to his

the corpses of his wife and two of his children; the following day he

found the corpse of cally into his work,

still

another child. But he threw himself energeti-

and “had no time

for personal grief.” After his wife

and children had been cremated, he kept office,

“and did not even have

Many

a

two months.”

directly

from

gro-

mentioned before:

the whole situation around

.

.

more

for

desensitizing themselves to death in

them by

general, as in the case of the grocer

.

remains with him in his

chance to bury them

hibakiisha had to defend themselves

tesque deaths around

Well

their

me

and was very special There were these too.

mv

.

.

.

mental condition was very special \VT11, today the person next to me people lying close to me. would die, and the day after another person next to me would One of them would be talking to me, and then when I die. .

.

.

would death.

.

.

.

.

.

.

call .

.

him .

few minutes How shall I put a

later it?

he was dead.

...

I

just

.

.

.

About

life

couldn’t have any

and re-

The Atomic Bomb Experience ...

action.

about

feelings

say

I

I

became

don

t

tliink

human

I

felt

either

joy

or

sadness.

death weren’t really normal.

human

insensitive to

33

.

.

.

My

You might

.

.

.

death.

Even the professional cremator, whose oecupation him into regular eontact with death, noticed that

ordinarily brought

his feelings

were now

unusually blunted:

hen

I

burned

soldiers

bodies, I usually felt pity for their parents because they died so young. But when

them and

for

I saw people dving from the bomb, I didn t espeeially feel any pity. I thought, while on my way to my home, that I might die like the others.

Psychie closmg-off could be transient or it could extend days or even months, into more lasting psyehie

itself,

numbing. In the

case

It

merged with

feelings of depression

the physieist, who, after walking

among

and despair— as

corpses for a full

over latter

in the ease of

week searching

for

the bodies of relatives, experienced what he called a emptiness, which he explained wdth the help of a

As

“state of

metaphor:

walked along, the horrible things I saw^ beeame more and more extreme and more and more intolerable. And at a certain I

point

have become more or

less

saturated, so

that

I

I

must

became no longer

sensitive, in fact insensitive, to

what I saw around me. I think human emotions reach a point beyond wdiich they cannot extend something like a photographic process. If under certain eonditions you expose a photographic plate to light, it becomes black; but if you continue to expose it, then it reaches a point where it turns white. Only later can one reeognize having reached this maximum state.

—

.

1 his

psychic

maximum

state” could take

many

.

.

forms. In the olfactory realm

numbing could enable one not only

to accept the “smell of

death” but even to require it. A novel about the atomic bomb describes such a sequence (apparently based on actual occurrence) in a hospitalized survivor:

d'hey say that the sense of smell quickly becomes dulled. Afterwards when healthy people came in from the outside they would all say that the place simply stank. Toward evening— from where we didn’t .

know— a so

.

.

terrible smell, like broiling sardines,

bad that

somebody

ev'en w'e

couldn

t

stand

finally told us that

it

it.

came

drifting in. It

We wondered

wTat

it

was was, and

was the dead being cremated.

DEATH

34

IN LIFE

about a month of this, with the evening meal being brought in each day at just about the time that the smell of came floating in, I began to have a queer craving for the death smell, and my appetite was better than ever. Apparently my appetite had somehow become stimulated by the smell of the burning corpses.

But

.

.

.

.

.

.

My

.

after

.

.

and I barelv survived without giving the others the the same odor from us.^"^

father

¥

chance to

The

sniff

^

bomb

crvptic final remark, with a touch of atomic

gallows humor,

numbing and imagery of one’s own death; it also contains another emotion we shall soon discuss; the tainted joy over having survived amid others deaths. Yoko Ota describes first an acute “feeling of paralysis of my mind

again expresses the close relationship between psychic

from “outside shock,” and then goes on psychic

numbing

identitv

and

more protracted

to describe

associated with her strong awareness of her writer

s

task:

younger sister said to me with a critical tone, “You are certainly good at watching those corpses. ...” I answered her, “I see them There both with the eves of a person and the eyes of a writer.”.

My

.

for us to experience

was no time

A-bomb]

[the

as

fearful.

.

...

It

not become fearful until two or three years from now. But the shadow of death crosses in front of me, comes back and passes through me. Besides the living me, there is another me which has will

been dead.

.

.

sentence suggests some of the complexity of the have observed its function, as a defense psychic closing-off process. mechanism, to be that of closing oneself off from death itself: the

Miss Ota’s

last

We

unconscious message place.” final

But

as

is,

“If

I

nothing, then death

feel

Miss Ota’s words suggest (and

section), psychic closing-off

is

itself

as

we

is

not taking

shall discuss in the

a symbolic

form of death.

like a Thus, the survivor’s frequent use of such terms as “nightmare, his entire sense dream,” “the dream realm,” and “like walking ghosts

—

of a death-saturated “unnatural a

means

of creating emotional distance

tolerable world immediately

Another tanka conveys

The

order”— is part of

flash that

instant dream.

his closing-off process,

between himself and the

in-

around him.

this

and much more:

covered the city in morning mist was

much

like

an

4)

Survival Priority

Significant as

was, psychic closing-off could by no

it

means

fully protect

the survivor from either the threatening stimuli from without or within.

1 he latter took the form of self-condemnation, of guilt and shame. From the moment of atomic bomb exposure, the hibakushd experieneed a need to justif\’ his own survival in the faee of others’ deaths, a sense of guilt over survival priority”" 1

noncommissioned

hus, the

had spoken of tioned his

he

unit,

own

his attitude

to plague

as

cremate eorpses

men from his own members who eame for

the remains of

to console familv

the spot where he worked at cremation by day.

He

when

passing

was, in effeet, telling

that not only was his psyehie elosing-off incomplete, but that he was

retrospeetively appalled a

who

the pity and sympathy

these remains; he even recalled feeling frightened at night

me

on.

“businesslike” later ques-

He emphasized

when handling

and the pains he took

him from then

offieer assigned to

toward them

use of the word.

particularly

felt,

whieh was

way he now thought

— felt

done

whieh

guiltv

— at

having behaved

in

eallous; at not

having experieneed emotions (or

now thought

appropriate. For he had indulged

not strongly enough) he in activities

ashamed and

ordinarily, for

him, were strongly taboo, and had

so with an energy, perhaps even an enthusiasm,

which must have

mobilized within him primitive feelings of a frightening nature. Similarly, after revealing that he “considered a family lucky

not

lost

added:

more than two

“How

could

I

its

own

its

members,” Dr. Hachiva immediatelv

my head up among the citizens of Hiroshima my mind?” Psyehie closing-off, in other words,

eost in the currency of guilt

and shame.

Guilt resulting from the death eneounter

death guilt— in

this

way both

by, psyehie closing-off.

himself

is

*

The

vividly expressed

walk through the The phenomenon

had

hold

with thoughts like that in has

of

if it

— what

interferes with,

and

we may broadly is

call

further stimulated

psyehie vise in which the hibakusha finds

by the history professor

in his

account of his

city;

of survivor guilt has been widely recognized, but I use this admittedly more awkward phrase to emphasize issues of sequence and timing in the question of who dies and who survives.

— DEA

36

I

went

IN LIFE

r II

to look for

mv

Somehow

family.

I

beeame

a pitiless person,

had pity, I would not have been able to walk through the eity, to walk over those dead bodies. Hie most impressive thing was the expression in people’s eyes — bodies badly injured which had turned black— their eves looking for someone to come and help them.

beeause

if I

Thev looked

at

me and knew mv family and

that

was stronger than they. ...

I

I

looking carefully at everyone I met to was looking for see if he or she was a familv member but the eyes the emptiness the helpless expression— were something I will never forget. And I often There were hundreds of people who had seen me. had to go to the same plaee more than once. I would wish that the same family would not still be there. ... I saw disappointment m

—

—

.

.

.

their eves.

They looked

through me.

me

at

was very hard

It

In other words, he

felt

to

.

.

.

with great expeetation, staring right

be stared at by those

eyes.

.

.

.

accused by the eyes of the anonymous dead and

dving of wrongdoing and transgression

(a

sense of guilt),

for

not

helping them, for letting them die, for “selfishly” remaining alive and

and “exposed” and “seen through” by the same eyes for these identical failings (a sense of shame). Psvchic closing-off was thus broken

strong;

through bv feelings of self-eondemnation, by death guilt.* “psvchic opening-up” exposed

him

And

this

to various forms of delayed guilt over

having been so “pitiless” a person while his feelings were numbed.

Sometimes the delaved

guilt takes the

form of remembered voices of

those left to die while one was oneself being rescued— as described by the elderh- widow,

who was

carried to safety in a

wheelbarrow by her

son and daughter-in-law;

I

manv voices calling women and children.

heard

for help, voices calling their fathers, voices

wonder what has happened to those people. ... I couldn’t move m\’ bodv very well, and my son had six children to take care of in addition to me, so, well, we just didn’t help other people. ... I felt it was a wrong thing not to help them, but wc were so much occupied by running away ourselves that Even now I still hear their voices. we left them.

of

.

.

.

.

.

Even now

.

.

d’hc unspoken self-accusation here

expense of

I

is

that her

life

.

.

was saved

at the

many others’.

term “death guilt" throughout the book to encompass all forms of self-condemuation associated with literal or symbolic exposure to death and dying, including those usually linked with the sense of shame. Guilt over survival priority, then, is a form of death guilt. I'hese issues will be pursued further in the final *

I

shall use the

chapter.

The Atomic Bomb Experience I

weapon’s unknown features and

lie

aftereffeets

made

it

37 possible to

experience guilt related to a more direct sense of having contributed to others deaths as was true for the noncoinmissioncd

—

I

made one

of clearing

Wlicn

mistake.

them away,

cremated the bodies and did the work told everyone to work. But there were some

I

I

without any external

[soldiers]

began

officer:

marks or injuries and miserable.

to say that they felt tired

.

.

.

.

who soon

Yet

.

they work and even punished them for not working. I did not understand then that they were suffering

.

... Of

from the

bomb.

the

Later,

when

realized this,

I

insisted

eourse,

effeets of

them home to their But I wish I had sent them baek a little earlier. If I had— and if I had given them more vegetables to eat— the pereentage among them who died might have been lower. families.

.

.

I

I

sent

.

FAILED RESPONSIBILITY The

closer the relationship to a person

one

failed

to help

(or later

thought one should have helped), the greater one’s sense of being responsible for that person’s death. A domestic worker described the later repercussions of having, together

with her adult daughter, ignored the pleas of a severely injured neighbor, with whom they had been on close terms, to take his nine-\ear-old son to a hospital:

Ilis

us.

.

head was covered with blood, and wdien he saw us he called to Yano [the daughter],” he said, ”Yano-san [a more polite .

.

my

form], please take

child wdth you. Please take

him to the hospital over there.”. The child couldn’t seem to move its arms ... and seeing the fire approaching us so closely, I was afraid that we ourselves would not live. ... I thought. We have got to escape by hardening .

.

ourselves against pity. please,” stuck in

my

.

.

But

.

mind.

as

we went

on, his erv, ‘'Yano-san,

My

daughter and I abvays talked about how’ bitter he must have felt tow^ard us for not helping him. ... I heard later that he survived but that the child .

.

.

.

died.

me I

.

.

.

to help,

And I

wdien

for instance, w^as

I

to be

made about whom

to help.

*1

he plwsicist

torn by feelings of responsibility toward his senior

whom

and toward the victims;

.

think of not helping him despite his begging can only say that it is a verv pitiful thing.

amful decisions had

professor, with

.

he had

latter’s

a relationship of affection

family after

and tow’ard another

his

death;

and obligation,

toward

critically injured close colleague:

anonymous

DEATH

^”1^

38

When

IN LIFE

and saw all the ineredibly miserable people ... I thought I should do something for them. But this feeling was replaeed by the feeling that I had to notify the professor’s looked around

I

family; that was

my

.

.

.

responsibility.

.

able to extend help to those people

I

.

The

.

more

experience of not being

or less forgot later on.

But

on the faculty of the university— who later died. ... I thought about going to help him and knowing that I might during the time that I was walking have done something to save him— this has caused me great pain.

person— a

there was a certain

close friend, also

.

.

.

.

.

The

who had viewed

Protestant minister

'‘God’s

judgment on man” went on

in the

.

the atomic holocaust as

same idiom

to express guilt

over his sense of failed responsibility:

felt

I

my

unconditional surrender to God’s judgment.

down before Him. church members and

thought,

kneel

I

six

to

is

the meaning of this loss?

should have died.

.

.

.

Mv

What

does

it

mean

I

wanted

to

to lose fifty-

have a Ghristian church destroyed— what I

thought. This

inner

command

the time to die, and

I

was: “Die! Die!” but

I

is

couldn’t die.

God by

per-

mitting the former to die and by not himself dying in their stead.

And

That

he had “failed” both

is,

his guilt

was compounded by what was

Death

guilt was, of course,

to family

members. Indeed,

disaster as a unit, especiallv

“I

his parishioners

thought

if

I

died,

it

his

clearly a strong urge to live.

most focused and intense families often

seemed

to

in relationship

respond to the

mothers and children. As one mother

would be together with

then went on to suggest that

this

members’ dying and

surviving.

priority

and

others’

all

the children”; she

would be preferable Potential

so great that total family annihilation

said,

to

guilt

some family over survival

may seem

less

dis-

Ghildren’s deaths had particularly strong impact, whatever the

cir-

is

turbing.*

cumstances. These aroused in parents a special kind of guilt associated with failure to carry out the most fundamental psychobiological tasks in

young— giving

caring for the

life to

them and maintaining

it

in

them.

the Japanese cultural stress upon the inseparability of mother and child. One finds something of a corollary in the not infrequent tendency for suicidal Japanese mothers to kill their small children before killing themselves, so that all die *

Involved here

together.

is

But again these

tendencies.

are

unusually intense expressions of universal

psychic

.

The Atomic Bomb Experience Parents’ later self-reproaclics had

than

more

to

39

do with these basic emotions

the actual details of a child’s death, which, in fact, they often reconstructed in a way that made them most culpable, for instance, a middle-aged businessman had returned to Hiroshima from a brief trip during the early-morning hours of August witli

6.

le

was not too responsn’c wlien

room

to ask his father to

Having been up

his twelve-year-old

remove

a nail

from

all

night,

son eame into his

The

his shoe.

father,

wishing to get the job done quickly, placed a piece of leather above the tip of the nail and promised he would take the whole nail out when the boy returned later that afternoon. As was true of many youngsters sent to factories to do ‘Voluntary labor,'’ the boy's body was never foundand the father, after a desperate but fruitless search for his son throughout the city, was left with the lingering self-accusation that the nail

the

he had

failed to

remove might have impeded the

bo\''s

escape from

associated with requests one

had denied

fire.

Similar emotions

ones children

became

(or other family

members) which turned out to be last requests. Such an experience was described in a poem, which became well known m Hiroshima, telling of a mother whose thirteen-year-old son, before leaving for his work detail, asked if he could have a tomato. She told him it would be better to eat it when he returned. But the boy did not return and his remains were never found. His mother later constructed an altar for her dead son, on which she put a paper box

covered by a white cloth, and on top of the cloth a tomato. Children whose parents were killed also experienced intense and lasting guilt, the theme of which was expressed by a young

woman who

had become an

A-bomb orphan"

at the age of four through the death

of her mother (her father had died earlier) and who said to me: “We did nothing bad-and still our parents died." The child invariably interprets a parent's death as a form of punishment for its misbehavior. And since any child, when angry at a parent, may experience and even express the wish that the parent were dead, the parent's actual death—

and indeed the

bomb-can be

entire suffering visited

upon

a family

by the atomic

perceived by the child as the product of

its

own

evil

wish

Such patterns of death cliildren

were unable

parent had

first

keeper’s assistant

to

guilt

were strong

in

situations

rescue their parents, partieularly

helped the child

— as

in

wliich

when

the

was the experience of the shop(then thirteen years old) who had been trapped under

the debris of his house;

D

40

A

1

II

IN LIFE

scrciiiiiiiig ^^IMothcr!

kept

I

F.

...

staggering toward me.

my

We

”

mother think she pulled the debris awa\ from loudly, iind then

\^ct\' I

I

saw

ni\

body, and then there was a hole I eonld erawl out through. grandmother also were able to dig out my baby brother, and my .

.

earned him away.

.

.

But

.

weak and began to helped her up and tried to drag her with pieees of destroyed houses and

mv mother

and fall on her side. So I along. But the road was elnttered eollapse

.

was

ver\

around ns so I thought I had to hurry. ... I was snffoeating from the smoke and of us would be killed. I I thought if we stayed like this, then both eonldn’t

I

thought

if

move

her at

all.

.

.

Hie

was

fire

wider road,

eoiild reaeh the

I

.

I

all

eonld get some help, so

my mother there and went off. ... I founa a neighbor and told him my mother was lying in there and asked him please to held his ehild while He went baek for her feteh her.

I

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

left

I

.

but after a while he returned and said that he eould not get into that plaee any more. ... I was later told by a neighbor that my very mother had been found dead, faee down in a water tank or elose to the spot w'here I left her. ... If I had been a little older eould have reseued her. mother’s voiee calling me to help her. stronger

The

I

elderly

countrv

woman

.

.

.

Even now

.

.

my

hear

still

I

.

.

.

.

experienced a

form of

related

guilt

through the death from radiation effects of a brother who came into the her. She spoke city after the bomb and then spent three days looking for concretelv of the issue of survival priority:

My

brother’s wife told

been exposed the poison

His dying

I

who had not

was, since he,

bomb,

like

.

.

.

.

.

.

the area for such a short time and yet went so many places to look for me, and because he preceded me in death.

had been

...

lucky

me, but had merely breathed died, while I could survive. I feel so sorry for him. because he that still gives me very deep emotion

directly to the

air,

like

me how

m

.

.

Legends which

gre\\’

up around the way

in

.

which family members

died could themselves be expressions of painful guilt on the part of time of the survivors. A divorced housewife, just twelve years old at the

bomb, described her father’s last words— his question about whether a other family members were all right, and when told that they were, am happv to be I hen onlv' one of us must die, and I final comment; sacrificed for the others.” 'The girl sacrifice surviv^c.

remained convinced that her

father’s

had enabled the

rest of the family to

She did not understand the nature of the

gnilt she retained, the

and

spiritual influence

.

The Atomic Bomb Experience part

4

might have played in embellishing memories of her fatlier’s \vors( winch could well have contained resentment over being

l

It

last

“sacri-

hced

way

or the

),

which

in

guilt affected her life in general.

Guilt could also become importantly related to the revulsion survn-ors toward dring family members-a revulsion wbich

felt

Iw

was related

to

severe death

anxiety and which

prevented a proper farewell A woman (later to experience eve disease), fourteen vears old at the time and with her mother, was told that her father had been taken to a iieiglibor

s

house

There was .

ly

in a severclv injured state:

a small

room

father smelled

.

.

.

where the three of us could

sleep.

terribly

because foul matter came out of his r remember complaining about the bad smell and m\own legs began to swell and pain ... so I was moved to mv mothers family home and a little later I heard that mv father died. I was verv .sad but I was also so frightened that I couldn’t go to see Inm.^ 1 he appearance of a person injured by the A-bomb was ernble E\en with my father, m\own flesh and blood, it gave me a very bad feeling. Now I regret it when I think baek on it. W hy didn t I go to see my father when he was dving? I think I must have been exhausted then, physically and

wounds,

.

.

.

,

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

spiritually.

In

one

all

felt

of these instances guilt

magnified by previous resentments toward family members-and the survivor can nexer be in-

wardly certain to what degree

his “neglect” of a parent, child, or

related to such prior feelings.

IS

bomb

is

spouse

Lack of foreknowledge about atomic

could enter into these patterns. The histonprofessor, after locating his wife and finding that “she had some burns but did not look too bad,” left her to lend assistance to some of his students: effects

did not gn e her

I

all

the care

should have.

She began to show symptoms of A-bomb disease— which we knew nothing about— and at the end she became mentally abnormal and died. It was strange, but when she died, I did not feel extremely sad. Everyone was losing family members and losing just one person did not seem 1

.

.

.

so extreme. did not have enough knowledge at the time, but since then I have said to myself constantlv: I wish I could have given her more care and attention. ... .

.

.

Of

course,

I

Here ignorance, conflicting

responsibilities, psychic closing-off,

and am-

bivalence are inextricably intertwined in their contribution to guilt. Guilt toward family members could also be expressed more indirceth

42

DEATH

One man,

for instance, told

IN LIFE

me

in

some

nephew

of his inability to rescue a

and with great discomfort the room next to him, and

detail

killed in

great an conveyed the strong impression that he inwardly wondered how children and parents effort he had made. I also heard many stories of

again separated, separated from one another, then dramatically reunited, child or and so on, in which I could detect unconscious rhythms (in the alternating parent describing the event) of guilt-anger-abandonment the guilt rewith those of relief-gratitude-restored nurturance— with people involved asserting itself particularly strongly where one of the

poignant in a culture eventuallv died. Such conflicts were particularly mutual responwhich places extraordinary stress upon dependency and which instills with exquisite sensitivity the fear of abandon-

and

sibility,

ment.^®

Guilty conflicts could be greatly alleviated by more or

less

permanent

patterns of care— reunions of family' members, and by the reassertion of and wives or parents and children. But there were

between husbands

whom

which those from

cases in

incapable of pro\'iding

bomb had

before the

it.

care was required were emotionally

divorce just one year

Thus one mother, whose

left

her with a sense of abandonment, was sud-

eight-year-old denly confronted with the responsibility for saving her

daughter and her one-year-old son;

three

all

had minor

from

injuries

sympexposure at two thousand meters, and the children had possible

toms of

irradiation:

things out of the house but everything was and myself and so carrving only the baby’s diapers buried with two wearing onlv a pantv and slip, the three of us— a mother we escape? children what should we do? In what direction should I

some

to take

tried

.

.

.

.

.

.

—

...

I

had no

clear destination

but

I

felt

we had

to

run away.

.

.

.

complain that her stomach was hot— and and then the baby she threw up a dark liquid like coal-tar but it began to throw up also. ... I tried to go over a nearby bridge escape to was on fire so we couldn’t go that way. I was told to and with the Itsukaichi [a suburb] but I knew that with my injury

The

eight-year-old

began

to

—

.

.

.

did not have the strength to go there. ... A man name and I with his eyes sticking out about two inches called me by People’s bodies were tremendously swollen— you can’t felt sick.

two children,

.

imagine

.

I

.

how

consciousness.

caused things

...

human body It

can swell up.

was not so much

my

.

.

.

And

then

lost

I

[that

bodily injuries

the but the feeling of helpless desperation saw around me. ... I didn’t know what I could do about

me I

big a

to faint]

.

.

.

The Atomic Bomb Experience

my

caring for

43

children, wliat

would happen to us. ... I lost my selfconfidence. ... I felt lonely and fearful. That was at about nine a.m., and when I awoke it was about four in the afternoon. My older child was looking at me, and the first thing I saw was her face and the baby 1 think I had been unconsciously holding all the time. Even stronger than thoughts about life and death was this feeling of loneliness and fear ... of having no home and no .

.

.

Her

.

.

.

familv.

.

.

.

.

.

.

feelings of

abandonment,

helplessness,

and death anxiety

interfered with her eapacity for providing maternal care, resulted in strong feelings of guilt and

undoubtedly

(toward whome\’er she for their

felt

demands upon

whieh

also of

greatly in turn

resentment

had abandoned her and toward her ehildren

her); her loss of consciousness and prolonged

sleep probably resulted largely from these eonflicts."' Her experienee, rather than being unique, epitomized psyehological struggles within all w'ho were responsible for nurturing others under eonditions that

made

adequate nurturanee impossible. The resulting guilt in many eases was considerably stronger than hers beeause of the death of the children involved. I

eneountered

members

familv bility.

ments

many

analogous patterns of behavior, in relationship to

as w^ell as to

more generalized

conflict over responsi-

In addition to fainting these patterns ineluded various impairof mobility, vision, hearing, and speech. Such

svmptoms had two symbolic functions: they “solved” the confliet over responsibility and abandonment by ineapaeitating the hibakusha so that little more eould be demanded of him (though like the abandoned mother, he eould eontinue to provide minimal nurturanee while incapacitated); and at the same time thev struek him dowm (whether he was rendered still, blind, deaf, or

dumb)

in the sense of

punishing him for remaining alive and rendering him “dead.” They were thus a radical form of psychic closing-off in response to

extreme death

guilt.

CONFIRMATION AND CONDEMNATION With

the survivor burdened by this combination of death guilt and strong feelings of abandonment, the appearance of someone who eould Di\orce

in

Japan, especially prewar Japan, has even greater connotations of abandonment than it docs in the West. Usually initiated bv the husband or his relatives, it conveys to the wife the sense of being cast out from the family she had made her own through marriage, and her connection with a proper “family line” severed. Children, moreover, were usually kept by the husband or his familv,' unlike the situation in this case.

DEATH

44

IN LIFE

evoke a sense of

tlie

pre-bomb world meant

a great deal,

A

mathe-

experieneed a serious e\e injury described how, upon leaving the hospital to which he had been taken only to be quickly critical released (because doctors were preoccupied with even more

who had

matieian

weak, nauseated, “uneasy,” and “wondered what was going to happen”— until, while resting under a tree with his eyes closed,

he

injuries),

felt

he was pleasantly surprised by the voices of several of his students or a calling “Serrsei” (the general term used to address a teacher

The word immediately “gave me a very relaxed feeling.” addressed at such a moment can have the significance for the

superior).

Being so

survivor of being “confirmed” in his prior identity,

extent “recognized” as one

who

and has

is,

and

to a considerable

a right to be, alive.* Corre-

spondinglv, the absence of such confirmation and recognition could cause these issues to remain psychologically in doubt, and leave the survivor T’his

abandoned

to his sense of guilt

was particularly

laborer, middle-aged

and alone

downtrodden woman

generally

a

for

true

and worthlessness.

in life

when exposed

at eighteen

hun-

dred meters. Her leg severely injured (eventually leading to permanent deformitv), she was taken to an emergency treatment area, where for

about a week virtually nothing was done for her. As one accustomed to neglect, she stifled her rage at first and even justified her being ignored,

but was soon so overcome by feelings of worthlessness reach out for death

as virtually to

:

thought others should naturally be treated first because their cases until my leg began to become were more serious than mine infested with maggots. ... I showed them how bad it had gotten, I

.

.

.

I you later.”. felt verv lonely and sad, but also resigned since nothing could be done. ... My being so helpless and unable to move caused so much trouble to others that I thought it would be better if I were dead.

but

all

they said was, “Til

come back

to take care of

.

.

.

Also greatly contributing to death ness

and abandonment, were

guilt,

and

own death

.

to feelings of worthless-

survivors’ impressions of generalized self-

ishness, of absence of concern or desire to help.

coping with their

.

anxiety to

make

People were too busy

available ordinary

com-

convey acknowledgment of superior position or genuine respect and even affection, thougli it can also be used ironically. Frequently lost sight *

The term

sensei

can

the strong dependency of the senior person, the “sensei,” upon his juniors, which is greatly increased under extreme conditions like these. I use “confinnation” of

in

is

Martin Buber’s sense.

The Atomic Bomb Experience passion for others.

himself

Many

used sucli plirascs as “Every

man

45 tlionglit of

People took eare of themselves or sometimes their relatives

;

not anyone else”; and (in referenee to the inevitable looting whieh followed, even, or perhaps espeeially, in a disaster of this dimension) "People thought nothing of stealing from one another like hungry demons and an honest man was likelv to starve.” blit

.

.

.

.

.

.

he history professor also spoke in these terms, but made eondemnation uas also direeted at himself:

1

his

Of

course

it

elear that

thought much about my children, but egotism was so great that each person was alone. ... I felt stronglv that human beings were animals-even in the case of parents and children, they still fought with one another to get their food.

He a

I

noted that help existed only within families, that there did not strong tie with a group or a community,” and that even the

exist

military

helped “only because

was ordered

it

do

to

so,

not for humanitarian

He went on to describe an incident in which he acceptance of human limitations, but which again reveals the reasons.

kushas almost automatic preoccupation with

own

his

survival

urged hiba-

and the

resulting death guilt:

think that the wish to rescue oneself is always the first thought that comes to the human mind. P'or example, rny second son, who was just seven years old, was at home. wife’s \oungest sister was in the next house. W’hen the bomb dropped, my son was buried under our house. Hearing many others screaming for help the boy also called out, “Help, help.” wife’s sister told me that she heard I

My

.

.

.

.

.

.

My

and then got others to help her get him out. But she confessed that she first forgot about him ancl onlv later, secondarily, his

cries

did she think of him.

told her not to feel badlv, that natural to think of oneself. ... I

it

is

quite

Yoko Ota is more consistent and more scathing in her attribution of the abandonment of hibakusha to historicallv imposed Japanese character traits:

Japanese people remained silent without sa\'ing amthing, without encouraging or comforting one another. No one came to take care of

injured people

and no one came

spend the night. of time we had

to tell us how’

We

were simply left alone. lost our autonomy. .

.

.

.

.

We

and where wc should Over a long period had given even our .

DEATH

46 licarts’

IN LIFE

function to narrow-minded leaders

.

but after this disaster Victims were isolated.

.

.

no guidance from an\one. the inaetive traits of There was nothing we eould do but observe eirenmstanees their Japanese, whieh became cjuite elear m these shallow negligent attitude, their utter laek of wisdom and other event, qualities and human defects. Even after sueh an extraordinary which one is likely to eneounter no more than once in his lifetime, buses at the people concerned [bus company employees w'ith a few

we

received

.

.

.

.

.

.

,

.

.

definite plan for transporting vietims. They that eonfined themselves to their offices as if in hiding, as if feeling prompt action and quick judgment, or kindness to bombed-out their disposal]

had no

citizens, or enthusiastic,

critieized later on.

We

may suspeet ment and death

.

thoughtful help, would only eause them to be

.

that Miss Ota’s owti hibakusha feelings of abandonto the intensity of her vicAvs; her

guilt eontributed

means

observations are by no

entirely unwarranted, but they negleet

universal psvehological tendencies toward psyehic closmg-off

oeeupation with individual survival

m

and

pre-

the face of massive death immer-

sion.

An site

among

oceasional survivor

feeling,

those

and emphasized the

I

interviewed expressed an oppo-

selfless

eooperation

among atomic

victims— something resembling the “post-disaster utopia that deseriphas been described in other holocausts."^ But m each of these of transtions there was evidence of inner doubt, either in the form

bomb

negate the parent wishfulness or of sufficiently strong qualifieations to eooperation, and original elaim. The most enthusiastie statement of

endorsement of Japanese character

in general,

was the

follow’ing;

They are This is a very good tradition. Everyone helped. aecustomed to earthquakes and eatastrophes, and in sueh situations the whole town always helps. .

.

.

.

.

I

met him, and

.

.

But no Japanese made such a claim. These European priest, who had been living in Japan

when

.

.

like

many

missionaries

Christian involvement in East Asia, had

w'ere for

m

the words

almost

thirt\

of

a

\ears

the long tradition of

become immersed

in a pro-

detachment from those to whom one and criticism, are has no formal tie, and inertia as a means of avoiding responsibility time. But they notably strong in Japanese and were undoubtedly prominent at the by the encouraged can be found elsewhere, and, as I suggest below, w'ere enormously *

riiese cliaracteristics of

conditions of the atomic

dependent

passivity,

bombed environment.

The Atomic Bomb Experience

Pp-

47

tractcd struggle to achieve a sense of belonging within his ^hnission-

land

his idealization of

;

become

Japanese behavior was part of his struggle to

and part of

Japanese,

a generally unstable

post-bomb adjust-

ment.-^

The

professor of education

who had

^‘avoided seeing” the disaster

first

claimed that

people were very cooperative,” but almost immediately afterward recited (more convincingly) numerous examples of selfish behavior and general

loss of

manifest.

a

moral standards. His contradictory attitudes reflected patterns of emotional disorder which were later to become Similarly,

philosopher colleague of his mentioned

^‘the

feeling of brotherhood, the desire to cooperate closely with each other,”

but

seemingly positive

this

turned out to be associated with other efforts at denial, and was, moreover, largely abandoned when he corrected himself

stress

and spoke of

the egotism of people at the extreme

moment.”

A

few others contrasted the spirit of mutual assistance during and immediately after the disaster with its subsequent absence— suggesting

what has been leftist

woman

called “the

breakdown of the

unselfish

s

others

A

writer, referring partly to her sense of being liberated

from the control of Japanese people

post-disaster utopia.’^

help— “rich

went

militarists,

or poor, strong or

so

as

to say that

weak”— gave

a reason to live,” but that soon afterward

happened and some

far

her and

“something strange

weak became strong and stopped offering help.” And the noncommissioned officer illustrated this shift by contrasting the ease with which he could flag a passing truck and be picked up during the first month following the disaster with the abrupt of

the

.

cessation of such cooperative gestures thereafter.

there existed so slight

a rise

and

and wavering

was often

felt,

as

we

fall

We

.

.

may assume

that

of post-disaster utopia”;^- but the rise was

that, for

many,

shall observe in

it

went unnoticed, and the

fall

the next chapter, as merely a

continuation of the disintegration that had begun with the bomb itself. The generally negative imagery about human behavior suggests a

fundamental guilt-linked theme, with both

social

cations. In a disaster of this magnitude, the

and individual impli-

extreme conditions dras-

the possibilities of cooperation and mutual aid, and thereby greatly accentuate the awareness of ordinarv urges toward self-preservatically limit

tion.

The

idea that an individual’s

toward his

own

survival

becomes

first

and strongest impulse

is

directed

vividly displayed and, in this death-

saturated context, totally unacceptable.

Even more unacceptable

is

the

inner joy at having survived, whatever the fate of one’s fellows. Miss

:

DEATH

48

IN LIFE

Ota described one of

tlic

rare situations in

which

this

joy could be

expressed

When

woke up

morning and found myself still living, there was nothing I could do but spend the whole day basking in the brightness of ha\ing returned from hell, and in the joy of ha\ing been brought back from death. I

in the

On

both counts, the hihakusha has further cause to equate his survival with evil, lakashi Nagai, the Catholic physician-hero of Nagasaki, later

wrote:

In general, then, those

who

survived the

atom bomb were the people

who

ignored their friends crying out in extremis; or who shook off wounded neighbors who clung to them, pleading to be saved. ... In short, those \\ho sur\'i\'ed the bomb were, if not merely lucky, in a greater or lesser degree selfish, self-centered, guided by instinct and

not civilization it is

a dull

.

.

and we know

.

it,

we who have

survived.

Knowing

ache without surcease.-^

Nagai goes on

condemn

to

himself for ha\ing forgotten about his

brother (who died) at the time, for taking two days to get back to his

house “where

my

wife lay dead,” and

for,

under the guise of rendering

dedicated and unselfish help in directing the rescue of patients at the hospital, having the secret motne of wishing “to win praise from

everybody ... to be called a

upon

his

That

hero.’'

is,

the hihakusha must look

motives and urges as e\il— because he

is

part of a disaster

which (whatever he did or did not do) defeated cooperative effort limit its human toll, and because he cannot accept either his urge

to

to

survive or the fact of his survival.

THE ULTIMATE HORROR A hpe of memory which epitomizes appears in what

I

the relationship of death to guilt

ha\c called the ultimate horror

—a

specific

image of

the dead or dying with which the survi\or strongly identifies himself,

and which evokes

in

condemnation.

noncommissioned oEcer, who had become an worker by the time I talked with him, described an

him

event which affected his entered the city

present

and

self-

'riius the

experienced social

I

particularly intense feelings of pitv

.

.

life

.

even more than did his crematorv

[and] walked along the [river]

Yokogawa Bridge [where]

I

activities:

bank near the saw the bodies of a mother and

The Atomic Bomb Experience her child.

was

still

.

.

alive

That

.

—

still

is,

tliouglit

I

I

49

saw dead bodies, but

breathing, though with difficulty.

...

child

tlie

filled

I

the

my

lunch box with water and gave it to the child, but it was so weak it could not drink. I knew that people were frequently passing that spot and I hoped that one of these people would take the child as I had to go back to my own unit. Of course, I helped many people all through that day but the image of this co\'cr of

.

.

.

—

.

child stayed

on

.

.

my mind

and remains as a strong impression even now. L.ater, when I was again in that same area, I hoped that I might be able to find the child and I looked for it among all the dead children collected at a place nearby. Even before the war I had planned to go into social work but this experience led me to go into my present nork with children— as the memory of that mother and child by Yokogawa Bridge has never left me, especially since the child was still ali\ e when I saw it. .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Most images versal

of ultimate horror involved

.

.

women and

children, uni-

symbols of purity and vulnerability, and particularly so

nese culture. But thev also could consist of the hibakusha

^members

or of

entire event.

image— the

anonymous people who came

The

own

s

*

in Japaj

him the

to s^•mbohze for

ultimate horror thus forms the hibakusha

family

s

residual

pictorialization of his central conflict in relationship to the

disaster.

A

image could both express these general themes and ha\’c specific guilt-stimulating rele\ance— as in the case of the scene of dead children recalled by the man who had not been able to rescue a nephew of about the same age: single

Wdiat made the strongest impression on three days after

WeW,

me

was [something I saw] the bomb— children of about five or six years old.

there was a railway crossing in

what

now Yokogawa, and

is

about twenty of them were all lined up to be burned [cremated] and there were some who had stuck their heads in a water tank two children with their heads still sticking in the tank this was an .

.

extremely impressive sight and

And

felt great pitv for

the image of corpses of young boys

flee recalled

his

I

own

who had

by the businessman who had

.

them.

.

.

.

.

.

.

tried unsuccessfully to

failed to remo\'e the nail

from

son’s shoe:

In front of

tlie First

the same age as

my

Middle School there were son and what moved .

.

.

.

.

.

many )oung

me most

to pitv

boys

was

^

50

DEATH

IN LIFE

that there was one dead child lying there and another

be crawling over him blackness.

What

.

.

in order to

who seemed

to

run away, both of them burned to

.

greatly contributed to the emotional

power of these scenes of

ultimate horror was their giving stark external actuality to the most

and separation— as we

primitive inner anxieties concerning annihilation

observe in the case of one

bomb, who

woman, seventeen

years old at the time of the

recalled her search for her parents:

walked past Hiroshima Station bowels and brains coming out. ...

and saw people with their I saw an old lady carrying a suckling infant in her arms. ... I saw many children with dead mothers. ... I just cannot put into words the horror I I

,

.

.

.

felt.

.

.

.

.

.

In addition to causing horror, such scenes had elements of fascination.

This was true for a technician, at the time employed

who came

the suburbs,

gation and

relief.

into the citv

in a

war factory

on a confused mission of

in

investi-

His voluble, even enthusiastic, descriptions of females,

and naked, suggested that what he saw attracted as well as repelled him, and that powerful feelings of death guilt can combine brutalized

with existing psychic inclinations toward perverse sexual and aggressive fantasies:

saw bones

women

one corpse with the flesh removed from the then about one hundred people, mostly women and children, none of them with clothes on, lying on the asphalt pleading I

.

.

for help.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

When

leprosy patients.

.

.

.

saw these victims I was reminded of And one thing that has never disappeared from first

I

my

mind, even today, a miserable thing was ... a girl in the rain of about eighteen or nineteen years old, and she had no clothing on her body except half of her panties, which did not cover her. She took a few steps toward me but as she was ashamed of her situation, she then crouched on the ground and she asked me for help— putting her hands in a position of prayer. And when I looked at her hands I saw the skin was burned off as if she were wearing gloves. Her hair was disheveled and her breast was red from burns. Since she was the first to ask me directly for help, I wanted to do something for her, but .

she was stark naked like a

.

.

and the company order— which was really military order— was supreme to me ... so I was at a loss. her she better stay under the eaves of the destroyed house and .

.

.

.

I

told

.

.

The Atomic Bomb Experience

5

1

would come back to help her later but I met the same kind of people one after another and I couldn’t do anything at alb so I did not go back. And even now, after seventeen years, I think of the horrible situation of that girl ashamed of being naked, crouching on the ground, praying with her hands for help from me. that

I

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Such psychic inclinations were they are universal, and that

hibakusha were

is

particularly strong in this

why

it is

at his hospital

all

to these grotesque scenes. Dr.

this in his description of the

sudden appearance

man, but

probably accurate to say that

some degree drawn

in

Hachiya confirms

who not

.

.

.

.

.

on the day

impact made by the

after the

bomb

of a

man

only recounted in great detail the grotesque scenes he had

observed but “repeated himself two or three times”:

seemed

Mr. Katsutani some relief to pour out his terrifying experiences on us; and there was no one who would have stopped him, so fascinating was his tale of horror. While he was talking, several people came in and stayed to listen.^® It

Much

to give

of the survivor’s fascination with these horrors has to do with

his inner contrast

between those experiencing them and himself— in the

unconscious reassurance that “they, not this “reassurance” also

aggressive

evokes within

him

I,

But

are being brutalized.”

precisely those fantasies

whose

and perverse content has always rendered them unacceptable,

so that strong currents of guilt

immediate death

One form

from early

life

join

forces with his

guilt.

of ultimate horror

was both frequent and particularly

significant— the recollection of requests by the dying which could not be carried out, particularly of pleas for a few sips of water.

Water was

withheld not only because of survivors’ preoccupation with saving themselves and their

own

families,

but because authorities spread the

word that water would have harmful

effects

upon the

Yet hibakusha retained particularly troubled quests,

and usually gave an explanation

were to die anyway,

I

feelings

severely injured.

about these

re-

to the effect that “Since they

should have given them the water they wanted so

badly.”

Indeed, addition

it

to

turns out that the request for water by the dying, in reflecting

the

victims’

physical

state

(their

shock and

dehydration), has special significance in Japanese cultural tradition. related to an ancient belief that water can restore life

It

is

by bringing back

DEATH

52 the spirit

tliat

IN LIFE

has

just

departed

— or

is

about to depart

— from

the

body,-^’ a life.

Japanese version of a universal tendency to equate water and Associated with this belief, there has evolved a general custom for

water to be requested by and offered to the dying. These pleas by Abomb victims were therefore as much psychological expressions of old

symbolism

cultural

that they were pleas for

them, whatever

him

for

were of physical need; one might well say

as they

life itself.

came

his reasons,

The to

survivor’s failure to acquiesce to

have the psychological significance

of refusing another’s request for the privilege of life— while he

himself clung so tenaciously to that same privilege.

HATE, CHANCE, AND SELF-HATE Survivors’ guilt

and emotionally overwhelmed were they

physically

had

little

Some n

Damn

a

was intensified by the meagerness of

their hostility.

So

at the time that they

capacity for focused anger.

did describe, at the

moment

of the

bomb,

feelings equivalent to

them!” or 'The bastards!” or simply “Damnit.”

amount

certain

dropped the

bomb

And

there was

immediate resentment toward the pilots who or toward "the Americans”; toward Japanese military of

and ci\Tian authorities for having deceived the people and brought them to ruin, for not ha\ang pre\'cnted the bomb or even prepared the population for it, and particularly for failing to provide adequate help; as

well as

toward Japanese

somehow done more

scientists

and physicians

not having

for

sooner. There was also resentment on the part of

those severely burned or otherwise injured toward those who were not. And there was said to have been a good deal of general antagonism to "foreigners” (meaning Westerners) right after the bomb fell.-'

But these

hostilities

were sporadic and variable,

much

less

prominent

than other feelings we have been discussing. As Miss Ota observed; "We even forgot to resent the A-bomb.” Such relative absence of hostility is consistent with

the "stunned” condition of victims of anv disaster,

which has been termed "the disaster syndrome,”-^ and with what I have called psychic closing-off. More than this, the special dimensions of Hiroshima would seem to have created a holocaust too \ast and incomprehensible for locating objects of hate. As one psychoanalyst put it

after listening to a description of the event:

While

it

would be an o\ersimplification

"You

to claim

simply "turned inward,” one can speak of a vicious inability to experience hostility increases tendencies in turn inhibit the capacity for hostility,

and

can’t hate magic.”-^

so on.

that hostility was circle in

toward

which the

guilt,

which

The Atomic Bomb Experience

An

indirect manifestation of guilt

survival

chance

the

factors

another decide to leave for work

make

upon

stress

that kept one

man

earlier or later,

caused

last-minute change in a previous plan

a

person

was the

at

‘'accidents of

home, made

still

— which

53

another to

resulted in a

being at a greater distance from the hypocenter than he otherwise would hav'C been. These “accidents” were often inwardly s

The

associated with another’s death.

electrician,

for

when

instance,

questioned about such chance factors, immediately replied: “I wish you wouldn’t ask me that. I lost a child in the bomb.” This was his first

mention of

his loss; the question

had triggered

off his sense of

having

survived instead of the bov.

These outcomes were attributed to unknowable and the good fortune of survhing could be seen “grace”

or,

forces of “destiny,”

in psychological terms, invulnerability, conferred

unknowable

forces.

The young

sociologist

kind of

as a special

who compared

by those

the

bomb

scene to pictures of Buddhist hell had been required just a few days earlier to

move from

a boarding house very close to the hvpocenter

(which was being torn down to make

a fire lane) to

one much further

away:

If I

had been

the

bomb. ...

about

in the first house,

human

frequently.

I

am

In

my

than just a coincidence.

beyond the personal

The

I

.

exactly the in-

the personal

will,

which

.

some kind

that

by

I

we make— perhaps not

effort

.

is

killed

have a good destiny and this is more look upon this kind of destiny as something

case

God — but something bevond human existence.

implication

been

I

fluence of controls

certainly have

am still living. I have a feeling which comes to me verv strongly and very

very lucky that

destiny,

...

would

I

of personal virtue contributed to this

“good fortune” or “special luck” (n unmei)— hut that both the virtue and its reward were and are precarious. Hence survival may be directly equated with a virtuous decision as in the case of a professor of ’

—

English

who

decided to leave his

home

in the center of the city the

night before, rather than wait for the morning, in order to be on hand at the student dormitory in the suburbs to help with

arrangements for

the next day’s assigned labor:

I

too would have been

talking together— if

I

can’t exactly describe

dead— and we would not be had not decided

my

feeling

sitting here

to leave that night.

then— perhaps

it

was

and

...

I

a feeling of

54

^

DEATH

IN LIFE

duty, or just a feeling that

I

have beeome Fortune that saved me.

a

experienee

I

.

.

should go there. fatalist.

.

.

Beeause of

this

was the Goddess of

It

.

this favorable intervention

In suggesting that he had ^^earned

me

“Goddess of Fortune,’’ he gave needed to find

...

.

justifieation for

from the

the distinet impression that he

having survived.

even greater where the hihakusha the inwardly suspeets that laek of eonseientiousness was eonneeted with “aeeident of survival.” The abandoned mother, for instanee, was keenly aware of her good fortune in being at home that day rather than at the

Sueh need

justifieation

for

is

where she worked, whieh was mueh eloser to the hypoeenter. But three in explaining why she was at home, she quiekly poured out reasons”— to help arrange a farewell party for several men who were

offiee

with ration books, and to partieipate in voluntary labor

enlisting, to help

in the

neighborhood

— in

a

way

that strongly suggested that

none

of

“virtuthese “reasons” was inwardly eonvineing to her as evidenee of a

ous deeision.”

Only one hibakusha

I

interviewed, the professor of edueation, openly

attributed his survival to a speeifie lapse in virtue;

Usually

I

in the habit of getting

was

up mueh

earlier,

and would go

to

plaees, the eity hall [whieh was very elose to the hypoeenter] or other punetual, taking eare of various responsibilities. I am ordinarily very

but that day

I

was somehow

ver\'

slow— whieh turned out

to

be a very

fortunate, a very lueky fate.

But even he had

a

need to emphasize usual

virtue,

and there was

a

good

deal of additional evidenee of guilt surrounding his survival.

The

relationship between guilt

be eomplieated,

remained at

as

home

“voluntary labor”

and “ehanee”

faetors in survival ean

was true of the seamstress who, then the day before the

bomb

a sehoolgirl,

had

instead of reporting to her

(very elose to the hypoeenter) beeause of

stomaeh

She eonsidered staying home the next day as well, partly beeause her aunt and eousin were visiting, and even offered to eut her eousin’s hair. But the two relatives ehose to go out on another visit, trouble.

whieh

The

in turn led the girl to deeide to report to her labor assignment.

eousin and aunt disappeared without a traee, and the seamstress,

beeause of departing

five

minutes

later,

was

still

far

enough away

to

eseape death, although she did get severely burned and was eventually

The Atomic Bomb Experience left

with a disfiguring

blight

I

upon her

feel

that

every time

facial keloid uliich

55

she has considered to be a

life;

if I

had eut her

hair,

they would

still

be living today.

And

experienee hardship beeause of my physical condition, I find myself feeling that if only I had stayed home that day, I wouldn't have these wounds and wouldn't have this hardship. I feel it even more strongly nowadays.

Her

m

feelings

I

about “chance survival" include

relationship to the cousin

guilt over survival priority

and aunt (accentuated by

a feeling of special responsibility for their deaths because of not having detained them b)- cutting their hair); unexpressed anger toward them for deciding not to stay at home; a sense of “bad fortune" because of the miseries she has endured over the years; a sense of “good fortune" over alive at

being

m

all— again

contrast to her aunt

and cousin, and

in a

way,

instead of them;

and perhaps strongest of all, the wish to “undo"— or rehve-this entire destiny, so that it might have a happier outcome. This wish to undo all or part of the A-bomb experience is central to

imagery of chance survival: “If only I had done this, or not done that" often means “If only the dead could be brought back, and the living relieved of their guilt

and

suffering."

But there

a quality of

ambiva“undoing" because the survivor realizes that should the disaster be “rerun," he might be the one to die. This ambivalence is suggested in the emphasis of many upon how thin-“the thickness of one sheet of paper," as the Japanese proverb several people quoted to me has it w'as the margin of survival. is

lence even about this

—

Only the

professional cremator could bring his usual mocking (and self-mocking) humor to a sweeping wish to “undo” the entire atomic bomb constellation: “If only this thing hadn’t been dropped, all of those things wouldn't have happened."

Whatever virtue or

his sense of

good or bad fortune, whatever

his

claimed

inner sense of the opposite, the survivor's concern about

accidents of survival" reflect his profound feeling that he was “saved" by an unknowable destiny or fate which he must both constantly propitiate and view with uneasiness— since these

same

willed the death of so

death" not only to

God

many

larger

forces

others. Survivors feel that they “o\^'c a

or Destiny, but to the actual

A-bomb

dead.

Eveoffhing returns the hihakusha to his self-accusatory inner question: “Why did I live while they died?" None can satisfactorily answer

56

DEATH

the

question, but

amounts

IN LIFE

some attempt

cope with

to

to an offer to reverse survival priority.

how he

manufacturer, told me, for instance, child dying; “If

were possible,

it

wanted

I

it

One felt

by making what man, a writer and

when watching

his

to sacrifice myself in place of

have seen, is that one daughter.” I'he psvchological diEculty, as we To survive-and worse, both wants to and is relieved that one cannot. improper, wrong, inexcusable, even to want to survive— is perceived as

my

hateful.

The

•

upon Dickens and Dante

professor of English calls

1

1

to help

him

1

express these sentiments;

experiences, they reach the very root emotions are very simple. It is of existence, and at such times their or is it death? just a matter of the question; Is it life “fellow-passengers among human beings,” as

\Mien people go through such

.

.

.

should have helped their could not. ... I had read Dante Dickens put it, but they this great man was sa\ing. before, but now I really understood what .

...

By

I

saw

.

.

.

.

.

true hellfire for the

“true hellfire” he

first

time.*

means not only massive death and devastation, but

the psychic flames of death guilt.

Yoko Ota

similarly raised the

problem of

survival priority

when

she

by the fact that I spoke of “the shame -of living,” of being “bothered “I was sorry for was still alive,” and even more specifically in the phrase; The survivor can never, the people who died because I was living.”-'^" and not simply conclude that it was logical and right for him, inwardly,

bound by an unconscious perception of his survival was made organic social balance which makes him feel that he would have had to, if possible by others deaths: If they had not died,

others, to survive. Rather, he

is

guilt, as it relates to he had not swv’ived, someone else would have. Such fundamental to human exissurvival prioritv, may well be that most

tence. *

He was

speakine to

me

in English,

and

In refers to the latter’s idea of the hiferno. significance.

Dante probably has the same psychological

his allusion to “hellfire

any case,

it

in

CONTAMINATION

INVISIBLE

1)

The ''Epidemic

Soon

after the

often

during the

’

bomb first

weeks— survivors began form of

illness.

It

fell— sometimes within hours or even minutes, tu’enty-four hours

or

the following days and

to notiee in

themselves and others a strange eonsisted of nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite;

diarrhea with large

amounts

of blood in the stools; fever

and weakness,'

purple spots on various parts of the body from bleeding into the skin (purpura), inflammation and uleeration of the mouth, throat, and gums (oropharyngeal lesions and gingivitis); bleeding from the mouth,

gums,

throat, reetum,

and urinary

traet

(hemorrhagie manifestations);

loss of

from the sealp and other parts of the body (epilation); extremely low white blood eell eounts when these were taken (leukopenia); and hair

in

many

eases a progressive eourse until death.*

These manifestations of

toxie radiation effeets aroused in the

minds

of the people of Hiroshima a speeial terror, cm inidge of d wedpou which not only instd7itly kills dnd dcstvoys on d colossdl scdlc hut dlso Icdvcs behind in the bodies of those exposed to it deddly mfluences which nidy

emerge dt dny time dnd The

strike

down

gastrointestinal syniptoins appeared

and other bone marrow gradually revealed

itself.^

effects

their victims. Tin’s

image was made

and the hemorrhagic manifestations some weeks later, so that the overall syndrome only first

58

by

particularlv vivid

fatalities— two

seemed

IN LIFE

DEATH

PP-

he

to

in perfect health

people

later— in

weeks

four

to

delayed appearanee of these symptoms and

tlic

and

who had

previous!}

cxtcrnall} untouched.

by the bomb, shopkeeper’s assistant, whose parents were killed additional close famib his reactions to the death of two

'I’hc

describes

members from

atmosphere of these radiation effects, and the general

death that prevailed:

brother on the grandmother was taking care of my younger returned on the I fourteenth of August when I left; and when body. l\vo or three days fifteenth, she had many spots all over her was just a [fiveMy younger brother, who later she died. fed him thin nee month-old] babv, was without breast milk-so we look But on the tenth of October he suddenly began to gruel. spots on his body. very ill, though I had not then noticed any I thought Then on the next dav he began to look a little better, and was the only family he was going to survive. 1 was very pleased, as he to the member I had left, and I took him to a doctor-but on the way there were two large doctor he died. And at that time we found that that all these people would spots on his bottom. ... I heard it said

Mv

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

... so I thought, ^‘sooner or later I too weak and very lonely— with no hope at all

die within three years die.”.

and since

.

itself.

.

people

.

.

.

.

bleeding from

touching my hair ... I never knew

\-ously

will

their hair so man}- people’s eyebrows falling out, nertheir teeth I found myself always

had seen

I

falling out,

head]

verv

felt

I

.

.

.

.

.

And

.

li\ing

who came

like this

[he demonstrated by rubbing his

when some

in

to visit

sign of the disease

would show

the countryside then with my relatives, would tell us these things, and then the them-telling stories of this man or that

about died man who visited us a few days ago, returned to Hiroshima, and stories were true or within a week. ... I couldn’t tell whether these heard that when the not, but I believed them then. And I also they died hibdkusha came to evacuate to the village where I was,

villagers also talked

there one by one. cal

fear

.

.

.

I still

find here a link

radiation effects

kushcis

own

.

.

d’his loneliness,

has been with

temporarv ...

We

.

and

have

it

me now.

between the

always. .

.

...

fear. It

.

is

.

.

dbe

physi-

not something

.

early sense of ubiquitous death

from

The

hiba-

later anxieties

about death and

sense of impending death

in her belief at the

and the

is

also

illness.

brought out by Miss Ota

time that “within two or three days

I

would

die. If

:

Juvisible

not within a few

clays,

tlicn

1 he wnter-maniifactnrcr

witliin

tlircc

Contamination

months

or so

I

59

would

die.

who

expressed his willingness to have died in his daughter’s plaee deseribes the impact upon him of her sudden illness and death:

My

daughter was working wa'th her classmates at a place a thousand meters from the hvpocenter. I was able to meet her the next day at a friend s house. She had no burns and only minor external wounds, so I took her wa’th me to my country house. She was quite all right for a while but on the fourth of September she suddenly became .

sick.

The

.

.

mptoms

of her disease were different from those of a normal disease. She had spots all over her bodv. Her hair began to fall out. She \'omited small clumps of blood many times. .

.

.

sy

.

.

.

.

.

Pmally she began

.

to bleed all over her

mouth. And at times her fever I felt this was a very strange and horrible disease. M'c didn’t know what it w^as. I thought it was a kind of epidemicsomething like cholera. So I told the rest of my family not to touch her and to disinfect all utensils and everything w’as very high.

she used.

were

afraid of

.

.

.

We

and even the doctor didn’t know what it was. After ten days of agony and torture she died on September fourteenth. ... I thought it w'as very cruel that mv daughter, who had nothing to do with the war, had to be killed in this w^ay. .

all

it,

.

_

Sur\ivors w’crc thus affected not only by the fact of people d\ ing around them but by the way in w^hich they died: a gruesome form of rapid bodily deterioration which seemed unrelated to more usual and “decent” forms of death.

For many, these deaths had an eerie quality, as suggested by the electrician on the basis of his vigil at the railroad station hose sick people from their outward appearance, didn’t seem to be in pain. Only they couldn’t move, and even as we watched them they seemed to become faint. ... But their I

.

.

.

minds were quite

.

.

.

.

.

.

not

who had severe burns or shock or was one man who asked me for help and

like

rhere

people

said w^as clear

and normal. ...

robbed him of

his

when

wristwateh

.

.

clear

other injuries. e\'crything he

He .

even told me how somebody but in another three hours or so

looked at him he was already dead. And even those who looked as though the\’ would be spared were not spared. People seemed to inhale something from the air which we could not see. d’hc way they died was different and strange. I

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

DEATH

60

Nor

IN LIFE dlncss lessen this terror. Rather, as a Buddhist

naming the

did

name

priest ex]3lains, the

deadly force before which

We

beeame

itself

a symbol of the mysterious and

were helpless:

all

when we would

strong, especiallv

m

'I'he fear

heard the new phrase, “A-bomb disease.”

us

became

see certain things with our eyes; a

one morning, looking perfectly well as he rode by on a bicycle Soon we were all suddenly yomiting blood, and then dying.

man

.

.

.

we would worried about our health, about our own bodies— whether did get sick, there was no live or die. And we heard that if someone

We

treatment that could help. nothing to hold us up. .

had nothing

was

.

.

made herculean, if members, and when these failed,

All occasional hihakusha

dying famib^

to rely on, there

desperate, efforts to sa\e to give

meaning

to their

true of the Protestant minister with his daughter;

deaths— as was

on the thirtieth [of August]. day she She had been quite well until then. But the following food but I got couldn’t eat or drink anything. It was diEcult to get doctor in some eggs and tomatoes. I tried to nourish her. There was a

As

symptoms, she had

for her

the next village and

thought,

I

these are effects from

fever

A-bomb

WT

.

have to get him.

disease then

the best thing was a blood transfusion. So

nurse and

daughter

.

I

my

blood from

tried to take

I

it is

He

.

.

said that

if

very difficult, and that

borrow'ed a syringe from a wife and put

it

into

my

but her condition became w^orse. She had various a urine coming out, high temperature, her hair falling out religion the Reverend I tried to have a farewell. In our .

.

symptoms — little. ...

She wouldn’t take bread and instead of wane

serves the Lord’s Supper. w’e

used tomato

fourth night

I

.

said,

...

I

be taken

ill

and

die.

die within a

would like a

was rather strange

It

or not

idealized

to

fit

.

.

.

We

month ...

death sentence.

Whether

farewell.

On

the

my name— Yoko— being called. My said, “It is God calling you. Are you

prepared?” She said, “Yes.” Her died.

of

hear

“I

being called.”

is

hymns

\\ e sang

.

.

showed her the mountain ranges from the window.

That night she

name

juice.

.

.

.

W'c

mouth opened and she fell back and that all of a sudden someone could w'cre told that all A-bomb victims so w’e

w^aited for our

the account of the

the

Christian

were waiting

frame,

girl’s it

own

for her

death

deaths too.

.

.

.

death was retrospectively

suggests

the

sense

of

the

invisible

Contamination

inexorability of tlie prevailing “death sentenee/' e\ en fought against it.

Some were symptoms,

An

old

intrigued and attracted

as in the ease of a doetor

woman

by

tlic

among

61 those

who

very weirdness of

tlic

quoted by Miss Ota;

died within a few days after tlie bomb, sliowing man\ spots on her body. Dr. S. [who bad attended her] told me: I know It IS terrible to say tins, but those spots were beautiful They were just like stars-red, green-yellow, and black-all over her bodv, and I was faseinated bv them.”-* .

.

.

W'e may suspeef that underneath thetic earlier

this charaeteristically

Japanese aes-

imagery lay the primitive and perverse emotions mentioned in connection with other kinds of fascination;

and that the

doctor was also expressing unconscious were not present on his ow'ii body.

Miss Ota goes on to of the deaths, partieularly

he war

by

relief that these striking colors

of impressions ereated by the impersonality their laek of relationship even to the war, and tell

by the mystery surrounding them;

but beeaiise of the war we are now d\ ing. I find that very strange. ... An old man said, “I hear that those who went into Hiroshima after the bomb and inhaled poison 1

is o\^er,

.

dying.

.

are gradually

.

Death was reeling before our eves. We eonfronted death day and night. Caneer or leprosy patients are put in a large room together. ... I hey realize their illness is ineiirable and every day, without fail, two or three of them know death. We were very iniieh like them but we were not even siek. W’e were being .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

killed against

our will by something completely unknown to us. It is the misery of being thrown into a world of new terror and fear, a w orld more imknow’u than that of people siek with eaneer. F.ven affeeted

more than did burns

human

or injuries, radiation

relationships.

I

he

relief

symptoms profoundly

experieneed by those free of

sneh symptoms beeame assoeiated with guilt, and with a strong unconscious wish to separate oneself from the afflicted group, d’hese patterns were partieularly evident in the mathematieian upon his return to the

“eontaminated" world of Hiroshima another eity for treatment of his eye injury;

after tw-o

months spent

in

was surprised to find people walking about the eity with little hair on their heads. ... I was struck by the powx'r of the bomb to I

.

.

.

:

IN LIFE

DEATH

62

these

cause

although

I

had been

not have these

was very relieved to realize that Hiroshima at the time [of the bomb], I did ... As time went by, and I learned more

...

effects.

later

in

effects.

I

about the sickness caused by the these people.

.

.

bomb ...

felt

I

extremeh^ sorry for

.

purple spots; Dr. Ilachiva describe'^ the generalized dread of telltale spots Everyone had begun to examine one another for these ominous phobia.’ I, too, until it seemed we were suffering from a “spot of became afraid. Wdien I got back to my bed, I examined every inch mv bodv and vou can imagine the relief I felt when I found no

petechiae. So

far,

I

was

all right.'*

must But he does not mention the terrifyingly ambivalent wishes which wishes that the spots hav'C accompanied these mutual examinations, appear upon other people rather than upon oneself. The hibdkushas urge to protect himself from the “epidemic” and from

its

recalled

dead victims was revealed

toward corpses,

attitudes

in

as

bv the professional cremator:

dead bodies here because the not sorwere bodies had such a terrible smell. Therefore they disposed of in this rowful, but rather pleased that the bodies would be found it [care way. There was no medicine at the time, and families were often pleased that for the moribund] cxtremelv difficult and

Some people were

happy

very

to leave

.

.

.

—

people

who had

suffered so badly finally died.

.

.

.

with radiation effects could have a similar their own bodies sense of grotesejue contamination in relationship to

Those who were as the

same man

afflicted

also reveals

but then I became sick with was all right for three days After a few days I vomited blood also. and bloodv diarrhea. Hiere was a verv bad burn on my hand, and when I put my like hand in water something strange and bluish came out of it, on the smoke. After that my body swelled up and worms crawled fever

.

I

.

outside of

Even

my body.

.

.

.

.

from these symptoms, such people could retain a bodily function has been mysteriously and perma-

after recovery

feeling that their

.

.

.

hivisible nentl\-

Contamination

altered— as was true of a female poet exposed originallv at

63 fifteen

liiindred meters:

Although

was not the proper time, I had my menses right after that. Also diarrhea, d’hen my hair began to fall out and I had spots all over my body. I have never reeovered. it

.

.

,

:

2)

Atomic

Bomb Mythology

mythology Such symptoms became readily entangled with atomic bomb bodilv -whether this mythology had to do with victims’ specific responses, or w'ith

"poison”

it

emitted and

weapon

cjnahties of the

more general

with the

itself

impact upon the environment. As

its

true of

is

as

truth, mvthologv, the beliefs embraced had a quality of psychic well as psychic nccessitv, whatever their logical absurdity. all

BODIES AND CORPSES were Bodily mythologv frequently centered around which symptoms a dangerous and which protected one from danger. It often included " I hose who suffered kind of "law of compensation”— beliefs such as minor from severe burns were more healthy than those struck from

burns”; "People

who did who were

did not get the spots and those

who had burns

not have burns got them”; and "Death approached those while those who were badl\ slightly injured or not injured at all .

.

burned survived.”® d hese

beliefs

.

were not only useful contributions to

imagthe psvchic closing-off process; they provided desperate!}' needed guilt, as ery of life to balance o\erwhelmmg death anxiety and death well

as

principles

ordering

that

could be grasped

midst otherwise

such life-enhancing formulations could connect themselves to almost any kind of observable bodily trait— as

incomprehensible disorder.

And

Miss Ota suggests;

have seen] are horizontal. .” So just because my cut Yours ... is the onlv exception. w^as not horizontal but vertical, I thought I might not die. Dr.

S. said, ".

.

.

the

all

wounds

[I

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Central to these mvthological ideas was the theme of detoxification, of getting rid of the "poison.” special kind of

had been

hemorrhage,

left w'ith

One way

as described

to get rid of

it

w'as

through a

by the divorced housewafe who

her mother after her father’s seemingly

sacrificial

death

My

mother began hopeless. Her hair

to fell

show the symptoms and her condition seemed out so that her head looked as though

it

w'cre

Invisible

Contamination

65

had spots and slie liad no color in licr face and no appetite. She luid all of the symptoms people talked about, but hers scxMiied worse than most. Her feet began to become eold and we t iought she wouldn t live. d’hen the next day she began to eed. She was at that period of life when a woman’s menstruation stops and so we thought she w'as ha\ing this bleeding just before it was ending. But she bled so much that w’e could not find enough cotton or cloth to use, and it had a sliaved. Slic

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

terrible odor.

T his bleeding lasted about one week, whieh w^as unusual thought it let the poison in her body out, and saved her life.

\^omiting eonld aecomjdish the same purpose, as abandoned mother:

When

loss as to

what

from the

gas, so

many 1 he

people.

it .

.

A-bomb

.

.

.

that dark liquid

.

and

w^e

learn from the

...

I

w^as at a

But later I heard that wdiat thev threw up eame w'as good for them to throw up. I'heard this from

to do.

same w'oman

that the \

the children threw up

we

.

.

.

also expressed a dilkerent

could

literally “strike

form of mvthology, the idea

one dumb,”

in this case

her one-

ear-old babv:

I

know whether such

don’t

but

a

young babv can

receive a severe shock,

about one year, until the following July, he didn’t cry, didn’t laugh, didn t make an\ sound wnth his voice. At the time of the for

.

bomb

.

.

turned to the ehild and his eves opened as wide as possible— I was surprised to see how wade a baby could open its eyes. He held his arms tow'ard me and made the sound “aa aa aa at that moment, beeause he w^as verv frightened. I

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

from then on

I

did not hear his

\

.

.

And

oiee.

dlie rest of her story suggested that she had exaggerated the extent of the ehild s silence, and that its developmental

problems were more a providing nurturanee than of

funetion of her eontinuing diffieulty in an\ single shoek. But the point is that she inflicting

upon the

felt

the

bomb

eapable of

child this temporary form of symbolie death.

More powerful mythology surrounded those aetuallv dead. In addition to impressions of how people died, there were beliefs about special characteristics of corpses.

was told that “men floated face downward and women faee upward,” an imaginary observation wdiieh might be related to positions men and women eharaeteristieally assume in sexual I

DEA

66 relations

since

and

H IN LIFE

1

to that

women when

assumed by

nursing, particularly so

most of these corpses were naked.

'The cremator brought his imagination to actual observations:

most of them had a d he bodies were black in color dlic smell smell, and everyone thought this was from the bomb. when thev burned was caused by the fact that these bodies were them decayed, manv of them even before being cremated— some of having their internal organs decav even while the person was living. peculiar

.

.

.

...

substance of

my

and had

swelled

the bodies

of

All

burned hand

— so

a

maybe

color

.

.

.

the bluish

like

there was

some kind

of

Also, it was hard to burn those bodies. Xhe poison in the bomb. ones who died with extremelv high blood counts were dry and thin Other people didn’t know about and also very hard to burn. these matters only I did but about the smell, of course ever\bod\ .

.

.

.

knew about

.

.

—

—

that,

because the city was

with that smell.

filled

.

.

.

of Since Hiroshima resembled a vast open-air crematorium, this type corpse-mythology was widespread. jMiss Ota s comment on the matter

was

“Someone

bittcrlv ironic:

said that the ashes of the

dead made good

But the cremators in what further impressions were more grim, extending to survi\ors \Miat

fertilizer.

might be termed

There

a

m

mythology”:

difference, but

m

they were!”'

fertilizer

a “li\ ing-corpse

some

is

cheap

I

can’t quite explain

...

it

a slight

and the lines of their faces. Even now if you go to the hospitals \ou can locate patients suffering from A-bomb disease from the look on their faces. difference

the look

people

s

eyes

.

Even from

higlilv

.

.

educated hibakusha called upon mythological imagery

their individual

and cultural

pasts, as

was true of the professor of

English in telling of the “blue flames” with which

we

are already

familiar:

was told that when people died and were I cremated, they burned with a blue phosphorescent flame. Of course, I never believed this. But as I was walking along it was pitch black, was walking with a friend, and wc were returning by a long route to the city because of the fires— we saw many corpses all around us. but ... I I tried not to let myself see anything except my friend,

\Mien

I

was

a little boy,

I

—

.

saw people being burned, and

I

saw those

little

.

.

phosphorescent flames

hivisible

f ^7'had been lat

I

""‘S,

"

tauglit, wliicli

While he does not

Contamination

67

t'>e city tliat clay

liad

I

saw them. So the not believed, was true.

tiling

explicitly

conneet these blue flames with the original belief that thev represent souls departing from the body, we may assume lat

this

assoeiatioii

liad

psyehologieal

importanee

liim and for went on to suggest tliat there were no limits to what survivors believed and did, and he spoke of eorpse-mythology in a wav that left some doubt as to vvdiere he himself stood: for

others. Indeed, lie

hatever you hear about the experience, whatever wild stories— and no matter how unbelievable they seem-they are true. When people were searching in the city for relatives they knew were dead they believed that when they came close to the corpse of such a .

.

.

would give them some indication-make some movement, perhaps open its month, to indieate to them it was there. relation,

it

This imagery of communication between corpses and surviving famih members is m one sense a form of denial of the relative’s death- but it also

represents

continuity in

the

and death— as

life

noncommissioned

^Vhen parents

use of folk

belief is

in

the service of a sense of

revealed by the observations of the

officcr-tnrned-social worker:

of dead soldiers

would come to look at the large piles of bones m winch they thought— but w ere not sure— their sons’ bones vvere melnded, they would sometimes talk to these piles of bones, hey would say, "1 atsno,” or whatever their son’s

name

are there, please

then

I

will take

v

move

I

will

know von

was, “if von

are there

and

on home.”

TREES, GRASS, AND Whatever the

a bit so that

F

I.

O

\V^

E R

S

integrative aspects of folk belief

and corpse-mythologv,

the terrors of the “epidemic atmosphere” could not be checked. They found c.xpression in three widely circulated rumors about the general Hiroshima environment which dominated the mythological vista. 1

he

bomb

rumor simply held that all who had been exposed to the the city would be dead within three years. The time sometimes

first

in

varied, but not the message,

the epidemic

is

which was: None can

esea|ic the poison-

total; all shall

eventually die. This naked death symbolism derived mainly from the impact of radiation eftects.

But

a

second rumor, even more frec|ucntly described

to

me

and,

1

DEATH

68

IN LIFE

and flowers would never again grow in Hiroshima; from that day on, the eity would be unable to sustain vegetation of any kind. The message here was: Nature was that

believe, with greater emotion,

is

drying up altogether;

life

is

trees, grass,

being extinguished at

souree. This

its

suggested an ultimate form of desolation, which not only encompassed human death but went beyond it. In a eulture plaeing sueh stress upon

human

life,’^

various statements

made

nature as aesthetieally enveloping and energizing

sueh symbolism had great emotional force

bv hibakusha

— as

all

of

reveal:

heard that no trees and flowers would grow. ...

I

would be before.

.

would

and

trees

die or live.

grass .

.

many

trees

A

and

...

lonely

in

a

way

I

never had

it

meters. grass.

.

.

.

.

you can’t

live.

I

was

fearful

about whether we

.

... An ordinarv bomb so

felt

I

thought

.

.

Without

...

forever.

I

kills

people hit by

it

and some people

But the A-bomb kills not only people but This makes me extremely afraid.

also

.

.

.

w'ithin

.

.

third rumor, eloselv related to the other two, held that for a period

of seventy-five

(sometimes seventy)

years,

Hiroshima would be un-

would be able to live there. Here was the sense that the mysterious poison emitted by the weapon had more or less permanently deprived the city of its life-sustaining capacity— had deurbanized, was literally devitalized, Hiroshima. At least partial belief in this rumor inhabitable; no one

by the sudden drop in real estate priees reported to have oeeurred during the period immediately after the bomb, and by the serious consideration given a plan to rebuild Hiroshima Teachers

refleeted

College (later Hiroshima University) on a nearby island instead of in the eenter of Hiroshima, where

it

had previously stood. While one

was the existence on the island of several solid buildings at a time when new construction was almost impossible, the sociologist made safe clear that another was '‘the feeling that Hiroshima would not be a [because] the rumor seemed to make place in which to stay faetor

.

people long

feel

life.

that

if

.

.

they did stay in Hiroshima, they might not live a very

.” .

.

I’here were also, immediately after the

bomb

fell,

more

transient

and

form of nature symbolism are universal, rumors such these could probably occur among any people subjected to atomic bomb effects. *

But since variations on

this

as

Invisible

sporadic rumors to

Contamination

69

American planes would return and drop additional weapons of the same or even greater power — rumors tlie effect

consistent with the

and related

that

fear of recurrence”” characteristic for

any

disaster,

to death

anxiety and to death guilt. People feared new American attacks with “poison gases” or “burning oil” that would further decimate the city. There was also a rumor that having dropped such a dreadful “hot bomb,” America would next drop a “cold bomb” (or “ice bomb”) which would simply “freeze everything” in a way that

“everyone would die”; and another that America would drop “rotten pigs” so that “everything on the earth would decay and go bad.” Tliese additional rumors conveyed the sense that the environment had been so fundamentally disturbed, and the individual sense of security (and invulnerability)

so threatened, that further devastation of any imagi-

nable kind must be anticipated. Beyond the sense experienced in all disasters that a catastrophic universe has come into being,”^ there was the feeling that deadly catastrophe knew no limits.

To what

extent were these rumors believed and acted upon? I found that people varied in the extent of their belief, but no one could entirely dismiss them. Relatively uneducated hibakusha often accepted them

unquestioningly, while intellectuals

had ambivalent and convoluted

responses which

were more a form of participation in the general atmosphere of death than clear-cut convictions. As the sociologist explained, “these rumors did not say that people

would die

as

soon as

they stepped into Hiroshima, but contained a [general] feeling about the future. And the mathematician reveals the conflict between ra-

doubt and emotional susceptibility even something about the overall problem: tional

who knew

in a scientist

rumor that Hiroshima would be uninhabitable for seventy years], half doubted it. ... I thought that the effects of radiation would last for some time, and that there could be a greater effect from radiation if people remained in the city— though seventy years did seem v^ery long. I thought perhaps for five years or so, but I

half believ^ed [the

seventy years was too long.

And

concerning the

.

.

.*

loss of vegetation,

he describes

a powerful feeling-

tone rather than a precise belief:

The actual danger period from maximum, two or three weeks. But *

of dispute even now.^*^

residual this

radiation

was not known

is

considered,

at the time,

at

and

is

the

very

a matter

DEATH

7 0

IN LIFE

never really pietured Hiroshima without people or without grass or should leave, trees. Instead, mv mind was full of the thought that I that I should go somewhere else. T thought of going to a suburb near

I

the eountrv, though

I

onlv thought of this for a short time.

Similar mental proeesses took plaee in physicians, as

we

.

.

.

learn from

Dr. Hachiva’s description of his reaction to hearing one of these rumors from another doctor at the prefectural office one week after the bomb fell:

something the matter?” I asked, fearful that the news I had been so anxious to get might not be welcome news. “Yoidve no doubt heard that an ‘atom bomb’ was dropped on fliroshima?” Dr. Kitajima answered. “Well, IVe learned that no one '‘Is

will

be able to

“One

live in

Hiroshima

for the next seventy-five years.”

of our nurses died suddenly, yesterday,”

I

answered, as

if

to

confirm the ominous import of his words. After I had spoken, I was annoyed at having given credence to what

mv mind

recognized onlv as an

unstable as a man’s mind, especially

the direction

one’s

ugly rumor.

when

.

.

.

Nothing

is

so

fatigued. Regardless of

it is

thoughts take, the mind

is

ever

active,

ever

moving, at times slowlv, at times with lightning rapidity. My mind was a confusion of strength and weakness, sometimes fused, sometimes separated.^ ^

Among

those few hibcikusha

the rumors, there were usuallv

who claimed to be totally memory lapses and other

unaffected by indications of

strong denial and of continuing inabilitv to confront the actual emo-

experience— as was true of the philosopher:

tional

Those [rumors] came perhaps one or two months later — but I don t remember, mav be two or three weeks later. ... I started to hear the rumor that Hiroshima would be barren ground— nothing would grow there, d’hat might have been in the newspaper. I don’t remember. .

.

.

I

felt

nothing

in particular

about them.

.

.

.

'The rumors persisted in the face of contrary evidence— green grass still

and weeds sprouting from the ruins. And naming the source of contamination had limited effect; as the

visible in parts of the city

again,

“Ordinary people spoke of poison, the intellectuals spoke of radiation.” For the rumors’ message of ubiquitous death, and of desolation bevond death, had sufficient symbolic validity to overcome sociologist put

it,

1

Invisible

Contamination

7

whatever logic could be mustered against them. Like most of the early atomic bomb mythology, their power declined after a few monfh.s, particularly as people found fhemselves able to return to the center of the city and, m one way or another, to resume their lives there. But the rumors remained quite active for more fhan a year (fhe Icngfh of fime it took for real esfate prices fo show a significanf rise),

remnants, as

we

shall see later,

eontinne to affeet

life in

and

fheir psvchic

Hiroshima.

he origins of the three major rumors— and partienlarly of the figure of seventy-fi\e years— remain obseure to hibakusha even todav. One 1

mentioned by

soiiree

seventy-five days.

several

The

But of

a Japanese saying that a

rumor stops

physieist referred to a substanee he

whieh through nuelear years.

is

fission

is

said

to

definite psyehologieal interest

have \\^as

effeets

after

eame upon,

for seventy-five

the widespread impres-

sion that the rumors

from Ameriea, Ameriean.

themsehes eame “from the outside,” “possibly from seholars, or “from a eertain seientist, possibly an ’

Here the implieation

is

that Ameriea was the souree not

only of the deadly eontamination but of foreknowledge of And the idea of a seholarly or seientifie souree eonveys

its

nature.

authoritv.*

Dr. 1 Suzuki himself was reported to have approached the first Allied militaryteam to reach Hiroshima (arriving on September 8) with the dual question ot whether the atomic bomb contained some kind of poison gas and whether there was any truth to the “foreign news report” of a claim by “an American expert” to Hie ettcct that toxic influences from the bomb would scientific

last for seventy-five years

Dr

Suzuki added, “I believe [the report] to be entirely wrong,” but both his asking the question and his mention of an American source of the rumor are significant. I was unable to obtain in Hiroshima any more specific information about the origins of this quotation from an “American expert.” But later, through the help of Austin Brues of the Argonne National laboratory, I learned that such a statement had actually been made within forty-eight hours of the news of the first atomic bombing by Harold h. Jacobson, a chemist and science writer, who had earlier been involved atomic bomb research in a minor capacity. In an interxiew with an International News Service representative, Jacobson was reported to have said that radioactivity from the atomic bomb would be fatal to anyone entering Hiroshima for a period of seventy years. Jacobson also said that gamma rays gi\en off when uranium is broken down destroy the red corpuscles in the blood and eventually cause leukemia.” His statements were quickly disseminated throughout the world, so that the first information to reach Japan from America about radiation effects did so accompanied by this extraordinary distortion about duration of contamination. On August 8 there were published denials on the part of the War Department I

M

m

Oppenheimer, who had headed scientific work on the bomb, as tion (though not a complete retraction) by Jacobson of his

and of

J

Robert

well as a modifica-

original statement Indeed, when informed by military authorities that he could be imprisoned under the Espionage Act for a period of ten years for what he had said, Jacobson collapsed his New York office and was described as “too disturbed” to meet with newspaper reporters. Jacobson s statement was merely one expression of the awesome early rumors about the bomb which took hold in America (where they were ba.sed upon quasi-scientific speculation) as well as Japan, and included the idea that the bomb would be “lethal beyond the range of bodily injury by consuming all the oxygen in

m

DEATH

7 2

IN LIFE

the intense anxiety they contained hibakusha to recover could well have impaired the capacity of many

Whatever the rumors’

soiiree,

effects. I'hns,

from either wounds or radiation

Miss Ota commented at

incomplete but frightening the time that these beliefs, together with violent death —by medical reports, “sometimes invite victims to a but their own which she meant either that they could expect nothing both.^^ Moreover, death or that only suicide was appropriate, or (the information did not necessarily dispel the m^tholog\ accurate

medical

man who mentioned

the minor of seventy-five-year unmhabita-

bomb had been Dr. Hachiya also mentioned that an atomic nature of radiation effects, used), and could even, because of the actual was As the history professor put it, “At first our fear bility to

intensifv anxiety.

not too great- then, as fear

we

got

more understanding about the bomb, our

became extreme.”

For atomic

bomb mythology

was, in essence, a mythology of con-

encounter was tamination. Indeed, this entire second stage of death to the point of characterized by the fear of epidemic contamination individual powerlessness in bodily deterioration, along with a sense of highly mysterious poison;’^ the face of an invisible, all-enveloping, and unafflicted; and the inner the guilt-filled rejection of the afflicted by the

m

time and limitless sense that this total contamination— seemingly origin, so space— must have a supernatural, or at least more-than-natural temporarv respite from these that one’s survival was likely to be merely a invincible forces of destruction

and

toxicity.

the weapon perceived The atomic bomb logical responses.

itself,

as a

For from the

weapon, gave

moment

rise

to additional

of exposure to

it,

mytho-

hibakusha

felt

within some framework of understanding. past experience of a more or Initial formulations of many reverted to

a strong need to place

less

it

“ordinary” wartime nature;

“I

thought

this

must be

a

terrible

than seventy) -year figure can possible source of the seventy-five (rather “Dispatches from Washni^gton said that be found in an early newspaper claim that reported that the area where the bomb scientists, piecing together their knowledge, But there to seventy-five years. had struck would be uninhabitable for from five contributed significantly to the remains the likelihood that fapanese sources also the air”

A

ivarious rumors of contamination.

longstanding fapanese cultural preContributing to the force of this imagery was a by the stress upon purification occupation with “contamination,” as reflected m individual-psychological exShinto religious ritual and by analogous emphases *

perience.

m

Invisible

firebomb

tliouglit pcrliaps a w’capons factory

I

;

Contamination

thought an ammunition

dump

73

bad exploded”; or

“I

blown up.” Others called forth electrical imagery, either as simile (”It was like an electric short circuit”) or as being causally related to w’hat actually happened ("'Fhe electric wires were broken and there was a big fire”)’. Some thought of natural calamity (”It was like an earthquake”) and still others of liad

imagery that suggested supernatural alteration of nature (“like purple lightning” or “like thunder from the bottom of the earth”). Most were

made

quickh’ and uneasily aware that their imagery was inadequate, that the\ had no rele\’ant experience on which to base their impressions.

Japanese authorities unwittingly encouraged atomic

by refusing special

bomb

weapon accurately, referring to special bomb. This was done as

to identify the

weapon

or

it

a

mytholog}-

simply as a

measure of

w’artime censorship, to avoid frightening the population of Hiroshima and of Japan in general, and to maintain the cherished illusion that

nothing

be\ond kind of

not even this w’capon

— had

been unforeseen by them or was

their capacity to deal with. In a w'av the policy represented a

negative mythology,

of a w^eapon w^hich, however devious, was

not sufficiently revolutionary or destructu’e to defeat Japan s mvancible spirit. (Subsequent restriction of information bv American authorities, as

we

and

shall later discuss, reflected its

also perpetuated

own form

of negative mytholog\-

myths surrounding the weapon.)

Japanese leaders in Tokyo knew almost immediately that Hiroshima had been destroyed by an atomic bomb, having been so informed by President Truman’s announcement broadcast by shortwave throughout the world soon after the event. And as early as August 8 the military flew leading physicists to

Hiroshima

in

and medical authorities on radiation from Tokyo order to determine what had happened to the city.

Soon afterward physicians came from nearby Okayama University, and in mid-August a team from Kyoto University. But these scientists’ findings w^ere of a

very preliminary nature, and

confusion and military censorship very

communicated

to the people of

surviving doctors.

bomb

effects until

Most

little

accurate information w^as

Hiroshima or even

of the latter did not

September

midst the extreme

when

become

to the city’s

clear

special lectures

own

about atomic

were given

for

an

assembled medical group by two of the Tokyo consultants.’-^ ^leanwhile, the idea that an atomic bomb had been used began

to

circulate

among

3,

ordinary people— like the shopkeeper’s assistant— as simply another frightening rumor:

— DEATH

74

At

first

IN LIFE

heard

I

people calling

it

it

.

“atomic bomb,” accepted what

I

was a new type of an atomic bomb.

heard. .

.

.

.

.

.

and then

.

When

heard

I

heard the words

I

know what “atomic” meant ... so But what I did know very well was that

I

just

it

was

didn’t

1

a horrible thing.

bomb

.

Others greeted information about the weapon with awed incredulity: “It seemed unbelievable that such a weapon as the atomic bomb could exist.

And although intellectuals were quicker to grasp both the an atomic bomb had been used and some of the implications .”

.

.

fact that

of the

weapon, they were not necessarilv any

recollection

by the historv professor of

noticed a voung

Armv

A

written

which took place

retrospect, suggests the

to prevail:

the refugees, his appearance

among

officer

confused.

a conversation

on the dav of the bomb, even if altered in strange atmosphere of half-knowledge that came I

less

demeanor suggesting that of a drafted “student-soldier.” I said in a somewhat demanding tone, “Wdiat has happened. He looked at me in dubious silence. ... In those Officer?” davs the militarists had severe prohibitions against spreading what

and

his

.

.

.

.

.

.

thev called “sensational

rumors

in

the

...

street”

so

quickly

1

dhe officer which bore my titles. relaxed somewhat and said: “ hhe fact is, I am also from a university and majored in scientific subjects and I fear it was an atomic bomb.” ... I recalled someone having told me that a small match-

my name

produced

card

.

.

.

box of atoms could blow up all of Mount Fuji ... or destroy an entire and I said to myself, “Yes, it must be that.” ... I was one citv but even so, at of the first to realize the kind of bomb it was only afterthat time I could not reallv understand the A-bomb .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

ward. Intellectuals sought out

knowledgeable friends and colleagues, and

within a few weeks pamphlets and articles describing the

A-bomb were

published. But during this early period even scientists themselves feasibility of

though aware of the theoretical

an atomic bomb, and

now

usedconclusion. The

faced by the most extreme external evidence that one had been

bad considerable psychological mathematician, for instance,

difficulty

tells

coming

how he and

to this

his colleagues

had

what had happened by outside authorities before they could what they already had reason to know: told

I

understood the possibility of making a

energy

.

.

.

and

friends

and

I

bomb

with so

had talked about the

much

to

be

believe

explosive

possibility of the

.

invisible

enemy using an atomic bomb, but Then after it fell I wondered .

.

vve

Contamination

doubted

vvlictlier

75

they could.

could have been an atomic oni I thought that an atomic bomb must be much bigger of enormous explosive power, even ^ more than whatever had been dropped upon us. But tbc fact that tbere was no particular spot where the bomb hit the ground and vet it had such great effects the large number of people burned by the bonrb, the black cloud of dark ram, and the great flash it produced— if

it

_

.

.

.

.

for all these reasons

thought

I

might be an atomic bomb. 'Hien I talked with other science professors. W'e had different opinions among us-but gradualh- we heard from the outside that it was an atomic bomb. It

.

.

\Vhen

heard

.

.

.

.

wondered how they had made the bomb. I thought that America had been very quick to succeed in making sucli a bomb. ... I

this,

I

Similarly, the physicist described having been misled bv information given him bv the Japanese military about a different kind of bomb, also exploded mid-air, whicb allegedly caused damage o\cr a cone-shaped

m

area— but

bis further associations also rescaled psychic unreadiness to accept the fact of tlie atomic bomb:

Of

course, as far as theory was coucerned, I liad knowledge of tliat since 1939, when the prineiples of nuclear fission were diselosed. I knew about the potential powder of nuclear explosions, but

putting

this

into praetice

and making teehnological use of it was another matter, and m fact seemed impossible, especially from where we were m Japan. ... I felt wt had been defeated in the seientifie field and that science had a lot to do with this enormous destruction. But about the A-bomb problem and the A-bomb reality, .

.

.

it

w'as

hard to say. ... I couldn’t really feel it in a week or in a month or have a true realization of the problem of radiation until two or three years later.

For either

man

.

.

to

conclude that an atomic

bomb had

been used complex inner adjustment. Isaeh had to eneompass the existence of a technical achievement thought impossible, one reflecting overwhelming American superiority, the use of science for this new dimension of destruction, and the idea of having oneself been victimized and ones life threatened by it. No wonder, then, that Hiroshima scientists required confirmation from informed outsiders. Alwavs strongly dependent upon the latter’s authority, this dependency was recpiired

a

now magnified

b\ their

own

sense of helplessness, anxiety, and guilt in

DEA

7 6

relationship

to

r II

IN LIFE

their

inevitable conclusion that

were

scientists

of the

still,

And even after reaching the an atomic bomb had been used, Hiroshima

death encounter.

like

ever\one

else,

ignorant of the bodily aftereffects

bomb, and faced formidable psychic

barriers to learning

about

these.

‘

Hi A C

I

dysentery” AND atmospheric pressure

L L A R Y

‘‘change

in

Sur\'iving physicians

knew even

about nuclear energ\ and

less

Observing widespread patterns of

loss of appetite,

its effects.

nausea, and severe

and bloody diarrhea, thev suspected some form of infectious d\senter\ institute isolation tried, however feeblv under the circumstances, to procedures to prevent contagion. Dr. Hachiva’s Diary frankly reveals the extreme confusion prevalent even in one of the few intact treatment centers where physicians were

August 7 he suspects “poison gas or perhaps some deadly germ” thrown off from a new weapon, and that night becomes convinced that “we were dealing with bacillary dysentery.” On August 9 the

available.

On

svmptoms he was observing, particularly the various kinds of hemorrhage, make him doubt his original impressions; and recalling that

bizarre

he heard no sound at the time of the bombing, he suspects that “a sudden change in atmospheric pressure caused both the bleeding and widespread deafness. On August 12 he is told by a Navy captain that an atomic bomb had been used, and that one symptom it caused was a low ’

him (‘A\Hy, more that’s the bomb I’ve heard could blow up Saipan, and with no than ten grams of hvdrogen”), he finds that “the more I thought, the more confused I became.” Therefore, when again told on August 13 that an atomic bomb had been used, this time by a more reliable

white blood

cell

count; but although this strikes a chord in

authoritv (the physician at the Prefectural Office), he combines the two ideas

in

the

assumption

that

“sudden change

the

pressure” might have been caused

b\’

the

despairs over his inabilitv to understand

bomb.

why

so

On

in

atmospheric

August 19 he

still

many patients are dying, own or someone else’s is

but takes up the theorv (whether originally his uncertain) that the gangrenous tonsilitis he observed

clinically

was

causing toxic effects which resulted in a decreased white blood

cell

count, and that this in turn caused day, after obtaining a microscope

white blood

cell

all

of the other

svmptoms. The next

and confirming the extremely low

counts, he concludes that things were the other

way

around: he proudly (and more accurately) announces that “\\’e are

I

dealing with agranulocytosis

known cause and

that’s

m isihle Contamination

[absence of white

due

to

an un-

tonsilitis!”

During

cells]

what caused the gangrenous

77

the next few days he apparently rccci\’ed additional information from authorities concerning radiation effects, as his

own continuing

he publicly posts

and on the

observations, including those

basis of this as well

made

at

an autopsy,

“Notice Regarding Radiation Sickness.” 1'he notice, which correctly ad\’ocatcd rest for those found to have low white counts, was later criticized for a somewhat o\cr-optimistic tone (it was prepared largely to reassure people and counter their irrational fears), and for a

who had

advising those

not been in the center of the citv at the time of the bomb, and did not have low white counts, to remain at their jobs. Finalh, on September outside consultants clusions to be the

they were the

determined to

When

he attends the lectures given by the two

3,

(Dr. d’snznki and Dr. Miyake), finds their con-

same

as his,

somew^hat troubled by the fact that

is

make their report, but returns complete his own statistical study.’"^ first

to

to his hospital

discussed these matters with Dr. Hachiya seventeen years later, he explained that he had had a very early impression, based I

upon

knowledge of

Ins

x-ray effects, that the

bomb’s

effects

could be con-

nected with radiation, but that this impression was extremely vague. Moreover, he did not associate these thoughts with an atomic bomb,

even after being told by the

Not

used.

until

he received further

(between August

officer that official

an atomic

bomb had

been

information from the military

and 26) did he become convinced of the connecbetween the atomic bomb and radiation sickness: “The Army was

tion

in charge, so

zuki’s talk

I

2

on September at

military consultant. IS

1

thought they must be right.”

was a professor he

Navy

to accept the

only after Dr. Tsu-

did he really feel certain, since “Dr. Tsuzuki

3

dokyo University

We

And

and ranked highly

as

a

again note the hibakusha-seientists's need,

if

new formulation

.

.

.

of the atomic

bomb and

its effects,

pronouncement from someone who conveys authority and is himself “uncontaminated” by the bomb. But most of all we are struck for

a

the wa\ in which the death-saturated environment interferes with clarity of thought and formulation. b\

''a I

bomb such

he A-bomb

s

as that’’

insidious feature

on individual hibakusha. As one visible

made said,

a

partieularlv strong impression

“Ordinary bombs

manner, but the A-bomb destroys people

just destroy in a

invisibly.”

This

in-

:

DEATH

7 8

IN LIFE was sometimes attributed to

visibly letluil CTpacitv

eleetrieit\,

or

oil

to but usually to ^‘poison g^s or just poison. Many held tenaeiously effeets had been this imagery, even after information about radiation published in the newspaper— as we learn from Miss Ota: ’

made no

d’hey

about the eause of their

effort to learn seientifieally

had inhaled poison. One would inhaled say he inhaled poison, and another would say he, too, fear of death; they just believed they

poison.^®

“radiation “Poison gas” and “poison” might have been preferable to one could begin effects” because they were at least knowable, elements to

fit

into a “theorv” of

what had occurred. The

idea of poison gas or oil

which was also consistent with another manifestation of the weapon

bomb:

impression upon people at the time of the

made an enormous

from the “big black cloud.” This rain bomb’s fireball actually resulted from vaporization of moisture in the worker and condensation in the cloud that formed; but, as the domestic poison tells us, it was often seen as the outpouring of deadly the “black rain” which

Black rain began to

fell

and

fall

I

wondered wdiat

it

...

was.

It

me

gave

Facing toward Yokogaw^a everything looked black and we thought it was something eaused by the bomb. Among my friends we Later, people said it might be oil rain. c wondered if it was oil to make fire or to harm had two opinions. whether thev might be planning to kill all of the people people

a horrible feeling.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

W

.

.

.

of bv burning them ... or whether this oil would stiek to the skin even the other all of the people, making everyone die one after .

.

those

who were

For others,

exposed to

just a very little bit of

like the divorced housewife, this

it.

.

.

.

.

symbolized

black cloud

of the “black the weapon’s ubiquitous embrace. In extending imagery' be distorting cloud” to include the entire A-bomb panorama, she may

what she

originallv saw,

but she conveys the

weapon

totality of the

s

impact:

My

strongest impression

after another

.

.

.

when

the

bomb

fell w-as

which became spread out

the clouds

larger

and

.

.

one

.

all

larger,

black band stretched out covering graduallv expanding ... to envelop everyone in it evervone so that I too would inevitably be crushed by it. black

.

.

.

chasing

me

.

.

.

like

a

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Invisible

The

electrician suggests the

same kind

Contamination

of perception:

had seen a warslnp destroyed by bombs town but in Hiroshima it u’as a whole imagine a bomb such as that. I

.

.

.

And

.

.

.

and

citv.

also

...

one area of I

a

could never

the history professor, in a more literary wav:

Such

One

a

weapon has the power

\va\

other than referred to

come

to

make

weapon was

literally

full effects

it

to give

it

a

name

began to be widely

“flash-boom,” and

term when discussing the

this its

everything into nothing.

Before very long

by the nickname pikadon,

experienced

called

to

to terms with the

scientific one.

its

hibakusha used

uho

79

bomb

many

with me. Those

within the central area of the city

first

only pika, or “flash,” since they heard no sound of the explosion, the don, or boom, was supplied by those who were outside the city at the time but came in later. In any case, the nickname was the survivor’s way of taming or domesticating the monster, of making it into something one could deal with through one’s accustomed range It

of

emotions. People sometimes mentioned the pikadon to me with a touch of humor even occasionally with a suggestion of that nostalgic

affec-

tion

one permits oneself

jocularity

reached

boom”), used Hiroshima ridiculing of

in

its

it

as

awesome

has not submitted to perceptions,

peak

in

the word

pikadon-don

connection with an early postwar literary

(known all

toward an old enemy.

to feel

“Decadence and Dadaism”),

as

I'his

A-bomb

(“flash-boom-

movement

in

part of the

But by and large the monster taming. However the word pikadon may attenuate social symbols.

nonetheless

conveys

the

full

constellation

of

death

imagery with which we are familiar.

Another way of dealing with the weapon was to identify oneself with it, or at least with its power. Such identification was present in the hibakushas urge to retaliate in kind-an A-bomb for an

A-bomb-

which Dr. Hachiya describes

human

psychology, one of his

what

from the standpoint of general Diary's most chilling passages: in

is,

Following the news that Nagasaki had been bombed, a man came m from Fuchu [a nearby town] with the incredible story that Japan had the same mysterious weapon, but until now, had kept it a strict secret and had not used it because it was judged too horrible even to mention. This man went on to say that a special attack squad from

DEATH

80

IN LIFE

Navy had now used the bomb on the mainland of Ameriea and the General that his news had eome from no less a souree than

tlic

six-engined, Headquarters, dlie blow had been dealt bv a squadron of I'hose bombers trans-Paeifie bombers, two of whieh failed to return.

were assumed

have dived right into their targets to make eertain of

to

sueeess. like San Franeiseo, San Diego, and Los Angeles had been hit Hiroshima, what ehaos there must be in those eities! At last Japan was retaliating! The whole atmosphere in the ward ehanged, and for the first time and bright. sinee Hiroshima was bombed, everyone beeame eheerful Those who had been hurt the most were the happiest. Jokes were for made, and some began singing the vietory song. Prayers were said war had the soldiers. Evervone wtis now eonvineed that the tide of the If

turned.^®

What

signifieant here

is

is

the sense of

the dead rising

through

a

own atomie bomb’s making vietims of others. m awe of For some, identifieation with the bomb was related to being hearing the various rumors its power. The groeer, for instanee, upon to make wdheh eireulated during the early months, and seeing enough

vision of their

him

believe them,

remembered

feeling

way to only the greatness of the bomb. “Greatness is a funny toward these I felt put it, but the lasting effeets of the bomb .

.

.

great fear. to This eombination of awe and fear eould sometimes eome elose identiadmiration, resembling the psyehologieal defense meehanism of power one fears fieation with the aggressor”— that is, of dealing w'ith the

by beeoming

like

it

or part of

it.

Others w^ere proud of having experieneed the w'orld’s most advaneed having w^eapon. A few’ (notably the eremator) derived satisfaetion from

and from reeounting the eontrast between the inflieted.’' One or objeet’s small size and the vastness of the damage it the two referred eontemptuouslv to “our foolish spears” (with whieh

seen the

bomb

fall

eomparison to Japanese w’ere aetually planning to defend themselves) in effeets, was “this great bomb.” One seholar, before dying from bomb quoted *

More

as saving, “dlie

a great people, beeause

anyone

three than the bomb itself, and sometimes confused with it, were the from an attached to recording equipment, dropped simultaneously

visible

parachutes

Amerieans are

aecompanying

airplane.

Invisible

wlio makes such a terrible

weapon must

liave

Contamination

some

suggesting a form of identification initiated by

some

for

bomb s

nobility

celestial

any way

in

did,

bond:) but reaching

Merely being moved by tlie beantv of the panorama was a form of identification, as was becoming

bomb

uas

greatness in them/’

it.

lastingly absorbed

Seeing the

some

beyond

tlie

81

still

b\- its effects.

an agent of liberation from a repressive regime, as another form of identification; and so was the as

early

tendency of certain hibakusha to assume leadership in A-bomb problems. Probably the oddest form of identification was expressed in a rumor which held that Americans made use of a German pilot to drop the A-bomb, and that the Germans had originally developed the weapon and planned to drop it on New York but had had it taken away from them by the Americans. The unspoken assumption here is that this great weapon came not from the enemy, but from the nation with which Japan herself was then-militarilv, politicalh^

and

—most

cnltnralb-

closely identified.*

here was also very early imagery about particular characteristics of the atomic bomb that made it seem a thing apart from ordinar^^ wx^apons. Some emphasized as its unique feature “all of the people killed instanth”; many focused upon elements of invisible contamina1

tion;

and many others simply

special

thing

derived from

knowm

its

called forth an overall

the atomic bomb,'’ in wdiich entire array of destructive capacities. as

image of its

uniqueness

Finally,

weapon

“this

there developed, also rather early, a sense that this w'as still in the laborator\- stage w'hen it was dropped,

new

and that the people of Hiroshima w’cre thus victims of a vast “experiment.” Some, like the divorced housewife, felt that had wxrk on the experiment been more advanced, the outcome would havx been w'orsei If

the

bomb had

been perfected at the time it fell, we could not have survived, but as the [development of] bomb had not vet been com])leted, the situation was no worse than what happened.

Here

a

psychological effort to see the bomb's destructiveness as limited, a guilty feeling that one has “cheated death,'' and the beginis

nings of imagery of being experimented upon, w'hich observe to be central to the overall hibakusha experience.

The same rumor, continues

to

hold

turned out, spread in otlier parts of sway. I hus, in 1965, there appeared it

publication, an article entitled

“La Bomba

we

shall

later

world, and in fact Pueblo, a Madrid Atoniica de lliroshima era Alemana."!!* tlie

in

:

''Vacuum State'

3)

The

sense of

upon

on many symbolic

loss,

survivors,

and brought about

levels,

impact

a cumulative

had

a widely shared psychic state.

These

symbolic losses did not necessarily have to be directly associated with

bomb

atomic

exposure. For many, particularly

the Emperor’s

tion,

bomb

shattering than the

Hearing

his

surrender speech

didn’t

I

the older genera-

nine days later seemed more

itself— as an elderly

words ...

among

widow

tells us:

think about the war

itself.

.

.

.

understood well was that we were defeated. This thought was hard to bear. ... I listened in tears. It is impossible for me to put

What

I

how

words

into

painful

was.

it

...

I

felt

for

sorry

terribly

the

and this feeling remains with me even now when I [Comparing my feelings] when the imagine how he felt then. bomb was dropped and when the Emperor [spoke], well, with the Abomb, we didn’t understand anything about it at the time ... so I think the Emperor’s words were harder to bear.

Emperor

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

There were

also

those

among

.

.

the younger generation who, like the

the seamstress, then fourteen vears old, were totally unable to absorb realities

imposed by the Emperor’s speech

1 T'he doctors had a radio and they told us about the surrender. ... was very young and had given up all studying in order to do voluntary Up to then evervbody used tlie phrase, “until we win the labor. .

victor^^”

.

.

... So when the grownups around me

told

end of the war had come, m\’ feeling was. This couldn hasn’t

come

t

me be

that the

so;

the end

yet.

Miss Ota expresses

this

sense of total collapse in

more evocative

literary style;

I

came out

of the gate of Dr. S.’s large house [where she

the hhnperor’s speech] and

down

the stone steps.

...

I

had heard felt as if I

were thrown into white air ... it was an indescribable emptiness which almost made me dizzy, as if I were on a high mountain. It was as though I were walking in a mist where there were no other .

.

.

divisible

people, and in\

legs

difficult to walk.

Such responses

Contamination

trembled. M\- body was so shak\-

83

found

I

it

-** .

.

to the hhuperor's speeeh

beeame psyehologieally inseparable from reaetions to the atomie bomb initiated nine davs earlier. Indeed, we may speak of a merging of end-of-the-world experienees: the end of the ideologieal world of Japan’s national mystique and of the immediate physical world of the Hiroshima environment. \Miile the first

seems more elearly a symbolie

on the symbohe

level.

loss initiated at the

And

both are ultimately experieneed

quite possible that the extreme sense of

it is

time of the

loss,

bomb

intensified

hihakusha reaetions to

the Emperor’s speeeh. ithiii

the aetnal atomie

dimensions of

bomb

experienee one

the destruction of the

loss:

human

mav

delineate two

matrix, the group ties

and eoordinated patterns of existenee whieh eonstitute what we usually speak of as the soeial fabrie or soeial strueture; and of the non-human environment, the material surroundings within whieh people conduct their lives. 1 he breakdown of the non-human environment

had particum a eulture whieh plaees such emphasis upon the baekground or eontext of life, and whieh views the individual person as less a separate being than an extension of his surroundings. Thus, within hibakusha internal symbolism, the material desolation of Hiroshima as a dwelling place, merged with human annihilation in a common image of lar

significance

disintegration.

This

eombmed

imagery dominated post-disaster themes of flight from the eontammated eity, homeless wandering, oeeasional reunions, and further losses.

he situation was epitomized by the large numbers of young orphans wandering through the eity, violently severed from both human and non-human environments through the death of parents and destruetion of homes, d’hese youngsters gathered in various 1

plaees in

Hiroshima, partieularly around the old Hiroshima Station, where they formed a nueleus for blaek-market aetivities and every other kind of antisoeial behavior.

Known

as furo-ji, or

to other survivors the sense of total

homeless waifs, they eonveyed

breakdown of

Ihe general atmosphere of disintegration

is

society.

described by the shop-

keeper’s assistant:

At the place \\Tere our house was there was nothing left. and there were [bodies of] people burned to blackness thing was

burned.

We

had buried some canned

rice

.

.

.

.

Here ever)-

under the

:

DEATH

84 ground

.

and

.

.

IN LIFE tried to dig

I

black and couldn't be eaten. .

.

.

.

out.

it .

.

But

I

The food

d’hc world was in complete cliaos.

.

.

found that the situation

rice

was

was very bad.

.

relatives was more fortunate than many A-bomb orphans in having from experiand acquaintances to go to; but this did not prevent him even after encing a profound sense of homelessness which continued I

le

some

had been restored

of the city’s life

they might have felt a bit troubled [b\ the farmer’s house my presenee], I think ... so they told me it would be better for me to get a job. ... I to go out and learn some kind of skill in order x\t

.

.

went

to

Hiroshima

and soon

.

.

.

.

my

afterw'ard

father

s

younger

and asked me to eome to her plaee to live, so to go there. that I eould go to sehool. But ... I stubbornly refused I would go Later, when I was having a very hard time, I deeided not feel aethere, but then the situation reversed itself [and I did ... so I quiekly left. ... I felt very lonely ... as I had

sister visited

me

.

.

.

eepted]

no parents

warmth

A

.

.

.

and there

of parents.

.

w'as

no plaee where

I

w'as treated

with the

.

.

similar sense of internal

and external disintegration prevented the

disaster. seamstress from aeeepting the aetuality of the overall

... so I that our house had been destroyed by the fire but there was no house to begged the doetors to let me go home [a [she and her mother] stayed at the sehool return to. I temporarv treatment eenter] until Mareh, the time of my birthday. didn’t

I

know

.

.

.

.

.

.

We

left with was eured by then [she refers to her aeute wounds; she was and we had great severe keloid sears] but we had no plaee to go went live on. diffieultv beeause we did not have enough money to only remain there one to stay with my aunt in the eountry, but eould invited us to stay with her baek 'I’hen my mother’s friend .

.

.

We

week.

.

.

.

Although I I found had been told the name of the bomb that had been dropped, believe that I had diffieult to believe what I saw. ... I eouldn’t

in the eity. d’his

was

my

first

return to Hiroshima.

.

.

.

it

been

in

sueh the midst of sueh a great disaster and had reeeived

terrible injuries myself.

And

.

.

.

values to the history professor relates the breakdown of eultural

the problem of starvation:

Contamination

Invisible

Because there was so star\ing

little

food

the

in

became the most important

city, to live

85

each day without

When

thing.

the Americans gave surplus food to the people, they were very grateful. ... In Japan, our great moral principle was loyalty. But as soon as the new authority came into the country, people blindly obeved it. ... I felt that this blind submission to authoritv was very sad. .

\\ bile such unciuestioning acceptance of the

new

authoritv occurred

throughout the country and was a much more complex phenomenon than he suggests, the extremity of disintegration in Hiroshima undoubtedly accentuated the process because it greatlv heightened the need for authorities of any kind to pull the world together. Moreo\cr, the food problem he referred to was very acute. People were desperate for anything edible, and many sustained themselves on a kind of weed known as railroad grass,’ so named because it grew^ near the train tracks on the outskirts of the citv, and according to one man,

“was said

have originally come from America wath the railroad.” Some made a kind of dumpling from it, but since the w^eed was “so strong that the buds sprouted from hard rocks,” eating the dumpling to

chewang on sand.” Ingesting too much of this weed caused diarrhea, and the eating of it is generalb’ recalled wath a sense of w^as

like

humiliation.

Humiliation, in

fact,

became

powerful psychological theme,

a

to-

gether wa'th the sense of being victimized, as Miss Ota points out:

Before

realized

I

it,

I

found myself

vaetim just like the others.

When

falling into the sense of

I

notieed

self-contempt, but there w'as nothing

mother

I

this,

I

could do.

felt .

.

being a

burdened by .

When my

spoke of the “afflicted people” [risairnin], I said to her, “Please do not say ‘risairnin: It sounds miserable and I don’t like it.

At

.

.

least say,

.

risaisha

but suggests a little less of being dissolved into an afflicted mass].” My younger sister said, I feel humiliated at all of [our familv] going [to find shelter at [also “afflicted ones,” .

someone

else’s

home] together.”

.

.

.’^ .

.

‘‘corpses of history’’ Miss Ota also

tells

of the impact

upon her

of the loss of Hiroshima’s

landmarks, of those parts of the non-human environment whose symWhatever the difference m usage of the two words for “afflicted people,” the important thing for Miss Ota was to avoid the one which conveyed to her the greatest sense of absolute victimization, humiliation, and obliteration of identitv.-’

DEAIII IN LIFE

86

meaning was

bolic

strongest. Slie deseribes having finally got used to the

general destruetion, even to the ubiquitous eorpses, until

reaehed a bridge and saw that the Hiroshima Castle had been eompleteh' leveled to the ground, and my heart shook like a great 'This destruetion of the eastle gave me a thought. Even if wave. I

.

a

new

.

.

eitv

should be built on

would never be of Hiroshima, entirelv on flat

this land, the eastle

and added to that eitv. dlie eitv land, was made three-dimensional bv the existenee of the white eastle, and beeause of this it eould retain a elassieal flavor. Hiroshima had a historv of its own. And when I thought about these things, the grief of stepping over the eorpses of history pressed upon my heart.

built

.

.

The

‘corpses of history” are the ruins of significant symbols, in this case structures

physical historical

past.

which enhanced

sense of continuity with

a

the

Miss Ota’s choice of words suggests once more the

inseparabilitv of imagerv of svmbolic

and bodily forms of death.* In

response to this general pattern of disintegration, hihakusha did not

seem

to develop clear-cut psychiatric

syndromes. t

To

describe the emo-

tional state thev did develop they frequently used the jotai,

which means

a state of

and may be translated relevant

is

despondeney, abstraction, or emptiness,

as “state of eollapse” or

a related state

listlessness,

stare”

Conditions

mav be thought

despair; a

widespread in

symptom— that

like

the

in other contexts “the

“vacuum

muyokuthousand-

state” or “thousand-mile

form of severe and prolonged psychic numbing

am

of

of as apathy, but are also profound expressions of

survivor’s responses to his

What

as so

state.” Also

w'ithdraw^n countenance, “expression of wanting

nothing more,” or what has been called mile stare.” +

“vacuum

which Miss Ota described

the early stages as to constitute a medical

ganbo, a

term kyodatsu-

environment are reduced many

to a

in

which the

minimum—

disintegration— biological, physical-non-hmnan, social, generally human, ideological (including the most primitive assumptions about the functioning of the universe), and historical— all fuse into a single, inclusive image. Moreover, these various breakdowns of order and life, whether perceived in themsehes or in this collective fashion, can be inwardly *

I

suggesting

is

that

the

le\-els

of

absorbed only through a form of psychic re-creation characteristic of mental general; that is, they arc perceived through symbolic transformation.-''^

life

in

my

impression concerning the relative absence of full-blown psychiatric disorders has been confirmed by other observers, as 1 shall discuss in the next chapter.--* t

d'here are

no accurate

records, but

“thousand-mile stare” was informally used to characterize the facial expressions of American prisoners of war repatriated from camps in North Korea in +

d’he term

1953.-’5

Invisible

often

to

tliosc

du’csted of

necessary to keep

liiin

Contamination

alivc-and

in

87

wliicli

lie

feels

capacity eitlier to wisli or will. Phrases like kyodatsu-joUii and muyokii-ganbo ercntnally took on the secondary function of pubtlie

acknowledged categories; the.se lent they gave form to its struetiirelessness. licly

The

a structure to the period in that

electrician experienced such a state

when, after five weeks of struggling against chaos, he felt that his responsibilities at the railway station were over:

had been trying to put everything in order. When I couldn’t find documents I made new cards. But when I got everything in order I felt discouraged and despondent tired of it. Until then I had the sense that we were all in a war situation and I had mv responsibilities. But then I saw all of the damage and I thought I had been silly [to be so conscientious]. And once I had fulfilled my responsibility, I didn’t have anv idea of what I should do after that. ... I felt very lonely. I

•

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

vacuum

.

.

.

1 he

.

.

.

.

was perpetuated by such things as delayed news of deaths of family members, but as the grocer reveals in describing his state

reactions to hearing confused details of his mother’s death six weeks after it occurred, the same state interferes with responses to this kind of

news:

I

my

heard [from

uncle] that

my mother

was killed that she died in the house when the house was burning that she was asphyxiated by the smoke and died. ... He explained it that way. But I think it w'as his imagination because my grand.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

father told us that

.

.

my

mother was out buying things at the store so she must have been killed on the way to the market and not at home somewhere around the center of the citv. Well, this too is .

.

.

imagination

but since we couldn’t find any remnant of her body or bones, we could only imagine. Rather than a feeling of sorrow [what I experienced] was shock, strong shock. ... It must have been shock that I felt maybe not exactlv at^that moment, but anyhow when I heard it as if all of the blood in my body were frozen. And I heard later that my face at that time was com.

.

.

.

.

.

— —

.

.

pletely pale

We

.

.

.

.

so

I

think

it

sense that at the time he

was

reallv a shock.

felt less

“shock” than he

now

thinks he

should have, and that feelings of death guilt prevent hibakusha from

DEATH

88

IN LIFE

inwardly accepting the dcptlis of emotional withdrawal they had experienced.

The middle-aged businessman

describes

the absence of visions of

possibility:

^^T' lost hope entirely. we were in a \'aeuum state. prewar times we thought in terms of getting ahead in the world-

In those da\s

In

.

.

.

becoming a rich man, a cabinet minister, a doetor, a high-ranking And I d hen suddenlv we lost these hopes. salaried man. lost all other kinds of hope as well. .

.

.

And

the abandoned mother

displacement,

.

.

.

.

tells

.

.

of the

combined impaet

eontamination, and

invisible

of personal

by

vietimization

further

looting:

end of the month, I was given permission which she to live in the street railwav car [owned by the company for And then I heard the rumor that for seventy years worked]. there would be no trees or grass and there would never be human

...

In September

.

.

at the

.

Hiroshima.

beings living in

.

And

.

.

although

of

all

the

things

house were stolen, I did have some other things whieh had been taken to the eountry and I took these baek and put But from the ear too almost everything was them in the ear. stolen. ... I was surprised to find that among our own Japanese, the same eompany, there were thieves. and even among workers so if I were to But my feeling was, there was no plaee to go remaining

my

in

.

.

.

m

.

.

.

.

.

.

die,

it

would die here where the bomb fell. ... A of not earing — not a feeling based on understanding but just

was

feeling

not earing.

all

right,

.

.

.

I

philosopher spoke of “a blank, nihilistic stage,” with everyone eoneerned only with ‘diow to live, how to get wood to burn, how to get

The

food,

how

to

eompassion

sustain

for

siieh

afflieted.”

half year

treatment of his eye) with people’s ineapaeity

for

eompassion

in

beeause

Hiroshima

T he sociologist told how he and after

contrasted the

The mathematician

those with injuries whieh he encountered in Kyoto

(where he had gone for

ourselves.”

the war’s

end

.

.

.

many

had no

had

“everyone

been

others “for about one

desire

to

find

any job

anywhere, or to work for a salary” because “things were very ehaotie [and] there was

Adding floods

no

speeial

rhythm

of life to live by.”

to the general disintegration,

whieh began on September

17,

and less

to the

than

vaeuum six

state,

weeks

after

were the

Juvisihle

Contamimitiou

many more lives, ineluding those Kyoto physicians who had come to Hiroshima to

boml), and took

was

a

new form

of

most

of a

89 team of

offer their help, d'his

of “contamination,” and carried

people, if it were even beyond the \aeuiim state— as is suggested by Shinzo Ilamai, long-term Mayor of Hiroshima and a man known to have made

possible,

extraordinary efforts in the face of the most extreme diffieulties:

he

looked like a huge lake. Beneath its waves it was possible to detect tiled roofs and the outline of much else as w’cll. I felt as though this were the final burial! For w'hat reason had the citizens of Hiroshima been condemned to such frightful sufferings? Suppose the flood waters w'erc never to recede, and it [Hiroshima] w^ere all to remain I

cit\

drowned

forever? In that case,

I

thought, so

much

the better.

I

said

this to m\'sclf in all seriousness.*

Hiroshima

s terrain is .such that it has always been subject to floods, and hibakusha did not express to me the belief that the flood had been caused by the bomb But Htey did percene it as part of the limitless devastation of their ens ironment

^

:

4)

Tainted Rebirth

The vacuum Psychic prior

to

state could, paradoxically,

numbing and taking the

be a prelude to symbolic rebirth.

despair could serve as a

of ‘'holding on’

toward reintegration. But for

steps

first

means

this

to

happen the patterns of disintegration had to be interrupted— the whole city, so to speak, had to be “detoxified.” Only then could three fundamental qualities of active existence within the self-process be reasserted: the sense of connection, the sense of life-energy and movement, and the sense of symbolic integrity or meaning. Such reintegrative processes

were perforce incomplete

— the

detoxification

could be only partial

hence the rebirth was inevitably tainted by unmastered death imagery. Human bonds were crucial to this early movement toward rebirth,

most prominentlv within ances,

and even

strangers.

officials to distribute

families,

The

but also

the available food and clothing not only provided

their sense of connection to other

death anxiety and death

Even the exchange

human

hibakusha to reassert

beings and their sense of

guilt.

of “horror stories” about various aspects of the

could contribute to these reintegrative tendencies

Dr. Hachiva’s description to

stories

also helped

or revitalization, both of great importance in counteracting

movement

in

friends, acquaint-

dedicated elTorts of a small group of city

emergenev physical replenishment but

bomb

among

me

of the

so

was

— as

atmosphere

in

is

suggested

which these

were told

One would

sav that “So

and

other would sav, “WTll in killed.”

desire to

.

mv

killed in

my

family,” and the

family so and so and so and so were

There seemed to be almost a pride in misery blend with one another by sharing similar stories. .

.

Dr. Ilachiya went on to

tell

how, even during those

bomb, some hibakusha would uuindan or vernacular

resort

to

first

.

.

.

and

a

days after the

the rambling, semi-comical

stvle of storytelling.

Such exchanges of horror

provided intense emotional contact, mutual support, and identification

around the onlv subject people were concerned with, and the only one all had in common. Thev were an immediate outlet for emotions, both

hivisible

and

joyful

guilt\-,

Contamination

91

surrounding survival.

And they supplied the erude beginnings of formulations of the disaster— whether through agitated commentary, moments of detachment, or ing that the entire alfair was an absurdity.

The

cremator,

when

interrupted by his wife tell

a

glimmer of humor suggest-

discussing these early exchanges with me, was

who

told the kind of storv that onlv a wife could

:

He was

so concerned with

ordinary everyday things. For instance, bomb there was a distribution of beer in the city, and he walked all the way to the center of Hiroshima for one glass of beer. after the

The

may be

story

nothing), but

have

The

it

a

exaggerated

bit

suggests the

for stimulating the

(though

symbolic processes as well as the

life still existed,

that one had

Even the black market and

thirst buds.

convey the sense that “ordinary

— from the A-bomb nightmare. symbolized as

protagonist denied

enormous importance such amenities can

availability of a glass of beer could

everyday

its

related

awakened— or begun illegalities

to

awake

could be inwardly

social disintegration in the service of rebirth.

The

general

craving for goods, the extraordinary energy and ingenuitv of blackmarket operators, their thriving business not only in food and clothing but in building materials and roof-tiles, in watches, various metal objects,

and

illegally

held) items as old Japanese swords

in

such particularly valued

sense of a return to

(and bv Occupation decree,

—

all

this

accentuated the

energy and movement. Youngsters picked up from the central black-market area near Hiroshima Station and put in life’s

orphanages would often run away from the orphanages because, as the director of one of them put it at the time, “Thev just cannot forget the

atmosphere of the station and the black market where they have lived in the past.”-' Here is more than simply the “appeal of chaos”: it is the sense of being drawn to the most active expressions of the reassertion of life. I

his

items

kind of rebirth, however, had to be perceived as tainted.

Many

on the black market had been taken from the dead, whether removed directly from corpses or looted from destroyed homes, which created imagery of drawing strength from the dead by means of first

sold

further violating them.

And

in a

more general

sense, participation in the

black market (which very few hihakusha could totallv avoid) took on

DEATH

92

IN LIFE

the psychological significance of “stealing life”— from the dead, the

immediate

forces of destiny, the

and from one another. In

authorities,

other words, the payment for such life-sustaining experience and imagery took the form of additional death guilt.

SHACKS, MOUNTAINS, AND RIVERS Nothing was more important Hiroshima

A

itself.

first

to symbolic rebirth than the reclaiming of

step was the re-establishment of

some

of the

transportation facilities— and the operation, three days after the

city’s

bomb, of one part of a streetcar line, three railroad stations, and a number of charcoal-driven buses graphically conveved a sense of return of life’s motion. But reclaiming Hiroshima as a living area was a more difEcult task.

A

considerable

(usually because they

rubble to keep

had no place

Most

alive.

number

fled to

of people never left the citv to go)

and

simply scrounged in the

outlving districts and towns, where

they stayed with relatives, friends, or strangers, and then gradually came

back to claim their damaged homes or the leveled

homes had six

months

stood. to

three months.

A

two years

later,

their

One month

but a considerable number within one to

after the

bomb

fell

Chugoku Shimbun, made heroic improvi-

the

itself

resume publication at the end of August), estimated the

population at 130,000, about one third of

most

where

few returned almost immediatelv, some not until

Hiroshima’s leading newspaper (which had sations to

sites

its

citv’s

pre-disaster figure.

But

of these people lived in the outskirts rather than in the “hollowed

center,” the last part of the city to be repopulated.

Hibakusha vinced

told

me

that they returned because they

became con-

(through public announcements and observations of others)

that the city was safe to live in; because they feared losing their properB’

damaged by scavengers (who came into the bomb); because the city administration an-

to squatters or having

the city right after

nounced that

it

it

further

would provide some

whose houses had been

free building materials to those

totally demolished;

settled in before the onset of the

because they wanted to be

typhoon season (usuallv

early or

mid-

September); and because they learned that public services were being resumed, particularly electricity (on September 13). But underlying of these factors was the profound original

human tendency

to reclaim one’s

“territory,” to reassert one’s earlier relationship

and dwelling-place, and encounter on what

is

to

conduct the struggle

literally familiar

for

all

between

self

mastery of a death

ground, however that ground has

Invisible

Contamination

93

been devastated. In Hirosliiina tliere was also evidenee that hihakusha did not feel they had the right to abandon the dead.

1 he shopkeeper’s assistant deseribes the eontagioiis impaet of the reassertion of life in the citv:

hen

Hiroshima in December, ymre and came to... had heard that I

tliere.

I

there were shacks standing

would be no people Hiroshima in the future, but within a few months I found tiese shacks standing with people living in them, and this made me teel that I too had to do something to keep myself going. I began to think that as long as I was alive, I had to go on living. I still had fear but gradually, as time passed by ... I living

.

.

there

.

m

.

.

.

.

.

gained a sort of

ghting

spirit

about

and when the

life,

fear arose in

me,

pressed

I

it

This developing aetivity within Hiroshima eould become a lure for those forced to remain outside of the city for a long period of time, as the grocer makes clear:

In those days

should have had nothing to complain about, as my aunt was taking care of me but I still thought about leaving the place to which we had been evacuated. Although I had fears I

.

.

.

.

.

.

about influences from the bomb, at the same time, as an ordinary child, I wanted to go back to the city back to a lively place. That w’as more than a year and a half after the bomb. And people who went back to Hiroshima and then returned to the countiy’ told me that in Hiroshima there were many houses and markets. From where we were in the countryside, returning to Hiroshima took on strong meaning, like a dream— but we had this dream. And .

.

.

.

when people left ... I too wanted

The "dream” was know'n

it

m

there, saying that they to

liveh place,

for

.

Hiroshima,

go back.

that of

the past.

were headed

.

And

the craving

is

restored in the place where

life

while

it is

one had

true that an ordinary child craves "a

greatly intensified

by the atmosphere of death

produced by an atomic bomb. Certain attitudes had great importance for sustaining people in those early days. The sociologist, for instance, spoke of a form of “optimistic resignation,” which kept

I

him and

tend to be optimistic, and

[shoganai],

things

others going:

I

took the view

it

can’t be helped

would somehow take care of themselves. The

IN LIFE

DEATH

94

greatest coiieem people

had was

did not think about the future.

Even

spiritual

life

.

and the\

.

.

.

.

came

the Buddhist priest,

to

share a

lifC'SHStaining mcitericils, for this focus itself

upon

general focus

like

leaders,

.

everyday

for their

was

a

pow'crful rcassertion of svmbolic rebirth:

Uibdkushd didn’t have the supernatural on

their

mind but were more

recover concerned wdth getting solutions for everyday problems, for thought that if we were to live— and if we ing their health. of had things, that is, food, clothing, houses-thesc might fill up some .

.

.

We

must find the void. But there were no such things ... so we felt we some wav^ to keep on living. ... I cultivated a field right near here and grew potatoes and vegetables half a day without feeling extreme

He

goes on to

— even

though

fatigue.

I

couldn

came

not only the humiliation mentioned before but also

and

work even

...

clear that eating '‘railroad grass

make

t

to svmbolize

human endurance

will to life:

think this "railroad grass” edible, but we all that went to look for it since it was the only thing we could find to eat .You found that you simply still seemed to be stronglv growing.

we wouldn’t

Ordinarih',

.

had

something

to find

for the

wounded

children.

.

.

[his

.

and then for tomorrow— especially wife had been severely injured] and for the for today,

.

heard Indeed, this grass that was "strongly growing,” and which, as we rocks,” was before, was "so strong that the buds sprouted from hard perceived as an infusion of strength, and the idea that

America with the

some

railroad

suggests that

”

of this infusion even as

Nature

itself also

it

state

mav

young writer put

collapse,

for

me

imagery of rebirth,

by

but the mountaius and

similar sentiments in

from

for the devastation.

in early

expressed in the Japanese saving c|uoted to

"The

came

America was responsible

was responsible

had great prominence

it

sev’cral

rivers

as

hibdkushd.

remain.”

A

more contemplative language:

destrucreturned to Hiroshima on September first. W’hen I saw the Tliis is really the state tion, I was amazed, but at the same time I felt: destroyed, but of man. What man had added to nature has now been I

nature

is

there.

... At the same time

that

I

saw the destruction,

I

Invisible

saw ground. also

rivers

Maybe

Contamination

95

flowing, clouds in this

is

the sky, mountains in the backOriental way of thinking [but] I

an

.

.

.

found

it

very aesthetic.

...

That part of nature which had been destroyed-half-burnt dead

trees

throughout the city— made people uncomfortable until removed. A story is told of how Prince 1 akamatsu, the Emperor’s brother, during a second \isit to Hiroshima in December, 1945, noted with approval that

the burnt trees were no longer visible; as the Prince

made

his

comment.

he playfully assumed the posture of a Japanese ghost (by holding his two hands loosely in front of himself). Destroyed nature, in It

said,

IS

other words,

is

ghostlike.

But intact nature

outlasts

all.

And

the appearance of the buds,

particularly those of the cherry blossoms, in the

(March and April

of 1946)

conveyed to

manv

first

post-bomb spring

a sense of the city’s

symbolic detoxification. Mayor Hamai associated the buds wih a simultaneous ‘Towering” of shacks and other buildings and with “a new feeling of relief and hope.”

But nature’s

bomb dead— as

revitalizing force

cannot be kept separate from the Aa leading hibakusha poet explains;

Well, the newspapers and various authorities said there would be no trees or grass in Hiroshima for seventv years or so. But when 1 looked

and saw how quickly thev regained their original beauty, I didn t believe that the city had been reduced to such sterility. 1 wrote about mud and soil and grass and trees. But 1 felt the soil of Hiroshima was mixed with the bones of the dead, and the young trees and grass growing out of the ground w'ere if 1 can speak metaphoriat the rivers

—

the eyes of the dead, looking at the people who had survived. When I noticed all of these trees and greens, I began to think more constructively about my present condition and about my future. cally .

I

.

.

thought ...

The dead

I

must

live as

honestly and truthfullv as

could.

.

arc thus perceived to have blended with nature; the blending

provides support and continuity to hibakusha but

death

I

is

also a

reminder of

guilt.

SOLUTIONS AND TASKS Imagery of nature and of reclaiming Hiroshima were, ways,

early

formulations

of

the

experience.

personal formulations in which the

bomb was

in their special

There were felt to

also

more

be an agent of

I

DEAIII IN LIFE

96

be a

rebirth. I’his eould

and

individual death

misguided ideological convictions,

process

painful

a

from

result of release

by

described

a

voung companv executive; work hard for the country’s war because I effort. ... I tried to enter the Naval Academy and when I was unsuccessful, I wanted to get on a warship entered a technical college out of my wish to be involved in work I

had believed that we ought

to

.

.

.

.

... At the age

contributing to the manufacture of military weapons. of eighteen

I

was putting

mv

.

.

schoolwork aside and working at the

...

Na\'v with onlv one or two da\s off a month. cooperative feeling toward the war

.

.

.

had

I

a very

moment when I victims who are not

until that

war ereated such large numbers of involved in fighting. I realized that this was the worst part of war, and although I was inwas unavoidable. So from that moment realized that

.

capable of doing any real thinking

began

to

— just

.

in a state of

have a negative feeling toward war.

Implied here, as

.

.

.

blankness

.

sentiments expressed by quite a few,

in similar

hibakushds self-accusatory sense that

his

—

own war enthusiasms

the

is

played a

part in bringing about the atomic holocaust. like the professor of education, quickly associated the

Some,

Now

with alleviation of war suffering (“I thought.

and were

relieved

from

felt liberated

their

Miss

finally

being done.”

from military controls,

own ambivalence

that

despair

war must end”)

bv the Emperor’s speech because “something which

should have been done long before was

Others

this

Ota

a suppressive regime,

experienced

the

following

— was

mixed with

a sense of release

and

it.

The

bomb and

the

or even hypocrisy in relationship to

Emperor’s speech— her “indescribable emptiness” and feeling of ing in white air”

bomb

“float-

and opportunity

for

personal renewal.

The

historv professor

more

is

explicit in associating the

bomb

with

personal reintegration and rebirth:

When

the war ended,

shared by rule.

.

.

.

manv

I

felt greatlv

intellectuals

Inuring the war

I

who were not

was

a hvpocrite.

government and the war effort— to pretend We intellectuals had to lead a double .

.

feel

.

any sense of strength

as

This was the feeling

relieved.

individual

content with military I

to

had to work for the be what I was not.

life.

.

persons.

.

.

We

...

I

couldn’t feel

that

Invisible

Contamination

through the use of tlie bomb, wc found a than if the bomb had not been used.

And a

a leftist

\^oman writer went even further

harbinger of a

new

want

it

we

it.

as

a

for.

result .

.

.

new meaning

felt a

to repeat

in

to liappiness sooner

viewing

tlie

bomb

as

life:

hen the war ended something ... to live through

\va\’

97

.

.

The

.

.

.

wt found

was horrible, but thought no one w^ould

disaster

in life.

For us Japanese

.

A-bomb

of the

We

.

.

.

seeing the death of the

military was a very exciting thing in our lives. The anger we felt at the end of the war was not toward the bomb but the Japanese militarists. \\ e greatly enjo\ed the fact that wc had no longer

any

militar\'

leaders in power.

Both she and the history

professor, however, along with the relief they

described, also experienced considerable despair and the entire

atomic

bomb

gamut

of

emotions.

Curiosity about the American victors, sometimes indicating a beginning identification with them, could also be a stimulus to recovery. In the case of the seamstress, for example, w'ho had been severely injured b\ the bomb and bitterly disillusioned by the surrender speech, the urge to get a glimpse of the newly arrived American troops quite literally inspired her to get back on her feet;

I

couldn

though

I

t

was

wanted help me. just

Like others

stand up or w^alk fearful

to see.

I

I

wanted

w'as

.

.

.

but

to see

it

them

w^as

strange

[the

.

.

American

.

that

al-

troops].

I

not supposed to stand so the doctors had to

Japan, she was disarmed by the easygoing friendliness of these strangers, and struck by their contrast with the monsters all ov^er

she had been led by Japanese wartime propaganda to expect. This contrast w’as probably even more extreme for hihakusha than for other Japanese, since their images of Americans included not only conventional ones of rapers and looters but a newv and unprecedented

image

‘droppers of the atomic

bomb,” though no one seemed to have a clear picture of what such people would look like. (We shall have much more to say later about the hibakusha s long and complex encounter with Americans.)

Sometimes during these

early

months

there were specific turning

98

DEATH

^*1^

IN LIFE

points which permitted hibakusha a return to significant symbols and a

recovery of meaning, d his turning point could take the form of a

meaningful

colleague and his else,”

familv that “I

and

at the

really

much about

couldn’t think

same time followed

guidance

this colleague’s

contemplating Japan’s future to the extent of feeling “inspired

in

to follow a

new path

parts of Japan

in

mv

field.”

so

in caring for a senior

immersed, over a considerable period of time,

anvthing

who was

task, as in the case of the professor of education,

Hearing that scholars

.

.

.

some other

in

were living under even more extreme deprivation than

those in Hiroshima, and were in fact close to starvation, he initiated a

which universitv students and younger faculty members from Hiroshima would take riee to professors in Tokyo who would in return provide thoughts and suggestions about “how we should carry program

on

.

.

.

in

how we

should learn to stand on our feet.” This led to an

organized exchange and study group which dedicated

itself ecleetically

works of Japanese and American humanists considered relevant for the general crisis— the philosophy of Nishida and novels of Soseki, as to

well as the writings of John

Dewey and William James:

“First

we had

to break with the old tradition, then study certain basic principles,

then develop an approach.” ately following the

He

bomb had

and

concluded that the turbulence immedi-

provided valuable experience for him:

A-bomb I felt as though I had been driven into a storm. Without the A-bomb I would not have had the opportunity to comprehend so thoroughlv [these] teachings. ... I was forced to find mv own path and to work very hard to do that. After the .

.

.

.

But we

.

.

shall see later that within his psvchological life, the

“storm” was

not soon to abate.

A

related pattern

ships— such

was the restoration of significant

as that of teacher

and student— with

human

relation-

their lifelong patterns

of future responsibility and dependency. This was true for the sociologist,

who had

lost his scholarly

familv, returning to

ambition and

Hiroshima only

left

the city to stay with his

at the instigation of his old teacher,

who found a job for him there: “It was a back.”’^ Once back, and rooted in this

kind of on which brought personal

tie

and

in

a

me

new

position, he could participate in the early postwar dialogues— efforts at an obligation or debt of gratitude to one’s benefactor. The principle is part of the overall system of giri-ninjo, the traditional cultural patterning of obligation and dependency.-^ *

An on

is

Invisible

Contamination

99

formulation taking place throughout Japan but particiilarhpoignant Hiroshima:

he anger

in

was directed not toward the country which dropped the bomb but toward war itself. People’s feeling was that they had had bad fortune, and that since Japan had started the war— as they were now taught— this was understandable punishment. 1

vve felt

.

students, professors,

and

.

.

Then

began to think more about to reconstruct Japan not just Hiroshima, but in terms of the whole nation and in relationship to the whole world. They lifted their eves outside of their small society and dev^eloped greater concern about the whole of human destiny. .

.

.

intellectuals

—

how

.

e shall see later that this redirection of hostility

was not quite

as clear-

cut as he suggests, but this atmosphere of ideological search had great

importance for early reintegration. 1 he philosopher similarly tells viously

mentioned gave way

After two months,

began

How

was

it

hatred for

form of

the

Tlank-nihilistic stage” pre-

to serious efforts at formulation:

when

to ask questions.

how

things began to be a .

we

WTy

.

.

little bit restored,

brought about? How war— and along with

did this war have to take place? does war come about? felt great

We

this

we thought about

politics,

the

and about social organization. We had a strong hatred toward militarism. We had the feeling people had been deceived by the military. And of course our discussions came down to capitalism and socialism— these discussions were limitless, and we always tried to expand them. politics in societv’,

.

.

.

For others the important turning point was a suggestion of the possibility of economic recovery, permitting a vision of the future that transcended immediate chaos— as described by the middle-aged businessman :

I

had

lost

Nakayama said that

if

hope

heard over the radio what Mr. Ichiro [a well-known economist] said about Japan’s future. He Japan could keep the principle of neutralism, as laid out in .

.

.

until

I

the Potsdam Declaration, then Japan would be able to recov'cr before too long. At that time [several months after the bomb] prices were

going up and the black marketeers were prosperous, so I thought that if I couldn’t find a way to earn a living quickly, all of my family would be in difficulty. And then when I heard Mr. Nakavama’s ideas, I .

.

.

.

1

DEATH

00

IN LIFE

and thought that Japan would someday become emancipated about one year after the war when I began a new business mv feeling was even more changed and I began to have hope for the .

.

.

future.

.

.

.

,

.

.

.

.

Miss Ota describes personal struggles, during the the

.

bomb, toward recovery

first

meaning and creation

of

months

of a

new

after set of

significant symbols;

come for a revolution against mankind’s tragic tendency be unable to make anv progress without being destroyed. ... I do

The time to

has

can be the thing that makes Japan truly peaceful. This is the meaning of rny writing this book in the midst of pain. ... I am happv to begin to feel the flame of the writer’s spirit burning in myself. Just as water purified by a filter emerges as

hope

this defeat

.

drops of clean water, writer’s

spirit.

.

.

.

.

.

all

my

seems to be separating out from my was more angry with the ignorant destroy my writer’s life than with the

grief

Frankly,

I

imperialism which attempted to

... an anger which included grievous thoughts about my own country. Japan must now take the big step of freeing herself from the hold of tradition. But the fact that Hiroshima was destroyed

fact

.

that Japan lost the war does not

To

else.

Now rice

We

.

think that she was,

.

she was defeated in everything

a secondary psychological effect.

[November, 1945] the farmers are beginning but little joy can be found among them. .

.

.

how

note

in

man

as she seeks,

what happened

ness of a residual

Fundamental

to

reap

.

.

.

their

.

pride in her writer’s identity combines with sweeping

formulations about

meaning

is

mean

.

shadow to

in

even

this early, to find

profound

Hiroshima; and we note also her aware-

(“little joy

can be found

among them”)

whatever recoverv and rebirth did take place

in

Hiroshima, tainted or otherwise, was the infusion of energy from the outside. This infusion

began with the rescue teams (however inade-

quate) organized mostly bv the Japanese military, followed by a trickle of phvsicians

and

supplies, then

by the American Occupation, which

provided various kinds of help, and finally by a surge of “outsiders” {nouhibakiisha)

who

quickly repopulated the

city.

Those who came

included Hiroshima natives stationed elsewhere during the war, people

deprived of their homes in overseas possessions

now

taken from Japan,

others from the nearby Kansai area and especially from business districts

around Osaka, and various fringe elements— scavengers, black-market operators,

and criminals— from

all

of these places. For the “contami-

Inrisihle

Contamination

101

was rapidly transfonncd into a “boom town" of nnliinitcd opportunity— a social \oid in whose filling anything was natecl city"

possible.

hough

turned out, psychologically speaking, that the contamination was overlaid rather than eliminated, this “frontier atmosphere" con1

it

tributed to a general sense of renewed

life.

Many

of these uouhibakusha, in addition to being physically and emotionally stronger than the survivors, came from more aggressive

Japanese subcultures than that of Hiroshima's provincial traditionalism,

making them

in

way

every

better suited to deal with the chaos and

change of the immediate post-bomb period. Inevitably, they aroused considerable resentment among hibakusha, who saw them as reaping most of the profits of Hiroshima s recov'er\’ without having undergone special suffering.

its

But the part played by

outsiders’ vitality in

making possible that

recovery could not be denied, as the Buddhist priest

The hibakusha were

tells us:

activated by people from the outside

.

.

.

from

China, Manchuria, and the South Seas, and also other outsiders, nonhibakusha coming from different parts of Japan into Hiroshima. Then they the hibakusha] went to work again. But it was the outsiders who had to come in and begin the work. The^ .

.

.

.

survivors

had

to

.

be dragged along [hikizuru] bv the outsiders.

The middle-aged businessman companied by admiration proach

.

for

how

describes their

resentment was

this

successful,

.

if

ac-

unscrupulous, ap-

:

Those who came back from overseas were extremely active. They didn’t hesitate to do business on the black market because they came back to Japan with not even clothes on their backs. ... I .

.

.

.

think that they are

.

.

now

the most successful people. In any case, they were extremely active, and I think other people followed them and

adopted their wavs.

There

is

a suggestion

.

.

.

here,

in

response to residual

hibakusha themselv'es participated

in

illegalities,

guilt,

that

they were

when

“merely

following" examples set by outsiders. But this does not alter the inner realization on the part of survivors that their own and their city’s recovery, physically

and

would have been impossible a source of energy and direction.

psychologically,

without a functioning "'outside” as

Precisely this “knowledge," along with the frequent need to

denv

its

DEATH

10 2 truth,

was

IN LIFE

to contribute greatly to later conflicts over

weakness and

dependency. Early psychological rebirth, then, was both gradual and periodic,

accomplished imperceptibly as well as through conscious required

effort.

It

preliminary struggles

toward formulation and called upon costly psychological defenses along with unsuspected resources. It had to take place within Hiroshima survivors themselves but was totally contingent upon outside forces. It was an extraordinary achievement, entailing as

of

it

manmade

did a measure of mastery over history’s greatest single act devastation, but

variety of physical

death.

it

was to remain severelv tainted by

and emotional remnants,

all

a

related to an aura of

"A-BOMB DISEASE

1

)

We

»

Impaired Body Substance have observed that physical

fears experienced

relationship to

in

early radiation effects could turn into lifetime bodily concerns.

the years that followed, these fears and concerns fied

t

by

a

development which has come

became

During

greatly magni-

epitomize the hibakushas

to

third encounter with death: his growing awareness that medical studies

were demonstrating an abnormally high vi\’ors

of the atomic

rate of

bomb. There has thus

leukemia

arisen

among

sur-

the scientifically

inaccurate but emotionally charged term ^^A-bomb disease/^ which has taken for its medical model this always fatal malignancy of the blood-

forming organs.

The

increased incidence of leukemia was

reached a peak between 1950 and 1952.

It

first

noted

for those within a

of leukemia has been between ten

and

1948,

and

has been greatest in hiba-

kusha exposed closest to the hypocenter, mainly those

two thousand meters;

in

who were

within

thousand meters the incidence fifty

times the normal. ^ Since

1952 the rate has considerably diminished, but

it is

non-exposed populations, and fears remain strong.

still

higher than in

The symptoms

of

leukemia, moreover, rather closely resemble those of earlier radiation effects,

including the dreaded “purple spots’' and other kinds of hemor-

.

— DEATH

104

IN LIFE

rhage, various forms of blood abnormalities, fever, progressive weakness,

and (inevitably

in leukemia,

and often enough

in aeute irradiation)

death.*

leukemia— or the threat of leukemia— became an indefinite extension of earlier “mvisible contamination and individual cases, particularly in children, became a later counterpart of Psychologically

speaking,

'

;

the '‘ultimate horror” of the

One

moments

first

of the experience.

such case of leukemia in a twelve-year-old

girl

become Hiroshima’s equivalent of two years old at the time of the bomb, she was

Sasaki has, in fact,

legend. Just

been exposed

at

about sixteen hundred meters, but

and even

effects,

to

life

by folding paper cranes,

in

it is

said to

have

have shown no

to

have been unusually vigorous and

stricken almost ten years later. Sadako,

her

named Sadako an Anne Frank ill

athletic, until

maintain

told, struggled to

keeping with a Japanese folk belief

that since the crane lives a thousand years, the folding of a thousand

paper cranes cures one of

When

illness.

that number, so the legend

she died— still thirty-six short of

goes— her classmates added the missing

paper cranes and placed the

full

same children then played an

active part in a national

monument

construction of a

died because of the atomic tions

were received from

in the center of

retold in

come N

many

all

in her coffin

all

campaign

other children

bomb. Paper cranes and over Japan, and the

The

with her.

The

for the

who have

financial contribu-

monument now

storv has

stands

been told and

versions, including a widely distributed film,

to s\mbolize the

when

Sadako and

Hiroshima’s Peace Park.

and has

bomb’s recurrent desecration of the pure and

ulnerable— of childhood Just

to

thousand

itself.-

the incidence of leukemia was recognized as diminishing

and approaching the normal, evidence began accumulating that various other forms of cancer were increasing in incidence

among

survivors

including carcinoma of the stomach, lung, thvroid, ovary, and uterine

Such increases are consistent with the knowledge that these cancers can be induced by irradiation, and that the latent period followcervix.

ing

irradiation

is

much

longer

for

Moreover, while leukemia

is

incidence, fewer than two

hundred

*

The two

a

rare

them than disease

for

the leukemias.^

(even with

cases have

its

increased

been reported among

conditions cause similar symptoms because both affect the blood-forming tissues in the bone marrow. In leukemia the peripheral blood is flooded with immature white corpuscles, and white blood cell counts are characteristically extremely high; but they can also be abnormally low, as in acute irradiation. Severe anemia occurs in both.

'‘A-Bomb Disease'' Hiroshima

significantly exposed population), cancer

s

is

105

pp-

not; should the

trend eontinue, as appears likely, the inerease in eancer will undoubtedly give further stimulus to various elaborations of death symbolism, just as

some

of these were beginning to decline.

Even now, aware

of

the

increasing statistieal evidenee in this direction, survivors tend to see themselves as endlessly suseeptible: when one lethal eondition begins to

show

signs of attenuation, another, equally deadly,

makes

its

appear-

ance.

Other medieal eonditions, with varying amounts of evidence, have been thought to result from delayed radiation effects. There has been a definite increase in cataraets

and

related eye conditions,

most of which appeared within one or two years after exposure. There has been eonvincing evidence of impairment in the growth and development of exposed ehildren; and although it is diffieult to distinguish the part placed by radiation from that played by other factors physical trauma

—

the

at

and

time,

later

eontributes to sur\’ivors’ ferior.

There

is

soeioeeonomie deprivation— this impairment sense of being ^‘stunted’^ and physieally in-

group of divergent conditions, which, without confirmation, are thought by some physieians (and

also a large

clear-cut scientific

most hibdkusha)

from the bomb: several kinds of anemia, and diseases; endoerine and skin disorders; central

to result

other blood and liver

nervous system (partieularly midbrain) impairment; premature aging; sexual dysfunctions; and, most difficult of all to evaluate, a borderline condition of general weakness and debilitation eonstantly reported to

me

by

Nor

survivors.

are the fears of hibakusha limited to their

own

bodies; they

extend to future generations. Survivors are aware of the general eontroversy about genetic effects of the atomie

bomb— a

tional concern anywhere, but particularly so in

which

stresses family lineage

an East Asian culture

and the eontinuity of generations

eentral purpose in life

and

immortality.

people in

Again,

very serious emo-

(at least symbolically) his

means

as

man's

of aehieving

Hiroshima know that radiation can produce congenital abnormalities, as has been widely demonstrated in laboratory animals; and abnormalities have frequently been reported

among

the offspring of survivors— sometimes in lurid journalistic terms,

sometimes

in

studies of the

more

restrained

problem have so

medieal

reports.

far revealed

Aetually,

systematie

no higher incidence of

abnormalities in survivors' offspring than in those of eontrol populations, so that findings in this sense

may be

said to

be negative. There

was, however, one uncomfortably positive genetie finding reported in

DEATH

10 6

IN LIFE

1950s regarding disturbances in

tlie

men

the sex ratio of offspring:

exposed to a significant degree of radiation tended to have relatively

women

fewer daughters, while exposed because,

it

was thought, of sex-linked

chromosome. But suggested that

who

Japanese physicians

lethal

failed

to

X

mutations involving the confirm

this

and

finding,

of dubious significance. Nonetheless, there are

w'as

it

studies

later

tended to have fewer sons,

believe they have observed evidence of an

increase in various forms of internal (and therefore invisible) congenital

abnormalities in children of survivors, how'ever inconclusive that

dence

may

be.

Nor can anyone, with

hibakusha that abnormalities

will

dren, their grandchildren, or in

still

Another factor here by exposure

absolute scientific certainty, assure

not eventually appear in their

chil-

later generations.'*

the definite

is

evi-

damage from

radiation experienced

many

stillbirths

and

abortions, but resulted in a high incidence of microcephaly with

and

in

wdiich

utero,

not only caused

without mental retardation. This damage occurred almost exclusively

in

pregnancies that had not advanced beyond four months, and

of

course, a direct effect of radiation tissues. Scientificalh' speaking,

sensitive, rapidly

growing

fetal

has nothing to do with genetic prob-

it

lems. But ordinary people often

upon

is,

fail

to

make

the distinction: to them,

children born w'ith abnormalh' small heads and retarded minds seem still

another example of the bomb’s aw esome capacity to

curse

upon

its

inflict a

physical

victims and their offspring.

This sense of impairment has been reinforced by actual discrimination survivors have encountered, not onl\- in occupational areas (which

we

discuss

shall

Japan, usually

but

later)

made by

in

marital

families

arrangements

— the

in

latter,

through a go-between, with funda-

mental importance attached to the plnsical health of each of the prospective

partners

and

to

his

or

her capacity to produce robust

offspring.

The young company

executive, in a voice that betrayed considerable

the w’ay in which the entire range of bodily and

anxieh', described

genetic concerns could

become incorporated

into the psvchic life of the

survivor:

Facu w'hcn instance, cause.

Of

I

when

have an I

course,

worry about, but

illness

had very mild if it is if it

just

w'hich liver

is

not at

all

trouble— I have

— as,

for

about

its

serious fears

an ordinary condition, there

is

nothing to

has a direct connection to radioactivity, then

I

A-Bomb

Disease”

10 7

miglit not be able to expect to recover. At siicli times I feel myself very delicate. ... 1 his happened two or three vears ago. I was working very hard and drinking a great deal of sake at night in connection with business appointments, and I also had to make many

strenuous

So

trips.

mueh

using up so

my

condition might have been partlv related to mv energy in all of these things. The whole thing .

.

.

not fully clear to me. But the results of statistieal study show' that those who were exposed to the bomb are more likelv to have illnesses— not only of the li\er, but \arious kinds of new growths, such as cancer or blood diseases. Mv blood w^as examined several is

.

.

.

times but no special changes w'ere discovered.

.

.

.

When my

mar-

arrangements were made, w'e discussed all these things in a direct fashion. Fweryonc knows that there are some effects, but in my case it was the eleventh year after the bomb, and I discussed mv riage

physical condition during

the fact that

all

From

of that time.

and

that,

from

also

was exposed to the bomb while inside of a building and taken immediately to the suburbs, and then remained quite a while outside of the city judging from all of these facts, it w'as concluded that there was \'ery little to fear concerning m\ condition. But I

—

.

in general there

the

is

.

.

five or

ill

when my

Also

.

.

a great concern that people wdio

bomb might become

future.

.

ten

\'ears later

children

were exposed to or at anv time in the

were born,

I

found myself

worrying about things that ordinary people don’t worry about, such as the possibility that they might inherit some terrible disease from

me. ... children

heard that the likelihood of our

I

ing birth to deformed

greater than in the case of ordinarv people

is

that time

gi\

my

blood

.

.

.

and

at

count was rather low. ... I felt fatigue in the summertime and had a blood eount done three or four times. ... I was afraid it could be related to the bomb, and was w'hite

greatly worried. w'asn’t a

him

.

.

deformed

1

.

hen

child,

cell

still

I

was born, even though he worried that something might happen

after the child

entirely free of

Whth the second child, such worries. ... I am still not

happen, and

worry that the

to

afterward.

lingering in

Here

is

a

I

.

.

some wav.

man

too,

.

.

.

effeets

of

sure

I

what might

radioaetivitv

life

lying anxieties— first about his

children.

Fach hurdle

is

might be

quite effectivelv, essentiallv

healthy, with normal children, and yet continually plagued

in

not

.

of thirty, carrying on his

arrangements, and then

w^as

own

b\'

under-

general health, then about marriage

relationship

surmounted, onlv

to

the birth of each of his

to reappear in

d'he grocer expresses similar feelings in

still

new form,

stronger fashion, and

DEATH

10 8 makes

the

clear

IN LIFE

wav

in

which bodilv

are

fears

related

to

renewed

dead and the dying:

identification with the

now I have fear. from A-bomb disease, and

Even today people die in the hospitals I worry that I too might sooner or later have the same thing happen to me. ... So when I Frankly speaking, even

.

who

hear about people

operations because of this of person as they.

.

.

.

.

from A-bomb

die

illness,

then

I

feel

or

disease,

that

I

am

who have

the same kind

.

THE PSYCHOSOMATIC BIND “A-bomb

then, represents for the hibakusha a painful psy-

disease,”

chosomatic bind: he

is

likely to associate

even the mildest everyday

and anything he

injury or sickness with possible radiation effects; to radiation effects

both

becomes associated with death. Equated

earlier invisible

contamination and

has the ring of fatality; yet loose usage

innocuous conditions

later leukemias,

may

cause

as fatigue, sensitivity to

it

as

it is

A-bomb

links

with

disease

to be applied to such

hot weather, borderline

anemia, susceptibility to colds or stomach trouble, or general nervousness-all of which are frequent complaints self-perpetuating,

part of a vicious

among

circle,

sunavors.

The bind

is

which includes the death

imagery of continuing invisible contamination, renewed identification with the dead and the dying, association of virtually any kind of ailment with deadly pattern focus

is

“A-bomb

intensified,

disease,” intensified death imagery, etc.

the

though not created, by strong Japanese cultural

upon bodily symptoms

The

And

as

means

of expressing anxiet\-

and

conflict.

writer-manufacturer reveals to us one of the wa\s in which the

psychosomatic bind perpetuates

Aftereffects are fatal to

many

itself:

and once they appear, thev show very rapid progress. Two good friends of mine died from these effects approximately ten years after the A-bomb was dropped. The symptoms are easy to identify. First you bleed from the nose, and .

.

people

.

.

.

.

then spots begin to appear over your body. ... I myself frequently bleed from my nose. Doctors say it has nothing to do with aftereffects from the A-bomb, but I wonder. .

It is

.

.

two friends actually died of leukemia related to exposure (though considering the small number of such

possible that the

atomic

bomb

cases in

Hiroshima,

this

from some other form of

would be an extraordinary coincidence), or fatal

blood disease associated with radiation

A-Bomb

109

Disease”

more dubious, given tlie liiglily equivocal relatiousliip between the atomic bomb and fatal blood conditions other than (even

effects

leukemia).

therefore also quite possible that one or both of these friends died of conditions unrelated to atomic bomb exposure, and that

we

It is

are dealing with a form of later atomic

attributes certain of

death to radiation aftereffects.

all is

1

he one thing we arc

the writer-manufacturer’s

At the heart of

this later

own death anxiety. mythology is “A-bomb disease”

description of that condition by the physicist scientific

bomb mythology which

education docs not protect one from

makes

itself,

and

a

clear that even a

terrors:

its

In ordinary sickness you usually either get well or else vou die. But w'ith radiation you just don t seem to get w'cll, or if you get w^ell, you become ill again. \ou mav be w^ell, perfectly healthy for a few years,

and then suddenb radiation. so that

heal

if

comes back

it

the

die, .

.

.

and

again,

only reason

And

if

one thing

you get

heals, there

and the patient

death being the original there are likely to be complications,

for

ill,

no apparent cause you

w'ith

is

this

still

something

else wdiich doesn’t

For instance, the wife of a colleague had an operation for a form of woman’s disease wdiich seemed to cure her condition. Just as she was about to be released from the hospital, she passed aw’ay from radiation disease. And m regard to my dies.

.

.

.

.

personal experience,

some time ago

began

.

.

good part of the time and I thought that perhaps I w'as just working too hard, using my eyes too much. But then the fatigue seemed to be unusually great, beyond ordinary fatigue, so I had my blood count taken, and it was found that my blood count was not normal. That was the reason for my fatigue. I rcceiyed early treatment so it was all right. Then, recently, I hav'c had stomach trouble, and I also had an examination of my liver and my blood. I w^as told that my wTite blood count and my red blood count w'erc lowy and this really concerned me quite a bit,

so

I

I

decided to take a long vacation.

to feel tired a

am not w^orried about my am worried about my white I

stomach or my liver, but I must say I blood count and red blood count. Of course, these have not been too bad in my case, but as a physicist I know^ enough to be careful. If I feel fatigue, I immediately look into it, and if my red blood count or white blood count is dowm, I rest. .

.

.

Here we get the general sense of A-bomb disease as a thing apart from ordinary medical problems — more obscure, devious, ubiquitous, in every w^ay deadly.

Death anxiety becomes focused upon blood counts,

as

numerical indicators of the condition, to the point of near-phobia.

I

:

DEATH

110

Confronted with

IN LIFE limited medical knowledge, with the

still

from irradiation and

early deaths

realit\-

of

ones from radiation-linked leu-

later

kemia, and with the generally overwhelming impact of the weapon, sur\’ivors are likely to

moment

the

have evoked— years after the

bomb no

fell— those primitive layers of the

it

than at

less

mind which lend

themselves to mythological thought.

body substance

'The sense of impaired

hibakushd as

met appeared

I

the case of

in

be entirely

to

so

is

free of

it.

widespread that no It

could be expressed,

through simultaneous admission and

the grocer,

negation

I

have had these

that

my body

fears,

and even now have them. But

tires easih', or

when

that

get a cold,

I

it

I

don’t think

tends to develop

something worse, or that mv body is particularly weak. now I would say that I have had no effects [from the bomb]. into

.

The

.

Up

to

.

him are precisely those he fears on to make these fears more explicit

things he says are not happening to

and anticipates happening. He goes when he discusses concerns about his children:

What

j

,

effects

my

when

did think about very seriously

I

my

baby] so

the future

I

I

.

.

must be very

addition to

.

its

now. But

feel relieved right

careful.

and other than health

that those exposed to

...

bomb might

were exposed to the children

No

future children might have.

It is

married was what

I

effects I

have appeared

have the feeling that

often said that those

[in

in

who

have deformed or handieapped after

this,

the

baby was born,

in

... I heard the bomb experience harmful effects upon their I

worried about

and that these

its

mental

ability.

might particularly affect the brain cells the cell is destroyed or lacks something it should have— heard something like this ... as a rumor. ... I have no clear source for this opinion but the ratio of abnormal children is higher [among hibakusha] than among ordinary people. These are the kind of things [I worry about]. cells

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

effects

.

.

.

.

As with many hibakusha,

.

his sense of bodily

.

.

.

impairment

is

reinforced by

conglomeration of partially accurate information (bomb exposure did have harmful effects on bodily cells), controversial claim (of a higher a

abnormal children among hibakusha), and questionable conclusion (that he is likely to have handicapped or mentally retarded

ratio of

children). Again

we

get the distinct impression

that clarification

is

A-Bomb

more than average intelligenec), that dominates tlie hihakusha's bodv image is more

resisted (in this case in a tlie

death taint

real

than

man

vvliieli

‘logic” of actual

tlic

of

medical findings.

these findings are themselves often

other words, the psychosomatie bind of aftereffects per

111

Disease''

And we

shall sec that

contradictorv and confusing.

In

maintained not only by the fear

is

but by the entire sequence of death anxiety and death guilt experienced from the moment of atomic bomb exposure sc,

onward. This bind can become particularly pressing for those hospitalized

for

diseases of organs often thought to be susceptible to radiation effects— especially

when

treated in a center dedicated mainlv to the

and when one has

of these effects,

from exposure elose

in the

a histor\’ of earlv radiation

s\inptoms

to the hypocenter.

laborer, originally exposed at

viewed

management

Atomic

Bomb

about a

Such was the case of a voung thousand meters, whom I inter-

Hospital, where he seemed to be recovering

from infectious hepatitis:

Of

course,

I

Now

I

liver.

that

I

was

heard that radiation affects the

am

A-bomb

my

poison from

But

.

they gave

.

.

body.

I

didn’t

me

herb medicines to remove the

become

I

might become one of them.

after that

sick

who

hear every year about victims

I

that this year

Nor

I

not so worried, as the doctors have explained to me don't have A-bomb disease. But I had diarrhea for ten davs

after the

illness.

a little worried.

.

.

die,

and

until I

this

worried

.

remember their atomic bomb exposure free from the psychosomatic bind— though they may be less consciously preoccupied with it. For instance, a young member of Japan’s outcast (or

\oung

are those too

burakumin) group,

to

originally exposed as a

boy of two, described

vague but diffusely persistent bodilv concerns:

Well, the fact of

my

my

being exposed to the bomb, this

is

the big cause

Something like dizziness— well, I don’t actually have it now— but if I do I get nervous ... or a stomach-ache— and, well, everyone catches cold— but there are many things. It is not anv one special thing. Well [what I am afraid of] during my life is of

worry.

.

.

.

.

that

A-bomb

disease.

.

.

.

.

.

NAGGING DOUBTS AND PERSONAL MYIHS Pervading these ill-defined ps}’chosomatic concerns

is

what we may

call

the hibakusha's “nagging doubt” about possible radiation effects, his

DEATH

112

IN LIFE

sense of himself as being particularly fragile, one

who cannot

afford to

take chances. As the social worker explains:

I

have

invself

A-bomb

this [fear of

...

disease]

my

in

everyday

life.

Imr instance, when I find mvself staying up late at night because I ha\e work I think I should finish, then I tell myself to be careful and \\ hen I am tired or when I am in bed with a not to overwork. .

.

.

and wonder whether I should stay in bed or get up, I tend decide to sta\’ in bed for one more day, and my wife also urges me do so. cold,

.

.

to to

.

The nagging doubt can be

related to one’s general health or bodily

condition— or

integrity, to the suspected origins of a particular organic

it

can combine both of these in a sense of a phvsical turning-point associated with atomic

bomb

turning-point

applv not only to

members

to

of their families.

infestation,

which he knew

living conditions

ated

it

exposure. Some, like the electrician, felt this

He had

themselves but to

from

suffered

exposed

all

roundworm

a severe

be related more to generally deprived

to

than to radiation

he

effects per se; nonetheless

associ-

with a general sense of impairment he shared with his two

exposed children:

When of my

was an effect of the bomb. But two children [age nineteen and twenty-two] who were exposed to the bomb are still not so healthy and their condition might ... be slightly related to this exposure. They just don’t seem to be fully well. The doctor doesn’t diagnose them as being sick from atomic bomb effects— thev don’t have any specific illness— but the fear I have is that children who were voung then might have been slightly affected by the atomic bomb. None of us [in my family] has had any of the actual symptoms of what we call A-bomb disease, but in general we have weak health. But among my children it is only those two [who have difficulty]. My two youngest girls, who were born after the bomb, are perfectly healthy. I

got

sick,

I

didn’t think

it

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

A-bomb; but

unclear, as

is

his separation of his children into

non-exposed-healthy categories

The

is

is

clear

its

among

the elderly.

One

.

exposed-impaired and

enough.

seventv-six-year-old

exposed at seventeen hundred meters, told me, when

where he had been bedridden

.

relationship to the

sense of physical turning-point associated with the

be greatest

.

.

.

d’he nature of this “weak health”

.

for six years, that

I

bomb man,

tends to

originally

visited his

home

he had been quite well

A-Bomb until experiencing diarrhea

time of the bomb, and

and

113

Disease”

otlier gastrointestinal S}’inptoins at the

that since

then

“stomach” had never

his

functioned properly. Actually, his complaints were still mainly gastrointestinal, but he had a \arietv of additional bodily ailments. It is j

'

indeed, to say whether the decline in health of a sixty years old was merely coincidental with the atomic difficult,

whether possible radiation

effects or the general

man

then

bomb,

psychosomatic

or

stress of

the experience were important factors. But in any case the nagging

doubt

him

itself

might

that he was a

\\cll

have contributed to

man who

his

ill

health by convincing

could not expect to become well.

Similar patterns could exist in younger people as well.

who

at

fourteen

symptoms

felt

to attend

too

and repulsed bv her

frightened

him during

The woman father’s

hours developed an ophthalmic

his last

condition (apparently an nnnsual form of corneal opacity) about ten years later;

The

doctors say that they cannot find the cause for

they very vaguely say that

mv

condition, and

might be inherited. But I think this inherited tendency would not have come out if I had not gone through the bomb, though of course I can’t be sure. ... I am in an unsettled frame of mind about this. I don’t think that everything was caused by the A-bomb, and I don’t think either that the A-bomb had absolutely no effect. I suffer from this problem. it

.

.

.

She implies that her emotional well-being, and possibly an improvement in her eye condition as well, depend upon her coming to some understanding of the nature of that condition. But she also seems to realize that a precise evaluation of the part played by the

A-bomb

is

impossible.

The psychosomatic bind can also take on rather complex convolutions of fear and denial, as we observe in the sequence described by the abandoned mother:

My

daughter

is

a bit

weak and anemic, and

don’t want to think she

way. ...

is

I

an A-bomb patient.

about her. But

worr\’ I

try

I

not to think this

do think she should go to the A-Bomb Hospital [for a checkup] but she herself doesn’t like to be bound to the word Abomb, which she dislikes very much. It is not only she, and not I

.

only myself,

who

.

.

among the hibakusha all do. Although we do have great physical fears, we feel that if we go for a careful examination and then are told we have to be think this way. Ordinary people

hospitalized for quite a

number

doctors find out to be wrong

.

.

of days in order to treat .

we

what the

are faced with living expenses

DEATH

114

IN LIFE

during hospitalization

... So

along.

for

.

reason

this

physical examinations.

The economic problems

.

and our families would be unable

.

.

.

.

.

people

.

tend

to

to get

careful

resist

.

she mentions can be very real indeed, but the

many A-bomb

underlying psychological sequence (for her, the daughter, and others)

is

disease;

if I

this:

symptoms

fear that the

I

go to the hospital,

have

may

this fear

be doomed; by avoiding a hospital

I

visit,

may be

be confirmed, and

can therefore avoid

I

way many hibakusha demonstrate what

sentence. In this

called “denial of illness,” but the illness being denied essentially

a

those of

symbolic— that

is

would

I

this is

likely to

death

usually

be

itself

psychological— product of the overall

is

hibakusha experience.

The matter may become even more

complicated, as the following

vignette suggests. During a brief visit to Nagasaki, of six people,

whom

most of from lost

all

of

felt

aftereffects.

most

whom

were active

in

I

interviewed a group

hibakusha organizations, and

themselves in one wav or another to be suffering

One

who had many vears

of them, a forty-five-year-old engineer,

bomb, had been troubled for symptoms. These symptoms, plus his and

of his family in the

by gastrointestinal

inability to conceive a child despite the fact that

very fertile,” caused

him

“my

family used to be

“worry everv day” and think that

to

be the A-bomb.” After some reluctance, he

complete medical examination, and was mild stomach ulcer and slight drinking, not to the atomic

liver

relie\

finally

ed to be told that he had a

d\sfunction, probablv related to

bomb. An

symptoms] might be caused by

old friend of his

radiation, but

they are not and that thev are his original

pattern

of

own

fearful

he

fault.”

denial

is

among

needs

(to

those

“Thev

[the

trving to believe that

Here we mav sav that the was interrupted bv

own

assuring medical opinion. But his friend, out of his ideological

must

“it

submitted to a

present, however, then offered an additional interpretation:

engineer’s

his wife’s

fears

re-

and

the ubiquitousness of radiation effects),

stress

probably restimulated the anxieties that the engineer had, with such difficulty,

temporarily

stilled,

W’e observe here

in

microcosm the general

patterns of social reinforcement of the psychosomatic bind which shall see to exist

I

also

we

throughout an atomic bombed citw

encountered various kinds of individual bodily mvthologv.

young housewife, who had been exposed the age of fifteen, told

me

at fifteen

she seemed to have

hundred meters

become

A at

healthier as a

— 115

'‘A-Bomh Disease' result.

Under treatment

in a liospital for severe diarrhea

when

tlie

bomb

her eondition not only immediately improved (“something in the

fell,

bomb seemed

me”), but during the years following, she felt herself less prone to illness than she had been before. Yet it turned out that she was unusually anxious about the possibility of giving birth to abnormal ehildren, perhaps more so than anyone else I interviewed. She questioned

people

I

to eiire

me

about the problem at some length, asked whether many inter\’iewed had had abnormal children, and seemed dis-

appointed that

did not conduct physical examinations to evaluate the

I

While one cannot

dangers.

radiation from the left

me

absolutely rule out the possibility

bomb had some

upon her body, she

beneficial effect

with the distinct impression that she had evolved

personal mythology in order to compensate for

that

— and

kind of

this

magically reverse

her profound physical anxieties.

Such personal mythology could express these anxieties much more directl}-, as was true of a seventcen-year-old high school student who had been exposed

upon

to the

bomb when

just six

his parents’ descriptions for his

weeks

old.

Dependent mostly

knowledge of the A-bomb

ence, he was particularly impressed by their telling

amount

of glass

had become embedded

in his

him

experi-

that a large

head; and during one of

our interviews he insisted that whenever he has

a haircut

he can see

small pieces of glass emerge. His psychological associations to these bits of glass

(and we

may be dubious about

their appearing in

seventeen years later) were a series of recollections and illness

and weakness: memories of being frequently

during the years after the

overcome

bomb and

bomb

disease

and attributing

comments about sick

and “glad

I

feel

as

a

child

wasn’t killed” when-

bomb; hearing mass-media

which made him

wav

taking up long-distance running to

his fragilit}-; feeling “sick”

ever he saw pictures of the

this

that “if

I

get sick,

his general opposition to all nuclear

I

reports of A-

won’t

weapons

live

long”;

to the fact

that “I have been sick.” 'The symbolic truth behind his personal bodilv

mythology was the sense of being involved ordinarily hidden, but threatening to

the glass from his head

)

at

in a

continuous “sickness,”

emerge and become

visible (like

anv time.

DARK FEELING IS PASSED ON THROUGH THE generations’’

We

have seen

fears of genetic

impairment

to

overall sense of bodily taint, but they also take

be closclv related to the

on

specific

forms of their

own. d'hc paradox which surrounds the whole issue— essentiallv negative

— DEATH

116

IN LIFE doubt

findings, but witli cnongli scientific

to cause anxiety in

an area of

ultimate eoncern— results in paradoxical behavior on everyone’s part.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki physicians,

for instance, are freqiientlv con-

sulted by eonples in \\bich one or both are hibakusJia— or bv families of

such eonples— about the advisabilih’ of marriage and the likelihood of

abnormal

births.

Almost invariablv the doctors advise them

to go

with the marriage and assure them that their children will be

But these same doctors,

in discussing the

add such comments

'‘Of course,

as,

problem with me, are

ahead

all right.

likely to

cannot be absolutelv eertain that

I

they will not have abnormal children,” suggesting doubts about the

matter which they probably convey to their patients, whatever their wish to reassure.

But hibakusha themselves, despite group

to

their fears,

do not appear

have avoided marriage and children. The reverse might,

as a

in faet,

be the case, as there has been some evidence to suggest that hibakusha

have a greater tendeney to marry and have ehildren than do non-exposed people of a comparable impressions

age.*'”’ If this is

concerning

coneentration

so

— and

eamp

there have been similar survivors

—

it

probably

represents a compensatory effort to reassert imagery of the eontinuitv of life

and of symbolic

absence of genetic

(biological) immortality. Rather than proving the

fears,

hand-in-hand with such

the urge to marrv and have children ean go

fears.

d’he quality of these fears was eonveyed to as

he described, with some

first

feeling, his

by a Nagasaki edueator

unending generational worries

the difficulty in making marriage arrangements for his daughter

(also a hibakusha), then his fear that she

dren,

me

and now, when the children seem

to

might have abnormal

have turned out

ehil-

all right, his

coneern that their future ehildren might be deficient:

heard from ’Tokyo scholars that it [harmful atomic bomb effects] could carry over to future generations. When hibakusha hear these things, a dark feeling is passed on through the generations. I

.

’Those

must

who

live

.

.

died are dead, and must bear their fate, but the living

with

this

dark feeling.

.

.

.

* Blit

even if it can be established that hibakusha marry and have children at least frequently as riouhibakusha, one cannot assume that discrimination concerning marriage has not existed. I ha\e observed a number of cases in which discrimination

as

has been encountered, but marriage eventually arranged; and I have the impression that feeling their “bargaining power’’ in such arrangements to be weakened, hibakusha may sometimes marry into families of lower socioeconomic standing than their own, or else accept certain conditions they would not ordinarily agree to.

“A-Bomb “dark

'I’lic

feeling”

eontamination into

refers

lie

a

lineal

suggests

to

infinitv,

an

extension

of

invisible

“doomed

sense of being

a

117

Disease’

for

posterity.”

So strong are sneb emotions that one leading Ilirosliima

me

himself a hibakusha, expressed to

kusha submit to a

my

had

\

politician,

the strong eomietion that hiba-

oluntary program of sterilization;

wife sterilized beeause

want abnormal ehildren. I think that [for hibakusha exposed] up to two thousand meters, sterilization should be done [beeause of] the tragedy for the I

.

don’t

I

.

.

.

.

.

family in the future [should there be an abnormal child] along with the social menace. \\ c should set them [hibakusha] aside and .

.

.

not mix them with the

rest of the

population

.

.

and take very

.

problem of hibakusha. ... All this is difficult to propose there would also have to be benefits to accompany it but I think about it seriously. Scientists don’t say whether there will seriously this

—

—

.

be abnormalities or effects.

not— is

.

.

.

Wdiat

.

.

not— no one can to

do

— whether

a painful question for

1 he symbolic suggestion

is

assure you there will not be later

me.

.

.

there should be a

program or

.

that of breaking the chain of bodily impair-

ment. But given the implications of group extinction or even genocide, as well as survivors’ particularly strong life

to

through marriage and children

body image and sexual

identity

need

— not

to

— we can

to reassert the continuity of

mention the further threat

well understand a politician’s

hesitation to convert these connections into an actual public proposal.

Nor

is

without significance that he had his wife and not himself

it

sterilized.’^

plexities

Wdiatever the psychological,

scientific,

and

political

surrounding talk of sterilization in Hiroshima,

it

illustration of the strength of the hibakusha’s sense of his

is

com-

another

own

bodily

taint.

For most survivors, however, these genetic

fears are

though ineradicable— as the sociologist describes

in

more muted,

characteristically

Japanese terms:

After

we were

since

my

married,

I

worried about having an abnormal child—

wife had also been exposed to the

bomb.

I

knew mv

wife

She was his second wife. The fact that he had three children by his first wife (who had been killed by the bomb) might have influenced his willingness to have his second wife sterilized. And while we know nothing of her feelings about the matter, it is possible that she was beyond an optimal childbearing age. *

DEATH

118

IN LIFE

otlier.

but we did not diseuss it with eaeh \\x' never talked about the matter but we eaeh understood.

...

thought of the possibility— perliaps

was worried about I

it,

too

.

.

.

I

an abnormal ehild, but rather that

should not say that

I

had

had a very strong desire to have a normal one. You might sav that I worried about one per eent in the eorner of my heart. ... As we sav about ehildren in general, if one has an ugly ehild, then that ehild will have ugly

a fear of

.

ehildren.

.

.

.

.

.

I

'W'Bomh Neurosis'

2)

Hiroshima doctors

liavc

another term, “A-boml) neurosis,”

apply to beha\ior that appears to those

who become imoKed

— with

disease

\\cakness

w'liich tlicy

psycliically caused, especially to

l)e

in a lifelong

preoccupation with

“A-bomb

blood counts and bodilv complaints, particularly that of

to the ])oint of greatly restricting their lives or even

beeom-

ing bedridden.

Studies have

hypochondriasis

shown than

that

hihakusha are more generally prone to

other people,

especially

those

who

hibakushci

experieneed symptoms of aeute irradiation at the time of the bomb.’^ And we ha\e already observed their phobic tendencies in their generalized fear of leukemia, eancer, or simply of

compared

to usual

in psychiatric

“A-bomb

disease.”

But

as

hypochondriacal and phobic patterns encountered

work, those in hibakusha are

much more

directly related

to aetual bodily assaults that can result

from atomie

\\1hle this makes them in one sense more

specific, their association

iiwisible

contamination

is

imagery.

The hibakusha

s

bomb

exposure.

with

part of a diffuse involvement with death

preoecupation with white blood counts be-

comes not only an effort to “measure” that eontamination but also a means of physically localizing it and giving it form. In addition, these hypochondriacal and phobic concerns inevitably become bound up with every kind of ordinary psychological conflict, so that one may charac-

‘'A-bomb neurosis” as a precarious inner balance between the

terize

symptoms and death and dying. need

for

“A-bomb

the anxious association of these

neurosis” can also

become

original exposure as well as continuous

middle-aged mother told tivity to

me

of her

a family affair,

bomb,

own

under *

fatigue, dizziness,

and

sensi-

both heat and cold which she believed partieularly marked

bomb; her I

because of shared

mutual reinforcement. Thus, one

those parts of her body where glass had of the

symptoms with

become embedded

son’s huskiness of voice (“As

carry this husky voice,”

his picture in a classmate’s

at the time

one baptized

was the note which the

in

b^•

the A-

bo\- \^Tote

yearbook at the time of his high school

As detected by the Cornell Medical Index, l)ordcrline complaints more frequent in hibakusha than in nonhibakusha.*>

are consistently

DEATH

12 0 graduation)

as

to

attri])iited

IN LIFE

well as

tlie

severe acne, wliich

liis

thought due to radiation

girl

cannot cxclndc the possibility that

from radiation,

influences

and possibly

and her daughter’s generally

A-bonil);

which she and the

slic,

it

all

seemed

three

health,

frail

While one some bodily

effects.

retained

from the nature of the

clear

complaints, and from other details of their

he,

life

together (the boy’s acne,

improved when he was awav from home) that

for instance, consistently

become channeled into the Abomb symbol. Indeed, her own symptoms are very commonly found among middle-aged Japanese women, and are often related to problems various indi\ idnal and family conflicts had

of suppressed anger,

and

own need

to the family nnrtnrer’s

for nnr-

tnrance.

MIND AND BODY d’he special

radiation effects end

A

Hiroshima

difffcnlt}’ in

ease in point

that no one

is

and psychological manifestations begin.

is

European

that of the

chronie exhaustion, dizziness, and general his

original

ever certain where

is

priest,

who eomplained

inabilit\’ to

work. Following

exposure at thirteen hundred meters, he had sustained

wounds that were nnusnally slow to heal, as well as symptoms of aente irradiation, including weakness, dizziness,

bodily

dysentery,

Oetober

and low white blood

to

December and

remarked: “Father,

later

of

eell

eonnts.

told of having

didn’t think

I

He

severe fever,

was hospitalized from

been so

ill

we would be

that one doetor

able to pull von

through.” After leaving the hospital, he again began to suffer from dizziness tional

and extreme fatigue— “not the usual kind, but

kind”— as

well as loss of appetite;

He was

taken were said to be low. next three years and (after a

ensuing years so that,

in

fe\\^

all,

seventeen-year period sinee the stay in the

Atomie

Bomb

a ver\- excep-

and white blood

cell

counts

repeatedly hospitalized during the

years

on the outside) again during the

he spent more than one third of the

bomb

in hospitals, inelnding a fnll-vear’s

Hospital three years prior to our interview. At

that time his physical

examination was essentially normal, and the

laboratory findings were

somewhat

cell

ecinivocal: a slightly

count (4,000); a positive serology

low white blood

(test for syphilis), apparently

caused by the extensive blood transfusions he had reeeived as the main

treatment during his early hospitalizations and not considered a faetor in his

symptoms; and

enced

slightly

diminished

by the transfusions. 4’he

liver function, also possibly influ-

syphilitic

reaction

was successfully

treated, but his general weakness, dizziness, diffuse aches

and

pains,

and

.

'‘A-Bomb

and minor

susceptibility to colds

illnesses

which took place

later hospitalization,

121

Disease’'

continued.

And

after our interview,

during a

still

both red and

white blood counts were normal, but there was evidence of arteriosclerotic heart disease

and of

was by then sixty-one vears old

He

involvement of various

arthritic )

bomb

attributed his difficulties entirelv to his atomic

and repeated

hospitalizations

eure for

me

to

a

made bv

statement

He

disease.”

“We

greatlv:

exposure

one of

a doctor during

which had impressed him

A-bomb

joints (he

his

don’t have a

also described a mottling of the skin of

uncertain origin which he associates with abnormalities of the blood,

and went on

to re\ eal a terrified sense of shifting

ulnerabihh-:

\

used to be extremely healthy. Now mv resistanee is weak. Recently I had pus in my fingers and the eondition would not heal. Dr. K. said, “I don’t like to cut \ou.” But he did, and the wound I

.

healed.

why

.

They

.

.

tell

me my

.

need blood transfusions uneasy, because with no reason Right

after getting

now

I

am

.

.

He

told

me

if

not so good and that

but people

these

.

.

.

You

the next thing that will happen?”

wiW happen

.

is

things

one thing, something of

not normal.

the blood comes out in

.

.

regeneration

I

months

.

[like

occur. a

us]

.

is

become

Then

new kind

three

begins.

“WTat is doctor, “WTat

are always thinking:

...

asked the

I

mv brains?”

that his nervousness and inability to concentrate was such

that he eould

no longer even organize

a

sermon, and that he had

progressively limited his professional activities to the point of avoiding

eontact with any but his old parishioners.

He

said

he accepted

his

condition as “God’s will,” but one could perceive, in addition to his fear, a

sense of guilt over the pattern of his

life:

Sometimes people say unkind things: “WTy doesn’t he do more? He looks so well. It must be an escape into disease in order to avoid work.” One man said to me, “It is only because vou like to be in the hospital that you stay there for so long.” And there are some who, without saying it, think the same thing. But if it is another [hibakusha], he understands.

.

.

.

His words conveyed the feeling of inner doubt about the nature of his illness,

about

his

right to

remain so helpless.

And

there was

much

evidence that earlier doubts and conflicts were at play: conflicts over his general ability and

choice of

life

work (he was

a

man

of modest

:

1

DEA

22

intcllcx'tual

and

1

IN LIFE

II

attainments

missionary order noted for

in a

were

identit\- struggles, wliieli

tlie essentially

and a eonsequenee of

botli a eanse

impossible psyeliologieal task of a Westerner’s

absorbed into Japanese life— ineluding eonfliets

totally

brillianee);

its

the sexual

in

more than

sphere. In general, be ga\’e the impression of

beeommg

a little quiet

despair.

who

In sueh a ease

among sueh

ean ha\X' the temerity to distinguish sharply

influenees as:

organie injury from the

bomb,

delayed radiation

(1)

bomb,

effeets,

(2)

direet

(3) other indireet eonsequenees of the

(4) treatment proeedures themsebes, (5) psyeliologieal eonfliets

bomb, ineluding the sense of being doomed, (6) independent disease proeesses, and (7) the aging proeess? \\1iat ean be said is that a hihakushas psyehie state has important bearing upon his health, and one must assess an overall equilibrium of all aspeets of his being— follovv'ing the general prineiple that “The broad definition of relating

to

the

disease does not eonfine our attention to tion of the

body” and “does not

any

single system of organiza-

restriet us

any single ideologieal

to

eoneept” but “permits us to eoneeptualize disturbanees or failures at

organization— bioehemieal,

of

leyels

interpersonal,

soeial— and

or

to

organie,

eellular,

eonsider

all

psyeliologieal,

interrelationships.”’

their

Thus, psyehie eonfliet direetly influenees the outeome of whatever radiation

the

efiPeets

bomb

rately

may be

“A-bomb

influenees

ambiguous

and any bodily damage sustained from

j^resent,

neurosis.”

There

European

as that of the

seemed

way

eases,

partieularly

of life— as

vv^as

where

however,

prominent

psyeliologieal

in establishing

“A-bomb

When

found her looking troubled and behaving

in

I

home,

I

in a disheveled I

am

a physi-

very clear to

me

her sense of being an

possible to put

my

body back into good

make

to

neurosis” as a

demonstrably weak

a

housecoat and appeared generally unkempt. Aware that

had the need

eomponent

visited her

manner. Although she was expeeting me, she was dressed

cian, she

it

all.

the

true of the female poet.

but the prineiples

priest,

illuminates so exaggeratedly are applieable to

There were

are few eases as elabo-

invalid

Can you

tell

me how

health?

My

while,

feel fine.

and

I

I

it

is

doctors advise

'Then

I

me

try to

to sleep a great deal. If

move about

a bit

quickly feel an unbearable sense of fatigue.

red blood count

I

rest for a

and do some work,

The

doctors say

my

and white blood count are only one third of normal.

A-Bomb have been feeling tins uay \ears ago. Before the bomb I was down in the middle of the dav. .

.

I

.

She spoke of present

body.

m

sinee the

fine health

bomb

symptoms

(

seventeen

fell

and would never

early radiation effeets but in a vague

She seemed

evaluate.

e\’er

12 3

Disease'’

manner

lie

diffienlt to

make little distinetion between earlv effeets and h,\’en now I ha\e spots ever\’ onee m a while on my to

And my

emphasized

hair remained extremely thin until five years ago”) and that I ha\e ne\'er reeo\’ereel. Her way of deseribmg her ’

symptoms was frequently

bizarre, partieularly in relationship to her fear

of eaneer:

hor

this

eondition [A-bomb effeets]

blood put 111 my \’ems, but if this develop eaneer beeause my blood suffer

and

I

from now is was told that

I

had

is

done, there

is

very sensitive.

is

danger that .

.

.

my

trouble and trouble with

li\'er

someone

best to have

it is

I

What

else’s

might really

I

panereas

a tendene\’ tow’ard eaneer of the uterus.

turned out that the medical examination in w'hich she claimed to hav'c been told she had this cancerous tendenev took place nine years It

before,

and that

findings.

Her

gynecological

later

examination

fear w'as related to the fact that her father

cancer believed to have been brought out by radiation

had

closely identified with him, both in regard to

("He had been

affected

by A-bomb disease

in the

no such

revealed

atomic

same

had died of

effects;

and she

bomb

exposure

w^ay

I

had”) and

in a general psychological sense.

She did of

reveal a certain

her bodily

symptoms

husband had died

amount to

prior to

of insight concerning the relationship

and family conflicts. Her first the bomb, and when she married again marital

during the postwar years, she noted that her s\mptoms disappeared

("During the period right

after

respite w^as only temporary.

we married

I

felt

rather good”).

She perceived her husband

to

But her

be losing

and suspected him of cov'cting her property; the marriage dissolved wathin two years. At the time of our interview, moreover, she interest in her

was involved

in painful conflicts wa'th

her son and his wife

who

lived

with her. She w^is convinced that her daughter-in-law did not believe in the genuineness of her illness ("She thinks I am lazy, and there are troubles between us”), and even when the daughter-in-law' treated her considerately, she w-ould suspect that, like her former husband,

only because the

it

was

washed to inherit the property. She would in turn condemn herself for having such thoughts, refer to the "ugliness of mv girl

DEATH

124 own

licart/’

She

\\as tluis

lier

symptoms,

and attempt aware

whom

them through Buddhist devotion. and suspieiousness had bearing upon

to get rid of

tliat hostility

as did a general sense of

that a person in

feel

I

IN TIFF,

my

she eould love and

being rejeeted and unloved:

situation

who

...

if

she only had someone

loved her, this person— that

is,

I

myself— eould be rid of these phvsieal problems without any difheulty. But unfortunately, I don’t have sueh a person whom I ean love or who loves me, so I have to eontinue being in my present phvsieal eondition. Wlien a person has a weak body and an uglv faee, nobody really eares for her. .

.

.

.

.

.

Also involved were long-standing feelings of abandonment whieh eontributed

her sense of being, even

to

orphan”: “T myself later

my

my mother when

father died of eaneer

who

those

lost

lost

their parents

— so in

I

middle age, an “A-bomb

in I

was very young, and then

have great sympathy even

the A-bomb.”

And

generalize about the relationship of sueh matters to

“A-bomb

or

now

for

she went on to

“A-bomb

disease”

neurosis”:

though marriage and the normal life one leads with marriage is good for the health. Among A-bomb vietims, those who are married and well established with their families have fewer It

looks as

.

eomplaints.

Of

remember the and

eourse, even those ineident.

feel better

.

.

.

.

.

who

are settled in their families

But on the whole thev

their attitude

is,

it

are

mueh

better off

ean’t be helped [shogcinai].

baek on old memories,” thev keep saving. Thev are simply interested in their immediate problems of marriage and everyday life, d’hey look forward rather than baekward. Those without families, on the other hand, keep remembering ever\thing. “It

is

useless to look

.

.

.

They

.

atomie bombs suffer

world— ineluding what happened in the happening now. Some of them even say, “I hope that

is

be dropped again, and then the whole world the same way I am suffering now.” will

What

emerges

of

and hibakusha symptoms, ineluding

for

life

.

eurse the whole

and what

past

.

is

an assoeiation between laek of fulfillment

in

will

any area

hostility to the point of

wish

eosmie retaliation (probably experieneed by the female poet her-

self), a

many from

form of imagery we

shall say

more about

later on.

For her and

other hibakusha a negative psyehologieal eonstellation evolves a

eombination of the A-bomb experienee and

all

additional

emotional vieissitudes. Fed by lifelong eonfliets around love, nurturanee,

''

A-Bomb

125

Disease'’

and hate, symptoms arc mitigated to tlic extent tliat these conflicts find resolution, and worsened by situations in which the conflicts are reacti\’atcd. But tlie special feature of this negative constellation— that is,

A-bomb

of

neurosis”

—

the merging of these conflicts with unusuallv

is

strong death imagery.

After having written the above,

had developed

and physical and

many

among them The emotional

levels,

influences.

continues to elude us in

same female poet

which was detected one year after our her death two years later. One is humbled by

my own comments upon

medicine

learned that this

a breast cancer,

interview and resulted in

such news on

I

— in

general— is

them,

that of evaluating psychological factors she herself emphasized,

still

seem

valid to

me. But what

evaluating effects of the atomic

a full grasp of the nature of the

fundamental unity of psychological and physical therefore suspect that not only did radiation

bomb

undoubtedly

factors.

eflfects

as in

We

mav

contribute to her

cancer but that her emotional conflicts, particularly her persistent sense

and abandonment, did

of loss in

mind

the

hereditary factors (we

unknown

host of

viruses,

or

well*— while

as

know

at the

same time keeping

that her father died of cancer)

half-known causal influences

chemical substances, hormones, chronic

irritation,

when

mv

defensive reactions). But

she herself wrote to

and

(relating

and

to

cellular

assistant to

tell

us of her condition, she described the matter with stark simplicity: “I u’as told that

I

have cancer of the breast from A-bomb disease.”

PSYCHIATRIC ENTITIES ‘‘A-bomb neurosis” was also used rather generally for various neurotic

and even psychotic tendencies

less

One

frequently encountered.

of

these,

known

sis,” is

characterized by lingering fears and phobias specifically related to

in ordinary psychiatric

terminology as “traumatic neuro-

the “traumatic event,” and by recurrent dreams of that event.

upon remnants of such patterns

in

I

came

one man who described the urge “to

throw myself on the ground” whenever

a flashbulb

would go

off in his

presence; and in a second-hand account of another hihakusha who, *

This suspicion

is

consistent

with

a

ten-year

interest

among psychosomatic

re-

William A. Greene, a leading worker in this field (and one trained in both psychiatry and medicine), has claimed that the evidence so far justifies “the working assumption that there is a significant relationship between the manifest development of neaplasia [cancer], as represented by the leukemias and lymphomas, at least, and the psychological reaction of the individual to various life events.’’^ While recognizing the obscurity of the mechanisms involved, he stresses the significance of psychological patterns of separation and searchers in psychological factors in cancer.

loss.

DEATH

12 6

IN LIFE

liaving tried unsuccessfully at the time of the

bomb

to pull a girl out

by

her legs from the debris of a collapsed building, experienced phobic reactions to shoes

and

to the legs of

maimecjuins

But the most generalized pattern of

in store

kind that

this

occurred in a Nagasaki physician. Exposed to the

hundred meters while

windows.

a medical student, for

I

encountered

bomb

at

fifteen

some time afterward he

experienced fear of crowds and of noise, and had this reeurrent dream:

I

am

walking along

in a place that

is

There is absolutely aboye, which I know is

like a desert.

no shelter anywhere. Then I see a plane flying carrying a nuclear weapon. I am terrified, because I realize that when the bomb falls, I will haye no protection. At that moment I wake up.

The dream

recreated the sense of absolute helplessness

experienced at the time of the bomb.

psychological function, like

Its

that of the phobias, was to master the '‘traumatic larly

and yulnerability

eyent”— and

particu-

the residual death anxiety and death guilt— by psychologically

reliying

Had

it.

I

done the study

years

earlier,

I

would undoubtedly have

many more clear-cut examples of traumatie neurosis. In any case much of what we have observed in relationship to bodily fear surrounding “A-bomb disease” and “A-bomb neurosis” may be looked upon as psychological equivalents of traumatic neurosis, as may much of the general psychohistorical residuum we shall discuss in subsequent eneountered

But the concept of traumatic neurosis does not in itself adequately encompass the dimensions of psychological experience imchapters.

posed by an event such as the atomic bomb. It is difficult to

say

much about

the general incidence of discrete or

incapacitating neurotic patterns in hibakusha because of the paucity of statistical

matic

information. There are comparative statistics for psychoso-

entities,

such as peptic ulcer and ulcerative

colitis,

often placed

under the category of neurosis, which show no discernible increase

among hibakusha^ —suggesting perhaps early psychological

the fundamental importance of

and physical predisposition

than a stressful experience in

to these conditions rather

itself.

In the case of the psychoses, the major mental illnesses, the situation is

even more

referred to as

difficult

“A-bomb

has also been used.

to

evaluate.

neurosis,”

The

latter

These too are sometimes loosely

though the term “A-bomb psychosis”

term

is

no more

precise but conveys

an

'‘A-Bomb interesting

difference

suggests a

weak

who

in

and

emotional tone. Wliilc

inappropriate” reaction to

127

Disease''

‘‘A-l)oinl)

tlie

bomb

neurosis”

in a

person

doesn’t, so to speak, liave organic justification for beliaving tliat

A-bomb psycliosis suggests a more direct rclationsliip bet\\cen tlie A-bomb and tlie mental condition, an imposed form of insanity in a person who can t help behaving as he docs because of what the bomb did to him. The difference is related not only to attitudes concerning the A-bomb but to those universally held in relationship to neurosis and wa\,

psychosis as such.

Concerning the actual incidence of psychoses among hibakusha, statistics arc again lacking. But psychiatrists and other physicians I spoke to were not struck by a marked increase either at the time of the bomb immediately afterward.

or

psychoses— or

other

W^hat thev did

psychological

which either the patient or

or

describe

neurological

were

frequent

disturbances— in

would express the suspicion that the condition was brought about by some kind of emanation from the atomic bomb.

A

his family

leading Hiroshima psychiatrist with

whom

I

discussed these prob-

lems divided psychiatric conditions he encountered three categories: anxiety neuroses

(mostly of the nonspecific kind sidered

to

bomb

midbrain

(or

hibakusha into

related psychosomatic complaints

we have

be reactions to the atomic

usually schizophrenia, which

atomic

and

in

discussed), which he con-

bomb

he thought

to

experience;

psychoses,

be mostlv unrelated to

and organic brain damage, particularlv to the diencephalon), which he believed caused by radiation effects;

But he admitted that these categories were incomplete and not always applicable. He was critical of the tendency of manv phvsicians to effects.

‘‘A-bomb psychosis” to many long-standing schizophrenic patients, and thereby give the false impression that their apply the term

condition had been caused bv the atomic bomb.*’*’ I

did not attempt a detailed study of the complicated question of

interplay between the atomic

bomb

experience and schizophrenia. But

considering the origins of the condition in pathological family patterns acting

upon varying degrees

would be *

Some

difficult

to

of individual hereditary predisposition,^'^

say that the

A-bomb

in

itself

it

could produce

of neurotic symptoms among hibakusha, experienced symptoms of acute irradiation at the time; but these are attributed, on the basis of electroencephalographic findings, to radiation damage rather than psychogenic factors.’ ^ P.sychological abnormalities have been reported among exposed children, especially among those exposed in iitero, but the investigators

particularly those

findings are

report

a

variety

who

somewhat ambiguous.’-

DEATH

12 8

What

schizoplirciiia.

trauma and

IN LIFE quite possible

is

atomie

later eonflicts of the

that the profound original

is

bomb

experienee were

signifi-

cant contributing factors to individual cases, whether s\mptoms ap-

peared at the time or later on.

There

the possibility that at

also

is

the time of

immediately afterward schizophrenic tendencies ished, or itself

were at

least temporarib- suppressed,

in

bomb and

the

some people dimin-

because the environment

took so total and so bizarre a hold upon the individual that the

schizophrenic adaptation was no longer necessarv— a pattern that has been described in other extreme situations and could well have been particularly true of the atomic

“schizophrenia.”

external

between schizophrenia

'I’he

bomb environment

because of

one thing certain

in

(or psychosis in general)

its

own

the relationship

and the atomic

bomb

is

the tendency on the part of patients and doctors to blame this condition too

upon

“invisible contamination,” to view

festation of

“A-bomb

among

as

another mani-

still

disease.”

made by

This association was person

it

those

the professor of education— the one

interviewed

I

who had

experienced a psvchotic

meeting)— though denied by his doctor. At that time he apparently had symptoms of depression and emotional withdrawal with some delusional content, and during our interview episode (a few years prior to our

referred to the episode

(as

Japanese frequently do)

“neurotic”

as a

one:

have on the whole been quite well but I have worried about my health. For instance, when I became neurotic, I wondered whether this had any relationship to the bomb. I asked the doctor and he said it had nothing to do with it. Of course, even if there were a I

.

relationship,

I

thought,

it

.

can’t be helped [shikataganai],

His implication was that the mental ing as the possibility that fact

that he

went on

and

*

as

a

was not to

.

.

.

in itself as frighten-

A-bomb

effects.

resentment (partly toward

But the

me

but

who “treat me as an A-bomb much strength and energv to be

as well) of those

insisted that “I

have too

an A-bomb patient,” suggested as well

illness

might be related

to express

toward the other doctors patient,”

it

.

a lingering concern that

he was

probable fear that his psychosis might recur.

just that,

All

this

Another possible interpretation is that his concern about being treated “as an Aboinb patient’’ was itself part of a lingering paranoid tendency, and that his psychosis was not entirely in remission.

— ''A-Bomb represents the

eomplex interweaving of atoinie

129

Disease’'

bomb

svinbolisin witli

bis eondition ratlier tlian eansation per se.

of his

iiniisna] difhcnlty in

at the

time of atomie

dealing with eonflicts

bomb exposure— liis

need to “turn away’ —it

possible that these eonfliets eontributed psyehosis.

Knowing, liowever, around deatli and gnilt signifieantlv to

is

quite

eventual

his

could remain no more than an impression, as his need to cover o\er” his psychotic episode to “turn away” from it as w'cll I

his

—

made I

it

was

rated

him more

inad\ isablc to question

many

also told that

various

kinds

closelv

about

onset.

psychotic patients in Hiroshima incorpo-

bomb

imagery about the atomic

of

its

into

their

delusions and hallucinations. But this tendenev occurs in psvchotic paB'ents everywhere, since the extreme grandiosity and end-of-the-world \

upon imagerv of the most powerful and

isions of psychosis always drau-

dcstructi\ e forces available.

W^e have spoken

of schizophrenic tendencies

another question which

of the possible suppression

bv the atomic

arises

is

bomb

that of the long-term influence of the

“lived-out psychosis” (the “end of the world”

and “death

ordinary hibakusha in the sense of whether or not

“knowledge” of the psychotic

environment, but

state

— or

it

in life”)

upon

created an inner

even a tendenev to resort to

psychotic-like behavior under certain forms of stress

— without

lapsing

into full-blown psvehosis.

\Mien hibakusha

did describe others’ “going crazv” at the time of the

holocaust, their details were often vague and the image seemed to be

another manifestation of the aura of absolute power surrounding the

weapon— of

the feeling that anyone exposed to

erazy, just as

anyone exposed

sense

is

to

it

it

should have gone

should have died, whieh

saying close to the same thing. Guilt

importance here: the feeling that

in

in a s\’mbolie

also of considerable

is

one’s right mind, one

could not have seen and done the things one did see and

would or

do— that

without being temporarily “crazy,” one would not have committed the ultimate

evil

of surviving.

I’here was also imagery of people later dying from mental effects

caused by the bomb.

Nagasaki

One

story of this kind

illustrates the extension of

area encompassing mental

A-bomb

bv

told

a

woman

in

mvtholog\' into a confused

and phvsical contamination:

Mr. A. died of mental confusion. I think it was due to a nervous breakdown from economic and social pressure. The doctor said that the confusion was due to the last stages of A-bomb disease. He had divorced his wife, telling her he was going to die— he was like .

.

.

.

.

.

DEATH

130

IN LIFE

man. His diagnosis was leukemia. And according to the doctor university liospital, tlic last stage of leukemia makes the patient

a crazy at tlic

confused.

And

.

.

same

the

.

is

true of a description

bv

a

man

in

Nagasaki of his wife’s

death:

She died

1957 after complaining of severe fatigue.

in

The

of neurosis. it

was due

after the

He

doctor told

me

I

think she died

she had poison in her blood.

I

think

because she went to the bombed area the dav order to get our injured son and bring him home.

to radiation,

bomb

in

died two days

later,

and

my

wife at that time had severe diarrhea

and almost seemed to be in a coma. We were alwavs worried about her symptoms recurring but they never did until she died from a heart attack. ... I say she died of neurosis because she had been extremely concerned about her condition. She was worried about the flood in her native area in Julv, 1957, about her brother and refused to eat. And she experienced deep grief .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

during

W hile

all

.

.

.

of these years over our son.

the mythological tone here

is

...

strong and three different reasons

woman’s death (“poison,” “neurosis,” and “heart attack”), we may look upon this unscientific description as an effort to are given

for

the

convey the inseparability of physical and psychological factors and the extraordinary impact of their combination— and, in this sense, as still another example

of

the

psychological

truth

contained

in

A-bomb

mythology.

“A-bomb

disease”

and “A-bomb neurosis” are inseparable. Their

loose evocati\'eness reflects a third level of death encounter in original

attaches

“curse” becomes an enduring taint itself

—a

to one’s entire psychobiological

that, to one’s posterity as well. Survivors feel

taint of death

felt in

itself in

one year— or

in

themselves involved in an if

now

it

does not

one generation— may well make

the next. Earlier imagery related to death and guilt

into a larger constellation

which

organism and, beyond

endless chain of potentially lethal impairment, which,

manifest

which the

is

itself

absorbed

perceived not as an epidemic-like experi-

ence but as a permanent and infinitely transmissible form of impaired 111 i

nd -bod v subs ta nee.

^

3)

City of Bodily Concern

Anxiety siirrounding A-boml) disease eannot be grasped without examining tlie milieu in wbieh the term flourishes. Any “extreme experienee” ereates

its

own

speeial

environment wbieh

takes shape from the eon-

mutual interplay of individual responses to massive death eneounter and group efforts to establish meaningful soeial forms. The ne\\ beha\’ioral patterns whieh emerge ean take on a fieree autonomy tinuous

w'hieh far outlasts the original experienee.

The matter beeomes elearer when we examine the components and history of the term A-bomb disease. The Japanese word, genbakusho, is a vernacular abbreviation of

bomb

genshibakudansho, the

term

atomic

for

Some Hiroshima doctors trace '‘gej7shibakudansh&' lecture one month after the bomb, bv the radiation

disease.

celebrated

Masao

Suzuki, but others

1

military

e\en

physicians

immediate

had the impression that before

injury

or else,

to the written

then.

In

anv

it

more

mean

either

to the

expert

had been used bv

case,

sponsored term for acute radiation

officially

sho of genshibakudansho can

Some

full

it

was

But the

effects.

specificallv

near-

a

“wound”

generally', “disease” or “diseased state,”

or

according

form used. Here doctors again dispute the early usage.

claim that Tsuzuki, a surgeon, quite naturallv stressed the

meaning (“wound

first

and that the second came into being only much later on; others recall the broader form being used almost from the beginning by military physicians in their need for a term to write on death

soldiers’

)

certificates.

Both recollections mav well be

true,

but

a

good deal of additional evidence (including the earlv diaries of Yoko Ota) make clear that atomic bomb disease very quickly came to suggest any pathological effects whatsoever brought about by the weapon.

Much

less certain

is

the time

(genbakusho) came into

use,

when

though

achieve wide general currency until I

the shorter term, it

seems safe to say that

some

interviewed in Hiroshima related

its

A-bomb

years later.

it

A number

disease

did not of those

general usage to the “Bikini

incident” of 1954, in which a group of Jajxinese fishermen w'crc exposed to fallout in the

from American hydrogen

death of one of them, and

scholar,

wTo had made

in

bomb

tests in

the Pacific, resulting

an enormous national outcry.

a special study of Hiroshima’s

One

encounter with

13 2

D E A 111 IN

LIFE

the

bomb, nonetheless used

this

judgment:

M\-

own

a personal recollection in concurring with

older sister died of leukemia in 1954 [just prior to the Bikini

incident]

and

was simply

it

said that she died of leukemia.

when people died, it was cancer— not of A-bomb disease. ... I

those earh days

said thev died of

or

don’t

but sometime

.

.

.

tion

also stressed the

.

.

bomb

After the

Bomb

A-Bomb

There

And

is

unit

of

the

be devoted entirely to patients with

Hospital was built— since no one was admitted to

announcements, they began places were

to

new

Hospital as a

effects:

the hospital unless he had disease.

A-bomb

.

Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital atomic

when,

exactly

importance of a second event, the construc-

1956 of the Atomic

in

In

leukemia

following the Bikini incident the term

disease began to be used.

But he

know

...

also,

to

who

those

announced

A-bomb

— well,

when

died of

it

other hospitals or other

in

have died of A-bomb disease.

to

made A-bomb

thev

mention those uho died of

also a definite impression in

this increased use of the

disease

.

.

.

Hiroshima that accompanying

term A-bomb disease was a greater tendency

than before to associate virtually any bodily complaint with radiation

And

effects.

bomb as

hard upon the heels of “A-bomb disease” came not only “A-

neurosis” but also “the Hiroshima disease,” which has been used

synonymous with

either.

W’c

shall

have occasion

later to return to the

Bikini incident, but even this schematic account begins to suggest the

way

which the general psychohistorical dimension

in

reactions to the experience.

our attention

first

to the medical

to

and

W’e may consider

this

affects individual

dimension bv turning

mass-media treatment of A-bomb

disease,

and then

legal structure that has evolved in relationship to the

problem.

MASS MEDIA IMAGES -

The

entire subject of the atomic

bomb and

its

delayed radiation effects

Hiroshima— first within the restrictions imposed by censorship policies of the American Occupation (1945-

has been front-page news in

1952), and without any such restrictions thereafter.

Japanese-Aiucrican interplay around the atomic this

When we

bomb, we

discuss

shall see that

censorship was by no means complete or even consistent, but

it

''A-Bomb nonetheless

(apart fioni

tlie

Disease''

cpiestion of resentment)

already existing mystery and general emotional impaet of surrounding the atomie bomb.

1

intensified all

33 tlie

information

Sinee the end of the Oeeupation, Hiroshima mass media (and to some extent those throughout Japan )— newspapers, magazines, radio,

and television— ha\e dealt with A-bomb problems extensively and dramatically, particularly in relationship to the issue of ^‘A-bomb disease.’’ But m the process these media have been prone to a general moral dilemma: there is on the one hand the urge to give full publicity to the horrors of nuclear

weapons through \avid descriptions of effects and suspected effects of atomic bomb radiation — thereby serving warning to the world, and also expressing a form of sympathy to sur\i\ors through recognition of their plight; and on the other hand the grow'ing awareness that lurid reports of illness

upon

effect

sur\'i\ors.

and death havT

no such

effort,

profoundly disturbing

Responsible media ha\’e struggled to reconcile

these conflicting moral pressures,

an unprecedentedly

a

difficult

and

problem;

to achie\e balanced treatment of less

responsible media have

and ha\e readily succumbed

to the

made

commcrical tempta-

tions of sensationalism. In public discussions journalists have tended to

emphasize the moral obligation to disseminate information, and physi-

among

cians the dangers of increasing anxiety

hihakusha. But from

all

sides opinions ha\'e \aried, as has the degree of accuraev of information

transmitted. 'I'he

classic

anxiety-producing image (which

such overwhelming effect on so

dying

m

A-Bomb

the

Hospital’

many

On

is

Shimhun

of

1

seen to have

that of patients

— as

Mav

depicted in

1962

CLAIMED BY A-BOMB DISEASE

30 April of 0130 hours at the

Hamaoka,

hihakusha)

of ^‘A-bomb disease”

the following article from the Yomiuri

LIFE

we have

A-Bomb

Hospital, Mrs. Hatsuc

Aloha Sewing School, 661, Shinonomecho, I liroshima-shi, died of chronic myelogenous leukemia caused by A-bomb disease. She is the 22nd person to die this vear. She had been exposed at her home in Nishi Kannon-machi, 1.5 kms. [1>00 meters] from the hypoeentcr and sustained bruises when her house collapsed. She developed acute radiation symptoms but 61, Principal of the

recovered. Six years ago she visited the U.S. and extended encouragement to the A-bomb Maidens who were undergoing treatment. She also visited a

of A-

number

and H-bomb

of high schools in the U.S. to appeal for the

tests.

ban

.

1

DEATH

34

IN LIFE

In September last year,

slie liad a reeiirrenee

hospitalized on 25 April, the day \yas

We

and was

of her disease,

when resumption

of nuelear tests

announeed.

note the sequence of original exposure, early symptoms, and a later

“reeurrenee of her disease/’ eonveying the sense of eontinuous invisible

eontamination leading to eventual death. The mention of resumption of nuelear tests

not only an expression of bitter irony, but also of a

is

tendeney to associate nuclear

with A-

testing, directly or symbolically,

bomb disease.

A

story in the Asahi Shiinbun, Japan’s leading new'spaper, the fol-

lowing year old

girl,

tells

who had

at twenty-one

of the death, also of leukemia, of an eighteen-year-

been exposed

originally

hundred meters.

[director of the

Atomic

death of a patient

who was

A-bomb

the imagery of the

youngest

in

in the

mother’s

womb

of the sentence

at the

itself,

first

time of the

or of the part

causing the condition, hibakusha are

bomb

birth,

Hospital] says that this was the

bomb.” Whatever the ambiguity played by the

two days before

ends with the comment: “Dr. Shigeto

It

Bomb

in utero,

continuing to snuff out the

left w'ith

lives

of the

among them. we note (in the 26 December 1961) its direct its somewhat less established

Similar imagery surrounds death from cancer, and

following article in the Sanyo

equation wdth

“A-bomb

Shimbun

disease,” despite

relationship to radiation effects

A-BOMB

of

and despite the age of the victim:

PA'l’IENT DIES, 37111

VICTIM

DURING THIS YEAR Kina Matsuo, 82, of Itsukaichi-cho, Saeki-gun, Hiroshima-ken, who had been an in-patient of the Hiroshima A-Bomb Hospital, Sendamachi, Hiroshima City, died about 1315 hours on 24 December 1961

A-bomb

(pulmonary cancer) llie deceased had been exposed to the A-bombing of 6 August 1945 at Senda-machi at the distance of 1600 meters from the hypocenter. She was admitted to the hospital on 24 August 1961. Thirty-seven Abomb patients died, including Mrs. Matsuo, during this year. W'ith

disease

Other reports describe deaths,

in various hospitals,

other than leukemia or cancer, of hibakusha at the time of the

bomb

who were

from conditions not in Hiroshima

but were exposed by coming into the

within the next two weeks.

An

article in

Asahi of 4 March 1962,

citv

for

:

“ A-Bomb Disease

instance, tells of a fift\-onc-year-old police officer

the day after the

bomb, spent

disposal of dead bodies,

due

cells]

who came

week engaged

“leukopenia

number And even when

adjectives (like “presumably”) are used to suggest tion

an

(as in

telling of

article in

the

into the city

death was diag-

his

[diminished

to secondary radiation.”

135

rescue work and

in

and nine months before

nosed as suffering from blood

a

’

Chugoku Shimbun

white

of

qualifying

doubt about causa-

of 21

January 1962,

death from anemia), the headline, general tone, and subse-

quent content arc

likeb’ to

more than cancel out

AN EX-SERVICKMAN

WORK

this qualification:

WHO ENGAGED

RESGUE

IN

A-BOMB PERIOD DIES WITH A-BOMB DISEASE AT YOSHIDA HOSPEPAL IN POS r

Kyujiro Yamasaki, 55, a farmer of Saka, Mukaihara-machi, Takatagun, died at 1130 hours at the Yoshida Welfare Eederation Hospital,

Yoshida-eho, Takata-gun, of anemia presumably assoeiated with A-

bomb

disease.

He

is

the

first

exposed patient

who

has died at this

hospital.

On

Mr. Yamasaki entered into Hiroshima Gity and visited Hakushima, Yokogawa, and Hijiyama in seareh of his missing younger sister. As a member of [the] Ex-Servieemen’s Association, he participated in rescue work in the city from 20 August 1945, and then in Mukaihara-machi he helped with the eremation of those who perished in the A-bombing. Since then he developed A-bomb disease, but on 13 Deeember 1961 he was hospitalized for medical care. 8 August 1945, two days after the A-bombing,

Nor

is

(of

26 January

woman

there any such qualification in an article in the

describing

the death

“of liver dysfunetion caused by

dysfunetion

atomie

1962)

is

bomb

eonsidered by aftereffeets

many

of

A-bomb

doctors even

a

same newspaper

fifty-eight-year-old

disease,”

more dubious an

than anemia and leukopenia.

definitive attribution of these deaths to

from the patient’s having been plaeed

though

“A-bomb

liver

area of

The seemingly

disease” often derives

in a medieo-legal eategory,

whieh,

with considerable latitude, reeognizes the possibility of radiation effeets

having played some part

in a partieular eondition.

‘A-bomb disease’’ and suicide A

frequent theme

is

the equation of

A-bomb

disease

the following Asahi article of 19 September 1961

and

suicide, as in

1

DEATH

36

MFE

IN

AN AGV.D MO'IIIKR COMMI'I’S SUICIDE HIROSHIMA UNDER THE STRAIN OE

IN

A-BOMB DISEASE ON SEVENTH DAY AFTER BEING DIAGNOSED 2320 liours on 17 Scptcml)cr 1961, Mrs. Akino Okino, 64, the mother of Mr. Sekito Okino, a eonfeetioner at 3-ehome, Misasa Honmaehi, Hiroshima City, hanged lierself to cleatli with an eleetrie eorcl Alx)iit

in a t\\'o-mat

room’^ of her son’s lionse.

Mrs. Okino liad been exposed to the

A-bomb

at her

home. Eour

and she was reeeiving treatment at a nearby hospital but her eondition did not show any improvement. On 11 September 1961, she was examined at the Hiroshima ABomb Hospital and the diagnosis of A-bomb disease was established. Mrs. Okino was greatly shoeked at this. Aeeording to members of her family, Mrs. Okino told them often that she wanted to die, sinee she was suffering from inenrable A-bomb disease. The family members shared the same bedroom with her as a means of pre\'enting any attempt at suieide. years ago she developed heart trouble,

Again there are ambiguities about the kind of disease she suffered from

(we do not know whether the diagnosis of “A-bomb disease”

refers to

some additional ailment), but the message is “A-bomb disease” is diagnosed, is inenrable, and

the heart eondition or to

nonetheless elear:

therefore leaves one utterh- hopeless to the point of suieide. I'he faetors

whieh

however, are always eomplex. Even assuming

infliienee suieide,

that the diagnosis of

“A-bomb

disease” was important as a preeipitating

eause, several possibilities present themselves. If the diagnosis of “A-

bomb

disease” referred to newlv diseovered leukemia or eaneer, then the

suieide eould be said to have been based

impending death. But purpose of plaeing her

and eeonomie

benefits,

if

upon an aeeurate impression

the designation was

made merely

in a eategor^• that afforded it

for

of

the

her eertain medieal

eould be said that she tragieallv misinterpreted

an administrative eonvenienee

as a

death sentenee.

And

there

is

alwavs

the possibility that the suieide resulted from long-standing emotional eonfliets

independent of either the reeent diagnosis or the atomie

experienee per *

Kach straw

about

six

by

the bedroom together.

se,

(tataini) six

bomb

and that the reeonstruetion of eause-and-effeet was mat

is

al)out three

by

which would make the room a Japanese house, and apparently not which several family members slept

six feet,

feet— the smallest size room in

referred to later in the article in

‘'A-Bomb cssc'ntially journalistic.

I

he

three possibilities, but wherexer

has had impressed upon

'"A-bomb disease” and

E\en

in the

mav

triitli

him

lie in

does

it

lie,

critical

1

some combination

the average

Ji

37

of these

ihakusha-r cddcr

a terrifyingly absolute relationship

between

suicide.

absence of ‘‘A-bomb disease” the mere fact of being

hihakusha can be associated with suicide, as artiele of

Disease’’

24 December 1961

indirectly implied in an

is

man found

the Yomiuri, describing a

in

a

condition after having taken sleeping

in

pills

a

in

citv several

hundred miles from Hiroshima, and including the sentence: ‘‘T’he Atami poliee repealed that this man had with him an A-bomb survixor’s health

handbook

issued by the Hiroshima Citv Office, but there

note to explain the cause of his attempted suieide.”

xx^as

no

The unspoken

assumption, xvhich could be true, untrue, or partly true— xxc have no xx’ay

of knoxxing— is that there

betxxeen

tion

his

is

a signifieant (perhaps erueial) eonnee-

hibakusha state and his

reinforcing the hibakusha death existential

eloseness

to

suieide

taint, xx’hieh

suicide.

there

addition

In

to

the suggestion of an

is

makes the

aet

more

or

less

appropriate for a hibakusha. Suicide ean also be assoeiated xvith the idea of the atomie

bomb

driving one erazy through fear— as in the folloxving deseription of a

schizophrenic

man

in

eluded here almost in

important psxehological

the Sankei its

Shimbun

entirety despite

issues

it

of 3 its

Nox^ember 1961,

in-

length because of the

raises:

CAUSED BY SECONDARY RADlAl ION DRl\q2S YOUNG MAN TO DEATH

‘‘FEAR”

SHOCK EXPERIENCED IMMEDIATELY AFTER A-BOMB EXPLOSION REXTX'ES AFTER 1 3 YEARS

GREA'I

TURNS PALE AT NEWS OF RESUMPTION OF NUCLEAR TESTS

A

young man seized xvith fear of the A-bomb reeently eommitted suieide bv hanging himself. This person xxas not direetly exposed to

A-bomb but reeeived secondary caused him to suffer from a nervous the

beeame

radiation

in

Hiroshima. This

breakdoxvn, and his symptoms

news of resumption of nuelear tests. His family refused to comment on his death, but it is felt that this is not a problem xvhich can be treated merely as “a young man with nervous breakdown xvho eommitted suieide bv hanging himself.” (Reporters 7'sujigami and Shiba.) It xvas from about January 1959 that it was rumored in Kinehara \^illage, Takaya-eho, Kamo-gun that “Mr. lehikawa’s son appears to espeeially aggravated at the

DEATH

138

have gone mad,

IN LIFE

prol)al)lv as a result of

man

A-l)omlL” Tliis young

Mr. Tsumoru expressed

s\mpathv.

about one hundred acres life.

Mr. Morimune Ichikawa,

is

farmer

Ichika^^’a, 68, a

their

Morimune was

.

.

.

exposure to radiation from the

.

The

.

.

in this village.

family

34, first

Manv

cultivates

son of

people a

farm

.

.

.

of

[and] leads a well-to-do middle-class

a very gentlc-natured

man

of introverted tem-

hough he became mad, his actions were not violent. He was seen idling away his time at home and sometimes helping weed the paddv field. Now let us return to the problem of secondary radiation which is said to have driven him to a nervous breakdown. Before the termination of the war, he graduated from 'kakava-eho Primarv School and began to work at Saijo Communication Sub-district of the National Railways Corporation at the age of 18 years. When the A-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, he was stationed here. However, as Hiroshima Station was destroyed, a relief team was organized [which] included Morimune. Hiroshima Citv immediatelv after the Abomb explosion was in a chaotic condition, and he had to dispose of many dead bodies which was a great shock to the \outh. In about three months he returned to his sub-district, but subsequentlv began to feel ill and was often absent from work. For this reason, he perament.

'I

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

was discharged in 1949 when the National Railwav Discharge Program was enforced. Since then, he had been helping on the farm and doing repair work on radio and television sets. ... If he had continued to live in this way, he might have been loved bv all as a youth of exemplarv behavior, married a beautiful woman and succeeded to his family estate. However, the shadows of tragedv darkened the picture.

“on,

I

HE A-BOMB

IS

FALLING”

His symptoms became gradually aggravated. Sometimes he wept,

am

am

Sometimes he would erv out, “Oh, the A-bomb is falling.” His condition was far from normal. As the family became concerned, he was hospitalized at Seiyoin Mental Hospital, Fuchu-machi, in Februar\- 1939. He recovered soon and was discharged in August. Howe\er, from the beginning of this vear, his symptoms became aggravated again, and he was hospitalized at the Psvchiatric Division of Senogawa Hospital. Dr. Kobavashi of this hospital explained his symptoms at that time as follows: “He was a case of severe schizophrenia. \Miether this was due to fear caused by the A-bomb or not could not be discerned. However, as there is no familv historv of mental disease, I feel this case cannot be viewed as being completeR- unrelated to the A-bomb.” Though he did not saving, “I

sorry.

I

sorrv.”

''A-Bomb Disease’

13 9

rc'covcr completely,

he was discharged on 5 March. Since then he would seldom go out. \Micn he met with a neighbor, he would exchange greetings but then immediately begin to talk about the Abomb. he \ illage people sau- him earnestly offering prayers at the nearby cemetery. It was as if he were praying for the repose of the I

souls of

A-bomb

\

ictims.

W EEPS AT NEW S OF RESUMPTION OF NUCLEAR TESTS BY THE U.S.

On

September he was hospitalized at Tsuhara Hospital, I’akavacho, and was discharged on 10 September. In the afternoon of that day, he returned home together with members of his family. When he entered the room, the radio was broadcasting ‘ffhc resumption of nuclear tests by the United States.” At this news, he turned pale. It is said that he was trembling as he cried, “This situation has occurred because I had the United States make the A-bomb. I am sorry.” The family felt concerned o\er his condition and tried to keep him from listening to the radio and reading magazines, but he had already become completely terror-stricken by the A-bomb. During meals, he w'ould suddenly cry out to his family, “Don’t you see dead bodies lying oyer there?” (The impression of Hiroshima after the A-bomb explosion must have weighed heayily on his mind.) He said, “I am responsible for killing a large number of people by the A-bomb. I am yery sorry.” Wdienever funeral seryices w'ere held in the yillage, he used to go, clasping his hands in prayer, saying, “This person was killed because I made the A-bomb.” \Miat is the cause for his great A-bomb phobia? He vyas free of abnormalities at least from immediately after the termination of the w'ar until about 1957. Is it possible that A-bomb phobia suddenly 5

deyelops after the lapse of 13 years? Summarizing the statements of his family, neighbors and physicians, it appears the great shock he receiyed from seeing the great

A-bomb

number

of dead bodies in Hiroshima

remained in his subconscious mind. Physically he might haye been affected by secondary radiation and [feared that he] might haye deyelopcd leukemia. It w^is from about 1958 that the problem of A-bomb medicine for A-bomb surveyors in Hiroshima w'as taken up as an important subject. As this discussion

after

the

explosion

and research started to be actiyely conducted, Morimune came to that he might haye been affected by radiation. This gradually yeloped into a strong fear of the A-bomb. In relation to father, d'sumoru, said,

malities

since

“Morimune had complained

1949 and

1950.

I

fear

de-

this point, his

of physical abnor-

think this was due to radiation.

Something should haye been done

earlier.

.

.

.

Since then the A-

1

D E A III IN L

40

FE

I

about one half of tlic twcutv National Railway cuiployccs who had gone to Hiroshima as mciulDcrs of the relief team have already died, which miglit have

must have occupied

l:)om])

caused

liiiu to

his luiud.” It

is

said tliat

develop fear of the A-bomb.

STATEMENT BY PROFESSOR YUKIO SAKAI, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY 'dt

is

not strange

the tragedy of the

tliat

A-bomb

explosion should

come to the surface after the lapse of more than ten years. Of course, we should oppose nuclear tests, but on the other hand if this fear should be over-exaggerated, we must bear in mind that such effects will occur.’’

In this extraordinarv account

ated with the atomic

bomb:

we note

four dimensions of fear associ-

the image of a normal, likeable,

first,

voung man being driven crazy by a combination of original psvchic trauma (from working among the dead), later fears of secondarv radiation effects, and actual physical radiation influences— all resulting in a form of “invisible contamination” which emerges financiallv comfortable

thirteen vears later; then the

development of “A-bomb phobia”

(really a

full-blown delusional s\stem); third, intensification of fear to the point of mental

circulation of medical

breakdown and suicide— because of

information about

A-bomb

deaths of more than half of the people

him on the

and of news of the

disease in Hiroshima,

who had

rescue team at the time of the

entered the city with

bomb; and

fourth,

the

implication that the news of American resumption of nuclear testing

when he was beginning improvement. Generally speaking, the fear of A-bomb

gave him a

decisix'c setback, just

organizing image around which

to

show some

disease

is

the

the boy’s self-inflicted death

is

ex-

plained.

This kind of imagerv misleads in

its

insistence

upon the A-bomb

the specific cause of mental breakdown and suicide, but

contains considerable psvchological truth. Even

bov had abnormal tendencies from very have

if

early in

become psvchotic without being exposed

it

nonetheless

we assume life,

to

as

that the

and might well the

bomb — an

assumption consistent with our knowledge of schizophrenia and wath the description of his “introverted” nature— there remains the considerable likelihood that his overall atomic significantly

to

the psychosis

delusions that the

bomb was

for the deaths of others

and

bomb

experience contributed

and suicide that did occur. His still

falling,

for the

later

and that he was responsible

bomb

itself,

may be

regarded as

:

141

'‘A-Bomb Disease”

extremely patliological forms of patterns witli wliieh we are familiar: the continuing encounter with death (and retention of a death taint), identification with the

weapon, and, most of

death

illness in general

mental

guilt. In

the burden of retained

all,

delusions and hallucinations are

attempts at restitution, at recover\' of ps\chic function; thus we may sav that within a psychotic idiom his were (nnsuccessfiil efforts at atomic )

bomb

mastery.

reactivated

And

the news of American testing could well

have

of his conflicts, as \\q shall later observe to be freqnentlv

all

the case with hihakusha.

W hat this account com’cys particularly \'ividlv

is

the wa\- in which the

image of A-homh disease can embody the entire psychic constellation of atomic bomb exposure in its most disturbed form. And the fearful

uneasy

comment by

Professor Sakai at the end of the article

comes

close

moral dilemma mentioned before, concerning mass-

to expressing the

media dissemination of information about atomic

bomb

For

this

case itself demonstrates the vicious circle of individual pathology

and

effects.

such mass-media dissemination: an alread\' existing morbid process was

probably intensified by mass-media messages about

(though

it is

disease

often difficult to evaluate the schizophrenic’s response to

external stress);

and the mass-media interpretation of that case un-

doubtedly contributed the simplistic message,

Young Man

A-bomb

to

in turn to general “

‘Fear’

hibakusha anxietv bv spreading

Caused by Secondary Radiation Drives

Death.”*

STATISTICS — USE AND RESPONSE Beyond these descriptions statistics

quoted

in

of fatal illness

and

suicide, various general

the press can have enormous impact. These statistics

arc frequently tied in with concerns about nuclear testing, as in the

Shimbun

following article in the Sanyo

of 31 October 1961

LFUKFMIA CON riNUFS TO INCRFASE HIROSHIMA ernzENS horrified by nuclear tests It

is

reported

that in

spite

of the strong

protests voiced

from

Hiroshima, Soviet Russia tested a 60-megaton superbomb in the evening of 29 October. Whth the nuclear tests carried out in rapid succession, a large ITic quotation

amount

of radiation has already been detected in

marks around the word “fear”

probably suggest not so mneb a questioning of its use as a sense tliat it conveys soinetbing more than ordinary fear, as well as the idea of a reaction shared by a large group of people.

in

the original

article

1

42

DEA

and dust

rain

1

IN LIFE

II

in tlic air,

and

it

is

feared

tliat

radiation disturbances,

might increase. The A-bombed city of Hiroshima is also a city of cancer. Cancers due to the A-bomb particularly continue to occur, causing anxiety among the citizens in general. At such time, the scries of nuclear tests, including this new superbomb, will further increase this anxietw A study of leukemia in Hiroshima Citv, which has recenth increased remarkablv, was undertaken. siicli

as leukemia,

65 PER CENT OF DEATHS DUE TO LEUKEMIA

ARE EXPOSED PERSONS

CANCER CONTINUES TO OCCUR

A

sur\ey by the Prefeetural Health Department revealed that 2,484 persons died of cancer in Hiroshima Prefecture last year. This number of deaths has remained almost

The

mortality rate

is

unchanged

for the last several vears.

high, 113 per 100,000 population.

About one

fourth of the abo\’c deaths, or 565, died of cancer in Hiroshima Citv.

Of

course, the population density of the city proper differs

from that of rural areas, and all of such deaths in Pliroshima Citv cannot be attributed to A-bomb radiation, but the majoritv of the 44 deaths at the Hiroshima A-Bomb Hospital from Januar\' to 30 October 1961 were due to cancer. A survev of the deaths from leukemia in Hiroshima City from 1946 to 1960 conducted bv the Research Institute for Nuclear Medicine and Biologv of Hiroshima University .

during

that

reveals

.

.

period

223 persons, or 4.3 per 100,000 population, died of leukemia, and that 65 per cent of them were exposed persons. this

Experienced medical researchers and statisticians would be hard put to

what

distinguish

significant

is

and what

is

misleading in

this

imposing

array of figures. For ordinary hibakusha such statistics frequentlv take

an aura of

scientific saeredness

and become

numerical confirmation of their worst atomic

many

as in will

others, there

render statistics of

assumption hibakusha

is

form of incontestable

a

bomb

fears. In this article,

the definite implication that nuclear testing

A-bomb

disease even

more

not without some truth, since nuclear

fears of

and because,

is

as

“A-bomb

many

on

disease,”

which

devastating. 4 he tests

do intensifv

in turn increase

s\mptoms;

international scientific authorities have stated,

such testing can increase the general danger of leukemia evcrvwhere.

\Miat

is

misleading and without scientific basis

is

the suggestion that

because of their prior exposure to radiation, hibakusha are particularly liable to increases in

leukemia and cancer resulting from nuclear testing.

1

''A-Bomb

The

hibakusha-reader

shima

is

thus

is

left

and

a city of leukemia

M'ith

cancer, a

has been statistically confirmed and

is

Disease'’

1

43

an orerall message that Hiro-

doomed

whose death

city

ever renewed

forces let loose in various parts of the world. Again,

and

taint

intensified by

kind of message

tliis

represents botli an aeenrate expression of inner imagery lield

l)v

hiba-

kusha, and an anxiety-stimulating intensification and public formalization of that

imagerw*

But negative findings can

when 1961

e\’okc their

own

reported by American researchers. depicts

kind of anxiety, particularly

A Chugoku

“A Gloomy Controversy” between

Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen \\ bile the article quotes directi\’es

the

article of 3 July

ABCC

and the

Bombs (Gensuikyo).

from both groups,

it

mainly

consists

of objections raised by Gensuikyo officials to certain scientific conclusions published earlier

ABCC

by an

physician: nameh', that the risk of

genetic abnormalities was small, that findings in most controversial areas *

Wdiilc

newspaper

medical e\aluations they quote, vary in accuracy, they are likely in some way to carry messages of doom. For instance, an article in the Chugoku Shimbun of 17 December 1961, reporting statistics of a prior five-month period, states that although 200 of 251 patients admitted to the A-Bomb Hospital were discharged improved or completely recovered, 32 of the 51 who died had been identified as suffering from atomic bomb sequelae. Similarly, an Asahi article of 15 March 1952 states that a Welfare Ministry survey reveals that “about 40 per cent of A-bomb sur\i\ors are suffering from various symptoms,” with the incidence of cancer, cardiac disease, and diseases of the nervous system higher than in ordinary populations; that from April, 1957, to March, 1961, “857 new cases of Abomb disease were found in Hiroshima Prefecture (excluding Hiroshima City),” and that “of these cases ... 60 per cent are people suffering from anemia and 1 per cent each from hepatic disturbances and ankylosis following recoxery from keloids.” Such statistics mislead by combining part-truths with inaccuracies and questionable conclusions. Even essentially accurate articles can mislead, as for example in the Nagasaki Shimbun of 22 November 1961, describing an increase in exposed hibakusha (confirmed by several medical studies) of thyroid cancer. A subheading, “incidence approximately 40 per cent among a-bomb survivors,” could easily be construed to mean that 40 per cent of hibakusha suffer from thyroid cancer, rather than the actual finding that among hibakusha undergoing surgery for thyroid disease, 40 per cent were found to ha\e cancer— by no means a piece of good news, but hardly the same thing. like

articles,

the

.

Where 11 July

the article’s headline suggests a note of reassurance (as in the

1962:

“CASES OE LEUKEMIA DECREASE”),

.

.

Chugoku

of

is likely to be followed by an ominous subheading (“number of cancer cases still large”), and an equally ominous general statement in the article (“The number of certified [as having A-bomb disease] patients who can be discharged with complete recovery is diminishing steadily” Rare indeed is the reassuring article, such as that in the Sankei Shimbun of 20 November 1961, telling that a four-year ophthalmological study had led to the conclusion “that there are extremely few A-bomb patients with cataracts at the present time and that there is no need for these patients to worry about tendencies toward progression in these cataracts”; the article concluded by calling this a “valuable report,” which “will be appreciated by such patients in that it removes their anxiety.” )

.

.

.

.

it

:

14 4

DEATH

of

radiation

possible

IN LIFE were negative, and

effects

beyond two thousand meters did not tend

to

those exposed

tliat

receive pathologically

was especially resented

significant radiation dosage, d’his last finding

because survivor groups were involved at that time in a legal effort to change, from two thousand to three thousand meters, the distance from the hypocenter which officially qualified hihakusha for various medical

and economic in

benefits.

A

statement by a pathologv professor then active

Gensuikyo shows how

this

concern became intertwined with other

issues

underestimate radiation disturbances as the ABCC has done is to expose mankind to the danger of radiation, and to undermine the

To

welfare of

bomb

A-bomb

survivors

who

desire that the application of the A-

survivors’ medical treatment

4 he article

contained

also

scientific

scholars associated with Gensuikyo, reports

had

law be expanded.

objections

bv

and

physicians

and an accusation that the

ABCC

“political intent.”

Without taking up now the issue of the complex feelings surrounding the ABCC in Hiroshima, we may say that the newspaper article touches on the hibakushas great

sensiti\ itv to an\

thing perceived as minimizing

or negating radiation effects. For apart from the issue of medical

economic

benefits,

he

may

feel insulted

by such reports,

as

if

and

accused of

Thev stimulate his own inner and svmptoms are justified, whether he

inauthentic fears and even of malingering. conflicts over

whether

his fears

should view himself as normally active or abnormallv weak, and whether

he

is

worthy of the medical and economic

further seeks.

He

reacts with anger

privileges

he

is

given and

who seem to him to be his own inner doubts have

toward those

questioning his need for special help because

been aggravated.

He

therefore experiences, in relationship to mass media, a corollarv of

the psychosomatic bind: dramatic dissemination of information about A-

bomb

disease intensifies his already strong death anxictv, but negation

of these dangers intensifies conflicts over

dependenev and

guilt.

The

media themselves arc inevitably affected— though confusedlv and conflicting

ways— by

emanating

pressures

from

both

sides

of

in

this

dilemma. 'rims,

during

the

reporting deaths from protests

late

1950s

A-bomb

daily

radio

broadcasts

dramatically

disease were so disturbing that following

from some hibakusha, they were modified

in the direction of

''

A-Bomb

Disease

'

145

Ilibakusha groups liavc also occasionallv initiated eainpaigns to eounteraet exaggerated statements in tlie mass media about A-bomb

restraint.

But

disease. logieal

and

otlier sur\ivor organizations,

groups piiblieize

politieal

A-bomb

that intensify anxieties about

Immanistie

or in

basis,

peaee movements, and ideo-

tlie effeets

disease

bomb

of tlie

— wlietlier

on

in \va\s

a generally

quest of narrower politieal goals within the

unique Hiroshima atmosphere.

None

of these groups or

problem of A-bomb publie passions

media ean be

disease; rather they are

said

its

have ereated

to

publie voiee.

Nor

tlie

are the

have deseribed simplv manufaetured ones; they are the inevitable expression of the impaet of a disaster of this magnitude upon

human

basie

I

and

eonfliets

anxieties. Exaggerations

and distortions are

themselves produets of the bomb, d hev are built upon an underlying lethal

reality

of aeute

genuine possibility of

and delayed radiation

still

effeets,

and upon the

undiseovered forms of bodilv harm. As thev

emerge from, and then feed baek

into,

fundamental hibakusha

eonfliets,

they beeome part of the atomie bomb’s overall psvehohistorieal eonstellation.

REGULATIONS AND POLICIES A

elosely related area

is

that of publie poliey regarding hibakusha^ and

partieularh' the elaborate eode of medieo-legal regulations eoneerning status

To

and

benefits.

understand these, we must

ately following the little

was available.

during the years immedi-

reeall that

bomb, when medieal eare was most needed, verv The Atomie Bomb Hospital was not opened until

and the national medieal law providing benefits for was not enaeted until 1957. There were undoubtedlv manv late 1956,

faetors involved in this twelve-year delay.

On

was the devastated eondition of the eountrv

survivors different

the Japanese side, there in

general,

and the im-

poverished situation of government agencies and private groups; the

absenee of a strong tradition for soeial welfare;

politieal

eonfliet at

national and loeal levels, ineluding a good deal of reluetanee to speeial provisions

for

one or two Japanese

eities

make

the faee of dire

in

national needs, as well as rivalry between Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and resistanee

among

influential

programs that might threaten side, there

was

aftereffects,

a

tendency

Hiroshima physieians their sourees of

to avoid placing

to

ineome.

any

stress

publie medieal

On

the Ameriean

upon atomic bomb

and when the problem was attacked, an emphasis upon

research rather than treatment, with the reason given that Japanese

DEATH

14 6

IN LIFE

physicians preferred

Ameriean

way.

this

it

(It

must be added,

of eourse, that

finaneial support, offieial as well as private, did eventually play

an important part

in the eonstruetion of

medieal and other

faeilities.)

amendments have been

Sinee 1957, however, a series of laws and

passed which provide inereasingly eomprehensive medical coverage for hibakusha}-'

make

intend neither to

I

a

eomplete

listing of all these

judgment upon those responsible

provisions nor to pass

them, but rather to explore their general eontours

as

for enacting still

another

psychological ramification, and a very important one, of atomic

bomb

consequences.

We

have already

hibakusha

listed

bv these medieal laws (those within Hiroshima

as defined

eitv limits at the

the distinguishing features of the ordinary

time of the bomb,

during the fourteen-dav period

wounded, first

or

who were

who came

following

into the eenter of the eitv

it,

who handled dead

and whose mothers

in utero

fit

or

into anv of the

three eategories). But within this general group “special hibakusha”

are designated,

time of the

on the

bomb

hvpoeenter at the

basis either of being nearest the

or

showing evidenee of medieal eonditions

of

eonsidered to have some relationship to atomic

bomb

effects.

Special

hibakusha receive wider benefits, and the tendenev in reeent vears has

been toward enlarging effeet in 1962, distance

eategory.

this

Through two

from the hypocenter,

was extended from two thousand

to three

revisions put into

as a eriterion for eligibility,

thousand meters; and qualify-

many which are not eonNot only caneer but heart

ing illnesses were also extended to inelude sidered

related

speeifieally

to

and kidney

disease, endocrine

radiation.

disorders, arterioselerosis, hypertension,

and a number of other eonditions were included on the eould have been aggravated by the overall atomie

bomb

basis that they

experienee."^

In addition to the regular free examinations to whieh

all

hibakusha

are entitled, a special hibakusha can have half of his medical expenses

taken eare of

when

suffering

from almost anv general

disease, with the

exeeption of sueh things as dental problems, eertain congenital conditions,

and mental

over, those

among

illness

which had existed prior

speeial hibakusha

government examiners

as

ha\ing

who beeome

illnesses

to the

bomb. I More-

“eertified”

speeifieallv

by

related

official

to

the

1963 and again in 1963 additional amendments further extended the category ” of the “special hibakusha * In

Despite the general concern about harmful mental effects, the laws tend to neglect mental disease per se; the absence of any designation of A-bomb-linked mental illness probably reflects the strong organic bias generally prevalent in Japanese t

psychiatry,

and the

belief that

most mental

illness is congenital.

147

'‘A-Bomb Disease’'

bomb — including

atomic

of anemia,

leukopenia

count), purpura

leukemia, ophthalmic diseases, various forms

(low white count), Icucocytosis

(high white

(bleeding syndrome), or diseases of the liver and

hmphatic systems— receive, at go\crnment expense, full medical treatment for the “certified” condition, and are also eligible for monthly payments of 3,000 yen, or about $8

benefit

was^

about $6)

2,000, or

1964— prior

(as of

addition to receiving

in

to that

it

other privileges of

all

special hibakusha.

Ph}’sicians

have played a prominent part

tions, together

with eity

officials

and

A-bomb

disease.

formulating these regula-

but

political leaders,

subject to the conflicting pressures which

ship to

in

we

all

have been

ha\-e described in relation-

Thus, while the original regulations of 1957

upon conditions believed directly related to the atomic bomb, later amendments have embraced a much broader philosophy to encompass whatever illnesses might have been affected by focused

primarily

radiation,

however

tering the

la\\’s

And

indirectly.

city officials responsible for adminis-

me

were quick to admit to

that these

amendments were

passed in relationship to strong political pressures from hibakusha and

groups representing them.

The dilemma of hibakusha and lawmakers alike is similar to dilemmas we have observed in other areas: all are eaught in a conflict between humanitarian pro\ision

for

medical need, and the dangers of encourag-

ing in survivors the development of hypochondriasis, general weakness,

and psychological dependency

“A-bomb

to the point of

neurosis.”

Or

to

put the matter in another way, there are two conflicting images, each with some validity:

the

first,

undergone unprecedented forms of pain and

unknown

A-bomb

\ietim

suffering,

is still

that of the

who

has

subjeet to

and who deserves every possible advantage that can be made available to him; and the second, that of the survivor who, though essentially healthy and physically normal, if “certified” as physical dangers,

an A-bomb patient, can thereby be made into one and rendered

There remains ways

too.

a great deal of controversy

Hibakusha

criticize

them

for

being

about these laws

in other

insufficiently

compre-

still

hensive, resent attempted distinctions between to the

A-bomb,

or complain about their

subcategories which in the end deny

full

sick.

what

is,

or

cumbersome

is

not, related

categories

and

care for certain conditions.

The

rationale of the laws, particularly as later

amended, has been

to give

survivors ‘'the benefit of the doubt” about matters not yet scientifically resolved. This “benefit of the doubt,” how'ever, ean often include not

only the right to be treated for

illness

but the prerogative of

illness itself.

1

DEATH

48

IN LIFE

Given the atmosphere of Hiroshima, eian,

eitv

ofheial,

or

physieian

to

it

is

difheult indeed for a politi-

express

expansion of any medical program. In

all

public opposition

these ways

— in

to

the

the anxiety and

confusion surrounding the programs and in the medico-legal binds they include— the laws accurately reflect, as well as perpetuate, the city’s

overwhelming bodily concerns.

.

Physician and Disease

4) I

lie

physicians

meshed

of

fliroshima

found themselves en-

inevitably

liavc

problems of A-bomb disease, and their conceptions of it take on considerable importance. For they inevitably convey these in the

conceptions to their patients

— sometimes

through public pronounce-

ments, more often through the combination of stated medical opinion

and unspoken

communicated within

feelings

private consultation.

a

Moreover, the special aura of magic ^^hich surrounds practitioners of the healing arts in any culture is strongly intensified in a disease-conscious a tom i c-bom bed

com m u n

i

t\-

In pursuing these matters with a considerable

Hiroshima, outlook.

I

The

found them

number

one another

to differ strikingly with

quality of these differences

seemed

of doctors in

to

me

to

in their

shed unique

on the dilemma of A-bomb disease, and at the same time to sav something about the general psychology of scientific formulation, parlight

ticularly

about the

effects of psychic stress

Based upon attitudes toward ‘bVbomb

upon medical thought. disease,’'

the doctors

I

spoke

be divided into four general categories, though one must keep mind the approximate nature of the categories as well as the difficulty

to could in

of fitting certain individual doctors into is

any of them. The

first

category

that of the All-Embracing Concept: here physicians implicate the

atomic

bomb

not only

in

those conditions where

agreed to be present (such as leukemia), or

its

in

effects are generally

those where there

is

controversy (growth and development of children, or certain anemias),

but also lungs, or

in \'irtually every bodily ailment,

any other organ, d’hc second category

Inclusive Concept: areas,

whether of the heart, kidney,

A-bomb

is

that of a Moderately

disease extends to accepted

and controversial

but stops short of the more general bodilv systems and can

include psychological influences. In the third category, that of Skepticism,

physicians

question

the

term

itself,

and while accepting the

influence of radiation as definite in leukemia and probable in cancer,

and entertaining the

possibility of

areas, they object to claims of

its

influence in certain borderline

wider A-bomb-induced pathology.

fourth category, that of Outright Rejection, contains physicians attack the concept of

A-bomb

disease both

The who

because they think

its

)

DEATH

15 0

IN LIFE

promiscuous use docs great

and iK'causc

liariu

tlicv

do not believe

existeuee of chroiiic radiation effects as a geuuiuc clinical

iu the

eutit\';

they

grant radiation influence in leukemia and eve cataracts, and possibly in

upon

cancer, but look

due

logical in origin or

cut

statistical

\irtuallv all other complaints as either psycho-

something

to

evidence drawn

else,

and

need

stress the

for clear-

from comparative population groups

before coming to am- conclusions. In the absence of anything approaching a systematic survey,

and national

distinct impression that generational

tant:

that

is,

much

less likclv

first

four

more

likely to

in

be

and second groups than arc younger ones. An important

influence here

the

is

much

commitment

stronger

younger Japanese physicians to the exacting tradition,

all

than American plnsicians to be

the third and fourth; and older Japanese physicians are the

were impor-

factors

while Japanese physicians run the gamut of

categories, they are

in

had the

I

and the greater

of

criteria

American and

of the scientific

susceptibility of older Japanese physicians to

group pressures within the

society, in this case involving strong identifi-

On

cation with a victimized group.

the other hand, the judgment of

American and younger Japanese physicians could be affected by a form of scientific identity which required them to seek very great psychic distance from the discomfort induced by emotional and physical consequences of the bomb.

Of

great importanee for every individual doctor

particular

struggle

could readily

with

feel guilty

them

for posing

felt

the nature of his

(Japanese)

over ha\’ing escaped the

kinds of hostility they have of

'Nouhibakiisha

guilt.

is

phvsieians

bomb, and over

various

toward hibakusha, including resentment

such insoluble medical problems. Hibakusha physi-

cians face the potential guilt of “betraying” their fellow survi\ors should

they

undermine

their

elaims

pathology, but could also

of

feel

organic

(that

A-bomb-caused

toward them for

guilty

eondition the dreaded label of radiation effects

hibakusha physician’s susceptibility to having

The

is,

— not

his

to

gi^'ing

their

mention the

own death

guilt re-

their affiliation

American physicians has to do with with the nation which dropped the bomb, with the

complexities of

official

activated.

guilt potential of

ing out the research,

American governmental connection while carryand with their own group pressures and internal-

ized standards relating to scientific research. Indeed, the conflicts en-

gendered by the interplay of science and in all physicians

I

“human

feelings” were present

met, whatever their age or background— an area of

eonfliet of considerable intensity in tlie

modern world

in general

and

in

'‘A-Bomb Japan

and one

in particular,

relationship to atomic as elsewhere there It u’OLild

is

wliicli

bomb

Disease’’

5

1

readies unprecedented dimensions in

medicine. But

more than one kind

we

shall

soon sec that here

of science.

be \\Tong to take any single emotional or intellectual factor

as the cause for a physician’s ultimate

medical position.

that a \'aricty of intellectual and emotional forces

enter into the formation of that position.

com iction,

greater

1

W^c

We can

come

only say

together to

can, with

somewhat

emotional factors to the tone expressed by physicians toward hibakushdy though even here we must look for relate specific

W^e must turn to the words and images of a few individual physicians for a more direct understanding of these problems. patterns of influenee.

ALL-EMBRACING CONCEPT A

uonhibakusha medical administrator in his sixties described health problems of hibakiisha in phrases \ ery similar to those used bv ordinarv hibakusha themselves:

Hibakusha are more

— for

sensitive than ordinarv people to external stress

instance they are likely to be

more

summer. This is hard to evaluate as a symptom, however. For instanee, it is sometimes said — by Americans— that this feeling of being more sensitive to the heat of summer has to do with a psychologieal reminder of hot weather, and is related to memories of the August sixth dropping of the bomb. But we feel it is a medieal problem. They laek vitality, and possibly their adaptational ability

more

They

sensitively to coldness.

suffer

from disease

in general,

is

tired in the

also deereased.

eateh colds

more

They

easily.

also reaet

And

if

they

they tend to have a different eourse of

that disease— more severe symptoms,

more prolonged effects— than

does the ordinary person. Under normal eircumstances they are the same as anyone else— but if there is some particular stress or disease .

.

.

they are not the same.

In addition to this stress

.

.

.

upon organieity

causation, he took the point of view that

rather than

A-bomb

psvchologieal

disease eould be

looked upon as a condition derived from radiation effeets in eombination with additional statistically the

influenees, so that “it

is

very difficult to prove

ineidence of such a disease, or to prove the speeific

influence of radiation.”

And

although he admitted

it

might “sound

rather extreme” to claim that “any medieal disturbance which manifests itself in

exposed persons

may be

looked upon as

A-bomb

disease,”

tliought this position “not too unreasonable— since without

he

A-bomb

DEAIH

152 radiation

.

.

collocjuial

.

IN LIFE

such a disease miglit not have appeared.”

nietaplior

”Onc might

say

to

illustrate

threshold— or, according

to the Japanese expression, gives

burden which makes

extra

general adaptational

this

used a

principle:

A-boinb pushes these patients over the

the

that

And he

difficult for

it

them

to

them

just that

keep their heads above

the water.* diseussion of leukemia, cancer,

Ilis

and generally aeeepted point of view— in

sophistieated

leukemia

many

manv

caused bv

is

and related problems inelnded effect,

faetors in addition to radiation,

and

a

since sinee

who would have been likelv to develop leukemia independently of the bomb have alreadv done so, it is possible that the ineidenee of leukemia in the near future ma\ dip down below of those in Hiroshima

the average rate; and

that

the

same pattern

of

inerease

and then

deerease below the average could well occur in various forms of cancer.

To which he pattern,

one

added,

after the

“And then other diseases mav follow the same other” — a eomment whieh eould be viewed as a

logieal extension of his thesis,

whieh again

strikingly

but was put forth

in

an ominous tone,

resembled that of ordinary hibakusha.

His subsequent diseussion of more questionable areas was eharaeterized

by

and an inelination

a distrust of present seientifie eriteria

to see

possible radiation effects evervwhcrc:

In regard to li\er disease, this

have

is

ver\-

hard to determine, e\en

if

we

show anvthing specifie, and do not indieate that there is anv difference between hibakusha and others, there still might be some impairment. Coneerning blood disease— here we ean determine speeifie numbers of red blood eells and whiic blood eells, so the problem is a little easier than in the ease of liver disease. But we are still looking onlv at the peripheral blood, and from this alone we eannot eonelude that there is no disturbanee. Anemia is very eommon, and it often is li\’er

function

tests.

Because even

if

the tests don’t

.

.

.

.

.

eaused by nutritional factors, so

But there may

.

we

use the term “soeial anemia.”

be some form of anemia whieh eomes from radiation, although affeeted by other factors. .

.

.

also

.

.

.

In addition he stressed the diffieulties in treating those forms of A-

bomb that

disease eharaeterized by a low white blood eount,

mo\a

(a

“burning herb”) eauterization

(or kyu), a

technique derived from aneient Chinese medieine, *

and suggested therapeutie

“mav have some

lie used the phrase geta o azukeru, literally, “to deposit a geta [wooden clog],” but ha\ing the idiomatic meaning of adding a burden.

‘‘A-Bomb on

beneficial effect his

belief in

tlie wliite

method might

this

words suggest, but that

him

his

(perhaps particularly

tific”

to express

it

blood count/’

I

Disease'"

53

1

had the impression that

well have been stronger than these

eoncerns about being “modern” and “scien-

when

talking to an

American colleague)

led

carefully.

His concluding remarks were something in the

pronouncement.

I

spirit

of a public

hey suggested both a utopian vision of preventive

care and, once more, a close identification with the aspirations of the

hibakusha group:

Our

impro\c the medical care for the exposed people, to supply them with complete medical care without waiting for actual symptoms to develop in them. When such s\'mptoms develop, we consider this to be too late, and we would rather take measures to prevent these A-bomb effects from manifesting themselves. And this also rec|uires economic betterment and economic help. goal

is

to

.

.

.

'The force of this identification with hibakusha, along with his relatively

tenuous

ties

to certain aspects of the scientific tradition, led

him

to

some highly questionable findings concerning radiation effects. But it must be added that some of his emphasis upon adaptation and general stress comes close to a new scientific spirit being expressed in eontemporar\- theories of disease— a spirit which has some connection with the principles of balance and imbalance contained in the tradipublish

tional Japanese

(and Chinese) thought, medical and otherwise, which

he espouses.

VARIETIES OF SKEPTICISM A hihakusha-ph\sicia.n of the same

generation,

a

hospital

director,

equally traditionalistic in thought (he quickly identified himself to as a

man

Confucian and

me

a Buddhist), took a very different point of view.

with a long record of

humane

dedication to fellou’ hibakusha, he

nonetheless spoke critically of the “inanv hibakusha

should have special

prix ileges

This judgment was

in

A

who

feel

they

because they were victims of the bomb.”

keeping with equally moralistic and conservative

attitudes in other areas:

condemnations of students who participated

peace demonstrations of any kind, because “the duty of a student

is

in

to

study,” and the opinion that those from poor families should take the

“more

practical” course of finding jobs after high school rather than

attend universities.

DEATH

154

On with

IN

medical questions scientific

I, I

lie

FE identified himself strongly

caution in evaluating radiation aftereffects. lie favored

what was gcncralh’ regarded “after

on the one hand

as the

ABCC

American position because

they have such elaborate equipment,” and spoke with disdain

all,

A-bomb

of other physicians’ tendencies to exaggerate

But on

influences.

hand he seemed to re\ert to the opposite philosophical perspective, and to a traditional Japanese tone, in emphasizing that the problem of radiation effects is simply unknowable, is one that “man the other

cannot solve”— with the implication that

and conquer the problem was

to grasp

Wdicn effects,

I

much

of the general struggle

futile.

asked him about general anxieties concerning

he

his

lost

composure and smiled

in

a

A-bomb

after-

manner which

(in

me

the

Japanese culture) suggests both discomfort and irony, gi\ing sense that a raw nerve had been exposed:

Take my own case. If I am sha\'ing in the morning and I should happen to cut mvself ver\' slightb’, I dab the blood with a piece of paper— and then, when I notice that it has Yes, of course, people are anxious.

stopped flowing,

It

seemed

I

think to myself, “\\T11,

clear that his

formulation of radiation

own hihakusha

effects;

and that

guess

I

I

am

all right.”

anxieties were involved in his

cope with these anxieties,

to

he called forth patterns of denial and detachment which could draw

upon deeply ingrained Buddhist

feelings as well as

identification with “Science” (rather frequent

more upon perceptions processes.

upon

among

a pattern of

Japanese), based

power and beauty than its reasoning Medically speaking, he fits best in the third category, but his of

its

inner emotions (usually repressed) could be said to propel him, at least at certain

\Yry

moments,

into the second or the

first.

younger (fortyish) hematologist, a uonhibakusha, the

more

scientifically-minded postwar milieu, performed considerable

upon hihakusha both independently and

research

men was that of a who had trained in

from the approach of the two older

different

in collaboration

with

American-sponsored groups, and become recognized as a leading Japanese authority in his

field. Ilis crisp

of the traditional allnsi^'cncss leagues,

and he

his stress

and

forthright

we observed

differed particularly

upon the

his insistence

manner was the

in

both of

antithesis

his senior col-

from the medical administrator

in

decrease, even disappearance, of radiation effects,

upon the

significance of psychological influences:

“A-Bomb Five years ago

began

Disease'’

1

55

was no longer any great differenee in the incidence of leukemia in hibakusha and uonhibakusha, so I began to speculate that there were no longer any direct effects from radiation occurring. From then I began to think of the psychosomatic problems involved. I began to see many cases with complaints of many different kinds, and thev would all say that these were related to the A-bomb. Their complaints were so diversified and so broad and vague that I felt the problem should be clarified, not only from the medical side, but from the psychological side. I felt that because of the mass media, people were hearing so much about Abomb disease that the\- began to have great fear, and this fear in turn brought about a kind of illness in them, a feeling that thev were sick. ... I feel that the psychological side becomes added to the physical side. ... I do not really think it is possible actually to

A-bomb

differentiate cifically

ent,

He

I

to find tliat tliere

disease, to say that a particular disease

Of

caused by radiation. ...

but that

is

course, leukemia

is

is

spe-

quite differ-

the only clear-cut entitw

was skeptical not onlv of the general concept of A-bomb disease but

also of the role of radiation effects in various controversial areas,

and

expressed doubt that any form of chronic anemia or liver disease was

A-bomb. He

related to the

felt

that anv claim of radiation influence was

meaningless in the absence of precise scientific evidence, and empha-

He

sized the extreme difficulty in obtaining such evidence. his

position

with a vivid personal account of his experiences with

blood-count preoccupations

Manv

illustrated

among

patients arc brought

to

anemia. Thev have a report of

hibakusha:

me

with reports of leukopenia or

count of 3,000 the normal count is between 5,000 and 10,000]. Then I take their wiite blood count and find it to be 6,000. The next day I take it again and it is 3,500 or 4,000. It is quite variable as I continue to study it, and then

I

explain to

them

that

it

a

white blood

cell

can change from day to day.

Then

some

relief.

since he secs

them

the

As long as there are figures involved, the patient can feel that he understands. But if there are no figures involved, this makes it very patient can begin to recognize the situation and get

difficult.

We

.

.

.

problem of

see here the dual

“figures,’'

misleading and yet necessar\' to hibakusha. There was that for him,

too,

as

a

scientifically-minded

of “figures”— of confirmatory statistics— made

much

physician,

things

as

to suggest

the absence

“very difficult.”

15 6 '1

DEATH

^^1^

in

luis,

darui”

IN LIFE

discussing

frequent complaint of malaise

tlic

“the body

literally,

{''karada

weary”)— along with headache,

is

memor\— he

decreased ability to work, and loss of

ga

lethargy,

wavered between

them to a general Japanese physiological tendency to “a low and inadequate function of the stomach and intestine,” and

attributing rather

to jLsychological

A-bomb. He

associated with the

fears

treated these

conditions with vitamins and hormonal extracts, added that “I wish

knew more about

psychological methods,” and

which suggested that he did indeed possess

made

a further

jxitients sav

—and

.

often a

is

intestinal tract,

But there

and

question of activity

activih' of all kinds

nothing equi\ocal

is

A-bomb

the concept of

disease

—

.

.

thev lack encrg\'

activity

of

the gastro-

— mentalb' and physically.” stand concerning the abuses of

in his its

comment

at least the beginnings of a

genuine psychosomatic perspective: “d’hese it

use as a refuge for ignorance and

medico-economic convenience— or in his evocation of the general mosphere in which Hiroshima doctors work: Doctors

from

.

.

come

.

to this conclusion too hastily.

a situation that

is

make

are not able to

Thev

trv to

at-

escape

very confusing and very unclear, because thev

The

a definite diagnosis.

the matter very lightly:

I

“You seem

to

be

doctor often will take

could be an effect

tired, d’his

from the A-bomb. Let’s look at your white blood count— ves, it is rather low it may be A-bomb disease.” But the patient takes this very seriously, and thinks that if his blood count is low, this must be

—

A-l'‘omb disease.

why

the term

.

.

.

My

A-bomb

thinking

disease

is

one of the main reasons

widely used

arranging treatment for these people. this

this:

is

Many

becomes an economic factor— and

it is

of

is

in

them

from

this

relationship to

arc very poor, so

standpoint that

the doctors often use the term A-bomb disease. But from the standpoint of science, it is a very obscure and vague concept. ... So we doctors must always look at the matter in two wavs: in this first more or less

economic way; and

in

the second or scientific wav. In

mv

clinic

we do not use the term A-bomb disease in treating patients — neither we nor they speak of it. A-bomb disease is not really a diagnosis, .

but simply

a

.

.

convenient category for a condition that

is

not under-

stood.

found no clearer depiction of the actual operation of this web of social, economic, and psychological forces spinning itself about physieian and patient alike. And he went on to extend these prineiples in a I

provocative

bombed

comment about

cities:

the different atmospheres in the two A-

V

^‘A-Bomb Disease’

Mv

impression

on the whole

that at Nagasaki Medical Scliool

is

underestimate the

to

Hiroshima there

disease, while here in

A-bomb

estimate

effects of the

a

5

doctors tend in

producing

tendency to over-

And because of this, A-bomb disease — or feel that

upon

influences

A-bomb

...

is

tlie

1

disease.

I

Hiroshima feel thev have A-bomb disease— to a greater extent than do those

think, the patients in

in

Nagasaki.

We

shall learn later of the reasons

for

the differing atmospheres in

Hiroshima and Nagasaki; what concerns ns here

his perception that

is

these differences influence psychosomatic complaints.

The hematologist’s imagerv of A-bomb disease places him somewhere

between the third and fourth

we

conflict

tradition

He

gives little evidence of the

ha\ e noted in the other uouhibakusha physician, and seems

neither to be hostile

But there

categories.

nor to overidentify with, his hibakusha patients.

to,

the possibility that his strong involvement in scientific

is

and

upon the concrete and the numerical (empha-

his stress

sized generalh’ in Japanese culture) are associated with a certain

of

psvchic numbing, wbich

minimization of atomic

bomb

could

in

effects.

I

turn

amount

be an influence toward

would again caution that such

elements cannot be said to '‘explain,” negate, or confirm his intellectual position, but onl\- to be part of the overall self-process from which that position emerges.

OUTRIGHT REJECTION A in

voung his

staff

phvsician at a Hiroshima hospital \wis e\’cn

dismissal of the concept of

A-bomb

disease.

more adamant

He

spoke of

its

bv which he meant the array of non-medical considerations affecting existing regulations and influencing individual phvsicians’ diagnoses. He was dubious about most areas of alleged “political

tie-up,”

radiation effects, thought

certain onlv in leukemia,

them

and even

in

relationship to cancer thought that additional information was needed before anything definite conld be said. But he was at his most bitterb

illuminating

discussed the ways in which prevailing practices

when he

encourage lifelong fixation upon the bodily taint of A-bomb disease:

Whtb

tbese special benefits, the

situation becomes.

d'he

more

tion becomes. will

T

am

\’cr\’

social welfare .

.

.

Once

more you

dubious about

made

the worse the

social welfare

available, the

these ]K>ople

be A-bomb patients the

receive,

weaker the jxipula-

become A-bomb

rest of their lives.

I

programs.

patients, they

can cure an ordinary

DEATH

15 8

anemia

case of

IN LIFE

two weeks. But when I tell a [hibakusha] patient that his anemia could easily be cured in two weeks, he insists upon benefits of an A-bomb patient. Then this man will have to carry the burden of the A-bomb all the rest of his life. If he lives to be witliin

seventy or eighty years old, he will realize that he has lived a normal life and his condition is not in the A-bomb category. But just from trying to get this 2,000 yen [about $6] benefit [each month], these people shoulder the burden of the A-bomb for the rest of their lives.

.

.

.

In this description, and in his subsequent stration,

one could

feel his frustration

demand

for scientific

demon-

and anger:

many cases I feel that, speaking strictly from my medical viewpoint, a man is cured. But he will still bring up new complaints, and these new complaints are difficult to understand and interpret. I In

always say

would be very good if there were a scientific way to measure the fatigue they complain of, and the other symptoms,

too.

it

...

And he ended

the interview with a statement of medical belief notable

less for its intellectual

novelty than

its

unusually strong tone of skepti-

cism:

myself don

who have anemia, cancer, or even leukemia can, in a strict sense, be said to have an A-bomb disease. Even leukemia patients who die do not, I believe, die from the A-bomb. But when the reports come out in the newspapers, they are described as A-bomb deaths although I myself don’t feel these things are I

t

think those

.

.

.

directly related to the

Midst

.

.

.

bomb.

.

his astute observations

.

.

and

his recoil

from loose

practices, the

plusician reveals a particularly strong embrace of a precise physicalistic version of medical science. His disdain for weakness and acceptance of help from others, moreover, was not limited to hibakusha but staff

extended to ordinary accident patients. real dangers of perpetuating invalidism inevitably involved

(as

in

W hile in

there

is

no denying the

such patients, there

A-bomb problems)

a

certain

is

also

amount

of

psychological need to be taken care of; and those physicians who react so strongly to this need usually do so out of personal conflict over problems of dependency. Thus, we may suspect that his imagery

concerning

A-bomb

disease

is

affected

by

a

certain

amount

of

in-

'‘A-Bomb needs

tolerance for emotional

dependency

There were

particular.

in

hibakushd physician’s

general,

in

guilt toward,

and

also

for

those relating to

indications

fits

of

the

non-

to close himself off

and psychic need

from, his hibakusha patients. In any case, he

159

Disease''

squarely into category

in

and went further than any other Japanese physician I interviewed his skepticism about radiation effects and his rejection of the concept

of

A-bomb

four,

disease.

An American comparable

research

ideas,

but

uncommon among his

physician associated with

ABCC

expressed

somewhat different idiom which was not countrymen working in Hiroshima: in a

extremely important to obtain accurate data on a comparative basis, and to have meaningful information, we need enormous samples. Then there is the problem of correlating radiation dosage It is

with medical history in the various studies we are conducting. All this Now, many people who don t is quite difficult to accomplish. feel too kindly toward the United States tend to exaggerate the effects of the bomb also many well-intentioned people who say that almost .

.

.

—

which occurs in Hiroshima is due to the effects of the bomb. But except for leukemia and cataracts we have found virtually nothing in the way of significant differences between the exposed and the non-exposed groups. Of course, there have been a lot of genetic

any

illness

abnormalities talked about, but after

all,

we encounter

genetic abnor-

San Francisco; the point is, they are not higher in the exposed population than they are in the nonexposed group. One verv important thing we do here is to reassure people in the community— the ones who have been exposed, and the children of the exposed— that they can go ahead and marry without malities in clinics in Baltimore or

have seen what this has meant You know, there is so much written about what the to people. bomb has done— but an awful lot of it is just pure propaganda. Someday I would like to see someone write about the way in which fear of

producing abnormal offspring. .

.

I

.

.

.

.

people have been able to recover from the bomb, get back on their feet, and continue with their lives. .

.

.

Beyond the forceful defense of scientific accuracy as opposed to loose claim, and the articulate presentation of a category-four position, the tone of this passage

is

one of reassurance concerning radiation

these are seen as limited, and the emphasis

A

variety of intellectual

is

upon

effects;

a ‘'positive outlook.”

and psychological influences come together

to

contribute to this overall imagery, including a reaction against exaggera-

:

:

DEATH

16 0 and

tioiis

IN LIFE

false claims,

strong identification with statistical emphases

within the scientific tradition, and awareness of (but impatience with) psychological factors. Also important are the American’s (suppressed) guilt over the use of the

weapon,

his

need

numbing, and

for psvehie

his

wish for minimal culpability— tendencies which can be intensified bv one’s inner awareness of eonducting the

an

is

of

American organization (the Atomic Faiergv Commission)

official

which

work under the sponsorship

still

deeply involved

in

the making and testing of nuelear

weapons.*

THE SPECTRUM OF A-BOMB DISEASE \Vc have already seen indications that individual plnsicians can simultaneously embraee seemingly contradictory images of A-bomb disease, and by looking further into

this pattern

we

learn

still

more about the

physician-patiuit interplav in this eondition.

A first

young hibakusha who was both physieian and

writer, for instanee,

described radiation afterelTeets with an absolute kind of death-

linked imagery that seemed to ha\'e

little

relationship to the seientifie

approaeh

You may

look healthy from the outside but

goes wrong and you are siek fatally. of death. Also, onee you to as

A-bomb

disease.

own

here are

patients

Any

with

A-bomb

.

this in other

disease in

it is

forms

verv diffieult

diagnosing the

illness

.

a seemingly opposite point of view in stressing the

some doetors who But

by sa}ing

research

sudden something

A-bomb

effeets, illustrating his

opinions

experience as a skin specialist

of radiation.

*

.

for restraint in diagnosing

with his

1

ill

of a

W e don’t find

recover— unless the doctor made a mistake

But he then took need

fall

all

I

to

am

attribute almost evervthing to the

not so careless.

I

efiPeets

attempt to eneourage

my

them: “This particular svmptom might or might

enters importantly into one’s professional identity and he emotional influence upon research scientists of an official government affiliation can be presumed to be greater in Hiroshima— where, as we affiliation

overall self-process.

1

see, the research organization has also ,ser\ed as a continuous “.\merican presence —than in, say, Bethesda, Maryland, for those affiliated with the National Institutes of Health, Isven if these affiliati\e emotions do not affect research findings, they influence feelings and attitudes about these findings. These principles apply

shall

despite the

ABCC’s fundamentally

scientific identity.

.

A-Bomb

161

Disease^

not be related to the A-bomb, so that your liaving this

mean

doesn’t attitude

A-bomb

that you are suffering from

better than the other one beeause

is

it

symptom

disease.”

d'his

and

gives spiritual

For instanee, some ladies eome in with red spots on their skin and think they might be suffering from [A-bomb] aftereffects. Some ladies have a rough kind of skin and think this is the result of the A-bomb ... or elderly people with

eneouragement

moral

to

patients.

.

.

.

normal spots think it might be related to cancer, or else to the Abomb. Anv form of cancer or unusual growth can be attributed to A-bomb disease but no one can be sure that they result from the .

.

.

—

A-bomb.

.

.

.

However cautious he mav consider

own hibakusha

himself,

we

sense that he conveys his

anxieties to his patients (“this particular

or might not be related to the

A-bomb”), even

as

symptom might

he seeks to reassure

them. Here he reminds us of the hospital director, also a hibakusha. But as a

dogma or tradition, he was much where he stood and more open to various influences in

younger man,

certain of

less

anchored

in

less

the

city.

One of these influences was a “Wdiite Paper” on the bomb disease, written bv two scientists of some standing and strongly sponsored

critical

ABCC.

of

the

I’hc report

research

conducted

itself is hostile in

at

tone,

subject of Ain

Hiroshima,

the

American-

and sponsored by

an organization (Gensuikyd) with considerable bias in these and related matters; nonetheless it raises an important issue concerning the significance of negative

results,

s\mptoms

specific

ABCC

doctors” in

d'his

effects”

may

upon

overlook various patterns of

problem has been recognized by some within

and when the physician-writer spoke of “many Hiroshima being influenced by the report, he did so in a way

that left his

itself,*

own

position not entirely clear

importance of

relative

possibility that statistical focus

or organ systems

radiation effects.

the

and the

how much

(“It

is

a

matter of the

significance you place

on radiation

)

We

may thus say that he wavers between categories two and three, but at moments moves further out toward both one and four. Involved in this ambiguity w'cre such factors as his own hibakusha anxiety and guilt, a particularly

strong cpiality of receptivity often found in a creative

Lawrence R. Freedman, for instanee, lias written: ‘There arc a niiinber of problems involved in the evaluation of negative results. Most prominent of these to me stems from the need to analyze so many features of the routine examination, h'or *

DEATH

16 2 cirtist,

cl

possil)ly

IN LIFE

ambivalent relationship to the

the ambiguity inherent in a situation in which so

much

unknown.

is still

lh\sicians in Hiroshima, then, brought their own complex reactions to their hihdkuslui patients. I hey arc called upon to

illness \\hose physical, psychological,

and

and

scientific tradition,

A-bomb

combat an

social ramifications exceed their

medical knowledge and prior experience. They suffer the frustrations of partly informed experts and of impotent healers confronting therapeutic

demands rendered both contradictory and insistent by the pressures of death anxiety. And they' do so at a time when scientific medicine itself is undergoing profound changes in its continuing cjuest understanding of the nature of health and disease. There

a

is

adequate to

for a

new point of view which seems to me a phenomenon like A-bomb disease, but

fortunatelv, in

its

infancy.

I

refer to the recent stress

fundamental

the only one it

is

un-

still,

upon thematic and

formative aspects of science in general,^^ and the tendenev uithin medicine to view disease as a “unitary” and “multi-factor” concept

which allows

the

for

many

le\’els

of behavior

and response character-

of any disease process.” This concept rejects the traditional notion of disease as a discrete thing inside the bod\’, an entity ha\’ing an istic

existence of

own, apart from the patient, w’ho is the helpless vicEvery disease is seen as having its own overall svmbolism within

tim.

its

the mind-body'^ combination

behaves

as

if

(m

one were starving

diabetes mellitus,

and the focus

for instance,

one

upon “man’s state being— his health or illness— as an aspect of his wav of life.”^*^ Decompensation at any level — of the mind-bodv or the social svstem ),

is

of

can influence the disease process, and “the presence of a complaint must be regarded as presumptive evidence of disease.” This point of view has enabled investigators to correlate various forms of individual

and

group

stress

with increased incidence of

illness in general;

and even

in

malignancies such as leukemia and cancer, psy'chic components have been recognized as interacting with organic and genetic tendencies.”^ mechanical reasons, tions. As a result,

it

has been necessary to

many

radiation

effects

lump together many different condimay be masked by dilution with non-

radiation affected variables.” As one solution he advocates “a closer look at a variety of organ systems.”^"

Engel emphasizes that “a diagnostic label rarelv, if ever, fully ” defines the illness and that any complaint “indicates that there is a disturbance in the dynamic steady state and that this disturbance is now being reflected as something '

unpleasant.” He broadens the concept of disease in order to view it as “a natural phenomenon,” in contrast with the physician’s role in a society which is “a social intentionally

and

institutional

phenomenon”: “The

fact

that

a

physician

arbitrarily

excludes

163

‘^A-Boinb Disease’

An

application of tins nnitarv perspective to atomic

would imalidate both

bomb

problems

and one-sided emphases within the scientific tradition. For

preseientific intellectual nibilism

mechanistic or phvsiealistic

instance, a proper evaluation of leukemia

would involve not only the

dosage of radiation received but the psychic stresses experienced, paralong with additional information about

ticularb' in relationship to loss,

genetic background and prior physiological functioning. Similarly, the

more obscure manifestations

of

“A-bomb

disease”

would require

investi-

gation of a particular person’s experience with his physician and with

the mass media,

connection with

in

the general

psychological

phvsical estimate being made, d'he four categories of physicians

then,

at

least

ideally,

disappear, as

though each uould have

its

and

would

each would be found wanting,

contributions

to

make. The skeptical

and four would be confirmed by a rejection of the concept of ''A-bomb disease” as an entity caused solely by the atomic bomb. But in another sense the eoneept would take on approach of those

in categories three

added signifieanee

as a

the atomic

bomb

symbolic expression of the malignant influence of on every level of human experience. (This would

eonfirm some of the imagerv of physieians eategories, but

“A-bomb

would give

it

more

disease,” in whatever

be a disease after

all,

harmonv

is

the

first

and seeond

valid intelleetual form.)

ephemeral or

in the true sense of the

or “cause for diseomfort.” It

in

lethal form, turns out to

word, an “absenee of ease”

an A-bomb-related disturbance

of the individual— within himself, his soeial milieu,

in the

and

his

historical epoch.

categories of complaints or signs as not appropriate is a reflection of his concept of his role as a physician and does not necessarily bear any relationship to ”2i scientific question of what is disease. certain

the

A-BOMB MAN

On

])

Being a Hibakusha

Exposure being, nc\\'

to the

m

atomie

own

his

bomb ehanged

human member of a

the survivor’s status as a

eves as well as in others

.

He became

a

group: he assumed the identity of the hihdkushci. Noi

bomb

identitv of significance only for atomic

One

of the

methods

I

used to explore the nature of this identity was

thev inevitably conveyed to

so,

this

victims.

to encourage survivors to associate freely to the

doing

is

word

Jiibaktishci.

In

the sense of having been

me

felt compelled to take on a special category of existence by which they from permanentlv bound, however they might wish to free themselves {{

— as in the case of the shopkeeper’s assistant: W’ell

.

.

.

because

I

am

a

hibakusha

.

.

.

how

shall

I

say it— I wish

with special eyes. ... 1 erhaps hibafrom kusha are mentally or both physically and mentally different But I myself do not want to be treated in any special others. wav because I am a hibakusha. others w’ould not look at

me

—

.

.

.

.

.

.

complain that he was frequently asked to appear on out the darker television and then interviewed in a way that brought burden for me,” since of the problem,” which, he felt, created “a

He went on

side

to

DEATH

16 6 '‘if

am

I

ill

bed

in

I

IN LIFE don’t want people to

know about

it.”

He was

thus

protesting general imagery of the hihcikusha as \ictwi, and the internalization of this imagery in a form spoken of as ‘‘\ietim-eonseiousness.”

Not only separates

Some,

\

is

this

him

in

kind of self-image humiliating to the hibakusha, but his own eyes from the rest of mankind.

it

the

mathematieian, assoeiate hibcikushci with ph\’sieal ulnerability and po\erty, with an o\'erall image of the downtrodden: use

I

like

the word

difheulty

— or

those with

for

a

who seem

those people

hard

life

— those

with finaneial

most from aftereffeets. he finaneially well-to-do ean rest if they are tired and ean eat nourishing food. The poor people eannot, and they easily beeome to suffer

I

...

siek.

Others simply make the familiar equation; hibakushd equals fatal Abomb disease— as in the ease of one man whose assoeiations went from people in the hospital

who die, even no\\'ada\s” from some form of atomie bomb disease.” But there are

also protests against this

to “I

might

image of debilitation

suffer

— sueh

as

that put forth artieulatelv bv a souvenir vendor:

When

August 6 approaehes, all of the newspapers begin to print artieles on the atomie bomb. I hate that. ... If they u'ould write on some of the brighter aspeets, that would be all right. But they always write about sueh dark, melaneholy things whieh I do not like. Up till

now

journalism has

made one

frame for hibakusha and has treated us as if it were most appropriate for hibakusha to live within sueh a frame. The hibakusha themselves also believe that this shrunken life inside of this shell is the way of life of a hibakusha. I alwa\ s

speeifie

them

that they should east off the shell, that seventeen years have gone by, that a shut-in life within sueh a shell is not the hibakusha way of life that the idea itself of having to live that tell

.

.

.

way makes them unhappy, and they ought ing spirit toward

to

.

.

.

have more

fight-

myself got out of that shell and graduated from that stage a long time ago. ... I am the kind of hibakusha

who

life.

I

often goes to see movies,

have the time,

I

to

at

frequently go to eoffee shops

go out to drink sake. But then people ask,

you ... go out drinking?”

why

I

I

protest to them:

shouldn’t hibakusha go out drinking?

“You

when

“How

I

is it

talk so foolishlv-

What does it mean be like a hibakusha or not like a hibakusha? I am a hibakusha, but the same time, before being a hibakusha, I am a human being.” .

.

.

A-Bomb Man ...

joke witli girls

I

kiisha go

“Wdiv,

I

and

ahead and fall eau’t do that.”

thev should not.

.

.

tell

them, “Even though you are a hiha-

iu love I

want

to

with a boy.”

them

to tell

Then

there

these girls say,

uo reason that

is

.

More than just eouversatious with his own interior dialogue between he aspires

167

other hibakusha, his words represent

human

the normally vigorous

be and the de\italized hibakusha he

still

feels

being

himself to

be.

Indeed, he was literally protesting against his

had undergone tion

a loss of sexual

phvsical

for

mentioned or hinted

at b\’

frequentlv experieneed. effeet of the

importanee

It

most

eases.

bomb — a symptom

oeeasionally

male hibakusha, and probably even more was invariably thought of as an organie

bomb, but psyehogenie

in

he

as

poteney following extensive hospitaliza-

from the

injuries

own impotenee,

influenees were probably of great

The symptom ean epitomize

dilemma

the

of

the hibakusha as vietim: an expression of powerlessness in the midst of protest against this degrading imagery; along with the eonstellation of

unaeeeptable dependene\’, resentment, and guilt that

is

generally assoei-

ated with sexual impotenee. In the ease of the hibakusha this eonstellation

is

speeifieallv related to residual

death taint and death

guilt,

with

the need to suppress jov and vitality as alien and undeserved.

One

of the verv few affirmative expressions

I

heard of fellow-feeling

around the hibakusha identity eame from the European priest, and in it we recognize once more his tendency to idealize a group within Japanese societv to which he wishes to belong:

me that he is weary [darui], if it who says it, it gives me a different feeling than if he person. He doesn’t have to explain. ... He knows If

a person says to

is is

all

a hibakusha

an ordinary of the un-

easiness— all of the temptation to lose spirit and be depressed— and of then starting again to see if he can do his job. ... It is intuition, not logical reasoning in one flash, one moment that kind of knowl-

—

—

words ''tenno heika’ [His Majesty d’he Emperor], it is different from a Westerner hearing them— a very different feeling in the foreigner’s heart from what is felt in the Japanese person’s heart. It is a similar question in the case of one who victim and one who is not, when they hear about another is a edge.

...

victim.

a Japanese hears the

If

...

I

met

a

man one

time

.

.

.

[who] said, “I experienced

We

bomb”— and

from then on the conversation changed. both understood each other’s feelings. Nothing had to be said. the atomic

.

.

.

DEATH

16 8 Such

fcllow-fccliiig

means

IN LIFE and unspoken understanding

among

entirely absent

are, of course,

bv no

hihakusha. But they tend to be out-

weighed by the negative elements of the overall identity For as the same priest goes on to explain, this time with a toueh of sardonie

humor, being

always say,

I

that’s okay,

An

is

at best a cpiestionable distinetion:

anyone looks

if

but

if

bomb

the atomie

famous

hihakusha

a

my

at

me

only virtue

eenter and

I

is

beeause that

am

I

I

reeeived the

was

a

Prize,

thousand meters from

alive,

still

Nobel

I

don’t want to be

for that.

occasional survi\or claimed, as did the physicist, that the general

antipathy to the word was somewhat overcome by its relationship to nuelear weapons protest movements, that once these had been initiated

m

Hiroshima

meaning.” But he, If

(

began

“people

give

[the

word

hihakusha]

social

too, quickly associated to fear of radiation aftereffects

anything happens to

manifestations,

to

me

physieally

.

.

.

even before there are clear

try to take eare of it”), suggesting that this “social

I

meaning” eould not overcome the more fundamental anxietv eonnected with the word and the identitv.

‘'a-bomb outcasts’’ he hihakusha

sense of low self-esteem has been furthered by experiences of diserimination. Not onh' ha\c hii)akusha, as an aging populaI

tion

\\

s

hieh does not replenish

Hiroshima— one

itself,

fifth of tlie city’s

become

literalh’ a

minority group in

inhabitants— but thev are generally

eonsidered to be at the lower socioecoroinic levels as well.^ Discrimination against them in both marriage an 1 emplovmcnt was apparently greatest during the years immediately following the

bomb; but

it

has

left

mark, and has by no means entirely disappeared even now. W’hile survivors regularly work and marry, thev often do so with a sense, as hihakusha, of impaired eapacitv for both. its

In the case of marriage the sense of

with which

wc

factors

are familiar: a general feeling of undesirabilih' as a mate,

about abnormal children or about the and diminished sexual potenev.

fears all,

impairment can include

Coneerning work, older

abilih- to

sur\’ivors often described

an

have children at

o\’erall

sense of

having been unable to overcome their physical, mental, and economic blows and mobilize sufficient energy to compete with ordinarv people.

^ ounger ones

who may

feel

themselves to possess that energy fear that

A-Bomb Man

169

being identified as hibakusha eonld seriously damage their oeenpational

A

standing.

me

few told

of being informed

on oeeasions

in the past that

they were ineligible for partienlar jobs beeanse they were hibakusha; and the impression that employers were relnetant to take on

many had

one

snryiyors beeanse they thought, as

look perfeeth-

all

right

from

man

put

it,

“although hibakusha

outward appearanee, they are

their

likely to

and need extra rest.’’ A few were rejeeted by prospeeti\e employers under ambiguous eireumstanees, leaving them with the suspieion that their hibakusha state was the deeiding faetor. In other words, whether diserimination is present, absent, or an ambiguous

want

time

extra

oflP

hibakusha ean retain the sense of haying been rejeeted

possibility, a

beeanse of his

own

bodily inferiority, beeanse of his impaired substanee.

Consequently, hibakusha haye been noted to make up a disproportionate number of a group known as “day laborers,” those employed on a day-to-day basis for the

are very elose to the

most menial

bottom of the

an attitude of “I apologize

soeial seale.

The

and wiio

internalization of

summed up by one eommentator

low status has been ironieally

this

tasks at the lovyest w^ages

as

having been exposed to the atomie

for

bomb.”* \^ieious

of rejeetion,

eireles

ean oeeur, espeeially

rejeetion

assistant, lost their families

I

svyitehed

but ... faees

they as

I

.

I .

.

mv

many

antieipated

rejeetion,

those who,

in

like

and

self-ereated

the shopkeeper

s

and beeame homeless vyanderers:

not beeanse of the job itself was eompletely alone and I vv^ould look into others vv-atching their eyes ... in order to be able to tell hovy job

times

.

.

.

.

.

.

about me. ... I think I vyas mueh too sensitive, but as soon notieed something unpleasant, then things beeame impossible for

me.

felt

.

.

.

All of these tendencies

Japan’s outcast oi

have led to comparisons of hibakusha with

“untouchable” group (the eta or burakumin) —i\s

described by the physicist:

d’here

is

the phrase,

“A-bomb

outcast

community [genbaku

buraku].

comes from the inferiority complex — physical, mental, social, economic— which hibakusha have, so that when people hear the word

I’his

Unemployment rates in Hiroshima in 1958 were reported to be third highest among all Japanese cities, according to population ratios. Many factors can affect *

statistics

on day laborers and unemployment; they

should not be understood to suggest that

all

are in

any event

hibakusha are impo\'erished.-

relative,

and

DEATH

17 0

IN LIFE

[hibakusha], they don’t feel very good, but rather feel as though they are looked down upon.

'There have even been reports of hibakusha

who

literally

joined the

ranks of the outcasts by moving into the special slum areas where they

and becoming

live

virtually

from them,

indistinguishable

a

pattern

which can take place with any group tumbling rapidly down the

social

ladder.

The argument

is

sometimes made (here by

a

nonhibakusha observer)

that in contrast to outcasts and other victimized groups, the hibakusha

encounter a “reasonable” form of discrimination:

Hibakusha

are not discriminated against in

an unreasonable way

as in

the case of the outcast communities [buraku] in Japan, the Jews in Europe, or the Negroes in America, but rather tend to encounter discrimination on reasonable grounds.

Employers may hesitate to employ them, first because no one knows when they might become ill, and second because they tend to need more rest and therefore do request more days off and one must also think of the factor of age, since manv have alreadv passed their period of greatest employa.

...

bilih^

One may defend upon

.

.

or contest this “logic of discrimination,” depending

one’s view of the nature

and extent of A-bomb

aftereffects.

(One

could also mobilize “logic” of various kinds to explain discrimination against Jews, Negroes, or Tibetans.) this

“logic”

is

But

I

would claim that underneath

the all-important factor of the hibakusha death taint,

which causes others

to turn

away and hibakusha themselves

to

withdraw.

In perceiving this death taint, outsiders experience a threat to their

human

sense of

own

continuity or symbolic immortality, and feel death

anxiety and death guilt activated within themselves.

I

shall in fact argue

forthcoming study) that these general patterns— death anxietv, death guilt, and threat to symbolic immortality are fundamental to the (in a

—

general

phenomenon

Significant here

expressed

to

me

is

by

of prejudice or victimization.

another bit of a

A-bomb mythologv, the belief few hibakusha that A-bomb exposure made

people’s skin permanently darker. Again one can find a kernel of “truth” or logic in the belief. A \Miite Russian hibakusha, for instance, when ’

interviewed shortly after the

had seen

as

Negroes.”^

“Negroes, just

bomb, described crowds of Japanese she Negroes— they weren’t Japanese— they were

The darkening

of the skin she refers to was, of course.

A-Bomb Man

171

produced by burns, which were reported by doctors to have actually caused pigmentation resembling “a deep walnut stain over the entire surface of the burn.”^ I’his pigmentation, moreover, was noted to be greatest in dark-skinned hibakusha. But keeping in mind that dark skin

has been as

much an

been eonsidered

to

undesirable

trait in

Japan as elsewhere— it has

be an identifying characteristic of such victimized

groups as burakumin and Koreans— the idea that bomb exposure per se darkens the overall skin surface forever is another way of perceiving hibakusha as a lowly, stigmatized, death-tainted group.

Hibakusha inevitably internalized this young white-collar worker makes clear: can’t be helped.

It

them

for

From

“logic of discrimination,” as a

the company’s viewpoint,

it

is

only natural

employ healthy people rather than those who might have the possibility of dying at any time.

And

a

their

own

to wish to

Nagasaki engineer revealed

how

directly children could relate

diserimination against hibakusha (or the children of hibakusha) to the theme of death:

I .

spent three months in the hospital because of extreme weakness. Everybody in the farming area where we lived knew where I

.

.

was.

.

.

My

.

children were treated very unkindly at school. Other

children would taunt

them and cry out: “Son of a patient of the ABomb Hospital.” They said these things because they thought I was definitely going to die.

The young

are forthright

enough

the death-tainted are a threat,

what many of their elders feel: an enemy, and finally, an inferior breed. to say

Thinking back on the advocacy of sterilization on the part of some hibakusha themselves, we can now understand it as a wish to excise symbolically not only the death taint as such but the entire hibakusha identity in which this taint is enmeshed. But both— as for other victimized groups to

too enduring.

whom

they

may be compared— turn

out to be

all

A-Bomb Stigmata

2)

The

keloid, or whitish-yellow area of

hands and partieularly

disfigure

The

hibakusha identity. exposure.

can be produced

It

when

larly

keloid

these

is

b\’

overgrown sear

faees,

come

has

by no means

tissue

symbolize

to

atomic

specific to

severe burns from

whieh ean the

bomb

anv source, particu-

inadequate treatment, are complicated bv

receive

malnutrition, and general debilitation, and occur in racial

infection,

groups (such as the Japanese) especially susceptible to keloid formation.

Nor can

now be found on more than a small But they have nonetheless come to represent

keloids

survivors.

hibakushkahood, marks of defect, disease, and

One must

stigmata of

disgrace.^’

the flash burns from which keloids resulted were

recall that

the major cause of death and injur\- at the time of the

during the following months, as the sociologist

became

minoritv of

tells

us,

bomb. And Hiroshima

virtuallv a citv of keloids:

Right after the war, although not exactly evervone in the citv had keloids, very many people did. When I would trav'd on trains and streetcars then and sec people with keloids mv immediate thought was a simple feeling of pity for them. But I also felt anger not only because of the material damage but because of .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

human consequences

the

.

bomb. ... I people. ... As

of the

gives a ver\' special feeling to

believe that a keloid

the power of

far as

A-bomb is concerned, the difference between it and bombs is only a quantitative one. But there is

destruction of the

other kinds of

.

more than later

on

this.

.

.

.

WTcn

you think of the

.

.

upon people and w'hen you

effects

you see the qualitative differences see people wa'th keloids, you rccci\’c the strongest impression of these .

.

.

.

qualitative differences.

.

'I'hc

“verv special feeling”

form

to the point of

sociologist goes

one

s

on

.

.

.

.

is

that of altered

dehumanization. 1 he

body

visibility of

(especially facial)

the stigma, as the

to point out, creates a humiliating sense of

hibakusha taint

exposed

’

and stared

at

— espcciallv

having

w hen outside

of Hiroshima, “so those with keloids, in a psychological way, come to feel that they should confine themselves to the citv and not leave

Hiroshima.”

^

A-Bomh Man

A

married bargirl makes elear (partieularly in her

keloid

sentenee)

first

A-bomb disease, and with symbolie A-bomb trinitv;

psyehologieal link with

s

hihakusha identity,

The word

in a

years,

.

When

.

.

feel siek.

I

tlie

the overall

hibakusJia has the sound, not of ordinary people, but of

people with diseases eaused by the things.

17 3

...

reealling the past.

A-Bomb

go to the

I

I

am

bomb— with

keloids— and sueh Hospital, even after all these

afraid of disease.

When

.

.

And

.

I

find mvself

was evaeiiated at the time of the bomb, people had white medieine on their faees, and these white faees have sometimes appeared in mv dreams. The other day mv ehild had a skin rash, so I put white medieine on his faee. In the middle of the night I woke up, and seeing his faee, I felt frightened. .

.

.

I

.

... Her

I

remembered the white

faees

further assoeiations of death

istieally trinity.

assoeiated with

And

third

a

I

have seen

.

.

dreams.

in the

and disfigurement are

.

.

.

also eharaeter-

the keloid, as the most evident part of the

non-keloid-bearing

hibakusha,

a

\oung

tourist

ageney employee, expresses even more extreme imagery about keloids:

Of

the things eonneeted with those davs, what makes the strongest impression on me is the mark of a burn sear. WTat is it they are ealled? Yes, the keloid. This may have something to do with m\ all

.

.

.

eharaeter but

the street

I

really

hate to see a keloid

— though

often eneounter people with a keloid.

I

rather than sympathy, the strongest feeling

seeing

it.

beeome

.

when

.

.

When

I

see a keloid

I

on a young

hav^e girl,

.

is

.

.

I

walk down

\\Ten

I

do,

to try to avoid

she seems to have

deformed person. And I think that anyone finds it painful to look at a deformed person. ... If I had sueh a keloid, I would feel reluetant to be questioned about it or to go to see a doetor. ... I would probably feel that I did not want to see others. WTen seeing someone, I would assume that he was looking at me. ... If he saw one side of mv faee [without the keloid], I wouldn’t mind, but if he looked at the other side [with the keloid], it would give me a very unpleasant feeling. And even if most people had no speeial desire to see it, still it would grate on my nerves— though this may be a rather warped outlook. a

.

.

.

.

.

Here the hibakusha possessing

a keloid

untouehable, or an “unseeable”* *

The term "unseeable”

group.

.

is

felt to

be elose to

a lejDer,

an

(even the word keloid eannot be

has sometimes actually been used for the Indian outcast

DEATH

174

IN LIFE

remembered). Keloids of lasting

(especially

on young

girls)

become another form

‘ultimate horror”; they evoke near-phobic responses because

they reactivate elements of the hibakusha identitv in the keloid-free survivor which have long been suppressed, as well as guilt over being

able to bury his taint, in contrast to his keloid-bearing counterpart.

play

is

the kind of death anxiety

we have mentioned

in

connection with

victimization (prejudice) in general, in this case on the part of one

himself a “victim” toward a more severely “marked”

is

At

member

who

of his

group. Similar feelings about the keloid as a

minder are expressed bv

a

.

when

observe

.

.

And

re-

war widow:

In the city of Hiroshima there are their faces.

perpetual psvchological

still

not only their

many

people with scars on

their bodies

faces,

too,*

as

I

go to the [public] bath.t I go quite often, so that even if I try to forget about the bomb, I cannot. see such people here all of the time and unless these people disappear, I will be unable to I

We

forget.

.

.

.

1 he implication so that she

is

that she would like to “wish awav” the keloid-bearers

might be

rid

own hibakusha

of visible reminders of her

state.

‘‘for a w^oman to lose her beauty’’ Tliose who actually have the keloids experience a particularly kind of hibakusha identity. Their impaired bodv substance surface for

all

to see; their taint

cannot be denied.

I

pressing

is

on the

he psychological

consequences of the aesthetic impairment alone are severe enough, the

more

so in a culture

which places such great

presentation and “appearance” in every sense.

stress

Beyond

upon that,

all

aesthetic

the

dis-

figurement affects the keloid-bearing hibakusha's image of his entire organism. Indeed, I often found the air to be charged with tension during interviews with such hibakusha. The detailed experience of two of

them can

give us

some grasp

of the psychological forces involved.

'The hospital worker, so disfigured as a

did *

girl

of thirteen that her parents

not recognize her, describes a sequence of emotional reactions

Severe burn scars witlioiit actual keloid formation can themselves be disfiguring, ^ 1 had the impression that she referred here to keloids.

though

A large percentage of the Japanese population still attend public baths regularlybccause they are economical and pleasantly social, and because of the general importance of bathing in Japanese culture. 1

A-BomhMan body image. She

related to the sense of impaired

discovered that her face had been mutilated

own

others and through her

tells

— through

175

how

she

first

comparison with

touch:

had the sensation that mv whole body had been split. But I didn’t know what had happened, and cyerything seemed strange. ... I saw many horrible things and asked my friend whether anything had happened to my face. [She] cried out to me and said that I too had been burned and should go home. ... I touched my face and the skin stuck to my finger. That frightened me. And I

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

when

I

touched

my

nose,

my me

had no sensation of m\' nose but

I

finger

something swollen and hot. Then mv friend asked about her face, but although it was swollen nothing particularly had happened to her skin. felt

.

.

.

.

.

For the extensive burns on her primitive treatment

.

and breasts she received

face, neck, arms,

(“They put cooking

oil

over

my body and washed

out the burned areas”) at a temporary aid center and then at home. She

had radiation symptoms, and she could tell from the tone of the encouragement received from her parents and neighbors (“Mi-chan, no

also

matter what happens, you must

live,

because

good days ahead, too”) that she was close

ment nonetheless helped little

her:

“When

.

.

.

you

to death.

will

have some

But the encourage-

heard these words ...

I

I

felt a

stronger.”

when

After three months, however,

wanted

what she looked

to see

she began to

stronger and

feel

she discovered that her parents were

like,

trying to prevent her from finding out:

thought about getting up and I wanted to see mvself in a mirror. But whenever I asked them for a mirror, they would say that they did not have one in the house. Then I got much better and mv I

.

parents thought

it

was

it.

The

but since

.

right for

all

there was no mirror around to find

.

.

.

me

but

.

I

to get up.

knew

They

still

there was and

mirror was broken, with only a third of

it

I

insisted

was able

remaining,

was small, the [one] third was enough for me to see myself in. Then for the first time I realized that I was no longer the same me. Up until that time I was determined to go on living. But at that moment I felt that the adults had lied to me. I could not I

.

tear myself

.

.

away from the

that this was

now mv

true

mirror. self.

.

.

It .

took some time for

me

to believe

17 6

DEA

I, I

FE

mixture of fascination and repulsion

'I'lie

new

her

IN

1 II

wliich she contemplated

vvitli

her struggle to adapt herself to the lasting idcntit\

self reflects

of the “disfigured hihakusha.'’

She went on

(“When

disfigurement

go on li\ing curred to

me

equate the deception of adults concerning her

to

.

.

.

that

and

they said that no matter what happens, I

myself determined to

would not return

I

my

to

.

.

live

who

hard

bomb

in the labor service

—

.

.

.

was too cruel”). She

trust in

any adults,” and was

—usually of

own

a general kind,

having

my

lost

[and] the result was

left

to

protest

.

.

.

thcA’

worked

I

mv becoming

like

at times specificalh’ directed at her

did e\’ervthing possible for

me

.

.

[but]

.

even hated them.”

I

deformed

the

against

revealed to her (“I had the strong feeling that things

where

with “anger, hatred, and resentment”

[previous] appearance,

She continued

cit\-

for their

no longer able “to believe or

felt herself

though

knew thev

parents: “I

instilled a spirit

(“Believing everything the adults said,

it

this

never oc-

it

and were responsible

being assigned to the work detail near the center of the experienced the

should

previous form”) with

.

the earlier adult deceptions of national authorities of sacrifice in her and her classmates

...

I

I

wanted

mirror

the

state

to break all

that could reflect one’s appearance”), considered herself

“dead,” and behaved accordinglv:

Rather than the joy of ha\ ing survived, this way was much more profound. encouraged by others, I could not help .

lose her beauty

corner of

wanted die.

.

.

my

During

I

become

regret over having

And however much I was belie\ ing that for a woman to .

.

equiv'alcnt to death. All

house.

to escape

I

could do was

live in a

didn’t even like to ride a streetcar.

from the world

.

.

and

.

if

possible

I

...

I

wished to

.

Suggested here

shame but

is

my

also tlie

form of self-loathing which contains not onlv o\ert hidden guilt. is

a

years

operations, mostly

that

followed

upon her

face,

she

underwent repeated

but alwavs found the

appointing because “I did not become as

I

surgical

results

dis-

had been before,” and was

always struck by the discrepancy between what she and the doctors looked upon as a successful result: “From a medical standpoint .

.

.

bent arm can be straightened, the outcome is successful, but what I wished to be the meaning of cure was to have mv appearance completely restored.” What she really wanted restored was her preif

a

A-Bomb Man

bomb

identity; “cure”

meant

lacing relieved of tlie entire

17 7

burden of her

dcatli-tainted keloid-bearing hihakusha state.

Only gradually and which she found

reluctantly, with the help of parental devotion

herself

now

able to accept, “I grasped the idea that

there was a stage at which, no matter

treatment,

would be of

it

little

how much

sought out medical

I

help.” But even

then she remained

distraught o\er the limitations of surgery and the continuing psvchic conflicts

surrounding her keloid and her hibakushahood. Relief came

only by discovering a means to put affliction to use; she joined the peace

movement, and participated

in

mainlv through highlv emotional

it

public renditions of her personal experience as a form of plea against nuclear weapons:

recei\ed strong support from a large

I

number

of people.

.

.

For

.

was not alone in mv suffering and that there were so many people who could understand us. From the deep inspiration coming from those meetings I believe that my present self was born. ... In crying out to the world that such a tragedy should not be repeated ... I found a purpose in life. The experience was somehow a form of deliverance for me. the

first

time

I

realized that

I

.

.

.

From

.

.

.

“mark of shame,” her keloid took on the other meaning of stigma and became a “mark of honor.” Her “deliverance” was a release from the burden of guilt and humiliation, and her “new self” was that a

of a hibakusha

who had found

significance

in— who had been

able to

formulate— her experience. 'Fhe transformation was far from being as total as she washed to believe, impeded as it w-as by an array of complex currents surounding the peace movement and affecting all public hibakusha actions. But wath the conflicts surrounding her keloid so strong, she

had no choice but

incomplete the

'I’he grocer’s

of

a

keloid

describes his

relief

to

and fulfillment

continue on her course, however it

brought.

experiences illustrate other ways in wdiich the possession

can

crucially

“mark

influence

hibakusha

a

of w'ounds” as a central

theme

s

life

He

pattern.

of his existence, but

seems to ecjuate these interchangeably with other stigmata of hibakiisha-

hood which “do not show”;

I

have a special feeling that

that

I

have the mark of

I

am

different

wounds— as

if

I

from ordinary people were a cripple that .

.

.

.

.

.

I

17 8

DEA

am

I

IN LIFE

II

...

inferior to tlicm

of course pliysically, but also mentally.

Ordinary people don’t have

this

kind of

experience the feeling of humiliation that

who

They

scar.

.

.

don’t have to

have had. ...

I

.

I

imagine

might feel the same wav. It is not a matter of lacking something but rather ... a handicap— something mental which does not show the feeling that I am mentallv different and incompatible with ordinary a person .

.

has an

arm

or a leg missing

.

.

.

.

.

.

people.

He

.

.

them than

.

.

.

incompatible with others

felt

.

.

opposite, a

its

less

because of overt unkindness from

form of special emotional protectiveness,

which he found intolerable: If

one has

this

A-bomb

the

attitude

is

are emptv.

kind of scar in Hiroshima

.

.

know

people

.

.

.

.

it is

from

But their They sav nice words, but the words

and, of course, they have understanding.

often that of pitv. .

.

.

.

.

.

In order to escape from this humiliating pitv, he

made

plans during his

high school days to leave Hiroshima and go to a different

citv,

where

“people might look at you curiouslv and express their feelings franklv, or

mv

they might ignore you,” and where “I had to do things on

goal was to develop a less sensitive attitude toward others

immunity

in regard to the keloid,”

myself fully.” That full

to “test myself

he wished to bring the fact of

is,

.

. .

own.” His

and “gain

[and] realize

and

his keloid

psychic consequences out into the open so that he could confront

and discover

where the keloid ended and the

in the process

rest of

its it

him

began.

He was

able

universitv in

pursue

to

Kvoto

psychological

this

for four vears. kle thrived

quest

bv attending

a

on student camaraderie

(“They were indifferent and treated me just like everyone else”), and from other people outside the uni\’ersitv he encountered the ordeal .

.

.

he sought: WTll,

I

don’t think one can understand

kind of attitude

me

.

.

I

would

like to

unless

one experiences

jump

into

it

be looked at with “white eyes,”

suspiciously, critically, with

in order to

in the

I

this

They

look at

feel that if there

were a

being looked at with “white eves.”

while pretending not to look. At times

hole,

To

.

it

avoid their eyes.

.

.

.

Japanese idiom, means coldlv,

condemnation. Again, the sense of being

scrutinized by others’ eyes reflects the hibakushas

own

sense of guilt

— A-Bomh Man and shame; but here

witli

the added factor of

— whicli

tlic

upon

dialogues and “confirms” his ultimate isolation.

all

\\ hile

death taint worn on the face

he claimed that

achieved the

specific

tlie

stigma

17 9 external

painfully intrudes

after four years of this kind of experience

immunity he sought, his words were anxiety with which he spoke of these matters, by his use ’

belied

he

by the

of the present

tense in describing his suffering, and by his admitted social and sexual inhibitions:

that

could take up with anyone she wished and did not have to associate with me. I had a strong sense of being handicapped, and feeling this way, I could make no forthright approach. I

felt

But the

[a girl]

real crisis in this

extra-Hiroshima experiment

—

its

moment

of

failure— came with job interviews just before graduation. Here the same painful dialogue with its awkward, guilt-tinged mutual discomfort

—

had devastating

results.

He had

the impression that the inter\'iewers

from the large firm he wanted very much to join “tried to keep their distance from me and not burden themselves with responsibility for

me.”*

down

impossible to say whether, or to what extent, he was turned because of his keloid; we may suspect that his anticipation of It is

rejection also contributed to the

outcome. In any

case,

we observe

the

strong psychological influence of his keloid in his sense of being a

“burden”

for others, in his

resentment of the uncomfortable state of

dependency imposed upon him. Thoroughly defeated, he was left with “the impression that we are shunned by others”— “we” meaning hibakusha, keloid-bearing hibakusha, stigmatized

He

settled

for

human

beings.

an inferior position with a small firm requiring no

formal interview, and remained in Kyoto a

little

longer.

But the turning-

point had been reached— economicallyt as well as psychologically.

He

returned to the protected existence in Hiroshima he had previously rejected, took over his family's small retail store,

great deal

life a

more

Such

large

responsibility

company

great difficulty

generally if it

some importance

The

’

in

is

a

way

of

limited than that ordinarily available to a graduate

of a major university.

*

and accepted

He

also

mustered the courage to approach and

greater in Japan than elsewhere, since

means employment

for

life;

thus a

employment in a company might have

wished to get rid of a tainted employee. This issue hibakusha employment problems in general.

is

probably of

extreme in Japanese society between the prestige and financial one of the large firms dominating the national economy and the anonymously meager existence in the kind of small company he entered. i

contrast

security within

is

180

DEA

marry

'r

H IN LIFE though here too

a local girl,

and that he chose

helpful,

He

challenge.

to

and the normality of

his

to

his

possible that his parents were

he sensed would

girl

no great

offer

has found solace and satisfaction in this domestic

though we know him return

a

is

it

have unusually strong

about

his health

children. Generally speaking, however, his

and

biological

fears

life,

Hiroshima “family” was also

larger

a

symbolic return to his keloid-bearing hibakusha identitv, that is, an acceptance of limitations imposed by permanent physical and mental stigmata:

have the feeling that in just about everything, I cannot do as well as others and it is quite natural for me to feel this way. The I

.

.

.

fact that

.

am

my

.

.

appearance— well, even if I mvself ignore this, others feel it which is a big handicap. Well, it is not that I couldn’t accomplish what others do if I tried verv hard— it is the feeling I have that I cannot, which I think is verv bad for me. I

ugly in

external

.

.

We

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

how

have seen

the special atmosphere created bv the keloid

dramatizes problems of the overall hibcikusha

being “identified

’

as a hibakusha.

The

survivor sympathetic to the mistreated far this pattern

identit\',

problems of

following storv, told to

woman

me

he describes, shows

by

a

how

can go:

This young married

had

bad keloid on her face. She was treated very badly by her mother-in-law and taunted because she had no children, hinally she had a child, but the mother-in-law then girl

a very

insisted that because of her keloid, she should not nurse the baby.

The mother-in-law

felt

that

if

she did, she might transmit something

unhealthy to the babv.

Here again the keloid

is

the

mark

of the hibakusha--ds-\eper,

and we

sense the fear of contagion or transmission (via mother’s milk) of the

dreaded

disease.

Also involved, of course,

and mother-in-law', and

in

is

the rivalry between wife

Japanese tradition the mother-in-law in some

has greater claim upon the children than the wife since they represent the husband s family line an issue which can become espew'ays

—

when

cially

charged

taint.

Uoweyer exaggerated the

that family line story

cannot doubt the emotional truths I

he actualities of

in

is

felt to

be threatened by death

may have been

in the retelling,

we

comeys.

keloid psychology” could thus blend with m\tho-

A-Bomb Alan logical elaboration,

whether

and even become springboards

relationship

in

tbongbt:

for creative

‘'A-bomb literature”

to

181

we

(as

shall

later

observe) or to general thought about the significance of atomic victimi-

zation— as the sociologist makes 'The simple feeling of pity

I

clear:

first

had when

I

saw

.

.

and strangeness ... of people with keloids kind of starting point from which I could develop mv ugliness

peace.

.

the external

.

.

.

.

became

feelings

a

about

.

.

Here, as in the case of the hospital worker, the stigmata assume affirmative significance

of

the Lord

Jesus

— on

on

my

what Saint Paul called “marks body.” But more often these ennobling

the order of

associations arc ^^’cak or absent. 'The keloid then

Christian meaning of the stigma as a criminals,

and

“A mark

of disgrace or infamy.”

— in

Most

we have

of

mentioned

and

earlier:

takes

on the recent

noted— an

“indication of

all,

also

closer to the pre-

or brand for slaves

to the related “post-Christian” idea

medically influenced meaning disease”

mark

comes

it

which the “disease” mars not onlv the bodilv surface but

the entire idea of the

self.

3

Denial and Transcendence

)

Like any victimized group, liibakusha undergo considerable conflict over liow much of their victimized identity to retain." The issue is bv no

means one of

a simple conseious deeision.

At

all levels

of psvehie

life

patterns of negation, affirmation, and transcendenee of hibakushahood

eonstantly take place.

Most hibakusha experienee elements

of

all

three,

with their various psychological dangers and possibilities. Thus, negation may be assoeiated with the ps\ehological defense of denial (“Nothing

happened (

I

am

me

and affirmation with constrietion and exclusiveness nothing but a hibakusha'). Only transeendenee can provide the to

),

am

ideally inelusive identitv (“I

a hibakusha,

but

I

am mueh more

as

well”).

The hibakusha whose

reaetion

wish away” the experienee and likely to insist

upon

is

primarily that of denial

live as

if it

had not taken

a eonstellation of normalcv: the

impaet of the original encounter,

his

to

tries

plaee.

He

is

minimal personal

good health and lack of worrv,

his

general optimism and easygoing nature, and his disapproval of anv

attempt to attribute speeial qualities, psyehologieal or otherwise, to the atomie bomb survi\’or in general. The denial tends to betrav itself by the intensity of its reiteration, and even more importantlv, by sudden outpourings of anxiety whieh ean no longer be suceessfullv eontained— often in the form of terrifying bodily fears, which insist

him

that he

is,

after

all,

upon reminding

a hibakusha.

1 he relationship of denial of hibakusha identitv to the problem of

mastery

is

remember

by the pattern of the Nagasaki phvsician have had a severe atomic bomb exposure

illustrated

to

hundred meters. In our eoncern

in

first

Hiroshima about

conversations he ridiculed aftereffects, stressed

whom we at

fifteen

the general

that Nagasaki hiba-

kusha had a more healthy attitude about things, and insisted that there was no distinction whatsoever, medieal or otherwise, between hibakusha and uouhibakusha. But over a period of time he gradually began to

make

a series of admissions:

he has been troubled bv fatigue, espeeially during the summer, and thought this must be because he was getting (he was in his early forties); he therefore decided to give up strenuous athletics; and he was eoncerned about a tendenev toward a

older

A-Bomh Man somewhat low in his

red l)loocl count

white blood count

and anemia, and had remained

(\^•hich

also

about

bomb).

a \aguc

and controNcrsial zone of s\m])toms, and were

were

83

irregularities

some time

a bit high for

after the

'I'liese

1

hihakusha complaints, albeit

all classical

in

wav

his

of

revealing inner fears of radiation effects. As a doctor he had alwavs

some kind were

kno\^•n that aftereffects of

been exposed

dreams of

some

\

terrifying

from

it

own

his

this

awareness. Recalling also his

ulnerabilitv to nuclear

\

one who had

hundred meters, but he had suppressed

at fifteen

knowledge and kept

possible for

weapons which recurred

for

bomb, and his various phobias, we further observe the mechanism of denial in protecting the hihakusha

cars after the

the limitations of

from the anxiety he seeks

hihakushahood always the atomic 'I'his is

bomb

to

Indeed, exaggerated denial of

avoid.

reflects a gross psychological inability to

master

experience.

true even where the denial of hihakusha identit\'

and contradictory— as

would sometimes

is

onlv partial

who

the case of the shopkeeper’s assistant,

in

problems

stress his special

as a

hibakusha-orph^n (of

being unwanted, and of anticipating and encountering discrimination),

and

at other times

hihakusha

would claim that “there

total

it is

no difference” between

exist.”

particularlv true

where the denial of hihakushahood

and consistent— as with the

tourist

is

more

agency emplovec. Despite the

extreme anxich- and near-phobia we noted him to manifest

in relation-

ship to keloids, he denied an\- personal concern about radiation culties.

He

a

himself and other people, and that special attitudes

like

toward hibakusha “do not

But

is

even claimed

(like the

improved following atomic

bomb

voung housewife) that

diffi-

had

his health

exposure, and bv contrasting his

own

well-being with others’ severe afflictions, he could denv his hihakusha identitv in unusuallv literal fashion:

\\dicn severely

I

hear the word hihakusha,

burned

state.

I

it

reminds

me

think onlv of such people as hihakusha, and

never think of regarding myself as a hihakusha.

symptoms and have never had the hihakusha. Hihakusha seem .

.

.

unrelated to me.

.

.

to

idea of looking to

be

have no special

I

upon mvself

different

from

me

as a .

.

.

.

Here the inner fantasv

happened onlv

of people in a

is:

those deadly and disfiguring experiences

them, not to me. But during

his interviews there

was

evidence of overwhelming anxiety— retained from his original exposure

DEATH

184

IN LIFE

and now expressed

at the age of five,

in relationship to later eoneerns.

he problem keloids posed for him was that they reaetivated inner imagery (“people in a severely burned state’’), vvhieh he struggled so I

desperately to extinguish and whieh reminded

from these

bility

him

of his

own

insepara-

Eaeh keloid he saw undermined

afflieted people,

his

entire strueture of denial.

man

1 he same young

another important manifestation of

illustrated

the pattern of denial: the failure to register as a hibakusha.

upon

his

name

in

my random

mother had taken hibakusha card,

from the

selections

upon herself to and had never gone it

register

list

I

had eome

only because his

him. But he possessed no

for the routine physical

examina-

provided for by the medical laws and constantly urged upon hibakusha by city authorities. He said he was “too busy/’ but this was tion

clearly

another way of behaving as

he were not a hibakusha.

if

Authorities estimated that at least 10 per cent (and possibly 15 or even 20 per cent) of all hibakusha remained unregistered. According to

the prominent politician, the cause for this lay in practical considerations about marriage, especially among women:

Because of marriage problems, the women are the ones who try hardest to conceal it. The men have other chances, so they don’t care too much. But the

women

hide the fact that they are hibakusha even though they become excluded from [free] medical treatment. Sometimes after marriage the husband says, “Since you are a hibakusha, why not register?” She will then say [at the registration office], .

have come here permission of my husband.” “All right,

I

But we suspect that more

to

register as a

involved than the

is

.

hibakusha with the

woman’s protection

of

her marriage opportunities. For one thing, given the thoroughness of investigative procedures engaged in by Japanese families prior to marriage,

it

would be extremely

particularly within

who

is

a

difficult to

Hiroshima

hibakusha and

who

the kind of example given, fiction that the wife

is

is

itself,

is

not.

that

conceal the hibakusha state—

where there

What

is

general awareness of

seems more

likely, at least in

husband and wife indulge

not a hibakusha

in

order to

still

in a shared

both their

fears

about offspring; and that they live out this fiction as if it were true, perhaps even half believang it, until either bodily fears or increased awareness of medical advantages induce them to give it up. The wife’s

announcing that she has her husband’s “permission”

to

register

is

A-Bomb Man consistent with

185

Japanese cultural idiom of the w-oinan’s public

tlie

obeisance to her husband; but

also suggests her calling forth

it

authority to justify past and present behavior— and,

his

more important,

her need to assert his “confirmation” of her right to exist as a hibakusha.

While

a hibakusha's failure to register could be partly a funetion of

ignoranee, cultural deprivation, geographical distribution, or the availability of virtually equi\alent medieal eare

programs, such was the intensity of the

under company insurance

campaigns that

eity’s registration

we may assume that more was involved in this form of “aetion by inaetion.” The inner fantasy (resembling that we spoke of in those who but

register

hibakusha, and

then all

I

will

medical examination)

resist

in

if

other ways

I

If

is:

though

act as

do not

I I

register as a

were not a hibakusha,

not be a hibakusha, and therefore will not be susceptible to

of the terrible things that ean

The woman

happen

with the eye eondition, although registered, expressed

way

preeisely this inner sequence in a

have never

to hibakusha.

that was not without insight:

myself to be a hibakusha ... so the word doesn't strike me in a direct way. ... I think I have a complex about having been exposed to the bomb. There are, of eourse, survivors of I

felt

.

ineendiary bombs, but the

.

.

A-bomb

most miserable. And since it was the bomb being dropped on Hiroshima that ended the war, this makes hibakusha the saerifiees [giseisha]. Conneeted with being

on

my

baek

saerifiees are all

wish to deny

many

of that misery.

survivors are the

kinds of misery.

... So

I

refuse to earry

I

always have the feeling that

And

[hitei shiyd] all of this.

...

beeause of

this

don’t really experienee an awareness of being a hibakusha.

Her

difficulty

was that her insight could not make

with her deeper symbolie

life

.

.

to alter significantly her feelings or her

logical toll in contributing to her eye eondition is

.

I

suffieient eontact

behavior; her denial of hibakushahood eontinued to exact

For denial

eomplex,

I

its

psycho-

and her semi-invalidism.

an alternative to the aehievement of the kind of

symbolic integration that goes with mastery. Under the guise of “moving on” and leaving one’s atomic actually held fast,

bound

Sinee no hibakusha

must make use of

is

a

bomb

encounter

to the very experienee

behind, one

far

one wishes

eapable of absorbing the experienee eertain

amount

between denial and transeendence can be Perhaps the best example of nation (akirame) and of

“it can’t

And

of denial. difficult to

this diffieulty

is

is

to ignore. fully,

eaeh

the distinetion

draw.

the attitude of resig-

be helped” {shikataganai or shoganai)

DEATH

186 expressed to

me

IN LIE E large

l)v

numbers

of hibakiisha about

viewed as “Asian fatalism/’

upon Japanese

draws deeply

this attitude

and includes strongly Buddhist influences. In has often been thought of as a form of “passiv-

it

am

the sense of the inner image: “I

forces of destiny, so

why

to influence

try

emphasize an “active” element that ^^hat happens,

I

carry on.

\\’ith

happened anyway,

really

more profound

is

helpless before the great

them?” But

uould

I

usuallv overlooked:

“No

also

matter

bather of these two sides of the principle of

resignation can be associated

“nothing

prob-

tradition

psychological terms ity,” in

A-bomb

denial in the form of the idea that so

why

not just

carr\-

on?” But

in

the

indi\idual and cultural expressions of resignation there

can be a predominant element of transcendence: of psychologically “taking in” an experience, however extreme, and simultaneously reasserting

one

sense of connection with vast

s

human and

which extend beyond that experience and outlast is,

its

natural forces

annihilation; that

of reasserting one’s sense of immortality.’"

Another mixture of transcendence and denial was contained in the souvenir vendor s phrase: I am a hibcikushci, but at the same time, before being a hibcikushci,

hand making

a

I

am

genuine plea

a

human

being.”

He

for inclusive identity,

was on the one

for

being both a

hibakusha and something more. But on the other hand he was behaving as if he had achieved that transcendence, and thereby denying the hibcikushci conflict that still plagued him and exerted a constricting influence

upon

his life.

W^e observe here

a general pattern

called the conflict of transcendence: the wish to be

uhich can be

more than merely

a

weak, impotent hibakusha, together with the inner sense of being bound by death guilt to precisely that state. The solution is likely to be the combination of denial and partial transcendence we have noted.

A

related emotional

combination could be detected in an issue raised by the mathematician concerning the relationship between atomic bomb exposure and choice of professional interest:

During the years

bomb. ... of

I

after the

war

I

have had no desire

studied relativity and

to study

quantum mechanics.

about the

My

choice

was in no way affected by the A-bomb. I feel great resistance toward what some people say about this— that scientists studies

here are \arioiis inodes in which this sense can be experienced: bioloeicallv through family continuity); theologically (through a life after death); through I

(

one

enduring works of hninan influences; and through a tie with the “permanent” natural world, dlic sense of immortality referred to here probably includes elements

of

s

all

four.«

:

.

A-Bomh wlio experience also

[I

Wishing

whether he to

scientists

in

is

the\' are against

that

is

.

.

scientist like

.

e\er\one else” rather than have

and moral concerns dictated hv

like to reject the

state altogether. His potential for transcendence, however, as

denial,

enhanced hv

is

he

his liihakusha state,

conve\s something of the impression that he would

mere

as

anvone should he against nuclear from Hiroshima or not.

feeling

he simpK “a

his intellectual

and

it,

Hiroshima sav that

theinsehes \ictini of the A-honih,

My

nuclear testing.

lia\e tlie responsil)ilitv of studying

when

resistance]

feel

scientists \^•ho are

testing,

A-l)omb

tlie

187

I\ian

opposed

his general intellectual resources

and

to his

willingness to confront elements of his hibakusha experience in imi-

terms (“M\- feeling

\ersalistic

testing,

A

whether he

is

that anvone should he against nuclear

is

from Hiroshima or not”)

verv different form of transcendence, also incomplete, was that of

the hargirl,

who

told

me

of a long scries of painful experiences of

emplo\ment hecause of her hibakusha state, until finallv entering what is known in Japan as the “water world” {mizushobai)— that special entertainment suhculture including geisha, prostitutes, and hargirls— so named hecause of the ephemeral ehh and flow of discrimination in

life

within

it.

In the har

where she worked she found that people were

insufhcientlv interested in her as a person to worry about whether she

was

a

hibakusha or not. But

was reverting

to

turned out that in becoming a hargirl, she

it

she had always

her mother’s profession, of which

disapproved; and in seeking to transcend her hibakushahood, she herself treated as a “thing”

and

(at least in this

way) divested

felt

of

all

identih'.

HAD A SON OR DAUGHTER’’ ‘Af A major expression of dcnial-transcendcncc conflict I

some remain hound

we have noted

marriage preference, the urge

hibakusha. In general, of course, survivors

in

both hv painful memories and by geographic and stress

is

the hibakushas

marry non-

to to

one another,

social ties.

Wdien they

the wish to marry an “outsider,” the question of children

often

is

uppermost. But rather than merely a fear of increased likelihood of genetic abnormalities, some, like the hospital worker, stress the issue of

psychological transmission

I

don’t

Even to

mean

to sav that

a hibakusha,

have

if

I

am

a really

a different thought.

postponing marriage hecause of

wonderful person

But the

ideal person

.

I

.

.

this.

might cause

would

like to

me

marry

'

1

88 is

DEA a

1

IN

II

uonJiibakiisJui

.

FE

I, I

.

.

because

both of us to have such pain

iu

feel

I

our

would be unbearable

it

lives.

.

.

.

And

for

after marrying,

I

mother as well. And ... in the course of the child’s upbringing, if our agony continued this might have a bad effeet upon the child. If one parent is a hibakusha and the other is not, I think that to some extent this tendency would be counteracted and diminished. would

like to

become

a

.

.

.

.

.

.

mind her constant rcassertion of hibakusha identity in her peaee activities, these words become all the more striking. I’he implicaKeeping

tion

is

in

that concerning fears for the next generation, emotional "'agony”

and physical

taint

become

toward a more inclusive

inseparable.

initiate

senses

is

so

eommitted.

there are further difficulties. For she finds that possible marriage arrangements with

hibakusha status

(and,

genuine urge

a

space, along with a hint of guilt over the

life

wish to “betray” the group to which she

And

One

when

her parents

nouhibakusha, her

undoubtedly, her keloid as

well)

own

makes

it

necessary for the go-between to “sell” her to the other family:

he go-between would say that I have the disadvantage of being a hibakusha that even though I am a hibakusha^ I have this good point or that good point and I wonder on what basis the man can evaluate me. ... I feel the go-between is making up a “good story” about me, and then I feel utterly miserable about mv situation. 1

—

.

We suspeet she

fears that she

.

.

may

the go-between plays down, and

is

indeed possess the hibakusha defects therefore being “oversold,” so that

the whole proeedure beeomes doubly inauthentic. She reaets bv holding to idealized standards of close

refusing

arrangements— much

mutual understanding,* and goes on

to the

unhappiness of her parents,

who

fear she will never inarrv.

Even the use of the idiom of bodily fears to justify the preferenee for a uonhabakusha — as iu the claim (by a young female office worker) that "If I were to get sick ... if both were to get sick then there would be great trouble”— is likely to be accompanied (as in her case) bv .

.

.

an expression of more generalized emotion: “I prefer one who is not like me. Here we encounter a rather naked expression of the charaeteristic Such standards are difficult to achieve anywhere, but perhaps especially in contemporary Japan, where the traditional legacy of relative emotional distance between marital partners comes together with a variety of institutional and personal confusions. he urge toward unspoken emotional intimacy, however, has strongly I

'

Japanese overtones.

’

®

A-Bomh Man or “intra-group liatc” of tlic victimized; there

self-liate

deny

taint

tlie

by

Ybko Ota addressed

is

a

need

to

plagued but also perhaps to seek wider

wliicli slic feels

horizons than those of bodilv

189

fear.

the issue with a

comment, which,

at least within

the context of American racial problems, has nncomfortable overtones: If

had a son or daughter,

I

I

who had been through

person

wouldn’t want him or her to marry a

bomb.” The parallel here is less the classie question, “\\ ould you want vour daughter to marry a Negro?” than the insistence of a Negro mother that her son or daughter not marry another Negro, or

the

at least not a dark

The

Negro.

hibakiisha

s

quest for transcendence becomes bound up with the overall dynamies of the victimized group and of erasing one’s taint bv means of intimate association with the untainted.

But an alternative form of vietimization could help one transcend one’s Jiihakushahood through

woman

its

own emotional

the '‘Burakumin

leader in

[Outcast]

elaims. Thus, a

Liberation

young

Movement”

considered attitudes toward this struggle and toward the prineiple of feminine equality to be of greater importance in marriage than the issue of whether or not one was a hibakusha:

My

and many people of the older generation tend to think that marriage is everything and that a girl should get married when she reaehes a eertain age but I don’t want to follow that pattern. ... I want to marry someone whose thoughts and actions mother

.

.

.

.

.

.

coincide with mine, for instance in this kind of [Biirakumin Libera-

Movement]

tion

oppose the kind of marriage in which I must shrink myself down in wretchedness” [chijikomaru mijime ni naru]. ... I do not think I will be happy with a person from town activity.

I

'

[a

euphemism

for

an

ordinary-

non-burakumin].

.

. .

[About the do not think

question of marrying a hibakusha or a uonhibakusha] I this should be a eonsideration. Some people mav have speeial feelings toward those who are physically handicapped, who lost a leg or the like

.

plexes.

.

.

.

pose, too,

It

became

.

and those handicapped people mav have inferiority comBut in order to get rid of such feelings— for that pur.

I

think our protest

clear during

movement

peace

necessarv.

.

.

.

interviews that her identity as a biirakumin

leader was the driving force of her

identities— that of the

is

life,

subsuming other important sub-

“new Japanese woman” and the ‘'hibakusha

movement spokeswoman.” But

she nonetheless

is

inwardly' ayvare

of a double taint, and her reference to “handicapped people” yvith

DEATH

19 0

complexes”

“inferiority cripples,

IN LIFE seems

simultaneously

embrace

to

physical

burakumin, and hibakusha. While protest can have

its

own

elements of denial (she speaks of “those handicapped people”), there

was

little

doubt of her general progress toward transcendence— toward

becoming the wider

A

and

a burakuniin-hibakusha with vitality

human

pride, active within

arena.

n

less successful

burakumin and hibakusha

:ging of the

we know him

took place within the burakumin boy. Wdiilc

to

identities

have

fears

of illness as well as other unpleasant associations to hibakushahood,

when

the subject of his burakumin state

He became burakumin

came

up,

all else

extremely tense, and then tearful, as he explained

and made

are exploited

he dreaded job

intcr\ iews

to

work

at substandard wages,

told anything directly

because as soon as he gave his address he was

and was

with the strong suspicion that his

left

me

being a burakumin was the cause; he quoted to

the popular Japanese

saying: “It takes ten years to gain confidence, but just

less

As with the young

woman

identit}’;

one day

to lose

hibakushahood was more or but

his

transcendence was

containing neither \italitv nor pride, and depending

fragile,

almost entirely upon being the

A

leader, his

absorbed by his burakumin

much more

how how

burakumin, how he would be turned down without being

identified as a

it.”

was forgotten.

similarly negative

lesser of

form of transcendence was that brought about bv

a personal tragedy unrelated to the

expressed relatively

two negative self-images.

little

atomic bomb.

An

elderly housewife

concern about being a hibakusha compared to

the overwhelmingly painful

memory

of the death of her only son in a

wartime military aviation accident twenty years before. Wdiile descriptions of atomic bomb experiences far exceeded her story in horror, none

was recounted with

more vi\ id expression of loss. Indeed, as she told of visiting with her husband the place where her son had crashed, then viewing his body in the coffin and looking into his face, absolutely a

determined not to cry but rather to be proud that he had died

for his

down not only her checks, but those of mv assistant as well, and I too was moved bv the power of her grief. The whole experience dramatically illustrated the wav in which the full country, the tears rolled

recounting of a single death

can evoke more direct and empathic

response than descriptions of scenes of thousands of deaths.

Another

woman

her husband children in

I

inter\'ic\\cd, a

and four brothers

floods

which occurred

a

maid

in

in a

military

boarding house, had

lost

combat, and then two

and landslides accompanying the severe typhoons

month

after the

bomb. So painful were her

recollec-

9

A-Bomh Man of

tioiis

of these deaths

all

military leaders

— she

was

9

1

1

and her bitterness toward war and wartime

eom ineed

of their responsibility for the deaths

not only of her husband and brothers but her ehildren too, as she elaimed that military installations weakened the soil of neighboring

— that

hillsides

and eontribnted

relief for

her to turn from them to disenssions of the atomie bomb. This

was also true of another

the landslides

to

woman who was

it

seemed almost

a

totally preoeenpied \\ith the

o\’erwhelming problems surrounding her husband’s drug addietion. In sueh eases, howeyer, there eonfliets ean reassert

is

always the possibility that atomie

bomb

themsebes, sinee they haye not neeessarily been

o\ereome.

An

additional yantage-point for examining the denial-transeendenee

eontinuum

is

the situation of the hihakusha hying outside of Hiroshima,

d’he estimated total of hibakusha in Japan

were originally exposed liye

the eity

in

itself,

remaining 30,000 or so

Tokyo,

In

for

in

is

whom

290,000, of

160,000

Hiroshima; of the Hiroshima group, 90,000

35,000 in

the surrounding proyinee, and

in yarious plaees

instanee,

there

are

throughout Japan.’"

thought to be at

least

seyen

thousand hihakusha—some of them longtime Tokyo residents

happened

who

others

reasons. in

to

be

in

ehose to

Hiroshima or Nagasaki when the liye there for \arious praetieal

But there are undoubtedly

Tokyo

the

a eertain

bomb

fell,

eeonomie and

number

whom

for

who and

soeial

residing

or in other large eities presents an opportunity to ‘'pass” into

nouhihakusha

soeiety,

mueh

in

the

way many

“pass” into white Ameriean soeiety. There

is

light-skinned Negroes

eyidenee of this in the

obseryations by leaders of a hihakusha organization in

Tokyo

hide their hibakusha identity, either do not possess or else of their hihakusha health eards,

groups there

(it

was estimated

and in

ha\’e

that

many

make no

use

nothing to do with hihakusha

1963 that only one third of Tokyo

hihakusha belonged to the general hibakusha organization).^^ Tliere said to

be

less

understanding for hihakusha

more diserimination

in

in

Tokyo than

marriage and emplo\ment, and

is

in

Hiroshima,

less

knowledge

about their medieal problems. In other words, when deteeted, hiha*

vary, and I have given them in round figures. They are based 19^0 census, but a 19S8 Daytime City Population Survey of Hirolargely a shima identified 92,850 hihakusha as living in the eity; a 1960 survey revealed 171,293 in Hiroshima Prefecture. Wdiile the overall number of hihakusiia must dimini.sh over the years, statistics may be confused by iuereasiiigly effective regis"llicsc

statistics

upon

tration procedures.

— DEATH

19 2

IN

I. I

kusha arc perceived as more status can be

FE specifically alien

hidden more readily and there

aftereffects are broadcast or printed,

family

members

tainted.

much

is

(when new

anxiety in the general atmosphere

bomb

and

But hibakusha less

hibakusha

reports of dangers of A-

it

is

said that friends

and

upon themselves to prevent hibakusha from learning about them). Weighing all of these factors, one is left often take

it

the general impression that

\^•ith

Hiroshima area attempt through the

bomb— to

to

li\e

manv hibakusha

conduct their

lives as if

living outside of the

thev had never been

out a pattern of denial. But transcendence

plays a part here too, as some, without particularlv hiding their hiba-

kusha

state, find a

out of suffocating

ino\e to

Tokyo

or other cities necessarv for breaking

A-bomb preoccupations and

seeking greater general

fulfillment.

Nor only

arc the patterns of transcendence described in this chapter the

ones

whether

as

dreamer— is

possible.

a a

Indeed,

student,

every

functioning

businessman,

worker,

aspect

wife,

potential avenue of transcendence, as

of

father, is

oneself or

even

one’s general

relationship to Japanese cultural tradition, to contemporarv historical forces,

The

and

to

the psychobiological

difficulty lies

in

universals

of

experience.

the constellation of emotions around guilt and"

death which impede transcendence, and which \

human

members

of anv

ictimized group to self-defeating patterns of denial and psvchic

numb-

ing.

The

hibakusha-victim, then,

is

a

man on

tie

the

a treadmill

who

presses

constantly toward a psychic state he ean never quite reach, and who often seeks to separate himself from others on the treadmill in order to ereate the inner illusion that he

is

not reallv on

it.

4)

Counterfeit Nurturance

Among

the

\arious

o\ct

conflicts

dcpcnclcnc\’

there

is

one general

tendency which dominates the hihakusha experience and

hnman

we mav term

relationships— a pattern

nurturance.

Contributing

features of atomic

bomb

to

“tainted

this

affects

all

suspicion of counterfeit

dependenev” are

special

exposure, general aspects of the psvcholog\- of

oppression, and certain Japanese cultural emphases.

Suspicion of counterfeit nurturance includes two seemingh' contradictory attitudes, which

we

ma\- observe in the hospital worker.

The

first

one of antagonism toward aiw kind of “special attention”:

is

don’t like people to use that word [hibakiisha].

I

there are

some who, through being considered

receive special coddling [amaeru]

.

.

.

but

I

... Of

course,

want to stand up as an

hibakiisha,

like to

W'hcn I was \ounger thev used to call us “atomic bomb maidens.” More rccentlv they call us hibakusha. ... I don’t like this special view of us. Usuallv when people refer to voung girls, thc\- w’i\] sa\- girls or daughters, or some person’s daughter but to refer to us as atomic bomb maidens is a wav of discrimination. It is a wav of abandoning us. individual.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

She

.

.

so constricted an identity that the experience

and the hihakusha

is

made

to stand alone as a

“special coddling” {amaeru"^)

W’hcn feel

I

I

which she

sense unkind attitudes— how shall

would

like to

go on

upon

becomes the person,

hihakusha and nothing

more. But on the other hand, she craves something

same

.

.

saying that special nurturance given hibakusha imposes

is

them

.

.

ver\’ close to

the

finds so objectionable:

I

put it— although

living, a \’erv sad feeling

I

comes over

still

me

word amaeru refers particularly to the child’s expectation of low and care from a parent. “Amaeru” (or amae, the noun form— both words derive from amai, meaning sweet) is itself basic to Japanese psychologv, and to the very strong cultural stress upon dependency. Takeo Doi argues that the pattern of amaeru— oi expecting, presuming upon, and soliciting another’s love— takes its model from child-parent relationships, but comes to dominate all later relationships as well. Dr. Doi emphasizes, correctly I believe, that the emotions surrounding amaeru are bv no means unique to Japanese but are particularly intense in them. Similarly, Japanese, and especially victimized Japanese, bring great intensity to universal conflicts over dependency, such as the suspicion of counterfeit nurturance. Masao Maruyama, a leading political scientist and intellectual historian, has criticized his countrvmen for what he considers an inclination toward “victim consciousness. *

I’he

DEATH

19 4

IN LIFE

We

from the depths of my being. ... underwent sueh a terrible ordeal in whieh we experieneed a state between death and life so I wish others to have a more sympathetic understanding of us. .

.

.

.

.

.

he hibdkusha, then, both craves and resents special nurturance, and is threatened either way by abandonment. Should his craving be denied, 1

he

with the sense that his unique death encounter

left

is

and he

ignored,

But should offered

abandoned — that

feels

need be responded

his special

him

is,

as inauthentic

humiliation, and death

because

he

taint;

rejected to,

being

and misunderstood.

he views the nurturance

seems to confirm

it

is

his weakness,

'‘abandoned” to these hated

feels

manifestations of hibakusJia identitv. 1

he problem

is

any form of victimization. The victim need of special sustenance, which, when

intrinsic to

inevitably feels himself in

received, intensifies his "\ictim-consciousness”

and thereby perpetuates a vicious circle of counterfeit nurturance and abandonment. Nurturing offered threatens to isolate the \'ictim and further undermines his selfesteem, but the humiliating temptation to accept

Hence the victimized

group’s hatred for

"Uncle Toms” who succumb

its

who

is

always there.

toadies, real or suspected,

to this temptation;

benefactors, the "white liberals”

it

and

for

its

its

would-be

continue to offer nurturance.

But every \ ictim, certainly every hibakusha, succumbs in some degree. For instance, we may look upon the grocer’s "Kyoto experiment” as an effort

to

discover

whether he could survive psvchologically

absence of the counterfeit nurturance he

Hiroshima because of counterfeit,

his keloid.

But

felt

in

the

himself to receive in

was that however

his conclusion

nurturance was necessary to him. Another form of suspicion of counterfeit nurturance was the same man’s accusation that this

doctors were

And

still

irresponsible

being unable to cure

in

anotlier manifestation

was the European

A-bomb

disease.

priest’s ironic con-

between the authentic distinction of winning a Nobel Prize with the counterfeit one of being a hibakusha. trast

For any identity based upon \ictimization is percci\ed as counterfeit, and the survivor’s lifelong struggle against being nothing but a hibakusha is a struggle against counterfeit existence. One may use as a psychological model, though not as an exact analogy, child deeply resents the nurturance he receives,

imprisoned by

Of

course,

it,

but cannot do without

the attitude

importance, but what

I

of

feels

"Momism”;

suffocated and

it.

those offering nurturance

wish to

stress

the

here

is

is

the hibakusha

of great s

general

:

A-Bomb Man sensitivity

in

this

psychological

sphere— as revealed

in

195 an

incident

described by the writer-physician

Some as I

its

time ago the labor unions called a meeting in Hiroshima having theme: “W^e should do our best to help the hibakushar When

saw

why

this

motto— “Help

they should do

resentful because

the hibakusha’—l

this,

felt resentful.

I

especially here in Hixoshima.

didn’t see

...

I

felt

thought they were using the A-bomb for their own purposes. But maybe the fact that I had this kind of reaction means that

His

am a

I

I

hibakusha.

sentence suggests that not only are hibakusha sensitive about such matters but that to a significant extent their group identity is built last

around

this sensitivity

— around

sharing a special need which

feelings

(often largely unconscious) of

virtually impossible to

is

fulfill,

and being

perpetually subject to inauthentic “offerings” from others.

These

feelings strongly color

in general.

hibakusha

The downtrodden woman

s

attitudes toward “outsiders”

laborer, for instance,

complained

me

about outsiders’ lack of concern about hibakusha, their feeling that “It’s someone else’s affair, not ours”; she expressed the wish that to

they would “have more conscience” {ryoshinteki) about the matter, and

went on

to

condemn them

for speaking

ill

of people behind their backs:

In the case of a burned person with an ugly face, they will tell him sympathetically how sorry for him they feel, but then later [when he is

gone] they will say,

While Japanese

“WTat a

culture

in

wretched face he has.”

many ways

encourages this discrepancy

between publicly expressed and privately held add, hardly

unknown

in other cultures),

feelings (one,

hibakusha

we might

sensitivities bring to

the problem the intensified emotions of tainted victims toward intact

people around them.

An

reaction described by the

group of WTstern

illustration of this

victims

.

.

.

visitors taking pictures

.

.

.

the

bomb

a

during the performance of a

experience:

hand, they chased after the actors portraying A-bomb but although I understood their intention, their doing in

such a thing gave

why

is

burakumin woman leader while observing

play which re-enacted the atomic

With camera

kind of sensitivity

but

me

a miserable feeling.

wanted them

I

to

really

... I don’t know exactly comprehend not just the

external shape of things but the true feeling, inwardly, from the heart

[kokoro de].

.

.

.

.

19 6

DEA

1

IN LIFE

II

Again a Japanese cultural identification,

is

stress,

magnified

this

the

b\-

time upon intense “heartfelt”

Jiibcikusha

experience.

Outsiders’

attempts at empath\-, however well-meant, are bound to be looked upon as superficial

and counterfeit, the problem

the synthetic nature of the situation (a play about the

W’hat becomes need to maintain

clear

is

complicated bv

in this case

bomb)

that the hibakusha himself has a considerable

world into those \\ho are

He

from the “outsider.”

this separation

di\ides the

him — who have been through the

like

ordeal— and those who are not. The apocalvptic nature of the ence, along with the taint of

experi-

resulting identitv, create a semi-mvstical

its

quality which the uninitiated cannot be expected to grasp.

encountered such comments

entire

“W’e ha\e

as:

a

different

Hence

feeling

I

from

who have not experienced the A-bomb”; “If vou haven’t it with your own .eyes, you can’t understand it”; and the observathat when with nouhibakusha, “I find it difficult to explain the

other people seen tion

experience to them.” This exclusiveness serves the further psvchological function of lending

some value

and of creating

taint;

a

to the

its

to

whatever

its

ambivalence.

me

when an English

writer

hibakusha the necessity for their recognizing the

suffer-

bus, the professor of English told

emphasized

status,

group posture from which the sense of special

need can be expressed, whatever I

hibakusha

that

who had been in Nazi concentration camps, resentment among some because “they tend to live in just

ings of others, such as those

caused

this

their

own

world.” Unable to find a path of

the victim clings to his the nurturance he looks

own group and upon

autonomv and transcendence,

resents outside rivals for preciseh'

as counterfeit.

Contributing to these problems around dependenev are various kinds of guilt, including guilt over survival prioritv to sur\ ivc.

way

in a

1

and over the things one did

he elderly domestic worker describes the struggle over food

that suggests an early paradigm of later counterfeit nurturance:

When we

evacuated to Jigozen

we had absolutelv no food to cat. I went to buy some potatoes with money I had at the time but the farmers said they wouldn’t sell anything to those who were bombed in Hiroshima— not even vegetables. This gave me [a

suburban

area],

.

.

.

wretched feeling— that such a thing could happen between Japanese, between town people and country people. Even though we offered them money they would not sell us anything ... so we stole things and ate them. Although I am ashamed to tell you this a

.

.

.

.

.

the

memory

.

.

.

.

of these events lingers in

my mind.

.

.

.

A-Bomh Man 1

197

kind of hostility between bonil^ed, luingry eity peo])le and relatively unscathed, well-supplied country people took place all o\cr Japan liis

(and

in

Europe)

hihakusha

during the period after the war.

signified the

it

wouldn

they

Hiroshima,

Whether

anything to

sell

t

many

for

beginning of a post-bomb pattern of discrimi-

nation coming from “outsiders.” that

But

or not farmers actually said

who were bombed

those

in

the use of the phrase, particularly in relationship to food,

suggests this early sense of being denied the authentic nurtnrance one

craved— just

as the recollection of stealing suggests the

need to resort to

illegitimate (inauthentic) measures in order to survive at not' a difficult step, psychologically speaking, to suspect

withholding that uhich

is

Because of

is

all

outsiders of

needed and providing

authenticalh’

causing one to seek) only that which

then

all. It is

(or

counterfeit.

around counterfeit nurtnrance the outsider often perceives hihakusha as hungry for attention, perpctuallv demanding something from others. And in relationship to this image nonthis conflict

hibakusha and hihakusha alike have used “A-bomb beggars” to describe the kind of hihakusha who has surrendered all autonomv in favor of a continuous plea for help. Implicit

may

of anything the “begger” stance,

and

its

negative impact

young Hiroshima-born

writer,

in

the term

receive,

upon

is

the counterfeit nature

the demeaning nature of his

others. All this

not himself

a

is

suggested bv a

hihakusha but deeph- and

thoughtfully invohed in hihakusha problems:

Many of the hihakusha have a special kind of group sense that makes me feel very uncomfortable. Hihakusha come up to me and say, ‘Write about our experience” — and this makes me verv uneasy. It is

—

an unfortunate psychological climate since this kind of thing shows that people have stopped living, and instead have been reiving upon otliers for comfort and coddling [aniaeru]. ... Of course, hibakusha vary a great deal, but if you meet one person of this kind, you

have met them all. It is hard to sav whether the\- existed in people before and were simply brought out by the experience— but .

.

.

the feelings are there.

Suggested here

is

an atmosphere of demand and suspicion so great

as to

constitute a symbolic death (“people have stopped living, and instead

have been relying upon others conflicts over

one’s existence.

for

comfort and

dependency arc magnified

to

coddling”).

Prior

the point of dominating

DEATH

19 8

Wc

may

tlius

IN LIFE

say that

tlic

atomic bomb,

like all disasters

but to an

unprecedented degree, disrupts the balance between autonomy and nnrtnrance within individuals and groups; and that once the disruption has been initiated,

tends to be self-perpetuating.

it

‘"my neighbors’ eyes 1

his

fierce’’

e r e

disruption can also be observed

No

themselves.

one acquainted with Hiroshima

and resentments

intensity of jealousies

another, especially toward those

who

the popular saying,

in

hammered down.” But

for

“A

the tendency

fail

to note the

by hibakusha toward one

and take some kind

a pervasive

Japanese cultural

unconventional behavior, as

nail is

can

life

step forward

emphasis of the universal intolerance expressed

felt

Here we may partly implicate

of initiative.

among hibakusha

conflicts

in

which

sticks

out will be

aggravated bv the competitive

aspects of the quest for nurturance, with the individual hibakusha often fearful that others in his

group

will

have greater success

in

achieving

that (counterfeit) goal.

Envy was perhaps most frequently expressed eal benefits.

It

in relationship to

medi-

was fed by the obscurity of the ps\chosomatic

issues

involved and by the inevitable misrepresentation bv factors affecting their eligibility (original distance

shielding,

symptoms,

some hibakusha

of

from the hvpoeenter,

etc.), d'he technician, for instance, suggests the

extraordinary atmosphere surrounding the medical and economic benefits

he received while

suflfering

from

a

protracted series of ailments

which were organieally debilitating but ambiguous to the

in their relationship

atomie bomb:

When

people knew that I was in the hospital, their attitude was not so bad. But when I came home, and received treatment in my

house

they would say

was reeeiving good things while doing nothing. My neighbors’ eyes were fierce, and they \^ould sav bad things about me their attitude was cold and this affected me \ery strongly. d'hey \\ere people who had themselves been through the bomb but were not suffering from anv illness. They would write or talk to welfare officials in the Citv Office about what I had or did not have and when the officials came to our house to ask questions, they would not tell us which people had been talking to them about me. Once, having heard rumors ... I went to the welfare offiee myself and suggested they talk directly to mv doc.

.

.

.

.

I

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

tor.

...

.

.

.

.

.

.

A-Bomh Man It

quite possil)lc

is

tluit

his

own

entitled to this nnrtnranee led

inner eonflicts over

him

199 was

\\lietlier lie

do things that antagonized

to

his

neighbors or to exaggerate their belunior. But there is no doubt that sneh jealousies have existed. Indeed, inneh of the dilemma over medical

and economic

benefits described in

Chapter

I\^

can be viewed, from a

psychological standpoint, as the expression of citywide conflict over suspicion of counterfeit nnrtnranee in which hibakusha suffer in rela-

tionship to three perceived possibilities; thev will not receive help they

need,

they uill

descr\’ing

\^’ill

recei\’c

help but

more help than

recei\'c

be counterfeit, others

will

it

they. This last fear

the electrician (speaking on behalf of his son) in a

way

less

expressed bv

is

that raises the

question of “cheating” within the competition for nnrtnranee;

yon needed

All

order to obtain a card as a special hibakusha were

in

the signatures of certain people such as the head of the neighborhood organization or t\^o or three people who were working at the same place. a

.

.

.

Rather than honesty

it

was sometimes

and cleverness in arranging boy came into the city

talker

oldest

.

.

matter of

that

later

skill as

... Yet

testimonv.

this

.

a

dav

.

.

.

m\-

walked

through the center of the bomb area, and can certainly be looked upon as a person exposed to its effects. But since he was outside of the city when the bomb fell ... he is not eligible for the special hibakusha card. ... If we were to say that he was with the other .

.

.

[who were within three kilometers] he could receive one but we don’t want to say anvthing that is not true.

children .

.

.

.

Involved in this bitterness toward those

nurturance that clearly felt

who

.

cheat (and therebv obtain

the most counterfeit of all)

is

.

is

the temptation he so

— but resisted — to do the same.

Similarly, those

who ha\e

suffered

from the

bomb

but

who

are not

quite eligible for hibakusha status greatly resent hibakusha privileges—

was the case with

as

underwent, with

his

employee,

and

hibakusha-purents, great economic hardship.

He

complained of people who “lean on”

them

in

a

way

that

who

lost a brother

a civil ser\ace

is

their

hibakusha cards and use

“slipshod” and “objectionable”— that

conditions having no relationship to the

bomb. Much involved

is,

for

in this

kind of criticism were various kinds of guilt— toward his dead brother for all

having himself sur\ ived, and toward other hibakusha

Among

)

for

members (and not having himself been exposed to the bomb.

hibakusha themselves the

his other familv

loss

of close

family

members—

DEAIH

200

IN LIFE

sources of autlicntic luirturancc— also greatly aggravates the problem of counterfeit uurturance. Combinations of guilt and anticipated envy

who

lead hihakiisha

lia\e not experienced

discuss family matters with those

who

particularly a\oid talking about one’s

who

such losses to hesitate to

have. For instance, one would

mother

in the

presence of a person

has lost his mother, and the same applies for parents’ discussion of

children. For the nurturance received from either side of the parent-child

relationship

is

probably, in various psychological ways,

most authentic of all. In comparison, of seeming counterfeit.

On

the other hand, should

felt

to

be the

other relationships run the risk

all

families

who have

children gain

lost

partieular reeognition in relationship to their loss, thev in turn

become

objects of envy

and resentment. Thus it was reported that following the death of Sadako Sasaki (the girl who died of leukemia and \\ho became the “Anne Frank of Hiroshima’’), the national journalistie and cinematic treatment of the event

made

neighbors extremely jealous and

highly eritical of the ostensible fortune the family was thought to have reeeived. The family apparently was given virtuallv nothing, and was said to hav'e

been forced to leave the

eitv

beeause of the intensity of

emotions and general pressures surrounding these events, including pressures of ereditors.

Hibdkusha who have participated in international events relating to their atomie bomb experienee have met similar resentments, particularly when they have received some benefit from such participation, dims, the Hiroshima Maidens” group of voung women with

—a

keloids or severe burn scars sent to

America

for plastic surgery

— met

with severe critieism upon their return to Fliroshima; thev were aeeused of such things as ha\ang received too much personal attention in Ameriea, become too x'\mericanized” in their dress and manner, too

mueh ehanged in general by the experienee, ete. dlie girls we shall observe, actually underwent a difficult inner sequenee

themselves, as psvehologieal

both eountries, but the point here is the degree to whieh other hibdkusha were agitated by the apparent nurturanee reeeived. In such cases ordinary hibdkusha may feel “betraved” bv those who have in

moved beyond the comentional quietude In

other words,

imposed

identity,

is

of the vietimized state.

the hibakushd-viciim,

hating vet clinging to his

threatened bv another’s being helped to transeend

hibdkiishd exelusiveness.

And

in

this perpetual rivalrv for

nurturance,

and eonstant anticipation of the counterfeit, a psyehologieal reaehed in which the more one wins, the more one loses.

state

is

9

)

Identity of the

Dead

'The ultimate counterfeit element for hihakusha dinarily persistent identification

w

ith

is

life itself.

An

extraor-

the dead underlies the problems of

dependency we have been discussing and extends into all areas of existence. For hihakusha seem not only to have experienced the atomic disaster,

but to ha\e imbibed and incorporated

including 1

hey

of

all

elements of horror,

its

evil,

and

it

particularly of death.

who

compelled to virtually merge with those

feel

with close family members but w

ith a

into their beings,

died, not onlv

more anonymous group

of “the

dead.” \\ c encounter concrete expressions of this identification in

A-bomb

orphans’ continuing sense of intimacy with dead parents— as conveyed in the twice-daily reports

by the shopkeeper’s assistant made before the

family altar containing the memorial tablets of his father, mother, and

younger brother:

Even though they evening

I

brother

...

dead now, every day in the morning and in the kind of report to mv father, mother, and younger

are

give a

still

as

if

talking to

my

...

parents.

I

them, with

tell

a

have been able to spend another da\’ safely. Although they are actually dead I feel as though they are watching over us wath the feeling that in my heart they are still feeling of gratitude, .

alive

.

.

I

.

.

.

that

w’hich

.

.

.

.

.

.

helps

me

a great deal.

.

.

Although only nominally a Shin Buddhist, he

.

reflects

the general

emphasis of Japanese popular religion upon continuitv with the dead,

and upon one’s

responsibilih' for placating the souls of the

to insure that they are content.

memorial

tablets

home, and

“Now

settled too,

and

He

told

that I

I

feel

have been able

to

that in w'hatever

souls be uncared for, the\- will

become

to those of the living wdio

atomic

bomb

order

that he had carried the

in various

become I

is

settled, they

do they give

me

must be spiritual

the fear that should such

restless, agitated,

and may bring

have neglected them. Here too the

ways upsets the balance: the obeisance never

seems adequate; the ordinar\- mourning completed.

in

about from place to place until finding a permanent

support.” But the other side of this belief

harm

me

dead

j^roeess

never seems

to

be

DEATH

202 Yet

IN LIFE

effort eontinues to lx*

tlic

orphan, told

me

made. Tlie

bargirl, also

an A-bomb

more and more about mv mother,” that (regarding difffeulties with her husband and her ehild) “I ean tell her things I have on my mind that I eannot tell others,” and that “just imagining my mother makes me happy.” She also deseribed “reporting” regularly to her mother; and on the day she turned eighteen, she did so form of

in the

am

I

a prose

eighteen.

but have

that “I think

I

poem, whieh she wrote

many hardships and mueh sadness young woman. Putting a little powder on mv

now beeome

a

my

wearing

lips,

take a romantie walk in the park.

grow?

make see

eannot remember your

I

new

a

her diarv:

have experieneed

eheck, a bit of rouge ou

I

in

dress,

I

eomb my

me. Mother, from sueh a

a flower-patterned dress,

Can you But

faee.

hair,

see

me

now. Mother,

in front of

vour pieture

eaeh time to show von.

I

as I

Can you

far plaee?

dead must be eontinually plaeated. At memorial both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I observed A-bomb

Publiely, too, the

eeremonies

in

orphans express similar sentiments toward their parents and

At the eeremony

parents. eity has

direetlv,

dead

“The

been rebuilt under the proteetion of the souls of the dead.”

a widely distributed

in

Nagasaki the mayor stated

in

all

orphans

in

film,

And sequenee about atomie bomb

during a

whieh the ehildren were told

that they should take with

them only

(in the

their

midst of a

most valuable

fire drill)

possessions,

they were shown rushing inside to reseue pietures of their dead parents.

We

find similar patterns in parents of

dead ehildren. The emotions

eontained in the phrase (quoted before in referenee to parents eolleeting the remains of their dead sons) “Mv son, I am taking vou home”

beeome permanent was told of

ones,

and by no means limited

to the unedueated.

I

a distinguished edueator

whose daughter was thought to have died near the university grounds (no one knew exaetlv where sinee no remains were found), who, eaeh August 6th, “made his wav silenth' to a plaee where he believes his daughter might have been killed, digs up a bit of dirt and says a prayer for her soul, in order to feel elose to her.”

he symbolism of water withheld from the dving also has lasting effeets. It reappeared in an aeeount, “Rivers of Hiroshima,” published 1

in a national

woman

magazine

a strange

in 1964,^- in

person

’

— among

whieh the writer deseribed seeing the

many

visitors to the

Memorial Monument one summer, earrving beer hiroshiki;

she knelt before the

a

A-Bomb

wrapped

in a

monument, poured water from

the

bottles

A-Bomh Man bottles into licr liancl,

and sprinkled

203

over the flower offerings lying

it

there— then repeated the process before each of several monuments. She turned out to be a kindergarten teacher who told the writer of the article that at the

time of the

bomb

manv

she had encountered

water from d\ing people, had denied

instructions received, bnt “even so, one

them

to

it

bv one,

pleas for

accordance with

in

much

after

suffering,

they became cold corpses.” As a form of “asking their apologies”

had gone the night before

years later, she waterfall

and performed

she drew water from

it

to a shrine

which contained

The

at the

time of the bomb. Also mentioned

August 6th

in

Hiroshima.”

essentially life-gi\ing foree,

Water,

maiw

this

psyehologieal struggle of the living

souls”

that “it newer rains on

other words,

seen

is

but one whieh ean also dissolve

eeremony performed by

little

in

is

both

article refers to

the beauty of the rivers and to their having “swallowed up

a

morning

a ritual of purification there; the next to offer to the dead.

manv

as

life.

an

The

anonvmous lad\' epitomizes the to “make it up” to the dead, to

return symbolieally to the dead the lives which they, the living, feel that

they “stole” from them. This guilt over survival priorih-

the source of

is

the continuing citywide preoccupation with the dead. Less verbalized but of equal importance

is

the fearful wish to separate

oneself from the dead, the inc\'itable ambivalence that

upon continuitv and merging. The young

stress

lies

behind the worker,

office

for

instance, in discussing the possibility of future nuclear wars, thinks of

the

A-bomb dead with

of her dving in that

If

I

were

great fear, associating

I

would then come

the painful experiences of those

who

same way they did ...

they died in great pain

It is

possibilih

same gruesome fashion:

to die the next time,

die in the

them with the

.

.

.

it

know all about ... If I were to

to

died before.

would be wretched. ...

from dreadful

diseases.

.

.

not quite clear whether she was suggesting a fantasv of reunion

At the same time thev remain deeplv threatening

to her,

upon the way they died— their “dreadful diseases”— is

in

is

such violent or premature wavs are particularlv

dangerous

to

the

living.

perpetuation of the urge

restless,

in

many hibakusha

stress

keeping with

who

die

unhappv, and

This continuing fear of the dead

we noted

strong.

and her

another Japanese folk belief to the effect that the souls of those

bomb

think

.

with the dead, though in any case her identification with them

in

I

at the

is

the

time of the

to rid themselves quickly of the corpses of their relatives; retained

2

04

DEAllI IN

I.

IFE

images of grotesque external and internal impairment aggravate what in any ease a universal form of anxiety. In his exaggerated obeisanee to the dead,

atoning not only for his

own

and separation

and

dead

fear of the

is

is

snrvi\al but for his nnaeeeptable wish to

sever his eonneetion from those for eontinnity

the hibakusha

then,

is

who

did not.

Some

sneh eombined urge

human

again universal to the

is

condition,

Japanese culture as in most others.

as strong in

But the disruptions and contaminations of the atomic bomb, phvsical and symbolic, intensify the need for continuitv even as thev heighten the urge toward separation.

One

of the resulting patterns

a particularlv strong

is

emphasis upon

the dead as spiritual arbiters— as the source of moral standards for the living.

Sometimes,

such answers

response to questions about the bomb,

in

'‘Those

as:

who

could

tell

vou about

it

would

I

best are

get

now dead”

“Those who died arc unfortunatelv voiceless.” And some in Hiroshima quote a popular saying, “The dead have no mouth.” Behind such or

expressions

not only the feeling that the dead “know best” about

lies

the horrors of the are entitled to

The

A-bomb, but

also that onlv thev,

make ultimate judgments

and not

in relationship to

survi\ors,

it.

professor of English expresses this sentiment, again with the aid

of a literary allusion, this time a line

from T.

S. Eliot:

seems to me that those who are alive are quite fortunate. 'khey have their \oiccs to express themselves, and \ou have of course been talking to them. But what about the voices of those who died? I It

.

am

thinking of 1

which, as

whose

poem

.

.

Four Quartets, a line as I can remember it, says: “There are some people were never heard during their lives, and after they

far

voices

.

S.

Eliot’s

.

.

.

[in]

have their chance to speak within the fire.” When I read these words, I felt very moved. ... I thought of the fires of Hiroshima. These days we are losing our faith in language

die

.

.

.

finally

.

.

.

.

.

.

but when I read these lines in T. former naive faith in language— in its .

.

.

feel.

...

question.

4 he I

hope

this question. *

voices

.

after .

of

those

who

S.

Eliot,

abilit\-

died

to

— that

I

returned to

express is

the

you have finished vour research vou

mv

what we important

will

ponder

.*

did ponder the question, even while doing the research. What particularly struck me about his associations was his need to find a connection with the moral authority of the dead as a means of restoring his personal faith in language, which is virtually I

s \ iis faith in life. 4Ee lines he referred to actually read: “They can tell you, being dead: the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.” suggest even more strongly the fierceness of this ,

.

A-Bomb Man need

'i'his

for

moral obeisanee to the dead

lias

205

profound inflnenee

upon the inner question of what is permissible in the hihakusha identity, or more aeeiirately, what is not permissible. Ilihakiisha eonand indeed judge harshly, their own behavior and that of other sur\i\’ors on the basis of the degree of respeet and awe this stantly judge,

behavior seems to demonstrate toward the dead. They are, for instanee, exeeedingly siispieious of any individual or group attempts at soeial aetion in relationship to the atomie are

more

eritieal of a

bomb

experienee.

hibakusha prominent

in

If

anything, they

sneh programs than they

are of outsiders, eonstantly aeeusing sueh a person of “selling his name,” “selling the bomb,” “selling Hiroshima,” or seeking to beeome an “A-

bomb

star.” llie

Japanese nail-hammering eultural ethos as well as the o\erall struggle with eounterfeit nurturanee mentioned before are important here, as are sur\ iv’ors’ bitter experienees of being manipulated by

ambitious leaders. But more fundamental aetions, in their very \itality, are

1 hese feelings are internalized aetion,

and beeome forms of

whose

eontroversial eareer has

is

the inner feeling that sueh

“impure” and an “insult b\’

to the dead.”

those hibakusha involved in soeial

self-aeeusation.

eombined

The prominent

politieian,

methods with passionate promotion of hibakusha programs of medieal and eeonomie assistanee, spoke defensively, as

if

old-stvle politieal

antieipating eritieism:

Perhaps you ha\e met many vietims, and some may have eomplained about eertain situations. ... I have not tried to sell my name that is not true. My eoneern has been onl\’ to help these people my

— —

whole

life is

dedieated to

this.

...

Apart from responding to aetual aeeusations of “selling his name,” his w’ords revealed his unaeeeptable realization that entering into his activities w’ere motivations of personal ambition and self-seeking preeisely w'hat are most impure and most an “insult to the dead”— rather than

—

their being purely altruistie serviee

aetions tion

(

and

on behalf of hibakusha. Sinee

all

partieularly politieal ones) eontain elements of personal ambiself-seeking,

he found himself subjeet

to

form of judgment and self-judgment (though nonetheless appeared to earry on quite effeetively and private life)

I

an impossibly purist

might add that he

in his publie aetivities

moral power of the dead; or, in psychologieal terms, the inner force upon the living of images of the dead, associated as these are with a sense of gnilt-satnrated human continuity. Recalling and reciting lines of poetry in a language other than his own, the professor had retained Eliot’s psychological message if not his exact words.

DEATH

20 6 I

he history professor deseribed a related personal struggle around the

idea of ‘‘selling the

bomb

atomie

his

IN LIFE

bomb”

in

experienecy dedicated to his dead wife, and entitled (in

rough English translation)

a

eonnection with a book he wrote about

My

Wife’s Corpse in

introduction by a friend states that “It course that of Mr.

II.

of

more

I’hcn

time.”

from

[the history professor] to

rather “our sole purpose

there will be ‘no

far

is

is

to express our pure

mv

‘sell

My

Arms.

intention,

An

and of

Hiroshima,’ ” but

and sincere wish that

Iliroshimas’ on this earth, anywhere, for the rest

the author himself,

in

a

long introductory poem,

how he had at first looked forward to using the royalties from the book for buying much needed clothes for his children and building a home “in a corner of Kyoto” in his wife’s memory. But as the poem explains

goes on to explain, the matter of royalties troubled

him

deeply:

When

the publisher sent his confirmatory letter / it made me feel timid and suddenly nervous / and the proposed royalty frightened

me. /

became

I

my

before

ghosts— / still

and restless during the day, / for eyes there appeared / hundreds of thousands of pitiful the dead who departed with you on that day / and those sleepless at night /

missing after these three years.

The

.

.

.

making money from writings on the bomb eyokes imagery of the dead, pathetic but also threatening, and this imagery is the essence of all self-accusations of “selling the bomb.” After two days and nights of these thoughts and visions, he decided to turn over all idea

royalties to

of

impoverished survivors.

momentarily)

new day

He

felt greatly relieved,

and

(at least

“The sun brought in a bright Again we observe the tyrannical

free of the intrusive ghosts:

/ and

my

heart grew light.”

moral injunction to act solely on behalf of the dead, to reduce personal needs to the point of selflessness in order to do what one can to right the impaired organic balance of death and

Nor

the outsider

is

who

investigates

life.

atomic

bomb

problems

free of

what I planned to do with mv material when I had completed my study— and one, an elderly countrywoman, more naiv’c and bold than most, went on to raise the question of my “selling the bomb”: these pressures. Several hibakusha asked

Well, on

radio program

which I heard yesterday ... a voung woman described how she was asked about diflferent things to help collect materials on the A-bomb. But she said she did not want to since the kind of study that was being made would end up bv .

.

.

.

.

.

a

A-Bomb Man selling the materials.

yon

and

.

.

.

This reminded

me

207

of having talked with

wondered if you were making a study in a similar direetion in whieh you were eolleeting materials on the Abomb in order — though it is improper for me to say this— to sell them.

Here

time,

last

.

.

.

was made

I

I

to feel personally the stringent

moral requirements

emanating from the A-bomb dead — as formalized (and perpetuated bv mass media) in imagery of “selling the bomb.” Nor have I been unaffeeted by these eurrents, or free from self-aeeusation eoneerning the interplay of personal gain

and

larger responsibilitv in carrying out the

work.

Hibakusha thus live under the perpetual burden of their survival. The emotion that the Buddhist priest described in them at the time of survival

— “All

of these people

them

destiny which enabled .

.

.

grateful

such blessing.

the miracle, the special merev, the

to live

.

.

[thev]

.

have missed death”— becomes

which one

state, in

which

to

felt

is

they have

[arigatai]

permanent psvehic

a

made an unspoken

specifies that the latter, in return for live,

blessed

never permitted to forget that others received no

It is as if

the survivors to

felt

pact with the dead

having died and permitting

are entitled to an aura of moral perfection, in

own pledge of self-condemnation and attenuThe statement we quoted by the Nagasaki educator— “Those

contrast to the survivors’

ated

life.

who

die are dead

this

and must bear

their fate,

but the living must

to the dead.

what has been

Arc we then

so often said,

justified in saying

by heads of

state

nuclear debate, about future wars:

general

about Hiroshima

and participants

stress,

would

I

rather than envy, the hibakusha's identification with the dead to

the point of feeling as

The hibakusha

if

dead himself.

identity, then, in a significant svmbolic sense,

an identity of the dcd J— taking the following inner sequence: died; I should have died; I did die, or at least I alive,

it is

impure of

also

impure and an

as

dead,

Can

in the

“the survivors envy the

dead”? There are undoubtedlv moments when thev do, but

if

with

dark feeling”— can be understood as an expression of the survivor’s

bondage

am

live

it

I

me

to be so; anything I

insult to the dead,

take the place of the dead

then be said that

am

who

and

not really

becomes I

almost

alive; or if I

do which affirms

life is

alone are pure; and by living

give

them

this identity of the dead,

life.

with

its

condemna-

tion of vitality per se, propels the hibakusha along a straight path to

208

DEA

suicide?

do not

I

1

II

IN LIFE

tliink so. I?)uring the period of

near total disintegration

many undoubtedly did cease to struggle to live and thereby hastened their deaths. And we have observed, in onr disenssion of mass media, the widespread imagerv of the A-bomb immediately after the bomb,

and causing them

“dri\’ing people crazy”

which always oversimplifies and

to kill

frecjnently distorts,

themselves— imagery but can nonetheless

contain elements of truth. Yet while there were no eonclusive statisties available

on suicide among hihakusha,

mv

general impression was that

they did not, as a group, demonstrate particularly strong suicidal tendencies^^; that

on the

elnng tenaeionslv to

eontrar\-, at all stages of their experienee,

thev

Although thev entertained imagerv of exchang-

life.

dead— as we know

ing their lives for those of one of the

to

the writer-mannfaetnrer— they tended, like him, to rejeet

be true of literal

self-

destruction on this basis:

Though

I

said

I

would

sacrifice

mv

life for

that of

mv

daughter [who

had died of A-bomb disease] this doesn’t mean that I don’t value my own life. There were people who committed suicide after the war, but I have no respeet for them beeause thev had no respeet for their own li\’es. I don’t think \ ou can solve anything bv just dving. In this

man,

as in other hibakusha, the

whole constellation of inwardly

symbolism— the embraee of the identitv of the dead— may, paradoxieallv enough, serve as a means of maintaining life. experieneed

For

death

in the face of the

burden of

guilt the survivor earries

with him,

particularly the guilt of survival prioritv, his obeisanee before the his best

means

of justihing

and maintaining

his

own

existence.

remains an existenee with a large shadow east across

it,

powerful symbolic sense, the survivor does not

be his own.

feel to

dead

is

But

it

a life which, in a

ATOMIC BOMB LEADERS

A

few

in

Hiroshima could

to public use.

seize

They became

upon

their

hibakusha identity and put

the kind of leaders

disaster, or general historical crisis, to

it

who emerge from any

help ordinary people cope with

extraordinary circumstances.

While

it

would be

any of them belongs

difficult to say that

select category of the '"great

man,” each has aspired

to exert

to the

upon

his

contemporaries the kind of influence characteristic of the great man: to

combine personality and

idea in a

way

Freud called the “wishes” of the rank and

that file,

group of wishes” or providing “a new aim

made

contact with what

either

by reviving “an old

for their

wishes’V ^ncl (in

Erikson’s phrase) to “increase the margin of man’s inner freedom bv introspective

means applied

For

to the ver\- center of his conflicts.”-

hibakusha these conflicts were concerned mainly with retained death imagery, and the inner freedom sought was release from death anxiety

and death

guilt.

The

unifying theme of hibakusha leaders, therefore, has

been the idea of “conquering death”— of demonstrating wavs of com-

prehending a profound upheaval

in

patterns of

ultimately of comprehending the fact of

theme, great

I

would submit,

is

in

and death, and

mortality

the primary function of

men, though strangely neglected

and greatness.

human

life

all

itself,

leaders

d’his

and

all

our explanations of leadership

DEATH

210 Great

men

IN LIFE

are, of course, rare,

recognizable. Their exceptional

and by no means always immediately moreover, usually manifest

qualities,

themselves in relationship to a gradually evolving products

selves

struggle.

The

generations— even

of

crisis,

centuries— of

split-second annihilation of nuclear

and are them-

psychohistorical

weapons allows

no

for

such nurturing time sequence. Greatness in response to Hiroshima, there

to

is

be such,

removed from the

may

well

come

later,

and possibly from places

leaders”-^

nonetheless a notable group.

who have appeared

What

unique importance experience. Given

various binds

that they

and

in

Hiroshima are

they have been, done, and sym-

bolized have had great significance for atomic

bomb

far

citv itself.

But the “emergent

also of

if

bomb

survivors,

in illuminating certain aspects of the

and are atomic

the special ordeal they confronted, and

vicious circles,

met with considerable

we

shall hardly

frustration

and

its

be surprised to discover failure.

Yet such were

the special dimensions of their task that, even in failure, thev teach us

much about the overall problem great man who becomes a leader. I

shall

vignettes

of the great

man and

summarize seven

different life patterns, the

and the

more

last

in

detail,

in

stvles

first

six as brief

order to suggest styles of

leadership which have developed from atomic

by no means complete, nor are the

of the less-than-

bomb

exposure.

My list

is

depicted always absolutely

distinguishable from one another. But they do suggest the various ways

which leaders have been able to live out inner imagery of death and rebirth, and to do so in a manner that could be imparted, however in

imperfectly, to followers.

i)

The Heroic Response

Of enormous importance

to victims of a large catastrophe

is

the kind of

leader who, immediately and totally, applies himself to the task of

combating the

assaults

was epitomized by

style of leadership

time of the

bomb

upon the environment and sustaining

in his late thirties

a

Hiroshima

and serving

This

life.

city official, at the

in a section

concerned

with wartime distribution of food and other goods. Hiroshima-born, he had, despite a family background of no special distinction, achieved elite status through Japan’s competitive educational channels, obtaining a

degree from a department within

Tokyo University

that has trained

generations of national leaders. This elite sense, along with a quality of physical and mental discipline that had made him an outstanding athlete in his youth,

may have

influenced his sudden mobilization of

energy in the face of the radical disorganization and demoralization

surrounding him. In any case, he became the

city’s

great post-bomb

provider— of food, clothing, and whatever could be made available to keep people alive. Finding the City Office

bomb

after the

fell

when he arrived there immediately (he had been at his home three thousand meters in flames

from the hypocenter), he quicklv building

still

makeshift

among

standing.

office

up

set

a

temporary headquarters

There he worked and

he went everywhere

in

the

slept,

city,

and from

in a

his

walking and riding

the dead, and encouraging the living. Learning that the mayor

was dead and observing that many older effective action,

They

say

officials

I

who

was working

he simply

— without

officials

were incapable of

thought or hesitation

— took

over:

shouted at and directed the deputy mayor and other were my superiors. I did not know I was doing this, as I like a

man

in a

dream.

He demonstrated great ingenuity in locating goods and getting them to people who needed them, along with unusual human skills in exhorting and shaming apathetic and even soldiers)

to help in his

total absorption:

resistive

people (city employees and

crusade— again with that

special intensity of

.

212 I

DEA

1

IN LIFE

II

cannot sav liow year

tliat for tlie

was

miicli I

do know simply was not aware of whether I

devoted m\self to

I

was doing

it,

I

work, but

tlie

I

ing or not.

li\

Intrinsic' to liis

psychological

leadership was his personal experience of the kinds of

suffering

characteristic

for

survivors

in

Wdhle

general.

carrying out his herculean task and living at his office, he had

little

contact with his immediate family other than brieflv checking to

make

sure they were

all right.

summoned him

But

few days after the

a

the bedside of his

to

bomb

dving father-in-law, abruptlv

reminding him of family responsibilities (“Strange to incident

had no thought of

I

my

decision of remainiug at his work,

house until after the

latter’s

still feel

relatives”).

and did not reach

He was

ser\ ice.

that

the painful

his father-in-law’s

with strong feelings of

left

miserable about it”), and in a later

neglect of family duties as

made

lie

until

sav,

death, though he did take a few hours off to

attend an impro\ ised funeral guilt (“I

an urgent note

“my

referred to

and described

great blind spot”

“confusion” over conflicting demands of family

memoir

life

lifelong

and public service—

a classic individual conflict within East Asian tradition.

Also in the manner of other sur\ivors, he became “terrified” about his

own

bodily state

when

his

white blood count, taken because of the

persistence of suspicious symptoms, was reported to be markcdlv low;

but instead of submitting to the complete

recommended, he found

a

rest in the

compromise solution

in

countrv that was

continuing to direct

distribution procedures while confining himself to the Citv Office, kle

was also capable of considerable despair— first at the ncu’S of Japan’s

mv

surrender (“I envied those of

then at the combined assaults

fellow officials

let

upon Hiroshima (“\Micn

loose

looked at the burned ruins, and then the flood,

what

He

to

I

simplv did not

I

know

do”) however,

was,

whether

had

who were dead”), and

in the

special

hard time

form of flower buds of the

meaning

particularly the

unusually sensitive

for us”); visits

Emperor

(“It

is

to first

suggestions

of

rebirth—

post-bomb spring (“these

from members of the Roval Familv,

something

like a child

who, having

in a stranger’s country, cra\’cs to see his parents.

...

I

a

was

completely moved”); or simply evidence of the most modest reassertion of

life in

the

city.

And

like a

number

also responsive to international

of other Japanese leaders, he

programs of

Moral Rearmament Movement, with individual guilt and public attainment. the

was

spiritual rebirth, particularly its

combined

stress

upon

Atomic

Bomb

Leaders

2

1

3

Repeatedly elected to high city office during the postwar period, he was able to apply his energies to the more methodical tasks connected with rebnilding Hiroshima. lie combined his determination to “turn calamity into good fortune” (as a popular Japanese saying he was fond of quoting puts it) with skills in negotiation and compromise ncccssar\’ dealings with

for

the

Japanese national government,

Occupation authorities, and \arions

snrvi\'or

groups.

the American

Whthal, he

re-

tained fierce local loyalties not onlv to the people but the geographical site of the city; and when some suggested that rather than building on

such a scorched and devastated area, place as

and obtain an

it

w'onld be better to ‘leave this

and more adequate spot on which to reconstruct a completely new' cit\',” he commented w'ith some pride that people were making their own decision on the matter by it is

entirely different

homes and putting up new' shacks on that very scorched and devastated area. Nor did the people of Hiroshima fail to notice that rebnilding their

he and

when

tion

were forced to undergo considerable personal deprivaOccupation authorities required him to set a personal

his family

example by prohibiting

his

wife from purchasing food at the black

market, then used by almost everyone in the struggle to get enough to eat.

0\er the

years

mediation

psyehohistorical

required to

he applied

make about

to

his

talent

the

painful

for

wdiat

decisions

might be

called

Hiroshima

the problem of memorializing the

w'as

bomb. He

responded simultaneously to the international interest in the citv’s unique experience, the complex feelings of hihakusha about anv form of ceremony, and the past behind told

it.

ci\ ic

and economic pressures upon the

Thus, discussing Hiroshima’s larger

city to

responsibilities,

its

he

me:

This experience should not be just confined to us. It is significant experience— it should be shared wath the w'orld.

But

put

a little later his

My

a great

and

emphasis was somcwdiat different:

about Hiroshima is to make it a city of brightness. In terms of geography and climate it has many advantages. It has beautiful surroundings, and w'C are verv fortunate in this. Now I w'onld like to emphasize the inner lives of citizens— to develop a real feeling

bright and forward-looking citv population.

Throughout he demonstrated one point he

left his

a flexibly

autonomous

political talent (at

party and broadened his support by becoming an

DEATH

214

inclcpcndcnt); a

IN LIFE

capacity

blend cfFccti\cly postwar principles of

to

democratic government (with which he was strongly identified) and

upon personal

traditional Japanese stress

ties

of obligation

commitment

dency; and a continuinglv passionate

and depen-

to small

and

large

hihakushci problems.

has been able to lead bv living out the classical

d'his city official

pattern of the hero:

first

“summons”— the atomic bomb

the “call” or

same time an immediate “awakening of the then the “road of trials,” in which terrible obstacles, especially

itself— which self”;

the

at

is

met and overcome; there was even, in the death of his a svmbolic “atonement with the father,” in which the his paternal bond even as he transcends it; and finallv, his

that of death, are father-in-law,

hero reasserts

achievement

for himself

to live.”^ His initial in

relationship

to

confrontation so

and particularlv

c|uickl\’

a

in

to

convert inner interpretation

to

that

there

was

punctuate

his

manner (unusual

reflected

bv

his tendenev,

words with

for

into active

time to formulate

not even

is

c|ualit\-

conscious convictions. This

movements

people of “the freedom

heroism was that of “action response,” a capaeitv, crisis,

our talks together,

for his

facial

during

and bodilv

that suggested im-

Japanese)

patience with any gap betw een thought and action.

But

also significant w’as his protean stvle of self-process,-'’

wTich permitted him

an inner

upon old strengths and old identity components (related to Japanese and Hiroshima tradition) while at the same time embracing new currents and bold innovations. In addition, it permitted him to experience, inwardlv and publiclv, the entire gamut of survivor conflicts, so that all hibakiisha could share in fluidity

his individual death-and-rebirth tify w’ith his

mediating

heroic exploits.

all

The same protean

bomb

epitomized

in

“selling his

name”

some measure

iden-

stvle eontributed to his feel all of

the complex

make compromises

life.

hibakiisha to

w'ith misery, to enlarge their identitv

he, too, faces the inevitable

in

eontroversv, and then

these ways he has helped

occupation

burden of

move bevond

without denving

pre-

it.

But

guilt: over survival prioritv, as

the episode of his father-in-law-’s death; and later over

made readily bv dimmed before thc\’

symbolism and

renewed communitv

in the serviee of

draw'

enabling him to touch and

skills b\-

eonvolutions of atomie

In

to

or “selling the

his political

bomb.” These

opponents

latter aecusations

as the luster of his earlv

were

heroism

the moral compromise inherent in evervdav politics;

w-ere beliewed

by some of

his

fellow-

hibakusha, and inevitablv

Atomic struck raw nerves in

weakened

tlieir target.

But

if

his heroic pattern, they did

what has been

pcrliaps

tlie

Leaders

tliese currents of guilt

215 sometimes

not prevent him from aehieving

most prolonged and

individual leadership that has yet occurred

atomic bomb.

Bomb

among

successful pattern of

those exposed to the

The

2)

A

Klystical Healer

very different style of life-sustaining leadership was exemplified by an

elderly married lady

who

has aehieved notable distinetion in Hiroshima

through organiza'ng a hibakusha group dedieated solely to excursions to the hot springs resorts in the area. Wdiat appeared to be a matter of simple physical and spiritual balm turned out to be

from an old A-bomb

much more. Lame

injury, large in her dimensions,

her opinions, she created an

imposing

figure

and outspoken she described

as

in

the

development of her group.

Her

more or less '‘logical” one. Having sustained and bone fractures from the bomb, she emerged

version was a

first

multiple bodily injuries

from twenty months of hospitalization with one leg considerably shortened. Three years later she began to suffer continuously from what she looked upon as

“A-bomb

disease”: mainly a severely eczematous

skin condition, but also persistent upper-respiratorv

and recurrent

gas-

symptoms, and general aches and pains. After she had experienced these symptoms for about six years, her husband convinced trointestinal

her to try hot springs bathing, recalling his

own remarkable

benefits

from the baths years before when afflicted with a chronic illness. She had never cared for the baths and agreed to trv them only out of desperation, but was profoundly impressed bv the

brought about well,

in

improvement

her condition. After three weeks she

and then began

felt

the}'

completely

to return to the hot springs resort regularly, noting

symptoms tended to recur if she stayed away too long. She began to recommend the “treatment” to friends and acquaintances suffering from what were thought to be A-bomb effects, soon found that her

herself arranging informal group trips,

husband and

partly through their

own

and

finally,

with the help of her

financial contributions, set

structured organization which eventually

came

up

a

to include several thou-

sand hibakusha.

But there was

a

second version

I

was

to hear in

which, while in no way contradicting the

first,

subsequent interviews

revealed the

much

less

and more fundamental psychological processes involved. This version centered upon death and survival (“There were at least ten rational

times

when

I

thought

it

was

all

over with me, that

I

would not

live”),

.

Atomic

Bomb Leaders

217

upon supernatural intervention (‘a patli God lias given me”), and upon a vision of an enormous black Buddha” winch she cx])cricnced when hospitalized and close to death:

...

it

[the

Buddha] was ... in a zazefi position.’^ The more it, the bigger it seemed to get— and the strange thing was .

I

looked at

that

it

said:

was absolutely black.

'dt

all

is

.

.

thought ... I was about to die, so I o\er with me. I am now’ praving before a black I

Buddha.”

Upon

arriving at the hot springs resort

there was a shrine nearby for a

some time

Buddha who was

later,

she learned that

said to

have come out

of the hot springs about

two thousand years ago, containing a statue of him that could be seen and w^orshiped only once in thirty years. She then inquired as to whether

been the one it

is

in her vision,

exhibited

obtained about

it

and

only once in

w’as black

and co\ered wdth

w^as told, ^‘Yes,

thirty

years.”

it is

dust, as

had

buried in dust, since

Further information she

and bodily features convinced her that it w^as “exactly like the Buddha I had seen” and that “this is really the guidance of God.” its

facial

Similarly, the “logical”

group benefits she spoke of earlier— fatigue

replaced by a sense of w’ell-being, opportunities for elderly hibakusha to relax,

do traditional dances together, and unburden themselves to one

another— give had been

w'ay to accounts of miraculous cures: a

so distorted

by keloids that her mouth

w'oman wdiose face w^as twdsted

out of

shape and she could not open her eyes had her mouth restored to its normal position so that she could open and close her eyes without difficulty;

hibakusha had

v'cry

low wdiite blood counts dramatically

return to normal; others wdio had been unable to breathe because of severe respiratory ailments suddenly breathed easily; and so on.

She summarized wdiat she had accomplished with a combination of awe ( All this is a great source of wonder to me ... a country woman wath no education and no special abilities”) and a pride that w'as by no

means modest springs

(“I

the

first

person in the world to advocate hot

bathing for hibakusha”)

orthodox medical doctors

am

initial

She

circles in creating the

skepticism tow'ard

* Classical sitting position for

it;

stressed

her precedence over

program, and

w^as resentful of

but she was visibly pleased by the

Buddhist meditation, with sometimes called “Lotus position.”

legs

and thighs interwound,

.

DEATH

218

IN LIFE

grudging approval eventually given her program by some medieal and welfare cireles because of

1 urning to her past likely to

encounter

in

its

life,

observable benefits.

she described the kind of childhood one

is

female saints and shamans, including the female

shamans who abound in traditional Japanese folk religion: great loneliness and unhappiness (she was brought up in an isolated farming area, her mother died when she was a very voung child, and she was burdened early with unpleasant responsibilities); emotional distance

from others,

thought to be related to the possession of some special qualitv (she was looked upon as being '‘different” and unusually “sensitive”); and exposure to an early emphasis upon spiritual puritv bv a meaningful person (her father was an unusuallv devout Buddhist who exhorted her to

“always

sincerity

wholeheartedly,”

live

and dedication

ground becomes married

life

a saint,

characteristic

a

plea

for

But not everyone with that kind of backshaman, or healer, and her childhood and adult )

.

had been quite unremarkable

bomb. She thought

Japanese

until

encountering the atomic

of this encounter as “the greatest event in

the stimulus for her religious immersion (“I thought

end— and

extreme point— the very

depend upon but religion”) She came to look upon herself through what was “not a

there was

had come

absolutelv

as a mystical healer

common human

I

my

life,”

to the

nothing to

who had been put

experience,” which invested

(“My coming across this would not have through ordinary human power”), and she implied that

her with supernatural qualities

been possible

her very presence caused others to derive healing benefits. But underneath these convictions there was a suggestion of defensiveness and uncertainty

— in

phrases that she used such as “this

“some people may not

believe me,”

and

when men are flying off into space,” as about how much of her supernatural friends

and

from

it,

seems odd to sav

“this

strange,” in

an age

well as in her apparent conflict identification

to her

to reveal

followers.

Hence we may illness in

mav sound

say that she

which she seemed

and

to

do so

in a

themes within her cultural

shaman and

emerged

to enter the

way

that

tradition.

of the mystical healer.

istic qualities

as a leader

realm of the dead and return

made This

And

through an ordeal of

contact with widely shared the classical

is

it

is

mode

likely that these

of the

shaman-

are unconsciously conveyed even to those in her group

who know nothing about of “therapeutic

her religious vision.® Also involved

waters”— particularly strong

where— which once more

in

is

imagery

Japan but found everv-

reverts to the idea of

water as a

life-giving.

Atomic deatli'dcfeating substance;

and

who emerge from a Buddha who came out of

heroes

Bomb Leaders

219

to related mythological beliefs of gods or

particular

body of water

the hot sj^rings)

(in this case the

to magically

work

their

cures.

She has thus made the hot springs healing shrines, something on

resorts her

group frequents into

the order of the Catholic shrine at

Lourdes, at which the themes of magic, faith, and group intimacy in varying proportions operate with considerable force. But the tone of defensiveness mentioned before suggests that her personal

myth

incomplete

which

it is

is

“fit”

far

from complete, and that she

between

expressed.

own

That

this is,

personal

her

own

is

mvth and the

her

belief in

troubled by an social

field

relationships to rationalitv

in

and

science on the one hand, and to the supernatural and the miraeulous on

the other, are deeply ambivalent.

Her

resulting reluctance to reveal the

some ways prudent,

on her power

as a mystical healer

content of her emotional experience

but

it

and

inevitably places strong limits

may be

in

full

as a leader in general. Also contributing to this limitation

is

the

general suspiciousness in Hiroshima (which she herself shares) that anv

such “cure”

is

likelv to

be counterfeit.

The

3)

A

Spiritual Authority type of leader

tliird

matters.

I’he

Buddhist

iustanee, has called

more eonventional

a

is

priest

upon

whom we

interpreter of spiritual

have referred to before,

existing theological principles in his

for

emergence

prominent spokesman on matters concerning the bomb. I found him to be a tall, erect man in his sixties who, despite a definite air of

as a

authority, immediately adopted a tense

discussing

bomb

atomic

all

For

issues.

impressive circumstances surrounding

power

and surprisingly personal tone

it,

own

his

exposure,

became the source

and the

of whatever

his leadership contained.

At the time maintain

bomb

of the

he had been kneeling

his

religious

imagery even

as

While

at first “this feeling

admit that he could not maintain

am

I

made me

his

calm

going to undergo an

calm,” he was frank to

in relationship to

witnessed immediateh afterward— “members of

mv own

and many others dying also” — so that “although

I

.

.

temple

“ever\thing crumbled around

me,” and had the immediate thought: '‘Now ordeal.”

in pra\ er at his

hundred meters from the hypocenter, so that he could

seventeen

faith

in

when confronted with

.

became uneasy,

filled

the reality of

what he

family dying,

thought

I

had strong

...

of this death

all

with worry, and with a sense of emptiness.”

I

And

during those post-bomb days he found himself in the predicament of a spiritual authority

I

had

to say

who was

something

himself deeply confused:

to

encourage people

.

.

.

but

I

mvself didn’t

have confidence in the encouragement I was giving them because I didn’t know anything about the A-bomb. Although I encouraged them, I really didn’t know when many of them might really

.

.

die.

Ilis

.

.

this to

tell

them

time— “If

he would ha\c wished

difficulty all faced in

of

.

that “If

we

die,

we

die together.”

But he

be inadecjuate, and his statement about people’s capacity

for belief at the faith,

.

.

solution was to

knew

.

.

it

had been possible

have

have such faith”— suggested the extreme maintaining a prescribed religious interpretation to

what they were experiencing. But although

inner terror were no

for a person to

less

his

own

confusion and

than the next person’s, he found the strength

Atomic

Bomb

Leaders

22

one way or anotlicr we simply had to live.” comentional theology failed, he resorted to more simple and to feci

that

forms of

in

human encouragement (“Don’t

defeated by a

example of

and

in

effort

and ingenuity

channeled

this strength lay a

his guilt

and put

direct

like

in foraging for food,

growing

obtaining the “things” he emphasized as necessary for

Behind

When

that— von shouldn’t be the A-bomb”); and he set a personal

thing like

little

be

1

himself,

it

life.

beginning formulation of his survival which

it

to psychological use:

asked myself the question, “Wdi\’ was I saved?” 1 hinking of my situation— the bomb falling while I was in the midst of praver in the main temple, and the enormous pillars in this large building which I

collapsed almost completely

—

had to conclude that it would have been quite natural for me to have died. It was strange that I still lived. And when these huge pillars fell and the eeiling collapsed on top of me, there was an opening above me ... if something had come through that opening it would have hit m\' head and killed me. But nothing did. I found that I could stand up so that half of mv body came out through the opening; this was because a roof-tile had been blasted away to create it. I simplv pulled mvself out through the opening and was saved. W’hen I thought about this, I could onlv feel that it was a miracle. I felt that someone who should have died had been saved. I was living, though I did not know why. I thought that my having survived was not through my own efforts, but that an outside force had brought it about, and allowed me to live. This gave me a feeling of mission. I thought there must be some mission for which I had survived. This sense of

a special

widespread

among

ground

him

led

“mission”

made

possible bv a “miracle” was

hihakusha, but his position and theological back-

to carry

“obliged to serve

.

.

.

I

...

further than most. Regarding himself as one

it

in a

higher cause,” he described feeling a

“new

me to recover mvself and surge back He attributed to this “call” the energv he

source of light, which allowed .

.

.

a call to

keep on

brought to the

living.”

difficult task of rebuilding his

own

temple, which he

looked upon as a “spiritual pillar” to sustain the people of Hiroshima.

Over the

years

he

felt

the need to carry his formulation further into

Buddhist thought, and came

to relate the

of mayoi, of being lost or straying.

human

expression of the fact that find the light of truth

.

.

.

He

atomic

bomb

thought of the

to the

bomb

concept as

“an

beings were in the dark, unable to

the extreme indication of

how

strong this

DEATH

222

IN

I.

IFE

mayoi had become/’ Referring

to

Buddhist conceptions of

'‘evil

ele-

ments”— hell, hunger, beastliness, and strife— he concluded that “The A-bomb came at a time when the world was furthest from Buddha, and had absorbed these four

elements as the

evil

maximum

And his prescription similarlv followed doctrine: “Man must come back to the posture

mayoi'’

way evil

of attaining real peace,

He

attachments.”

Buddha

the ashes of

“We

that

expression of

traditional

Buddhist

of truth” as the onlv

and “Man’s basic task

is

to rid himself of

fa\'ored the erection of a hussharito, or

tower for

(the ashes to be sent from India), and emphasized

should not be overly concerned about Hiroshima” because

“the main point

to

is

overcome within ourselves

attachment

this

to

Although he himself had participated quite activelv in peace movements, he criticized these because “thev do not confront the real

evil.”

77id}’oi— man’s lost state,”

truth

is

essential

and

stressed that “individual

any peace movement.” While

for

evaluate the general impact of his ideas,

mv

reawakening

to

difficult

to

it

is

impression was that thev

were not widelv understood or embraced, and that he was considerably '

'

had been during bomb.

We from

may

«

long-term conventional spiritual authority than he

less successful as a

more informal leadership immediately

his

after the

thus say that his greatest effectiveness as a leader derived

his early capacity to mobilize his guilt into a

Buddhist-derived

sense of special “mission,” and then experience and others a “call

even duty to

communicate to to life” in a way that emphasized the hibakusha's right and remain ali\e. But once this spontaneous earlv formulation

hardened into the contours of

became much

impelling— particularly so during a historical period

less

in

which Japanese

to

be stagnant and

ciples

in general find ritualistic.

cannot contain

which

clearly

classical religious theorv, his leadership

his

emerge

own

in

his

most conventional Buddhist practice

Indeed, these abstract theological prin-

still

powerful feelings of guilt and despair

emotionally charged

undoubtedly maintains considerable sway over “ordinary” spiritual interpretation of the

with

its

extraordinary impact.

bomb

his

recollections.

He

followers, but his

cannot adequately deal

4

)

The

Scientific Authority

Interpretation throngli seientifie ratlier than tlieologieal authority ereates another

form of

leadersliip particularly

important

in dealing

the elfeets of a “seientifie produet” sueh as the atomie physieist

we have quoted

with

bomb. The

before has been prominent in Hiroshima not

only for his aeademie position but for his aetive involvement in atomie bomb soeial questions and peaee movements. A middle-aged man who

was at

somewhat

first

reser\ed with

my

about the nature of

me and

possiblv a

little

suspieious

work, he beeame inereasinglv responsive and

outspoken during two lengthy interviews. Even when assuming an attitude of seientifie detaehment, his own passionate involvement in

atomie

bomb problems

Three

broke through.

guilt-laden features of his experienee greatlv affeeted his later

behavior and style of leadership.

The

was

first

his intimate relationship

with the pre-bomb militaristie regime as a eonsultant and enthusiastie supporter, a relationship to whieh he eonstantlv referred.

was the intensity of “the world

is

colleagues:

him

death anxieh- (we remember his feeling that

ending”) and

one

whom

and the other,

help,

his

The seeond

he

his guilt in relationship to the

death of two

thought he should have attempted to

later

whom

his senior professor,

he did help— earrving

to a hospital, unsueeessfully trying artificial respiration,

night w'ith the body in the open before

it

spending a

was cremated, and then

remaining with the dead professor’s family for an entire week, all the time behaving and feeling much as a son does in relationship to his father.

The

sional

error

third, in

and unique, feature of

asserting

that

his experience

an atomic

Hiroshima when military authorities sought short-wave radio announcement

bomb had

was

his profes-

not fallen

on

opinion concerning the

his

(from America)

that

one had. Al-

though he soon reversed himself, and although aware that the general confusion was a mitigating factor (he told

famous physicist sent from scientific statements),

man who, when his early thirties,

me

that even a

I’okyo a day later

much more

made more

erroneous

he nonetheless retained the inner burden of

a

thrust into a position of sudden responsibilitv during

made an

incorrect

judgment with perhaps damaging

DEATH

224

IN

I.

We are not

consequences.

IFE surprised that following

all this

the surrender

message had an overwhelming impact upon him:

university

.

.

because

.

meaningless. Physically, it

seemed meaningless

of the foundation of

ment than anything end of the war.

...

my

the entire structure of

felt

I

life

crumble.

my

work and evervthing else was the structure of the school was destroved, so

I

that

felt

to stay at the universitv

my

else.

deeided to quit the

I

.

was much more

life

Many

.

.

but

this collapse

a psvchological senti-

said they felt a sense of relief with the

did not have this feeling myself. During wartime

I

simply and naively went along witli the militarv leaders and went on with my work. This loss of a sense of meaning in my life was a very personal feeling, a loss of a sense of anvthing I just

I

.

.

.

could rely on ... a kind of despair. Before this it in the significance of the work I was doing. terminated and I felt a complete loss of hope. .

He

.

grieved, in other words, for the symbolic integrih- of his

professional challenge of rebuilding his department, both

plant and

its

I

was

in a

way

came

it

with considerable

that reasserted his sense of digniT' as a scientist.

his capacity to integrate

identity

slowly.

He had

atomic

bomb

problems with

a simultaneous feeling of

'"defeated in the scientific field”

a lot to

do with

this

own

his

by

his scientifie

having been

felt

that science

enormous destruction”), suggesting that even

one on the receiving end of the atomie Oppenheimer's phrase) "know sin.” His by

his scientific

by American superioritv and of being

implieated in what might be called "scientific guilt” ("I

had

bomb

can as a physicist (in

difficulties

were compounded

bodily fears. Sinee he found that these fears were intensified

knowledge of the bomb,

it is

possible that thev in turn

blocked further knowledge ("I had no true feeling of the realitv

bomb]

in

phvsical

at the verv center of this

rebuilding program”), but this time he discharged

and

its

thrust into a position of formidable responsibility

('"At the age of thirty-four or thirty-five

Yet

as well

personnel, served as a stimulus to his individual rebirth.

Once more he was

success

life,

dead colleagues. But he did not leave the universitv. The

for his

as

.

had hope and felt Now, mv work was I

[of the

relationship to radiation until two or three vears later”)

though one must

also

keep

in

mind

—

the general ignorance concerning

this issue

during early post-bomb years. In any case, science provided

him with

a sense of survival-justifying mission, not unlike that of the

Buddhist

priest:

Bomb Leaders

Atomic

225

feel a speeial obligation, a

I

my own

kind of mission, both in relationship to experience and because of being a physicist. My point is not

simply to

the greatness or largeness of the effects of the weapon, special quality, the ways in which it differs so much

stress

but rather its from other weapons, and in this sense about it, especially as a physicist.

I

feel

an urge to

tell

people

1 his mission required that he expand his scientific identity and become, as he put it, “knowledgeable in social science as well”— which for a Japanese intellectual at that time meant a study of Marxism and with yarious

affiliation

directly with the peace

groups, in his case those concerned most

leftist

moyement. His sense

of being a scientist was

still

he now concluded that “science sometimes had a yery good influence, sometimes not, depending upon its sponsorship,” and he became concerned with the need to bridge “the enormous gap crucial to him, but

between the masses and the intellectuals.” His embrace of Marxism followed what was again for Japanese intellectuals a fairly characteristic shift

from

a “restorationist”

(in political terms, rightist)

to a “trans-

formationist” (leftist) stance; and although important emotional patterns

remained unchanged, the

integrity."

He

eyentually

came

shift

helped him restore his sense of

into conflict, however, with not only

communist dogma but competing communisms, and he eventually came to a somewhat disillusioned, slightly more eclectic position. /Yet he retained throughout a science-related emphasis

cance of Hiroshima, a belief that “there

upon the unique

signifi-

a special historic destiny

is

which Hiroshima had been given in relationship to atomic energy, and that atomic energy has a special role to play in changing or converting

mankind and influencing human

And

it

as a scientist that

weapons— about

nuclear

weapon

was

itself

and

he came

their

to his general conclusions

destructiveness

changed the nature of war

in quality as well”);

the word

culture.”

about

their use

(“W^e

absolute,’ but in this case

to say that nuclear

.

I

.

.

(“I

know

about

that

the

not just in quantity but

scientists don’t ordinarily use

feel

we have

the right to do so,

weapons should absolutely never be used under

any circumstances whatsoever”); and

in

comparison with other man-

made death immersions (“Auschwitz shows us how cruel man can be to man, an example of extreme human cruelty— but Hiroshima shows us how cruel man can be through science, a new dimension of cruelty”). His continuous dual emphasis upon hibakusha and scientific identities

DEATH

226

was contained

IN LIFE he

in his assertion tliat

feels

it

the initiative in nuclear problems “because myself, and because

I

am

a scientist

necessary for liim to take I

experienced the

and know about these weapons.”

In general, he remained a highly respected scientific

bomb

problems, but a

political involvements.

much more As

bomb

spokesman on A-

controversial figure concerning his

in the case of the

Buddhist

priest, there

were

suggestions of residual fear, guilt, and despair which undoubtedlv interfered

with his leadership. But his status

exposed him,

and

science

in

scientists,

a

in

who have

it

is

our con-

in

any way contributed

among

among

to the

the devils, and those

among

always possible for some of the “devil imagery” to

over onto even those scientists

a physicist

who

fit

into the “god group,” so that

hibakiisha can both exert particularly strong influence

and arouse considerable ambivalence and doubt. In one

in

used their knowledge to do battle with these weapons

the gods. But

we

which surround

Hiroshima. There the tendency

construction and use of nuclear weapons

spill

interpreter

scientific

polarity universally experienced

to place those scientists

who have

a

addition, to the god-devil emotions

temporary world but especially strong is

as

this case,

moreover,

suspect that being thrust into a god role creates special problems for still

struggling with painful

and “human”

bomb and

in his

before

memories of having been

judgment and that.

his

all

too fallible

behavior both at the time of the

Overriding everything

is

the sense,

in

the

physicist himself as well as in his followers, that science— physical or

social— is incapable of supplying a precise formula for mastering the

atomic

bomb

experience or

its

related international dilemmas.

The Moralist

S)

Moral protest and

tion

ean beeome the philosophieal eenter of interpreta-

itself

was true of the leadership

aetion, as

hibakusha

style of a

prominent on the Hiroshima aeademie and politieal seene. Fdderly but vigorous, his rather ‘‘soft” manner was aeeompanied by a straight-baeked posture of determination, and at the philosopher-aeti\’ist

also

beginning of our talk he struek

“The more

questioning:

how mueh

realize

a

somewhat unexpeeted note

look into the

I

A-bomb problem,

do not know about

I

He

it.”

also

the

of self-

more

I

spoke of the

humanitarian eoneerns whieh motivated his early involvement in the problem (he originally worked with A-bomb orphans) and have re-

mained lost

at the center of his thought: “Just talking with

both parents and was

feel that

He the

.

.

.

we should

left

with a keloid scar]

stop the

— only

one

[who

girl

with her

— you

bomb,”

too had been closely associated with the military regime prior to

bomb,

as a professor of ethics

who

and with “dedication to interviewed, he directly emphasized of nation’

indoctrinated students with “love

victory.”

More than anyone

else

I

his residual sense of guilt over this

association as a stimulus for later peace activities:

Ever since the defeat ... for

my

He

.

.

could nonetheless

(“We

ideology

community— of destiny in sense

in

my mind

life

make to

as a

his

have worked for

stress

the

feeling

of

living

together

and death”)

human

to derive a

identity

more

community sharing

particularly

inclusive world view

(“but with

the atomic I

now

age,

look upon

a

and past

all

of

same destiny of life and death”). the struggles and conflicts of the peace movesevere stands against American actions were this

influenced by both organizational policy (domination of the

by groups

in

family or clan or race or nation— which shared the same

In his immersion in

ment,

I

use of a portion of his earlier restorationist

conceptions of the world are inadequate, and

mankind

the idea of atoning

.

used

shared

of

have had

and during all the time that idea has been prominent within me.

mistakes

peace, this

I

movement

United States), and by personal memories (he had been seriously injured by the bomb and had lost the function of one eye). But he eventually took a strong position against any “double hostile to the

standard” concerning Soviet or American (and later Chinese) nuclear

DEATH

228

IN LIFE

testing, stressing that “I feel rage in

both cases— there

difference/’ d’o be sure, his use of ‘‘so

inwardly

feel

some

difference; in

was recognized even by

Over the

any

his political

much”

is

much

not so

suggests that he does

case, his integrity in

such matters

opponents.

years he engaged in virtually every

form of protest— mass

meetings, marches, petitions, and manifestoes— but shortlv before

him he had adopted

American nuclear

of

scries

Cenotaph doing

and

so,

in the

he followed

though not so

my

among

to express his opposition to a

that of simplv sitting before

tests:

Peace Park and encouraging others to

for

Zen

classical

practice, holding a

sit

the

with him. In

Buddhist rosarv

zdzen position, quite fatiguing for the uninitiated,

sitting in the

since

new technique

a

met

I

him because

“I

have been used to

student days.” Although a

number

the devout, he later thought that “if

I

way]

[sitting this

did join him, particularlv

had held on

to

my

knees

more relaxed way [that is, in a way that did not suggest a religious mode] many laborers might have come, so I don’t know if I did the

in a

right thing or not.”

But

his sitting in that

manner was connected with

traditional Japa-

nese feelings to which he also gave expression: the philosophical doctrine of spirit over matter. protest, a little girl sitting?”

He

thus told how, during the third dav of his

approached him and asked, “Can you stop

it

bv

Struck by the profundity of the question, he evolved and

publicly proclaimed

that

“A

chain reaction of spiritual atoms must

He went on to equate the much more difficult task of

defeat the chain reaction of material atoms.” splitting of the nucleus of matter with the

“splitting the nucleus of the principle.

And he emphasized

for yourself

lose ego.”

human— the

ego,” the latter also a

that “once vou

sit

but for others, as an instrument of

He was

not above a

little

for ten minutes,

human

help, then

self-mockerv concerning his

Zen not

you

own

moral earnestness, and was quite proud of having been labeled (by an

American writer) “a human his conviction that there

But he was profoundly

was no alternative

cannot stop war, mankind

it

reactor.”

will

to spiritual protest, since “If

be destroyed— so we must go on doing

Underlying these philosophical assumptions was and drawing support from, the A-bomb dead: it.”

serious in

his sense of serving,

There is something special about sitting in Hiroshima in front of this cenotaph— I sat there on behalf of the dead, two hundred thousand people, on behalf of the “voiceless voices.”* *

The

group

phrase "voiceless voices” {koe ga nai no koe) has been popularly used for any not readily heard. It gained great national currency during the mass

— Bomb Leaders

Atomic

He went on experience per

number

large

to se,

emphasize

and

at the

tlie

time

of recollections of

229

speeial signifieanee of tlie

we it

hihakusha

talked was engaged in compiling a

for publication three vears later

on

the tu’enticth anniversary of the dropping of the A-bomb. lie would

sometimes idealize hibakusha emotions in such claims kusha deep in his heart has the sincere desire that

happen

anyone

to

movement

are

impediments

want

in

and “The ultimately

else”

hibakusha

the

“Every hiba-

this

should not

reliable people in the peace

Yet he

themselves.”

hibakusha participation

as

recognized

also

peace activities— “thev don’t

in

remember and what thev went through is inexpressible” and he knew that the “spreading fire” (he used the Buddhist term tobihi) of his form of protest had not spread very far. He closed our talk,

to

.

much

as

.

.

he had opened

it,

with a combined tone of determination

and confusion, emphasizing that he still felt “a verv strong urge” to work for his humanitarian goals, but was completelv at a loss as to what kind of

new

extremely

difficult

for contributing to

We

may

had come sions.

effective in confronting the ‘Teally

problem” of actualizing Hiroshima’s

to

WTile

world peace.

an impasse involving personal

as well as historical

his strong reassertion of classical

leadership.

himself as well

opposed

as

him, and undoubtedlv

psychological limbo in which

Japanese intellectuals have found themselves, in

his

For not onlv did followers)

with

it

it

it

manv

rebellious

profound

also created

cause conflict

prevailing

but

to these very traditional forms,

dimen-

forms of Japanese identitv

a great source of strength to

him from the

problems

special potential

thus say that as a moralist and a philosopher of protest, he

and ideology was saved

might be most

projects

left

(within

currents

stronglv

him with

a philo-

sophical idiom (spirit over matter) hardly adequate to the task he set for

himself,

and with

a

dichotomy between the two which both

contemporary physics and philosophy increasingly look upon

man who seems in his

upon

A

never free from despair, he finds psychic replenishment

commitment

to genuinely felt universalism, his concrete focus

alleviation of individual suffering,

sense of continuity with atomic

from inner

as false.

bomb

feelings of death guilt or

and perhaps most of

all in his

dead. But these cannot free

from

his

own and

him

others’ suspicion

demonstrations of 1960, when Prime Minister Kishi employed it to characterize his allegedly silent supporters. After that it was used mockingly by his opponents, and here the moralist reclaims the phrase for what he considers a properly serious meaning.

DEATH

230 of

counterfeit

IN LIFE

nurturaiice,

nor can

tliey

overcome

larger

historical

patterns of moral contradiction and ideological narrowness within the

peace

movement

Hiroshima

in general. lie

whom

not too

thus remains a highly revered figure in

manv

follow, a

man whose

integrity

and

determination are of great symbolic importance to hibakusha but not to the extent of convincing them that mastery of the atomic bomb experience

lies in

the direction of protest.

''A-Bomb Victim Number One’

6)

may

Lcadcrsliip

also take a

ease of the souvenir

Hiroshima

as

\

form

\\

e

may term

“bodily protest/’ as in the

endor we have already referred

to,

“A-Bomh Vietim Number One.” His

known widely

in

small shop was

located next to the shack in which he lived, verv close to the

many

Dome, and had A-homh themes.

of the post cards and souvenirs he sold

known

Further, he was

atomic

bomb

enter readily into discussions about the

to

with Japanese and American

visitors,

and on occasion

to

take off his shirt and demonstrate the extensive keloids on his chest. 1

hese acti\ities have led

“selling the

from

many

to point to

bomb”; and he has

him

as the arch

example of

received additional public attention

meetings and

his active participation in protest

in a grass-roots

hibakusha organization he helped to found. d

heavy-set, robust-looking,

all,

manner and

relaxed

deformity of one of

long unrulv hair, his flambo^•ant

movements made one unaware of the claw-like his hands and the general keloid formation on the

other as well.

He was

nections, but

when informed

freely,

\\'ith

at first slightly

warv of

possible political con-

mv

of the purposes of

indeed volubly, with the articulate

ing his background, he told

mv

how

skills

of a raconteur. In describ-

his father, despite

had been denied the family inheritance

work, he spoke

being an eldest son,

Hiroshima

in a rural area near

because of being judged “financially incompetent”— a label the father

proceeded to

out as he drifted from one small business venture to

live

another (“whatever enterprise he achieving a certain churia, a kind of

amount

would

fail”) until finally

of prestige as a rightist-adventurer in

minor administrator of the plans and

military clique there. for his

tried to start

While

the vendor

remembered having

chronicallv absent father, he did recall a certain

Man-

plots of the little

respect

amount

of

him and spoke of him as having been “large-bellied” (futoppara)y that is, bold and magnanimous. It was his “good mother,”

affection

for

however, a

almost to

strict

and orderly

woman and

full responsibility for his

be baptized and trained

He had training he

upbringing, and

his

way

took

who

arranged for

him

in Christian principles.

limited schooling, and after a certain

made

who

a devout Christian,

amount

of technical

(partly following in his father’s footsteps) into

DEATH

232 the more or

less floating

moving

in I’okyo,

IN LIFE element of the Japanese working-class culture

from place

easily

and job

to place

to job,

embracing

Marxism then being widely disseminated in these groups. Despite having known a certain amount of economic hardship, he could later look back on that decade of his young adult life with considerable the

Returning to Hiroshima

nostalgia.

work supporting the war

technical

military

for

service

and

civilian

ideology dissolved

effort, his leftist

under the strong group pressures of coercion and enthusiasm mounted by the military regime, and he experienced what was known as tenko, a form of volte-face or political conversion (really closer to “backsliding”)

common among

Japanese intellectuals and workers at the time.

Running throughout toward

early life

his

was a pattern of rebelliousness

agencies of authority, but a rebelliousness that was constantly

all

when

thwarted:

in

many

eventually adopted rightist thought,

conflict with

he

later

his

father,

he withdrew, and then

of his father’s ways; originally opposed

embraced

it;

when doing

to

his militarv service,

he was appalled by the gratuitous brutality he observed, but adapted himself to it without protest; and when he objected to hypocritical behavior on the part of Christian authorities, he simply drifted away

He was

from Christianitv.

unable to commit himself to anv authoritv

sufficiently to find personal stability within the balance of obligation

and

dependency required by

self-

culture.

his

The

easygoing pattern of

indulgence which he adopted, however, was to become modified by pre-

bomb and

his

He

and the attitude which resulted was expressed in a motto he friends adopted: “We might as well die with a healthy color.”

fears,

admitted that “I trembled with

fear,”

and the contours of the

severe burns sustained on his hands were related to his having, at the

moment

the

bomb

fell,

“instinctively” squatted A «

protectively around the back of his head.

and thrown

Exposed

his

at fifteen

hands

hundred

meters, he was able to dig himself and his wife out of the debris in

which they had been buried, but he experienced a painful ordeal, with extreme residual guilt, in relationship to the death of his father. For during this

initial

period “I did not think of

my

father”;

and when he

found him nearby, naked, bleeding, almost unrecognizable, he was unable (injured as he was himself) to support both his wife and the older

man

father

in crossing a

by the

river

nearby

river to flee the city.

He

bank, and heard from a neighbor

remains (“These are your father’s bones”) thereafter at an aid station to

llie vendor himself spent

therefore left his

who brought

his

that he had died shortlv

which he had been taken.

more than

five years in hospitals,

mostly

Bomb Leaders

Atomic because of his severe burns and external

remembers being to

injuries,

2

tliougli

33

he also

told that both his red

and white blood counts were at \ a \ dthathc was considered on several occasions to be close death. Because of the severity and prototypical nature of his injuries,

he was frequenth’ singled out for demonstration to visiting Japanese and American medical dignitaries, to which he seemed to react with mixed feelings of

And he

resentment and pride.

struggles with hospital authorities over the

He

handled. tices

himself initiated a series of

way

in

which

was

his case

raised particularly strong objection to discriminatory prac-

because he was a public charge rather than a paying patient, and

perform operation after operation to restore maxifunction of his hands because “in order to work as a man in

insisted that doctors

mum

...

society

wanted

I

to leave the hospital only after being completely

cured.” Significantly, his protests did seem to improve the care he

form of new drugs, from which he recalls striking the innumerable surgical procedures performed on his

received, both in the benefits,

and

He

hands.

in

also

formed

small patient organization, which

a

voiced

about inadequate food and sanitation, and exposed

collective concerns

various kinds of petty corruption within the hospital.

Looked upon by hospital ofBcials as impertinent and demanding, he was finally more or less forced to leave by the cutting off of his welfare privileges. According to

an American

his account, the idea for his souvenir stand

officer

with

whom

demonstrations of his bodily

he had cooperated

injuries; the

same

came from

in

submitting to

officer

helped obtain

approval for the stand to be set up in an area close to the hypocenter.

He

American complicity in his being unofficially designated “A-Bomb Victim Number One,” smilingly referring to a group of American journalists who interviewed him in the hospital as '‘godalso describes

parents” in the christening, and specifically attributing the term to

one of the American group. Again for this kind of distinction

should

found

and

it

feel grateful or it

his attitude

about being singled out

was ambivalent (“I didn’t know whether

not”).

He

claimed that he disliked the

name and

“embarrassing,” but added: “I can do nothing about

somehow

has

become

part of

I

it

.

.

.

my being.”

His organizing a hibakusha group was partly a result of the response to a diary

he published concerning

had significance

for

him not only

his

A-bomb

experiences.

in successfully

The book

reawakening a long-

forgotten literary interest, but also in the pride he took in having been

able to complete

its

actual writing by an idiosyncratic

wav

ing his pen with his injured hand (he had dictated the

of manipulat-

first

portion of

DEATH

234 and

it)

development of

in the

process. In

IN LIFE

any event,

a rather distinctive

letters

tlie

and personal

couraged him, together with others, to create

who, he

felt,

shared “a

common

handwriting in the

visits

he received en-

this organization of

people

destiny” of suffering, and could

encourage and console each other.”

He and

his

fellow leaders

now first

turned for help to Christian groups in Hiroshima, Japanese and American, because these groups were particularly active in welfare programs

and because they had material resources made possible by American contributions. But he rejected this affiliation, as he had once before in the past, and became highly critical of Japanese who became what he called

instant Christians

on the

’

and who overcame

received,

basis of ‘‘chocolate

their

“strong

and clothes” they complex” by

inferioritv

“being able to speak with Americans in broken English ... or by just walking with an American in the town.” He was equally critical of

churchmen

Christian

and

for

imposing their own

beliefs

upon hibakushay

them for their own purposes. But he nonetheless specifically compared his own activities in visiting fellow hibakusha and encouraging them to “unburden their hearts of their worries” to the utilizing

work of Christian

He and

his

ministers.

group sought

to

promote hibakusha

further medical treatment and wider

economic

benefits,

themselves with militant forces within the peace protest nuclear

had a

weapons

testing.

special stake in nuclear

been affected by

radioactivit\'

He emphasized

problems because .

.

.

interests

and

movement

also allied in order to

me that hibakusha “we who have already to

more danger

are in

by obtaining

of our lives than

nonhibakusha” and because “we hibakusha know what A- and Hbomb war really is and what would happen to mankind if there were a are

new war

in the future.”

Concerning the power of these weapons, he echoed popular sentiment in insisting that “We hibakusha don’t need the scientists to

One

tell

group of

us this.”

he attacked with particular fervor was the American-sponsored Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. He demanded that the program be turned over to Japanese scientists, that scientists

hibakusha receive medical treatment instead of being examined only for research purposes, and that they receive financial remuneration for the

time devoted to being examined. the term

guinea pigs

of hibakusha, as

we

some

shall see later)

’

Whether

in reference to the

believe,

it

became

or not he

was the

first

to use

American group’s treatment

for

him

a clarion call,

and

(as

took on enormous importance for overall Japanese-

Atomic American atomic bomb

He

relations.

Bomb Leaders

told of speaking to the

235 head of the

ABCC in the following terms: Most hibakusha have

to

support their families.

work very hard

When

they

and they spend

to earn their daily living

come

to your place,

whole day. In doing any research, even guinea pigs are but you are treating us worse than guinea pigs— which means you

half or even a fed,

are not treating us hibakusha as

human

beings. Since your research

is

made

possible by hibakusha alone, since your guinea pigs are living, since we are human beings, it should not be too much to ask you

and for some compensation.

Yet he favors more, rather than less, American involvement in hibakusha problems, urging that Americans who come to Hiroshima, instead

am

of simply saying “I

more useful form of atonement and restitution for their sin” and “make reparations toward hibakusha'' by creating a special center which would both provide jobs and arrange other emplovment for them. As might be expected, his effectiveness as a leader has fluctuated sorry” or 'Tlease forgive us,” find a

‘

greatly.

period of time he has

Ov'er a

become

a

convincing public

and many have responded favorably to his hearty, often witty, workingman’s style. Others have found him erratic, exhibitionistic, and speaker,

One

commented that “The great burden [of burns and injuries] he carries gives him the feeling that he is justified in making others yield to his opinions”— suggesting some of the difficulty

self-promoting.

observer

he has had working with others.

WTen

things were not going well with his leadership, as was true at

the time of our interviews, he would experience periods of negativistic despair, lash out at

sense of futility personally

ri\^al

in

peace

movement

everything he was

abandoned because, concerning

his shack (in

leaders,

doing.

and express

He

a general

described

feeling

a threat of dispossession

from

accordance with a city plan to turn the area into a park),

“no one has seriously worried about me,” and contrasted this neglect with his own spiritual and physical assistance to other hibakusha in the past.

He

directed

much

of his bitterness toward the two great nuclear

powers for their continued testing

(in 1962)

and even gave voice

to a

version of the ultimate expression of retaliatory hibakusha hostility—

“Perhaps America and Russia don’t

bomb

really

know how terrible the ARed Square in Russia, and

we dropped a bomb on, say. made them become victims for once, then they might understand is,

so

if

a

DEATH

23 6

IN LIFE

—adding

that he

had often heard such things said by hibakusha but now for the first time found himself sympathetic to them. He went even further and spoke (with more anger than humor) little

better’

of the idea of starting a “despair cease their protests

nuclear

tests,

and

and

tell

movement,”

which hibakusha would

“You can go on making your

the world:

you are not

if

in

satisfied

with

tests alone,

vou can go

ahead and drop A-bombs and H-bombs.”

While no single psychological cause can explain this despair, it can be looked upon as a generalized expression of the impotence we have noted in him before. For just as his exhortation of hibakusha to be vital and

own

sensual was veiled bv his

mav we

sexual “death,” so

sav that his

many

forms of insistence upon hibakusha “rights” veiled an inner suspicion that both the goals and the quest were counterfeit. Thus, when accused of “selling the bomb,” he would angrily point out that he

man

was a poor

just

managing

and

to live

having burns as bad as mine, having your living

through the painful conditions

But he did so in had been aroused. For in years?”

a a

way

I

life

ask,

“Why

hang by

have

for

don’t you trv

a thread,

and then

the past seventeen

made clear that much in need of

that

considerable guilt

so

recognition, being

man

and particularly being ignored (he had also undergone a loss of personal status in hibakusha organizations) can strongly exacerbate every form of prior potential for self-condemnation. criticized

What

strikes us

about

his leadership in general

was that

it

revolved

around the problem of counterfeit nurturance. From his first being selected as a “classic example” of atomic bomb injuries, he became something like the hypothetical man mentioned before who totally

Nobel Prize for experiencing the atomic bomb: his prestige and power came to depend upon his ha\ing been victimized. Parareceived the

doxically, his severe

tion taught

way

him

a

bomb

atomic

new way

exposure and prolonged hospitaliza-

to deal with old conflicts ov'er

dependency, a

of giving in to a previously suppressed urge to be cared for

and of

mobilizing his antagonism to authority accompanving that urge. That is, with the atomic bomb, he found his metier, a means of expressing his previously thwarted rebelliousness in a

(improving his medical treatment,

manner both

etc.)

useful to himself

and meaningful

to a larger

group. But in the process he conflict

came to svmbolize the painful hibakusha ov^r continuing demand and unrelenting suspiciousness toward

that which

is

problem of counterfeit nurturance. and psychic inclination toward exhibi-

offered, precisely the

His combination of injuries

•

.

Bomb Leaders

Atomic tionism enabled

But while

this

pleas to larger this

way

him

make

237

body almost literally speak for him. eould be done with some foree, and he eould relate his to

liis

human problems

of peaee, the use of a

damaged body

in

ultimately profoundl}- humiliating— so that his leadership through bodily protest is still another symbolie expression of his struggle

with

is

impotenee. Also deeply enmeshed

nurturanee

is

who

mueh

in

problems of eounterfeit

profoundly ambivalent relationship to Ameriea and Amerieans, his eombination of eloseness to and resentment of those did so

his

to ereate his speeial

“image” and

way of life, and from whom he eontinues to demand help. He even eame to suspeet as eounterfeit his entire involvement with the militant peaee movement (a suspieion, to be sure, eneouraged by mueh of the dogmatism and ritual within that mo\ ement) His strength as a leader lay

— his

largesse

his

in his eapaeity to use his

and general human

skills

— to

live

own

“big belly”

out everv hibakusha's

problem over eounterfeit nurturanee. And there is no doubt that he has had eonsiderable sueeess in doing so; or that he has in the proeess aehieved, and helped others to aehieve, a eonsiderable measure of

autonomy, however eompensatory

his quest.

But leadership

so

bound up

with the negative equation of eounterfeit nurturanee (the more one wins, the

more one

loses)

is

bound

to

bog down

in guilt

and

despair.

A-Bomh

7)

A

Zealot-Saint

upon absolute individual dedieation to eounteraeting the “devilish” influences of the atomic bomb, as was true of another “common man,” a thirty-four-year-old “day laborer” whom some in Hiroshima thought a fanatic, others a saint. He was final style of leadership

known mostly

is

that based

as a leader of a children’s

group called the Folded Crane

Club, which has carried on a broad range of activities— visiting hospitals

A-bomb patients and to serve as a “A-bomb disease,” providing various

to help

of

sweeping

halls, etc.

for

)

“family” for hibakusha dying services

up

(setting

chairs,

peace meetings as well as participating in them,

disseminating additional

pleas

peace printed on a crude hand-

for

operated mimeograph machine, conducting correspondences with

dren and peace spokesmen throughout the world, and greeting national visitors to Hiroshima with

leis

chil-

inter-

of folded paper cranes— with the

day laborer himself always actively encouraging, instructing, and shepherding his

flock.

The one-room shack which he and

Dome

also served as a

clubhouse

his wife

occupied near the

was

for the group. It

virtually devoid of

furnishings or personal possessions but full of scrapbooks,

and

pictures, particularly of children

effects.

years,

Small and

frail,

electricity of his

A-bomb

died of

series of interviews)

in a childlike fashion.

and intense

dinarily alert

mementos, after-

looking considerablv younger than his thirtv-four

he would sometimes (during a

and passive or smile

who had

A-Bomb

as

More

seem quiet

often he was extraor-

he generated the soft-voiced emotional

concerns and convictions about the atomic bomb, in

relationship to which he never smiled.

A

background of

making him childhood

was two years

the

into

in a

a special kind of dcpri\ation

unique

man he became. He

to

old, leaving

him with

an assistant to

a

and drove himself

Catholic

priest,

a mixture of guilt (“I a near-martyr,

“spent his

last

do with

spent his earlv

Japanese communitv in Peru. His father died

he died”) and of mythologized imagery of as

had much

when he

was born and

who

in ser\ing

penny on the poor”

so hard that “he gave his life for his work.” His being

denied access to pictures or possessions of his father seemed to intensifv his identification

with him, and he told of later comments of his familv

Atomic friends to the effect that

“my

father’s

to repeat

my

(just before leaving

Japan), to his father’s grave, where he was

first

which the

become

coffins

my

father’s folly.’'

The special quality of this imagery was memory of being taken, at the age of ten in

39

2

blood was running through

and warnings that he “take care not

veins,”

Bomb Leaders

revealed in a strangely vivid

shown

were kept,” where “I saw

Peru for

“a large building

my

who had

father

and the clothes he had been wearing which had turned brown.” d’hc memory (which was probably a mixture of confabulation and actual experience) also included the recollection that a skeleton

.

“the cemetery was

.

.

filled

with wreaths of flowers”;

conveyed awe,

it

dread, and festive beauty, along with the indelible impression “that

my

must be someone with a verv deep relationship to me.” Other legacies from his father were a Catholic baptism and the name

father

“Angel” (or rather the japonized version of the Spanish word) by which he was known through his early childhood. Mis mother, a stern, hard-working struggle against poverty, conveyed

woman whose to

was a constant

life

him what might be termed

philosophy of emotional withholding, emphasizing that

much

mitted too

becomes and he fied

by

recalls

She

also practiced this philosophy,

with pain a general sense of love denied, as exempli-

mother’s failure to attend school meetings for parents, by her

his

“not having the time” to prepare children’s

child per-

“t/mdcrn” (love, affection, dependency, or spoiling)

insensitive to others’ needs.

still

a

a

sushi'^

for school outings “as other

mothers did,” and by residual bumps on

head which he

his

equated with her having neglected to care for him properlv (turn him over

when

necessary)

behavior (“I impression

as

know what

of

“what

toward a cat we

feel

a baby.

at

times he justified her

a severe life she had”),

he was

mother she was

terrible

a

Though

protective

.

.

.

left

with an

because even

and affectionate.” She ignored her

husband’s Catholicism and brought the child up under the sway of a strict,

fundamentalist Buddhism: on the one hand showing him ghastly

pictures of emaciated people undergoing extreme suffering midst the

horrors of Buddhist Hell, emphasizing that “if you do not things, this will

of

life

happen

to you”;

of any kind because

and on the

do good

other, opposing the taking

“Buddha has mercy upon

all

creatures.”

Gradually becoming aware of the “mothering” and “fathering” he

was missing, and *

later of the

antagonism toward

his

mother and himself

Pats of raw fish (or vegetable) with rice, flavored with vinegar and spices, an indispensable element of children’s (and adults’) excursions.

2

DEATH

40

emanating from

IN LIFE he eame to

his father’s family,

emotional sense, an abandoned ehild.

Korean boy

speet, as ‘dike a

in

He

feel himself, in a basie

referred to himself, in retro-

Japan” (a strong statement when one

eonsiders the diserimination and hatred the Japanese have direeted at

Koreans), and

still

experienees sadness and envy

when

He was

reeeiving loving eare from their mothers.

observing babies

also a

“hungry ehild”

(who, when seolded by his mother, would rush to a nearby banana

and

“fill

my

stomaeh by eating bananas”)

as well as a

field

“hoarding ehild”

(who, rather than play with the few to\s he reeeived, would hide them in obseure plaees to

make

early tendeneies take

stole

them from him). These

on partieular signifieance

in the light of his later

sure that

no one

them and his emergenee as a “man without appetites.” But even as a young ehild he had an urge to nurture others, as expressed in an ambition to beeome a department store manager who eould set very low priees and “supply things of good quality” to all. reversal of

He

developed two other eharaeteristies probably neeessary to leaders,

though

insuffieiently studied as sueh.

One was

whieh eannot be dismissed

sexual identity

name “Angel” with

tion to associating the

enjoyed “playing

girls’

games with

girls”

a quality of flexibility in

as

mere confusion. In addi-

a

feminine inclination, he

and abhorred the fighting and

violence of boys’ games. These tendencies contributed both to later

nurturing capacities and

which made

it

to

a

quality of psychobiological

possible to negate personal interests

neutrality

and enlarge

his

sphere of social response.

The second

characteristic, probably closely related to the

first,

was

a

problem of death. His

father’s early death as

well as the various forms of supernatural Catholic

and Buddhist imagerv

particular sensitivity to the

he was exposed

to

undoubtedly contributed

to

this

sensitivitv,

but

perhaps of equal importance was his experience of prolonged feelings of

abandonment case, early

so profound as to constitute a svmbolic death. In

anv

death anxiety was prominent, as expressed, for instance, in an

intolerance for the scenes of bloodshed and death which occurred so

prominently in Japanese period

was

films.

But accompanying

this anxietv

a sense of himself as a savior.

He

thus recalls an episode in which, at the age of nine or ten, he

suddenly interrupted the play of a group of children because he remembered a lesson from science

without

air,

men

die.

He announced

in a closed-off

room

class to the effect that

to the others that

“we would

die

soon,” and having initiated a general rush to open windows and doors, “I felt

I

had saved the

lives of

many

children.” This image of himself as

Atomic

Bomb Leaders

2

41

one

could rescue others from death— vvlio could provide lifecontributed greatly to his lifelong inclination toward pity and nurturance for

Peru he

those he

all

tried to protect

slipped free candies to

felt

be oppressed— for the giant

to

from children’s

when

turtles in

teasing, the Indian children

he

came into his mother’s store, the Koreans he befriended in Japan, and the hospitalized soldiers he voluntarily nursed at the age of eleven or twelve. But his attempts to do the same with his own mother when she became critically ill — to tend (as a

boy of twelve)

Japan) going

in

they

to her needs, to

keep the family store (now

order to be able to pay for a doctor and at the same

time continue to attend school— ended with the

and

in

'"failure” of

her death

his resulting sense of guilt.

He

became a homeless waif ("From that time on I was alone in the world”). He worked sporadically at odd jobs, was unable to remain in school, often went hungry, and was once picked up by a policeman and sent to his father’s relatives. But he was unable to remain then

literally

there long both

because he was badly treated and because of the

tendency of these

speak

relatives to

ill

of his dead parents (which his

suppressed resentment toward his parents for "abandoning”

him and his guilt would not permit). In other words, he became an "A-bomb orphan” long before the A-bomb. But he did eventually manage to find semi-skilled

work

in a factory outside of

Hiroshima, and with the help

of the moral indoctrination he received at a youth school,

work there continuously

when

the

bomb

He was

for several years until the age of seventeen,

fell.

He found

himself immediately overwhelmed by the things he

saw and particularly

sensitive to the issue of survival priority

confronted him at every turn.

He

recalled

stop,

committed

a

a

and was

left

policeman trying

policeman pointing to "This

and move

its

with the self-accusation that "I had

little

boy a

to force

to feed

dead

him some moistened

woman

boy was clinging to

open the mouth of an injured

his

still

in the policeman’s arms.

at the time that

he did not notice

biscuit; of the

covered with blood and explain-

mother and

I’m hungry. Mother! Mother, wake up!’

becoming

eyelids

kind of crime.” His "ultimate horror,” however, was the

three- or four-year-old

ing,

its

enraged by the refusal of the others on the truck to heed his

and

image of

which

one body, piled among those

about to be cremated, which began to blink

pleas

to

then called upon to join a rescue team which entered the city

by truck.

eyes, felt

managed

of the

He was

crying, 'I’m hungry!

boy

finally himself

so absorbed

his truck drive

by the scene

away without him, and

DEATH

242

IN LIFE

he choked up with sobs

He remembered

vvlien telling

me

the story seventeen years later.

feeling fierce hatred toward

America

moment,

at that

wishing to be called up quickly into military service (he had volunteered

Navy shortly before) so that he could do and ‘hiot let them get away with this.” for the

his part in retaliating

Affected bv general fears of invisible contamination, he

own

over “cowardly thoughts” about his

than anyone

else

felt guilty

interviewed, to take inner responsibility for

I

more

death. Indeed he seemed,

He found

death and symbolic social death around him.

of the

all

“really

it

unbearable” that people stole wristwatches from the dead and the dying, experienced “grief over the wretchedness of

then

in

the days that followed

much

“very

felt

kind of situation in which people had to

live

human

nature,” and

disheartened” by “the

by deceiving others,”

par-

he himself could not be immune from such “deceit” and

ticularly since

went furtively every day to a special place in the surrounding mountains where he could find wild grass to eat, and which he did not want others to learn about.

Groping about

in despair, repelled

by the gruff attitudes of fellow

workers at the factory (“Some were proud of saying that they lost their eyesight from atomic

bomb

cataracts but the truth

was that

it

came

from drinking [wood] alcohol”), feeling weak and ashamed of the

seemed

that his hair find

to

be

falling out, disappointed in his

fact

attempts to

guidance (his old youth-school teacher told him to write the old

Imperial Rescript on education ten times every day, which he did try for a while, until he discovered that

it

“did no good at all”),

seventeen years old and totally adrift, he began to

with

how he

could best

kill

still

only

become preoccupied

himself. In that state he performed an act of

extreme desperation which was at the same time a form of symbolic death and rebirth. After severe taunting from other workers over his skinny physique and general weakness, he suddenly exploded with hatred toward his mother and father for bringing

such an inferior state and

thereby exposing

grabbed

tablet,

myself

his parents’

made

it

mortuary

and kept

violently against the wall,

would invoke divine

Even more American

it

to

such ridicule,

which he had formerly revered

(“I it

and ignoring warnings from observers that he

pounded

it

into small pieces.

than most he was struck by the easygoing

troops, decided that these

what happened

him

into the world in

carefully as a precious thing”), flung

retribution,

strongly

him

men were

not really responsible for

since “they didn’t actually see the

bomb

being dropped

Atomic .

.

.

didn’t sec the dead bodies with their

longer

any

felt

desire

He

for revenge.”

Bomb Leaders

own

eyes,”

and that

2

43

“I

no

concluded that the superior

behavior of American troops, as contrasted with cruelties perpetrated by Japanese and other soldiers, was possible ‘‘because they were controlled

... by

and hearing of the economic opportuni-

Christianity”;

America, he thought seriously of emigrating. While he was not entirely uncritical of Americans, his identification with them and ethical ties in

were such that he even found virtue

flexibility

between American

the sexual liaisons

in

and Japanese “pompom” girls which others condemned: “These girls’ deeds enabled their families to eat

so bitterly

delicious foods

soldiers

and then

the surplus on the black market as a

sell

way

of

He admired certain Occupation policies, such as zaibatsu (the mammoth business enterprises), and

sustaining themselves.”

the breaking up of

responded warmly to the American film The Gold Rush, finding “something in common” with Charlie Chaplin’s portrayal of a little

man

struggling against large annihilating forces (and perhaps also in the

“frontier atmosphere” shared

Hiroshima).

was

in his

and

early

Where he came

by turn-of-the-century Alaska and postwar into conflict with

America and Americans

embrace of postwar Japanese pacifism during the fifties,

late forties

particularly in his positive response to militant leftist

demonstrations against American-sponsored military,

political,

and

eco-

nomic programs (“I experienced a great shock, was deeply stirred had goose pimples and an unforgettable feeling”). These emotions were dramatically intensified by the sudden, and in Hiroshima, deeply shock.

ing,

outbreak of the Korean

American militarv feeling that

Only

War

acti\ itv that

“World War

III

in

.

.

June of 1950, by the scenes of

could be observed

was creeping up on

all

around, and bv the

us.”

means of coming to terms with these conflicting attitudes toward America, and with other inner emotions that otherwise threatened to tear him apart. Feeling that “I would in Christianity did

eventually collapse

if

also

began

a

things kept going on as they were,” he gravitated

toward English-language

shima and

he find

classes

sponsored by Protestant groups in Hiro-

to attend their

church services (he said that he

preferred the “democratic atmosphere” he found there to the distant solemnity of Catholic ritual).

He was

troubled,

more however, by the

thought that “they might be trying to smooth over the problem of the

A-bomb by a

talking a lot about Christ.” This suspicion was furthered by

communist slogan that “Christians

are traitors,” particularly since

had been deeply impressed by the dedication of communists

he

to social

2

DEATH

44

IN LIFE

who were

action “on the side of those

suffering/’

and had

in fact resisted

joining tliem only because of their tendency “always to express hatred

toward those

He

\^•ho criticized

them.”

solved these dilemmas by attaching himself to a small group of

people

who combined

and sympathy

for the

intense Christianity with equally intense pacifism

downtrodden. The group was centered around the

Hiroshima chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the

affilia-

him with what the name suggests: “fellowship” in the sense of belonging to a “new family”; and “reconciliation” with America and Americans (who were prominent in the group), with tion provided

conflicting attractions to Christianity

and communism, and with

ing inner hatred and death guilt which could

now be

seeth-

mobilized on

behalf of peace by means of protest activities carried out within a creed

Candhian nonviolence. Indeed, he found

of militant

that the group

helped him forge a sense of identity that was universalistic as well as personal and idiosyncratic; and on one occasion,

when

picked up by

police after being knocked temporarily unconscious by a rock

during a demonstration, he could say to them: “I

am

a

thrown

member

of the

Fellowship of Reconciliation and therefore behaved according to

mv

conscience.” In eventually seeking Protestant baptism, he emphasized that he was attracted not

by dogma

(“It

was not from any belief ... or thought of

miracles”) but by the nurturing and stabilizing particularly

washing the

it

He was

by the personal example of Christ.

stories of Christ

bond

feet of his disciples

represented,

deeply

and

moved by

and distributing bread

among the hungry so that “all the people knew they would receive a fair amount”— always interpreting such stories in a way that de-emphasized the miraculous and stressed Christ’s impressive personal qualities, especially his capacity to

remain humble and yet be a savior and a cosmic

nurturer. This identification with Christ, a “dav laborer” in his time,

gave form and forceful expression to inner imagery long held in relationship to himself.

He once had

the thought that “if

I

become

a

member

avoid becoming a delinquent,” and the psychological, of this thought was affirmed

ing an actual murder.

A

by

a strange

in the

name

as

literal,

can

truth

few years after the war he came across a a

man who had

exactly

himself— both family and given names were rendered

same Japanese characters — and was

A number

not

I

sequence of events surround-

newspaper account of a murder committed by the same

if

of a church

of people,

when

just

one or two years younger.

reading the story, apparently thought that he

Bomb Leaders

Atomic had committed tive

45

murder, and one friend, with uncomfortably intuipsychological insight, remarked: “Whth exactly the same name, one

man who

is

tlic

murderer who

a

someone, and the other is a peace-fanatie about people who are killed ... so with your

killed

runs around telling

not working, and being so close in age to the

And

worry. told

2

him

man

described,

I

really did

even his wife (better described as his closest companion)

that the incident reminded her of the British novel by Robert

Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, whieh she had read in

and which suggested to her that it was possible for “a very mild and modest day laborer to turn into a wild and mad one.” He became agitated, and in his sense of close identifieation with his translation

namesake seemed almost murderer: “If

What

to

wonder whether he himself

were true that

it

I

was the

really

was the

then what would

killer,

he did do was go directly to the police station to

try to

I

do?”

make

contact with the other man. Denied a personal meeting, he left a letter of

encouragement (“from D.

to another

D.”) and a Bible, because

thought I should do something to eompensate for the erime that another D. had committed and that inside the conscience of the I

.

.

.

murderer D., there must be a small something that is good whieh eould be directed toward opposing war and opposing A- and Hbombs, which are the real mass killers of men.

W^e may thus

say that he,

and others

elose to him, sensed the relation-

ship between the death-obsessed pacifist and the

killer,

between the

would-be saint and the murderous emotions he must conquer. The

namesake became for him a representation of his “old self,” before it had been “tamed” by Christian pacifist discipline, and before its well of hatred had been channeled into protest against nuclear weapons. At the

same time that his

He

it

own

was an “opposing transformation was

self” or still

“double,” which reminded him

by no means complete.

had, from the beginning, befriended and helped

but his Christian

affiliations

A-bomb

gave him more structured opportunities to

develop his special talent for working with ehildren. related this

work

treatment and

more

cruel

I

own baekground

He

to

become

(“I

treatment than I”), and in a way that

made

spend time with children who had almost died

cripples

and

eonstantly

had experieneed eruel knew that there were people who had experieneed even to his

unconscious imagery of the young as symbols of rebirth

began

orphans,

...

it

also because

was partly because

I

clear his

(“WTen I or who had

myself was feeling very

was eoncerned with what kind of thoughts these children would develop toward their own future lives”); so that in

lonely,

I

DEATH

246

IN LIFE

“saving” children^ he was saving himself.

young followers with I

Nor would he

related principles of pity

fail

and compassion:

don’t simply say, “Let us have a good time,” but rather

now

are

to instill his

I

say,

going to sing songs, but remember that there are people

“We who

dumb and

are deaf or

cannot speak or hear or sing, and there are others who live in out-of-the-way places in the mountains where they can rarely have a chance to sing so as we sing our songs we must think about those people even while we feel our own happiness and think about what we can do to help such people.”

—

.

He

was the main behind-the-scenes figure

Monument,

Children’s

as

Sadako Sasaki, the

.

the creation of the

in

girl

.

whose death inspired

had been one of three children he knew who died of leukemia within one year. The original idea of the monument seems to have been his (though he had a group statue in mind, including all stages of childhood from infancy to the late teens), and he pursued the project with it,

he moved back and forth

characteristic zeal as

teachers, peace groups, parents, selves. Especially effective

was

a

and (most of

among all)

school

officials,

the children them-

pamphlet crudely mimeographed by the

children which explained the purpose of the campaign, circulated at a

conference of educators which happened to be convening in Hiroshima

and was widely publicized by mass media throughout the country. Although the appeal succeeded brilliantly, the day laborer at the time,

remained first

bitterly critical of the hvpocrisv of the school principal

opposed the idea and then, when

claimed

full credit for

it;

and

it

gained

of other officials

who

momentum, tried to

who

at

virtually

dominate the

unveiling ceremony with pompous, self-dramatizing speeches, which

all

but ignored the children themselves and the larger purposes and actual

human

that “the reason that [peace]

by antagonisms

who

died

.

.

evolve an

to

animated by

monument. Concluding movements invariably become torn apart

originally associated with

efforts

is

that they cease to represent the feelings of the people

and become

.

the

utilized for other purposes,”

he attempted

approach which remained true to the dead and was a

of

spirit

“childlike

purity,”

which he considered

a

precious entity to be protected from adult manipulation. Inevitably, he has

bomb” for

him

them there

to consorting with

to counter

to reflect his is

been

little

is

criticized

for everything

from “selling the

communists, but the criticism most

difficult

that he himself manipulates the children bv using

own

doubt of

views. For while he does encourage initiative,

his

and

his wife’s influence

upon

their eleven- to

Atomic fifteen-year-old follo\\ers,

may

him

well cause

to

and

Bomb Leaders

his elose identifieation

become confused over who

with

2 tlie

initiates

47

ehildren

what.

Some

had the impression that he was saddened by seeing the children ‘'outgrow his group during their late high school years and gradually break their ties with

it.

Wdiatever the

he demonstrated extraordinary

case,

flexibility in his

work, mastering storytelling techniques in order to entertain young children and

camping methods for trips taken with older children, though having had no previous experience wath either. And while he cared for others, he responded strongly to being himself cared for by people in Christian circles who “are kind to me and w'orry about me just

though

as

w'ere their child,” thereby symbolically functioning as father

I

and mother

to the children

and

as

son to the other adults.

The

particularly true in his relationship wath a distinguished

w'as

missionary and teacher

him.

And

He

any suffering or errant “child”

once insisted upon taking into

A-bomb orphan

w^oman

has been model, mentor, and “mother” to

his sense of responsibility for

knew^ no limits. year-old

who

latter

his

home

a tw^enty-

wdio had no place to stay after being released

from juvenile prison, and then persisted

in his unsuccessful efforts at

rehabilitation until his wafe rebelled at this invasion of her privacy (not

mention the young man’s

to

mov^ed out until the boy of guilt over “throwang

He

— the

him out

ways demonstrated

stealing)

his w^ork

with adult groups, and in a

a consistent “instinct for the universal.”

making

of A-

in

thought and race

and H-bombs was the confronta-

tion of ideologies betw^een nations”; answ^ered complaints that nists take over

commu-

peace movements wath pleas to others of varving view^s to

participate

more

direction”;

and

actively

and “promote the movement

wdiile appealing to the consciences of

in

the right

Americans

still

making atomic and hydrogen bombs, expressed svmpathy them concerning the risks they take and even added, “We must

engaged tow^ard

and

day laborer himself retaining feelings

emphasized the need to transcend differences

since “the reason for the

and

into the dark world.”

brought similar principles to

variety of

He

left

enuresis, slothfulness,

in

not forget to love them.” Together wath his children he conducted an impartial international correspondence, in

China

now encouraging

a youth group

or a peace group in India, now^ asking Philadelphia citv officials

to express themselves concerning the their celebration of for their failure to

atomic

bomb on

the occasion of

Independence Day, now chastising Russian groups

apply the same

critical

behavior that they applied to others’.

standards to their

own

nuclear

DEATH

248

IN LIFE

At the same time he was wary of any form criticized those leaders

and pay no attention

who to

of ideological totalism,

“require their followers to look up to

anything

“following a path in which

I

am

else/'

and emphasized

them

his policy of

exposed to the ways of thinking of

kinds of people and then figure out what

is

all

behind the opinions which

people state." While some of these actions were not devoid of a suggestion of gentle grandiosity, no one had

more intimate contact with

needy hibakusha or greater capability of transcending petty prejudices

in

helping them. For these reasons he was often selected by people of

wider experience and education to supervise distribution of

gifts

or

mediate among contending factions. This mediating talent did not lessen his demand for continuing militancy in opposing the ultimate

evil,

nuclear weapons.

He com-

plained of the tendency of hibakusha to expend their hostility on

upon the atomic bomb, which they tended to look upon as “like a natural calamity," and of the fact that “Many die in great pain but only a few die protesting A- and H-bombs."

doctors or on each other rather than

His willingness to do anything whatsoever to further this protest— to

demonstrate suffering hibakusha to foreign

obtain “extras"

visitors, or to

(himself included) for films about the atomic

bomb and

then supervise

makeup, costumes, and acting approaches— led one Hiroshima to speak of

him

as a

“producer for the

A-bomb

victim show." But

another, noting his “inabilitv to stop thinking of those

and

hospitals"

his

observ'cr

who

are dying in

“moving about everywhere because he

feels

it

his

know of, seek out, and take care of all A-bomb concluded that “if we can speak of such a thing, he is an A-

personal responsibility to patients,"

bomb mental doctor." He was surely both. Indeed his virtuosity made him “all things to hibakusha.” He attributed his energies to his two ultimate sources strength.

“A

child

The one

first

source

carries

on

is

of

suggested in the Japanese saying he quoted,

his

back gives him a direction," that

capacity to experience a continuous sense of renewed

contact with children.

all

life

is,

the

through

In this light he was also aware of the special

capacity of children to melt the selfish ambitions of adults (for instance,

among competing *

llie

“patient bosses" on various floors of the

Western counterpart (“A dwarf standing on the shoulders

further than the giant himself”) is often associated with goes back to Didacus Stella in the first century a.d.; it emphasis of reliance upon the wisdom of ancestors, but means unrelated, and together stress the profound mutual

generations.®

A-Bomb

of a giant

may

see

Isaac Newton but actually seems to convey a reverse the two sayings are by no need of older and younger

Atomic

Bomb Leaders

249

Hospital). His second source of strength lay in what he referred to as an

emphasis upon ‘'internal” rather than “external” matters, which

meant

in

upon the dead. And even in a city so generally preoccupied with its dead, and in a culture which encourages this preoccupation, his insistent stress upon remembering, recounting, and actuality

a focus

displaying every conceivable detail of

him

A-bomb

horror led

many

to accuse

of promoting an unhealthy “death cult.”

His private

life, if

one can speak of

all-prevading asceticism.

No

sooner

clothing, food, possessions of

he considers

in

greater

his

is

He

is

dominated by an

something given to him

any kind

need.

having one,

— than

he turns

it

— money,

over to others

employment because of his belief that it would interfere with his peace activities, and turned down paid positions in peace organizations because these would take away his independence. Instead he has worked sporadically as a day laborer or a night watchman to earn enough to keep going, eating minimally and sleeping irregularly, his only form of relaxation an occasional movie he

He

message.

may go

refused

never misses a film about the atomic

occasion, was to take his wife

him

regular

to with his wife, usually

idea of “entertaining” a patient in the

He and

has

to see

A-Bomb

one with a serious

bomb

itself,

and

his

Hospital, at least on one

On the Beach.

have what could well be called an “A-bomb mar-

Their relationship initiated and nurtured through Christian and A-bomb concerns, he was drawn to her originally partly out of pity riage.”

because of a bodily deformity exacerbated by atomic Virtually everyone

who

bomb

exposure.

attended their wedding was actively engaged in

A-bomb

problems, and right after the ceremony and reception he and

his wife

went

directly to the

Cenotaph

in the

Peace Park, where “with

hands we made our report of our marriage and pledged those who have been sacrificed ... to dedicate ourselves to

flowers in our

...

to

peace.” Tliis paralleled the traditional Japanese custom of reporting to ancestors on ceremonial occasions, suggesting that the

ment had become their marriage

bomb

monument, and

the day laborer's family

he and

his wife

the

that through

were entering the family of the atomic

dead and pledging eternal loyalty to

out the pledge through

A-bomb monu-

teamwork

it.

in

And they have since lived A-bomb activities which

dominates their relationship.

He and

his wife

and having

have frequently been mistaken for brother and

lived together

more

or less as such for

some

sister,

time, their

decision to marry was influenced by a combination of encouragement

and pressure from Christian

associates.

They engage

in

no physical

DEATH

25 0 relations,

IN LIFE

and whatever

part played in this deeision by a general

tlie

disinclination toward hetcrosexualitv,

bomb. Thus he

too becomes related to the A-

it

attributes his restraint to

“my

wish to express

A-bombed woman,” and

of apology toward an

my

sense

to their inability to seek

sensual pleasure after their daily rounds of assisting sick

and needy

hibakusha. Their decision to have no children was not onlv a conse-

quence of

policy

this

of

sexual

but also of a fear of

abstinence,

producing malformed infants “which would make toward future generations”

—a

fear intensified

me

a kind of assailant

by the experience of

his

who, following A-bomb exposure, was reported to have

wife’s sister

given birth to two abnormal children. But he also mentioned additional

would have, because of her injurv, child; and his doubts that he could do

considerations: the difficultv his wife in giving birth to all

and caring

for a child that

it

for a

required.

He

sense of having been so deprived as a child, and

tendency to idealize the child

He and

enough.

his wife

as

one

for

it

whom

reflects his resulting

no parent

is

good

have experienced conflict at times when she

has not been up to the totality of his has

own

related this last reason to his

demands

for self-sacrifice,

when he

unable to receive from her the nurturance he seeks, and more

felt

recently in

relationship to her

own

increasing prominence in

peace

activities.

The

driven quality of his life— he

related to a precarious balance

One

of these

activities

and

is

is

a

man who

is

never still— is

between two inner images of himself.

a heroic image, suggested in the expansiveness of his

in his references

not only to Christ and Gandhi but also to

Napoleon and Hideyoshi, the great sixteenth-century general who unified Japan and then became its ruler. But the other image is the opposite one of a childlike, weak, totallv dependent creature who is incapable of taking care of the simplest personal need. Both of these

images are intimately bound up with emotions related to guilt and death. His exquisite sensitivity to guilt is expressed in his verv frequent use of the expression

“How

pitiful!”

(Kawaiso),

weak-looking birds and even for mosquitoes and

beyond

compassion

in his

flies

for

(which goes

Buddhism), and in his refusal to eat fish with their (although this is done routinelv in Japan). Such lifelong

his mother’s

heads intact

inclinations to guilt, as well as to death, have paralleled identification with

made

possible his un-

A-bomb dead and maimed. This

identifi-

cation was responsible for his reluctance to leave his shack near the A-

Bomb Dome,

though

finally forced to

do

it

so. It

did not fundamentally change

when he was

has been accompanied by thoughts about his

Atomic

own

and about

deatli

idea

tlic

of

immediately becomes concerned about

and how

would not be able

I

suicide, ^dio\\’

make

to

Bomb Leaders l)ut

at

251

sucli

times

lie

my body would be, myself/’ He has been

dead

use of

thinking recently about arranging to have his eyes donated to an eye bank upon his death. For gi\ ing of himself to others has become his way of dealing

\\

ith

Ilis style of

beginning of

both

life

leadership

and death, of achieving

is

based upon having been, almost from the

a guilt-prone

life,

a sense of immortality.

“survivor”— of

many svmbolic

well as of the biological deaths of each of his parents— and

deaths as

upon

his

capacity to con\’crt this guilt into the compassionate energies of a

He found

sa\’ior.”

father

and of

the model of a saint in the idealized memor}’ of his

a zealot in his

mother. But to make inner use of these

models, he has had to maintain a constant process of transformation of

and potentially debilitating guilt and rage into disciplined weapons in a crusade against evil, against the A-bomb. But how are we to account for his reversal of the most extreme kind of “unsocialized” diffuse

attitudes into his peculiar ascetic bitterness

the

into

perpetual

“hunger” and retention into

dynamism; of an abandoned

nurturing

of

of

others,

total generosity, of

child’s

exaggerated

murderous hatreds into

dedication to peace and nonviolence? Such reversals are characterized, in classical psychoanalytic terminology, as “reaction-formations,”

mean-

ing the mobilization of the antitheses of early impulses as a compensa-

means once more tory

of character formation.

transcending

Hence

it

as

be stressed

inner

his inner fusion of allegiance to the

promoting forces

also needs to

symbolism of “touching death” and then the source of the power to “save” others.

the

is

But what

dead with such rebirth-

as the militant-nonviolent Christianitv

modeled upon

Christ himself, and with the purit\- and perpetual renewal of children.

This fusion afforded him a means of countering and in a sense “undoing” the abuse of the atomic bomb while simultaneously countering

and undoing the abuse of his own childhood. His special sensitivities to guilt and death, so vital to this process, were the source of both his pain and

his

power.

He made

use

characteristic of both the artist

love

of

them with an emotional

and the leader- quick

shifts

fluidity

between

and hate and between controlled wisdom and passionate onc-

sidedness,

along with

continuous ingenuity

(often

unconscious)

in

rcchanneling fundamental emotions (such as those related to sex and

death) for use in a larger crusade. This capacity, though sometimes referred to as “regression in the service of the ego,”

is

actually less a

a

DEATH

252

IN LIFE

form of regression than

it

is

a quality of aeeess to primitive feelings,

along with the ability to give these form whieh has signifieanee for others. It

is

the “pan-emotionality’' (ineluding “pan-sexuality”) w'hieh

the leader or artist tality,

ealls forth in his speeial

quest for symbolie immor-

in his negleet of ordinary patterns of sexual reproduetion

biologieal eontinuity in favor of near-eosmie identifieations revitalize the entire

human mode

meant

to

And the day laborer’s destruetion of among other things, his break with the

speeies.

his aneestral tablet symbolized,

ordinary” biologieal

and

as a neeessary preliminary to the larger vistas

of his leadership.

But when the guilt and the death imagery whieh underlie the quest eome to dominate it, as they do in his ease, the resulting zealousness may be

diffieult for all to live with.

him

This domination

made

to develop the true saint’s eohesiveness of life-style

of inner reliable

transformation

method

— for

him

to

evolve

impossible for

it

and steadiness

the diseiplined leader’s

of demonstrating to followers a speeial form of mastery

over (death (as was found, for instance, in the public fasts of Gandhi, a leader whom the day laborer in some ways resembled).* In contrast,

both

and

and

his life-style

his efforts at transformation

hunger

his insatiable

have been

for nurturance has rendered

erratic,

follower as a leader. Moreover, his chosen antagonist,

him as much a the A-bomb, has

been too strong

death imagery

for

him

to vanquish.

inspires constantly heightens his

What

he had done

is

one-sided emphasis of

The convoluted

own emotional

to live out a special

it

imbalance.

form of the heroic

myth—

element of the “orphan” or “abandoned child (the hero, generally considered to be of supernatural origin, is usually brought up by parents other than his own). But he has far from achieved the hero

s

its

redemption of

his people. Rather, his

combination

of unceasing effort

and unattainable goals exemplifies the Sisyphian dilemma of every A-bomb leader, the dilemma of a task whose accomplishment is beyond human capacitv. And in his death-obsessed struggle against death, he expresses in peculiarly exaggerated

dilemma of human existence

form the

itself.

These resemblances went beyond Gandhian influences which the day laborer absorbed in his leadership. Through various discussions with Erik Erikson concerning his work in progress on Gandhi, I have been struck by the basic psychological similarities of the two men, as well as the difference which made one a “great man" on a universal scale and the other a controversial local figure with heroic but also selfdefeating qualities. I shall discuss some of these issues further in section 5 of Ghapter XII.

RESIDUAL STRUGGLES: TRUST, PEACE, AND MASTERY

1

Contending Symbols

)

The

limited

attainments

residual conflict.

The

of

A-bomb

leaders

suggest

conflict has existed within individual hibakusha, in

the general Hiroshima community, and, in fact, throughout

bomb

society.

fore problems

Hibakusha

of psychohistorical

it;

all

of post-

struggles to absorb their experience are there-

mastery.

The contending symbols

within and around hibakusha are those which affirm

which subvert

depth of

the

the polarity

is

life

and those

that of reintegration versus residual

distrust.

For individual hibakusha the experience of being loved and cared for could, gradually and against obstacles, re-create life-affirming imagery

and

re-establish the capacity to live.

In the case of the shopkeeper’s assistant, for instance, the pattern of suspiciousness

and homeless wandering we noted before was interrupted

by four human relationships

sufficiently

profound to be experienced

an A-bomb orphan’s re-establishment of “family”: with a welfare cial,

who

into his

took responsibility for the boy’s

own home and

university professor

who became

and

“treating his wife

me

life

like a

to the point of taking

“parents” for a whole group of

offi-

him

younger brother”; with

(introduced by the welfare

as

a

official),

A-bomb orphans and with

— ^^

254

DEATH

1

whom

he could

atmosphere

— as

IN LIFE at ease

'‘feel if

were

I

.

.

my own

in

family”;

(introduced by the university professor),

who he

The academic couple

also did

a younger brother.

marriage to a in effect, riage.

girl

warm and homey

because of the

.

from the same group of

and with an employer felt also

treated

him

as

much to encourage his A-bomb orphans, and became,

"grandparents” to the two children resulting from the mar-

Finding himself stabilized, he

younger brother

— or

their

his reconstituted family viability

that his dead parents

also settle

and

down.” Involved

in

was inner imagery of being reintegrated

human

into the continuity of

felt

— souls "could

mode

existence via the biological

of

symbolic immortality so emphasized in East Asian culture.

But

his reintegrative process, despite the

remarkable help he received,

has been tenuous, accompanied by a persistent sense of deprivation ("I

bomb was dropped because of don’t know how to put into words

have cried often since the

having no

parents”) and anger ("I

the rage

about the bomb”). Moreover, the quality of

still

feel

his

early life

— including

the pre-bomb

conveys the sense that he his

post-A-bomb care

still

any absence of either

family utopia

he describes all

of

This tendency does not result from

sincerity or generosity

offered the care, but simply

his references to

struggles against a tendency to view

as counterfeit.

I

from the

on the part of those who

fact that

it

came from people

other than his real parents, and was a consequence of his parents’ deaths.

Part of the

emotional support vivid his

that

is,

momory

function of his continuing emphasis upon

still

received from his dead parents

of his last

actual parental— nurturance.

shadow even upon Sensitivities

And

totally

authentic—

retained death guilt throws a

about counterfeit nurturance were extremely strong

upon

special care, particularly care

government agencies. One

city or

that of keeping

that.

children forced to depend

from

and only experience of

is

the

close observer

in all

coming

commented

that

such children

backward and cannot see the bright side of things as other children do but seem to be sitting on the sidelines and crouch-

always

feel

.

ing to

.

.

make themselves

small

arc being publicly cared for,

.

.

.

trying to hide the fact that they

and that they have no parents.

Diffuse residual bitterness can be felt toward Hiroshima

people in

it,

as expressed

by the

bargirl,

whose

loss of

itself

and the

her mother

made

:

Residual Struggles: her an

A-bomb orphan

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

at the age of four, in a

poem

255

written during her

teens I

Hiroshima, where

Hate Hiroshima

my grandfather and my mother were

by the A-bomb.

killed

Hiroshima, where

my surviving grandmother and

I

are

living as beggars.

Those who look

at us in this state with eold eyes are

the people of Hiroshima. I

hate, hate, hate the

town of Hiroshima and the people

of Hiroshima.

When

I

talked with her,

I

found her

twenty-one

who was

of marriage

and motherhood,

elearly

having

to

be an unhappy-looking

diffieultv fulfilling the

the bomb’s having deprived her of nurturance: “After of

.

entirely to .

because

.

had no parents and if I had parents, they would have taught about these things.” Actually, her father had left the family some

it I

me

all

of

requirements

which she attributed

difficulty

girl

.

years before the

“water world,”

.

.

A-bomb and her mother had led an so that we have reason to believe

irregular life in the

that

much

of her

emotional conflict could have developed independently of the atomic

bomb. Her simple view

of the

bomb

as the source of all evil nonetheless

contains considerable psychological truth: because the

bomb

probably

upon her emotional life by depriving her of a mother she so desperately needed, and because the interpretation itself expresses her sense of the bomb’s profound disruption of her life and of did have crucial influence

the insolubility of her resulting conflicts. But in interpretation further binds her to the

its

A-bomb

very absoluteness this

experience and to

its

death imagery, and thereby militates against adaptation and mastery.

A much

more

social worker.

successful pattern of reintegration

Not only

was achieved bv the

did his death guilt influence his career in wavs

we have observed, but so strong was his urge to dedicate himself to helping A-bomb orphans that he defied his father’s absolute opposition to this financiallv insecure low-status work and went on to become head of one of Hiroshima’s major orphanages. Some of the first residents of his institution

were the stray children he picked up

in front of Hiro-

shima Station during the early post-bomb months and gently but forcibly

conducted

was proud of the

to the

fact that

home. Having faced unusual

among

all

of

its

difficulties,

he

kind in Japan, his institution

—

.

DEATH

25 6

IN LIFE

number

sent the greatest

and college— and

of children to high school

honest enough to add, with a smile and a touch of irony, that sent the greatest

number

to

jail.

He emphasized how

it

also

frequently an

would embrace and defend an exclusive concern with immediate pleasure on the basis of having “in a single instant individual youngster

while enjoying his breakfast together with his family his parents

and

his

home,” how they “cannot believe

.

.

in

.

lost

both of

tomorrow” and

“can have no adequate philosophy or disciplined point of view about life.”

What became

however, in his associations was that in

clear,

bomb

rescuing these youngsters from atomic resulting antisocial behavior, life

but

his

He

own.

and from

disintegration

he was reasserting not only their imagery of

was “rescuing” himself from severe death

struggling against the sense of sudden

and

total annihilation

experienced. For the antisocial behavior which

may

guilt

and

he too had

occur in an atomic

bomb orphan is merely one extreme expression of the general experience of all who are exposed to the bomb: of a vast breakdown of faith in the larger human matrix supporting each individual life, and therefore a loss of faith (or trust) in the structure of human existence. '‘if

my father were alive

The complicated ways

in

which atomic

.

.

bomb

exposure contributes to

this pattern of residual distrust are illustrated in the

woman

with the ophthalmic condition.

noted before,

bomb, she

in

how much

experience of the

Somewhat confused,

definitely implicated

the

we

of her general difEcultv to attribute to the A-

it— through having caused the death of

her father— in a profound attraction she described to a (she used

as

life

of decadence

Japonized version of the French word, and meant,

essentially, sexual promiscuitv)

Just thirteen at

bomb, she

the time of the

prematurely exposed to adult sexual confidences and then by

interests,

men who came

to the

told first

home

of having been

bv her mother’s to see her

mother

but became involved with the daughter instead. These encounters— particularly an early one in which an older man attempted to force himself upon

her— left her

feeling “dirty” but at the

same time stronglv

aroused. She in fact associated the onset of her eye condition with a

temporary interruption

in

a prolonged affair with the

man

she later

married. Despite finding sexual fulfillment in the relationship, severe quarreling led to a separation. Then, finding herself unable to work

because of her eye condition, and her

own

erotic inclinations, she

left

came

alone with her young child and

to look

upon

herself as

“good

for

Residual Struggles: Trust, Peace, and Mastery nothing.

Critical of her mother’s “earelessness” in this sequenee of

events, while reealling her father as a

came

to the eonclusion that

family older is

257

beeame

I

men

man

with exemplary eharaeter, she

“without a father

spiritually loose,”

— the

main

She attributed her

pillar of a

early interest in

to “a strong wish to

a question of

ehild brought

my

have a father,” and emphasized that “It mind rather than a question of my eyes,” sinee “a

up by only one parent

is

likely to

become one-sided and

abnormal.”

While we know little about her actual relationship to her father while he was alive, we may say that his death, and partieularly her (and perhaps her mother’s) guilt over his death, disrupted the family’s sexual balanee: rather than having an opportunity to resolve the attraetion every young

girl

feels

toward her father, she found

herself,

adoleseent, simultaneously at the merey of aroused sexual feelings great need for fathering.

The

as

an

and

a

resulting pattern of promiseuity (or of

wished-for promiseuity) undoubtedly exaeerbated various forms of guilt,

including death guilt toward the father.

Of

was her inner assoeiation of sexual **decadence" with the hibakusha's ultimate form of hostility and eosmie particular significance

retaliation:

My

being exposed to the A-bomb] was bad, and I feel very angry about my unlueky fate. Being angry about it, I sometimes wish that all of the earth would be annihilated. ... I am attraeted to luck

[in

both destructive and construetive sides of things. That is the state of my mind. For instanee, rather than have pain that is not understood ... I have the desire to forget about my eonseience and .

.

.

indulge in the deeadent

life.

This

is

the destruetive side of

my

desire.

On

the other hand, the construetive side is to apply great effort toward leading a very orderly life— and working toward a goal that might take even ten years to aehieve, but doing so without going astray.

.

More than

.

.

just

family sexual balanee, the

A-bomb

disrupted the larger

moral universe she had previously known, so that neither sexual nor aggressive impulses eould any longer find patterned or eontrolled expression; ehaotic

and guilt-ridden perceptions of both then beeame inwardly

assoeiated with the end-of-the-world wish or total nuelear destruetion.

A

similarly

fundamental

loss of paternal proteetion

the experienee of another divoreed

woman (whom we

was involved

in

have previously

DEATH

25 8

IN LIFE

referred to as the clivoreed liousewife)

.

Also thirteen years old

bomb under

her father was killed by the

when

strongly guilt-stimulating

oircumstanees, she too found herself rendered extremely vulnerable. She felt subsequently “deceived”— her husband, who turned out to have

by

been

woman at the time her marriage with him was arranged; by the go-between, who had managed to allay her family’s suspicions; and by her mother, who had initiated the marriage despite the

living with

preference for further study. She was convinced that

girl’s

my

another

had been alive our lives would have been different and I would not have had this kind of failure in mv married life because he would have given me various kinds of advice from a man’s if .

.

father

.

.

.

.

point of view.

The complex

were suggested by

difficulties

desperately join

him

thrce-w'ay family ambiv'alences

in

a vision

which enter into her experienced by her mother when

which the father appeared and called the mother to death, was then scolded” by the daughter who insisted the

ill,

in

mother stay with

and

her,

as a result benignly

withdrew. Mother and

daughter interpreted the vision as indicative of the dead father’s considerateness and continuing protection, and it is undoubtedly true that their continuing identification with him pro\'ides important emotional sustenance. But also described

daughter

is

a

mvoKed

re-enactment

rivalry for the father

her mother. Both the mother father

s

death

both the vision and the general pattern

in

family

of

conflicts— including

and the daughter’s s

intensified

mother-

need

for

sense of added burden following the

and the daughter

between them. Again, the atomic

s

sense

of

bomb was

loss

increased

tensions

both the cause of these

exacerbations of family conflict, and the symbol of absolute evil from

which,

it

was believed,

all

conflict

emanated.

d’hese examples demonstrate differing patterns derived from loss in the A-bomb of one’s mother, father, or both parents.^ Resulting conflicts included those

any cause,

which occur wath the

as well as those specific to the

early loss of parents

A-bomb

from

constellation. Thus,

the loss of one’s father led to a sense of extreme vulnerabilih' in wdiich hihcikushci status itself

and

combined with

w’ith severe intra-family

a general loss of family prestige

emotional disruptions to create a strong

expectation of being further \ictimized, which was all too frequently fulfilled. Loss of one’s mother resulted in a more basic deprivation of

Residual Struggles:

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

259

nurturancc and profound mistrust of subsequent relationships. Sexual differenees are apparent!}^ of great importauee: losing a parent of the

same

one of

sex deprives

evidenee that

a

model

for adult identity

(there was

some

predisposed boys toward patterns of delinqueney), while losing a parent of the opposite sex distorts and impairs sexual and it

other forms of maturation in wa\

s

we have

noted.

Death of both parents was likely to produee \ulnerability and impaired nurturanee, and a total ineapaeitation. Brothers in

a severe

eombination of

lifelong struggle against

sueh eases have been noted to show

unusually great hostility toward each other, sometimes associated with antisocial

And

behavior.

Japanese sociologists have described a profoundly disaffected prototype of the A-bomb orphan as a young adult:

working irregularly

having no permanent address, living generally

on the fringe

census-taking and

is

moving about frequently and diffusely anxious and in poor health, and of society where he is hard to locate for

low-status

at

sometimes

jobs,

in difficulty

with the law. Even

'hiew family” pro\ides a measure of stability,

been observed

a

A-bomb orphans have

be looked down upon and further victimized by

to

certain pressures of Japanese family

farming family, for instance,

may be

life.

A

girl

who

marries into a

treated harshly because of her

ostensible inability to carry the working load

acquired

when

for

which the family

her. In all these

psychological and social

ways the A-bomb’s original disruption of bonds becomes perpetuated, and inextricably

bound up with the general dislocations of postwar Japanese experience.’^ Hibakusha can also retain residual distrust of their own capacity to nurture others. Thus, the abandoned mother continued over the years to feel anxious about the problem of caring for her children. Her way of dealing with this anxiety was to emphasize to called a survival.

principle of absolute

She would

tell

them what might be

mutual dependence

in

relationship to

them:

\\hthout you children having survived, I would not have either; but I had not survived, then you children would not have been able to.

if

This emphasis did not save her from enormous emotional and financial difficulty, or from her continuous sense of abandonment. But it did *

extreme

importance which East Asian culture places upon the intact unit tended to increase the psychological impact of these dislocations. Other factors which did the same were the difficulties of remarriage I’he

biological

family

(especially for

women)

Japan, the very limited tradition for social welfare and for orphans, and various forms of institutional dislocation accompanying social change.

adoption

procedures

in

for

DEATH

260

IN LIFE

suggest her ability to draw

way make use

as a

upon

a family pool of

emotional sustenance

of ameliorating everyone’s general mistrust. This capacity to

of her children’s strength was expressed in her admiration for

qualities of directness

an attitude

and autonomy she observed

in sharp contrast

in their generation,

with the more usual middle-aged parent’s

And

despair at the younger generation’s lack of the old virtues. sufficiently

for herself

proud of the

little

and her children

interviews there.

home

to

she eventually managed to create

welcome the

idea of holding

But her post-bomb experience seemed

am

I

stressed the

integration in their psychological lives, toward

described as “revival— becoming

.

or

fight against various forces

fail.”

While aware

how much

human

tendency toward

re-

what the writer-physician

again.”

He

spoke of a special

by which people who have been demolished

interest in “the process .

about

capable of providing for others?”

There were some hibakusha who

.

one of our

to revolve

the inner question: “Feeling myself so deprived of support,

authentic nurturance

she was

of

the

around them, and

finally either

importance of economic

succeed

factors,

he

emphasized that something more was involved:

have been observing

I

who

first

lose

hope

a

number

entirely

of people suffering from fatal diseases

and then,

after a certain time, regain their

spiritual strength.

His choice of example suggests a half-awareness that the mastering of death anxiety is crucial for recovery, along with an unconscious suggestion

that whatever

their

spiritual

rebirth,

hibakusha are essentially

doomed.

Many

expressed the idea that the price of individual reintegration was

a lower level of psychic

and socioeconomic existence than one would have settled for had one not been exposed to the bomb. The electrician, for instance, whose dedicated post-bomb vigil at the railway station had

left

him with such

a feeling of futility, subsequently

underwent years of

economic struggle and severe physical illness. He then decided against acting upon promising opportunities to start his own business, difficult

and instead requested affiliate

of his large

transfer to a quiet

company. Forty-three

and comfortable unit of an

at the time of the

bomb,

in his

time of the transfer, and sixty at the time of our interviews, he found that “the experience of being exposed to the bomb late forties at the

can make one grow senile,” and told the

same age had

how many men he knew

reactions similar to his

own:

of about

^

Residual Struggles: Trust, Peace, and Mastery

We have

no inclination

do anything of that

to lead others or

2 61

sort. All

of us are old people,

and we do not take interest in things other than concentrating closely on our own individual work in the sections we are assigned to.

He

conveys an overall sense of psychic numbing, and what might be

premature retirement. In contrast

called

to

traditional

East Asian

patterns of retirement, in which, at an appropriate time, one shifts from a life of activity to one of contemplation and spiritual authority, we are

here confronted with restrictions in living arbitrarily imposed. Rather than the image of a mature and contemplative wisdom, he describes a

man whose

own

recognition of his

early “senility” (old age, uselessness,

perhaps even foolishness) causes him to make minimal requirements upon himself, seek out what feels safe, and avoid challenge.

This psychological issue

bound up with the

is

controversial physio-

one surrounding “premature aging” of atomic

logical

Whether

or not such a physiological trend

may

to say; this

well be another area

is

in

bomb

actually present

which

a

is

victims. difficult

clear distinction

between the psychological and the physiological is almost impossible.* But the hibakusha's inner sense of premature senility occurs independently of any such distinction and

still

is

another form of residual

distrust.

A

strikingly different point of view

about the residual struggles of

hibakusha was expressed by the young Hiroshima-born writer. Rather than distrust or weakness, he spoke of a special kind of strength he

thought them to possess:

who went through the bomb have a kind of despair but I think that they may have another quality too, a kind of toughness. For instance, in the case of those who return from war, they may of course be disturbed in various ways — but there is another side as well. During peacetime, in ordinary life, men are It is

usually said that those .

.

.

.

by

.

.

codes and tradition, but in war they are freed from such restrictions. So that those who experience war know what man restricted

and what he can do. They may return with a realization that can do almost anything whether in a constructive or destructive

really

man

social

is

—

sense.

He went

on, however, to qualify his assertion almost to the point of

negation (“But the *

Medical reports on

tlie

A-bomb

experience

is

subject are contradictory

different, so

what

and inconclusive.

I

have said

DEATH

62

2

IN LIFE

not necessarily true for

IS

it"); and,

it

must be added, he himself

not a

is

hibakusha.

He

nonetheless raises the important issue of the potentially strength-

ening effects of the survival of a death encounter. For the kind of symbolic conquest of death described before among A-bomb leaders was to

some extent experienced by

“conquest"

in

all

The

hibakusha.

bomb

relationship to the atomic

difffcultv is

its

with such a

constant under-

mining by the various kinds of death guilt and death anxiety we have observed, and by the retained aura of counterfeit nurturance. We shall discuss later this duality of survival potential, but

we may note now

that

evident in the opposing metaphors applied to Hiroshima itself. Thus, the city has been publicly characterized as “a Phoenix arising it

is

from the ashes," and described crippled child trying to conceal

to

me

privately

by one obseryer

as “a

handicap."

its

THE NEW HIROSHIMA: yiTALITY OR SHAM These conflicting images bring us to the larger symbols of reintegration and residual distrust surrounding the rebuilding of Hiroshima as a city. For hibakusha vyere profoundly affected by the dramatic appearance, within

less

than ten years, of a

much

larger

and

in

many

impressiye city than the one which had existed prior to the

Many

said such things as “I didn’t think

be rebuilt so quickly," and eyen a

it

man

vyays

more

bomb.

possible that the city could

as

skeptical

as

the history

professor could not help but yiew this resurrection as a form of affirmation:

neyer imagined that

I

now. This makes

me

urge of the people to

But

many

for

I

would

see

Hiroshima reconstructed

think of the extent of

liv-e

— which

is

the sense of affirmation

vyas all

sham — because

yitality

— of

it

is

the

stronger than one can imagine.

once more undermined by

is

suspicion of the yery symbols which suggest

Hiroshima

human

as

life-

(she told

it.

me)

To Miss Ota it

the

new

was so different from

the old one:

People say that Hiroshima has been rebuilt. I don’t think that Hiroshima has really been rebuilt. Another Hiroshima has appeared

and .

in

.

I .

its

am

not pleased by

this.

...

I

think back to the old Hiroshima

vyhich was not really beautiful, but

own way.

I

say, give us

still

a very nice small place

back the old Hiroshima.

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

Residual Struggles:

Because

‘'to

rebuild anytliing

Hiroshima has

means

atomic

.

tliat

bomb horrors:

The new Hiroshima is a city for sightseeing to visitors. The people who are really .

don’t feel

I

and because the elegant new facade

really recovered”;

serves only to hide the real

and

recovery,

263

.

made

to

be shown

suffering are

hidden-

.

.

.

people living in small shacks— they are not shown. They are less than people. The city planning is not useful. The Hundred-Meter .

.

Road

.

highway running through the center of the city] was built by order of MacArthur, and such a wide road is not needed. Fifty per cent of the space of the city has been taken up by these wide roads but little space has been used for living areas. [a

large

.

.

.

And

because a horde of immoral outsiders “create bars, cabarets, and strip shows,” and “pay the city and government people for the right to

put up their shops along the wide roads, make big profits,” and thereby turn Hiroshima into a “national colony,” while the “true survivors” experience a

Hiroshima

of poverty.

life

— that

is,

To Miss Ota

the “real characteristics of

only authentic symbols

its

day laborers: “deformed

women

.

.

.

— are

the impoverished

and men who have

lost interest

in life.”

However overdrawn her were expressed to

me

picture

may

be, all of

by other survivors

as

its

individual images

well.

Such themes of

inauthenticity as the glossing over of real horror, and the obliteration of the past, must accompany the rebuilding of any large environment that

has been so totally annihilated. For the survivor feels the need to keep

around him some evidence of

his pre-disaster life

ambivalently) of his death encounter.

The new

and even (however

attractiveness

is

associ-

ated with “selling the bomb,” gaiety and sensuality with forbidden pleasure;

and

such vitality becomes an insult to the dead. Moreover,

all

there remains the suspicion that however restored the physical contours

may

be, death

which appeared headline

lurks beneath in

them— as

epitomized by a news story

Hiroshima fourteen years

after the

bomb, with the

“PERHAPS THE BONES OF ATOMIC BOMB VIC-

TIMS?”, and which

told of

two deformed

skulls

found on

a river

bank.*

Less controversial to hibakusha was natural symbolism of rebirth.

*

We

Mahi Shimhun, January 26, 1959, the river bank was where many corpses were cremated at the time of the bomb. The skulls were found by laborers reinforcing the river bank, and the article went on to say that “as the work advances, similar discoveries may be made in greater numbers.” In the Hiroshima edition of

identified as a place

2

DEATH

64

IN LIFE

have already noted the response to the first post-A-bomb spring, and even fourteen years after the bomb a commentator spoke of the city’s ‘'nostalgia for greenery”

and longing

for the “forest city” of the past

(though when postwar allocations have been carried out, there

much

will

be a

higher percentage of land used for parks than there was in the

prewar

For while nature can be perceived to

city)

setting,

hunger

nature

itself

for authentic

exist in a counterfeit

never counterfeit, and the hunger for

is

symbolism of

Economic symbols have had economic boom was described from nil to something.” By the

it

is

a

life.

great importance too, as

representing

late 1950s

the

and Hiroshima’s city’s

emergence

Hiroshima was said

have a

to

higher percentage of households with washing machines and television sets

than any other city in Japan— a

statistic

related

to

the

city’s

generally impressive financial recovery, but which might also suggest (since Hiroshima apparently does not have the highest per capita

income of

all

Japanese

symbols of rebirth,

cities)

time

another form of post-A-bomb hunger for

form of electronic manifestations of “the good life.”* Inevitably, however, mention of the city’s prosperity or of its other accomplishments brings an immediate cautionary statistic this

in the

about unemployment and economic hardship among day laborers, and about the high percentage of hibakusha in this group: “Hiroshima is well

known

employed

as the ‘Peace City,’

city

is

but that Hiroshima

not well known.

contrasting imagery,

it

is

And

also the ‘un-

is

with a similar sense of

pointed out that people with keloids are no

longer frequently observed because “they seem to feel hesitant to go out and be seen on the clean and bright-looking streets of the city.”**

GANGS AND PROSTITUTES Also contrasted are the peace ethos and the widespread civic violence, particularly in

period

or

the form of the notorious gang wars of the postwar

what one observer termed “the bloodv

City of Hiroshima.

way

to

more

’

For early black-market

there has actually been

Hiroshima than Here, too,

many

possible that there

and is

a

statistical

have been

incidence of crime in

but there probably has been, and

other elements can enter into these is

I

gave

evidence to determine whether

greater long-range

in other eities;

the Peace

activities eventually

varied operations of organized eriminal gangs.

unable to uncover adequate

*

affairs of

if

not,

statistics, and it is quite no causative relationship between the atomic bomb experience household applicances and television sets. Even so, the contrast

later hunger for striking to hibakusha themselves.

Residual Struggles: it

^

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

265

has certainly seemed that way.* Ironically, this crime has emanated

mostly from areas which were not destroyed by the bomb, from sections of the eity which, just peripheral to the zone of total destruetion and thus not ineluded in building programs, rapidly turned into slums that

beeame known

Gang

“Gangland

as

aetivities,

Area.’’

while involving such minority groups as Koreans and

Ghinese, emerged from specifically Japanese eriminal tradition. But whereas prior to the bomb members of such gangs, like everyone else,

had

their definite relationship to Japanese society— distinct

mate

social

from

legiti-

groups yet maintaining tight intra-gang diseipline based

upon feudal ethics— during the postwar period they, also like everyone else, experienced a loosening of order and discipline and became chaotieally intertwined with

the rest of soeiety. In place of their onetime

romantic aura postwar gangsters came to be called by the contemptuous term “gurentai”— 'stupid ones.”

These gangs had national eonnections, but Hiroshima’s “frontier atmosphere” gave them extraordinary opportunity to flourish. Some gangs simply transferred themselves to the eity from other areas en masse, while others combined outside and local membership. In addition to preying

upon ordinary people through various kinds of

ing, violenee, or

racketeer-

threatened violence, they also engaged in murderous

feuds with one another.

Murakami and Oka

One

particularly notorious feud,

gangs, began with a killing in 1946,

between the

and led

to at

murder and homicide during the late forties and be replaced by new rivalries whieh, in one form or another,

least fifteen cases of fifties,

to

probably persist even today.

There has been

a

borderline raeketeers

continuum from such violent eriminal gangs to to merely uncouth entrepreneurs. And the result-

ing symbolism has also inevitably been mixed, ineluding: a heightened sense of energy and

life force, like

early black-market aetivities,

tion their

that

we observed

and possibly

in relationship to

also including

on the part of some hibakusha with active violenee

own

passive exposure to death at the time of the

an

identifica-

in contrast to

bomb;

a general

sense of robustness and spontaneity (in relationship to milder borderline aetivities) with *

James Gagney- or Humphrey Bogart-like overtones

was advised by city officials as well as by sociologists that accurate comparative were especially lacking during the early postwar years. In Hiroshima crime was virtually uncontrolled immediately after the bomb. With order established, the crime rate apparently remained high, reaching a peak around 1950 and 1951, diminishing somewhat after that.^ I

statistics

DEATH

266

IN LIFE and

(or their Japanese equivalents),

from traditional de-

a liberation

eoriim; but also the sense of further disintegration

and

intensified death

minds with the atomie bomb, and viewing Hiroshima as a blighted eity whose life-

anxiety, inevitably linked in people’s

with further reason for

sustaining eapaeity eould not be trusted.

humorous

Similar mixed symbolism,

in retrospeet

but seriously

felt at

the time, oeeurred in relationship to post-bomb prostitution. As an aetive military eity distriet;

to

and

Hiroshima had long possessed

its offieials

sought to maintain

Oeeupation troops through an

was

offieially

a eelebrated red-light

this pattern in relationship

endorsed program. Sinee

it

that sueh a program

would minimize potential violenee or abuse on the part of the Oeeupiers, and would in any ease be neeessar\’, girls felt

were reeruited with the same organizing slogans that had been used in

war

relationship to the Japanese

— '‘Working for the Nation” and the “energy” — the girls themselves

effort

“Loyalty to the Nation.”^' Here too

— eame

from the outside, both beeause,

very early days the

girls

one observer put

as

girls

“water world” of large

“In the

vietimized by the blast eould not, phvsieally or

mentally, engage in sueh aetivities”; and beeause there

Japan for importing

it,

from outlying

eities.

rural

a tradition in

is

areas for

work

in

the

But before long there eame an order

from MaeArthur’s headquarters prohibiting organized prostitution and “emaneipating” all prostitutes; this did not, of eourse, end prostitution but made it more ehaotie, disorganized, and linked with erime often

—

with the wandering orphans or as

around Hiroshima Station serving

pimps. Japanese authorities kept insisting that their plan was more

sensible,

but they were met with traditional Anglo-Saxon (in

and Australian,

British

of

furo-ji

as well as

“institutionalization

offieial

of

this ease

Ameriean) resistanee toward any form

evil.”

\^arious

eompromise arrangements,

and otherwise, were worked out— until eventually,

after the

end

of the Oeeupation, the Japanese themselves deeided to outlaw prostitution.

More as the

speeifically related to

atomie

“W^idows’ Club,” formed

Hiroshima women,

a large

in

number

bomb

imagerv was

group known

about 1951 and made up mostly of of

them hibakusha. Manv

group were apparently part-time prostitutes, and to

a

a

in

the

number turned out

who were very mueh alive and who even endorsed aeti\’ities. W omen with keloids were noted to be prominent

have husbands

their wives’

among them; and one

suspeets that the group in general, identified as

was with Hiroshima and the bomb, had a somewhat exotie aura outsiders (ineluding a suggestion of linking sex with pain

it

for

and vietimiza-

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

Residual Struggles: tion, or

with sadomasocliism

Economic

familiarity.

but

it

is

)

,

and pcrliaps

for local clients

an aura of

undoubtcdlv of great importance,

factors \\crc

also possible that both the ‘'widows”

bomb

themselves to be eoimtering atomie

and

tbeir customers felt

death imagery through sexual

Undoubtedly equally prominent, however, were feeltoward the dead, feelings made all the more intense by the

reassertion of ings of guilt

267

life.’’''

soeially unaeeeptable nature of this expression of vitality— and

implieations of

literal

may

suspeet that

\\hdows’ Club

(and

all

post-bomb prostitution

in partieular,

therefore

a

bomb.” For hibakusha

selling the

tainted

group we

Hiroshima, and the

symbolized an erotieization of their taint

erotieism),

deformed and an extension of

in

as a

by the

a

humiliation

further

of

the

residual distrust into the sexual area.

ILLUSORY REPOSSESSION, OUTCASTS, AND TAINTED PRIDE Population trends in Hiroshima also eonvey a duality of imagery. On the one hand, the return of hibakusha to their eitv, following the initial

post-bomb

has been impressive.

flight,

By

known Hiroshima hibakusha throughout two thirds) were

1950, for instanee, of 157,575

Japan, 98,102 (a

little less

than

Hiroshima City and 26,864 more were living other parts of Hiroshima Prefeeture. Sinee many who were in the eity

in

li\ing in

at the time of the

bomb had permanent homes

elsewhere (the military

population, estimated at 90,000,

eame from

numbers of

in the eitv lived in outlying plaees in

eivilians

who worked

Hiroshima Prefeeture), these toward repossession rather than

The

figures

attest

all

over Japan, and large

to

an

impressive

trend

exile.

other side of the pieture

is

the

mueh more

extensive influx of

and the inereasing disparity between the expanding group of outsiders and the diminishing number of hibakusha. Thus, by 1950 hibakusha made up one third of the eity population of 285,712, outsiders into the eity

but by 1964 the 93,608 hibakusha eonstituted the

eity’s overall

Offlee.

less

than 20 per eent of

population of 506,949, aeeording to the Hiroshima City

Henee the paradox

that over the years, as hibakusha have

their general reeovery, a sense of

genuine repossession of Hiroshima has

been inereasingly impossible— and the individual hibakusha on every level, he belongs to a “dving” group.

We have noted bomb *

sense that,

post-bomb experienee of aetual outeasts (bura-

a certain tradition for the “sexy still

s

that hibakusha have sometimes been identified as “A-

outeasts,” but the

There is ture, which

made

finds echoes in

contemporary

widow” life.

in

Japanese folklore and

litera-

a

DEATH

268 kumin)

in

IN LIFE

Hiroshima

worth noting, and has important bearing

also

is

on long-range symbolism. With the destruetion by the bomb of many burakumin areas, Japanese soeial eommentators saw a historieal opportunity to eliminate eenturies-old patterns of diserimination and ghetto

praetiee— through the simple expedient of dispersing the burakumin

among the rest of the population.* But the burakumin ghettos somehow gradually re-formed themselves until, within a few years, things were pretty mueh the way they always had been. Most observers attributed the failure of the experiment to the tenaeity of prejudiee, the feeling

that “even

discrimination.’”^

A-bomb could not

the

One cannot

blast

contest this assertion,

away

wall

this

of

and the enduring

nature of this “wall of discrimination” becomes the more impressive

when one

burakumin

considers that

are not physically distinguishable

from ordinary people, so that they have to be continually identified through close observation and reporting techniques characteristic of Japanese culture. Moreover,

ence of being victimized

it

is

quite possible that their

made hibakusha even more prone

own

experi-

to prejudice

than before, more in need of another group to victimize, a pattern that

would be consistent with the general psychology of victimization. But also

important in the restoration of burakumin ghettos

generally ignored— the continuing psychological need of

one another, and

for the security of living

have observed such needs

who

are both

among

their

burakumin

own

group.

hibakusha themselves, as well as

in

factor

a

is

for

We

in those

burakumin and hibakusha^ which are consistent with the

well-known tendency for ghettos of

all

kinds to re-form themselves.®

But from the standpoint of symbolic impact upon hibakusha^ we mav say that the re-establishment of burakumin ghettos represents a “return to normalcy,” which could suggest a kind of social reintegration, but also conveys a

human

reminder that base

qualities survive everything

reminder which becomes particularly disturbing puristic

moral demands perceived

Finally,

tion

we can

as

—

in relationship to the

emanating from the dead.

observe contending symbolism in the uneasv distinc-

Hiroshima has achieved

as a city.

A number

of hibakusha

I

inter-

viewed were impressed that an American such as myself would come to

and seek them

and made such comments as “this [atomic bomb] experience we have had has made the name of Hiroshima their city

known *

Some

all

over the

of the buraku

out,

world— made the world aware areas

were

outside of the central area of the city.

left

relatively

intact

that there

is

a place

because of being located

Residual Struggles: called Hiroshima.

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

But such statements, never

2

free of irony or

69

ambiva-

once more conveyed the sense of dubious distinction suggested by the man who contrasted hibakusha fame with winning a Nobel Prize. A few expressed such sentiments as “I know things that others don't lence,

know”

or else referred

somewhat immediate bomb experience and

nostalgically to the grim trials of the its

aftermath; but again these expres-

sions of pride were

accompanied by indications of strong fear, humiliation, and guilt. Still others, without becoming leaders, related themselves to their hibakushahood in ways that made them individual symbols of atomic bomb destruction. Such was the case with one young

woman who,

six years after

skin condition

atomic

bomb

needlework

bomb, developed

whose relationship

to evaluate; she

difficult

the

to the

a severe

atomic

bomb

and

persistent

doctors found

then demonstrated her infirmity at various

protest meetings, earned her living through performing

in association

with a hibakusha organization, and during an

interview manifested an extremely aggressive form of self-display which was part of a life-pattern built around anger, distrust, and conflict over

the authenticity of the nurturance she

demanded and

reeeived.

Although these polar themes of reintegration and residual everywhere eonfront hibakusha, there

is

distrust

great variation in responses to

them and in their weighting within individual psychological life. Differences depend upon such factors as severity of original death encounter, prior soeioeconomic position, professional

and educational

skills

which

can be called upon, and those elusive but important capacities suggested by the terms ‘^strength of identity” and “ego strength.” Of particular

importance have been capacities to absorb death imagery, to maintain flexible patterns of dependency, and to relate individual life experience symbols or ideologies of reintegration. But these individual variations, as important as they are for the post-bomb life of the to larger

hibakusha, could

not exempt any from a permanent struggle with

contending symbols of

life

and death.

Commemoration

2)

CITY OF PEACE was perhaps predictable that Hiroshima, after experiencing the world s first atomic bomb, would call upon the peace symbol as its It

commemoration and symbol would become a psychic motif rallying point

vidual

for

hibakusha. Wdiat was

rehabilitation,

this

of great significance for indi-

predictable was

less

and that

the psychological

complexity of the need, response, and disillusionment surrounding the symbol.

The

place to be converted into a “Citv of Peace’' had possessed,

almost from nally a

its

beginnings, an unusually strong military identity. Origi-

town

castle

’

economic importance

(the center of a feudal fiefdom) with considerable for

its

area, during the early years of the Meiji

Restoration Hiroshima was able to be readily transformed into a modern city, and by the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894 it was the main military base for operations on the Asian mainland. It was to

maintain

this

with Japan

s

function for the next half-century, taking on added luster victory in the Russo-Japanese

War

of 1905

and with her

resounding successes in South Asia during the early phases of World War II. True, Hiroshima also had a “softer” side— as a cultural and edu-

and the home of one of Japan’s leading institutions for the training of teachers (later to become Hiroshima University), and as cational center

an easygoing provincial capital small enough for people to know one another and observe pleasant amenities. But the undeniable significance of

warmaking

atomic city

s

bomb

in the city’s

experience.

background lent

As

a local

a note of retribution to the

newspaper put

seventieth anniversary in 1959:

“The

it

at the time of the

accelerated

tempo

shima’s development as a military city eventuallv prepared ultimate tragedy.”^

The

in Hiroit

for

its

principle that Hiroshima should be reconstituted as a peace city

—

apparently found unanimous agreement from the beginning consistent as it was with the wishes of ordinary hibakusha, citv officials, and

Occupation authorities; w'ith Japan’s general postwar mood of pacifism; and with the universal reaction of horror at the first use of nuclear weapons.

Residual Struggles:

The

necessary political steps

\\

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

ere

more

difficult to

2

71

bring about. But in

1949 a law passed by the Japanese Diet (with Occupation approval) conferred upon Hiroshima the title “International City of Peace'' and granted a financial subsidy with which this

new

identity.

close to the

Monument

The Peace Park was

bomb

s

it

could give material shape to

built near the center of the city,

hypoccnter, containing the

official

Atomic

Bomb

Cenotaph (completed in 1953), the Peace Memorial Hall (1955), the Peace Memorial Museum or Atomic Bomb Memorial Exhibition Hall (1955), and the Children's Atomic Bomb Monument or

(1958), as well as various other smaller

monuments and

designations.

Constructed nearby were the Peace Bridge and the Peace Road (or, because of its width, “Hundred-Meter Road"). The rebuilt university

was envisioned

as

an intellectual center

tendency to use “Atomic

Bomb" and

naming these monuments two

is

And

the general

“Peace" almost interchangeably in

suggests the psychological effort to equate the

in the sense of the latter springing

There

for peace.

from the ashes of the former.

no denying either the reintegrative symbolism of these

physical expressions of the city's peace identity or the conflict bitterness

and

that have been associated with them. In the case of the

construction of the

museum,

after

much disagreement with

the central

government and among Hiroshima leaders themselves, a decision was made to proceed on a scale greater than that provided for by the Ministry of Construction in Tokyo. But lack of funds resulted in a prolonged interruption of work which left only the facade standing, causing people to be fearful that even that would collapse, and making a caricature of the intended

symbolism of the building. More significant was the resentment aroused by the decision to place a large hotel adjacent to the tion of

monuments

at the edge of the Peace Park, in anticipa-

an influx of foreign

visitors

and

various commercial groups in the city. nally selected to design both the Peace

in response to pressures

The

from

distinguished architect origi-

Museum and

the Memorial Hall

objected vehemently to the hotel, and was quoted as saying that, from

“would be looking down on the dead." Whatever the accuracy of the quotation, its sentiment was consistent with the emovisitors

it,

tionally-charged accusations of commercial desecration

and of

“selling

bomb" expressed to me by many individual hibakusha. They also raised objections about the other monuments. The Peace

the

Bridge, a striking contemporary structure designed by Isamu Noguchi,

was frequently described to

me

one Buddhist group publicly

as “strange"

called

it

and “alien"

to

Hiroshima;

a “Christian view of designing"

DEATH

272

IN LIFE

rather than a truly '‘Oriental form”;

and there has been the further

complaint that Noguchi was not even Japanese (he

is

a Nisei, that

is,

a

second-generation American of Japanese extraction), but was asked to design the bridge because he “just happened to be in Japan.”

Hundred-Meter Road has

been termed inappropriate and, more

also

pointedly, referred to as “the Royal

through these criticisms

and a related recast in the

fear of

is

The

Road

ABCC.” Running

to the

nurturance

a basic suspicion of counterfeit

American influence— that

of the city’s being

is,

image of the nation that dropped the bomb. But also

involved are the

and psychohistorical,

architectural

difficulties,

and identity within

ciated with reconstructing the city’s form

asso-

a con-

temporary international idiom.

Concerning the tion

university, although a respectable

academic

has had neither the intellectual nor material resources nor the

it

become the “mecca

unity of outlook necessary to envisioned.

The

Children’s

Monument

is

of peace”

it

is

something of an

main monuments, and we are already the controversy which surrounded its creation.

accessory to the of

In their symbolic importance two

Museum and

the Peace

which some

perhaps the most generally

accepted of the commemorative structures, but

some

institu-

among

familiar with

the completed

monuments,

the Cenotaph, have aroused particularly intense

among hibakusha. The museum was largely the

responses

the time of the

bomb

careful observations

creation of one

man,

a geologist

who

at

noted that rocks had melted, and began to make

and

collect a great variety of

specimens (mostly the

rocks themselves), which he chose for the shapes they

had assumed and

the shadows which had been imprinted on them. These early activities, carried out with great energy,

were both a professional-technical form of

psychic closing-off and a creative response to death guilt

many

people dying,

I

its first

so

thought that something must be done,” he told

me). Despite disruptive eventually

(“With

among

jealousies

became the nucleus

for the

colleagues,

museum’s

exhibits

his

collection

and he became

curator.

Under mens and

his leadership the

also

came

museum expanded

its

collection of speci-

to display such things as a matter-of-fact bilingual

description of the dropping of the atomic

and of the weapon’s destructive

bomb (much

features;

a

of

it

from Life),

group of mannequins

representing actual people injured or killed, showing the clothing they

had been wearing and indicating

to

what degree

it

had protected them

.

Residual Struggles:

from radiation

effects

^

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

273

the particular distance each was from the

at

h)pocenter; and an extensive series of photographs of the dead and

and of the

injured,

general devastation, taken during the days

city's

immediately following the bomb, the exhibit which has undoubtedly

made

the strongest impression upon visitors.

But the longer-range development of the museum inevitably gave

The

to controversy.

them

curator wished to enlarge

what he considered

into

a

exhibits

its

The

however, moved cautiously, because of

cit\’,

and make

popular, but completely scientific,

bomb

display of the ''true nature" or "essence" of the atomic ence.

rise

its

experi-

own

reluc-

tance to provide additional funds and because of increasing pressures

from various parts of the Hiroshima community

much

stress

upon the horrors

of the

to avoid placing too

bomb— pressures

originating not

only in commerical groups but in genuine emotional ambivalence within

The

ordinary hibakusha.

was

result

compromise

a

in

which

existing

displays were retained but expansion

was limited, and an exhibit of the "peaceful uses of atomic energy" was added (though later discontinued) Most hibakusha who discussed the museum with me shared the curator's wish that

it

convey the "true nature" or

full

horror of what

they had been through. But they thought this impossible, and were

convinced that

its

modern

beautiful

exterior

and orderlv j

exhibits

fell far

short of genuine representation.

Even more emotionally charged was the controversy surrounding the

A-Bomb Monument,

actual

The monument was

the Cenotaph.

ceded by a "Soul-Reposing Tower," hastily constructed the after the

A-bomb; however crude,

it

seemed

to

its

more elaborate

spring

be a meaningful part of

the city’s early rebirth, and probably conveyed for of authenticitv than did

first

pre-

many

a greater sense

successor. In the case of the

Cenotaph, conflict springs not so much from the design itself— which abstract, simple,

and strong— as from

cance. Difficulties began

enough

its

when Hiroshima

to include actual

public function and officials'

dead.

make

this

satisfactory

it

large

was not economically

and that the monument need eontain only the names

The

signifi-

remains was overruled by the Ministry of

Construction in Tokyo, which insisted that feasible

plan to

is

of the

decision did not violate traditional practice and was in fact to

many

included on the very

hibakusha: as one told me, first

soul being there in repose."

it

son's

name

gives

me

a strong sense of his

undoubtedly

left

some with the

memorial

But

"My

list

feeling

that the extraordinary quality of Hiroshima's experience was not being

DEATH

274

IN LIFE

taken into account. Or, at a psychological

we may

level,

say

that

hibakiisha were not being permitted the added obeisance to the dead

which they sought

Much more

in order to relieve their

extraordinary guilt.

resented was the inscription on the

Cenotaph which

in

translation reads:

Rest in peace.

The mistake

Here the the

shall

not be repeated.^"

controvers}' rc\olvcs

A-bomb

around the question of whose “mistake”

was, with the problem

compounded bv

the vagueness of

the Japanese language, particularly concerning the subject of a clause or sentence.

Many

hibakusha thought the inscription implied that they,

the victims of the A-bomb, were being blamed instead of those

used

the weapon.

But some saw

virtue

preciselv

in

vagueness

this

(apparently intentional on the part of the universitv professor

wrote the inscription)

Mayor Hamai,

because of

suggestion of universal blame.

its

maiming, and destroying,” and emphasized

that although in relationship to atomic first

who

spoke of the “mistake” as “the use of the

for instance,

fruits of science for killing,

who

weapons

it

was America who

did this, “all belligerents had a desire to possess such formidable

weapons,” so that “everyone,

as part of

mankind, must bear

his portion

of the responsibility.” lie added that the phrase about the mistake not

being repeated “means not only that

we will The real

that

try to

we

ourselves will not repeat

it

but

prevent an\- other people from doing so.”^^

difficulty

with the inscription, however,

public and permanent the hibakusha’s

is

own unconscious

that

it

made

self-accusation,

his con\’iction that his

atomic

bomb

“mistake” in remaining alive was the cause of deaths. This pattern was clarified, and also intensified, bv

an angry comment of a

visiting Indian jurist,

comparing what he saw

as

tendency to look upon the disaster as their own fault to a similar tendency of Indians to hold themselves responsible (“because they are bad”) for oppression at the hands of the British. The astutea Japanese

ness of his comparison victim.

lies in its

And when he went on

suggestion of the universal guilt of the

to claim that

both cases illustrated the

tendency of the white race to encourage such self-condemnation by victims as a

means

of covering

fortable issue (which

atomic

bomb

we

up

its

own

sins,

shall later discuss)

experience with racial emotions.

its

he raised the uncom-

of the association of the

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

Residual Struggles:

Underneath

tliese eity struggles

tone of a munieipal paradise \\hat one deseribed as

and another

as

were famous

.

.

2

75

over inemorialization was a nostalgie

Like Miss Ota, luhakuslia longed for

lost.

that speeial intiinaey found in a eastle town,”

the feeling of brotherhood for whieh Hiroshima people the Hiroshima mentalit\’ whieh, sinee the atomie .

bomb, has been lost.” The same man went on to state that as vet ‘hio new Hiroshima mentality has been born,”^- again suggesting that the synthesized identity of the “City of Peaee”

short of satisfying

falls

emotional needs, and that the eombination of instant devastation and post-bomb eonfusion has intensified universal longings for ehildhood

innoeenee— for

a state

no monument ean

without knowledge of guilt or death, one whieh

restore.

A-BOMB DOME: RECEPTACLE FOR AMBIVALENCE A monument

left

by the atomie

bomb

taken on the greatest symbolie signifieanee of

Dome

Dome)

(or Peaee

an industrial exhibition

The Atomie Bomb

all.

eonsists of the remains of

what was formerly

hall loeated elose to the h\poeenter.

few reinforeed eonerete buildings

Hiroshima,

in

stayed intaet midst the total rubble around to stand as a

the form of a ruin, has

itself, in

bomb

reminder of the atomie

it,

its

One

of the

dome-shaped outline

and was then permitted

experienee.

Over the

years

its

aura of desolation has eontrasted inereasingly with the glistening eity

growing up around

And

it.

pieture has been featured in so

its

new manv

and books dealing with the atomie bomb that it has probably beeome the dominant visual image of Hiroshima’s exposure to that weapon. stories

It

has been an equally dominant eenter of eonfliet: publiely, between

eommereial and

eivie

groups whieh

movement groups whieh demand

insist it

it

be torn down, and peaee

be retained; and privatelv,

in the

psyehologieal lives of indi\’idual hibakusha. This eonfliet was revealed in

Dome expressed to me. favored keeping the Dome as

three different attitudes about the

One group

of hibakusha

bomb

reminder of the atomie for instanee, looked

remains elear]

in

[to

upon

suggest]

people’s

it

as “a

that sueh

minds that

would happen again.” Others Ameriean

visitors,

experienee.

that

it

A-bomb

in

shopkeeper’s assistant,

thing onee happened

stressed

that

it

is

should be kept “so that

Hiroshima was.”

[and

make

another war oeeurs, the same thing

from Ameriea, they ean understand, by seeing the

permanent

kind of warning, the onlv thing that a

if

7Te

a

it,

needed mostly

for

when people eome

what

a terrible thing

.

2

76

DEATH

^

IN LIFE

But ambivalence was the keynote— the idea that the Dome’s retention was necessary but painful— as expressed by the white-collar worker; I

would rather

see

it

preserved.

Without

we would tend

it,

to forget

the event completely and simply be easygoing. But whenever I see it, I feel my nerves becoming taut not so much pain as a kind of tension and a sense of responsibility. Despite having been in the .

.

.

.

.

midst of so

many

coming from

a responsibility

Here the tone

people being killed,

that of “lest

is

but he does not

feel

.

am now

I

living.

.

.

Yes,

.

it is

my being alive.

we

forget”; clearly

he has the right

he would

like to forget,

The Dome both reminds him

to.

of his guilt over survival priorih' (which he makes explicit) a constructive channel for the guilt (the “responsibility

and becomes coming from my

being alive” ) Similarly, the physicist, although publicly

of retaining the

Dome, admitted

committed

to the principle

that this was “a rather cruel thing” to

He thought they should bear the pain because Dome might do for peace, but concluded that

ask of hibakusha. larger

If

I

good the

could really

feel at

some future time

understood the enormity of the

would say that the

To must the

Dome should

bomb

of the

that the people of the world

to the extent that

I

do, then

I

be torn down.

grasp the full force of emotions which surround the problem, we turn to the second group of hibakusha, those who advocate that

Dome

be immediately removed. The

tourist

agency employee, for

instance, related a series of associations to illustrate his strong conviction

that the

Dome

is

worthless because

it

makes an intolerable emotional

impact upon hibakusha and leaves evervone

On

else unaffected;

way here [to your office] I saw children swimming in the river. Those who went through the bomb would never swim there. ... I remember passing that spot and seeing dead bodies floating on the

the water

— burnt

and black dead bodies.

.

.

.

Whenever

I

see the

and when I see the Dome at the same time, I recall that scene. But present-day children are indifferent to such things and simply enjoy themselves. So even if the Dome is kept, to those river there, .

.

.

who have

not experienced the bomb it will appear to be simply an object. ... I think it would be better to tear the Dome down without hesitation, rather than increase this grief. .

.

.

Residual Struggles:

He went on

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

Dome

to say that the

27 7

Pp-

might have some value

if

visitors

“eould see the burned bodies of actual people just as they were at the time, but since this is impossible, “the best thing would be to make it into something like an

amusement

center

—a

place for family outings/’

His requirements, in other words, are uncompromising: either absolute fidelity to the experience (meaning the experience itself), or else absolute obliteration of reminders of that experience.

The abandoned mother was

reminded of the appearance of

also

people at the time of the bomb, and expressed the same sentiments

more simplv: by the Dome [on the way to your office] I felt frightened, afraid. ... I had a sense of dread, and that building [the Dome] itself seemed dark, gloomy, and horrible.

As

I

walked along the

Others emphasized '‘spoils

street

how

the

Dome

‘hvorks

on people’s emotions” and

the beauty of the city,” and suggested that

it

be removed so that

they could “feel refreshed”— or else expressed the related idea that the

Dome

had

be removed

to

hibakusha to overcome hostility to

for

America, since “even though people speak of having ship between

Japan and America,

its

a friendly relation-

being there reminds us that

America dropped the bomb.”

There was

also the persistent

theme

of inauthenticity, of the

having “value for tourists but no value for those shima,” and of the grocer puts

Well,

I

its it,

don’t

becoming associated with

leaving

a sightseeing object or

“selling the

live

in

Hiro-

bomb”— or

as

Dome”:

“selling the

mind

who

Dome

it

— well,

memorial, but selling the Dome as can’t stand people’s impure motives

as a I

becoming mixed in with it. Since such impure motives are unavoidable— and since we have the Memorial Hall and the Cenotaph —well, I think we better simply remove it. If I were in charge, I would have it taken away right now. Suggestions were offered concerning a more authentic structure:

Buddhist

priest’s idea

The

(mentioned before) of a bussharito or tower

for

we can forget, not remember such things, And the history professor’s more original

the ashes of Buddha, “So that

and

attain

true

peace.”

opinion to the effect that since the (it is

thought to be about

a

Dome

“is

not the true hvpocentcr”

hundred meters from

it)

and

is

“mislead-

— DEATH

278 ing,”

as

it

IN LIFE

could have been produced by an ordinary bomb, then

authenticity slionld be songlit in “nothingness”:

\Vc should

figure out the exact

small artistic

monument on it— or

anything at all eenter— beeause that .

power

to

hypocenter— and possibly put some

make

.

better

what there was.

is

.

devoid of

it

nothingness at the hvpo-

in order to s\’mbolize

.

leave

still,

Sueh

.

.

evervthing into nothing, and

weapon has the

a

think this should be

I

symbolized.

The

third group of hihakusha favor an ingenious

which has actually been proposed

tion,

tion: neither tear the

but instead wait until

Dome down it

begins to erumble of

be dangerous to people near

makes use

it,

by the

as policy

nor permit

solu-

eity administra-

to stand indefinitely

it

its

eompromise

own

in a

and then simply remove

way

it.

that eould

This solution

of a traditional East Asian pattern of aetion through inaction,

upon the passage of time to contribute to the solution problem that might be made worse by immediate intervention. It of depending

of a also

responds to the excrueiating ambivalence of hihakusha without resorting to either of the disturbing alternatives.

Indeed, this “third way” fuses those alternatives. Thus, the heroic city

me

official told

this

that he was “very

enormous experienee— of

mueh

in favor of retaining evidence of

know about

letting everyone

it,”

but of

doing so without exposing survivors to further pain beeause “they are preeisely the ones

who

already

illustrated his point with a

My

know about

eon jugal example:

wife lost her parents and her uncle and

she simply cannot tolerate seeing the

experienee— she

the experience”— and he

manv

other relatives, and

Dome— or

even

relies

of the

just can’t look at these things.

Similarly, the philosopher carefully

weighed these painful hihakusha

assoeiations against the reeognition that tearing

many

mediately might “hurt

people’s feelings”

down

the

Dome

im-

and “dilute or weaken

anti-A-bomb sentiments,” and concluded that the eompromise solution

was

best,

i

he “third wav,”

in

other words,

is

the

wav

reconciling contending forees within the individual at large,

But

and

it is

harmonv, of

and within the

eitv

makes contaet with Japanese tradition. an attitude behind which one ean hide. Thus, the elderlv

in this

also

way

of

also

widow aeeepted the compromise beeause

“I

guess

those people

authority] are better equipped to take eare of the matter,”

female poet beeause “I

feel

both ways and

I

don’t

know which

[in

and the is

right.”

Residual Struggles: Trust, Peace, and Mastery

Some,

around which interest in

it.

to

don

I

A-bomb

deal with t

care

if

it

is

doesn

s\mbohze anything. and Miss Ota are people who

may be

t

concerns:

It is

more

myself have

monument

or

little

if

it

is

forceful terms: “I don’t care.

simplv

dirt\'.”

The

care about symbols;

writer-physician

and although they

suppressing certain emotions about the

Dome,

Dome

has lost

us that midst the great public furor, the

symbolic object

as a

“I

preserved as a

cleared away.” Or, like Miss Ota, in It

Dome

like the writer-physician, reject the

279

they are telling

power

its

authentic symbol and has become (in Miss Ota’s words)

as

an

‘a stereo-

tvpe.”’’'

The invoh’cment some

wr\-

Some

comments

of visitors in this balancing effort was suggested by of a

minor

citv official:

come

of the foreigners ^^'ho

how

seeing

would

beautifully

like to lea\ e the

the city

Dome

manmade atomic bomb.

Hiroshima are disappointed at has reconstructed itself and to

.

there as a

s\

mbol

.

.

of this extraordinarv

But half of the Hiroshima people [including] actual \ictims who don’t want to remind themselves really want it torn down. .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

He

concluded with the practical observation that the issue has come up only because the city o\^a^s the property on which the Dome stands, and

were privately owned, ‘The building would have been torn down, and the land used for another business project.” This last opinion that

if

it

was more or in

less

confirmed by the construction right next to the

1965 (three years after

my

study,

and

after this section

Dome

had been

written) of a nine-story office building (in the words of an American

commentator)

dominating

it,

belittling

it,

making

nearly invisible

it

from some directions.”

But whatever issues

is

done

surrounding the

to the

Hiroshima landscape, the psychological

Dome

remain important clues

emotions. Slightly fewer than one third of those

I

to

hibakuslia

interviewed expressed

Slic used the word “manneriszumu” which is the japonized version of “mannerism,” blit in ordinary usage has come to mean “roteness” and “stereotypy” more than “mannerism” as such.

One

year later, as if out of contrition, the Hiroshima City Council \oted to preserve the remains of the Dome permanently. A campaign to raise 40,000,000 ($110,000) for that purpose through popular subscription, inaugurated in Novemt

¥

ber, 1966, at first fared badly. But renewed efforts by Iliroshima officials and various kinds of national publicity accelerated the response, and on March 14, 1967, Mayor

Ilamai announced its successful completion and said that reinforcement work would soon be undertaken for the purpose of “eternal preservation.”

DEATH

80

2

IN LIFE

Dome, one

themselves as being in favor of retaining the tearing

down, and

it

way”

'‘third

more than one

sliglitly

third favored

third either favored the

any definite opinion. There was

or else refused to express

only a slightly greater tendeney in the special group of hibakushci— those

most publicly concerned with the A-bomb problem— toward retaining

Dome. And although

the

three groups were characterized by great

all

ambivalence, the desire to get

rid of the

Dome

seemed

much

to reflect

more powerful inner emotions than did the wish to retain it. In general, we may characterize the Dome’s psychohistorical function as that of pro\ iding a focus for the expression of struggles for masterv. It

an external receptacle

is

bomb

emotions.

It

for, as

well as a reflector

and

intensifier of,

A-

has brought about a measure of release from conflicts

over guilt by means of “taking on”

some

of the responsibilitv to the

dead, including that of the sur\ ivor’s mission of alerting the rest of the

world to nuclear danger. But canceled out by

its

this positive

function has been more than

exacerbation of conflicts, by

seeming demand that

its

the individual hihakusha not only stay guilty, but be dominated bv guilt the center of his being,

at

just

as

the citv at

dominated by the Dome. The psychological quest then,

is

maintain a receptacle for

to

hack away

guilt;

in

is,

without resolution. Ambivalence pervading the

fore

extends

fundamental dimensions

rejected, of serving as

it

so to speak, to resoh'e

guilt

embraced and

Dome, down is to

keeping the

guilt; that of tearing

and that of the “third way”

over such

center has been

its

Dome the

as

human svmbols

of

issue there-

both

idea,

A-bomb

death;

and hate toward the dead, and the wish to remember and forget them; and the question of the authenticity of anv external feelings of love

object in representing the dead, and of the sur\ ivor’s right to allow such

an object to assume

his responsibilitv.

AUGUST

6:

The

commemoration

yearly

CEREMONY, FESTIVAL, BATTLEGROUND of the

bomb

heightens struggles over mastery

by epitomizing the hibakushas relationship to the dead, and by serving as the annual moment in time around which the entire hibakusha iden-

become enmeshed in conflict. August 6 commemoration, during the still desperate

tity revolves. It

The

first

too has inevitably

post-

bomb

days of 1946, was perhaps the most generallv satisfactorv one.

'I'lierc

was

a simple

ceremony held

mostly religious

(Buddhist,

mourners of

kinds observed

.

.

.

all

in front of the

Shinto, in

Soul-Reposing Tower,

and Christian) quiet

in

nature,

with

prayer— “bereaved families

repatriated soldiers praying for their lost wives, an old ladv placing

Residual Struggles:

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

281

prayer beads around the hands of her grandson, vietims with keloids presenting flowers to the dead/’^^

But the subdued atmosphere did not last. By the following year eity authorities had deeided to eonduet a larger eeremony modeled upon the traditional Shdko7i-sai (eeremony for the invoeation of the spirits of the dead), Japan’s national equivalent of Memorial Day. Shokon-sai was eustomarily a joyous oeeasion, and Hiroshima had long been known for the elaborateness and gaiety of its version of it ineluding daneing,

—

carnival acts, horse races,

Mardi

version of a

gras

commemoration the

and what might be viewed as the Japanese spirit. During the three-day period of the second

old Shokon-sai spirit prevailed, along with a few

postwar and post-bomb touches: jazz music over loudspeakers, flashing neon signs, songs about the "brilliant flash” of the "atomic sphere” and

upward

the

water world

dancing to

flight ’

this

of the doves of peace,” beautiful girls from the

wearing elaborate kimono and flowers in their hair music, and "atomic” shops of every kind featuring "big

peace sales.” Although there was also a dignified memorial ceremony, including sober messages from General MacArthur and the mayor of the city about the need for

most people seemed

to

recall

shocked reaction of foreign the

mankind

to learn the lesson of

mainly the

visitors also

made

festival

Hiroshima,

atmosphere.

The

considerable impact upon

city.

In subsequent years these activities were greatly modified, and em-

was increasingly placed upon declarations of peace. But the problem of tone and atmosphere of the August 6 commemoration has phasis

never been solved and probably never can be. For

it

would seem that

however much hibakusha have resented "impure” patterns of commercial acti\'ity and general gaiety, they have also sought them. They have connected these patterns with their cultural traditions, and have lacked any alternative principles on how to behave when commemorating an

atomic bomb. Additional problems also

came

rating international situation,

vigilance and

emphasis

in

and

upon the rearming

to affect the ceremonies: the deterioa

new American

stress

upon

militar\’

of Japan, brought about a change in

General MacArthur’s yearly messages, with

peace and more about reconstruction.

And

less said

about

there developed in Japan a

movement which embraced the peace symbol and came to play an increasingly important role in

militantly leftist political in its

own

fashion

August 6 ceremonies.

The

result

was that

in 1950,

with the anniversary coming up

just after

2

DEATH

82

IN LIFE

War, Occupation authorities decided to cancel most August 6 activities. But a certain amount of violence did occur between demonstrating laborers and Hiroshima police; and hibathe outbreak of the Korean

kushd began

to

resentment both

register

toward Japanese

political

groups recognized as manipulators of peace protests and toward Occupation

authorities

at

whose command such

Witnessing these disturbing public clashes, ing around the better organized and

more

protests

were suppressed.

as well as later ones revolv-

aggressively

dogmatic

activi-

Gensuikyo (Japanese Council Against A- and H-Bombs), could only cause most hihakusha to recoil in anger and confusion. Their vearlv ties

of

atomic

bomb commemoration had

taken on the contours of a political

battleground.

''anniversary reactions’’:* august During the ceremony antagonisms were

commemorative

On

I

much

attended on August in evidence, side

to the

1962,

bv side u ith

a

1962

such political

more

restrained

spirit.

the afternoon of August

march

6,

6,

Peace Park

S

there was a large demonstration

made up mostly

of labor groups

and

and sponsored

by Gensuikyo. The children of the Folded Crane Club joined the march, starting out from the A-Bomb Hospital; and I was later told that

when

patients

waved

tears in the eyes of

at the children

from

their balconies, there

were

everyone present, including those of an American

television

cameraman

assembled

Peace Park, where they were addressed not only bv leaders but by the mayor and other city officials, since this

their

own

sent

to

cover

the

event.

The demonstrators

in the

kind of event had become part of the controversial nature

program, despite

Much

less

polite were a group of student

Zengakuren (All-Japan Federation of Student

Self-

Governing Societies) who made use of small portable loudspeakers denounce Gensuikyo in the strongest terms, and to demand that

condemn Russian

its

and despite the mayor’s known disapproval of the

movement’s one-sidedness. hecklers from the

city’s overall

as well as

American nuclear

testing.!

to it

Feelings were

*

'The term has been used in psycliiatric researeh to deseribe a somewhat different related phenomenon: the tendency of patients to re-enact— in symbolic and often pathological form-disturbing childhood events, particularly loss "of a parent.

l)iit

e sa \ reaction occurs either when the patient reaches the age at which the parent died, or when the patient’s child reaches the age the patient was when the parent died.^-'''

Hie Zengakuren is itself a radical organization which has on many occasions protested against American actions. But it (or its dominant faction) has frequently t

Residual Struggles:

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

2

83

on that August 5 about Qensuikyo’s nuclear double standard (condemning American testing while defending as necessary particularly strong

by

testing

peace-loving nations”) because

it

night before that the Russians had begun a tests

A

American

protest

pacifist family

li\

efforts of

just

two members

Hiroshima— world-famous

ing in

the

atmospherie

series of

for

its

—

0 }ages into American and Soviet nuclear test zones a mother her teen-age daughter, attempting to mediate aeross language \'

between demonstrators and hecklers, pointing out

barriers

that

new

by exploding a thirty-megaton bomb. final touch to the scene were the dedicated

of an

and

had been learned

many

to the latter

of the groups taking part were opposed to the one-sided

policies dictated within

working hard

But these

to

Gensuikyd from above, and were themselves promote a more balanced position on nuclear testing.

peaee negotiations” were of

little avail,

and mutual

recrimi-

nations continued.

The atmosphere different. From 7 thousand

Peace Park early the next morning was very a.m. people began to gather near the Cenotaph, in the

number, although one did not get the sense of a eity turning out en masse. Standing under the extremely hot morning sun (they say in Hiroshima that August 6 is always elear and hot, and eoming as it does during the summer dry season, it usually is) while several

in

waiting for the eeremony to begin, one could understand the hibakusha

tendeney to associate both the heat and the oecasion with the original day of the bomb. The program consisted mostly of brief speeehes by city

from the mayor— and of the laying of front of the Cenotaph by representatives of various eity,

officials— notably a peace message

wreaths in

and international organizations coneerned with hibakusha and with peace. A ehildren’s ehoir and orchestra and a mothers' choral group national,

provided musieal interludes. Also part of the eeremonv was the adding of 125

new names

believed related to

to the

A-bomb

Cenotaph, 42 of effeets

vietims of the original disaster.

whom

died from illnesses

and the remainder newlv diseovered

At exaetly 8:15 a.m.

a

thousand peace

doves were released from eages kept at the side of the monument, and

an A-bomb orphan rang the

bell of

times. Shortly afterward the this brief official

fore ''staged”

been

at

it

— that

is,

planned by

its

My

general reaetion to

that although publie

and

there-

organizers as an expression of

Gensuikyd and with other organizations controlled by the many of its own leaders originally split off), and universalistic position in its opposition to nuclear weapons.

hierarchy (from which

has taken a

eeremony ended.

commemoration was

odds with

Communist

peaee by striking a large gong several

DEATH

284

IN LIFE

Hiroshima’s symbolic role as the dignified

first

A-bombed city— it was nonetheless

and impressive.

Even more impressive were scenes that took place immediately afterward, as people— many of them very old— made their way to the Cenotaph and burned incense to the souls of dead relatives. As they wiped

their faces with handkerchiefs in the

to distinguish perspiration in

from

tears.

extreme heat,

Throughout the

various locations in the Peace Park,

it

was

difficult

rest of the day,

there were smaller religious

ceremonies conducted by Buddhist, Shinto, Christian, and other religious groups (including postwar sects), all paying tribute to the dead

and

stressing

themes of peace.

smaller ceremonies

Qensuikyd’s

Memorial

hibakusha,

found these

political strife returned to the

Peace Park

international

an armed camp,

as tough-looking

armbands held themselves

less

I

larger ones.

conference

The atmosphere was

Hall.

was

told,

more congenial than the

But that same afternoon with

Many

in

the

adjoining

Peace

that of a peace meeting than

Oensvikyo guards wearing identitying

alert at the

entrance to the

further difficulty from the Zengakuren.

hall, anticipating

The Zengakuren

pickets did

appear but were few in number, and the protests they shouted into their hand megaphones were drowned out by shrill Qensuikyo speeches from within the hall which were piped out through larger amplifiers attached to the outside of the building, causing them to reverberate throughout the entire surrounding area.

On

the floor of the meeting too there was

bitter ideological struggle, along with suggestions of physical

With

the

passage

of

a

resolution

condemning

all

combat.

nuclear

testing,

whether Russian or American (in a brief reversal of the national Gensuikyo position brought about by the Hiroshima prefectural branch of the organization), the entire Chinese

and Russian delegations and

two members of the North Korean delegation dramatically walked out of the meeting. And a few Zengakuren students, who had somehow

made

their

way

into the hall, were forciblv ejected from

also, a little later on, a

by

more quiet peace meeting held

a rival peace organization

suikyd/' but

it

known

attracted relatively

little

it.

(There was

in the

same

hall

popularly as the ‘'Second Genattention or support.)

That evening there again occurred the type of sudden change of atmosphere one had by this time become accustomed to. A festival spirit came over the cit\-, though one of a very special kind. People walked actively

about dressed

from small booths

in

yukata (summer kimono), making purchases

selling either materials for

mourning (incense

sticks.

Residual Struggles:

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

2

85

paper lanterns, ete.) or else food, souvenirs, and kniekknaeks of every variety. Magnifieent fireworks were set off in front of the Peace Park. All this was in preparation for the main activity of the evening, the floating of paper lanterns along the ri\ers, each lantern bearing the name of a person killed in the atomic bomb and usually a prayer for peace as well. Ibis custom, now- a regular feature of

August 6 commemorative

activi-

was derived from the traditional summer festivals for the dead, held annually throughout Japan, whose name, bon, is often translated as ties,

festival of lanterns.”

The

scene was extraordinarily beautiful, and one

had the impression that the emotional pain of individual hibakusha was tempered by their immersion in the aesthetics of the experience. watched the Folded Crane Club conduct its owm special lantern ceremony. Led by the day laborer (^‘zealot-saint”), a group of about I

also

tw'enty

marched solemnly through the Hiroshima streets, chanting simple anti-A-bomb slogans and reciting wdiat are probably (at least in Japan the most famous w'ords written about the atomic bomb, children

)

the

Toge;

poem by

lines of a

first

Giv'e back

my

now dead Hiroshima

the

back

father, give

my

poet Sankichi

mother/Give grandpa back,

grandma back/Give our sons and daughters back. .” The lanterns the children had prepared bore the names of other children wTo had died from the A-bomb, except for one with the name of a seventy- three.

man

year-old floated,

.

included because he had no other familv.

from the secluded

river

bank they had chosen,

barge bearing a replica of the Children’s

Monument

Thev

also

a little paper

in the

Peace Park,

along with a protest against Russian resumption of testing and a demand for an end to all nuclear testing. As the children marched aw'ay

from the

riser

bank, again chanting their slogans and the lines from

Toge’s poem, a teen-age

began

among them suddenly broke dowm and

girl

to sob

uncontrollably— it turned out that her brother, a hibakusha, had died of leukemia four years before. The day laborer rushed

over to comfort her, but he too soon became very excited and began to

shout words to the effect that the world must stop barbarism and put an end to weapons that cause so misery. Spotting

shouted, “Please

These

tw'O

me

let

just a

few^

kind of

much human

yards aw^ay, he ran toward

them know about

me and

these things in America.”

emotional outbreaks w'cre not isolated events but part of

the general intensification of

August 6 ceremony. At assistants,

this

just

A-bomb

about

feelings

in

relationship to the

this time, for instance,

one of

my

not a hibakusha but Hiroshima-born and close to the general

2

86

DEA

by

IN LIFE

that the strain of our interviews was

him; and a young

for

my wife with I’his

II

me

problem, told

burden

1

who had been

hibakusha

literary researeh expressed the

same

in the

a

assisting

feeling to her.

kind of “anniversary reaetion” both stimulates and

monthlong buildup

a

woman

beeoming

stimulated

is

mass media prior to August

6— inter-

views with prominent survivors, poignant deseriptions of eontinuing

and diseussions of peaee movement

suffering,

international

issues,

nuelear dangers, and of Hiroshima's speeial responsibilities. All emo-

seem

tions

to be intensified

a eitywide ereseendo

is

by the summer sun,

until

on August 6

itself

reaehed; the events of that day permit diseharge

and deereseendo; and the

eyele begins again the following

July— the

general pattern eonsistent with psyehologieal inelinations of the Japa-

nese toward atmospherie rhythms of this kind. I

felt

that these events of August 6

lightness, fantasy, beauty, protest,

behavior, ineluding tears shed.

The

in

holds

out,

of

dead and

for

whieh here ineluded

peaee

among

a

really

do with the general

all

Fantasy was

pain.

Japanese

magie plea

festivals, a

for the

and

another

I

will

sense

ealm of the

the living; the implieit belief, “If

realization, at

one of

the tide, of enjoving the

lantern, his or her soul will be taken eare of,

was aeeompanied by the

to

mo\'ing away from

expressed in the ehildlike aura surrounding of make-believe

had

mourning

of

or abandoned, but rather

easygoing aetivity, of effortless flow with life

kinds

various

lightness

atmosphere— by no means wild

pleasures

of sad eonfliet,

eommereial eoneern, and reportorial

Sad eonfliet was e\ident

awareness.

festival

eombined elements

I

float this

be proteeted,"

level, that all of this

was make-believe, d he beauh’ pervaded virtuallv

all

events (with

the notable exeeption of the politieal ones) in their graee of eeremony,

and

in

a

tone of aesthetie sensitivity assoeiated with

sadness and

impermanenee whieh dominates mueh of Japanese literature and emotional life. Known as mono no aware (the “suehness of things" or the “sad beauty of existenee"), this quality to transeend death. Protest ineluded a

is

stronglv related to the eapaeitv

wide range of expressions, from

hard-eore ideologieal manipulations to the most spontaneous of individual outpourings, but was for most

muted bv the other demands of eommemoration. Commereial eoneerns were elear enough in the visible buying and

selling,

and were undoubtedlv even more formidable

behind-the-seenes arrangements; although eonsiderably

reputed to have been in the past, they were hibakusha.

I

still

he reportorial foeus was evident

a

less glaring

problem

in the

in

than

to individual

ubiquitousness of

eameras and journalists, and undoubtedly eontributed to

a strong

(and

a

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

Residual Struggles:

ambivalent) sense on the part of

many hibakusha

287

of sliaring

tlieir

event

with the outside world and ha\ ing to behave aeeordingly. In response to these various eurrents

made

I

eeremonies: ineense, fantasy,

four-word note to eharaeterize the

a

eameras.

polities,

THE DEAD RE\'ISITED: INDIVIDUAL REACTIONS Can

individual hibakusha be

amthing but eonfused by

this array of

forees?

Some, despite everything, speak with affirmation of the events of August 6— as was true of the shopkeeper’s assistant: ^^dlen the day eomes around

baek

to

that

up

me

managed

.

to

to

.

.

and

now eome

.

.

I

.

Park]— I

...

I

don’t go,

beeause ...

We

may

I

.

the

I

want

bomb eomes

of the

help going.

bomb and

by the

have the feeling something

I

is

.

.

must go

I

W^ell, there

.

ean pray to them.

I

wrong— I go

there

to sleep peaeefully.

say he feels ealled by the dead; but although his partieipation

has the eompulsion of guilt,

it

nonetheless symbolizes for

step toward mastery

and toward the right The burakumin boy deseribed similar

to stay

memorv

have the feeling that

just ean’t

are the souls of the people killed If

.

have a feeling I eannot deseribe. ... I feel with all of the hardship, I have somehow

through.

there [to the Peaee

.

away and

found himself

“as

in

mueh

as possible

him another

to masterv.

attempting

feelings. After first

not think about

it,”

he somehow

the Peaee Park, virtuallv in the midst of the dead,

where he experieneed a kind of loneliness

.

.

.

[whieh]

eame from

from those who were saerifieed— it was

The

eleetrieian also spoke of

day,” but

upon

burning there

lighting

— all

of

meense the

who died—

their influenee.

August 6

as “for the

for his son

flowers

the people

and

most part

and “seeing

all

of

the

all

a lonely

of the ineense

people,

ineluding

foreigners”— he found himself “feeling very happy.” Loneliness, in other words, was appropriate; and his happiness eonsisted of a sense of satisfaetion at fulfilling his obligations toward the dead, sharing his senti-

ments with other hibakusha, and having

his aetions appro\'ingly “eon-

firmed” bv outsiders.

But there are others who experienee

ration:

psyehologieal

pain—

and of ultimate horror— as revealed in the employee’s immediate associations to August 6 commemo-

direct rc\'ival of death guilt civil service

maximum

DEATH

288

IN LIFE

Well, the color of my brother’s keloid— the color of his burns— mix together with my feeling what I saw directly— that is, the manner in which he died, that’s what I remember. The color was similar to that of a dried squid when broiled— so that I think of it .

.

.

.

whenever I see dried squid. ... I have the was so terrible ... a verv lonelv feeling.

Emotions

commemorate sized

these cause

like

to

.

feeling that the

A-bomb

a\oid the Peace Park and to

A number

the occasion in private.

need

their

many

.

of hibakusha

empha-

and puritv of experience— '‘I place a and worship alone bv reciting a sutra’”"— and

for simplicity

candle on the family

altar,

their wariness of public observances in for all sorts of purposes that

which ^Teople gather together can’t approve of.”

I

There were some, however, who objected not to the violation of the commemorative spirit but to that commemorative spirit itself, which they saw as stifling necessary protest. The hiirakumin woman leader, for instance, with characteristic militancy,

emphasized that

for people merely to “gather before the

it is

not enough

Monument and

clasp their

hands”:

They ought and express

to go further than simplv feeling individual sorrow

.

.

.

by taking action. Praving for the repose of the souls of the dead may be necessary, but we should make efforts, as is written on the Monument, to make sure it won’t be repeated and then the sacrifices will not have been for nothing. .

.

their

feelings

means

demand

commemoration; and she

also expresses

be active rather than acted upon. Her burakumin her ha\ing been just an infant at the time of the

to

identity, as well as

bomb— and

.

of achieving reconciliation with the dead,

the psychological equivalent of s

.

.

Protest becomes her

the rebel

.

therefore less burdened by subsequent death guilt than

others with clearer memories of

it

— are

undoubtedlv important

factors

in her attitude.

But perhaps the most

ment

of political

ceremony.

somehow

A feel

characteristic hibakusha reaction

and commercial

typical

comment was

activities

surrounding the August 6

that of the

animosity tow'ard people

was resent-

abandoned mother:

who made

a noisy

“I

clamor at

those mass meetings.” d’he grocer went further in describing the event as “utterly

*

A

empty, no more than

a festival— a festival that gives

Buddhist prayer, or sermon of Buddha.

people a

— Residual Struggles:

chance

to

bomb was

be noisy/’ aecusing dropped.”

And

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

289

PP-

city leaders of “selling the fact that the

A-

the history professor described such “great

resentment” toward the “big

on August 6 that

festivals”

used to have to get out of the city because

found it unbearable. There was something about them which almost drove me erazy. Sometimes shops would have speeial sales. I felt like slapping people for doing this, for making such a thing of this day. Now it is changing somewhat, and I noticed that this time things were quieter. But I don’t take much part in it. ... I have always felt that this should be a silent occasion expressing a form of warning. I

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

I

.

—

Behind these negative reactions

deeply disturbing sense of

a

is

desecration of the dead, and of violated responsibility of the living to

the dead, causing hibakusha guilt to be magnified to an intolerable level.

Much

of the anger has to do with the faet that these “violations”

whether commercial,

or

ideological,

in

the

form of

festival

gaiety

—activate latent urges of hibakusha themselves either to ignore the dead, to combine ritual attention to

them with

joyousness, or even to

take part in the economic or political activities they so bitterly

The problem

condemn.

complicated by patterns of historical change which

is

render increasingly

acceptable the old ethos of festival gaiety in

less

relationship to the spirits of the dead,

and

at the

same time

give rise to

many of the resented financial practices and ideological passions. The hibakusha's struggle over commemoration, then, is a search for a mode of involvement with the dead which stresses his continuity with them, absorbs his guilt, and reasserts his own right to live. Public behavior which flaunts

vitality, particularly vitality associated

sonal aggrandizement, maximizes guilt. stresses

quietude

is

more

likely to

of “leveling off” with the dead.

In

minimize

contrast,

guilt

with per-

behavior which

by svmbolizing

a kind

But the hibakusha requires something

more than merely the opportunity

for

subdued individual worshin.

deal with the enormity of his experience, he requires

some form

To of

group symbolism of rebirth so that he can associate himself with Hiroshima’s living out city.

its difficult

historical task as the first

amount

of manipulation, vitality,

his struggles over

commemoration take on

Since this task requires a certain

and general public “noise,”

atomie bombed

the quality of walking a psychological tightrope between angry sensitivity to all that

same

desecration.

seems to desecrate the dead, and participation

in that

Dimensions of Peace Beyond monuments and commemoration, questions of organized peace movements, nuclear testing, and Japanese rearmament have important bearing upon residual hibakusha conflicts and upon struggles for masterv.

Hibakusha,

bomb

as usual, find

exposure has

themselves in a confusing position. Their A-

made them

the s\mbolic core of Japan’s powerful

postwar peace sentiment, and has contributed greatlv toward making their country the most peace-minded nation in the world. But because of ha\-ing been for some time rendered inarticulate bv the phvsical and

emotional impact of that exposure, and because of lacking a geographic tradition for intellectual leadership,

peace

most of

about organized

their ideas

have had to originate from the outside. Wdhle thev themselves have in no way lacked strong feelings about war and peace, these feelings have had to relate themselves to systems of thought quite efforts

removed from

Some have

their

own

experience.

placed the entire blame for this hibakusha inarticulateness

upon Occupation censorship of writings about the atomic bomb. But this claim ignores not only the conflicts over vitalitv and protest we have been discussing, but also the initial American encouragement of an attitude of pacifism. Wliat can be said is that earlv censorship contributed

to

a

“delayed explosion” of atomic

among hibakusha It

was only

bomb

emotions, both

themselves and Japanese in general.

after the Bikini incident of

1954 that Japanese peace

sentiment was shaped into a mass movement. At that time a group of Japanese fishermen were exposed to fallout from American hvdrogen

bomb

testing in the Pacific, resulting in the death of

movement then

originated in a ban-the-bomb signature campaign con-

ducted by a housewives’ reading club former

nni\'crsity professor

military involvements

the Hiroshima

one of them. The

who had

(reminding

A-bomb

leaders

in

Tokyo under the

lost his position

us, in this

we have

leadership of a

because of wartime

personal shift, of two of

described).

The movement

spread with such rapidity that within two years forty million signatures

were said to have been collected, more than a million of these in Hiroshima Prefecture alone. The effort culminated in the formation of

Residual Struggles:

Gensuikyo and

bombs

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

in tlic First International

held in Hiroshima on August

the dropping of

6,

291

Conference Against A- and

II-

1955, the tenth anniversary of

bomb. Tliis was the lione\moon period Japanese peace movement, with Gensuikyo generally thought tlic

of the of as a

loose non-partisan confederation of representative groups from within

Japanese socieh', a means of calling forth the nation's vast reservoir of peace sentiment. Ilibakuslia were called upon to epitomize this senti-

ment, and were said to have been in\itcd to

\isit all parts

of Japan to

A number

of survivors,

share their experiences with eager audiences.

Even

from the beginning.

so, conflicts existed

resentment to

for instance, expressed

Bikini fallout

ictims

\

me

when hihakusha had

over sudden attention given so long

been neglected. They

used such phrases as “We suffered also," and the metaphorical Japanese saying, “1 he crow behind came out in front." One man contrasted the

way

from

in

which the fisherman died — his family receiving sympathy

over the country as well as financial compensation from the

all

American government— with the (from suspected radiation

totally

effects)

unnoticed death the day before

of a hibakusha

wTo had

received

inadequate medical care and “not one sen of compensation." Political leaders

were quick to recognize the enormous potential of

the mass emotions that went into the formation of Gensuikyo, and they

turned

its

passions.

theme

The

peace into a

organization

struggles, all of site of

of

them highly

fulcrum

for

became the center visible in

partisan of

a

Hiroshima since

ideological

series it

of bitter

has been the

annual international meetings from 1955 on. There was

first

an

uneasv Communist-Socialist coalition, followed bv the withdrawal from

more moderate Democratic own peace group, Kakkin (often

the organization of

Socialist elements

formed

referred to as

their

who

“Second

Gensuikyo'). Increasing Communist domination of central policy led to the

double standard on nuclear testing mentioned before, and to a

particularly embarrassing

Gensuikyo leaders had previously declared publiclv that

testing in 1961;

whoever broke the of the peace,"

impasse concerning Russia's resumption of

and

official

their

moratorium would be considered “an enemv

hedging when confronted with their previous

words greatly accelerated the organization's precipitous drop

in national

influence. Still later, there took place an equally bitter struggle

between

“Chinese" and “Russian" Communist factions, and when the former

won

out,

Gensuikyo found

organization) of

itself in

condemning the

(which China opposed).

the strange position

partial nuclear test

I’his led to

another

split

ban

(for a

peace

treaty of 1963

and the formation of

DEATH

29 2

IN LIFE

a third peace organization, Gensuikin, consisting of socialists, radical pacifists,

and various groups oriented toward Russian and Eastern

European communism. Nor

is

there

much

to suggest that

any of the

three groups has transcended political affiliations sufficiently to

an independent and

universalistic rallying point for antiwar

become

emotions of

hibakusha and others.

Most

survivors have, in fact, viewed the entire proceedings with a

mixture of amazement and contempt.

An

elderly poet, for instance,

contrasted the “genuine desire for peace” of hibakusha with the “im-

pure” machinations of outsiders, and summarized Hiroshima’s peace movement experience in characteristic metaphor:

The young

with

few buds and leaves, had begun to grow bigger and to sprout branches and then the worms began to feed on tree,

its

—

it.

Others, like the writer-physician, emphasized the outsiders in “teaching hibakusha

they did not

know how

how

initial

helpfulness of

to use their voices

.

.

to express themselves,” until the latter

blind followers of these outside leaders

purposes,” so that “gradually

it

who

.

when

became

used them “for their

became impossible

own

to express the true

message of the hibakusha”

We

note the consistent image of hibakusha as a core of authenticity within the peace movement, taken advantage of by self-seeking and parasitic forces,

which prevent them from expressing

The image neglects emotional conflict intensified

conflict within

by such complex

their special truth.

hibakusha themselves,

historical events as the

the spread of nuclear weapons, the Korean

War,

Cold War,

patterns of militant

Marxism, Japanese remilitarization, and the war in Vietnam in the face of which the stance of simple pacifism many hibakusha wished to assume came to feel increasingly inadequate. iMoreover, as many have

—

noted, the emotional intensity of Japanese peace mov'ements has not

been matched by programmatic depth: as one hibakusha-coTnmtntator put it, “Japanese love tears, but foreigners esteem facts. Still another problem, though until recently one rarely raised by the Japanese themselves, has been the emergence of an aggressive nationalism in association with the peace movement. For Japan’s unique atomic victimization

made

this

identity,

movement an important channel

and

for

for reassertions of pride

and

dramatic switches from “restorationism” to “trans-

:

Residual Struggles: formationisni

in

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

which the potential

for “ideological totalisin’’

for

new forms

293

of chauvinism

and

has been strong.

Confronted with these cosmic “impurities,” indi\idual hibakusha have frequently expressed visions of reassertion of purity through more

between themselves and the hibakusha-commentator observed direet ties

mankind. As the same

rest of

Hiroshima now possesses an international eharaeter whether we like it or not— and its participants in the anti-A- and H-bomb movement

must

realize that each

one

is

connected with the whole world.

But these aspirations were constantly undermined by new home-grown impurities, by constant bickering and envies among hibakusha, frequently over precisely

many who went abroad were when they returned, and some

sense that

haughty’ less satisfied

.

with

WHAT

.

life in their

connection— in the

accused of having become did indeed find themselves

provincial citv.

PEACE?’’

IS

In discussions of peace

not surprised to find

pounded

issue of international

this

movements during that distrust came

individual interviews, or that

easily,

of witnessed external manipulations

and

it

I

was

was eom-

internal sensitivities

toward counterfeit nurturance. Hibakusha accused the peaee movement of “selling the disaster,” “using the

ing the problem of nuclear

over

.

.

.

made by

as their flag,”

weapons simply

and then using us

accusation was

A-bomb

to attract us

as sacrifices to their

and “ineludand win us

movement.” This

last

and the word he used for “sacrifices” (gisei) also means scapegoat and victim, precisely the word hibakusha frequently employ in relationship to their having been the a skilled worker,

bomb. He made an exception for survivors themselves appearing at peace meetings (“because when the person on the platform is one who aetually had the experienee, he has natural power in his speech”), but toward the end of our talk launched ones

chosen

to

experienee

into a remarkable soliloquy

what reminiscent I

would

What don’t

the

on the meaning of peace which was some-

of Orwell’s “newspeak”:

like to ask.

What

is

does peace consist of?

know what

What

it

I

peaee?

am

What

do they mean?

the meaning of peace?

doubtful about the word peace and

Politieians use

is.

is

it all

the time, but what

is

it

have been wondering about that since I was sixteen years old. When I think about peace, I conneet it with war— because in wartime they always talked about peace in the really?

.

.

.

I

DEATH

294

IN LIFE

Far East and tliroughout the world. At that time, when I asked about the meaning of peaee, I was told that I better be eareful or I would be

by the military

arrested

war I began to wonder, is this really peaee? I don’t know what peaee is— whether this is peaee or not. ... If the day comes when the world can forget about war and simply live at peace, would that make people happy or unhappv? poliee. After the

.

.

.

This poignant combination of confusion and psychological insight is perhaps appropriate to anyone who came to adult life during World

War

II,

especially in Japan,

somewhat

suspicious

and most

especially for a hibakusha

and misanthropic one

at that. His diEcultv

only that of profound symbolic confusion (“when

connect

it

I

and is

a

not

think about peace,

I

with war”), but his viewing as counterfeit the entire spec-

trum of war, peace, and hypocritical in-between states. His stress upon the value of direct hibakusha expression, however, found many echoes. The shopkeeper’s assistant, for instance, urged that instead of ‘'staging big parades

from something near

demanding peace

ourselves

to

.

.

.

.

.

we should

.

from our

directly

start

lives”;

he

advocated various forms of open discussion and mutual help, within the hibakusha community and reaching outward to people of other countries.

A

few

among hibakusha

called “hibakusha purity” zations. ticity in

activists

and the

wavered between what might be

“political necessity” of their organi-

But even among them there was

a

tendencv to see inauthen-

various practices initiated by outsiders which, thev claimed,

turned the peace mo\’ement into a “big show” with “too man\- stars.”

Most

characteristically,

hibakusha viewed

influences within

all political

peace movements as contaminations unworthy of the

A-bomb

stressed idealistic programs, such as that of the philosopher, in

peace [would be seen

and death

as]

no single country’s problem

mankind be said to be spiritual ... not only with humanism. ... of

We

life

for

[requiring] a

activities a

influence; but that

which

[but] a

matter

movement which could

tied to politics

.

.

.

[but]

sense here that the hibakusha experience on the one

upon peace

dead, and

connected

hand confers

emotional power and a universalizing

special

on the other

it

demands

a puritv so stringent as to

lead to immobilization.

NUCLEAR TESTING;

'A

.

.

THEY MUST BE MAd”

In relationship to nuclear testing, hibakusha emotions were much more simple; anxiety to the point of terror. To some extent one mav sav the

Residual Struggles:

same of

all

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

2

95

their countr^iiien, for partieularlv siiiee the Bikini ineident

of 1954, nuelear testing

anywhere has brought to all Japanese lips the ashes of death” {shi no liai large numbers of Japanese seientists

term

)

;

and teehnieians bring their Geiger eounters into operation, and mass media dramatieally disseminate reports of radioaetivity while emphasizing Japan’s geographie suseeptibility to fallout.-^ pervasive sense of fallout danger in

I

eould observe this

Tokyo and Kvoto during

periods of

Ameriean and Russian testing, before going to Hiroshima, and it seemed evident that much of Japanese anxiety about nuclear death in general had been channeled into this invisible but measurable symbol of

it.

For instance, an

published in the

article

Chugoku Shimbun

in

August, 1958, began as follows:

RECORD-BREAKING LE\^EL OE RADIOACTIVITY CONTAINED IN HIROSHIMA RAINEALL LAST MONTH EVEN DETECTED IN LARGE AMOUNTS

WATER SUPPLY

IN This

was a greater quantitv of radioactivitv-containthan has ever before been experienced in the Hiroshima

last July there

ing rainfall

area. In the dust in the air, in the

swimming

pools at schools, and in

drinking water and the water supply svstem, an extraordinarv level of radioactivity was present.

Measurements

.

.

.

made

it

clear that

it

was greatly affected by the nuclear explosions conducted by the Americans at the Bikini and Eniwetok Atolls. As long as such tests continue, their radioactive rainfall will fall on Japan, and if this abnormal condition should continue, it is clear that it would become fatal to life.

I

observed similar reactions following Russia’s explosion of a

megaton bomb and

publicly

in 1962.

At such

assertion

vulnerability,

is,

as

we know,

and therefore

harmful

is

Rather,

I

endangers hibakusha

of their previous exposure to radiation.

prevails over repeated denials this discussion

not dangerous, or that

effects.

am

assertion,

related to an overall sense of hibakusha

medical authorities. (None of fallout

was the constant

privately, of the belief that fallout

more than other people because

The

times, there

fifty-

it

is

is

meant

‘‘irrational”

to

by Hiroshima to

imply that

be afraid of

its

stressing the special emotional intensity of

reactions to fallout in Hiroshima

dims, the electrician

and throughout Japan.) emphasized that “People like ourselves

.

.

.

the

only ones to ha\'e gone through an attack by a weapon such as the A-

DEATH

29 6

IN LIFE

bomb, should have some form

many

ever dropped again.” Like tlic

of proteetion

...

in ease

such a

bomb

is

hibakusha, he associated testing with

thought of nuclear war, and

this

thought was so disturbing that he

imagined himself, should he again survive, clearly envying the dead: It terrifies

...

me. Whether

America or Russia

it is

me

makes

it

tremble.

vou are killed bv the bomb, well, that’s that. But if vou survive, that would be horrible— the fear— well, I would rather not If

The

survive.

suffering

describe to anvone

who

for

who do— well,

those

hasn’t been through

Others experienced bodily anxieties testing

on

television,

feel

I

mv

and had

their original exposure

and

hear about nuclear

I

blood suddenly go thin”); or recalled

their death guilt revived (“I think of the

who were burned to death right how much luckier we were than thev”);

in front of

our eyes— I think

or else felt the significance of

be negated (“I then think that despite

all

that

can be done”).

And

injuries

impossible to

it.

(“When

people

their experience to

it’s

all

of

my own

saw that day— especiallv the children— nothing

I

hibakusha verv commonlv associate testing with

end-of-the-world imagerv, as did the clderlv widow:

know bombs I

bomb but How much

the scale of the Hiroshima of a

much

hundreds of times.

anybody

left in

larger scale. .

.

.

Whth such bombs

the world in the future.

.

those recent tests were

Tens or even there might not be wish them to stop

larger? .

...

.

I

it.

Such imagery expresses praisal,

and

a

combination of actual memorv,

realistic ap-

emotions which could be expressed

retaliatory hostility,

indirectly— as in the case of the high school student

who

told

he found the thought that another war might eliminate

me

all

that

human

beings from the world to be “sickening,” and the statement of the

writer-manufacturer that “I don’t think anyone will ever drop another A-

bomb on

Japan, but they shouldn’t drop an

A-bomb on America

or

Russia cither.”

Hibakusha

also related nuclear testing to issues of realitv

dVpical were the shopkeeper’s assistant’s occurs to

me

that they

must be mad”; the

insistence that testing “is utterly absurd” to

comment

be playing a sort of game

.

.

.

and

sanitv.

that “the thought

history professor’s agitated

and that “both countries seem

because they don’t reallv grasp

its

and the middle-aged businessman’s claim that “the people of America and the Soviet Union don’t have a true sense of the suffering terror”;

s

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

Residual Struggles: caused by the

bomb ...

of

realities

its

.

.

.

because

29 7

tliey didn’t see

them with their own eyes^ that they “know about sucli things as the amount of damage, but think tliat this damage won’t affeet them.” The leftist w^oman writer combines this theme of reality with remembered imagery of w'orld destruction in an expression of cautionary anger:

know

that the American people feel they ean survive if hit by bombs one hundred thousand times more powerful than those used in the past. But we who have seen the end of the world know how WTong I

this

kind of American thinking

is.

Miss Ota addressed herself in a different w’ay to the issue of reality. Noting that some considered the national Japanese reaetion to the Bikini incident to be exaggeratedly emotional, she insisted: “We were not really hysterical— we simply knew what it w'as.” Another Hiroshima writer, after the Bikini incident, w^as

are relieved,” a

national,

An

s

realization

had

elderly

as

having

said,

remark which conveys— in addition to

satisfaetion in shared misery,

hibakusha

quoted

and

rivalry for eounterfeit

that his particular anxieties

I

in the

don

t

hostility,

nurturance— the

had now become

become accepted as legitimate and appropriate.-^ Catholic nun in Nagasaki expressed her sense of the

finally

absurdity of nuclear testing through an angry-humorous

change

its

“Now we

ground

for a

rules:

w^ant to have this kind of

they should fight

demand

war— with

Maybe one man

nuclear w^eapons.

the w^ay old samurai used to fight, against one other man. Maybe there should be a fight between .

.

.

Khrushchev and Kennedy, with

their fists— that

This concern about appropriateness and of asserting his special organic

knowledge which its

is

reality

would be enough. is

the hibakusha'

way

knowledge of nuclear weapons, a form of

bound up with

severe conflict, but

is

nonetheless, in

perceived value to the world, of great importance in the struggle for

mastery.’^

This “knowledge” was not necessarily reassuring. Most hibakusha

demanded

that testing cease and nuclear

bombs be outlawed

of war, often pointing to the example of poison gas.

But

as

weapons

their

own

experience with the bomb, along with the fact of continuing testing, *

refer here to the kind of

knowledge in which bodily and mental “information” are fused. Strictly speaking, only a hibakusha can have such knowledge of the atomic bomb, but a nonhibakusha can approach it through imagination and empathy. I

:

DEATH

29 8

IN LIFE

often produced a tone of bitter skepticism— as in the case of the female

poet

Some

say that

tlic

A- and H-bombs

leaders of the world are not stupid

over the world. But

all

I

enough

to

drop

can’t be so optimistic about

means it might be dropped again. 1 have this feeling all of the time. ... It used to seem unbelievable that such a weapon as the A-bomb could exist, and now Russia and America are testing these weapons. This seems to me this.

Once

the

A-bomb

has been dropped, this

the

of

just as stupid.

In

other words,

rest

may Nor is

the world

numbing, but hibcikusha know

better.

its

psychic

this skepticism

entirely

indulge in

free of rctaliatorv resentment.

While most

of the hibakusha anxietv

response to nuclear testing per

se,

the time

(at

I

discussing arose in

there were occasional responses to the

particular countrv doing the testing.

and Russia

we have been

was

in

These mostly concerned America Hiroshima, England had ceased

and China none). Reactions to American testing had to do both with the fact that America was the countrv which dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and with the greater testing,

France had done relatively

little,

expectations of America created by her postwar relationship with Japan.

Thus, the technician strikingly combined rctaliatorv anger

the

killed,

sentence themes of

and dependent expectation:

bomb had been dropped Americans knew how terrible If

in a single

not on Japan but on America, so that it was, and how many people were

then President Kennedv would take the lead

opposing

in

and being the kind of leader he is— and because America is a great countrv— this would enable the anti-nuclear testing movement to be much stronger than it is now throughout the whole nuclear testing

.

.

.

world. Similarlv, the

abandoned mother shrugged

off

Russia’s testing as

no

more than what one could expect (“Well, she is an Iron Curtain countrv”), but toward American testing took the attitude of incredulous annovance with an erring familv member (“I wonder why America tests— America is a countrv with greater understanding ... a kind Her conclusion

(“I think

America stopped, Russia would, too”) again suggests

a kind of

countrv— so why does she have that

if

expected leadership, but d’he grocer,

despite

to

do

also, perhaps, a

his

bitter

“irresponsibilih” in dropping the

it?”).

primary blame.

condemnation

bomb

of

America

for

without being able to cure

her its

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

Residual Struggles:

was

effects,

2

99

relatively

sympathetic toward American testing, which he considered more reasonable because ‘'they don’t stress the size of it an\ more than nccessar\, and aren t too proud about their conntr\'’s ’

power,”

than he was to

something

like

the

secretively— and in a

Russia’s,

manner way that

of

a

which

which made him

not done openly but

thief— without good

tries to

bombs

h-ery angry,” because,

^^•e

and

reasons

frighten the \\orld.” lie

reacting here to Russian boasts of nuclear sions,

“is

is

partly

of superior dimen-

mav

assume, of the

intense death anxietv thev stimulated.

But only one hibakusha expressed to me an absolute distinction between nuclear testing by the two countries, unqualifiedly supporting one and condemning the other. I he European priest insisted that America had no altcrnati\’c ( In the concrete circumstances of the

present, there

no other way”), and that the Russians and the Japanese leftists exaggerated fallout dangers from American testing and are generalh hypocritical The Russians don t bclie\'e that their ov^ai ( fallout is doing any harm”). But his conclusion, that political questions m general imolve double-dealing (“It is all the same— a very dirty is

business”), suggested that despite the conventionally “Western” ideological views he expressed, his hibakusha experience led him to

inwardly that

The present,

feel

nuclear testing was intrinsicallv “dirty” or evil. sense of resignation was considerably less prominent— and all

if

convincing— toward nuclear testing than toward other aspects of the atomic bomb experience. Thus the comment by the less

burakuniin boy that

as long as

America and the So\iet Union exist, it [testing] just can’t be helped” could be viewed as a form of resignation, but could also be interpreted as a by' no means innocuous suggestion that if America and Russia did not exist, the problem would be solved.

The

hostility

accompanying apparent resignation can be

direct, as in the case of the bargirl

s

more

c\’cn

observ'ation that “all the protests of

the anti-nuclear weapons

movements have no more effect than chanting sutras into a horse s car, and her further comment, “This makes me very mad.” dTc tone is more that of futility and rage than of simple resignation.

A more

ambi\alently sophisticated form of “contaminated resignation” was that expressed by the history professor in relationship to the Bikini incident:

would not say that what happened was natural— but since Russia was competing with America, it just couldn’t be helped. I

.

.

.

^

300

DEATH

IN LIFE

movement

should of course have some form of

to stop

them [from

But just how mueh we can do, this I don’t know. I feel very doubtful. ... I also think it very strange to use what I would eall primitive teehniques— as when people get together to protest and then shove and strike others— to stop seientifie teehniques. testing].

Here elements of resignation, resentment of and sympathy toward Ameriea, and aversion to peaee

movement

way

and

of eontrasting “primitive”

a eertain

amount

‘Violenee”

all

merge. But his

“seientifie” teehniques also suggests

of identification with the teehnologieal

and

seientifie

power of nuelear weapons.

REARMING JAPAN: '‘iF WE DON’t HAVE ARMS, WE can’t fight at all” I

also questioned

hibakusha about their feelings eoneerning Japanese

rearmament, particularly about the much discussed national issue of

whether or not to ehange the elause

the Japanese Constitution

in

prohibiting rearmament. Sinee rearmament had long been taking plaee

under other names, Japanese “logie” of

making

legal that

way

possibly paving the

in general

have been torn between the

whieh already

exists

and

at the

for further military expansion,

appeal of the Constitution along with

its

same time

and the moral

possible advantages in restrain-

ing the extent of rearmament.

Hibakusha share the general Japanese ambivalenee, but perhaps with partieular intensity. Extremely characteristic was the shopkeeper’s assiswavering baek and forth between the wish that no eountry in the

tant’s

world required armaments and the realization that

this

was

actual situation, his initial insistence that “I just ean’t

and

definite eonelusion”

.

.

Still, if I

.

all, if

we have

we would it is

am

his

to

we

from the

eome

to

anv

one despite himself:

to speak honestly,

arms, and

fight. If

coming

far

I

am

against rearmament. After

anything happens to cause us to fight, then don’t have arms, we can’t fight at all, so I think if

better not to have arms.

His hibakusha eonfliets aetually provided him with a stronger position

than he thought he possessed, namely, that anything nuelear war. But

amount

we

also suspect that

is

preferable to

he might experienee a certain

of anxiety related to the helplessness of being so totally without

arms that “we ean’t

fight at all.”

Others, like the mathematieian, put the matter in

more immediate

Residual Struggles:

an

personal

terms—

strong y against

it.

am

I

After

all,

I

T rust. Peace, and Mastery

against

changing

have children

[tlic

it

in the

301

constitution],

age group eligible for

military ser\icc”-but

influenced his vision

one suspected here too that A-bomb exposure of what his children might experience should there

be rearmament and war.

The A-bomb experienee even intruded itself upon fhe ideas of those who expressed themsebes as fa\-oring rearmament. The technician, for instance, represented what may be termed an older-generation point of view associated with general political conservatism, which emphasized that “th«e is no country in the world without arms” and that arms were

needed “to defend our own country”-particularly, relationship

as

it

turned out, in

such controversies as those surrounding Korea’s proclaimed “Rhee Line” and her actions against Japanese to

self-

fishing boats

found inside of that

line.

Yet

after saying these things,

qualified his position so drastical]\' as almost to reverse

From

he suddenly

it:

the finaneial point of view, however

... I don’t think Japan eould manage to maintain many airplanes, as jet planes are very expensive-so I think it may be a little too soon for us to build up our arms. And even if \\'e had all that monev, we should use it to help out some of the most miserable hibakusha. .

.

.

'

Ills

eoiw’entional

patriotism had been

undermined by

identifieation

with fellow survivors and speeifieally by death guilt; the "most miserable hibakusha are those symbolieally elosest to the dead. And although what are pereeived to be the moral eommands of the dead ean be highly inflammable in military matters, hibakusha would sometimes understand these as a matter of simple resistanee to

rearmament— as

in

the ease of one IS

the best

A-bomb orphan: "Opposing Japan’s military expansion way I know to eonsole the souls of my dead parents and

sister.”

the position taken was that of limited rearmament, the limitation insisted upon was likely to be that of nuelear weapons. The history professor thus insisted that "as long as eonfliets between eountries exist there is no sense, if Japan is to be an independent eountry, in saying that she cannot have armaments,” but added that "I think it would be terrible if the budget for edueation, welfare, and other eonstruetive things were to be spent for nuelear weapons.” The purely eeonomie If

reasoning of several of these points of view suggests the hibakusha’s

I

DEATH

302 difficult}’ in

IN LIFE

coming

to grips witli tlic intensity

on the subjeet. In

feelings

history professor

is

partly

and complexity of

this ease, for instanee,

drawn

it is

his

possible that the

to the idea of nuelear

weapons (both

beeause of their enormous svmbolie importanee for any nation’s sense of national power and beeause of the element of identification with

we know makes

it

'I’he

to

be present

impossible for

him), but that

in

him

his

to sanetion these

them

A-bomb-related death guilt

weapons.

writer-manufacturer direeted his attention to outer space rather

than to either nuelear weapons or rearmament, and expressed a point of \’iew

whieh combined

stress

upon harmonv and balanee:

politieal

pragmatism with

a elassieal

East Asian

something about the Cold W^ar. I feel anxious every time I hear about Russian spaee ships, because of Russia’s having taken the lead in this area. I hope that the Amerieans will cateh up quieklv, because with the world in its present eondition, I believe that world peaee depends upon a balance of strength between I

would

like to say

the two.

Here he addresses himself Japanese influence, but

whieh he ean

feel

is

to

matters outside of hibakusha or even

in effeet

pleading for an environment within

reasonably eomfortable, safe, and free from both

predatory external dangers and from the lingering internal hibakusha

we know him

eonfliets

to have.

BEARING WITNESS Hibakusha have strong

feelings

about eonveving their experienee to

others— about the question of whether thev must take on mission to

As

is

make known

world the true nature of nuelear warfare.

to the

possibilit\- of

eommunieating what thev have actually been

who

has not himself undergone the ordeal. Exqui-

through to ainone

sitely sensitive to its misrepresentation, its

relevance

to

but at the same time eonvinced

world problems,

the\’

return

constantly

prineiple of direct personal reconstruction of the event in a virtually

puts

through

others

it.

instanee, savs of those produeing

them would

speeial

true for survivors of anv extreme experienee, hibakusha strongly

doubt the

of

a

to think feel

about

and

more from the

it

differenth’.”

prineiple in terms both

The

And

tourist

the

way

that

agenev employee, for

testing nuelear inside,

to

beeause

bombs: if

“I

thev did, they

the history professor expresses the

more general and more

speeifie:

want same

:

Residual Struggles:

would

T rust, Peace, and hdastery

3

03

the faets of the experieiiee in a way that people will know about it, not only with their minds but will feel it with their skin. ... I believe that if Kennedy and Khrushehev eould have seen those people [at the time of the bomb] even onee, they would I

feel

like to tell

that they should throw

the sea

.

.

and that

.

is

all

why

weapons to the bottom of thing to do is to help people

their nuelear

the

understand the aetual situation of

first

human

Intelleetual knowledge, in other words,

beings that day.

not enough.

is

that the outsider immerse himself in atomic

body and

bomb

The demand

exposure, feel

it

mind, and thereby come to possess the survivor organic knowledge of it. his

his

Impressed with the

diffieulties of

imparting

this

of one person’s suffering, or even of

with

own

kind of knowledge,

the groeer suggested using tape reeordings of the day of the

maybe

s

is

moaning

bomb— He knew

voiees.”

unlikely that sueh reeordings were a\-ailable but thought that if they were, hearing the voiees of those aetually going through the experienee it

would, to some extent, “help people to be able to imagine

it.”

Others, like the war widow, advoeated displaying people with keloids to world leaders

This would be a more direet way than peaee parades. They would see how terrible war is even seventeen vears later. It is impossible to look at those hibakusha with keloids even a person like me, who went through the experience, still can’t look at them— .

.

.

—

and

if

leaders of the world were to see them, thev

they would

feel

when

their

own

would imagine how

families got to be like that.

Again the demand, by no means without hostility, that the outsider acquire organic knowledge to the point of becoming a “survivor” surrounded by atomic bomb stigmata. And she went on to make programmatic suggestions: Young girls would be better than older people however painful for those girls [and] if the leaders .

.

.

.

.

.

could meet and talk with them, sav two or three times a vear, would be effective.”

The

physicist

went further

in

shaping

this

I

think

programmatic approach

it

to

organic knowledge into a general theoretical orientation:

In Hiroshima

we have

stress the full

horror of the A-bomb. Here

emphasis. ...

I

think

the fact of the A-bomb, and therefore

we can

say that

is

we must

our responsibility and our

...

in

both Hiroshima and

3

DEATH

04

IN LIFE

Japan in general the peaee

bomb. ...

I

movement

is

based upon the faet of the A-

think that the destmetion of Hiroshima has important

eonneetion to the wliole problem of

Organie knowledge of atomie

bomb

human

survival.

.

.

.

exposure, in other words,

Hiro-

is

shima’s preeious eontribution to the world, an organizing prineiple for

mankind’s peaee struggles. More indireetly suggested by related

his

words

the

is

prineiple that the hibakushas efforts in eontributing to this

wider organie knowledge ean be of help to him

mastering his

in

own

experienee.

But

to

path of

move toward sueh mastery, the hibakusha must traverse the his own guilt. The same death guilt which in large part

stimulates his sense of mission in disseminating

him

leads

to

question his style of dissemination.

difficulty separating “exportable” aspects

own

harsh self-judgments.

consciously,

A-bomb knowledge

“Was

it

He

really as

of that

He

also

has constant

knowledge from

his

constantly asks himself, however un-

bad

for

me

as

I

say

it

was?

Do

I

have the

right to be saying these things at all?”

Only the dead, he inwardly believes, possess genuine organic knowledge, and his efforts to represent them make him feel something of an impostor. Neither by speaking out nor by refusing to can he fullv assuage his

guilt.

Thus, the Hiroshima A-bomb authority described a “double feeling” in

hibakusha: “They want to forget the past and they also want to

their plea to the world.”

As

a

peace

movement

acti\’ist

make

himself, he felt

that they had to speak up because “they can’t escape from realitv

however much they wish

to,

[and]

I

think the direction of historv

is

being influenced by their feelings.” But other commentators contested this opinion, particularly

atomic

bomb

nihilism,”--

torneys for the voiceless,” istic

rage”

with

the

who wrote sympathetically of criticized peace movement leaders as “atand contrasted their demand for “moral-

one

journalist

“coolness”

and “inner toughness” of ordinarv

hibakusha. Moreover he insisted that this detached form of “Japanese nihilism” was a genuine response to overwhelming violence and should

even be valued as a possible source of peace sentiment

in the future.

We

recognize in what he describes various forms of guilt-induced silence,

psychic numbing, resignation, and simple adaptation— but what he really getting at

may be, This

is

is

the need for authenticity of feelings, whatever they

rather than wishful or manipulated attitudes. last

insistence

sentiment was echoed by

upon

silence as the only

many

individual hibakusha in their

form of authenticity, though the

— Residual Struggles: silence they kept for instance, told

hibakusha ... feel it

that I

is

I

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

05

3

was uneasy and ambivalent, llie abandoned mother,

me

that

feel

useless to

am ashamed

I

no urge

go into

to say that even

though

I

am

a

make people understand,’' and that ‘‘I crowds and make a fuss.” But she admitted to

people have a special interest and ask about the situation, then do have the desire to tell them”; and her introductory phrase, “I am ‘‘If

ashamed

to sa),” suggested that she

had by no means reconciled her

silence with her residual guilt. Similarly, the sociologist justified his silence

Of

want peace. small desires. But while course

I

need peace

I I

am

if I

able to

on pragmatic grounds:

am

make

to realize even

a realistic effort for the

small desires, for the larger issues of war and peace no realistic effort at all that I can make.

^ et gradually, during the course of our passionate concerns about his

nuclear issues in general.

It

talks,

own atomic bomb

became

my own

I

feel that there

he began

is

to express

experience and about

clear that these concerns

had been

covered over, not only by individual psychological tendencies toward denial, but also by his determination not to participate in what he

viewed

as inauthentic representations of the

atomic

bomb

being

made

everywhere around him. Related sensitivities were invciv'cd in the white-collar worker’s statement that he didn t mind discussing the A-bomb “in a serious way” but greatly resented

people

who

boast about having been in the

bomb

not exactly boast, but are pleased with themselves, as if they had some special merit for having gone through such a rare experience.” He is troubled by hibakusha tendencies, including those within himself, to see themselves as a

chosen people”

— tendencies

which may be perceived

as

profoundly inauthentic despite their frequency among survivors and their derivation from the sense of having conquered death.

Ultimateh, the

ineffability of

bomb exposure— its

atomic

relationship

cosmic mysteries that one can neither grasp nor explain gives hibakusha an inner sense that all talk about it is inauthentic. In this to

sense

—

the

moralist’s

sitting

Cenotaph was unique

silently

in

in its bringing to

zazen

position

before

hibakusha expression a combi-

nation of silence, sense of mission, and obeisance to the dead. But also recall that

it

was

the

isolated, slightly anachronistic,

and of

we

little effect.

a

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: ‘'Proper Post-A-Bomb Behavior

4)

'

\Mien

discussing Hiroshima, the question always arises,

Nagasaki?” “Wliy,” people ask,

week

in this

“is it

seeond A-boinbed

But by making

mv

and

city,

eertain comparisons

always ignored?”

I

“What

about

spent just one

knowledge of

limited.

it is

between Hiroshima and Nagasaki—

betu’een observable patterns within the two cities as well as imagery

about

A

them— we

learn a little

more about atomie

useful beginning point for comparison

lem of how much how, and

become

in

what ways,

related

compensate

emphasize as a

to

for,

or in

weapons exposure:

development and identity

and

experience;

move beyond,

the unprecedented prob-

city a nuclear

to permit a cit\’s

that

to

is

disaster.

to

what extent

to

to

ignore,

any way de-emphasize, the

original

holocaust.

An

article

comparing Hiroshima and Nagasaki

tioned “Tale of

condueting example:

a

my city

Two

up Hiroshima,

held

research,

which refuses

the world that advertises

example: a

its

(cap-

Cities”), which appeared in Time-^ while

to

“grimly obsessed by that long-ago

industry of

in this regard

its

In

fate.”

“monument

the

forget

mushroom

past misery,”

contrast,

in

effect,

as

I

a

was

bad

A-bomb and remains

cloud,” “the only city in

and one which “has made an

Nagasaki was seen as the good

to forgiveness,” “a tranquil, beautiful seaport”

with “no bitterness,” which “has never been invaded by anti-nuclear demonstrators,” but has

itself

“the world has seeminglv forgotten” too.

crude example of the kind of imagerv frequently held about the

larly

two

A-bomb experience, which The comparison is a particu-

forgotten the

cities,

by Japanese

as well as

Americans.

In evaluating this alleged polarity,

I

would

first

emphasize

mv

impres-

sion of the esseiitial similarity in conflicts of individual hibakusha in

both

cities,

so that

what

have written about responses

I

would, in general terms, applv to those true,

it

becomes

all

the

in

more important two

actuallv different about the

Hiroshima

also.

But

understand

just

Nagasaki to

in

if

this

what

is is

cities.

FIRST AND LAST Here the most important

single point to grasp

become the world’s symbol

is

that Hiroshima has

of the consequences of nuclear

weapons—

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

Residual Struggles:

307

geographical representation of universal fear and guilt in relationship to man s capacity to destroy hiinself and that ISlagasaki has not become

—

such a symbol.

(

liis

I

difFcrencc was officially recognized

when

Hiro-

shima was designated by the Japanese national government as the International City of Peace and Nagasaki as the International City of Culture, the

first

a title eonsistent with a specifie symbolic function, the

second quite nebulous.) There

are,

believe, several reasons

I

why, of the

two, Hiroshima has assumed this role.

Probably of greatest importanee

is

Hiroshima’s having been the

of the world’s eities to encounter the

bomb. As

such,

first

was the

it

eity

whose experienee immediately evoked in everyone the contrast between the pre-bomb \\orld that was forever lost and the post-bomb world whieh so suddenly and horrifyingly eame into being. The Nagasaki edueator commented to me on this point with some irony:

out prizes in any contest— first prize gets a gold medal and seeond a silver medal. Hiroshima reeeived the gold medal and Nagasaki the silver medal. It

is

like giving

Similarly, a Nagasaki doetor

quoted

in the

Time

artiele looks

upon

his

man who flew the Atlantie after Lindbergh.” There is a quality of atomie bomb gallows humor in this kind of ironic ^Competition. And although it causes many outsiders to react with uneasy eity as

like the

sareasm,

it

contains important psychological currents related to such

things as ambivalent pride o\er dubious distinction, and rivalry for counterfeit nurturanee, both mentioned earlier in relationship to individual and group hibakusha identity.

Nagasaki has,

bound

in at least

At

distinetion.

governor said: "The

its

one

last

attempted to take on

memorial eeremonv

bomb

Let Nagasaki be the

sense,

fell

first

plaee

it

in

own

its

time-

1962 the prefeetural

on Hiroshima, then on Nagasaki. falls.”

But while

eertainly evokes less ambivalenee than Hiroshima’s,

this

it is

distinetion

also

mueh

less

eapable of eapturing the world’s imagination.

A

seeond factor

annihilation. j

in

Hiroshima’s symbolic distinction was

The bomb exploded almost st

uetures

on

bomb

fell

standing. Nagasaki’s

flat

direetly over

terrain— and

on a suburb loeated

its

literally

its

near-total

eenter left

— over

no

city

in a hilly area so that

although of greater explosive power than the Hiroshima bomb, it left about two thirds of the eity (including a somewhat larger number of

a

DEATH

308

IN LIFE

concrete structures)

were not

casualties

A five

third factor

is

still

standing— in addition

its

as extensive.

Hiroshima’s relative accessibility to Tokyo:

hundred miles away, and

Nagasaki

the fact that

to

also

it is

about

on the main island of Honshu, while

almost twice that distance from Tokyo and located on an

is

outer point of Kyushu, the southernmost of the major Japanese islands.

Hiroshima

is

therefore

currents (national city

more

fourth issue

despite

its

and

intellectual

ideological

and international) stemming from Japan’s dominant

which encourage atomic

The

sensitive to

is

bomb

symbolism.

that of pre-atomic

military importance,

was

bomb

virtually

identity:

unknown

Hiroshima,

internationally,

while Nagasaki had an illustrious cosmopolitan tradition. Nagasaki had

been a major locus of Japanese Catholicism from the time of the of Francis Xavier, the

Western missionary

first

arrival

to visit Japan, in the

sixteenth century; a longstanding center for trade between Japan and

the outside world; Japan’s main point of contact with the

major part of her two hundred years of self-imposed late seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries;

place in the story.

Western imagination

isolation,

during a

from the

and even had

a special

Madame

Butterfly

special

historical

as the locale of the

was frequently told that because of their

I

West

experience, the people of Nagasaki were ‘‘more gentle in attitude,”

and

that this chaiacteristic has influenced their post-A-bomb behavior—

claim that

is

difficult to evaluate.

What

a strong historical identity to call forth

reconstruction, an identitv tw'O thirds of the city.

is

that Nagasaki

and build upon

accessible

in its

had

post-bomb

by the phvsical existence of

Hiroshima, in contrast, had no such physical or

resources— little identity to draw upon other than that of an A-

historical

bombed

made

can be said

city.

Having dominated the world’s symbolic imagery surrounding the atomic bomb for all of these reasons, Hiroshima has inevitably spawned more protest than Nagasaki and more conflict surrounding this protest. But even here the attempt the two

cities

is

to

impose absolutely antithetical images on

seriously misleading.

For

it

is

simply not true that

Nagasaki “has never been invaded by anti-nuclear demonstrators” (as the

Time

article

asserted);

it

has,

in

fact,

along with Tokyo and

Hiroshima, been one of the three Japanese centers for international peace meetings since these began in 1955. Indeed, Nagasaki has given

rise to

some

of the

most eloquent (and

psychologically astute) words of protest ever written about the atomic

bomb:

T rust, Peace, and Mastery

Residual Struggles:

Today,

vve of

Nagasaki,

li\

energies to reconstruction.

.

3

09

ing on in the atomic wasteland, apply our .

Docs

.

it

seem, then, that the deadly

work of an atom bomb can be repaired? Moreover, we know

that, in the nations of the

time, scientists have studied the effects

atom bomb.

and the

world since that

aftereffects of the

What

they have learned they have passed on to the councils of the generals and statesmen. And by this, the conferences to free the world of atomic menace succeed or fail, and I understand thev^ hav^e failed; by this, the decision to use or not to use the bomb is made, and I hear they do not regard it as so fearful, so unusable. city cannot .

.

.

.

obliterated

time

wholly.

cal effects

.

...

dissipated.

is

.

.

Not everyone

.

dies.

be

.

.

.

.

Radioactivity

in

another weapon, with greater physithan those which preceded it.'’

Greater physical

It is just

effects!

Do

they understand, have they investigated what it does to the heart and conscience and mind of those who survive? Do they hav^e any knowledge of our society of spiritual bankrupts, now striving lamelv' to function as a community?

\Vc of Nagasaki, who

.

.

.

surv'ive,

cannot escape the heartrending,

remorseful memories.

MT

carry deep in our hearts, every

one of us, stubborn, unhealing wounds. hen vve are alone vv'C brood upon them, and when vv^e see our neighbors vve are again reminded of them; their as well as ours. It is this spiritual wTCckage, which the vdsitor to Nagasaki’s vv'astes does not see, that is indeed bevond repair.

W

This plea comes from the concluding portion of Dr. Takashi Nagai’s ^^^e of hi agasaki,“^ a

book

emotional disruption

Atomic stress

A

(

its

vv’hosc protest

Japanese

Battlefield Psychology,

upon emotions

title,

and

included ev^ocation of general

Genshi Senjo

in the

Shinri,

means

passage quoted vve note the

related to residual guilt).

Catholic convert

more than any other

who died of leukemia in 1951, Dr. Nagai, perhaps A-bomb victim, lived out the pattern of a martyr.

His leukemia resulted from longstanding exposure to x-rays (he w’as a specialist

in

and predated the atomic bomb, but was of

radiology)

course symbolically associated

bomb blood,

at eight

* It is also

any

ease,

have aggravated

he

Moreover,

his

bomb

is

his

exposure to the

injuries

condition

totally dedicated his

possible that the

his leukemia, as irradiation for the condition.

it.

hundred meters, including severe

could well

death.'" In

vv'ith

and

loss

and hastened

waning energies

to

of his

combat-

exposure contributed to a temporary remission in one of the forms of medical treatment ordinarily used

DEATH

310 ing

tlic

work

IN LIFE

bomb’s disruptive human

bomb,

at tlie time of the

He

influences.

did extensive medical

gave various forms of help to other

later

hihakusha, and wrote continuously about the problem from a one-room

shack which he built on the

been in

and which he

killed

English)

site of his

called

former house, where his wife had

Nyokodo,

or (as

“Lovc-l’hy-Neighbor-As-lliyself

sometimes rendered

House.”

humanist form of protest he embodied was more

The

Catholic-

characteristic

for

Nagasaki than Hiroshima, not only because of Nagasaki’s strong Catholic

influence but because

its

of the city, destroying the

nately large

number

bomb

fell in

a

predominantly Catholic area

two great cathedrals and

of Catholics.

Some,

in fact,

killing

an inordi-

have attributed Naga-

saki’s relative lack of militant protest to a quality of resignation

combines original Buddhist influence with forgiveness

and

later Christian stress

sacrifice in the face of persecution.

and writings make

clear that the

psychology— including death

guilt

which

upon

But Dr. Nagai’s

life

most profound aspects of hibakusha and the impulse toward a post-bomb

mission warning the world about nuclear

weapons— have

existed

in

claim that Hiroshima, not Nagasaki, '‘make[s] an industrv of

its

Nagasaki survivors

Hiroshima.

as well as those of

FATE, MONEY, AND PURITY The

fate” strikes us as a

and we sense that

first

it

cousin to the accusation of

‘'selling

the bomb,”

represents psychological conflicts in the accuser as

well as actions by the accused.

Here we may say

first

that given man’s

extraordinary capacity for adaptation to adversitv, everv city (as every

“makes an industry of its fate.” The unique fate of nuclear disaster shared by Hiroshima and Nagasaki can hardly be separated from their subsequent commercial rehabilitation. But in commercial as well individual)

Hiroshima has been particularly plagued with the prob-

as in other areas,

lem of carving out

new nothing but an A-bombed a

about nuclear weapons shima’s sense of readily over into

its

city identity while trving to avoid city.

For worldwide

spill readily

fears

becoming

and moral concerns

over into tourist money, and Hiro-

responsibility to these world needs spills equally

commercial opportunitv.

At the same time both hibakusha and morallv concerned outsiders demand from an A-bombed city that its behavior manifest a degree of purity

commensurate with

its

tragedv, since onlv in such puritv can he

the seeds of restitution for the healing of the

being” which such a city represents.

To

“wound

the hibakusha

s

in the order of

inner insistence

that city behavior be appropriate to the sacrifice of the dead

is

thus

Residual Struggles: Trust, Peace, and Mastery

added

outsider

tlic

s

so in the ease of the to

tliat

foreigners wlio

who

that while

good be born of

Ameriean outsider beeanse

has been greatest.

evil

official

need

One

evil,

perliaps partienlarly

sense of eontribntion

liis

obser\er eonimented

made Hiroshima famous." And

311

tliat

“it

tlie

is

the same minor city

told of foreigners’

“W^e

in

need to have the Dome standing claimed Hiroshima tend to forget about the bomb .

outsiders keep bringing

up," keep writing to the city “requesting exhibits and information about surviv^ors’ lives," keep

and

pictures

it

sending donations, and generally “turn toward Hiroshima" peace movement activities.

may be somewhat

His picture

in

their

oversimplified, but the point here

that outsiders, like hibakuslia themselves, bring to Hiroshima for purity that cannot be met. The alternating stance toward

is

demands

Hiroshima

as either a city of noble victims or crass opportunists represents the

continuing pressure of these demands, together with their continuing disappointment. The fact is that victims of an atomic disaster are

more nor

neither

less

virtuous than anyone else.

And

the A-bomb-

related

commercial energies which are found to be so distasteful represent the usual human combinations of vitality, adaptability, ingenuity, and greed, in this case called forth as part of the citv’s reassertion of

life.

who behave? Time Again,

is

to set the standards for how'

an A-bombed

city

should

implies that the normal or healthy thing to do would be to forget about the experience and move ahead; for militant

peace

groups health

lies

in

the opposite direction,

in

aggressively

revived

memories; some commercial entrepreneurs see health in the unrestricted admixture of A-bomb residua and tourism; many hibakuslia view anything related to tourism or experience.

of

human

But

commerce

as a desecration of the city

and

its

of these standards crumble before the complexities behavior as the two cities struggle wath their historical and all

commercial fate

differing

from each other mainly

in the intensity of

the struggle.

PAIN AND PLEASURE This difference

in

intensity can

even in the medical area.

We

become important, however, perhaps

recall the hematologist’s

impression that

doctors in Nagasaki tend on the whole to underestimate the effects of the A-bomb while those in Hiroshima overestimate them, and that patients in fliroshima are more likely to feel that they have “A-bomb disease."

Many

physicians

I

spoke to in both

cities

tended to agree, and

DEATH

312

IN LIFE

Times statement

to confirm

that “Nagasaki’s citizens

seem

to be less

‘atom siekness’ than their fellow survivors in Hiroshima.”

fearful of

Doetors’ attitudes in Nagasaki would seem to be part of a general psyehohistorieal tendeney:

bomb

by mass media on A-

relatively less foeus

weapons,

disease, less anxiety-stimulating protest against nuelear

and therefore

exaeerbation of bodily anxieties of individual

less soeial

But before eoming

hibakiisha.

to

anv

definitive eonelusions,

one would

have to studv the entire ps\ehosomatie issue more thoroughly.

would have

to explore the possibility, for instanee, that while

A-bomb

exaggerations of

One

Hiroshima

disease increase anxieties, these ean often be

(what the

brought out into the open; but that Nagasaki restraint hematologist ealled medieal underestimation of

A-bomb

disease)

may

be assoeiated with tendeneies of denial, shared by physician and patient,

whieh cause anxieties

to

remain buried, and possiblv eontribute to other

impairments not vet clearly reeognized. In any

ease, all this

is

again a

matter of degree.

Nagasaki hibakusha have been subject to the same rate of inerease leukemia,

same

the

findings

eoneerning eaneer and

other

in

physical

They cannot be free of the sense of bodilv taint and related death anxiety we have observed in Hiroshima. What can be said is that Hiroshima’s s\mbolie A-bomb role has signifieant repereussions in the realm of bodily eoneerns; and that, more generallv, the experienees of influences.

both

eities

upon

disease patterns.

suggest the important impaet of psyehohistorieal proeess

Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors also outsiders. to

it,

Everyone

and was

in

Hiroshima

at the

differ in their relationship to

time of the

later designated as a hibakusha.

bomb

felt

exposed

Each then eneountered

two types of “outsiders”: returning Hiroshima residents who happened to

be elsewhere when the

bomb

fell,

outsiders onlv in the sense of being

nouhibakiisha; and those with no previous eonnection to the eitv

deeided to

move

who

there from former overseas possessions or from other

parts of Japan. Nagasaki hibakusha, in eontrast, were

from the begin-

ning a minoritv in relationship to nonhibakusha residents of their

eitv.

Since there was no eomparable influx of people from the outside— with

more fill

of the eitv standing

in a eity that

was

in

and fewer deaths, there was

less

of a void to

any ease more geographically isolated— thev have

tended to be absorbed by the original nonhibakusha population. Thev

have therefore never experieneed the Hiroshima hibakusha's sense of being dispossessed by an amorphous mass of outsiders

who without

having suffered reaped later rewards. This threat to identity eould well

Residual Struggles: Trust, Peace, and Mastery

been

liave

3

1

3

further stimulus for Ilirosliima survivors to reiterate tlie importance of tlieir A-bomb exposure, since the focus upon it, liowcvcr painful, was a way of a^'oiding a sense of being snuffed out entirely. a

I\\o additional features of postwar Hiroshima do not have equivalents Nagasaki. One is the unusually lively, and in places strikingly

m

attractive,

entertainment

district.

Made up

elements and newer forms of pleasure, hotels, tea (geisha) houses,

pachinko^

it

of both old “water w^orld’’

consists of bars, restaurants,

dance halls, coffee shops, and transient quarters for various kinds of illicit sex. To be sure, its four famous commodities— beautiful girls, superior sake, excellent fish, and delicious pickles— were found in prewar and wartime Hiroshima (la\’ish entertainment

districts are

parlors,

always a necessity

But

in militarv cities).

its

reappearance and expansion during the postw'ar period ha^'e made it one of the most outstanding entertainment districts in all of Japan, and have created the

most extreme kind of contrast

bomb emotions. An observer I

to the

have frequently quoted told

Hiroshima, foreigners and Japanese,

bomb

are interested in the

first

me

s

grim w’cb of A-

that people visiting

two categories: “those who and those who want to amuse themselves in

category- to

into

fall

the well-known entertainment district.”

cause people in the

cit\'

While

a

demand

be appalled bv those

for puritv can in the

second,

no doubt that many deeply concerned with the bomb, whether visiting or hvmig m Hiroshima, find much needed relief in the city^s sensual delights. Moreover, the two interests can unexpectedly converge through the sudden intrusion of the A-bomb into a conversation with a there

is

w’aitress or bargirl

the

all

which the matter

frequently hears

businessmen

are the

and that hihakusha, else,

if

lives.

We

an intrusion

pinball

game

— especially

main frequenters of the entertainment involved at

s

of the

treated.

all,

district;

do the menial jobs within

it,

or

outwardlv^ glamorous but inwardly

much

to

confirm this assumption,

guilt-saturated antipathy to pleasure.

no doubt that hihakusha too indulge, and

A

it,

said in ffiroshima that outsiders

have observed

notably the hihakusha

*

it

is

as hostesses or bargirls, lead

painful

is

turns out to have been exposed to

more poignant because of the surroundings and because

light touch with

One

who

find

Yet there

amusements — from

extraordinary both in its utter simplicity and in the fascination (often addiction) it has held for large mimbers of people in postwar Japan. Part of the attraction is auditory-the lively atmosphere created by the continuous clinks of small metal balls and the loud background music played in the pachiuko parlors.

DEATH

314

IN LIFE

pachinko to geisha parties level.

The

— commensurate

with their socioeconomic

absoluteness of the distinction, therefore,

is

related

to a

general need for a polarized image of the rich, greedy, and 'doose” outsider versus the poor,

For one must keep

downtrodden hihakusha.

in

mind the

awav from pain and toward

universal

human tendency

to

move

the significance of

pleasure, as well as

pleasure in anv form of individual or group rebirth. Several important

questions therefore present themselves in relationship to Hiroshima’s

amusement section: How much has it to do with movement away from A-bomb pain? Is it an extension of the ‘doosc” frontier atmosphere of earlier post-bomb Hiroshima? Or is it merely the re-cstablishmcnt of traditional features midst the widespread postwar

one of Hiroshima’s Japanese

stress

upon concrete forms

of pleasure seeking?

Or

perhaps, in

elements of compulsive search for pleasure, a manifestation of A-

its

bomb and can

other despair?

neither

It

is

surelv

all

But

of these things.

the end

in

from the A-bomb experience

be entirclv separated

it

in

nor—-since Nagasaki lacks anvthing comparable— from Hiroshima’s particular exposure and later symbolism. Nothing, it seems, in general,

Hiroshima can.

The second everyone

one

in the

man

fans are their

Hiroshima

special

feature,

cit\— “from the governor

which involves

down

practically

to the ragpickers,” as

put it— is the baseball team, the Hiroshima Carp. Hiroshima

known

team seems

for their fanaticism, despite the fact that (or because)

to

be perpetually

in last place. It

appears to possess that

special charisma of certain losing baseball teams, such as the

Mets

of the mid-1960s

and the Brookh n Dodgers of the

simplv cannot sav to what extent the atomic

bomb

past. Again,

one should attribute

What

Nagasaki).

one can sav

is

one

experience might

have contributed to the town’s fanaticism about the team (or significance

New York

how much

to the absence of a baseball

team

that once the fanaticism appeared,

became inseparable from atomic bomb

issues.

Mv

in it

observer on these

matters commented, “It gives us something quite the opposite of the

solemn and

and

tragic thoughts

about the atomic

workers criticize

social

intellectuals

and

it.”

social workers,

laborer, for instance) to the building of

have

its

needs— this

Hiroshima

Wdiilc he probablv underestimates

some peace movement

stadium, and

is

intellectuals

activists (the

criticized the attention given to the

used instead for helping atomic feeling in

bomb— onlv

bomb

demanded victims.

team and

that these energies be

But the more widespread

that the city has a right

outlet for enthusiasm.

day

to— indeed

strongly

Residual Struggles: Trust, Peace, and Mastery

3

1

5

Botli the ])ascball related vitality

team and tlic ciitcrtaiiimciit district raise A-bombquestions about guilt ('‘Do I have a right to pleasure?”) and

(“Am

I

entitled

to share in affirmations of life?”).

Perhaps

equally important, they symbolize a return to “ordinary pleasures” in the constant struggle against death-linked pain. It may be that baseball is a less controversial “return to pleasure” for guilt-ridden people than is

—

indulgence in food, drink, gambling, and sex even in a society which has not traditionally associated these pleasures with guilt per se. Again comparing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we may say that there is no lack of opportunity for pleasure in either city, but that Hiroshima approaches its pleasures with a greater mass intensity— just as it does its A-bomb message.

But neither

city has found, or

the question of

how

master, an atomic

to deal

bomb

can expect to

find, a precise

answer to

honorably with, and at the same time

experience.

Both

feel

themselves under the

watchful eyes of the dead in their continuing struggles with contending inner and outer symbols, in their ambivalent commemoration and troubled peace imagery, and in their quest for the right and ability to rediscover pleasure.

PERCEIVING AMERICA

The Bomb and

i)

After

Since conducting the study,

I

have been eonstantly asked

how

survivors

about Ameriea. The question is usually raised by other Americans, and behind it there is often either the fearful expeetation feel

of seething

and unremitting hostility, or else the wishful one of no hostility at all. Even knowledge of man’s generally ambivalent nature, or of his complex response to eatastrophe, does not necessarily alter these either-or antieipations. For an event of this magnitude ereates in everyone, and particularly in victims and instigators,” a strong need to believe in certain elear-eut responses to it.* Determining survi\ors’ aetual ‘

emoabout America, therefore, takes on mueh more importance than simply satisfying Americans’ anxious curiosity. It raises tions

general issues of

anger, resentment, and hate (issues sometimes blurred by the use of the attentuated psyehologieal term "hostility”), and of the^elationship of these feelings, or their absenee, to mastery of an extreme experienee. Still

ness

more

generally,

eonfronts us with questions of the ‘appropriateof sueh negative emotions, of man’s capacity for sustaining them,

and of

their

own

psyehologieal

However muffled

M

use

it

“instigators”

toll.

or suppressed during the early stages, emotions of

to

represent the wide spectrum of Japanese and American teelings concerning individual Americans' relationship to, or responsibility for use of ’ ^

the

bomb.

3

1

DEATH

8

IN LIFE

anger and resentment liave been an integral part of the symbolie cleath-

“Damn

tliemr or

expressed the sense of being suddenly jolted

it!”)

and functional world, and thrust into one of chaos and annihilation. In contrast, the joyous “rising of the dead” from a

safe, predietable,

described bv Dr. ITachiva in response to the rumor of Japan’s having

dropped atomic bombs on American identification with the

weapon and

of an ordcrlv svmbolic world «

in

(in

retaliation in kind)

addition to

the restoration

which old authorities were

still

in

*

control, enemies could be dealt with,

But these

existed.

suggests

cities,

and wishful rumors

early epithets

only preliminary responses.

and structure and meaning

More

of retaliation

still

were

specific focus of hate required time,

along with strength to formulate an object of hatred and a style of

Resentment and

hating.

hate, moreover, varied in their psychological

they could greatly enhance mastery by bringing together

function:

emotion and idea

in a

wav

in their static persistence

that passed

judgment on the experience; or

they could be a formidable barrier to mastery.

Descriptions of past resentments had a great deal to do with the in

which

a hibakiisha felt at the

and Americans, and toward

me

tune of the interview toward America

as

an American investigator.

avoided questions about resentment until

kusha had become sufficiently relaxed with

some

cases,

way

I

felt

me

to

generally

I

that a particular hiba-

answer them

freely. In

however, such feelings emerged quickly and spontaneously,

form of direct statement or general emotional tone. Nor were resentful feelings by any means the only emotions important to

whether

in the

examine. Recognizing that any emotions expressed related to everything a particular hibakiisha

had

felt

from the

moment

of the

before that) to the time of our talks in the spring and I

nevertheless found

it

useful to divide reactions to

bomb

summer

(and

of 1962,

America into

five

general categories of relationship: between victims and instigators of a

nuclear disaster; between the militarily defeated and occupied and the victorious occupiers;

between early nuclear victims

of,

and

later spokes-

dominant nuclear power; between those who had become objects of medical investigation as nuclear victims and those who came to study them as representatives of the country which used the weapon;

men

for, a

and between the

specific

people

I

interviewed and myself.

VICTIMS AND INSTIGATORS d’hese

categories

could,

of

course,

greatly

associated with original exposure to the

bomb

overlap,

and resentments

could become inseparable

:

319

Perceiving America

from those stimulated by

forms of bomb-related victimization

later

— as

the bargirl reveals

After .

.

all,

And

.

what good could have come from those

who

gave the order to drop the bomb,

kind of feeling they had at that time.

many

killing so I

people?

wonder what

wonder what feeling those who dropped the bomb had as thev did it. ... I think they must have been crazy. I oward them I feel] nothing but liatrcd. Until recently ... I didn’t like Americans in general. ... I .

.

.

.

.

I

also

[

.

got over this feeling, but wdien a company refused to employ me because I had been exposed to the bomb ... I felt that hatred again.

Having

.

.

lost

.

bomb and

her mother in the

been forced to grow up under

borderline conditions, often missing school because of having to care for

grandmother, the themes of deprivation, disruption, and humilia-

a sick

become the

tion

an

restore

owm

o\’crall

self-esteem

The

basis for her hatred.

hatred

itself is

needed

to

sense of moral order within which she can recover her

and

the order to drop the

integrity.

bomb”

Thus her concern with

is

an

‘‘those

who

gave

and

effort to establish responsibility;

her labeling “crazy” those wdio dropped

it

is

her w'ay of asserting

standards of rational and irrational behavior. Hatred of bridging the technological distance

between

is

her only means

instigators

and

victims.

But the moral order she constructs around it is tenuous; she would readily give up the hatred were it not for the continuing frustrations which cause her to fall back upon it. Others, like the middle-aged businessman killed

by the bomb) must

irreparable loss, of unresolved

My

wife

forget.

.

.

during his

and unresolvable mourning:

talks

.

first

when w^e didn’t have enough him enough. ... It was to me a matter of

year of middle school,

food and couldn’t feed

my

family not to buy things on the black market feel great pity toward the boy and I also feel I treated

principle for

and now I badly— so

retain their hatred because of a sense of

about the boy now. I tell her not to, because this remember also, but she does anyw^ay. I think she just can’t Perhaps we still have a strong impression of the boy

still

makes me

(whose voung son was

I

tell

her not

to

talk

.

.

him

about him. Evervone says good things to make our society .

.

.

America has done many better. But although my children’s generation may feel differently, I have always said that no matter what wonderful things America has that

.

.

.

DEATH

320

done

for us, until the

Ameriea.

.

went on

lie

him

.

moment

I

die

I

resentment toward

will feel

.

to relate this unresolved

mourning

of a terrible image of ultimate horror

dropped, with so

we

IN LIFE

manv

children killed

to the persistenee within

—

— that’s

.

having an A-bomb

.

what

1

can’t forget”— and

arc left with the impression that the continuing intensity of his guilt

makes

impossible for

it

him

either to reconcile himself to his loss or to

surrender his hatred.

The

generational difference mentioned by the businessman

is

con-

firmed bv a recollection of the young Hiroshima-born writer:

Mv

grandmother lost a son and a daughter-in-law in the A-bomb. She used to say, and in fact did not stop saying until the moment she died, “Don’t talk to Americans.” Contributing to

this

implacable antagonism

profound

is

guilt over the

death of children one could not protect; as well as the general inability of a

generation brought up on hatred for America, and already in

middle age when experiencing its

its

hate-producing

losses, to reconstruct

symbolic world sufficiently to be able to surrender

The

its

writer-manufacturer, for instance, in his sixties

him, contrasted the “unfair” A-bomb deaths

hatred.

when

I

spoke to

(“people died without

having a chance to resist”) with the ritualized equality between oppo-

sumo

nents in traditional Japanese

wrestling and Bushido (or samurai

code), and went on to express angrv imagerv of retribution which

seemed

to

combine Buddhist

principles of

karma with Judeo-Christian

Biblical injunction:

I

who dropped

that those

feel

Truman, who ordered

that

it

the

bomb— and

be dropped

— will

especially President

be punished

in the

have a strong hatred for Mr. Truman. I think he is a coldblooded animal, and I am quite sure he will be punished— if not he This is something behimself, his children, or their children. future.

I

.

.

.

you in what way Mr. Truman or his offspring will be punished. But vou know that man consists of both his body and his spirit, and the body consists of various elements. If a man has done something wicked, I am not sure he will be punished physicallv but I believe he is destined to be punished spiritually. 'Pruman knew verv well the enormity of a disaster that would be

vond

science, so

I

cannot

tell

.

created by the is

bomb and

the most wicked act

.

he ordered it to be dropped. I think this have ever known ... If the A-bomb is

yet I

.

Perceiving America

21

3

dropped cither in America or in Russia, we would liave to feel extreme sorrow for tliose wlio suffer from its effects, and tliis would be almost unbearable for us because of our own experience with the A-

bomb.

.

.

.

His anger was also related to unresohable mourning, in his case over the death of his daughter from early radiation effects. But his focus upon the

bomb

“unfairness,”

s

idea of the

bomb

President Truman’s “wickedness,” and the

on America or Russia (the two countries at that time engaged in nuclear testing) was his way of seeking moral order and symbolic cohesion. Having done so, he was able to carry on falling

effectively in his life

and

to

have friendly feelings toward America and

Americans.

A ci\'il

sequence more typical for the younger generation is reflected bv the service employee, who first felt “rage toward America” when his

brother was killed by the bomb, and then found that “gradually

my

toward America changed” so that “the anger faded— perhaps faded away.” Significantly, however, he added, “I myself feel rather strange about this.” That is, his continuing guilt toward his brother feelings

makes him question

his right to surrender his hatred of

America.

In general, feelings toward America tend to be associated

with ambivalence than pure hatred

— as

we can

observe in a series of

contradictory emotions expressed by the technician.

bomb

much more

He condemned

the

murderous weapon” and recalled having thought in the past “how cruel America is,” but came to be impressed with the argument as “a

A-bomb we could more quickly have peace.” At first bitterly angry at “the people who came flving into Hiroshima on their B-29s and dropped the bomb” and convinced (with many others) that “because of the

that “these pilots [should] be executed in accordance with international

law,” he later adopted the position that “they acted on the order of their superiors,

and

in the reverse situation,

Japanese also would have

acted according to the orders of their superiors.” This ambivalence

concerning responsibility has important bearing upon issues of revenge,

he reveals by bringing up the Eichmann question, which had aroused some interest in Hiroshima: as

Recently when a Japanese from Hiroshima went to Israel, the people there asked him why the Japanese don’t hate the people who dropped the

A-bomb

have hated Eichmann. war the Jewisli people main-

as they, for all of their lives,

Seventeen years after the end of

tlie

tained that hatred, and the wish to get the

.

enemy

in their

.

.

hands and

DEATH

322

IN LIFE

Now

acliicve their revenge.

they

should have the same feeling. relationship to the

[in

.

tell .

.

we

the people of Hiroshima that

my

But

view

as

is,

I

said before

A-bomb] that because he [Eichmann] did

What

these things on orders from superiors, they couldn’t be avoided.

do you think?

Here he was

in effect

“Do

a

I

have

cultivate

it

asking such personal psychological questions as:

[duh?]

right

or should

I

to

my

hold on to

surrender it?”

hatred?” “Should

I

Nor could any question be more

calculated to arouse conflict in an American Jewish investigator (though I

do not know whether he was aware that

means

of expressing resentment toward

exploring his

own

conflicts.

am Jewish), me while at

so that

I

For whatever the

Richmann’s actions and those of American

the

it

was

a

same time

differences

between

Hiroshima— and we

pilots in

discussed these differences in relationship to his question— his embrace of the thesis of non-responsibilitv served an inner need to convince

himself of his

own

“non-responsibilitv” in failing to help others at the

time of the bomb, of his also ha\ing been (as a

member

of an erratically

functioning rescue team) “on orders from superiors.” Again, continuing

hatred for America was tied up with unresolved death guilt, in this case

death guilt of a generalized kind. But

it

another outlet for his hatred, that

was more comfortable

shift

from victim

to victimizer

it

turned out that he required for

still

him

to

by reasserting an old Japanese national

prejudice:

The Koreans

are an aggressive people.

characteristic.

...

the war,

we

shown them.

.

.

.

This

is

their

national

mvsclf have some Korean friends, and during

I

got along very well and there was no discrimination

But Rhee,

an anti-Japanese riot [he refers here to the prewar period during which Korea was a Japanese colony], escaped to America where he received some education and where he was grcatlv spoiled bv Americans. And during the postwar years, if there were American or Australian soldiers on a train, But during a Korean would get up and declare he was a Korean. wartime the situation was the reverse, and he would declare that he There is a Japanese proverb about a wolf was a Japanese. borrowing the authoritv of a tiger. That is the kind of national characteristic thev have. At the end of the war, Americans occupied Korea below the 38th Parallel and General MacArthur went there also— well, through this backing of America, Korea got to feel itself .

.

.

after causing

.

.

.

.

.

.

bigger.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Perceiving America

323

In addition to the chilling sense his words convey of the universal similarity of images of prejudice, his implication of

responsible for “feeding” Korean duplicity

he attributes

tically,

to the

America

significant.

is

as the party

Characteris-

group he victimizes elements of

his

own

“negative identity”:*" tendencies toward rapid shifts in identification

and toward leaning heavily upon others nurturance, both

generally observable

traits

postwar period and particularly strong

He and

Americans)

(particularly

Japanese during the

in

in the technician as

made

others of his generation thus

way,

felt

it

a

is

an individual.

use of this longstanding

prejudice, both to express dif?use feelings of resentment

hatred

for

and

to defleet

toward America which they were loath to recognize. Either

means

of recapturing familiar psychological ground on an

otherwise badly shattered terrain.

‘‘the responsible person’' The tendency can be

a

for

means

many hibakusha

of avoiding wider

One young working resentment

as she

the American

wife,

asked

people,

me feel

for

to direct anger at President

and more malignant forms of hatred. conveyed

instance,

a pointed question:

it

became

do you, and

also

about having dropped the bomb?” But

clear that she

an object upon which to

find

sense of diffuse

a

“How

although she went on to speak of the weapon terrible,”

Truman

was involved

settle

as

itself

in

“cruel

and

an inner struggle to

her entire inner eonstellation of

angry conflict:

.

.

.

who

About the is

responsible

person— well,

the responsible person, but, after

the President.

...

It

may sound

with her

Such

a

manageable moral universe

own

all,

in

.

.

which ultimate

upon “one

it

was

.

evil,

together

specific person.”

be a means of dealing with death anxiety,

was true of the young company executive. to three emotional stages:

anger was directed at

Americans.

all

residual hate, can be focused

a focus could also

my

difficult to say

exaggerated to say this but

toward one specific person, not toward

She seeks

may be

it

first,

He

described

as

what amounted

resentment “toward America

in general”

Erikson speaks of negative identity as being made np of the “evil prototypes” presented to the growing human being. i I consider tire issue of prejudice or victimization to be more fundamentally related to conflicts over death imagery mentioned before. These will be discussed again in the last chapter as well as in my *

later

volume.

:

DEATH

324

IN LIFE

with the feeling that

bomb on months

''to

massacre countless people by dropping such a

ordinary civilians

after the

ment, "I

felt

is

really contrary to all

bomb, following

strongest resentment

Truman,”

sible person. President

America "decreased

his discovery of .

.

involve-

more generalized anger toward

went by”; but

consequence of American nuclear

Truman’s

six

toward the ultimately respon-

.

so that

as the years

humanit}”; then,

this

testing,

still

later, as a direct

anger "has

come back

again.” Nuclear testing reactivated generalized anger by reacti\ating

death anxietv; focused anger

means

a

is

of containing that anxiety.

Also important was the issue of Americans’ prior knowledge of what

bomb would

their

do.

The female

knowledge and concluded that

poet, for instance, both

its

assumed such

existence rendered those involved

particularly evil

who made the bomb knew when thev used it what it would do to people. And when I think of the fact that thev did know, then I think of what terrible creatures human beings are. In comparison to dogs and cats, man is much worse, since dogs and cats have never made such a thing as the A-bomb. I

am

We

quite certain that the people

know

that her anger was also related to various forms of unhappi-

But her suggestion that human beings were more "inhuman” than animals suggests that this anger was also related to a breakdown of moral order so extreme that alternative emotions ness

and inner

were

difficult to

To

others,

because

it

conflict.

muster.

like

the grocer,

did not understand

bomb, and did not know how thought "a kind of

sin.”

America was "irresponsible” precisely

what

it

to cure

was doing

its

in

dropping the A-

own victims— all

So much so that

as a

of

which he

high school boy during

the early postwar years,

I

thought that although

countries of the world,

I

if

a

want

war against any of the war began between Japan and America, I

did not

to go to

w'ould join the fight.

Mis anger resulted from a sense that America was being doubly sinful: first,

by brutally "experimenting” upon Hiroshima people; and then, by

failing to provide, despite

being all-powerful, the authentic (curative)

nurturance required by victims of that experiment. expressed a similar sentiment

when he

said

The mathematician

"To drop

a

bomb

causing

Perceiving America

3

those terrible and prolonged effects uitlioiit knowing about them really an evil thing to do.”*

But

in

both

tlie

grocer and the inatheinatician there

25 is

an additional

is

unspoken source of anger: their own sense of having participated in the “sin”— by simply being victimized and thereby becoming part of the Abomb’s evil, and by ha\ing survived. Further, there was the universal “sin,”— everyone’s willingness

human

to

kill

and destrov

in

most

the

way, as expressed in the mathematician’s additional

in relationship to the

atomic bomb; “Germany

“in-

comment

Japan had the idea

tried.

too.” Ilibakusha

(and of course not onlv hibakusha) are angrv and frightened because at some level of psvehic life they have been made

aware that the world

is

a place in

which

man cannot

be counted upon to

control these terrih ing impulses.

A

few hibakusha expressed

less

resentment toward America than

toward Japanese military leaders.! This was true of the writer in her recollection that

was not toward the

bomb

“The anger we

felt at

leftist

woman

the end of the war

but toward the Japanese militarists”; but her

change of heart, which she attributed to feeling “deceived” bv American-sponsored Japanese rearmament, might also have been influenced by previously suppressed resentment related to the original use later

A-bomb. Others chose militarists in general as targets for anger (notably one woman whose former husband came from a militarv

of the

family), or else scientists of any nationalih’

who worked on

nuclear

weapons.

Some,

bomb),

like

Miss Ota

(in a passage written a

directed resentment at several of these targets simultaneously.

Concerning her country’s

upon

us

few months after the

leaders, she said:

“The bomb was dropped

by America but at the same time

it

was

also

dropped bv

Japanese military politics.” She condemned both the weapon

long as A-bombs arc used evil”)

and war

in general

in

anv of mankind’s

because

it

fights,

itself

(“As

thev are flowers of

led to the use of such a

weapon:

* It is difficult to give a

simple answer to the question of whether Americans really did know what the bomb would do. Some of its destructive potential was, of course, understood, though estimates of its explosive power and of its radius of general devastation tended to be too low. Concerning its radiation effects, these were known only theoretically, from laboratory work and from observations on disease patterns in radiologists. The actual acute and chronic medical impact of the bomb’s irradiation would seem to have been neither understood not thought about too extensively. ^ In addition to actual scientific ignorance, one must consider the influence of psvchic numbing upon any group involved in the preparation of deadly weapons. that additional resentments felt by many toward Japanese military not articulated during my interviews, focused as thev were mainly upon leaders were the atomic bomb, and coming so long after the war. t

It

is

likely

— DEATH

32 6

IN LIFE

“In fighting, no one can sav what part of a person’s body should not be

and no one can prevent any kind of weapon from being used.” She nonctlieless felt specific anger toward America toward “the will to use hit,

—

A-bomb” — and declared that “Even if there had been no poison gas in the bomb, the \\ounds we have received in our hearts were nothing but wounds of poison gas.” The very diffusencss of her targets, along

the

comment— “We

with her later

bomb”'^— suggest the

have even forgotten to resent the A-

and other hibakusha have had

difficultv she

relating their hatred to enduring convictions or using

it

way

in a

in

that

enhances mastery.

There were some,

who

like the sociologist,

immediate

stressed

formation of anger into uni\ersal moral principles, while almost ing the use of the

bomb.* And the woman we have

own

But these

child.”

justify-

referred to as the

mvstical healer described America’s original use of the

parent striking his

trans-

bomb

“justifications”

as “like a

were un-

doubtedlv influenced bv subsequent contacts with America and, for that

my own

matter, bv

presence.

emotions concerning the

In

addition they covered over strong

bomb which we know

the sociologist in his preoccupation with mvstical healer against

its

ful ideas

'in

both people to possess “inhumanity,” and the

its

her mobilization of spiritual and therapeutic energy

effects. In

both cases transformation of hatred into purpose-

and programs was of great

significance,

but was accompanied

bv an element of psychic numbing which required that residual anger be denied. It

seems that hibakusha must retain some resentment, however

amorphous, ence and

as a psvchological link

life

between the

afterwards, just as they need

to prevent that link

original

A-bomb

some transformation

experi-

of anger

from becoming an immobilizing shackle.

DEFEAT AND OCCUPATION

We

have alrcadv observed the

the apparently good-natured

American troops with the had led them remain

and

to expect. All over

in their

(at

bestial rapers

Japan

hibakusha had

least

and

at

first)

looters

in

connecting

well-disciplined

wartime propaganda

women had been

instructed to

homes, lock their doors, and avoid wearing any clothing

that might be provocative;

We

difficultv

and people

in general

had been

told not to

statement that “llie anger we felt was directed not toward the country which dropped the bomb but toward war itself,” and his belief that in addition to being “bad fortune,” the experience was “understandable punishment.” To which he added: “Their anger was directed toward Japanese militaiy leaders.” *

recall

his

Perceiving America carry wristwatchcs or an\' articles tluit miglit

tempt

tlic

327

Occupiers. But

Hiroshima the actual cucoimter took place against a background of both sides’ uneasy awareness of the city’s special experience with an American-induced holocaust. Hence the Allied policy of leaving most of in

the occupation of the city to

Commonwealth

and

New

—in

the initial takco\er, and in other ways

kushci

Forces, largely Australians

Zealanders. Yet the fact that Americans too were in cyidcnce

confront the

to

difficult

— subsequently

paradox of perfectly

forced hiba-

human

(even

people from a country which had, in their eyes, behaved so

likeable)

“inhumanly.”

The

great curiosity toward Americans,

and the quick acceptance of

American authority, have caused some observers to overlook the mixture of anger and humiliation many hibakusha actually experienced. In the ease of the social worker, for instance, these feelings were associated

with spotting a crumpled-up cigarette wrapper

whether

(“I

can’t

remember

was Camels or Chesterfields”) near the entranee of a shrine

it

on about August 20th. Looking around and actually seeing

few

a

Americans,

“They have already eome.” ... I was stunned, and at that moment, for the first time, I felt indescribable hatred toward them not so much the desire to fight those men who were standing right before my eves as a strong feeling that we were I

thought,

.

.

.

.

.

.

defeated.

His

awareness of hatred, in other words, was associated with a

first

“moment physical

of truth,” a confrontation with the speeial eombination of

and symbolic annihilation he had witnessed.

Beyond these

early impressions, long contact with

American authority

(which everyone knew to dominate the Oecupation), at a time when

Ameriean influenee was affeeted atomie

An

bomb

at

its

zenith throughout the world, inevitably

reaetions.

early issue of eontention

was the Oecupation policy limiting the

dissemination of information about the A-bomb. This eensorship

origi-

nated largely from fear that writings about the weapon could become a stimulus for

some form

of Japanese retaliation.

But one cannot escape

the impression that American embarrassment, guilt, and even horror at the effeets of the

eensorship

bomb

became

Implementation of

also played a part; or that over a period of time

tied

in

with wider American

this policy

political

concerns.

was apparently by no means eonsistent.

Japanese and Ameriean writings on the

A-bomb

did appear in Japan

— DEATH

328

during

tlic

IN LIFE

postwar years, though they were sometimes required to be

modified and

And

was often delayed.

publication

their

restrictions

greatly diminished during the last few years of the Occupation.

But the policy fed bitterness, especially over medical questions. It became known, for instance, that Dr. Masao Tsuzuki, the radiation expert sent from

Tokyo immediately

severe conflict with earlier

American

with Japanese

fell,

came

into

over this problem just as he had

officials.*

The Hiroshima A-bomb resentments

officials

bomb

after the

became

authority

entwined

made

\^•ith

clear to

me

way

the

A-bomb

other

which

in

psychological

themes:

Suni\'ors in Hiroshima died without proper treatment. feel that

not too

the use of the

much can be

bomb

said

itself

about

it.

was, after

But when

it

Many

of us

an act of war, and came to the matter of

all,

Americans refusing to give proper treatment to survivors, we feel that this is really an inexcusable thing. think it is clear that thev did this in order to keep all information about the A-bomb from being known, so that the Russians would not find out anything about these weapons. So I feel that this opposition between America and Russia the Cold W^ar— killed many people among the Hiroshima survivors.

We

While few hibakusha put

the matter so strongly (the statement

reflected a specific ideological position), his

widely held feelings that

A-bomb

yictims

itself

words nonetheless conyey

had been

“sacrificed”

to

America's international ambitions.

One must keep learn

from the

in

leftist

mind

that

woman

much was

expected of

America— as we

writer in her reaction to the experience of

her husband (also a writer) in being called to Occupation Headquarters regarding a yiolation of the “Press Code”:

Talking about the meaning of the A-bomb disaster was supposed to be against Occupation policy and was not permitted. felt that this was not ycry democratic, and that although Americans claimed to

We

be democratic, they were taking away our freedom.

.

.

.

They

vyould

*

Dr. Tsuzuki was eventually placed on the Occupation’s “purge list” and thereby prevented from resuming academic or other public positions. Manv Japanese had the impression that this was done because of his opposition to Occupation medical censorship rather than his prior association (which had indeed been intimate) with the military. Others attributed it to harmful information spread about him by

Japanese colleagues. Whatever the reason, various accounts testify to his close cooperation with American physicians during the early post-bomb periods jealous

Perceiving America

3

29

point out that certain things said were not favoral)lc. Even thougli there was strict censorship, thev told us never to let

we were

... no

cutting anvthing out

Thev alwavs pretended

like that.

it

be known that

use of black ink or anything

that there was perfect freedom of

speech.

For

this

was the time

made

the general benevolence of the Occupation

Japan, and

inconsistencies

An

which the “democraev boom” was sweeping

in

all

the

more

ironic case in point

these

disillusioning.

was the censorship of A-bomb

issues

during

the Hiroshima mayoralh' election of 1947, including the cutting off of

one candidate said

in the

middle of

something he

a radio speech because of

about the atomic bomb, since

this

was the

first

local election to

be

held under the nationally sponsored democratization program.

Another incident

gives us

an idea of the part played by American

some of the censorship decisions. When Takashi Nagai completed his book Nagasaki no Kane (The Bells of Nagasaki), he and his publisher were told that it would be permitted to feelings of guilt in at least

appear onlv

if

a description of Japanese militarv atrocities

were added

to

the volume. But what the particular American, or group of Americans,

not realize was that the equation of the two

who made

this decision did

was

admission that the dropping of the atomic

bomb was

also

an

“atrocitv”— not to mention the extent of general uneasiness revealed

in

this

a tacit

pained effort at keeping things '"balanced.”

Moreover,

it is

hibakusha guilt

quite possible that American guilt

made

in relationship to censorship policies— that

survivors unconsciously

welcomed the

restrictions

contact with is,

that

some

because of the guilt

aroused in them bv any public discussion of the A-bomb. Insofar as such a “conspiracy of silence”

may

between

suspect that, in the long run,

alleviate the guilt of

instigators it

exist,

we

increased or at least did nothing to

both groups.

Apart from such direct atomic

bomb

of Americans were also important.

American troops could inevitable collusion

and victims did

issues,

more general impressions

Exemplary conduct on the part of

last just so long,

and there soon appeared the

between groups of occupiers and occupied

in prosti-

many

tution, narcotics,

and petty crime— all of which could appear

hibakusha

Japanese in general) as nothing but the corruption of

(as to

“Americanization.”

And

this

to

view could be seemingly confirmed by a

wide gamut of GI abuse of Japanese, from humiliating shows of prejudice or contempt to physical violence and murder.

— DEATH

330

Under

conditions resentment on the part of any defeated group

siicli

becomes associated general,

IN LIFE

and of

its

despoiling of the purity of

tlic

vvitli

women

its

culture in

in particular. In discussing these matters

with

me, Jiihakusha would mention other forms of American influence particularly

from films and popular culture— as contributing

breakdown of Japanese morals,

especially

among

the

the young.

I’he technician, for instance, recalled proudly his ing,

to

own

upbring-

strict

mother’s impressive personal discipline and virtue, and the

his

restrained

and platonic relationships he and

conducted with the opposite sensuality of youth today,

sex.

young men,

In contrast he spoke bitterly of the

condemned

he thought appropriate only to

his friends, as

particularly their dancing,

strip-tease girls or the like,

and

which

insisted

that for ordinary girls to “twist their waists like that” was “out of

keeping with our national characteristics.” As was true of

many

hiba-

kusha, his overall imagery suggested the sense that from the time of the

bomb

dropping of the entire nation

and

through the present, America had “raped” his

cultural heritage

its

— especially

the feminine-maternal

substrate of that heritage. In his case the perverse sexual tendencies

which we noted before caused him

and therefore

own

tradition

But even survivors

relatively

were attracted to various American influences, time of considerable disillusionment with their

as these did at a

cultural

be attracted to the entire process,

intensified his resentment.

free of such tendencies

coming

to

and

their recent past.

They would then

feel

themselves to be identified with the “plunderers” of their individual and cultural “essence” as well as with the victims of this

the ambivalence

A

itself

could be channeled into

“plundering”— and

A-bomb

resentments.

considerable sense of intimacy has accompanied this ambivalence.

The professor of education, for example, speaking for himself and “many others,” stressed a difference between people’s feelings toward America and Russia:

Even

if

critical

respect

they seem to respect Russia, and talk about America in a very

way, they

and

still

feel

friendly toward

America and

feel

both

a sense of threat in relationship to Russia.

Here we recognize the “family feeling” we spoke about when discussing nuclear testing.

But while there

is

little

doubt that

this

intimacy has existed, and that

Japanese have often had feelings toward America similar to those of children to their parents,

it

is

seriously misleading to view the entire

Perceiving America

Japanese-Amcrican Rather,

would

I

interplay

terms

in

of

stress the speeial psyehologieal use

of their relationship to definition

solclv

Ameriea and Amerieans

and autonomy;

their

need

3

“family

a

model/’

made

Japanese have

in their struggles for self-

what they pereeive

to absorb

31

to

be

means of re-ereating themselves. More than simply a mentor, Ameriea beeame a kind of psvehohistorieal “double” or alter “Ameriean”

as a

ego. llie proeess involved did not begin in 1945, but has evolved over

more than

hundred years of being eulturallv and psvehologieally

a

over\\-helmed bv the

West

(after

having been originally “opened” to

What

the outside world bv Ameriean military power).

1945— partieularlv

for

hibakusha but

some measure

in

happen

did

Japanese—

for all

was the aetual experienee of previously feared annihilation

in

at the

hands

West, followed by an extraordinarily intense period of Western

of the

eultural

And

influenee.

sinee

Ameriea has been the main Western

representative on both seores, the annihilating foree was immediately

Or to put the matter beeome like their annihi-

thrust into the position of the mentor-double.

another wav, Japanese have

felt

lators in order to diseover their

Some

the need to

postwar

selves.

of the complexities this pattern poses for hibakusha are

illus-

bv the professor of English. Having experienced as a young man a sense of personal emancipation in the discovery of Western literature and political liberalism, there was some basis for suspicions on the part trated

of Japanese

wartime leaders that he and others

fully trusted.

(conscientiousness which,

But with the defeat

reawakened

in

me “how

in

out his wartime responsibilities

we remember, might his

me

well

have saved his

longstanding Western identification was

bomb

problems.

He

thus played

introducing John Hersey’s Hiroshima into Japan,

deeply moved” he was by the

book, and gave

concerning

in carrying

connection with atomic

an important part told

him could not be

His wav of dealing with fear and conflict at the time was

bv added conscientiousness

life).

like

humanism

inspiring the

much from it A-bomb experi-

the impression that he had learned

how one

should

feel

and think about the

ence.

His Westcrn-Amcrican identification was further evident

in his stress

upon what he called “the spiritual power behind American materialism.” But in discussing the atomic bomb in general, he also made such

comments cans,”

as

“No

such disaster has ever been experienced by Ameri-

and asked the

women

rhetorical question,

could have stood

it?”

with this kind of retaliatory

“Do you

think that American

His tone was gentle throughout; together hostility, directed primarily at

American

332

DEA

women, was an task as an

1

IN LIFE

II

iinnsually strong identification with

American investigator studying the

some extent

I

became

for

him the

always sought from the W’est. fication, as well as his

both

to use,

in

his

own

with

“psvcholhstorical double’’ he had

with Western identi-

experience, contributed to his consider-

me and

able ambivalence toward

eftects of the

Ilis earlier struggles

A-bomb

mv bomb. To

me and

America. But he put the ambivalence

public actions and in conveying to

me

the

complexity of his and others’ responses while constantlv raising important psychological

In

and moral

drawing upon the American conscience— notablv Hersey’s but

mine

as

well— he was seeking

universal principles, a in the this

issues.

model of individual commitment

model which has not been

suspect that

and

in it

for

the dav laborer

has had

to

particularly developed

group-dominated Japanese cultural tradition.

process

leaders

a

We

also observed

(the '‘A-bomb zealot-saint”), and

considerable significance

for

I

most A-bomb

not a few ordinarv survivors, \hctorious American

Occupiers, then, psychologically speaking, have been agents of both annihilation and benevolence, truly

good and ill— people

away

so that

to

demonic

in

their

power

for

both

be hated, admired, identified with, and pushed

one could discover oneself.

Later American Spokesmen

2)

HAS NO regrets’’

‘'lIE

No

wonder, then,

for later for

tliat

hibakusha have had extremely sensitive antennae

Ameriean attitudes about the A-bomb. This

Amerieans involved

in the original deeision to use

is

it,

espeeially true

and the obvious

Truman. While Mr. Truman has emphasized the revolutionary nature of nuelear weapons and the importanee of bringing them under international eontrol, he has, over ease in point

the ye^rs,

was

is

made

that of former President

repeated statements to the effeet that the bomb’s use

neeessar\-, that

regrets

— no

it

saved lives

all

around, and that he has had no

disturbanees of eonseienee

of these statements in

— over

a television interview broadeast

reprodueed

The New York Times

“Any “Not

regrets?”

The impaet

Hiroshima has been eonsiderable. For instanee,

segment from in

his deeision.

on February

a

1958, was

2,

the next day as follows:

Mr. Murrow asked.

the slightest— not the slightest in the world,” Mr.

Truman

responded.

As

for the earlier deeision to use the

atomie

bomb

against Japan,

the former President reealled that the alternative would have been an invasion

in

whieh

easualties

probably would have run

to

a

half

million.

“And when we had

this

powerful new weapon,” he

said, “I

had no

qualms about using it beeause a weapon of war is a destruetive weapon. Tliat’s the reason none of us want war and all of us are against war, but when you have the weapon that will win the war, you’d be foolish if vou didn’t use it.” Under questioning, he expressed the hope that the “new and terrible hydrogen weapon” would never be used. “If the world gets into turmoil, however,” he said, “it will be used. You can be sure of that.”

New

York Times these comments on the atomic bomb were not even the most important part of the broadcast (it contained a more newsworthy dispute with President Fisenhower on unrelated matters);

For The

and Mr. Truman himself, when asked about his “most difficult decision” as President, mentioned the Korean War and not the atomic

DEATH

334

bomb. But

IN LIFE

perspectives in Hiroshima were very different.

I’ruman’s statements alxiut

clays

bitterly

sent to

bomb had been

tlie

Within

a

few

and

featured,

condemned, in all mass media; and letters of protest had been him by the mavor of the city and the governor of the prefeeture.

comment

Moreover, the

that “it the world gets into turmoil

...

it

will

be used” was at times interpreted as suggesting that under such conditions

he would favor using the hydrogen bomb. But what people seemed

more than anything

to react to

was

tone of unqualified justification,

its

heroic citv

both

specific in the

official

and

official

put

it

to

me

its

content of the statement

absence of regret. As the

four years later, in a

unofficial opinion in

wav

that represented

Hiroshima:

bomb was an inhuman weapon and should never have been used. But the bomb was dropped during wartime, and of course such things can happen in war, so I can understand how I

think the atomic

America came to use it. But what I cannot understand— and what we in Hiroshima greatly resent— is dVuman’s claim that he did the right thing in dropping the bomb and that he has no regrets. Contained

in

reconciliation

this

point of view

is

a

Japanese cultural

stress

upon

between contending groups through some form of apol-

ogy which demonstrates concern for those one has injured, makes retaliation unnecessary,

But involved

in the

and permits re-establishment of harmony.

matter are problems of masterv that would affect

any group so victimized. For Truman's uncompromising defense of and

action,

his unwillingness to deal

suggested to hibakusha that the

with the issue of

man who

its

it

did to

resentments

numbed

in

toward America had been barred because of the

still felt

which each side would recognize the

Wdiat

man

in

is

to

them, that the way toward resolving burdensome

impossibility of achieving a shared formulation of the original

one

cost,

bears the greatest individual

responsibility for dropping the boinb remains psychically

what

human

his

event-

difficulties of the other.

not taken into account, of course,

is

the degree to which a

Truman’s position might psychologically require vociferous

denial of regret as a

means

of quieting his

ing himself against feelings of guilt.

The

own

conscience and protect-

vociferousness of hibakusha

reactions in turn has to do with their guilt, with their lack of “regret”

about having survived “instead” of those reawakening that

in

them

of death anxiety

who

did not. Also involved

is

a

and general vulnerabilitv— fear

the demonic power responsible for their ordeal

is

capable of

Perceiving America creating,

and unwilling

reminded of

a

335

to avoid, a repetition of that ordeal.

comment bv an American

One

is

observer at the time of the

Bikini incident concerning generalized Japanese sensitivities, the feeling

that “whenever America

hibakusha

this

lifts

an atom, some Japanese gets

sense of heightened vulnerabilitv

is

In

hurt.”''’

inseparable from

guilt over survival priority.

The

writer-phvsician

makes

clear

how, with threats

kind, hibakusha vulnerabilitv and death guilt

come

any

to peace of

together in anger:

and we were verv optimistic in thinking that the world would be peaceful and that the souls of the dead would be able to rest in peaee. But this optimistic outlook has been mercilessly destroyed by what followed— the Korean War, and the fact that Japan had to join one of the two power blocs of the world. As a hibakusha I feel I have to say something about this situation. I can’t help feeling indignation and an aroused feeling. After the war the Japanese were given a

new

constitution,

.

.

Whatever,

this

some form

.

.

in other words, aggravates the constellation of

conflict leads to

For

.

.

atomic

bomb

of resentment.

reason a good deal of bitterness followed upon Eleanor

Roosevelt’s visit to Hiroshima in 1953 because of statements she

defending President Truman’s decision to use the bomb. she agreed that the

When

made

asked

if

weapon should never be used again under any

circumstances, she was quoted as saying that should war break out, “no

one can be sure that the atomic bomb, or an even greater weapon,

would not be used,” and that “In order necessary to use the atomic

to

defend peace,

it

may be

bomb.” While there could well have been

misunderstandings and altered meanings

in translation, the

anger her

statements aroused was again related to their impact upon hibakusha conflicts— as one account makes clear:

If

she had at this point [when the question was asked] just said

“Yes” [meaning she agreed that the weapon should never be used again], it would have been worldwide news, and concerning the feelings of the people of Hiroshima, the deaths caused by the atomic But in her words bomb would not have been meaningless. .

.

.

there was no consideration of the Japanese internal problem.’'' *

“Internal” refers more to the national (or “domestic”) level than the individual one, but the reference to psychological conflict is nonetheless present.®

DEATH

336

Much more

IN LIFE

favorably received was her reaction to a meeting with a

Bomb

small group of ‘‘Atomie visibly girls’

moved by

the experience, to have expressed indignation at the

not receiving medical treatment for their keloids, and to have later

commented from

Maidens.” She was reported to have been

that

“My

heart ached from what

Jiihakiisha reactions,

saw and heard.” Apart

Mrs. Roosevelt’s behavior strikinglv demon-

strates

the eontrast between

atomie

bomb

effeets

I

the direct emotional

(in this case keloids)

impaet of

visible

and the psvehie numbing

which can be imposed upon anvone bv general ideological commitments.

THE PERILS OF GOOD WILL FA'en personal sympathy, however, has eaustie

eommentary on

a visit to

its

pitfalls— as suggested

bv

a

Hiroshima by Father Flanagan, the

well-known American director of Boys’ Town, during which he met with and said Mass before large numbers of

A-bomb orphans:

He

reported on his return that they said, “Father, thank vou,” and that he was deeply moved. This Father was satisfied that the atomie desert could serve as a background for his admirable deed,

and

as for

the problem of the whole world confronted with the possibilitv of becoming such a desert, or of how these children came to be atomie

bomb orphans— these

problems

may be

left to

God

to solve.

These

more than svmpathv toward the poor Japanese from the grand Amerieans, and their intention is to edueate the Japanese in the American way (that is, to become human beings capable of dropping the atomie bomb), so that there is nothing else to say but, “Thank you.” I can understand these people’s “good will” and generosity’ but they have left out the main problem of the responsibility for the atomic bomb. Therefore, their good will eomes attitudes are nothing

;

elose to self-satisfaction, their kindness to hvpocrisy,

become

and

their deeds

offensive.”^

Wdiile the harsh tone

is

partly a function of a leftist political stance

(there were undoubtedly

many

Father Flanagan’s

the passage suggests another important mani-

visit),

in

Hiroshima who responded warmly

to

festation of suspicion of counterfeit nurturanee: the potential humilia-

and anger stemming from pereeptions of “charitv” in whieh the weak must remain weak and accept the benevolence of the strong. The tion

problem

is

in

many ways

at the heart of

Japanese-American personal and

337

Perceiving America

and one

political relations,

to

which wc know hibakusha

to

be exqui-

sitely sensitive.

Wdicre Americans

combined

have

humanitarian

about

concerns

hibakusha with strong convictions concerning the control or elimination of nuclear

they evoke

weapons— as have John

Ilcrscv

and Norman Cousins—

ambivalence, because hibakusha can

less

cause with them in a

wav

that renders the atomic

make common

bomb

experience

meaningful, and therefore diminishes anxiety and resentment. Pwen they, however, have not escaped criticism for

commentator a- stress

calls

upon good

“the American approach to will rather

what the same Japanese peace.” Bv this he meant

than upon specific measures to strengthen

the world anti-nuclear weapons

estimated the activities of both

movement; and while he

men

grossly under-

atmos-

in preciselv that area, the

phere in Hiroshima has been such that strictures of

kind have

this

gained a hearing.

Reactions to one of Mr. Cousins’ projects, that of the “Hiroshima ^^aidens,” illustrate the psvchological complexities of anv philanthropic

who had

In collaboration with the Japanese minister

effort.

the

organized

originally

Mr. Cousins and others working with

group,

him

arranged for a group of American surgeons to undertake the repair of the

girls’

burn

scars

among group who were jealousies

the

New

in girls

York. But resentments quickly arose:

themselves, particularly

in

Japanese

those in the

not chosen to go to America for surgery; indignant

questions bv hibakusha and others as to

done

among

why

such surgery could not be

Japan by Japanese physicians; a few angry accusations by

when one

of the girls died unexpectcdlv under surgery

causes apparcntlv unrelated to radiation effects); disappointment

some

of

“reallv

girls

among

at

the limited improvement in

among

appearance;

their

more militant hibakusha for focusing only on treatment, for “too much politeness” on both sides in avoiding difficult problems” about the atomic bomb, and for relying

criticism surgical

the

(of

the

“simplv on the conscience of the American people” rather than embarking

upon

a

more independent crusade against nuclear weapons; and,

upon the group’s return girls

to

Hiroshima, severe antagonisms between the

and other hibakusha, the

latter accusing

them

“haughtv,” “Americanized,” and “spoiled,” and the

upon

their critics as

girls in

become

turn looking

narrow-minded and provincial. Nor were these the

only resentments. For the project lent

itself

particularly strongly to

certain kinds of imagery of counterfeit nurturance

not only

of having

in the sense of

among

hibakusha:

being confirmed in their victimization, but in

DEATH

338

IN LIFE

the bitter irony of submitting to repair of of

stigmata at the hands

nation whieh inflicted tliem. Yet in an overall sense a eonsider-

tlie

amount

able

A-bomb

of ‘"repair” was

aeeomplished— not only of the burn

sears

themselves but of guilt and resentment within the Japanese-Ameriean

bomb

atomie

—Americans care!— did to

many

get through to the hliroshima

individual Jiihakusha

Both the power of

accompany

it

Quaker

elderly

For one significant hostility-dissolving message

interplay.

in

this

Movement”

spoke

to.

message, and the inevitable difficulties which

Hiroshima, were exemplified by Floyd Schmoe, an

who organized a program of conhibakusha, known as the “Hiroshima House

university professor

new homes

struction of

I

communitv, and

for

(or Peace Houses), as

an expression of American “regret

and repentance” over the atomic bomb. Whth extraordinary dedication he and his wife overcame severe financial and physical obstacles to make their way to Hiroshima for several stays during the late forties and early fifties,

worked on the houses with

own

their

hands, and enlisted others

moved the Crown Prince.

of various nationalities to help them. Flis efforts greatlv

Japanese, and he was even granted an audience with the

But the project was bedeviled by a discovered

of misfortunes:

the handling of applications

for

fraud was

occupancy; a sexual

caused a minor scandal and the breakup of one of the

liaison

families to

had

in

series

to

move

in; several

A-bomb orphans and hibakusha

first

children

be sent away because of tuberculosis and severe emotional

whom Schmoe

disturbance; and a Korean occupant,

had

insisted

upon

bringing in as an effort at improving Japanese-Korean relations, used his

dwelling to brew

illegal

whiskey, and in the process started a

fire

which

burned the house down. Yet once more hibakusha responded to an American who converted his “apology” into action on their behalf, in this

case

virtually

one who identified with their plight sufficiently to become a hibakusha himself, thereby re-establishing human connection

between victimizer and victim

in a

way

that almost eliminated these

disturbing categories. But the bedevilments associated with his efforts are probably

more than

coincidental.

They

dislocations were so vast that they engulfed the attempts of a to

combat them; that

sacrifice,

in

their

individual demonstrations of repentance

very

neglect considerations of effort

bomb single man

suggest that atomic

“purity,”

human

court

frailty;

and

self-

disillusionment because thev

and that the best-meant outside

cannot eliminate— and indeed inevitably stimulates— intramural

jealousies

and undertones of counterfeit nurturance.®

There have been

a

number

of other

Americans whose actions have

339

Perceiving America

contributed to the resolution of hihakusha resentment. Linus Pauling’s ceaseless agitation against nuclear

weapons and emphasis upon

their

made some hihakusha feel that he has grasped something of their condition. The same has been true of Earl and Barbara Reynolds, who lived in Hiroshima for some time with their children consequences

(the American pacifist family mentioned earlier) and were admired for their

wide range of peaee

somewhat more

aeti\ities,

controversial bv their involvement in the antagonisms

of the Japanese peaee

movement and by

Perhaps most strongly admired

Mary MeMillan, in

upon returning

in a

own marital human fashion

breakup.

their

direet

has been

the Methodist missionarv and edueator long resident

Hiroshima, whose Christian

their influence

though they have been rendered

upon the day

paeifist aetivities

laborer,

we have noted

and whose

to the city after the war, in

before in

railroad-station speeeh

whieh she eondemned and

apologized for Ameriean use of the atomie bomb, has become something of a legend in Hiroshima.

A number

of

Amerieans

in offieial positions, either

with the Ameriean

Bomb

Casualtv Commis-

Cultural Center in Hiroshima or the Atomic sion,

have also evoked

warm

response by their sympathetie interest in

hihakusha problems and general partieipation

in

Japanese

life.

There

is

one story— also part-legend— of a direetor of the American Cultural Center who, when he arrived

in

1953 with his family, was said to be

greeted with sueh suspieion that his seven-year-old daughter was taunted

by Japanese ehildren: “American, your nose is too high! Baka! [Stupid!]. You dropped the atomie bomb on us.” But bv offering, without a suggestion of condeseension, what was most

needed— exehange

seholar-

ships, library facilities, English lessons, leetures at the university— and

bv aetivc involvement

in the life of the eitv

(he and his wife took part

beeame so admired that people from all levels of soeietv petitioned the American government to permit him to remain bevond his four-year stay.*-^ This and other experiences suggest a hunger on both sides for an intimaev that would dissolve persisting psyehological diseomforts surrounding the bomb. in a

publie eoncert prior to their departure), he

INDIVIDUAL responses: RECONCILIATION AND RETRIBUTION Involved in this hunger

is

resolution of mutual guilt

a need for symbolic reconciliation, for the

and anger. Over the

years sueh reeoneiliation

has been taking plaee, so that Amerieans and Japanese in Hiroshima

have been inereasingly able

to

eome

together in various forms of friend-

3

DEATH

40

IN LIFE

A-bomb problem

ship vvliich shunt the

But the

to the baekground.

experieuee eau lead both to the wishful eouclusiou that the problem

does not

During individual interviews hibakusha (many from

exist.

segments of Japanese soeiety with which Americans do not ordinarily

come

between

tion

made

into contact)

enhance

“repentant”

symbolic

or

me

that they tend to

at

least

reconciliation,

and

who do

cerned” Americans

But the

clear to

“concerned”

and

“uncon-

not.

autonomv— as

sense of hibakusha

a distinc-

Americans who

“unrepentant”

requirement for any kind of

first

draw

S)

mbolic reconciliation was a

the writer-manufacturer emphasizes:

hope you won’t be misled into believing that the citizens of Hiroshima are appealing to America for help, or that w'c are raising up pitiful cries. As you know Hiroshima has had a remarkable reconstruction, so that we have confidence in ourselves to some degree. I want to sav that we need little svmpathy from America in this respect. I

A man who

on the whole well disposed toward America and who

is

is

knowledgeable about financial matters, he was undoubtedly aware that

American funds of various kinds made Indeed,

it

may be

(we note

of special need

knowledge, as well

just this

his phrase

reconstruction possible.

this

as a lingering inner sense

about “confidence

in ourselves to

some degree’) which makes him so “touchy” about the issue. The sense of autonomy sought by him and other hibakusha

requires

an inner conviction that recovery has been achieved through their efforts.

Without

this

own

conviction, there can be neither symbolic rec-

onciliation nor mastery.

It

fund-raising trip by the

Mayor

thus quite possible that the failure of a

is

of Hiroshima to the United States in

1954 enhanced hibakusha mastery. There was a certain amount of

bit-

terness at the time, including the mayor’s owui frustration in dealings

with American corporations, foundations, and public relations firms

which seemed

sympathy

for

fluctuate

to

Hiroshima, and his somewhat acid conclusion that “for

Americans, business later obtaining the

(even

if

American

few^ I

is

business and sympathy

is

svmpathy.’’^*’

But b\

needed funds from the Japanese central government aid helped to

w'ere given a better

“We

according to their estimation of public

chance

to

the funds available), hibakusha

develop inner imagerv to the effect that

have not needed your help.

would defend the imagery

make

Wc

have done

as true in

it

ourselves”

— even

if

an absolute sense.

he issue of symbolic reconciliation (or of

its

failure)

was verv much

:

Perceiving America

3

41

involved in the reaetions to President Truman’s remarks, and equally so in pereeptions of

Ameriean

pilots involved in the

atomie bombing.

reporting in Hiroshima of an expression of repentance

The

(“What have

I

done?”) by one of them, Robert Lewis, after meeting the Hiroshima

Maidens, had considerable meaning

for

some hibakusha}^ But

greater impact has been the mental illness of

famous “Hiroshima Pilot”— as we note the war

much

Claude Eatherly, the world-

in a rather typical reaction

by

wadow

me

Let

of

ask you this.

Sometime during the

past year

...

I

read in a

man who dropped the atomic bomb had true? He felt responsibilitv ... it was

weekly magazine that the

become

insane.

Is

that

.

.

.

written that he felt great responsibilitv— but not right after that time,

nor even four or

later— in fact after ten years.

five years

.

.

.

Accord-

ing to his words, he saw the faces of over two hundred thousand

Hiroshima people. Well, he said something like that. But in any case, what I thought was that this was brought about by the souls of the dead which caused him this fate— this is what we say in our religion.

And

I

which have been said from ancient something to pile up in his conscience and

believe that these souls,

times to be eternal, led

caused him to become insane.

The

experience

is

.

.

.

turned into a simple myth of retribution, expressed

here in Buddhist terminology but related to universal psychological and

moral needs. For not onlv Christian tradition

is

theme present

the same

(“He that smiteth

a

man,

so that

he

in

the Judeo-

die, shall surely

be put to death” and “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot”),

but

myth about Eatherly was, in fact, entirely have more to say about its evolution and

this particular

evolved in America.

I

shall

general significance in a later volume, but

Eatherly did not drop the

bomb

we may note here

(he piloted a weather plane which flew

into Hiroshima a few minutes ahead of the plane carrying the

and that

his

for

many

bomb),

Hiroshima experience has highly questionable causal

tionship to his later mental illness.

and

that

But the myth,

for the

rela-

war widow

other hibakusha, puts things in order and re-establishes an

acceptable moral and symbolic universe. She went on to explain that

upon reading about Eatherly,

I

we should not have war any more— that this kind of history repeated itself too many times that to retain bitter feelings

felt

has

that

.

.

.

3

DEATH

42 and

to pass along bitter feelings

tragedy of

toward others

in life

is

the greatest

all.

^^h'th her ideologieal relief

IN LIFE

world thus reeonstrueted, she sees a path toward

from her burden of “bitter

either to believe fully in the

myth

feelings,”

but she

or follow the path.

is

far

from able

Guinea Pigs

3)

A

dimension of feeling revolves around American-sponsored

special

medical research into radiation

and the resulting complaint of

effects,

hibakushd that they arc being made into ‘'guinea pigs.” Behind accusation

is

this

an array of inner conflicts and resentments concerned with

being “experimented upon,” denied needed care, and historically

vic-

timized on a racial basis.

Perhaps the root problem has been the Kafkaesque psychohistorical situation

(similar

to

that

I

mentioned

in

relationship

to

my own

bombs sending

research) of the nation which dropped the atomic

its

teams of physicians to make objective studies of the weapon’s

initial

delayed medical

somewhat

effects.

suspect in the eyes of biased,

tainted,

a situation renders the results

many hibakusha— not

so

much

false as potentiallv

simply unpleasant. Suspicions were increased by

American pronouncements (sometimes made by non-physicians

various

and unrelated or

or

Such

and

to scientific studv)

which have seemed

unduly minimize long-term radiation influences:

from an American

official in

that “All of those

who

Tokvo

are to die

died”; a similar claim by another

shortlv after the

from the atomic

a

to

underestimate

statement quoted

bomb to the effect bomb have alreadv

American spokesman

five years later

that survivors had by then “recovered eompletely from whatever aftereffeets

they experienced, and no noticeable aftereffeets remain”; and a

statement

made

in

Hiroshima bv an American physicist

sizing that radiation dangers

from nuclear testing were

that casualties from nuclear research were

bv automobile

While

accidents.’’'

it

is

much

in

1959 empha-

insignificant,

and

lower than those eaused

true that these

pronouneements

could have been distorted in translation or in being quoted out of context, they

all

seemed, at

least to hibakusha, to

we have done nuclear weapons— is

“A.merican voice” saying, in effect: “W^hat the

bomb on Hiroshima— or

bad.” *

The

The tone first

in testing

of minimization which

two statements,

if

be spoken by a single in

dropping

really

not so

hibakusha perceive both

re-

accurately quoted, arc clearly misleading; the third

but perhaps irrelevant comparison. They are, unfortunately, reminiscent of certain statements that have been made in America by official agencies concerning the negligibility of nuclear weapons fallout

combines

and

a controversial impression vvitli a true

related dangers.

3

DEATH

44

awakens

am

own

tlicir

an impostor

IN LIFE

(“Maybe they

fears of inautlienticity

are right,

and

I

complaining or being fearful”), and gives them a

for

sense of being trifled with.

Medical antagonisms probably began with the

American physicians

There was,

in

Hiroshima about

must be

it

a

impressive

said,

month

of the

arrival

after the

bomb

fell.

between

cooperation

early

first

American and Japanese physicians, and the resulting investigative accomplishments and personal friendships formed in association with the Joint Commission for the Investigation of the Effects of the Atomic

Bomb

in

some Japanese lized

priority

as others

was inevitable that

would

still

credit for

monopowork done

later stress

incidence of leukemia

discovering increased

There were

and took

research materials

by Japanese— just

in

it

physicians would later complain that Americans

bomb

atomic

originally

But

Japan have been ablv recorded.

also fierce professional jealousies

Japanese

and cancer.

among Japanese

doctors

themselves prior to the arrival of Americans: one practitioner recalls

how, during Dr. Tsuzuki’s for his investigations,

earlv trips to

many

Hiroshima to gather material

of the physicians in the citv

would

trv to

avoid him, or else remain silent in his presence, because “he might trv to get

something important out of

their

involvement of Americans was to bring, over the

more

sinister overtones.

were psychohistorical

in

Again

problems with

would emphasize that these overtones

of

its

effects— and occurred despite the

sometimes even heroic work of individual Japanese and

dedicated,

American

years,

origin— stemming from the sequence of the use

weapon and the study

of the

I

But the medical

mouths.

researchers.

The combination

tional victor’s investigative rights

of scientific ethos

was simplv inadequate

and conven-

to the extraor-

dinary emotional and physical impact of the

new weapon. Perhaps no medical approach could have been adequate, but what might have come had

closest,

it

been possible, would have been an international medical

team combining research with therapy, and universal sharing of medical data

explicitlv

committed

to the

on nuclear weapons on behalf of world

peace.

Even then, hibakiisha would not have been without But confronted military

Bomb

and

as they

later

their suspicions.

were with a program initiated bv the American

sponsored by other government agencies— the Atomic

Casualty Commission, which succeeded the Joint Commission,

was established by Presidential order, under the direction of the National

Academy

of Sciences, with general support of the

Armed

Eorces

and funds from the Atomic Energy Commission— habakusha found

it

345

Perceiving America all

too easy to look

upon the

entire effort as having the dual purpose of

“keeping seeret” the nefarious things Aineriea had done while learning everything possible about the effeets of atomie bombs in order to prepare for future nnelear warfare.

Sueh aeeusations eonld be neitlier disproven: they were often politieally motivated,

proven nor entirely

and they ignored the earefnl investigative efforts undertaken; but even where medieal knowledge is the general aim, a sponsoring governmental ageney such ested in

Atomic Energv Commission is bound to be interthe political and militarv significance of this knowledge. Nor as the

did the later co-sponsorship of the Institute of Health entirely eliminate

The

bv the Japanese National

its “official

American”

aura.

basic arrangement ha\ing been established, other conflicts in-

evitably followed.

One

of these

the permanent location of the hill

ABCC

was associated with the

ABCC. The

site

chosen for

“logic” of the selection of a

overlooking the city could not be denied, given the susceptibility of

lower areas to floods which could damage the complex equipment

needed and thereby endanger the whole

happened

to

effort.

But that same

hill

have once been the location of the Emperor Meiji’s Hiro-

shima headquarters, and

still

contained an old militarv cemeterw

The

hibakusha resentment at moving the cemeterv had been predicted bv city officials

(who had

nnsnccessfully urged the Americans not to choose

the site), and centered not only around the general tion,

theme

of desecra-

but also around that of Americans “looking down” on the inhabi-

tants of the city.

(\Vc

highways was built concerning the

recall the

complaint that one of the broad new

as “the royal road to the

site closely

ABCC.”) This imagery

followed upon hibakusha's sense of America’s

demonic power, and of her having, through the bomb, alreadv “desecrated” life and death. A more persistent focus of resentment, bearing directly upon guinea pig imager}’, has been the

Here too the matter

is

ABCC’s

policy of research without treatment.

complicated.

Many

Japanese physicians in

Hiroshima, wary of professional competition, strongly opposed the idea of the Americans’ providing treatment. City officials urged that the

research program be closely affiliated with a Japanese treatment center, a

proposal not without

its

problems but

in

any case never attempted.*

American authorities must bear responsibility for the ultimate decision. There were a number of Americans who questioned it and who, at various times, urged that treatment be instituted. But one cannot help suspecting that the policy followed, consistent as it was with general efforts to avoid any special emphasis upon the atomic bomb, was influenced by the same pattern of psychic numbing we spoke of when discussing early American censorship. One may also add that the larger issues *

3

DEATH

46

The

IN LIFE

was that hibakusha, extremely

result

and lacking adequate treatment

effects

fearful of lingering radiation

whatever

for

present, were subjected to “pure research"

might be

bv the country which had

bomb.

the process in motion by dropping the

effects

It

was

a situation

who

lent itself readily to imagery of Svengali-like scientists,

set

which

first

tried

out their diabolical weapon upon unsuspecting people, and then coldly

and methodically studied satisfy their curiosity

schemes

diabolical

it

effects

upon those people, both

to gather information necessary for

in the future.

much more

panied by a

mind; but

and

its

in order to

even more

This extreme picture could be accom-

favorable one, even within the

has been hard to eradicate entirely. For

it

same hibakusha gives expression

to universal fears of being manipulated, attacked, or annihilated

by

all-

powerful forces, along with a certain amount of attraction to such abuse.

The

sexual

component

of this Svengali imagery has

the frequent complaints of young

women

been manifest

being examined, or kept

waiting for long periods of time, in an entirely nude state. actual

tactlessness

was involved

emotional symbolism

of

Svengali

evoked

early

examining procedures, the

that of being raped bv a powerful alien force.

in

have been constantly

alert for

ABCC

relationship to requests bv the

for

permission to

perform post-mortem examinations on hibakusha as part of program.

The day

this request

On

Whatever

harm or mistreatany kind during ABCC visits. But the ultimate theme of the imagery has been that of tampering with the dead— a theme

Similarly, hibakusha

ment

is

in

in

could

its

research

laborer’s wife revealed the intensity of feeling

which

call forth:

the day of the funeral

...

a jeep

They

from

ABCC

came and asked

us

would be for the good of society as a whole, and that surelv Father would not have been opposed to it. Now what are they tr\ ing to take from the corpse of my father? They have dropped the atomic bomb which filled my father’s later life with agony and caused him to work until his body was completely ruined— still what have they come here for, and what do they expect from my father’s body? Even if my father’s body might help the work of ABCC by adding a small line on a graph, what good would that do society? Based upon my father’s body, would they make further discoveries for bigger atomic and hydrogen bombs? I can’t just hand over my father’s body for that. Not being content if

they could dissect the body.

said

it

involved in such a decision are more readily grasped in retrospect than they could be under the early post-bomb pressures experienced by both nations.

s

Perceiving America

my

with the great sacrifice

had to war-smelling hands into father

shadow of their become a small parcel of bones, kept

3

47

bear, they tried to cast the eternity. Father,

mv

calling to

who had

soul: ‘‘Stand

up

stronglvF’^"

American agency of something very close to a corpses, of necromanic yiolation. She sees it as a kind of

Plere she accuses the

morbid

lust for

corporate Syengali, extending

“experiments" into the mysterious

its

realms of death and eternity, thus committing an ultimate form of

Her remarks about lines on graphs suggest that hying as she scientific age, some part of her may also belieye that there is

desecration.

does in a

merit in gaining information through autopsies; but death guilt (in her case tovyard her father) causes her to suppress this alternatiye belief.*

Eyen those who accede troubled by such guilt.

to

autopsy requests are likely to be seyerely

Additional psychological and political influences haye combined to the

reinforce

theme

of

ABCC

lust

May Day

At the

corpses.

for

celebration of 1956, for instance, placards bore two particularly promi-

nent slogans: “Peaceful Use of Atomic Power" and “Don’t

ABCC

the Corpses of Those

phor of

“selling the

bomb"

Who

Haye Been

or “selling one’s

Sell to the

The metaname" had now been Sacrificed."

extended to the idea of “selling corpses"; for a hibakusha to agree to do

meant being implicated in this necromanic hibakusha’ family member) was being warned

so

the temptation, and to stand fast as one

What

all this

suggests

American presence directed at

it

has

in

come

held by hibakusha

is

that the

who

ABCC

eyil;

to resist the pressure

and

protects the dead.

has

become symbolic

of the

Hiroshima, and that the guinea pig imagery

and

to reflect eyery kind of anxious

(and

to

some extent Japanese

America: A-bomb-wielding annihilator, causer of suffering,

the hibakusha (or a

in

social

hostile

image

general)

of

and economic

destroyer of the Japanese essence, dispenser of counterfeit

nurturance, and Svengali-like experimenter, rapist, and desecrator of the

dead. Yet paradoxically, these resentful images have resulted partly from

hibakusha’s sense of intimacy with America; associated with the guinea pig constellation are psychological themes of manipulating parents and historical

mentors who may be demonic

in

power but

are also, or should

be made to be, benevolent and loving. *

Also involved are old cultural taboos concerning the disfiguring of corpses. Only recently, partly through the influence of the ABCC, have post-mortem examinations been done in Hiroshima with any regularity.

DEATH

348

IN LIFE

‘‘there’s something

unnatural about them’’

These varying emotions emerged during individual interviews with

Manv

hibakuslui.

mv

assistants, of

and made me.

it

immediatelv raised the question, to

whether

clear that

had

A typical comment was

anv wav

me

or to

one of

ABCC,

I

was

I

been, they would not have wished to talk to

in

affiliated

with the

that of the Protestant minister:

good thing you are not associated with the ABCC because Japanese don’t have a good feeling toward them there is something unnatural about them which puts us in a difficult position. But in vour case vou will be able to talk freclv with hibakusha, and thev with It

a

is

—

vou.

His \^ord “unnatural” refers inclusively to the array of negative images

we have

discussed,

and

to the general sense of

the hibakusha in his relationship to the

Some

disharmonv perceived bv

ABCC.* had

of the complaints expressed to me, moreover,

quality which suggested that hibakusha were reacting as of shared public agreement about

experience at

actual

the

much

how one was supposed

ABCC.

Thus, the female poet combined

plaint that “they simply asked us to take off our clothes

— but gave

us

to a kind

to feel as to his

themes of sexual assault and absence of therapeutic care us

a ritualistic

no advice, no medicines, no treatment

in her

com-

and examined and then

at all,”

angry— everyone feels this wav about the ABCC.” She also brought up the frequently mentioned issue of salarv discrimination — there “They give less to Japanese than to Americans” — discrimination added: “I

felt

which actually existed because of the great differences in the two economics, but which conveyed deeper connotations of prejudice. Then she

made

a

final

revelation

which threw further

light

on hibakusha

ABCC, claiming that it was their doctors “sent me a long report which said I had

about the

feelings

years before,

.

.

who, nine .

signs of

cancer of the uterus.” Since no such malignancy turned out to be present,

we

suspect that her image of the

organization (because of the nature of

surrounding * It is

even

if

it,

and

its

its

ABCC

as a death-tainted

work, the Svengali imagerv

general association with American use of the

some who made such statements would have spoken with me had been affiliated with the ABCC, just as (for reasons we shall soon

possible that I

with very mixed feelings about the ABCC have cooperated in its researeh program. But as the minister suggests, they would probably have lacked the spontaneity of expression so crucial for psychological investigation. discuss)

many

Perceiving America

bomb) tlie

led her to misrepresent

what the report

aetually

3

49

said— and that

anxiety surrounding sueli imagery in hihakusha in general

is

a major

souree of their anger.

Coneerning the

issue

of

ABCC’s

the

failure

to

provide medieal

treatment, however, the professor of English took a very different view:

.

.

.

there

is

another opinion about

this too.

The

Japanese are a verv

proud people, and many would not wish to have sueh treatment— espeeially from Ameriea— and would feel that we must stand on our

own

He

is

feet.

of eourse raising issues of

autonomy and,

Moreover, although he did

niirturanee.

not mention

treatment would have posed, at moments of

we observed

in

indireetly, of eounterfeit

failure,

the same problem

eonneetion with the Hiroshima Maiden

Ameriean surgery: the speeter of hibakusha Ameriean seientists.* But mueh more

eharaeteristie

still

Ameriean

it,

who

died under

dving at the hands of

was the view that

a powerful nation

with “speeialized knowledge” was withholding something from a group

need

desperate

in

— here

expressed

thoughts he had while “lying

in

bv the teehnieian

as

he

reealls

bed” following an operation

for a

eondition he attributed to radiation effeets:

thought that the Japanese government should hold out a helping hand to those of us suffering from illnesses eaused by the bomb but it didn’t seem to have the ability to do this. ... So, I thought, I

.

v\’ell,

sinee the

terrible

It

was

Ameriean government too knows verv well about

event— I thought that thev should

this

frustrated

and “don’t seem

pigs”; yet in a

way

*

many

others to

had had no

experi-

he observed that two friends were dealt with

politely there

by no means

this

need, rather than any speeifie diseourtesy en-

eling to the guinea pig imagery. Wdiile he himself

ABCC,

.

surely help us.

eountered during an examination, whieh led him and

enee with the

.

to feel that they

that did not entirely

were treated

as guinea

eommit him but implied

fully rejeeted the aeeusation,

that he

he eoneluded that “in general

therapy available for conditions caused by radiation aftereffects, and it could therefore be argued that America’s decision not to offer treatment created no great deprivation. But sucli an argument ignores the symbolic significance of “care” as opposed to mere investigation, wliatcver the limitations of a nonspecific, mainly supportive, treatment program— not to mention the potential medical significance of treatment for burns and injuries. In

general,

there

is

little

specific

—

:

DEATH

350

IN LIFE

people say that they do treat us

purpose

not treatment, but researeh.”

is

There were some, however, willing to use their

Many

guinea pigs beeause their main

like

years ago

own I

like the

shopkeeper’s assistant,

who were

experienee to eounteraet this imagery:

heard from people that the

guinea pigs. But some time

when

ABCC

treats

people as

went there for the first time, I didn’t find that to be partieularly true and didn’t feel any pressure at all. And now I am not too much impressed bv what is said about the later,

I

ABCC.

ABCC,

But even though such affirmative experience with the the simple passage of time, have caused guinea

as

diminish, hibakusha tend to retain

sometimes

Two we

vivid,

writers

as

a lasting

imagerv to

A-bomb theme

sometimes muted.

who have

shall discuss in

One

it

pig

as well

used the

ABCC

(which

as subjects for novels

Chapter X) suggested further sources of resentment.

stressed the great contrast during the early

post-bomb days between

the general atmosphere of disintegration and the elegance of American

equipment, particularly the new automobiles sent to pick up hibakusha

and bring them

ABCC

see the

comment

to

would have

a

for examinations. His

station

wagon,

I

me,

“When

I

would

very rebellious and

negative feeling,” reflected anger not only at this contrast, but at his

own temptation

to ride in the car

and share the power and affluence

it

represented.

The

other used an analogy with reversed victimizer-victim roles in

order to illustrate what

I

have called the Kafkaesque psvchohistorical

situation:

—

Hiroshima is of course diflPerent from Pearl Harbor but let me use the comparison here. If, after Pearl Harbor, Japan took the island over and called people in for diagnosis without therapy what kind of feeling would that have caused among the people?

—

Whatever the

limitations of

comparing Hiroshima

to Pearl Harbor,

get a sense of the sequence of being victimized by an annihilating

and then made the object of to

make I

a

The same

writer

blow

went on

more sweeping observation

know whether

ABCC

form of good will or not— but general American expressions of good will are misunderstood

don’t

in

scientific study.

we

the

is

everywhere, including in Hiroshima.

a

351

Perceiving America

He

telling us, in other words, that

is

problems surrounding suspieion of

counterfeit nurturance bedevil American '‘aid” throughout the world; that, as in

equate

it

Hiroshima, the recipients of whatever America

with weakness and impaired autonomy.

One might research.

well

wonder why hibakusha cooperate

Yet there has been no doubt of

and

in recent years,

ABCC

Boston or

New

The

York.

ABCC

at all with

this cooperation, particularly

spokesmen point out that the

would be more than respectable

visits

tend to

offers

an ordinary

in

rate of return clinic in,

say,

coexistence of this pattern of cooperation

with guinea pig imagery requires some explanation.

An

important consideration,

as

I

have already suggested, has been the

simple passage of time, and the increasing ability of hibakusha and

Americans

in

Hiroshima to adapt to one another. For

cooperation with

ABCC

research was bv no

one point an unsatisfactory

to the

tion

sensitivities.*

communitv

more

years have also

The

ABCC

was paid

has, moreover, extended

programs of

for certain kinds of cases.

and

at

an overhauling of

careful attention

in various wavs, including

and even treatment

as impressive,

rate of return visits led to

administrative procedures in which

hibakusha

means

the past

in

its

to

services

free consulta-

Antagonisms over the

been diminished bv such developments

as the availability

of medical treatment in Japanese facilities, a general decline in public

expression of atomic

the peace ism,

movement

bomb

conflicts, a loss of influence of

groups using

up with militant anti-AmericanJapanese-American intimacy on both

for purposes tied

and a general increase

in

national and individual levels.

In addition, whatever resentment hibakusha

ABCC,

their bodilv anxieties often led

them

may

feel

toward the

to place great value

thorough examination they knew to be available to them there. general Japanese pattern of compliance to authority— strikingly strated throughout the to that period of

American Occupation but not

time— has made

feelings, to refuse to agree to

it

difficult for

on the

And

the

demon-

necessarily limited

many, whatever

their

an appointment or enter a car when

it

appeared.

But the most important explanation of the coexistence between guinea pig antagonisms and active cooperation in the research general

human

lies in

the

capacitv for complex and contradictory inner imagery,

Research methods have also been altered and improved in recent years, with elimination of many loose practices said to have existed during the early days of the *

organization.

— DEATH

352 that

IN LIFE

\Vc may go imagery has had a

for aiiil)ivalence.

is

tion of guinea pig

so far as to say that the constellacertain psychological usefulness in

enabling hibakusha to express their ambivalence.*

In

ABCC,

Hiroshima during

as the

most prominent American presence

in

this

sense the

the postwar years, has provided hibakusha with an emotional sounding-

board for their conflicts the

bomb, and

some extent

to

countn’ which dropped

in relationship to the

to the entire

A-bomb

experience. Put

another way, guinea pig imagery has been a way of dealing with nurturance while at the same time grasping at

sensitivities to counterfeit

the benefits of whatever nurturance was available.

“the white races and the colored races” But guinea pig imagery does express it

mysterious that

when

on a

weapon so new, powerful, and could not be known until it had been “tried"

And

particular city.

“histori-

victimized by a

effects

its

would hold,

from the experience of having been made

derives ultimately

cal guinea pigs''

a lingering hurt. For, I

made

while this imagerv was magnified and

concrete by later American-sponsored medical study of the effects of this ‘'experiment,”

even

if

possible that equivalent emotions

it is

would have

arisen

such research had not been conducted.

Feeling themselves victims of a terrible historical experiment, hiba-

kusha find themselves asking

a disturbing inner question:

“Whv

were

we chosen?” One answer is that their victimization was raciallv based and we are not surprised that this kind of suspicion is particularlv strong in a

“double victim” (that

as the

an “outcast”

is,

as well as a

hibakusha) such

burakumin bov:

Some

people bring up the question of the colored races— that the

white race regards the colored races as inferior. Well, for some time I think I have had such a feeling. And there is also the problem of the [American] Negroes.

.

.

.

Well,

it

may be

A-bomb was

that the

dropped here entirely by accidental choice of a place but still, I can’t help feeling it has some connection between the Caucasian and the Negro, that is, the relationship between the white races and the colored races. That is, that America had been specificallv planning to drop it on Japan. Well, I am not at all definite about .

.

.

.

.

.

*

.

.

.

Japanese psychological tendency toward syncretism, and toward compartmentalizing divergent elements in a way that they are acted upon more or less independently, could also be important here. These tendencies might at times even permit resentful hibakusha to cooperate with the ABCC without e.xperiencing a verv strong sense of ambivalence. 'I’he

35 3

Perceiving America

but somcliow

tliis,

inueh better for

The it,

suspieion

is

him

\

me

is

liavc

this

.

.

wav,

altliough

.

.

.

think

I

likely to struggle against

own

thought

it

is

.

who

with sueh bitterness that a hihakusha

ietiinization of her

to dismiss the

feeling

this

not to tliink in

filled

as in this ease,

Ameriea’s

I

it.

But

his

‘Colored raee” makes

holds

awareness of it

diffieult for

entirely.

made

Others, sueh as the war widow,

similar inferenees in assoeiating

Ameriea’s hvpoerisy in raee relations with her nuelear weapons polieies:

WTll,

may

this

not be true only of Ameriea but

too— but while mouthing words

other eountries

in

do things whieh are be peaeeful, but they eonduet

of justiee, they

the very opposite. T hey elaim

to

nuelear testing, and about their treatment of the

Negroes— well,

I

disapprove of sueh things.

Also involved

is

an awareness of longstanding Ameriean prejudiees

against Japanese, partienlarly on the to plaee

Ameriean

West

Coast, ineluding the deeision

eitizens of Japanese extraetion in

internment eamps

during the war. That the Japanese themselves ha\e been prejudieed against Nisei, that they have

m

sueh as burakumin and Koreans,

their

whom

own eountry

vietimized groups

they look upon as ‘"dark,” and

are in general a people with eonsiderable raee eonseiousness— all this

undoubtedly tends to inerease, rather than diminish, the tendenev to bring in the issue of raee. For the awareness^ at whatever level of consciousness, that racialism eould enter into anyone's choice of victims

was based upon

inevitably feeds suspicion that the nuclear ‘‘experiment" racial considerations.

Beeause of the deep mutual shame whieh surrounds the entire

raeial

beeome a more or less unmentionable one between Japanese and Amerieans— something of a later expression of the “eonspiraev of silenee” whieh followed immediately upon the use of the bomb. Even now it lies behind a more general diffieulty Japanese and Amerieans issue, it

have

has

in diseussing

instanee, told

me

atomie

bomb

he found

it

issues

with one another.

One

virtually impossible to talk

friend, for

about the

subjeet with most Amerieans, seemed to hint at a raeial eonsideration

but quiekly denied

it,

and then belied

his

denial

by immediatelv

bringing up the acute diseomfort he experieneed at a reeent aeademie

seminar when an Ameriean of the yellow

From

and blaek

politieal

eommentator spoke of “the dangers

raees of the world gaining the aseendaney.”

the Ameriean side, diseomfort about raeial eonsiderations tends

DEATH

35 4

IN LIFE

one of two polar forms; angry dismissal of the entire issue as nothing but communist propaganda; or, more rarely, the accusation that racial prejudice was without doubt the reason for the decision to use the bomb on Japan. Various interlacings of guilt and ideology are of course to take

related

concerned

atomic

American responses. But what

to both is

bomb

so painful

is

that although the general history of the

for all

making

of the

speaks against racial considerations (the original stimulus

was provided by the

fear of

German

scientific

progress in the

same

no one could be entirely certain that these considerations were entirely absent from the psychic processes of some of the people area),

involved in the decision to use the weapon.

Returning to hihakusha themselves, we of a historical “experiment”

under a

specific set of

— that

is,

may

sav that simply the idea

weapon make people wonder about

of selective use of the

conditions— tends to

the possibility of racially based victimization. Thus, the divorced housewife,

whose sense

of the experimental nature of the

weapon we remember to be related to her feelings about chance survival (“. if work on the bomb had been finished before it was used, none of us would have been able to survive”), went on to speculate: .

bomb

.

was not dropped on Germany and I wondered why. But regarding its being dropped on Japan, well, I imagine they dropped it as an experiment. They didn’t know what would result— and in half-believ’ing and half-doubting, thev dropped it as an experiment. They chose Hiroshima as a good place in Japan for the \Vell, the

.

.

.

experiment. Ultimately, then, guinea pig imagery racial

victimization

in

is

inseparable from the sense of

the original exposure, and

therefore also

in-

separable from the death anxiety and death guilt associated with that exposure. 1 hese psychological relationships were expressed years later in

memoir by a hibakusha, through a statement referring to those killed by the bomb: there exist no words in anv human language which can comfort guinea pigs who do not know the cause of their death.”i« To be made into a guinea pig, in other words, is to be snuffed out a

prematurely and

ignorance of the agent of one’s death— imagery held by survivors not only about the A-bomb dead but, in a somewhat in total

about their own possible post-A-bomb fate. This lingering sense of having been historically rendered into expendable laboratory different way,

animals has kept alive resentment toward America and at the same time posed a formidable barrier to masterv.

:

American Interloper

4)

Nor could and of

to the

these feelings about America

new form was,

intrusion

I

of

fail

“American intrusion”

believe,

me

to influence reactions to

minimized by

I

represented. This sense

my way

approaching

of

hihakusha— through introductions by people of considerable local standing, and as an independent academic investigator who knew something about their country and whose work was associated with coneerns about

war and peace. The tone of interest in their ideas I

and

questions as the work proceeded— my

feelings

— further helped

might have some hidden ideological ax

became aware

The

dispel suspicions that

to grind.

But hibakusha

of an invasion of an emotional area whieh

been accessible only to

to

mv

their

professor of English

also

had previously

own group, or else sanctified by silence. summed up various sources of ambivalence

me and my work Your work

Hiroshima

in

diffieulties

.

.

.

will

be verv delieate

because people often

feel that

.

.

there will be

.

no one can understand

have been through it themselves and because vou are an American, from the eountrv whieh dropped the bomb and what is most important, because you are from a wealthy eountry and {people may think of you as looking down upon them. their experienee unless they

.

.

.

.

.

.

His sense of what was “delieate” and “difficult” stemmed from his inner reservations— about an “outsider” from the country which

own initi-

ated the “experiment,” and about perceptions of Ameriean power and superiority (he used “wealth” as a

euphemism) with whieh

me and my

associated. Essentially sympathetic to

group

me

would be

work, he seemed to

with eertain Amerieans and other Westerners whose “im-

mediate and profound understanding” of the atomie deeply affeeted him. to

I

We

in fact

know

bomb

his identification

issue

with the

had

West

have impelled him toward furthering such understanding— as he did

by introdueing Hersey’s book and by

his talks

with me.

I

was therefore

both a source of some uneasiness to him and a welcome agent of svmbolie reeonciliation. Others, sueh as the mathematician, raised direct suspicions about the possibility of

my work

in-

being used for “mili-

DEATH

356

biry purposes,”

America

IN LIFE than for the more desirable one of “helping

ratlier

weapons of

to avoid using

mention of the justifying his

issue

own,

as

was

it

way

a

kind”

this

not

I

that his

and inwardly

turned out, enthusiastic participation. For where

a disturbing sense of betrayal of the dead

that

felt

I

of “clearing the air”

such suspicions are strong, any cooperation

uoman

T’he burakiimin

— though

ith

\\

and of

Americans could create

self-betrayal.

leader expressed a very different

concern—

manv

into a pattern of “tragic sentiment” she noted in

fall

A-bomb, adding

writings about the

convinced that

my work

The “probably” meant

two interviews, she was

that, after

“will probably not turn out to

that she was

be

like that.”

uncertain; for, as in her

still

criticism of fellow hibakusha for merely “clasping their

hands” before

the Cenotaph, she generally found that people did not live up to her militant standards of Marxist “objectivity.”

Only once did

encounter direct and intense anger expressed by a

I

hibakusha toward

me and mv

research effort.

man who

second interview with the skilled worker (the confusion over the meaning of “peace”),

At the beginning

expressed bitter

asked, as was

I

mv

of

my

custom,

whether there was anything he wished to bring up. Rather belligerently he said that there was, asked a series of pointed questions about mv work,

my way

of going about

that he was by no

I

understand

means .

.

wondered about

.

and

it,

satisfied

with

its

purpose— and then made

mv answers;

but during the course of the

this.

...

I

had

a

difficult to

...

different.

was

a

new

I

never put

my

experience for me.

He went on

to suggest that

.

feelings in .

my

last

somewhat unpleasant

express— but somehow though the A-bomb on many occasions, I felt that It’s

clear

words

I

interview feeling.

.

I .

.

have talked about this

case

was very

like this before, so

it

.

being an American was part of the

was the problem of “having another person [my research come between us,” and also that a nonhibakusha “can’t reallv

trouble, as assistant]

understand.

’

But what seemed

to

him most was something

trouble

else:

This interview

and in some ways beside the point. It is too late, I feel. Now it is more important to think about actual living rather than about that [the A-bomb]. Well, I don’t mean anything profound— just living in the present— well, there are many electrical appliances these days, and we are able to buy almost anything— to have a comfortable life is our present wish. is

rather late,

.

.

.

.

Perceiving America I

felt tliat

he was trying to

tell

me

357

that Americans like myself had not

been around to help when help was most needed, and that

now was reopening

doing

old emotional

come

he had

suffering,

with

terms

to

was

I

wounds (and one must remem-

ber that he had a physical one too, a severe keloid).

much

all

And

also that, after

experience— had

his

achieved a precarious equilibrium of bitterness, psychic numbing, and

upon immediate comforts— and then along came an A-bomb “experimenter” to stir ever^•thing up again. At the same time there was

focus

a suggestion

resentment of “having another person come be-

(in his

tween us”) that he craved need

from

to retreat

it

a close

understanding with me, but

both because

it

the

felt

was “too late” and because

too

it

would have threatened the emotional equilibrium he had achieved. Thus, although

I

when

contested nothing that he said,

the end of our talk whether he would like to

come

me

to see

occasion to discuss these matters further, he replied: “If vou,

we would onlv have an argument,

\Trv

so

I

I

on

come

a third

to see

better not.”*

was the attitude of the psychologist,

different

asked him at

I

for

whom my

alien origins were an advantage:

The

situation in Japan

to discuss the

atomic

is

such that most professors

bomb

very frankly.

.

.

.

feel very reluctant

Political pressures

and

sentiment have prevented any balanced evaluation of any kind from being made. So it is very good that you

various

kinds

of

special

are undertaking such objective research.

It

turned out that in a personal sense “objective research” meant an

atmosphere

and

freely

sufficiently

at length, especially those revolving

over survival priority. relief

without bias to permit him to discuss

He

around

still

his feelings

severe guilt

thus sought out our meetings eagerly, and the

he obtained from them was related not only

to guilt

but to the

resolution of resentments that lay beneath his enthusiasm.

This kind of quest for

a therapeutic experience

with

me

as a

means

of

achieving symbolic reconciliation could be expressed more indirectly.

WTen

the day laborer

made

his

comment

that Americans and Japanese

tended to be “too polite with one another” about the atomic bomb, instance,

one of

his

points

of

reference

was our interview,

as

for

he

Strong residua] guilt could influence patterns of communication even more than hostility. It could cause some hibakusha to be defensive and monosyllabic in their responses, while insisting that nothing very much had happened to them; and others to be verbose in justifications of their A-bomb behavior, or to embellish their recollections with protective distortions. *

DEATH

35 8

IN

I.

IFE

proceeded to demonstrate by pouring out his story without the therapeutic experience could reveal

itself

restraint.

Or

change

in

in a specific

behavior during the course of two or three interviews, as in the case of the seamstress. Having undergone complicated emotional experiences with both Americans and Japanese as a returned A-Bomb Maiden she

was

still

extremely sensitive about her keloid, and was at

hensive and somewhat

meeting she seemed

resistive.

to relax,

But during the

and

at our next

first

latter part of

one expressed

appre-

our

first

herself with

unusual warmth and appreciation as she explained that 1 he way different

when from when I

feel

forget the past

some use

of

—

about the past with someone like you is I talk about it with my mother. I wanted to and tried very hard to but now I feel I should make I

talk

—

it.

In addition to suggesting “transference” in the sense of

becoming

like a parent,

my temporarily

she was also referring to a renewed sense of

personal value in relationship to her experience. For she was exploring that experience more deeply than she ever had before, making it known to another in a

integrating

it

way

that might help

into her general life

many; and she was

same time pattern and thereby moving closer at the

toward mastery.

What became

clear

was that hibakusha, and those closely associated

with them, had great difficulty discussing the subject in a completely open way with one another. The young Hiroshima-born writer, for instance, spoke of the rarity of

someone “thinking with me while asking

questions” in the form of a “true conversation.”

grandmother who, “until the moment she died,” talk to Americans,” and went on to say that

am

He

told

me

insisted to

then of his

him, “don't

we have been able to talk so frankly — without facade [tatemae]. There are many leaders of the peace movement who cannot do this, and who are unable to admit, for instance, that there are hibakusha who would like to see the whole world blown up. I

He

very glad

was, so to speak, wallowing in forbidden ideas as his

ing the breakthrough he felt that he and

I

had achieved

way

in the Japanese-

American “conspiracy of silence” about unpleasant A-bomb

Not

of celebrat-

truths.

toward America, or toward me, was dissolved during these interviews with him and others. But even where a hibathat

all hojtility

kusha insisted upon

his

lingering

resentment— as

in

the case of the

359

Perceiving America

middle-aged businessman over the

loss of his

son— the

artieulation of

that resentment to an

American contributed, however slightly, to a diminished burden of hatred, and to the general process of symbolic reconciliation. Vital to this process

imagery

crippling

of

thereby enlarging his

was the hibakushas overcoming

victimization— of '‘life

space"' in a

and self-hatred— and

hatred

way

that both liberated the self

and transcended it in connection and purpose. Precisely this process, I came to suspect, could well be the essence of all psychotherapeutic accomplishment. This kind of therapeutic pattern was evident

He seemed

history professor.

and we

recall his

to

bomb and

sessions with the

welcome the most probing

extreme self-accusation

at the time of the

my

in

questions,

in relationship to his

to his “hypocrisy” before that.

than simply indulging in a neurotic form of

behavior

But rather

self-flagellation,

he was

struggling to articulate a sense of personal transformation which was intricately

bound up with the

general Japanese encounter with America

and Americans:

The Japanese are a kind people who blindly The Americans came in and needed help, so shifted their loyalty.

thought

follow those in power.

the Japanese suddenly

was sad to see

sudden shift in loyalty. But as a historian I knew that the Japanese had never experienced a Renaissance. There had never in Japan been a liberation of the individual. Then the end of the war brought about this liberation of the individual. ... If you have never had experience with the Japanese military, this might be difficult to understand but the limits were external, not internal. If there was a man with a high rank present, one worked hard; if not, people did not do their duties. When I was in the military, I felt the weakness of these vertical relationships— which have existed also historically in relationship to the Shogun and the Emperor. People never had a chance to be individuals, but were beaten down by power from above. Americans have their weak points, but what impressed me was their I

it

this

—

.

.

.

.

sense of responsibility for their

always

tell

my

own

individual duties.

.

.

.

Now

students that they should be good individualists.

Contact with Americans, he

is

saying,

made

.

I .

possible his release from

authoritarian bonds, and our interviews crystallized favorable in this larger encounter.

.

.

.

But there was

what was generally

also the implication

that he feared that his apparent personal transformation might turn out to be merely a

new

version of the old “hypocrisy”— a “shift in loyalty”

toward Americans (and toward me) of the type he so deplored.

DEATH

360

was

conflict

Ilis

IN LIFE

immediately upon one another, d’he

bomb’s use of which

I

was

first

of the

justification

a

did not encounter with any other hibakusha, and

I

found particularly striking coming from

and expressed himself so strongly

so greatly

Of

kind

a

two comments which followed

furtlicr revealed in

man who had

a

suffered

ways:

in other

immoral but it inevitably includes the allout effort to win, with no limit on weapons used. ... So I don’t agree with those who criticize the use of the bomb. ... If it had not been used, we would have had even greater destruction.

And

course,

war

itself is

the second, a caustic

.

.

.

comment on

racism:

spoke once with a reporter from Australia.

I

him

told

I

that

was

it

very illogical that a big countrv like his does not permit others to

come

Our countrv

in.

wonderful This

On

is

the

human

if

the essence of

full

other hand

antagonisms.

human

an

Had

possible

use of the

its

inner

bomb

suspicion,

bomb

but the

bv

suggested

that

bomb was

exist side

by

amount

his

efforts

to

related to racial

side with

of unexpressed anger

more

integrate

complex relationship

both

his

to America,

would

this further explora-

him considerably

that our meetings had helped

felt

it is

positive feelings about

American-induced transformation. Even lacking I

sequence of

“unmentionable” subject could have been

this

have been found to however,

his

but on

itself,

the interviews continued bevond three sessions,

a considerable

tion,

would be

stupidity.

examined, and that

his

It

beings didn’t think in terms of racial rivalries.

unconscious associations, that the use of the

quite

people.

of

one hand we note an identification with America which

encompasses not only the

small and

is

in

atomic

bomb

and

overcome anger and move

to

experience and

his

toward formulation and mastery. I

do not mean

to

imply that

I

saw

my

function in Hiroshima as one

of diminishing hibakusha resentments, or for that matter of bringing to

bear any particular influence upon hibakusha. But inter\’iews are, or

should be, dialogue. Although on the whole

imposing time

I

my

personal opinions

tried to

be candid

)

,

I

got through to them, and in

them.

Among

knowledge and

(

have no doubt that

some

these attitudes for the kind

upon hibakusha

I

I

cases

attempted to avoid

unless asked, at which

many

of

mv

attitudes

had considerable impact upon

would include

mv

sympathy

of broadening of imagery

for self-

we spoke

of

Perceiving America

before as traiiseending erippling hatred.

eame from an Ameriean, and one weapons

And

tlie faet

witli strong

3

61

that this attitude

eoneerns about nuelear

eould not help but suggest at least the possibility of

in general,

symbolie reeoneiliation. But by the same token, it is also possible that hibakusha were adversely affeeted bv whatever eonfliets might have been

engendered

in

me

bv the work.

CONTRADICTIONS, PARTNERSHIP

‘‘

MISUNDERSTANDING,” AND

There were hibakusha who, beeause of unresolved emotional struggles, reaeted to me in eonfused and eontradietorv fashion. The female poet, for instanee, very quiekly for

my

work: ‘T

am

— perhaps

too quiekly

than

just the physieal effeets, as these are very

But before long she adopted

a

retaliatory resentment, as revealed in a series of least uneonseiously) "‘Dr. Lifton,

enthusiasm

very pleased to hear that vou are studving the

spiritual effeets rather

important.’'

— expressed

at stimulating

my owm

tone

of

thinlv

veiled

eomparisons aimed (at

guilt.

She abruptly asked,

do you have any ehildren?” and wdien

I

told her

I

had

a

fourteen-month-old son, she immediatelv replied:

One

my eousins

had a baby just that age who was killed, along with his mother. She was one of twins, both of whom died. The father w'as all right, and even took eare of arrangements and attended the funeral. Then suddenly he died too on August fifteenth, from of

.

.

aftereffeets of the

bomb.

In a similar vein was her pointed observation about me, 'T see that

.

am

glad to

you are so young and healthv,” together with the question

quoted before, “Can you

good health?”; and

and human

still

eonfliet):

tell

me how

it is

possible to put

my body

into

another question (when talking about religion

“Do

you. Dr. Lifton, feel that vour heart

is

eompletely pure?” Through the remainder of our two interviews she alternated between ingratiating and aeeusatory approaehes to me. These fluetuations were

made

neeessarv bv the

inner doubt

(noted before)

debility, that

is,

demands

of her anxietv

and her

about the genuineness of her physieal

by her overall eon fusion

in

formulating her

A-bomb

experienee and her relationship to Amerieans.

An during

even more striking

my

assistant

eontaets with

and

I

first

ealled

series

of fluetuations

the w'ar widow.

upon

her,

in

attitude oecurred

When my

soeial

we found no one home and

workerleft

our

DEATH

362

IN LIFE

cards with a neighbor, along with a note from the social worker that he

would return

in a

few days to arrange

my

for

an interview. But the next day

and declared with some feeling, having apparently ‘'misunderstood” my message, that it would be she abruptly appeared at

“impossible” for

My

me

to

come

who was

office,

to her

home;

bv the Americans, is enshrined there My own life has been and he would not want you there. ruined bv the Americans. They killed my husband and they dropped My life the atomie bomb which destroyed everything I owned. has been very hard. It might be better for you to talk to other people instead of me because mv experience has been the very worst one. If .

husband,

killed

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

ever there was a saerifice,

Despite the things she instability

after a

my

I

am

.

it.

her tone seemed more that of petulant

said,

than profound anger. This impression was confirmed when,

few words of reassurance and a brief explanation of the nature of

work, she aceepted an invitation

experienees with

me

right then

and

to

there.

sit

WTat

assumed an attitude of submissiveness and from the beginning of the war,

“I

knew

down and

her

more, she suddenly

is

and

flattery,

that

discuss

we would

told

me how,

lose because

Ameriea was too strong,” and how from what she saw of the Occupation, “I found

much

to

admire

in

America.”

What became

clear

was

that part of her “misunderstanding” of our arrangements had to do

with her urge to talk with an American like desire to partake of

American power, and

a

me— both

need

because of a

for relief

from what

she referred to as “the tragedy of having to live with bitter feelings,” that

is,

because of a need for

But toward the end

s\

of

mbolic reconciliation.

this

she reverted equally

interview,

first

abruptly to her earlier tone of condemnation. She insisted that “A-

bombs and Amerieans

are

inseparable,”

asked

me

whether

I

had

and then contrasted my good fortune with her own extreme hardship in having lost her husband and

undergone personal suffering

in the war,

been forced

to struggle alone for her

Once more

recollections of pain

interview, as at

him

for

had

and

own and loss

her daughter’s livelihood.

had made

a mixture of death guilt toward her

“abandoning” her by being

more

relaxed

make

aecusations nor to be unduly submissive.

in her

I

way

into our

husband and anger

killed in battle.

agreed to a second interview, and at that time

and steady

their

Yet she

readily

noticed that she was

manner, and had neither the need to

Two

factors

seemed

to

Perceiving America

contribute to her ease. She liad just obtained a

and could

librarian,

much

experience

new

3

63

job as a school

herself recognize that this security enabled her to

less

'‘envy

and bitterness” than she did before. And

she had, in her early histrionic behavior, satisfied herself that the inter-

me

view situation with

was “safe” and could even afford her emotional

mood were

Indeed, while her fluctuations in

benefits.

related to an

indi\idual tendency toward hysterical character structure, they are also part of a Japanese cultural emphasis

upon

mood, and of the “protean” explorations

relatively

in

abrupt

shifts

in

emotions and ideas men-

tioned before as characteristic of contemporarv psychological experience. In work with her and with a number of other hibakusha (as in observations

on much of present-day existence),

I

have been struck by the

precarious but functional marriage between instability and adaptability,

and by

blurring of distinctions between emotional strengths and

its

weaknesses. occasionally encountered requests for a kind of direct advice or

I

spiritual

guidance

I

did not feel

I

could provide. In at least one such

my second interview with the woman with that my reluctance to make more than general

toward the end of

situation,

the eye condition,

comments

I

felt

led to disappointment tinged with resentment,

on the order

of guinea pig imagery: the impression that here was another

who made

use of hibakusha suffering in the

name

American

of “research.”

Behind

such a request there was likely to be particularly severe inner conflict

(and

on the part of the individual,

in this case physical debility as well)

along with a cultural tradition for spiritual un burdening to any authoritv to

be accompanied by highly directive advice from that authority.

But more frequent was the opposite experience of therapeutic benefits to hibakusha where they had not consciously been sought— as in the writer-physician's

sudden

realization, in the

midst of an interview, that

our discussion had released him from a literary block (as

Chapter X); and

in

expressed to

me

by

a

in

somewhat vague but

a

we

shall discuss

significant

feeling

few other hibakusha that thev had benefited from

our talks for reasons thev did not understand. I

have suggested that

number

a

of

hibakusha, especially

academic and medical colleagues, expressed

me

in

my

a sense of partnership with

work. But this could involve an urge to influence the outcome

of the work, as well as

sympathy

Hiroshima A-bomb authority, in

among

mind what the

survivors

center of your work.”

for

it

and

for instance, advised

might

feel

While he was

it.

The

to “always

keep

curiosity

me

about

and think, and place

raising

this at the

an important question about

3

DEATH

64

IN LIFE

the very real responsibility any investigator has concerning the impact of his findings

and

upon

Ihs research subjects,

virtually suggesting that

approach. But

it

in

was

that he was going further

reach conclusions which are “favorable”

I

article,

terms of a “bad example” of a calloused American also related to the Japanese

\\^estern) cultural stress

(and generally non-

upon community harmony,

Western emphasis upon objective Similar advice was offered

who

felt

was partly stimulated by the Time

to hibakusha. Ilis advice

which he spoke of

I

as

opposed

to the

truth.

me by

the nonhibakusha social scientist

earlier expressed the idea of “logical discrimination”:

Just demonstrating pit\- for hibakusha over their experience does little

good, and

is

hardly appreciated by them, especially

when

this pity

comes from other Japanese. On the other hand, when it comes from Americans in the form of true sympathy, particularly when the sympathy is accompanied by a strong stand on the issue of preventing war, this profoundly moves the individual hibakusha and is both effective and appreciated. I mention this to vou because you are an American.

We

have already observed,

in the

much

of symbolic reconcilia-

what he says. But the question whose “strong stand” on preventing war one adopts,

tion, the psychological truth of

again arises as to

phenomenon of

and the advice offered was colored by his own militant involvement in a movement which sought to attract international support but foundered

own ideological bias. The kind of advice given by both the social scientist and the Hiroshima A-bomb authority, moreover, tended to become associated

on

its

with the promulgation of

a

public image of hibakusha as people who,

having suffered grievously, were

now

totally dedicated to

an

mission of saving the rest of the world from similar suffering

which, at least

in its

pure form,

with the complexities of

we have

human

altruistic

— an

image

seen to be simplv not in accord

behavior.

It

was

in fact precisely this

image that the young Hiroshima-born writer attacked with

his focus

upon such “unmentionable” A-bomb emotions as the wish of some hibakusha that the whole world be blown up, because he felt that only by doing so could more truthful dialogue be established.

The physicist sought partnership through intellectual exchange, and made a point of engaging me in discussions about such difficult issues as that of the Dome, the Cenotaph, and more broadly, the relationship of the A-bomb experience to general psychological principles:

Perceiving America

gather

I

it

your intention to see

is

But

how humans

3

65

experienee sueh a

would like to ask the question of whether or not there is a differenee between this disaster and what you have previously studied psychologically whether you find important differences between the Japanese people you have studied in Tokvo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, and the Americans vou have studied before. disaster.

.

.

.

I

.

But

.

that he was combining genuine intellectual interest with his

felt

I

.

own concerns about my

findings, particularlv

about whether

I

recog-

nized the special nature of the A-bomb. Moreover, his questions about reactions in other cities,

been

way

his

and about

of dealing with resentment related to the

of “historical experiment” and stress

cultural differences, could well have

upon dialogue was

his

racial

combined

issue

victimization. Nonetheless, his

way, as an intellectual, of approaching

symbolic reconciliation.

Others sought partnership by soliciting specific programs, as did the moralist

Is it

possible for

someone

.

.

.

own

concerning the peace movement:

who comes to Hiroshima from the months, to make anv suggestion about

their wish to share with

be a compelling moral purpose,

heard

their

proceed?

Or by emphasizing

I

advice on

like you,

outside and lives here for five

how we should

my

me what

thev perceived to

as in the case of the philosopher:

making an academic study for the sake wanted to participate— not for myself, but for

that you were

of a higher cause, and this higher cause

.

.

I

.

Although the sense of partnership was most likelv to occur with sunavors whose backgrounds included personal and professional con-

my

own, the principles involved applied to all. For the individual hibakusha sensed that in coming together with an American cerns similar to

in

common

healing

concern, he was at least moving in the general direction of

the A-bomb-inflicted

“wound

in

the

order of being.”

But

although the death-linked resentments which hibakusha brought to the

encounter could be directly or indirectly aired, modified, or lessened, they could hardly be eliminated— involved as they were with lifelong struggles to absorb

atomic

bomb

and master, by giving inner form

experience.

to,

the entire

n

FORMULATION: SELF

The path beyond

anger

By formulation I do not mean atomic bomb, but rather the process by

formulation.

is

detached theories about the

which the hibakusha which can serve

view"— often process,

sense

in

re-creates

as a bridge

their

and by studying

of

their

AND WORLD

himself— establishes those inner forms

between

self

and world. Ideology and “world

components— are central to the relationship to A-bomb mastery, we gain a

unconscious their

significance

for

mental

life

in

general.

Formulation

includes efforts to re-establish three essential elements of psychic function: the sense of connection, of organic relationship to the people as well as

non-human elements

in

one’s

life

space,

whether immediate or

and imagined; the sense of symbolic integrity, of the cohesion and significance of one’s life, here including some form of transcendence of the A-bomb experience; and the sense of movement, of development

distant

and change,

in

the continuous struggle between fixed identity and

individuation.^ Conflicts

we have

discussed over issues of trust and

peace, as well as struggles with residual anger, are part of the “psychological work’’ involved.

And

the internal

“A-bomb

philosophy’’ which

results— the imagery of formulation— not only enhances mastery but, in

an important sense, contains the mental representation of mastery or absence.

its

3

DEATH

68

In this larger sense

IN LIFE hihcikusha live on the basis of

all

some formulation

of their experience, whether complete or fragmentary, overt or implicit.

My

experience was that an unusual degree of inarticulateness

(I refer

not to intellectual level but to the general incapacity to convev feelings or ideas)

was

be associated with particularly strong residual

likely to

whatever the part played by prior emotional

anxiety,

traits

reservations about the interview situation. For example, the

worker gave repeated answers of “I don’t know at

what

to say”

all” or

most questions about her experience,

to

young

bv

or

office

know then came to

'‘I

don’t

unusually strong fear about physical aftereffects leading to a strong preference for marrying a nonhibakushay as well as a fantasy of reveal

dying in another nuclear war and thereby being reunited with the A-

bomb

dead. Both the general fear and the anxious fantasy were ele-

ments of her unspoken A-bomb formulation. On the whole I found that women had

less

men

capacitv than

for

expressing their formulations with coherence or completeness. Further

exploration could sometimes reveal, rather than total inarticulateness, an implicit formulation containing a strong feminine commitment to the

perpetuation

of

organic

knowledge.” In contrast, for

overt

and

life

related

a

men made

greater

propensitv

“organic

for

demands upon themselves

and anxiously struggled with suggestions of Thus, it was with fear and anger that the white-collar

formulation,

inarticulateness.

worker told me: “I

just can’t

put these feelings into words”; and with

a

sense of impairment and lingering guilt that the grocer concluded: “I

— that’s

just

don

it.”

Both, moreover, were annoyed with themselves because of their

t

want

this to

verbal limitations.

The

happen

to

my

child

all

I

can say about

psychobiological differences between the sexes

that play a part here are given particularly strong emphasis in Japanese cultural tradition.* *

Japanese culture has placed general emphasis upon aesthetic expression and nuance of feeling at the expense of abstract, interpretive thought. For women the pattern has been intensified by a rather narrow definition of acceptable 'feminine behavior. Even more than in most cultures, a Japanese woman demonstrating incisive theoretical gifts runs the risk of being considered (by herself as well as others) unfeminine. 1 hese attitudes have contributed to longstanding discrimination in educational opportunity, and to stress upon woman as nurturer and seductress, while woman as “knower” has been restricted to personal and informal areas.2 ”

} )

T wo Modes: Non-Resistance and Special Mission

The two predominant logical non-resistance

were unknowable,

“One

official:

A

nieces

also

The ways

.

.

.

comment by

vomited but died

a

week

of the

A-bomb

the elderlv Nagasaki

vomited extensivelv but

downtrodden woman laborer

ineffable, as the

psvclio-

survivor’s sense of mission.

implied in a

as

mv

of

mine

sister of

and the

these suggests ultimate mystery.

'File first of

may be termed

patterns of formulation

later.”

tells us:

is

hcalthv now.

Or

else they are

was bevond

“It

words.” In both cases, the qualitv of the experience which ostensiblv prevents formulation

itself

is

continuing involvement

part of formulation— the sense of one’s

in a mysterious,

and, bv implication, more than

natural encounter.

Another aspect of the formulation of the same woman laborer was that most characteristic for all hibakusha, the sense of resignation, which of

had sustained her through

in her case

abandonment WTll,

I

am

through

as well as

not to the extent of severe worrv because [akirame].

.

have been getting along future also.

Of

course,

.

if

I

to hold this kind of idea,

continue to think

One

this

right so far,

all

way.

had

feelings

do brood sometimes but

I

I

soon come to a feeling of

me

This helps

.

and

later fears:

not too anxious about things.

resignation

earlv injuries

I

.

.

and seeing that

.

feel that it will

be so

I

in the

might not be able but because that hasn’t happened to me, I .

.

a serious disease,

I

.

submits without resistance to the most extreme blows because

one views oneself influence.

The

caught up in larger forces one can

as

“psychological non-resistance” involved

is

in

no way

in the service

harmony and can, as we noted earlier, represent a good deal more than mere passivitv. (We recall the coexistence of the inner

of a greater

principles: “I

other

accompanying psychological

formulation

words,

continuity,

a

why try on.”) The

helpless before the great forces of destiny, so

them?” and “No matter what happens,

to influence

implicit

am

includes vision

a

vision

of

ultimately

which enables one

to

I

carry

non-resistance,

indestructible

look beyond

in

human

immediate

upheaval while psychologically “rolling with a punch,” and to reassert inner imagery of connection, integrity, and movement.

DEAIII IN LIFE

370

But although made necessary by

may

logical non-resistance

makes As

scope of the experience, psycho-

tlie

be incomplete,

itself

as the

burakumin boy

clear:

have a feeling of resignation— but no feeling of anger. After all— well, I can’t put it very well- but because the whole thing was so huge in scale. Though I cannot sav I was exactly happy for

me,

I

.

.

have been exposed feeling about it. to

As we already know,

his

.

.

.

.

and

in

fact

I

have a rather unpleasant

“unpleasant feeling” includes thoughts of racial

victimization in connection with the use of the tied in I

bomb, and

also

becomes

with rage at his burakumin status.

suggested in an earlier chapter that resignation

non-resistance) can be associated with denial. But

it

(or psychological

can also have the

opposite function and permit painful reality to penetrate the inner life— as the elderly hibakusha-poet suggests in describing his reaction to the death of his wife and children:

For about a year

I

could not stop believing that they were

somewhere— I have never gradually

people as

bones— but

began to feel that not only my family but many other well had died, and this feeling began to foster something

I

like a sense of resignation in

We

located their bodies or their

living

still

mv mind.

observe here what Freud called the “work of mourning,”^ the

surrender of the

coming

initial

of the psychic

denial of loss

numbing

— and

may

made

also say that resignation

the process possible:

without

his

our terminology the over-

associated with that denial.

implies that a sense of resignation was the

but we

in

outcome

The

poet

of this psychic work,

was the formulative stance which not have been absorbed

the loss could

embrace of the imagery of

larger

human

continuity con-

tained within his psychological non-resistance.

And

as the

strongly active

same man goes on and highly

critical feelings:

People involved in the

They were

to reveal, such a stance can include

A-bomb

never anticipated their

own

death.

sudden by something which had nothing to a way we can say that their deaths were more

killed all of a

do with them, so

in

cruel than are deaths in actual warfare.

.

.

.

This kind of anguished philosophical speculation can

exist in

tenuous

equilibrium with acceptance of the irrevocability of what has taken

Formulation: Self and

And

place.

here

it

meanings

The

tion.*

verb

more

or less

generally associated with the concept of resigna-

“illumination” of events stressed in the early meaning of the

probably

is

now

for

and conveys the idea of

active confrontation of powerful forces, rattier than the

passive submission

word

71

derived from a verb [akiramu), one of whose

is

“to probe or illuminate,”

is

3

significant to note that the Japanese

is

resignation (akirame) early

World

major function of resignation— illumination

a

still

in

the sense not of gaining purely intellectual knowledge about these events but of giving

comments were an had

despair,

them

significant inner form.

effort to

do

and

this,

The

poet’s interpretive

their tone of anguish, or even

do with aspects of the experience he

to

is

still

unable to

“illuminate.”

This

inability,

features of

in

and other

his

A-bomb

cases,

made

it

clear just

The kind

was

to

do with the

death. Thus, the writer-physician

his sense of resignation— “I felt that this

the war and

had

just

of death

.

we were

unfortunate that

what being

.

fate, that

hit so

faced bv atomic

bomb

human

beings.

.

.

Japan

lost

hard”— but then

victims was different

from natural death— something unprecedented annihilation of

emphasized

meant:

“hit so hard”

.

was our

first

special

in

historv— a total

.

The words and the tone resemble those of the habakiisha-poet. For both men still felt the effects of having been overwhelmed by the suddenness, brutality, and grotesqueness of A-bomb death. This unmastered, and to some extent unmasterable, death encounter prevents hibakusha from grasping or “knowing” what they have been through.

from making the experience part of Still

their

ongoing

It

them

prevents

self-process.

another form of resignation relied extremely heavily upon psychic

numbing,

as here described

bv

a

Hiroshima observer we have previously

quoted:

Basically,

it is

losing hope, but there

defeatism. There

is

are actually

m

two

something different

a long tradition [in Japan] that a

cannot do everything, that there There one

is

is

some leeway

nation. "-i

it

human

from being

for the intangible.

different written forms of the verb akiramu.

suggests the idea of clarification, while a later version

both the sense of active probing and more passive

in

“resig-

The

earliest

includes

.

DEATH

372

.

.

riierc

.

IN LIFE

the Japanese saying,

is

...

interhvined eoils of rope/’

The

It is

“Good and bad

fortune are like

being utterly in a

nil position.

implieit message of this form of “nihilistie resignation”

unknowable and makes no formlessness by remaining insensible to

experienee

sense;

is

ean earry on.” In

movement

are

this

I

then

it;

“The

is:

ean best deal with

and

I,

life in

general,

proeess imagery of eonneetion, integrity,

suspended— either

and

as a proteetive deviee in the serviee of

more

their later reeovery, or in a

its

permanent wav that borders on

or less

despair.

RELIGIOUS FORMULATION \hrtually every form of resignation and psvehologieal non-resistanee has

been eultivated by Japanese Buddhism. Buddhism did not, of eourse, ereate this universal psyehie pattern.

when

But

it

has so embraeed

it

that even

the idea of resignation was expressed in seeular terms, the words

used were likely to have had long Buddhist assoeiations.

And some

hibakusha direetly equated their resignation with their Buddhist belief

—as did the

elderlv

widow:

About what has happened, and is

it is

well,

best not to think about

my

the basis of

in the world,

life.

.

.

.

it

And

try to think of

it

ean’t be helped

too

even

mueh.

when

.

.

.

[shikataganai],

My

faith [shinko]

find verv

I

Buddha’s teaehing— “Do

wrong things

Don’t do that.” ... I am the kind of person who has never thought verv deeply. But well, when I experieneed sueh a dreadful event and saw aetual hell in this world sinee then I have felt that I should I

this.

.

.

be more dedieated

We have

in

mv

.

.

.

.

religious worship.

the distinet impression that she

is

.

.

.

talking about a

program she

seeks to follow, rather than fully aehieved psvehie states, both regarding

her religious eonvietions

(“I

try to

think of Buddha’s teaehing”; “I

should be more dedieated”) and her resignation not to think about it too mueh”) Religious imagery tended to relate as in the ease of the psyehologist’s

that “something

When

I

more” than

really think

[from the debris in destiny.

itself to

itself

.

.

it is

the issue of survival

vague but strongly

rational effort

(“.

felt

best

itself,

eoiuietion

was involved:

about it, I believe that my aetually getting out whieh he had been trapped] was a matter of

Whatever my own

eareful efforts,

I

feel that there

is

a limit

World

Formulation: Self and

what human beings thcmscl\es can

to

moment The

and

do,

liave the deepest respect for religion.

I

awe

sense of

in .

.

3

regard

to

73

tliis

.

at the “miraculoiisness’' of survival

is,

we have

as

observed, associated with persistent death anxiety and death guilt.

What must require of clear-cut

its

also

be kept

mind

the Japanese cultural tendency to

is

and philosophies

religions

dogma, and

in

to

relatively little in the

emphasize instead

a general

way

of

emotional atmos-

phere. Thus, hibakusha often expressed nonspecific “religious feeling,”

True Pure

usuallv tied in with their association with the Jodo Shin (or

Land)* Sect

of

Buddhism, which dominates the Hiroshima

area, rather

than a structured religious formulation. But we have seen that even vaguely expressed sentiments can have implicit imager\' of considerable

and the

interpretive significance, logically

hibakusha to achieve psycho-

failure of

adequate formulations had

do with

less to

emphasis

this cultural

than with qualities of the A-bomb psychic constellation that no thought system could totally absorb. Buddhist influence could help a hibakusha to attenuate, rather than resolve, residual emotional struggles; to ap-

proach, rather than fully achieve, formulation and mastery. Religious imagery could also fluctuate, even for the individual survivor, as

member

is

evident from the reactions of the elderly countrywoman.

of the

Konko

Sect (one of Japan's older

combines traditional Shintoism with elements of tianitv), she

was one of the few people

kind of sudden

loss of faith at the

I

expect to occur more frequently in the occurred in considerable numbers saki)

“new religions” which Buddhism and Chris-

encountered

time of the

A

who

described the

bomb which one might

West (and

among Japanese

which,

it

is

said,

Catholics in Naga-

:

At that moment we

all

became completely separate human

Seeing those wretched figures of people,

I

experienced such a terrible state of living

hell,

God, no Buddha.

She was reacting a deity

who

.

to a

.

.

There

is

great pity.

felt I

And

beings.

having

thought, “There

is

no

no God, no help.”

sudden sense of

total

abandonment, and

rejecting

could protect her neither from anticipated annihilation nor

The Pure Land, “Amida’s

[Buddha’s] Western Paradise,”

heaven in which “all enjoy wonderful powers of body and mind,” sometimes an eternal dwelling-place, though originally a place of “peaceful and blissful sojourn on the way toward the attainment of nirvana or even Buddhahood.” In Pure Land Buddhism there is also a purgatory, images of which we have already heard expressed.^ *

is

a vision of

a

DEATH

374

IN LIFE

from profound death

members who had been

various family

and

to reappear

—so much

But when her fortunes improved, and

guilt.

reeover, she

began

either missing or injured

found that

“my

feelings

began

ehange”

to

so that she reversed herself completely:

Even though, in the middle of the painful experience with no house and everything burned down, I couldn’t believe in the existence of God or Buddha ... as time passed and the world became peaceful ... I began to feel that we owe everything to God. .

.

She then applied her recovered

cannot attribute the

...

believe that

I

God

I

was not

me

to put

fact that

ordered

killed to

on

.

.

.

retroactively

belief

from death, and did so with considerable

original escape

I

religious

.

her

to

specificitv:

my own

power.

a pair of sandals [zdri]

happened to be there. With all of the glass scattered about, it was impossible for anyone to walk with bare feet— I would not have been able to have walked at all if it hadn’t been for the sandals. And I attribute all of this to Konko-sama [the Deitv of which

just

.

.

her religious

.

sect].

.

.

.

In other words, once she could re-establish connection and

meaning

within her religious imagery, she was eager to restore to her deity

power over

and death. But we have previously observed the intensitv

life

of her retained death guilt (over the dying child she did not help

who

brother

full

“preceded

undermine her

religious

me

in

death”),

and

this

tends

guilt

to

formulation. Thus, in speaking of her dead

brother, she suddenly dispensed with her

Konko

theological idiom

referred to

“Nature”

momentary

reversion to the ancient natural theology

as

and her

and

the ultimate arbiter of individual destinv

considerable power over the Japanese mind.

conclusion was: “I belong to the

Konko

And

Sect,

but

which

still

—

has

her self-deprecatory

my

faith

is

not very

deep.”*

tenuous were those Buddhist formulations taken directly from conventional dogma, as we have already observed in the case of the arly

Buddhist

priest’s

mayoi or man’s

interpretation

“lost state.”

On

of a

maid described her determination to her

dead husband when he

*^IIer stress

Konko

itself,

upon to

its

belief

the entire

is

experience as

more simple plane the boarding-house to

be true to a promise she had made

left for

and unbelief

A-bomb

the battlefield that should he die,

probably related to

exhortations to “believe in God."®

a similar

emphasis within

Formulation: Self and slie

would

sec to

World

3

75

proper religious rituals were performed in his name. She therefore took to chanting “Namuamidabiitsu” an incantation

the

of

someone

it

tliat

Buddha

else to

the purpose of being

for

— into

be reborn

reborn— or enabling

the ^^Pure Land’’ of Buddhist heaven.

And

she sought to grasp the significance of her extraordinary series of losses (deaths of her husband and four brothers in the war, and then of

her two small children in post-A-bomb floods and landslides) within a classical

At

Buddhist idiom of

first

I

cvclic retribution

wondered why

had

I

resentful about things in this

human

all

life.

and harmony:

of these misfortunes,

.

I

.

.

.

.

1 here

which provided her with guilt (the

“bad seeds” of

significant

form

this bitter

woman

,

.

in a

This

.

a certain

formulation,

this

emotional distance from her

a prior existence) and,

own

more important, with

for that guilt within a structured

(“People were not cooperative

cosmic order. Yet in .

.

.

they were cold

people enjoy others suffering”) one could observe very “peace of mind” she mentioned. .

.

as a

.

no denying that she derived solace from

is

them.

for

felt

I

But having been given a life must have sown bad seeds

concluded that I pre\’ious life and was now being punished gave me peace of mind. being,

and

little

.

of the

Even where the immersion into Buddhism was more thoughtful, consistent, and complex, as in the case of the writer-manufacturer, the formulation derived could accomplish just so much. their religion so quickly,

In

and

in

Few

called

upon

such direct relationship to death guilt:

the midst of the disaster

I

tried

to

read

Buddhist scriptures

continuously for about one week, hoping that my effort could contribute something to the happiness of the dead. ... It was not exactly a sense of responsibility or anything as clear as that. It was a vague feeling— I felt sorry for the dead because they died and I survived.

I

wanted

to pacify the spirits of the dead.

dhism we say that the

souls

wander about

in anxietv,

... and

if

the scriptures to them, they lose their anxiety and start to easy and settle down. So I felt that if I read the scriptures, give some comfort to the souls of those who had departed.

His continuing involvement in greatly to his,

ence.

But

it

this

In Bud-

we read become I

could

Buddhist imagery did contribute

on the whole, impressive mastery of the A-bomb experi-

could not

rid

him

of his sense of unresolvable guilt

and

loss

DEATH

376 over

tlie

Nor could

death of his daugliter.

symbolic

Truman

IN LIFE

universe— as as a

revealed

by

reconstruct his shattered

it

condemnation

his

President

of

“cold-blooded animal”— though he maintained a similar

Buddhist formulation

in

Truman, d’he continuing

prediction

his

eventual

of

retribution

strain of his formulative struggles

for

was further

revealed in a seemingly irrelevant discourse on Christianity, in which he stressed the alien nature of that religion to the Japanese,

and concluded

that

Both before and

A-bomb

after the

appealed to Christianitv

very few

common

people of Japan

Manv

for salvation or consolation.

pray to Buddha, but not to Christ.

.

.

tried to

.

Partly at issue here was his classification of American-sponsored Christianity as counterfeit nurturance

(and we

recall his sensitivity to this

general problem in his stress that Hiroshima did not need American

“sympathy” or material help). But more fundamental, his inner fear that

Buddhism, or

some way loom

that Christianity might in

powerful force

(it

at least his

I

thought, was

Buddhism, was

as a

more

had made considerable gains

attractive or

more

Hiroshima, and

in

throughout Japan, during the postwar period); and, most of

Buddhist formulation upon which he had staked so

faltering;

all,

that the

much might

lack

truth or relevance.

VARIETIES OF ‘^RESIGNATION'’ Christianity too encourages psychological non-resistance,

moreover, can be observed

and the

pat-

Western hibnkusha. The European priest evolved a formulation that could well be described as a “Westerner’s akirame/' which he attributed both to his prior “temperament” tern,

(“I

am

not the kind

in a

who becomes

depressed or worried”) and to his

“Japaneseness”:

I

easily

accustom myself

expressing

“Well,

this

themselves. is

war.”

new

to a

...

.

.

I

.

place,

When

and

[the

I

like the

bomb

was already Japanese.

.

.

Japanese way of fell]

I

thought,

.

Actually his psychological non-resistance was related to a malleabilitv of identity in

was

which adaptive

skills

and denial were both prominent— as

a sense of connection with a force larger than individual

expressed in a conventional Catholic formulation:

human

life

World

Formulation: Self and

377

As a good Jesuit, I am bound to find God in all things. ... a good theologian, but I look at it as God’s providence. .

Yet here too both

am bound

words (“I

his

and the despair we have observed formulation

is

in

God

to find

him

.

am

1

not

.

in all things”)

suggest that the religious

an ideal vision which he holds out

himself— one which

to

constantly eroded by A-bomb-linked death fears:

is

man

a

If

death .

.

.

is

doesn’t believe in another there

if

many

that

another

is

course, there

is

in the

physical fear

not uneasy, not frightened. depth of the soul— if anything, .

you leave

.

.

is

.

principle; of course, there

is

—

if

if

you believe

there

The

.

it is

.

.

.

but

reallv

is

a large cancer operation, in

some

another

life,

you are

personal fear— but the depths of

no difference if no difference in

there

is

is,

difference.

note his exaggerated need to deny his

over

how much

what age one

me

I

uneasiness does not go to the

We at

finished.

depths of their souls are not uneasy.

world at forty or eighty— that

this

is

not the worst thing. ...

From our standpoint

.

only death, and

is

happen— all

not agree with

they are not glad about it— but

the soul are quiet.

death

life,

people will

convinced Gatholics ...

Of

then there

the most terrifying thing that can

But

know

life,

fears,

along with confusion

admit— how much ‘"difference” it makes He went on to relate his way of thinking to the

uneasiness to dies.

Japanese forms of resignation, but also insisted that

it

contained some-

thing more:

This kind of thinking

but positive:

He

If

reveals here a

positive,

is

God w ills WTstern

it, I

am

not onlv akirame or shikataganai,

rcadv.

theological (and psychological) stress

“active submission” to the deity

which moves

upon

to the outer border of

psychological nonviolence as the principle of “will” (of both supplicant

and deity) replaces that of so

much

effortless

harmony. His own problem was not

that of submission per se as an inability to achieve through

submission a formulation sufficiently powerful to first tried

to

deny what he

still

about atomic

called “special feeling”

He bomb

death anxiety.

exposure by placing hibakusha in the category of people wath “ordinary” illnesses:

you have a family wath TB or leprosy— then it a vactim [of the A-bomb]. ... If one has TB If

the

is .

.

.

same

one

as that of

also thinks.

DEATH

378

“How

will

we

because

But even

it

IN LIFE

be next year?” ...

are victims of the

this

we must not be

feel

I

bomb.

.

.

hypocrites

.

equation with impairment turned out to be inadequate

manmade

for grasping the

origins of

A-bomb

suffering:

'They [other patients in the hospital] said, “Father, the difference

is— with leprosy and d'B— these are natural illnesses— but the Abomb, it is artificial, caused by man, and done with the intention of damaging man.” I thought there was something in this. It was man

who it

initiated

—a

word

it.

This

difficult to express,

is

but there

is

something

in

difference in the kind of kimochi [here he used the Japanese for feeling, or quality of feeling]

you have— you have

it,

but

it is

hard to explain.

This perception of the experience

as initiated

by other human beings

has bearing on the theme of the “historical experiment” (and

guinea pig imagery) as well as that of a in general.

Not only

loss of faith in

human

its

related

existence

did these disturbing feelings resist his Catholic

explanations, but at one point he jettisoned the Catholic idiom entirely

(much

countrywoman had her Konko terminologv) and insisted upon using a Japanese word to characterize the A-bomb— atsukamashii, meaning shameless, audacious, brazen, and suggesting a form of hubris more vague but also more inclusive than that conveyed by most theological judgment. For although Catholic theology could supply him with a rather complete system of thought for interpreting A-

bomb

as the elderly

emotions,

it

could not provide him with a sense of trust or faith

superior in strength to the symbolic blows he had received.

There were additional sources of

religious formulation available

Japan’s polyglot postwar spiritual offerings.

The woman with

from

the oph-

thalmic condition, for instance, told of her conversion to Soka Gakkai, a militant contemporary version of Nichiren Buddhism, at a time

when

she was deeply troubled by her bodily and marital difficulties and was feeling “very

much

alone.

’

One would

not ordinarilv associate the term

psychological non-resistance with the aggressively proselytizing representatives of the sect

“sfidkubiiki/.”* *

who

Yet the

called

upon her and applied

religion did offer her

its

their

own form

well-known

of resignation,

means “to break and subdue,” and refers ostensibly to evil shakubuku becomes a se\ere emotional assault upon the personal impurities of the prospective convert and upon the hypocrisies of all rival religions, including other forms of Buddhism. 'I’he

spirits,"

term but

literally

in

practice

World

Formulation: Self and a

combination of

rules to live by, clianncls for expression of guilt,

renewed connection— achieved mostly through viewed as a theological version of group therapy: I

don’t do anything very formal

.

.

.

but

I

a process

79

3

and

which can be

do say prayers and chant a [And at meetings] we

morning and the evening. can say exactly what we feel— talk about dissatisfaction, suffering, and pain — tell everything to what we call the ''principle image” [golionzon]. ... I can see images of manv different people and ask them about ways to impro\’C myself try to become like them. sutra in the

.

.

...

feel

I

upon myself.

reflect

.

.

had many complaints and I think mv mind impeded t by this ugliness within me, and I trv to

present

very ugly.

is

It

my

In

.

.

life

.

.

I

.

turned out that her father, whose death in the

such extreme

guilt, regularly

\Vd\, as he does not form. feel

I

am

him

\’ery

among

appeared

my

wav

father in this

to possess this ideal form.

.

.

tain a nurturing sense of continuity with

A-bomb

issues

guilt

him.

It

this

between sexual “decadence” and

her occasional wish that

"all of

.

.

in ideal

I

strongly

and

the earth

... be

and helped main-

thus

and immediate

have had ample evidence of the limitations of guilty struggles

.

is

.

This "reunion” with her father both relieved formulation of both

caused her

her spiritual "images”:

world now, his image

exist in the

glad to see

bomb had

became

life

a partial

problems.

formulation

in

We her

a "constructive life,”

annihilated,” and the

general contribution of her conflict and despair to her eve condition.

Yet

it

more

may

well be the ordering principle which keeps her from even

serious emotional or physical disintegration.

The resemblance between housewife

(both

lost

their

conflict with their mothers,

even into

her experiences and those of the divorced fathers

in

and then had

bomb, had considerable

the

failures in

marriage) extended

this area of religious formulation. In the case of the

divorced

housewife contact with a local religious sect (primarily Shinto) was initiated by her mother, partly as a means of relieving family tensions

("She had no place to go, and thought that to our family

up t

life,

prayer could bring peace

that would be a good thing”); and she herself took

after her divorce because her

She used the word sumanai, which

guilt.

if

mother "thought is

a

it

would be good

it

for

rough Japanese equivalent of a sense of

DEATH

80

3

me/’ Her

IN LIFE

religious experience, as

compared

to that of the

woman

with

the eye condition, placed greater emphasis upon a mentor with supernatural powers:

W^e worship the usual gods— the Ujigami and the Miyajima gods*— various Japanese Gods— all kinds of gods. There is a teacher and we talk to him about many things and I think that something like a divine spirit— coming from God— enters this teacher’s mind. There arc about two hundred believers, and we have the feeling that .

.

whatever the teacher suggests

make mistakes ...

we

is

.

.

.

.

always right

.

.

.

that he does not

him about everything since things I cannot understand— which we cannot see with our eves seem to emanate from this teacher. ... I go there first thing in the morning when I finish breakfast if I don’t have anv verv important business. And if I don’t go — such as on Sundays when it is closedso

consult

.

.

.

.

.

.

have a gloomy feeling that whole day. So I feel that I am strengthened in many wa\s bv being able to depend upon the then

I

gods.

.

.

.

But she too had the experience of her father’s entry into her religious worship— not in the regularized manner described by the other woman, but

in

much more dramatic

fashion,

following a series of personal

connected with purification:

austerities

At that time,

end of the ceremony while we were praying, my father appeared among the gods. ... It was the teacher who told me that my father’s vision had appeared. And he said that this kind of occurrence was very rare and meant that mv father had achieved a very elevated state and that he was very concerned about me and also that the fact that he had appeared among the gods meant that he was very strongly protecting me. Since then ... I have had the very strong feeling that my father is always present as .

.

just at the

.

my ally

[mikata].

Here the father

is

idealized to the point of appearing

“among

the gods,”

an idiosyncratic version of traditional Japanese ancestor worship. While it can be said that her feelings toward her father and toward the in

religious

*

Ujigami

mentor

are similar, the

first

symbolized direct personal protec-

term for the “guardian gods” or “ancestor gods” of any made up of the collective souls of generations of former inhabitants and are locally enshrined. Miyajima, the small island just off Hiroshima, has long-standing sacred associations as a “home of the gods” and is the site of a large Shinto shrine. is

a

particular area

general

which

are

World

Formulation: Self and

and

tion

relief

381

of guilt, the seeond an emissary from a larger world of

meaning. Compared to the

woman

with the eye eondition, she gave

an impression of having integrated her formulation more successfully into her general emotional life even if she could not avoid retaining a

—

sense of “the bitter feelings in evervone’s heart.”

SACRIFICE AND MISSION Christian formulations of ordinary sur\’ivors did not achieve anv greater psychological success than those of

was one,

remarkable. About

fifty

woman

years old

she had lost

her

five of

economic

level in

or other religions.

hibakusha which

and looking

and hands covered with keloid

shoulders,

line

Korean

ho\^’ever, of a

Buddhism

found quite

I

older, her

and

scars

There

face,

neck,

residual s\^'ellings,

bomb. She lived on a borderan outcast communitv (as Koreans often do in children in the

six

Japan). Yet she told her story without

and

self-pity,

with

fact

in

considerable vitality and even humor. Having been befriended by an

American

elderly

woman

missionary

who had

lived in

Korea

in the past,

she had become a Fundamentalist Christian. She therebv found a to give retrospective

form

to

what was undoubtedlv

a staggering

wav

burden

of death guilt and loss— both in a general sense (“Evervbody died, and

when

I

was sleeping among worms, everybodv

survived— I think

God

ga\’C

up on

me— but

I

saved me”) and in specific relationship to her

children:

I

said that

I

— that

I

guilt

could not go into the presence of

had

killed

mv

children.

...

I

God

mv

because of

had not given them But she told me that

enough to cat during the food shortage. God had sent his only child for the sake of all guiltv people in the world, and that everyone’s sins would be redeemed by Jesus Christ and that He would pray for me too. ... So I went there and although the world was cold to me, still God loved the world. People were pleased to welcome me with warm hearts and love me. .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Her formulation, moreover, could encompass priest

.

could not)

the

human

origins

(as that of the

of the atomic

Western

bomb— because

everything ultimately derives from “God’s power”:

Hiroshima was reduced to ashes by the power of human beings, by the A-bomb which was dropped. But still I came to believe in God’s

power— to

believe that the world was

made by God

.

.

.

and

I

had

a

— I

3

DEATH

82

IN LIFE

Strange feeling of beeoming stronger. that

we should do

will

never come.

A-bomb

this or that,

.

.

if it is

.

Even though we build big

.

dropped, everything

is

Even though people sav not done bv God’s power, peace .

.

will

be

Bible— in the Old Testament— when everything in the world

buildings,

in ashes.

.

.

.

when

the

W^ell, in the

thought that exactly that wav— so cvervone has to have

is

read

I

that,

I

faith.

The A-bomb weapons

not only manmade, but represents, as do nuclear

is

in general,

punishment

for

man’s

guilt.

We suspect

imagery she views Hiroshima’s experience

literal Biblical

Sodom and Gomorrah; and

she surely envisions

all

as

that in her

analogous to

nuclear destruction,

including that of Hiroshima, as apocalyptic expressions of God’s

will.

Indeed, the capacity of her formulation to absorb her extraordinarv

one something about the power Ghristianity has possessed

losses teaches

(but rarely possesses today)

extreme kinds of fear and

When

I

was about

in

helping

man

to

confront his most

guilt:

to leave the hospital,

my

son [her

last living child]

suddenly became ill. All of the fingernails on his hands were a strange color— there were spots— and he would faint, so I thought he had trouble with his brain. I took him to the hospital, but thev couldn’t the cause of his

and there was no medicine to use. His hair came out, and he would fall down from the bed, and he couldn’t urinate. ... At first I prayed to God for help and then thinking about Abraham and his son Isaac ... I thought that if God wanted this last child having alreadv lost five children — would give him this one too. I can’t describe how I felt then, but I prayed and that night he suddenlv got better. I felt very strange, but I thought it was God who helped us. ... I used to be greedy but now I realize that the short period of life we have of about fifty tell

illness,

.

.

.

.

.

.

—

.

.

.

or sixty years

we should

—

—

is

seek.

morning mist — and that would say that I was reborn.

just like the

...

I

iMore than merely an ideal vision of tion, to a degree

command

how

among hibakusha

unusual

of her psychic

life,

she should I

If I

don

'A\dien

I

t

Two

life

her formula-

interviewed, had taken

full

in

her case basic

A-bomb

comments she made, one after the other— guilt, then nobody will forgive my guilt” and

final

forgive others

think about

feel,

eternal

enabled her to absorb extreme adversity,

and propelled her toward mastery. Yet even conflicts remained.

it is

my

children, there

is

no end

to

mv

feeling”—

Formulation: Self and suggested the persistence of

tlie

World

383

most ineradicable of A-boinb

legacies,

that of death guilt.

Her attitude reminds sacrificing” his

Lord

s

Supper

daughter to

and

I

God when

just prior to her death.

himself ordered by die,

us of the Protestant minister’s similar sense of

God

to die,

and

performing the

W^e

ritual of the

recall also his sense of

his feeling that “this

is

being

the time to

should have died.” His eventual formulation of the awesome

fact of his survival, like that of the

Buddhist

priest

mentioned

earlier,

took the shape of a powerfully experienced sense of mission: It

means there

something that

is

in living

I

have to

do— these

words

outlast words of death.

He

therefore threw himself, with great energy, into various peace

welfare activities, and saw as “the task of oriented study of those his agitation

human problems

my

and

life” that of a Ghristian-

that lead to war.

The

extent of

during our interview suggested that his formulation

short of providing a sense of spiritual harmony; but

it

fell

did express, via

Ghristian dedieation, the general theme of “special mission” as the priee of survival.

Indeed, the survivor’s sense of himself as a “missionary on behalf of the dead” ean

make eontaet with

the Ghristian tradition of spreading

the gospel— as was true of a young hospital patient in Nagasaki who,

following

reeurrent

underwent

a conversion experienee:

want

illnesses

to help others

and

believed

related

to

the

atomie bomb,

be a servant of God. I want to do what I ean to stop atomie bomb tests and even the existenee of these weapons. People have to walk together hand in hand, and this can be aeeomplished through religion. ... I would like to do misI

.

.

.

have had great spiritual anxietv and then found needed something I eould trust, and I want to help others to

sionary work, as

God. find

I

to

Him

I

too.

But the apprehensive and

slightly depressed tone in

whieh he

told

me

these things suggested that residual guilt and fear aeeompanied his sense of mission.

The

elderly Gatholie

nun poignantly conveyed

tions of Ghristian prineiples of “saerifiee”

a sense of the limita-

and “mission.” As head of

a

girl’s

parochial school in Nagasaki in which the majority of students

were

killed,

she explained these deaths— to the

girls’

parents and to

3

DEATH

84

IN LIFE

herself— as gently as she could, with the help of conventional Catholic doctrine:

I

was

in

bed [with

injuries]

for their daughters.

I

told

and mothers kept coming

them

to

me, looking

made

that their daughters

a peaceful

from the world— that it was a good ending. ... [I myself believe] those girls were a sacrifice. They were sacrificed for human sins; for the sake of others they had to die. They took others’ places. It was a time of Redemption— and their deaths were for the sake of other Catholics and of all of the Japanese people. exit

.

.

.

Yet she could not help immediatelv adding:

But

it

should be the

last sacrifice of

that

kind— this

is

enough— this

should be enough.

“Enough,” of

course,

meant “too much.” Her

formulation simply could not absorb her

and

loss,

still

dutifully

expressed

powerful feelings of guilt

could not enable her to accept the deaths of those young

girls.

Certain public formulations, particularly ritualistic fashion,

reaction of a

statement

could cause resentment.

woman whose

made

child was killed by the

at a Christian prayer

who had committed

when offered in unthinking The day laborer tells of the

sins in this

bomb

meeting to the

to a minister’s

effect that

“Those

world have been called bv God.”

The

mother responded heatedlv:

No! No! In

which disliked Bibles and hvmns my little daughter read her Bible and sang hymns. How can vou speak of sins committed by my daughter?

To which

a militaristic society

the day laborer’s

disgrace God’s

name and

own comment

hurt

all

souls”

was: “Such abstract sermons

— by

which he meant that rote

formulations of this kind are insulting because they treat the

A-bomb

experience as “routine” rather than extraordinary, and because thev

impugn the In

purity of the dead.

summing up

say that while

it

the hibakushas use of religious formulation,

sometimes contributed

to

we mav

masterv, most found

it

lacking in various ways. This was so partly because of the limited influence of contemporary Japanese religious thought in general, but

Formulation: Self and largely because of the

World

3

85

enormity of symbolic breakdown involved and the

persistence of peculiarly unabsorbablc death anxiety and death guilt.

Religion

made

greatest contribution to hihakuslia formulations in

its

gi\ing shape to the two uni\ersal survi\or needs, those of psychological

non-resistance and special mission.

While

may human

these two tendencies

appear to be contradictory, they arc related expressions of adaptation to the most extreme kind of experience. The first gives

silent

form to an ultimate reassertion of human continuitv while permitting

The second

protective blunting of emotions.

and enables the survi\or go beyond

it.

Without

be unable to absorb

would be unable

An

make

to

use of this guilt and at the same time

Without

to justif\- his continuing

a sense of special mission,

historical inter\’ention— that

of Marxist ideology in which

inexorable History, and by the class structure leader, in discussing matters of

\\ith those

who

know

and So the

it

all

through a version

A-bomb

creates.

countries and

bv an

The burakumin

responsibilitv, disagreed

singled out the pilot of the plane,

the “privileged classes” of capitalist

is,

what might

large events are seen as caused

all

he

life.

occasional hibakusha formulated the disaster through

woman

guilt,

psychological non-resistance, the survivor would

his losses.

be called imagery of

I

form to death

gives

a

and blamed instead

their

concentrations of

power: that within a large system the individual

becomes

ver\-

weak,

was done in the name of the Emperor. directed not toward the individual person but toward

in Japan’s case everything

my

anger

is

existence

struggles futile.

of

this

.

.

.

enormous power that makes

And

against

not only capitalists but against world] whose war

it

was.

The Hiroshima A-bomb

.

.

.

all

.

.

all

individual

Japanese capitalists— probably

privileged classes [throughout the

.

authoritv took a similar perspective toward

hibakusha problems:

W’c must think about

present-day Japanese society

For both the burakumin

and contradictions in which combine to oppress survivors.

fcudalistic .

.

.

woman

practices

leader

and the Hiroshima A-bomb

authorih’ these views were part of a comprehensive set of images which

could be applied to virtually every aspect of individual and group including holocaust. In terms of the formulativc modes

life,

we have been

3

DEATH

86

IN LIFE of Marxist ideology tends to de-emphasize

discussing, this kind

denounce psyehological non-resistanee, and of mission.

And

connection with

meaning and find in

it

and

to stress strongly the sense

the “mission,” as defined, could provide a vivid sense of all

“mankind,” along with an elaborate strueture of

a lively sense of

movement. But very few hibakusha eould

the philosophical and experiential relevance— partieularly the

emotional immediaev— which effective formulation required.

At the other end the technieian,

eombat A-bomb

to

of the ideological spectrum were efforts, like those of forth

eall

effects

verv old

Japanese moral principles to

and achieve personal

rebirth:

improved bit by bit so that even a doctor told me that mv condition today is due to my practicing budo [samurai code]. I myself believe I

...

form of archery associated with budo] one must concentrate one’s strength in order to forget about oneself— this is the main idea. Then one is not easily beaten bv anvthing. “Enduring and not permitting defeat”— this was the idea I was taught. I think this was a big advantage for me. ... I realized that I should not depend upon others, however physically weak I might be— and that I myself had to do things. this.

In kyiido

[a

.

But he admitted that

his

.

.

approach did not come

easily

forced myself to go along with this [budo] conviction”). of his unusually strong conflicts over

turance,

we may

(“At times

I

And knowing

dependenev and counterfeit nur-

had something of the qualitv did provide meaning, but its restorationist

say that his formulation

of whistling in the dark.

It

embrace of past symbols, themselves partly dishonored societv, was hardly a match for A-bomb conflicts.

in

a

postwar

2)

Negativity, Nothingness,

Where

and Beyond

neither psychological non-resistance nor a sense of mission were

present, whatever formulation existed was likely to be negative

and

dominated by imagery of breakdown. The female poet,

for instance,

expresses such imagery in a

feelings with

who had

those of a young cousin

and

a sense of

wav

that combines her

own

experienced extreme

deprivation,

loss,

abandonment:

Her mother and father and all of her close relatives were killed by the A-bomb. She became very upset and having lost everything, had to go from the house of one relative to another. During her days of wandering she said that she wished others would be made to go through such an experience so thev would understand what she had gone through. She had a “crooked heart” at that time, so her relatives didn t like her vcr\’ much. When she expressed such feelings her relatives repeated them to others because they were scared and thought she was an awful girl. .

.

.

.

,

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Here we encounter that ultimate “negative formulation” that has become a kind of underground theme in Hiroshima — expressed openly by a child and by adults in whispers— a formulation which says, in effect: “I

can accept having been singled out for

suffering only

everybody

if

bomb only if the world is With most hibakusha

else

is

put through

this special

it;

I

negative imagery

of a less total quality,

is

make

difficult

it

adaptability ends and negativistic cynicism begins. it

job, expressed her

did not give either in

it

up

was said that the

girl,

after

underground theme much entirely.

less

Even

in

where

the case

frequently, though she

Such imagery of bitterness has

more psychologically

to tell

and

marrying and getting a

the cathartic sense that the Chinese

water,” or in supplying a

can accept the A-

engulfed in nuclear disaster.”

formulations are used in ways which

described above

degree of

call

its

function—

“vomiting bitter

compromise in which one carries on while acknowledging the permanent breakdown of the sy mbolic world one inhabits.

The

disabling

elderly housewife, for instance, never recovered

from her son’s

death in a military plane crash, and never forgave either the Japanese

DEATH

388

authorities for cruelty.

When

IN LIFE negligence or

tlieir

me

describing to

tlie

larger forces of destiny for their

the general selfishness and callousness

she and her husband observed during the post-bomb period, she declared that

My

“We

could depend upon nothing but our bank account.”

impression was that for them

ended with the death of to care for

an affirmative experience had

mode

their son. d'heir familv line, or biological

had been destroyed, and

of immortality,

was no one

life as

them

in

in their old age.

an immediate sense there Indeed,

when

I

met them,

they were considering two solutions to their problem: “adopting” a sonin-law into the family to take the place of the dead son (and carrv out

the symbolic and practical functions); or else selling their house to get

enough money

to enter a

comfortable old-age

especially in Japan, carries an aura of

In her efforts to

comprehend her

home— a

course which,

abandonment. loss

that led eventually to her son’s death.

she thought back on the events

Her account convevs both

a vivid

picture of the family dramas which could take place in the midst of the

Japanese totalism of the sense of having been

From

\

thirties

and

forties,

along with her personal

ictimized by male stubbornness and stupiditv:

thought the Japanese people wrong to make war with America because Japan is a poor countrv and I alwavs wondered why we started a war with such a big nation. And when our son began to wish to go to militarv school, I stronglv opposed this. But he was a worshipper of [General] Nogi.* His the beginning

I

.

character was a like

Nogi. ...

our only son

little I

.

.

strange and he always expressed his wish to be

told him, “If

you enter the militar\’, since vou are but he was the onlv bov— I will kill

— we

had a girl myself.” But he said, “F\en if Mother commits suicide, I still wish to be a soldier.” I told him that since his determination was that strong, he could become a soldier but from the beginning I hated verv

—

much

to

sec

him become

involved in the war, couldn’t see

why

I

one.

used to

sa\-

And that

even

when our countrv was

we would be

people continued with the war.

defeated and that

But at that time people like me who said such things were looked upon as traitors ... so I couldn’t express my ideas and had to go along with the current. Fven at home, when I mentioned mv beliefs, my husband would tell me not to say such a thing. He said we wouldn’t be beaten because Japan is a di\ ine country, but I said that this isn’t I

.

.

.

the kind of thing that being a divine country can guarantee. *

The

military hero

who committed

ceremonial suicide in 1912 at the time of the death of the Emperor Meiji, and has come to symbolize pure dedication to Japan’s tradition of self-sacrifice, particularly in martial form.

Formulation: Self and

A

same inter\ ie\v, obtuseness, her husband chimed little later in

the

as

if

in

World

3

to confirm her opinions to

suggest a

strange

89

on male

regret

in

A-bomb:

relationship to the

As our son was in the Air Force, made for him, and wc now greatly

\\e

had

sword

a special Japanese

was lost in the fire. I don’t know why it was burned— there was another sword that belonged to a family we knew [which was not destroyed] but we couldn t find our sword anywhere, and when we fled, wc had to leave it

In

regret that

it

behind.

wake

the

of

concern over a

more

unprecedented devastation and death,

lost military

attests to the

weapon

is

somewhat

jarring.

fundamentally symbolic quality of

response. For such swords were

more than mere

have had a mystical significance

in

this

intense

But

it

human

once

emotional

military weapons; they

Japanese tradition as physical em-

bodiments of immortal power— and whether because of

this or

simply as

military weapons, the Occupation required that they be turned o\^er to

American

authorities. Since in this case the

extension of the dead son,

its

to “protect” either the

s\mbolized the

loss

the father’s special concern over

sword or

it

sword was also a physical

was related

his son.

loss of

to guilt over

the boy, and

having

failed

His “regret,” then, had to do

with symbolic impairments he experienced in relationship to Japan’s defeat and to his son’s death.

The

wife, therefore,

husband If it

was probably speaking

in uttering a final

[a

for

statement of despair:

nuclear war] should ever happen again

once— at

both herself and her

...

I

would

die at

moment. This is all that a person like me can feel. Being already an old woman, if it should be used again, whatever ma\'

happen,

What

that very

I

would rather

she meant,

I

die.

thought, was not only that at her age she lacked the

strength to deal with future holocausts, but that the ps\’chic blows

sustained from the combination of her son’s death and the atomic

experience had so shattered her

life

space that only a part of

bomb

her— and

that tenuously— had remained alive. *

Considering the centrality of money, psycliologically and otherwise, in the lives of this couple (and of everyone else), the husband’s concern about the sword might also have been connected with the great economic value such weapons had for those who chose to violate the Occupation decree and either retain or sell them.

390

DEA

1

n IN LIFE

EXPANSION OF IMAGERY Occasionally, with considerable difficulty, hibakusha did seem to arrive at formulations whieh contributed impressively to personal mastery

through expansion of imagery. Sometimes

in

such imagerv psychological

non-resistance would appear to prevail, at other times the sense of survivor mission; but usually the two were in a workable equilibrium,

1 bus, the sociologist

first

placed great emphasis upon resignation:

Something beyond the personal effort we make— maybe not the influence of God, maybe a kind of personal destinv — controls individual existence. I don t mean to sav there is no room for effort. But I believe that even individual destiny is controlled by a larger destiny.

...The

Khrushchev

But

presses the button.

.

his sense of survivor mission

quoted

mav depend upon whether

world

fate of the

.

or not

.

was evident not only

in

comments

about the impaet of keloids upon evolving peaee

earlier

atti-

tudes, but also in his qualification of his resignation:

Since public opinion can have a significant influence run,

us

.

we cannot .

.

research

really say exactly to

and within [on

limits

I

what degree

try to

make an

fate

effort

... is .

.

in the

long

determined through .

for

my

various

contemporary Japanese social issues] ... to make a contribution toward a better public opinion which could have an effect on the direction of the world.

One

could sense an inner dialogue between classical Buddhist acceptance of the world and modern man’s determination to influence his

own

destiny.

I

here seemed

little

doubt that

older tendeney toward acceptance and

But

it

in a psvchological sense the

harmonv

w'as

by

far the stronger.

was the interplay of the two that gave qualities of relevance and

active tension to his efforts at mastery.

he expansion of imagery achieved by the moralist, eonversely, placed heavy stress upon survivor mission, whieh in his 1

case included “the idea

of repenting for

my

mistakes

having been so actively associated with the military regime. But as w^e noted before, his stress upon applying old

principles of “family, nation,

of

mankind

and even

his

’

in

and race”

method

to the

wider arena of “the whole

of protest through sitting

—

suggested elements of traditional psychological non-resistance. The result w'as a genuinely inclusiv'e formulation, as stated in in his WTitings:

World

Formulation: Self and

Never

now

until

lias

tlie

genus, namely the world of \\ e have

.

eome

.

eommon

die in a

in together.

The

.

virtual

.

.

I

human

totality,

he world, we now

91

in the liigliest eoiitext of

been an

knowledge that we,

to the

fate.

man

eoneept of

3

aetuality.

as [a] unity, live

.

.

.

and

we

sail

to

the

previouslv, as did

the

realize,

the ship

is

.

impossibility of

aehieving this

eon fusion and despair we also noted

in

idea

him

eontributed

uneasiness of his inner equilibrium between survivor mission and psyehologieal non-resistanee. But there is no denying the signifieanee for

him (and and

for

many

pitfalls of his

Japanese intelleetuals) of both the aeeomplishments formulative shift from rightist mystieism to

leftist

humanism.

A

related kind of

expanded imagery,

me

inv'olvement, was expressed to

A-bomb

also assoeiated with

by Hirovuki Agawa,

prominent

a

Japanese (nonhibakusha) writer originally from Hiroshima:

have been traveling widely, and I feel strongly that there should be no separate nations— no demareation of borders between eountries. I felt, while traveling in Europe, that in many plaees these barriers beeame v'ery low very small and this is one way to peaee. I

—

—

Nowadays people begin

.

.

to talk again of patriotism.

.

Let patriotism

be tied up with love for a partieular plaee. Those who eome from Texas ean love Texas. Those in Hiroshima ean love the Inland Sea. If

one loves Texas, one ean also love California — there is no war between Texas and California— or between Hiroshima and Shiga Prefeeture. This is what I mean when I say that patriotism should be love for one's native plaee. I

don't

know

too

.

.

.

mueh about world

history but

I

think the faet

that there have been fewer wars reeently in the world

mav be due to the development of both weapons and eommunieations. Maybe to the faet that we have these A- and H-bombs, and that we ean get .

from Tokyo to beeause of the It

isn't

New

York

A-bomb

just

so easily

experienee.

my opinion— but

— mavbe

.

.

I

also repeated to

me

a “joke"

.

emphasize these things

.

also

men like Russell and and H-bomb problem must of

Sehweitzer— that the solution to the Aeome before any other question— and this opinion

He

.

he had read

is

in a

widely shared.

.

.

.

popular Japanese

magazine: QUESTION:

What would

answer: Poison.

you buy

to

have ready

in ease of

another war?

39 2

DEA

r

IN LIFE

II

His conclusion and his death anxiety resemble those of (the elderly housewife, for instanee), but he

bringing

humor and

statement, in

fact,

many hibakusha

freer

is

than they in

speculation to his formulative efforts. His entire

suggests the influenee of the atomie

bomb upon

Japanese intelleetuals in their search for inclusive— even protean— formulations.

The problems

involved are also protean, but again this does

not lessen the signifieanee of the vision. ' ‘

I

GO THE

WAY OF NOTHINGNESS’’

Another theme, often profound stress

with mixed

if

upon “nothingness.” Related

to the

effect,

A-bomb

was an East Asian

“nihilism”

of before, this kind of formulation could cn\ ision the atomic

“clearing

away” of past impediments,

became

ereated

bomb

as a

so that the symbolie tabula rasa

and moral

a prelude to psychological

Miss Ota suggests

we spoke

rebirth.

her phrase, “the destruction returned

this eycle in

everything to nothingness,” after which she went on (as quoted before) to eall for “a revolution against

make any

to

mankind’s

progress without being destroyed,”

that “this defeat can be the thing that

“the meaning of

The

tragie

my writing

this

book

and expressed the hope

makes Japan

in the

theme

history professor used the

tendeney to be unable

truly peaceful” as

midst of pain.”®

of nothingness tor a strangely

imaginative set of ruminations, which began with the Old Testament; I’he story of Noah’s Ark

more than

myth

me. Except for a few humans and animals, it is a story of everything becoming nothing. Maybe this will happen again— everything disappearing and beeoming nothing except for a very few. If we eontinue to make and use more powerful bombs, there may be only a few people left ehosen by chanee. ... As for myself, I go the w’av of nothingness. I don’t have a strong desire to go about telling people about these is

.

.

a

to

.

.

things, or to talk in a loud voiee I

am

able to be useful,

I

like to

about

do what

mv A-bomb I

can.

.

experience. But

.

.

if

.

.

Although wc know him to ha\ e expressed a partieularlv strong sense of survivor mission, the “way of nothingness” turns out to be associated with a speeial version of psychological non-resistance which he relates to Oriental psychology:

I

it

feel

up.

their

that once people have iinented the

A-bomb, they will not give and use it. ... I feel they will go

They will want to keep it own way. ... So when I think about

it,

I

feel that

people are

World

Formulation: Self and

3

93

not making progress, but arc on the way to notliingncss— on the way to destruction.

.

but the feeling progressi\'c.

.

this

But althougli

.

a negative attitude of akirame

is

Maybe

\ery strong in me.

is

.

Maybe

.

.

not studied

lia\’e

I

am

I

—

from being

far

carefully,

this

I

subjecti\elv think that Orientals tend to adapt themselves to their

own environment— which

form of akirame— \\hi\e Westerners trv to conquer their environment. When we think about these things, we feel thev are just something we can’t do anvthing is

a

about.

W’e note tion,

.

.

.

.

.

.

main meaning

that his

but that he also uses

for

“nothingness”

adaptive resigna-

He went on

to suggest annihilation.

it

dilemma— a

suggest a “far out” solution to the world’s (and his)

to

science

kind we have learned, in our contemporary world,

fiction fantasy of the

to

is

examine carefullv

lest it

turn out to be not quite so far out as

it

appears to be:

am

now is almost like a dream, but because of the progress of science it mav not be simplv a dream. Mv thoughts about the future of the world, though thev may be unrealistic, are these. As long as we people on earth live without contact with an outside planet, we will go on having wars. But if we have contact with M’hat

T

going to describe

other planets- and

read of space ships these days which venture out

I

be\ond our own planet— \\'e may be able to live in peace. ... I don’t usually talk about these things but because you ask, I will try to explain. The human animal is such that the strong win the victory, the weak arc defeated. It is a question of power. Only when beings from earth have to face beings from another planet will they be able to unite to defend themselves. This mav seem .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

pessimistic

but

.

.

.

have made very

in

[is

keeping with

my

.

.

.

.

idea] that

human

beings

Buddha. ... Of course, there \\ill be wars and atomic bombs will be used [by the united earth beings against the beings from outer space]. There arc manv satellites around the sun— and because there are so manv progress since Christ and

little

.

.

.

•

0

planets, the process

dream

to

my own

have

.

.

.

.

...

.

.

.

know

I

this

is

reallv too strange a

and too cynical but it is and cannot be said to be either optimistic or

quite vague

.

hypothesis

pessimistic.

endless.

is

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Here perhaps we approach the central meaning of the formulation

of

“nothingness”: Rather than “progress” or genuine change, a vision of infinite strife

which

world relationship

in

is

at the

same time not without harmonv;

a self-

which one must blend with and be acted upon by

— DEATH

394

IN LIFE

events surrounding this strife and liarmony; and a view of man’s survival

being

as

made

possible only by enlarging the dimensions of the physieal

and psyehie arena. The formulation maintains the prineiple of psyehomidst of the violence contemplated, and

logieal non-resistanee in the

reaches outward beyond our partly successful

own

planet in the effort (in this case only

to master not only anxietv

)

and

guilt

but to cope with

end-of-the-world imagery.

The young Hiroshima-born in discussing differences

At the center important

between Western and Oriental attitudes:

Western

of

civilization

in the Oriental

we had the The Allied

instance,

writer also raised the issue of nothingness

wav

is

the idea of man.

Man

less

is

of thinking. So in the Pacific war, for

feeling of fighting against great

amounts

of

had the feeling of fighting against men. I think that Europeans in particular have a different feeling when they see destruction in front of them. Their landscape is material.

human— so He sees

that

if

this

Forces,

think,

I

landscape

this distinction as affecting

is

destroyed, they feel despair.

.

.

.

images of nuclear annihilation:

Western peace movements leaders keep saying that if the A-bomb continues to be produced and is dropped all over the world, then all of humanity will be annihilated. That is characteristic of the Western way of thinking. But if you follow the Oriental thinking about this, we feel that no matter what the degree of annihilation, something In

be

will

When

left.

asked him whether this “something” included man, his answer “Perhaps not. Perhaps it will be a scene from which man is

was:

I

absent.

.

being, so

.

.”

to

What speak,

he

is

just

saying here a

symbolic immortality even

is

that the Oriental view of

men

in

the face of total

human

annihilation

Western mode of thought was dangerous,

to feel that “Since

we

It

He went on as

it

caused

why not annihilate our standpoint, “No such thinking

are to be annihilated,

enemies first”— while from the Oriental develops.”

as

speck in nature, can provide a sense of

again the feeling that “the mountains and rivers remain.” to claim that the

man

follows that with their symbolic immortality thus intact.

Oriental resignation (or psychological non-resistance) provides formulativc strength

not readily available to Westerners:

about the future than Westerners. We that whether we are killed first or whether it is our enemies, we

Oriental people have feel

less fear

Formulation: Self and

World

395

return to our natural state in the end. And the other side of shikataganai [it ean t be helped] is nanatokanaru [there is some way all

think

myself have this kind of toughness, and others do too— but Westerners may not ha\’e it. It is possible to eall it a kind of

out].

I

I

optimism— though

it is

a

mixture of pessimism and optimism.

.

.

.

Returning to the subjeet of the A-bomb and eomparing it with Pearl Harbor, he sees it as a per\erse expression of the Western tradition of human-eenteredness 7 he Japanese Air Foree attaeked Pearl Harbor beeause they were interested in exhibiting their power by destroying the enemy’s mili-

But when the Amerieans dropped the A-bomb, they were interested in exhibiting their military power through the number of people killed. At Pearl Harbor man remained man; at Hiroshima man was redueed to numbers. tary forees.

.

He

is

therefore

led

.

.

eonelude that “the

to

A-bomb

the

represents

termination of Western thought.”

But he then added, with sembling

A-bomb

his earlier

as

eharaeteristie unorthodoxy,

one of 'diibakusha toughness”

in

an image

re-

whieh he saw the

an energizing foree:

For instanee, as soon as I am eonfronted with a deeision, I think about the A-bomb. And then I jump into the deeision. The only way I ean explain this is by using a metaphor: radiation goes into one’s marrow, and one has to blow out this radiation— get rid of it— to make the deeision. The A-bomb as sueh is extremely bad and immoral. But if you take nuelear fission as sueh, it is something highly admirable, beeause in a sense

man

has ereated a seeond sun. So

when

blow the radiation out from my bones, I make use of this eonstruetive form of energy the radiation is then like a vital foree I emit as I go along— neither good nor bad in itself— but a vital foree. I

.

.

.

This image too was related to the idea of having eoncjuered death. But

no one

else

seemed

to

in

Hiroshima mentioned sueh

require

for

its

expression

artieulate, psyehologieally pereeptive,

a

a

formulation to me.

person

who

young— and not

was,

like

a hibakusha.

It

him,

Nor

did most survivors have his eonfidenee in Oriental thought and feeling

means of dealing with the A-bomb. Their experienee had rendered them more deeply aware of symbolie breakdown, and their formulations

as a

eould not be free of profound doubts about the eoutinuity of

life.

1

I

i

I.

CREATIVE RESPONSE: "A-BOMB LITERATURE"

Artistic re-creation of

an overwhelming historical experience has

do with the question of mastery.

to

their partieular aesthetie traditions

ways of “seeing”

it

and giving

it

Artists ean apply to that experienee

and individual

talents to evolve

is

important relationship does

failures I

can both

reflect that

therefore tried to learn

and the

imprecise and diffieult to evaluate. But an exist.

of group psychic response,

tions

new

form. In Hiroshima or elsewhere the

relationship between the quality or popularity of artistie works

degree of collective mastery

mueh

For these works are special

and

in

their

aeeomplishments and

response and profoundly influence

what

I

eould about

distilla-

it.

artistie reaetions of

kind to the A-bomb, partieularly in Hiroshima

itself,

and

every

to a lesser

extent in other parts of Japan and the rest of the world. Since the most efforts— in

significant

been made

number, and general influenee— have

quality,

in literature

and

film, all

of this ehapter deals with the

former, and most of the next ehapter with the latter. Stage, radio, and television

In

drama,

no case

what

I

shall

I

as well as painting

attempt

to

be

and musie, are treated more

all-inclusive. Rather,

I

briefly.

shall foeus

upon

eonsider to be the most important general themes, paying special

attention to the

artist’s

individual psyehie struggles

and

their relation-

DEATH

398

IN LIFE

ship to his creative work, particularly in the case of those artists (mostly writers) with

whom

I

was able

to explore such issues directly.

We shall

note important differences between hibakusha and nonhibakusha

but also strikingly consistent patterns having the

A-bomb

creation.

to

artists,

do with the nature of

experience and the formidable barriers

it

poses to

all

re-

1 )

Problematic Genre

Turning is

first

to writing, the

whether or not there

that has been

is

dilemma

wliieli

sueh a thing as

immecliatelv presents

“A-bomb

itself

literature”— a term

used to inelude just about everything written whieh

mentions the atomie bomb. Like “A-bomb disease,” it illuminates important problems by its very ambiguity, as well as bv the eontention it inspires.

We

have,

literature,

Ota’s

in

earlier

the personal

Town

of Corpses

ehapters, diar\- or

quoted from one kind of A-bomb

memoir — most frequentlv from Yoko

and Dr. Miehihiko Haehiva’s Hiroshima Diary.

Memoirs, of eourse, never merely reeord events, but

them

re-ereate

through the author’s personal formulation of them, however hidden this formulation may be. In Miss Ota’s ease, we have observed the blending of exquisite psyehologieal sensibilities with an angry anti-militarism; in

Dr. Haehiya’s, a eombination of medieal

eommitment and non-

judgmental detaehment (not to mention the further

Hiroshima Diary, and

in a sense reformulation of

it,

distillation of his

by Warner Wells,

the artieulate and morally responsive Ameriean physieian the book into English

Sueh memoirs literary

and

who

rendered

)

derive, at least in part,

from two longstanding Japanese

eonventions: the use of the personal diarv; and the related

novel,” a form of first-person narrative whieh

boundaries between autobiography and surprised that

many A-bomb memoirs,

fietion.

all

“I-

but obliterates the

We are

therefore hardly

ineluding Miss Ota’s, have been

labeled novels.

But the

distinction betw’een

memoir and

fietional transformation

is

of

eonsiderable importanee. Indeed, the diffieulty in taking the imaginative leap from the one to the other was a preoeeupation of just about every

spoke to

who was eoneerned

writer

I

shima

literary eritie

with

A-bomb

literature.

eonversant with these matters told

me

A

that there

have been three sequential stages of writing about the A-bomb: that of “reportage” (or

what we have

beginning at the time of the

bomb and

ealled the “personal

from reportage

(and perhaps

first,

memoir”),

extending until about the mid-

1950s; then, that of a “novel” so autobiographieal that slightly

Hiro-

is

best

it

differs

only

termed the “memoir-

novel”), lasting roughly until 1955; and a subsequent “stage of eonfusion” in whieh writers have attempted, with relativelv

little sueeess, to

:

400

;^'l^

convert

tlic

DEATH

IN LIFE

A-bomb

experience into a genuinely fietional idiom. Tlie

convietion was that writers “have already exhausted the resourees

critie’s

immediate experience/' and that they must now deal with it as something of a more symbolic nature” by portraving “ordinary people and ordinary eireumstanees while having the A-bomb unmistakably of the

present in the baekground.”

and

He went on

to deseribe a pattern of

moral

eompulsion among Hiroshima writers whieh we ean immediately reeognize to be a produet of the A-bomb’s circle of guilt: literary

The

Hiroshima

faet that they are in

.

makes manv

.

.

thev

feel that

must write about this special experience of the A-bomb and those who don’t want to write about the A-bomb feel that they have to try to work out reasons for not writing about it. .

.

.

stressed the literary

object removed

.

that

suffice.

past literary

He and

methods

but eould say

.

.

are

.

“an alien

as

inadequate for dealing

about what new approaches

little

thought too superfieial the “shifting of

from the A-bomb

movements,

problem presented by the A-bomb

human beings” — that is, bv its technologically And like many other Hiroshima writers I spoke to, he

with the A-bomb,

might

.

from

induced distance. insisted

.

.

.

He

.

to

itself

more

also raised the

politieal

dilemma

of

elements

how

to

.

literary foeus .

and peaee

.

evoke the bomb’s

unprecedented dimensions

...

you deseribe the A-bomb

If

an ordinarv way, from

in

a stand-

point of personal relationships, your deseription differs very little from that of other disasters such as ordinarv bombings or earthquakes.

—

But

A-bomb

writers feel that the

different

from these other

has speeial significanee

disasters.

to bring out this speeial significanee.

Finally,

he raised the

.

.

.

Yet thev are unable to find .

.

and is a way

.

issue of the hibakusha-wnter’s partieular inclina-

tion toward silence:

I

hose

who have been through

the experienee are hesitant about

writing about it— and therefore seem, at least outwardly, to be passive in their attitudes.

But

we

tins silenee

more

aceeptable neither to hibcikiishd-wTitcxs themselves, as already know, nor to their erities— notably those from the highlv

eentrahzed

is

Fok\o

literary

establishment,’

now ehastising provineial A-bomb in their work, now

writers as a kind of Big Brother, failing to

speak up about the

perceived

by Hiroshima eolleagues for ridiculing the

Creative Response:

1

)

401

‘'A-Bomb Literature*

“A-bomb literature” witli tlie disdainful cliallenge, hat is A-bomb literature anvwav?”^ And of course there is the very real question of how many gifted writers could be expected to appear genre of

entire

in a particular provincial area,

No

whatever

its

special historical experience.

wonder, then, that some wished to abandon the whole concept of

A-bomb

and indeed the A-bomb

literature,

woman

did one provocative

put forth

in

an

article in a

A-bomb

itself as a literar\^

somewhat

writer in a

Hiroshima newspaper

subject— as

sensational proposal

in early 1953:

not a special genre of literature. So-called A-bomb literature was written mostly from immediate feelings of indignation, Idle

is

and repentance. But now that seven vears have passed, isn’t it about time to stop writing in this fashion and instead to deal with the more essential things of life? What is important to us is

anger, hatred,

.

.

.

not death but love, romance, peace, happiness. ... It is important for writers to think serioush’ about love and romance ... in order to try to understand the essential meaning of life. Literature should not be used for special purposes, whether political or scientific, and A-

bomb

literature has

This plea

been used

for

such purposes.

.

.

for a “cheerful” literature of individual sensual experience

was

partly a reaction to the self-consciously “purposeful,” even manipulative,

tendency of

much

that had previously been written.

came

course, was that her proposal

unique history be

The

trouble, of

close to advocating that Hiroshima’s

totally ignored. In the lively debate that followed,

some writers angrily denounced her “escapist attitude,” while others, in more measured tones, granted the weaknesses of existing A-bomb literature but insisted upon its general significance. One observer wrvly summed up the debate: “Just about everything that could be said about

A-bomb literature was said but this did not necessarilv produce any A-bomb literature.” As a way out of this literary and psychological bind, some, like the .

.

literary critic,

.

suggested that Hiroshima writers turn away from pre-

occupation with victims alone and “write about the other side”— that

is,

from the standpoint of those

bomb and

possibly deal with “the storv of the pilot

keeping

mind

in

that “it

is

quite possible that

bomb, they would have used

it.”

It

answered, though not in Hiroshima various dilemmas, writers.

we must

if

A-bomb from the who dropped the who went insane,”

the Japanese had the A-

turned out that his plea was itself.

But

to

understand these

turn to the actual efforts of individual

'‘Town of Corpses': Literary Entrapment

2)

Until her death in Deeember, Japan’s best-known prodneer of

about the

bomb more

Miss Yoke Ota was probably

1963,

A-bomb

She had been writing

literature.

or less eontinnouslv sinee her original exposure to

Her books inelude Town of Corpses, whieh we have

it.

quoted,

Human

Evening

the

so frequently

Rags (N ingen Ranru), and The Town and People of Calm {Yunagi no hiachi to Hito) — all essentially

memoirs. Not only did she win several literary prizes for these books, but she was eonstantly ealled upon to diseuss A-bomb problems on the mass media, in keeping with the Japanese tendeney to lionize and make pundits of suecessful writers.

During an extensive interview fifteen months before her death I was impressed by her artieulateness on the general subjeet of the A-bomb, but I was also struek by the severity of her eonfliets. Despite my introduetion from a prominent Hiroshima friend and eolleague of hers, she was touehy and ambivalent about our meeting— stressing to my assistant (who visited her to make arrangements) how busy she was and how bad

and yet never aetually refusing to see me. W^hen we did meet, I found her to be a woman in her late fifties who seemed to be harassed and restless. Surrounding her sense of being a leading hibakusha-writer she

felt,

was

a fragile aura of pride, anxiety, vanity,

me

quiekly told

that she

had

just

experieneed the atomie bomb, there will I

had

and suspieiousness. Thus, she a

tooth pulled and “sinee

I

always a danger that the bleeding

is

not stop and that leukemia might develop”; and upon learning that

had been talking

commented

number

to a

sharply: “I

am

of writers eoneerned with the

the only

A-bomb

Who

bomb, she

else

could you

talk she softened considerably.

She spoke

writer.

find?”

But during the course of our easily life

and

sensitively

about her A-bomb reactions,

as well as her literary

before and during the war. For by the time of the

achieved considerable standing as a in those days

“woman

bomb

she had

writer” (a category which

conveyed a sense of rebellious feminism), and had long

since left her native Hiroshima for the professional opportunities of

Tokyo.

Ironically, she

because of

its

had returned

to

seeming wartime safety

Hiroshima, as did

in

many

others,

comparison with the devastat-

Creative Response: ing

bombings

however,

it

])

“A-Bomh

Literature'

4

03

okyo was then undergoing. Once the atomic bomb fell, came to dominate her literary imagination. Carried from her 1

house unconscious by her mother and sister with severe injuries to her head and neck ( ]\Iy face was like a pumpkin’’), then overwhelmed by what she saw and for some time considered close to death herself, she began to write as a form of sur\ ivor’s mission and a means of staving alive:

asked myself what I had been writing for the past twentv vears. I couldn’t answer, and this ga\'e me a terrible feeling. I began to feel that it was not just a matter of this disaster, but something that leads I

toward the end of the earth, and that if I lived, I should write about what had happened. I had to write as soon as possible— because I thought I might die at any time. I wanted to write objectively. And I

thought that if I could show some endurance, I could live, as I had heard that if one lived until December, then one would not die. And also that when the time came for considering the problem of reparations with America, all of this would be written down. I wrote exactlv what I saw not fiction and I wrote it in great haste.

—

Town

Thus,

.

.

.

of Corpses^ despite

Occupation censorship, emerged of the atomic

.

bomb

as

one of the

that

her

literary inclinations:

person’s writing,

it

publication

its

first

.

by

delaved

detailed descriptions

experience.

Miss Ota emphasized emotional and

having

.

means

that the

bomb exposure “WTen there’s a

new elements were

forth

old

change

in a

called real

spiritually present

within him even before.” She had been influenced bv the “proletarian literature” of the thirties,

and even when writing

in a

romantic vein,

dealt critically with Japanese constraints

upon the individual, particularly upon the individual woman. But like most writers, she had expressed no direct protest against the militaristic regime (“I didn’t want to go to prison”). It is quite likely that guilt over not having done so also contributed to the

power of her post-bomb

repeated denunciations of Japanese militarism. friend put

it,

written in the

For the

“She wrote with great

writing,

any

In

intensity, in a

as

its

one

past.”-"^

A-bomb had after

case,

to

wav she had never

in restoring her sense of authenticity as a writer,

months

and

upon her. the bomb she was “happy to begin a

liberating effect

writer’s spirit within myself,” along with her

We

we may say that recall how three

to feel the flame of the

remarkable admission of

having been “angrier at the ignorant imperialism which attempted to

04

4

DEA

^^1^

my

destroy

IN LIFE

II

writer’s

One

stroyed.”

r

is

tlian

life

witli

the fact that Hiroshima was de-

angered most by that which creates inner conflicts and

A-bomb

self-contempt, and while the

did this too,

it

also provided her

with a means of emotional and literary purification. That

caused her to

and released her from humiliating

siiflfer

straints, so that this purification (as

it

both

earlier

con-

is,

she also told us before) could help

dissolve her grief.

Her compulsion

later deaths of other

was the only one

about the A-bomb was intensified by the

to write

prominent A-bomb

“WTen

that

left,” so

I

wrote about anything

the A-bomb, the image of Hiroshima would

not set

bomb

it

aside.”

survival.

These deaths,

bomb

writers,

come back

to

else

me.

in effect, created repetitions of

Continued “survival

satisfaction she derived

by the sense that

writers,

along with

priority,”

“I

but

could

I

her A-

whatever

from becoming the uncontested dean of A-

gave further impetus to her guilt and to her sense of

mission.

But she was not very

is

writer.

also

aware that “to use the A-bomb exclusively

and wished

skillful,”

She was thus caught

which we recognize hibakusha as

as

a

to

be more than merely an A-bomb

A-bomb

in a characteristic

corollary

in writing

of

the

identity

writer’s bind,

struggle

of

the

Her dilemma was made worse by what she viewed the impossible demands of the subject matter:

It

is

in general.

outside the categor\' of literature.

.

.

.

With

ordinary fiction,

and categories — children’s literature, romantic stories, and so on. But there is no pattern and no category for the atomic bomb experience. The experience was so strong, so great, so powerful, that one can find no words to describe it. there

are

patterns

.

She developed what we may call truth” which made it impossible

.

.

a survivor’s sense of “sacred historical

for her to

make

use of the fictional

mode: As

a subject for fiction

it is

very difficult.

...

I

don’t want to write

things— I just want to write the truth— to describe it as it was without exaggeration. Fiction is usually a mixture of truth and lies. But I don’t want to write lies about the A-bomb the wav fictitious

.

some

others have.

.

.

.

.

.

In other words, the imprisoning actuality of the

prevented her from entering upon

its

A-bomb

imaginative

experience

re-creation.

The

Creative Response: 1) ‘'A-Bomb Literature” psychic truth of fiction tlien

could be free of desceration.

A-bomb

the

became “lies”; only literal historical truth Her further eomment that “fiction about

is

But when she quickly added the strength.

.

Maybe

.

.

a self-deprecator\’ just

I

that the fietional approach

however

difficult

seemed

it

the

don’t have

— one

eould

its

telling her

A-bomb eould not be

dismissed,

She went on

to her.

it”

judgment,

literary

A-bomb emotions

unresolved

still

to

comment — “I

don’t have the gift for

once more the intervention of her

that

05

not interesting” would probably be supported by most and readers— at least concerning most fietion written up to then.

critics

feel

4

an awareness

to reveal

interfere with her capaeity to

write:

Most people seem often said that

to look

am

I

A-bomb eomes

the

upon

me

one of the best

as

an interesting person, and

women

writers

— but when

it is

talk of

bad mood. ... I think I am still very angry at the A-bomb. Maybe I need more time more distanee— before I ean write further about the A-bomb. I would like to write about things that have nothing to do with the A-bomb. Beeause when I write about the A-bomb, I feel physically ill and I have to rest. up,

I

find myself in a verv .

We

.

sense the kind of entrapment which she mentioned

earlier in

an introduetion to one of the editions of

At times

I

objeetively.

is,

years

of Corpses:

doubts about whether writers must write feeling myself entangled by the town of eorpses, I

And

in other

Town

some

my

have had

have not been able to move an

She

.

ineh."*

words, entrapped by the identity of the dead, by

its

disturbing inner questions, which in her ease are asked in literary terms:

“Do

have the right to imagination? Can what I say about the dead ever be authentie?” Her increasing dissatisfaetion with the memoir I

approach

to

A-bomb

literature,

and her

inability to evolve

one, undoubtedly contributed to her “anger” at the

Her

eonfliets also

found expression

an alternative

A-bomb.

in bodily terms.

She suffered from

ehronie debilitation, which was sometimes diagnosed as “nervous weakness”

and

at other times

was assoeiated with sueh

speeifie

physieal

eonditions as gall bladder and heart disease. Her strong fear of aftereffects

that

was also commented upon, along with her frequent insistenee

“my

sickness

“beautiful

woman

is

not

A-bomb

writer

One friend described her as a mueh anguish, earried the experi-

disease.”

who, with

406

ence of

DEATH

IN LIFE

atomic

bomb on

tlic

her shoulders, and lived with courage,

constantly fighting her fear.” Also mentioned were her strong

upon

demands

friends (“like a spoiled child”), her need for others’ demonstra-

tions of love,

and despite being warm and hospitable,

her composure whenever the subject of the

speech became strong and

concerning love

tivities

a

tendency to lose

A-bomb came

up: “Her

W^e may thus say that earlv sensiand dependency were exacerbated bv her Aviolent.”’'*

bomb experience and her subsequent literarv struggles. And in what she told me there were implications that over the years she felt further “abandoned” by publishers and editors who showed less interest in her as a general writer (she

bomb) than

had done some work not related

A-bomb problems

She mentioned these matters

as well.

association with her sense of the

in

of time, and, ultimately, of the

Whether

atomic

an “A-bomb writer,” and, moreover, showed signs of

as

losing interest in

movement

to the

meaning

of

life:

—

We

seems to be there or not the past is always with us. can’t forget the past. On August sixth people [publishers and editors]

who

it

otherwise forget

August them.

me come

here and ask

my

opinions.

and often I go on a trip somewhere in order But the words written [about the A-bomb]

sixth, .

.

.

hate

I

to avoid will

last

forever.

She thus

felt

partly sustained

out her literary mission

in a

by having made use of the past

way

to carrv

that promised her a form of creative

immortality. But the tenuousness of this formulation of her relationship

A-bomb was

to the

revealed in

what she

said

immediatelv afterward.

She claimed that she suffered from “a kind of neurosis,” which caused her general physical condition to “get better

headed

for peace,” so that “If there

be better than conflicts

I

am

when

the world seems

had been no Korean War,

now.” While

it

is

I

would

certainly true that the inner

engendered by threats of war could worsen her condition, we

suspect that she was also struggling with “unmentionable” retaliatory

wishes and inner themes of violence.

She went on feel

I

am

to describe a typical

half-sick

— my bed

is

hibakusha sense of weakness (“I

always ready”), along with a premonition

of dying: “I have always been a passionate, active person, but

the power of accurate

while

life

dwindling.” Such

premonitions

perceptions of declining bodily and

we cannot know

exactly

can

now

derive

I

feel

from

mental function, and

how much A-bomb

influences

con-

Creatixe Response: \) ''A-Bomb Literature’ tributed to Miss Ota’s death,

eoronary)

illness

was

we have been

eonfliet

a

wc may assume

tliat lier fatal

psyehosomatie proeess

in

atomic

Of

bomb

(apparently

whieh the kinds of

diseussing played a signifieant part.

ease, others inevitably associated her death, as they

40 7

Whatever the

had her

life,

with the

experience. As one friend wrote:

course, this kind of sudden death

is

by no means

rare.

But we

cannot think of her death without relating it to the fact that a writer by the name of Yoko Ota experienced the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.^

Beyond the question logically

bomb

and

of medical aftereffects, the association

historically understandable.

Her

is

literary response to

psveho-

atomic

exposure had become, for many, a primary source of information

and formulation. Her achievements were rendered sive by the conflicts surrounding them.

all

the more impres-

''Chinkon'

3) I

he writer-physician we

kusha

literary

and psychological

been unable to

He

undergone similar hiba-

But unlike Miss Ota, he had write about the atomic bomb.

too had a severe

and radiation

injuries

liave referred to has

struggles.

A-bomb exposure (though without

the serious

experienced by Miss Ota); included in his

effects

retained imprint were the deaths of a family friend in his

home,

of his

mother elsewhere, and of so many neighbors that his family was the only one in his area left intact. His resulting death guilt profoundly wife

s

affected his approach to

Mostly

it

A-bomb

literature.

made him extremely

dealt with the

problem “from a

critical.

He denounced

writers

political point of view,” or

who

from the

standpoint of any “cause,” even the cause of peace— since such writings,

he

felt,

treated

the

A-bomb “only

thought of writing about that

came

into

my mind

he found that

it,

own

and much on

literary career

.

.

To mind—

began).

tioned the kinds of things he had in

.

he himself

with others, “the images itself.”

But he

“not enough” and already too familiar. (He

in his mid-thirties,

before his

as

When

were impressions of the scene

specifically rejected these as

was then

externally.”

this order

had been written

illustrate his point

he men-

images of dead bodies immediately after the bomb, of the smell

which

filled

the

air,

of the

fire

which crept up the

hills,

of the

unusually clear blue sky a few days later, looking so peaceful that one had the impression that nothing had happened.

—but

insisted

that “there

impression that he was

time considered them

He

is

still

no use

moved by

repeating them.”

I

these images, but at the

looked toward a novel in which he would write about the

Ota shied away from,

He

had the

same

literary cliches.

“not for any causes, but for myself.”

issue.

in

He

A-bomb

wished to do exactly what Miss

to bring his fictional imagination to the

too, however,

sacred: he did not, like

whole

was blocked by a sense of the experience as Miss Ota, demand literal historical truth, but

he did require near-perfection

in re-creating history.

Creative Response: 1)

“A-Bomb

4

Literature’’

09

one shouldn’t write about the A-bomb unless he is first certain he can write well about other subjects. If you cannot do this and are immature as a writer, and vou write about the A-bomb— then vou are I

feel

abusing the souls of the dead.

To

.

.

.

avoid “abusing the souls of the dead,” he wished to “reserve the

subject for such time that

the very heart of survivor’s mission

I

can be sure that

Anything

it.”

less,

will

I

be able to deal with

he implied, would

and would aggravate

fail

his death guilt.

He

aware (but only partly) that these exacting standards could indefinitely prolonged litcrarv silence

to fulfill his

was partly result in

an

about the A-bomb.

meantime he continued to confront the problem, but did so indirectly by concerning himself with the larger general issue of the relationship of the living to the dead. Coming upon a collection of verse by a Tokyo poet who had lost one of his sons in the Pacific war, he was In the

struck by

its title,

Chinkon, meaning Requiem, or Consolation of Souls:

found that the idea of Chinkon had a special meaning for me— first, in the sense that I should write in order to console the souls of the [Abomb] dead, and second, that I should write in order to console or pacifv something troubled in my own mind. And this is what I mean I

by writing about the A-bomb

for myself, rather

than for the sake of

causes.

Derived from ancient Shinto religious practice native to Japan, the word chinkon predates Buddhist influence, and originally referred to the

ceremony

for enabling the soul of a person hovering

death to achieve repose— cither through urging or to return to the

bodv

if

it

had already

offering water to the dying (which

significance

.

left."

to

the

As with the custom of

in

actuality

or

in

came to signify which had become restless,

In subsequent usage the

dangerous

and

not to leave the body,

either

life,

the pacification or eyen restraint of souls

wayward, and

life

was sometimes part of chinkon), the

was that of maintaining

symbolic continuih

it

between

word

living— whether

also

because

of

being

neglected or because their owners had died unnatural or violent deaths.

Chinkon

suggests a gentle atmosphere of respect and love,

and above

all

a combination of continued connection with the dead and peaceful separation from them.

The

bomb

writer-physician realized that these concerns grew out of his A-

exposure (“Because of the experience,

the problem of death”) but dealt with

I

them

can’t help thinking about in essays

about the

lives

DEATH

410

and deaths of other

IN LIFE writers

and

back from what he knew to be

lield

his

ultimate subject:

cannot plunge into writing about the A-bomb experience without first wondering whether the souls of all those who died have really been consoled or not. And by writing, which is a form of chinkon, I I

feel

am

I

doing something for them,

I

have

kind of

a

ideal, a sense of

and of special mission toward those who died in the bomb — because I might have died myself. I don’t know whether it was by the grace of God or not, but the fact that I survived while so many died means that I have to do something about it. This responsibility

.

sense of responsibility to the dead

The

idea of chinkon, then,

ticity,

means

a

is

becomes

my

tie to

for

him

them.

.

.

.

.

.

a path to literarv authen-

of both carrying out his survivor’s mission

and maintain-

ing an appropriate tone of psychological non-resistance.

Through an

awareness of continuing responsibility to the dead, he can carrv out the psychological ‘hvork of mourning”; he can gradually separate himself from the dead by means of constant emphasis upon his larger continuity

with them. But he finds that there are barriers to achieving tion

this resolu-

:

There

something which cannot be consoled or reconciled within myself. That is, I feel two parts of m\self to be always at war with one another that which can be pacified and that which cannot. is

—

He

related this 'hmpacified” part of himself

against death

human

life,

itself:

whether

As it

a doctor, is

I

am

a disease or

first

to a physician’s struggle

aware that whatever threatens an A-bomb, causes an aroused

me.” But more pressing was 'another kind of anger” which occurred in response to all forms of hvpocris\’ or deception concerning feeling in

the

A-bomb ^

exaggerations or distortions of anv kind, even by those o 1 d peace,” and military threats ever^'where,

preventing the souls of the unpacified

side, then,

A-bomb dead from

had

to

resting in peace. His

do with anvthing that undermined

formulation of significant death for

A-bomb

victims,

and thereby

a re-

activated his guilt.

In contrast, he described the pacified side of his

simply to gradually forget the

A-bomb

mind

as

"wishing

experience as the years go by.”

He

admitted that "I don’t experience indignation at every moment,” that even the A-bomb must be written about "from a humorous and witty approach,” and that "there are aspects of

my

life

[such as the

Creative Response:

1

‘'A-Bomb

)

publication of his literary group’s magazine] which

But one suspected resistance

— whether

that

“pacification”

this

enjov thoroughly.”

I

or

in

itself

achieved through forgetting, through gradual psy-

stimulus

a

inhibited his efforts at

He

A-bomb

death

to

which

guilt,

and pleasure— turn

in

further

writing.

therefore felt impelled to apply his medieal identity, as he did his

literary one, to further

dying. just

non-

psychological

ehological absorption, or through reassertion of vitality

became

411

Literature'’

He

observed that “every

human

own way

being has his

of dying,

each has his way of living,” and espoused a psvehosomatie

as

approach to death cancer

mueh”

study of the general signifieance of death and

.

)

.

.

perhaps

He made

.

as a

it

“symbol” of

it is

life

(“For instanee,

mueh

because you ate too

clear that these speeulations

you die of

if

riee or

emerged

smoked too from

directly

A-bomb deaths— and that these deaths him because “One was not allowed to have his

continuing contemplation of

continued to disturb

own way

of dying but was simply annihilated with everyone else,”

and

we recall to be his inability to formulate this “total human beings.” Wdiat he could not emotionally absorb,

because of what annihilation of

was the massive anonymity and the irrelevance

or creatively transform,

A-bomb deaths. Unable to relate these deaths to any cosmology or vision of human continuih', he (and A-bomb writers in general) could of

not render them either dramatie or

Thus

tragic.

lacking the materials

and capaeitv

for narrative, the hibakusha-writer finds himself

baek upon

own

Yet

in

his

self-enclosed death guilt.

the midst of

suddenly surprised

thrown

my

me by

second talk with the writer-phvsieian, he

saving,

“WTile

thought of a new theme for a novel.”

talking to vou just now,

He was

referring to

an image

which he thought could be the beginning of a creative breakthrough,

memory

of the

dilemma he experienced

whether and how

bomb

time of the

a

about

to tell a very elose friend, then outside of the eity,

about the death of that

would inelude

at the

I

friend’s

mother.

The

story

he had

in

details of his relationship to the friend, to the

(who had been something

of a substitute

mother

for

mind

mother

him during

a

period of study awav from home), and between the two families— all against

the

A-bomb background. But once more

the

entire

vision

depended upon the prineiple of chinkon:

If

I

were

to write a story

the point of view of

my friend, and

my

about

this subject,

suffering,

of his dead

but also

mother— in

would be not only from from the point of view of

it

order to console her

spirit.

DEATH

412

Consoling the

IN LIFE of

spirit

a

particular

person provides

him with

the

neeessary sense of significance, and of larger symbolie strueture, within

which

to formulate life

and death. His explorations with

personal and creative difficulties had

released

him

me

suffieiently

of his

from

death guilt to allow him to apply to this formulation a slightlv greater radius of literary imagination.

next step:

logical

chinkon

much

He

could then take what was for him the

the direct creative application

of

his

principle of

A-bomb experience. The episode made me wonder whether what we call “writer’s bloek” might not be related to various

to

of

forms of death

guilt.

In any case, he quickly qualified even this

by adding,

“If

I

ever write this story,

about the A-bomb.”

to write

I

modest

will explain in

He seemed

bit of serendipitv, it

just

how

difficult

some psychie level that his theme was no more than a limited advance and held no eertaint}^ of doing justiee to the special dimensions of the A-bomb. He it is

to realize (at

)

then reverted to another eoncern he wished to write about, “the story of

human

revival,

how

people regain their strength after a disaster,” but

again revealed uncertainty about his capacitv to do so:

.

.

.

the process

is

so complicated that

I

have not been able to form a can do now is to write about

image of how this occurs. So all I things I know from the small limits of

clear

ence.

In this

.

.

mv own

personal experi-

.

way he

reasserted his

commitment

to

authenticitv— to what

is

and accurate — while again expressing reticence in the faee of the demands of the A-bomb. We sense that his grasp of his own

direct, personal,

exacting standards

— and

his

commitment

fictional transformation a possibility.

than that, the talent, render

*

What

am

many imponderables

But

to

as to

chinkon

— make

whether

it

genuine

can be more

involved, including the mvsteries of

any prediction hazardous.

suggesting

that the writer, even under ordinary circumstances, may experience guilt associated with \arious symbolic forms of death, which can cause his literary

I

is

imagination to cease functioning. '(See the

last part of

Chapter XI.)

'i)

Experimental City

\onhibakusha

\\ritcrs

but usually with writers.

much

ha\e also contributed

a different relationship to

Characteristically,

it

outside of the city at the time of the

bomb

literature,

from that of hihakusha

have deep roots

the}’

A-bomb

to

in

Hiroshima, were

because of a personal or

family wartime assignment, returned shortly aftenvard to be shoeked

and awed by the devastation, and took on an identifieation with survivors which was strongly infused with guilt over not ha\ing themselves

been through the A-bomb experienee. But although

fication

this identi-

included the equivalent of a sense of survivor’s mission

producing A-bomb

literature, they

were not

by A-bomb demands

as actual survivors

Neither their inner pressure to

\^Tite

likelv to

be

as

in

overwhelmed

carrving out the mission.

in

nor their

toward their own writing tended to be quite

self-eritical

attitudes

as agonizing. The\-

have

therefore retained greater freedom to experiment with various svmbols

A-bomb

A-bomb literature and other forms of writing, or even to abandon A-bomb literature altogether. But being onee removed from the A-bomb experienee has created its own special problem of authentieitv, and its own of the

experienee, to switch back and forth behveen

combination of survivor-like Snell has

conflicts.

been the case of

a

Hiroshima-born writer, Toshivuki Kaji-

yama, who wrote a particularlv eontroversial short novel entitled Experimental City {Jikken Toshi)^ prior

to

moving

to

considerable success with other forms of writing.

eomfortable but modest mid-thirties

whose

manner, and different

new house

casual dress (he

faeile

responsiveness

from that which

I

in the

Tokvo and achieving

He

me man

received

Tokyo suburbs,

a

in his

in his

wore informal kimono), easvgoing all

suggested an atmosphere verv

had become accustomed

to in talks with

people in Hiroshima, and with hihakusha anvwhere.

Kajiyama returned

to

Hiroshima during the early post-bomb period at

the age of eighteen. Because of the food shortage he had to work as a

farmer for two vears before completing his education at what

Hiroshima University. In

his dual struggle to

environment and establish himself information about survivors

as a

young

in association

is

now

cope with the A-bombed writer,

he began to gather

with various literarv groups

.

DEATH

414

which sprang up

in

groups— “Hiroshima

IN

I,

IFE

Hiroshima during those Literature’'

The names

years.

of these

(Hiroshima Bungaku), Amanojaku

(a

Japanese folk-creature whose tendency to do precisely the opposite of

what he is asked has made him a humorous s\mbol of perverseness), and V Ami (the French word for friend)— suggest some of the disparate currents which prevailed. Equally varied were the positions taken in the groups during their protracted discussions of

One

A-bomb

literature:

making A-bomb literature “devilish” ... so that the A-bomb was synonymous with e\ il and people thought they should try to determine who was responsible— politicians, the American President, the scientists. But it was an endless debate. Sometimes we considered writing with a strong victim-consciousness, sometimes with a humanistic approach, sometimes the political approach. One T\^ producer said that A-bomb literature is idea was that of

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

meaningless.

.

.

.

.

to deseribe additional difficulties faced

A-bomb

attempting to produce

literature:

unfulfilled promises of financial help, a

severe

by groups

economic problems

combination of disdainful

treatment from Tokyo literarv lights and generational conflicts

Hiroshima writers themselves, to look

.

.

Kajiyama went on

and

.

.

upon the experience

a

tendency among older

rural

among

hibakusha

as a mysterious natural calamity (“like

earthquake or a great thunder”) and to

resist

an

having anything stirred up

by questions, and a lack of sympathetic understanding on the part of Hiroshima journalists and professors (about whom he commented:

“Some

of

them had never gone through

neither had I”

He

impression of one

But

as

themselves— for that matter,

)

spoke about these

tides.

it

who

difficulties

with detachment, and conveved the

could adapt himself readilv to shifting literarv

he went on

to explain his decision to leave

Hiroshima, he

vividly evoked the negative forces at play in the citv, particularlv as thev

affected a

nonhibakusha writer

like himself:

wonder if you noticed the strange kind of atmosphere that exists in Hiroshima— the unique situation around the A-bomb. ... I can understand the tendency of hibakusha to want to forget their agonies and the other two thirds of the population who have not gone I

.

.

.

through the experience also object to writing done about the Abomb. So I felt that Hiroshima was a kind of closed societv. 4 hen some hibakusha feel that since thev do not know when thev .

.

.

Creative Response:

1

A-Bomb

)

415

Literature’’

might die of leukemia, they are unable to work. W^e eould say that this is a result of the A-bomb, but I feel that if people think their life may not last long, they should eoneeutrate upon liyiug it fruitfully. Of eourse, I am not sure I can say that about myself because I drink quite heayily, though I am not a hibakusha. But as long as hibakusha ha\e these k'clings, and look upon Hiroshima as a special city, then people there will not really deyclop.

.

.

.

After a while

I

did not

and decided that I would no longer write with a group but would write by myself, and came to Tokyo. ... I left Hiroshima for many reasons. But if I were to sum it up in a word, I would say I got sick of Hiroshima.

want

to stay there,

.

.

He

of course, to the general constellation of counterfeit nur-

refers,

turance,

.

well

as

as

the array of intrsi-hibakusha and

to

nonhibakusha antagonisms with which we are

hibakusha-

familiar. In evaluating his

one must take into account the general cultural and

decision,

financial

advantages Tokyo offers any writer, as well as his increasing sense that the pressures of the Hiroshima atmosphere were creatively intolerable.

His choice of subject matter for his major a solution to a

Many

dilemma and an angry

difficult

novel was, then, both

farewell to the city:

simply writing about the A-bomb is selling the or selling Hiroshima. This feeling people have makes it for us to write. So I thought that rather than writing about

people

A-bomb

A-bomb

the A-bomb,

feel that

I

would write about people and

toward

their attitudes

the city.

His wav of avoiding the often paralyzing accusation of

bomb” was

to shift the area

of literary formulation

Japanese-American interplay, and

theme.

The importance

probably

simplistic, of very real

virtues than

emotional issues

in

City its

the

that of the

as the title suggests, to the

of Experimental

lies less in its literary

to

‘‘selling

guinea pig

(published in

1954)

representation, however

Hiroshima, particularly the

racial issue.

The Atomic

novel takes place almost entirely within the confines of the

Bomb

produced by

Casualty Commission

a strike of Japanese employees.

characters: the cold-blooded

ing

Nisei;

compound

the

corrupted

American

at a

There are

moment

of crisis

five prototypical

scientist; the calculating, toady-

(Americanized)

young Japanese

girl;

the

morally sensitive Japanese physician; and the sincere, psychologically affected hibakusha-reporter The first four arc employed by the ABCC,

DEATH

416 and the

last

IN LIFE

comes into contact with them when sent there

to cover the

strike.

Tlie tone of the book

is

on the one hand there

is

established immediately by a stark contrast:

ABCC’s

the

American elegance— the

alien

strange but ‘‘smart-looking” building standing at the top of the

lobby showing

beautiful

polished

floors,

attention

“careful

lighting,”

to

hill, its

the

well-

comfortable sofas, and “foreign-made toys for children

to play with,” all of

which

“dreamlike, not really a part of Hiro-

is

shima”; and on the other, there

the absolute misery of Japanese

is

victims thrust into this alien conclave:

Look at the Japanese who come to be examined, with their confused and timid expression, holding their babies or exposing their ugly keloids. They seem to be foreigners here. ... This place might well be a foreign countrv.^

The author

goes on to suggest that the fundamental reason for the

not economic (the

strike

is

them

physicians, receive better salaries than

hundred Japanese employees,

six

fifty

of

do other Japanese), and

that the public explanation given (discrimination

shown

in the firing of

Japanese employees) was “not quite convincing.” Rather, the strikers felt compelled to “take a firm attitude” because of “some hidden

element”

— that

American presence

The

the

is,

individual

in

basic

conflict

surrounding

the

post-A-bomb

Hiroshima.

embodiment

of

that

presence,

ABCC, is not so much evil as exploitative. He arranges for Japanese

the

cigar-smoking

director of the

crudely insensitive and

blindly

doctors working under

him

to

devote

examining

know

themselves

feces, urine

fragmentary

to

specimens,

the terrible effects of the

etc.,

bomb”

studies are accessible to the director.”

and demeaning tasks—

so that they can “only partially

while

And

“all

of the results of these

the director epitomizes an

anti-human embrace of “pure science” characteristic of

all

American

ABCC physicians: Humanism. Such

a

concept

excluded from American doctors’ concerns. WTat are the effects? This is all they are interested in knowing as scientists. \Vc have in our hands a new field of medicine,

and we

will culti\ate this field.

is

Our

At home our people are trying to produce new medicines for treatment, by making use of guinea pigs. And that is being done upon the basis of my findings. Our materials. Other than these, there are no effective weapons. No task

is

great.

Creative Response: strike

1

)

“A-Bomb

417

Literature'*

can stop us from getting these materials. This research of ours

will

enhance the

else

could this be

mankind in the future. We are right. What not humanism? The injured are injured. A

of

life

if

No

one can change that. Neither Stalin nor Christ nor even Hirohito can change that. Tomorrow is what matters. We are making a contribution to mankind for tomorrow. We are historical

necessity.

right.

This

scientific fanaticism, in other

words, equates actual guinea pigs

used in America with hibakusha used for similar purposes in Hiroshima.

The word “weapons”

in Japanese, buki),

(

moreover, suggests a military

aura by conveving, in both languages, the double meaning of “war

instrument” and “research tool.”

The

Nisei,

George Matsuda, has

a personal identity

and

a professional

position (liaison division chief) consistent in their amorphousness.

he maintains considerable power

thirty-one,

in the organization

Only

through

“cringing before both the [American] director and the Japanese,” just

he

as in his life in general

relies

upon

a series of false roles.

He

defends

the American position and explains to the Japanese reporter that “the

whites here are not really bad people” but merelv “peaceful scientists,”

becomes

a fellow-Japanese suffering

we Japanese who work

here are

as a “miserable Nisei.”

Japanese,

is

But

all

under the American yoke

.

.

robots”), and also speaks of himself

his effect

one of “distaste” and of

(“.

upon the

reporter, a

bona

fide

ill-defined hostilitv:

The Somehow

His nasal Japanese struck the ears with a strange intonation.

words sounded like a translation of an amateur play. [Kaji] suddenly felt hatred for George Matsuda. And he could not immediately tell what the nature of this hatred was. This man, he .

.

.

.

.

.

which never intersects with the Japanese. In the same way, this man is an American who shall never intersect with Americans either. Even when Japanese and Americans come together [to associate] with each other, this man will still be on that parallel line [never coming together with either]. Such a man is the Nisei. thought,

is

The author

Japanese but he

a

told

me

in a

there

is

way

[as

on

that he wished

particular suffering of the Nisei”

but

is

in

a

parallel

the novel

who “belonged

line

to

“portray the

to the Japanese race

an American] helped cause the disaster.” But although

a faint suggestion of

sympathy

in the last part of the

above-

DEATH

418

IN LIFE

quoted passage, the overall tone of the book Nisei flatters, deceives, and

is

in every

way

is

one of contempt. The

inauthentic.

George Matsuda’s fiancee and secretary, Aki Kawai, has also, “sold out” to American counterfeit nurturance, on a number of levels. But she at least has a

“good reason”

for

doing

so.

When

she finds herself

attracted to the reporter, she reminds herself of George’s higher salary,

and what

it

means

to her:

Aki thought of the joints of her mother’s knotty fingers. I don’t want to have such fingers. [I want] a life with an electric refrigerator and cocktail parties.

.

.

More ominous than

these aspirations for the American-style

Good

Life

was her association (here through the eyes of the journalist) with the atomic bomb itself:

7 he thin and transparent nylon hose shone coolly over the legs of the woman going up the stairway in front of him. Looking at her legs absent-mindedly, Kaji somehow thought of the method of identifying virgins which he and fellow workers had talked about ... by looking at the

woman’s

And

ankles.

according to that method, this

woman

was probably not a virgin. He felt a strange impulse to grab the woman’s ankles and drag her down to the floor. Nylon. A distasteful color and feeling, he thought. The company making nvlons is said to make atomic bombs also. Nylon and atomic bombs. Forcing a smile, Kaji thought seriously about the relationship between these two things. .

.

American influence not only corrupts the Japanese woman and makes her sexually provocative and dangerous, but also coats her body with a material

somehow

woman becomes

related

to

bomb. The Americanized of her race and a “wearer” of the

the atomic

both a betrayer

bomb. ‘‘a

The

racial feeling’’ sensitive

Japanese physician. Dr. Tokumitsu, takes the reverse course. A medical doctor and a gentleman,” he has come to the conclusion that he and fellow Japanese physicians working for the ABCC are purchased very

and return

to

much

like courtesans.”

Now

more honorable medical work

that he plans to resign

in his

native village, he

the classical Faustian question: “Having sold one’s soul, can one get it back? And in the midst of his talk with the reporter. Dr. literally asks

Creative Response:

1

''A-Bomb

)

419

Literature’'

Tokumitsu has the disturbing fantasy tliat the other has become a totally dehumanized ABCC patient who has neither lungs nor blood but consists only of a blood

cells,

red blood

cells,

pigs

.

.

index cards listing numbers of white

and the

do with making

assailed has to

Guinea

series of

The

like.

‘‘guinea pigs” of his

used for experiments

.

.

.

.

with which he

guilt

is

countrymen:

have germs implanted

them, their various reactions recorded, and then their ultimate fate ... is to be anatomicallv dissected. These w'hite animals are in

dissected

the valuable purpose of “making a

for

mankind.”

If

that

is

so,

then what

dissecting [post-mortem]

girls

who have no

to

the purpose of examining and

is

men and women

who keep

keloids, babies

contribution

with their faces twisted by

ha\’ing strange bleeding, diarrhea, or fever,

menstruation, or wives

who

are sterile?

Is

the

purpose that of making a contribution to mankind? As [Japanese] doctors, their conscience is sometimes troubled. The agony of treating their

own people

come with

as

guinea pigs.

earnest pleas for

tion, but, as davs

began to seem as from these eyes. distressed, burning

The

C}es of

medicines

eflfecti\’e

A-bomb first

showed

we have

learned to associate with A-

body of

takes place during the dissection of the

The “white

crisis

baby which had died

scientific discovery,

emits a low

what I have been o\'erwhelmed with anger, and comes to

wliispers excitedly: “I’ve got

waiting for!” Tokumitsu feels

a

spiritual

doctor” doing the dissection suddenly

becomes exhilarated by an unexpected and

supplica-

eves.^"*

bomb-linked death guilt— and indeed Dr. Tokumitsu’s

whistle,

who

and months went by, began to flash with anger. It though the doctor’s onlv job was that of escaping Ryokichi Tokumitsu has been troubled bv those

Again, the accusing eyes which

of liver disease.

victims

it!

This

is

the sudden bitter realization that

the purpose of the

mankind, that

it

ABCC’s work was

was only

not to

for a part of

make

mankind,

a contribution to

for those

who have

from the Japanese. Those words [of the American doctor] could never be said over [corpses of] people who skin of a different color

had the same skin as one’s own. strike might have originated in such Contained all

in this

extreme imagery

is

.

.

.

Tokumitsu

a racial feeling.

the accusation of a racial basis for

American “experimentation” upon Japanese— for

“like

realized that the

treating hibakusha

guinea pigs,” for vampire-like desecration of corpses, and by

:

DEATH

420

IN LIFE

implication, for victimization of Japanese by the Kaji, the reporter,

is

bomb

in the first place.

the novel’s protagonist, and seems clearly to

represent the author’s voice (he in faet bears one of the author’s pen

names). But hero.

hibakusha conflicts render him something of an

his

His vulnerability to guilt

before arriving at the his

ABCC,

is

number of newspaper companv (one

possible bv the dismissal of a

senior people following an earlier strike in his a parallel here

immediatelv when even

revealed

he has the uncomfortable recollection that

own advancement was made

might claim

anti-

with the hibakusha

of those '‘dismissed” from life), llien,

Matsuda, he has a fantasy of

a

when

s

first

survival at the expense

approached bv George

court procedure in which ordinarv

positions are reversed, so that “a criminal [Matsuda]

victim [himself]” and “before

I

knew

it,

I

was put

questioning a

is

in

irons at the

dock.”

He

also retains phobias to flashbulbs

great original “flash”),

and

(which he associates with the

to such sharp objects as the celluloid triangle

Dr. Tokumitsu holds in his hand (which reminds

time of the bomb).

glass at the

He

is,

related to various additional reminders of his it is

made

Tokumitsu’s,

is

of the broken

moreover, prone to a general

sense of weakness and eonfusion throughout his

But

him visit

A-bomb

ABCC,

to the

exposure.

elear to us that his quest for understanding, like Dr.

genuine (among the various eharacters of the novel,

only these two seem to possess the capacity for introspection

when he

traces the source of his

)

And

.

uneasiness— of his immediate impulse

—

George Matsuda and the ABCC” he arrives at the same answer that Tokumitsu did; raeial victimization. At first he resists this to hate

answer:

Race.

The word shocked him. A word which he had

terrible nistie

word. ...

toward the

closed his eyes in

Is it

race consciousness

ABCC?

forgotten.

A

which makes him antago-

toward one’s blood kin? He the manner of one confused. Has his discomfort Partiality

.

.

.

been race consciousness?^*^

But then he embraces the idea of race as fundamental both itself and to the general problems of mankind

human

to the strike

between one race and another. Kaji stopped and looked at his wrist. I’he yellow skin. He thought about the skin of a white who came into the library while he was talking to 1

his

is

a

strike

.

.

.

Creative Response: 1)

A

big liaiid with

tow^ard a bookshelf.

There must be

George Matsuda.

“A-Bomb brown

421

Literature''

which readied easily which cannot be revealed

hairs

a secret

concerning the matter of race. F,vcr\onc

human but

is

there

an

is

enormous chasm which cannot be filled, a liigh wall which cannot be climbed. There is no doubt about it. Blood. Language. Nations. Races. There undoubtcdlv is something which keeps one from accepting another.’*

These two passages suggest the book’s outermost reach toward universal dilemmas. But the expectations thev arouse that the author

examine

will finally

his protagonist’s inner conflicts to illuminate the complexities

of Japanese emotions (toward the

ABCC

and the A-bomb

in general)

are not realized. Kaji never surrenders his simple belief that hibakusha are “disguised guinea pigs for its

of

ABCC,”

an organization which adheres to

“original [by implication, militar\] mission” of “studving the effects

A-bombs on people

The

accuratclv and scientifically.”

novel ends with a charactcristicallv Japanese evocation of death

and bcautv— though the aura of the A-bomb lends uncharacteristic As Kaji walks down the

bitterness to the scene. sees a lovely

monument

elm

from the

hill

which he thinks would make

tree

for a hibakusha-poet

who

a

good

committed

recentlv

ABCC,

he

site for a

suicide. Mis

melancholy mood and the beautv of the scene are interrupted by an

American going by

montage

of

\

in a

“new

car.” All

irtuallv all of the

seems dark, and he experiences

A-bomb images around which

a

the novel

has revoh ed

But whv

this darkness, darkness

which looks

distorted. It

seems to be

shadow of death. It is a dark surface of the river. The river seems to be frightened and sobbing. The gray river which has nothing but darkness. Gazing absent-mindedly at the river, he feels

carrving the

himself emptv.

.

.

He

.

feels

himself

lost.

ning to be wrapped in an evening haze.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The city was beginThe strike. DuPont.

Humanitv. Nylon. The words came to the surface in a painful way which seemed to attack him and singe his nerve-endings. Guinea Pigs. Strike. Kaji moved his hand from the trunk of the America. .

pine

tree.

.

.

...

A

celluloid triangle.

A

must be quite

piece of broken glass.

What

an

was simply revived pain. He had an unpleasant premonition that the pain deep There is an unbearable down in his eye-sockets was returning.

enormous

illusion.

I

.

weight on his shoulders.

Why

after

tired

must he

.

all.

It

.

feel so

anxious?

What

is

this

DEATH

422 heaviness?

...

IN LIFE

oeeurred to Kaji that he was walking do\\n the mountain road simply from foree of habit. It

Death, pain, and meaninglessness

are,

other words, the Ameriean

in

legaeies in Hiroshima.

Experimental City easy to evaluate.

he eame upon tions),

A

is

a eurious pieee of

A-bomb

one not

literature,

version of the memoir-novel (Kajiyama told

mueh

of his subjeet matter during his

A-bomb

me

that

investiga-

eharaeterizations are largely one-dimensional. Yet the psyehologieal eurrents whieh Kajiyama so exaggeratedly depiets have existed in its

Hiroshima, and have undoubtedly been importantly related to strikes that have oeeurred at the ABCC (there was one during the summer of 1962 whieh for a while threatened the future of the organization). More than this the book touehes upon some of the major themes of eon-

temporary literature and upon the ps\ehie experienee of eontemporary

man.

The the

ABCC

s

direetor, for instanee,

devil seientist,

’

who

uses

human

eombines three important images: beings as pawns (guinea pigs) in

the serviee of experiments and diseoveries whieh ultimately destroy man; the quiet” or “ugly” Ameriean, whose aggressive idealism takes

feeds

insisting inferior,

upon the work and

backward

anxieties over

he

suffering

that his superior knowledge state.

ongoing history, and

I

a

dimension; and the ‘white imperialist” (or “neo-eolonialist”),

sinister

who

on

The

is

of

non-white raees while

neeessarv to

three images serve both

them to

in

their

formulate

to give expression to characteristic contemporar\'

dependency and annihilation.

faceless Nisei, the

contemporary dilemma

to

man

without qualities,” epitomizes another

which the Japanese are particularly

Japanese antagonism toward Nisei are cultural renegades

who have

is

sensitive.

related to feelings that the latter

betrayed a mystical Japanese racial

The intensity of these feelings deriv’cs partly from unconscious tendencies among Japanese to be attracted to precisely this kind of essence.

“betrayal”— not necessarily specific wishes to emigrate from Japan or cease to be Japanese so much as profound urges to partake of what is felt to

be the superior existential state of other

or (in a different sense) Chinese.

races,

But beyond the

whether Caucasian

issue of race

and

of

Japanese sensitivities thereto, the Nisei can also be seen as present-day protean man in his rootless extreme— a creature who can be everything

Creative Response:

and

is

therefore notliiiig, wlio

talents for identification

1

)

“A-Bomb

must make

wav

his

42 3

Literature' in the

world

tliroiigli

and manipulation.

The Americanized Japanese secretary is the prototype of the scdiicti\e, devouring woman. All cultures give form to this universal male fantasy, but here the

woman

becomes associated with the ultimate weapon of destruction. So stronglv called forth by various emotional currents

in

in question

our present world, the devouring

woman

also

takes on unprecedented technological dimensions.

Similarb, the character of the journalist becomes an ultimate version of the contemporar}’ anti-hero. Beyond the confusions of historical velocity

m

general, his sense of impaired connection

cant relationship to

and

loss of signifi-

and death has to do with his being \'ictimized b\ the most annihilating and dislocating of man’s weapons. He ends up, as he began, confused. life

Experimental City holds a special place of

its

A-bomb

literature because

explorations of guinea pig imager\’ and problems of counterfeit

nurturance

perhaps

achieved that to

m

be an

all

maximum

A-bomb

varietv of popular

the

more

state of

A-bomb

writer at alH

themes and

so since

is

He

Kajiyama has

in recent years

\\Titer’s adaptibilitv

bv ceasing

has instead devoted himself to a

much sought

after

by the mass media.

*

But before doing so, he wrote, from Tokyo, a notorious expose, ‘Three Who Sell Peace,” which accused a minister, a writer, and a hibakusha organization officer of profiting from their peace activities. Most people I spoke to in Hiroshima considered die article to be an unfair attack upon the three men. It was admittedly opportunistic,^ as Kajiyama told me he had written it in response to an editor’s request for “something different” on the A-bomb problem around the time of August 6; and we note his reversal of his earlier critical attitude toward those who

made

ready accusations of

selling the

drama about Hiroshima, which we

bomb.

shall discuss in

He

wrote an interesting radio Chapter XI. also

,

5

DeviVs Heritage

)

Deril's Heritage (Ala

much more fietional

the

Isan)-*'* also

experience.

literary reputation

me

Its

men

more

a

is

in

upon the fact

ABCC,

but

it is

one of the ven’ few

or less comprehensive formulation of

author, Hiroyuki Agawa, has achieved a high

through a

but with voung told

focuses

ambitious in seope, and

works to attempt

A-bomb

bomb He

no

series of novels

dealing not onlv with the A-

confronting war and death.*

during an interview in Tokyo of the “great shock” he

experienced upon returning to Hiroshima from militarv service in China seven months after the

my

of

friends

bomb (“My

were killed”), and of

parents went through

it,

and many

time that “I should

his feeling at the

write.” Similarly, he spoke of writing Devil's Heritage (originally published in

1953)

“in order to express specifie emotions

I

felt

within

myself.”

Again, a writer-hero (Noguchi) sets out to investigate the Hiroshima situation,

but

to his native

this

cit\'

time he

is,

like his creator, a

nonhibakusha returning

on an assignment Agawa himself was given: to prepare

a general literary report to

be entitled “Hiroshima Eight Years After the

Atomic Bomb.” From the moment of Noguchi’s arrival the author makes clear his concern with such things as hidden residua and impaired purpose

— or

what we have

called

struggles

over

formulation

and

mastery:

the appearance of the streets, so compactly built up that it was difficult to catch sight of even the burned-out areas, reminded him of .

.

.

smashed nest that busy

and without thinking, were diligently rebuilding without pause. Now, even if you walked around

a

ants, silently

* lie

wrote an earlier memoir-novel about the .\tomic Bomb, August 6 (Hachigatsu Atuika) originally published in 1947, when he was twentv-seven years old, consisting of descriptions of the

bomb by

four

members

of a family. .\nd his first major novel. Spring Castle (Ilaru no Shiro), includes atomic bomb scenes and reactions, but is mainly a part-autobiographical exploration of the struggles of a student-intellectnaltnrncd-naval officer with issues of love and death. A later novel. Monument in the Clouds (Kumo no Bohyd), published in 1956, leaves the bomb as a subject al-

and is made up of a series of diary entries of young men “volunteering” to become kamikaze pilots which convey a combination of dedication and disillusionment, a sense of tragic loss of young lives and “sad beauty” in these deaths. Agawa’s literary standing is based more upon the latter two novels than upon De^'i^s Heritage, as they are generally considered to be of greater imaginative scope.^i together,

Creatixe Response:

1

"A-Bomb

)

with a Geiger eounter in hand,

Ilirosliinia

425

Literature’

by the gone and probably the eounter would no longer sound its warning eliek, but for himself when he went about in this rebuilt ant’s nest, hou- uould the eounter inside his head reallv

bomb was

atomie

tlie

radioaetivity left

entirely

reaet?^^

His psyehie Geiger eounter gives him grim answers to his question, right in the home \\here he is staying. 1 suneko, his voung aunt, having lost

two ehildren

bomb and

in the

sudden dizzy

spells in

experieneed radiation svmptoms,

still

has

whieh her faee beeomes swollen and diseolored

an exeeedingly pale ghost’s.” And her eight-year-old son, Ken, exposed to the bomb as a baby, develops an abseess near the anus whieh "like

fails to

heal and turns out to be eaused by leukemia.

A

series of painful

hospital seenes depiet the sufferings of the helpless ehild

and the

futile

Noguehi and the boy’s father to hide the truth from Tsuneko. Noguehi s impressions of ABGG remind us verv mueh of Kaji’s in

efforts of

Experimental City— so mueh so that one wonders whether the latter book, appearing one year after Devil’s Heritage, might not have been strongly influeneed by it, or whether both books emerged from some

eommon body

of literary and other materials.* In addition to themes of

Nisei eultural betrayal and of eallous Ameriean seientism and raeism, there is a grotesque aeeusation (on the part of a hibakusha suffering

from leukemia) whieh may be viewed

as the ultimate

form of guinea

pig imagery:

.

.

the

.

ABGG

purposes of

its

not only doesn’t treat people but

own

researeh

it is

feels that for

the

best to keep people just as they are

beeause after they’re healed the work ean’t be eontinued.^^

There are moderating voiees too, as the author explores a variety of attitudes. But even a sympathetically portrayed doctor-friend of

Noguchi

s

stingingly denounces the use of the

guinea pig lure ('‘They say that after

woman

for a pair of stockings.

a gallon of gasoline

and goes on

how

.

.

.

a a

Over here things were even cheaper. For

you could get about twenty human guinea pigs”),

to say that politeness

makes

American automobile as the war in Europe vou could buy

me

feel

Agawa acknowledges two

like

on the part of the

ABGG

“some-

swearing.” Noguehi himself concludes

literary sources of

some

of the seenes in Devil's Heritage:

the original Japanese version of Ilachiya’s Hiroshima Diary, and Y. Hayashi’s Ichiro (a boy’s name given to a first son, in this ease the author’s son who died of leu-

kemia)

.

:

DEAIII IN LIFE

426

that, ‘as far as

I

can

see, tliis

ABCC

is

data from the

skillfully eolleeting

Japanese in order to establish a seieutifie defensive poliey in the event

bomb

that Ameriea undergoes an atomic

World W^ar

attack in

III.”

Whatever this American group provides, in other words, is deceptive and counterfeit. Beyond the ABCC itself, the author suggests the counterfeit nature of Hiroshima’s general rebirth. Noguchi feels “a strong resistance or even an aversion” to making “the so-called ‘pilgrimage to the famous places of the atomic bomb.’ ”

American officials,

soldiers,

He

is

“upset” by seeing “carefree, young

cameras dangling from their necks,” and Japanese

“perhaps on business

pulling up in front of

trips,

perhaps newly arrived at their posts,

some famous spot

cannot take seriouslv the “excuse” that

He

world peace.”

is

in all

shiny this

“was

offended by the sign “Atomic

Buicks,” and

official

for the sake of

Bomb

Pinball,” on

which there was “a bad sketch of the atomic cloud boiling upward”; by the Peace Bridge, which seemed “modernistic,” “extremely odd,” unrelated to people crossing

it

on bicycles or

in

“three-wheeled trucks

loaded with radishes,” and reminded him of “a collar-bone”; and by

another nearby monument, the W^estern Peace Bridge, more like a cage.”

Most

of

all,

he resented the

— inscription “Rest

in

mistake shall not be repeated”— on the “saddle-shaped” the

“rib-

peace/For the

monument

to

A-bomb dead

Far from being calm and quiet, as thev were apparentlv intended to

seemed to him to be utterh' grotesque phrases. W’ho, in God’s name, had made the mistake? \Mio would not repeat the mistake? This, with the Peace Bridges, would probably go down in history as something that the people of Hiroshima had selected to commemorate the atomic bomb. Inside his head the story that the people of Hiroshima had been cxtrcmelv cooperative with the ABCC be, they

dully repeated

He if

to

itself.

finds the ubiquitous desecration to

be “forbidding and uncannv,”

as

implying that the living will meet with punishment for these insults the dead.

And he

cooperation with

the

equates the hated inscription with

ABCC

hibakusha

because both denote “grotesque” sub-

servience to America as part of the larger counterfeit pattern.

THE AUTHENTIC HIROSHIMA Authenticity can seemingly be found only in death and suffering, and

Noguchi encounters numerous individuals and

families

enmeshed

in

Creative Response:

leukemic or

1

)

''A-Bomb Literature'

427

forms of doom. But he obtains particularly detailed documciitatiou of this autheutic Hiroshima^’ from members of the \\ illow

otlicr

Society, a small group of hibakusha

hospitalized together shortly after the

who had

originally

been

bomb. Although the group took

name from a Chinese poem describing how “a foreign willow will put forth new shoots,” its members think of themselves more in terms of a name that had been considered but found ”a little extreme”: its

Monsters Club. For most of its members are visibly deformed, one with an ugly keloid stretching from his left wrist to his upper arm,” and with three of his fingers “drawn back into a stiff unnatural position”; another with “hands swelled all out of shape”; and a third, the “Veil Lad\ so called because of a lot of indelible blue spots on her face.” ,

Noguchi boat

is

group

in\’ited to join the

trip to a restaurant

on the

sea.

in

one of

Once more

its

social excursions, a

the sensual beauty of the

motion against the background of Hiroshima's magnificent w-aterwa\s becomes the setting for grim details of atomic bomb exposure, as ship

s

members benefit.

of the group recount their individual stories

These

for

Noguchi’s

often told with savage humor, stress the totality of confusion, of psychological and moral disintegration accompanying that tales,

of bodies. In connection with economic recovery, for instance,

how “one

most prominent and wealthy men valuable objects from corpses:

of the

his start stealing

in

we

hear

Hiroshima” got

He was

pretty badly injured himself, but thev sav he w^ent around stripping the watches off the dead and dying. They also say that he cut the fingers off the dead to steal their rings. By contrast were the

quiet

little

people

who went around

through the ashes for order to obtain some pocket monev. This was called sifting

metal objects in “working in the city mines.”-"*

The

clear implication

is

that psychic disintegration has not been elimi-

nated, onlv covered over.

Members

of the W^illow Society also render

about America

more general opinions the weapon in Nagasaki is

atomic bombings. Use of denounced as “completely superfluous mass murder,” and the necessity of its use in Hiroshima is also questioned: “If they wanted to show their s

power, they could have dropped

Without

specifically

it

over the sea or in the mountains.”

embracing any of these positions,

strongly suggests a general tone of residual bitterness. There

one searching speculation which warns against Japanese ness:

the is,

author

however,

self-righteous-

DEATH

42 8

IN LIFE

wonder if Japan really would have refrained from using the bomb if we had perfeeted it before Ameriea did. We all eondemn Ameriea for dropping the atomie bomb, but if Japan had used it against Ameriea first and if thousands of Ameriean eivilians had been killed, I wonder if we wouldn’t have shouted, “Banzai! Banzai!” and held our vietory I

When

parades.

think that, then

I

Ameriea, even though

But

it

my

faee

is

I

like this

toward

don’t feel resentful

now.

.

meets with an ingenious rejoinder whieh

.

.

insists

upon Ameriean

guilt:

you wouldn’t say that all murderers should be pardoned even though you might eoneeivably commit a murder yourself

Well, now

.

.

.

under certain conditions, would

And

there

made between America’s

pointed contrast

a

is

you?-^’

insistence

upon war crimes trials for Japanese leaders and upon Japanese perfidy at Pearl Harbor and Bataan on the one hand, and its willingness to “dispose of” its own use of the atomic bomb as a means of “shorten [ing] young people” on save [ing] the lives of many the war and .

.

.

.

.

.

the other.

Members

of the

Willow

Society do mention individual Americans

whose actions have impressed and moved them: the Army whose

tears

upon

first

A-bomb

viewing hospitalized

colonel,

patients

were

followed by generous shipments of desperately needed beds, food, and penicillin;

and the Quaker humanitarian who, appalled by

action in dropping the

bomb, came

to

his country’s

Hiroshima to build houses

for the

own hands. But, inevitably, there is the return to “resentment deep down in the hearts [of hibakusha] toward that

dispossessed with his

the

terrible thing,”

having been

and

no such grudge

rejection of the claim that

made “bv somebodv

tr\

exists as

ing to get on the good side of the

Americans.”

Perhaps the closest to a sustained universalistic formulation occurs

in

an interesting sequence on the problem of devouring and being devoured. Noguchi finally red snapper,

and

as

this

down with

he dips the

the soy sauce and notes

“how

sits

“how

the group to a succulent lunch of

flesh of the fish,

really delicious”

“almost too fresh,” into

it is

he begins to wonder

might appear from the standpoint of the red snapper.”

He

is

aghast at the people sitting there, calmly eating the red snapper that had been so cold-bloodedly killed, and praising its flavor with the same mouths

Creative Response: that a

little

1

)

''A-Bomb Literature'

42 9

had been arguing the eruelty of the atomie

earlier

bomb.-”

He

begins to indulge in a fantasy (much like that of the Czech writer Karel Capek in his book At War With the Newts) in which snappers, victims of Japanese cruelty for so many generation,'’ rise and take their revenge. They master man's speech as well as his

weapons and

march

as

an

army— “like

the Heike '-to

make

the warriors in the old romance, the Tale[s] of war on “the world of men." But despite his being

so struck by the hypocrisy of the

members

of his luncheon party

who

victimize the red snappers “with such relish" despite being “victims of human cruelty themselves," he is not above doing the same:

When

he saw the head of the big red snapper, its teeth bared, floating in his soup bow'l, his appetite was aroused b\^ its big, sleepy eyes in spite of the idle fancies that had just passed through his head.

Man

is,

in other words, a devourer,

his victim,

but spurred

not only alive to the sweet taste of

— on “aroused" — bv

that victim's very helpless-

ness.

As the fantasy proceeds it becomes associated with racial thoughts— still on a more or less universalistic plane, but no less malignant for that.

Since principles of peace and benevolence apply “only to the affairs of men (and not to snappers), Noguchi wonders whether they apply

‘only ... to certain races or peoples." He recalls that until about a century ago Western European racial groups considered such principles applicable only to themselves, and now asks whether these same groups still

regarded Japanese, Chinese, Indians, and Negroes as “not

much

from pigs and crabs and whales." As he goes on to think about American hypocrisy concerning “human rights," the popularity different

of

Indian chases'

Western mo\ies, and more generally the “feeling that allowed men to eat beef, pork, and fish without a doubt in the in

world," he cannot refrain from raising the ultimate racial question: It

might be an eternal and unsohed

but he v'ondcrcd whether or not the fact that the Japanese were a colored people was an element in the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan.

He

riddle,

ends by reasserting the vegetarian principle, prominent throughout his ruminations, that man should refrain from devouring “all living things":

DEATH

43 0 If

IN LIFE on the earth— still

ever peace were to be realized

were

wouldn’t merely be a question of not killing or persecuting those of another race, but it would be

going through his head

men

— then

idle fantasies

it

would be respected and a way would have been discovered to maintain life by eating and drinking only milk and fruit, things that nature had produced as natural foods.

because the

We need

lives of all living things

not dwell upon the general issues raised in

the relationship of death anxiety and psychic

this

numbing

sequence about

to victimization,

and violence; or about the embrace of

as well as to sadism, aggression,

vegetarianism as a means of coping with these emotions.

concerns us

is

What

most

the strong suggestion that tnans deepest inner conflicts

—

those related to primal emotions about annihilating and being annihi-

lated— become readily attached

the issue of race, particularly

to

in

response to a death-saturated event like the atomic bomb."^

During the course of the book we become increasingly aware

of

Noguchi’s emotional discomfort and wish to return to Tokyo, until ‘‘This desire to leave

craving.”

For

his

own

Hiroshima was survivor-like

as

felt

natural physiological

a

anxiety and

conflicts— his death

guilt— begin to overwhelm him;

... an unpleasant, depressed

feeling, like that after

one has seen

a

gloomy, completely unrelieved movie, weighed heavily on his heart

and would not leave him ... he felt that if he remained long in Hiroshima his marrow and hair follicles also would be affected by the radioactivity remaining in the earth. ... So he was seriously aware of this somewhat neurotic fear from time to time.“®

I

have occasionally observed

this

“somewhat neurotic

fear” in Japanese

and American nouhibakusha who have involved themselves strongly with Hiroshima and larly

its

atomic

bomb

problems.

anguished form of identification with atomic

guilt-laden inabilitv to remain an “outsider” as

It

if

one were

a

and

represents a particu-

bomb a

need to

hibakusha and were susceptible to

consequences, including radiation

effects.

Guilt

is

victimization, a live

all

and

feel

hibakusha

further fed

by the

not here passing judgment upon how much the racial issue entered into the actual use of the bomb, but rather suggesting that with any large holocaust primal emotions of both victims and victimizers can attach themselves to the idea of *

I

am

race.

Creative Response: opposite desire

atomie

(\\'hieli

we

1

'‘A-Bomb

)

431

Literature''

also observ^e in Nogiielii) to flee forever

from

bomb

eoncerns, and to derive satisfaction from the contrast between hibakusha misery and one’s own good fortune. all

So intense

Noguchi’s urge to leave that he refuses his grief-stricken aunt’s request to remain to attend the memorial service for her little boy who has just died from leukemia in psychotic agony. He feels the need to visit Kyoto on the way back to Tokyo in order to “refresh his is

by wandering through old gardens and temples there, or in other words to reawaken his sense of continuing life in both nature and human culture. The book ends with his feeling of “calm composure” as spirit”

the train pulls away from the station and he becomes aware of having separated himself from the self-enclosed atomic bomb milieu and re-

entered the “outside world”:

The

pale-pink interior of the special express already seemed like another world, far from Hiroshima.-^ soft,

In Devil's Heritage, a memoir-novel,

Agawa makes

can presence and the attitudes around

it

to record a

use of the Ameri-

wide variety of A-

bomb isted

formulations— some enduring, some ephemeral— which have exin Hiroshima over the years. But we are left with the impression

that the imaginative powers of a talented writer have been blunted by a

need to bear novel

is

literal

in psychic

witness to

all

aspects of the cataclysm.

elements of rage,

guilt,

and tortured

As

rich as the

identification,

these are not transmuted into the artist’s realm of “illusion” or “virtual”

(psychic) truth achieved in far short of the sense of

some

of his other works.

The book

thus

falls

mastery conveyed either by genuinely realized

fiction or wisely interpretive non-fiction. It therefore readily lends itself

to the charges of

and American

imbalance

it

has in fact received from both Japanese

readers, while at the

same time remaining

a valuable

A-

bomb document. Significantly,

Agawa himself came

impulsive quality of his novel. after writing

it,

He

told

he spent some time

over upon returning,

I

regretted

have some understanding of the

to

in

some

me

during our interview that

America, and “when

I

read

of the feelings expressed in

it

it.”

His regret seemed to embrace not only a more sympathetic view of Americans, but a certain disenchantment with the genre of A-bomb literature:

DEATH

43 2

IN LIFE

whether there can exist such a thing as A-bomb because literature. I myself spoke from experience. ... I wrote I felt strongly I had to write about it. ... I don’t want to write about it any more— unless the world uses these weapons again or if I have specific emotions and I feel that the Hiroshima APeople have bomb begins to have special meaning for me. I

really question

.

.

.

.

.

.

different missions in life— and perhaps

wishes to break awav from

I

am

A-bomb

.

.

lazy.

writing,

both because

associated with anxiety and because he cannot envision itself to

like

.

.

.

He

.

it

as

it

is

lending

genuine creative transformation. But he remains ambivalent:

Miss Ota, he

possibilitv of

its

is

unable to state his position without raising the

being due to a personal shortcoming. Similarlv,

discussed the issue of living in

Tokyo

or Hiroshima,

when he

one could not

question his stress upon the writer’s difficulty in working outside of the capital, or his

contention that

“if

one

stavs in the countrv,

one remains

a

and cannot get

a

proper sense of present-day

Japan.” But as he said these things

I

could not help thinking of

‘countrv gentleman’

Noguchi sinking contentedlv taking

into the plush interior of the express train

him from the A-bombed

world, far from Hiroshima.”

citv

and

feeling himself in “another

:

6)

Underground Themes

Kin Kokubo, anotlier nouhibakusha writer (whom we already know as “the young Hiroshima-born writer’’), differs from tlie other two in three important wavs: he is younger (thirty-two in 1962) and indeed seems a representative of a

and he has been

new

generation,

’

he

lias

remained

Hiroshima,

in

eoneerned with protest and more with eomplexity and contradiction. He was indeed the first A-bomb writer I less exclusi\'ely

had come across who seemed willing

to explore less attractive aspects of

hibakiishd psychology in cpiest of that elusive goal of artistic truth. An unusually responsive young man with a mobile face, he quickly chal-

my

lenged

motives and methods, and then, following tion, proceeded to identify himself with them I

am

interested in something very similar to

between those who went through

who

my

vou— in

brief explana-

the differences

this historical experience

and those

did not.

We recall his

quest for genuine dialogue about the bomb, as well as his self-scrutiny in admitting that upon returning to Hiroshima twenty-five

days after the

bomb

at the age of fifteen,

he was not only amazed

at the

destruction but also experienced a shock of beauty and the by no means unpleasant sense that What man has added to nature now has been destroyed.” And his later observations on such things as “a kind of

toughness” derived from extreme experience, the “unfortunate psychological climate” of hibakusha demands, and the “unmentionable” wish

some

blown up — all these were further evidence of his impulse toward truth, however complex and unpalatable that truth might be. The same impulse had been increasof

of

them

that the entire world be

ingly apparent in his writings.

An

early story, ^‘The

Midwife” (Sanba),^"

published in 1950, dealt with the theme, already used by a

Hiroshima

woman

writers,

of a

heroic,

give birth in the midst of

of

midwife helping

a

severely

injured

A-bomb

disintegration.

story, “Fire

Dance” (Hi no Odori), published

his progress

toward paradox.

The

number

ten years

But

a

second

suggests

hibakushd-hero of “Fire Dance” (referred to simply as “He”) is neither pure in heart nor particularly pitiable, but primarily a man in

434

DEATH

:f:l^

The

IN LIFE

Camus’ The Stranger) with his seeing a woman killed right in front of him by a truck, and remaining unaffected (“A person died but he felt no

conflict.

(something

story begins

the fashion of

in

agitation”). Kokubo’s hero, like Camus’, has led a

—in

form of psychic numbing related to

his case a

through

devoid of feeling

life

all

that he

went

A-bomb, including the death of his mother. His total formulate his experience leads him to feel that “something

in the

inability to

seems to be lacking

.

.

the world seems empty.”

.

He

death

fights off

anxiety on several levels: in the sense that “he cannot feel sure of his

and

existence”;

frequently

ill,

in

his

refusal

because

“if

A-bomb

suspicion of

[his

become a reality, he would surely some time.” He is caught between resistance

medical care despite

seek

to

die,

and

this

empty form

if

not, he

feeling

should

disease]

would not

die for

of psychological non-

and an equally uncomfortable impulse toward carr\ing out

the mission of retaliation contained in the words of a

A-bomb who,

encountered at the time of the “take revenge, take revenge.” fiercely critical

He

boy he

little

him to childhood memory, a

before dying, urged

also reveals, in a

view of what he considered to be a fundamental form of

hypocrisy on the part of older-generation

siir\’ivors

— and

here the author

begins to demonstrate his proclivity for underground themes:

Are not the adults who now moan over the dead, so ready their tears, the very people

the purpose of war to

who

to

so actively supported the war?

show Is

not

one another? Having started the war themselves, why do they grieve? Are they simply finding special pleasure in holding a requiem for the dead?^^ kill

.

.

But mostly the hero

who

person

is

.

preoccupied with his sense of himself as “a

is

dying.” This makes

him

who

A

feel

unworthy of

his girlfriend

Eiko’s love:

Who

loves a person

a proper object of love.

Behaving

(in

is

Love

dying? is

person about to die

in

is

no wav

a possession of living people.^^

hibakusha fashion)

as

if

dead,

troubled

fatigue, his sexual relationship with her unsatisfactory,

by physical

he deeply resents

her contrasting vitality:

Her

and arms are arms around his neck. legs

Damn

surprisingly

A

your white skin,

plump. She puts her hot, smooth

cry full of hate begins to well

warm

body,

plump

flesh!

Damn

up

in

him.

your eyes.

Creative Response: heart, hands,

inueh

and

feet! IIou’

will \oii feel

those hands?

How

far will

\

)

inueh

with your

ou

'W\-Bomh Literature”

I

435

vou see with those eyes? How How inueh w'ill you grasp with

will

lieart?

w'alk w’ith those feet?'^

His diffuse impotenee and rage lead him not only to emit the hibakushas cry of ultimate retaliation— "I wash atomic bombs would fall all

workr’— but

over the city in

him

this cry reverberating

throughout the

underground whispers:

Bathed lies

imagine

to

m

the light of the setting sun in long shadows houses .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

the city of Hiroshima now' people cars. To .

.

.

.

.

.

.

seems that these w'ords are being whispered, from one person to another, secretly, in every corner of the citv. wash atomic bombs it

would

And

and

close to death, to friends gathered

will die in the near future.

live. I

over the world.

he remembers hearing the same erv from a

keloids

I

fall all

Your

faces

hang over me

bombs .

far, far

only this “I” exists here

now.-^^’

will

like apostles of peace.

everybody become like me. You are with me, outsiders, strangers. takes place in a world

around her:

But you people

don’t like them. Let atomic

.

all .

disfigured with

girl,

fall all

people

.

.

I

.

continue to

don't like them.

over the world and

who have nothing

Everything

that

away from me. Only

I,

is

let

do happening

who am

to

dying,

The underground cry becomes associated with an absolute focus upon the self. From this focus the survivor who feels himself dead or dying requires of others that they share his experience

and become

like

him

if

they are to cease being ''strangers” and be accepted by him. Indeed, there is the implication that the survivor’s imagination of others’ deaths is his only relief from his own death anxiety. In addition to this remarkable exploration of unmentionable themes, the novella addresses itself to the larger "death” of Hiroshima itself— to survivors' sense of losing their history. I’he hero tells us

how "The

true

Hiroshima died on that day,” how it has been "invaded” and "occupied by "people of other countries” (meaning primarilv other parts of ’

Japan),

all

of

which can be understood bv means of an ancient

historical parallel:

Babylonia was destroyed by Assyria [when] she no longer possessed the strength to overthrow the dynasty that conquered her or to re-

DEATH

436

establish her Assyria’s rule

His point

on

to

own is

He

day by day, dying, and

are,

fallen

on Hiroshima,

and peaee movements, and even

goes

dominating every aspeet

alien influenee inereasingly

bomb had

He

really total replaeement.

is

of the eity— from the original eonfirmation

an atomie

name.

The remnants

that the elaimed rebirth

is

life

aetivities

nation.

perfeet.'^'

denounee the

of the

IN LIFE

by outsiders that

eommemorative

to later

in the rendering of the eity’s

then arrives at a terrible vision of historieal extinetion:

We

were pressed under by alien merehants, alien ofheials, alien The seholars, alien eultures, and alien isms whieh enveloped us. .

.

.

whose numbers are few, are resisting quietly. But what obseure resistanee. ... Is it not the same as that of a dead dog, whieh I saw some time ago, whieh was trying to diseover who it was by gro\^'ing eompletely rotten in the bright original people of Hiroshima,

resistanee will eompletely Somedav even this Motomaehi [an area near the hypoeenter] will beeome a

sunshine? appear.

.

.

.

dis-

nice

and the caves in Hijiyama [an area a bit removed from the hypoeenter to which many people fled] will be filled up. residential area

The

site of

the castle will

become

And

a lovely park.

those

who

by leukemia and will die one after the other. The original Hiroshima people will become extinct like the Cro-Magnon man. And as a memorial to extinction, that disgraceful [A-Bomb] Dome, which looks like a penis, will be preserved forever. Years ago a thing called an atomic bomb fell on the city, I hear. That’s what I hear, too. They say it was very fearful. So I heard. Walking along the green belts bv the rivers, they will talk in voices like musical instruments. Their language will no longer be the Hiroshima dialect but will be an unknown tongue. actually experienced that day will be stricken

.

We are

reminded here of Miss Ota’s plea

her view of the

new one

for '‘the old

as “a national colony.”

.

Hiroshima” and

But Kokubo’s imagery

of extinction goes further in suggesting an absolute severance of the

bonds of human connection and continuitv.

The

story then ends melodramatically, but

its

resolution suggests

important questions about potential avenues for renewed tinuity.

We

are told that the hero, during his student days,

profoundly interested peace

movement

survivors

"Mecca

to

human

many thoughts of and help make Hiroshima

great system,”

and

had been

hibakusha problems and had envisoned a vast

that would "tie in the

some

for peace

in

con-

for all that

is

.

.

.

poor

into

a

honest and sincere in humankind.”

— Creative Response: Tlie implication

1

)

‘'A-Bomb Literature'

437

that he betrayed tliese youthful ideals and took the path of least resistance by becoming a ^salaried man^’ in a company is

the ambivalent postwar Japanese symbol of rote, uninspired, materially desirable,

and

that

all

is

safe,

comfortable,

spiritually impoverished.

An

ordinary worker in the same company,

Nomura, tries to prod him from his lethargy, and tells him to “stand up firmly” on behalf of the leftist labor movement and become “angry as fire.” Wdien refused, Nomura denounces his friend’s despairing ideas about A-bombs falling all over as “death thoughts ... a will to destruction,” and tells him angrily: “It would be a good thing for a man like you to die just as quickly as possible.”

Only

after the hero learns that not

he but

his girlfriend, Eiko,

dying of leukemia (she had become pregnant, and the discovery of her illness was made at the time she sought an abortion) does he

is

emerge from mission:

cance for us

and belatedly take on an angry

participation

activ’e

breaking the

despair

his

company

rules

the

in

labor

by distributing

union’s

leaflets.

survivor’s

including

strike,

Of

particular signifi-

the relationship between his spiritual recovery and his

is

regained sense of immortalitv:

The thought death

is

of

life after

death

the end of everything

package and took out

is

is

but the thought that he thought. He opened the

clearly false,

also false,

piles of leaflets.

When

I

die,

I

will dissolve into

many

kinds of elements, and these elements will be absorbed into the great earth. After a certain period of time these elements will again

become something. Perhaps trees, stones, rats, men will again contribute to some scene. He waves a pile of his head. He throws [from the roof upon which he .

.

out the In

.

.

leaflets

.

. .

[they] spread out

the windless heat of high

and

float

noon, these

down

.

.

[which]

leaflets is

over

standing]

to the ground.

dance up and down. ... As many billions of people have done in the past, and as many will do in the future, so too will I. When the leaflets had almost reached the ground, the people were beginning to stretch out their arms and cry out for them, he heard the sound of footsteps violently approaching him. Both of his hands were cruelly twisted and the scene [before him] lurched sideways [as he was pulled to the .

.

leaflets

.

ground].'^-'

His affirmation

lies in

actions re-establish

death.

W’e suspect

rendering both death and

human and

life

meaningful. His

natural connection bc}ond biological

that the story’s

title,

“Fire Dance,” refers not only to

the “dancing leaflets,” but to the ecstatic sense of renewed

life

and

DEATH

438

IN LIFE

mastery associated with them, as well as to the original holocaust. story

makes contact with

struggles for self-definition amidst absurdity

and nihilism which are endemic

Most

elsewhere.

of

are not supposed

all it

to

symbolism universal

literary

to the postwar young, in

feel,

and

these

relates

melodramatic short-

its

finding convincing

in

difficulty

writer’s

with death

struggles

to

But

to our nuclear world.

approaches to the atomic bomb.

Kokubo himself was keenly aware his

Japan and

takes the risk of exploring emotions hibakusha

more the

cuts suggest once

The

of this difficulty, as he told

me

of

continuing creative struggles:

None

of

my work

problems wavers,

where

continuously this

first

am

I

have been thinking about these long time— and my thought often

goes deep enough. for

a

I

wav, then that wav. Sometimes

At the beginning

going.

presentation of misery.

Then

I

realized that

know

don’t

exactly

an objective

to give

tried

I

I

couldn’t just dwell on

I

the past, but had to connect the past with the future. Then, as a

means of dealing with the future, I became interested in communism, and began to use the techniques of proletarian literature— though I was

also writing

realized that social situations

was unusual

human

springboard for stories

my

lives.

speaking of the atomic

in

He

writing.”

And

said earlier

it

is

.

bomb

the two

reminded of

bomb

clearlv

its

as

influence

upon

his earlier

image of

as a “vital force

ambivalent about

I

this

emit

his

as

I

force— he

did not apply to his writing— he returns to the image in

the

discussing

although he

.

referred here not only to

the metaphorical radiation from the

go along.”

.

kind of

We are

stories.

I

"'a

he had written about the bomb, but to

twenty or so additional

then

were not everything, and that we must

consider what goes on in individual

He

And

about the tragedy of circumstances.

atomic

overall

bomb environment

as

reservoir

a

of

strength and relevance:

The A-bomb

is

completely modern, up to date. So to be modern, you

New

York or Tokyo, but you can simply stay right here. I’hough perhaps one could not tell this from my writing, I feel that the fact that I am in Hiroshima does contribute to this vital force. If I go to Tokvo, people ask, “Wdiat is the situation in don’t have to go to .

.

.

Hiroshima?”

bound

to

When

I

am

asked this way, the result of the question

be insincere. But

Hiroshima,

I

if

thev leave

feel this force build

up

me

in myself.

alone and

I

am

back

is

in

:

Creative Response:

1 )

''A-Bomb Literature'

439

But he was nonetheless deeply immersed in the elassie eonfliets of the Abomb writer — eonfliets fed by eritieal voiees from among the living:

When we

publish magazines in Hiroshima, people from 'I’okyo and other plaees eritize us whether we write about the A-bomb or not. If we write about the A-bomb, they say, “You write about nothing but the A-bomb”; and This

sort

we

if

of thing

don’t, they say,

very harmful

“You

negleet the

A-bomb.”

young writers like myself. Suppose someone lived near Ausehwitz and had seen the slaughter there. You wouldn’t neeessarily ask them to write about it. In the same way, even though we live in Hiroshima, it is not just our is

to

obligation to write about it—every'one should write about

And from If

it.

the dead

you write about the A-bomb without serious

insult to

its

it

is

an

vietims.

Both make eontaet with identifieation

refleetion,

and

his

guilt:

ereate from the atomie

own

voiees

inner voiees, refleeting struggles around

whieh sometimes

bomb and sometimes

insist

that he

must

that he has no right to do

whieh sometimes suggest that the death-saturated Hiroshima environment eonfers speeial power upon him and sometimes that it infliets so;

him with a debilitating eurse. Among nonhibakusha writers I found him to be most closely identified with the survivor experience and most strongly committed to A-bomb writing. His intensitv of involvement both strengthened

his

vision

and accentuated

his

difficulties.

talent for probing the psychological “underground,” there

promise of

artistic

transformation.

is

In his

at least the

A-Bomb

7)

Poets

he closely related genre of A-bomb poetry has faced similar problems, but as an essentially condensed medium is even less suitable to literal reI

A

enactment. stages

leading Hiroshima anthologist told

A-bomb

me

poetry has been through: there was

two general

of

first

a

‘‘poetry of

curse” during the early post-bomb years which emphasized details of

and denounced those thought responsible. (Some of the most unembellished examples of this category were poems written by children, such as one entitled “Bad America” [“Warui Amerika yo”] and suffering

“Why Was

Dropped on Hiroshima?” [“Naze Hiroshima ni Otosunda?”].)"*^ There followed a “poetry of calm anger,” in which the emphasis shifted “from Hiroshima itself to the entire world,” and from

another,

It

the evil of those responsible to “the essential wickedness of

human

nature.”

Although itself to

of the poetry

all

we

shall

examine

will

by no means confine

these two categories, the anthologist’s stress

upon

a

common

factor of resentment suggests that even gentle

poems mav have their origins in such anger, which becomes muted and transmuted by the poet’s art. And indeed, at one point he compared early poetic emotions to “the curse of Job in the Old Testament,” and predicted that “poets will

emerge from Hiroshima

prophets”— thereby suggesting that

like

emotional power and wisdom are contained in their anger. Influenced here by his general readings in Western thought, he was making a plea for the universal task of the poet-artist as seer

vein he took the stand that poetry “must be

“there

human

is

no

specific entity of

spirit

first

spiritual guide. In this

a literarv work,” that

poetry,” but that “as long as the

can express criticism or resistance toward the realitv that

surrounds that

spirit

to recognize the

we found

A-bomb

and

.

.

.

A-bomb

poetry must be possible.”

begin

same ambivalence about the existence of the genre that

in relationship to

A-bomb

many of these same A-bomb experience into

literature in general.

poets face

pitfalls as writers of

their

their creative

to say that they

We

have been

less

But although

prose in transforming

medium,

it is

incapacitated by them.

probably

One must

fair

add,

however, that the examples we shall examine probably suffer even more in translation than do excerpts from stories and novels.

:

Creative Response:

1

“A-Bomb

)

Literature'

4

41

POET-HERO The most celebrated A-bomb poet — and in fact the only Hiroshima writer to become a popular hero — was Sankichi Foge, a hibakusha who died in 1953 at the age of thirty-six. his

poem

become Give Give Give Give Give

Give Back

he epitome of the poet of protest, Father” (which we quoted from earlier) has

My

a rallying cry for peace

I

movements throughout Japan:

back my father, give back my mother. grandpa back, grandma back. our sons and daughters back!

me back

myself, give

mankind back.

each back to each other!

So long

as this life lasts.

Give peace back to us. Peace that will never end!

The

plea

is

not only for the return of the dead but for the restoration of

pre-A-bomb human connection— or

failing these, for a

world sufficiently

peaceful to permit survivors a purposeful formulation of

A-bomb

sacri-

fices.

An in

poem, '^August Sixth,”

earlier

is

less

gentle in

its

protest, depicting

unsparing detail the force of survivor memories— as a few excerpts

reveal

How could

ever forget that flash of light!

I

In an instant

The

cries of

thousand people disappeared from the thousand more

thirty'

fift\'

streets;

Crushed beneath the darkness. Yellow whirling smoke became Buildings

split,

light.

bridges collapsed;

Crowded trams burned

just as

they

were—

Endless trash and heaps of embers,

Hiroshima.

Then, skin hanging like rags. Hands on breasts; Treading upon shattered human

brains.

.

.

.

Crowds piled on the river bank, and on rafts fastened to the Turned gradually into corpses under the scorching sun. .

The conflagration shifts Onto heaps of schoolgirls lying like refuse So that God alone knew who they were. .

.

.

.

.

.

.

shore. .

:

DEATH

442

How

could

I

forget that quiet

Which descended The calm

How Of

could

I

IN LIFE

over a city of three hundred thousand?

forget those pleas

a dying wife

and

child

Emitted through the whiteness of Piercing our minds and souls!

A

third

poem, “Morning,”

is

their eves,

considered by

manv

piece. It contains the blend of fierce protest social deliverance that characterized

much

of his

to

be Toge’s master-

and romantic

vision of

life.

Tliey dream:

A workman by the

A

dreams, lowering his pickax, his sweat turned into scars

flash.

wife dreams, bending over her sewing machine, midst the diseased

odor of her parted skin.

A

box-office girl dreams, her

hidden

scars like crab’s claws,

on both

arms.

A

match-seller dreams, with pieces of shattered glass sticking in his

neck.

They dream That through an element made from pitchblende and By means of an endless chain of energv. Famished

carnotite

changed into fertile fields; Bright canals run round the base of crumbling mountains.

Under Cities

deserts are

artificial suns, in

and towns

They dream: That festival take their

the wastelands of the Arctic.

are built of pure gold.

wave in the shade of trees where w^orking people and legends of Hiroshima are told bv tender lips.

flags rest,

They dream: That those swine

Who

in

man’s shape

do not know how

to use the

power from the

earth’s center ex-

cept for slaughter Surv'ive only in illustrated

That the energy

books

for the little ones.

of ten million horsepower per gram, one thousand

times as strong as high explosive.

Be delivered, out of the atom into the hands That the rich harvest of science Be conveyed, in peace, to the people Like bunches of succulent grapes

of the people.

Creative Response: \) ''A-Bomb Literature"

Wet

with dew

Gathered At dawn.

To

in

these polar images of nuclear

and destructive evil— Toge brings

power— images

of noble possibility

a lyric imagination

which transforms

into “virtual experience”: into the “formulated feeling” (in

literal detail

Susanne hanger’s phrase) that moves beyond the the realm of

art.-*^

One

historical event into

has the impression that this transformation

demands

times inhibited by the

of the

A-bomb

truth” and by the idiom of “socialist realism”

Toge tends

to

to

at

employ.

in the following

describing police suppression of leftist demonstrations in

he manages

is

for “sacred historical

But even when emitting an ideological rallying-crv— as

poem

44 3

1950—

convey the reader beyond immediate events into larger

psychic dimensions:

I’hey drive at us,

From From

here,

Pistol

on

The

there.

hip.

police drive at us:

August the

sixth,

nineteen

fifty

At the Deadmen’s Tower on the bald-burned spot llie outflood of the citizens,

The

flowers

which they brought

Torn headless

in the milling whirlpool.

When

those with sweat-stained chinstraps

Let

into the crowd.

fly

Let the doves

fly

.

.

.

high.

Let the peace bell ring

And

the mayor’s peace messages

Twisted

The

in the

feast of freedom.

Blown

to

naught

Like fireworks.

A

wind.

.

.

poet of the streets and militant spokesman for the young and

disaffected, Toge’s

work could be viewed

lyrical-revolutionary tradition of

as a

Hiroshima version of the

Mayakovsky and Yevtushenko.

A

com-

bination of poetic talent and personal charisma, together with his early death, have

made him

into a legendary figure

and an A-bomb martyr.

4

DEATH

44

IN LIFE

Wc

must concern ourschcs with

tliat

of

liis

his

mother

Toge

bevond

his life as sucli,

childhood was “very happy” until the age of ten

died; that

two older brothers were persecuted because

of participation in the labor that

impact of

verses alone.

e are told that his

when

tlie

movement

of the 1920s

and

himself, shortly after finishing high school

and beginning

work, was discovered to have tuberculosis (which was to partial invalid for the rest of his life

and eventually

earlv 1930s;

make him

a

result in his death);

and that because of his personal suffering, he was drawn to Christianity and was baptized in 1943 at the age of twentv-six. Beginning from the time of his encounter with the atomic bomb, interpretations of his take on a canonizing tone.

minor wounds,

receiving relatively to help relatives

and had

to

Exposed

and

friends,”

be hospitalized

said that

it is

by “persisting

he exposed himself

for severe early

and that the combination of

thousand meters and

three

at

this

life

in efforts

to secondarv radiation

svmptoms

of

A-bomb

disease;

immediate death immersion, and

later consequences, resulted in a survivor mission of heroic

its

dimensions:

But the atomic bomb gave a positive direction to the life of Sankichi. After the experience, he suffered physicallv from the recurrence of tuberculosis, and every two years would vomit great amounts of blood. Yet the soul of Sankichi, confronted with death, threw itself fervently into the

movement

The account goes on to his protest

poems

ments he formed, was said

to

tell

to stop

atomic

bombs.'*''^

of the diverse flow of his interests

to the various leftist

and

literarv

and cultural move-

to his love for classical music, flowers,

have opened not only the

first

— from

and books. (He

postwar book shop in

Hiroshima, later to become an important literarv and political gathering place, but also its first flower shop.) All this took place in association with a grim struggle with tuberculosis, lengthy stays in a sanitorium, and the ominous physical and psychic effects of recurrent massive hemorrhage.

41ie veneration he received from young laborers and political activists is

spoken of

as

having sustained his

life:

in

a literal

physical sense,

through their constant donating of blood he needed for transfusions;

and

in a psychological sense,

to his poetry

thing for

me

through the fervent, often

which once caused him to

tearful, response

to write in his diarv: “It

was

a

good

have lived until today.” By the same token, suggestions

of war are said to have

worked against

his survival:

with the outbreak of

— Creative Response: the Korean conflict, and the

Army

from the American

1

‘'A-Bomb Literature'

)

noise of

44 5

cannons and maclhne guns practice grounds” which lie could hear from tlie

samtorium bed, he experienced great “spiritual oppression,” so that As a result of the poet’s deep agom', he \omited large amounts of

his

blood.”

He

is

recalled as a

warm and

man,

loyal

his

marriage as one (espe-

cially rare in

Japan) of enduring love, and as having held strongly to the principle of “the fundamental freedom of human beings.”* He even-

Communist

tually joined the

Party, but with

some reluctance

(as his

diary also reveals)

because of his concern for individual expression. Significantly, he took the step after a bout of hemorrhage. What he

wrote at the time— “This culture movement of

my

life.

Why

should the

life

is

the most important goal

of an indi\'idual be so important?”

suggested that his decision might have been related to a desperate

attempt to keep

alive,

at least symbolically,

through

this

larger con-

nection.

But he had

difficulty stifling his

demands,

service of Party

zational criticism.

various groups,

for

He had

broadly humanistio» impulses in the

which he came under considerable organi-

better success in working creatively with

and inaugurated

a

program of “Poems

in Life”

through

which ordinary people could express themselves— especiallv their Abomb experiences— in more or less poetic style. But he constantlv turned back to his

own

poetry,

to

render emotions of parents and

children as well as bitter ones of protest.

the wish “to

live

and die

again emerges strongly in relationship to the

his life: of herculean activity in editing

continuing work on his

expressed in his diary

as a poet.”

The canonizing imagery end of

And he

own poems and

books about the bomb,

essays, helpful collaboration in

the making of the film Hiroshuna, active participation in peace confer-

ences— all

“like a

runner nearing the

goal”; of his decision

final

undergo major surgery

for his tuberculosis

aware of the danger to

his life” presented

because “although he was

by

this surgery,

the risk to the chronic state of illness which prevented filling his

duty to the people of the nation”; and

scene of his death *

More than

— ordinarily

to

he preferred

him from

finally, of

“ful-

the actual

detached medical professionals weeping

ten years after his own death Toge’s wife committed suicide. She was have been distraught over many things, including fear of A-bomb aftereffects, and the destruction by vandals of a monument to her husband. Whatever the additional personal reasons for her act, it inevitably became part of Tbge’s own said to

tragic life-legend.

DEATH

446

IN LIFE

and taking extraordinary measures on liis behalf, so that “when there was no more to be done, tlie nurses broke the rule of the sanitorium and

own blood

transfused their

But

into Sankichi.

were staring at

his eyes

the eeiling.”

Taking canonizing needs into account, there

is

little

doubt that Toge

possessed a remarkable capacity to

combine moving poetic protest with

an emanation of personal purity.

He

that both he

gave others the unusual feeling

and thev were ennobled by

any other poet or novelist

in

protest.

managed

inner conflicts concerning death guilt, he virtually

this

Whatever

his

go further than

to

suggesting the outlines of a

formulation which included both an examination of the dehumanizing force of the

A-bomb, and

transformation. suffering

and

and

dies young.

ability to

‘‘my eyes and their eyes’’ Eisaku Yoneda, whom we have previously hibakusha-poet, was, at the time

He

told

beauty of nature” in the

I

A-bomb

me how

his feelings of

— and

expressed

similar

dirt road,

shoots are through already.

Steadily pushing between the ashes.

And

yet

I

look in vain for

Hearing only the

far

my young one,

sound of a cold wind.

stand on the Aioi Bridge, sick at heart. In the deep waters something flashes!

I

Ah!

It is

but an image,

An image of his

as

the elderlv

poet.

A

forceful, graying

— with

a

“sorrow and indignation”

and children were “somehow absorbed by the

see the winter sun shine brightlv;

The young

spoken of

conducted the studv, considered by

Ruins”:

Going along the

cope with and rebound

he wrote and spoke— in contrast to Toge

at the death of his wife

“Standing

I

Hiroshima’s outstanding

tone of elegy.

social

While both his politics and his the wav in which he wrote, lived,

and died contributed greatly to others’ from their A-bomb death encounter.

sixties,

and

the general romantic image of the poet

poetry can and have been criticized,

many to be man in his

of individual

A-bomb martvrdom emanating from his (with tuberculosis as well as A-bomb expo-

his struggles

lives intensely

vision

of

make contact with

sure) could

who

The image

a general

childhood.

sentiments

in

his

poem

:

Creative Response:

He went on washed away

we could pay a

all

beauty

the debris,’

And

“image”

way

in a

another

in

specifically

tells

how “The

river

implies that the river has absorbed

new dimension of more indirectly in the poem

in the river of the

Yoneda

He

poem he

that creates a

also suggested

as

tality,

bomb

liow the typhoons following the

finds frequent expression in Japanese literature, that of

in destruction.

A-bomb

447

‘‘A-Bomb Literature’

so that

burns on in red flames, forever.” the

)

“when everything was destroyed, the beauty of nature.” Here Yoneda suggests

attention to

theme which

me

to deseribe to

I

natural immor-

describing the

dead boy’s “childhood.”

emphasized to

me

“new beauty”

this principle of

and form

of feeling

In this beauty

have seen not only the re-creation of old beautv, but also the creation of new beauty. Not looking backward but looking I

forward.

Another poem, “The Sand on August Sixth,” carries these themes still further in an East Asian expression of the principle of “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”:

wonder if each and every grain of sand calms down. I wonder if each and every grain of sand still twinkles. One and all the grains embrace in deep shadow. And they are all on tiptoe when the bell begins to tell. I

Idle blood of

men and women

.

.

.

has soaked into everything, into every

grain,

And

the grains are their very bones ground into atoms.

They are fanned to fire, Or are thev stirring. Are they starting

like so

many

.

.

.

sparks.

to revive?

wonder if each and every' grain will prove a dead man’s eye; Gazing into the scorching heavens, when the bell begins to toll. I

.

When And

its

Till the

time when the

The wax sand.

weed

shadow on the sand; bell of

All over the world, echoing

As the

.

the stone burns clear like flame

the verdure of the springing

Casts

.

peace rings out

on the sand.

of the sun itself will not cease to drop.

light of the earth

is

strengthened by each and every grain of

448 I

DEA

1

IN LIFE

II

human

he most extreme form of

annihilation, that

can be compre-

is,

hended and mastered by viewing it as part of the great contiuuum; and those who are annihilated remain viable tinuity,

and even energize

me

In discussing with

emphasized

in that con-

it.

his feelings

about

fundamental difference

the

bio-spiritual

A-bomb

his

poetrv,

Yoneda

comprehension betw'cen

in

hibakusha and nonhibakusha poets (“I don’t think that those who have not been through the A-bomb can reach the same depth of understanding”), and therefore in responsibility (“So the writers actually been through

make known

must

it

tr\-

poems

to express in their

who have .

.

and

.

what happened”). But to carry out this poetic responsibility, he believed, one should “go beyond the level of simple description,” and (in effect) recast the A-bomb into virtual experience through

just

a process of “purification”:

Human

nature

is

very complex.

Some good elements

are there, but

—

bad elements too. Sometimes I would begin to despair but then I would think, This is no time for despair, and onlv by countering the bad elements in ourselves can we bring forth the good elements. This I wanted to do by writing poems. For mv poems are in .

a

way my own

.

.

...

purification.

It

our

is

own

responsibility

eliminate these poisons.

... As my poems

and more people

be able to conquer the bad elements

themselves.

.

.

These “poisons”

will

are,

of

course,

residual

hatreds,

self-interest.

of a silent visual dialogue with the dead

but also

a

more

readers,

more in

.

elements of death guilt and of ignoble tell

find

to

but they are also

He

thus went on to

— terrible

in its

demands,

profound source of poetic inspiration:

have always had a kind of burden on my mind as I write. ... I think the burden comes mainly from the fact that in writing poems, I have had to observe myself with absolute honesty— and this selfI

discipline

is

extremely

difficult

to bear.

.

.

.

When

I

wrote about

and grass growing, I always saw in front of me the eyes of my child and the eyes of other people I knew who died in the bomb. I thought these eyes were looking into my mind, and felt that if there were anything dishonest there, these eves would surely reveal it. They were very penetrating and always urged me to trees

.

.

.

write.

.

.

.

.

.

When

I

my

write

eyes exchange glances.

.

.

.

poetry,

.

I

.

.

.

find that

my

eyes

and

their

Creative Response:

He

derived these images from

looking for reeognizable eyes

more than anyone

And

else.”

I

.

‘‘A-Bomb Literature’

449

seareh for family

liis .

)

.

that’s

why

memIxTs: “I was eame to notiee eyes

I

while by no means unaware of resorting to

metaphor, he earned the metaphor

further in speaking of the stages

still

—

A-bomb

of his approach to

poetry as reflections of these eyes at first ‘'tearful with only vague, sentimental vision sorrow and perhaps indignation, after which they became “forgi\ang eyes and .

.

.

.

.

.

,

that

is

why ...

I

began

to

write

about

.

.

.

.

.

He

reconstruction.”

continues with this theme as the basis for his literary mission:

wanted to portray whatever [those eyes] had in their expression. ... I don’t know exactly the source of mv energy or what sustains me in my creative work. But I feel a strong responsibility to just

I

speak about this situation for the sake of the dead perhaps the hope we have for the future ... or maybe the desire for peace. Every \ictim has this feeling even though the majority cannot .

.

.

.

.

.

themsehes in any form. I write my poetry to give expression what is in the heart of the dead, and what is in the heart of

express to

victims.

Here Yoneda suggests that he derives the perpetual self-transformation necessary for his poetry from a sense of fusing with the dead and giving expression to their and his of death guilt. All

and

rebirth

come

combined “vision.” His individual emotion-s become inseparable from his art, as does his death

together in language of virtual experience, and to the

extent that his readers (particularly hihakusha but also nonhibakusha)

can share

this

experience— can relate themselves to

can enhance their

own mastery

Yoneda’s elegiac profoundly

felt

verse, like

of their

A-bomb

encounters.

Toge’s protest poetry, thus emerges from a

upon ordinary patterns of

life

a tone of psychological non-resistance to reaffirm

risk

symbolism— thev

sense of survivor mission. But rather than cry out against

the violent intrusion

tality in his

its

own and

nature’s continuitv.

Where

and death,

it

adopts

man’s sense of immorprotest poetrv runs the

of literalness (and ceasing to be poetry), elegiac poetrv runs the risk

of lapsing into cosmic generalities inspiration (ceasing to be

A-bomb

to the dangers of “censorship”

death

guilt,

tive lapse

which

its

original

poetry). Both, of course, are exposed

bv the dead— that

is,

to

unmastered

results in blunting of imagery, in a general imagina-

precluding

artistic

which overcomes these tal i tv.

and losing contact with

transformation. Both seek a formulation

difficulties

bv revivifving the sense of immor-

DEATH

45 0

IN LIFE

modes

Ultimately, the two

means absolutely distinct— there expressions of protest in Yoneda.

are by no

moments in Toge, indirect Indeed, no A-bomb poem is entirely

are elegiac

of protest,

free

process in which emotions arc transmuted into poetry

These mixed tones taneity— as

The

On Of

in Kishiro

child

and protest can be

of elegy

is

and the basic related to elegy.

stark in their simul-

Tanaka’s “The Setting Sun”:

no more.

is

the barracks

the primary school

Lingers the glow of the setting sun.

And

here and there the skulls are found.

My A-bombed And

Hiroshima.

in I’amiki Hara’s

“That Demonic Moment”:

The white ghost of pampas The hanging mist

grass

ready to drop.

Is

Cold

tears well

up

in

my

eyes, w^ell up!

That demonic moment! Trudging down the I

find the world

is

slope,

lowering

its

voice;

A well, wavering and glittering; Fair faces, laughing and weeping. I

he phrase

poignancy the early

I

in

find the world

A-bomb

writers,

and

and author

bomb— Summer

recall that his suicide

War

lowering

of the best

one of the to the

us

first

When said to

compared

come

formation

is

died in the

that he

its

that

Hana

— we

bomb. But

was experiencing

human beings or to would have made it more

forms of literature and

maintaining

)

called “losing the world”: that

its

art,

he

formulate “audible.”

poetrv

may be

general standards of svmbolic

confrontation with the A-bomb. But this trans-

only sporadic, and always tenuous.

all literature

media.

to other

closest to

transformation in

way

of

outbreak of the Korean

himself unable to “hear” his fellow

his psychic universe in a

known

memoir-novels

(Natsu no

who had

tells

what mystics have

to

One

Flowers

to his loneliness for his w'ife,

something close

by

of

was attributed both

whatever the reasons, the poem

felt

voice” takes on particular

its

view of the poet’s later suicide.

about the

written

is

And

the problems faced

can be further illuminated by responses in other creative

CREATIVE RESPONSE: ARTISTIC DILEMMAS

2)

1 )

Dramatic Arts: A-Bomb on Film

The dramatic

arts in

many ways

lend themselves particularly to the

creation of great historical events.

As “performed

literature/'

at least ideally, supply vivid renditions of these events

and

drama

re-

can,

same

at the

time build emotions around them that transform them into works of art.

In relationship to the

A-bomb

great gap between this potential

But

at least

their

two

medium

we

shall see there to

be

a

and what has actually been achieved.

both of them on

film,

approach and impact.

And

efforts,

in

experience

successful artisticallv, also teach us

have made unique use of other films, though

less

much.

Concerning other forms of drama, ^ Kajiyama, the author of Experimental City, achieved the unusual distinction of bringing humor to the

A-bomb problem

in a radio play entitled

(Hiroshima no Kiri), broadcast

bomb

March, 1958,

in

of Hiroshima"

which ghosts of A-

victims hold a convention for the purpose of deciding

haunt— the American

President,

the Japanese leader Hideki

cannot agree, and end up radio,

in

“The Mist

TV, and

the scientist “Poustein"

Nenjo (Tojo),

or

whom

(Einstein),

someone else— but they

in a state of poltergeistic confusion.

stage plays have been

more conventional

general hibakusha suffering, fear of aftereffects,

to

shame over

Most

in depicting

deformities,

DEATH

452

and

IN LIFE

efforts to avoid discrimination

by hiding hibakusha identity. Usually

written by nonhibakusha with an interest in the plays have varied in quality

from soap-opera

siderable dramatic force. Their elegiac qualitv

(Kono liana o Miyo), (Kiimo no Sakeme),

radio play,

a

of

to vehicles of con-

suggested bv the names at

and “Opening

Flower”

the

in

the Cloud”

drama based upon poems bv Tamiki who committed suieide.

Perhaps the most original has been

The Head

is

these

a television

Hara, the hibakusha-wn ter

entitled

level

— them “Look

two of the more notable among

of

A-bomb problem,

Mary (Maria no

and revolves around the

a stage play

Kiibi),-

bv Chikao Tanaka

which

set in

is

Nagasaki

efforts of a keloid-bearing nurse-prostitute to

steal the statue of the \^irgin

Mary, piece by

from among the

piece,

ruins.* After raising various Catholic issues of sin

and

responsibilitv,

moves

to a provocative

she

being called upon to bear witness to the events of August

is

denouement

eooperates in the theft and

in

whieh Mary

herself,

when

told 9,

those hibakusha involved that she

tells

wishes to be with them and watch over them. Performed with sueeess by a eontemporary

it

drama group

in

some

Tokyo, the play hints at

formulation in which conventional morality

is

a

inverted so that hiba-

kusha ean gain aeeess to divine (authentie) nurturanee to help them cope with the anger and confused seareh for meaning which dominate their continuing

More

A-bomb

characteristic

(Shima),^ performed

confrontation.

was in

play by

a

1957

first

Kiyomi Hotta entitled Island

by a stage group and

later

on

a radio

network, whieh depicted hibakusha physical fears and other eonflicts

with a combination of sensitivity and emotional power.

Its

tone of

unremitting hopelessness, however, led to the caneellation of a plan to stage

it

in

Hiroshima, beeause of coneern about the disturbing

effects

it

would have upon actual hibakusha. This kind of concern has aecompanied most efforts at dramatic re-creation. While it grows out of an aecurate evaluation of hibakusha vulnerabilities, tion in

ereative discourse

'I’lie

upon

artistie

transcendenee to

beyond that of immediate hibakusha

characteristies

drama, “the dream *

also refleets a limita-

most of the dramas themselves— a semi-documentary

does not achieve sufficient

The

it

which make

of film

mode

.

. .

[in

writers

and

its

which

level

of

feelings.

unlike other forms of

whieh] the eamera

same theme has been used by other

actual occurrence.

it,

lift

stvle

is

is

said to

in the place of

have been based

:

Creative Response: 2 tlic

dreamer

hold out speeial possibilities for

^

most attempts have stuck apparent

literality of

dreamed

a

is

Artistic

)

A-bomb

45 3

re-creation.

But

to the other side of the film equation, the

the photographic image, without realizing that this

and that “the

reality,’

conventions and

Dilemmas

reality,

more

the

closer a

frcelv

it

movie seems

circulates

in

to stick to

the fantasy

world.”* Overwhelmed by this subject and possessing limited grasp of their medium, film-makers have often tried to reproduce the atomic

bomb

experience exactly as

emerge

inauthentic,

as

widow

elderlv

tells

when

it

happened— efforts which

particularly

to

are

bound

hibakusha themselves,

to

the

as

us

saw movies which showed these scenes— and in some cases the scenes were artificially constructed for the movies— they simply could not portray what I had seen with mv own eyes. Later,

I

‘‘a-bomb ronin’’ There does

however, extensive documentary film of the actual event. This film has importance, not only as a record of what took place, exist,

but in relationship to one of the more interesting stories of quasilegendary heroism to emerge from the A-bomb experience.

One month

after the

team was sent

bomb

the

first

part of a thirty-man

documentary

Hiroshima by Nichiei Productions, then Japan’s major newsreel company. A later account describes the fears and film

courage of the

to

men on

the team and their close collaboration with Japa-

nese scientists, as well as their determined confrontation with American

who,

December, abruptly ordered them to cease shooting in Nagasaki, where they had gone the previous month. They were finally permitted to complete a nineteen-reel (eleven-thousand-foot) film in an

authorities

in

English version entitled Effects of the Atomic that

the

it

be turned over

men

print of

in its entirety to

the American

more than

half of the original film,

One commentator

Army. But four

them

to

in a

which thev hid away

of

in a

Tokyo suburb.

paid the group the ultimate compliment of com-

Japan’s

great

traditional

(and also part-legendary)

heroes and exemplars of loyalty, the Forty-Seven Ronin. *

the condition

decided to violate this order and prepare secretly an additional

photographic laboratory

paring

Bomb, on

The

latter also

The dreamlike

character of the film medium suggested by both A. Alvarez and Susanne Langer is, of course, its extraordinary capacity to bring free imagination to its

apparent

emergence of

literality.

And

film as the

precisely this combination may be responsible for the most contemporary of arts— that is, as the art form most

attuned to the quality of present-day experience.

•'*

DEATH

454 formed

IN LIFE

a secret pact (at the beginning of the eighteenth century), in

avenge

their case to

tlie

death of the lord; went to extreme lengths to (several divorced

disguise their intentions

one

their wives,

and many en-

father-in-law, another sold his sister into concubinage,

gaged

killed his

behavior); two years later carried out their

in gaudily dissolute

mission by surprising their adversary and killing him; and were then

accorded by the authorities the privilege of honorable deaths by

ritual

suicide.

Wliile the comparison

is

somewhat romantic

a

Ronin" did play an important part

bomb

atomic

one,’*'

the

“A-bomb

awakening

in the national

to the

experience. For in July, 1952, just after the Occupation

ended, portions of the hidden documentary were shown “with great excitement'’ at movie houses throughout Japan. Shortly afterwards, on

August

an issue of the Asahi Graphic, devoted entirelv to

6,

still

photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki taken shortly after their atomic

bombings, also caused an immediate sensation. thought by

many

was erroneously

It

that these photographs were taken from the original

documentary

film.

Ronin” of

own, three or four reporters and photographers

its

But

it

turns out that the Asahi

Hiroshima at the time of the

either in

afterwards,

and who,

bomb

also in violation of

had

a

few “A-bomb

who were

went there

or else

shortlv

Occupation orders, retained

negatives or positives of the pictures they took.

From

the newsreel, and particularly from the issue of the Graphic,

most Japanese obtained horrors of the nuclear

their

first

real

psychic immersion into

weapons experience. As the

editorial

the

comment

accompanying the pictures pointed out, although Japanese had been “the

first

victims of the atomic

“cruel facts.”

bomb

in

world history,” few knew the

But the “overwhelming power

[of these 'facts']

compelled

recognition,” so that, concerning the decision to devote a special issue to

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “It

The impact

is

of these photographs

viewed in Tokyo and Kyoto * It

from

history that

Gensuibaku

in

and

commands

was attested

to

us to

do

so.”

by Japanese

I

inter-

connection with another study. They

exaggerations perhaps reflect not only ideological perspectives of the author but the general hunger for A-bomb heroism of any kind. I was able to obtain first-hand descriptions from some of the men involved in the original episode, and from two books describing it and other photographic is

Jidai,

its

the time. Although the event has been described in various later writings, it does not seem to have strongly captured the Japanese imagination— partly because of resistance to the entire subject of the atomic bomb. But its significance may nonetheless be greater than generally realized and may increase with time. exploits

at

Creative Response: 2) Artistic

became,

in fact, a pictorial consolidation of

section

Those who talk about future and be prepared for such a

w’ars

455

postwar Japanese

sentiment, as again suggested by the editorial

them:

Dilemmas

pacifist

comment accompanying

should look at

this special

or for one even

disaster,

horrible, to occur to themselves.” In this sense they

were a

more landmark in

national efforts at mastering victimization by atomic weapons.

hihakusha themsehes

about any such significance

in turn,

issue,

had

own

their

experience

their

though unable to be

came

free of

And

ambivalence

formulations enhanced by the

to

assume

for

all

Japanese.

Of

considerable psychological significance for hibakusha and nonhibakusha alike

was the

fact that the entire

sequence of actions, the making of the

film

and

secret preservation,

was accomplished by Japanese— thus

making

its

it

a powerful expression of

autonomv, the very

antithesis of

counterfeit nurturance.

More

important, what the

“A-bomb Ronin” achieved was not

the

vengeance of the original Forty-Seven, but what might be termed

a

“moral equivalent of vengeance.” Their act did express defiance, a sense of “righting the tion,

wrong” of American suppression of A-bomb informa-

and of exposing

originally

to

the world America's overall culpability in

dropping the bomb. But

in the service of

stress

was upon recording the events

emphasizing the new importance

old patterns of vengeance and war.

They

that had taken place, not by producing strating the folly of

contemporary

on the significance of

But the world’s

silent

restored significance to deaths

more

killing.

in

of

In this

beginnings of an

difficulties

for all to transcend

them but by demonway their actions took

A-bomb

formulation.

following through on this idealistic

formulation are illustrated by the subsequent fate of the film. Portions of the original have been used in a

number

bomb, documentary and otherwise.* But

of motion pictures about the its

use has frequently been

much narrower than that involved in its preservation, and the film now sits in a Tokyo warehouse as an incomplete and not very accessible historical record. The presumably complete American copies, according to American journalists who have associated with ideological purposes

tried to track

*

them down, have

made by a Nichiei cameraman at the time, which Nippon News No. 2S7 and was said to have been shown as 1945. But its creator is unknown and it has not achieved the

There was another newsreel,

came

to be

known

as

dissolved into the far reaches of military

also

early as September 22, importance of the more extensive ten-reel documentary photographers were sent with the Nichiei team to take only later to be reproduced in various books.”^

materials. still

In

pictures,

addition,

which were

DEATH

45 6

bureaucracy, and are shi

IN LIFE

known

in

Japan as the “phantom

film’'

[maboro-

no firumu).^

DOCUMENTARIES^ Seen

in 1962, ten years after

film clippings by

no means

its

post-Occupation release, these original

lose their effectiveness.

The documentary

made use of them, Asahi News No. 363, moves methodically from scenes of wounded and moribund adults, and of partly incinerated

which

first

children identified as homeless and “waiting to die,” to wide-angle shots of the leveled area identified as a “citv of death” in which “no trees or

be found.” But although the whole film

grass can

hour,

it

lasts less

than a half

devotes the last few minutes to themes of rebirth: a charming

which presumably once contained dead bodies, sprouting beautiful water lilies; and scenes of rebuilding whose vitalitv contrasts little

pool,

bomb. One gains the show exactly how things

sharply with the lifelessness at the time of the

impression that the film’s major concern

to

is

human

were, but to do so in the service of reawakened

Yet there

is

separable from

continuitv.

an inherent contradiction: “how things were” the viewpoint of the film-maker,

is

in-

from the implicit

formulation contained in the most literal-appearing photographic material.

In documentary films this formulation

is

expressed in such things as

the sequences chosen and their relationship to one another, the spoken

commentary, background music, additional photographic images added for purposes of contrast, and so on. In the Asahi newsreel, for instance, these elements

come

controlling image which

together to create a

propels the viewer to a grotesque immersion in death rebirth.

their

combination is

stress

— seeming

the art

Protest films, as

elegiac

Subsequent films of various kinds have resembled A-bomb

poetry in

poetry

and an

upon to

either

elegy or

protest,

confirm the assertion

medium closest to that of film. many of them made under the

or

the two in

made by some

that

auspices of such groups

Gensuikyo or the Teacher’s Union, have tended

to contain structured

ideological formulations beneath the surface objectivity of the docu-

mentary form. Such *

On May

films

can nonetheless

was reported

New

make contact both with

York Times that American authorities had acknowledged possession of the film and that a further request by the Japanese government for making it available would probably meet with favorable action, although requests had been refused in the past. Following this report various individuals and groups in Hiroshima spoke out, demanding the film’s return; and on the Japanese Education NIinister announced that he would press negotiaJune tions on the matter with the American government.

H

18, 1957,

it

in the

Creative Response: 2

)

Artistic

Dilemmas

45 7

hibakusha conflicts and general fears about nuclear weapons, as docs one of the most influential of them, The World Is in Dread {Sekai specific

wa Kyofu Death,”

Suru^

1957). Subtitled

“A True

brings together Hiroshima, the

it

bitterly accusatory fashion.

Picture of the Ashes of

H-bomb, and America

Described by Richie as

in

delibcratelv sensa-

tional, a scare-message film, using all sorts of rhetorical shock-devices,”^ it

upon the viewer to produce a predominant emotion of fear. Opening with a scene of ominous clouds, with equally ominous

acts

background music and consists

mainly of

narrative warning of ''invisible danger,”

a

a series of

it

deadly images concerning radiation dan-

gers: birds in a special experimental

chamber dving, within minutes,

of

radiation exposure; scientists extracting strontium 90 from the rainwater collected after strating

its

American hydrogen bomb

presence in

(here, as in

many

then demon-

tests at Bikini,

impairment of the growth of

soil, its

rice plants

scenes, the viewer can readily confuse experimental

possibility with actual occurrence),

its

and by babies (shown

with their milk. There

in nurseries)

being ingested by cows in grass a series of

is

quick shifts from scientific laboratories to Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

white mice developing cancer after injections of strontium 90, followed immediately by a woman bedridden with cancer in the Atomic Bomb Hospital twelve years after her original exposure; genetic impairments in

(some born with one eye several generations after initial irradiation) and in fish (some with two heads) and other animals fruit

flies

following various kinds of radiation exposure— then a two-headed babv

born to a hibakusha picture of a one-eyed

in

1950, another born without a brain in 1951, a

baby

said to

have been taken by a doctor, and

grotesque shots of children, living and dead,

who had been born

tiny heads, without hearts or other organs,

and with other kinds of

malformation. Distinctions are

made between

exposure in utero, but these are easily lost

with

genetic impairments and

in

the rapid scene-shifting.

Shots of scientists confirming radiation dangers and issuing warnings

about the future add to the general impact. Interspersed are "positive” scenes— fish copulating, lovers in Paris,

children doing deep-breathing exercises at school— but these, thing, intensifv the horror

(and

in the case of the

bility of inhaling

by suggesting the

life

force that

threatened

strontium 90). Toward the end of the film there

that despite these dangers, despite the rain

ash, despite

anv-

deep-breathing children, suggesting the possi-

demonstration of a solitary mouse dying from radiation

comment

is

if

what happened

in

effects, filled

is

a

with the

with death

Hiroshima, and despite the pleas of

DEA

458

1

II

IN LIFE

Hirosliima victims, America continues to test her nuclear weapons.

Then

a final exhortation:

“We

man. d'he danger

refleet the fate of

that of floods or earthquakes— it

and

if

man

hope that the mouse’s death doesn’t

so wills, he can cause

effeet

terrifying.

is

Its

from

different

made—

to eease.”

d'he “dream-language” of the film overall

is

something we ourselves have

is

it

of ashes of death

is

that of perpetual nightmare;

blurred

juxtaposition

of

its

events,

real

dangers, possibilities, exaggerations, and questionable cause-and-effeet

assumptions evokes an indiseriminate image of nuclear dread, of diffuse death anxiety.

And

less exclusively

its

more

implicit formulation associates this dread

with Ameriea (Soviet testing

is

or

not mentioned). This

death-saturated formulation of nuclear dangers, ineluding the one-sided

aecusation of America, could be said to refleet feelings held by

some

hibakusha and bv various groups throughout the world. But the

film’s

shrilly didactie

Fumio Kamei, was

direetor,

its

tone and absence of

transeendence suggest that

artistie

overwhelmed by

partly

his

matter and partly compelled by politieal convictions to treat

subject it

as

he

did.

The

result

is

that the film tends to stimulate in the viewer the most

WTile some mav mission, more are

primitive kind of emotion related to annihilation.

respond with a construetive sense of survivor-like likely to experienee eonfusing

eombinations of

fear,

psyehie numbing,

and angrily

simplistic (even paranoid) impulses toward extirpating evil,

possibly by

means

as the direetor’s

of further violence. Moreover,

background (he studied

eommunist formulations

in a

number

general tone, as well

Moseow and

in

has expressed

of his films), eneourage

Japanese, whether or not hibakusha, to dismiss as

its

it

and

all

many

A-bomb

films

eommunist-linked, thereby providing a eonvenient reinforeement of

psyehie

numbing and undermining

the

demand

film that everyone eonfront the full nuelear threat. In Is in

Dread has considerable impact

of a

mixed kind, and demonstrates

the vicissitudes— artistie, as well as psyehological and

bomb

formulations

objeetivity, turn

The same

which,

made under

out to be considerably

director, in Still, Ifs

less

Good

made in the sum. The World

so fiereely

the

moral— of

cloak

of

filmic A-

documentary

than universalistic.

to

Be

Alive {Ikite Ite Yokatta,

1956), was able to convey a related message but with considerablv greater sensitivity

and emotional scope. The

film wavers

between

a

broadly humanistic approach to individual post-A-bomb struggles and a certain

degree of propagandistie emphasis upon the role played by

Gensuikyo (which sponsored

it)

in rallying

hibakusha around

its

pro-

Creative Kesponse: 2) Artistic

gram.

1

he tenuousness of the blend again

Dilemmas

45 9

reflects the difficult

demands

of the subject matter.

SAD BEAUTY When we turn from documentaries

to full-length films,

we

again enter

into the elegiac realm, as illustrated

by two prominent examples. The first, A Thousand Cranes (Senbazuru), was made in 1958 as the motionpicture version of the Sadako Sasaki legend. In recording the story of the fourteen-year-old

bomb,

it

girl’s

death from leukemia ten years after the

presents a characteristically Japanese sentimental evocation of

childhood, and then records the cruel annihilation of a particular child.

there are

first

scenes of children at school and on gay excursions:

all

and pure. Then the intrusion of illness, the shocking revelation of “A-bomb disease,” and the long, losing struggle is

gentle, loving, energetic,

with leukemia portrayed mostly in Sadako’s hospital room. In scenes of infinite sadness her classmates gather at her bedside and hold a private graduation ceremony for her at which they render a Japanese version of “Auld Lang Syne”; and then her father, his eyes tearful, attends the real

ceremony work

in her place in order to pick

up her diploma. The children

produce the thousand paper cranes thought necessary to make her well, with Sadako herself demonstrating great courage in feverishly to

the face of her physical deterioration.

As the

film depicts

the children’s passionate response to Sadako’s

death, and their successful national campaign to raise a large

amount

of

money for a memorial statue, we witness the special power of children, when confronted with the world’s evil, to accomplish the impossible and move everyone’s heart in the direction of good. But in maintaining a

one-dimensional view of (childhood) good and (adult)

avoids

all

we know elegy

evil,

the film

emotional complexity (including the conflicts and hypocrisies to have surrounded the actual event) and relies entirely upon

and upon mono no aware, the “sad beauty” or “suchness” of

existence.

Its

artistic

possibilities

contact with the universal

myth

integral to imagery of death

message: the atomic world’s best strength,

hope

in

bomb

and

thus limited,

it

nonetheless makes

of childhood puritv which rebirth.

The

is,

film, then, has a

in turn,

double

destroys children and childhood; but the

confronting the nuclear

evil lies

in precisely the

wisdom, and purity of the young.

'Fhe other film of this genre. Children of the

A-Bomb (Genbaku no

Ko, 1952), was based on a best-selling novel by Arato Osada,

a well-

.

4

DEATH

60

known

IN LIFE

hibakusha-eclucutor

subtlety, but

takes the

it

It

theme

sentiment more than

too emphasizes

ambitious emotional dimensions to suggest the destruetion of

human existenee. The mood from the beginning

pure

more

of annihilation of ehildhood into all

that

is

in

woman,

is

of nostalgie melaneholy.

a kindergarten teaeher at the time of the

A

young

bombing, returns

to

her native Hiroshima from a nearby island— and although she finds the rivers

and the elouds and the sky

ehaos.

An

man

old

in rags, blind

a miserable shaek,

still

beautiful,

bomb and

from the

is

the young

the hope of

woman

my

else

pain and

is

living hermitlike in

turns out to be a former familv servant; he has

reluetantly plaeed his seven-year-old grandson

when

all

life.”

he refuses beeause “he

offers to take the ehild,

And when he

says, “If

an orphanage, but

in

only

I

weren’t blind.

If

only there hadn’t been a pikadon [Tash-boom,’ or an A-bomb],” his tone

is

more

of resignation than protest.

An old friend the young woman visits who used to teaeh with her, now unable to have ehildren beeause of the bomb, explains that she had first felt great despair, but “I thought of those who died, and then beeame eontent.” Mueh of the film eenters on the woman’s seareh (begun after she and her friend have looked at old photographs of their kindergarten elass) for three ehildren said to have survived the bomb.

Flashbaeks of nostalgie kindergarten seenes alternate with the dreadful

post-bomb situations she eneounters first

ehild’s

home

in the eourse of her seareh.

she finds not only terrible povertv but the neighbor-

hood’s sudden shoek and grief as the boy’s father

bomb

The seeond ehild is The third ehild lives

disease.

aftereffeets.

having been

killed,

their

herself elose to

down with Adeath from A-bomb

alone with his

sister,

is

struek

their parents

ehildhood devoured bv their struggle for

existenee; the boy, about to be further

abandoned beeause of

imminent marriage, tells his former teaeher that her happy event sinee the war.”

The

At the

film returns to the old

man.

When

he agrees

his sister’s

visit is

to let his

“the

first

grandson

go with the teaeher, the youngster refuses to unless his grandfather

eomes

too.

The

old

man

deeides to elear the boy’s path bv taking

poison; as he loses eonseiousness he asks that his hospital,

and then

trip

boy take

mood

“War,

to a

stupid, pikadon''

The

mono no aware surrounding the between Hiroshima and the island. The young woman and the a last look at the A-Bomb Dome, and we see that the boy is

film ends, as

boat

utters his last words:

body be given

it

began, with a

earrying his grandfather’s ashes.

of

Creative Response: 2

Artistic

)

Dilemmas

4

61

Children of the A-Bonih demonstrates both the strengths and the limitations of the

more

and eontaining

talized

or less totally elegiae film. Highly sentimen-

little

rendition of inner eonfliet, the

mood seems

to subordinate the plot.

sueh,

it

Rather than probing individual eharaeter as evokes the rhythms of the life eyele ehildhood, marriage, the

—

bearing of ehildren, old age, and death

— but

shows every stage

to

be

profoundly disturbed by the A-bomb. The protest is sotto voce, subdued by the psyehologieal non-resistanee of mono no aware, within whieh is the formulation that however these rhythms are impaired— whatever the extent of human suffering life reasserts itself. reeognize a

—

We

psyehologieal response similar to that of of formulation

is

many

hibakusha, for this kind

not only the most eharaeteristically Japanese, but also

the most universally called upon in response to catastrophe. Yet its capacity to absorb the full impact of nuclear disaster, artistically as well as psychologically,

The

elegiac

combine

it

remains questionable.

mood

has been used more complexly

with protest or connect

theme. The

it

— in

films

only tangentially with the

which

A-bomb

Pure Love (Junai Monogatari, made in 1957 by the leading director Tadashi Imai) does both. It follows the novel from Storys of

which

it

young

lovers with the corruption of society.

was adapted

changed

in contrasting the purity of the relationship of

to radiation sickness;

and her

But the

suffering

girl’s

two

tuberculosis

is

and death— and the

accompanying tone of protest— are no longer expressed through the nonspecific medical-social symbolism associated with tuberculosis, but rather through a

classic constellation of

A-bomb themes:

ultimate inhumanity,

counterfeit nurturance, and American culpability.*

MONSTERS AND MOCKERY A

very different kind of

fiction genres *

A-bomb theme

which Richie

refers

is

expressed in two science-

to as “the monster-film”

and “the

Us Not Forget the Song of Nagasaki (Nagasaki no Uta wa 1953), an American is sympathetically interwoven with the mono no aware theme: through attempting to return a piece of music he had found on the battlefield to its composer’s family in Nagasaki, he becomes involved in the suffering of A-bomb victims. This unique depiction of an American occurs in one of the few films whose director, Tomotaka Tasaka, was himself a hibakusha. Tasaka, in fact, was thought to be still suffering from physical A-bomb effects while making the film. But although he had in the past been one of Japan’s great pioneers among film direcIn another film, Let

Wasurefi,

tors, this was in no way considered a film of distinction. Even his use of an American was partly determined by influences unrelated to the A-bomb— he was connected with a “co-production” project bringing together actors from the two countries. But whatever the influences at play, the sympathetic character created expressed a conciliatory formulative vision.

.

4

DEATH

62

IN LIFE Although Japanese versions of these

visitors-from-outer-space picture.”

made

resemble those

number and influenee not world (many of the most suecessful

in other countries, their

only in Japan but throughout the

Ameriean monster

films

have been adaptations of Japanese originals)

probably related, as Richie also suggests, to atomie

market

(Given Japan’s general standing

as a

and

also take into

one must

violenee, however,

bomb

is

exposure.

for films depicting cruelty

aeeount

traits of

upon by the A-bomb experienee.) The most famous of the monsters is Godzilla, who appeared

national

eharacter aeted

of that

name

1954 (the Japonized rendering

in

following

year

Godzilla,

‘‘a

in

saurian King Kong,”^^*

and

explosions,

Gounterattack

Godzilla’s

his

in

catalysts for

no Gyakushu)

all

Tokyo

of

test

until

who must

himself be annihilated

We mav say that nuclear weapons

are symbolized here as

monstrous devastation,

for bizarre

spaee— either out of concern about nuelear (in

(Gojira

awakened by the Bikini

In the seeond genre, visitors or invaders

earth

Gojira), and again the

is

appearanee threatens

first

destroyed by a Japanese scientist-hero in the process.

is

in a film

Space

Men

Appear

and unassimilable death.

eome tests

to Japan

being eondueted on

Tokyo [Uchujin Tokyo

in

from outer Arawaru,

ni

1954] they arrive on flving saucers to seek adviee from the Japanese); or else as hostile ereatures, physically effects

from these same

and mentallv deranged by radiation

The deranged

tests.

the robot, or be direetly nuclear (the

(“the eleetrie man”).

Onee more

state

may

“H-Man”),

take the form of

or nuclear-eharged

these ereatures are defeated,

and the

universe saved, by Japanese scientists’ courage and advaneed knowledge. Tliese films represent efforts at masterv of nuelear problems bv

representing calling

The

them

in

first

exaggerated, partly moeking, fantasy, and then

upon Japan’s unique nuclear experienee

as a souree of

wisdom.

Japanese scientist-hero’s combination of technical competence and

dedication, whatever

its

which the

“survivor’s mission” in

with nuclear survival

suggestion of national chauvinism,

is

speeial

is

a

form of

power over death associated

brought forth to “save the universe.”

Much

more than most films dealing with the A-bomb, this “monster” genre makes imaginative use of its medium’s dreamlike potential. Moreover, its apocahptic approach to good and evil is relevant both to dimensions of contemporary holocaust purity.

and

to

the survivor’s quest for absolute

This approach also gives expression to the attraetion (on the part

of survivor or viewer) to disaster— the urge to “witness” ally experience either a repetition of

antieipation

of

what one

fears.

and emotion-

what one has been through

The

monster’s

(or

or an

spaee visitor’s)

Creative Response: 2

Artistic

)

Dilemmas

463

fip-

impersonal, supcrliiiman power suggests, as no other genre can,

tlie

impairment of life-death balance, a vision of all people on earth becoming helpless guinea pig-victims. I he entire experience becomes acceptable to the viewer because of an additional element of implicit radical

formulation to the effect that

expose of earth’s

own

Apart from these

of this

all

is

make-believe, a satirical

absurdities. virtues, the films

tend to substitute formula for

formulation, technological imagination for depth of thought and feeling.

They

are,

response

one sympathetic

as

has suggested, an

critic

“inadequate

to the general

disaster.”!!

contemporarv problem of “the imagination of But whatever their artistic and intellectual inadequacies,

they do, at least for Japanese, encourage a freer flow of extreme psychic elements in creating a workable relationship to the nuclear world. My impression, however, was that a certain detachment was required for psychic freedom, so

this

participate in

it

bomb

than atomic

Hibakusha probably

hibakusha probably are

that

find

it

less

able

to

“outsiders.”

even more

difficult

to accept a direct

treatment of the atomic bomb, as exemplified by Keisuke Kinoshita’s Carmen's Pure Love (Karumen Junjosu, 1952). In this film satirical

who

an elderly matriarch

harridan of a mother the

bomb

!“

lost a

son in the atomic

— blames

all

of

alone: the appearance of an

life’s

bomb— a

“militaristic

subsequent vicissitudes on

abandoned baby on her doorstep,

the blackmailing of another of her sons, even the defeat of a politician she favored. Kinoshita, a noted comedy director, takes advantage of the idea to poke fun at such postwar Japanese

woman (Carmen

a strip-tease dancer

is

strike terror into the hearts of the

home

to

visit

phenomena

who

as the

“modern”

joins a fellow-stripper to

simple country people

the folks”); the “old-fashioned”

when

woman

they go

patriot

(the

matriarch forces her daughter and the daughter’s fiance to submit to a daily singing of the national anthem); and greedy racketeers, politicians,

and

relatives.

This formulation not only “laughs at the unlaughable,” but doubly deflates the A-bomb by mixing it in with the general potpourri of postwar Japanese dislocations.

toward hibakushuy

partly

manipulations of the guilt

It

based

A-bomb

undoubtedly expresses resentment

upon

exaggerations

experience by

toward them and fear of their death

liberating because

it

and

political

some

of them, partly

taint.

But the approach

upon is

punctures the image of absolute hibakusha virtue

and moves toward recognition of paradoxical psychic combinations,

4

DEATH

64

much

the

in

IN LIFE

fashion

Kokubo’s use

of

“underground

of

fiction

in

themes.” This genre also shares witli monster and outer-spaee films the use of mockery as a release from stereotyped emotions.

Were hibakusha

able to respond to the mockery in either of the categories, one could be sure that they

had moved

significantly

toward mastery. But

I

have seen

evidence of such response.

little

NUCLEAR ANXIETY AND A-BOMB LOVE The most

problem

at

depth— is Akira Kurosawa’s Record Living Being [Ikimono no Kiroku, 1955), shown abroad as I Live

of

weapons

issue

on film— the

eenter and treat

its

a

Hiroshima-nuclear

treatment of the

Japanese

significant

it

with

moving picture

first

to place the

artistic

in

Fear.

The Bikini,

film’s protagonist

is

an elderly

and subsequent bomb

of nuclear

weapons— and with

tests,

to fallout because of

its

man who,

Hiroshima,

as a result of

becomes obsessed with the dangers

Japan’s special geographic vulnerability

location in a celestial “valley”:

happen to those of us who live in this valley? We will lose our hair— and become just bones. I saw the graphic section of the newspaper on Hiroshima. It was dreadful. There was a picture of a little boy like this [he holds his own grandson in his arms].

What

will

.

.

He

convinced that safety

is

plaee of emigration for

lies

many

Southern Hemisphere, where

When all

a son asks

must

but

die

him

only in taking his family to Brazil (a

Japanese) because of less

fallout

likely

replies excitedly: “Yes,

don’t want to be killed, that’s

I

is

its

to

location in the

be encountered.

to look at the matter philosophieally

someday”), he

.

all.”

He

is

(“Well, we

everyone has to a

man whose

die,

death

anxiety requires that he avoid being helplessly annihilated.

The

film skillfully blends nuclear

themes with ordinary contemporary

problems. Hardening family resistance to the old man’s plan

associ-

is

ated with various forms of greed and self-seeking, particularly the fear that he will squander his persists in his

money and

leave

no inheritance.

arrangements without the consent of other family

bers, they take

him

incompetent. As

all

to

*he

is

some

of the family’s dirty linen

justice,

finally declared

he

mem-

domestic court to have him declared financially is

exposed there, includ-

ing his longstanding relationships with mistresses, the old can, with

When

be accused of leading a

selfish life.

man

himself

Indeed,

when

incompetent, only his mistress remains loyal and

attempts to help him (later his daughter and his wife also soften, more

:

Creative Response: 2

Artistic

)

Dilemmas

465

out of sympathy toward liim than out of any convictions al)out nuclear weapons). Others in liis family block him at every turn, anticipate their inheritances

and mental

physical

it

so

burned

I

workmen

to

dowai

.

join family

.

down

factory— his logic being; “You to leave Japan as long as this factory were here,

w’ould be difficult it

him

collapse.

In desperation, he burns said

they observe

as

and greedily show signs of

his owai

and now'

.

members

w^e

can go to

live in Brazil.”

But

as

condemning him (“What about our jobs? ), for the first time he begins to lose his determination and becomes confused; and when his son points out that “Even Brazil is not safe; there

no place that

is

He

defeated.

is

in

he looks increasingly distraught and sent to prison, where other inmates make him a is

safe,”

laughingstock:

1 his

man

set fire to his

own

building

— he

is

very strange.

.

.

.

You

w^ere very foolish to w'orry

Minister. If

about things you should leave to the Prime you are so worried about H-bombs, wdiy don't you leave

the earth?

He

IS

transferred to an “insane asylum,” for

by now he

is

insane and

thinks himself on a distant planet witnessing nuclear holocaust on

Earth 1 his

is

an\ people there?

come

By

a safe place.

to

this

.

.

.

planet

They should this

Tom is

how

the way,

star.

the w'indow] Ah, Earth burning!

is

is

all

Earth these days? Are there try to eseape.

They should

[Then, seeing bright sunlight burning, it is burning! At last. Earth .

.

,

Between the extremes of the “mad nuclear alarmist” and the “ordinary people, who remain exclusively foeused upon matters of immediate self-interest, the film posits a third type, the wise but relatively helpless "mediator”— represented by a dentist and a doctor, who sensitively perceiv'e

both sides of the problem, and seem to be spokesmen for

Kurosawa's point of view.

The

dentist (serving

on a court panel) holds out for a while against the verdict, on the basis that people are usually declared incompetent because of squandering money, “not because of fear of A- and H-bombs. He insists that “we all share these fears," even if

most do nothing, and that can

seriously

member

readily

“a

man

become mentallv

of the panel to admit that

because he

is

wdio thinks about the matter

it

disturbed.” is

He

gets another

really a difficult question

struggling with a problem too big for one

man

to solve.”

4

DEATH

66

But

it is

IN LIFE

the old man’s doctor in the mental hospital who, near the end

what

of the film, articulates

Whenever

I

perhaps

is

sec this patient,

I

feel

central point:

its

very melancholy.

I

know

when I see this patient, I myself— though I am supposedly normal— feel certain about things, because I feel that maybe we who are mentally

have

ill

normal are

sad existence. But

particular

quite unable to be

really the strange ones.

Kurosawa thus

Who

world:

a

that the

raises the

ultimate psychological question in a nuclear

man

crazv— the

is

so sensitive to the threat, so able to

upon pressing this he becomes what is conven-

envision the “end of the world,” and so insistent vision in the face of general resistance that

tionally described as “insane”? or the world’s ordinary functional people,

who numb

themselves to the threat and oppose actions that either

remind them of

it

or affect their material interests?

The

question

not

is

answered, but the film does emphasize the powerlessness of the individual (and of

man

dangerous course of events,

in general) to alter the

as well as the illusory nature of the idea of “safety.”

Beyond

this,

however, the film

is

confused and melodramatic. There

are interminable scenes at the domestic court

my

main themes, and

its

which

it

starts,

and

summary

brief

does not really have. Rather, of attitude

reversals

suggests the director’s

own

which do

further

suggests a logic of development it

rambles on in a

bv various characters

irresolution

little to

in

series of

a

wav

about where he wants

his vision. His taking his protagonist across the

fits,

that

to carrv

wide gamut between

vigorous family leadership and extreme mental deterioration does dra-

matize the issue of sanitv, but there

is

various stages. Richie has attributed

some

Kurosawa’s abrupt decision to divest

emotional subtletv in the

little

it

of the film’s difficulties to

of the satirical approach he

originally intended to use, following the death

and collaborator — which,

close friend

of the

way

in

which residual

guilt

if

from

true, a

individual scale, can limit psychological

(from tuberculosis) of a

would be another example

death immersion, even on

and

artistic

must

also take into

itself,

even for one of the world’s great directors.

the impossible

melodrama, ism

is

least

demands

in a

his characteristic

some degree

genuine work of

of the problem lead

artistic

we

transformation.

Kurosawa

to resort to

blend of cinematic imagination and

by no means absent, and to

freedom. But

account the creative refractoriness of the subject

Yet these are limitations If

this

in the

end the nuclear

issue

is

real-

brought at

into the symbolic realm of virtual experience.

Creative Response: 2

Perhaps the film

s

deepest irony

not fully control— is the fact

)

Artistic

Dilemmas

467

— one which

Kurosawa suggests but may that those who most sympathize with the

nuclear alarmist’s point of view (the dentist and the doctor) end up acting in accord with society s conventional views, and thereby contribute to the evolution

other words, in nature (it

is

and “confirmation” of his insanity. Everyone, in caught up in a collective destiny, which though unclear

may

may not

or

include repetition of nuclear disaster),

inexorable to the point that whoever

seem

W estern

and

The

remains obscure.

rendered mad.

is

misunderstanding of

complained about

tragedy, even

if

much

We

the formulation

in

film’s relatively limited success in

do both with

to

it

encounter here an interesting combination of East Asian

to

resignation

had

resists

is

own

its its

Japan probably

confusion, and with resistance to and

Some commentators

univcrsalistic suggestions.

A-bomb problem which

a treatment of the

did not

condemn America, and some viewers saw it as “simply an indication that one shouldn’t worry so much; if you did, you went crazy.’’^^ In any the film succeeds in linking Hiroshima to the world’s general nuclear dilemma as well as to everyday life, and does so with unusual case,

sensitivity to paradox.

mastery,

it

Rather than contributing directly

hibakusha

to

suggests searching approaches to nuclear dilemmas which are

universally applicable.

One

other film

scope of (1959).

atomic source

its artistic I

comparable to Record of a Living Being formulation: Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon

mention

it

here because

it

was made

bomb experience and its international of many people’s imagery about the

univcrsalistic in

in the

is

Hiroshima around the

success has rendered

fails;

it

the

and the bomb. Also

city

Mon Amour

approach, Hiroshima

where Record of a Living Being

in

Amour

seems to succeed

more important,

it

fails

where

Kurosawa’s film succeeds.

The

idea of the film

is

strikingly simple: the direct contrast

however temporary, and the deadly destructiveness

love’s affirmation,

contained in the concept of “the enemy.”

between

a

a Japanese

with a

ended

French

girl,

man. The

German in his

who

has

girl is

soldier, in

death and her

come

to

own

tells

Hiroshima

reminded of an Nevers (her

It

earlier

of a

what he

is

love affair

to act in a film,

and

wartime encounter,

home town

in

France) which

personal holocaust— public humiliation

and temporary madness. Unlike Kurosawa, Resnais seems exactly

between

to

know

saying as he makes an almost classical Freudian

opposition of love and

life

on the one

side

and hate and death on the

— DEATH

46 8

IN LIFE

authenticity of physical love

otlier:

pitted against counterfeit situa-

is

tional hatreds.

The

sad beauty and transience

We arc

no aware.

— what

Richie

am

The

forgetting you, for in this vale of tears there

of

Hiroshima and sense of man’s

words ending the

girl’s

is

mono

French version of

will the love affairs.

ultimate separateness— shown in the I

calls a

all-pervasive tone

told that not only will the hatreds of

Nevers be forgotten, but so

how

and the

love affair has a haunting quality,

is

“See

film:

no meeting”

thoroughly consistent with traditional Japanese sentiment, but the

is

active insistence

Western,

upon

in this case

But Hiroshima

French, in

distinctly

is

flavor.

Mon Amour

A-bomb

formation of

antagonism to death

direct

love’s

never reallv achieves an

artistic trans-

elements. These do appear in the film, in the

form of various kinds of A-bomb horrors, scenes from the museum, demonstrations opposing nuclear weapons; and the depth of the pain

is

suggested by the

knows nothing

girl’s

of Hiroshima,

constantly being told by her lover that she

no matter what she

understanding she claims. Resnais

shima to the

lovers’ bed,

confrontation: there

is

city’s

is

literally takes

shown

or

how much

the horrors of Hiro-

but they are never brought into convincing

Hiroshima’s grotesque death imagery, and there

the intensity of two people coming together in bodily union, but the

is

two themes merely

“Why

Hiroshima?

answer

coexist.

Why

not

many have asked (like Richie): Yokohama Mon Amour?'' The theoretical Indeed,

that Hiroshima represents an ultimate in man’s deadly de-

is

structiveness

which Resnais wished

to illuminate against the starkness of

physical love. Yet the formulation remains abstract, apart, because the film has recorded but not grasped

Our

its

environment.

conculsion, however, cannot be that Resnais was so

pressed with the atomic

bomb

that he

felt

no need

im-

little

to permit

it

to

intrude into his cinematic vision. Rather, because he could not escape

bomb, he

the overwhelming impact of the to

mold

it

to “ordinarv”

dimensions

in

dealt with

it

by attempting

an idiom he understood.

film inevitably aroused opposition in Hiroshima, even while being

because some hibakusha

bomb

dead.*

realization

of

Despite its

own

felt

this

*

'I’he

its

reaction,

visions,

new the atomic bomb.

suggests has contributed

proach to

that

made,

sensuality was an insult to the A-

and despite the

we may

say that

possibilities

to

film’s

limited

the formulation

it

the general artistic ap-

problem was then magnified by the title given to the Japanese version, Love Affair {Nijiiyojikan no Joji), which directs the viewer

T wenty-four-Hour toward

The

a vulgarized interpretation of the film.

2)

'‘Pictures'

and Songs

Painting and music have had

much

bomb

But

than literature and

film.

to express

less

a few

efl?orts,

about the atomic

generally signifieant as

A-bomb art and unique to the two media, are worth noting. The best-known atomic bomb paintings are a series of large murals by nonhibakusha husband-and-wife team,

a

Maruki and Toshiko AkaPictures of the Atomie Bomb^’ (^^Genbaku

matsu, collectu’ely entitled

no Zu

They

)

a powerful ness.

eonsist mostly of maeerated

eombination of

Thus, the

Iri

first fiv'e

realistic detail

human

figures,

depleted in

and supernatural grotesque-

(and most important) are

:

Ghosts,

in

whieh

deathlike figures hold their arms forward, flexed at the elbow, in the traditional manner of Japanese ghosts; ‘Tire,^’ suggestive of purgatory,

with flames consuming their vietims; “Water,” in whieh piles of corpses are absorbed by the river; “Rainbow,” eontrasting the human desolation with the rainbow's beauty; and “Boys and Girls,” eonsisting of particularly explicit detail of

murals were added

dead and maimed ehildren and parents. Five more

later:

“The Atomie

“Bamboo

Desert,”

Jungle” (or

“The Wind”), and “Reseue,” about the atomie bomb; “Yaezu,” about the death of the fisherman Kuboyama (who came from the town of Yaezu) from hydrogen

bomb

fallout at Bikini;

and “Signatures,” about

the peace-movement signature eampaign. It is

extremely

difficult to

judge these paintings as

art.

In reproduetion

they are primarily a ehronicle of horror. Their power irresistible

demand

and

suffer with

and

fascination.

its

lies

in

that the viewer enter the scene of the atomie

victims— that he experience

They have undoubtedly had

their

bomb

terror, guilt, revulsion,

a

strong impaet

upon

many

Japanese viewers, and upon readers of books in whieh they have been reproduced and eommented upon. They have also been extensively exhibited abroad, mostly in

eommunist

countries,

where they have won

several prizes for their contribution to peace.* Japanese erities

mixed

feelings

about their

artistie

merit.

Wary

have had

of their ideological

content, particularly since both artists have been aetive in the Japanese *

March, 1967, work was completed near Tokyo on a “Pictures of the A-Bomb Museum," built under the supervision of the artists for permanent exhibition of In

murals.

DEATH

470

IN LIFE

communist movement, they

liave nevertheless

noted their interesting

blending of traditional Japanese and contemporary international techniques (Maruki

is

known

Akamatsu works

painter;

bv the subject matter; or

as a

in oils). it

Ultimately the viewer

may be more

matter pre-empts the canvas from both

bomb

[literally blaek-ink]

sumie or black-brush

is

overwhelmed

aecurate to say that the subject

and viewer. That

artist

the A-

is,

experienee so takes over the identity of the painting that the

question of artistic transformation

But when one

readily cast aside.

is

does raise the question, one finds that despite the murals’ demonie

do not seem

vision, thev

to

have rendered the A-bomb experienee into

universally significant artistie (or virtual) form.

One

moved by

suspeets that the artists were profoundly

experienee and at the same time determined to deal with ship

ideologieal

their

to

convictions.

literalitv— a modified “soeialist

vision of

The

result

is

it

A-bomb

the

in relation-

an exaggerated

realism”— in representing an apoealyptie

an apoealvptie event. The authors’ own comments upon their

mural, “Ghosts,” reveal some of these problematie (though also

first

inspirational) elements in their attitude toward their work:

was

It

a proeession of ghosts

human .

.

.

thought.

stories of

.

.

.

women

.

.

people

.

who had

lost

completely

all

There are many ghost stories in Japan ghosts who lift their arms halfway and whose .

.

.

Japanese women eould not [at hands are burning with anger. the time of the A-bomb] express their human anger as anger. They eould do no more than sav in subdued tones, from the other world .

after their death, “I bear a

.

.

grudge against

.

.

.

[Urameshiya'^].

.

.

.

But where resentment cannot be expressed for a long, long time, leave their traees. malignant and incomprehensible spirits Ghosts still live todav, calling forth responses hidden by present .

realities.

hearts as

The

artists

.

.

we

.

Tlie hearts of those

who

.

.

died were revived within our

painted.

embrace

sur\ivors’ guilt

toward the dead and fear of

retri-

bution from the dead. But the combination of their thralldom to the A-

bomb

experienee and their ideological position, in their

their painting, renders the ghosts overly concrete

also steers

them

in the direction of

survivor-like artist’s)

eomments

as in

and funetional, and

vengeance. Thus the survivor’s (or

sense of saered historieal truth

is

reinforced bv

ideologieal need, resulting in the impaired artistie transformation *

'I’lie

traditional expression of Japanese ghosts

when

in the

midst of haunting.

we

Creative Response: 2 liavc

spoken

negligible.

to

I

of.

tliis,

the

full

is

a

kind that

and the elaboration of forms which do not

471

by no means

artist to

is

come

close

bomb would

psychic dimensions of the atomic

major creati\e breakthrough of

recjuire a

aehievement

artists’

o which one must also add that for any

evoking the

clear,

Despite

Dilemmas

Artistic

)

by no means

no\\'

as vet exist.

In music the “pre-eminently non-representative” art— “no scene, no object,

no

problem of recreating any

fact”^-’^— the

There have been

greater.

relationship to the

specific event

is

much

number of serious works composed in atomic bomb, but none seems to have emerged as a

particularly powerful

a

Thev have

musical statement.

frequently been

combined with poems— particularly Togc’s, but also Hara’s, Yoncda’s, and others’— in cantatas bearing such names as “Give Back My Father” (the title of the original Toge poem), “A Cantata of a Small Picturesque Atomic Bomb,” “Oh People!,” “Song of Peace,” and "Song of the River Bank.” Thus,

the verbal content which concretelv relates

it is

the fundamentally abstract nature of music to the atomic

bomb. Two

composed by Masao Oki, based upon Toge’s Collected A-Bomb Poems, together entitled “Give Back Mankind,” have been given cantatas

particularly frequent performances,

and have considerable emotional power, d’he Tokyo Ro-on (Congress of Workers’ Music Councils in Japan) has especially popularized the work ences of laborers.

The combination

of

in

performing

it

for audi-

the subject matter and

the

employed have rendered it something in the nature of a folk opera, though without any specific dramatic “plot.” Oki has also written a symphony, entitled “Symphonic Fantasia recitative

choral

Hiroshima,”

first

style

performed

his earlier cantata.

content; its

first

it

six

symphony movement

m

1954,

and derived

Significantly, this

largely

work turned

movements bear the

titles

is

Bomb”

of the individual murals.

takes fifty minutes to perform,

described as simply an elegy.

balladry {joruri), epic songs

its

but

The

and the seventh and last Oki combined in the work

drama (the No),

(nagauta), and even popular recitation

(naniwahushi) with the contemporary Western

idiom which dominates Japanese music.

He

(now

international)

looked upon his svmphonv

an expression of “the responsibilit}’ of the Japanese people” for

letting the world to

to painting for

was not only inspired by “Pictures of the Atomic

various traditional musical elements from Japanese

as

from themes of

know about

have been received

as

the A-bomb, but the work does not appear

one of particular

distinction.

Much

greater

musical enthusiasm has been evoked bv a work by a young Polish

DEATH

472

IN LIFE

composer, Krzysztof Penderecki, ‘‘Threnody

shima”

for

W^arsaw

fifty-two

at a

festival

reviewer noted that

and

pitch

it

intervals as

When

instruments.

string

for the it

of contemporarv music in

\hctims of Hiro-

was performed 1962, an

in

American

“dispenses completely with the concept of exact

an organizing factor

composition— thus with

in

anything resembling melodic or harmonic relationships,” and described it

“one of the most remarkable and certainly the

as

of the works presented. Notable here

is

conventional”

the suggestion of radical creative

innovation as a means of dealing with the radical

The

least

A-bomb theme.

musical formulation which has probablv had the widest impact

has been the semi-popular song, “Let

(Genbaku Yurusumaji), Asada

set to rather

is

which

in

Us

Atomic Bomb”

Prohibit the

a simple, exhortative

sentimental music.

It

poem bv

has been widely sung at

peace—

different kinds of gatherings, especially those concerned with

though

it

has stopped

musical rallving

call.

The

considerablv short of becoming a first

stanza

Sekiji

universal

is:

The city of our homes was burned And on burned earth where bones of our families were White flowers are blooming now. Oh, we should never permit the atomic bomb

buried

Never permit the atomic bomb, never permit the atomic bomb, never permit the atomic In our

city.

In subsequent stanzas

bomb

in

bomb

it

speaks of the sea (“never permit the atomic

our sea”), the sky, and,

finally,

the world. Despite the banality

of the verses, the combination of Japanese musical sensitivities (perhaps

the most intense in the world) and

work

a

moving experience,

whatever

mood

its

A-bomb emotions can render the particularly when sung by large groups. And

artistic quality,

it

combines

a characteristically Japanese

of subdued melancholy (or elegv) with

said to

have a certain authenticity within

combination of

his

medium and

its

his creative

its

protest,

and may be

musical limits. Such

either collaborate with another,

the

problem that the eomposer

seeking to achieve adequate musical formulation of the atomic

must

is

more “representative”

bomb

art form, or

work suggests) take a bolder path of innovation, the of which requires something elose to genius.*

else (as the Polish

traversing *

Another symphony, entitled “Hiroshima,” was written by a Finnish composer, Erkki Aaltonen, and performed in that city on August 15, 1955, by the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra. There have also been an opera and a ballet written and publicly performed with atomic bomb themes.

Barriers

Wc

and Directions

have noted

intraetability of the

tlie

A-bomb,

an

as

artistic subject,

symbolic transformation via anv medium. Bv exploring some of the

to

we may begin

facets of this intractability,

bevond them toward

to look

the creatix'c possibilities which have, in fact, alrcadv begun to emerge.

A

major impediment

is

one wc may

emphasized questions of

far

there

is,

I

would

refer to as creative guilt.

I

have so

sur\ ival priorih' in relationship to guilt,

added element

suggest, an

extremely formidable barrier.

I

in all art

but

which can be an

refer to the guilt over trespassing

on the

dangerous psyehological ground between chaos and form, the retaliation anticipated by any serious artist (or by a creative person in anv field) for

daring to subvert existing forms and to proclaim

unrecognized. Creative guilt

is

related

new ones

previouslv

death svmbolism

to

— to

the

destruction or “killing” of old forms in order to give birth to new, and to the symbolic immortalih' sought

those forms. This kind of guilt artist’s

artist

through the creation of

associated with fear of hubris, with the

consequences of his usurping the creative function

fear of the

What

from higher powers.

becomes rendered

is

bv the

happens with the A-bomb

so historically sacred that recreating

can be psychologically percei\'cd as hubris by both audiences.

Any

\asion

which

realm of virtual experience

wc have

is

carries the artist likely to

is

repeatedly noted in

result, creative artists

that the event it

in

artists

bevond the

anv form

and

their

literal into

the

evoke the kind of retaliatory fear

comments by

writers

and

painters.

As

a

tend to confine themselves to the memoir-novel,

the documentary film, the realistic painting, and the structured musical

“accompaniment,”

all

of which

seem

alteration of the original subject matter.

But these

often turn out to be doubly unsatisfactorv, as

because they must alter the alleged

do not transform words .

.

.

(in

it

“literal

we have

approaches

so often obser\'cd,

camp

art— or,

in

Harry Levin’s

writing), they

“combine

fact with water-logged fiction.”^^

Also related to the fear of

artistic

hubris

is

the dimension of violence

which the technology of the A-bomb introduces. unable to grasp

literal

truth” of the event, and yet

into the psychic truth of

reference to concentration

watered-down

because thev seek no

rclativelv safe

this

'I’he artist feels

dimension imaginatively, and to have no

both

right, as a

4

DEATH

74

mortal being, to do

IN LIFE

so— no

right to "'cut

down

it

and make

to size”

it

symbolieally manageable, 'riuis Levin further suggests (again referring

eamp

to eoneentration

“A

that

literature)

first-hand reminiseenee

.

.

.

bound to be far more impressi\e than any fietitious approximation.” But the key word here is '‘approximation,” for it deseribes the limiting

is

vision of the ereator of the

memoir-novel (or

its

equivalents in the other

reminiseenee or freelv exereised

arts), in eontrast to either frank

artistie

imagination.

These teehnologieal dimensions lead the problem of disconnected death. of death so abrupt, total, diffieulty relating

human

it

The

and above

impediment,

in turn to a third artist

is

eonfronted with

to individual lives of vietims or exeeutioners, to

relationships in general, or to

any form of

He

vitality.

is

dealing

with violenee whieh (in Simone WTil’s phrase) "makes a thing of in the

most

form

that he has great

arbitrar\-

all

a

makes him

literal sense, for it

a eorpse”^”

— while

man

providing

no eonneetion between that eorpse and the life s\mbols an artist must draw upon. The problem exists even in the non-fietional reeording of

and one reviewer of John Herse\ ’s Hiroshima eomplained that the author’s “antiseptie” naturalism evoked so little reeolleetions of the event,

pity, horror, or

indignation that the vietims deseribed "might just as

miee”— to whieh

well be white

killed in kliroshima

absenee of any

beeoming pig

theme

as

eommentator

replied that those

were indeed made into white miee beeause of the emotional events "leading logieallv” to their

series of

eorpses.^^

a later

Here we reeognize what we have ealled the guinea

an expression of absolute diseonneetion not only between

vietim and assailant, but between inert corpse (or corpselike survivor)

and previously

vital

human

being.

corpse to those expressions of

provide

him with

Nor can

the artist readilv relate that

human and

natural continuitv which

the vision of symbolic immortality so necessarv to

creative function, as

it is

to ordinary psychic

life.

Indeed,

I

suspect that

this threat of

disconnected death, and therefore of disconnected

had much

do with the prominence of

bomb

to

art, particularly in

A-bomb

that literature or as critics of

it.

women

in certain

life,

has

forms of A-

literature— whether as practitioners of In either case,

their close identification with organic life

and

women its

are expressing

perpetuation as an

antidote to nuclear severance.

There to

is

still

another possible impediment to

do with psychological

Maruyama

characteristics

A-bomb

of Japanese

speaks of a Japanese tendency to

distill all

art,

which has

culture.

Masao

experience into

"concrete entities,” a pre-modern residuum which prevents "a really free

Creative Response: 2

Artistic

)

Dilemmas

47 5

flight of

the imagination” and results in a general uneasiness toward the essential psychic process of fiction, that of “matter becoming form

What Maruyama

is

saying

that a certain

is

kind of modern

(and

W^estern) capacity for s\inbolic transformation has been insufficiently developed in the Japanese, so that even their most skillfully rendered

remains confused between

fiction

fusion perhaps

most

\i\’idly

and

literal

m

documented

virtual experience

con-

the specific Japanese genre

Maruyama is right, as I believe he is, the of the A-bomb becomes further limited.

of the “I-novel.” If artistic re-creation

—a

capacity for

RE ASSERTIONS But

art reasserts itself

no

less

insistenth' than

life.

And

on

thrives

it

complexity. For not only have the Japanese been moving rapidly toward

what Maruyama calls a ‘modern spirit,” which “bclieve[s] in the value and use of fiction, but also toward a post-modern spirit, which, it turns ’

out, has

many

characteristics very similar to those of the

residuum he describes

— including

new ways

of

merging

pre-modern

and

literal

virtual experience in art. Tdiis

post-modern or “protean” tendency has

created difficult problems, but

it

has also been associated with innova-

tions appropriate to specific creative tasks of the present.-^

While

artists

have been overwhelmed by twentieth-century violence, they continue to create in its shadow; and those critics who question this in general

may themselves have been similarly overwhelmed man has not?), to the extent of underestimating

creative potential

(as

what

the

sensitive

survival capacity” of art, even

W^e have been

under the most extreme circumstances.

talking mostly about unrealized works, but

we have

glimmerings— in an occasional A-bomb poem, story, or film— of what art might do. The most successful efforts have drawn upon the qualities of mono no aware, the elegiac mood of sad beauty and also seen

experiential intensity so integral to Japanese existence, while at the

time transcending even

when

bomb and

Artists

have gravitated to

consciously aware of

with modern

entirely,

their

would

it

if

it.

work tends

life

its

in

this quality of feeling,

limitations in dealing with the A-

For when they abandon

general.

Western work massive death immersion by totally

sought to cope with a

literary

heritage

of

While

tragedy.

tragedy posits a heroic struggle against death-linked destiny and a

harmonizing acceptance of

the connection, integrity, and tality,

it

to fail altogether, just as a

abandoning the emotional and no aware

same

it,

movement

and they bear greater resemblance

mono

both are means of reasserting necessary for symbolic immorto

one another than

is

usually

.

47 6

DEATH

recognized.

The

IN LIFE know,

difficulty, as \vc

readily into shallow sentimentality,

contemporary idiom,

approach

its

mono no aware

that

is

lapses

and that unless deepened by some

and

to nuclear disaster leaves artist

audience profoundly unsatisfied.

Yet

we

if

camp

the literature of the concentration

shall observe in the next

two experiences), there

is

any indication (and

chapter important similarities between the

reason to believe that increasingly significant

may not be

formulation of the Hiroshima disaster

artistic

is

too long in

coming. Artists confronting Nazi persecutions have also been dominated

by what has been called “factuality,” and,

when

successful

at least in earlier efforts,

most

staying close to recollections of actual experience. But

during the late 1950s and early 1960s a number of books have appeared

which, according to one observer, have changed the genre from “a

human-

specialized subject, a subdivision of the history of an insult to

genuinely universal literature, which by ‘‘exploring the possi-

ity” to a

human

inhuman circumstances,” becomes “relevant to our own, mercifully more humdrum lives. Thus, in rapid succession, we have had Andre Schwarz-Bart’s The Last of the Justf^which makes allegorical use of the concentration camp theme to evoke, bilities of

beha\

ior in

with extraordinary power, centuries of Jewish martyrdom, along with elemental

human

Blood From the

truths; Piotr Rawicz’

S/cy,^^ a

wildlv

imaginative survivor’s tale of the destruction of Eastern European Jewr\'

which

and

resorts to

fantasy;

extreme

literar\-

experiments with levels of experience

and Jorge Semprun’s The Long Voyage,-'^ which,

describing a five-day train trip to a concentration camp, also brilliantly across

integration.

notable of

documentary

Fog (Nuit

moves

time and consciousness, and does so with masterful

As early

all

in

as 1955

we were

given what

works of concentration camp films ever

made about ’Through

et Broiiillard)

native pictorial alternation

art

mav

still

be the most

and one of the

greatest

anything, Alain Resnais’ Night and

understated narrative and imagi-

its

(using both

stills

and motion) between

scenes of grotesque death and of magnificent landscape, the film leaves

the viewer with a terrifying but profoundlv enlarging imprint of the

concentration

camp

experience as

potential. It demonstrates that

capable as any of genuine

To

be

sure, the

artistically

relates

what we

artistic

A-bomb

it

call

T

experience

is

the documentary form

ewen more

was completing

rather remarkable expression of

man’s general psvchic is

as

transformation.

than the concentration camps:

technological. Yet as

to

A-bomb

it is

difficult to deal

with

more ahuman, detached,

this chapter,

literature,

I

came

across a

bv a young hiba-

Creative Response: 2

kusha-woman

named

writer

Iliroko

{Gishiki, published in late 1963).

Tong

\^oyage, the novel

Dilemmas

Artistic

)

lakenislii,

moves baek and

Ceremony Sky and The

entitled

From

Like Blood

477

the

forth through imagination

and

memory, but it eenters its eoneerns more speeifieally upon death and upon an A-bomb survivor’s preoeeupation with the general absenee of ritual in assoeiation

A-bomb

death-saturated

And

monies.

with dying.

sums up the

in faet,

entire

experienee as ^^the omission of various cere-

end she

at the

he author,

I

raises

the question of the survivor’s need to

master his history, to elaim as his

own

(in a psychologieal as well as

geographieal sense) not only the ‘‘beautiful land” that existed prior to the bomb but the “land eompletely changed” bv it and its aftermath.

W^hile

Takenishi’s

Aliss

novel

does

not approach

brilliance of those

by Semprun and Rawicz,

literature too can

be produced which relates

it

makes itself

the

freedom or

clear that

both

A-bomb

specifically to

Hiroshima and

to universal psychic experience. It also suggests that

bomb

is

literature

A-

capable of saying important things about the relation-

ship of death to contemporary

and

life,

in a w^ay that

no other

literary

genre can.*

There have

also

begun

to

appear a spate of Japanese novels written by

nonhibakusha, taking up various A-bomb

A Group

issues.

on the Earth

{Chi no Mure) by Mitsuharu Inouet deals with the taint and the suffering of Nagasaki hibakusha, their relationship to actual outcast (burakumin) communities, including episodes of violence between

members

of the

Two

two groups.

other novels approach

through the mind of an American atomic

{Shimpan) by Yoshie Hotta,“‘ tion of the question of

can be judged.

is

bomb

an ambitious

if

pilot.

the issue

One, Judgment

melodramatic explora-

how, and by whom, the dropping of the A-bomb

American who participated in both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, comes to Japan to rediscover and reIts

hero, an

evaluate himself; he has a confrontation w'ith a guilty Japanese counterpart

who had

between

As

a

woman

in

their actions are discussed,

where he

to Hiroshima, *

killed

to confirm

this

kills

judgment,

China,

in

which the distinctions

and then makes

his

way

inevitably

himself by jumping off the Peace Bridge. novel entitled Kuroi

Ame

{Black Rain), by was published serially in Tokyo in 1965-1966; it has been hailed by Japanese literary critics as the first truly distinguished work of fiction to deal with the atomic bomb. A summary of the novel and its psychological relevance has been included in the Appendix. if

a

Masiiji Ibuse,

t

lliis novel also

which

its

author

is

includes the said to

theme of

head of the statue of Mary have been long concerned with and to have written about

journalistically in the past.-^

stealing the

DEATH

478

IN LIFE

Tlie other, American Hero,

associative

It

combines mockery,

madness and

forays through

American

of

varieties

evil.

approach which

is

own

our

which

and

in

and the

retribution,

suggest an expansion of imaginative

part of the process by

own

and Marxist dogma

1 hough these three novels are of mixed

what has been described

writings) as “our

fluidity,

sanity, guilt

quality, they (especially the last)

joining

lida,-® prefers to

A

Claude Eatherly. its

Momo

Hero of the U.S.A. (Amerika no Eiyu), is a wildly and clearly talented evocation of a man modeled closely after

English,

call it in

author,

or, as tlie

which A-bomb

literature

(in relationship to concentration

is

camp

parody of

underliterature,’' “a perverted, lunatic

engulfing but otherwise comfortable technological societies”

beneath the facade of our “well-

reveals the “sour destructiveness”

The

conditioned domestic psvehes.” underliterature

is

received, as the

being viewed as “a small-scale

A-bomb

trial

same

critic

of survivors

it

this

points out, results from

its

run for a nuclear war.”-^

problem of mastery

art thus relates itself to the

different levels.

which

fascinated horror with

at several

For the individual survivor and the general community

importantly contributes to

this largely indirectly,

by entering into

A-bomb

formulations.

a vast pool of ideas

and

It

does

feelings

constantly drawn upon and replenished; but sometimes directly as well, as in the case of

who

younger survivors,

frequently described to

me how

they learned, mostly from films but also from other art forms and mass

media, lives

how

to imagine a holocaust they

knew

be important

to

but could not remember. For other Japanese

it

is

in their

one of the most

important means of coming to terms with a vast historical trauma,

which despite being widely repressed and denied, continues reaching psychological

and

to exert far-

to require ever

renewed

efforts at

imaginative interpretation. For the world at large

A-bomb

creativitv

becomes part

effects,

and

of a wider art

literature of survival which,

directing itself both to holocausts already experienced in

the

future,

becomes

a

possible

source

of

its

and those feared

wisdom about man’s

increasingly troubled relationship to the kinds of death

Yet the very limited nature of

through

which face him.

contribution to date, and the difficultv

almost too strong a word for

A-bomb art is attained, make mastery what we are discussing. We are once more

struck by the extent of pain

and

with which each small advance in

man

has visited upon himself

by adding the demands of nuclear weapons

to his already troubled

imagination.

conflict

THE SURVIVOR

I

have assumed througliout

Hiroshima

lia\e

book that psyehological occurrenees in important bearing upon all of human experienee. I have this

suggested in a variety of ways that in

we

are

all

survivors of

our imaginations, of future nuclear holocaust.

Hiroshima and ourselves

is

Hiroshima and,

The

link

between

not simply metaphorical, but has specific

psychological components which can be explored in relationship to the general psychology of the survivor.

We death

may

define the survivor as one

some bodily

who

has

come

into contact with

and has himself remained alive. From this broad perspective we may compare patterns we have observed in Hiroshima to those of other '‘extreme” historical experiences, particuin

or psychic fashion

the Nazi persecutions, but also the plagues of the Middle Ages; to

larly

relevant Japanese cultural practice pertaining to death and survival;

and

to responses to "ordinary” forms of disaster, as well as to individual

survival

in

association

with

"the

dying patient.”

convenient to pursue these comparisons under death imprint, death

guilt,

five

1

have

general

found

it

themes— the

psychic numbing, nurturance and contagion,

and formulation. As we examine these categories we

find

ourselves

dealing with universal psychological tendencies; the survivor becomes

Ever\man. But the holocausts of the twentieth centurv have thrust the survivor ethos into special prominence, and imposed upon us all a scries j

•

of immersions into death which

mark our

existence.

i)

Death Imprint

Tlie key to the survivor experienee, the basis for

survivor themes,

all

is

the imprint of death. This imprint oeeurs whatever one’s pre-existing psyehologieal

eontaet

ning of

it

though

traits,

foree

influeneed by

are

makes with “survival” emotions experieneed from the begin-

life.

The death imprint aspeets

and

qualitv

its

of Hiroshima survivors

permanent

the

aftereffeets,

and

made unique by

three

the suddenness and totality of their death

of their ordeal:

saturation,

is

taint

their eontinuing

of death

less

with radiation

group relationship to world

nuelear extermination. Nazi eoneentration

underwent an experienee

assoeiated

direetly

eamp

fears of

vietims, in eontrast,

assoeiated

with eontemporary

death anxiety, but involving more prolonged humiliation and

terror,

and

more generalized psyehie and bodily assaults— ineluding exposure to starvation, suffoeation in erowded boxears, extreme heat and eold, beatings, foreed labor, epidemie diseases, and medieal and surgieal experimentation. Concentration retain

more

diffuse

and

camp

survivors, therefore, are likely to

severe psychic impairment, while in hibakusha

death imagery tends to be more exclusively predominant. But various kinds of residual death imagerv have also been noted in eoneentration

eamp

And

survivors.

I

would go further and elaim that

forms of death imprint are of great importanee in

manmade, and to

less

all disasters,

intense

natural or

that the tendeney to ignore or minimize these has

do with psyehologieal

resistanees

of

investigators

more

than with the

experienees being studied.

With both Hiroshima and Nazi

eoneentration

eamp

survivors the

grotesqueness surrounding the death imprint had additional

signifi-

eonveyed the psyehologieal sense that death was not onlv everywhere, but was bizarre, unnatural, indeeent, absurd. Hiroshima eanee:

it

survivors experieneed this grotesqueness through a sense of monstrous alteration of the

body substanee— also resembling

feelings suggested

by

aeeounts of the “Blaek Death” or “Great Dying,” the plagues whieh

swept Europe during the fourteenth eentury. These aeeounts eonvey not only the grotesque symptoms of the plague (gangrenous inflammations, violent ehest pains, vomiting

and

spitting of blood,

odour” from the bodies and breath of the

ill),

and

“pestilential

but also a dramatie

The perception of selective destiny (‘‘From swellings

many

tlic

481

Sun'ivor

carbuncles and glandular

recovered; from the blood-spitting nonc”)^ reminiscent

of the hibakushas sense of supernatural

the early ‘"epidemic” of

A-bomb

\

ictimization in relationship to

disease.

There was

also a very impor-

tant difference: for those afflicted with the plague recovery from the original attack meant release from the encounter with death (“The few

who

recovered had

no second attack, or at

nature’),- while for the atomic

bomb

least

not of a serious

victim what appeared to be

recovery turned out to be the beginning of a lifelong sense of vulnerability to the

same grotesque death. After any such exposure the

internalizes this grotesqueness as well as the deaths themselves, to

it

survivor

and

feels

own body and mind. As Wiesel has written Nazi concentration camp experience: “In every

be inseparable from his

in relationship to the

stiffened corpse

I

saw mvself.”^

Concerning the survivor’s imagery. \’ulnerability.

This

issue of vulnerability, there

One is

side of that imagery

is

a distinct polarity in the

is

his sense of

heightened

usually attributed to the shattering of the illusion

of personal invulnerability which people tend to hold in both ordinary

and dangerous

situations.

But what needs

also to

be emphasized

is

the

having experienced a jarring awareness of the fact of death, as well as of its extent and violence. Not only has any pre-existing illusion survi\’or’s

of invulnerability been shattered, but he has been disturbingly con-

fronted with his

own

mortality, with his

own death

anxiety. This sense

of heightened vulnerability strongly affects the survivor’s overall sense of

the world around him. In Hiroshima survivors

breakdown of

faith

in

structure of existence,

the larger

human

it

was part of the vast

matrix,

and

the general

in

which we spoke of before. Related symbolic

breakdown has been observed

in

former inmates of Nazi concentration

camps; and while most characteristic of massive death probably occurs in lesser degree in everv form of survival.

immersion,

we have also observed, the survivor can retain an opposite image of having met death and conquered it, a sense of reinforced invulnerability. He may feel himself to be one of those rare beings who has “crossed over to the other side” and come back— one who has lived Yet, as

out the universal psychic theme of death and rebirth.

Thus hibakusha

could, in certain activities such as peace

assume the aura of a

spiritual elite

who have “known”

returned to teach others the secret of mastering (as

the

it.

movements,

death, and then

When

this

happens

we saw in the case of a few A-bomb leaders) the survivor enters into myth of the hero; for what is called the hero’s “road of trials”"* is

DEATH

482

IN

I,

IFE

death encounter, from which he returns to convey his special

really his

The

‘'message” of master) to his people.

partial operation of this pattern

could be observed even in ordinary hihakusha.

me how, the

told

during years of hospitalization for a severe leg injurv prior to

bomb, she was constantly

taking place right in front of

death in

myself.”'^’

phrase “Sur\’ival

enced by

A

my

.

.

came gushing

.

then how, after

the death of so

...

eyes

similar sentiment

his protagonist in

own

of dying; and

afraid

witnessing “on the day of the pika

of his

One young woman

I

no longer

manv

people

any

fear of

feel

was expressed bv Rawicz

in the

forth, like a splash,”^’ the feeling experi-

contemplating the annihilation bv the Nazis

Ukrainian-Jewish community. But Rawicz and his pro-

tagonist leave one with the sense of remaining locked in the conflicts of

the death immersion, and the

woman

claim, by no

death anxiety.

means

invulnerability, entities.

More

reverse itself

in

free of

other words, can

likely to

hihakusha quoted was, despite her

The

survivor’s reinforced

be the most

fragile

be pseudo than genuine masterv,

and expose the heightened sense of

it

of

psvchic

can readilv

\Tilnerabilitv that

it

tends to conceal.

Related to this struggle with vulnerability survivor’s

is

what mav be

called the

“death spell,” his thralldom to the death encounter

may

Early in the experience this

itself.

take the form of the “spellbound

fascination” with scenes of death

Hiroshima

survivors. Later

it is

and devastation which we noted in found in an indelible image of the death

encounter, an image more compelling than anv drawn from prior or

subsequent

life

we observed

in

experience.

Hence the extraordinarv sense

of

immediaev

the accounts of Hiroshima sur\ivors despite the seven-

teen-year interval, along with

comments such

as “the

atomic

bomb was

the most important thing that ever happened to me”; and similar tendencies in concentration camp survivors to, as one psvchiatric exam-

“communicate ... an uncanny feeling that nothing of real significance had happened in their lives since their liberation.” The force and detail of these memories “almost made the walls of my office iner put

it,

disappear, to be replaced by the bleak vistas of Auschwitz or Buchen-

wald.”‘

The same examiner went on

survivors wished to drive those vistas

who seem to woman who would few

derive pleasure

to observe that

from

although most

their minds, “there are also a

from remembering”— such

“hurry to get through the

affairs of

as

the dav so that

she could be by herself at night to recall over and over again her experiences and those of her family.”

And

one

own

the survivor-hero in Jorge

Semprun’s novel The Long Voyage describes how, )ears after the war,

The S u rv ivor

483

wlien in the midst of a pleasant seene, eating and talking with friends before a wood fire,

.

suddenly

.

.

eally

had a pieee of blaek bread in mv hand, and ineehaniinto it, meanwhile eontimiing the eonversation. Then, the

bit

I

I

slightly aeid taste of the blaek bread, the slow mastication of this gritty black bread, brought back, with shocking suddenness,

the

marvelous moments when, at camp, we used to cat our ration of bread, when, with Indian-like stealth, we used to stretch it out, so that the tiny squares of wet, sandy bread which we cut out of our

would

daily ration

Despite the

long as possible.

last as

marvelous

quality of the memories, the narrator feels his

heart '‘pounding like a triphammer,” and

what

when

his hostess asks

the matter, he dismisses the whole thing as "a

is

him

random thought

of no consequence”:

Obviously

couldn

her that

was in the throes of d\ ing, dying of hunger, far far from them, far from the wood fire and the words we were saying, in the snow at Thuringia amid the tall beeches through which the gusts of winter wind were blowing.” I

t tell

I

having virtually entered the realm of death ("dving, dying of hunger ’) and yet returned from it, gives the memory its lasting 'Fhis sense of

power.

The

indelible

image of the “death

reminder that he has “touched death.” survival itself. survival.

They

spell,” then,

It is

is

the survivor’s

therefore a reminder of

Such memories become repeated re-enactments of that also reflect a continuous effort to absorb

an encounter

whose life-and-death absolutes cause it to be perceived as in every way more fundamental— more psychically devastating and illuminating— than any other. But the death

spell, as

we have

also observed, can

prolonged grief and mourning, with what we of grief. "Fhe early

may

be associated with

call

the survivor’s

symptoms he experiences have been described

life

as

characteristic for “acute grief”; these include preoccupation with the

image of the dead,

guilt,

bodily complaints, various hostile reactions,

and disruption of ordinary patterns of conduct.® They can, however, become chronic to the point of permanence. We know that the essence of grief is loss. But what is it that the survivor has lost? For what does he

mourn?

He

members and for others who had him. And he mourns, as we have repeatedly seen, for the

mourns,

been close

to

first

of

all,

for family

4

DEATH

84

IN LIFE

anonymous dead. But lie mourns symbols— for possessions, houses, have been shattered,

and death

eonfliets.

upon

of death

been

of life that has self, for

for his

he had known,

streets

own former

mourns it

way

a

inanimate objeets and

also for

what he was

beliefs

“killed."’^®

lost

that

In sum, he

prior to the intrusion

For what has been taken from him

(and the word “bereavement” suggests being robbed of something) innoeenee of

his

deatli,

and

grotesquely demeaning

of

partieularly

is

death. I'hus, in relationship to Nazi perseeutions, Rawiez’ narrator,

upon viewing the eorpse “fidelitv

the selves

to

of a girl he loved, speaks of the need for

we

w’ere”;

and Wiesel

how

tells

a

horrified

survivor rushes baek to w^arn the rest of his people w'ith the words: “I

wanted

to

eome baek ...

to tell

“dying with”^“ the others, the survivor

domination

dead— and

my

you the story of

death.” For in

freedom from death-

feels his

eome to an end. From then on he is bound to the his own grief— by his inability to reeapture this lost state.

to

to

In addition, the survivor of sudden, overwdielming disaster, as in

Hiroshima, experienees various kinds of impaired mourning— 3. general

opportunity to prepare for his “antieipatory mourning.” loss.

Indeed,

I

He

the “work of mourning.”

inability to aeeomplish

loss, to

Nor ean he

later

had the impression that the

to

earlier as their

deprived of

experienee a gradual proeess of

eope with the totality of

grief of

atomie survivors was

related to a lifelong inability to absorb that initial

spoke of

is

sudden and absolute

shift

moment whieh

I

from normal existenee

overwdielming eneounter with death. Examiners of eoneentration

eamp

vietims have stressed the

phenomenon

an impairment to mourning and a eause of

But what

is

really at issue, w'ith

of the “missing grave” as later psyehiatrie diffieulty.

both Nazi survivors and hibakushUy

might more aeeurately be termed the “missing dead”: the sense that the bodies— the

human remains— around

survivor’s

w'hieh he might

smoke or nothingness. In these ways mourning is rendered shallow and unsatisfying, as w^e frequently observed in Hiroshima, and the reiteration ordinarily organize rituals of mourning, abruptly disappeared into

of ties to the dead brings neither relief nor resolution.

beeomes suseeptible that

to the array of

The

survivor then

mental and physieal disturbanees

have reeentlv been demonstrated to aeeompany any form of

unresolved grief^'^— and to the other patterns depleted in this ehapter.

Contemplating sueh

issues,

urged that grief

be view'ed as a disease.

itself

the Hiroshima w^ork its

is

a

leading psyehosomatie investigator has

But

my

impression from

that the “disease” of the survivor

distortion— not mourning but impaired mourning.

is

not grief but

t

The

485

Survivor

REACTIVATION, WORLD-DESTRUCTION,

ANDES Y CHIC MUTATION

Survivors are also subject to acute episodes of symbolic reactivation of their entire constellation of death anxiety this reactivation

produced by such

of people dying from

A-bomb

and

loss.

we saw

In Hiroshima

classic stimuli as

mass-media reports

and reports of nuclear weapons

disease,

by the annual August 6th ceremony, the sight of the ADome, war or warlike behavior anywhere in the world, the onset

testing; as well as

Bomb

of hot weather, or simply the sight of another’s child

has been killed by the

bomb.

Similarly,

when one’s own concentration camp survivors

experience strong symbolic reactivation of their experience in relationship to such events as the Eichmann trial and the outbreak of anti-

Semitism anywhere

in

the world, as well as to the kind of indirect

associative stimulus suggested

by Semprun’s description of the eating of

black bread. Psychologically speaking, the survivor’s actual death itself a

symbolic reactivation of

earlier "'survivals”— of

ences associated with separation and

which serve

as

"models”

for later

loss,

is

childhood experi-

including the birth process—

death anxieh-.

hospital wards, for instance, that critically

immersion

ill

It

has been observed on

children, too

young

to

have

about the nature of death and dying, nonetheless experience heightened anxiety and depression when deaths occur around them. For clear ideas

to the child-survivor these deaths represent not only a painful psychic

intrusion of the idea of dying per

separation anxiety.*

And

se,

but also the reactivation of

even in adult

life

images of death,

earlier

loss,

and

separation remain, to a considerable extent, psychologically interchangeable.

A

survivor’s

death

reactivated by exposure to

encounter,

any of the

therefore,

may be

three, as well as

symbolically

by experiences

specifically reminiscent of that encounter. *

Nattersen and Knudseni® have found manifest death anxiety to be present only in older children (from about six to twelve years), while younger children tend to show stronger separation fear, and fear of medical procedures. But they add that “there were indications that anxiety about death may have been present in more subtle form in younger children, Cven though osershadowcd by fear of separation, or fear of the procedures. Such indications were sometimes found in drawings and stories of the children.” In both of these groups of children, reactions may be said to have occurred in the absence of “a realistic conception of death as a permanent biologic process,” since such a conception does not develop (according to Maria Nagy, whom they follow) until about the ninth year. While I think it likely that children younger than nine possess a more accurate image of death than is generally believed, the principle of their reacting to death prior to clearly understanding it still holds.

These relationships were pointed out originally by Freud and have been more recently described by John Bowlby and Melanie Klein. But rather than emphasize t

4

DEATH

86

IN LIFE

Similar principles apply to the survivor’s ‘'end-of-the-world” imager^•. Particularly iu the atomic lived

out

psychic

iu

bomb

exposure vve

mav

sav that the survivor

and bodily actuality au experience ordinarily

associated with psychotic delusion.

The

“world-destruction” fantasies of

the psychotic reflect his radically impaired relationship to the world, and his projection sur\'ivor of

upon

it

of his

own

inner sense of “psychic death.” But the

mass death reverses the process so that an overwhelming

external experience of near-absolute annihilation related

tendencies of the inner

life.

That

is,

it

makes contact with merges with mental

images which originally signified the “end of the world” for the voung child

— threatening

also of stasis

images not only of separation and helplessness, but

and annihilation. The survivor

destruction, therefore,

is

s

imposed picture of world-

partly a symbolic reactivation of that sense of

psychic death which everyone has always known. This coming together of inner

and outer experience contributes

of the death encounter.

overwhelming events

greatlv to the indelible qualit\-

creates, partieularly for survivors

It

of such

atomic bomb, Nazi persecutions, and the

as the

plagues of the Middle Ages, an ill-defined but powerfully felt image of

“ultimate death” and “ultimate separation.”

With

such events, so radical

is

the overturning of the sense of what

is

“real”— of what must be psychologically absorbed— that the survivor’s mental economy undergoes a permanent alteration, a psychic mutation. Survivors of the Black Death have left vivid descriptions of the kind of “end-of-the-world” experience, which

is

associated with

this

form of

psyehic mutation:

How

been a time when without the lightings of heaven or the fires of earth, without wars or other visible slaughter, not this or that part of the earth, but well-nigh the whole globe, has remained without inhabitants. When has any such thing been heard or seen; in what annals has it ever been read that houses were left vacant, cities deserted, the will posterity believe that there has

eountry neglected, the

fields

too small for the dead, and a fearful and

whole earth? Consult vour

universal solitude over the

are silent; question your doetors, they are

dumb;

historians, they

seek an answer from

your philosophers, they shrug their shoulders and frown, and with their fingers to their lips bid you be silent. the principle of separation or “separation anxiety” as the basic emotion involved in what we call fear of death, I take the reverse position that these are subsumed by

more fundamental imagery around as a symbolizer with

knowledge of

death, and survival-imagery unique to his own death. life,

man

I'he

48 7

Sunivor

posterity ever bclic\c these things when we, who see, ean seareely eredit them? e should think we were dreaming if we did ill

W

not with our e\es, when we walk abroad, see the citv in mourning with funerals, and returning to our home, find it empty, and thus

know

what

that

lament

w’e

reald”

is

hor Nazi eoneentration eamp inmates something in the nature of a ps\ehie mutation was, as one psyehiatrie examiner has observed, neeessary to siir\i\al itself: “dliere

adhered to

reason to believe that a person w'ho fully the ethieal and moral standards of eonduet of eivilian life

all

on entering the eamp

And

nightfall.

in

is

the morning,

another stressed

ments neeessary in wlneh one is foreed

a

world

the

in w'hieh

at the point of a

both

eamp

experienee than

eases, the foree

behind

it

it

extraordinary psyehie adjust-

gun

to eat one’s

own

more prominent atomie

w^as in

— the

have been dead by

eannibalism beeomes a

near-absolute ethieal reversal w'as even tration

w'ould

bomb

reality, in

feees.”

in the

This

eoneen-

exposure. But in

origin of the psvehie

mutation

—

is

the threat of death.

For

m

all

we have been

diseussing the survi\or’s fundamental anxiety relates to the issue of his ow'n death. Freud onee elaimed that only

through the death of someone he loved was primitive man ‘‘foreed to learn that one ean die, too, oneself,” and that “his whole being revolted against the adnnssion.”!^ But

the part of the survivor

is

I

w^ould stress that this death anxiety on

eoneerned not

premature death and unfulfilled eoneentration

eamp

randomness,

its

young adults

mueh

not

groups of life

life.

with dving

just

The hibakusha and

survivor witnessed mass death that w^as

in its inelusion of small ehildren quite

at their prime, as well as old people

longer to

live.

The

but with

itself

the Nazi

awesome

new

to

life,

who had

in

any ease

life

and

anxiety-laden imprint retained by both

was of death that has no reasonable relationship cycle, of profoundly inappropriate death.

surviv^ors

span or

in

Physieians have observed similar anxieties

among

family

to

members

who

“survive” dying patients. In situations where these patients were

very

young “the

to

the mothers.

fatal illnesses in the ehildren eonstituted

And

with dying adults,

relatives’

death threats

own

aggravated

death anxiety eontributes to the shallow optimism they frequently express to the patient, as well as to their oeeasional pleas that he be

permitted a quiek and painless death.

The

attending physieian also

shares in these survivor anxieties sinee, as one investigator put

it,

“the

488

DEA

doctor

is

patient

may

r

II

IN LIFE

upon

called to reflect

revive [in him]

his

own

death/' and '‘The death of a

memories of other deaths and other

losses.

In one sense any death a survivor witnesses feels inappropriate, sinee neither he nor the

man who

dies can ever

be entirely prepared for

But the shoeking inappropriateness of death on a massive scale observed in Hiroshima) causes a more fundamental disruption survivor’s sense of the general continuity of

human

the time of the plague

in the

it

was recorded that

danger, ordinarv eitizens vigorously

on the

restrictions survi\'ors,

we may

demanded

right to be buried in say,

existence.

(as

it.

we

in the

Thus,

at

midst of chaos and

Chureh consecrated ground.-- These the lifting of

were worried not only about being

fatally

afflieted,

but about the immortalitv they feared would be denied them.

Nor has

this

coneern with immortalitv been limited to the Christian j

world of the Middle Ages. Whether in a literal-theological idiom or in

more svmbolie

fashion, the survivor of

any death immersion

relationship to the ultimate forces of death

threatened.

and

feels his

rebirth to be seriously

Death Guilt

2)

Inseparable from his death imprint

is

the survivor’s struggle with guilt.

Sinee survival, by definition, involves a sequence in which one person dies sooner than another, this struggle in turn concerns issues of

comparative death-timing. Relevant here guilt over survival priority, along

is

what we have spoken

of as

with the survivor’s unconscious sense

of an organic social balance which

makes him

feel that his surviv^al

was

purchased at the cost of another’s.

One

could claim that under certain hypothetical circumstances, such

might be minimal — for instance, in those surviving the death of an elderly head of a thriving and harmonious family who has himself lived guilt

fully,

within a

community where

the rhythms of

symbolically viable and given ritual expression.

daughter) surviving such a death could look upon could

feel

himself entitled to the

organic social balance. But

we

life

life

The it

and death are

son (or wife or

as appropriate,

bequeathed him

via

and

the larger

are speaking of ideal conditions, which,

even in the traditional societies where they are said to have existed, were at best imperfectly approximated. In the midst of our present historical

velocity the entire

image becomes

holds considerable power as a

a nostalgic quasi-mythical one. failed

ideal,

and

as

Yet

it

such stimulates

survivor guilt.

To

be

sure, there are differences in degree:

we noted

in

Hiroshima

the special intensity of the guilt of parents surviving their children. But

even when the young (seemingly appropriately) outlive the old, there are always reasons for them, as survivors, to find fault with the comparative

timing, to emphasize the “untimeliness” of death.

No

survival

experience, in other words, can occur without severe guilt.

Freud attributed

this guilt primarily to the

ambivalent resentments

the survivor had experienced toward the dying person in the past. But

may be more *

correct to say that ambivalence

itself,

in

its

it

most basic

Weisman and Hackett

suggest a concept of appropriate death, from the standpoint of the dying person, as having four principal requirements: conflict is reduced;

compatibility with the ego ideal is achieved; continuity of important relationships is preserved or restored; and consummation of a wish is brought about. Insofar as sun’ivors can consider such criteria to be applicable to a particular death, their guilt

may be minimized. But

they are likely to have even more difficulty looking upon

that death as “appropriate” than the dying person himself.

DEATH

49 0

IN LIFE For

sense, refleets eontradietory wishes eoneerning death-timing. a ehild’s early fears of separation are inseparable

just as

from death anxiety, so

are his retaliatory wishes toward depriving parents (all parents) psyehically inseparable

eontemplate

own

life

also

wants

his

strengthened. loves

from death wishes.

He

span,

And

his

he gets older, and begins to

as

wish

to

outlive

his parents to live indefinitely

them and because he needs

their care.

parents

is

— because

he

his

What we

speak of as his

ambivalence, therefore, permeates every facet of his relationship with

them, but has

indirectly, relate to

These

origins in contradictory feelings which, directly or

its

death and survival.

feelings greatly affect

any death encounter and help us

to

understand the profound guilt over death-timing which we observed in

Hiroshima:

in relationship to family

woman who

elderly

members

described feeling “very deep emotion'’ because her

bombed

brother, after having searched for her in the in

death”); and in

relationship

conscious self-accusation “I

become

(as in the case of the

am

to

“preceded

me

anonymous dead. The un-

the

responsible for his death” can easily

camp

“I killed him.” In the concentration

were sometimes almost

over, such self-accusations

area,

experience, moreliterallv

true.

Pris-

oners concretely asked themselves, as one has subsequently written, shall 1?”“^

“Will you survive, or

And

competition for survival was

this

epitomized by the notorious practice of “selections,” in which prisoners

were brought before an

sometimes

official,

a

physician,

who would

decide with a point of a finger whether each was to be immediately killed or allowed to go

on

living.

Since decisions were usually based

upon the examiner’s judgment of whether or not prisoners’ physical state permitted them to perform useful work, many sought to influence the choice by such devices as rouging their faces to hide pallor, or stuffing

cloth

emaciation. in

one

case,

into

Nor was where

their

clothes

or

their

mouths

to

disguise

their

there any doubt about the competition involved:

girls

were periodically “selected”

for the gas

chambers

simply on the basis of odd or even numbers, thev “often panicked,

pushing each

other

from

their

places

frequent accounts of prisoners altering tion

and death by replacing

of other inmates.

The

guilt

their

in

lists

line.”-^

There were

also

of people slated for deporta-

own names

or their friends’ with those

which resulted was

intolerable,

and we can

well understand former inmates’ tendency to minimize this competitiveness

and emphasize the chance element

in survival.

None, however,

could be totally unaffected by a pervasive “either-you-or-me” atmosphere.

The

The competition

could sometimes

491

Survivor

tiike grotesejuely

conerete form:

loading of a hundred people into railroad cars which had room for fort\ and even with everyone standing could hold no more than eighty^ tlie

,

“twenty people

so that

each wagon

in

[car]

had

and

to die,

their fellow

by pushing and stamping on each other, had to kill them''; and another episode in whieh the Jewish Kapo (or prisoner-ofheial in prisoners,

)

women's eamp in Auschwitz “was forced, as a price for her load on the truck going to the gas chamber her mother and her the

The kapo was

to

sister."

often as dreaded a figure as the SS guards themselves,

Bruno Bettelheim has explained, “a power was always one of being able to protect and since,

life,

as

prisoner's to

kill.

.

position

of

.

The

survivor of Nazi concentration camps, moreover, like the survivor of Hiroshima, carried the burden of not only what he did but what he

1 hus, Wiesel

felt.

tells

how,

as a fifteen-year-old boy,

he took tender

eare of his sick father under the

most extreme conditions en route to and within Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald. But when temporarily separated from him, he was suddenly horrified at his wish that he not be able to find him: “If only I could get rid of this dead weight, so that I could use

all

my

strength to struggle for

worry about myself." recesses of

He

my weakened

describes

forever

;

And when guilty

when he

(and following a severe

he perceived “in the

and “ashamed of myself, ashamed

recalls

illness of his

gazed back at me.

The

how, shortly

It

is

is

more

after being liberated

own), he looked into

a mirror

and

look in his eves, as thev stared into •

mine, has never

and only

indelibility of the imprint of these events

forcefully conveyed

a corpse

his father died,

survival,

conscience," a feeling close to “free at last!"

feeling both

and the

my own

¥

me."-"

left

precisely this kind of death guilt, rather than external events in

themselves, which survi\ors of Nazi camps and Hiroshima refer to when they speak of their living hell." And from these extreme experiences we ‘

eome

to realize that

no one's emotions about death and

survival are ever

experienced entirely as individual matters; that images of dying are bound up with inner questions about who and what will survive, and

images of surviving with

Analogous patterns of in

lesser

disasters,

and

who (and what)

has died in one's plaee.

guilt over survival priority in

have been observed

relationship to dying patients. Again, the

doctor attending these patients experiences the emotions of a survivor,

and “must contend with the

guilt

evoked by the questioning glance of

the dying, with the unspoken question,

AVhy

should

I

die while

you

DEATH

492

IN LIFE

Similar feelings of guilt cause mothers of children dying of

live?’

leukemia to wonder whether some wrong they have committed could

have caused the

child’s illness.

THE HOMELESS DEAD 'The grotesque and

random

patterns of dying

we spoke

of before have a

special relationship to death guilt. Relevant to these absurd

ating deaths

is

primitive and

dead are the

and humili-

the concept of the “homeless dead’’ found in most folk

Usually included

cultures.-**

spirits

among

the homeless

of the following: of those

(or ghosts)

who

died

suddenly, through suicide or violence, while on a journey and far from

home, through violating

a taboo, lacking biological posterity, or in a

specifically unfulfilled state (as in the case of

young women between the

time of betrothal and marriage); and also of the newly dead, and of those

who have been

denied proper

rituals

bv

their posterity.

This

last

category suggests the responsibility survivors feel for the homeless dead,

and the implication that some form of “negligence” has caused these dead

to

be “homeless”— that

is,

condemned

to a miserable transitional

existence in which they are capable neither of rejoining the living nor of settling

comfortably

among

the other dead

(they are sometimes also

Homeless dead arc considered dangerous

called “living dead”).

living, particularly to those

who have

directly survived

to the

them; thev

may

cause them fright, bad fortune, various kinds of physical harm, or even suck their

“life

blood.”

Thev thus include

the “wild souls” and “hungry

ghosts” of East Asian tradition, as well as the “vampires” of Eastern

Europe. Those killed

in

Hiroshima were thought of

thev had died violently, in

many

without posterity, inevitably

in the

stress

homeless dead:

cases lacking fulfillment

and frequently

absence of proper death

In East Asia the idea of the homeless dead

worship and to Confucian

as

upon

filial

piety.

is

rituals.

related to ancestor

Requirements of

piety include providing parents with a comfortable old age

and

a

filial

proper

death and burial, and producing posterity in turn to maintain the family line.

I’he surviving family head in particular becomes the guardian of

biological immortality,

continuity.

and of those

Dead become homeless

this continuity, breaks in the

atomic

bomb

condemn themselves responsibilities.

And

for

if

which emphasize human

precisely because they signify sever-

ance of

(especially

rituals

immortal chain. Survivors of the

they were

having failed

family heads) in

this

unconsciously

most fundamental of

although particularly emphasized in East Asia,

TheSun'ivor

49 3

these principles arc universal, and undoubtedly apply with equal force to

former concentration camp inmates. Inirther intensifying sur\ivors’ guilt

We

dead.

how hibakusha

noted

is

their anxious rejection of the

sought to

rid

themselves quickly of

corpses of family members,

and there were many additional instances of their ignoring and avoiding the dead. Here grotesque patterns of Abomb dying and fear of physical contamination came together with a

more

The

universal sur\i\or’s fear of being “contaminated’’

sun'ivor

by death

itself.

from the beginning, torn by a fundamental ambivahe embraces the dead, pays homage to them, and joins in various

lence.

rituals to

is,

perpetuate his relationship to them; hut he also pushes them

away, considers them tainted and unclean, daiigerous and threatening.

A

dilemma is the survivor’s participation in rites de passage— h\nerd\ ceremonies— which speed the dead on their journey to another plane of existence, and “incorporate the deceased iiniv'crsal

solution to the

into the world of the dead.

Japanese Buddhist tradition has stressed

quick separation of souls from phvsical bodies” so that they “became ancestral souls, gradually became calm, settled in dwellings in high mountains, and came down to their children’s homes and rice fields on certain

occasions.

These calm and appropriately placed ancestral

souls are the antithesis of the homeless

hungry ghosts

them same visits

whose way

dead— of

the “wild souls” and

of dying, or neglect by survivors, caused

be denied proper separation from, and continuitv with, these survivors. Significantly, at the annual Bon Festival, the time when from ancestral souls are expected, special offerings of food are also to

put out for anonymous

hungry ghosts” who,

otherwise have no one to provide for them suviv’ors

it

is

thought, might

— another

sense of responsibility for their “homelessness.”

words used

in

connection with

rituals for the

expression

The

of

Japanese

dead (shizumeru, chinkon,

and kuyd) convey the sense of “pacifying,” “calming down,” or even “subduing” the souls of the dead as well as “consoling” or “making offerings” to them, d’hey suggest the survivor’s fear

and resentment of

the dead; and these unacceptable emotions constantlv replenish his sense of guilt.

For the survivor must until

reject the

dead (particularly the newly dead)

he can place them safely within a

mode

of immortality;

in

Japanese tradition, permit them to become ancestor souls (or gods); in Christian tradition, immortal souls. Until then (and even afterwards, since

the

mode

is

always

incompletely

realized)

they constitute a

disturbing suggestion of disconnection and of biological termination.

D E A III IN

494

1. 1

FE

However contemporary minds may waver retain the

which

is

need to visualize the dead

in literal belief in souls,

as symbolically “living

they

on’'— a need

part of the sense of immortality so integral to psychological

existence in general. 'The survivor’s continuing resentment of the dead

is

therefore fed by whatever difficnlh- he has in envisioning continuit}'

own

with them; he resents them for depri\ing him of his immortality.

the

The dimensions

A-bomb and Nazi

of “homelessness”

sense of

imposed by events

like

persecutions lead survivors to spend the rest of

their lives struggling to right their relationships to the

dead

the face

in

of resentments they can neither express nor recognize.

EXPIATION AND REINFORCEMENT A question frequently raised whether A-bomb is

make

psychological use of their ordeal as a

suffering— whether

it

became an

previously existing guilt feelings.

my

means

of expiation through

outlet for, even a source of relief from,

The

with such early guilt feelings, and

purpose for some. But

survivors were able to

experience certainh-

made

contact

probabh- served an expiatory

it

impression was that in the main

activated

it

rather than relieved guilt. This was true partly because of the extraor-

human damage, causing the survivor to be always someone who had suffered more than he; partly because of

dinary scope of

exposed to his

tendency to take on

psychological

suffering— to

“I

feel

brought on

all

responsibility

of this evil,”

for

or even

ever\one’s

“Mv

evil

destroyed the world”; and partly because of the general complexity of

the experience which alike

to

absorb

it

made

it

and give

so difficult for survivor

form, hiven

it

adopted a masochistic post-A-bomb derived a certain

amount

when

life-pattern,

and

creative artist

certain

hibakusha

through which they

of satisfaction in suffering, death anxiety

and

death guilt tended to remain prominent, and were often converted into bodily complaints. Concentration

camp

sur\ivors probably experienced

similar limitations in the psychological usefulness of expiation. less

extreme death encounters

is

a pattern of expiation likely to

effective in restoring psychic function,

upon the

A

Only

in

be more

and even then much depends

survivor’s prior style of expressing guilt.

striking feature of the

Hiroshima environment

is

the

communal

reinforcement of guilt— the creation of a “guilty community” in which self-condemnation

is

“in

the air.” Indeed, this shared survivor guilt

served as an organizing principle around which the hibakusha

commu-

nity originally took shape. In this sense the sharing of death guilt can

49 5

TheSun'ivor provide a certain

and

it

is

amount

possible that the absence of such sharing contributes to the

sense of loneliness and

hihakusha living this

of emotional support for individual hihakusha,

in

lack

understanding experienced by some

of

1 okyo and elsewhere. But

same matrix of death

guilt

we have

also seen

can enmesh and constrict the

Hiroshima hihakusha and cause some (such

as the writers

earlier) to feel that they are

in the city.

symbolically

reactivates

unable to remain

the survivor

experience

testing, for instance) also restimulates this guilt,

camp inmates

guilt

operate, perhaps particularly in parts of Israel, where large live in

stress

eommunitv

makes these patterns mueh

But even among them, various forms of communal

them

(nuclear

case of former

the absenee of a survivor

discrete as that of hihakusha

And whatever

and places new

upon the uneasy bonds of the community. In the coneentration

lives of

mentioned

general

in

how

less

as

evident.

undoubtcdlv

numbers

of

some contaet with one another.

The ultimate horror, or epitome of death guilt, whieh we spoke of among Hiroshima survivors, has general significanee for large-seale holoeaust. Coneentration camp survivors retained similar "'ultimate” memories. One example is that of a former inmate of Ausehwitz who witnessed the hanging of a fellow prisoner on the night preeeding

Kippur, or

Day

Yom

Atonement, the most saered of Jewish holidays. Not only has the image remained permanently with him, but it is so aetively of

revived every year at the time of the Jewish holidays that “though he

knows that

this

happened many

uneertain as to whether

now,

in

New

of before as

image the

it

is

ago

years

in

Europe, he becomes

not also happening at the present time,

Here ultimate horror blends with what we spoke the indelible image of death immersion, and brings to that York.”'^-

full

foree of self-eondemnation.

hanged fellow prisoner becomes

The

single

a distillation of the

the annual pattern of symbolie reaetivation (the oeeasion

Atonement, suggests the eommunal expression of

of a

whole gamut of

death guilt assoeiated with the overall survivor experienee.

of

memory

We note also itself,

the

Day

guilt), as well as a

usurping of psychie aetuality by the original experienee to such a degree that past and present are eonfused.

IDENTIFICATION GUILT In studying the Hirroshima experienee, relationship

of death

guilt

to

I

have been impressed by the

the proeess of identifieation— to

the

49 6

DEAIII IN

I,

IFF,

survivor’s tciidcnc\’ to incorporate witliin himself

and

tlien to think, feel,

feels impelled, in

and act

as

an image of the dead,

He

he imagines they did or would.

other words, to place himself in the position of the

wronged— or else to such an identification. The same is

person or persons maximallv

castigate himself for

falling short of

true of concentration

camp

survivors. Recalling Whcsel’s phrase, 'dn everv stiffened eorpse

saw myself,” we may say that each survivor simultaneously

feels

himself

be that “stiffened corpse,” eondemns himself for not being

to

I

it,

and

condemns himself even more for feeling relieved that it is the other person’s and not his own. It is this process of identification which creates guilt over what one has done to, or not done for, the dving while oneself surviving, and which leaves everv survivor with his

psychic version of “a

wound

Such “identification

in

guilt”

own

intra-

the order of being.” is

upon the tendenev

based

to

judge

oneself through the eyes of others, as revealed by the great significance

the

image of the accusing eves of the dead had

internalized

Hiroshima

survivors.

stressed

East Asian and other non-Western cultures

in

This

pressure

of

identification

with

for

others

(where

it

is is

shame sanction), in contrast to the Western emphasis upon internalized conscience and upon inner evil and sinfulness. But the distinction is far from absolute. For we have seen that identification guilt can become thoroughly internalized and function as conscience. And the WTstern sense of sin is itself based upon a process frequently referred to as a

of identification, whether with one’s parents, with others

with the image of Christ.

society’s rules, or

Both

guilt

who mediate

and shame,

related to issues of

human

in

their various

forms, are fundamentallv

connection, and the eve symbolism retained

by Hiroshima survivors transcends the somewhat arbitrarv distinctions

we tend

to

make between

the two.

We have ahead v observed

that being

stared at by the dead signified guilt in the sense of being aecused of

wrongdoing, and shame

in the sense of

one’s “selfish” efforts to survive.

taking place

is

accusing eyes as

being “exposed” before others in

But the basic psvchological process

the survivor’s identification with the owners of the

human

internalization of

beings like

what he imagines

him to

for

wdiom he

is

responsible, his

be their judgment of him, which

in turn results in his “seeing himself” as

one wTo has “stolen

life”

from

them.

The is

fact that these eyes frequently

of great significance,

belonged to the anon\mous dead

and suggests that

identifications go

beyond those

emotionally close to one and extend outward to include fellow residents

49 7

llie Sun'ivor of a city, fellow countrymen,

and fellow members of the luiinan species. Indeed, anonymons eyes seemed frec|nentlv to have particularly great impact, as though representing, e\en more than did the e\es of those one knew', the “all-seeing eye” of an unknown deity, or the “evil eve” of an equally obscure malevolent power I he extreme experience thus demonstrates that guilt is immediateb' stimulated by partieipation in the breakdown of the general human order and by separation from it. This is true whether we employ the

Western

cultural idiom of sin

and retribution or the East Asian one of humiliation and abandonment. Death, especially when inappropriate and premature, is the essence of breakdown and separation. In identify-

dead— in forming what we have

ing so strongly with the identity of the dead tion in that

— the

sur\ i\or seeks

breakdown, and

called

the

both to atone for his partieipa-

form of order around that

to reeonstitute a

atonement.’"

We

have obser\'ed

identification could

centration

camp

these dead

in

Hiroshima the extraordinary demands such an

make upon hibakusha.

survivors,

that was

to

Rawicz has

his narrator

me up

swallow

Similarly, concerning eon-

forever,

landscape swallows up the distant shadow of a

bond no

The

than devouring in the totality of

less

just

as

the

twilit

ehild”^'’'^— suggesting a its

inner requirements.

relationship of identification patterns, not only to death but to

impaired symbolic immortality,

among guilt

speak of “the love for

eoneentration

and depression

ehildren,

camp in

suggested bv another observation

is

survivors: the particularly strong patterns of

those

who

an only ehild or

\vdvc lost

and who had no subsequent

all

of their

children.^^'

Identifieation also has great bearing

upon patterns of

guilt

and anger.

Guilt has often been described as a turning inward of anger. For the survivor this process depends

upon

a

measure of identifieation with the

en\’ironment of the death encounter, and even with those persons or forees

he perceives

as instigators of

it.

1 hat

is,

a survi\or turns his anger

inward precisely because he eannot help but aeeept and internalize the world

in

which he has been victimized, ineluding

in

some degree the

motivation and behavior of the vietimizer— whether the latter be Nazi offieials,

Ilis

the Ameriean military (or President

quest for

Truman), God, or destiny. adaptation and mastery thus involves him in a limited but

* 7’his

view of guilt is in some ways consistent with tliose put fortli by a number of writers,-^-^ but I wish to suggest more specifically than they do the fundamental influence of death, and of any form of symbolic breakdown, upon the recent

evolution of guilt.

DEATH

498

nonetheless (for

IN LIFE loatlisome “identification with the aggressor/’^'

liiin)

wliich in turn contril)utes to

The rhythms

and confusion.

guilt

liis

camp

of death guilt are also significant. In concentration

survivors there has been described a “relatively symptom-free interval”

during which they could either repress their guilt or otherwise cope with it

in a

guilt

manner permitting them reassert

some evidence

countered

emotional

severe

in

itself

of

And among

related pattern in

right after the death

years

later.

I

en-

among Hiroshima survivors also, their difficulties made the sequence less

survivors

which

disorders

this

this

though the subclinical nature of distinct.

have

to function fairly well, only to

both groups there has occurred a

in

early skill in

manipulating the devastated world

immersion was followed by an opposite tendency

toward guilt-saturated restraint

later on.

Thus, there were reports that concentration camp survivors were

prominent

in

black-market operations in various parts of pAirope right

World W^ar

after

doubtedlv involved

II.

And

Hiroshima,

in

too,

that only outsiders engaged in the

first

black market, and the second that those hibakusha it

later perished

from A-bomb

disease.

involvement

in

schooled them to resort to

and

involved

is

is,

in

as

“myths

guilt.

one

The

sense,

among people whose experience has extreme measures when necessarv. And we

activities

life

can be tied

and with the need

rebirth,

did take part in

managing

amoral or antisocial activitv

part of a continuing struggle for

have seen that these

who

These may be regarded

of purification,” part of the survivor’s effort at survivor’s

two myths we

in various illegal activities— despite

have alreadv mentioned— the

were un-

survivors

to

in

“make up”

with energies of recovery for

“time

lost.”

But

also

the psychic mutation the survivor has undergone, which

includes behavior he would not formerly have indulged

in, as

well as a

general identification with the “world destruction” of the death im-

mersion.

Rhythms

of guilt, then, involve the survivor in shifting patterns of

troubled identification, from an image of purity modeled upon the dead, to

one of destruction and breakdown modeled upon the environment of

the death immersion and possibly upon

connect with

upon

earlier

as part of the

its

These images

emotional tendencies, to be internalized and acted

continuing struggle with

Identification guilt, moreover, like the radiates outward. In

instigators.

Hiroshima

guilt.

bomb’s

this “radiation”

lethal substance itself,

moved from

the dead

49 9

TJieSun'ivor

to the survivors to ordinary Japanese to tlie rest of tlie world, d’liat

survivors

guilty

feel

toward the dead; ordinarv Japanese

toward survi\ors; and exclusi\'cly

Americans)

the feels

rest

of

guilty

world

the

feel

(particularly

is,

guilty

but not

toward the Japanese. Proceeding

outward from the core of the death immersion— from the dead themselves— each group internalizes the suffering of that one step closer than itself to

the core which

it

Just as identification guilt

contrasts with

own

its

makes the survivor

relative

feel

good fortune.

himself ‘"dead,” the

ordinary Japanese feels himself the “survivor’s survivor,” and so on.

However

invisible these patterns

may be

at the periphery, they can

be

observed in the behavior of members of one group toward those of another, and they apply for concentration camp survivors as well. Their existence suggests that the guilt associated with identification provides

an important basis for the ultimate symbolic connectedness of

human

all

behavior.

We arc also struck once and of the way

we

in

more by the inseparabilitv of death and guilt, which their mutual effects can spread. Indeed, when

phenomenon of we can begin to grasp some

consider the

above,

psychological

radiation

mentioned

of the legacy of death guilt which

events like Hiroshima and Nazi atrocities have bequeathed to the world.

The

fact that

both of these events were

process because

it

means that the

manmade

guilt

included in the general “radiation.” For

temporary annihilation of the bonds of

all

of

greatlv aggravates the

the victimizers becomes

such guilt derives from the

human

identification through

violently administered premature death on a mass scale.

3

Numbing

Psychic

)

The

survivor’s

major defense against death anxiety and death

form

its

comes

numbing.

the this

more chronic would suggest now that psychic numbing

acute form, as psychic closing-off, and in

as psychic

is

on Hiroshima we spoke of

eessation of feeling. In our observations process, in

guilt

I

its

to characterize the entire life style of the survivor.

A

similar

tendency has been observed among concentration camp victims (one observer spoke of “affective anesthesia”),'*^® and as a general feature of

“the disaster syndrome” (the “inhibition of emotional response” noted to

account for the “stunned” and “dazed” behavior of victims of

ordinary disasters). But what has been insufficiently noted, and what

wish to emphasize as basic to the process,

is its

I

relationship to the death

encounter.

We

have seen how, at the time of the encounter, psychic closing-off

can serve a highly adaptive function. of denial (“If

I

feel

It

does so partly through a process

nothing, then death

is

not taking place”), but also

through interruption of the identification process, with the additional unconscious equation: “I see you dying, but to

your death.” Further,

it

protects

I

am

not related to you or

the survivor

from a sense of

complete helplessness, from feeling himself totally inactivated by the force invading his environment.

Bv

closing himself

“acted upon” or altered. Concentration Bettelheim, sought to self”:

“I

resist

became convinced

camp

off,

he

resists

being

inmates, according to

such alteration by protecting the “inner that these dreadful

and degrading

experi-

somehow not happening to ‘me’ as a subject, but onlv to an object.”®^ And under the combined ideological and physical

ences were ‘me’ as

pressures of Chinese thought reform (or “brainwashing”), participants

developed a similar avoidance of emotional participation as a means of resisting

to

fundamental

change.^'^ In all three cases the survivor

attenuate his encounter with

(biological

or svmbolic)

limiting his psychological investment in that encounter.

We

was able death by

may

thus

say that the survivor initially undergoes a radical but temporary diminution

in

his

sense of actualih"*^

in

order to avoid losing this sense

completelv and permanently; he undergoes a reversible form of symbolic death in order to avoid a permanent physical or psychic death. Psychic closing-off also suppresses the survivor’s rage, or in a broader

)

The

501

Survivor

sense his resistanee, toward the forces manipulating him. In Hiroshima

we obser\ed But

effects.

this suppression of

it

also

was adaptive

anger to have detrimental psychological in that hostility or resistance

would have

meant greater exposure to the psychic assaults of the death encounter, and could have stimulated action interfering with physical survival. Within Nazi concentration camps there has been described a more definite

command— sometimes The message was

to notice!”

recognize and

respond

sometimes implicit— “Don't dare

overt,

that inmates had better not “see,” that

the vicious

is,

and other forms of mistreatment taking place around them, since any such recognition suggested a form of resistance and a reassertion of forbidden pre-camp to,

killings

ethical standards. Similarly, all survivors of extreme death

command “Don't

experience the inner

dare to feel/'

camps even prolonged forms of psychic numbing

In concentration (variously

immersions

“dehumanization,” “depersonalization,” and “automatization of the ego”) were, as Niederland put it, “highly important

.

when

.

.

called

[for]

the

later asked,

economy

“How

became

did you

manage

And many camp

to survive?”

survivors,

answered simply,

This reminds us of similar comments of hibakusha

“I lost all feeling.”^^

(“I

of survival. ”*“

insensitive to

human

death”), also stressing the survival

value of psychic numbing.

But

in

overstep

both Hiroshima and Nazi camps the pattern could itself.

The

(''Musselmdnner"

classical

example

“Moslem,” the

or

“in a literal sense, walking corpses.

themselves to suggest a

fatalistic

here

is

totally did the

extreme was

''Musselmann”

the

which prisoners became The term was coined by inmates state in

surrender to the environment, under

the mistaken notion that this was characteristic of

But so

drastically

Musselmann

sever his

Moslem

bonds of

psychology.

identification, so

numbing, that the form of death he underwent was neither symbolic nor reversible— as an Italian survivor vividlv his psychic

suggests:

they, the Musselm'inner, the

drowned, form the backbone of the camp, an anonymous mass, continually renewed and always identical, of non-men who march and labor in silence, the divine spark dead within them, already too empty to really suflPer. One hesitates to call them living: one hesitates to call their death death, in the face of which they have no fear, as they are too tired to understand. They crowd my memory with their faceless presences, and if I .

.

.

could enclose this

all

image which

the is

evil of

our time in one image,

familiar to

would choose me: an emaciated man, with head I

DEATH

502

IN

I.

IFE

drooped and sliouldcrs curved, on whose face and trace of a thouglit is to be seen. Priino Le\

i’s

evocation of

tlie

in wliose eyes

not a

Klmselmdnner^'^ as a single image of

both a survivor

memory

of ultimate horror,

‘'all

and

the evil of our time”

is

a suggestion of the

profound universal danger which surrounds man’s

tendencies to

exaggerated ps\chic

inflict

s

numbing upon

himself. Bettel-

heim speaks of the Musselmdnner as having “given the environment total power over them,” and because of losing their will to live, “permitted their death tendencies to flood them.” These “death tendencies,”

I

would hold, have

do with the unhindered operation of

less to

the death instinct (as Bettclhcim suggests), than with the total “de-

s\mbolization,” a breakdown of inner imagery of connection, integrih’,

and motion, an absolute

From

loss of the sense of

we can

this perspective

question of

why

so

many

and

of death

many

(in

draw from arrived

s

approach the so frequently raised

mav

suspect that in response to the threat

cases) prolonged brutalization, they experienced

various degrees of psvchic

Musselmdnner

continuity.

Jews went, without protest, to their deaths at

Wc

the hands of the Nazis.

also

human

numbing, sometimes even approaching the Such

inabilitv to think or feel.

a description

bv \\hesel of

is

the conclusion one can

group of Jews

a

who had

just

the previous dav at a concentration camp, but had alreadv

w'itnessed

aud heard about an interminable

series of atrocities:

Those absent no longer touched even the surface of our memories. We still spoke of them— “Wlio knows w’hat may have become of

them?”— but we had

little

of thinking of anything at

concern for their all.

Our

fate.

We

were incapable

senses were blunted; everything

was no longer possible to grasp anything. 'The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride, had all deserted us. In one ultimate moment of luciditv it seemed to me that \\c were damned souls wandering in the half-world, souls condemned to w'ander through space till the generations of man came to an end, seeking their redemption, seeking oblivion— without hope of finding wTis blurred as in a fog. It

it.^«

In other words, the Jewish survivor’s

survivor)

being

still

at that point a

capacity to grasp the deaths of others and the danger to

himself was destroyed by the psychic

him. In

(he w'as

its

milder form

killed.

But

it

in the

including the reference to

numbing

already imposed upon

consisted of simple denial of the possibilitv of

extreme form depicted

“damned

souls

in the

wandering

above passage,

in the half-world,”

The wc

liavc the sense of tlie state of “deatli in life”

Survivor

503

encountered

in

both

Hirosliima survivors and ^lusselmcinner, a state of such radically iinpaired existence that one no longer feels related to the activities and moral standards of the life process.

miscarried repair In

all

of these harmful effects, psychic

has been called

w hich originates stimuli

and then

miscarried in

the body

itself

numbing comes

Much

repair. s

efforts

like

to resemble

a

physical

to protect itself

u hat

process

from noxious

turns into a deadly pathological force, psychic

numbing

begins as a defense against exposure to death, but ends up inundating the organism with death imagery. In Hiroshima this miscarried repair took the form of later bodily complaints, of the patterns

and restricted vitality w'c undoubtedly related to radiation

of fatigue

so frequently noted. Wdiile these are fears

(if

not,

some

as

believe,

to

physical radiation effects), one encounters very similar complaints in

camp

concentration

sur\ivors. 1 here too organic

impairments can be

important, particularly those derived from physical injuries or from malnutrition, as can the psychological issue of the exaggerated bodily focus created by Nazi “selection” procedures in w'hich

upon the appearance of bodily that generalized psychic

bound up

as

it

is

strength.

numbing

is

But

in

life itself

hinged

both groups we suspect

the unifying psychological factor,

with death guilt and with the feeling that

vitality

is

immoral. I

he expression of death

guilt via bodily

complaints

is

in

keeping with

a recent hypothesis concerning psychosomatic

phenomena, namely, that these represent “a final common pathway,” a form of “entrapment or immobilization in an interpersonal field which is affectively perceived as threatening to

life

or [to] biological integrity.”'*’^

I

he survwor of severe

death immersion, in other words, becomes permanently “entrapped” by w'hat he symbolically perceives to be a continuous threat of death, wdiich

he

unable either to dispel or to express in any w^ay other than the language of his body. In this sense his bodily complaints arc a is

perpetuation of his original “entrapment” at the time of the death

immersion. Thus, a Dutch psychiatrist has emphasized the wav severe w'ar stress,

in

which

including that of Nazi persecution, “disturbs the

existing psychosomatic homeostasis” with a resulting pattern of “pro-

nounced psychosomatic symptoms” and

a generally “neurasthenic syn-

drome. Neurasthenia

literally

means nervous

debility,

and

in

classical

psy-

5

DEATH

04

symptoms

has been employed to suggest sueh

cliiatn’

“exhaustion" of

and

IN LIFE as '‘weakness" or

“nervous system," easy fatigability, various aehes

tlie

and inadequate funetioning

pains, pathologieal physieal sensations,

anv organ or organ system of the body. Many hibakusha patterns we have observed could be included under this syndrome, and it has been encountered in even more severe form in concentration of praetieally

camp

One group

survivors.

examiners,

of

symptoms

recognizable pattern of “persistence of social

life,

tions,

addition,

in

emotional

lability,

of initiative,

loss

We

generalized personal, sexual, and social maladaptation.^^

counter

permanent form

numbing which

of psvchic

chronic depression, and constricted

and mistrust that are

The epitome numbing dead.

is

alive; or if

am

I

what we have

alive, it

affirms life

is

also

and we can

is

and which covers over the

me

impure of

now

sequence of

this identity

did die, or at least

I

its

and of psychic

be

to

so;

am

I

not really

and anything

insult to the dead,

suggestion of psychic

(I

who

I

do

alone

numbing

as

form of svmbolic death. Hence, when survivors of both Hiro-

itself a

shima and concentration camps use such terms “living dead," “walking

and “as

immersion but selves to be.

behind

mv own

as

plished.

dead," thev do so not onlv in reference to the original

if

at least in

We

But we

know

some degree

to the

way they

also

vitalih’.

a

form of

Indeed,

I

still

feel

them-

the identity of the dead to be a treadmill of

know

it

to be, in its

psvchic bargain under whose terms

himself)

“walking corpse,"

corpse," “ghosts," “not really

unresolved grief in which the “work of mourning"

to all

or less

referred to as the identity of the

impure and an see

more

beneath the surface.

should have died;

I

are pure);

just

recall the guilt-saturated inner

almost died;

alive,"

thus en-

includes diminished vitality,

space,

life

—a

of the neurasthenic “survivor syndrome,"

in general,

We

which

and

both Hiroshima and concentration camp survivors, what can

in

be called a pervasive tendency toward sluggish despair

rage

re-

while another group men-

somatization";''’*^

fatigue,

a

from

of withdrawal

insomnia, nightmares, chronic depressive and anxiety

and far-reaching

actions,

describes

instance,

for

half-life

suspect that

own

is

never accom-

way, life-sustaining, a

the survivor receives

(or grants

rather than either literal death

some such “bargain"

or full

exists in relationship

neurasthenic symptoms, and that more fundamental than the

sexual etiology stressed by Freud

is

the relationship of the

syndrome— in

the ordinarv neurotic as well as in the survivor— to unmastered death imagerv.

Further,

the

neurotic process

in

general,

which has been

The equated with neurasthenia,

historically

festation of psychic

numbing and

death anxiety and deatli

may be

Survivor

5

05

looked upon as a mani-

restricted life space also related to

guilt.

1 he survivor, both at the time of his death immersion and later on, requires various eombinations of psyehie elosing-off (or

openness to afford

to

his en\'ironment. In

Hiroshima, for instance, one could not

much, but one had

too

feel

to

feel

dislodge oneself from debris or flee from the

camps one had

tration

numbing) and

fire.

things sufficiently to Similarly, in concen-

both being reactive

to avoid

in

way

a

that

suggested resistance, and becoming

niann

state; ideally psychic

alertness to signals

numbed to the point of the Musselnumbing was combined with an exquisite

from the environment which could enable one to

prepare for the next scries of blows. Significantly, the capacity for cognition may be retained e\’cn under conditions of advanced numbing;

what and

lost

is

is

the symbolic integration which links cognition to feeling

action.

There were prisoners

also

through a

could,

and

integration

which doomed concentration camp sudden psychic opening-up, recover that

situations

in

at least achieve dignity in dying.

A

story

is

told of a

young woman who was singled out from among a group of naked prisoners lined up before the gas chamber they were about to enter and ordered by the commanding SS officer to dance, as he had just learned that she

had been

a dancer in the past.

her dance seized the

officer’s

him before she too was shot

She did

gun and had the

so,

but

in the course of

satisfaction of shooting

to death. Bettelheim suggests that the act

of dancing permitted her to cease being “a nameless, depersonalized

prisoner”

and become

responded

like her old self, destroying the

tion,

even

The

if

dancer she used to be,” so that “she

enemv bent on her

destruc-

she had to die in the process.”^-

survivor

numbing

'ffhe

years

may

also

make

efforts

after

the actual

death

to

break out of his psvchic

immersion.

We

observed

in

Hiroshima the compensatory forms such efforts could take, as in the case of hihakusha who inw-ardly felt themselves weak and impotent but stressed the importance of a “fighting spirit” toward life; and in the urgency with which

many Hiroshima and

concentration

camp

survivors

married (or remarried) and had children, seeking not only to replace the dead but to reassert vitality and biological continnitv. These com-

pensatory responses could have important recuperative significance. But they also could be unfocused and destructive— both at the time of the

506

DEA

1

IN LIFE

II

encounter (we ha\e noted

deatli

later

on

which are prominent

m

and

tlie Ilirosliiina disaster),

liypcractivitv

camp

former concentration

As off,

been

more

need

“work” of

midst of

in the patterns of agitation

and

among

the depressions reported

is

an outward radiation of psychic closing-

selective

and complex way. The nearer one has

(and particularly to mass death), the greater the

the dead

to

original

in a

in the

survivors.-'’*^

in tlie case of guilt there

though

confused activity

tlie

defense mechanism and the more psychic

for a global

closing-off required; the greater also the continuing struggle

with guilt and the more likelihood of prolonged patterns of psychic

numbing spreading

from the dead (ordinary Japanese, the closing-off process

good deal

less

experience

(for

may be

For those at the next remove

to all areas of life.

than hibakusha),

for instance, rather

both more complete and accomplished with a

is

And

psychic work.

at

still

further

remove from the

non-Japanese, and particularly for Americans)

a near-total emotional separation

there

from the Hiroshima experience

through relativclv casilv accomplished psvchic numbing. But we are speaking of a continuum, not of absolutelv different reactions, and there

remains a fundamental similaritv,

these patterns of psvchic numbing.

there

is

very different intensitv, in

if

At the center

all

of

as at the periphery

retained the potential for a reopening of psvchic sensitivitv to

the death immersion. Strikinglv analogous observations have been

made on

the parents of

children dying of leukemia. These parents experience painful struggles in

which they combine patterns of denial with more forthright

“coping behavior” children’s

which they open themselves

in

imminent deaths. Whatever

their

and openness, the death imprint remains and

friends at

to the realitv of their

blend of psvchic numbing

strong. In contrast, relatives

one further remove from the experience tend to

shallow reassurances and

them

inner

“gross

degrees

resort to

Numbing

of denial.

for

effortlessly achieved.

is

Related forms of psychic numbing occur in people undergoing acute reactions

grief

vividly

A

conveyed

in a psychiatric

typical report

my

after like

with

is

this, “I

children.

do

I

being in a play;

warm

of

survivors

as

feelings. If

everybody.”

I .

it

the deaths of familv

commentar\- bv Eric Lindemann:

go through

my

errands.

.

all

I

the motions of living.

The absence

I

go to social functions, but

doesn’t really concern me.

would have any .

members— here

feelings at all

of

I I

can’t have

would be

emotional display in

look it is

anv

angr\this

Vhe Survivor

50 7

and actions was quite striking. Her face liad a inask-like appearance, lier movements were formal, stilted, robot-like, without patient’s face

the fine

pla\’

of emotional

Lindcmann emphasized

expression."’-'’

\\oman

(as did the

herself) the

underlying hostility in these patients. But

would

I

importanee of as of

stress,

even

greater significanee, the identifieation proeess

and the retained "identity those of Hiroshima and Nazi

of the dead.” This sur\ivor,

eoneentration eamps, has

mueh like made her psyehie

bargain to live at a de-

vitalized level in return for the right to live at

always likely to be an angry one, though restrietion

we

was more temporary, and did not require

eontemporarv

soeiety, as

absenee of meaningful

tells

"bargain”

is

a "life of grief.” In

may

well be inereasing

GeofTrey Gorer has suggested, beeause of the

we have a further numbing abound.

ritual for mourning.-''’^ If so,

reason for assuming that tendeneies toward psvehie

Gabriel Mareel

a

suspeet that with her the

a general sense sueh pathologieal grief reaetions in

Such

all.

us that

"what

^^’e

call

^survival’

is

in reality

an

whieh we advanee always more bent, more torn aua\ from ourselves toward the moment m whieh all will be engulfed in ‘under-li\-ing’

.

[in]

.

He makes

love. life s

.

significanee,

elear that "under-living” refers to a loss of a sense of

and that the

latter part of the

quotation does not

suggest a supernatural reunion but rather an elevated state of feeling in whieh signifieanee has been reeovered and "our existenee ean take on

form.”

A

ealled

the

related eoneept life

of suieide,

is ’

a quality of despair

whieh

Leslie Farber has

by whieh he means the eontinuous eontem-

plation of suieide until this eontemplation "has a life of its own.”-'^« As in the ease of the Hiroshima survivor’s identity of the dead, the life of suieide is a form of psyehie numbing in whieh the thought makes the

Hence the apparent infrequency,

act unnecessary.

unusual frequency, of suicidal attempts tration

camp

concen-

he suicidal attempt can, in fact, represent a to emerge from psychic numbing, to overcome inactiva-

by the act of

be a survivor of

killing oneself.

many

to reassert,

He who way

however magically,

takes his

one who

"deaths,”

connection; his suicide can be a

and

among Hiroshima and

survivors. T

desperate effort tion

or at least lack of

a

feels

own

life is likely

bereft

of

to

human

of seeking both to master death

form of symbolic integrity and

a

sense of immortality. I

shall discuss these issues as they affect

volume, but

I

would

prototype of psychic

like to suggest

numbing

mental

illness in

my

later

here a view of schizophrenia as a

in the extreme, d'he various features that

DEAIII IN LIFE

508

been deseribed

liavc

emotional withdrawal, impaired sense of

reality,

and tendencies toward

concretization of ideas and extreme desvmbolization— these can

understood as

and

seliizophreiiia— the “split mind,” autism

in

a particularly pathological

be

all

form of identity of the dead.

Harold Searles has commented that “In working with schizophrenic

one soon comes

patients,

to realize that

many,

if

not

all,

of

unable to experience themsclyes consistently as being alive''

upon

this pattern as anxiety

death so long as one

feels

through death.

lose

them

He

are

looks

“One need not

oyer the fact of death:

fear

dead anyway; one has, subjectiyely, nothing to

Concerning the schizophrenic’s frequent

fan-

and delusions of omnipotence, he points out that “the companion of omnipotence is immortalitw” I would suggest further that the tasies

schizophrenic requires these primitive fantasies of omnipotence and

immortality precisely because of his radically impaired symbolic immortality— which in turn life.

For

an expression of his impaired relationships

is

fundamental

as

as

death anxiety

to psychic

is

numbing,

it

in is

never death alone that one feels the need to shut out, but rather the relationship of death to one’s symbolization of

Examining some of the recognize

it

as

an important factor

attempting to study these

task.

research, as

it

is

my own

earlier

effects, for at least that

as

is

and “technical”

fessional”

I

need,

in

degree of “selective

upon

mv

scientific

suggested, essential to carrying out the

surgical operations or serving

team. But here too there

A

of psychic

numbing.

physicians

who conducted

directly

mentioned

any work which deals with the problem of death,

to

whether performing

human

I

human

in the general neglect of the

that could be accomplished through focus

Such numbing was,

numbing, we

larger issues surrounding psychic

impact of atomic bombing.

numbing”

life.

on

a

Red Cross

rescue

the danger of “miscarried repair,” of “pro-

identifications leading to dangerous degrees

grotesque example was provided by the Nazi brutal

medical

upon

experiments

living

and by those who conducted the “selections” which dispensed existence and nonexistence. To the question of how a subjects,

doctor could lend himself to such taking pride in his professional

were used

for.”^*^

The

activities,

skills,

Bettelheim

irrespective of

doctors in question had to

patterns

creation,

testing,

weapons:

a

of

psychic

more

numbing have surrounded

and military use

(actual

or

“By

what purpose they focus upon these

professional skills to prevent themselves from feeling. In a

manner

replies:

planned)

indirect

the

overall

of

nuclear

combination of technical-professional focus and perceived

t

The

Siin'ivor

5

09

ideological iiiipcrati\c

these

weapons do.

It

which excludes emotional perceptions of what is no exaggeration to sav that ps\’chic numbing is

one of the great problems of our age. Because it is so pervasive in all of our break out of

are greatly valued. This

it

lives, is

experiences which help us

another reason for the loving

rumination by some Hiroshima and concentration camp survivors on painful details of their death immersions. For these memories are unicjuc m that they enable one to transcend both the psychic numbing of the actual

death encounter and the ‘‘ordinary numbing’’ of the moment. Similarly, those w'ho open themseh'es up, e\en momentarily

and from

afar, to the actualities of

death encounters, can undergo an

intense personal experience which includes elements of catharsis and purification.

On

several occasions

the Hiroshima experience told

members

me

of audiences

later that their

I

addressed on

involvement

in

what

they heard was so great that they resented subsequent speakers who dealt w’ith more ordinary concerns. Their participation in the death anxiety and death guilt of those victimized had provided a highly valued moment of breakout from the universal psychic numbing tow^ard death in general and nuclear death in particular.

Many

people had similar reactions to the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. The event made all Americans survivors (as it did practically everyone else in the world),

reactions of the kind

many round

mourning, sets

for

we have it

and there were widespread

discussed.*

necessarv'^

began to return

down: the

A

few days

to their routine

To

accomplish their “w'ork of to remain glued to their television

the details of the assassination

worldwide repercussions.

grief

itself,

the funeral, and the

when television stations programs, some felt resentful and let later,

brief interlude of exposure to death,

however disturbing, was

far preferable to the shallow' pattern of psvehic

numbing encouraged by

the ordinary mass-media fare. Psychic opening-up

is

not only necessary

the resolution of the mourning process but becomes in itself a treasured experience. It is the goal of a great variety of emotional to

experiments

in

contemporary

life,

and

is

closely related to the “expan-

sion of consciousness” provided by psvchedelic drugs.

Psychic numbing, then, poses constant paradoxes for general issues of *

There

are

many

reasons for the intensity of this grief, but I would emphasize tlie (among tlie “survivors” of the world) of Kennedy’s and unfulfilled life, and of perceptions of the um\'ersal conse-

great importance of the sense

premature death quences of that denied fulfillment. t

But

it

])svchic

seem that prolonged use of these drugs can numbing. vs'ould

result in

its

own form

of

510

DEATH

IN LIFE

autonomy and survival. A way of maintaining life when confronted with unmanageable death anxiety, it threatens always to snuff out the vitality being preserved. Our deadly contemporary technologies surround the paradox with ultimate consecjuences, and make certain that this aspect of the survivor’s struggles envelops us

all.

a

4

Nurturance and Contagion

)

1

wo

tliemcs dominate

tlic

survi\or’s personal relationships

and general

outlook— his own suspicion of counterfeit nurturance, and

his percep-

tions of others’ fear of contagion.

In discussing problems of counterfeit nurturance in hibakusha,

emphasized ho^^ to

feelings of special

need combine with great

any reminder of weakness and create severe

now

e can see

that psychic

numbing

conflicts over

further limits

have

I

sensitivity

autonomy.

autonomy and

cuts

off potentially

enriching relationships. Help offered threatens to confirm not only u'cakness but more fundamental de\ italization.

Adding

to the survivor’s anticipation of the counterfeit

is

what we

referred to before as his inevitable identification with the death-dealing force. \\ e ha\’e noted tendencies of some hibakusha to ally themselves

not only with America and Americans, but with the atomic

Even more

bomb

itself.

was the unconscious identification which led some Jewish concentration camp inmates to take on the ideologv and even the mannerisms of individual Nazi guards.* W^e know that this resort to striking

“identification

which one death

The

upon American

cities

my

power over death,

later

means

whom

po\^•er

over

Dr. Hachiya de-

the rumor of Japan’s atomic retalia-

b\’

derived their strength from the sense of being

part of the force controlling shall argue in

an attempt to share the power by

near-dead hospital patients

scribed as suddenly revitalized tion

is

threatened. For the sur\avor, this

feels

itself.

the aggressor”

\^’ith

life

and death rather than

volume that power

in

general

so that here too the survivor

is

its

victims. (I

is,

at

bottom,

expressing a

v^ery

general tendency.) Later, the very formation of a sur\ivor identitv—

group

tic

becomes

drawn

around

more

insidious psychic tic to that force.

a

into

victimization

permanent union with the

around him. His death life is

common

built

guilt

is

bv

a

deadlv force—

The

force that killed so

intensified, as

is

survivor feels

manv

others

his sense that his

own

counterfeit.

Bettelheim describes how “old political prisoners” (apparently Jews and non-Jews in the camp for some time) went so far as to “arrogate to themselves old pieces of SS uniforms, and when that was not possible they tried to sew and mend their prison garb until it resembled the uniforms”; and to copy such SS “leisure time activities” as “games played by the guards ... to find out who could stand being hit the longest without uttering a complaint. ”ci *

who had been

DEATH

512

Wc

IN LIFE

begin to understand the survivor’s eharaeteristie “toueliiness”

touard others, and

liis

suseeptibility to

more

or less

permanent “vietim

eonseiousness.” Ilis siispieion of eounterfeit nurturanee can cause liim

abused bv evcrvone, particularlv by those most directlv involved

to feel in

helping him. Hence the tendency for survivors of disasters of

to

become

The

at

some point

resentful toward doctors

manmade

so familiar— imagery

disasters

cially bitter sense of

in

the guinea pig imagerv with

most

characteristic in response to

Hiroshima, leave the survivor with an espe-

experimental

his experience as a “trial run”; his

and angry wish, lead him Similar

feelings

\

ictimization.

He

to

can quite easilv see

combination of general

to anticipate his fate

contribute

strikingly illustrated

and rescue tcams.^-

invohing new technologies of destruction. Such

we observed

events, as

kinds

is

furthest extension of this pattern

which we are

all

rivalrv

for

loss of trust,

becoming

counterfeit

evervone’s.

nurturanee, so

by the resentment of Hiroshima survivors over the

attention received by the “ncwl\- arrived” (1954) survivors of Bikini H-

bomb

fallout.

VICTIMIZATION AND PARANOIA Suspicion of counterfeit nurturanee

is

bv no means limited

exposed to atomic bombs or Nazi persecution.

It

to those

can be found wherever

victimization of any kind has taken place, and in fact in anv situation of

imposed dependenev.

historically

bitterness

of

relationship

W e can observe

emotional reactions to

problems

in

it

in the intensitv

and

“underdeveloped” countries

surrounding

American

in

aid— including

“touchy” outbursts on the part of recipients, abrupt reversals of policy,

and angry

refusals of

needed assistance. As with individuals such aid can

stimulate intolerable feelings of weakness and inferiority, particularly

where accompanied by form of

a historical

earlier colonialism, or

sense of victimization through

where “strings” are attached

some

to the aid in

the form of an “understanding” that the recipient will follow political policies favorable to the giver. In this latter case the threat to

becomes extreme, and the

autonomy

recipient experiences bitter confirmation of

his suspicions.

Resentments over counterfeit nurturanee become especially explosive where racial factors are involved— whether in relationship to an event like the atomic bomb or to more general social phenomena. W'hen a

prominent American Negro playwright, LeRoi Jones, speaks of his dramatic group as “a theater of victims” which “hates whites,” and

when he

dismisses two white

civil rights

workers murdered in the South

The as

mere

and "paintings on the wall,” he is anything offered by the hated white giver, even his “artifaets”

eounterfeit. Also involved

group

is

telling us that life,

For the two whites

killed

along with the issue of the murder of

this faet,

must be

a sense of riv^alrv with another v'letimized

for (eounterfeit) nurturanee.

and when

513

Survivor

were Jews, six

million

Jews by the Nazis, was mentioned by a Jewish diseussant, another Negro present answered; Im siek of you eats talking about the six million

Jews.

m

talking about the five to eight million Afrieans killed in the Congo. Here the sense of vietim eonseiousness has beeome so extreme that the sur\ ivor of raeial abuse takes on a hardened I

psyehie

stanee in whieh he no longer

is

aw^are of

human

beings, onlv vietims

and

vietimizers.

1 he next step ness, or

is

that of the

what may be

most extreme form of vietim eonseious-

ealled survivor paranoia.

Some

of the reaetions

we

deseribed in hibakusha approaehed this dimension, partieularly in the intensity of their guinea pig and w^orld-destruetion imagerv. And among

eoneentration

nent

eamp

survivors paranoia has been

as a later reaetion.

more

speeifieallv

promi-

This paranoia ean be partlv looked upon as an

imprint of aetual brutalization experieneed during ineareeration, whieh fuses w’ith earlier images of various kinds of "vietimization” retained

from ehildhood. But also of great importanee

for survivor paranoia

is

the later struggle wath rage over having been rendered so thoroughh'

and

helpless

inaetivated.’^

This pattern resembles that of eounterfeit

—

nurturanee, and the survivor’s use of the meehanism of projeetion his foeus upon "enemies” around him is his wa\- of expressing the feeling

—

that he

is still

being vietimized.

It is

at the

same time

a desperate effort

to express vitality. In this sense a paranoid reaetion within a

eduld be a superior form of adaptation to that of the

though

was

if

the paranoia

likely to

beeame full-blown and eaused

be quiekly

killed. In

Nazi eamp

Musselmdnner—

a disturbanee,

one

Hiroshima, too, anger bordering on

paranoia eould sometimes proteet one from being totally overwhelmed by death anxiety, and from being totally inaetivated bv psvehie numb-

ing— though sueh eould pose

its

own

anger, as

we have

noted, was diffieult to sustain and

dangers.

*

Niederland has emphasized both of these points in reference to concentration camp survivors. He has also published a scries of papers revealing additional material on the classical “Schreber Case” (the basis for Freud’s first extensive ^tudy of paranoia) in which he emphasizes the importance of the “kernel of ‘historical truth’ ’’-such as data on Schreber’s childhood “persecution’’ by his father-for the paranoid patient’s later delusions. lie sees this as further evidence for the direct causative influence of severe persecution

upon subsequent

psychosis.

DEATH

514 'I'liis

IN

FE

I, I

view of survivor paranoia

in

is

keeping with a larger tendency in

psycliiatrv to stress, as basic to the paranoid state, severe conflicts of

dependenev— of being cared

for

— in

repressed lioinosexnalih'. Ilarrv Stack Sullivan said

some time ago

the paranoid’s conviction, “J/e docs something to me,”

profonndlv

for the

“the

that

suggested

.

mc.”^’’-’ .

is,

And more

power

.

from

and svmbolic converted to

.

.

and

.

.

By

calling death anxiety,

.

.

the

is

the essential

anxiety

survival

which he

sees as

sequence of frustrated dependency, extreme aggression,

a

want

distortion, until the feeling “I

“He wants

him” becomes

to kill

to kill me.”*’^’

somewhat differis first the actual death immersion and the experithe world” (‘I am being killed by him [them, it],” same

In survivor paranoia the

ent sequence: there

ence of the “end of

and “The whole world

numbing, and

Ovescy has

motivation ...

(aggression)

therefore, a survival anxiety.”

Ovesev means what we have been resulting

a substitute

recently Lionel

phenomena

constant feature in paranoid related anxietv

is

that

but unacceptable inner feeling that “f have

felt

something wrong with

upon

contrast to Freud’s emphasis

principles apply in a

then

dving”);

is

residual death anxietv

the

and death

extreme inactivation,

am among

guilt (“I

the

dead”); the sense of impairment and the theme of counterfeit nurtur-

ance

me

need help, but evervthing offered

(“I

is

counterfeit

and

poisonous”); the focusing of rage to express simultaneously ultimate retaliation

and active power over death

them]— evervone

(“He

[thev,

it]

wants to

kill

would suggest further that survivor paranoia could

for all paranoia.

response

to

a

The paranoid protracted

immersion— during

like

survival-like

kill

him

[it,

me”).

serv^e as a

experience— a svmbolic death

Later

survivals

(particularly in

of

them-

but do so alwavs bv making contact with

paranoia,

all

model

can be understood as a

Hiroshima and Nazi persecution)

selves contribute to paranoia,

protohpes. But

state in general

childhood.

early

extreme experiences

earlier

to

the world”); and finally, the return, in delusional

in

form, to the death immersion I

want

(“I

I

would contend,

is

related

to

disturbed death imagery, and represents a struggle to achieve a magical

form of

vitalitv

and power over death.

It is at

form of suspicion of counterfeit nurturance needed

is

in

same time an extreme which the verv help

perceived as deadly.

Suspicion of counterfeit nurturance of

the

depression.

Its

theme

of

is

also closelv related to patterns

extreme mistrust,

in

fact,

represents

a

meeting ground between paranoia and depression. In depression pat-

The Simnvor terns of separation

and

loss are

5

1

5

exaggeratedly se//-ref erred, in eontrast to

the paranoid’s projection of his problems of dependenev and death anxiety onto others. But there is a prototype of the suspicion of counterfeit niirturance in the “dread of starvation,” which exists in severe

melancholia, as

\\cll as

m

the refusal of food even

m

mild depression^

in

the

furious hostility against specific persons” observed in acute grief reactions, and the mourner’s general resentment of those

around him

who

are “busily engaged in rcne\\ing old friendships

while he remains inconsolable

in

his

and relationships

Depression

loss.”

is

the closest

clinical equivalent of psychic

become

so fixed in his

numbing, and the depressed person can identity of the dead that he, like many Hiroshima

we have described, views any affirmation of life to be itself counterfeit. His movement toward suicide is his means of mastering sur\’ivors

death and breaking out of psychic numbing, noid’s others.

movement (whether in But many clinicians have

fantasy

or

in contrast to the para-

actualitv)

toward

killing

stressed the psychological similarities of

the two conditions, and have observed that impaired mourning can readily lead to paranoia. One classic existentialist case study®”^ demon-

how

impaired mourning can lead to murder, and ends with a quotation from Rilke: strates

one of the forms of our wandering mourning.

Killing

is

Behind

this

poem

is

.

.

.

a vicious circle of killing

and unresolved mourn-

ing surrounding the death immersion: the survivor’s sense of having “killed” those who died in his place, his subsequent life of grief which can, in turn, lead to a wish to

kill.

For

in

both paranoia and depression,

as in the survival of feit

any extreme death immersion, suspicion of counterniirturance causes one to question both the right and capacity to

exist.

hese issues take on special poignanc\’ in relationship to the ordinary process of dying, and to the much debated question of whether the 1

dying patient should be told the truth about his condition and about himself. Recent observations have revealed the inner dissatisfaction of

most patients

w’ith false or evasive

statements— as

is

illustrated

following description of an exchange between a physician and a

dying of breast cancer. persisted as

it

did:

It

by the

woman

began with her asking him why her headache

DEATH

516

When

IN LIFE

was probably nerves, she asked why she was nervous. He returned the question. She replied, ‘d am nervous beeause T have lost sixty pounds in a year. I’he priest eoines to see me twiee a week, whieh he never did before, and my mother-in-law is the doctor said

it

am meaner

Wouldn’t this make you nervous?” There was a pause. Then the doctor said, “You mean, vou think you’re dying.” She said, “I do.” He said, “You are.” Then she smiled and said, “WYll, I’ve finally broken the sound barrier;

me

nicer to

someone’s

even though

finall\-

told

me

I

to her.

the truth.

I’he “sound barrier” that had been broken through was that of false

which neither doctor nor patient believed,

reassurances

more

counterfeit nurturance which, at least in this case, was of the former’s psychic fatally

ill,

numbing than

the

latter’s.

Even

have been observ’ed to have a similar need

approach. For in anyone close to death there reassert the genuineness of one’s life

and of

its

is

a

product

children,

when

for authenticity of

profound urge

a

larger

form of

a

human

to

connection.

CONTAGION ANXIETY The

fear of “contagion” generated

by the survivor, the second great

impediment

to his relationships with others,

death taint

we have spoken

of so

is

much. This

a direct is

product of the

particularly true of

hibakusha, since their exposure to radiation effects gives specific form to their

death

taint.

But

it

holds for survivors in general.

Not only do they

tend to be looked upon as “contagious,” but they themselves fear the

“contagion” of the dead. Recent psychiatric investigators have emphasized

“the isolation which the living force upon the dving.”®^ This

symbolic contagion anxiety has been given

dency found

in

many

cultures

for

communities

thought to be near death and leave them

mountains” or “on the ice”— to

We

literal

in

expression in a tento

cast

out those

an isolated spot— “in the

die.

can begin to comprehend the nature of contagion anxiety by ex-

amining

its literal

expressions during the plagues of the

Middle Ages—

here conveyed by four quotations from survivors and commentators:

The

accompanied by evil spirits, as soon as they approached the land, were death to those with whom they mingled. sailors,

as

if

Seeing what a calamity of sudden death had

come

them bv the arrival of the Genoese, the people of Messina drove them in all haste from their city and port. The one thought in the mind of all .

was how

.

.

to avoid the infection.

to

The Sunivor Lmperors, kings, princes,

517

merchants, law\ers, professors, students, judges, and even physicians rushed away, leaving the conimon people to shift for themselves. ... In an epidemic in S63 Queen Elizabeth took refuge in Wandsor Castle and had a gallows tlic

clergy,

1

erected on which to hang anyone

who had

the temerity to

come out

Windsor from plague-ridden London.

to

he contagion was so great that one sick person, so to speak, would infect the \\hole world. A touch, e\’en a breath, was sufficient to transmit the maladv.”’^ I

These quotations reveal, in sequence, four aspects of contagion anxiety: the image of “carriers of death,” who take on a quality of supernatural hostility

e\'il,

to the point of

the willingness

to

armed struggle against such death-carriers; eondemn, and execute, in the manner of

judge,

archcriminals or traitors, those

come

who

are merelv possible carriers,

too close; and an ultimate form of contagion anxiety

single carrier threatens to “infect the

Other forms of expressions

of

large-scale death

similar

contagion anxiety,

they

which

a

whole world.”

immersion give

rise to

more symbolic

Concerning the appropriateness of

attitudes.

we may

m

if

say that plague survivors could infect others

but mainly through intermediate transmission bv the flea;*^ hibakusha much less so, but they too were dangerous, particularly if wounded, to those all

in

those

who handled them; and Nazi a direct physical sense,

who

tried to help

exposed to great

risk, to

them

each other

whom

taminated

Jewish blood,

We

may

survivors not at

time of the perseeutions and were

in their

competition for

life,

and

if

they married or otherwise biologically “con-

and thereby made into new

thus say that contagion anxiety

dangers survivors pose for others. But further than this

camp

though even they “earried death”— to

at the

Jews, to non-Jews

with

concentration

its

is

victims.

related to actual phvsical

symbolic reach goes

much

kernel of truth.” For just as the individual survivor

can become prone to retaliatorv wishes that everyone else experience what he did, and that the whole world be destroved, so are others prone to see

world.

him

as a “world-destroyer,” as

This

is

partly because they perceive these destructive wishes in

him (by imagining the range stances),

one capable of “infecting the whole

of their

own

reactions under the circum-

and partly because they associate him with the death immer-

Only the pneumonic form of the plague could be transmitted directly, by droplet and this form was almost always fatal. So we cannot speak of those transmitting the malady as survivors. *

spray,

DEATH

518 sion

itself.

IN LIFE

in the case of "‘radiation guilt” those at the periphery of

As

the death immersion seek to fend off the chain of fears

we have become

so familiar with in survivors themselves: fear of death, particularly of

violent loss of

and premature death, of s\mbolic world breakdown, and of the

human

The

connection and the sense of immortality.

contagion anxiety

is

“If

I

touch him, or come too close,

essence of

will experi-

I

ence his death and his annihilation.”

Hence the I

universal tendency to

have heard

number

a

honor martyrs and resent

of Japanese express considerable irritation with

hibdkusha— because they “always complain” and being victims”

or

profound sympathy

survivors.'^

“too

motivated”— only

politically

them

for

as

are “too conscious of

atomic

bomb

to

reveal

later

victims, as well as other

pained feelings about Japan’s exposure to the weapon. Involved in such attitudes

is

the combination of guilt and contagion anxiety characteristic

any community

of

toward those of

its

(in

this

case the Japanese national

members who have undergone

community)

a particularly intense

form of death immersion. occasionally observed another form of contagion anxiety in Hiro-

I

shima, sha,

among both Americans and

wondered whether

Japanese who, though nonhibaku-

some time might not cause them of some kind. (We are reminded

living there for

to experience ph\sical radiation effects

here of the protagonist of Agawa’s novel DeviVs Heritage.)

though the question was usually raised

in a half-joking

And

manner, there

was anxiety behind the smile. These were usually people, again Agawa’s hero,

who were

phenomenon we identification

al-

like

closely involved with hibakusha, so that in the

observe the coming together of contagion anxiety with

guilt.

This kind of outsider, as a consequence of his

unusually strong death anxiety,

is

torn bv conflicting needs to merge

with the survivor in total compassion, and to

from him

flee

in

a

confused state of guilt and resentment. Similar problems face medical and psychological examiners of survivors. in

We

have already noted the enormous variation

Hiroshima.

And one

can observe

in their

approach

among them even more marked

tendencies to uneasy resentment and “objectification” of hibakusha to the point of dehumanization on the one hand, and equally uneasy identification with loss of professional

other.

While

the former tendency

is

and

scientific

more frequent

judgment on the in

Americans and

the latter in Japanese, examiners from both countries are capable of cither.

These

difficulties in perspective

have undoubtedly contributed to

The Sunnvor tlic

extraordinary delay in subjecting

519

two great holocausts of onr time— the nuclear bombings and the Nazi persecutions— to adequate psychological and historical e\aluation. \\^hcn I visited Hiroshima in tlic

found that psychological studies of atomic bomb exposure had been very few in number and very limited in scope; one could find 1962,

I

either technical-statistical

summaries

absent, or else sympathetic descriptions interpreting the complexities of tration

camp

published, but

mounting

behavior. In the case of concen-

numbers of

studies have recently been

has taken twenty years for

it

land has commented: of

great

sur\'i\ors

human

human experience was which made no attempt at

u'hich

in

clinical

them

concentration

Only with considerable delav and under pressure evidence have psychiatrists begun to study more

camp syndrome,’

‘post-concentration

‘persecution-connected personality changes.’

what extent our understanding of human history— and much of history to

all

Contributing to part of examiners of medical

this is

camp syndrome,’

One

itself— has

and

or

begins to wonder

of the great holocausts

distorted by the contagion anxiety of examiners

in

been blunted and interpreters.

contagion anxiety and psychic numbing on the

the general physicalistic and anti-psvchological bias

and psychiatric practice

in

most

parts of the world. This bias

has been notably strong, at least until recently, in is

As Nieder-

what has been variously named ‘concentration camp pathologv,’

closely

but

to appear.

by no means absent even

in places like

Germanv and

Japan,

America, where a more

psychological psychiatry thrives, often to the point of creating a bias of

own. The Japanese government, for instance, despite its elaborate programs of medical treatment and financial compensation for hibakuits

sha, has atric

made no

special provision for dealing with non-organic psychi-

And while such camp \ictims in the

impairment.

concentration

there have been

some strange

provision has been restitution laws of

made for Nazi West Germanv,

what constitutes psvehiatric impairment. Patients manifesting symptoms of mental disturbance, who had experienced the most extreme forms of death immersion and brutalization,

have been

attitudes about

compensation on

refused

the

grounds,

as

determined by German psychiatric examiners, that such svmptoms were due to “constitutional impairment” or to previously existing (presumably

constitutional)

specific relationship

tendencies of these

or

symptoms

proven.

And when commissioned

United

States,

American

“d/z/c/ge,”

to

psychiatrists

influence of extreme stress

upon

or

simply because

the

to

persecution could not be

make

these examinations in the

have sometimes minimized the

later psychiatric

impairment— either

520

DEA

because

IN LIFE

II

too liavc clung to a narrowly organic and “constitutional”

tlicy

orientation, or

which

r

(more

rarely) to

emotional disturbance

all

antedating persecution

More

an equally narrow psychoanalvtic one attributed

is

recently psychoanalysts

and

psychiatrists in America,

more

camp

later psychiatric sequelae of concentration

phenomenon

childhood trauma

to

itself.

(including Germany), and Israel have given

general

in

Europe

careful studv to the

survivors as part of a

of “massive traumatization,”

and have gradually

provided a scientific basis for establishing the causative influence of the persecution of opinion.

itself. 'I’hesc efforts

But the

be observed

still

in

have greatly changed the general climate

physicalistic

bias,

by no means overcome, can

the tendency for examining boards to give

favorable consideration to those concentration

camp

survivors

more whose

claims are based upon organic medical diagnoses rather than psychiatric ones. Wdiile granting the existence of genuine differences of scientific

we may

opinion,

physicalistic

bias

say that the contagion anxietv responsible for this

has also contributed to the longstanding tendenev

toward hostile segregation of the mentally

been

fearful of being

ill.

For the physician has long

“contaminated” bv the “psychic death” of mental

and even by the psychosomatic “entrapments” of the phvsicallv Contagion anxiety, in other words, has historical bearing of no little

illness, ill.

significance

upon medical and

psvchiatric practice.

Apart from examiners, survivors of various disasters have been targets of more general forms of hostility. In the London blitz, for instance,

who remained and resented by those who fled those

survivors of sciously

“Why when

And

“Why

the question asked of Jewish

didn’t you fight?”

may uncon-

didn’t you die?” (Siirvi\ors, of course, ask them-

same question,

else indirectly

There

the city.

Nazi persecutions,

mean,

selves the

thereby became survivors were frequently

cither directly in

ways that we have seen, or

they ask of the dead,

“Wdiy

didn’t vou live?”)

are multiple psychological dimensions behind such questions, but

we may

say that contagion anxiety plays an important part in causing

outsiders to raise issues

which reinforce the

doubts about his right to be

alive.

For

survivor’s already existing

just as

the survivor asks this

question in relationship to the inner principle of organic social balance, so docs the outsider extend this principle to himself.

own

life

may have

to

be sacrificed

enced survivor to continue

his

in order to

He

fears that his

permit the now-experi-

pattern of surviving others.

unconsciously view the survivor as a kind of vampire

who

He may feeds

on

The deatli, or all

even as part of a

S

UR

521

X'P-

nioiistroiis force wliich threatens to destroy

proper relationship between

THE ETERNAL

Survivor

life

and death.

OR

\' I

there any basis in survi\’or attitudes themselves for this threatening imager}- surrounding them? The question raises the problem of Is

what

might be termed survivor hubris, by which I mean a tendency embrace the special knowledge” of death to a point of rendering

The

sacred.

effort to reinforce this

to it

magical but fragile sense of power

over death can result in a “craving” for or “addiction” to the process of survival.

1 here are suggestions of this pattern in the fascination ordinary people have always felt for death and disaster, in their attraction to executions and their studious attention to the obituar}' pages of newspapers. Such fascination

one

own

s

called

usually understood to be a form of denial of

is

death, but this denial includes a fantasy of being

what may be

an “eternal survivor.” Elias Canetti, one of the few writers to

direct himself to this question, refers to survival as “the

power,” and stresses

how

it

moment

of

can become, in certain heroes and despots,

dangerous and insatiable passion.” The extreme despot ‘‘diverts death onto [others] in order to be spared himself,” and “Once he feels “a

himself threatened, his passionate desire to see everyone lying dead before him can scarcely be mastered by his reason.” This leads to a discussion of paranoia, case,

and

to a re-evaluation of the classical Schreber

which Freud made use of

to present his original ideas

about the

condition: Canetti emphasizes Schreber’s wish to be “the only alive,

and concludes

in the

most

paranoia

is

literal

(like

Ovesey) that paranoia

“is

an

sense of the words.”^^ In our terms,

an exaggerated form of addiction to

man

illness of

we may

survival,

left

power

say that

based upon the

compelling inner urge to become an eternal survivor.

Only the extreme despot

or

paranoid leader converts

imagery into murderous action. But the fantasy universal, related as

instance,

analyst

one

tells

it is

woman

us)

to death anxiety.

itself

is

this

inner

potentiallv

During the London

blitz, for

particularly fearful of air raids alternated (as her

between imagining herself an eternal survivor and the

seemingly opposite expectation of being the only one to

die."^-^

But with

hibakusha and concentration camp inmates the fantasy was approxi-

mated by the experience

itself.

Wiesel

tells

us

how,

as

he thought about

returning to his native Eastern European town twentv years after his release,

he would sometimes imagine finding

it

“just as

I

knew

it,

with

DEATH

52 2 yeshixot,

its

its

madmen,” and

IN LIFE

stores, its

Talmudists,

“feel guilty for

merchants,

its

its

and

beggars,

its

having dreamed that they were dead.”

But “At other times,” he adds,

have the opposite vision: I would be the only one to return, walk through the streets, aimless, without seeing a familiar open look. And I would go mad with loneliness. I

His terrible vision of being an eternal survivor

did return, at least as far as the town’s Jewish

concerned.

It is a vision,

would an

face,

by no means the

is

hubris of the despot. T he vision was in fact confirmed by

when he

I

what he found

community was

moreover, of the survivor’s eternal wandering

through the eerie psychic terrain of death

in life.

Further evidence of the universalitv of images of the eternal survivor

comes from Japanese

cultural

tradition.

The HagakurCy

the classical

eighteenth-century compilation of principles of Bushido, or

The

Way

of

the Samurai, points out that “although everyone knows he will die, he feels as if his

that

death will come after everyone else has died, and thinks

of no immediate importance,”

it is

attitude as “an illusion in a dream.”"®

and goes on

We

to

condemn

are reminded, of course, of

Freud’s celebrated dictum that “at bottom no one believes in his

death

own

.

.

.

[and] in the unconscious every one of us

immortality,”'" but the Hagakure

this

more

is

own

convinced of his

specificallv stresses

the

idea of perpetually surviving others.

A

related cultural pattern

is

immolation— which the samurai of his lord as

self-

would perform upon the death an ultimate act of loyalty. Here the retainer rejects the

privilege of survival

“eternal

that of ritual suicide— /uns/zi or

survivor”;

priority,

the lord,

retainer

and suppresses although

his

dead,

is

own wish instead

to

be an

svmbolicallv

granted that distinction. But the retainer simultaneously affirms his

own

sense of immortality, even as he dies, through merging with the “im-

mortal” qualities of his lord. 1

he

retainer’s ritual suicide also has the historical function of relating

the lord’s death to the death of an era, while expressing a refusal to live

on

in the

“new

demonstrated

era” that has begun. This principle was dramaticallv

in the ritual suicide of

General Nogi,

hero, immediately following the death of the

a national military

Emperor Meiji

in

1868.

This event has already become legendary, a source of inspiration generations of patriots and writers.

Natsume

for

Soseki, a great novelist of

TheSunivor

23

5

that period, has one of his fictional licroes ol)Scrvc that “the spirit of

tlie

Meiji era had begun witli the Kinpcror, and liad ended witli him”; tlien find himself

“overcome with the feeling that

been brought up

in that era,

were now

I

and the

behind

left

others,

who had

to live as anachro-

nisms”; and feel so exhilarated by General Nogi’s example that “two or

commit

three days later” he too “decided to

suicide.”

Through

this

kind

of an “end-of-the-era” suicide the individual converts his sense of being partly dead (“left behind to live as fan] anachronism”) into a revitali-

And behind

zation of the principles of the past. tion

is

the entire transforma-

imagery of “eternal survival” of the principles and the world they

represent.*

But the

survivor’s quest for symbolic immortalitv can take the

impulsive actions which endanger others. In the film tion of Emily,

for

instance

form of

The Americaniza-

(an adaptation of a novel by William

Bradford Huie), an American admiral with a long family naval tradition is

made

suddenly

psychologically

scheme

into a survivor by the death of his wife.

unstable,

and with demonic energv pursues a wild

for the construction

“Tomb

of a

make

including elaborate arrangements to the

to die

first

cally.

The

on D-Day, and that

film succeeds in

He becomes

this

for the

Unknown

certain that a naval

death

is

Sailor,”

man

is

recorded photographi-

mocking the general idea of the “sacred war

dead” by demonstrating the madness of the vision of immortality which can arise from

it.

But by tying

in

the admiral’s behavior with his

personal, nonmilitary death immersion (his wife’s dving), the film, in

own fashion, raises the question of survivor hubris. In all of these ways we can see how unconscious fantasies held by survivors and outits

siders

concerning the death encounter can feed upon one another.

*

General Nogi had another reason for his act. Thirty-five years before, during the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, he had, as a commander, lost his regimental banner to the enemy. And since “the regimental banner was regarded as the incarnation of the Emperor losing the banner to the enemy resulted in extreme shame, which could be redeemed only through death.” Nogi’s request of his superiors that he be permitted to take his own life was denied, as was the same request twenty-nine years later, this time by the Emperor himself, following heavy losses sustained by the army under Nogi’s command during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, including the death of two of his sons. On that occasion the Emperor was said to have told him: “Now is not the time for you to die. If you so earnestly wish your death, it shall only be after my own death.” Soseki’s protagonist also had personal reasons for his act; he had never recovered from the guilt and loneliness he had experienced following an act of deception he had committed many years before which had resulted in the suicide of a close friend. In other words, both “end-of-theera” suicides were the result of a combination of personal and historical elements; each of the two men was a “survivor” on both levels.”^® .

.

.

.

.

.

.

DEATH

524

IN LIFE

EXCLUSIVENESS, ANTAGONISM, AND COOPERATION Much more

prominent than survivor hubris among Hiroshima and

Nazi eoneentration eamp victims has been a pattern of survivor clusiveness.

Built around

tlie

“we who have been through

idea it”

of

a sense of

distinetion

between

and “you who have not,” the

clusiveness has a paradoxieal quality. It

from

absolute

ex-

derived on the one

is

ex-

hand

unique possession of man’s highest experiential knowl-

edge, the “knowledge of death” to whieh

we have

so frequently re-

and on the other from being “untouchable” bearers of death and “carriers of death.” W^e may say that the survivor’s own

ferred;

taint

contagion anxietv reinforces his exclusiveness.

We

are already familiar with patterns of survivor antagonism,

and

with their relationship to rivalry for counterfeit nurturanee. Here too contagion anxiety also plays an important part.

We

reeall

Hiroshima

survivors’ fear of being

time of the

bomb

contaminated by other survivors, both at the and later on when encountering those visiblv tainted

The same process oceurred among eoneentration camp inmates, especially when confronted by deteriorated Musselmdnner As Bettelheim put it, “One hated them because one feared their example,” and we remember also his statement that “not the SS but the prisoner by

keloids.

was the prisoner’s worst enemy.” Fundamental first

rivalry for life at the

The

result

is

guilt

and knowledge of eireumstanees

guilt.

a

pattern of “antagonistic cooperation”"^ whieh sur-

rounds the survivor experience

and

antagonisms are

time of the death eneounter, and later on the

complexities of shared death

surrounding that

to these

— between

survivors themselves, survivors

and even survivors and instigators of a particular disaster. It is a relationship which combines deep need and equally deep animosity. Again it begins at the time of the death immersion, whether outsiders,

between hibakusha who concentration collaborate;

A-Bomb

fled

together from

camp inmates and Nazi

and can develop into

jailors

the flames, or between

who found

their

later patterns of collusion, as

wavs

to

between

Number One” and his American acquaintances who much to that identity. Antagonistic cooperation takes

\^ictim

contributed so

place in response to any form of stress, but

is

most marked

in

massive

death immersion because of the extremities of shared need and fearful distrust evoked. In our disaster-ridden age, with

substrate of contagion anxiety

antagonistic cooperation takes

more benign forms

of

human

its

generally precarious

and suspicion of counterfeit nurturanee, on increasing signifieanee as one of the

relationship available to us.

S)

Formulation

We

have seen that

dropping of the atomic

tlie

annihilated a general sense of bodies.

upon

Wc

ha\’c also seen

re-establishing

but the surv i\ or

s

life’s

coherence

as

bomb much as

Hiroshima

in it

did

that mastery of the experience

human

depended

form within which not only the death immersion altered identity could be grasped and rendered

This quest for formulation turns both hibakusha and concentration camp survivors into what has been called “collectors of justice. Beyond medical and economic benefits as such, they seek a significant.

sense of \\orld-order in which their suffering has been recognized, in which reparative actions by those responsible for it can be identified.

As part of the

work of mourning” Freud described the

survivor’s

need to come to gradual recognition of the new reality, of the world which no longer contains that which has been lost. He must, as a later psychoanalytic writer on depression put it, “rebuild with anguish the inner world, which is felt to be in danger of deteriorating and collapsing.”^''

And an

investigator of acute grief reactions speaks specifically of

the effort to “find an acceptable formulation of his future relationship to the deceased, which includes “emancipation from bondage to the

deceased” and “formation of new relationships. generally recognized

is

What

has not been

that this “anguish of formulation”

the basic

is

reparative process following any significant psvchic disruption.

The

process begins early, even before the actual death encounter. For

the “explanations” of Hiroshima people just prior to the disaster as to

why

their city

formulations.

bomb

fell

had not been bombed could be viewed

And

represented another formulation (“If

not taking place a functional

To be moment of tions.

the psychic closing-off which

way

),

occurred

when

the

nothing, death

feel

is

which, however magical and laden with denial, was

of relating self to world under those extreme condi-

completely deprived of formulation at any time, even at the the death encounter, is psychically intolerable. As Chaim

Kaplan

said in a journal

ghetto:

“The worst

know

I

as anticipatory

the reason

he

left

recording experiences in the

part of this ugly kind of death

for

it.

.

.

.

d’he lack of reason

especially troubles the inhabitants of the ghetto.”

that you don’t

is

for

The

Warsaw

these murders

diary goes on to

DEATH

526

IN LIFE

record that '‘W^e feel compelled to find

some

system to explain

sort of

these nightmare murders,” especially a system which would permit each to imagine his survival:

If

there

nothing

cause,

murder must have a cause; if there is a happen to me since I myself am absolutely

a system, evcr\’

is

will

guiltless.

Kaplan knows the truth: “The system guiding principle night.

.

.

.

is

a lack of system.

is

the annihilation of a specific

But

Indiscriminatelv.”

this truth

is

.

.

7'he

of Jews every

greatly resented because

And

do not want to die without cause”^'^

'‘People

number

.

years later, in the

evaluation of the kinds of stress experienced under Nazi persecution

which led

to

emotional

later

disturbances,

emphasized “the abrogation of deprived of

not causalitv in

is

What

causality.”^-^ its

literal

examiner

psychiatric

a

the survivor feels

eighteenth-centurv scientific

sense (precisely this cause produces precisely that effect) so

much

as the

existence of an ordered symbolic universe. For any experience of survival

— whether

of large disaster, intimate personal loss, or

mental illness— involves

rectly) severe

the world of the living.

The

(more

a psychic journey to the

formulative effort

is

indi-

edge of

the survivor’s means of

“return.”

Impaired formulation, therefore, becomes

many impediments

vivors. In tracing the

worker

who channeled

indignation, hatred, test

movements

purpose to her

in

life,

indignation and

We

recall

wav

this

active participation in pro-

that gave significance

become

develops what can be termed

Whthin

enhance

her diffuse rage (“a confused mixture of anger,

and generally enhanced her

rage

degree,

the young keloid-bearing hospital

and resentment”) into a

some

for sur-

we noted

faced bv hibakusha,

that a capacity for indignation and anger could, to

the formulative process.

problem

a central

fixed

and

self-esteem.

But where

there

frequently

repetitive,

the survivor

s

her experience,

to

embittered world-view.

bitterness— or biting anger— is contained the mixture of

need and mistrust we have associated with the theme of counterfeit nurturance. trist

It

resembles the “embittered vehemence”®'* one psychia-

has observed in people prone to depression; and

I

would

stress its

tcndenc}' to dominate the survivor’s entire cognitive and emotional

'The embittered world-view becomes his total vision of the

were and the way things

arc.

Not having been

wav

life.

things

able to “vomit” his

“bitter water,” such a survivor finds his entire psychic life poisoned

by

The it.

1

lie

hibakusha

undcrgrouncr’

s

wisli for

52 7

Survivor

ultimate retaliation or total

eonflagration can be iiiiclerstood as the most extreme expression of the snr\i\ or s embittered world-view, and finds its analogy in various emotions of former eoneentration eamp inmates— sneh iiiielear

Wiesebs

as

temporary wish “To burn the whole workir’^r. Por

if

he

is

unable to

own

reeonstitnte his

psychie world, the snr\ivor finds this sharing of annihilation to be the only kind of relationship with others that he ean

imagine.

Rawiez suggests the importanee of impaired formulation

in his pro-

tagonist’s retrospective realization, eoneerning the time just prior to his

death immersion,

that the

moment

that

ahead was

la\'

to provide

not only with a lifetime’s bitterness, but with an eternal “eternal alibi”

time

s

alibi.”8c

me,

The

the survi\or’s need to justify his being alive. His “lifebitterness has to do with the permanent “bad taste” he retains, is

with his inability to “savor” that which anger” toward a world he cannot re-enter.

The

image we spoke of

indelible

impaired formulation.

encounter

The image can

is

offered him,

earlier

is

also

and

his “biting

an expression of

include, in addition to the death

memories of pre-bomb existence— as in a revealing statement written by a university professor nineteen vears after his itself,

exposure to the

The

bomb:

brightness of the

summer da vs and the unpleasantly loud noises of a military city. The images of this life of my youth have been fixed in the back of mv mind as though held there by the flash of the atomic bomb. The form of that period Inland Sea on

.

.

does not

alter. It

same time did.

.

.

.

is

individual

.

.

is

the picture of

me

voung

in m\’

like seeing the picture of a child

What would

.

.

davs,

who

at the

died before

a psychologist call the fixation of

experience which

and

I

memories of

have resisted e\crv interpretation or

and have instead become like a still picture. ... It is very much like asking the meaning of a picture of one’s voungcr days which is dusted off" and hung up, in the midst of a service being held on the twentieth anniversarv of one’s death. solution,

.

.

In one sense these early recollections could be looked

upon

memories,

more disturbing

which substitute

memories of the bomb

itself.

for

and

shield against the

But they arc

also

as “screen

much more. The

writer’s

equation of an image of himself in his youth with “the picture of a child who died before I did” suggests his inability to overcome either his loss of

pre-bomb innocence, or

his guilt over survival priority

(he makes the

528

DEAIII IN LIFE

latter clear

in

comments

additional

The

as well).

“still

picture” of

himself conveys a sense of cessation of psychic motion; and the phrase

about participation sary of one’s

bomb

human

anniver-

death suggests the close relationship between this kind

everything in one

as ha\ ing “fixed

“no words of comfort since (as

commemorating the twentieth

image and the identity of the dead.

of indelible

the

own

in a service

could utter to friends

I

we quoted him

He

goes on to speak of

moment,”

who

.

.

.

of there being

were dying

.” .

.

before as saving) “there exist no words in any

language which can comfort guinea pigs

who do not know

the

cause of their death.” There can, in other words, be no formulation— the experience must remain an indelible and ineffable image

words can convey either death and

guilt.

One

its

memorv

The

its

suffusion with

because unable to give form to that annihilation

tells

us of the survivor “living out his

present

dumb

Now we

is

present like a It

lump

shortens our

meat dried up by the and vet remains dead and

of dead lives,

itself.

can recognize the indelible image as part of

confounding the

survivor’s psychic life:

guilt confer

unique value upon

devitalizing

all

formulation; he his life

become

memories and the

of his memories,” so that

malevolent sun. ...

and

totality or

consequences.

Rawicz

circle

and

vastness

no

remains fixed upon the world that has been annihi-

lated, held motionless

and

its

— because

all

death imagery,

another vicious

death anxiety and death

memories, while at the same time

subsequent experience and undermining attempts at is

thrown back upon these memories (of the event

preceding the

his

still

more etc.

it)

as his only

Should he

back to them by the

form of authentic connection; thev

and he

indelible,

itself

is

further fixed in unformulatable

try to forget the

memories, he

is

brought

demand that he (in Rawicz’ words) “remember everything” because “The onlv thing that matters, that will matter, is the integritv of witnesses. Hence the sacredness of the literal details of his death encounter we have so often noted, and the worshipful stasis surrounding its image. Indeed we begin to understand why religious and political movements take shape as

call of

the survivor mission, by the

forms of survival: the significance of the witnessing of the death of

emergence of Christianity, and that of the surviving of the Long March for Chinese Communism. The survivor mav become a

Jesus for the

“disciple” not only of a dead leader, or of the collective “dead,” but of

the death immersion

itself.

The

guilt

with which he embraces that event

The by no means devoid of

529

Survivor

but should he move toward psyehie forms vvhieh eould free him from its bondage, he risks the disturbing selfis

love,

aeeusation of betrayal.

1

he eoneept of the survivor’s impaired formulation

is

relevant for

mueh

reeent psyehiatrie and medieal researeh whieh has attributed a variety of disorders to problems of grief and mourning. Among widows, for instanee, eomplaints of bodily

and mental

have been

diffieulties

noted to inerease during the period following their husbands’ deaths;®^ and the tendeney toward delinqueney and antisoeial behavior has been deseribed as “a manifestation of the mourning proeess— a substitutive pathologie grief reaetion”-’** (reminding us of the ease referred to before

whieh

in

stimulated rage to the point of attempted murder).

grief

There have

been eorrelations between ehildhood bereavement (from the early death of a parent) and adult psvehiatrie disorder.*^^ A also

distinguished

German

psyehoanalyst has

gone further and

reeently

suggested that “repressed mourning” for Hitler and the Nazi

movement

has interfered with soeial and politieal progress in postwar Germany.*

We

ean well understand the insistenee that grief

disease.

I

explore

shall

some

more

of these issues

volume, but there are two important prineiples ing these general findings and theories. First,

phenomena

fullv in

would

we ean

stress

mv

later

eoneern-

better grasp the

involved by a eoneept of impaired formulation on the part

of various kinds of survivors than bv foeusing tations of the

mourning proeess per

eontended with

aeeompany

I

be eonsidered a

itself

is

se.

And

upon

traditional interpre-

seeond, the “disease” to be

not grief as sueh, but a symbolie disruption whieh ean

grief or

any other form of individual or

eolleetive emotional

upheaval.

SCAPEGOATING The

survivor’s eonfliets ean readily lead

tion.

By foeusing

total

blame upon

of people, he seeks to relieve his

him

to a seapegoating formula-

a partieular person, svmbol, or

own death

guilt.

When

single out sueh objeets of foeused resentment as President pilot of the

ean

A-bomb

eapitalists, or

seareh

for

plane, Japanese leaders,

Ameriean

group

hibakusha

Truman, the

seientists,

Ameri-

“Amerieans,” we ean observe the proeess by whieh the

responsibility spills

over into seapegoating.

*

More

speeifie

In a talk delivered at Yale University in 1964, Dr. Alexander Mitscherlich offered thesis that Germans have been unable to confront the combination of ambivalent love and residual guilt felt toward their former leader, and have

the

consequently had to

rely heavily

upon

denial.

DEATH

530

IN LIFE

scapegoating (because

its

objects are

more removed from actual respon-

can be found in hihakusha resentments toward Koreans, Chi-

sibility)

burakumin, foreign residents of Hiroshima

nese,

bomb,

outsiders

nonhibakusha

who came

in

in general; as well as

and research

trators, plwsicians,

the

later,

toward

scientists,

the time of the

at

successful,

financially

city officials, welfare

and

adminis-

through the overall constella-

and suspicion of counterfeit nurturance. On impression was that scapegoating in Hiroshima

tion of guinea pig imagerv

mv

the whole, however,

has been fragmentary, and without strong conviction,

less part of clear-

The

cut formulations than of a generally embittered world-view.

urge

toward scapegoating has hardly been absent, but the weapon’s impersonality

and cosmic dcstructi\eness interfered with scapegoating

just as

they did with general assigning of responsibility. In contrast, there

is

evidenee that scapegoating formulations have

been much stronger among concentration camp survivors and groups identified with them.

These again often enter

a borderline area

includes reasonable labeling of responsibilitv. But

scapegoating

phenomenon where

resentments,

which

we may observe

the

being

ex-

instead

of

pressed toward the Nazis, are directed almost exclusivelv toward groups

concerned with restitution pavments, outsiders, or other camp survivors; toward the Catholic Church or the Allied powers for their failure to do

more

for

Nazi victims; or toward Jewish leaders thought to have,

their associations with their persecutors, aided the tion.

Without arguing

work

in

of extermina-

the legitimacy of these accusations,

I

would

suggest that the intensity with which they have been expressed has to do

with the general issue of death survivors (and

The Nazis

some

guilt,

since

all

parties

involved are

are initiators) of the events debated.

themselves, coming to power as survivors of Germanv’s

national humiliation during and following

World War

I,

made

use of a

scapegoating formulation in the extreme: the vision of Jewish responsibility for

sion,

and

Germany’s various forms of for all of the world’s

ills,

solution” to the “Jewish problem.”

had

a long history.

and s\mbolic death immer-

and the prescription of

That kind

a '‘final

of formulation, moreover,

During the plague of the fourteenth centurv "many

blamed the Jews, accusing them acting as agents

literal

of

Satan.”

of poisoning the wells or otherwise

But at that time

a

form of "internal

scapegoating” was also prominent, a self-accusatorv interpretation of the

plague as "a punishment by

not only gave

members

God

for

human

rise to intensified prayer,

sins.”

This interpretation

but to "half-naked

of the century-old cult of flagellantism,

flagellants,

march [ing] ...

in

The procession

wliipping cacli

otlicr

and warning

531

Survivor

people

tlic

to

purge

themselves of their sins before the coming day of atonement.”’^- Very different, but b\ no means psychologically unrelated, was the behavior of groups of survivors of the 1

okyo-Yokohama earthquake

simply massacred every Korean in sight in a scapegoating.

of 1923,

who

outbreak of murderous

\^’ild

Scapegoating formulations, then, emerge from struggles between internal and external blaming, and ereate for the survivor an opportunity to cease being a victim and

may

make one

of another.

But these formulations

not only be dangerous to the newly ehosen

reinstated

)

victim; they

meet with limited suecess

their objeet, the purging of death guilt. In faet, they

burden of guilty anger. They eoherent

The

entities,

and

moreover,

readily disintegrate into

w'hose

'hiiagic’'

is

blurs the entire proeess

frequently,

aeeomplishing

in

add a new psyehie

diffieult

intervention of eontemporary teehnology, as

A-bomb, further

the

are,

more

(or,

to

amorphous

we saw

sustain

as

bitterness.

in the ease of

bv ereating an adversary

so diffieult to grasp, blame, or hate.

et a process at least bordering

on scapegoating seems neeessarv to the formulation of any death immersion. It enters into the survivor’s theory' of causation,

and

need to pass judgment on people and forees outside of himself to avoid drowning in his own death guilt and symbolie disorder. The more elosely^ these seapegoating tendeneies his

attaeh themselves to the actuality' of events, the greater their adaptive

and the better the survivor’s ehanee to transeend them, or at eombine them with more inelusive formulative approaches. What

usefulness, least

the survivor seeks from his scapegoating formulation

uneonscious message that “You, and not others’ deaths It is a

all.

and

my

suffering, so that

message that he can neither

I

I,

is

the reassuring

are responsible for the

have a right to be alive after

fullv believe

nor entirely eease to

reassert.

Hiroshima we observed the preponderanee of the alternative message: “Having survived at the expense of the dead, I ean justify my In

existenee only by emphasizing their virtue and

ing

them

to the point of

becoming one

my

of them.”

guilt,

But

and by embrac-

this

tendeney for

the survivor to saturate his formulation with self-blame and identifieation with the dead has

its

own

pitfalls,

notablv that of lifelong psyehie

numbing.

One

can observe the operation of these formulative paradoxes in

other situations related to survival— perhaps most strikingly in a group

DEATH

532 of severely dileetion

IN LIFE

people deseribecl by two psyehiatrie investigators as “pre-

ill

patients,” because prior to

undergoing major surgery, they

own deaths. One of them, Could Not Die,” had experienced a

correctly predicted their

described as ‘‘The

Widow Who

series of survivals

which she found

herself increasingly unable to justify.

gone an extensive operation forty-one,

she lived

burdened by

as

carcinoma of the rectum at the age of

for

an

Having under-

invalid

for

the

next

twentv-eight

vears,

colostomy (an opening from the colon through the

a

abdominal wall) and by frequent

rectal abscesses. Prior to the operation,

she had been pregnant three times, but on each occasion miscarried.

Then, over the

years, her “favorite brother” died,

carcinoma of the rectum; three

sisters

having also developed

died in rapid succession; and

her de\oted husband died of coronarv thrombosis.

finally,

examiner observed that she “thought of herself

atric

as a

The psvehiplump and

sickening slug wallowing and feeding on death,” and that she had the feeling “that her survival

had been

at the expense of other lives, even

He

noted the “solemn immobilitv” of

those of her unborn children.”

her face, which “resembled a death mask,” and a “sickening atmosphere of death in her room.”

She expressed

to

him both her

desire to die,

and

the calm conviction that her death would result from a lung hemorrhage following surgery (she had experienced one after a previous operation,

but had been saved by prompt treatment), which

it

did.

Her emotional

“was not that of depression but of flattened affect”— or what would call psychic numbing— and the investigators’ further

status

we comments

raise a

key question about the formulative problem

we have

been discussing:

would be

It

as did this

difficult to

conceive of a patient

woman. She had

who welcomed

death

survived at the cost of everv person to

whom

she was de\otcd, and managed to live on with a disease of unusually rapid mortality. It was as though something indeed was wrong with her. The persistent sense of being soiled and repulsiv'C

clung to her. Her loneliness

the later years and preoccupation with the fate of those she had lost held her encased in the little room, but still she did not die. The important question is not, however, that she in

wished to die. She had understood for manv \cars that onlv death could resolve her difficulties. \Miy had she survived so long?^*'^ d’here

is

was an

no certain answer eternal survivor,

to the question.

Wdiat we can say

but unlike the paranoid despots

is

that she

who

seek

external solutions for guilt in the form of an unending series of an-

The

whom

tagonists

they can sunivc, she internalized her guilt to create a Indeed, I believe that her guilt-ridden formulation of her

of grief.

life

533

Survivor

responsibility

for

others

deaths was her means of granting herself

unconscious permission to go on described for hibdkushci.

If

we

state contributed to her death,

li\

ing— much

in the fashion

we have

accept the likelihood that her psychic

we may

further suspect that her increas-

ing loneliness, together with her mounting guilt, finally negated the adaptational usefulness of her formulation— possibly to the point where

became mobilized

it

\\diat

am

I

to the cause of biological death.

suggesting

is

that at a certain point the balance can be

tipped, so that the sur\i\or’s self-accusatory formulation linking

him

with the dead no longer contributes to his sense of connection and his 'bight” to

life.

experiences a

welcoming

At that point he becomes overwhelmed by death guilt, marked diminution of vitality, and embraces a "death-

formulation, which although not fundamentally different

from the one he held before, now accelerates the process of dying. Even kind of formulation, at least

this

been describing, may be said

in the "predilection patients”

to reflect a kind of mastery.

we have

For these

"survivors” are neither psychiatrically disturbed nor possessed by the suicidal patient’s fantasy of magically

certain degree of integration in

presage the death that

is

\\

conquering death, but achieve a

hich elements of

numbing and

anticipated and inwardly embraced.

despair

It is

quite

possible that such death-welcoming formulations accelerated the process

of dying in

both during

many Hiroshima and Nazi their initial ordeal

severe, contributed

and

concentration

later on;

to the onset of leukemia

camp

and where

survivors,

particularly

and other malignancies

within the former group.

A

key issue

in

the survivor

formulation adaptive

is

s

capacity to

make

the retrospective conferring

his

self-accusatory

upon the dead

of a

*

William A. Greene, whose work on psychogenic factors in malignancies I have quoted before, relates leukemic symptoms and other forms of physical illness to

... of a sense of sequence,” of “a feeling of continuity in reference experiences to date and aspirations for the future”; and “con-sequence in association with another or other persons,” which involve “some type of attachment,” whether pleasant or unpleasant.^-^ Greene’s concepts are consistent disruption

to

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

what

.

.

have called “impaired” and “death-welcoming” formulation. The phenomenon of death-welcoming when in the midst of severe stress is well known, and was observed, for instance, in large numbers of American prisoners of war in North Korea who at a certain point would begin to cease trying to stay alive and would resist whatever help was offered by others. 'I’lic phenomenon was sometimes with

I

called “give-upitis.”

5

DEATH

34

IN LIFE

Only in this way can the immortality. Hence the profound fear

quality of glory or of symbolic immortality. survivor reassert his

own

sense of

of '‘betraying” the dead which pervades both Hiroshima

camp

tion

survivors. For, as

Camus

and concentra-

us in words written in the midst

tells

of repeated survivals of comrades in the French anti-Nazi underground in 1943:

In the period of revolution,

it is

the best

who

The law

die.

of sacrifice

about that finally it is always the cowardlv and prudent who have the chance to speak since the others ha\e lost it bv giving the best of themselves. Speaking alwavs implies a treason. brings

it

4'he “treason”

is

being alive to have a voice at

one’s formulation, as

in

Camus

all.

But by recognizing

one ean share

did,

in

it

the enduring

power of the dead.

‘‘golden age’’ and significant ‘‘messages’’ Both Hiroshima and concentration camp

survivors, in discussing their

early lives, frequently presented images of a “golden age,” of “idyllie

childhoods, spent in the

bosom

of elose,

harmonious

WTile

families.

expiatory needs to idealize the dead are important here, this kind of

image serves another important function:

it

reactivate within himself old

feelings of love, nurturance,

and harmony,

in order to

formulation of

life

and profound

is

the survivor’s effort to

be able to apply these feelings to his new

beyond the death immersion. Inevitablv these

relate

to early childhood, a universal “golden age” in which,

whatever

its

pain,

one

drawn from

later

is

eapable of uncomplicated happiness. Even

periods of

life,

the image

is

likely to include a ehildlike sense of the joy

of spontaneous play in an ordered world

now

feels

with a

upon

himself most in need

new their

if

of.

— preciselv

what the survivor

He must eombine

these old emotions

sense of significant purpose.

“peace city” finds

its

The Hiroshima

parallel

in

survivors’ stress

concentration

eamp

sur-

on behalf of preventing the re-emergence of Nazi or Nazilike movements, and in the participation of manv of them in the vivors’ actions

formation of a “Jewish State” in

purpose

is

most

vivid

Israel.

This

stress

upon

significant

where the formulation takes the shape of

survivor mission, but

it

is

also quietly present in

a speeifie

tendeneies toward

psychological non-resistance. In either ease, the purpose

must

in

some way

derive from

a

s\mbolie

The message from the dead, whetlicr vision or simple rcN’cngc.

theme

the general

Wc

tliat

message emphasizes an enlarged

can look upon the hibakusha

of peace, so

prominent

an

venge. But the

of “avenging the dead”

theme

to achieve

overtly prominent in Japanese tradition,

eontroversies

over shrines

memorializing

them.’’''

for

Moreo\’er,

Among

eoneentration

with their

is

universal. It has

re-

been

at issue in postwar

dead and

national

holidays

present in diffuse form in hibaku-

it is

sha imagery of ultimate retaliation world!”).

upon

wisdom and transcend

and eovertly

the war

stress

in their struggles

overall experience, as

effort

535

Survivor

(“Let A-bombs

eamp

survivors

fall

over the

all

themes of revenge have

been more publiely prominent. But usually assoeiated with them have been efforts to impose responsibility, to punish the guilty, to reassert moral order

— all

part of the “eolleetion of justiee”

we spoke

of earlier.

This dual quest for revenge and moral order has been present reaetion of eoneentration eriminals, in

many There

dead

is,

eamp

and has eontributed

following the is

little

for

the

to the sense of

Eiehmann

doubt that sur\ivor,

survivors to later trials of

trial

Nazi war

vitality

observed

and exeeution.

a pereeived

the

renewed

in the

superior

message of wisdom from the pattern

both ethieallv and

But emotions surrounding the idea of revenge must be eontended with, and in some way expressed, in relationship to any form psyehologieally.

of death immersion, espeeially where the sense of being victimized strong.

With atomie bomb

speeifie

revenge— that

eompared with the speeifie objeets for

emotions do not

beeome more *

The

is

survT’ors the nature of the

to

among

eamp survivors of not mean that retaliatory

eoneentration

sueh feelings. This does

indireet

weapon makes

revenge “in kind”— virtually “unthinkable,” as

aeeessibility

exist

is

hibakusha, but rather that they tend to

and ambiguous. Yet however vague, they ereate

themes of revenge and military glory became so closely associated with all memorial ceremonies in prewar and wartime japan that any postwar ceremonial becomes suspect unless clearly associated with an anti-war formulation. Thus, in an exchange published in English translation in the Japan Times of June 8, 1963, Tomoji Abe, a university professor and Director of the Association in Memory of Japanese Student W^ar Dead recalls the “grand ceremonies during and before the last war” held in the name of commemorating the dead but “designed to instill the general public with a militaristic spirit” and opposes a government-sponsored plan for a large national ceremony on August 15, the day of surrender. He contrasts the implicit ethos of his own group’s program of “lecture meetings, symposiums and homage to tombs of students who w'cre killed in service during the war.” His antagonist, Asataro Yamamoto, Director of the Repatriation Bureau of the Health and Welfare Ministry, defends the government plan as responsive to a growing need for “spiritual solace” on the part of bereaved families devoid of “ulterior motives” and dissociated from “revival of militarism in Japan.” .

related

.

.

DEATH

536

IN LIFE

extremely strong inner pressure upon the sur\ivor to renounee and

overeome them.

'I'liese

general formulative principles can be observed in parents of

children dying of leukemia.

has been observed that

It

among

such

parents the conclusion that the child’s fatal condition was caused by

something they

no one

intolerable conclusion that

is

Beyond

survi\or mission of

this,

is

combating the general scourge of leukemia, through

and then participating

various programs

in

Some

fighting the disease.

case contributed

condition. Here

guilt

they often take on a

familiarizing themselves with the medical aspects of the

child’s

to “the

Formulated

responsible.”^'

preferable to meaningless innocence.

first

seemed preferable

did, or failed to do, often

problem

and campaigns aimed

take comfort in the idea that their

to

goal

this

we may speak

what

b\-

it

at

own

revealed about the

of a guinea pig image that

is

not devoid

image of an unpreventablc death (whatever the parents’

of honor, the

feelings of responsibilih

made maximum

)

use of for the benefit of

mankind— in contrast to the Hiroshima survivor’s sense of having been made into a historical victim by a willful human experiment, and then asked to contribute to medical knowledge.

We

observed in Hiroshima

tendenev for

tlie

this negative

form of

guinea pig imagery to be associated with fantasies of retaliation. In a general sense, any survivor’s fixed focus

nant message from the dead tive

impairment,

relevant

are

may be understood

which he

now

S

URV

I

AL

as a

as the

predomi-

profound formula-

unable to imagine the existence of

is

wisdom emanating from them

IMAGES OF

We

in

upon revenge

or

anv other source.

AND MASTERY

in a better position to

understand

intimately

bound up with mastery. For

immersion

itself

it

relates

whv

formulation

is

so

not only to the death

but to the entire constellation of life-and-death imagerv

within each individual psyche. This constellation includes three polarities

which we have alreadv hinted

disintegration,

language of

at:

connection-separation, integritv-

and movement-stasis. To avoid the misleading instinctual

classical psychoanalysis,

and

at the

same time recognize the

presence of the precursors of these polarities at birth, thev are best referred to as innate images. individual’s world-picture, picture.

imagery.

They

are also,

And howevxT

That

and

is,

they form the earliest basis for the

for his

way

of acting

inevitably, the prototypes

primitive

upon that world-

for his later

and unconscious they are during

death early

The stages of

life,

they are from

53 7

Survivor

tlie l)eginiiiiig invol\'ed in tlie

creation

and

re-creation of signiheant patterns whicli concern tlie entire organisni/^^

he

I

first,

the connection-separation

able streSo by psychoanab

tic

most

writers,

elaboration of ‘attachment behavior” in

although

much

has been given consider-

jiolaritv,

reccntl\' in

John Bowlbys

the very young child. But

has been written about infantile fears of being devoured

and about the young chikbs terror at being deprived of mobility, the last two jiolarities, as lifelong constellations, have re-

or annihilated, its

ceived

relati\ ely

little

Bowlby and

attention.

his associates

rightly

emphasize the significance of very early separation anxietv in the child, and hav’C described a pattern of infantile mourning consisting of three stages protest, disorganization, and reorganization which is re-

—

—

enacted

in

adult reactions to death and

loss.

the eighteen- to twenty-four-month-old

mother, behaves

as

if

his

But when

child,

if

they^

observe that

from

separated

world has been shattered,

we may

his

suspect

that the anxiety' involved includes primiti\ c images of disintegration and

which are inseparable from the sense of separation

stasis

course recognize in

this

kind of separation

itself.

We

of

the prototvpe for later

But what must also be kept in mind is that the image formed around it can be reactivated bv anv subsequent

survival experiences.

early

suggestions of disintegration or

formulation integrity,

is

stasis, as

well as separation.

to reassert their polar opposites

and movement.

Just as

The

— connection,

syaiibolic

one has “known” the experience of

survival in every threat to these life-affirming themes, so has

upon formulation

task of

to reconstitute one’s inner

one called

and outer worlds

after each

of these “survivals.”

This ha\’C

sion

is

not to say that childhood experiences “cause” the patterns

been discussing is

nothing new

tendencies. Rather,

and

in this chapter, or that the

and “merely

we may

w'C

massive death immer-

a repetition” of prior psychological

say that the death immersion reactivates,

same time adds new dimensions to, the Indeed, the emotional power of the death immersion at the

earlier lies

imagery.

preciselv in

combination of shock of newness and “shock of recognition.” Of great importance is the age at which the death immersion takes place. In Hiroshima my impression was that the vounger a person was, this

the

more fundamental the

effect

upon

his evolving psychic life,

the greater latitude and flexibilih- in formulation.

The young

but also survivor,

therefore, could often achieve considerable mastcrv o\cr even a severe

and indelibly imprinted death immersion. In

contrast, older survivors

did not “imbibe” the experience in as fundamental a

way but

retained

538

DEATH

PP-

more incapacitating

IN LIFE patterns of despair

or just prior to adolescence, a period of sensitive to death imagery,

imagery to take

its

and

at the

life

when one

tional prototypes. In this

intensit\',

forth life-affirming elements

molds these into

We

new

a

emo-

numbed

from

exposed, the survivor

is

his

own

past even as he

formulation.

how

have noted

less specific

leading neither to

despair nor to mastery. But at whatever age he call

for that

group of survivors there tended to occur a

formulative struggle of lasting

must

during

extremely

is

same time old enough

adult form rather than occur in

particu-

bomb

powerful imprint occurred with those exposed to the

larly

A

and psychic numbing.

formulation enables the survivor to recapture a

sense of “active tension”— or of “actuality”— with his environment. All three

the

of

polarities

I

spoke of are involved in

particularly those concerned with symbolic integritv ity.

this

quest,

but

and psychic mobil-

Yet the seemingly inactive formulative approach of psvchological

non-resistance, can be, as

we have

also seen, the

most

effective one. In a

very general sense, psychological non-resistance can be related to an

Eastern philosophical emphasis, and the more active idea of “survivor

mission” to a Western one. But survivor mission tration

camp

psychological

we have observed

among Japanese

in

Hiroshima.

the importance of the

And Western

concen-

have shown considerable inclination toward

survivors

non-resistance— as

expressed

recently

public request for an “accumulation of silence.”*

in

Wiesebs

Elie

Not onlv has

there

been so much cultural interchange that philosophical origins have become obscure, but we are in fact dealing with two related aspects of

Both “non-resistance” and “survivor mission”

universal psychic forms. are

means

of avoiding a sense of being inactivated or

death to the point of marked psychic numbing.

symbolic integrity,

including

overwhelmed with

And both

provide

an active reassertion of the sense of

immortality.

To

reassert this

connection to continuous

life,

the survivor reverts not

only to his personal past but to his historical past as well.

We

recall the

hibakusha’s fear of psychohistorical extinction^ as expressed by some individually

when he *

and

also in

discovers,

Agawa’s novel. Wiesel describes similar feelings

upon

his return to his native

town, that

all

was the

Wiesel was speaking before a dinner marking the twentieth anniversary of the of the Bergen-Belsen camp. Significantly, however, he referred to the

liberation

who

with him for seven days and seven nights without speaking a word, so that the form of psychological non-resistance advocated is mixed with a Biblical sequence notable for its questioning of God’s actions, as well as with Wiesel’s own continuing survivor mission of bearing witness. silence

of

Job's

comforters,

sat

The same

as before except tliat “tlie

Survivor

Jews had disappeared."

He

539

angry with the Gentile townspeople, not for their misbcha\ior at the time of the persecutions but “for having forgotten them," and “So is

quickly,

completely.

^

Xhe

surviv’or

so

cannot formulate from a void, hie requires

the psychological existence of a past as well as a present, of the dead as well as the living. Without these, neither mastery of his death encounter nor a place in human societv is possible.

A World

6) [

of Survivors

he atomic survivor, then,

botli part of a liistorical legacy of survivor-

is

He

hood, and a rcprcseutative of a new dimension of death immersion.

same general psychological themes we have enumerated

experiences the

for all survivors of massive

death immersion, but the unique features of

nuclear weapons and of the world’s relationship to quality to his sur\

bomb bomb

is

— extending

complicated bv a sense of continuous encounter

through the

exposure, the immediate post-

initial

impact of “invisible contamination,” disease,”

Death

guilt,

give a special

orhood.

i\

His death imprint with death

them

involvement with “A-

later

and the imagery surrounding the hibakusha identitw

stimulated at each of these stages,

is

reinforced bv group

community,” and further reawakened by everv flexing of nuclear muscles— whether in the form of threatening words or weapons testing— anywhere in the world. Psychic closing-off is extraordipatterns within a “guilty

narily

immediate and

massi\’e;

from radiation

fears,

psychosomatic

entrapment.

is

is

Suspicion

form of

nurturance

is

guinea pig imagery. Conta-

difficult,

both bv the dimensions

and by the complexitv and threat surrounding

And

the general nuclear problem.

atomic survival not unique

I

of counterfeit

itself readily to

made profoundly

of the original experience,

share

particularly widespread

similarly great because of the radiation-intensified death

Formulation

taint.

numbing, inseparable

later psvchic

gi\es rise to a

markedly strong, and lends gion anxiety

and

to

it

here

we

arrive at

another qualitv of

but of unique importance: we

all

it.

say this not only because

bomb

first,

I

if

Germanv had developed among the A-bomb dead or

Japan or

might have been either

the American equivalent of a hibakusha; just as

not elected to emigrate from Eastern Europe, concentration

be kept

in

camp

mv

if I

the else

grandparents had

might have been

a

victim or sur\ivor. Such accidents of historv must

mind. But what

I

refer

to

is

the universal psvchological

sharing of any great historical experience, and particularlv of this one in this

epoch. In

a large sense history itself

our century the theme of sur\

We

have observed the

ival

is

is

a series of survivals,

but

in

more immediate and more ominous.

effects of a relatively localized

impact of a

“small” nuclear bomb, with the existence of an “outside world” to help.

— The riiere

no need

is

destrnctiv'C

an

on the magnification and dissemination of power since Ilirosliima, or on the nneertainty of there being to dwell

outside world

to help in a future holocaust.

that Hiroshima gave

making war upon

Only man, we

his

new meaning own species.

may

And

more, elevate that “invention”

we can envisage no war-linked chivalrv, Indeed, we can see no relationship — not even a

between ^ ct

\

ictimizer

we know

survi\’ors

and

\

knows

invent gro-

nature of a potential destiny that stalks ns

in the

man

his technologv, could render

after Hiroshima, glory.

simply say

or at least

we must add; only man could

the meaningful totally meaningless.

something

“knows death,”

Only man, through

tescjuely absurd death.

We

to the idea of a ^h\’orld war/’ of

are often reminded,

that he will die. d’o which

to

541

Survivor

all.

For,

certainly

no

distinction

ictim, only the sharing in species annihilation.

that great disco\eries have in the past been

— of dying historical

epochs

as well as of actual

made bv catastrophes. By

confronting their predicament, they have been able to break out of the

numbing and

unmastered survi\orhood and contribute

stasis of

human

enlargement of

can no longer be sure of survivor

wisdom

Our

consciousness. this

opportunity.

present difficultv

We can

is

to the

we

that

no longer count upon

deriving from weapons which are without limit in

what

they destrow I

have

throughout

tried

make

matters that

this

book

to

own emotional

their

write with

about

restraint

statements. But behind that

been a con\iction that goes quite bevond judgments of individuals or nations, beyond e\x'u the experience of Hiroshima itself. I restraint has

believe

chance.”

Hiroshima,

that

It is a

with

together

Nagasaki,

nuclear catastrophe from which one can

which one can derive knowledge that could contribute the even

more massive extermination

it

And

world quality

man

yet the world

lies

both

faces a pervasive

its

threat

unlimited technological

\

the threat and to analyze

new

it

exists.

and

theme which

be engaged. In Freud’s day

to create

still

was

its

in

learn,

from

to holding

back

still

of the ways

have

I

Precisclv in this cnd-of-thc-

potential wisdom. In every age

defies his scxualit\-

engagement and and moralism.

W^e do

components. But our need

is

must

vet

Now

well to

it

is

name

to go further,

psychic and social forms to enable ns to reclaim not onlv

our technologies, but our very imaginations, continuitv of

all

iolenee and absurd death. its

“last

seems to foreshadow.

Hiroshima was an “end of the world” described.

a

signifies

life.

in

the

service

of

the

t

I

APPENDIX

Black Rain Kuroi ture/'

A

Ame

{Black Rain)^ marks a

portrayal of the intrusion of the atomic

rhythms of a small farming the unprecedented

cant

new dimension

artistic

\'illage, its

enables

it

to

in

bomb

"'A-bomb

litera-

into the ordinary

special blend of "the usual"

transmute that experience into

form. The \iolence and conflict surrounding the

and

signifi-

bomb

are

illuminated by means of a leisurely chronicle of seemingly inconseejuential everyday events, in the manner (as one critic put it) of "an old-

fashioned family novel."

The

story

was

Keikon), and

in fact originally entitled

its first

three sentences

Marriage of a Niece (Mei no

more

or less

sum up

its

plot:

For several years past, Shigematsu Shizuma of the village of Kobatake had been aware of his niece, Yasuko, as a burden on his mind. Espe-

was his sense that the burden was going to remain with him, unspeakably oppressi\e, for still more years to come. It was like having a double, or e\ en triple, responsibilitv for a debt. cially troubling

Shigematsu’s immediate "burden" (or pressing responsibility) is arranging a marriage for his niece, but it is part of the larger— indeed limitless— burden imposed upon both by the atomic less

burden"

is

bomb,

d’his "limit-

elaborated through an interweaving of present-day occur-

APPENDIX

544

rcnces in a village not far from Hiroshima with survivors’ diaries describ-

bomb— mostly

ing the time of the

Shigematsu’s, but also

Yasuko, of Shigematsu’s wife, Shigeko, and of a doctor

bomb

recovered from earlv

louslv

hibakusha Shigematsu

what might be

is

As

effects.

those of

who had

miracu-

familv head and a

a

faced with several levels of responsibility, or

called the formulation of responsibility: to Yasuko; to

himself and his communitv; to the dead and their other survivors; and

These

to history. in turn,

which we

layers of formulati\c struggle,

shall consider

comprise what can be viewed as the novel’s central psychological

theme. Shigematsu’s responsibilitv to Yasuko

virtually that of a father to

is

During the war, when she was

his daughter.

still

her teens, he had

in

brought her from the village to Hiroshima (where he was then living),

found her work

bomb

the

daughter, to

he wrote if

show my But

and taken her into

in his factorv,

“So long

in his diarv:

anything were to happen to

as

I

keep Yasuko

this child,

as

after

mv own

would not be able

I

face to Shigeko’s parents [Yasuko’s grandparents].”

his efforts to arrange her marriage

— the

overriding responsibilitv

of a family head to the “daughter” in a Japanese stantly frustrated

bomb, and

home. Shortly

his

by Yasuko’s ambiguous status

especially

by the

false

household— are con-

in relationship to the

rumor that she had been exposed very

near the hypocenter while on labor service. Such

the intensity of

is

Shigematsu’s feeling in the matter that for a while he “entertained an idea of hunting

when an good

down

the arch-villain”

excellent prospecti\c

for her”)

presents

match

who had to

“make doubly

obtaining a certificate of health for Yasuko and sending

between. This, however, only arouses the a

request for

bomb

more

precise

diarv

makes

center,

the

latter’s

it

bomb

We

set

clear that

copy

to the go-

suspicion and leads to

A-bomb

for the go-between.

Yasuko was

also reveals her fell)

a

it

sure” by

information concerning Yasuko’s atomic

exposure. Yasuko therefore turns over her

matsu so he can prepare

And

(“If the truth be told, almost too

he decides

itself,

started the rumor.

diarv to Shige-

But although the

fullv ten kilometers

from the hvpo-

encounter (while returning to Hiroshima after

with the “black rain”:

out at nine o’clock [on the morning of August sixth]. As

we

reached the main road there were black clouds rising over the city of

We

Hiroshima. fall

of

heard the sound of thunder, and then rain began to

with drops about the

summer

I

felt

Although it was the middle whole body shivered.

size of soybeans.

so cold that

my

545

Appendix

and clothes remain splattered with mnd, and the soiled parts of her blouse are worn through. \\^orst of all, these marks cannot be IIcT face

w’ashed awav:

I

w'cnt back to the fountain again

rain

and again, but the blotches of black would not disappear. As a dyeing agent it was quite impressive.

\\

— that

A-bomb itself — is ineradicable.* hen Shigematsu’s wife urges him to leave out the part about

he black rain

1

the

is,

the

black rain because people

do so and

is

might get the wrong idea,” he is tempted to restrained only by his fear of what would happen should the

go-between ask to see the decides to add his

own

original. Partly to resolve the

diary as an appendix to Yasuko’s in order to

demonstrate the contrast between

his close exposure (at

and her distant one. Noticing Yasuko’s eagerness devising ever\ possible

seeming

to

do so”— he

way is

to

make

herself

two kilometers)

for the

more

match — her

attractive without

desperately determined that

matter what, her marriage must not be eaneeled.” spur him on in his diary-eopying efforts.

But the marriage

dilemma, he

And

''this

time, no

these emotions

not to be aehieved. Yasuko develops svmptoms of "A-bomb disease,” negotiations are abruptly terminated, and Shigematsu experienees a profound sense of failed responsibility eoneerning both the is

marriage and his feeling that he did not take suffieiently good eare of Yasuko the past. As her eondition deteriorates he beeomes more and

m

more

aw^are of his

feels guilty for

oime

or debt

— in this ease unrepayable — to Yasuko. He

having brought her into the orbit of the A-bomb, and for

his helplessness before the evil forees assaulting her within that orbit.

Shigematsu’s responsibility to

harmony with the

eurrents of

life

self

and eommunitvf— his sense of

within his village— is upset at every

These two passages ha\e been altered in later printings, and do not appear in the same form in the English translation. In early v'ersions of the novel there was some confusion about whether Yasuko experienced the "black rain” upon reaching the highway, as described above, or while on a "black-market boat” which she (and the group with which she was returning to the city) subsequently boarded, or in both

The changes made in later printings present Yasuko’s own mind because of having been "in a

situations.

within

this

confusion as existing

state of shock,” and estabher exposure to the rain as having occurred only on the boat. But this is at odds with the statement, retained in all printings, that she was exposed at ten kilometers, lish

for the boat

In

would have been

certain

closer than that.

one could claim that self and community are always psychologically inseparable. But the extraordinary stress in traditional Japanese culture upon the individual’s adherence to group standards, which one clearly en^

a

theoretical

counters in this novel, lends

sense

itself particularly to

considering

them

together.

APPENDIX

546

A-bomb

turn by lingering

spell, still susceptible to

bomb

influences.

For he remains under their death-

the kind of guilt originally recorded in his diarv:

['I'he

atomic

was

seeking refuge for myself alone?

who else in the whole wide universe would have presumed to summon forth such a monstrosity? Would I ever get out alive? Would my family survive? Was I, indeed, on my way home to rescue them? Or I

cloud] was an envoy of the devil himself

.

.

.

Similar death guilt affecting his relationship to the Hiroshima com-

munity

is

revealed in such early incidents (also recorded in his diary) as

someone

his turning over to

could

make

else a child

he had been helping so that he

a precarious bridge crossing alone; his feeling impatient at

the slow pace of a badly injured neighbor, from

whom

he also separated,

and then hearing of the latter’s death shortly afterward; his encounter with a corpse, which seemed to be “puffing out its cheeks taking deep breaths [and] moving its eyelids,” but which on closer inspec.

.

.

and

no other

life

than worms whose movements

illusions.

reveals her to

suffering (“Hiroshima

is

have been consistently aware of horror

a burnt-out city, a city of ashes, a city of

death, a city of destruction, with heaps of corpses a

and Yasuko were reunited)

had

to

we would

We

like to.

by

his

own

of psychic

protest against

guilt,

away:

is

not an exhibition

do anything for them, no matter how much So walk in silence. Walk looking down.” can’t

niece’s

3

as

to insist that they turn

admonish her many times: “This

[misemono].

mute

war”), while Shigematsu’s records his need (once he

3*

I

.

.

tion could be seen to harbor

had created these Yasuko s diary

.

pure and childlike humanitarianism as well

he perceives

his responsibility to

be the counseling

numbing.

But because of seen before

his personal injuries

which he

obliteration of

self.

finds in

(the “strange face

Overwhelmed

the mirror)

I

have never

he experiences

to the point of despair,

a virtual

he has momen-

tary thoughts of ceasing the small efforts

re-establishing order *

The

and throwing

his

he has been making toward bundle into the river.* A mixture

load Shigeinatsu carried consisted of an assortment of primitive food and medicine, old magazines, a small fan, etc.-“things useful to people living in the ruins’-which he intended to bring to officials in the Clothing Division of mili-

54 7

Appendix and bureaucratic

of general confusion inatsu as a

man

continuing

efforts,

tion

caught

in a

human

recalls

deprax

Sliige-

of circumstances wliicli, whatever Ihs

cannot be unraveled. Such

around him that he

ravages of \^ar,

web

an image of

rigidity create

the cheating and decep-

is

an old saying; “In places exposed

to the

docs not disappear for one hundred

ity

years.” His constant self-recriminations— “I felt disgusted with myself”

and

my

was

“It

responsibility”— suggest the extent to which he has

internalized the overall dislocation,

And

assumed

its evil

over the years which follow, the pattern

attitudes toward

him and two

is

and

guilt.

maintained by others'

fellow hibakusha in the village.

“A-bomb

advice of physicians treating their in the leisurely activity of fishing

On

the

disease” the three indulge

while evervone in the village

is

“hard

work cutting the wheat and planting the riee fields.” Tlie villagers, \x’ho had at first revered the three as “precious survivors,” came to look at

upon them

To

exposure.

men who

as lazy

“take advantage of” their atomie

avoid this eensure

— and

one — the three men embark upon

which enables them .

.

.

like

to continue to fish

in the fish

one caught,

Shigematsu also continues

custom

as

but to do so

it

as

form of prayer

a

as

kind of work

one had invested even

was not

to live within the

as “a

amusing

just

a

oneself.”

framework of communal

— on

ceremonial days mark the passing of time

float lanterns

words of

eommercial carp-raising enterprise,

a

running a business,” since “so long

money

little

“just to be nasty,” in the

bomb

for the prevention

one, farmers

of

harm from

water (from heavy rain or flood); on another, they hold a kind of

memorial service working

But

for insects,

mostly worms, which they have killed while

in the fields.’^

his

most poignant

struggles with responsibilitv occur in relation-

ship to the dead and to the impaired life-death balance. His diary

how,

in the early chaos

surrounding mass cremations, ordinary amenities

must be dispensed with (“d'here

when people

die

.

.

.

[and] even

is

if

place to receive them”). In order to

minimum

tells

no one

to prepare

death

certificates

they could be prepared, there

show some

respect

no

and maintain

of form, Shigematsu’s superior at the factory asks

He wanted both

is

him

a

to

help them and to influence them toward arranging coal deliveries to his factory so that the making of desperately needed clothing could be resumed. tary headquarters.

*

The

first

festixal

is

known

as

to

Onomichi-ko no Sumiyoshi-sai, and Shigematsu

is

not described as participating actively in it; but during the second, Mushi Kuyo, he presents rice dumplings (ohagi) to a friend xvhilc returning a metal container, following the custom of bringing back borrowed belongings on that day.

APPENDIX

548

cliant siitras for

who

cmplo}ces

only an “amateur” (shiroto)

power

to guide tlie dead,”

that he

insists

is

Buddhist praetiee and that he has “no

in

he

Wdicn Shigematsu

die.

is

told that in sueh matters

and under

those eonditions “there ean be no distinetion between professionals and amateurs. Earnest if uneertain, he seeks instruetion from an old priest, eopies passages from Buddhist books, alone.

and

praetiees sutra-ehanting

But although he gradually aequires some eonfidenee and

efforts appreeiated, the

eeremony inereasingly say that

number

go to ehant sutras with

I

finds his

of people dying inevitably renders the

and he reaehes the point where

easual,

when

all

my

heart.”

One

sutra

“I

eannot

he does ehant.

Commentary on Wdhte Bones” (Hakkotsu no Gobunsho),

sets

the

tone for most of the book:

...

may be

I

first,

may be

others

It

first.

may be

today or

it

may be

tomorrow. Wdiether one dies later or earlier, death is uneeasing, like the falling of dew on the tip of a leaf. One may be proud of his red eheeks in the morning, and then turn into white bones in the evening.

The wind

of ehange has already eome;

one’s breath

But despite

is

no more.

.

.

two e\es quieklv

elose,

and

.*

eompelling image of resignation, death simply eannot be absorbed or formulated. Riding on a train, Shigematsu brushes up

woman and

against a of a enild to

this

s

ear.

through the eloth of her bundle feels the outline Fearing it will suffoeate, he speaks to the woman, only

be told that she

burial.

He

bones of

is

earrying her dead ehild to her parents’

meets an engineer

his

who

tells

their house,

also of being worried that the wife’s family will insist burial. Realizing that the engineer wishes to full

beauty rather than

The Japanese word meaning

rnujo,

here

mutability,

uncertainty, suggests the frailty of

permanence, I have translated

He

translated

“How

a proper

A-bomb

eorpses,

about having some

observes two soldiers earrying a as

“change,”

Buddhist term meaning, “without existence. The phrase mujo kaze, which

or “transiency”;

human

upon

but

remember the wife and

mutilated

as

Shigematsu suggests a eompromise solution: third person dig out the bones?” t

for

of being “too old” to dig out the

\oung wife and daughter from the ruins of

daughter in their

home

its

is

a

literal

wind of change, is often used as a euphemism for death. 'I’he usual Japanese custom is for the closest relatives to pick out bones from the remains following cremations. his is ordinarily done by tw’o people who co-ordinate two separate chopsticklike instruments, each person manipulating one of them. Tliese bones, together with some of the ashes, arc put in a jar which is placed in a plain wooden box and kept in the home of the closest mourner until burial some time as

+

I

later.

549

Appendix corpse on an improvised tin liardly

manage

all

litter,

one of tlicm

overlicars

these dead bodies’’

— and

‘‘We can

say,

notes that the corpse on the

litter

looked

Pinocchio whose binding nails had unconsciously said the sutra “Commentary on like a

been pulled out.

all

White Bones.”

shima was no more, but it still seemed unbelievable that the Hiroshima could come to an end in such a terrible fashion.

I

Hiro-

eity of

Beyond these general death-distortions, Shigematsu himself (together ^^ith his wife and niece) is aetually mourned as dead. Pfis mother plaees pictures of the three before the family altar in her

home

in the village,

along with three teacups with water and a few flowers. She also instructs other relatives to take water and green leaves from the village to the site of Shigematsu’s house,

and

burn incense there and plaee next to the

to

incense sticks fruit from his favorite tree, the

from the

kemponashi*

also

brought

Shigeko and Shigematsu later discover these, and

village.

Shigematsu hears the entire story from them, he mother’s thoughtfulness.” Shigematsu

is

from the standpoint of others and

some extent

to

when

“surprised by his

is

thus depicted as a survivor who, his

own, has already

“died.”

Shigematsu tional village

tries

\^’ays.

throughout

to

His difficulty

is

cope with death, as with

life, in tradi-

that he can find no guidelines for the

special quality of “death in life” imprinted

by the atomic

means of guiding either the dead or the living. All he can do is attempt to record what he has seen and preoccupation with records becomes his way of expressing

bomb— no

felt,

and

this

his responsi-

bility to history. In addition to his urge to use his diary to influence

Yasuko’s wedding arrangements favorably, his copying

it

was associated

with a longstanding plan to present the diary— “my history”— to the local primary school’s library, where it could be “preserved.” So coneerned * 'I

he kemponashi

Asia, takes his village.

tree,

which

is

related

to

the

on particular significance in the novel In an old letter, which Shigematsu and

area of their house, an inspector for the then

was written text below)

in

1873,

five years after

and found only in East both Shigematsu’s family and

jujube for

his wife dig

new

out from the storage

Mciji government

the Meiji Restoration, and

is

(the letter

referred to in the

thanks Shigematsu’s great-grandfather for sending kemponashi seeds to him \ia a magistrate from the village of Kobotake who had gone to live in 'lokyo. Ibuse describes the kemponashi as “a noble tree,” and refers to “five great kemponashi trees [which] had stood in the garden before Shigematsu’s house right

up

to the time of the Sino-Japancse war,’’ so that

the immortalitv of nature.

it

becomes

a

symbol of

his tic to

APPENDIX

550 arc he

and

liis

wife about

its

possible impact

upon

posterity that they

They

give considerable attention to the kind of ink that should be used.

examine among old family records the

first

a

letter

1873, one of

written in

ever received in the area to use WTstern-style ink; noting

be “faded

it

to

brown color," they decide that traditional brush and Chinese ink would be more enduring.’" Shigematsu seeks to to a pathetic light

apply his personal history to the formulation of a disturbinglv confusing chain of events in larger

human

history. I’hus,

even after Yasuko's

illness

has eliminated any possibility that the diary could help bring about her marriage, Shigematsu goes on copying

he further

asserts

his deadline for

Yasuko’s

which

its

is

almost as a

man

recorded by another diary, this one kept by Shigeko,

sented to a physician) and an additional document of

actually pre-

(it is

A-bomb

suffering.!

physician in turn produces a diary kept by his brother-in-law

(also a doctor) effects,

And

it.

serves the dual purpose of a medical record

The same

possessed.

wider historical connection by making August sixth

completing

illness

it

describing a highly unexpected recovery from

and including

wife.t This too

is

a record of treatment as recalled

made medical

use of

when Shigematsu

A-bomb

by the man’s takes

it

to the

doctor eventually put in charge of Yasuko’s case, in the hope it might have relevance for her treatment, and there is even talk of showing the diary to

Yasuko

can enable

man

One makes

encouragement. Only records, we seem to be to cope with the bomb. for

such records so that

all

told,

can remember. Earlier in the book

one of Shigematsu’s fellow hibakusha-fishcnneu denounces a woman (who has been taunting the three men) for ha\ing forgotten about the bomb, and goes on to declare angrily: “Everybody’s forgotten! Eorgotten

we went through that day— forgotten them and e\’crvthing with their damned anti-bomb rallies.’’ W^ithout clear memory of

the hellfires else,

the essence of the experience— without

can one possibly deal with *

Shigcinatsu’s wife

the one

it

its

recordings on the

mind— how

authenticalh?

who

the issue in very specific terms: “You’re it to the library for the sake of posterity, aren’t von?’’ But eventually Shigematsu himself becomes convinced of the need to use the older-styleis

raises

going to present

and, one might say, more culturally authentic as well as lasting-form of ink.

The

doctor in turn suggests that Shigeko’s diary of Yasuko’s illness be given to the a place where they keep sur\ey materials concerning atomic bomb victims and sometimes publish descriptions of patients suffering from atomic bomb t

ABCC—

disease”-but the suggestion

is

apparently not acted upon.

physician-brother-in-law’s record is made up of a series of notes and is not an actual diary (which has a somewhat formal quality in Japanese usage), but the general principles we have described concerning recording nonetheless apply. I

'I’lie

551

Appendix As a

holocaust Shigcmatsu docs not believe that any record, his diary, can convey what really happened ("Not even a

sur\'i\or of

least of all

thousandth of what

I

really

recording small details as

saw

is

described in

^^ell as large

it'

),

but he

persists in

scenes. lie even asks his wife’s

help in preparing an additional record of exactly what they had to cat during wartime. Howe\cr he demeans his own efforts, he secs value in the information as such: "d’he style of my writing is bad realism. But facts arc facts.”

Carrying out one’s responsibilitv to history

meaning and

\\ay to recover

"Ilis will to record

is

vitality.

As one reviewer

the only

is

said of Shigematsu,

his will to live.’”"

In this sense one can understand the novel as depicting the gradual indi\idual mo\ cment, howc\’cr hesitant and incomplete, toward mastery

A-bomb

of the

experience. Shigematsu’s initial psychic stance

numbing:

at the

afterward,

when

time of the bomb, as

we have

that of

is

observed; and shortly

upon talking to him about bomb horrors results in his being "drawn into those actual feelings” and experiencing "an unpleasant form of fear” which makes him "feel like people’s insistence

running away.

His later inclination to accept his wife’s suggestion that they leave out a portion of Yasuko’s diary, apart from its immediate purpose regarding the marriage arrangements, is consistent with his wish to suppress the entire

A-bomb

experience.

Caught

dilemma of trying to conceal the unconcealable, he can react only bv "fuming” ipuripuri). But as the book proceeds the urge to "run away” is replaeed bv a determination to stand fast and record everv^thing. Paradoxically, the in the

cancellation of Yasuko’s marriage arrangements because of her illness

him from the

liberates

and there

things,

d ims released

is

moved away from ence

now no need

from pressures

need to

feels less

strain of

coneealment: "I cannot keep on hiding to hide

them.”

to deceive others

deceiv'e himself

about the

on Yasuko’s behalf, he

bomb

He

in general.

has

denial toward transcendence. His form of transeend-

combination of incessant recording and continuing attention to the obligations of a family head in a Japanese village— always against a baekground of the timelessness of evervdav rituals and of nature’s peris

a

petual re-creation of tions of his carp '

possible *

A

by the

life

pond .

as

and beautv acts of

ee

V

(his wife refers to his eager

homage”). And the sense of tlie

mspee-

timeless-

multiple layers of flashback

made

intricate use of diaries.

culturally emphasi/x-d principle

is relevant here: the Japanese stress not only but also photographs, especially family alhnnis. The preservation of the past, through records that are both concrete and emotionally e\'oeati\'e, has eonsistently great significance for coping with the present.

upon

diaries

APPENDIX

552

Not that

A-bomb

that the

Yasuko

is

“defeated”— to the eontrarv, there

from delayed radiation

will die

Shigematsn might well meet the same strated

no doubt

and we suspeet that

effeets,

fate.

is

But what has been demon-

that one ean undergo the snr\ivor’s ordeal with honor

is

one ean aehieve that most

dignity; through reeords

and of

diffienlt level

expression, authentie protest.

'The book’s ending

bad omen

in the

is

enigmatie. Shigematsn’s diary told earlier of a

form of

a “white

rainbow” seen bv the faetorv ehief

during the worst days of the bomb, just prior to the Emperor’s surrender Instead of listening to the speeeh, Shigematsn had walked off

speeeh.’''

and found

a elear stream in

the end of the book

wanders

— after

whieh many small

he has finished eopying

time to his earp pond, where he

off, this

were swimming. At

eel

his diarv

— he

again

imagine a happv

tries to

outeome:

rainbow were to appear now over that mountain, a miraele would take plaee. Not a white rainbow, but a rainbow of five eolors. Should that happen, Yasuko’s illness would be eured.” He knew sueh a wish

“If a

eoLild not

be

fulfilled,

the mountain far

To omen

still

has given

in this novel.

his task.

Wc

made

propheev

his

as

he looked

at

off.

expeet good fortune, then,

baekgroLind of

bilih',

but he

way

fish in

is

admittedly wishful. But the bad

to at least the idea of a

good one

water, universal symbolism of

life

— all

against a

and pointedlv

so

Even more important perhaps, Shigematsn has completed are left with the impression that

tenuous though

it

may

man

possesses the possi-

be, of reordering his psvehie

world and

absorbing the folly of his destruetiveness.

Ibuse

falls

into the general eategorv of the deeplv eoneerned

geographieally elose nonhibakusha writer on protagonist, he

is

from

a small village in

A-bomb themes. Like

Hiroshima Prefeeture, and

and his like

other nonhibakusha writers taet with aetual effeets of

we have eneountered, he had intimate eonthe bomb. Long reeognized as one of Japan’s

leading older-generation novelists and a *

member

of the Japanese Aead-

Tlic factory chief had first seen this “bad omen” on the day before the “February 26th Incident of 1936 in which military extremists assassinated se\eral cabinet members as part of an attempted coup d’etat. During the postwar period the incident has exemplified the notoriety of rightist fanaticism, except for a small minoritv for whom it has remained an example of an admirable Japanese form of absolute dedication to the “higher cause” of national and racial aspirations.

553

Aljpendix

cmy

of the Arts since 1960, he

lias

written pcnctratingly about a variety

of social themes, including that of inilitarv fanatacism.

But

prior to

Black Baiii he had pnblislied only one work on the atomic bomb, a brief memoir-novel (really a short story) quUBcq] Kakitsubata (An Iris),based upon his obscr\ations on hibakusha City. His recent novel

is

who

fled to

said to be a “reworking

these experiences, accomplished o\er a period of It is also said

Ame

and reorganizing” of

more than

ten years.

that on the occasion of his being awarded the Order of

Cultural Merit (on Culture Day, that Kuroi

nearby Fukuyama

was

November

because

a failure

it

3,

1966) he told friends

did not capture the hibakusha's

form of silence— reminding us once more of the sur\ i\ or’s tendency to question the authenticity of anything but silence, and also of special

File Wdesel’s plea (concerning the concentration

camp

experience) for

an “accumulation of silence.” ^ et even Ibuse could not escape hibakusha sensitivities. sur\’ivors full

horror of

lends

be

ha\e insisted that the book’s descriptions

what

of

short of the

Here we may say that the novel very documentary stress, and this may

actually took place.

by

itself to this criticism

major shortcoming.

its

fall far

A number

its

apparently follows verv closely an actual

It

diary kept by a hibakusha, as less a nov'el

than a

method cannot be

and has been characterized by Ibuse himself document. I hough subtle and effective, its diary

said to be the kind of radical experimentation in style

found, for instance, in such concentration

camp

Voyage and Blood from the Sky: because

contains no

lent of the revolutionary nature of the

comparisons between what

invites

By the same token the book

s

from

know

in\'alidate the

book

s

A-bomb

savs

scientific

both documentary limitations and far

it

it

novels as

The Long

stvlistic

experience,

and “how things

it

equiva-

too readily

really were.”

and medical inaccuracies become

artistic

impediments, although they

more fundamental psychic

truths.’*'

We

no A-bomb novel could avoid negative hibakusha responses, based as these are on reactivation of death anxietv and death guilt. But my point here is that even this highly superior novel by a well that

distinguished writer shows a certain

amount

of imaginative thralldom

1 he most important inaccuracy surrounds tlic general idea of the “black rain” as lethal, ostensibly through containing radiation or in this case what is known as

“near fallout.” Although the general question of fallout from the Hiroshima bomb —that is, of residual rather than immediate radiation— has still not been entirely

most authorities believe that there was no medically significant level, and therefore that the “black rain” was not in itself greatly harmful. According to a personal communication from Dr. Kempo 'rsukamoto of the Japanese National Inclarified,

stitute of Radiological Sciences,

it

is

possible that the rain,

which became black

be-

APPENDIX

^1^

554 to tlic

A-bomb experience— considerably

works dealing with

it,

\et

enough

to

less

tlian a great majority of

demonstrate once more the atomic

bomb’s severe barriers to creatix itv. he rare synthesis the novel does achieve, bchx een the A-bomb experience and life beyond it, has led to such critical accolades as “master1

piece” and “the

genuine work of national literature” to emerge from the atomic bombings, as well as to sales so extraordinarv that one first

must assume that something place

among

the

close to a

new A-bomb “exposure”

more educated Japanese population. One

is

taking

critic

com-

pared the book to lOefoc’s description of the plague in England, but it probably bears greater resemblance to Camus’ novel on the same theme. Like Camus’ protagonist. Dr. Rieux, Shigematsu wages a losing battle against superior forces of c\ as

which the nobilitv of the struggle serxes an affirmation of symbolic immortality— though Ibuse depicts the

struggle

(and the

evil

il

in

too)

in

much more

restrained,

partly elegiac

Japanese tones. Camus’ use of the plague as a parable around xvhich to explore the nature of ex il is undoubtedly more broadly imaginatixe than Ibuse s relatix'cly focused confrontation of the A-bomb experience as such.

But on the other hand Ibuse manages

cause of dirt bloxxai into ficient is,

some

to cause

it

to inject

humor

into his

by the

effects;

blast, could haxc contained beta radiation sufbut these were likely to haxe been superficial ( that

confined to the skin and scalp) unless a considerable

amount of this material was under some unusual circumstances. It is difficult to come to any aefinite conclusion because the fission products inx'olvcd xx’ere so short-lixed that measurements became xirtually impossible within a fexv ingested

orally

or

through

respiration

hours after the rain

fell. (The rain began to fall approximately an hour after the and ceased one or two hours later.) Moreover, the rain fell mainly at the center of the city: it would hax^e been impossible for '^'asuko to encounter any ten kilometers away (the distance from the hypocenter of the main highxxay she speaks of), and highly dubious that she would hax'e been exposed to any on the boat, xvhich, though closer, xxould also hax'e been xx'ell outside of the central area. Also

blast,

scientifically questionable are descriptions of

“A-bomb disease’’ (Ibuse usually em^cuhdkuhyo rather than ^cubdkusho, shghtlx’ closer to ordinary speech but having^ essentially the same meaning). About Shigematsu and his fellow hibdkushd: “. people like us haxe only to do a bit of hard xvork and their limbs start to rot on them.’’ And about one of them in particular: “If he pulled a heaxv cart or xvorked in the fields, he got an ominous rash of small pimples in among the hair of his scalp, but they dried up if he ate nourishing foods, xxent fishing, or took other exercise.’’ And most important, concerning Yasuko’s symptoms: these include fever, diarrhea, loss of hair on her head, sxxcllings on the buttocks, loosening of the ploys the term

.

.

teeth, ringing in the ears, loss of appetite, inflammation of her gums, severe general pain, and exentually large numbers of blood cells believed to be xvhite cells but so abnormal as to be almost unidentifiable. ’I'his does not add up to any definite syn-

drome, but seems instead to combine some of the early sxmptoms of' acute irradiation, some of leukemia, and others not really specific to either but often contained in the public image of “A-bomb disease.’’

Appendix

more tlum Ociinus

ciccouiit, iiiiich

point.

1

from

iiiicl

humor is always gentle, but at moment when his young pupils

liat

eisel^

the

foot,

a teaeher insists they sing

Beneath the \\

a

more

555

P\^

diffieult v'iintiige-

times gently savage: at pre^hvere

burned from head

pianissimo the patriotie song “Lay

to

Me

and then “leads the way in jumping into the ri\er a \illage head making a speeeh of eneouragement to members of the Young Men’s Assoeiation about to embark for reseue work in Hiroshima urges that they “take eare above all not to drop these symbols aves,

,

of

your imineible determination to fight on to the bitter end— your bamboo spears,” while also adding an apology for addressing them “in this

manner ...

surreptitious as a light

a

in

the predawn darkness without so

mueh

left-wing scholar” with

American connections is so aware of being regarded suspiciously by wartime officials that, to demonstrate his patriotic dedication, he is always the first to dash outside and rush around calling out Air raid! Air raid! [and has] nev’cr been known ;

.

to take off his puttees [to

be

.

.

in quasi-military readiness]

even at home”;

and an injured \\oman with “her arms stretched out toward the [atomic

bomb] cloud

.

. .

[who] kept screaming in a

monster of a cloud! away!’

Go

shrill

away! We’re non-belligerents!

”

fbuse

voice:

Do

‘Hey, you

vou hear— go

under conditions of atomic holocaust, what is ordinarily fatuous becomes totally absurd, and that hvpocrisies of response are not unrelated to those contributing to cause. Recognition of this

is

telling us that

dimension of absurd hypocrisy suggests that

capacity for alternative behavior. hilarious, to

be sure

—

The

very

man possesses the qualitv of humor— hardly

fundamental component of whatever degree of transcendence author and protagonist achieve. In con\ eying the sense is

a

A-bomb victims can be more than special way the pained wisdom of the that

just that, Ibuse evokes in a very

twentieth-centurv survivor.

NOTES

INTRODUCTION

{pp. 3-12)

Japanese scholars in Tokyo have begun to take cognizance of the situation, and studies of social change in Hiroshima aic being initiated by a research team from Keio University. See Keizo Yoncyama, “Ilibakuchi Hiroshima ni Mini Shakai 1.

Hcndo

(Social Change Obseriabie in [Atomic-] Bombed Hiroshima), Hogaku Kenkyu (1964) 37:57-97; and Yoneyama and Kawai, “Genebaku to Shakai Hendo”

(TTie

A-Bomb and

Change),

Social

ibid.

(1965)

38,

Nos. 9

and

Earlier

10.

and psychological research efforts include: S. Nakano, “Gcnbaku Eikyo no Shakaigakuteki Chosa Sociological Study of Atomic Bomb Effects Daigakujinkai Kenkyuronshu I (April, 1954), and “Genbaku to Hiroshima” (T’he Atomic Bomb and Hiroshima), in Shinshu Iliroshima-shi-Shi (Newly Revised History of Hiroshima City) (Hiroshima Shiyakusho, 1951); Y. Kubo, “Data About the Suffering and Opinion of the A-bomb Sufferers,” Psychologia 1961) 4:56-59 (in English); and “A Study of A-bomb Sufferers’ Behavior in Hiroshima: A Sociopsychological Research on A-bomb and A-encrgy,” lapanese Journal of Psychology 22:103-110 (English abstract); k. Misao, “Characteristics in Abnormalities ( 1952) Observed in Atom-bombed Survivors,” Journal of Radiation Research (1961) 2:85-97 (in English), in which various psychosomatic patterns are described; Irving sociological

(

)

,

(

War

Emotional Stress (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1951), particularly chapters 1-3; and United States Strategic Bombing Sur\'ey Reports, The Effects of Strategic Bombing on Japanese Morale (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government L. Janis, Air

arid

Printing Office,

problem

are

1947). Additional studies of social aspects of the atomic bomb being conducted under the direction of Kiyoshi Shimizu at the

Hiroshima University Research Institute

some

for

Nuclear Medicine and Biology; and

of the group’s findings are presented in

Effects of

the

Dr. Shimizu’s article “Little-Known

Bomb,” Japan Quarterly (1967)

published two essays dealing with aspects of

my

14:93-98

(in

English).

I

have

study: “Psychological Effects of the

.

NOTES

558

Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima,” Daedalus (1963) 92:462-497; and “On Death and Death Symbolism: 'The Hiroshima Disaster.” Psychiatry (1964)27:191-208. 2. See “Genhakn Iryolio no Kaisei Jisslii ni tsnite” (Concerning the Enforcement of the Atomic Bomb Medical 'I’reatment Law of August 1, 1960) (published by the Hiroshima City Office) 3. “Reason, Rearmament

and

Peace:

Dilemma,” Asian Surrey (January,

Struggles

Japan’s

with

Unixersal

a

and in abridged translation, “Risei, roriknmu Nippon,” Asahi Jdnaru (Jnlv 8,

1962);

Saigunbi, Heiwa: Sekaiteki Jirenma to

1962), 14-13. 4.

See,

for

instance:

M. Hachiya (W^arner Wells,

and

ed.

Hiroshima

trans.),

We

Diary (Chapel Hill: Unixersity of North Carolina Press, 1933); 4'. Nagai, of Nagasaki (Nexv York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1931); II. Agaxxa, Devil's Heritage

(Tokyo: Hokuseido J^rcss, 1937); A. Osada (compiler). Children of the A-bomb (Nexv York: Putnam’s, 1963); Robert Jungk, Children of the Ashes (Nexv York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961); John Hersey, Hiroshima (Nexv York: Bantam Books, 1939); Robert Irumbnll, Nine Who Surrired Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Tokyo and Rutland, \’t.: Cliarles E. 4’uttle, 1957); John A. Siemes, S.J., “Hiro-

shima-August

6,

1943,”

Bulletin

of

Atomic

the

(1946)

Scientists

1:2-6,

and

“Hiroshima: Eyexvitness,” Saturday Review of Literature (Mav 1 1, 1946), 24-23, 40-43; S. Imahori, Censuibaku Jidai (The Age of the A- and H-Bomb) (2 xols; Tokyo: Sanichi Shobo, 1959-1960); Y. Matsuzaka (cd.), Hiroshima Cenbaku Iryo(Medical History of the Hiroshima .\-Bomb) (Hiroshima, 1961); Y. Ota, Shikabane no Machi (Town of Corpses) (Tokyo: Kaxvade Shobo, 1955); Janis; USSBS Reports; and the large number of back issues of the Chugoku Shhnbim,

shi

Hiroshima’s leading nexvspaper, xxhich

include accounts

of

personal

.\-bomb

ex-

periences. 5.

See

mv

“4outh and Historv:

essav

Indix'idual

Change

in

Postxxar

Japan,”

Ddedd/us (1962) 91 172-197. :

C

II

1.

ER

AF T

II (pp. 1S-S6)

Martha Wolfenstein

Press, 1957], p. 26)

the

lex'el

situation,

(Disaster:

Psychological Essay [Clencoe,

ill.:

'Phe Free

speaks of anticipation as “a small-scale preliminarv exposure on

of imagination” xxhich for

A

instance,

during

“can haxe an inoculating effect.” Such the

London

Blitz,

xvhere,

according

to

xvas

the

Melitta

Schmideberg (“Some Obserxations on Indixadual Reactions to Air Raids,” International Journal of Psychoanalysis [1942] 23:146-175), people became used to bombings and adapted to them by gradual changes in their xvay of life. 2. Ota, p. 39. See also Len Gioxannitti and Fred Freed, The Decision to Drop the Bomb (Nexv York: Coxxard-McCann, 1965), pp. 40-41, 239. 3. Herbert Feis, Japan Subdued: Phe Atomic Bomb and the End of the War in the

(Princeton,

Pacific

classical

document

xxith

N.J.:

Princeton

1943. See also Alice Kimball Smith,

A

1961), p. 183. The the Franck Report of June 11,

Unix'ersity

regard to prior xvarning

is

Press,

and a Hope: The Scientists’ \lovement in America 94 5-47 (Chicago: Lhiiversity of Chicago Press, 1965); Gioxannitti and PYeed; Gar Alperoxitz, Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam (Nexv York: Simon and Schuster, 1965); and discussions by scientists in William Laurence, “Would You Make the Bomb .\gain?” New York limes Magazine (.\ugust 1, Peril

J

1965), 8-9. 4.

I

hax’e used the official

Hiroshima records, made axailable at the Peace Museum, and the all-clear. These records list, in addition xvarning siren at 9:22 p.m. on August 5, an all-clear at

for the times of the air-raid xvarnings

to the times

mentioned,

a

.

559

Notes

9:30 P.M., another alert at 12:24 a.m. on August 6, an all-clear at 2:09 a.m., and a warning siren at 2:1? a.m. There has been considerable confusion about the exact time of the last all-clear. Ashley W. Oughtcrson and Shields Warren {Medical Effects of the Atomic Bomb in Japan [New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956]) give it as 7:30 A.M.; Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey (No High Ground [New York: Bantam Books, 1961]) as 7:13 a.m.; Janis as “less than half an hour earlier [than the dropping of the bomb]”; and Herscy, quoting a Catholic priest, as 8 a.m. Bart of the confusion was between the actual all-clear and the reassuring radio announcement which came about thirty minutes later, just fifteen minutes before the bomb fell. Concerning the broadcast, Hiroshima City records say it declared that there was “No sign of enemy planes in the air” within the general Hiroshima military area; Feis (p. 109) speaks of the spotting of the two B-29s at 8 a.m., and of the broadcast which had a

mixed note of warning and reassurance; and Knebel and Bailey (p. 136) report the sightings of the B-29s to have taken place at 8:06 and 8:09 a.m., without reference to a radio announcement. Whatever the discrepancy in details, the recollections of hibakusha were consistent

The poem

in their stress

by Jitsuzo

upon

a sense of relaxation.

Okuda

(in Ota, p. 180), and its Japanese version is “Shikindan to hitani omoite kashira agureba hibashira agaru gokiro sakinaru.” The concept of the illusion of centrality is discussed in Wolfenstein, pp. 51-56. 6. For estimates of damage, casualties, and mortality, see Oughterson and W^arren; W. F. Craven and J. L. Cate (cds.). The Army Air Forces in World War II ;\^ol. \C, The Pacific— Matterhorn to Nagasaki (Chicago: Universitv of Chicago Press, 1953); USSBS Reports, Nos. 3, 13, and 92; Matsuzaka; M. Ishida and 1. Matsubayashi, “An Analysis of Early Mortality Rates Following the Atomic Bomb— Hiroshima,” ABCC Technical Report 20-61 (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1961); S. 5.

is

Nagaoka, Hiroshima Under Atomic Bomb Attack (Peace Memorial Museum, n.d.); and “Hiroshima: Official Brochure Produced by Hiroshima City Hall” (based largely

upon previously mentioned

sources). Concerning mortality, Oughterson and

Warren

estimate 64,000, believed to be aceurate within ±10 per eent; K. Shimizu (in Matsuzaka) “more than 200,000”; Nagaoka “more than 240,000.” The estimate of

about 78,000

also frequently sees estimates

long afterward, and as

w'ell

cantly,

lower

number of American and Japanese sources, but one of “more than 100,000.” Much depends upon how

given by a large

is

in

conjunction with which census count, the estimate was made,

manner

which military fatalities are taken into account. Signifiand perhaps not surprisingly, American estimates tend to be on the whole as

than

the

the

in

Japanese.

Casualties

among medical

personnel

are

particularly

270 of 298 of the doctors in Hiroshima were killed, as were 1,645 of 1,780 nurses; and 42 of 45 hospitals were destroved or rendered useless (Craven and Cate, pp. 722-723). striking:

8.

Ota, p. 63. Hachiya, p. 54.

9.

Ibid., pp. 4, 5, 37.

7.

stillness

10. 1

1

.

Only when the

hospital

went up

in

flames was “the uncanny

broken.”

Ota, p. 63.

Hachiya,

p. 31

H.

“The Problem of Ego Identity,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (1955) 3:447-466; Martin Grotjahn, “Ego Identity and the Eear of Death and Dying,” Journal of the Hillside Hospital (1960) 9:147-155; Harold E. Searles, The Nonhuman Environment (New York: International Universities Press, 1960); and Rollo May’s introduction to the volume he edited with Ernest Angel and Henri F. Ellenberger, Existence: A Neir Dimension of Psychiatry and Psychology (New York: Basic Books, 1958), pp. 55-61. 12. See

Erik

Erikson,

.

NOTES

560 1

Hachiya,

3.

p. 29.

14.

Agawa,

15.

Ota, pp. 79,90-91, 153-154.

16.

The poem

p. 165.

by Kyokii Kaneyania (in

is

ibid., p.

180), and

its

Japanese version

wa tada tamayura no yume ninio nitaru.” Shinoe Shoda, Alazushiki Gakuto no Haha (A Poor Student's Alother), in Miminari {Pinging in the Ears) (Tokyo: Ileibonsha, 1962), p. 23. It originally appeared in Sange (Confession) (pnblislied privately in Hiroshima, 1947, and said to have been printed at a prison) ‘‘Asakiro chirnata oishi hirameki

is

1/.

But Wolfenstein (pp. 57-64) emphasizes that "the feeling of abandonment”

18.

nni\ ersally characteristic for disaster victims.

is

Ota, pp. 73, 84-85, 129. Father Siemes ( "Hiroshima— August comments upon the absence of Japanese initiative in helping victims. 20. W^olfenstein, pp. 189-198. 19.

6,

1945”)

also

have discussed these conflicts in Western missionaries to China in 'Phought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of “Brainwashmg” in China ^Kew \ork: Norton, 1961). Among them, the urge to gain acceptance within Chinese society— to become "Chinese”— could greatly increase their susceptibility to 21.

I

thought reform.” See especially Chapters 7 and 12. 22. Wolfenstein, p. 189. 23. Ota, p.

54.

1

24. Nagai, pp. 180-181.

The

additional quotations which follow are from pp. 181

and 182. 25.

Hachiya, pp.

26.

Shoji

kugaku

5-16.

1

Inoguchi, "hunerals,” in Chitomi Oma et al. (eds.), Taikei (An Outline of the Ethnological Study of Japan)

bonsha, 1959), \^ol. 27. Reported by

Nihon

NIinzo-

(Tokvo:

Hei-

4.

Wdiite Russian hihakusha

a

an interview conducted by the USSBS (October, 1945) and later made available to me through the courtesy of Mr. S. Paul Johnston, who had been a member of the inter\iewing unit. Father Siemes corroborates this impression ("Hiroshima-August 6, 1945”), telling how he and his foreign missionary colleagues were reluctant to go into the center of the city because we thought that the population was greatly perturbed and that it might

take revenge

upon any

in

which thev might consider

foreigners

spiteful onlookers of

their misfortune, or even spies.”

28.

An

Anthony

h. C. M^allace

Exploratory Study

of

expressed this concept in Tornado in Worcester: Individual and Community Behavior in an Extreme

Situation (Washington, D.C.: 3,

National

Academy

1956), pp. 109-141.

first

Committee on

of Sciences-National Research Council, Publication

It is

The comment was made by

30.

Ota, pp.

CHAPTER 1.

No.

No. 392,

further elaborated in Wolfenstein, pp. 77-84.

29.

1

Disaster Studies, Disaster Study

Rollo May.

52, 218.

III (pp.w-102)

See Onghterson and Warren; discussion by Stafford L.

Warren

in

Proceedings

Conference on Long-Range Biomedical and Psychosocial Effects of Nuclear War, sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Communications Program of the New York

of First

Academy

of Sciences (in press); Matsuzaka; Hachiya.

Onghterson and Warren and

other authors demonstrate statistically that the great majority of cases of radiation effects occurred within the two-thousand meter radius, depending partly upon degree

1

.

Notes of

shielding.

But

was not understood

this

SLibsec|uent fears of aftereffects in sur\ 2.

Ota, p. 210.

3.

Ibid., p.

4.

lhid.,pp. 37, 144,

5.

Ilachiya, p. 94.

6.

I

he

first

i\

ors

at

the

Nor

time.

lias

56 it

eliminated

exposed at greater distances.

H6. 1

32, 195.

two quotations

are from inten iews w'ith hibakusha.

The third is from Ota (p. 150), as is the next passage. Miss Ota makes clear that this “law of compensation” was supported by medical opinion. She quotes a statement made by Dr. Masao 4’suzuki (Japan’s leading authority on radiation at the time, and the man given initial responsibility for investigating the bomb’s medical effects) from a newspaper article published in mid-September, and another made to her in person by a phjsician-friend, to the effect that severe burns helped

one get

rid of radioacti\’e

substance by ser\ing as avenues of exit from the body. But the principle seems highly dubious, and did not find later scientific support. 7.

Ota, p. 196.

8.

WTlfenstcin, pp. 151-162.

9.

Ibid., p. 153.

The Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission studies find such residual radiation have been “negligible” ( ABCC Annual Report 1957-58, pp. 18-21); while studies conducted at the Research Institute for Nuclear Medicine and Biology at Hiroshima University suggest significant later radiation effects in people who entered 10.

to

the city within the

first

bomb

few days after the

Journal of the Hiroshima ( Medical Association [1964] 17 [6]; 566-576). And, as already stated, eligibilitv for medical and economic benefits is legally granted to those who came into the city within two weeks after the bomb fell, or who came into physical contact with A-

bomb

fell

victims through rescue work.

12.

Hachiya, pp. 65-66. Dr. Tsuzuki was quoted

13.

Ota, p.

14.

Descriptions of these and other features of the early post-bomb environment

1

1.

in

the

Chugoku Shimbun, September

10, 1945; all other quotations are from Chicago newspapers {Sun, Daily News, HeraldAmerican) of August, 1945, especially August 7, 8, and 9. l')2.

The

original passage

not entirely

but it does seem to suggest that these pessimistic medical impressions created a psychological state which could itself accelerate the process of dying. is

clear,

can be found in Hachiya; Oughterson and Warren; Matsuzaka; Imahori; Jungk. 15. See Hachiya, pp. 21, 36-37, 57, 63, 65-66, 69-70, 97-99, 107-109, 125. Dr. Hachiya also describes (pp. 1 58-1 59) the dramatic scene of the lectures: the small audience ( A few had undoubtedly been prevented from coming because of rain, but the poor attendance was really because there were not enough doctors left in Hiroshima to make a showing”); their mutual greetings (“We congratulated each other on being alive”); the impressive figure of Professor Tsuzuki in particular, with

academic and military authority (“He faced us, erect and precise, attired in a neat khaki uniform and leggings”); all taking place within the ruins of a bank (“The scorched, blackened walls made an appropriate background for his discourse on the his

atom bomb”) 16.

Ota, p. 217.

17.

See

postwar 18.

Chugoku Shimbun

series

(October 6-December

7,

1959) on Hiroshima

literary history.

Hachiya, p.

48.

Psychological

currents

course, also at play in this kind of scene, as

I

other

than

shall later suggest.

identification

were,

of

.

NOTES

562

See David Irving, The Virus House (London: William Kimber, 1967), pp. 266, 284. 10.

20. Ota, pp. 136-187. 21. Ibid., pp. 123-124. 22. Ibid., p. 117.

Snsanne K. Langer, Philosophy

23. See

New Key (New

a

in

York:

Mentor,

1959), pp. 33-54. 24. I’his

with

many

is

consistent with Janis’ opinion

observations

25. Robert Lifton,

War

Repatriated

made by

(based on

USSBS

Reports), as well as

others during the acute phase of severe disasters.

“Home

from

by Ship: Reaction Patterns of American Prisoners of North Korea,” American Journal of Psychiatry (1954)

110:732-739. 26.

Quoted

28.

Ruth Benedict

Jungk, p. 55. 27. From an article in the Chugoku Shimbun, June 27, 1946. For descriptions of the immediate post-bomb period, sec Imahori; Jungk; and many additional articles in the Chugoku Shimbun. Mifflin,

in

Chrysanthemum and

{'Phe

the

1946]) emphasized the element of obligation,

An

Ninjo:

Interpretation,” Psychologia [1966] 9:7-11) lying element of dependency. Important here, however,

Sword [Boston: Houghton while L. Takeo Doi (“Girihas emphasized the underis

the re-establishment of a

sense of inner order encompassing both. 29. Ota, pp. 154-1 55, 175, 179.

C

II

API

E R IV

(pp.

103-163)

Phe most extensive studies of delayed physical aftereffects of radiation have been made by the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, originally an official American institution, but now functioning as a Cooperative Research Agency of the 1.

Academy of Sciences- National Research Council and the Japanese National Institute of Health of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, with funds provided by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the Japanese National Institute of 1962) Health, and the U.S. Public Health Service. The studies are published in "‘Medical Findings and Methodology of Studies by the Atomic Bomb Casualty

U.S. National

Bomb

on Atomic Health

Survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” in

Commission The Use of Vital and

Genetic and Radiation Studies, Proceedings of the Seminar Sponsored by the United Nations and the World Health Organization, held in Geneva, Sept^ember 5-9, 1960, A/AC.82/Seminar (New York: United Statistics for

’

Nations,

pp.

,

/7— 100.

A

sizable

program

also

exists

at

the

Hiroshima University

Research Institute for Nuclear Medicine and Biology, as reported yearly Proceedings,

some

of

them summarized

worth,

Delayed Radiation Effects

England 1963)

Jouriial of Aleuicine

in

m

in

English. See also

J.

the Institute

W.

s

Hollings-

Survivors of the .Atomic Bombings,”

New

(September

8, 1960) 263:381—487; ‘‘Bibliography of Publications Concerning the Effects of Nuclear Explosions,” Journal of the Hiroshima Medical Association; and Matsuzaka. Concerning the problem of leukemia,

see also A. B. Brill,

M. Tomonaga, and

R.

M.

Heyssel, ‘‘Leukemia in

Man

Eollovving

Exposure to Ionizing Radiation,” Annals of Internal Medicine (1962) 56:590-609; and S. \V atanabe. On the Incidence of Leukemias in Hiroshima During the Past Eifteen Years Erom 1946-1960,” Journal of Radiation Research (1961) 2:131-140 (in English 2.

)

Betty Jean Lifton, ;

and Jungk.

“A Thousand Cranes,” The Horn Book Magazine

(April,

Notes 3.

The

evidence

Socolovv,

TTiyroid

Summary

5

especially strong in the case of thyroid cancer. See

is

Carcinoma

in

Man

after

Exposure to

loniTiing

63

Edward

L.

Radiation;

A

and Nagasaki,” New England Journal of Medicine (1963) 268:406-410; and Dorothy W. Hollingsworth, Howard B. Hamilton, II. Tamagaki, and Gilbert W. Beebe, “Thyroid Disease: A Study in Hiroshima, Japan, Medicine (1963) 42:47—71. But in a more general statement Zeldis, Jablon, and Ishida conclude that “data thus far analyzed are suggestive that a of the Eindings in Hiroshima

carcinogenic effect

apparent under the conditions of radiation exposure that occurred in Hiroshima, adding that this effect “is thus far small” (“Current status of ABCC-NIH [Japanese National Institute of Health] studies of carcinogenesis in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Armais of the New York Academy of Sciences [1964] is

114:223-240). 4. The most extensive work on these genetic problems has been done by James Neel and W. O. Schull. See their “Radiation and Sex Ratio in Man: Sex Ratio

among Children

Atomic Bombings Suggests Induced Sex-Linked Lethal Muta(1958), 128:343-348; and The Effect of Exposure to the Atomic Bomb on Pregnancy Termination in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Lf.S. Government Printing Office, 1956). See also Schull, Neel, and Hashizume, “Some Eurther Observations on the Sex Ratio of Infants Born to Sur\i\ors of the Atomic Bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” ABCC Technical Report 13-65 (Hiroshima, 1965). of

tions,” Science

Belief in the possibility of an increase in various forms of congenital malformations in offspring of survivors has been stimulated by the work of I. Hayashi at Nagasaki Univ'ersity, as reported in his “Pathological

Research on Influences of Atomic

Bomb

Exposure upon Eetal Development” (English reprint, n.d.); Dr. Hayashi, in summarizing his material, cautions that “one hesitates to give any concrete statement about the effect of the atomic bomb radiation [upon] the growth of fetal life, based on the data available in this paper.”

W.

Hollingsworth, former medical director of ABCC, reported this impression at a psychiatric research seminar at Yale University in October, 1962-based 5.

upon

J.

ABCC

Technical Report 11—61: Adult Health Study, Hiroshima, Preliminary Report, 1958-59, p. 1 5, which he compiled with Paul S. Anderson, Jr. 6. T. Nfisao (note I, 1, supra).

George L. Engel, “A United Concept of Health and Disease,” Perspectives Biology and Medicine 1960) 3:459-485, 460. 7.

in

(

8.

Greene.

Cancer,

New

Summary

discussion of Gonference on Psychophysiological Aspects of City, April 6, 1965, morning session. See, in addition, his two

York papers on Role of a Vicarious Object in the Adaptation to Object Loss,” Psychosomatic Medicine (1958) 20:344-350, and (1959) 21:438-447.

This impression was also expressed by Dr. Hollingsworth at the Yale re.search seminar mentioned above, though the specific problem has not been systematically 9.

studied. 10. See

Atomic

M. Konuma, M.

Bomb

Eurutani, and S. Kubo,

Exposure,” Nihon

“On

Diencephalic Aftereffects

in

Shimpo (Japanese Medical Journal) (1954) by the members of the Department of NeuroIji

and another study, psychiatry of Hiroshima University Medical School under the direction of Professor Konuma, “Neuropsychiatric Case Studies on Atomic Bomb Victims in Hiroshima,” in Research on the Effects and Influences of the Nuclear Explosions. 154:5-12;

11. See S. I’suiki, et

A-bomb Exposed People” and “Electroencephalographic Studies on Neurotic Patients Among A-bomb Exposed People,” both in Nagasaki Igakkai Zasshi, Special Issue 1958) 33:637-639, 640-646 (English summaries). al.,

“Psychiatric Investigations on

(

.

.

NOTES

564

See S. 'I’suiki and A. Ikcganii, “Personality Tests on Atomic Children” (English reprint, n.d.). 12.

n.

See,

for instance,

'I'heodorc Lidz, Stephen

Schizophrenia and the Faniily

(New

and also the work of Lyman Mental Health.

Wynne

The newspaper

quoted

14.

ABCC.

of the

articles

Eleck,

Bomb

Exposed

and Alice R. Cornelison,

York: International Universities Press, 1965); and his associates at the National Institute of in

were

all

translated by the staff

have made

in

the translations

this section

'The only substantial change

I

is

the

rendering

of genbakusho as “.\-bomb disease” rather than “A-bomb sickness,” though either can be used. 15. I he discussion of the question of medical benefits is based upon regulations published by the Hiroshima City Office (especially “Genbaku Iryoho no Kaisei .” .

(note

with

I,

supra)

2,

officials

as

.

upon extensive discussions of the problems in\olved administering the law and physicians who deal with its

well as

responsible for

everyday medical and psychological ramifications. Sugisaki and K. Sakuma, “Genbaku Hibakusha no Hdshasenshosha ni yoru Chihatsusei Eikyo ni tsuite ABCC ni Hanron shi, aw'asete Genbakusho Taisaku no Kagakuteki Kiso o Kosatsu sum, Gensuibaku Higai Hakusho: Kakusareta Shinjitsu 16.

(Objections to the ABCC Concerning Delayed Radiation Effects upon Those Exposed to the Atomic Bomb, and Observ ations on the Scientific Basis for Measurements in Dealing with A-Bomb Disease), in Technical Committee of the Japan Council Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (eds.), W/rzte Paper on Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Damage: The Hidden Truth (Tokvo: Nippon Hvoronshinsha

1961). 17.

“The

graphed 18.

Status of the Medical Program

at

ABCC”

(January,

1963, mimeo-

)

See,

Gerald Holton, “Presuppositions in the Constructions of Theories, in Harry Woolf (ed.). Science as a Cultural Force (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1964); and Lancelot Law WTite, The Next Development in Man (New York: Mentor, 1950). 19. Engel, pp. 459-460, 462. -0. Stewart olf. Disease as a W^ay of Life: Neural Integration in Systemic Pathology,” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (1961 4:288-305, 303*. for instance,

W

)

21. Engel, pp.

22.

Greene (note

CHAPTER 1.

Nakano

(in

300.

463.470, 471-472.

V

8,

supra).

{pp.

16S-208)

Genbaku

to Hiroshima ) giv'es evidence for this and discusses \arious social and psychological problems hibakusha face. See also Imahori; Osada.

Quotation and statistics from U. Fujishima, K. Maruvama, and H. Murakami, “Hiroshima Sono-go Jusannen” (Hiroshima: Thirteen Years Later), Child Koron (a leading monthly magazine) (August, 1958) 2.

3.

USSBS

interview protocol (see note

II,

27, supra).

Oughterson and \Varren, p. 12. 5. See M. A. Block and M. Tsuzuki, “Observations on Bum Scars Sustained by .Atomic Bomb Survivors,” American Journal of Surgery’ (1948), 75:417-434; W. ells and N. 1 sukifuji. Scars Remaining in Atomic Bomb Survivors ” Surgery Gynecology, and Obstetrics ( 1952) 95:129-141; as well as discussions of original burns in Oughterson and W^arren. 6. See Harold R. Isaacs, India’s Ex-Vntouchables (New York- John Dav 1965) 4.

W

p. 35.

Notes

Many

7.

can be

parallels

“The Concept

Erikson,

made with

of Identity in

5

65

the American Negro. Sec especially Erik II. Race Relations; Notes and Queries,” Daeda-

(Whntcr 1966), H‘5-171. See also the writings of Robert Coles, including Serpents and Doses: Non-\ iolent ^ onth in the South,” in Erikson (ed.). Youth: Change and Challenge (New York: Basic Books, 1963), pp. 188-216, and “It’s the Same, But It’s Different,’’ Daedalus (I-all 1965), 107-1132. One is, hi fact, struck by the common psychological denominators of all \ictimization. lus

1

ha\c elsewhere discussed the sense of immortality as a general psychic need, as a feeling of continuous relationship, o\cr time and space, to the various elements of life (“On Death and Death Symbolism note I, 1, supra). See “Summary of A-Bomb Casualties and Medical Aid Projects 9. 8.

I

.

.

for

^

Sufferers in

Hiroshima

Bomb

(Hiroshima City Office, August

1, 1962, mimeographed [in gave similar figures in talks I had with them. 10. Interviews with hibakusha leaders in Tokyo were conducted on my behalf by Mrs. Kyoko Ishikure.

English]

)

L.

11.

the Self

(1960)

City

.

officials

lakeo Doi, “Jibun to Amacru no Seishin Byori” (The Psychopathology of and Amaeru), Seishui Shnikei Caku Zasshi (Journal of Neuropsychiatr^) 61:149-162; and “Personality Structure,” in R. Smith and R. K. J.

Bcardslcv, eds., Japanese Culture:

Developjnent and Characteristics (Chicago: Aldinc, 1962) See also Lifton, “Youth and Historv.” -. N. Konishi, Hiroshima no Kawa (Ri\ers of Pliroshima), Sekai (Ausust 5 1964). Its

.

1

V

Erom

13.

“Little

.

Gidding,” part

I, in Four Quartets (London: Eaber papercovered editions, 1963), p. 51. 14. This impression tended to be corroborated by statistics on suicide among

hibakusha between 1950 and 1965, drawing from the ABCC Life Span Study Sample, presented by S. Matsumoto and the First Conference on

Long-Range

Effects of Nuclear W'^ar.

CHAPTER

VI

{pp.

209-252)

Moses and Montheisni (New York: \’intage, 1955), p. 139. Young Man Luther (New York: Norton, 1958), p. 252.

1.

2.

The term was

3.

originated by James S. Tyhurst. See, for instance, “Problems of the Disaster Situation and in the Clinical Team,” Walter Reed Institute of Research, Symposium on Preventive and Social Psychiatry, April

Leadership:

Army

In

15-17, 1957 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office), pp. 329-335. 4. Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces (New York- Meridian 1956). 5.

lYir a general

“Protean press]),

Man”

theory of this protean style in contemporary man, see my essays (in Futuribles series [Paris, January, 1967], and Partisan Review [in

Woman as Knower: Some Psychohistorical Woman in America (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,

and

(cd.), 'Phe

Perspecti\es,” in Lifton

1965), pp. 27-51. “Penetration of Shamanic Elements into the History of Japanese Folk Religion,” in Festschrift for Adolf Jensen (Frankfurt: Frobenius Institut, Wolfgang Goethe University), Vol. II, pp. 245-265. 6.

See

7.

For

Ichiro

Hori,

a discussion of

Japanese but also as

these concepts and their interrelationships, as observed in unix-ersal tendencies at times of historical change, sec my

“Individual Patterns in Historical Change; Imagery of Japanese Youth,” Disorders of Communication ( Research Publications, Association for Research in Nervous

and

\Iental Disease)

XLII; 291—306 Society and History [1964] 6:369-383). (1964)

(reprinted

in

Comparative Studies

in

.

NOTES

566 8.

1965)See Robert Merton,

On

the Shoulders of Giants

(New

York: 7’he Free Press,

.

C

A

II

PIER

VII

(pp.

255-315)

many other issues, base iny impressions upon both my own and those made by others in Hiroshima. See especially the two

Here, as with

1.

observations

I

Nakano, as well as his “Hiroshima ni Yomigaetta Scishnn” (Revi\ed Youth in Hiroshima) Bungei Shunju, September, 1961. 2. From a series of articles entitled “Fuslhcho Juvonen” (The Foiirteen-Year Phoenix) Chugoku Shinihun, July 22-29, 1959. Economic observations below are from the same newspaper series. previously cited articles by S.

3.

Fujishima et

4.

“Fushicho juyonen.” For general descriptions of these trends, including

5.

reports in the 30, 1958.

al.

Chugoku Shimbun

An account

of

December

can also he found

in

12,

gang warfare, see 1950, Januan- 14, 1953, and Jnlv details of

Jungk.

For descriptions of prostitution, see Jungk, pp. 57-60, as well as additional anecdotal material in research notes compiled hv Kaorii Ogura. 7. “Buraku Mondai” (The Burakn Problem) {Asahi Shimbun, August 1, 1958. See also Jungk, pp. 46-47. 6.

Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Movnihan, Beyond the Alelting Pot (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technologv and Harvard University, 1963). For an extensi\e discussion of these and other tendencies in burakumin, see Hiroshi W^agatsuma and George De\'os, The Outcast Tradition in Modern Japan: A Problem in Social Self-Identity (manuscript prepared for the second conference on See, for instance,

8.

the Modernization of Japan, January 21—2 Invisible

Race

(

5,

1963); and the same authors’ Japans

Uni\ersity of California, in preparation)

Asahi Shimbun (Hiroshima edition), April 10. Yasurakani nemutte kudasai 1966) 9.

Ayamachi wa kurikaeshirnasen

1,

1959.

kara.

From Kaoru Ogura’s translations of Hamai’s diaries. Many other details of post-bomb Hiroshima experience can be found in these diaries. 12. These last three quotations are from a radio dialogue between M. Niide and S. Nagaoka, as reported in the Chugoku Shimbun, August 2 and 3, 1958. 11.

Rafael Steinberg, Postscript from

13. ,

14.

Hiroshima

(New

York:

Random

House,

p. 22.

Imahori, \’ol.

1,

p.

187.

Some

of the events

mentioned below

are described in

the same book.

See Josephine R. Hilgard, “Anniversary Reactions in Parents Precipitated by Children,” Psychiatry (1953) 16:73-80; and Hilgard and Newman, “Anniversaries 15.

in

Mental 16.

Illness,” Psychiatry

Imahori,

\Y1.

II,

pp.

(

1959) 22:1 13-121.

144—162.

Japanese peace movement, see also

For accounts of the vicissitudes of the George O. Totten and T. Kaw'akami, “Gensuikyo

and the Peace Movement in Japan,” Asian Survey (1964) 4:833-841; J. Hidaka, bJihon no bJaka no Ikyd: Hishi Mihon Gensuikyo (A Foreign Land Within Japan:

The

Secret History of Japan

Gensuikyo)

(Tokyo: Saiko-sha, 1963); and Lifton,

“Reason, Rearmament, and Peace.” 17.

M.

Niide

in

the Niide-Nagaoka dialogue.

See Lifton, riiought Reform, and “Indi\idual Patterns in Historical Change.” 19. Niide. 18.

.

567

Notes

For a discussion of the Japanese reaction to the Bikini incident itself, see Herbert I assin, Japan and tlie II-Boinb, Bulletin of the Atomic Scieiitists October, 1955, 289-292. 21. Miss Tomoe Yainashiro was quoted as having used the phrase (in “Hiroshima Sono-go Jnsannen”) 22. Kiyoteru Hanada, Genshiryokn Mondai ni Taiketsusurn Nijusseiki no Geijntsn (Twentieth-Gentnry .\rt Confronting the Problem of Atomic Energy), in 20.

’

Bunka Nenkan (Yearbook

Sekai 23.

May

of W^orld Culture) (1 okvo: Heibonsha, 1955)

18, 1962, p. 22.

Nagai, pp. 188-189. I obtained additional information about Dr. Nagai, and about Nagasaki in general, from the Nagasaki City Office and from Nagasaki hibakusha groups in Tokvo. 24.

CHAPTER Erikson,

V

1 1 1

(pp.

“The Concept

317-36S)

Race Relations.” Onghterson and W^arren, for instance (p. 6), speak of “problems of a medical nature not hitherto encountered” and of “the then unknown effects of ionizing 1.

of Identity in

2.

radiation.”

Ota, pp. 38, 1 54. 4. For other descriptions of Japanese reactions to censorship policies, see the Chugoku Shimbun articles on the history of postssar Hiroshima literature; Imahori; Jungk. 3.

5.

Passin, p. 289.

6.

Imahori, \"ol.

7.

Ibid., p. 168.

8.

See Imahori; Jungk.

I,

pp. 181-184.

Chugoku Shimbun, May 10. Hamai diaries.

9.

24, 1957,

and Time, April

8,

1957.

This was described by Rev. Kiyoshi Tanimoto (in an article which appeared in English translation in the Asahi Evening News, August 19, 1959) as having occurred during an American television program, “This Is Your Life,” in which the two men as well as a group of the Hiroshima Maidens appeared. 11.

Claude Eatherly and Gunther Anders, Burning Conscience (New York: \Ionthly Review Press, 1962); and William Bradford Huie, The Hiroshima Pilot (New ^ork: Putnams, 1964). The first book uncritically accepts the myth, while 12. See

the

second

too

energetically

surrounding the whole myth. 13.

The

statement

is

it.

Neither

deals

with

the

complexities

or with the general psychological significance of the

quoted al, and the third in an

first

Eujishima et

issue,

debunks

in

Imahori

(\^ol.

I,

p.

148), the second in

article in the Asahi Shimbun, March 9, 1959, reporting on the impressions of an American physicist from Oak Ridge during a

Hiroshima

visit.

Liebow, “Encounter with Disaster— A Medical Diary of Hiroshima, 1945,” Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine ( 1965) 38:61-239. 15. Ogura research notes, from interviews with Hiroshima doctors. Later accusations of American monopolization of medical materials are found in Imahori. 16. For public e.xamples of such accusation, see, for instance, the November 15, 14.

Averill A.

1952, issue of the magazine Kaizo in which a group of Japanese physicians and scientists raise direct questions to the Director of the concerning which of

ABCC

three purposes motivates the group’s research: learning better treatment

atomic

aftereffects,

enhancing military preparedness

for

methods

for

future atomic warfare,

or

.

NOTES

568

interest in pure science. See also a letter written

by the Executive Director of the Hiroshima branch of the National Railway Labor Union (reprinted in Chugoku Shinibiin, September 22, 1954), also to the Director of ABCC, claiming that the research was being conducted under an assumption “that in the future atomic war will be waged,” and that knowledge about treatment would be used “not for atomic

bomb

now

victims

in

Japan but for Americans [who] might become victims

in

the

future.” 17.

Ogura

18.

K. Harada,

bun, August

research notes.

7,

“Genbaku no Kioku” (Memories

of the

A-Bomb), Asahi Shim-

1964.

CHAPTER

IX

ipp.367-39S)

Susanne K. Langer equates formulation with the symbolizing process itself, and (paraphrasing Cassirer) with “the natural ordering of our ambient as a ‘world’” (Philosophical Sketches [New ^ork: Mentor, 1964|, p. 59). Here, as in many other 1.

concepts

I

use,

my

effort

is

to

apply this formati\e-symbolic perspective within

psychological idiom. See also Lifton, 2.

Sec

my “W^oman

as

a

“On Death and Death Symbolism.”

Knower.”

“^^ournmg and Melancholia,” Standard Edition Press), Vol. XIV, pp. 243-258. 3.

The Hogarth

(London:

See Daigenkai, Daijigen, and Shinjikan reference works. 5. See E. Dale Saunders, Buddhism in Japan (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1964), pp. 194-195. 6. See Harry Thomsen, The Nen’ Religions of Japan (Rutland, Vt., and Tokyo: 4.

Charles E. Tuttle, 1963), pp. 69-78, 72. 7. Ibid., p. 101 8.

Ota, p.

1

54.

CHAPTER 1.

X

[pp. 397-450)

Chugoku Shimbun

ground information

series

on Hiroshima

literary

history.

Much

of the back-

chapter comes from these articles, as do those quotations not otherwise identified. Discussions in this chapter and the next of literary works which have not been rendered previously into English are based upon translations in this

and summaries prepared by Kyoko Ishikure, which clarity and precision.

I

have modified for the sake of

Miyoko Shijo, “Genbaku Bungaku ni tsuite” (About A-Bomb Literature), Chugoku Shimbun, January 25, 1953. 4Tis kind of debate finds parallels in controversies over “Negro literature,” “proletarian literature,” and “socialist realism.” 2.

Ineko Sada,

Ota Yoko-san o Shinobu” (Cherishing the Yangu Redii (Young Lady) January 20, 1964. 4. Ota ( 1950 edition) p. 8. 3.

Memory

of

Yoko Ota),

,

In addition to Shijo, see

Fumiko Enchi, “Ota Yoko-san no Koto: Shin wa \asashn Hito Kongo o Kitai Shiteita noni” (About Yoko Ota: A Sweet-Hearted Person from Whom I Expected Much in the Future), Asahi Shimbun, December 12, 1963; and Taiko Hirabayashi, “Genbakusho to Tatakatte: Ota Yoko-san o Itamu’’ (Having Fought A-Bomb Disease: Mourning for Yoko Ota), Yomiuri Shimbun 5.

^

December

12, 1963.

6.

Shijo.

7.

Daigenkai, pp. 1275, 1236, 1239. In UEspoir (a Japanese magazine with a French name), June, 1954.

8.

.

.

Notes 9.

5

69

59-60.

Ibid., pp.

10. Ibid., p. 61 11. J6id., pp.

64-65.

2.

Ibid., p. 62.

13.

Ibid., p. 63.

14.

Ibid., p. 69.

15.

/bid., pp.

16.

Ibid., p. 67.

17.

Ibid.,

1

69-70.

pp.70-7\.

18. Ibid., p. 71.

Heiwaya Sannin Otoko, Bungei Shunju, August 24, 1959. 20. Trans, by John M. Maki (Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1957) 21. Hachigatsu Muika was reissued in Shin Nippon Bungaku Zenshii, \^ol. I (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1963); Haru no Shiro was reissued in 1964 (Tokyo: Shinchosha); Kumo no Bohyo (published in 1956) was reissued in Shin Nippon Bungaku 19.

Zenshii, Vol.

I.

22. DeviVs Heritage, pp. 3-4. 23. Ibid., p. 84. 24. Ibid., p. 70.

25. Ibid., p. 187. 26. Ibid., pp.

139-140.

27. Ibid., p. 150.

from pp.

1

Remaining quotations

relating to the red snapper sequence are

50-1 52.

28. Ibid., p. 221. 29. Ibid., p. 246. 30. Sedai, February,

+

1950

(issue edited

by Hiroshima University Literarv Group).

No. f (May, 1960).

31.

60

32.

“Hi no Odori,”

p. 107.

33. Ibid., p. 111. 34. Ibid., p. 115. 35. Ibid., p. 119. 36. Ibid., p.

1

20.

37. Ibid., p. 121. 38.

/bid., pp.

121-122.

39. Ibid., p. 133.

40.

M. Ohara,

Poetry), in

E.

Yoneda

Shishu Hiroshima

(ed.),

shima: Kisetsu-sha, August, 1959).

much found

Genbaku Suibaku” (The A- and H-Bomb

“Shi ni Arawareta

I

(Hiroshima Anthology)

Hiroshima:

the August

6,

An Anthology

1964,

(Hiro-

have drawn upon Professor Ohara’s essay for

of the information below. English translations of atomic in

in

and August

(both published

in

6,

1965,

bomb

editions

Hiroshima, the

of first

poetry can be

The Songs

of

by the Asano

and containing an introduction by Mayor Shinzo Hamai, and the second by the Y.M.C.A. Service Center, with an introduction by D. J. Enright). All poems Library,

included in this section, unless otherunse identified, are from this English anthology. In a few cases

be

I

have altered the translations

slightly in order to give

what seemed

to

a better rendering.

41.

Much

of the point of view in this

and the next chapter follows Miss Langcr’s

work on symbolic transformation. See her Philosophy in a New Key; Philosophical Sketches; Problems of Art (New York: Scribner Library, 1957); and Feeling and

Form (New York:

(New

Scribner’s,

1953). See also Ernst Cassirer,

York: Doubleday Anchor, 1944).

An

Essay on

Man

.

NOTES

570

The

42.

translation

43. Imahori, Vol. also

from

A

44.

(New

this

notable recent example

See

acuum

response

XI

{pp.

are

Yukio Mishima’s Temple of the Golden Pavilion

is

451-478)

kushicho Juyonen”

for a general description of

responses to the atomic

television

2.

earlier life

^ ork: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939)

cultural)

\

II,

from Jungk, p. 214. p. 10. Other quotations concerning Toge's

book.

CHAPTER 1.

is

dramatic

(as well as other

bomb

through the first half of 1959. Another drama, “To Live Today” (‘‘Kyo o Ikiru”)— originally entitled “Morning Asa no Shinku”)— ( by Masao Yamakawa, achie\ed some national

when presented

in

November, 1959.

Shingeki, April, 1959.

October, 1957. 4. Langer, Feeling and Form, p. 413. 5. A. Alvarez, “Spellbound,” New York Review, December 31, 1964, p. 16. 6. Ryuichi Kano and Ilajime Mizuno, Hiroshima Nijunen (Hiroshima’s Twenty \ears) (Tokyo: Kobundo, 1965); and Shuzo Niinobe (ed.), Gurafu Kisha (Graphic Reporters) (Tokyo: Yuki Shobo, 1959). Ibid.,

3.

Notably Hiroshima, Senso to Toshi (Hiroshima: War and Cities) (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1952); and Kano and Mizuno. 8. For general descriptions of A-bomb responses on film, see particularly Donald 7.

Mono no Aware — Hiroshima in Film,” in Robert Hughes (ed.). Film: Book Two (New York: Grove Press, Evergreen Books, 1962), pp. 67-86. See also Richie,

Anderson and Richie, The Japanese Film (Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1959); Chugoku Shimbun Staff (eds.), Hiroshima no Kiroku (Records of Hiroshima)’ (Tokyo. Miraisha, 1966), \^ol. Ill; and “Fushicho Juyonen.” I was able to arrange to see most of the films mentioned in this chapter, mainly through special showings, including all of those discussed at any length. 9.

Richie, p. 75.

10. Ibid., p. 77.

Susan Sontag, “The Imagination of Disaster,” Commentary', October pp. 42-48. 11.

12.

Both quotations

13.

Richie, p. 82.

14.

Reproduced

1

The Gates

16.

quoted 17.

1964),

a

New

Key,

Hoffman,

J.

I

title

p. 372.

(Tokvo: Aoki Bunko, 1953).

p. 178.

he Mortal

No

Univ'ersity

Press,

1963), p. 459, (Princeton: Princeton Universitv

p. 163.

Ibid., p. 178.

Hersey s critic answered by Frederick 18.

19.

in

Horn (New ^ork: Oxford

of

in Frederick

paragraph are from Anderson and Richie

book form under the same

in

Langer, Philosophy

5.

Press,

in this

1965

Dwight MacDonald, who was Hoffman {ibid., pp. 174-176).

was J.

Masao Maruyama (Ivan

Morris, ed.).

in

turn

Thought and Behaviour

quoted in

and

Modern

Japanese Politics (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), pp. 251-258. 20. I have suggested some of these artistic directions, particularly that of mockery in “Protean Man.” '

21. A.

Alyarez,

The

Literature of the Holocaust,” Commentary', November 1964, pp. 65-69. 22. NTvy York: Atheneum, 1961. 23. Trans, by Peter Wiles (Nevy York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1964).

1

)

571

Notes 24. Trans,

by Richard Scavcr December, 1963.

(New York: Grove

1964).

Press,

25. Bungei,

Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 1963. Tokyo: 27. Iwananii Shoten, 1963. 28. Tokyo: Kawade Shobo, 1965. 26.

“The

29. Alvarez,

CHAPTER 1.

Literature of the Holocaust,” pp. 65-66.

XII

{pp. 479-541

Gasquet, The Great Pestilence

Francis Aidan

(London: Simpkin Marshall,

Hamilton, Kent,

1893), pp. 7-8. This and most other passages concerning the plague are quoted from actual witnesses, that is, from survi\ors of plague deaths. 2.

Ibid., p.

3.

Elie \\hesel.

4. 5.

Gampbell (note \T, 4, supra). Ogura research notes.

6.

Rawicz,

7.

Paul Ghodoff, “Late Effects of the Goucentration

1

.

Night (New York:

Hill

and Wang, 1960),

p. 92.

p. 13.

Gamp

Syndrome,” Archives

of General Psychiatry {1963) 8:323-333,325.

Semprun, p. 126. 9. Erich Lindemann, “Symptomatology and Management American Journal of Psychiatry (1944) 101:141-148. 8.

of

Acute

Grief,”

10. See Searles (note II, \2, supra). 11.

See

George R. Krupp, “The Bereavement Reaction:

A

Special

Gase of

Separation Anxiety, Sociocultural Gonsiderations,” in Warner Muensterberger and Sidney Axelrod (eds.). The Psychoanalytic Study of Society (New York: International Universities Press, 1962), \^ol. II, pp. 42-74, 45. 12.

Karl

Psychiatry’

“Death Within

Stern,

Life,”

Review of Existential Psychology and

(1962) 2:141-144, 142.

Lindemann. One can observ'c particularly strong patterns of anticipatory mourning among such groups as parents of dying children. See, for instance, Bozeman, Orbach, and Sutherland, “Psychological Impact of Gancer and Its 13.

Treatment; III The Adaptation of Mothers to the Threatened Loss of Their Ghildren Through Leukemia, Cancer ( 1955) 8:1-33. 14. See, for instance, G. Murray Parkes, “Effects of Bereavement on Physical and Mental Health— A Study of the Medical Records of Widows,” British Medical Journal (1955) 8:1-33. 1>. George Engel, “Is Grief a Disease?”, Psychosomatic Medicine (1961) 23:18-22. '

16.

Fear of Death 17.

M. Natterson and

See Joseph

in Fatally

Gasquet,

111

Alfred G. Knudson, “Observations Goncerning

Ghildren and Their Mothers,”

ibid.

(1960) 22:456-465.

p. 29.

William G. Niederland, “Psychiatric Disorders Among Persecution \rictims,” Journal of Neryous and Mental Disease (1964) 139:458-474, 468. The subsequent quotation, from Paul Friedman, is in Niederland, “The Problem of the Survivor,” 18.

Journal of the Hillside Hospital (1961 ) 10:233-245, 242. 19. “Thoughts for the Times on War and Death,” Standard Edition, Vol. p. 293. 20. Natterson

and Knudson,

p.

XIV,

465. Other investigators have gone further and

awakens one of man’s deepest fears— death before Solnit and Morris Green, “The Pediatric Management of the

stated that “the child’s death

fulfillment” (Albert

Dying Ghild: Part

J.

II.

The

Ghild’s Reaction to the Fear of Dying,” in Albert

J.

.

NOTES

572 and

Solnit

Sally A.

(New York:

Province

Modern

(cds.).

Perspectives in Child

Development

International Universities Press,

1963), pp. 217-228. 21. Avery D. Weisinan and Thomas P. Hackett, “The Dying Patient” (mimeographed). Gasquet, pp. 110-112. 23. “Predilection to Death: Death and Dying somatic Medicine ( 1961 ) 23:232-2 56. 22.

24. Ella

Lingens-Reiner, Prisoners of Fear

as a Psychiatric

Problem,” Psycho-

(London: \hctor Gollancz,

1948),

p. 23.

Henry

25.

of the

Kr>'stal,

“The Late Sequelae

Workshop” (mimeographed),

of Massive Psychic

Trauma: The Report

The

next two quotations are from pp. 24 contributions to the report were made by

p. 27.

and 1 3. In addition to Dr. Krystal s, William Niederland, Kenneth Pitts, Marvin Hyman, William Grier, and Emanuel Tanay. My own participation in a later workshop on massive traumatization ( February, 1965) in this same Wayne State University scries— including exchanges with Neiderland, Krystal, Tanay, Nlartin Wangh, and Ulrich Venzlaff-taught me a great about the concentration camp experience, and confirmed my belief existence of unifying principles around the constellation of “the survivor.” 26. The Informed Heart (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1960), p. 178. deal

in

the

27. Wiesel, pp. 108, 113, 116. 28. Weisman and Hackett, “The

Treatment of the Dying” (published in Current Psychiatric Therapies, 1962) (mimeographed, p. 8). 29. Arnold Van Gennep, The Rites of Passage (Chicago: University of Chicago Phoenix Books, 1961), pp. 160-161. See also Envin Panofsky, Tomb

Sculpture York: Abrams, 1964); and Kunio Yanagida, Shinto to Minzokugaku (Shinto and Folklore) (Tokyo: Meiseido, 1943).

(New

Van Gennep,

30.

p. 146.

Tamamuro,

31. Taijo

kaku, 1963),

Bukkyo (Funeral Buddhism)

Soshiki

See Joan

Object 34.

(New

M.

York: Braziller, 1966).

Harcourt, Brace,

of Guilt

111.:

Toward

Rawicz,

(On Shame and

the Search for Identity

[New York: 1958]), Gerhart Piers and Milton B. Singer {Shame and Guilt Charles C. Thomas, 1953]), and George DeVos (“The Relation Parents to Achievement and Arranged Marriage Among Japanese,”

Psychiatry [1960] Rollo May. 35.

Among

Persecution Victims,” p. 460. Erikson, “Eye to Eye,” in Gyorgy Kepes (ed.). The Man-Made

See Helen L. Lynd

[Springfield,

Daihorin-

p. 80.

32. Niederland, “Psychiatric Disorders 33.

(Tokyo:

23:287-301

as

),

well as certain writings of Martin

Buber and

p. 9.

and Niederland, (mimeographed). 36.

Krystal

37.

Anna Freud, The Ego and

Clinical Obserxations

the

Mechanisms

on the ‘Survivor’ Syndrome”

of Defense

(New York:

Inter-

national Universities Press, 1946). 38.

E. Minkowski, quoted in Friedman,

“Some Aspects of Concentration Camp Psychology,” American Journal of Psychiatry (1949), 105:601-605, 602. Friedman himself speaks of the numbness he observed in 1947 among former concentration camp inmates held in camps for displaced persons in Cyprus. ’

39.

Bettelheim, pp. 126-127.

40. Lifton,

Thought Reform,

especially pp. 145-151.

See Erikson, “Psychological Reality and Historical Actuality,” in his Insight and Responsibility (New York: Norton, 1964) 41.

.

.

57 3

Notes 42. Niederland, “Psychiatric Disorders,” p. 46^. 43. Emanuel Tanay, personal communication.

44. Bettelheim, p. 151.

(New

45. Sun’ival in Auschwitz

York: Collier, 1961

), p.

82.

46. Wiesel, p. 45.

47. Sandor Rado, “Psychodynamics and Depression from the Etiologic Point View,” in his Psychoanalysis of Behayior (New York: Grime and Stratton, 1956),

of p.

238.

Lubv, “An 0\'erview of Psychosomatic Disease,” Psychosomatics

48. Elliot D.

(1963) 4:1-8,7.

Geyolgen yan Onderdrukking en Verzet (Psychosomatic Aftereffects of Persecution and Incarceration) (Amsterdam: N. V. Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1957) (mimeographed English summary’ of pp. 467-472, distributed at Wayne State University Workshop, pp. 2-3) 50. Krystal and Niederland, p. 1. 51. T. S. Nathan, L. Eitinger, and H. Z. Winnik, “A Psychiatric Study of Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust: A Study in Hospitalized Patients,” The Israel Annals of Psychiatry and Related Disciplines ( 1964) 2:47-80. 52. Bettelheim, pp. 264-265. He paraphrases the story from Eugen Kogan, The Theory and Practice of Hell (New York: Berkeley Medallion, 1958; the original German title was Der SS Staat) 53. Krystal and Niederland go so far as to claim that “depression in concentration camp survivors tends to be of an agitated type.” 54. Paul Chodoff, Stanford B. Friedman, and David A. Hamburg, “Stress, Defenses and Coping Behavior: Observations in Parents of Children with Malignant Disease,” American Journal of Psychiatry (1964) 120:743-749. Bastiaans,

Psychosornatische

49.

J.

55.

Lindemann,

56.

Death, Grief, and Mourning

p. 145.

(New York: Doubleday,

1965).

“My

Death and Myself,” Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry’ (1962) 2:105-116, 116. 58. “Despair and the Life of Suicide,” ibid., 125-139. 59. “Schizophrenia and the Inevitability of Death,” Psychiatric Quarterly (1961) 35:631-665, 632. See also discussion of schizophrenia by Silvano Arieti in The American Handbook of Psy’chiatry, which he edited (New York: Basic Books, 57.

^

1959), Vol.

I,

pp. 455-484.

60. Bettelheim, p. 261. 61. Ibid., pp. 171-172.

62. For general studies of disaster— in addition to earlier references to stein; Janis;

and Society Disaster:

No.

3

and Wallace— see George in

Disaster

A New

(New

York:

W.

W.

Baker and Dwight

Basic

Field of Social Research,”

Books,

The

1962);

Wolfen-

Chapmen, Man

“Human

Behavior in

Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 10,

(entire issue); Field Studies of Disaster Behavior,

An

Inventory (Washington,

D.C.: Disaster Research Group, National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, 1961); L. Bates, C. W. Fogleman, and Vernon J. Parenton, The Social

and Psychological Gonsequences of a National Disaster: A Longitudinal Study of Hurricane Audrey (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council,

1963); Stewart E. Perry, Earle

Silber,

and Donald A. Bloch,

“The Child and His Family in Disaster: A Study of the 1953 Vicksburg Tornado” (Washington, DC.: Committee on Disaster Studies, National Academy of SciencesNational Research Council, 1956),

in

which the authors give

specific attention to

anxiety over death as well as to residual family relationships; and George

II.

Grosser,

NOTES

574

Ilcnrv \\ cchslcr,

and Milton Grecnblatt

(eds.), I he Threat of Impending Disaster 1964). See also Rue Bucher, “Blame and Hostility in American Journal of Sociology (195/), 67:467—475, though the “authori-

(Cambridge: Disaster,

1

lie

Mil

Press,

blamed or held responsible in this article were concerned more with the maintenance of air safety, as the respondents in the investigations were those involved in or affected by plane crashes. ties

63.

Respective references are to Jones himself, Larry Rivers, a Jewish jazz musician, and Archie Shepp, a Negro jazz musician, as reported in

York Times, February 64. See

R.

The New

10, 1965.

Niederland,

S. Fa’ssler et al.

and

artist

“The ‘Miraclcd-up’ World of Schreber’s Childhood,” in The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child (New York: Inter-

(cds.).

national Universities

1959), XI\', pp. 383-413, 41 1-412. (New York: Norton, 1956), p. 146. Sullivan actually described the equation as “It is not that I have something wrong with me, but that he does .something to me,” and considered the “essence” of this “paranoid dynamism” to be “the transference of blame.” Pre.ss,

65. Clinical Studies in Psychiatry

66.

Pseudo-homose.xualitv, the Paranoid Mechanism, and Paranoia ” Psychiatry

(1955) 18:163-173,171-172.

Roland Kuhn, “The Attempted Murder of the Prostitute,” in Rollo May (cd.). Existence (New York: Ba.sic Books, 1958), pp. 365-425. 68. Ilackett and WYisman, “Treatment of the Dying,” p. 3. 69. Weisman and Hackett, “Predilection to Death.” See also K. R. Eissler, The Psychiatrist and the Dying Patient (New York: International Universities Press, Renee C. Fox, Experiment Perilous Clencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1959 J’ 67.

(

The first, second, and fourth quotations are from Casquet The paraphrase in the last quotation is Casquet’s. The third

70.

^6).

(pp. 12, 13, and

quotation is ’from Langer, “Tlie Black Death,” Scientific American (1964) 210:112-122. 71. See Krv’stal and Niederland.

William

I.

72. Niederland, “Psychiatric Disorders,” p. 458. 73. Crowds and Power (New York: \hking,

1962), pp. 227, 230, 443, 448.

74. Schmideberg, p. 166. 75.

The

Last Return,”

Commentary, March, 1965, pp. 43-49, 43. was quoted and disseminated bv’ Yoshida Shoin Japan’s great nineteenth-century nationalist. See Bunzo Kaminaga, Bushido (The Wav of the 76. This passage

Samurai) (Tokyo: Miyakoshitaiyodo Shobo, 1943). 77. “Thoughts for the Times on M'ar and Death,” p. 289. 78 See Jim Eto, “Natsumc Soseki, A Japanese Meiji

Intellectual,”

American

Scholar (1965) 34:603-619.

The term has been used by a number of writers in other contexts. See, mstance, Albert D. Bidcrman, “Captivity Lore and Behavior in Captivity’’ Grosser et al., pp. 223-250, 243-245. 80. Melanie Klein, “Mourning and Its Relation to 79.

for in

the Manic-Depressive States,”

in

Contributions to Psycho-analysis, 1921-194S (London:

The Hogarth

the Institute of Psycho-analysis, 1948), pp. 31 1-338, 321. 81. Lindemann, pp. 143, 147.

42-58, 7) 52

Ghetto," Comme„tury. November, '

(italics

added).

83. Niederland, “Psychiatric Disorders,” p. 466. 84. The Problem of Melancholia,” in Rado, pp. 85. Wiesel, p. 1 10.

47-63 49

’

Press

and

1965, pp.

.

575

Notes 86. Rawicz, p. 10.

“Genbaku no Kioku.”

87. Keisiike Harada,

88. Rawicz, pp. 6, 7, 27.

Parkes.

89.

Mervyn Slioor and Mary Helen Speed, “Delinquency the Mourning Process,” Psychiatric Quarterly (1963) 37:1-19, 90.

as a Manifestation of

17.

Hilgard and Martha F. Newman, “Parental Loss hy Death in Childhood as an Etiological Factor Among Schizophrenic and Alcoholic Patients Compared with a Non-patient Community Sample,” Journal of 91. See, for instance, Josephine R.

Ner^'ous and \lental Disease (1933) 137:14—28. See also recent compendia of work in these areas, such as Herman Feifel (ed.), 'Phe Meaning of Death (New York:

McGraw'-Hill,

1959); and Robert Fulton

(ed.),

Death and Identity (New^ York:

Wiley, 1965). 92.

W

93.

Weisman and

1.

Langer.

94. “Disease

Hackett, “Predilection to Death.”

Response

to

Life

Stress,”

Journal

American

the

of

Medical

Women s Association

(1965) 20:133-140, 139. 95. “A Writer’s Notebook,” Encounter, March, 1965, pp. 25-35, 29. 96. Chodoff, p. 327. 97. Chodoff, Friedman, and Hamburg, p. 747. 98. 1 have stated these concepts in preliminarv form elsewdiere (“On Death and Death Symbolism,” pp. 203—210). They are influenced by the w'ork of Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology (New York: \hking, 1959), pp. 30—49, 461—472, and Kenneth Boulding, The Image (.\nn Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1956). They are part of a theoretical position 1 hope to develop further in my forthcoming \'olume. 99. Quoted from James Robertson, in John Bowflby, “Grief and Mourning in Infancy and Early Childhood,” in R. S. Eissler et al, Vol. X\^, pp. 9-52. I shall not here discuss the far-reaching implications of Bowflby’s w^ork or the points of con-

surrounding

troversy

formulative

it,

but

wisli

only

to

emphasize

its

relevance

for

earliest

See also by Bow'lby:

“Processes of Mourning,” International Journal of Psycho-analysis (1961) 42:317-340, “Separation Anxiety,” ibid. (1960), 41:1-25, “The Child’s Tie to His Mother,” ibid. (1958), 39:350-363, and “Childefforts.

hood Mourning and its Implication American Journal of Psychiatry 1961

“The

llast

(The Adolf Meyer Lecture),

18:481-498. Return,” pp. 46-47. (

100. Wiesel,

for Psychiatry”

APPENDIX: KURD

I

A

)

1

ME

(pp.

S43-SSS)

Japanese serialization appeared in Shincho, January, 1965, through September, 1966, until August, 1965, under the title of Mei no Kekkon (Marriage of a Niece). 1.

The

first

edition of the

(Tokyo)

in 1966.

summary

refers

book Kuroi

Ame

(Black Rain) w^as published by Shincho-sha

An

English translation being prepared by John Bester for Kodansha International (Tokyo) has begun to appear serially in the Japan Quarterly. My

but

I

mainly to the

first

have also drawn upon the

printing of the Shincho-sha hardcover publication, first

Quarterly, April-June, 1967), which

installment of Mr. Bester’s translation (Japan

became

available to

me

as

I

was preparing

appendix, sometimes wath slight modification for the purpose of psychological

am

this illus-

Mr. Bester and to Jun Eto and Kenzaburo Oe for discussions of the novel and its author which provided valuable background information about both. The comments by Japanese critics are from a column by Eto in Asahi Shimbun, August 25, 1966; an unsigned review in Asahi, November 8, 1966; and an article by tration.

I

grateful to

NOTES

576

Masakazu \amazaki,

Futatabi Monogatari o Koeru Mono" (Once Again, SomeIs More than a Mere Story), Child Koron, April 1967, pp. 280-287. Kakitsubata {An Iris), in Ibuse Masuji Zenshu (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo,

thing vyhich 2.

1965), lisher,

V^ol.

V. So personal

account that even a representative of the pubit, could not say definitely whether it should be conmemoir. is

when questioned about

sidered a novel or simply a

this

INDEX

Abandonment,

sense of, 42-44, 46, 84, 124, 125, 183, 194, 234, 240, 252,

362, 387, 406, 497 of the dead, 93

A-bomb man, 165-208;

373-374 sec Genetic effects

religious formulation of,

bomb

Abnormal births, A-bomb, see Atomic Bomb

“A-bomb

disease,"

103-163,

238,

481,

environment on, 131-132 and marriage, 116-118 and mass-media, 132-135 and neuroses, 103-144 personal myths about, 111-115 physicians' outlook on, 149-160 psychological sequence of, 114, 117, 122 and psychoses, 126-130, 140 psychosomatic symptoms in, 108-111 response to statistics on, 141-145 spectrum of, 160-162 and suicide, 135-141 effects of

231, 238, 250, 275-280,

311,364, 460, 485

A-bomb

literature, 181,

397-450, 543-555

defined, 399-401

toward America nonhibakusha, 413-439 poetry of, 440-450, 456

hostility

survivors,

see also

Atomic

Hihakusha

A-bomb

484, 498, 504, 507, 540, 547

A-Bomb Dome,

problems in writing, 402-412 underground themes in, 433-439 A-bomb Maidens, 133, 200, 336, 337, 341, 349, 358

in,

414-426

orphans, 39, 241, 245, 247, 253, 259, 337, 338

A-bomb Ronin, 453-456 “A-Bomb Victim Number One,” 237 Accumulation of

231-

silence, see Silence

Adaptation, 11, 94, 153, 204, 254, 385, 394, 499, 519 Aesthetics, 61, 68, 174, 397, 446-447, 459-461; see also Culture, Japanese Agawa, Hiroyuki, 391-392, 424-432, 518,

538 Akirame, 185-186, 376, 393 Ambivalence, 55, 62, 69, 96, 176, 193194,

196, 219, 233, 237, 253-269,

299,

300-302,

307,

317-365,

402,

489 and A-Bomb Dome, 275-280 in literature, 432 in film, 455 American Hero or A Hero of the U.S.A. (Amerika no Eiyu), 478 America, 71, 94, 200, 223, 227, 317-331

577

1

578

Index

America (continued) “Family feeling” toward, 330-331 hostility

toward,

242,

298,

resolutions of, 473-478

Asada,

317-318,

414-426 as instigator,

318-323

as morally responsible,

nuclear testing by, 139, 228, 282, 284, 290-291, 295, 298

and occupation

327-332 reaction of, 333-336 reconciliation w'ith, 339-342 sensitivity to, 336-339, 343-354, 361365 forces,

official

spokesmen

for,

333-336,

Asahi Graphic, 454 Asahi Journal, 8

Asahi

320-326

345,

453,

456n.

American occupation, AmeriUnited States American Occupation (1945-1952), 91 see also cans,

100, 132, 213, 233, 242-243, 266, 270, 280, 282, 327-332, 389, 454,

497 and censorship, 290, 403

472

Sekiji,

News No.

Asahi Shimbun, 134, 135, 143n., 263n. Asceticism, 249, 368n. Af War with the Newts, 429

Atomic bomb adaptation

to, 11,

397-478 “beggars,” 197 behavior, 28 art,

blast, 20-21

ceremony, 280-282 creative response to, 397-478 destruction, 14

“A-bomb

disease, see

experience, see

financial support from, 146, 234, guilt of, 327, 329, 334, 428

on

1

59,

disease”

ethics of, 8

6, 7, 8, 81, 154, 224, 228, 243, 244, 297, 478, 518, 529 curiosih' about, 97, 399

personnel,

90-102

anniversary of, 280-289

dramas, 397

Americans,

medical

363, 456

233,

290

film, 397,

450-468, 475

19

heroism, 454n. adaptation

human

337, 344, 520, 529 as portrayed in films, 461

experi-

explosion of, 19-20 fireball,

328n.,

Atomic bomb

ence

to, 11,

90-102

Ancestor worship, 380, 492, 493; see also Culture, Japanese

humor, 23, 34, 55, 79, 391, 410 immediate reactions to, 21-30, 31, 62 leaders, see Atomic bomb leaders legends, see Mythology

Anemia, 105, 135, 147,

literature, see

A-bomb

love, in films,

467-468

see also United States,

America

1 55 Annihilation, 393, 411, 422, 486, 528

in literature,

448

literature

music, see Music

Antagonism, see Hostility

mythology, see Mythology

Anti-Semitism, 485; see' also Jews, Racism Anxiety, 72, 168, 204, 259, 312, 402 and bodily symptoms, 108, 297 contagion, 516-521 and denial-transcendence conflict, 182192

neurosis, '119-130,

environment on, 131-132 and mass media, 133-135 relation of mythology to, 111-115 nuclear, in film, 464-467 effects of

over ll

radiation 5,

effects,

106-107,

503, 540

residual,

368

separation, 485, 486n., 490, 537 over statistics, 142

Apathy, 21 Argonne National Laborator\% 71 n. Artistic dilemmas, 451-478 and A-Bomb films, 451-468 in music, 469, 471-472 in painting, 469-471

bomb

147; see

also

“A-

disease”

orphans, see

A-bomb orphans

painting, 469-471 poets, 441-450, 475 radio dramas, 397

reactions toward Americans after, 317-

365 retaliation for, 79-80

rumors, 67-72, 73 selling the,

Hi-

415

uniqueness of, 81 warnings, 17

weapon, 72-76, 78, 82, 131 writers, 439 as a

Atomic bomb

aftereffects (physical)

aging, premature, 105, 261 cancer, see Cancer; also see

Leukemia

confusion with psychological, 121-125 controversial areas, 105-106, 110 see also

A-bomb man, A-bomb

Atomic bomb

survivors,

disease.

Hibakusha

1

579

Index

Bomb

Atomic

Casualty Commission

see also

(ABCC),

143, 144, 145, 160n., 161, 234, 339, 344, 352,414-426 Atomic bomb experience, 1 5-55, 398, 400, 403-412 anticipation of, 15-18

immediate reaction

to, 21-30 psychic closing-off following, 31-34 statistics on, 20 survival priori t}’ following, 35-55 Atomic Bomb) Hospital, 111, 120, 132, 133, 134, 136, 142, 143n., 145,

A-bomb man, Hibakusha,

Sur-

vivor, general psychology of

Atomic Energv Commission, 160, 344345 August 6 280-282 ceremony, 485 dedication to, 282-285 August 6 (Hachigatsu Muika), 424n. “August Sixth,” 441-442 Auschwitz, 225, 439, 482, 491, 495 Australia, 266, 322, 327, 360 ,

Authenticity,

171, 173, 248-249, 282, 457

413,

426-432,

453,

516,

553

Atomic bomb leaders, 209-252, 481 and ‘‘bodily protest,” 231-238

Autonomy, 331, 340, 349, 351, 455, 511, 512

individual dedication of, 238-252

heroic response in, 211-215

mysticism of, 216-219 moral protest and, 227-230 scientific,

spiritual,

see also

Atomic

Behavior antisocial, 256, 259,

223-236 220-222

group patterns

Exhibition Hall,

271 survivor, 7, 67, 117, 312,

479-541 anxiety of, 59-64, 514 bodily impairment, sense of, 104-115, 117, 130, 312

see also Conflict, Guilt, Life-pattern

Bergen-Belsen, 538n. Bettelheim, Bruno, 491, 500, 501, 505, 508, 511n., 524 Bias,

contagion anxiety of, 516-521 counterfeit nurturance in, 193-208 death taint of, 130, 207

5, 519-520; see also Racism, Victimization

Bible, 245, 382, 384, 392, 440 Bikini incident (1954), 131-132,

479

denial-transcendence conflict of,

182-

192 genetic effects on, 105-106

groups, 5-6, 145, 213 as a hibakusha, 165-172 identification with dead, 201-208, 250,

291, 295, 297, 299, 334, 457, 462, 464, 469 Black market, 83, 91-92, 100, 264, 265,

Black Rain (Kuroi Arne), All, 543-555 Blood from the Sky, 476, 477, 553 Bodily impairment, 76, 103-115, 117, 131-132, 312; see also A-bomb disease

531 identity, conflicts in, 165-168,

180

keloid stigmata of, 172-181 leaders among, 209-252 sense of loss of, 82-84

and marriage, 168, 180, 184, 187-190 effect of mass media on, 133 regulations

concerning,

145-

“Bodily protest,” 231-237 Bowlby, John, 48 5n. Brain damage, 127 Brainwashing, 500 Brues, Austin M., 71 n. Buber, Martin, 44n. Buchenwald, 482, 491

Buddhism,

sense of mission of, 302-305, 403, 410,

1

53, 154, 186, 201, 218, 222,

239, 240, 271, 280, 341, 373, 493,

548

482 “passing in society,” 191

devotions

physical impairment

imagery

psychic

290-

498

discrimination against, 168-171

medical 148

47

47-48 “proper” post-A-bomb, 306-310 rote and ineffectual, 23-24 post-disaster,

Bomb Memorial

defined, 7,

499

idealization of Japanese,

A-bomb man

Atomic bomb

of,

529

life of,

103-105 106-107, 504 of,

psychosomatic symptoms of, 108-1 responses to environment, 86-87 effect of statistics on, 142-144 suicide among, 135-141 as writers, 400, 402-412

1

in,

124, 21 7n., 228, 288n.

of, 29,

239

influence of, 310, 409 and psychological non-resistance, 372-

376, 378, 390 Budo, 386 Burakumin, 171, 189-190, 353, 477, 530 ghettos, 268

3

58 0

Index

Burakumin Liberation Movement, 189

Way

Bushido or The 320, 522

of the Samurai,

inmates, 487, 493, 500, 505, 511, 521, 524, 527 literature of, 473-474, 476,

478

“pathology,” 519 survivors,

Camus,

116, 480, 485, 487, 491, 494-499, 504-505, 507, 509, 517, 519-520, 525, 530, 533, 534, 538, 540

Albert, 434, 554-555

Cancer, 61, 103, 104-105, 119, 123, 132, 136, 142, 146, 149, 152, 162, 312,

344

victims, 480, 485, 500, 519, 524, 540

Canetti, Elias, 521

writers,

Capek, Karel, 429 Capitalism, 385; see also United States Cataracts, 105, 143n., 150

Cenotaph, 228, 249, 271, 272, 273, 274, 277, 283, 284, 285, 305, 356, 364; see

Atomic

also

Bomb Memorial

132,

16,

290,

327,

329,

(Gishiki),

22,

477

38,

104,

110,

171,

202,

of, 38-40, 320, 460, 536 psychological abnormalities in, 127n. Children of the A-Bomb

(Genbaku no Ko), 459-461 Children’s Atomic Bomb Monument 246, 271, 272, 285

China, 16, 101, 227, 247, 284, 291, 298, 528 Chinese, in Japan, 265, 530 Ghinkon, 408-412, 493

409

251, 308, 309-310, 341, 373, 376, 383-384, 444, 493, 496, 528

234

and psychological non-resistance, 245, 376-383

439

in literature,

253-315

over responsibility, 212, 320-326 and scapegoating, 529-534 sexual, 122, 267 of writers, 439

Confucianism, 153, 492 Conservatism, 153-154 Contagion anxiety, 511,

516-521; see also Survivor, general psychology of

Contamination,

invisible, 57-102, 108, 117, 134, 242, 493, 540

104,

524 mental and physical, 129-130 mythology of, 72-82 fear of,

symptoms

physical

of,

state,

57-64

128-130

tainted rebirth, 90-102

Continuity of life, 86-89, 289, 379, 395, 409, 436, 448, 488, 492, 502, 505, 538, 541 in film,

456

in literature,

Christians, 22, 46,

181, 231, 232, 234, 245, 247, 249, 250, 271, 280, 284, 381, 384

Chugoku Shimbun, officials, 52,

92, 135, 143n., 295 265n., 266, 530

Cold bomb, 69 Cold War, 292, 302, 328 Collected A-Bomb Poems, 471

Commemoration, 270-289 Commercialism, 286, 288, 310

Communism,

keloids, 172-181

and psychotic

Christianity, 60, 238-239, 240, 242-244,

City

461

in film,

residual,

death

“instant,”

death, 446, 484 denial-transcendence, 182-192 family, 123

basic to disaster, 49

248,254, 296, 497, 516, 537 abnormal, 168, 187, 250, 457

defined,

124-125

over outsiders, 355

Ch’ang An, 1 Charisma, 443-444 Children,

of, 120,

moral, 133

345n., 403

Ceremony

channeling

and

Monument Censorship,

473-474, 476, 478

Conflict,

225, 243, 283n., 354, 445,

469 Chinese, 291, 528

Compassion, see Pity Compensation, 291, 519 Concentration camp, 196, 476-541

436-438, 449 Corpse-mythology, 65-67 Corpses of history, 85-89, 548 Cousins, Norman, 337 Counterfeit nurturance, 65, 120,

125,

193-200, 236, 237, 254, 259, 262, 272, 297, 307, 323, 336, 337, 349, 351, 415, 455, 511-524, 526, 530,

534 American, 418 in film, 461 in literature,

426

and

376

religion,

Creative response, see

A-bomb

literature

Creativity

and A-bomb

literature,

397-450

Index barriers to, film,

1

counteracting, 90-92, 94 defense against, 500

451-468

musical, 469, 471-472 and painting, 469-471 reassertions of, 475-478 Cremations, 23, 31, 48, 66 Crime, 264-267, 329

fascination in, 520 in film,

49, 51-52, 185, 192,

249, 268, 373, 474,

dilemma and, 451-478 and counterfeit nurturance, 195-196 and family lineage, 105 folklore, 267n., 286 and marriage, 188 Cures, miraculous, 217-219

Dante, 56 Death, 250, 411 absurd, 541 36, 487, 523,

anxiety, see

Death anxiety

435 260 unmanageable, 510 Death encounter, 21-22, mastering

artistic

anonymous,

464

in literature, 434,

Culture, Japanese, 11, 38-40, 61, 83, 108, 157, 180, 198, 204, 214, 229, 232, 330, 332, 334, 364, 368, 551n.

524

atmosphere, 57-67, 69, 77, 93 of children, 38-40, 320 conflicts,

5 8

484

of,

30, 72, 76, 131, 141, 194, 262, 481, 490, 509, 524,

539 actual, 525

mastery

of,

92-93

269 and physical fears, 103 Death guilt, 35-37, 38-42, 46, original,

56, 64, 111, 126, 129, 141, 150, 167, 187, 192, 203, 209, 229, 232, 254, 256, 259, 262, 274, 288, 296, 301, 302, 304, 310, 322, 347, 354, 362, 373, 374, 381, 385, 409, 411, 412, 419,

430, 446, 448, 489-499, 509, 528529, 540, 546 via bodily complaints, 503 counteracting, 90-92, 94

and counterfeit nurturance, 511-524 defense against, 500 in painting, 470 rhythms of, 498-499

denial of, 67, 110-111 domination, see Death domination

scapegoating, 531

encounter, see Death encounter

shared, 524 see also Identification guilt. Ultimate horror

on

456 Death guilt imagery, see Death imagery immersion, see Death immersion imprint, see Death imprint inappropriate, 474, 487 in literature, 449 film,

guilt, see

massive,

3,

21-22, 56, 130, 487, 506

mastery, see Death mastery and nature, 95 parental, 256-262

premature, 22, 509n., 518 psychic, 486, 501, 520 sensitivity to, 249, 506 sexual,

236

smell of, 23 symbolic, see Symbolic Death taint, see

Death

taint

timing, see Death-timing violation,

346-347

welcoming formulation, 533 Death anxiety, 41, 43, 44-45, 58-59, 64, 111, 119, 126, 144, 162, 172, 209,

223, 240, 262, 266, 312, 323, 334, 354, 373, 377, 385, 392, 406, 430, 482, 485, 487, 490, 494, 509, 513, 515, 518, 528

and A-bomb

disease,

109-115

538

sensitivity to,

Death imagery, 91,

23-27, 34, 79, 86, 90, 108, 125, 160, 206, 209, 252, 3,

255, 269 disturbed, 514

468 and mass media, 133-135 residual, 480 Death immersion, 19-30, 46, 225, 444, in film,

454, 479, 481, 482, 485, 495, 498, 499, 504, 509, 515, 519, 523, 524, 525, 537, 540-541 in film,

456

psychic sensitivity to, 506 scapegoating, 531 symbolic, 514, 517 Death mastery, 255, 280, 286, 297, 304, 326, 340, 354, 515, 533, 538 Death taint. 111, 130, 137, 141, 143, 157, 167, 170, 171, 180, 480, 493, 516, 524, 540 Death-timing, 377, 489, 490 Dedication, individual, 238-252

Defense

mechanism,

34,

80;

see

also

Counterfeit nurturance Defoe, Daniel, 554

Dehumanization, see Psychic numbing

58 2

Index

Delayed guilt, 36-37 Delinquency, 259, 529 Democratization program, 329 Demonstrations, 4, 228, 282-285; also Peace movements

129, 251, 296, 485, 486, 498, 513 Environment, death-saturated, 67-72, 77 Erikson, Erik, 11, 209, 323 see

Denial, 144, 154, 312, 370, 376, 525 Denial-transcendence conflict, 182-192

Dependency, 144, 147, 158, 167, 193, 201, 232, 236, 250, 254, 259, 422, 514, 515 Depression, 128, 485, 497, 504, 506,

514-515 Deprivation, 254, 258, 319 Desecration, 289, 345, 405, 426 Despair, 86, 90, 122, 226, 235, 242, 260, 389, 504, 533 in film,

520 Evil, 323, 443, 478, in film, 458, 459,

554 462

“Evil eye," 497

Ex-Servicemen’s Association, 135 Exclusiveness, 524 Experimental City (Jikken Toshi), 413423, 424-426, 451 Expiation, 494-495 Exploitation,

416

460

“Despair movement," 236 Destiny, 4,

53-55, 308,

365, 374,

378,

405 Detoxification, 7, 64-65 symbolic, 90-92, 95

Devastation, 389, 482

462 Devils Heritage 518 Dewey, John, 98 in film,

(Ma no

Isan), 424-432,

Dickens, Charles, 56 Discrimination, 168-171, 183, 187, 191, 233, 268, 322-323, 329, 348, 353,

416

sense of, 83-84

427 Documentary, see Film Doi, L. Takeo, 1 1, 193n. Drugs, psychedelic, 509 social, 85, 88-89,

Christian involvement

and

5,

expression in,

458

116-118 concerning marriage, 187-190 neurotic, 119-130 of property loss, 92 in,

46

of

105, 254, 278, 302, 492,

447

effects,

103,

346,

Fellowship of Reconciliation, 244 Festival of lanterns,

285

Film-makers, 453, 456 Films, 4, 248, 320, 397,451-468

Atomic Bomb, 453

Eichmann, Adolf, 321-322

and A-bomb

485, 535

love,

467-468

documentary', 453-456, 473 dramatic quality of, 451-453

Einstein, Albert, 451

Eisenhower, Dwight D., 333 T. S., 204, 205n.

length, 459-468 “Monster,” 461-462 newsreel, 453-459 protest, 456-458 full

Eliot,

discrimination

radiation

503,

540

numbing

Eastern Europe, 292, 475, 492, 521, 540 Eatherly, Claude, 341, 478

bakusha, 168, 191 End-of-the-world imagery,

life-affirmation,

of recurrence, 69 Feeling, lack of, 31-35; see also Psychic

see also Culture, Japanese

Employment

American influence, 272 224 of contagion, 180, 511-524 of crowds, 126 of the dead, 204 bodily,

in film,

495, 497, 538

Effects of the

Fascination of death, 50-52, 176, 482483, 509, 521 Fatalism, 186, 310 Fatigue, 120, 182, 504 Fear, 6, 9, 30, 72, 80, 113, 226, 269, 307, 451 aggravated by statistics, 142

of death, 203, 377, 518 of discrimination, 168-171

East Asia culture of,

Fallout (Bikini), 291, 295-296, 299, 464 Family, 120, 123, 256-258, 534 guilt feelings toward, 38-43 see also Culture, Japanese Fanaticism, 314, 552n. Farber, Leslie, 507

of

364 see also Racism, Bias, Victimization Disintegration, post-A-bomb logical,

trial,

Eroticism, 256-257, 267 Europe, 6, 197, 391, 394, 425, 495, 498,

against

22-23,

hi-

83,

satirical,

463, 464

1

583

Index Conference Against A- and H-bombs, 290-291 Flagellantism, 530 Flanigan, Father, 336 "Flash-boom,” 79, 460 Folded Crane Club, 238, 282, 285 Folk belief, see Mythology International

First

Forgetfulness, 276-27S; see also Psychic closing-off

numbing, 32-33 pathologic, 529

Group

for the

Process,

1

Group identity, see Identity Group on the Earth, A (Chic no Mure), 477 Guilt, 42, 47-48, 72, 150,

and psychological non-resistance, 369371

compulsion of, 287 and contagion anxiety, 518 creative, 473-474

delayed, 36-37

and sense of mission, 369, 381-386 universalistic, 428 Forty-Seven Ronin, the, 453, 454

identification, 489-499,

439 469 of parents, 488 in literature, in painting,

Freedman, Lawrence, 11, 161 Freud, Sigmund, 209, 370, 467, 485n.,

residual,

383

rhythms

of,

513n.,

514,

521,

Gallows humor, 23, 34, 307, 391 Gandhi, Mohandas K., 250, 252 influences of, 252n. non-violence of, 244 Gangs, 264-265 Geisha, 187, 313-314 Genbaku Buraku, 169-170 Genbakusho, 131; see also "A-bomb

522,

universal, 274 Guinea pig imager)^ 343-354, 378, 419,

513, 528, 530, 536, 540 in film,

dis-

187,

250, 457

medical concept of, 162 Genocide, 117 Genshi Senjo Shinri, 309

Genshibakudansho,

bomb

131;

see

also

"A-

disease”

336-339 507 Gorer, Geoffrey, Great Britain, 266, 274, 298 Greene, William A., 125n., 533n, Grief, life of, 483-485, 507, 533 will, perils of,

463

Ilachiya, Dr. Michihiko, 25, 26, 29, 32, 3'5, 51, 62, 70, 72, 76-77, 79, 90-91,

318, 399, 425, 511 Hamai, Shinzo, 89, 95, 274, 279n., 281,

340 Hara, Tamiki, 450, 452, 471

Gensuibaku Jidai, 454n. Gensuikyo (Japanese Council Against A- and H-Bombs), 143, 144, 161, 282,290,456,458-459 Germany, 14, 81, 354, 519, 520, 529, 540 "Ghosts, hungry,” 492, 493, 504 "Give Back My Father,” 441-442, 471 Godzilla (Gojira), 462

Good

42 223-224 and separateness, 61-63 scientific,

over survival priority, 7, 35, 40, 55, 72, 81, 91, 196, 203, 214, 223, 241, 276, 335,473, 491-492, 520, 527

C3SC^^

105-108, 115-118,

518

individual, 121, 212

France, 298, 457, 534 Frank, Anne, 104, 200

effects,

59, 176, 178,

death, see Death guilt debts of, 14

372-381 scapegoating, 531 religious,

Genetic

1

188, 192, 199-200, 214, 222, 226, 227, 238, 241, 247, 250, 251, 252, 269, 307, 321, 354, 413, 494, 498 American, 327, 329, 334, 428

Formulation, 367-395, 525-539, 548 anti-war, 535n. defined, 367-368 impaired, 526-534 and negativism, 387-395

487, 489, 525, 541

Study of Psychohistorical

Hatred, see Hostility, Self-hate

Head

of A^ary,

The

(Aiaria

no Kubi),

452 Helplessness, 42-43, 126, 136, 167, 186, 236, 300, 429, 486 in film,

464

Heredity, 125; see also Genetic effects Heroic response, 211-215, 454n.

Hersey, John, 331, 337, 355, 474

Hibakusha defined, 6-7 identity, 165-208,

see also

312-313

A-bomb man. Atomic bomb

survivors

Hibbett, Howard, 11

Hijiyama, 135, 436

584

Index

Hirohito, Emperor, 82-83, 96, 167, 212,

417

Hypocenter,

Hiroshima, 331, 474 Hiroshima Carp, 314 Hiroshima Castle, 86, 270 Hiroshima City Couneil, 279/i. Hiroshima, City of Peace, 270-289 et passim Hiroshima City Office, 7, 54, 137, 198, 211, 212, 267 Hiroshima Diary, 25, 76-77, 79-80, 399,

425 "Hiroshima disease,” see "A-bomb

Hiroshima University' Research Institute for Nuclear Medicine and Bioloev, 6, 8, 142 Historical destiny, 4, 308, 365, 378, Hitler, Adolf,

405

529

Horror, 133, 190, 270, 273,474 in film, 457, 463-464, 468 in painting,

53,

59,

medical care, 146 monument at, 275-280 relationship of leukemia to those close to, 103 statistics concerning, 144 Hypochondriasis, 119, 147 Hypocrisy, 246, 359, 555 American, 429 as criterion for

459

Live in Fear, 464 Ibuse, Masuji, 477, 552-555 Ichikawa, Morimune, 138-140 Ichikawa, Tsumoru, 137, 139

426

Identification, 258, 302, 413 with aggressor, 80-81, 97, 498, 511 w'ith

A-bomb

dead, 250, 531

cosmic, 252

489-499, 518 through horror, 90

guilt,

439 process of, 495-496 with science, 1 54, 160 Identity, 34, 122, 244, 292 components, 214 confirmation of, 44 in literature,

508 denial-transcendence conflict 158,

167,

176, 193, 197, 242, 248, 254, 257, 259, 277, 282, 288, 296, 300, 303, 497-498, 507, 515, 517, 520-524,

526 absence of, 52 toward Americans, 317-365 in literature, 414-426, 440 and medical opinion, 150, 233 racial, 512-513 retaliatory, 235 Hotta, Yoshie, 477 Huie, William Bradford, 523 Human Rags (Ningen Ranru), 402 145,

Ichiro,

of the dead, 201-208, 405, 504, 507,

469

see also Ultimate horror Hostility, 99, 101, 124, 144,

147,

331,

391,

182-

fixed,

367

as a

hibakusha, 165-172

and

keloids,

173

224-226 sexual, 117, 240 scientific,

shared human, 26, 30, 195, 219, 227

397 strength of, 269 Ideological search, 99, 248, 293 Ideology, 354, 367, 385-386

416,

Catholic, 310

and counterfeit nurturance, 511 in film, 455, 456-458 in painting, 469 Illness

Japanese, 98

Humanitarianism, 227, 337 Humiliation, 85, 94, 172, 177, 237, 267, 269, 319, 326, 336, 496, 497 55, 79, 91,

in,

192

"negative,” 323 and physical surroundings, 92-95

445

381, 411, 427,

451, 554-555; see also Gallows hu-

mor Hundred-Meter Road (Hiroshima), 263 271

25,

I

270,271,413

16,

23,

dis-

Hiroshima House Movement, 338 Hiroshima Maidens, see A-bomb Maidens Hiroshima Mon Amour, 467-468 "Hiroshima pilot,” see Eatherly, Claude Hiroshima Prefecture, 143, 191, 267 290 Hiroshima Station, 50, 83, 91, 138, 266 Hiroshima Teachers College, 68 Hiroshima University, 11, 68, 140, 142

Humor,

20-21,

7,

111, 211, 220

in film,

ease”

Humanism,

Hydrogen bomb, 334

anxiety about, 57-64, 494, 507 denial of, 110, 113, 114 inability to treat,

see also

"A-bomb

76-77 disease”

Illusion of centralitv, 19-20

Imagery, 81, 143, 184, 245, 254, 306 Biblical,

382

of bitterness,

387 canonizing, 445-446

Index destructive, 140

Council Against A- and HBombs, see Gensuikyo Jews, 170, 495, 502, 511n., 513, 530, 534, 539 East European, 476, 492 see also Concentration camp Japanese

390-392 in film, 452, 456-459 guinea pig, 343-354, 378, 415 heroic, 250 of the hibakusha, 166 of historical intervention, 385 indelible, 527, 528 about keloids, 173 life-affirming, 253 life and death, 536-539 in literature, 408, 419, 435, 436 loss of, 83 and mass media, 132-135 in medical opinion, 150-160 mythological, 64-82, 238-239 of nature, 95 negative, 47-48, 387 and psychosis, 129 of reconciliation, 340-342 religious, 220, 372-381 and retaliation, 124 of retribution, 320 sexual, 330 Svengali-like, 346-349 universality of, 522 of world destruction, 297, 485 see also End-of-the-world imagery Imai, Tadashi, 461 Immortality, 388, 406, 488, 493 in literature, 437, 449 of nature, 549 expansion

5 8 5

of,

Commission

Joint

for the

of the Effects of the

Investigation

Bomb

Atomic

Japan, 344 Jones, LeRoi, 512 Journalists, American, 233, 455 Judgment {Shimpan) Til in

,

Kajiyama, Toshiyuki, 413-416, 451 Kakitsubata (An Iris), 553

423n.,

Kamei, Fumio, 458 Kaplan, Chaim, 525-526 Karma, 320 Keloids,

172-181,

183,

231,

303,

336,

358 Keniston, Kenneth, 11

Kennedy, John

F., 297, 298, 304,

509

Kinoshita, Keisuke, 463 Klein, Melanie, 48 5n,

Kokubo, Kin, 433-439

Konko

symbolic,

170, 186, 252, 254, 474475, 492, 497, 507, 508, 518, 521 India, 222, 247, 274 Individual responses, 72, 163, 205, 339-

342, 367

Sect, 373-374,

378

Korea, 301, 338, 381 Korean War, 243, 282, 292, 333, 335, 406, 445, 450 Koreans, 171, 338 in Japan, 241, 265, 353, 530, 531 Kruschchev, Nikita, 297, 304

Kurosawa, Akira, 464-467 Kyoto (Japan), 6, 16, 88-89, 178-179, 206, 295, 365, 454

Kyudo, 386

Inferno, 56n.

Inoue, Mitsuharu, 477 Insanity, see Psychoses,

A-bomb

symbolic sense 367, 507

Integrity,

of,

90-92, 224,

Intellectuals, 290, 303, 314, 364, 392 Intra-group hate, 189, 415 Invulnerability, 20, 53-55, 69 Israel,

321, 495, 519, 534

James, William, 98 Japan Constitution, 300 Diet, 271 divorce in, 43n. intellectuals in, 225, 229,

Langer, Susanne, 443, 45 3n. Last of the Just, The, 476 Leaders, see Atomic bomb leaders Legends, see Mythology Let Us Not Forget the Song of Nagasaki (Nagasaki no Uta wa Wasureji), 461n. Levin, Harry, 473-474 Levi, Primo, 502 Leukemia, 103-104, 108, 109, 119, 125n.,

132,

135,

136,

142,

143n.,

147, 309, 312, 344 medical opinions on, 149, 152, 162 portrayed in film, 459

529

Lewis, Robert, 341

national government of, 213, 307, 519 relationship with Korea, 338

Lidice, 13

students in, 4, 10, 98, 153 surrender (1945), 82-83,

Life-affirmation, 116-118, 170, 262-264 Life continuity, see Continuity of life

326-332 Japan Times, 535n.

97,

212,

Life,

111

Life-energy, 90-92, 96, 265 Life-pattern, 83-85, 98, 121,

131,

141,

58

6

Index

Life-pattern (continued) 1

54,

182, 210, 269,

358, 372-376,

494, 537 Life-space, 188

see also

Life symbolism,

264 Lindemann, Eric, 506 Literary entrapment, 402-407 Literature, 4, erature

331; see also

Memoir-novel, 399-400, 473, 474, 553

A-bomb

lit-

illness, 119-130, 146, 519, 529; See also “A-bomb disease”

Militarism, Japanese, 4, 9, 16, 131, 153, 344, 345-346, 403 leaders of, 282, 325, 326n., 455-456

and

(kono Hana o

remilitarization,

125,

190,

233, 242-243, 280, 453, 497; see also American Occupation 232, 290, 345

Ministry' of Gonstruction

cope with, 484

Miracles, 217-219,221

Miscarried repair, 503, 508 Missing dead, 484 Mission,

MacArthur, General Douglas, 263, 266, 281, 322 Malnutrition, 172 Manchuria, 101, 231 Marcel, Gabriel, 507 Marriage, 168, 184, 191, 254, 255, 259n.,

492 “A-bomb,” 249 advisability of,

116

in literature, 543-544, 551

469-471

Maruyama, Masao,

193n., 474-475 Marxism, 225, 292, 356, 385-386 in literature, 478

132-135,

246,

334, 402, 485, 509 Massive death, 3, 21-22,

56,

286,

312,

130, 487,

of, 90-92, 96, 100 Mastery, 367, 382, 390, 397, 424, 482, 497, 51 5, 533, 539

462

i45,

146,

295, 328, 519, 529

519-520 and examiners, 518-519 bias in,

538 in film,

458

in literature,

404, 444, 449

Missionaries, 46, 247, 308, 339, 381 “Mist of Hiroshima, The” (Hiroshima

Moral Rearmament Movement, 212 Mourning, impaired, 484, 503, 504, 508. 51

5,

525, 529

Murakami gang, 265 Murrow, Edward R., 333 Music,

4,

397, 456, 469, 471-472; see

also Artistic

dilemmas

Musselmdnner, 501-505, 513, 524 My Wife's Corpse in My Arms, 206

449 see also Death mastery Matsuo, Kina, 134 McMillan, Mary% 339 in literature,

care,

221, 224-226, 302, 386, 390, 403, 410, 482, 528, 536, of,

320-326, 541 abdication of, 141, 206-207, 310

506 Meaning, recovery

Medical

sense

no Kiri), 451 Miyajima (Japan), 16n., 380 Momism, 194 Monster films, 461-464 Monument in the Clouds (Kumo no Bohyo), 424n. Moral obligations, 133, 187, 227-230,

see also Gulture, Japanese

in film,

(Tokyo), 271,

273

Lourdes, 219

Mass media,

292

Military, American,

Military, Japanese, 45, 52, 96, 191, 227,

125n.,

319, 362, 381, 515 denial of, 370

Iri,

Genetic

Middle Ages, 479, 488, 516 “Midwife, The” (Sanba), 433

553

Maruki,

also

effects

Loneliness, 287, 495

inability to

Mental

Mental retardation, 106; see

Long Voyage, The, 476, 477, 482-483,

Loss, sense of, 82-84,

disease”

Emperor, 345, 388n., 522-523 Meiji Restoration (Hiroshima), 270

14, 518, 520, 521

“Look at the Flower” Miyo), 452

“A-bomb

Meiji,

Lived-out psychosis, 129 Liver disease, 105, 120, 135, 147 medical opinion on, 155 “Living dead,” 492-494, 504 “Living hell,” 491-492 “Logic of discrimination,” 170-171

London,

“guinea pig” feeling toward, 343-354 limitations of, 76-77 regulations concerning, 145-148

Mysticism, 196, 391

149-162,

234

Mythologv, 104, 109, 218-219, 252, 286, 492-494, 498 and “A-bomb disease,” 111-115 bodily, 64-67, 114-115 corpse, 65-67 heroic, 481-482

Index 267n., 443-444 and medical science, 76-77 and mental illness, 130 litcran’,

587

291, 295, 298, 299, 324, 330

minimization of, 343-344 Nurturance, 194, 199, 259,

323, 511516, 534; see also Counterfeit nurturance

natural, 67-72

negative, 73 of retribution, 341-342

concerning weapons, 72-76, 78-82

Nagai, Dr. Takashi, 48, 309, 329 Nagasaki, 14, 79, 114, 116, 129, 130, 145, 157, 182, 202, 306-311, 315, 452,453,454, 457, 461, 541 Nagasaki Medical School, 1 57

Nagasaki no Kane (The Bells of Nagasaki), 329 Nagasaki Shimbun, 143n. Narcotics, 329 Nationalism, 292, 300-302, 474 Nature, 62-72, 94-95, 446-447, 549; see also Culture, Japanese Nazi persecutions, 476-541; see also Concentration

camp

Negation, 110, 124-125, 144, 182, 261, 289, 296 Negative identity, 323 Negativism, 348, 350, 387-395 Negroes, 170, 189, 191, 352, 512-513; see also

Racism

Occupation, see American Occupation Oki, Masao, 471 Okino, Mrs. Akino, 1 36 Okino, Sekito, 136 Olfactory imagery, 23, 33-34 On the Beach, 249 Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 7 In., 224 Oriental attitudes, see Culture, Japanese Orphans, 39, 83-84, 202, 245, 252, 259n. Orwell, George, 293-294

Osada, Arato, 459-460 Ota, Yoko, see Index of Research Cases Outcast communities (buraku), 169, 170 Outcasts,

A-bomb, 168-171, 267-268

Outsiders,

31, 100, 187, 196-198, 267, 281, 287, 292, 303, 310-311, 312,

430 cooperation with, 524

499 American, 336-339, 355,

guilt feelings of,

reaction

to

530 as scapegoats,

530

Neurasthenia, 503-504

Ovesey, Lionel, 514, 521

A-bomb, 105, 119-130, 147 Newsreel, see Films New York, 81, 314, 337, 351, 391, 438,

Pacifism,

Neurosis,

New New

495 York Times, 8, 333, 456n. Zealand, 327

Newton,

454 in film,

Nichiei Productions, 453, 45 5u. Niedcrland, William G., 501, 51 3n., 519

Night and Fog (Nuit

et Brouillard),

476

Nihilism, 88, 99, 163, 304, 372, 392-395

Nishida, 98

Nogi, General, 388, 522-523 Noguchi, Isamu, 271-272

Crane Club Paranoia, 128n., 512, 513-516, 521

Peace Peace Peace Peace

Nouhibakusha, 100-101, 119n., 455 antagonism toward, 415, 530 artists, 398, 413 as observer, 170 370,

Bridge, 271

Memorial Hall, 271, 277 Memorial Museum, 271, 272 movements, 5-6, 145, 153, 189,

222, 223, 225, 227, 234, 237, 238, 246, 249, 314, 339, 351, 356, 365, 376-

395,410,411,434, 461, 538 North Korea, 86n., 284, 533n. Nostalgia, 232, 264, 275 in film, 460 Nothingness, see Nihilism tests,

Paper cranes, 104, 238; see also Folded

Past, preservation of the, 55 In. Pathological effects, see “A-bomb disease” Pauling, Linus, 339

Nisei, 272, 353

Nuclear

Painting, 397, 469-471 “Pan-sexuality,” 252

cal

Nippon News No. 257, 45 5n.

Non-resistance, psychological,

movement

Passivity, see Non-resistance, psychologi-

438

in literature,

455

see also Peace

248n.

Isaac,

243-244, 270, 282, 290, 339,

131, 228, 282, 284, 290-

481

304 and literature, 400, 436, 440 meaning of, 293-294 and music, 472 and nuclear testing, 294-300 in painting, 469 leaders,

58

Index

8

Peace movements (continued) and rearmament, 300-302 sense of “witness” in, 302-305 sentiment for, 290-293 Western, 394 Peace Park (Hiroshima), 104, 228, 249, 264, 271, 282, 284, 285, 287, 288 Peace Road, see Hundred-Meter Road Pearl Harbor, 395 Penderecki, Krzysztof, 472 “Phantom film” (maboroshi no firunm),

456 Phobia, see Death anxiety Phobic patterns, 119-120, 126, 140, 183 Physical

aftereffects,

Atomic

see

Bomb

aftereffects (physical)

Japanese, 150, 157, 234, 295 Nagasaki, 116

469n. Pikadon-don

the

A-Bomb

79,

518 Plagues, 480, 488, 517, 554-555 Pleasure and pain, 311-315

homeostasis, 503 unitary concept of, 162-163

458

Premature death, 499 Premature senility, sense

343, 348, 352-354, 360, 370, 415, 419, 422, 512-513; see also Discrimination, Victimization, Bias Radiation

480

20-21, 57, 72, 78, 343, 346,

457

fear, 503, 540 genetic effects, 105-108 lack of knowledge about, 76-77 myths about, 111-115

physical, 103-105, 518

260-261

symptoms,

402

bomb

American 86n.

244,

339;

see

Atomic

also

aftereffects (physical)

Radioactivity, see Fallout

see

“Railroad grass,” 85, 94 Rawicz, Piotr, 476, 477, 482, 484, 497, 527 also

Psychiatry, 7-8, 86, 519-520

Psychic closing-off,

31-34, 46, 64, 122, 141, 373, 482, 486, 500, 505, 506, 525, 540; see also Neurosis, A-bomb

numbing,

14, 32-34, 86, 90, 157, 160, 172, 179, 192, 261, 298, 304, 336, 345n., 370, 430, 500-516,

718, 519, 531, 532, 538, 540, 546, 551

mechanism, 506

61-64;

Radio drama, 397, 452

Propaganda, 17, 97, 326 Prostitutes, 187, 266-267, 329 Protest, 228, 231 films, 456-458, 461; see also Films

as defense

274,

psychosomatic, 108-111 of,

Pride, 190, 213, 233, 292, 307, tainted, 268-269

243, Christianity

189,

430

Prejudice, see Discrimination

Protestantism,

404

460, 462

Emotions,

in film,

Prisoners of war,

126

entities,

effects, 9,

literature

Poison gas, 69, 76, 78, 326 Politics, 145, 226, 227, 232, 271, 282285, 288, 291,331,345,357

Psychic

108-111, 113 119130, 157, 312, 407, 411, 503’, 540 approach to death, 411 illness,

aftereffects, 6-7,

409

in film,

Psychosomatic

Racial

(“flash-boom-boom”),

A-bomb

A-bomb, 126-130

Psychosis and

Psychosis, lived-out, 129

Museum,”

Pitv, 35, 36, 88, 178, 241, 246, 249, 474,

Poets,

resistance, psychological

Quakers, 338

460

Poetry, see

3-4,

disease”

Atomic Bomb” (“Genbaku no Zu”), 469-471 of

process,

132, 145, 210, 213, 253, 312, 344, 350, 538 Psychological non-resistance, see Non-

in film, 459,

“Pictures of the “Pictures

Psychohistorical

Purification, 203, 373, 375, 380, Purity, 310-311, 446, 498

American, 150

“A-bomb

Psychic opening-up, 505, 509 Psychoanalytic approach, 11, 240

Punishment, 39-40, 43, 382

Physicians, 149-162, 530

see also

458

in film,

Reactivation, symbolic, 485, 486, 495 Rearmament, 290, 300-302 Rebelliousness, 232, 236, 402 Rebirth, 177, 251, 314, 318, 481, 488

456, 459 in literature, 426, 436, 449 and nature, 94-95 personal, 96-101 in film,

of physical city, 92-93, 270-275 psychic, 90, 229

212, 260 symbolic, 90-92, 94, spiritual,

see also

Formulation

245,

263-264;

1

58

Index Recall, vividness of, 9-10

Reconciliation, 334, 339-342 symbolic sense of, 355, 359, 361-362,

364-365

Riesman, David, 1 Right to live; see

Guilt

survival

priority

Rilke, Rainer Maria, 515

Record of a Living Being (Ikimono no Kirohu), 464, 467 Recovery, economic, 99

Roman

Red Cross Hospital (Hiroshima), 132

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 335-336 Rumor, 16-17, 67-72, 73

Redlich, Frederick C., 11 Regression, 251-252 Reintegration, 247, 255, 260, 268, 269 Rejection, 72, 149, 157-160, 169, 179 of the dead, 493-494 Religious formulation, 372-381 Repatriation Bureau of the Health and

Welfare Ministry^ 535n. Repossession, 267-268 Research Institute for Nuclear Medicine and Biology, Hiroshima University, 6, 8, 142 Rescue missions, 25, 100 Resentment, see Hostility Residual conflict, 253-315, 367 anxiety over, 368 city’s symbols of, 262-269 and commemorative spirit, 270-289 peace movement and, 290-315 personal symbols of, 253-262 see also Conflict Resignation, sense of, 185-186, 299, 300, 304, 310, 370, 371, 372, 390, 393,

Catholicism, 238-239, 240, 243, 308, 309-310, 373, 376-378, 383-

384

War

(1904-1905), 270,

40-41, 64,

383; see also Self-

Russo-Japanese 523n.

Sacrifice,

sacrifice

Sadomasochism, 430, 494 Saint Francis Xavier, 308 Saint Paul, 181

“Sand on August Sixth, The,” 447 Sankei Shimbun, 137, 143n. Sanyo Shimbun, 134, 141 Sasaki, Sadako, 104, 200, 246, 459 Satire, 463-464, 466, 478 Scapegoating, 529-534 Schizophrenia, 127-128, 138, 140, 508 Schmoe, Floyd, 338 “Schreber Case,” 513n., 521 Schwarz-Bart, Andre, 476 Scarles, Harold, 508

“Second Gensuikyo,” 284, 291 Seizonsha, defined, 7; see Atomic

548

bomb

survivor

in film,

460

Selective

Resnais, Alain, 467-468

533-534

356 and death, 487-488

Self-betrayal,

of America, 320-326

Self

conflict over, 42-43

Self-definition, 214, 331,

for deaths, 55, 490,

533

37-43

448 restoration of, 98 and scapegoating, 534 see also Moral obligations Restitution, 530; see also Compensation Restorationism, 225, 227, 292 in literature,

Retaliation, 79-80,

242, 298, 318, 327,

438

Self-hate, 35-37, 44-48, 55-56, 176, 189,

200, 207, 236, 304, 359, 413, 495, 529, 531 Self-image, 166, 190, 194, 214, 304, 319,

526 Self-immolation, 30, 522 Self-preservation, 47-48, 51 Self-righteousness, 427-428 Self-sacrifice,

206, 250, 338, 388n.

406, 511, 517 cosmic, 124, 257

Self-world relationship, 393

imagery

“Selling the

124 in literature, 435 Retirement, 261 Retribution, 339-342 Revitalization, see Rebirth Reynolds, Barbara, 339 Reynolds, Earl, 339 Rhee Line, 322 Richie, Donald, 457, 461, 462, 466, 468 of,

also Psychic

Self-accusation, 205, 206, 241, 274, 359,

Responsibility, 27, 37-43, 179, 191, 212,

223, 276, 280, 289, 310, 494, 536

numbing, 508; see

numbing

see also Non-resistance, psychological

failed,

over

9

464 bomb,” 214, 231, 236, 246,

Selfishness, 44-45, 46-47, 232, 292,

263, 277, 293, 347 Semprun, Jorge, 476, 477, 482-483, 485 143n.; see also Sensationalism, 133,

Mass media Sensitivity

toward Americans, 336-339, 376 458, 467 in music, 472

in film,

1

590

Index

Separateness, sense of, 61-62, 166, 204, 485, 515 Separation anxiety, 125n., 537 Sexual abstinence, 250

Sexual Sexual Sexual Sexual

conflicts, 122,

196,

267

dysfunctions, 105 potency, 168

symbolism, 346

Shame, 35-37, 496; see also Humiliation Shiga Prefecture (Japan), 391 Shigeto, Dr., 134 Shikataganai, shoganai,

128,

185,

372-

376 Shimizu, Kiyoshi, 1 Shin Buddhism, 201 Shinko, 372 Shinto, 280, 284, 373, 409 Shokon-sai (Japan’s Memorial Day), 281 Silence, 25, 26, 304-305, 355, 538, 553

and A-bomb

literature,

400

Skepticism, 149, 153-157, 217, 298 Skin disorders, 105, 121 Social action, 243-244,

442

Social welfare,

223, 241, 276, 335, 404, 473, 491492, 520, 527 Survivor, general psychology of,

ambivalence toward the dead, 493 antagonism, 521-523, 524 contagion anxiety, 516-521 counterfeit nurturance, 511-516 death guilt, 489-499, 513 death imprint of, 480-488 death spell, 482-483 eternal survivor, 521-524, 532 exclusiveness, 524 formulation, quest for, 368, 525-529 homeless dead, 492-494 identification guilt, 495-502 identification with dead, 497, 531 impaired formulation, 525-529 impaired mourning, 484 life of grief, 483, 507 miscarried repair, 503-510 psychic mutation, 485-488 psychic numbing of, 500-510 struggle for mastery, 536-541

5, 8, 145, 205, 233, 259n. administrators, 314, 530

survivor hubris, 521 survivor mission, 302-305,

programs, 234

403, 528, 536, 638 survivor syndrome, 504

470

Socialist realism,

Socioeconomic deprivation, 105 Soka Gakkai (Nichiren Buddhism), 378 Soseki, Natsume, 98, 522, 523n. “Soul-Reposing Tower,” 273, 280 South Asia, 270 South Seas, 101 Space Men Appear in Tokyo (Uchujin Tokyo ni Arawaru), 462

bomb,” 17

“Special

Spring Castle Stalin, Josef,

“Standing

Shiro), 424n.

417

response

to,

253-269 3, 34, 90-92, 514 internal, 83, 86-87 of life, 264, 552 in,

400

Good To Be

Alive (Ikite Ite

Mono-

Strontium 90, 457 Suicide, 72, 135-141, 251, 421, 450, 452, 507, 515

522-523

Sullivan, Harrv Stack, 514

Summer

Flowers (Natsu no Hana), 450

Survival

priority,

56, 72, 81, 91,

Taboos, 347n., 492 Tainted rebirth, 90 102 Takamatsu, Prince, 95 Takenishi, Hiroko, 477 Tale[s] of the Heike,

429

Talmudists, 522 Tanaka, Chikao, 452

guilt over,

245

346 Sympathy, 35, 133, 196, 291, 300, 336, 360 Syncreism, Japanese tendency to, 352n. sexual,

Stranger, The, 434

55,

camp

Symbolic death, 3, 34, 90, 197, 240, 251, 318, 473, 500 and rebirth, 90, 94, 100 Svmbolism, 49, 51-52, 60, 68, 105, 129,

reintegrative, 271

141-145

Yokatta) 458-459 Story of Pure Love, The (Junai gatari), 461

ritual,

centration

camp, see Con-

in psychic rebirth, 90, 92, 96,

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 245 It’s

A-bomb man

Survivor, concentration

in literature,

Ruins,” 446

Sterilization, 117, 171

Still,

survivor, Hiba-

of death,

Starvation, 85, 98 Statistics,

Atomic bomb

contending factors

260

(Ham no

in the

kusha,

382,

202,214,251,264, 265,411

“Special hibakusha” 146 Spiritual rebirth, 212,

see also

310,

7, 35, 40, 196, 203, 214,

Tanaka, Kishiro, 450 Tasaka, Tomotaka, 461n. Teacher’s Union, 456

1

,

Index

59

1

Television, 397, 452 producers, 414

Victim-consciousness,

A (Senbaz uru), 459 "TTiousand mile stare,” 86 ‘Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima,” 472 Time, 306, 308 Toge, Sankichi, 285, 441-446, 449, 471 Tokyo, 6, 7, 11, 14, 191, 223, 290, 295,

Victimization, 85, 174, 189, 200, 258, 268, 292, 318-323, 337, 350, 388, 430, 481, 497, 511, 512-513

Thousand Cranes,

308, 328, 343, 365, 391, 401, 402, 403, 412, 414, 438, 453, 454, 455, 469n., 495

Tokyo University, Tokyo-Yokohama

166,

193n.,

512;

see also Victimization

77, 211

in film,

420 and racial conflict, 352-354, 365, 370 Vietnam, 292; see also Peace movements Violence, 265, 266, 282, 406, 430, 541 in art,

475

dimensions in film,

earthquake

(1923),

455

in literature,

of,

473-474

462

Vulnerability, sense of,

'531

126,

166,

183,

259, 481

Totalism, 388

Tourism,

311, 530

5,

Town and

People of the Evening Calm,

The (Yunagi no Machi

to

Hito),

402

Town

War

criminals, trials of Nazi, 485, 535

Warsaw, 472, 525 Watanabe, Shoji, 1

of Corpses, 399, 401-405 Tradition, Japanese, 101, 192, 214, 228, 266, 273, 523 conflict within, 212

Water, 51-52, 218-219 symbolism of, 202-203 “Water world” (mizu-shobai) We of Nagasaki, 309

and medical opinion, 150, 153, 161 surrounding the dead, 493 see also Culture, Japanese Transcendence conflict, 182-192 Transformation, artistic, 439, 443, 449,

“Weak

450, 466, 468, 470, 473 Truman, Harry S., 16, 320-321, 323-324, 333-335, '341, 376, 497, 529

health,” 112-115, 147, 504; see also “A-bomb disease”

Weil, Simone, 474 Welfare Ministry, 143n. Welfare programs; see Social welfare Wells, Warner, 399 West Germany, 519

Western

ideologies, 299, 331, 394,

Tsukamoto, Dr. Kempo, 553n. Tsuzuki, Dr. Masao, 71n., 77, 328, 344

White Paper, 161 White Russian hibakusha, 170

Tuberculosis, 338

“WTy Was

“Ugly” American, 422 Underground themes, 433-450 Ultimate horror, 48-52, 104, 241, 263, 287, 320, 495, 502 identification through, 90 of keloids, 174 see also Horror

Union

of Soviet Socialist Republics, 141,

227, 235, 247, 291, 295, 298, 299, 302, 320, 328, 330, 458 nuclear testing, 282-285

United States government, 9, 235, 291; see also America, American occupation, Americans Unitary concept, 162-163 Universalistic perspective,

247, 294, 307 in film,

state,” 86-89,

Vegetation, 68-71

(“Naze Hiroshima ni Otosunda?”), 440 “Widows’ Club,” 266-267 Wiesel, Elie, 484, 491, 496, 502, 527, 538, 553 Wisdom of the dead, 535

Work

521,

of mourning, 380

World-collapse,

see

End-of-the-world

imagery

World

Is in

Dread,

The

(Sekai

wa Kyofu

Suru), 457-458

World War World War World War

I,

530

II, 6,

III,

270, 294, 498

243

Writers

A-bomb, 402-412 concentration camp, 478 see also

90

496

Dropped on Hiroshima?”

It

473-474,

nonhibakusha, 413-439

467

Unpreparedness, 15-18

“Vacuum

11, 229, 244,

187

A-bomb

literature

Yale University, 11, 529n. Yevtushenko, Yevgeny, 443

476,

592

Index

Yokogawa (Hiroshima), 48, Yomiuri Shimbun, 133, 137

49, 78, 135

Yoncda, Eisaku, 446-450, 471

Zen, 228

Zengakuren Student 282, 284

(All-Japan

Federation of Self-Governing Societies),

OF SURVIVORS QUOTED

LIST

Abandoned mother, 42-43,

54,

88,

65,

113, 259-260, 277, 288, 298, 305

Elderly Catholic nun, 297, 383-384 Elderly countrywoman, 40, 206,

373-

374, 378, 490 Elderly (leading) hibakusha-poet, Bargirl,

173,

187,

202,

254-255,

299,

319 Boarding-house maid, 190, 374-375 Buddhist priest, 60, 94, 101, 207, 220222, 226, 277, 383

Burakumin boy.

111,

190,

287,

299,

Electrician, 23-24,

Burakumin woman

leader, 189-190, 195,

53,

59, 78, 87,

112,

199, 260-261, 287, 295

Engineer, forty-five-year-old,

European

352, 370

95,

370-372, 446-450 Elderly housewife, 190, 387-390, 392 Elderly widow, 16, 36-37, 278, 372, 453

priest,

114

16, 46, 120, 122, 166-

168, 194, 299, 376-378

288, 356, 385

Female poet, Civil service employee, 199, 321

63,

122-125,

278,

298,

324, 348, 361

Cremator, 23, 33, 55, 62, 66, 80, 91

Day

laborer

(“zealot-saint”),

238-252,

285, 332, 357, 384 Divorced housewife, 40-41, 64-65, 78, 81, 257-259, 354, 379-380 Domestic worker (elderly), 23, 33, 78, 196 Downtrodden woman laborer, 44, 369

Grocer, 27, 32-33, 80, 87, 93, 107-108, 110, 177-180, 194, 277, 288, 298, 302, 324-325, 368

Heroic city official, 211-21 5, 278, 334 Hibakusha-physician, hospital director, 153-154, 161

This list is made up only of hibakusha, mainly from the seventy-five interviewed Hiroshima but including some interviewed in Nagasaki as well.

593

in

594 High

List of Survivors (elderly)

32,

city official in

Quoted

Nagasaki,

369

High school student, seventeen-ycar-old, 115, 296 History professor, 18, 35-36, 41, 45, 72, 74, 79, 84, 96, 97, 206, 277, 289, 296, 299, 301-302, 359, 392-394 Hospital worker (disfigured at thirteen), 26, 174-177, 181, 187, 193, 526

Korean

woman

hibakusha, 381-383

Leftist

woman

writer, 47, 97, 297, 325,

328

Professor of English,

53,

56,

66,

204, 331-332, 348, 357 Prominent politician, 184, 205 Protestant minister, 22-23, 38, 348, 384 Psychologist, 22, 357

196,

60-61,

Seamstress (injured at fourteen), 26, 54, 82, 84, 97, 358 Seventy -six-year-old man, 112-113

Shopkeeper’s assistant, 21, 39, 58, 83, 93, 165, 169, 183, 201, 253-254, 275, 287, 294, 296, 300, 351 Skilled worker, 293-294, 356 Social worker (formerly non-commissioned officer), 28, 31-32, 35, 37, 47, 48, 67, 122, 255-266

Man Man

Sociologist, 29, in Nagasaki,

130

98,

unable to rescue nephew, 41-42, 49 Mathematician, 44, 61, 69, 74-75, 88, 186, 300, 324-325, 355 Middle-aged businessman, 39, 49, 88, 99, 101, 296, 319, 320, 359 Moralist, 227-230, 305, 365 Mother, 38 Mystical healer, 216-219, 326

Nagasaki Nagasaki Nagasaki Nagasaki

educator, 116-117, 207, 307 engineer, 171 hospital patient, 383 physician, 126, 182

Ota, Yoko, 22, 26, 34, 45-46, 47-48, 52, 56, 60, 61, 64, 72, 78,

82, 85-86,

100, 131, 189, 262, 263, 275, 279, 297, 325, 392, 399, 402-407, 432, 436 96,

Philosopher, 47, 70, 88, 99, 278, 294,

365 Physicist, 22, 33, 37, 71, 109, 168, 169,

223-226, 276, 303, 364 Professor of education, 32-33, 47, 54, 96, 98, 128, 330

53, 68, 69,

117-118,

172,

70, 88, 93,

181,

305,

326,

390 Souvenir vendor, 166, 186, 231-237

Technician, 50-51, 198, 298, 301, 321, 330, 349 Tourist agency employee, 173-174, 183184, 276, 302

War

widow, 174, 302, 341, 353, 361362

Watch

repairman, 25-26 White-collar worker, 171, 276, 305 Woman, seventeen years old at the time of the bomb, 50 Woman with eye disease, 41, 113, 185, 256-257, 378-379, 380, 381 Writer-manufacturer, 56, 59, 108-109, 208, 296, 302, 340, 375 Writer-physician, 160-161, 195,

260,

279, 292, 371, 408-412

Young company

executive, 96, 106-107,

323

Young housewife, 114-115, 183 Young laborer. 111 Young office worker, 203, 368 Young working wife, 323

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Robert Jay Lifton holds the Foundation’s Fund

He

Psychiatry professorship at Yale University.

for

Research in

has been particularly

interested in the relationship

change, especially in

torical

between individual psychology and hisChina and Japan, and in problems surround-

ing the extreme historical situations in our era.

He

has spent almost

seven years in the Far East, including an extensive stay from 1960 to 1962, during which he carried out a study of psychological patterns in

Japanese youth as well as an investigation of the psychological effects of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. He has recently returned from

another Far Eastern

trip

devoted to follow-up work in Japan and to

an evaluation of current trends Dr. Lifton was born in

New

medical degree from

Associate in psychology at also affiliated with the

member

was

a

He

lives

New

mainland China.

York City

in

1926 and received his

York Medical College. He was Research Harvard from 1956 to 1961, where he was

Center

for East

of the faculty of the

Asian Studies; prior to that he

Washington School

Woodbridge, Connecticut, with

his

wife,

of Psychiatry. a

writer,

and

two small children.

their

He

A

in

in

Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: Study of ‘'Brainwashing’' in China, and the editor of The Woman is

the author of

in America. In addition, his writings atric

and psychological

journals.

have appeared

in various psychi-

t

I

.

p

0

of

PRINTED IN

U.S.A.

PICTURE

CREDIT:

FAY

GODWIN

Robert Jay Lifton holds the Foundation’s Fund

for Research in Psychiatry professorship at Yale University. He has been particularly interested in the relationship between individual

psychology and historical problems surrounding the

change, especially in China and Japan, and in extreme historical situations in our era. He has spent almost seven years the Far East, including an extensive stay from 1960 to 1962, during which he carried out a study of psychological patterns in Japanese youth as well as an im estigation of the psychological effects of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. He has recently returned from another Far Eastern

m

trip

devoted to follow-up work in mainland China. Dr. Lifton

degree from

was born

New

in

in

Japan and

to

an evaluation of current trends

New York

City in 1926 and received his medical York Medical College. He was Research Associate in

Psychiatry at Harvard from 1956 to 1961, where he was also affiliated with the Center for East Asian Studies; prior to that

he was a member of

the faculty of the Washington School of Psychiatry. He lives in Woodbridge, Connecticut, with his wife, a writer, and their two small children.

He A

the author of Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: Stud^ of ‘‘Brainwashing’ in China, and the editor of The Woman is

in

America. In addition, his writings have appeared

and psychological

journals.

in

various psychiatric