Hiroshima and Nagasaki have become synonymous with the worst destruction of war and thus, have strong associations in the world’s collective memory. Meiji Gakuen Professor Yuko Shibata analyzes these associations in the context of literature, film, and transnational politics in her recent book from University of Hawai’i Press, Producing Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Literature, Film and Transnational Politics (2018). Shibata examines canonical and repressed texts about how these two tragedies are remembered and forgotten. The starting focal point is French New Wave auteur Alain Resnais’ much lauded film Hiroshima Mon Amour, (1959) because it is probably the best known and most discussed film about the after effects of the atomic bomb today. It is often cited as one of the 100 greatest films of all-time, but it was not well-received at the time of its release in Japan due to the “’imbalance’ between depictions of Hiroshima and Nevers, France.”
The Introduction, “Knowledge Production on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Politics of Representation and a Critique of Canonization” sets the tone for the discussion and previews the forthcoming chapters. Then in Chapter 1: “Postcolonial Hiroshima Mon Amour: Franco-Japanese Collaboration in the American Shadow,” the complex issues of colonial violence and war touching on the Nanjing Incident, Pearl Harbor, and the Holocaust are discussed in context of the brief love affair between the visiting French actress and the French speaking Japanese architect repatriated to his home of Hiroshima after the war. The second half of the chapter focuses on Margaret Duras’ screenplay and how it shaped Renais’ vision of the film. Shibata focuses on Duras’ connection with the colonial legacy in terms of her past work at he Colonial Office in Paris during the Vichy regime and how that affects her view of French Indochina that was briefly occupied by the Japanese in the war. She goes on to discuss how Duras’ script creates alienation of Japan by focusing on how different the woman from France is in all ways from the man in Japan. Furthermore, Shibata suggest that Duras others the Japanese man in the film which leads to more complicated responses to the coupling of the French woman with the Japanese man in the film and how they are seen which is the central aspect of the film.
Chapter 2: “Validating and Invalidating the National Sentiment: Kamei Fumio and the Early Days of Japanese Cinema on Hiroshima and Nagasaki” contrasts Resnais’ film with Japanese director Fumio Kamei’s somewhat obscure documentary “Still It’s Good to Live” (1956) in which Shibata suggests that the main purpose of the film was to show how survivors were suffering from radiation damage 10 years after the atomic bombings. The main focus of Chapter 3: “’You Saw Nothing in Hiroshima’: Performing Atomic Bomb Victimhood and the Visibility of the Hibakusha (survivors)” seeks to unravel the question of visibility and recognition depicted in Hiroshima Mon Amour. Chapter 4: “Entangled Discourses: John Hersey and Nagai Takashi” analyzes two seminal texts about the bombings, Hersey’s nonfiction account, Hiroshima (1946) and Takashi’s more obscure nonfiction account, The Bells of Nagasaki (1949). Hersey’s book in particular is notable for its immediate success propelled by The New Yorker’s decision to publish it all at once in stead of serializing it over the course of a few issues due to the editors concern that readers losing interest in the middle of the middle of the story. The book focuses on six victims: four males and two females; five Japanese and one German; two priests, two doctors, one seamstress, and one clerk at a tin factory. Hersey personalizes the tragedy by putting human faces on the suffering. Nagai’s book does the same for Nagasaki with his mix of first person and third person narratives. However, Nagai’s book, The Bells of Nagasaki, is distinguished by being a controversial redemptive narrative that embraces the atomic bombing and reflects the Christian idea of that long-suffering is seen as a “virtue”.
The Afterword ties up some loose ends by addressing such issues as the 2001 film by Nobohiro Suwa, H Story, that revisits Resnais’ film and the differences between the atomic bombings and the more recent nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Shibata does an excellent job of referring to primary and secondary sources to support her acceptations. Admittedly it is somewhat academic in tone and style, but should be accessible to readers interested in Japan given that the two main primary sources (Hiroshima Mon Amour and Hiroshima) are easily attainable and well-known globally.
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