"Remote Area" and "Suburb": The Impact of the Atomic Bombing on the Urban Communities in Nagasaki

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K02042
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 08010:Sociology-related
• Research Institution: Nagasaki University
• Principal Investigator: Yamaguchi Hibiki 長崎大学, 核兵器廃絶研究センター, 客員研究員 (80828707)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 長崎 / 原爆 / 浦上 / 復興

Outline of Final Research Achievements

By collecting materials from archives and libraries in Japan and abroad, I have come to the following conclusions. (1) I was able to delve into some aspects of people's lives in the Urakami area, which was the center of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, in the years following the bombing. (2) The postwar economic development of Nagasaki City was mainly in the Urakami area, which had been most severely devastated by the atomic bombing. I also managed to collect some information and data on (3) the changes in the area around the hypocenter, (4) the Catholic community in Urakami, and (5) the activities of the U.S. Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) in Nagasaki.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was not able to collect materials in the United States until 2023, the final year of this project. Therefore, writing papers using the collected materials will be an issue to be addressed in the future.

Free Research Field

社会学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

長崎はしばしば、広島と比較して、原爆の記憶の保存・継承や反核メッセージの発信にあまり熱心ではないとされ、「祈りに沈潜していた」との宗教的な背景が指摘されることがある。都市政策的な面からは「浦上地区が開発から取り残され、住民は原爆被害に関して沈黙を余儀なくされた」という観点もさらに付け加わる。
これに対して本研究はむしろ、開発の波に浦上が十分取り込まれたがゆえに、原爆被災の記憶は封じ込められることになったと見る。本研究で収集した資料のみでそれを十分に証明することはできていないが、「大規模災害後の被災者たちの沈黙」というテーマ自体は広がりのあるものであり、本研究もその解明の一助になると考える。