Law and Literature: War Crimes Trials in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K23052
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0102:Literature, linguistics, and related fields
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Kim Younglong 早稲田大学, 高等研究所, 講師(任期付) (60806595)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-08-30 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 戦争裁判 / 日本文学 / 法と文学 / 戦争犯罪 / 東京裁判 / ＢＣ級裁判

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research aimed to examine the relationship between law and literature in modern and contemporary Japanese literature that addresses war crimes trials. The first task of this research was to compile a list of literary works on war crimes trials. In the context of this study, war crimes trials refer to trials that pursued Japan’s war crimes after World War II. This includes not only the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, but also trials of war criminals held in various parts of Asia. Although literary works have described war trials from various angles since the end of World War II to the present day, there has not yet been a systematic study of these works. Therefore, this research could be the first attempt to compile literary works describing war trials. The second task of this study was to discover how war trials are portrayed in literature by focusing on the most relevant works, especially from the perspective of law.

Free Research Field

日本近現代文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

戦争裁判の表象を媒介にそれぞれの時代において法と文学の関係を見つめることは、戦後日本という時代を考えるうえで欠かせない作業であるにもかかわらず、これまで体系的に議論されてこなかった領域である。したがって、戦争裁判の進行中にGHQ/SCAPの検閲という制約のもとで書かれた作品から戦後70年以上が経った現在に到るまで、戦後日本における戦争裁判の表象史全体を対象にした本研究は、新しい試みといえる。「法と文学」の議論を踏まえながら、戯曲、詩、小説、文学者によるエッセイなど様々なジャンルから戦争裁判表象を議論したことで、新たな文学史の視座も提示できたと考える。