A fieldwork of veterans groups after 25 years

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25380636
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Sociology
• Research Institution: Kanazawa University
• Principal Investigator: Mizobe Akio 金沢大学, 人間社会研究域, 客員研究員 (90127142)
• Research Collaborator: SEN Kanteki ; RYUU Seisen ; CHOU Oumei ; GAZANGJIE
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 戦友会 / 煽るプロセス / 鎮めのプロセス / 戦争体験の再認識 / 過去の振舞いの再現 / 物語り / 慰霊祭 / 犠牲

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Hideaki Ohmura presented the famous scheme of inflaming culture and calming culture. Based on Ohmura’s scheme and our participant observation, veterans’ groups (Sen’yukai) are characterized as a cultural device by which the consciousness of soldiers is calmed in the postwar days. Members of veterans’ group are considered to be engaged in the group work to re-recognize their war experience from the present point of view, through (1) replaying of typical behavior of the army, (2) telling various stories of the war experience each other, and (3) attending the memorial ceremony of the war dead.
One type of their war experience stories is following: They could not escape military service. They went to war in order to defend their country. The war dead are not the fallen heroes, but victims on the battlefield. Their stories of the war experience are underlain by the view that the Pacific War was a self-defense war.

Free Research Field

社会学