The Problem of "How to Defeat ": A Historical Analysis of the Narratives of Defeat in Postwar Japan

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K00293
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02010:Japanese literature-related
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: GOMIBUCHI NORITSUGU 早稲田大学, 教育・総合科学学術院, 教授 (10433707)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 戦争記憶 / 日中戦争 / アジア太平洋戦争 / 戦争文学・戦記文学 / 戦争映画 / 東アジア / アダプテーション / ナラティブ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, I focused mainly upon literature, films, and nonfiction works from the end of the Asia-Pacific War to the 1970s and examined how the defeat of the Japanese state and the beginning of the "postwar period" as a new era were described. The following three points were clarified. (1) The discourse that speaks of the racialized anxieties that prevailed in Japanese society under the air raids became the foundation of nationalistic nationalism after the war. (2) In popular genres such as soap operas and mysteries, many stories overwriting the spatial boundaries of postwar Japan were produced. (3) The recognition framework that positioned Japan's defeat in the war as a 'collaboration' between Emperor Hirohito and politicians who supported early peace was established in the 1960s.

Free Research Field

日本文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

（1）日本近現代文学研究の手法を用いて、広く日本社会の「戦争の語り」の枠組みの生成過程を歴史的に検証したこと。
（2）日本語のコンテクストの中で、帝国日本から戦後日本への屈折と断絶をはらんだ移行がどのように表現されたかを辿り直すことで、戦後日本の脱帝国化・脱植民地化が不十分に終わっていくプロセスを内在的に検討したこと。
（3）同時代の資料を活用して、世界史的な転換点の一つである「1945年」を日本社会がいかに経験したかを捉え返すことで、同じ時間を生きた人々、とくに帝国日本の旧植民地・支配地域をはじめとする諸地域の人々の経験と比較する視座を準備したこと。