2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Human Bullets: A study of the representations of the war dead in modern Japan
| Project/Area Number |
24720078
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Study of the arts/History of the arts/Arts in general
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
KOGO Eriko 早稲田大学, 文学学術院, 助教 (80454015)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
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| Keywords | 肉弾 / 日露戦争 / 視覚文化 / 表象文化 / 戦死表象 / イメージ / 身体 / 戦時メディア |
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| Research Abstract |
This study examines the representations of the war dead in modern Japan, focusing on the crushed bodies of the Human Bullets (Niku-Dan). The research objects of this study are visual representations and media discourses.
This study deepens our understanding of how and why these representations of the war dead were so beautifully described, generating widely shared empathy for their heroic and tragic stories. In the background, beneath the level of empathy, some people attempted to comprehend the reality of battles with massive casualties. These descriptions of death come from two sources. The first is the vision of the battle of the Bushi or Samurai (feudal warriors), a narrative that the Japanese find exciting. The second is the representation of modern arms and their new power, depicting the Japanese people as capable of managing the new energy of modern technology. The crushed bodies lie at the intersection of these two sources, as a symbol of the modern nation.
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