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Depictions of The Bomb and Nuclear Apocalypse in Japanese Anime
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
Abstract
This article examines the often-noted “cuteness” in early post-war Japanese animation, and explains how this style has led in more recent years to grittier works depicting war's devastation through fantasy and cinematic technology. Anime provides insight into the social attitudes of each post-war era; and, into how collective memory has processed “unimaginable” horror. The author argues that what is concealed within “unrealistic” animation often reveals more than what is shown about people grappling with an apocalyptic legacy in search of a national identity.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Authors 2021
References
Notes
1 Napier, p. 229
2 Ibid, p.124
3 Moore, p. 123
4 Ichiki, p. 38
5 Ibid, p. 39
6 Moore, p. 127
7 Ibid, p. 127
8 Aviad E. Raz, Riding the Black Ship: Japan and Tokyo Disneyland (Harvard: University Press, 1999) p. 163
9 Ryan Holmberg, “Tezuka Osamu and American Comics”, The Comics Journal, (accessed October 3rd, 2020)
10 Frederik L Schodt, The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, Manga/Anime Revolution (Stone Bridge Press, 2007) p.45
11 Ibid, p. 130-31
12 Ibid, p. 128
13 Yoichiro Sato, Norms, Interest and Power in Japanese Foreign Policy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) p.25
14 Helen McCarthhy, Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 1999) p. 10
15 Dani Cavallaro, Anime and the Art of Adaptation: Eight Famous Works from Page to Screen (North Carolina: McFarland Publishing Ltd., 2010) p. 30
16 Moore, p. 145
17 Napier, p. 222
18 Takeo Doi, The Anatomy of Dependence: The Key Analysis of Japanese Behavior. English trans. John Bester (2nd ed.). (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1981) p. 197
19 Robert Jay Lifton, Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima (North Carolina: University Press, 1991) p. 22
20 Napier, p. 226
21 Ibid, p. 227
22 Robin M. LeBlanc, ‘Thepolitics of gender in Japan’ in Routeledge Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society, Victoria Bestor and Theodore C Bestor with Akiko Yamagata (eds.) (Oxford: Routledge, 2011) pp. 116-129, p. 117
23 Ibid, p.117
24 Napier, p. 227
25 Naoko Shibusawa, America's Geisha Ally: Reimagining the Japanese enemy, (Harvard University Press, 2006) p. 227
26 Ichiki, p. 46
27 Tsuneishi Keiichi, ‘Unit 731 and the Japanese Imperial Army's Biological Warfare Program’, Asia-Pacific Journal Volume 3, Issue 11, (November 24, 2005)
28 Ibid, p. 47
29 Napier, p. 218
30 ‘Barefoot Gen, the Atomic Bomb and I: The Hiroshima Legacy’ in The Asian-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, interview by Asai Motofumi, online source [Accessed 25/10/12]
31 Kawaguchi Takayuki, ‘Barefoot Gen and ‘A-bomb Literature: Re-recollecting the Nuclear Experience’, Comics Worlds and the World of Comics Conference, Kyoto Seika University, December 2009, Transcript available, [Accessed, 22nd November 2012] (p. 242)
32 Lifton, p. 52
33 Cavallaro, p. 28
34 Tony Yao, ‘Nuclear Weapons: Deadly Psychological Weapon (Barefoot Gen)‘ on Manga Therapy, (First Appeared 17/02/11), online source [Accessed 17/10/12]
35 Ibid, p. 28
36 Napier, p. 218
37 John Treat, Writing Ground Zero: Japanese Literature and the Atomic Bomb (Chicago: University Press, 1995) p. 21-30
38 Qi Wang, ‘Troubled Identities at Borderland – Fantasy about the Past and the Future in Anime’, International Journal of Comic Art, Vol 7, p. 406, 2005.
39 Ichiki, p. 35
40 Ibid, p. 194
41 Ibid, p. 200
42 Moore, p. 119
43 Kelly Hurley, ‘Reading Like an Alien: Posthuman Identity in Ridley Scott's Alien and David Cronenberg's Rabid‘ in Posthuman Bodies, Judith Halberstram and Ira Livingston (eds.) (Indiana: University Press, 1995) p. 203
44 Moore, p. 128
45 Cavallaro, p. 19-20
46 Ibid, p. 30
47 Ibid