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On Becoming ‘a Japanese’: The Community of Oblivion and Memories of the Battlefield

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Tomiyama Ichiro  and
Noah McCormack
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[Written in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, and later re-worked in Memories of the Battlefield published on the fiftieth anniversary of Japan's surrender, this essay presents wartime violence not as something distant and exceptional, but rather as a pervasive condition of our lives. Tomiyama attempts here ‘to bring out the battlefield in the everyday’, and then from the battlefield, ‘to reconstitute the everyday’. In a time when war and violence can be seen everywhere and yet felt at a remove, his ideas are as pertinent as ever. N.M.]

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 10 , October 2005 , e23
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Copyright © The Authors 2005

References

[1] Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London and New York: Verso, 1983).

[2] Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).

[3] Kang Sangjung, ‘Showa no shuen to gendai Nihon no “shinsho shinri” ‘, Shiso, vol. 876, 1989, and Kang Sangjung, ‘“Nihonteki Orientarizumu” no genzai’, Sekai, February 1987.

[4] Murai Osamu, Nanto ideorogi no hassei (Tokyo: Fukutake Shoten, 1992).

[5] Murai, Nanto, p. 14.

[6] See Ukai Satoshi's essay on Ernest Renan: ‘Furansu to sono boreisha tachi’, Jokyo, 2 January 1992, p. 72.

[7] Étienne Balibar, ‘Migrants and racism’, New Left Review, no. 186, 1991, p. 15.

[8] Kim Jonmi, ‘Dochaku no bunka ha kaiho no buki tariuruka’, Zenkoku Kaiho Kyoiku Kenkyukai (ed.), Ningen (1975), pp. 116-117.

[9] Obviously, Benjamin's theses relating to past memories come into the discussion here. See Walter Benjamin, ‘Experience and poverty’; and ‘The storyteller’, in Hannah Arendt (ed.), Illuminations, translated by Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books, 1969), pp. 83-109.

[10] Tsurumi Shunsuke and Ikeda Hiroshi, ‘Taberu ba kara no senso to hansen’, Inpakushon, vol. 72, 1991, pp. 13-14.

[11] Kang, ‘Showa’, p. 54.

[12] Yoon Keuncha, ‘Shokuminchi Nihonjin no seishin kozo’, Shiso, vol. 778, 1989.

[13] Matsuda Motoji, ‘Minzoku saiko’, Inpakushon, vol. 75, 1992.

[14] Kaiho Yoko, Kindai Hopposhi (Tokyo: Sanichi Shobo, 1992), pp. 128-130.

[15] Tomiyama Ichiro, Kindai Nihon shakai to Okinawajin’ (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Hyoronsha, 1990); Baba Kiyoko, Inaguyananabachi (Kyoto: Domesu Shuppan, 1992).

[16] Kim Jonmi, ‘Chosen dokuritsu / hansabetsu / hantennosei’, Shiso, vol. 786, 1989, p. 115.

[17] Concerning lifestyle reform, see the writings of Tomiyama and Kaiho cited above.

[18] Anbo Norio, Minato Kobe korera / pesuto / suramu (Kyoto: Gakugei Shuppan, 1989).

[19] Yoon Keun Cha, Ishitsu to no kyozon (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1987). While this essay does not refer to it, see Nunokawa Hiroshi, ‘Toshi “kaso shakai” no keisei to nashonarizumu, Nihonshi Kenkyu, vol. 355, 1992) in relation to the so-called ‘problem of racial intermingling’.

[20] Edward Said, Orientalism (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978), p. 207.

[21] Etienne Balibar, ‘Racism and nationalism’, in Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein, Race, nation, class (London and New York: Verso, 1991), p. 49.

[22] Kan Takayuki, ‘Sengo shiso no genzai wo megutte’, in Tsurumi Shunsuke (ed.), Sengo to ha nanika (Tokyo: Seikyusha, 1985), p. 128.

[23] Okochi Kazuo, who was involved in wartime labour policies with the Industrial Patriotic Movement, for example, argued that the significance of ‘life renewal’ lay in fostering ‘human resources’ in the shape of ‘a strong “labour force” ‘, ‘able to be armed’, for the purpose of ‘engaging effectively in modern battle’. On that basis, he claimed that, ‘“human resources” are not only objective entities in economic terms. They are also the human and individual operators of that resource, and to that extent, they also know best their own resourceful existences, and can subjectively utilise their own potential. Through recognizing that “human resources” are also “resourceful persons”, I'd like to stress that they will best become able to harness their abilities as “human resources”.’ To Okochi, fascinated by ‘resourceful persons’, must arise the question of ideological conversion. Okochi Kazuo, ‘Senji shakai seisaku ron’, 1940, in Okochi Kazuo chosakushu, vol. 4 (Tokyo: Seirin Shoin Shinsha, 1969), pp. 247-248.

[24] Teruya's life-history here is reconstituted from accounts contained within the memorial volume that is Teruya Chuei Itoku Kenshohi Kiseikai (ed.), Chukonpu, 1978.

[25] Tomiyama, Kindai Nihon, pp. 220-222.

[26] For example, the Administrative Continuance Documents of the Special Superior Section, Okinawa Prefectural Police, contained in the Governor's Administrative Continuance Documents problematizes the abrupt end to migrant remittances related to the outbreak of war that result in the termination of children's education. Okinawa Shiryo Henshujo (ed.), Okinawa Ken Shiryo, Kindai 1, 1987, p. 611.

[27] Chukonpu, pp. 83-84.

[28] Chukonpu, p. 139.

[29] Chukonpu, p. 80.

[30] Chukonpu, p. 156.

[31] Chukonpu, p. 171.

[32] Chukonpu, pp. 100-101.

[33] Naha Shi, Naha Shi shi, Shiryo hen 2, Chu 3, 1970, p. 430.

[34] Tomiyama, Kindai Nihon, pp. 124-125, note 12.

[35] First published as The History of the Oceanic Development of Okinawa (Okinawa kaiyo hattenshi) in 1941, it was later retitled The History of Japan's Southern Development (Nihon nanpo hattenshi).

[36] While we can see therein how the subjectivity of ‘the Okinawan people’ is linked to ‘the Japanese people’ in the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, at the same time, there is a need to note the possibilities for disruption too. This point is related to the argument for Okinawan independence in the period immediately following defeat in the war. I'd like to treat this question separately on a later occasion.

[37] Tomiyama, Kindai Nihon.

[38] Chukonpu, p. 157.

[39] Tsurumi Shunsuke, ‘Gunjin no tenko’, in Kyodo Kenkyu Tenko gekan (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1962), p. 214. See also Tsurumi Shunsuke, Tenko Kenkyu (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1976), p. 367.

[40] Tsurumi, ‘Gunjin’, p. 214.

[41] Ueda Masaaki says that ‘spirit-appeasing thought that breaks with and attempts to quiet vengeful spirits belongs to the ruling classes’, and further, defines ‘spirit-raising’ as ‘spirit- appeasing acts’ that re-ignite the ‘menace of the curses of vengeful spirits’. Ueda Masateru, ‘Tamafuri no sho’, in Seki Hironobu (ed.), Gendai no Okinawa sabetsu (Kaifusha, 1987).

[42] Chukonpu, pp. 214-222.