This dissertation examines a moment of unprecedented crisis in Japan's modern
history - the crisis of defeat - and the impact it had on the Japanese self-image. Defeat
unleashed a wide range of responses, from profound despair (kyodatsu) to a sense of
new life (shinsei). Just as the material destruction of defeat defined the landscape of
Japan's cities, so too did the coexistence of these two emotions create the
psychological ground from which public discussion about Japan's past, present, and
future emerged. From these discussions arose two interrelated debates, one
concerning who was responsible for war and defeat, and the other focusing on the
defects in the national character. In both cases, many Japanese believed that the
resolution of these debates was a necessary first step in constructing a peace-loving,
democratic nation.
The deconstruction of the national character was akin to the process of negation
through which many Japanese people believed they could discard the "sins of the
past" and move smoothly forward into the new postwar world order. It is in this
context that Tanabe Hajime's "philosophy of repentance" (zangedd) is relevant, both
as a model and a metaphor for the Japanese attempt to overcome the past.
Ultimately, however, Tanabe's road to salvation was not taken by many, partly due
to the intellectual difficulty of his message, but also due to the re-emergence of the
Emperor whose reconstruction as a symbol of new life circumscribed the public
debates over war responsibility and the deconstruction of the national character,
leaving unresolved fundamental questions concerning the Japanese peoples'
relationship with their own past.
Drawing on a broad variety of primary sources, this study explores these debates and
the Emperor's resurrection in a brief but intense four-year period after Japan's defeat.
Any appreciation of later postwar history must begin from this era. Through the
experiences and memories of the "generation of the scorched earth" (yakeato jidai)
we can gain new insights into Japan's re-emergence as an economic power, the
preoccupation with "new," and the enduring sense of particularism that
predominates in Japan today.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11424 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Griffiths, Owen |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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