ABSTRACT

Historical surveys of postwar Japan are usually established on the grounds that the era is already over, interpreting "postwar" to be the years directly proceeding World War II. However, the contributors to this book take a unique approach to the concept of the postwar epoch and treat it as a network of historical time frames from the modern period, and connect these time capsules to the war to which they are inextricably linked. The books strength is in its very interdisciplinary approach to examining postwar Japan and as such it includes chapters centred on subjects as diverse as politics, poetry, philosophy, economics and art which serve to fill the blanks in the collective cultural memory that historical narratives leave behind.

Originally published in French, this new translation offers the English speaking world important access to a major work on Japan which has been greatly enriched by the translator’s great accuracy and knowledge of English, French and Japanese language, history and culture.

Japan's Postwar will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese Studies and Modern Japanese History as well as historians studying the world after 1945.

chapter |7 pages

Introduction

part |53 pages

The Multiplicity of Chronologies, or the Postwar Contested

part |56 pages

Intellectuals facing the future

chapter 3|19 pages

Maruyama Masao

From Autonomy to Pacifism

chapter 4|14 pages

In the Time After the Defeat

Sakaguchi Ango, Takeda Taijun and Takeuchi Yoshimi (1946–1948)

chapter 5|21 pages

Yasuoka Masahiro

A Conservative Vision of the Postwar

part III|41 pages

How Should One Speak? The Poets' Response

chapter 6|23 pages

‘Genzai', here and Now

Notes for a Reflection on the Values of the ‘Present' in the Poetry of Tamura Ryūichi and Ayukawa Nobuo

chapter 7|16 pages

Speaking silence

The poetry of Ishihara Yoshirō

part IV|64 pages

Forgetting, Commemoration, Diversion

chapter 9|24 pages

The peace statue at Nagasaki

chapter 10|22 pages

Repression of History and Commitment of Bodies

Birth of Action Art at the Beginning of the 1960s