ABSTRACT
Japanese memory of the Pacific War, particularly but not only the civilian experience, is very different to the image of that war in the West. Generally, memory of the war is founded on its loss and might be termed a ‘narrative of defeat’ (Cook and Cook 1992: 14). One Japanese historian describes the end of the war in Japanese minds as bounded by dual shocks: the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the one hand and the gyokuon hōsō, the emperor’s radio announcement of Japan’s surrender, on the other (Öhama 2002: 160). Although Cook does not tie this term to any particular period of the war, it is the anniversary of the surrender on which the Japanese defeat is constantly re-narrated. But another narrative is also important to understanding Japanese memory of the war: that of kurō, a word which encompasses the concepts of hardship and suffering, adversity, effort and toil and misfortune, which has given rise to what I term here a ‘narrative of hardship.’
