ABSTRACT
The traumatic nature of the Second World War was immeasurably compounded by a new force vector in the realm of modern warfare—the deliberate targeting of civilian populations. Examples of this new category of industrialized homicide of non-combatants would include the near extinction of European Jewry engineered in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust, millions of civilians killed in punitive campaigns waged in China by Japanese forces from 1937 to 1945, and millions killed during the Allied strategic bombing campaign against German and Japanese cities. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however, must be considered outliers in the sad category of twentieth century mass traumas. The virtually instantaneous obliteration of these mid-sized Japanese cities by American atomic bombs in August 1945 epitomizes the concept of ‘traumatic velocity’. The trauma generated by these calamities was such that it continues to affect survivors nearly eighty years after the events, and remains a scar on the collective psyche of Japanese society and culture to this day. This chapter draws on interviews with Hiroshima hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombings) and the traumatic memories that haunt them.
