ABSTRACT
The figure of Mary is a bridge for generational survivors of trauma, traversing the periods from the times of persecution to the memory of the atomic bombing, as an archetypal and powerful symbol of Urakami. Her figure is often remembered as an ‘A-bombed Mary’. From the time of the Jesuits’ arrival in Japan, Mary, Mother of Christ, comprised a figure of veneration among the kirishitan classes. A-bombed Mary invokes the ancient story of the archetypal poor villager Mary, herself a witness and co-sufferer of violence. Feminist theologian Gale Yee writes Mary in Nazareth would have observed brutal and horrifying Imperial Roman violence against rebellious Jews and witnessed the torture and crucifixion of her own son. The hibakusha are survivors of the A-bomb who imagine symbolic Mary surviving the bombing. Marian liturgy, devotion and imagery in Urakami is traced back to early Christianity.
