DOI: 10.5507/ff.23.24463476.03

KOREAN A-BOMB VICTIMS’ MOVEMENT AND THE POWER OF NATIONALISM

Yuko Takahashi (A.)

This chapter discusses ”the A-bombed nationalism” that emphasizes the victimhood of the Japanese nation, and that developed through the redress movement of the Japanese victims of the 1945 atomic bombings. A-bombed nationalism has unintentionally excluded other atomic-bomb victims, most notably Koreans who experienced the bombings as colonized subjects of the Japanese Empire at that time. These Korean victims brought nationalism to the fore throughout their own movement, by attributing their victimization to Japan’s colonization of Korea. Their A-bombed nationalism, however, showed a positive potential unlike that of the Japanese victims, as it stimulated a sense of atonement among Japanese citizens as former colonizers who consequently determined to work for redress of Korean atomic-bomb victims. While the diplomatic rift over the colonial past still lingers between Korea and Japan, Korean victims’ A-bombed nationalism may present a possibility where citizens of the two countries can face the past and work together towards a new relationship. 
 

pages: 57-87