Stories of Hiroshima Bombing

1
Stories of Hiroshima Bombing(2) Historical
Representation and Identity Reconstructions
"Little Boy" --the atomic bomb dropped on
Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. "Fat Man" --dropped
on Nagasaki August 9, 1945.

• -- Different Online Reproductions
• -- Joy Kogawas Obasan

2
Outline

• A Footnote to Vietnam a poem on Vietnam
  Recollection
• Online Representations of Hiroshima Bombing
• Q A
• Obasan
• General Intro
• Issues of Race
• Repression of History
• Trauma, Reconstructions Language
• For Next Time and References

3
A survivors vision Recollection by Joan A
Furey

• An example of how the war has been seen from
  different perspectives (womens, Vietnamese,
  Vietnamese-Americans)
• The poem is a recollection of a woman whose lover
  died in the V war as a soldier.
• The first 6 stanzas presents a haunting vision.
  --can be compared with that of Sam in In Country,
  and Naomi towards the end of Obasan
• The last 3 stanzas an ironic contrast between
  the (lack of) purpose, sense of mission, reason
  on the one hand, and the on-going presence in her
  mind of the vision of his death.

4
Online Representations of Hiroshima Bombing

• Scientific interest Atomic Archive (example)
  http//www.atomicarchive.com/mediamenu.shtml
• Medical Studies (of the effects of Atomic bombs)
  http//www.hiroshima-cdas.or.jp/HICARE/abe.html
• For Anti-Nuclear weapon causes e.g. No More
  Nagasaki http//base.mng.nias.ac.jp/Nomore-e.html
  (examples of the victims voices)
• For Hiroshima victims from an Artist whos not
  there at the time (examples) http//www.lclark.ed
  u/history/HIROSHIMA/intro.html
• THE HIROSHIMA DEBATE -- Was Harry Truman a War
  Criminal? Was it necessary (example)
• Fake Hiroshima an Example of extreme videos
  (http//fjt.todayisp.com7751/bbs.txsm.cn/dispbbs.
  asp?boardID100ID33876page1
  )(http//media.ebaumsworld.com/atomicbomb.wmv )
  (example)

5
Different Online Reproductions

• From Atomic Digital Archive
• Little Boy (left dropped on H) Fat Man (right
  dropped on N)

6
Examples of the victims voices

• Mr.Akio Sakita Still today I receive regular
  treatment as an outpatient at Nagasaki Atomic
  Bomb Hospital. When my condition is poor I feel a
  great weariness with life, but I have never given
  up hope. In the face of every trial and every
  hardship, I have found new incentives to continue
  living and working.The survivors continue to die
  today,finally released from lives of untold
  suffering.We have suffered enough.There must
  never be another Hiroshima or another Nagasaki.

http//base.mng.nias.ac.jp/k1/saki.E.html
7
The Artist's Statement begins with a quotation
from a book

• "In a cistern under a bridge were some mothers.
  One mother held on her head a baby that was
  burned all over, and another mother wept bitterly
  as her child suckled her badly burned
  breast.Children in the cistern cried out for
  their parents, holding their heads above water
  and joining their hands in prayer. Since they all
  were hurt, none could help the other. Their hair
  was singed, and covered with white dust. They
  scarcely looked like human beings.Looking at
  these people, I could hardly imagine how I must
  have looked. My hands were red with blood, with
  skin hanging down. In my wounded flesh I saw
  black, red, and white things appearing. I was
  alarmed and tried to remove my handkerchief from
  my pocket. But there was no handkerchief or
  pocket. The clothes below my waist were burned
  away...." From Genbaku no Ko (Children of the
  Atomic Bombing), published in 1951 by Iwanami
  Shoten, Publishers.

8
Artist's Statement end

• I have completed my work of portraying Hiroshima,
  with this collection of photographs. If anything
  else remains for me to do about Hiroshima, it
  would be for me to go on honestly admitting my
  shameful attitude as an artist as I continue to
  gaze at Hiroshima.

9
The Hiroshima Debate --Necessary

• RevisionistGar Alperovitz's book The Decision
  to Use theAtomic Bomb, and the Architecture of an
  American Myth Alperovitz The real decision to
  use the atomic bomb was the decision not to give
  the Japanese another way to surrender. The
  documents make it very clear that it was known
  they would never surrender if we threatened their
  emperor-who was more like Jesus or Buddha in
  their theology. The demand for unconditional
  surrender was a threat to their entire culture,
  their religion, and their politics, and we knew
  it. (source)
• Criticized by some other historians Truman
  "acted for the reason he said he did to end a
  bloody war that would have become far bloodier
  had invasion of Japan's home islands proved
  necessary."

10
Fake Hiroshima argument

• Reasons 1) impossiblethe range of B-26 the
  three images of the mushroom cloud the same one
  only three A-Bombs a lot of opponents the
  victimsonly regular burns, etc. etc,
• Conclusion ????,??????????????????????,??????
  ??????,?????????,??????????????????,???8?6??9
  ?,????????,??????,????????????,????????,??????????
  ??,????????????????????????? ??????????????????
  ????? ??????,??,?????????????????,??,??????????

11
Q A

• What do you think about all these
  representations? Which of them are to be
  trusted?
• Any other questions from the groups?

12
Joy KogawaBiographical Sketch

• born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1935
• relocated to Slocan and Coaldale, Alberta during
  and after WWII
• Selected Publications
• Obasan. 1983.
• Woman in the Woods. 1985.
• Naomi's Road. 1986.
• Itsuka. 1993.
• The Rain Ascends. 1995.

13
Awards for Obasan

• Books in Canada, First Novel Award.
• Canadian Authors Association, Book of the Year
  Award.
• Periodical Distributors of Canada, Best Paperback
  Fiction Award.
• Before Columbus Foundation, The American Book
  Award.

14
Joy Kogawa

• Itsuka on the redress movement
• itsuka, someday, the time for laughter will
  come."

• Obasan

15
Obasan background

• Racism against the Japanese during WWII
• Suspected as Enemy Aliens
• under surveillance before the Pearl Harbor
• suspected, (clip 3)
• relocation (clip 4) dispersal of
  Japanese-Canadian family members -- men sent to
  road camps in the interior of B.C., sugar beet
  projects on the Prairies, POW camp in Ontario
  women and children to Hasting Park, etc.
• Deportation (clip 5)

16
Obasan--Family Trees

Kato
Issei. Grandma Nakane Arrive in Canada 1893
1945
Grandpa Nakane 1942
Isamu (Sam) 1889-1972
Ayako (Obasan) 1891-
Father (Tadashi Mark)
Mother
Nisei Emily 1916-
stillborn
Sansei Stephen 1933-
Naomi 1936-
Ref. Chap 4 pp. 17-19 20
17
Obasan Three Topics for Discussion

• From a postcolonial perspective Wartime Racism
  and its influence on Family and Children
• History Different Views and the consequences of
  its repression
• Trauma and Reconstruction a gradual process of
  listening, imagination and holding imaginary
  dialogue

18
Traumatic Moments in Naomis Life

• 1941(episode of the white hen and chicks, and of
  the Old Man Gower) Mother returned to Japan
  (clue p. 20 )
• 1941Dec. Pearl Harbor
• 1942 Moving to Slocan, BC
• 1945-- the bombing of Nagasaki
• 1950 Fathers death
• 1951--moved to Granton, Alberta
• (minor episodes drowning, chicken killed by
  school boys kitten in an outhouse, nightmares,
  etc.)

19
Stages of Reconstructions

• 1954--the first visit to the coulee (p. 2????)
  the grass treated as sea waves
• 1972August, last visit to the coulee Aunt
  Emilys visit with a package of documents and
  newspaper clips.
• 1972 9/13 narrative present --Uncles death

20
Naomis Racial Identities and her Aunts

• Naomi--sansei--spinster, tense (2 7),
• Obasan--issei
• language of grief--silence (3 14)
• ancient accepting death
• live with the past (311, 14-16 5 25-26 ),
• Emily--nisei
• energetic, visionary (2 8),
• word warrior (32), white blood cells (34)
• different from Obasan (7 32) from Uncle and
  Naomi (35-36) /
• Canadian identity--This is my own, my native
  land

21
Naomis two Aunts

• How different my two aunts are. One Emily lives
  in sound, the otherObasan in stone. Obasan's
  language remains deeply underground but Aunt
  Emily, . . . , is a word warrior. She's a
  crusader, a little old grey-haired Mighty Mouse,
  a Bachelor of Advanced Activists and General
  Practitioner of Just Causes. (32)
• ? Two endings one poetic reconciliation, the
  other, a political document

22
Race Naomis sense of her Japanese family

• Intimate beyond language
• Mother--yasashi on the photo -- Mother is a
  fragile presence. Her face is oval as an egg and
  delicate. She wears a collarless
  straight-up-and-down dress and a long string of
  pearls. (19)
• Momotaro (???) behave with honor, familys
  lovea Canadian story.
• ? recollection p. 242 43

23
Naomis experience of racism

• In the past Old Man Gowers sexual harassment
• In the present Where are you from? An
  ice-breaker question that shows the ice.
• In childhood expressed thru fairy-tales and
  animals she projects herself to.

24
Naomis Responses

• Fails to understand (A riddle end of Chap 12)
  fear Chap 13 (73)
• Sense of guilt Old Man Gower (end of Chap 11)
• Nightmares chaps 6 11 20 22, 35
• As a grown-up the three Oriental women a
  soldier with a beast commanding a couple to work
  
• (end of chap 20)
• Nightmare (chap 22)
• Tense in the present

25
Childrens Responses (3) Naomis (2) as a
victim identification with animals

• In Slocan
• Quiet (chap 21)
• Naomi as a victim,
• like a red insect chap 21,p. 140, 142
  King bird
• little yellow chicken vs. white fairies chap 22
• Her guilt over the deaths of little chicken(chap
  22) The kitten in the outhouse (end of chap 22)

26
Naomis experience of racism expression thru
fairy tales and of fragmentation

• e.g. Being harrassed by a white Canadian old man
  (Old Man Gower)
• ?I am Snow White in the forest, unable to run.
  He is the forest full of eyes and arms. . . .
• ? In the center of my body is a rift.
• ? Mother separated from her by the chasm.
• The Other Responses to the changes thru
  Fairy-Tales
• The houses being taken Goldilock vs. the
  little bear (chap 17)
• Humpty Dumpty (chap 15) fall into pieces

27
Fragmentation Survival
Beginning of Chap 15 (leaving for Slocan )

• We are the hammers and chisels in the hands of
  would be sculptors, battering the spirit of the
  sleeping mountain. We are the chips and sand,
  the fragments of fragments that fly like arrows
  from the heart of the rock. We are the silences
  that speak from stone. We are the despised. . .
  
• We are those pioneers who cleared the bush and
  the forest with our hands, the gardeners tending
  and attending the soil with our tenderness . . .

28
Three ways of dealing with memories

• Obasan ancient woman who stays in history
• --can be consumed,
• --can make use of the leftovers
• Emily The past is the future p. 42
• Naomi Crimes of history . . . Can stay in
  history p. 41

29
Identity and Repression of History

• Aunt Emily to Naomi "You have to remember," Aunt
  Emily said. "You are your history. If you cut any
  of it off you're an amputee. Don't deny the past.
  Remember everything. If you're bitter, be bitter.
  Cry it out! Scream! Denial is gangrene." (49-50)

30
Trauma and Memory Silence and Speech

• How is trauma endured by grandmother and mother?
• What are the functions of the two letters? How
  are they read?
• How does Noami respond to them?
• What do you think of these imagery--the child
  with the double wound (243) the letters as
  skeletons and bones of the past (38 243)?
• Why does Kogawa end the novel with an official
  document?

31
Grandmothers letter

• A contrast between family togetherness and the
  deaths afterwards in Tokyo and Nagasaki.
• The moment of bombing taken with
  incomprehension fell into what seems like a
  dream.
• Never mentions her own wound
• Cannot help the others but only the two children
  
• The Mother burning a dead childs body while
  she herself is naked.
• No return address.

32
Letters as release

• --for Grandma Kato--however much the effort to
  forget, there is no forgetfulness (281)--release
  the burden of memory with writing (283)--the
  reader as burden sharer
• Prefaced with Everybody someday dies (231)
• (232-33)-- for the relatives and pastor (Sensei)
  read with care many times, keeping them from the
  children (for the sake of children)

33
The letters beginning of silent communication
for Naomi

• The novels preface on silence --
• There is a silence that cannot speak.
• There is a silence that will not speak.
• Beneath the grass the speaking dreams and beneath
  the dreams is a sensate sea. The speech that
  frees comes forth from that amniotic deep. To
  attend its voice, I can hear it say, is to
  embrace its absence. But I fail the task. The
  word is stone.
• I admit it.

(sensate related to senses amniotic ??)
34
The novels preface on silence (2)

• I hate the stillness. I hate the stone. I hate
  the sealed vault with its cold icon. I hate the
  staring into the night. The questions thinning
  into space. The sky swallowing the echoes.
• Unless the stone bursts with telling, unless the
  seed flowers with speech, there is in my life no
  living word. The sound I hear is only sound.
  White sound. Words, when they fall, are pockmarks
  on the earth. They are hailstones seeking an
  underground stream.
• If I could follow the stream down and down to the
  hidden voice, would I come at last to the freeing
  word? I ask the night sky but the silence is
  steadfast. There is no reply

Hailstone ??
35
Naomis responses

• A. Attentive What is it?
• 233 the rain
• 239 After the reading, her skin hungry for
  warmth, for flesh.
• B. Listen to her mother Sanseis suggestion ?
• 240 --for Naomi--attending the voice of the
  voicelessness--an eulogy of Mother
• C. speak to mother (In chap 38)
• asserting her Canadian identity 241
• feeling her hardship and influence from Alberta
  in a surreal manner 241-42
• D. Starts her search for flesh for dormant
  blooms and love with the letters as bones

36
Naomis responses (2) Active Reconstruction of
Love

• remembering--personal memorial service to the
  dead (Mother, Father, Uncle--all the absences)
• re-membering? last community 244 ?
• Understanding Obasan and her love with Uncle p.
  245
• But she still feels the gentle touch of Grief
• Direct address to her dead family a communion in
  the forest through picking berries with their
  help, and reading their forest braille.

37
Naomis responses (3) Active Reconstruction of
Love

• -- another act of constructing her community
• Visit the coulee in Aunt Emilys coat
• To do what Uncle used to do
• To smell fragrance of her mother.

38
Silence (1) a means of communication in the
family

• e.g. the mothers response in Naomis chicken
  episode
• Care taking in the family (chap 10)
• ? Naomis lack of resistance to Old Man Gower
• ? learns of danger only as whispers and frowns
  and too much gentleness (13 73)
• father's illness, his coming back, and departure
  166, 171, 179

39
Silence (2) for the sake of children

• Obasan's silence
• Live in stone (p. 32) turns to stone (198)
• Endurance chap 34 -- 224 (inviolate) 226
• ? Trapped in her memory

40
Silence (3) no more inquisition

• mother's silence the avenues of silence are the
  avenues of speech 228 233
• silence and forbearance of the atomic bomb
  victims 236
• ? lost together in our silences 243
• ? silent communion with the dead unity and
  distance at the end 246-47

41
Official Document Aunt Emilys

• write the vision Language and make it plain
• Her documents as the minds meal (chap 27) her
  words not made flesh, not touch N in Alberta
  (end of chap 27)
• Pushing Naomi to talk about facts chap 27 pp.
  183 -

42
Kogawas own experience

• 1. 1960s -- Not asserting her Japanese identity
  first I would see myself as white. I wrote as
  a white person. I wrote, in fact, in a male
  voice initially. In that sense I was a mimic, I
  read and I wrote what I read.

43
Kogawas own experience

• 2. the writing of "Obasan"
• But even at that point, I was not thinking
  particularly of writing about Japanese-Canadians,
  I was simply writing out of my own life and
  writing it in some of the way I wrote poetry. .
  . .
• 3. at the Archives, though, in Ottawa,
• that's when I became aware of another voice
  that I was not conscious of being within
  me--Muriel Kitagawa's voice. To me, it was a
  voice from the outside, . . .. So Aunt Emily's
  voice was always outside of me throughout the
  entire writing of Obasan.

44
Kogawas own experience

• 4. after writing Obasan writing Itsuka
• the Naomi character -- the way I used to be--got
  more and more transformed, and the Aunt Emily
  voice came out. I found myself being more like
  Aunt Emily. And I think in Itsuka I was much
  more like Emily though still writing in Naomis
  perspective. . .

45
A brief conclusion

• Trauma
• not re-presentable a wound that cries only too
  late.
• real survival means understanding and action
• Representation of Trauma
• motivation and effects.

46
Next Time

• Different Views on and Representation of Trauma
• 110901 September 11
• ??? by ???
• Please finishes the article on Hiroshima, mon
  amour.

47
Reference

• Joy Kogawa Talks to Karlyn Koh The
  Heart-of-the-Matter Questions." The Other Woman
  Women of Colour in Contemporary Canadian
  Literature. Ed. Makeda Silvera. Toronto Black
  Women and Women of Colour P, 1995. 19-41.