Listening to the Murmur of Voices in the Hiroshima Memoryscape

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  • 被爆を語る言葉の隙間 : <被爆者>の誕生と「被爆体験記」の始まりから
  • 被爆を語る言葉の隙間--〈被爆者〉の誕生と「被爆体験記」の始まりから
  • ヒバク オ カタル コトバ ノ スキマ ヒバクシャ ノ タンジョウ ト ヒバク タイケンキ ノ ハジマリ カラ

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Abstract

In this paper, I delineate the discursive processes through which the medico-legal discourses produce the subject position of "hibakusha" [atom-bomb survivors] and how these discourses regulate the way hibakusha can speak of their own experiences. Furthermore, I analyze how silence has been produced in the Hiroshima memoryscape, by paying particular attention to the way in which hibakusha testimonial texts are interpreted as an "outcry for peace." Spatial and temporal proximity to the location and moment of the atomic explosion, which is thought to correspond to the probability of developing a radiation-caused illness, functions as the most critical factor in determining whether one is qualified legally as a "hibakusha." Distance from the hypocenter serves as a powerful normative code, not only in positioning oneself as a "hibakusha," but also in authorizing one's status as an "authentic" testimonial subject who is able to give an account of the atom bomb experience. In addition, the individual who speaks of his/her atom-bomb experience is produced as a "witness for peace." Through the textual analysis of two canonical texts, Genbaku Taikenki [Witnesses' Accounts of the Atomic Bombing] and Genbaku no Ko [Children of the Atomic Bomb], I attempt to show that if a hibakusha does not take on the speaking position of a "witness for peace," their enunciation is silenced through the discursive use of power.

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