is a

literary genre A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from more abstract, encompassing classes, which are then further sub-divided i ...

in Japanese literature which comprises writings about the

atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...

Definition

The term "atomic bomb literature" came into wide use in the 1960s. Writings affiliated with the genre can include diaries, testimonial or documentary accounts, and fictional works like poetry, dramas, prose writings or

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

about the bombings and their aftermath. There are broadly three generations of atomic bomb writers. The first, made up of actual survivors of the bombings, who wrote of their own experiences, includes Yōko Ōta,

Tamiki Hara was a Japanese writer and survivor of the bombing of Hiroshima, known for his works in the atomic bomb literature genre. Biography Hara was born in Hiroshima in 1905. In his early years, he was an introverted personality who suffered from anxi ...

Shinoe Shōda was a Japanese poet and author known for her atomic bomb literature. Biography Shōda was born in Etajima, Hiroshima, Etajima in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1910. Around 1920 her family moved to Ujina, Japan, Ujina, just outside Hiroshima, and in 19 ...

, and

Sankichi Tōge was a Japanese poet, activist, and survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Biography He was born Mitsuyoshi Tōge in Osaka as the youngest son of Ki'ichi Tōge, a successful manufacturer of bricks. From the start Tōge was a sickly child, s ...

. The second, who wrote about the bomb addressing both individual and broader social and political issues it raises, includes Yoshie Hotta, Momo Iida,

Kenzaburō Ōe is a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues, i ...

Masuji Ibuse was a Japanese author. His most notable work is the novel '' Black Rain''. Early life and education Ibuse was born in 1898 to a landowning family in the village of , which is now part of Fukuyama, Hiroshima. Ibuse failed his entrance exam to ...

, Ineko Sata and the early

Mitsuharu Inoue was a Japanese writer of novels, short stories, poetry and essays, who has been associated with Japanese postwar literature and the Atomic bomb literature genre. Biography Inoue was born in 1926 as the son of a pottery manufacturer. While Ino ...

. The third, whose writing looks into the past and the future in a post-nuclear world, includes

Kōbō Abe , pen name of , was a Japanese writer, playwright, musician, photographer, and inventor. He is best known for his 1962 novel '' The Woman in the Dunes'' that was made into an award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often bee ...

Makoto Oda was a Japanese novelist, peace activist, academic and ''Time'' Asian Hero. Early life and career Oda was born in Osaka in 1932 and graduated from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Letters program, majoring in classical Greek philosophy and li ...

, and the latter Inoue. Yōko Ōta's short story ''Katei no yō na hikari'' ("A light as if from the depths") was published on 30 August 1945 in the ''Asahi Shimbun'', making it the first published literary text on the atomic bomb. The following month, by directive of the

Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the United States-led Allied occupation of Japan following World War II. It issued SCAP Directives (alias SCAPIN, SCAP Index Number) to the Japanese government, aiming to suppress its "milit ...

, the censorship of topics like the atomic bomb in the media came into operation, with the effect that books dealing with this topic, like a poetry collection of

Sadako Kurihara was a Japanese poet who lived in Hiroshima and survived the atomic bombing during World War II. She is best known for her poem ''Umashimenkana'' (''Bringing Forth New Life''). Biography Kurihara was born Doi Sadako in Hiroshima city as the secon ...

or Yōko Ōta's novel ''City of Corpses'', initially appeared only in abridged form. In 1983,

Holp Shuppan is a publishing company headquartered in Misaki-cho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of GAIA Holdings Corporation. , the company has published children’s books and sold reference works. The name is an acronym for "Home Library Production" ...

published the 15 volume edition ''Nihon no Genbaku Bungaku'' (日本の原爆文学, lit. "Japanese Atomic Bomb Literature"), which contained fictional and nonfictional writings by the most prominent exponents of the genre. Essays on the

Red Circle Authors Red Circle Authors is a British publishing house based in London that specialises in Japanese fiction. Origins Red Circle Authors was set up in 2016, by Richard Nathan and Koji Chikatani, to showcase Japan’s best creative writing. The Gutai ...

website also included works by non-Japanese authors in the atomic bomb literature cycle, like

John Hersey John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to n ...

's ''

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

'', which was originally published in ''The New Yorker'' in 1946. Still, anthologies like ''Nihon no Genbaku Bungaku'' or ''The Crazy Iris and Other Stories of the Atomic Aftermath'' are confined solely to Japanese writers.

Selected works

* Ōta Yōko (大田洋子): ''Kaitei no yō na hikari'' (海底のような光, short story published in ''Asahi Shinbun'', 1945) * Sadako Kurihara: ''

Bringing Forth New Life is a poem by Sadako Kurihara written in August 1945 in Hiroshima after the city's atomic bombing.NHK ...

'' (poem, 1946) * Tamiki Hara: ''

Summer Flower , also translated as ''Summer Flowers'', is a short story by Japanese writer Tamiki Hara first published in 1947. It depicts the bombing of Hiroshima and its immediate aftermath, which Hara had experienced in person. It is regarded as one of ...

'' (short story, 1947) * Shinoe Shōda: ''Sange'' (poetry collection, 1947) * Yōko Ōta: ''City of Corpses'' (novel, 1948) * Tamiki Hara: ''

The Land of Heart's Desire ''The Land of Heart's Desire'' is a play by Irish poet, dramatist, and 1923 Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats. First performed in the spring of 1894, at the Avenue Theatre in London, where it ran for a little over six weeks,Yeats, William Butl ...

'' (short story, 1951) * Sankichi Tōge: ''Poems of the Atomic Bomb'' (poetry collection, 1951) * Masuji Ibuse: ''The Crazy Iris'' (short story, 1951) * Yōko Ōta: ''Ningen ranru'' (novel, 1951) * Yōko Ōta: ''Fireflies'' (short story, 1953) * Yōko Ōta: ''

Han ningen is a 1954 autobiographical novel in the Atomic bomb literature genre by Japanese writer Yōko Ōta. It follows a writer who, suffering from anxiety states due to her experiences as a survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the possibili ...

'' (novel, 1954) * Mitsuharu Inoue: ''

The House of Hands is a 1960 short story in the atomic bomb literature genre by Japanese writer Mitsuharu Inoue. It depicts the fate of a group of young women who survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and grew up as orphans on a small island inhabited by descen ...

'' (short story, 1960) * Mitsuharu Inoue: ''Kyokō no kurēn'' (novel, 1960) * Ineko Sata: ''The Colorless Paintings'' (short story, 1961) *

Hiroko Takenishi is a Japanese fiction writer and literary critic. Takenishi is best known for her semi-autobiographical short story "The Rite" (1963), which tells of her experience surviving the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Atomic Bombing of Hirosh ...

: ''The Rite'' (short story, 1963) * Yoshie Hotta: ''Shinpan'' (novel, 1963) * Masuji Ibuse: '' Black Rain'' (novel, 1965) * Kenzaburō Ōe: ''Hiroshima Notes'' (essay collection, 1965) * Momo Iida: ''Amerika no eiyu'' (novel, 1965) * Katsuzō Oda: ''Human Ashes'' (short story, 1966) * Takehiko Fukunaga: ''Shi no shima'' (novel, 1971) * Taijun Takeda: ''Daiichi no botan'' (short story, 1971) * Minako Gotō: ''Toki o hiku'' (short story, 1971) * Ineko Sata: ''Juei'' (novel, 1972) *

Keiji Nakazawa was a Japanese manga artist and writer. Biography Nakazawa was born March 14, 1939 Naka-ku, Hiroshima, Japan and was in the city when it was Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, destroyed by an atomic bomb in August 1945. Most of his famil ...

: ''

Barefoot Gen is a Japanese historical manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. Loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor, the series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen Nakaoka lives wi ...

'' (manga series, 1973–1987) *

Kyōko Hayashi was a Japanese writer associated with the Atomic Bomb Literature genre. Biography Hayashi was born in Nagasaki and spent the years from 1931 to 1945 with her family in Shanghai. She returned to Nagasaki in 1945 and enrolled in Nagasaki Girls' Hig ...

: ''Ritual of Death'' (short story, 1975) * Kyōko Hayashi: ''The Empty Can'' (short story, 1978) * Makoto Oda: ''H: A Hiroshima Novel'' (novel, 1980)

Definition

Selected works

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

See also