"Victim's History"
Forays into other countries, such as Korea and China, have seen the Japanese dominate and subjugate foreign lands for their own acquisition. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea and ruled it as a dependency of the Japanese Empire until Japan’s defeat in World War II in 1945. Furthermore, near the end of 1937, Japanese troops massacred, raped, and looted tens of thousands of Chinese citizens in what has come to be known as the Rape of Nanking. These inquests, which have since failed, have strained Japanese relationships in Asia; the troubles persist even in 2017.
Certainly, Japan is not unique in its efforts to expand; however, it has been the postwar response to these efforts, particularly visible in popular culture, which has been of interest. Since 1945, the popular culture of Japan has seen the distinct trend of a historical revisionist point of view in regard to pre-World War II Japanese aggression. This new take on their history, dubbed a “victim’s history” by Susan Napier, characterizes a softer, weaker Japan:
…the Japanese version of World War II may generally be described as a “victim’s history,” in which the Japanese people were seen as helpless victims of a corrupt and evil conspiracy between their government and military. This “victim’s history” is partly due to the collaborative American-Japanese efforts under the Occupation to create an image of a postwar democratic Japan that would free the Japanese from an inescapable fascist and militarist past. By shifting the burden of responsibility for a devastating war on the military and the government, it was felt that the slate could be wiped clean and Japan could undertake the task of rebuilding, liberated from the dark shadows of war guilt and recrimination.
Whereas this stance might seem common following such a decisive defeat, the fascinating fact is the persistence of this position even into the post-modern era. Examples of this “victim’s history” can be seen in countless pop culture materials.
Two of the most famous examples of this attitude are Grave of the Fireflies and Barefoot Gen. By focusing on the plights of children during war, it forces the audience to empathize with the children against the “monster” that is the war itself. All adversity is due to the war, which is out of the protagonists’ control and they cannot bear any of the blame for what happens to them. This is not a denial of Japanese involvement in the war, but rather overlooking it to focus on the struggles the Japanese endured.
This phenomenon is also pervasive outside of popular culture. Traditionally, Japanese history books and courses on Japanese history avoid a detailed examination of pre-1945 Japanese aggression, and accounts of events such as the Rape of Nanking are abridged. This dearth of explicit knowledge serves to promote the “victim’s history” standpoint among the populace.
Further Reading
Chotiner, Isaac. "How Narratives of World War II Differ in Japan and the U.S." Slate Magazine. Slate Group LLC., 11 May 2016. Web.
Glosserman, Brad, and Scott A. Snyder. The Japan-South Korea Identity Clash: East Asian Security and the United States. Columbia University Press, 2015. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/glos17170.
Sedgwick, James Burnham. “Memory on Trial: Constructing and Contesting the 'Rape of Nanking' at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1946-1948.” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 43, no. 5, 2009, pp. 1229–1254. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40285010.
