Japan and World War II
As the war raged on, Japan’s position grew dire. Spurred by unrivaled nationalism, the Empire of Japan fought tooth and nail on each front. Nevertheless, the average citizen of Japan was starving and enduring a near endless onslaught of firebombing. Indeed, more people were killed and more damage to property was sustained due to the extensive firebombing than the atomic bombs.
With indomitable spirit, the Japanese continued to fight the war. In response to this, the United States dropped the first atomic weapon on the city of Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. on the morning of August 6, 1945. What followed is what some describe as a living hell. In addition to the physical destruction of the bomb, the resulting fires, and irradiated “black rain,” the lingering radiation would kill tens of thousands of people. Those exposed to the bomb, called hibakusha, would assume a special place in Japanese society, for better or worse.
On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, which led to the ultimate surrender of Japan on August 15 after a public declaration by the emperor of Japan.
Subsequently, Japan was occupied by Allied forces who helped to rebuild the country, but would have a profound effect on the future of the Japanese. The Japanese government and schooling system was restructured to more closely match a democratic Western model. Furthermore, the divine nature of the emperor (a lineage that can supposedly be traced back to the sun goddess, Amaterasu), was denied in the Humanity Declaration on January 1, 1946. Japan was, officially, no longer a nation led by a living god.
While postwar Japan saw a period of incredible resurgence on the world stage, the mindset of the Japanese people had been irrevocably changed. With every advancement (women’s rights, technology, etc.) came an increasing sense of bitterness and apprehension toward the government and military which had led them to this point. During this postwar boom, the industry of comic books and animation began to grow.
In a rigid society where the expectation is that the individual is lesser than the community, it can be difficult to express one’s anxieties. Thus did comics and animation become one of the major tools for the Japanese to express themselves without public censure.
