Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-7l9ct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-08T16:08:29.962Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fiction from Unstable Ground: The Imagination of Disaster in the Aftermath of the Kantō Earthquake

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Alex Bates
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This essay explores two different approaches to disaster found in fiction following the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923: trauma and differential vulnerability.

Keywords

fictiontraumavulnerabilitydisasterGreat Kantō Earthquake
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 21 , Issue 8 , September 2023 , e3
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2023

References

Aono, S., 1996. “Shakai no genjitsu to shisō to,” in: Kūm, P. (Ed.), Chōsenjin gyakusatsu ni kansuru chishikijin no hannō. Rokuin Shobō, Tokyo, pp. 9–12.Google Scholar
Bates, A., 2015. The Culture of the Quake: The Great Kantō Earthquake and Taishō Japan. Center for Japanese Studies/The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Bates, A., 2010. “Authentic suffering, anxious narrator: survivor anxiety in Nagata Mikihiko's ‘The Wild Dance of the Flames.’” Japan Forum 22(3-4), 357–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2010.534724CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clerici, N., 2016. “Madness, mystery, and abnormality in the writing of Yumeno Kyūsaku.” Japan Forum 28, 439–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eiga Suzume no tojimari kōshiki, 2022. Twitter, 8 April. Available at: https://twitter.com/suzume_tojimari/status/1512566053003431942 (Accessed 24 August 2023).Google Scholar
Fujimori, S., 2003. “Nogaretaru hitobito,” in: Kamei H. (Ed.), Hennentai Taishō Bungaku Zenshū. Yumani Shobō, pp. 11–52.Google Scholar
Fujisawa, M., ed., 1926. The Great Earthquake of 1923 in Japan. Naimushō-Shakaikyoku.Google Scholar
Haga, K., 2019. The Earth Writes: The Great Earthquake and the Novel in Post-3/11 Japan. Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Hara, T., 1990. “Summer Flowers,” in: Minear, R.H. (Ed.), Hiroshima: Three Witnesses. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, pp. 45–60. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv346qxq.10CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasegawa, K., 2022. “The 8 p.m. Battle Cry: The 1923 Earthquake and the Korean Sawagi in Central Tokyo.” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 20 (12) no. 4. https://apjjf.org/2022/12/Hasegawa.htmlGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, S., Oliver-Smith, A., 2002. “Catastrophe & Culture: The Anthropology of Disaster,” School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series. James Currey, Oxford.Google Scholar
Kikuchi, K., 1923. “Saigo zakkan.” Chūō kōron 38, 116–119.Google Scholar
Kimura, S., 2022. Theorizing Post-Disaster Literature in Japan: Revisiting the Literary and Cultural Landscape after the Triple Disasters. Lexington Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimura, S., 2013. Shinsai-go bungakuron: Atarashii Nihon bungaku no tame ni. Seidosha.Google Scholar
Masamune, H., 2003. “Tanin no saigai,” in: Hennentai Taishō Bungaku Zenshū. Yumani Shobō, pp. 53–69.Google Scholar
Morton, L., 2019. The Writing of Disaster: Literary Representations of War, Trauma and Earthquakes in Modern Japan. Peter Lang, Berlin.Google Scholar
Murakami, H., 2002. after the quake. Vintage International, New York.Google Scholar
Nagata, M., 1923. Daichi wa furū. Shun'yōdō, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Napier, S.J., 1993. “Panic Sites: The Japanese Imagination of Disaster from Godzilla to Akira.” Journal of Japanese Studies 19 no. 2, 327–351. https://doi.org/10/2307/132643Google Scholar
Rosbrow, T., 2012. “Murakami's After the Quake—The Writer as Waking Dreamer and Trauma Analyst.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues 22 (2), 215–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481885.2012.666161CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryang, S., 2007. “The Tongue That Divided Life and Death. The 1923 Tokyo Earthquake and the Massacre of Koreans.” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 5. https://apjjf.org/-Sonia-Ryang/2513/article.htmlGoogle Scholar
Sontag, S., 1966. “The Imagination of Disaster,” in: Against Interpretation, and Other Essays. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, pp. 209–225.Google Scholar
Suzume no tojimari, 2022. Shinkai M. (Dir.). Toho.Google Scholar
Tayama, K., 1923. “Taikai no ichizoku.” Sandē Mainichi 2, 3–5, 23.Google Scholar
Togawa, S., 1989. “Shinsai ibun,” in: Unno, H., Kawamoto, S., Suzuki, S. (Eds.), Modan Tōkyō Annai. Heibonsha, Tokyo, pp. 314–328.Google Scholar
Winkel Holm, I., 2012. “The Cultural Analysis of Disaster,” in: Veel, K., Meiner, C. (Eds.), The Cultural Life of Catastrophes and Crises. De Gruyter, Inc., Berlin/Boston, pp. 15–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar