A Study On Postwar Japanese Writers’ Manchurian Writing From The Perspective Of Memory Literature

The famous Japanese literary researcher and critic Kawamura Minato once pointed out that "Even till this day,the overseas experience featured by constant moves and returns still constitutes the most fundamental initial experience of Japanese citizens."At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century,Japanese militarism expanded its ambitions for foreign aggrandizement.Japanese citizens also began to migrate from Japan to overseas countries,especially to China,Korea,and Southeast Asia.The "Manchukuo" is the biggest colony in China concocted by Japanese Imperialism and the main overseas migration area of Japanese people.However,after Japan’s defeat in 1945,the Japanese people had to return to Japan from mainland China,the Korean Peninsula,and Southeast Asia.The ambitious "migration"and the embarrassing "backwards-migration" form a sharp contrast and construct a turbulent history of blood and tears and an unforgettable memory of modern Japanese immigrants.After WWII,a batch of literary works including poems,novels,and memoirs that record and reflect the immigration stories in the particular historical period,began to emerge in Japan.Among these literary works,the "memory literature" constitutes a unique landscape,which takes the real experience in "Manchuria" as the background,and the "personal memory" as clues.While truly reproducing the social reality of the"Manchukuo" from diverse perspectives,the "memory literature" also reveals the deceptiveness of the so-called "five ethnic groups coexist in harmony" and the"benevolent paradise" propagated by the Japanese government.The intertwined reality,fiction,mingling and dislocation in "memory”also brought a layer of "literariness" to"Manchurian writing".In the meantime,the author’s "personal memory" is also presented as the "collective memory" of the Japanese people,with the profound connotation of "cultural memories".At this point,the "Manchurian memory literature"can be described as the continuation of Japanese Showa literature;based on its characteristics of "colonial literature" in essence,it can also be investigated as a part of the "world literature".This paper is based on the standpoint of "memory literature".More specifically,it takes the "memory poetics" as the core,Pierre Nora’s "Realms of Memory" theory and Jan Assman’s "Cultural Memory" theory as the theoretical basis.The research objects are the "Manchuria memory literature",including Mizukami Tsutomu’s Children(1979),Shenyang’s Moon(1986),Kiyooka Takayuki’s Acacia and Dalian(1969),The Time of Sprouting Yellow(1971),Abe Kobo’s Landmark(1948),Wild Beasts Rushing Home(1957),Miki Taku’s After the Bombardment(1971),The Oriole(1972),and The Wilderness(1972),and other series of works.This study combines the authors’autobiographies and literary reviews,especially the related literature of "Manchuria",it adopts the methods of text interpretation,empirical literature,and comparative research to explore the "truth" and "fiction" presented in the "Manchurian Memory"written by the four writers and to reveal further the fundamental motivation and true intentions of "Manchuria" writing.The first chapter(Introduction)first elaborates on the origin of the research.On the one hand,the study is based on the Japanese spiritual world reflected from the"original experience" of "migration" and "backward-migration" of the Japanese people;on the other hand,it is also based on the fact that the "Manchurian memory literature"has broken the boundaries of "Japanese literature" and established a new arena of"world literature".Then,this study sorts out and reviews the preliminary research in Japan and China,on which basis it clarifies the research theme,fundamental standpoint,core content,and research methods of this thesis.The second chapter takes Shenyang’s Moon and Small Coolies by Mizukami Tsutomu as the research objects and discusses the "colonial memory" revealed in the author’s novels.Firstly,from the cross-cultural perspective,this chapter re-examines and sorts out Mizukami Tsutomu’s changing identity and position in the historical torrent.Secondly,it pays attention to the early research and version changes of the novel "Shenyang’s Moon".Based on this,and centering on the two major themes of"female image" and "metaphorical expression",this chapter analyzes the female group as "mirror images" and the "metaphorical" narrative in the gender writing of this book.Thirdly,this chapter pays attention to "children’s image" and "coolies’image" in"Children" and reveals the fact that the Chinese people were oppressed by the Japanese invaders on the land of "Manchuria";at the same time,it also clarifies the author’s sense of "redemption" hidden under the narrative consciousness.Chapter three takes Kiyooka Takayuki’s Acacia and Dalian and The Time of Sprouting Yellow as the research objects to unfold the "Youth Memory" of the author.First of all,from the "urban space" perspective,this chapter sorts out the relationship between Kiyooka Takayuki ’s life trajectory and literary creation and the "international city" Dalian.Secondly,focusing on the work of Acacia and Dalian and centering on the three themes of "war context","melancholy philosophy",and "acacia" presented in the novel,this chapter attempts to restore the "external context" of Dalian as a "colonial"in Takayuki Kiyooka’s writings.It explores the "inner dialogue" between the protagonist and the "hometown" Dalian to seek the clue of the "youth memory" of Kiyooka Takayuki.Thirdly,focusing on the novel The Time of Sprouting Yellow,this chapter explores the three fantasy objects of "Lucia","place name",and "horse thief"to present the "youth fantasy" in correspondence with the "youth memory" in Japanese colony,and to reveal the "colonial framework" that the Japanese teenagers cannot escape.The fourth chapter takes Abe Kobo’s Wild Beasts Rushing Home and Landmark as the research objects and discusses the "escape memory" in the works of Abe Kobo.First,from the cross-border perspective,this chapter tries to sort out the early life trajectory of Abe Kobo across the national border and the profound influence of the"Manchuria" cryptomnesia on Abe Kobo literature.Secondly,centering on the two themes of "journey of escape" and "journey of beatification" in the novel Wild Beasts Rushing Home,this chapter conducts an in-depth analysis of the human nature demonstrated in the situations of defeat,and loss of hometown,and forced fleeing.Third,this chapter combs the previous research and the "memory notes" narrative strategy in the novel "Landmark" and tries to clarify the hidden "hometown memories"in the novel by combining the life experience of Abe Kobo.The fifth chapter takes Miki Taku’s The Oriole,After the Bombardment and The Wilderness as the research objects and discusses the "growth memory" in the novels.First,this chapter attempts to re-examine the "disease experience","war experience",and "escape experience" that Miki Taku experienced in "Manchuria" from a crosscultural perspective.Secondly,centering on the two themes of "Illness Writing" and"The Metaphor of Oriole" in The Oriole,this chapter clarifies the situation of ordinary citizens who were unable to determine their destinies in the context of war and the hidden metaphor that the insignificant figures represented by "the father"can only become a victim of the Japanese government.In this way,it tries to restore the growth trajectory of the youth on the land occupied by the enemies.Third,centering on the two themes of "war narrative" and "disordered space" in the novel After the Bombardment,this chapter restores the chaotic space of "war" and the continuous alternation of the regime from the perspective of a teenager and tries to dig out the hidden political metaphor under the appearance of disorder,to represent the growth of "young" in the"wartime".Fourth,centering on the two themes of "life space" and "dead space" in the novel The Wilderness,and through the spatial flow of the "youth" family,this chapter contrasts "the rancidity of human civilization" with "vibrant nature".In this way,it clarifies that when a place loses the city’s support,people will become small and powerless in the "vacuum of power" "wilderness".Thereby,it tries to sort out the growth trajectory of young people on the road of "escape".In conclusion,based on the standpoint of "memory literature" and taking the literary creations of a group of post-war novelists such as Mizukami Tsutomu,Kiyooka Takayuki,Abe Kobo,and Miki Taku as the research objects,this thesis breaks through a series of contemporary literary categories such as the colonial literature,the wandering Showa literature,and backward migration literature,etc.It redefines them as the literary creation in the context of the war and the arena of historical memories.Meanwhile,the latest research perspectives,including the "Realms of Memory","Cultural Memory" and "Memory Poetics" have also been added,thus opening up a new field of research horizon.There are resonances and interactions between this form of "memory literature" and Western and Chinese literary creation.More importantly,this form of literature represents the life insights and painful reflections of post-war Japanese writers and carries the critical value as a reminder to examine,reshape and learn from the history.Therefore,it is worthy of our in-depth exploration and continuous research,which is also the greatest expectation of this paper.