Research On The Concept Of War And Peace In Japan's Postwar Literature

Japan's postwar literature has made the remarkable achievements ,giving us a profound and comprehensive reflection on war of aggression started by the fascist militarist and the post-war Japanese society.Japan's postwar literature reflects the concept of war and peace which involves both the thorough exposure and criticism of the war and dilution and cover- up of the guilt of the war of aggression. In a very long memory , an integration and mutual contradiction of democratic thinking and radical nationalist thinking exists in the understanding of war and peace in Japan's postwar literature. In the late 20th century, Japanese writers ,represented by the writer Kenzaburo Oe, going beyond their own creativity, transcended the radical nationalist ideology in their woks, showing us the pursuit of the noble theme on world peace.Japan's postwar literature ,promoted by a powerful wave of democratic reform efforts, gradually get rid of the adverse effects of "national policy literature" of the fascist militarism,with a new look, beginning its new development. After war , many literary genre appear in Japan. Many writers have achieved striking success, among them ,Yasunari ,Kawabata and Kenzaburo Oe won the Nobel Literature Prize for Literature in 1968 and in 1994. Japan also won the new world. honorIn the early postwar period, resulted from the disastrous consequences of the war of aggression which was launched by fascist militarism, democratic literature ,the post-war faction literature, rogue faction literature and the third new people faction literature start a reflection on the war, revealing the concept of war and peace ,which undoubtedly has very positive significance for the people to deeply understand the war. These literary genre offers a broad description of the serious physical and psychological harm done to the Japanese people by the war, profoundly exposing and criticizing the brutal authoritarian rule under the fascist militarism , carrying out a detailed display of a barbaric and brutal war, which displayed new features of the postwar Japanese literary development . Japanese literature of this period mainly centers around democratic thinking.With the occupation of institutions and the establishment of the Japan-US security system, Japan has actually become a vassal of the United States and strategic bridgehead .For Japanese writers, nationalist ideology begins its ascend, overlapping with wartime ultra-nationalist ideology and fascist militarist vestiges , and the literary efforts in exposing and criticizing the war of aggression begins to be weakened and transformed. The post-war literature excessively publicizes the idea of "Japan victims"and embodies the "opposition to defeat" , "against failure of a war" and other ideological viewpoints while dealing with the anti-war theme,In Japan's postwar literature , exposing and criticizing the war , advocating "the Japan victims" , "opposition to defeat" and other ideology intertwined together, which has been fully embodied in transforming to experience literature, war experience literature and defeat experience literature. The famous novels such as "Dark Picture", "Vacuum", " the Face of the Red Moon" by Noma Hiroshi , "Prisoners of War", "Fire" by Gang , "the Reed in the Wind " by shihundasan are all the representative works both criticizing , exposing and publicizing the "victim mentality" and conveying "no defeat" thinking . "Atomic bombings Literature"in Japan's post-war literature is unique in the world literature for its unique literary types. It integrates depicting the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which cause the calamities of human hell with exposing the great threat that the nuclear weapons have brought to the human social development , fully demonstrating the Japanese people's hatred and curse to nuclear war and longing and hope for world peace. Literature of the atomic bombings embodies the concept of war and peace in the same way that nationalism has done. It only describes the nuclear bombing suffered by Japanese ,viewing Japan as "victims of the war." The representation of the blast literary works includes "Summer Flowers", "Body Street", "Black Rain", "Shadow" and so on , which artistically approach the enormous destructive power of atomic bomb and nuclear radiation , expressing the hatred to nuclear weapons, which is the representative concept of war and peace in Japan's post-war literature .Postwar literature on resistance involves the reflection from Japanese literature on the occupation structure of Japan and Japan-US security system after World War II . Under the influence of nationalism ideology, Japanese Literature has shown the attitude of resistance to the social realities of U.S. military occupation and to the Japanese society under the Japan-US security system . This involves both realistic conflict and dissatisfaction with the outcome of the defeat, to a certain extent ,reflecting the"no defeat" consciousness.While Japan's postwar literature has exposed and criticized the war and havea positive thinking significance for yearning for peace, it promotes excessive ideology of "Japan victims" and "opposition to defeat". The consequences of advocating "Japan victims" are serious: Firstly, it dilutes, covers up and conceals the crime of aggression of Japanese fascist militarism; Secondly, once Japanese perform as "serious victims" and transmit that view to the countrymen, the Japanese people will become disgusted with the country and people who participate in the anti-fascist struggle ,resulting in an adverse impact on building friendship between people in the Japan and in China , which undercuts the cause of the genuine realization of the Sino-Japanese friendship from generation to generation and the maintenance of peace in East Asia . Thirdly, to promote theory of "Japan victims" will offer an excuse for Japan's ultra-rightist forces and the revival of the fascist ideology of militarism ,then the Japan's post-war road of peaceful development and Japan's peace constitution will be adversely affected. In addition, publicizing the theory of "Japan victims" will also inevitably cause the antipathy from people of countries once suffered from militarist aggression ,which has a negative impact on the international image of Japan.The idea of "no defeat" is harmful in the same way : This ideology is not conducive to deep introspection of culpability for the war of aggression, to a profound understanding of the wars of aggression against humanity, and to the development of the cause of world peace.Kenzaburo Oe, as the representatives of Japan's postwar literary writer, his concept of war and peace experiences a leap from nationalism to the pursuit of peace. In his early period of creation , in his novel "Feeding" and "Cutting the Weak Buds, Removing the Bad Sseeds" ,he describes children's war experience: The war renders adults to become cruel .In the face of the U.S. military occupation, he creates novels such as "Human Sheep ", expressing his resistance to the occupation system by nationalism ideology. For the serious consequences created by atomic bombing in Hiroshima ,he writes a series of works including long essay " Notes on Hiroshima, " profoundly demonstrating the serious physical and psychological harm to Japanese brought about by the atomic bombing, expressing hatred of nuclear weapons and calling for peace; For the Japan-US security system and the United States'establishing military bases in Japan, Kenzaburo Oe creates a long column "Notes on Okinawa," criticizing the Japanese government's security policy which is dependent on the United States, strongly opposing to the U.S. military bases in Okinawa; In the late 20th century, his idea has been further distillated and strong nationalist ideology gradually turns into pursuing the world peace . In a series of his lectures and works , he reveals remorse on Japan's war of aggression , the criticism of nuclear weapons and the fervent calls for world peace. In the postwar Japanese literature, in awareness of war and peace , writers like Kenzaburo Oe who goes beyond thinking of the radical nationalism by the pursuit of world peace are very rare. It can be said that his works on the concept of war and peace are the most active and useful ideological component in the post-war Japanese literature .