I have an assignment in my Postcolonial Comparative Religions class to compare the experiences of the victims of Hiroshima to the grid of oppression that we were given in class. Here is the grid:
- Exploitation
- Marginalization
- Powerlessness
- Cultural Imperialism
- Violence
- Ecological Injustice
I have just finished the book Hiroshima; here are my initial thoughts.
There are two possible levels of oppression going on here. The first is the most obvious, the conquerors to the conquered. Secondly, there is the hibakusha (those affected by the A-Bomb) being ostracized by the non-hibakusha. Oddly enough, the second level is where I found the most injustice. It seemed that the conquerors felt horrible for the victims of their aggression and were trying to make up for it in the rest of the book.
Exploitation - the only real exploitation that I found in the reading was the GI’s use of prostitutes during the occupation and Korean War and perhaps Mr. Cousins constantly going over the head of Tanimoto in his efforts to establish a peace center. Other than that, I did not see a lot of exploitation going on in the book.
Marginalization - Again, I did not get a real sense of marginalization from the Americans to the Japanese. There is however a lot of marginalization by the non-hibakushas towards the hibakushas.
Powerlessness - The hibakushas had almost everything ripped from them by the A-bomb. Their health, their family, their dignity, their livelihood, their memories - all of it was scared by the bomb. It took years and years for those that attained happiness to grasp it again.
Violence - here is an interesting one. Aside from the violence of the A-bomb itself, and the inital looting in its aftermath, there was not a whole lot of violence at all, on either level.
Ecological injustice - Again, I am not sure on how to answer. Going solely on the book’s account, it seemed that there was not a whole lot of ecological fallout besides the initial violence of the explosion. I am thinking mainly of the lingering radiation and its effects on the environment. The Japanese scientists cleared the city for human repopulation mere days after the attack. That was surprising to me. Now, with that said, the damage was done in a city, a place where the ecology is already unnatural. So, again, I am not sure that the ecological damage was that great. Perhaps this is because the bomb was not nearly as powerful and the weaponry we have today.
With these levels of oppression, there are corresponding levels of freedom. For the six surviving hibakushas that Hiroshima follows, there was an extraordinary level of obtained freedom. They responded to their plight in an amazing way. Each of them forged ahead and was wildly successful at what they ended up doing. Against the odds, they carved a place for themselves. That is what I took from the book was the tenacity of the human spirit in the face of unspeakable horror.