Nanzan University
Abstract
This study examines the way in which Tokyo has exploited the atomic
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a symbolic means of inducing post-war
Japanese collective identity. To consider an effort on Tokyo’s part to integrate A-bomb
memories into the country’s victim consciousness rather than to overcome the past, the
study compares the A-bombed cities written with different Japanese forms, the peace
parks, and the peace memorials. It also analyses the news coverage by two national
daily papers on the A-bomb memorial days. By doing so, the study shows how the
nation has been guided in its memory by the government.
