Migration and Memory: Revisiting the narratives of post-war hibakusha immigrants

Abstract

The end of the Second World War pushed individuals from Japan to migrate to other countries driven by their traumatic experiences of the war and its aftermath. Among them are the hibakusha—victim-survivors of the atomic bomb—who fled Hiroshima and Nagasaki after 1945. These post-war hibakusha immigrants sought a new life in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States, while some also became return migrants to their homeland in Korea. Migration posed new challenges for the post-war hibakusha immigrants due to both their status as migrants and their history as victims of nuclear warfare. As they continued to share narratives of their war experience, they also confronted their identity as migrants in a country which might bear a bitter history with Japan. This research looks into the narratives by post-war hibakusha immigrants as they appear in online collections like Hibakusha Stories and the archives of Asahi Shimbun dedicated to hibakusha narratives: So Tell Me About Hiroshima and Notes from Nagasaki. It analyzes how the hibakusha’s personal history as victim-survivors intersect with their identity as immigrants and thus shape their narratives of the war and their view of Japan and their country of migration. It argues that efforts of hibakusha activism promote new opportunities and directions for dialogue about the war and its global impact.