Bodies of Anger: Atomic Survivors in Nakazawa Keiji’s Black Series Manga

Abstract

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki stunned clocks across the two cities into stopping dead at 8:15 a.m. and 11:02 a.m., respectively. Today, a number of these timepieces remain as precise if silent witnesses to the unprecedented atrocities of 6 and 9 August 1945. The US bombings also seared the horror indelibly onto the bodies and memories of those who, by some trick of fate, survived. For many years, the challenges of eking out a living and rebuilding their devastated cities while dealing with ongoing illness, injuries, grief, and loss were all-consuming for hibakusha—survivors of the atomic bombings. Pervasive discrimination in Japanese society and censorship during the US occupation of Japan produced a hostile and repressive environment in the immediate postwar era that discouraged hibakusha from speaking up or out.